《Super Necromancer System》 Chapter 0.1: Last Updated

Chapter 0.1: Last Updated

Here''s an updated status sheet for the main character to keep things easy to track. Last Updated: Chapter 44 Name: Aldrich Yang Race: Undead ss: Necromancer (ultation of Legion) Level: 11 EXP Bar: 870/1400 = HP: [30] 60/60 (99/99) *HP Values in [ ] indicate a barrier/shield Mana: 93/93 (183/183) Coins: 20 = Stats- Strength: 11 Agility: 10 Vitality: 20 (33) Magic: 31 (61) Attunement: 51 (76) Perception: 8 (13) *Stat values in ( ) indicate values after passives and gear are ounted for ___ Equipment Stat Bonuses: +30 Magic +13 Vitality +25 Attunement +5 Perception ____ Units Controlled: 17/22 Attuned Spell Limit: 7 = Passives: 1. Undead Body The host has be an undead. They do not require sustenance, sleep, or rest to function. Their stamina is virtually limitless. Any wound aside from a critical head injury will notpromise the host''s mobility or bodily functions, but damage will still be registered to the host''s total HP pool. However, the host will not receive any bonus damage from being struck in locations other than the head. -Necrotic/Negative energy damage is converted to healing -Healing is converted to damage -Immunity to disease and sickness -Immunity to psychic damage -Immunity to poison damage -50% resistance to cold damage -50% resistance to curse damage -90% resistance to piercing damage unless struck in the head -50% resistance to shing damage unless struck in the head -Double damage taken from crushing/bludgeoning damage -Double damage taken from fire type attacks 2. Call of the Legion Rank 1 +5 to units controlled 3. Carrion Barrier Grants a barrier made of corpses with a healthpool equal to 30% of the caster''s maximum health. The barrier may be replenished by absorbing corpses into it. 4. Death Sense The caster is capable of tracking units around them that are below 10% maximum health (near death state). 5. Anti-Life Shell (Passive) The caster constantly conjures a ''shell'' of negative energy around them, restoring the health of undead in its vicinity while draining the life force of the living. The rate of draining/restoration is at 5% of current health per second. === Attuned Spells (7/7): [Mass Grave Consumption] Rank: Cantrip Type: Single Target/Multiple Targets Cost: None Cooldown: 5 seconds for single target/10 seconds for multiple targets Effects: The caster may consume avable graves to heal 5% of their maximum health. The caster may also consume risen or summoned undead and gain 10% of their maximum health. This may be used on all avable graves or undead in a twenty meter radius as well. [Chill Bolt] Rank: Cantrip Type: Single Target Cost: 4 Mana Cooldown: None Effects: The caster fires a high speed bolt of chilling energy from their hands or a magical catalyst. The bolt inflicts both piercing damage and freezing damage. As a cantrip, this spell possesses no cooldown or cast time. The damage on this spell scales with the Magic stat. [Mass Raise Undead] Rank: 3rd Circle Type: Single Target/Multiple Targets Cost: 5 Mana for each corpse, 10% of maximum Mana for sufficiently powerful corpses, continuous life and mana drain for boss level creatures Cooldown: 5 seconds for single target/15 seconds for multiple targets Effects: The caster raises an eligible corpse OR all corpses in a twenty meter radius to be an undead. Depending on the state of the corpse''s condition, the undead will either be a zombie or a skeleton. Zombies will possess a rotting aura and touch that inflicts necrotic damage scaling off of the caster''s Magic stat. The raised corpse retains all powers that it had while alive but willck coordination and strong independent thinking. Cooldown reduces with scaling based on the caster''s Attunement stat. [Anti-Life Shell Rank 2 (Active)] Rank: 3rd Circle Type: Area of Effect (10 meter radius) Cost: 5% maximum mana per second Cooldown: 10 seconds after deactivation Effects: The caster''s Anti-Life Shell''s draining capacity intensifies. The rate of draining and healing is doubled and all non-undead units within the range of the shell are slowed with the slow dramatically increasing depending on how low the unit''s health is. [Create Greater Undead (1st Ring)] Rank: 4th Circle Type: Single Target Cost: 10 Mana, 10 Health Cooldown: 15 seconds Effects: The caster creates greater undead from the 1st Ring, selecting from the following list: = Zombeast Skeleton Marksman Skeleton Assassin Deildeghast Grave Ward = Created 1st ring greater undead match the caster''s level up to a cap of 20. The cooldown of this spell reduces scaling off the Attunement stat. At 100 Attunement, this spell upgrades to [Mass Create Undead (1st Ring)] [Negative Surge] Rank: 2nd Circle Type: Single Target Buff Cost: 15 Mana Cooldown: 10 Seconds Effects: The caster selects an ally or self to receive a surge of negative energy designed to strengthen the undead body. The targeted undead gains a bonus to their strength, agility, and perception stats equivalent to 20% of the caster''s magic stat. [Horror Warp] Rank: 2nd Circle Type: Single Target Cost: 20 Mana Cooldown: 20 Seconds Effects: The caster shoots forth a cloud of malevolent, mind-twisting energies. Any enemy struck by the cloud will be assaulted with a nightmare of constant horror and pain, stunning them and inflicting psychic damage upon them. The stunsts ten seconds but has reduced duration depending on the victim''s Perception and psychic damage resistance. ==== Equipment" Weapon [Lantern of the ursed One] (One-Hand) Rank: Umon+ Stats: +10 Magic +5 Vitality +5 Attunement Effects: Protection of the Old me (Passive) - The wearer receives half damage from all fire type damage. Eye of the Watcher (Passive) - Any unit revealed or targeted by this item continually attains stacks of a debuff that reduces resistance to curse type damage. The debuffs stack up to ten times, requiring a total exposure time in this light of 30 seconds. This debuffsts for three seconds after the unit escapes the light of the item, at which point the stacks will rapidly decay. In addition, any unit suffering this debuff is Revealed, preventing them from entering stealth. Disintegrating Gaze (Active) Cost: 20 mana per activation Cooldown: 5 seconds The eye within this item fully opens, shooting forth a cone of destructive light that deals disintegrating type damage with a 5% chance to instantly kill. The higher the affected unit''s vitality, the higher their resistance to this instant death effect. If this skill affects a unit with ten stacks of the Eye of the Watcher passive applied to them, it is guaranteed to instantly kill unless the affected target possesses a minimum of 50 vitality. If they posses more than 80 vitality, they will still be Maimed, losing a body part and taking significant damage. Head [Hood of the Grave Reaper] +3 Magic +5 Perception Body [Vestments of the Grave Reaper] +5 Vitality +5 Magic Waist [Unholy Sash of the Grave Reaper] +5 Attunement +2 Magic Arms [Spinal Bracers of the Grave Reaper] +5 Magic +5 Attunement Legs [Base of the Grave Reaper] +5 Attunement +3 Vitality essories (2/5) -[Phantasmal Mask] Rank: Umon + Type: Head Gear (Light) Stats: +5 Magic Effects: Phantasmal Shroud (Passive) - The wearer obtains a permanent passive that grants them a 10% chance to dodge an iing attack by phasing through it. Ghost Walk (Active) - By activating this item, the wearer may enter a Phase state where they are rendered invisible and pass-through solid objects with 50% boosted movement speed. [Ghost Walk]sts for 3 seconds. While this ability is on cooldown, Phantasmal Shroud is disabled. Cost: 30 Mana Cooldown: 15 Seconds [Ring of Avarice] === [Restorative sk Rank 2] Rank: Divine Description: Use to consume the waters of life, healing 30% of one''s total maximum health/mana or 10 health/mana depending on which value is greater. Attune charges to either health or mana and restore charges at the Wellspring of Life in the Nexus. May be upgraded upon thepletion of Trial Quests to hold more charges Avable Charges: 6 Healing Charges: 3 Mana Charges: 3 -UNIQUE -UNDROPPABLE -UNSELLABLE [Staff of Stilling Pollen] [Phctery] Chapter 0.2

Chapter 0.2

High Undead: -Valera Lvl 16 Arisen Undead (undead raised with their souls intact): -Geist Lvl 17 -Dynamite Girl Lvl 14 -Fler''Gan lvl 20+ -Fisk Lvl 3 Non-Risen Undead (Zombies, skeletons, etc): -Z Adam Lvl 3 -Z ine Lvl 3 -Z Big-arm grizzly lvl 9 -Z Alloywing Eagle lvl 8 -Z Alpha Striker lvl 7 -Evil Eye 1 lvl 7 -Evil Eye 2 lvl 7 -Troll Chieftain lvl 15 -Mud Crab 1 lvl 12 -Mud Crab 2 lvl 12 -Grave Ward Lvl 11 -Ghast Lvl 10 Chapter 1: Prologue: A Dark World

Chapter 1: Prologue: A Dark World

It happened right at the start of the year 2001. Right on dot with the clock striking midnight and heralding not just a new year, but a new century and a new millennium. Huge crowds gathered across the world to celebrate modern human history graduating to this new age. It was a time of new beginnings. And a time of new disasters. Something, even now, nobody really knows how it happened or what it was, but something came from space. Not aliens, nothing as dramatic as that. Something far, far less personal. At least, if it was aliens, then humanity could have rallied together. Maybe they could have brought their scattered pieces, all their different ideals and borders and peoples, together to make something whole if only there was some definite target they could see and hate together properly. But whatever happened on this new year, well, there was no rhyme or reason for it. It was just pure chance. Pure chaos. The incident known as the Altering. A sr re, maybe. Still a topic of debate even now, a hundred yearster. Some scientists postted that it was the leftover emissions from a far-off star that had gone supernova. Whatever it was, it washed over the world, filling the skies with auroras of countless colors that felt so horribly alien that some went insane gazing at the phenomenon, dooming them into wide-eyedas that they never awoke from. Almost forty million people fell into this eternal sleep and never woke up from it. Forty million sounds like a lot, but in the global scheme of things, it was just over half a percent of the world''s poption. Those, arguably, were the lucky minority of minorities, for they did not have to live through the chaos that came next. As strange auroras of madness-inducing patterns and seemingly impossible colors lit up the sky, electronics failed all across the. Energy grids grew faulty. Vehicles went haywire. Technology, the defining crown that humanity prided itself on wearing, slipped off its head and broke its owner''s toe. But that was not it. Not even the least of it. Technology recovered back to normal after just a month or two, but the Altering had left behind a far more permanent marker for humanity, carving this reminder deep into their bodies. Individuals all across the world began to develop powers. Powers that corresponded with spontaneously manifested growths in their bodies. For some, these powers affected them little. Perhaps they could send out sparks from their fingertips. Or maybe they could make a pebble float with their minds. For others, it came to define their lives, twisting their bodies into monstrous forms or rendering their minds unstable. For further others, it made them something far, far beyond human. Forgive the rather on the nose wording, but one could even say they became superhuman. People with marvelous powers that let them soar through the skies faster than jets, lift entire buildings, engulf entire cities in me or flood, or build technological wonders only seen in the realm of science fiction films. All of these powers came from those tiny little pebble sized growths that woulde toter be known as the Alter Organs. With the mass spread of powers, chaos and turmoil naturally followed as no government entity had any way to regte this strange new phenomenon. It did not take long before particrly powerful Altered individuals sought to use their powers to rule the world around them. Naturally, other Altered individuals rose up to meet them, starting the age-old conflict between viins and heroes. shes between heroes and viins left the world in mass disarray. Some Alterhumans desired to keep the status quo, wishing for peace in the world and for humanity to progress. Others saw their newfound powers and believed themselves worthy of taking a piece of the world for themselves. Still others, driven mad or delusional by their strength, became little more than unpredictable forces of nature. Yet, it is telling that this period of human history is known as the ''Age of Viins'', for more often than not, it was the viins that won out against the heroes. For almost fifty years, Alterhumans fought and triumphed and won and lost in cycles, but no side could ever triumph, and the endless conflict made many believe the world was to break under its pressure. Major governments copsed. The threat of global nuclear annihtion came and went. Countless millions died. But it all ended with the emergence of those developing powers far beyond even all others. Superhumans among superhumans. God-like beings that shone shoulders and heads above even ordinary Alterhumans that made the average, unenhanced human seem like a defective, broken product. Among these mighty beings was Vanguard, a paragon of might who donned the first proper costume and cape, hearkening to superhero tradition that previously was only in the domain of fiction. With overwhelming strength, he brought peace bit by bit to the world, for no viin could ever challenge him. After three hard fought years, Vanguard ended the Age of Viins in 2040 by striking down Zahak, the mightiest viin of all whose power to freely take, manipte, and alter powers made him worth a thousand Alterhumans by himself. Yet, Zahak''s death was not the end of it. When Zahak fell, quite literally, into the depths of the earth, some say a volcano, others say a fissure or even an underwater trench, something in him, perhaps it was the stolen powers of countless many, exploded outwards, infusing with the earth itself. From the end of the greatest viin known to man came the beginning of the greatest crisis known to man: the Monstering. Monsters known as Variants emerged from the viin''s corpse, seemingly binding with the, and soon, they proliferated around the entire world, spawning from the dirt or seas with unique powers of their own. In attempting to beat back the Variants, heroes and viins alike had to band together, and in the end, after ten grueling years, the strongest Variants were beaten back to a few select deep rifts in the world, though the threat of variants spontaneously spawning all across the world never truly ended. The Monstering left humanity with just half its popce and much of the inhospitable. The struggle to survive became intense, but with heroes and viins working together, humanity stood through it all. The Alter Agency was formed to regte supers, and the Panopticon, a coalition of technology-oriented Alterhumans, was formed to consolidate progress and development, and with these two organizations, societies restructured in the new and harsh world. World governments formed again, and a sense of normalcy returned. Now, fifty yearster, at the turn of 2100, the start of yet another monumental century of human, no, superhuman history, the world seems to rumble once more with the echoes of chaos. Vanguard''s disappearance in 2090 catalyzed a return of viiny that only ever simmered beneath the public eye. But now, crime and viiny has started to return ever stronger, taking advantage of Vanguard''s absence. On top of this, Variant spawning rates have elerated dangerously, as if sensing Vanguard''s loss, threatening cities all across the world at a rate not seen since the Monstering began. This is the world where Aldrich was born into. A dark world full of monstrosities and rising viins without any powers of his own. Though, as he would find outter, he would not be so powerless after all. Chapter 2: To Be A Hero

Chapter 2: To Be A Hero

When Aldrich was a child, he always dreamed about being a hero. It was a thoroughly uninspired dream considering basically every single kid ever thought about being a hero at some point. Largely unsurprising considering that it was practically impossible to escape hearing about heroes in this day and age of hero worship. Aldrich heard about a thousand different bedtime tales about how the great hero Vanguard vanquished viiny with his invincible fists, saving countless lives as he ended the Age of Viiny. When he grew older, he constantly saw heroes on the telescreen with their colorful costumes and capes and big muscles and big smiles. He saw as the heroes carried people out of burning buildings and when scary Variants showed up, how they swooped in to beat the monsters down and save the day. Heroes popped up in holographic or talk shows or social media or streaming sites - anywhere they could get exposure, they got it. But most importantly, Aldrich wanted to be a hero because of his parents. They were both heroes, though not particrly famous ones. His dad could shoot mes from his hands, and though he could light up a car or melt through a wall, he wasn''t anything like the bigshot heroes like Blue-ze who could melt building sized Variants into ash in seconds. Aldrich''s mother was the exact opposite of his father, being able to control water, though again, just like his dad, not to any super notable degree. His parents might have just been average heroes to the general public, but because they were his parents, they were the biggest heroes ever to Aldrich. They seemed so muchrger than life, standing tall and strong and raising him to respect justice. They told him about how justice was what heroes believed in, that at the end of the day, though it might take some time, it was a force that made things right and people smile. Raised on a healthy diet of justice and heroism and capes and costumes, Aldrich wanted desperately to be a hero. Unfortunately, though, Aldrich soon came to the crushing realization that he had no powers. 90% of humanity were either born with the Alter Organ - the mysterious little mass that was responsible for superpowers - or developed them by the age of ten. Anyone that reached the age of ten without showing any signs of hosting an Organ was categorized as a ''Dud'', so called because they were defective - a human being that failed to work properly in this day and age where powers were instrumental to surviving against Variants. Aldrich was aplete freak of nature - in the rare 5% of the world poption in all the wrong ways. In a society that valued superpowers and their ability to contribute to humanity''s survival Variants, Aldrich was considered dead weight. A relic of the past that should have been exterminated. His genes were tainted and unevolved. Nobody would ever marry him. Nobody would ever associate him. Aldrich was literally a subhuman in this new world where Alterhumans were the new stage of human evolution. Forget being a hero, nobody would even hire him considering that every single job out there had someone whose Alter power made them better suited for it. Needless to say, throughout most of Aldrich''s youth, he was relentlessly bullied for hisck of powers, oftening back from school with cuts and bruises and tears and a hurting heart, but through it all, his parents supported him as well as they could. They tried to raise him with good and upstanding and ''heroic'' values, telling him to keep his chin up, to try and see the good in things, to never let go of his dreams, but even this came to a premature end. On Aldrich''s 13th birthday, he spent the night alone in his house, waiting for his parents toe back from a mission hunting down Variants let loose by a powerful criminal organization on the rise known as the Trident. Then came the one memory that defined Aldrich''s being down to the very core. At midnight, telescreen in Aldrich''s living room buzzed on by itself and a foreign feed broadcasted on it. He saw both his parents strapped down to iron chairs in a dirty, grimy, bloody cell. They were beaten, bruised, and scarred, their once colorful red and blue costumes torn and broken apart. He could only watch numbly as a red-masked man addressed Aldrich, telling him that this was the price for his parents acting against the Trident. Aldrich watched as multiple men began to break his parents down piece by piece. Fingernails torn off, then the fingers ripped off. Skin cut and burnt and ripped apart and then yed. Electric shocks, acid, poison that made pain worse, then poison that hurt - For what seemed like an eternity, Aldrich saw his parents dismantled like meat at a butcher''s shop, their screams of pain intecing and giving voice to their suffering. That was when the feed cut off and police and heroes barged into Aldrich''s house, tearing his wide-eyed, still body away from the telescreen and taking him to the hospital. Aldrich did not cry that night, nor did he ever cry again. Something deep within him had broken, and whatever had sealed those cracks up was something cold where once there had been warmth. Over the days, there was an attempted search for Aldrich''s parents and the viins that had killed them, but nothing worked out. Aldrich realized then that there was no such thing as justice in the world. At least, not in the sense that his parents had believed in. Justice was not some omnipresent force that calcted everyone''s karma and meted out a fitting punishment in time. No, justice was not a force, it was an action, and only those that had the power to hammer it down could make justice real. Aldrich let vengeance consume him, fueling him to be the hammer that would strike justice down through the skulls of those that deserved it. But how would he put down these viins? He needed a hero''s license to try and even start to track viins without having heroes start hunting him down for being an unlicensed vignte. But no hero academy would ever ept him without powers. Thankfully, luck worked for him at least once in his life. His parents bequeathed him a good sum of money to live off of for a few years and a birthday letter telling him that as insiders in the hero industry, they knew of an uing new government program called the Frame Initiative that was to be instated in three years. It was basically a welfare program for people with no powers like Aldrich wherein they could apply to hero academies to train in mechanical powersuits called Frames so that when the time came, even the worthless 5% of powerless humanity could get drafted to fight Variants. Among those in the Frame Initiative, outstanding individuals could even be licensed heroes. His parents had written him nothing but encouragement in that letter, praise that he had made it so far, and support. It hurt to hold that letter, to read it while hearing their voices in his head, but he took the pain to heart and let it fuel him. The Frame Initiative would be rigorous in its selection. It chose those with both the best physical fitness and mental aptitude to take orders and make heroic decisions. Aldrich trained his body for three years, honing it to a sharp knife''s edge, mastering martial arts and sculpting his muscles to their max, but his mental evaluations made things difficult for him. He was far too willing to kill, far too willing to put down scum, and far too willing to disobey orders when he thought that the sacrifices of the few for the good of the many had to be made. One time, when an evaluating Alter tried to reach into Aldrich''s mind to figure out his mental profile, Aldrich had made her suffer a mild seizure from, presumably, how ''irregr'' or ''broken'' his head was. Needless to say, none of the top tier or even mid-tier academies would ever consider Aldrich despite him scoring in the highest percentile on every physical fitness metric. Still, Aldrich managed to get into an academy willing to take him in. A no-name, smalltime academy called ckwater. The academy had little information surrounding it, making it immediately suspicious, but it was willing to see past Aldrich''s poor mental evaluation. Thus, at the age of sixteen, Aldrich entered into a hero academy just as he had always dreamed of doing when he was little, though where before he had wanted a license to save, he now wanted a license to hunt. Chapter 3: To Blackwater

Chapter 3: To ckwater

-September 30, 2116- Today was the big day. The day that Aldrich would leave for ckwater Academy, the very first step of a long and no doubt hard journey to avenge his parents. Aldrich woke up at five thirty in the morning, thirty minutes before an officer was scheduled to pick him up. Precisely as the clock struck six, an academy officer showed up to his apartment door, making his presence obviously known by mming his fist into the door several times in what was the most violent knock Aldrich had ever heard before. Aldrich was ready and packed. His apartment, the house had had lived in for his whole life, was cleaned out toplete emptiness, ready for another renter to move in. ckwater would provide food and board for the four years it took to graduate, so what he packed was mostly personal stuff that had some kind of emotional weight to them. Memorabilia from histe parents that included a family picture with Aldrich and some trinkets from their hero costumes. His birthday letter that had gotten him to get into this academy in the first ce. Also his personal gaming rig that he sometimes used to destress after training. There was a small collection of games on the rig, mostly solo RPGs because Aldrich did not really like ying online and interacting with random people online. Among the RPGs he yed, there was one in particr that was his favorite. A strangely hidden but amazingly fun game called Elden World which he had picked up at a rundown game store, a store that had long since closed down and been bulldozed away. At first, Aldrich had thought the game was just a piece of junk. Some unfinished, buggy monstrosity considering that almost no games were sold in disc format anymore. To further fan the mes of suspicion, the disc that stored the game was unmarked and unregistered on anywork, meaning that in all likelihood, it was some kind of indie development that never made it to the light of the public market. Aldrich had zero hopes for it. Sometimes he liked to trawl around no name game shops for old retro games from the early 2000s era, and sometimes he struck trash, and sometimes he struck gold. This, though, he had thought was trash. Surprisingly,, the game was a shinier shade of gold than any he had found so far. Elden World was highly fleshed out and basicallyplete, and Aldrich had sunk in hundreds of hours of gamey in it. Most of these hours, Aldrich spent maxing out his necromancer game character all the way up to level 100, but he did not stop just there. Afterwards, he obsessively min-maxed his stats and equipment, trawling through the most obscure corners of the game to find materials and upgrades to make himself as overpowered as possible. Eventually, Aldrich could beat anything with zero challenge, and though some people thought that was boring, he enjoyed it. The feeling of being strong. Maybe it was the constant years of feeling powerless that made Aldrich want to be as strong as he could in the game. A type of escapist fantasy, he supposed. Aldrich opened the door to his apartment, sliding the smooth metal entryway open with a mechanical click. Standing in the doorway was a tall, ck-uniformed man staring down at him with sharp, squinting ck eyes. The man looked down at his Eye-Phone, presumably to check some details. "Are you Aldrich Yang?" said the man. "Student enrolled in the Frame Initiative for ckwater Academy?" "Yes," said Aldrich simply. "Show me some I.D.," said the man. Aldrich held up his Eye-Phone, and Darius scanned it with his own phone''s camera, logging Aldrich''s electronic Citizen Identification Card (CID), matching his identity to a worldwide database maintained by the Alterhuman Agency in cooperation with world governments. "Good. My name is Darius Fletcher, and I''m a ckwater officer here to take you in," said the man, his voice tired and unpleasant. He looked down at Aldrich with dead eyes that made it abundantly clear that he thought Aldrich was not worth his time. "Nice to meet you," said Aldrich respectfully as he held out a hand to shake. Darius swatted the hand away with enough force to make Aldrich''s sting with a bruise. "Don''t touch me, you dirty, powerless, maggot," said Darius. "And from now on, you will address me only as Officer Fletcher. If you do not, you''ll wish your mother never popped you out of her rank cunt." "¡­" Aldrich nodded. There was nothing he could do about this type of abuse, and honestly, he was prepared for it. He had been bullied and looked down on his whole life thousands upon thousands of times. Going to an academy would only ever make that a hundred times worse. So far, this was just as Aldrich had calcted. Abuse he was willing to take and stomach to get his hero''s license. "Follow me," said officer Fletcher curtly. == Aldrich followed the officer in silence outside his apartment building to a bulky, armored hover-car that looked like it could seat about six people. It levitated by the sidewalk, the whirring of its anti-gravity engines grating against Aldrich''s ears. "Get in," said officer Fletcher as he tapped his phone, causing one of the bulky doors of the ck metaled car to open up. The insides of the car were lit in dull red with two rows of seats facing each other. Aldrich sat himself inside wordlessly, noting the presence of other people around him. Fellow students, it seemed, judging by how young they looked. The car door closed as the officer made his way up to the driver''s seat separated from the passengerpartment by a metal grate. Felt like a prison car more so than military transport. "Hey, you''re part of the Frame Initiative too, right?" A young man, probably around sixteen like Aldrich, with wide doe eyes and curly ck hair smiled at Aldrich from the seat across from him. "Yeah," said Aldrich simply. He looked around to see that there were a total of three other students in the car. Two guys and one girl. All probably part of the Frame Initiative. "Great!" said the curly haired guy. He held out his hand for Aldrich to shake. "My name''s Adam, by the way. It''s incredible to see that there are so many of us without powers. My whole life, I thought I was the only one. Felt totally cursed. You feel what I mean?" Aldrich stared at Adam''s hand for a few seconds before shaking it. Aldrich was not the energetic type, but he was not an asshole either, "Yeah," said Aldrich, and that was all he said. Granted, he wasn''t the talkative type either. "Shut the fuck up back there!" came officer Fletcher''s rough voice ring through a sound system. Everyone in the car flinched except Aldrich. "My day is already down the sh*tter driving you worthless drains on society. I prefer my drives quiet, and if I hear one peep, one little fucking whisper, I promise that when you get to ckwater I will make your lives more of a miserable living hell than it already is!" "Somebody''s not having a good day, huh," whispered Adam. Aldrich ignored Adam to get the kid to shut up for both his safety and Aldrich''s own. He crossed his arms and leaned back into his seat, staring at the depressingly red tinted ceiling of the car before closing his eyes to get some more much needed sleep. == Chapter 4: Blackwater and Bullies

Chapter 4: ckwater and Bullies

ckwater Academy was located on the east coast of the United States, itspound located right beside a massive crater gouged out by an A-ss Variant twenty years ago. The academy got its name from the ckened waters in the crater. Remnants of the monster''s blood and corpse that had sunk deep down to the ocean floor below. The crater itself formed a natural harbor leading out to the Antic Ocean, and a small port city called Haven stood there, presumably being the main source of supplies and peopleing in and out of ckwater. All in all, ckwater was quite isted. Almost eerily so. Getting to ckwater consisted of a two hour long drive followed by a one hour long helicopter flight over vast swathes of overgrown forests infested with Variants. Forests like these weremonce after the Monstering as Variants spawned consistently throughout the world, with certain areas spawning them at enough rates that clearing them out and settling cities in was too difficult to maintain. "You try to run from ckwater, and Variants will eat your powerless asses before you can count to ten," said officer Fletcher from the pilot seat of the helicopter, making the obvious observation that ran through everyone''s heads that much clearer. Yeah, thought Aldrich. This ce was definitely more a prison than an academy. == Afternding in ckwater, Aldrich and the three Duds thatprised the Frame Initiative were given uniforms, led to their dorm rooms, and barked orders to unpack and be out at the Training Grounds by three in the afternoon or suffer severe consequences Notably, the dorms for the Frame Initiative students were segregated in their own little, rundown barracks infested with enormous cockroaches and non-functioning heating or cooling. It was obvious this was a building meant to be demolished that had been repurposed for the Frame Initiative students. Wouldn''t do to have Duds with those with real powers, after all. As if to remind the Frame students what the academy thought of them, the actual student barracks was visible from their windows, and it was a proper three-story building with a sleek, modern cubic design that seemed surprisingly advanced considering the fact that ckwatch was supposed to be a small academy. "Well, atleast we get a ce to ourselves!" said Adam as the group of four Frame students roamed around the hallways of the tiny barracks. Adam was the only one with any energy in him, actively swatting down cockroaches here and there with a stick when he could. "The heating''s broken, and it''s nearly winter," said Jake, another Frame student. "They know we have no powers. We''re going to freeze to death before we graduate at this rate." "It''s all good. I brought extra nkets," said Adam. "Come on, less gloom and doom here, folks. Together, we''ll make it through this." "How do you stay so optimistic?" said ine, the one girl that was part of the powerless group. "I don''t know," said Adam. "But what I do know is if I wasn''t optimistic, I would have gone insane years ago. Or maybe I am insane, and I don''t know it, heh." Aldrich remained mostly silent as did Frank, thest of the Frame students, though where Frank stayed quiet due to fear highly evident from his barely contained trembling, Aldrich''s quiet was more observant. Calm. Footsteps from across the hallway, footsteps that did not belong to any of the Frame students, made everyone stand on alert. "Huh, so this is where the Duds live," said a tall, built guy with slicked back ck hair and sharp, predatory grey eyes. A student, it seemed, from the ck uniform distinct from the officer''s uniforms in that theycked any stripes beneath the white wave crest on the uniform''s breast. Behind him, three more students followed. "What a dump. But then again, a dumpster is the best ce to throw out trash, no?" said the guy as he strolled forwards with a cocky smile and hands in his pockets. Hispanionsughed at hisment behind him. These were students with powers. Adam stood in front of the Frame group with confidence that Aldrich just shook his head at. Aldrich knew from experience that standing up to bullies like this only made you a bigger target. He wondered how Adam, a Dud just like him, had managed to even survive by being confident like this. "You guys lost? These aren''t your dorms," said Adam. The slick back student walked right up to Adam, their faces just a few inches apart, and stared down Adam. Then, a blur of movement followed by a cracking sound of impact. Adam fell backwards, clutching at his face to stem blood pouring from a broken nose while he groaned in pain. He had been struck by an attack was too fast for the human eye to perceive. "None of you Duds seem to understand," said the leader of the student bullies. "All of you are here to fill up a little diversity quota so that the academy can get some more funding. Overall, you''re still just as worthless as you are in society. Those of us with powers, proper powers, we own you guys. You will NOT talk back to us, and you will do what we tell you to do like obedient little dogs. That said, we''ll try and not to dirty ourselves with this ce too much. We''ll only being around when we want to let off some steam, are short a few bucks here and there, or just feel like fucking with you." "Can''t fight without a sucker punch, huh?" said Adam as he shakily stood up only to eat a powerful kick to the stomach that sent him rolling several meters back, this time silent as he grit his teeth through pain while trying to stop himself from vomiting. "Or you end up like him," said the leader. He smiled. "Oh, and just to make this really fucking crystal clear from the beginning: you try and bitch and moan about us and all the officers here will justugh at you. Nobody gives a damn about Duds like you. Plus, I might as well make this clear from the start: I''m the son of this Academy''s head - I''m untouchable, and so are my boys here. Basically, unless we outright kill you, nothing will ever happen to us. Understand?" All the students remained in silence. This time, all of them were silent in fear except, of course, Aldrich who just stood in the back and minimized attention to himself. "Good," said the leader. He scanned his sharp eyes around the room, his smile growing manically wider as he indulged in the fear he inflicted. When his eyesnded on ine, he nodded to himself as he stared at her like a piece of good meat. ine shivered. "And you, you''re not bad looking. Shame you''re a Dud," said the leader. "But my boys and I can be surprisingly¡­open minded when ites to girls like you. If you want toe to our dorm and ''hang out'', I wouldn''t mind being nice to you." The leader stared down at his watch. "Oh, evaluations are about to start." His sadistic smile grew even wider as he eyed everyone expectantly. "I very much look forward to seeing you all at the training grounds." With that, the leader waved a callous goodbye and strolled out with his posse, leaving Aldrich as the first to tend to Adam because Aldrich was the only one calm enough to tend to the downed man. "Your stomach will be bruised for a couple of days. That nose won''t set properly either, considering how badly broken it is," said Aldrich as he inspected Adam. "Fuuuck," said Adam. He smiled a bloody smile. "Good thing I''m already ugly as sin. Broken nose won''t change a damn thing." Aldrich could not help but ever so slightly smile. "Hah, got you to smile! Think I wouldn''t notice?" said Adam. "Be quiet," said Aldrich as he rolled his eyes and called out to the rest of the room. "Anyone have first aid supplies? If not, I have some of my own." "I brought a med-kit. I''ll go get it," said ine as she rushed to her room. "I-I don''t want to do this!" said Frank, the quiet kid, his fear finally spilling over and making him talk. "First chance I get, I''m going to quit this program. This isn''t what I signed up for!" "Yeah?" Adam stood up as Aldrich supported him. "And then what? Crawl back to society where you''ll get sh*t on anyway? Where you won''t even get hired to sweep the streets or unclog the sewers because there''s an Alter out there with a power for it? This is our only shot of ever making it big. Feel free to waste it if you want. But I''m staying and when I graduate, I''ll be a hero and make enough money to stay off the streets. You feel me, Aldy?" "Yeah," said Aldrich, wondering when Adam found itfortable enough to call him ''Aldy''. Regardless, Aldrich did find respect for Adam. The guy''s words were packed with genuine determination that Aldrich could rte to, though where it came from was different. For Aldrich, his determination came from his drive for vengeance. For Adam, it seemed like the guy had been homeless and this was his only ticket to getting off the streets. Either way, it was evident that the two of them had the highest drive out of anyone in the group by a long shot. Jake seemed to just be your average guy, and average was not going to cut it here. Frank seemed like he was too soft. Someone who, even as a Dud cast down by society, had not suffered too much hardship. Probably was a spontaneous Dud like Aldrich, meaning that his parents had powers but he had unfortunately popped out with none. Regardless, seemed like Frank got enough sheltering from his parents that this was not the right ce for him. In a way, Aldrich would have been like that too. If his parents had stayed alive. ine, surprisingly, Aldrich could see some strength in. Despite the leader of the bullies tantly harassing her, she, though visibly fearful and unnerved like the rest, still managed to stayposed enough to get a medkit when asked. Regardless, Aldrich only hoped that determination would be enough to get them all through what seemed like would be four years of pure suffering. Chapter 5: Combat Evaluation

Chapter 5: Combat Evaluation

The Training Grounds were quite impressive, to say the least. They werergely located outdoors and consisted of several five-hundred-meter radius rings lined with towering metal walls that served as arenas. The walls were made of thickly reinforced metal, but their design was sleek and futuristic with blinking lights of various colors dotted around their surface, indicating the status of various moving pieces of tech within the walls. Aldrich stared at the arenas while standing in a single file line with the rest of the Frame students. They were, as expected, separated from the rest of the main student body, but a cursory nce gave Aldrich an estimate that there were approximately two hundred or so ''normal'' students. In terms of numbers, ckwater was small as most decently ranked hero academies operated with student bodies numbering well over a thousand, with only the highest tier academies like Shield and Invictus having small student bodies due to a difficulty to get in. Most likely, Aldrich figured that ckwater had so few students because theycked funding for being too low tier. At the same time, he could not shake off the sense that something was wrong. The arenas were built with state-of-the-art technology with many of them capable of terraforming simtedbat terrain. Some of them had built in obstacles and battle drones undergoing auto-repair and maintenance beneath them, ready to surface whenever the arenas were activated. A low tier academy like ckwater should not have been capable of funding any of this. "Listen closely!" came a thunderous voice that Aldrich recognized as belonging to officer Fletcher. The officer had his arms behind his back as he shouted at the neatly ordered crowd of students. "Because I won''t say this again! We already know your powers and your AC count." Aldrich noted this. ckwater had a record of every single student''s ability and their Alter Cell (AC count). Meant that it was possible to pull up student profiles and figure out who was dangerous and who was not provided Aldrich could get into the system somehow. AC count was especially important because it determined how capable an Alter''s power was to respond to training and growth. High AC counts also granted natural amounts of superhuman strength, durability, speed, and a minor healing factor regardless of whether the power it granted affected those traits or not. "But cell count and a bullet point summary of your powers doesn''t mean sh*t out there where you''ll be fighting for your fucking lives against Variants or other Alters. Combat is where we really determine your worth. Where you really use those powers you were born with. Today''s evaluation will test your ability to fight!" A slight murmur ran through the crowd of students as they heard this. Some were nervous. Some were happy to fight. Every single Frame student other than Aldrich, however, gulped down a ball of nervousness because how the hell were they going to fight superpowered students when they had not even taken a single ss yet on how to use their Frames? Hell, they had not even seen their Frames yet. "Where you ce in this evaluation will determine which ss you are put in!" continued officer Fletcher. "And believe me, what ss you are in will be the difference between living like kings and ants! sses range from A to B to C to D to F. If you''re in A, then good, you''re worth the food and space your sorry asses are taking up here. Below that, though, you better train real fuckin'' hard! Depending on which ss you''re ced in, you''ll get ess to more of our equipment, direct training, more credits for treatment at the infirmary, and authorized days off to the nearby town to do whatever the fuck you want. Hell, if you manage to ce in ss A, we''ll even give you a monthly stipend for you ungrateful little sh*ts to spend on whatever you want." Officer Fletcher turned and walked up to a control panel standing outside of the nearest arena. He put his palm on the screen, and it turned on with bright green lights, analyzing his handprint. A holographic projection of a keypad and several screens detailing functions for the arena lit upwards, and he began to fiddle with them, causing the arena to creak and groan as severalrge mechanisms started to rev up and whir in its walls and underground. "Now then, on to the details of thisbat evaluation. It''s going to be real simple: a good old free for all fucking beatdown!" Officer Fletcher grinned, showing a rare sign of emotion in anticipation of seeing violence. "There are two hundred of you, and I will split you into four equal groups across four arenas. The arenas will run an algorithm based on all your recorded power profiles and cell counts to assign what it determines to be the ''fairest'' groups, but again, this evaluation is your chance to prove that you''re worth more than your basic cell count." "Excuse me, sir!" said Adam. Aldrich sighed and shook his head, knowing that Adam was going to be taking some more abuse. All heads turned to Adam, at the insane man who was willing to speak up when nobody else did. "What about us?" said Adam as he motioned to the Frame students. "We have no cell count or power profile. How do we fit into this?" Officer Fletcher cracked his neck and walked up to Adam. Adam looked straight into the officer''s eyes as the academy superior stared him down. "Someone''s already fucked you up, huh kid?" said officer Fletcher as he noted Adam''s bandaged nose. "Well, I won''t mess with your face, at the very least, though, got to say, there isn''t much to save there." The officer put his hand on Adam''s shoulder, seemingly at first in a nice gesture, but then Adam started to scream in pain as the officer''s hand glowed a bright white, encasing itself in searing hot heat that sizzled through Adam''s uniform and melted into his flesh. Adam knelt into the ground, clutching at his smoking shoulder while gritting his teeth to prevent himself from crying out more. Aldrich just shook his head at Adam while the other Frame students cringed and looked away in palpable fear. "None of your powerless fucks are to ever, I repeat, EVER, talk to me unless prompted. Let this idiot be a lesson to you all," said officer Fletcher. "But I''m feeling generous today, so I''ll answer his question. Your Frames are inside the arena you will be assigned to. You can pilot them when the fighting begins." "But¡­but how do we use them?" said Adam, still managing to speak up even as Aldrich desperately wanted to tell him to just shut the hell up for once. This time, the officer did not further abuse Adam, being evidently bored of it, and shrugged. "Fuck if I know. It''s up to you powerless pieces of trash to figure that one out." With that, officer Fletcher turned around and strolled back to his control panel, pressing a few more holographic buttons to bring up arge projected board full of student names. Beside the student names were green circles and numbers ranging from 1 to 4. Officer Fletcher pointed at the board. "Look for your name and report to the corresponding arena number beside it! The arena will constantly scan for your bio-signatures to determine whether you are capable of fighting or not. Once you''re knocked out or deemed incapable of continuing to fight, that green circle will turn red and you will be transported out by drones! How long youst, how many hits you dish out, how many hits you take, and footage analysis of what strategies you use will all umte points to determine your ss position! A leaderboard will be projected showing who has the most points, and at the end of ny minutes, the fighting stops and the leaderboard finalizes! Now get to it, maggots!" == Chapter 6: Frame Perfect

Chapter 6: Frame Perfect

As it just so happened, Aldrich and the rest of the Frame students ended up in the same arena: arena number 1, making the total number of students in that arena from 50 to 54. However, the algorithm that calcted power fairness literally determined all the Frame students to be zero threat, hence why adding them to an already full arena changed nothing. "How do I even move in this thing?" groaned Adam, only his face visible from the upturned helmet of his Frame powersuit. He was in a fixed T-pose state like an unloaded game character, and already, other students wereughing at him. Aldrich looked at his Frame towering in front of him. It was a two-meter-tall humanoid suit of segmented ck metal tes. Thick coils of wiry dark grey cable were visible under the tes, functioning as a shock absorbentyer and a flexible mesh that acted like the ''muscles'' that supported the suit''s four hundred pound (~180 kg) weight. A nondescript, round ck helmet with a rectangr, glossy blue ceramic and durastic face te stared down at Aldrich. Aldrich put his hand on the Frame''s chest, and it read his handprint. A robotic, gender-neutral voice rung out from the Frame. "Identifying¡­" "ess to Subject 1 Granted." The Frame opened up with hydraulic clicks and the release of pressurized air, bidding Aldrich to step in and let the metal envelop him in a cold embrace. "Subjects, huh," said Aldrich. "That''s all we are to this world." "Damn, you got it to open up properly? I must have jammed it or messed up something. And who made you subject number 1, huh?" said Adam. "Come on, hop in and figure this damn thing out so you can help me out." Adam groaned as he struggled against his suit, but he was stuck in his Frame, not knowing how to operate it at all. Mostly because Adam had not actually essed his Frame properly. He had just kicked the suit until it opened up, registering an emergency ess, but because he had not scanned his biosignature on it first, the Frame did not recognize him as a proper owner. Hence why Adam was now basically just trapped. It was obvious that ckwater did not give a single damn about the Frame students. They were just there to fill up a diversity quota as the leader of the bullies had said. Now that they were enrolled, the academy got their nice fat slice of government funding for hosting Frame students. Hosting did not mean training or even remotely caring for, though, and Aldrich knew that ckwater fully expected everyone to drop out or drop dead, whatever came first. "Aww, look, the Duds can''t even use their crutches! Looks like their heads are as disabled as their powers are!" a student pointed at Adam, causing many to join in a round of mockingughter. "Dumbasses thought they actually belonged here. With us, when we have real powers," said another. "Don''t mind them. Alters are the next stage of human evolution. Sooner orter, nature will weed the weak like them out," said a girl who crossed her arms together in a posture with a scowl that indicated she had probably notughed at a joke for her entire life. "Makes me sick even breathing the same air as them," said a musclebound, serious faced student. Adam heard all of this and snorted. "They won''t be so cocky once I punch their faces in." "And you''re going to do that how? By T-posing?" said Aldrich. "You step in this suit and try to figure it out!"ined Adam. "Christ, I don''t even know how I got this thing to open up!" Suddenly, a voice red throughout the arena. Officer Fletcher''s voice. "The arenas are now active!" The arena started to shake, the ground underneath rocking and rolling up and down as if a massive earthquake was dancing beneath it. The walls surrounding the arena, already a dozen meters tall, started to look even more imposing as they trembled, their metal structures heavily groaning as they started to light up with bright white circuit patterns. Then, a dome of pure, translucent energy projected from the walls, sealing the entire one-thousand-meter diameter of the arena shut in a forcefield. Almost miraculously, Aldrich saw as the entire arena covered over with a holographic grid pattern that rendered out the outline of a rockyndscape withrge boulders, deep fissures, and floating stone tforms. "Hardlight Environments are rendering! Do not move a single muscle until the environment is finished rendering!" came officer Fletcher''s orders. "Well, at least I can do that with no issue," said Adam in his frozen T-pose. Aldrich watched as the grid-patterned outlines filled in with solid color, creating the floating rocks and giant boulders with near perfect realism. He knew that Hardlight technology existed, but this was the first time he had seen it with his own two eyes. Hardlight tech allowed for entire environments to be simted under a controlled forcefield. Thergest hero groups and academies used this kind of tech for their training to simte real lifebat scenarios as urately as possible. Granted, Hardlight constructs could not mimic objects perfectly, only controlling for basic physical properties like texture, hardness, and mass, but even then, this was expensive tech easily costing hundreds of millions of credits. What the hell was ckwater, an academy ranked well near the bottom, doing with it? How could they even afford it? Aldrich did not have time to ponder that question before officer Fletcher''s voice roared through the inte again. "You now have thirty seconds beforebat evaluation begins! Take that time to position yourselves in your new environment. Once the buzzer sounds, all of you are enemies! And just to make this clear, hiding and running will NOT rank you high. You will get the most points by incapacitating other students, so get fighting!" Almost immediately, Aldrich could feel stares all over him and the rest of the Frame students. They were all sitting ducks. Easy points. Arge holographic timer appeared in the sky, counting down from thirty. "T-this is insanity," said Frank. He pushed up his sses and frantically looked his Frame up and down while shivering at the predatory res of all the other students resting on him, sensing his weakness. "Yeah, have to agree," said Jake. "We don''t know how to pilot these things. What the hell do they expect us to do?" "Doesn''t mean we can''t try," said ine. She had been watching Aldrich from before, and she copied him, putting her hand on her Frame and causing it to open up. Aldrich knew how to use the Frame. He knew it very, very well. In fact, his gaming rig had virtual reality support that had a Framebat training simtion downloaded on it. It was a program that was not released to the general public. One that his parents had managed to secure with their hero industry connections before they were killed, wanting to give it to Aldrich so he could have a head start before the initiative was rolled out. The thing was, though, Aldrich was not willing to tell the other students how to use their Frames, even if he did feel bad for them. Telling them when the other students were eyeing them would only paint a bigger target on his back. And he wanted them to underestimate him. Aldrich stepped into his Frame, and so did the other students. They would get overloaded with several floating screens containing massive amounts of information that would be impossible to read through in thirty seconds, meaning they would have no idea how to use any of the suit''s weapon systems. But at the very least, they could move around properly unlike Adam. Adam was just screwed at this point, immobile until he was pried out of his Frame manually. The blue face te snapped over Aldrich''s head, temporarily blinding his vision before his eyes adjusted. The world around him was slightly blue tinted and, as expected, a dozen different screens floated in his vision, introducing him to the Frame''s functions, offering him a tutorial, and so on. Aldrich ignored them and just looked up at the timer in the sky. Twenty seconds. He heard as the other Frame suits fell heavily to the ground, the students inside of them not knowing at all how to move in them with all the sudden weight around them. "Hah! Look at them! They can''t even walk properly!" Aldrich stayed still, intentionally trying to seem like he could not move. "And look at that one, he can''t even move!" "So, how are these points imed? Do we just knock them out? Or do we just have to break their suits?" "Why not both? I''ll enjoy ripping them from their metal shells. Like eating crab. Ought to be just as easy, too." Ten seconds left. Aldrich heard as two of the Frames started to run away shakily, one of them constantly tripping. "Come back here!" Aldrich heard footsteps as several students ran out to chase the runners. "You okay?" said ine from her Frame. "Yeah," said Aldrich. "You and Adam can''t move, but I''ll try and help as best as I can," said ine. "¡­" Aldrich appreciated the gesture, but he had no time to respond. The counter read zero, and the buzzer sounded, ring out across the arena. "You''re mine!" Aldrich saw a student leap up in the air with a cocked fist, his entire arm transmuting into solidyers of dense, hard green crystals. From the confident smile on the student''s face, it was obvious that he thought he would smash right through Aldrich''s helmet and beat him bloody and unconscious. ine tried to help but she stumbled and dropped to a knee, unused to the weight strain that Frames ced on the body. "Boosters 4,5 engage," said Aldrich rapidly, making sure his voice was not projected. Hidden thrusters in he heels of his Frame suit shot out jets of me, boosting his movement. Aldrich used his martial arts training to predict the crystal fist student''s punch and spun to the side. The student smashed his fist into the ground, shattering the ground underneath. Just as the student''s confident smile started to fade away into surprise, Aldrich grabbed the kid by the arm. In response, the student covered his entire body in thick crystals, prepared for any punch. Aldrich instead used the kid''s arm as a lever and threw him over his shoulder. Hydraulics clicked and pressurized air vented from Aldrich''s Frame joints as he mmed the student full force into the ground with an expert judo throw. The student''s crystal armor shattered as he gouged out a solid crater in the dirt, the shockwaves of impact permeating through his armor and into his body. He gasped for air like anded fish, the breath knocked straight out of him. Aldrich kicked the student in the head with just enough force to knock him out. "H-huh!?" said ine inplete disbelief as she stared at Aldrich annihting a student with proper powers. "What? How?" ine''s surprise was not limited to her. It spread among the Alter students. "Wh-what the fuck?" said a bewildered student. "That kid, that Frame kid, he knocked out Dorian with a single hit!" "Yeah, beat them up!" said Adam enthusiastically. "Always knew you had it in you, Aldy!" "Shut up! You powerless cockroaches just got lucky!" said the formerly surprised, now angry student. He fired a st of red energy from his hands, hitting Adam square in the face, knocking him out and tipping his T-posing Frame over. Aldrich used this moment of distraction that Adam bought. "Boosters 4,5 maximum output. Engage left re," said Aldrich. He sped towards the surprised student and held out his left hand. A blinding white re emerged, acting like a shbang. The student winced and held his arms out to protect himself. His hands started to shimmer with waves of red energy, charging another shot. Aldrich used his maxed out boosters to circle around the student and m a roundhouse kick into his ribs, dodging twin red beams while sending the student flying back with shattered ribs,pletely incapacitated. "Initiate unit scan and full-scale view," said Aldrich, and the localized interface A.I.plied. He saw a screen in the side of his vision mapping out red dots where other students were. There were still a good dozen students surrounding him. Full-scale view started, giving Aldrich a 360-degree range of sight, making sure nothing blindsided him. But to deal with a crowd like this, he needed more firepower. "Avable weapons systems report." "No weapons systems installed," came the A.I.''s response. "Sh*t," said Aldrich. He knew that finalized Frames were to be fitted with various forms of crowd control arms and munitions, but it seemed that these were prototypescking any real weapons. "That fucker''s dangerous! Take him out!" A student wildly pointed at Aldrich. Aldrich took in a breath through his teeth. This was it for him if they ganged up on him. He had no weapons. Maybe he could take down two or three more, but now that the element of surprise was gone, proper Alters, especially strong ones, would make short work of him. The ones he had knocked out so far wereplete fodder. Weak kids with powers they had not trained at all to their maximum potentials. "Rx, you idiots." A voice came from above, belonging to a student floating in the air with crossed arms and a wide, sadistic smile and slicked back hair. "It''s just a Dud in a metal can. The fuck are you so afraid of?" The leader of the bullies from back at the dorm again. And he looked like a proper superpowered Alter threat. There was just an aura of threat about him that made it obvious he was multiple grades above the regr student power level. This was the kind of superhuman power that Aldrich would never be able to beat. Chapter 7: Ghost

Chapter 7: Ghost

"Holy sh*t, it''s Seth Sr in the flesh," came the awed voices of Alter students as they looked up at the cocky slick-back creep like he was the seconding of Jesus. Aldrich observed carefully. Of the dozen Alter students that had circled around him, six were preupied staring in awe at Seth, gawking at him. The other six immediately turned tail and started to run, not caring to break Aldrich apart and take his points. This meant one thing: Seth Sr was dangerous. As predatory and dangerous to his fellow Alter students as he was to the Duds like Aldrich. Aldrich carefully assessed what he could do against Seth, and in all likelihood, he realized he could do nothing. The ''Sr'' surname was one that almost everyone knew. Alter organs and their powers had some hereditaryponent to them, and the descendants of strong heroes would likely get simrly strong powers rted to ones from their parents. As a result, powerful top heroes formed dynasties where their descendants took up their capes, power, and influence. The Sr family was one of these dynasties. Its head and strongest member was Solomon Sr, a hero of incredible power that stood at rank 15 out of the Superboard 100 that determined the heroes with the most influence throughout the North American continent. Solomon Sr''s ability was called Sunlight Overdrive, and with it, he could absorb sr energy into himself at immensely increased efficiency, using it to make his body insanely strong, fast, and durable. Not to mention he could fly at supersonic speeds and st out intensely hot beams from his eyes. If Seth Sr had inherited even one hundredth of Solomon Sr''s powers, then there was nothing Aldrich could do against him. Not now, not ever. There was a rumor that the Sr heroes had a specific weakness that crippled them, but whatever it was, the Sr dynasty had hired top end PR firms and securitypanies to scrub any trace of it from the Globe Net. Seth shook his head at the two limp Alter students that Aldrich had beaten up. "Imagine. An Alter losing to a Dud dressing up in a tin can. The sheer disgrace of it. And all of you-," Seth sneered at the six Alters surrounding Aldrich. "How have you not beaten this Dud yet? All of you are just as pathetic as these powerless unevolved idiots." Seth shot downwards like aet, white bolts of energy crackling around his ck uniform bodysuit. He moved so fast he was nearly impossible to perceive with the human eye, barely even a blur, and when hended in front of Aldrich, he gouged out a massive crater with a rumbling impact and shockwave that sent both Aldrich and every Alter in the vicinity tumbling backwards. Aldrich immediately flipped in mid-air, showcasing a level of agility with the bulky Frame suit that was nothing short of masterful, andnded back on his feet. Even in the face of overwhelming power, he would not give up. The Alter students, however, were far less trained, and they had fallen t on their backs, groaning at the impact. "Pathetic," spat Seth as he heard the Alter studentsin. He then disappeared in a sh, reappearing beside every individual Alter student for just a moment to unleash a powerful blow in their guts that rendered thempletely immobile, making a couple vomit, knocking others out entirely, and shattering ribs here and there. Seth then appeared directly in front of Aldrich with a wide, nearly manic smile. That whole process of beating down six Alters had taken Seth just one split second. This was power. Unimaginable, godgiven power from birth. Aldrich hated that kind of power. The privilege of the strong who had everything since they were literal babies. That kind of privilege made these superpowered scum feel special and entitled beyond measure. "So? You must think you''re hot stuff, beating trash level Alters like that. Come on, here''s a real challenge," said Seth as he waved his hand in front of Aldrich''s face te. "I''m right in front of you. Do something, you useless fucking waste of air!" Aldrich engaged the thrusters in his right arm and sent out a solid boosted right straight into Seth''s face. Seth tanked the hit with his head straight on. The sound of cracking impact echoed through the air, and when Aldrich withdrew his hand, he found that the metal around his fist had warped as if they had hit an impossibly hard surface. Seth smiled at Aldrich, not a single hair on his head harmed. "Yeah, that''s what I thought. No matter how hard you try, this is all you amount to. What? You thought you could actually train to be as good as us? You thought ''working hard'' could make up the difference between us?" said Seth. "Between someone born strong and, well, whatever the hell you are?" Seth thrust out his open palm, smashing into Aldrich''s chest before he could even react. Aldrich felt like a truck had crashed into him, sending him hurtling a dozen meters backwards, skidding across the dirt in his bulky frame. Red alert lights shed in Aldrich''s vision and he saw a diagram of his Frame suit highlighted in the corner of his vision. Large red patches over the Frame''s chest and stomach area indicated critical damage. Aldrich struggled to get up, but the impact had not only shattered some of his ribs, but it had also damaged the hydraulic support systems and metal-fiber muscle weave of the Frame to the point where the power suit was now little more than dead weight. All he could do was shakily get back on one knee. ine stumbled in front of Aldrich, her arms raised up in a guard. "Can you stand?" said ine. "I can hold him off for a couple of seconds, but I can''t guarantee anything more than that." "Oh, look at you. You''re that girl from before. Lots of spirit in you, heh." Seth licked his lips. "I like that. But I won''t beat you up. Don''t want to ruin your face, after all. Plus, if it isn''t obvious enough already, none of you are worth my time. I just wanted to show you ants how useless it was to think you were worth anything in this world," said Seth as he crossed his arms and started to levitate in the air. "Ghost, deal with them. I''m going to crush some Alters more on my level." With that, Seth flew away, leaving Aldrich and ine alone with Adam still unconscious. "Ghost?" said ine as she looked around, trying to figure out where this ''ghost'' was. Based on obvious context clues such as the fact that this guy was not visible and he was called ''ghost'', Aldrich figured this was an invisible enemy, "Scan¡­Scanning systems. There''s thermal imagery, sound-based radar, and AC scans," said Aldrich with a cough as he grit his teeth and held down the massive amounts of pain burning at his ribs and stomach. He tried to get his Frame''s scanners to start working, but Seth''s hit had broken most of his suit''s functions. "Got it," said ine. She moved more fluidly now, getting used to her Frame surprisingly quickly. "There you are!" said ine as she used her Frame''s scans. She rotated around and threw out a roundhouse kick aimed right at the head level of a human sized enemy in front of her. However, her kick just went through in air. "Sorry, but that won''t work on me," came a quiet voice from seemingly nowhere. Aldrich watched as little ripples - distortions in space - formed around the metal of ine''s Frame legs. Then, the metal crumpled and tore apart in arm-sized holes. ine fell heavily down face first, her movement disabled. A male figure became visible, filling out from translucent ripples in space. Anky, gaunt looking man with pale skin and white hair with feral red eyes. "Invisibility is just one thing I can do. But I can also phase through matter. And when my matter gets superimposed on existing matter-," Ghost knelt down and shoved his hand into the back of ine''s Frame suit. His arm phased through the metal as if he were dipping it into water. "My matter always wins out. " Ghost''s arm phased back in, and when it did, any metal around it warped and broke apart. This caused critical damage to ine''s Frame, and her suit whirred down, the power shutting off. Aldrich observed. He always observed, trying to figure out weaknesses forter. He noticed that Ghost had phased his entire arm through the Frame, but though he twisted apart any metal in the way of his arm, ine''s living, organic body was unharmed despite the fact that Ghost''s arm had phased through it too. That meant that Ghost could not use his phasing ability to harm living matter. "Hmm. Soft," said Ghost as he sat on ine''s prone frame and used the hole he had gouged out to start running his fingers across the skin of her exposed back. ine could do nothing but remain still, her Frame encasing her in a metal prison now that it was depowered. "The boss told me to spare you, but not him-," Ghost got off of ine''s back and stared at Aldrich. He scooped out metal from Aldrich''s chest area, baring the heavily bruised skin from Seth''s strike. "Ouch. That has got to hurt. What is that? Two broken ribs? Well, another won''t hurt, will it?" Ghost pressed his finger into Aldrich''s ribcage and applied pressure until he snapped one of Aldrich''s ribs. Aldrich exhaled painfully, but he did not cry out or make any sounds. He was used to pain, highly tolerant of it, and he knew that to bullies and lowlives like this, any sign of weakness was just an invitation for more pain. "Boring," said Ghost. He shrugged at Aldrich''sck of reaction. "No screaming, no crying, no begging. Whatever." Ghost pushed Aldrich and tipped him over, leaving him incapacitated. "See you loserster in the F-ss. Frame students in F - kinda fits, huh?" Ghost chuckled as he casually strolled away, turning invisible. Chapter 8: Friends

Chapter 8: Friends

Thebat evaluation ended about as expected. Aldrich and the rest of the Frame students were ced right into the F-ss with nobody else joining them. Which made it obvious in hindsight that the ''F-ss'' was made especially for the Frame students to segregate them even further. Aldrich and Adam spent their time in the infirmary afterbat evaluation. Drones opened up their Frame suits and evacuated them from the arenas with many an observing Alter student, what few were left conscious,ughing at their misfortune. The infirmary was a fairly sizable two-story building at the edge of the ckwaterpound, marked by its bright white metal walls and the gleam of a glowing green cross sign. Like most things in ckwater, the infirmary was decked out with state-of-the-art equipment, and like most things in ckwater, Aldrich and the Frame students were not allowed to ess it fully. Instead, they were corralled into a repurposed basement where they only had ess to basic medical equipment that looked like it belonged to a shoddy outpost camp in Variant territory. Here, in beds that were hard like rock, under flickering lighting and with skittering shadows that probably were rats, Aldrich and Adam rested, bandages wrapped around their respective injuries. ine was there with them though she had no injuries because she said she felt safer there than alone in her dorm. Understandable, honestly, with how tantly creepy every Alter seemed to be towards her. A nurse, a woman wearing a white mask with sunken in, sleepless eyes, shifted in and out, checking in on vitals wordlessly, evidently not wanting to talk to them at all. "Where are the others, miss?" said Adam as he sat up, his injuriesparatively light. Made sense considering the fact that the only hit he had taken was a st that had knocked him out. "They''re upstairs," said the nurse as she pointed to the cracked stone ceiling above with a stylus while clutching a thin grey Eye-Pad to her chest. "Damn, why do they get to be up there while we''re stuck down here, huh?" said Adam. "The other two are in intensive care," said the nurse. "You are lucky to be down here. Means you at least have the energy to talk like that." "Oh," said Adam. Aldrich stared at the cracks in the ceiling wordlessly. He had heard what happened to Frank and Jake, the Frame students that had ran. They had been chased down and mercilessly hunted down by Alters that smelled their fear, and they were savagely beaten again and again as the Alter students tried to fight for who got the knockout points. Meanwhile, because Seth and his crew had personally dealt with Aldrich, Adam, and ine, no other Alters wanted topete against Seth and try to im they had beaten Aldrich and his little group. In a way, Seth''s cruelty had saved them from further harm. "I doubt they will stay here," said the nurse. "ckwater will probably discharge them considering the severity of their injuries, and I doubt they can afford to call in a Restorer." It was a known fact that among Alter powers, ones that healed the body were extraordinarily rare. Powers that healed the self were not that umon, but healing others manifested in such rarity that any Alter that could heal even little cuts on others was guaranteed a lifetime of wealth and employment. Alters capable of this were categorized as Restorers, and their services cost fortunes to hire. Medical technology had advanced to the point where anything short of death could be healed, but recovery still took time and effort neither of which ckwater was willing to spend much on Duds. And it was a sick joke to even suggest a Frame student hire a proper high end Restorer to heal their wounds instantly. The nurse sighed and shook her head before staring at Aldrich, Adam, and ine. "You three should consider leaving, too, before this ce eats you up and spits you back out in broken pieces." "Fuck that," said Adam. "I get rich, or I die trying." "Well, I''m not really here to give life advice, so you do you." The nurse shrugged before she left, walking upstairs to tend to patients upstairs. After a brief pause, Adam spoke again. "You were insane out there, Aldy. You beat the sh*t out of a couple of those Alter idiots. Did you see how stupid that guy looked before you knocked him out? I could rey that moment in my head a thousand times over." "Same here," said Aldrich. "Why didn''t you tell us you could use the Frames?" said ine. "Why didn''t you tell us how to use them earlier?" "¡­" Aldrich did not say anything. "You wanted to keep your skills hidden, right? Make sure they underestimated you," said Adam. Aldrich raised a brow, surprised that Adam could parse this despite seeming so dumb. "Y''know, it''s just natural. If you''re good at something, you keep it to yourself, especially when you''re powerless like us," said Adam. "I don''t put it against you. It''s just the way the world is. Every advantage you can take, you take." "I suppose," said ine with a sigh. "You''re right. I just thought that for Frame students like us, all we''ve got in this academy was each other. I was willing to fight for you two just because you were Duds like me." "And we can still be allies," said Aldrich. "You''re right. We need allies here, and no Alter is going to associate with us. In the future, it will be optimal for us to work together. If you suspect my trustworthiness, then think about this: how could I have known our first test was going to be a free for all bloodbath? If I had known beforehand and had time to piece together a n, I would have informed everyone and created a strategy that maximized our strengths and covered our weaknesses. But I can''t see the future like some Alters can, can I?" "Yes, I don''t really me you," said ine. "It''s like Adam said. When you''re a Dud like us where everyone in the world seems to be out to get you, it''s just natural to take the advantages you can. I just had a bad gut reaction, but I''ve thought through it." "Anyway, considering it looks like we''re going to be thest three Frame students left, let''s get to know each other," said Adam. He smiled at ine. "So, what are you all in here for? Why are you guys so desperate you''re willing to get your asses kicked ten different ways just for a chance to graduate from this sh*thole?" ine and Aldrich remained silent for several seconds. Aldrich spoke first. "My parents were heroes. They were killed by the Trident. I want to get a license to hunt them down." Adam whistled. "Damn, that''s pretty hardcore. I can see why you''ve got so much drive behind those dead eyes of yours. And you, ine?" "My parents weren''t heroes, but they were Alters," said ine. She started to nervously run her fingers through her long locks of red hair. "When they realized I was a Dud, they disowned me and threw me out to the Wastes." Aldrich felt a twinge of sympathy for her. The Wastes were considered areas ravaged by Variant activity where the truly desperate settled, forming ragtag, tiny towns and cities where poverty and desperation filled the air. It was a known practice that Alters that lived in Neo-Cities - proper walled cities where wealth, heroes, and protection against monsters were concentrated - would often throw their Dud children out to the Wastes in the rare chance that they birthed one to hide the shame and burden of raising a powerless child. "That''s fucked," said Adam sympathetically. "How old were you?" "Five, I think. It was so long ago, so I don''t remember much," said ine. Adam shook his head. "The world hates us, what can I say. I''m the same deal as you. Parents had powers, I had none, so they threw me out. I survived in the Wastes working odd jobs, scrapping for metal and broken tech here and there and, of course, stealing when I could. How''d you survive?" "An old Techno took me in," said ine. "I might not have had powers, but I did have a knack for coding. I helped out at his shop when I could. Tried to earn my keep but keeping drones running." Technos were a ss of Alter that were capable of manipting technology in some enhanced capacity. That ine could help out a proper Techno meant the old Techno either pitied her that much or she was just that naturally talented. "Sweet, so you''re smart," said Adam. ine shifted ufortably, unused to praise. "I do what I can." Her eyes cast down. "Randall - that''s the name of the guy that took me in - he''s getting old. His memory''s fading and his powers don''t work for him anymore. I don''t want him to die in the Wastes all alone, worked to the bone like that. I want to graduate from here, be a hero, and get him a ce to live in a Neo-City where he can spend the rest of his days in quiet. That''s the least I owe him." "You''ve got a good heart," said Adam. "Way better than mine. All I see are credits. Hell, if I turn into a hero, I''m going to get a ce by myself all to myself, one that doesn''t smell like trash and fire, and buy myself three entire meals a day and eat burgers and cake and nobody can fucking stop me." ineughed, and Adam cocked his head and asked, "Huh? What''s wrong?" "Burgers and cake? That''s all you want?" said ine. "Yeah, I mean, I''ve never had either, and I see for them all the time. They must be good, right?" said Adam. "Guess I''d want a car, too. Clean water would be awesome as well. Lots of clothes. Clean clothes. And let me see¡­" Adam started to list off all the tiny little things he had wanted but had never, ever gotten. Aldrich noted this conversation in silence. He had respect for these two. Comparatively speaking, they had far harder childhoods than him. He had lived in Neo-York, a proper Neo-City, because his parents had left behind enough money and the apartment on top of being heroes that earned a decent amount. Most importantly, his parents had not chosen to abandon him like Adam and ines'' parents had. "But at the end of the day, I also wanted friends," said Adam. He smiled broadly at ine and Adam. "And what do you know! I''ve got two friends already. A tech genius and a silent badass. Can''t say I''m disappointed." "You don''t have much room to be disappointed," said Aldrich with a faint smile. Adam''s positive energy was infectious, Aldrich had to admit. "And friends gotta'' stick together," said Adam. He put a fist to his heart. "Especially powerless people like us. I got this feeling, but if we stick together, I feel like we''ll all make it through this no problem." "Hope so," said ine with a sigh. "Yeah," said Aldrich simply, not knowing how terribly wrong things would get. Chapter 9: The End...and the Beginning

Chapter 9: The End¡­and the Beginning

October 30, 2117 - One yearter "This game is way too hard!"ined Adam as he sat in front of Aldrich''s gaming ring, an immersive VR helmet on his head as he yed through Elden World. Adam had chosen quite fittingly a warrior barbarian to y, but even the warrior''s simple skill set confused him, making him die to a basic mob of level 20 trolls after fumbling a defensive shield based skill. "Keep at it, you''ll get there," said Aldrich as he watched from his tiny dorm bed. "Make sure to cast coat your sword in me Oil before fighting trolls or else their regen is going to be way too hard to deal with." "But your character just goes like, ''boom'', and then they all die," said Adam. "Because mine is a Necromancer. I use death magic, and since these trolls are low level enough, they instantly die to my [Anti-Life Shell] aura," said Aldrich. "That''s ridiculously overpowered. I should''ve chosen your ss," said Adam. "You get confused juggling like five skills, how do you think you''ll manage micro-managing fifty units?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, you''re right." Adam paused the game and took off his VR helmet before turning on a swiveling chair to see Adam. ine was there too, at the foot of the bed, reading something as she usually did on her Eye-Phone, though asionally she would look up to check Adam''s progress in the game. ine did not y Elden World because there was only one copy to share between the three of them, but she was an avid gamer who had brought her own gaming rig. She mostly yed other games with Aldrich where she consistently beat him no matter the genre whether it be fighting games, real time strategy, or RPGs. Aldrich fully believed that if ine had yed Elden World seriously that she would have easily beat him out too in terms of making a maxed-out character. "One whole year, huh," said Adam. "Can''t believe that much time has passed. And we passed our first practical too, though right by the skin of our nuts." Aldrich nodded. It was indeed an exceptional aplishment. The Alterhuman Agency made any hero academy hold practical exams every year to make sure graduating students were qualified, and those that did not perform well enough were cut from their academies. Generally speaking, these practicals were not too hard, often involving basicbat and rescue exercises, but that was for people with powers. Duds like Aldrich, Adam, and ine had to work fifty times as hard to pass the same basic tests, even with the practicals having an adjusted lower difficulty for Frame students. ckwater''s ss system was harshly designed so that not even the majority of Alters got proper training. Only those from the A to B sses got anything resembling a proper training regiment. C and below learned almost nothing, and so the gap between the top and the bottom only increased as time went. This ensured that ckwater got their best students all the attention and care they needed, but at the same time threw everyone else under the bus. Since Aldrich and the Duds were in the F-ss, they were not allowed into any useful sses or nearly any training, so they were literally self-taught heroes. Everything about proper rescue procedure,bating viins with various types of powers, and maximizing their Frame''s strengths all came from abination of online research and self-repairs. Granted, there was a Techno Department on thepound that did repair the Frames but asking them to upgrade them or outfit them with any weapons was a near impossibility. The Technos there would just re at Aldrich and the Duds and tell them to fuck off, that repairs were already way better than what they deserved. At best, Aldrich and ine had gotten some ckmail on a Techno there who smuggled in and spread illegal drugs to students. Using that leverage, they got the Techno to sneak them some spare parts for upgrades, but actually installing them was done by Adam''s experience as a mechanic. Aldrich had wanted to get the Techno to spill who he had sold drugs to because that would give Aldrich prime ckmail on multiple students considering that ckwater had a strict zero drugs policy. The Techno would not part with that info though, even with Aldrich threatening to end his career and get him in prison. Meant that whoever that Techno was protecting had enough status that losing his job and going to jail was preferable to crossing them. There were a few notable Alters in the academy, most notable of which was Seth Sr, but aside from him, of the twenty five students in the A-ss, ten were from established hero dynasties, though interestingly, none were the main heirs or in the spotlight of their family''s actions. Aldrich theorized that it was these high influence students that the Techno was protecting. Regardless, Aldrich, Adam, and ine had managed to persevere as thest remaining Frame students after Frank and Jake were discharged for their injuries. The bullying from Alter students had been a serious issue as well, but after the first few months, itrgely died down as the Alters had to focus on their own performance to either stay in the A or B sses or try to reach them if they were below. In summary, they did not have time to worry about the Frame kids. Every so often, Seth and his group woulde by, often to vent anger at something that had gone wrong and beat Adam bloody because he would always talk back and try to fight. Aldrich was beaten the first few times, but because he showed zero reaction to them, they quickly lost interest in him,beling him a deranged psycho who probably got off on pain. "Just three more years, and we''ll be out of here," said Adam as he nursed bruises on his face from yet another beating he had taken from Seth''s group. "Then I can eat a burger and ine can make her old man proud. Isn''t that right, ine?" "Yeah, hope he''ll still be around by then," said ine with a sigh from the foot of Aldrich''s bed where she sat and read some articles on Frame software and hardware on her Eye-Phone. "Sometimes, when I call him, he has trouble remembering small things. The shop''s not doing too well, either. I told him to get a new assistant, but he''s so stubborn and says nobody else matches up to me." "Your ability to work with the Frames is absolutely top notch," said Aldrich. "To the point where you may evenpete with or beat out some Technos with sheer natural talent alone." "Yeah, you''re real smart," said Adam. ine blushed. "Oh, you two. I''m not that good." She looked up from her Eye-Phone, her green eyes strikingly wide under her round reading sses. "You two are always amazing too. Always so reliable. Aldrich, I''ve never met anyone that can keep their cool like you, even in the worst situations. It always seems like you can think a way out of things. And Adam, I''ve never met someone that was as amazing a punching bag as you. You take so many hits-," Adam groaned. "Okay, yeah,pared to Aldy, I''m a dumbass that gets smacked around all the time. Don''t know when to shut up so I always get beat by another hit or two." "No, it''s genuinely impressive," said ine. "You take so many hits and you always, always keeping back up." "It makes you an invaluable distraction. With how loud you are and how much you can get under Alter student nerves with your yelling, you''re basically a tank with AoE taunts," said Aldrich. "Well, guess I''m good at something at least," said Adam. He shrugged. "Y''know, sometimes I feel too dumb or too ipetent to be a hero. I can''t think quick like either of you, and in the Frames where we''re all the same power, thinking quick is the most important thing to have." "Maybe," said Aldrich. He put a hand on Adam''s shoulder. "But what I can tell you is that out of us, out of anyone in this entire academy, you have the most heroic heart. You always get back up and you always see the good in things." To be honest, Aldrich envied Adam a little for this. Adam had suffered greatly in life, but his heart had stayed pure. Aldrich knew that though he was not ''evil'' by any means, but deep down, he was not truly fit to be a hero. "Thanks, man," said Adam. "Now, if I can just beat these damn trolls-," Right then, the door to Aldrich''s dorm swung open. Or more like it was torn open. Seth Sr was there, door frame in his hand like it was a piece of paper, and behind him was his crew including the creep Ghost. The rank smell of alcohol reeked out from them and a few of them held half drunk liquor bottles in their hand. They were all A-ss students by now, though the only one truly deserving of the A-ss was Seth. But because Seth had influence in the academy due to his mother being the head, he had gotten his four stooges into the A-ss with no issue. Because they were in A-ss, they got a hefty stipend to spend and days off which they spent at Haven, the nearby town, spending their money on drinks, drugs, and women. But why the hell were they here? Aldrich, Adam, and ine immediately stood up, but they felt like mice cornered by a group of cats. Without their Frames, no, even with their Frames, they were all just prey to this group. This group of dangerous drunks. "ying video games, huh? You cockroaches think you deserve any of this?" said Seth as he stared at Aldrich''s gaming monitor. He walked towards it and mmed his fist through the screen, obliterating the rig in a shower of sparks, broken stic, metal, and ss. "What the fuck was that for, asshole?" said Adam as he reached out to grab Seth''s arm. Seth immediately back hand pped Adam into the wall behind him, rattling the room with the impact. Adam groaned as he slid down, kneeling to recover his breath. "Today has been a bad fucking day, so I suggest you Duds stay real quiet and do as we say," said Seth. Aldrich helped Adam up, and Adam wiped blood off a burst lip before he grinned at Seth. "Shut up, man," whispered Aldrich. "They''re drunk. You have no idea what they''ll do." "I don''t care. This asshole broke your gaming rig. That was one of thest things your parents bought you - I''m not going to let him get away with it." Adam turned to Seth. "Why''d youe here? Was it because you got your ass handed to you yesterday? Bet you know what that feels like pretty well by now, huh?" Adam was referencing news that Seth, formerly the number 1 ranked student in ckwater, had fallen to a solid 2nd after a rtively unknown Alter called Mel had beaten him consistently in singlebat. The worst of this was yesterday when Mel had officially beaten Seth to take his rank 1 spot. She had started off in the C-ss, but after training like an utter madman, she realized her power had immense growth potential, and soon, she overtook Seth where he had beencent, believing the power he had been born with to be invincible. Seth began to breathe heavily, his rage almost tangible, but then he smiled. "You know what? Fuck it. I''ve had it with you. Beating you doesn''t do sh*t. You always talk back because you''re too fucking stupid to learn. I''ll hurt you another way." He pointed to ine. "Get her. Take her to our barracks. We''ll show her she''s wasting her time with these idiots whether she wants it or not." Ghost licked his lips and stepped forwards, motioning the other three guys ahead. "Come on, guys. Hope you didn''t drink enough that your dicks aren''t working." "I have this entire meeting recorded," said ine as she held up her Eye-Phone. "If you touch me, I''ll leak it to the Net and the Sr family will have quite the PR mess to clean up. Everything''s recorded to a private server I have. The moment I press a single button, everything gets out." Ghost and the other three stopped, looking back at Seth. "I don''t give a sh*t at this point," said Seth. He waved his guys ahead. "Go, get her. Break her." At this point, Aldrich began to think of a way to get out of this using ine''s recording as leverage, but Adam reacted first. Adam shot out a punch at Seth''s face, but it was like he had punched a brick wall. Seth did not even move from the impact, leaving Adam to painfully clutch at his fist. "Fucking worm-filth. Out of my goddamn way!" said Seth as he once more back hand pped Adam''s head to push him off. This time, though, the p was apanied by a sickening crack, and Adam fell to the groundpletely limp, his head twisted at an unnatural angle. Aldrich''s thoughtspletely stopped at that moment as he saw Adam slumped on the ground, his eyes wide, gurglinging out of his throat. That was not a hit he was ever going to stand back up from. Adam was dead. "A-Adam?" said ine as she immediately knelt by Adam''s side, drawing his head close to her. He looked up at her with nk eyes. She started to breathe heavily, her face twisting into equal parts fear, confusion, and shock. "Adam? Talk to me. Please, please tell me you''re okay." "Sh*t!" roared Seth as he looked at his hand. "Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Why are you Duds so fragile!? Made out of fucking cardboard! Just one tap from me and he just dies like that!" Aldrich''s moment of nkness, the sheer shock of seeing one of his only friends, a friend that always got back up no matter what, fall to the ground permanently, passed as soon as he heard Seth''s enraged response. ine was still on the floor with wide, distraught eyes, her hand on Adam''s neck, checking desperately for a pulse even when the verdict was obvious that he was dead. She was normal. Her response was expected for someone that had lost a close friend so brutally and so easily like that. Aldrich, however, had calmed down. It was not that he did not care about Adam, it was simply that he needed to ensure his and ine''s survival. Adam''s death did not mean that Aldrich and ine had to suffer and die as well. They could and would mourn for himter. For now, they had to live. If anything, that was what Adam would have wanted. "You, one of the heirs to the Sr family, killed him," said Aldrich. "You know how bad this situation is, right? You might have been able to get away with doing whatever you wanted to ine even if she released it. You could have hired incrediblewyers and gotten PR firms to try and clear your image while Globe-Net firms scrubbed her recording while spreading rumors that she was lying. But this, unfortunately, is way beyond that. This is murder. We have your recorded admission of guilt and a dead body. The Frame initiative might be bare bones, but it still tallies who goes in and out of the program, and deaths, especially, it takes seriously considering the fact that the program wants good enough PR to have plenty of willing Dud applicants. What do you think will happen when it gets leaked that Seth Sr not only threatened sexual assault butmitted casual, cold-blooded murder? Your money could have covered sexual assault, but murder? Murder with evidence like this? There''s no easy way for you to weasel your way out of this, especially not with your Sr family name on the line. Not unless you let us go." Aldrich''s mind raced, thinking about the countless ways he could hold this information over Seth and his gang, making sure they never, ever raised a hand against him and ine again. Seth paused for a good ten seconds, his face hard and his expression stern. In that time, his gang looked up at him hesitantly. "What do we do, Seth?" said Ghost. "The Dud''s right. Messing around with that girl, sh*t, we could''ve covered that up alright, but murder? Thew might not give much of a sh*t about Duds, but when ites to murder, they won''t go easy on us. We''re fucked, aren''t we?" Murder was a crime that was punished heavily throughout the near entirety of human history, but now more than ever it was no joke of a crime tomit. Society still had a scarcity mindset regarding lives that any warm body, even a Dud body, was invaluable in a world where there was constant war against Variant beasts that at any moment could rise up and mow down countless thousands. Duds might have gotten shafted in terms of employment and fair treatment and almost every other basic right, but murder was one thing they did not have to worry about, at least not from Alters that were not straight up viins. "No," said Seth, his voicepletely devoid of emotion. Utterly cold. "No we aren''t." Seth disappeared in a sh before he emerged in front of ine. His fist had smashed right through her chest,pletely obliterating her heart. ine''s eyes stilled beneath her sses as she looked down at her bloody, fist-filled chest in surprise. Blood trickled out of her mouth in red rivulets. She blinked once, and then her life fled her, her head hanging down limp. Seth pulled back his blood-drenched arm from her chest, leaving her to fall and slump over Adam''s corpse in a growing pool of red. "What!?" said Ghost. His pale, sunken in red eyes were wide, and the others in Seth''s gang shared this surprised reaction. "We have to kill them," said Seth simply, spatters of blood painted across his ck bodysuit. A stroke of redy across his eyes, highlighting his gleaming white pupils, at how empty they were. Complete sociopathy. "Kill them before they can leak anything." Before Aldrich could react, Seth had sped his fist through his stomach. Aldrich felt his vision blur as he slumped to the ground, his guts and blood spilling out of a gaping hole in his chest as Seth stood over him. This was it, Aldrich realized as he looked down at his bloody stomach. He put his hands over the hole, trying to keep his guts from spilling out. This was it. This was it. This was it. He was going to die. Everything he had worked for, all those years, the death of his parents, the death of his friends = All of it for nothing. Gone in just one pathetic moment. One casual punch. All for these privileged Alter fucks to escape the consequences of their actions. All to escape judgement. The thought of it was so agonizing, so unfair - He had thought that when he saw his parents butchered like animals, he had lost any capability to feel strong emotion. But emotion, maybe all the hatred and bitterness that had bottled up in him over the many agonizing years, welled up for one final moment before it all ended. "You¡­you miserable fucks," said Aldrich, coughing blood. It was a miraculous effort that he could even speak, that he did not just drop dead, but somehow, through sheer force of will, he did. He raised a shaking, using finger at Seth Sr and his group. "You¡­none of you deserve¡­to live. All of you-all of you-I swear, I swear I will make you suffer." Aldrich''s breath began to wheeze, and he started to crawl forwards, his eyes bloodshot, his expression wild, deranged. Everyone in the group except Seth Sr instinctively cowered backwards even though Aldrich was a dead man walking. There was something about a corpse crawling through sheer force of fucking hatred that chilled them to the bone. "I swear¡­whatever Hell I go to, I''ll craw my way back out, then I''ll drag you all in. I-I will be your judgement." Aldrich stared up at Seth Sr with pure hatred, and Seth Sr stared down at him with pure, uncaring cold. Thest of Aldrich''s life fled him then. He slumped over in a pool of his own blood and guts. His vision tilted and darkened. He felt numb all over. His hearing muffled and faded, echoes of the conversation around him bing near unintelligible. "Stop pissing your pants over a dead Dud and clean this sh*t up," said Seth Sr. "Pack their bodies and dump them in the forest. We''ll spread a rumor that they tried to run and Variants ate them. You, Evan, you''re a Techno. Hack into any tech they have here and wipe everything out¡­" Aldrich''s sensespletely left him then, burying him inplete and utter darkness. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Then, Aldrich did not know how long afterwards, he saw bright white letters typing a message in in font across the darkness that surrounded him. [¡­] [SYSTEM¡­initiated] [¡­] The font of the letters changed, turning gold in color and bing more decorated with swirls and ornamental curves that looked like they belonged to a fantasy game. To Elden World. [Wee, Host.] [Choose your ss:] Chapter 10: Necromancer

Chapter 10: Necromancer

Aldrich¡­felt like he was in a dream. He was conscious, but not entirely there. Floating around in this sea of infinite darkness with only the gleaming golden letters of Elden World to focus on. Even then, it was so difficult to focus on those letters, as if at any moment, he would lose focus and his mind would slip away permanently into the void. Aldrich did not so much consciously think as he did react on instinct. When he saw that familiar prompt from Elden World, he did what he had done when he had first started the game years ago. He chose his ss. [ss: Necromancer Selected] [As a Necromancer, death has always been by your side. It has creeped by your shadow. It has lurked in the depths of your being. It has shaped who you are. But unlike many who face death and break under its abyssal gaze, you stared back and took control over the darkness. Wielding negative energy toxic to life but nourishing to undead, youmit yourself to a path of dark magics where under your masterful touch, death is never the end. Or perhaps, to you, death is merely a beginning. Raising undead armies, summoning rotted and bare boned monstrosities, and spreading necrotic misery and the cold of the grave all fall under your domain. Is this the ss you wish to choose?] "Yes," said Aldrich, though in the darkness, his voice did not project. Only his thoughts. This was the ss he was most familiar with. The one he gravitated towards even in this dream-like state. [ss: Necromancer Chosen] [Necromancy is a broad art, as all epassing as the dark is when the sun sets and restless spirits rise. Choose your ultation. This will determine the type of necromancy you will practice:] [-ultation of the Shattered Bone You let negative energies surge through your own body, harnessing them to strengthen it. Where others who practice necromancy have let their forms grow pale, sickly, and weakly, you have maintained a body and bones of iron. You do not herald death with bolts and curses or undead minions, but through weapons of bone swung with your own two hands. You do not raise minions, but you modify your own body through ghastly experiments, stitching together a monstrous yet battle-ready form that will strike fear and lethal blows equally across the battlefield Stat Affinities: Strength/Vitality/Magic] [-ultation of the Cold Rot Death is cold. Death is merciless. And after death, there is always rot. With this ultation, you hold great mastery to inflict death. With a single bolt of death magic, you will cull unworthy lives. With a wave of your hand, you will cast fog that numbs and drains life from those that are still yet warm and living. With a mere touch, you will impart diseases and curses of rot that will cause untold pain and suffering. Stat Affinities: Magic/Agility/Attunement] [-ultation of Legion Death is never the end. With this ultation, you ensure that those that have fallen will always have a second chance. A second chance to serve under your thrall. You take empty, lifeless corpses and breathe negative energy into them, granting them eternal undeath by your side. You may strengthen the undead, repairing their rotting flesh or strengthening their bleached bones. You may even call into the Nether and summon mighty undead who have ascended from mere nameless animated corpses to beings akin to high spirits or even gods. You are never alone. Any battle you take, you shall have the might of countless graves supporting you. You are Legion. Stat Affinities: Magic/Attunement/Vitality] Aldrich chose the [ultation of Legion], confirming the selection without a hint of hesitation. This was the ss of his Necromancer in the game, and so in his dream-like state, this was what he defaulted to. [All selections have been finalized¡­] [Necromancer of the Legion ult, your adventure will now begin. May the ---------] The message cut off at the end, but Aldrich had barely a hazy moment to get confused by it before the darkness around him dispelled. Instead, he found himself lying down on a bed of leaves, staring up at a shadowy tree canopy above. Beyond the trees, Aldrich could make out a few stars and therge, looming full moon. Aldrich sat up, still feeling groggy, still feeling like he was in that dream-like state, but that soon passed, and with it, came the memories. Memories of his death. Memories of Seth Sr murdering the only two friends he had. Somehow, Aldrich was alive. And as long as he drew breath, he would never let that vile waste of oxygen live. Not ever. Nor his scum friends too. Aldrich balled his fists up tightly, dead leaves cracking in his grip as his deathly pale knuckles whitened even further. Wait, pale? Aldrich held his hands up to himself and saw that they were indeed a shade of ghostly pale white that belonged only to corpses. His skin felt cold and almost mmy. He touched his stomach and felt a fist-sized hole in it from Seth Sr''s punch. Where his spine and organs were supposed to be, there was just gaping, empty space. Yet, he was still alive. Aldrich blinked several times, processing what had happened. He remembered his time in the dark space where he had gone through the Elden World character selection process. He had almost thought that a dream, but¡­but had it all been real? As if to confirm Aldrich''s thoughts, a status screen shed in front of him. Current Status: Unburdened [+5 to agility] Name: Aldrich Yang Race: Undead ss: Necromancer (ultation of Legion) Level: 1 HP: 18/18 Mana: 15/15 Stats- Strength: 6 Agility: 8 (13) Vitality: 6 Magic: 5 Attunement: 5 Perception: 8 Attuned Spells- NONE Passives - Undead Body Rank: N/A The host has be an undead. They do not require sustenance, sleep, or rest to function. Their stamina is virtually limitless. Any wound aside from a critical head injury will notpromise the host''s mobility or bodily functions, but damage will still be registered to the host''s total HP pool. However, the host will not receive any bonus damage from being struck in locations other than the head. -Necrotic/Negative energy damage is converted to healing -Healing is converted to damage -Immunity to disease and sickness -Immunity to psychic damage -Immunity to poison damage -50% resistance to cold damage -50% resistance to curse damage -90% resistance to piercing damage unless struck in the head -50% resistance to shing damage unless struck in the head -Double damage taken from crushing/bludgeoning damage -Double damage taken from fire type attacks Equipment- Head [NONE] Body [NONE] Waist [NONE] Arms [NONE] Legs [NONE] essory [NONE] ]]] Aldrich looked at this status in wonder at first, but then calm quickly after. He started to analyze it, and something within him, some natural instinct, perhaps, made him understand that he was not dreaming, that this was very, very real. Aldrich did not need to rely on the Frame initiative anymore. That was a program for powerless students like him to get reminded of how utterly weak and worthless they were, a program where they were given hope only to have it crushed and ground under a merciless Alter boot. Aldrich finally, finally, had the power he had only ever dreamed of. Power that was his and ONLY his. Power that Aldrich would use for his vengeance. First, on Seth Sr, then on the Trident. Aldrich heard rustling around him, and he tensed up, knowing he was in danger. He knew that Seth Sr had dumped him in the forests surrounding ckwater, which meant that this rustling coulde from just one threat. Variants. Aldrich saw two pairs of gleaming yellow eyes with eerie, squared ck pupils staring at him from the dark of the forest. Then, a low, grumbling growling. Before, Aldrich would have ran at first sight of this threat, not in fear, but because he knew there was absolutely no way he would ever threaten a Variant with his basic human strength. Not even the Variants in this forest, weak Variants that did not go past D rank in terms of threat, were ever enemies he could hope to beat. But that was when Aldrich was powerless. Before he was a Necromancer. He might have been level 1, but he knew the ins and outs of his ss to the level of almost artistic mastery. He knew what spells to get, how to level, and how to fight. Meanwhile, nobody in this world knew what Aldrich could do. He was the only yer in a game where the world would soone to dance in his palm whether or not they would dance willingly or as undead minions. Aldrich took in a breath, feeling how light and fast his body was, and he felt confident. He stared straight back at those monstrous yellow eyes and did not see a life ending disaster, but instead the first undead for his new Legion. Chapter 11: First Fight, First Undead

Chapter 11: First Fight, First Undead

Aldrich heard another growl cut through the silent, deadly night, and he stopped thinking about the future version of himself. The version where he had all his spells and maxed out stats and an army of undead. For now, he was still level 1. He could not get carried away. He had to be careful. Immediately, Aldrich analyzed the situation. Judging from the pupils on these Variants along with how low their gaze was, they were the E-ss threats known as Strikers. They were quadrupedal, almost wolf-like creatures known for their incredible charging speed and tworge tusks jutting from their mouths. Aldrich knew this because as a hero academy, ckwater did have AA (Alterhuman Agency) data on all known Variants and how to deal with them. Unfortunately, it was up to the hero academies themselves to determine how to distribute the sensitive data, and in ckwater, training data regarding Variants, especially higher ss ones, was limited as a reward to higher performing students. However, information about lower ss Variants wasmon enough because of how many of them there were that one could find a plethora of information online on how to deal with them. The practical exams that Aldrich and his friends had to take involved taking down mock Variants simted by drones and saving civilians, so he was readily prepared to deal with any lower-ss Variant threat. One of the tests even involved distracting Strikers away from civilian zones. Aldrich took a look at the screen hovering in the corner of his vision that disyed his status. He saw that the status tab was not the only one avable to him. There were also tabsbeled as , , and . Aldrich immediately flipped to the tab where, if things were the same as it was in the game, he knew he would see the item he needed. -1x Tome of the Dark Arts ]]] Aldrich mentally selected the Tome of the Dark Arts, and it manifested in his hands out of a shower of ghostly green particles. The book was norger than a small handbook with a leathery cover made out of wrinkled, dried skin with the visage of a screaming face etched in the middle. This was the introductory tome that Necromancers started out with that granted them three basic spells to use out of a sizable pool of fifteen. Aldrich consumed the item by mentally willing it, and the book glowed a faint green. The list of the possible spells he could use showed up in a small screen in front of him, but he barely even looked at it, only making sure the spells he already knew he wanted were there. He selected what he needed. Lines of glowing bright, ghostly green energy transferred from the book and into Aldrich''s body, moving up the veins of his arm and lighting them in the dark. [Spells: Chill st, Raise Undead Rank 1, and Anti-Life Shell Rank 1 learned] Thankfully, Aldrich had a good fundamental idea of how to use his newfound powers. All he had to do was mentally will his powers to work, as if they were just a part of his body, and because he knew how his game character worked, it was a breeze for him to start working quickly and efficiently. Aldrich shuddered as he felt cold seep into his being, permeating through his veins from the tome''s energy. It felt good, the cold, like he belonged to it. The book faded into dust, and at that moment, the Strikers charged out from the forest. They looked like enormous wolves with thick, grey furred coats and snarling jowls, though their square pupil eyes and tusks made it readily apparent they were no ordinary wildlife. They surged forwards with tusks jutted out, aiming to gore Aldrich. Aldrich saw them moving towards him and immediately lunged to the side, rolling over a bunch of leaves as he dodged the barreling, savage bodies. A crack sounded as the Strikers mmed into trees and shook their heads, momentarily dazed by the impact. Still, Aldrich almost shuddered at how devastating their charges were. They had almost felled the enormous trees they had hit, tilting them backwards dangerously close to a free fall. Any human hit by that would have their internal organspletely rearranged from the impact alone, not to mention the sharp tusks. Aldrich was faster than the wolves, though. A good deal faster. Because he had the [Unburdened] status which applied only when he did not wear any equipment, he had a sizable buff to agility. As a result, he was more than twice as fast as he was before, and even back when he was an ordinary man, he had top level athletic performance. Aldrich pointed his pale hands at the two Strikers just like his Necromancer character would. He casted [Chill Bolt]. [Mana: 15/15 ] 11/15] Two wintry spheres of foggy white and blue surrounded his hands before twin bolts of pale blue energy shot forth. The bolts zipped through the air, cold, condensed air leaving a frostyet trail behind them. Both boltsnded square on one of the Strikers square at the head. The impact jerked the Striker''s head back like it was shot with a bullet, but it shook the blow off. Its head was cut open with jagged scars covered with frozen blood, but the damage was not enough to pierce right through the skull and into the brain. "Hm," noted Aldrich. These Strikers were not ordinary. Normally, E-ss threats like them could be dealt pretty easily with conventional weaponry and the [Chill Bolts] would definitely have been enough to turn their brains into frozen mush considering in the game, they could make sizable dents in boulders. But these Strikers had seemingly evolved harder skulls to amodate their charging habits, removing one of their biggest weak points as the thick fur on their bodies formed a sort of natural armor. In terms of game levels, the Strikers would probably be around level 4 or 5. A significant threat to Aldrich at this state. There was no doubt that if the Strikers got a clean hit on him, he would instantly die with how low his HP pool was. But Aldrich trusted in his reflexes and agility to kite his way through this mini boss-fight. The other Striker roared and pawed the ground once before charging again. Aldrich dodged pre-emptively, once more rolling to the side and narrowly evading a crushing blow to his body. He then cast [Anti-Life Shell Rank 1], or, more urately, he activated it since it was a toggled passive. Unlike [Chill Bolt], [Anti-Life Shell] was a passive ability that surrounded Aldrich with negative energy that healed undead while draining the life force of regr enemies. There was no cost to maintaining the shell, especially at lower ranks, but in exchange, it did not deal much damage. It was more like ''chip'' damage that umted over time, but every little bit counted at this point. A ghostly green aura that looked like ethereal mist surrounded Aldrich in a hazy sphere approximately ten meters in radius. Enough range to constantly cover both Strikers in this forest clearing. The Strikers sniffed the strange mist warily but did not register enough threat from it to run away or deal with it. Instead, they sat in the mist, circling around Aldrich from opposite ends. Aldrich took in a breath, keeping his senses sharp for the moment they charged him. He could not use [Raise Undead] because it required corpses, but he had willingly chosen a spell that did not work because he was confident he could one shot the Strikers with well ced [Chill Bolts] to the head. Now, though, Aldrich had to readjust his strategy and beat the Strikers with a hit and run method using the constant chip damage of [Anti-Life Shell] and [Chill Bolts] to deal frost type damage that would slow the Strikers down. Aldrich had nned to take this fight without undead, but he had to admit that having undead would make his job a lot easier. After all, what was a Necromancer, especially a Legion Necromancer, without his minions? That was when Aldrich noticed with some surprise the presence of graves. Not literal graves, but floating cross-shaped tombstones outlined in green that indicated the presence of corpses that he could raise. These corpses were only visible to Necromancers, and it was both a wee and unwee sight to him. Two graves. Aldrich grimaced. He knew who they were. He did not like using his dead friends as undead, but for now, he had to survive. He had to survive to give them the vengeance they deserved. Aldrich put his hand out and casted [Raise Undead Rank 1]. ]] [Mana: 11/15 ] 6/15] ]] Rank 1 meant that he could only raise undead from levels 1-10, and though he did not know entirely how levels corrted with the real world, the presence of graves meant they were in the eligible level range for revival. Two sets of pale arms burst from the forest ground, and the graves floating over them faded away. Aldrich frowned as he saw Adam and ine burst from the ground, and from rotted splotches on their skin, he knew they were zombies. They looked grotesque, ine with the gaping hole in her stomach and Adam with apletely twisted neck. Their eyes were lifeless, and they let out guttural groans that belonged to monsters, not humans. Necromancers were not like Priests. They did not revive the dead. They simply used corpses to create monsters. Whatever soul was left in that corpse was long gone. At least, this was ording to game lore. Aldrich hoped that it was right. He had never been superstitious enough to believe in souls and an afterlife, but if it did exist, he did not want to keep his friends'' souls trapped. The Strikers paused their circling as they saw the two zombies, assessing their threat. Aldrich could feel mental ''tethers'' linked to Adam and ine, and he had an instinctive sense that he could move them around with mentalmands addressed to these links. He had Adam and ine stand behind him, covering his blind spot, and together like this, he almost felt like they were back as a team. Aldrich shook his head as he remembered the many fights they had gone through together in this formation. That was the past. Adam and ine were dead. They were zombies now, and Seth Sr and his gang had to pay for it. Aldrich took the initiative this time, firing off twin [Chill Bolts] at the Striker in front of him. ]] [Mana: 6/15 ] 2/15] ]] He aimed not at the hardened skull this time, but at the eyes. The Striker howled in pain as the pale blue bolts mmed into its gleaming yellow eyes, bursting them apart in chunks of frozen flood and eye fluid. While the Striker was disabled, Aldrich ran towards the other Striker, causing it to charge him. He ran so that he lured it away from Adam and ine while hemanded his undead friends to attack the blinded Striker. Adam and ine growled as they sprinted forwards, significantly stronger than they were before. As Zombies, they had slightly enhanced physical stats, undying bodies that would not give out unless they took head injuries, and a poisonous bite and rot aura that made them better front-line fighters than Aldrich. Overall, both were level 3, and two of them could overwhelm a single Striker easily provided Aldrich distracted the other one. Adam and ine tackled the Striker and began savagely tearing into it like monsters themselves. They chomped down on the Striker, turning it over as they started to gouge their fists and legs into its skin. They broke their fingers as they tried to tear into it and then used their sharp, broken bones as knives to start stabbing, unable to feel pain or any sense of self-preservation. Aldrich yed a tense game of dodging with the other Striker, evading its lunges, charges, and snaps from its jaws with his superior agility. He did this while listening to the other Striker growling and struggling before its death throes silenced. ]] [Striker defeated! + 10 EXP] [EXP Bar: 0/10 ] 10/10] [Level up!] [Level 1 ] 2] [5 stat points avable to distribute] ]] Aldrich nodded to himself, feeling power surge into him. The Striker leaped up and snapped at him, and Aldrich held it off with his bare hands, keeping his hands on its jaws to prevent them from closing on his face while he held it from arm''s length away to evade the tusks. The Striker''s eye widened in surprise at Aldrich''s burst of power. ]] [Stat points distributed¡­] [Strength: 6 ] 11] Aldrich had expected to get around twice as physically strong from going from 6 to 11 in strength, but he felt stronger than even that, even though his ss did not have an affinity for strength that granted a bonus point to every stat invested into it. Aldrich tossed the Striker away with an expert over the shoulder throw, sending it crashing into the forest floor in a tumble of cracking leaves and branches. His ss primarily used magic, it was true, but that did not mean he could neglect his physical stats, especially in the real world where superheroes faster than the human eye could run a fist through him before he could even react and cast a spell. "Now then," said Aldrich as he cracked his neck and knuckles, walking casually up to the Striker as it slowly got back up from the heavy throw. The Striker looked first at Aldrich, then behind it at Adam and ine shambling towards it, covered in the blood, fur, and guts of itspanion. The monster shuddered in fear, its tail tucking between its legs. "It''s time for you and your friend to join us," said Aldrich. Chapter 12: The Nexus

Chapter 12: The Nexus

In a reversal of roles, it was now Aldrich that charged the Striker, sprinting at the monster before it could build up speed for its own charge. He determined that the only way for the Striker to escape its situation was to charge Aldrich and force him to dodge, thereby giving it a clean getaway path. By charging first, Aldrich removed that option, though this was far riskier for his own personal safety. Regardless, he wanted the EXP and undead from the Striker. The Striker snapped at Aldrich when he got close, managing to close its jaws around his shoulder. Because Aldrich had not leveled his vitality, the durability of his body was still simr, and the Striker, even as a E-ss monster, had bite force capable of tearing apart metal. Aldrich felt his shoulder bones shattering and his flesh tearing like paper, but he held the Striker off with his arms while Adam and ine pounced on its back, tearing the Variant away and throwing it to the ground. "Do me a favor and kill this thing," said Aldrich as he held his mangled shoulder. Adam and ine began to bite and w at the Striker, wrestling it into the ground where it had no escape. The Striker turned and managed to bite Adam''s head, cracking his skull, and Aldrich reacted by throwing out a precisely aimed, powerful kick at the base of the Striker''s neck, breaking the bone supporting it. The Striker fell down, limp and dead. ]] [Striker defeated! +10 EXP] [EXP Bar: 0/30 ] 10/30] ]] "Sorry, Adam," said Aldrich as he saw the huge tooth marks dug into his former friend''s skull. "But you''ll be patched up soon with my [Anti-Life Shell]. Plus, like you said, it''s not like you''re missing out with that face of yours." Aldrich did not know why he talked to his friends as if they were still alive. He felt a twinge of hurt when he saw them as zombies. He thought he was immune to loss, and though he definitely was cold to it, there was still a part of him that grieved and tried to hold on to the memories of the two that had been his only friends in this unfair world. Or maybe Aldrich was just going crazy. Perhaps a side effect of being Undead. Speaking of - Aldrich inspected his damaged shoulder and moved it around. There was no pain, and despite the fact that tendons and bone and muscle had been torn to shreds, he could still move it with no issues. He truly was an Undead now, and this, he was not familiar with. In Elden World, yer characters could choose from a wide variety of races, but being an Undead was not one of them. He had no idea how his character would progress or whether he could evolve from being a basic Undead to something like a Lich. Aldrich''s thoughts were broken by Adam and ine tearing chunks from the dead Strikers and eating the raw, bloody meat. "I know you guys are hungry, but I need a mostly intact corpse to raise," said Aldrich. Adam and ine stopped chewing and stood up with grunts, swaying as they awaited furthermands. Aldrich''s current mana was at 2/15, and [Raise Undead Rank 1] cost 4 mana, so he needed at the very least 8 mana to cast two of it. He needed to rest and recharge. In Elden World, mana regeneration mechanics were such that there was no inbat mana regeneration. Mages therefore had to rest out ofbat to slowly regain their mana, though this would take quite some time. A full recharge on mana took several hours at the minimum. As a result, mages generally had to rely on using consumables to recharge their mana, specifically using an item called the [Restorative sk]. Every single yer started out with a [Restorative sk] and it was the only basic item that stuck with the yer all the way from level 1 to 100. The item had a set number of charges which could be set for either healing health or restoring mana. Melee characters used skills that had a charge based system and not spells that consumed mana, so they could set all the charges on their sk for healing. Mages, however, had to generally set aside around half of their charges for mana. This was the tradeoff for being a mage who was generally safer with ranged abilities. The only issue was that right now, Aldrich did not have the [Restorative sk] on him. Normally, it was given to the yer at the beginning of the game when they entered a space known as the Nexus which was a central hub that housed the fast travel system where yers could teleport to various saved locations. As if to answer Aldrich''s worries, however, a message popped up in his vision. ]] New Quest: ess the Nexus Quest Difficulty: 1 Description: ess the Nexus using the [Sign Stone] item. Rewards: +10 EXP +100 Coins ]] Coins, huh. In Elden World, coins were the main currency of the game. Even though there were no cksmiths or artificers in the real world, the Nexus did have a shop system that Aldrich could use coins for. The only issue was that it seemed that real life Variants did not drop coins, meaning the only way he could farm them was throughpleting quests. Aldrich switched over to his tab where he saw the [Sign Stone] deposited. He selected it and manifested it. A small, crystalline ck rock appeared in his hand, humming with a warmth that made it feel almost alive. Aldrich knew what to do. [Sign Stones] could be used to imbue an area with a Gate Sign that yers could ess to reach the safety of the Nexus to refill their [Restorative sk] and run from dangers. [Sign Stones] were incredibly rare items granted bypleting difficult Trial Quests essible through the Nexus, but Aldrich could not be picky with how he used this one. He needed to get to the Nexus soon and all things considered, using the [Sign Stone] in this forest that nobody ever investigated was not that bad of an idea. Aldrich knelt down and ced the stone onto the forest floor. It shed with a white glow for a second before dissolving into the dirt, etching out a spiral shaped sigil. It continued to glow brightly, but when Aldrich moved away, the glow faded, and the sigil turned invisible, ensuring that it would bepletely secret. Aldrich wondered if anyone else could ess the sign. In Elden World, only yers who were chosen to save the world could ess signs and the Nexus, so he figured that other than himself, nobody else could trigger it. Which meant that Aldrich now had his own personal pocket dimension that he could hop into where nobody else could chase him or threaten him. Aldrich tapped the sign and a selection message appeared in front of him. [ess the Nexus?] Aldrich immediately projected his consent, and the sign shed with a blinding burst of light, enveloping him before drenching his vision in pure darkness. The darkness quickly faded, revealing the familiar environment of the Nexus. The Nexus was a circr, temple-like room fashioned out of muted grey stone. It was sizable, easily the size of a two-story home and just as tall. At the center of the Nexus, there was arge basin of water swirling in a gentle spiral current standing atop a pir engraved with carvings of armored fighters wielding des and robed mages holding staffs. One half of the water glowed a bright gold, indicating liquid that restored health, and the other half glowed blue, indicating liquid that restored mana. Twelverge pirs dotted the walls of the Nexus, supporting a domed ceiling dotted withrge, glowing white and gold crystals that emitted light that approximated sunlight. Each of these pirs housed double stone doors at their bases, and through these pirs, a yer could ess Trial Quests of various difficulty. Trial Quests were tailored for the individual yer''s ss and clearing them were pre-requisites to maximizing and unlocking the abilities of one''s ss. Aldrich heard groans behind him, and he realized that Adam and ine had followed him here. Made sense, considering that they were counted as his units. "So, how''s the Nexus in real life, Adam? Though you''ve probably seen it too many times for it to be a surprise anymore,'' said Aldrich. Anytime a yer died, they revived at the Nexus, though Aldrich had no idea if he could actually respawn. Until Aldrich got confirmation he could, he would assume that he only had one life to spare. Adam and ine both just stared nkly ahead, their minds long gone. Aldrich sighed before he walked over to the basin. It was elevated on a tform, so he had to climb some stairs to get to it. As he approached, he knew what would happen: light from above would descent on the basin and the yer and the goddess Amara, the creator of the Nexus, would materialize and float down, granting the yer their [Restorative sk] and telling them of their purpose to save Eldenia, the setting of Elden World, from the great threat known as the Howling Dark. But what happened was entirely out of Aldrich''s expectations. No goddess appeared. Instead, when he reached the basin, strange, pixted boxes started to cluster in front of him. He immediately stepped back, wary. The boxes looked like graphical distortions, like glitches in the game, and when they faded away, it was not a beautiful, golden haired and golden eyed goddess that stared back at him, but a pixted ck stick figure. "Wee, Host," said the stick figure in a gender neutral voice underlined with a hint of static. Chapter 13: Hunting

Chapter 13: Hunting

"¡­Who are you?" said Aldrich as he narrowed his eyes and scrutinized the pixted ck stick figure. It was a little eerie staring into the in circle that was its face as it was impossible to discern any emotion from the being. "I am known as the System," said the stick figure. "Where is the goddess Amara?" said Aldrich. The stick figure ignored Aldrich as if it was a NPC that could only answer certain pre-programmed prompts and questions. "Here in the Nexus, you will find a safe haven where great warriors like yourselves may find rest. The Nexus is connected to all parts of Eldenia where its Sign has been carved, and so through the Nexus, you may help all parts of the realm," said the stick figure. Aldrich realized that the stick figure, or rather, the System as it called itself, was speaking the exact same dialogue prompt as the goddess Amara would have. In essence, it was the goddess Amara, just¡­different. Aldrich wondered whether it was some ceholder for Amara before she had beenpleted by the game developers. If so, then did that mean that Aldrich was ying the ''game'' on an earlier version? "Skip dialogue," said Aldrich, and themand prompt worked. The System paused for a second before moving on. It sped the ck pixted boxes that functioned as its ''hands'' together, and between them, a shining golden orb manifested. The light died down, and a beautifully ornate crystal sk floated down to Aldrich''s eager hands. [Item: Restorative sk obtained] "That is the Restorative sk," said the System. "You may now fill it with the waters of life, granting you the ability to heal even the most grievous of injuries or restore your tired mind." Aldrich came up to the basin and stared at the sk in his hand. When his attention came to it, details about the item appeared in a screen pasted on his vision. ]] Restorative sk Rank 1 Rank: Divine Description: Use to consume the waters of life, healing 30% of one''s total maximum health or mana or 10 health/mana, depending on which value is greater. Attune charges and refill this item at the Nexus. May be upgraded uponpletion of Trial Quests to hold more charges. -UNIQUE -UNDROPPABLE -UNSELLABLE Avable Charges: 3 Healing Charges: 3 Mana Charges: 0 ]] Aldrich noted that the sk had three tick marks on it that indicated how many charges there were. He poured out the golden liquid into the basin down to thest tick, draining the sk two thirds of the way down. He then filled the sk back up with blue water. Like this, he switched up his charges from three healing to one healing and two mana. "Excellent," said the System as it hovered to the side of Aldrich. "With this, the waters of life may now give you protection on your harsh journey. Now, I will exin to you these twelve great pirs of creation and the Trials that lie behind their doors." Aldrich listened to the dialogue just in case something had changed and the System would say anything different from the goddess Amara, but nothing changed. The System described how each of the pirs granted ess to Trial Quests that unlocked further abilities of one''s ss. Each pir had rmended levels that went up by 10 per pir, so by the tenth pir, one had to be level 100. The final two pirs were challenge quests that required highly optimized builds to clear but granted incredible rewards. Aldrich knew exactly what each trial quest held in store for him as he hadpleted all of them before. Through them, he could start to find strong undead monsters to raise, equipment, coin, and useful spell tomes. The first pir required a level of 10 to ess, and so Aldrich would have to grind some Variant monsters out to reach that level first. After the System spoke about the Trials, it then started to speak extra dialogue that the goddess Amara did not have. "Heh,d, you may alsoe to me for any craftin'' or repairin'' you need!" said the System. Aldrich recognized that the System had taken up the tone and mannerisms of Sindri, the cksmith god that worked at the Nexus who yers could turn to for crafting. He introduced the Soul Forging system where rarely, monsters or enemies dropped Souls that could be used to forge weapons or gear that took up their attributes. Regr drops like monster ws or teeth or whatnot had to be collected inrge quantities for craft anything out of them, but a single Soul alone could craft an entire piece of gear or weapon. In general, it seemed that the System took up the role of all the NPCs that were normally in the Nexus. Aldrich listened, careful to note whether the System had any extra unprompted dialogue, but it did not. It just cycled through the same things Aldrich had heard from Sindri, and afterwards, it just remained silent, having exhaustedpletely through the dialogue from the goddess Amara and the cksmith god Sindri, the two NPCs of the Nexus. Aldrich walked down the stairs once there was just silence. At the base of the stair, there was another Sign that he could ess to reach Signs he had ced. He knelt down, beckoned Adam and ine toe close, and touched the Sign. As the bright white light engulfed Aldrich and his group, he heard one line of unprompted dialogue from the System. "May the hunt feed you well, Host¡­" == Aldrich returned to the real world, right above the Sign he had ced in the Variant infested forest. He wondered what thatst line from the System had meant, but it did not seem important enough at the moment to waste time focusing on. ]] [Quest: ess the Nexus]pleted! +10 EXP +100 Coins EXP: 10/30 ] 20/30 Coins: 0 ] 100 ]] The two Striker corpses were still beside him, and when he looked down to check his wristwatch (a watch that had no Net capabilities, hence, unlike his Eye-phone, it had not been taken from him) he noted that about five minutes had passed. In the Nexus, however, Aldrich had thought he had spent at least ten or so minutes, indicating that time passed around half as fast as it did in the Nexuspared to the real world. Aldrich checked his mana. ]] Mana: 15/15 ]] Good, thought Aldrich. Going to the Nexus restored his health and mana to full as it usually did. His mangled shoulder hadpletely healed up to normalcy, but notably, the gaping fist sized hole in his stomach did not. He figured that because he had sustained that injury before his undeath, it counted as part of his body now. He did not mind it. It gave him a striking reminder that he still had to make Seth Sr pay for what he had done. Aldrich looked down at the Striker corpses and hovered his hand over them as he cast [Raise Undead]. "Serve," he said, though he did not know why. The word just slipped out of him, as if it belonged as a chant to the spell. The word felt fitting, though, he had to admit. Aldrich''s hand glowed green, and ghostly green energy flickered around the two Striker corpses. The corpses shuddered and then started to move. Their flesh rotted a little, tufts of hair falling out as they became zombified. They stood up on all fours,ing forwards to Aldrich and nuzzling their tawny, rotting heads at his hand like pet dogs. A hazy dark green aura of rot emanated from them - the same aura emanating from Adam and ine. ]] Mana: 15/15 ] 5/15 ]] Aldrich checked his tab. ] Chosen Undead (0/1) -NONE Undead: -Zombie Human Level 3 -Zombie Human Level 3 -Zombie Striker Level 5 -Zombie Striker level 5 ]] Aldrich nodded to himself before drinking his Restorative sk, restoring his mana. ]] Restorative sk Charges: 2/3 Healing Charges: 1/1 Mana Charges: ? == Mana: 5/15 ] 15/15 ]] Now, he had a sizable army to work with. Every 10 levels, the base number of units he could control increased by 5 and the number of spells he could attune increased by 3, though leveling the Attunement stat could add even more units or spells to that. As for the Chosen Undead mechanic - Legion Necromancers differed from other Necromancers in that they could bind a powerful Undead to their very souls. Normal Undead did not gain levels but Chosen Undead were lifetimepanions that continually grew with their Necromancer and could be outfitted with equipment as well. A level 100 Legion Necromancer could have up to 3 Chosen Undead, though the more Chosen Undead one had, the lower their max level cap was. At 3 Chosen Undead, their max level cap was at 60. At 1 Chosen Undead, it was a whopping level 100. Aldrich preferred to work with one strong Chosen Undead that covered his weaknesses perfectly. A Chosen Undead was so important that without one, Aldrich would go so far as to say that a Legion Necromancer was half as strong as an ordinary Warrior or Mage of the same level that relied on their personal strength alone. To get one, Aldrich had to reach level 5, at which point he would obtain an item to reach out to a wide selection of Chosen Undead. In summary, Aldrich had two goals. First, to reach level 5 for his Chosen Undead. Then, to reach level 10 for his first Trial Quest. After reaching level 10 and clearing the first Trial Quest, he was confident he would be strong enough to beat every single one of Seth Sr''s gang. The only issue was Seth Sr himself who had an incredible set of powers that no army of ordinary zombies could ever hope to beat. Aldrich would devise a way to kill Seth Sr as well, he had no doubts about it. But for now, there was the grind. == Aldrich roamed the Variant forest, scouting out where he was while he hunted for more Variants to kill. He figured out that he was ditched approximately one mile out from the single road that led into ckwater. That road, along with ckwater itself, was lined with Anti-Variant Emitters that generated a specific energy frequency that prevented Variants from entering it. However, as these frequencies were coded only to specific Variant species, there was always the chance that Variants could evolve or some unknown new species could migrate in, hence why ckwater had walls and why the roads had auto-turrets installed in them. Aldrich had no idea whether the auto-turrets would track him and shoot, but he did not want to take the chances. He would not return to ckwater until he was strong. About twenty minutes into his scouting, he encountered another Variant. It was a huge clump of animated moss, thick, tentacle-like vines, spines, bark, and bulbous yellow eyeballs. It shuffled along the forest floor, leaving a trail of gooey, slime-like sap behind it. This was a Moss Beast known for its powerfulshing tentacles and its hidden maw full of rotating buzzsaw like teeth that ground up anything that went into it into mush. However, what it was most feared for was its ability to release a cloud of paralyzing gas from various tubes in its body. If one evaded the gas, Moss Beasts were not difficult to deal with as they were slow and uncoordinated. Aldrich smiled as he spied the Moss Beast from behind a tree trunk, mentallymanding his four Undead to split up and circle the nt monstrosity. Because Undead were immune to poison, this was going to be a breeze. He turned on his [Anti-Life Shell] and stepped out of his cover, firing off a [Chill Bolt]. ]] Mana: 15/15 ] 11/15 ]] Twin bolts of pale blue mmed into two of the Moss Beast''srge, exposed eyeballs, sttering them before permeating frost deep into the Variant''s leafy body. The Moss Beast gurgled as it started to slowly slither its way towards Aldrich. Aldrichmanded his Undead to attack. He got the Strikers to unleash their signature charges while having Adam and ine hold back, not wanting their bodies to suffer too much abuse. The Strikers struck from behind, mming into the Moss Beast''s back and goring into it with their tusks. The Moss Beast shook as leaves, moss, and green liquid poured out of its body. In reaction, the Moss Beast emitted its paralyzing gas. Various tube-like nts in its body opened up, and from them, yellow gas whooshed out, filling the area in a hazy tint of noxious yellow. Aldrich waded through the gas with zero issue. He breathed it in before making a face. Smelled like rotten eggs, maybe even worse. [Poison Immunity triggered] The Moss Beast grumbled as it sent out thorny tentacles towards Aldrich and the Strikers. The Strikers moved backwards, dodging the slow and clumsy tentacles, before running backwards to make distance for another charge. Aldrich, who was even faster than the Strikers, had zero issue dancing around the Moss Beast. Hemanded the Strikers to charge again. The Strikers mmed into the Moss Beast again, and this time, the dual charges were fatal. The Moss Beast''s eyes lost their yellow glow as it slumped down and started to break apart. Vines and leaves and branches split apart and scattered across the dirt as the slime-like green liquid holding its body together oozed out of its damaged form. ]] Moss Beast defeated! EXP: +15 EXP Bar: 20/30 ] 35/30 Level Up! Level 2 ] 3 EXP Bar: 5/60 Five stat points avable to distribute ]] "Hm." Aldrich noted with interest that there was not only a grave floating over the Moss Beast''s corpse, but also a small white, flickering orb. That was a Soul. Now, there was a dilemma. If things worked like they did in Elden World, if he took a Soul, the Moss Beast''s corpse would crumble into dust, making raising an undead impossible. As a result, Necromancers could raise soulless old corpses, but if they took the souls themselves, the corpses would fade away, leaving nothing to raise. Aldrich decided to take the Soul instead of raising an Undead. The Moss Beast was far too slow and toorge to use reliably, in any case. He reached out and grabbed the white orb, and it faded into his palm. It was far better for him to craft a cheap weapon out of it so he could make use of the Moss Beast''s paralytic agent better. ]] 1 x Moss Beast Soul obtained ]] Chapter 14: A Crucial Hint

Chapter 14: A Crucial Hint

Aldrich then distributed his stat points. He reviewed to himself how exactly the stats worked. Strength was a measure of physical power. Agility was a measure of physical speed and coordination. Vitality measured the total health pool and the durability bonuses a character got from wearing armor. Every point in vitality raised total health by 3. Magic raised the mana pool and was the scaling stat for most spells. Every point in magic raised total the total mana pool by 3. Attunement was a stat that indicated how many skills, spells, or units a yer could have at any given moment of time. Every five points in attunement allowed a yer to attune an additional spell, skill, or unit. High levels of attunement were also required to even begin to ess summoning stronger units. For fighter type sses, attunement increased the refresh rate of the skill charges they could use per day, but this was not really relevant for Aldrich who used spells that costed mana. Perception increased uracy, critical chance, and critical damage. It also gave bonuses to skills and spells that checked another''s status. This, for all intents and purposes, was the worst stat for Aldrich to level as he generally did not rely on his own spells or melee strikes to deal damage. Now that Aldrich''s strength was up to a decent level, he dumped 3 points into magic and 2 points into vitality. ]] Strength: 11 Agility: 8 (13) Vitality: 6 ] 10 Magic: 5 ] 11 Attunement: 5 Perception: 8 == HP: 21/21 ] 33/33 Mana: 11/15 ] 33/33 ]] Because Aldrich''s Legion Necromancer had stat affinities for Vitality, Magic, and Attunement, he got double stat bonuses from investing into them. This meant that the 2 points he put into Vitality became 4 and the 3 into Magic became 6. Where other sses only got 1.2x or 1.5x boosts to affinity stats, Legion Necromancers got a whopping 2x modifier. This might have seemed incredibly good, but it was bnced out heavily by the fact that stronger undead required health offerings to raise, making it a bncing act to decide whether to use a massive health pool to create summons or tank hits. High level spells also had notoriously high mana costs, and where other caster type sses had passives that offset the cost of stronger spells torge degree, Legion Necromancers had no such perks. The only spell cost reductions they had were in raising and maintaining undead. As a result, they burned through their high mana pools deceptively quickly when they were pressured to defend themselves without their minions with offensive spells, exacerbating their weakness when alone even more. And, most notably, Legion necromancers needed to rely on a massive number of units. Hence why Attunement, the stat that increased how many units one could control, had to be at a high number for the ss to be usable to begin with. Attunement was pretty awful as a stat considering it was mostly nonbat rted, but this was because it was assumed that the Legion Necromancer would optimize theirbat potential with summons. As one leveled, the quality of diversity of summons increased, and so Legion Necromancers scaled incredibly well with levels. All in all, this made the Legion Necromancer quite bad at early levels but one of, if not the strongest sste game due to their sheer versatility with proper minion setup and control. Aldrich''s strategy was therefore simple. Level the basic physical stats of strength and agility to a functional level where he could begin to keep up with Alter superhumans but then invest everything else into magic, vitality, and attunement so he could be an efficient Necromancer. Already, just with a few points in Magic, Aldrich nearly doubled his ability to use [Chill Bolts]. Defeating Variants in this weak forest was going to be quite easy now, and he proceeded to do just that, actively looking for prey. Hunting, as the System had said. Always hunting, always reaching experience, for those levels that would make him strong, strong enough so that nothing in this world could deny him the vengeance and justice he was owed. == Aldrich roamed the Variant forest and killed ten more Strikers over the next hour. They were the mostmon Variant in this area and among the mostmon in general though he knew that deeper in, there were reports ofrger, stronger Variants. These, though, he had no data on, so he stuck in what was essentially a ''low level area'' to kill as many Strikers as possible. Over time, Aldrich had amassed three zombie Strikers to cap out his unit count to 5/5. Using them like a pack of hunting dogs, he easily tracked down more Strikers, surrounded them, and efficiently killed them with [Chill Bolts] and zombie maulings. Aldrich returned back to his Sign and first checked his status after his hunt. ]] Striker (x10) defeated! +100 EXP EXP Bar: 5/60 ] 105/60 Level Up! Level 3 ] 4 EXP Bar: 45/120 *Five stat points avable to distribute* ]] Aldrich distributed all of his stats to magic. Attunement was definitely important, but it was not a directbat stat. All it did was allow him to attune more spells and minions. If he was too weak to obtain spells and minions in the first ce, it was a dead stat. In the early game, like with most mage type sses, magic was the primary stat to level for Legion Necromancers. ]] Strength: 11 Agility: 8 (13) Vitality: 10 Magic: 11 ] 21 Attunement: 5 Perception: 8 == Mana: 3/33 ] 3/63 ]] Now, at 66 total mana, Aldrich finally had a mana pool that he could work with as a mage. With that settled, he checked his wristwatch. It was 10 P.M. and the date was now October 31, 2117. A day had passed since he and his friends had died under Seth Sr''s fists. He sat on arge rock beside the Sign while Adam and ine sat beside him. His three Strikers curled down by his feet like sleeping dogs, though they were always vignt for threats. "Almost feels like we''re camping," said Aldrich as he looked up. As an Undead, he had perfect night vision, and when he looked up, he saw stars speckling the sky, painting up the bright and vast milky way. "You know, that was one thing I wanted to do together. When we all became heroes. My parents took me out once and seeing the stars like this without city smog and pollution to cover it up was amazing. d you guys can enjoy it too." Aldrich looked to his side to see Adam and ine staring up but with dull eyes and open mouths. Their skin was pale, cracked, and rotted in patches. There was no sign of recognition there, just adherence to Aldrich''s mentalmand to look up. "Though I guess it''s not the same," sighed Aldrich. He balled a fist and looked down. "I swear to both of you, with this new undeath I have, I am going to make sure Seth Sr, Ghost, and all those useless wastes of oxygen that make up that group will suffer." That was when Aldrich noticed something. The white glow of the Sign illuminated a faint glint of ss under the leaves. Aldrich cocked his head and immediately investigated it. He uncovered a pile of leaves to see a pile of empty syringes. He inspected a syringe and narrowed his eyes. Its contents were nearly empty, but there were unmistakable traces of light blue liquid. This was X, a heavily addictive narcotic popr among younger, wealthier folk. He remembered the technician at ckwater he had tried to ckmail for information about which students he sold drugs to. Looks like some of them involved Seth Sr''s gang. However, it did not seem like Seth Sr was the type to do this drug. X had pretty serious side effects including weight loss, causing skin to pale, and constant jitteriness when off of it. Seth Sr had not exhibited any of those symptoms. Nor did the rest of his crew. No, wait. Then, Aldrich remembered. A thin, gaunt face. Pale skin. Lean, bony hands. Ghost. Ghost was the one that did these drugs, and it seemed like he dumped his needles here so he would not get caught. Aldrich snapped his fingers. "Here boy," he said, beckoning a Striker toe to him. He held out the syringe to the zombie wolf-beast, and it curiously sniffed the object. "Find me as many of these as you can," said Aldrich. Within minutes, the Strikers uncovered a massive pile of syringes buried in a shallow pit. Not to mention other drugs and the shattered remnants of his, ine, and Adam''s Eye-Phones. Judging by how many syringes there were, he figured that Ghost came here basically every single weekend after partying out in Haven. Aldrich shook his head. Seemed like this was the routine dumping spot for any illegal things for Seth Sr''s gang. That included Aldrich and his friends'' corpses too. That was all they were reduced to. Illegal trash to be buried with used up syringes. What a sick fucking joke. But this was a massive hint. This meant that at the very least, Ghost came here routinely to dump his needles. In fact, considering it was only 9 P.M. on a Sunday night, it was highly likely that Ghost might even being back tonight. Alone, too. Seth Sr might have been a sociopathic monster, but he had his own pride to consider. He and the others in his gang went out to party on Fridays and Saturdays, but not Sundays as they had training awaiting them on Monday. All of them except Ghost who was likely too addicted to X to back out of a Sunday trip for a free hit. Aldrich immediately went back to the Nexus using the Sign. He had little time to waste. He had to get everything ready before Ghost got here between midnight and 2 A.M. As the glowing light of the Sign enveloped him, he took in a deep breath, feeling the weight of the moment settle on his shoulders. For seventeen long, long years, Aldrich had faced nothing but abuse. He had been beaten, spat on, called worthless, and told to die for the sake of humanity''s evolution. The world had torn his parents away from him without a second thought, torturing them and breaking them apart when they were some of the only precious lights of good left in this dark world. The world had torn his friends from him under a merciless, uncaring fist. All because Aldrich was powerless. But now, he had power. He remembered hisst words to Seth Sr and his gang before he died. He swore he would be their judgement. This would be the first trial. His first judgement. Chapter 15: Catching a Ghost

Chapter 15: Catching a Ghost

Aldrich entered the Nexus with his small undead entourage behind him. Gold and blue sparkles of energy danced around him,pletely restoring his health and mana to full. [HP: 33/33] [Mana: 66/66] What he first did was go to the Wellspring - the tform and basin of ornately carved white marble where the waters of life spiraled - and refilled his restorative sk. When he saw that the clear, crystalline sk was filled with gleaming gold and blue liquid, he capped it with a diadem shaped golden stopper. ]] Restorative sk charges: 0/3 ] 3/3 ]] After this, Aldrich spotted the stick figure entity standing behind arge work table of ashen stone where various smithing tools such as a hammer, anvil, and the orange light of a lit forge surrounded it. It had an ornately carved bronze hammer in its hand and it whacked away repeatedly at nothing, mimicking the idle motion of Sindri the smithing god. Aldrich leaped several meters down andnded right in front of the stick figure. "Oh, good Host, what can I do for ye today, eh?" said the stick figure, mimicking Sindri''s light and hearty tone, though its voice still had a neutral, emotionless timber to it that made it eerie. Like it was speaking in awkward text to speech. "What you said to me before I left, about the hunt, what did you mean?" asked Aldrich. "Hm? That ain''t a request I can fulfill," said the stick figure, repeating Sindri''s dialogue for when he was given a task he could not perform. "Alright then," sighed Aldrich. He had no idea what this stick figure was, and though it did bother him, he could not be picky about it. It seemed to be some sort of unfinished asset that was a ceholder for both the goddess Arama and the god Sindri, and as long as it fulfilled their roles properly, he did not haveints. "I want something crafted." "Craftin'', is it? Heh, ya ain''t gonna'' find anyone as good at that as me!" said the stick figure. "Now, what can I do for ye?" Aldrich found a menu of options appear in front of him. Specifically, this was for crafting. By offering up dropped materials, coins, and Souls, a yer could have Sindri create items for them. Aldrich found the [1x Moss Beast Soul] in his inventory and offered it up. The glowing white orb that represented the soul appeared in his hand and then floated over to the stick figure. "I want a weapon," said Aldrich. "Specifically, a two-handed staff that acts as a catalyst." In Elden World, a yer could ask Sindri for what type of equipment they wanted from a Soul, whether it was a piece of armor or weapon. In Aldrich''s case, he wanted a staff that worked as a catalyst, with a catalyst being a weapon that channeled magic and was thus appropriate for mage type sses. The actual stats and effects of the weapon, though, were randomized. Sindri would bring up a menu of three to six options, depending on the yer''s level, and these options would have varying effects and stats. For example, giving Sindri the Soul of, say, a Fire Drake, would make him pull up three staff options, one that enhanced fire, one that had a fire breath type spell imbued in it, or one that simply just had high stats. Sometimes, in rare cases, a weapon would have all of these effects. In bad cases, it would have nothing. Basically, it was a dice roll system to get what you wanted out of a Soul, and by spending gold, one could reroll these options. The stick figure swiped at the soul with its glitchy ck block of a hand, and the soul disappeared. "Ya got somethin'' good here! A soul, is it? Well, here''s what I can do for ya!" Aldrich saw three options sh in front of him. ]] 1. Staff of Grasping Vines Rank: Common Type: Staff (Catalyst) Stats: +2 Vitality +2 Magic Effects: This staff can cast the spell [Grasping Vines] that shoots forth six binding, thorned vines. 2. Staff of Iron Bark Rank: Common Type: Staff (Catalyst) Stats: +5 Vitality Effects: No special effects 3. Staff of Stilling Pollen Rank: Common Stats: +2 Magic +2 Perception Effects: This staff is able to cast the spell [Pollen Cloud] that paralyzes all units in its area of effect. Operates off a charge system with three charges. Each charge requires twenty-four hours to restore. == Forging Cost: 80 Coins Reroll Cost: 30 Coins ]] Aldrich assessed the options. They were about what he expected. The item tiers were all at Common rank which was standard for an item crafted from a monster that ranged from levels 1-10. He recounted the item tiers in his head - Basic: These were items that had zero stats or special effects. Common: These items had a level threshold of 1-10. Umon: These items had a level threshold of 10-30. Rare: These items had a level threshold of 30-50. Epic: These items had a level threshold of 50-70 Mythic: These items had a level threshold of 70-90. This was generally ''endgame'' equipment. Divine: These were top tier end game items that held a level threshold from 90-100. Gear of this tier was rare enough that it was extremely difficult to be decked out in full Divine equipment as the materials needed to craft them were too finite in number. As for the options themselves, there was only one good choice. Aldrich reached a finger out and pressed the [Staff of Stilling Pollen] option. This would allow him to neutralize Ghost with the most efficiency. The Alter could just phase out of [Grasping Vines] and the +5 vitality from the [Staff of Iron Bark] would do nothing considering the fact that Ghost was strong enough to shatter a human rib with a casual finger press. As it stood now, Ghost could probably kill Aldrich in one good beatdown of physical blows, and without the stats and minions to back him up, +5 vitality meant precious little. It was just more health for Ghost to whittle down. On top of this, Aldrich needed to neutralize Ghost quickly. He could not afford Ghost just escaping with his invisibility and phasing. "A wise choice, good Host!" said the stick figure. It began to hammer rapidly down, the sound of clinking resonating through the empty temple. In a few seconds, it was done. A glowing golden orb with the icon of the item embedded within floated towards Aldrich. [-80 Coins] [Coins Remaining: 20] Aldrich grimaced at how few coins he had. Since Variants did not drop coins, there was no easy way to farm them. He needed to find a way to get more if he wanted to use crafting and equipment system properly, and the only way was to obtain the ring known as the [Ring of Avarice] located within the First Trial. So, until he got to level 10, he needed to be conservative with his coin usage. "Thanks, System," said Aldrich as he felt the [Staff of Stilling Pollen] fall into his inventory. "Just curious, but can I take a look at your wares?" Aldrich knew that Sindri had a list of items he could buy. Basic gear, mostly. Stuff that got outscaledter very easily. The higher the yer''s level, the higher the rank of the gear, but as far as gear went, they were the worst of their tier. "Of course,d!" said the System. A screen shed in front of Aldrich. It waspletely empty. "Hm," said Aldrich. "That''ll be it, then." "Good luck on ye journey, Host. If ya ever need me again, I''ll be hammerin'' away here!" said System as it turned its attention away from Aldrich and went back to hammering aimlessly at nothing. Aldrich walked away back to the exit Sign. It seemed that the System had no items avable to sell. Not entirely a big hassle, considering the fact that Aldrich had no coin to buy anything with anyway, but it was noteworthy that that was another difference between now and how it was in the game. Aldrich stood atop the exit Sign, his small group of Undead gathering around him. He looked to ine and Adam and nodded at them. "Tonight, I''m taking the first step to making things right." Chapter 16: Catching a Ghost II

Chapter 16: Catching a Ghost II

Adam and ine grunted at Aldrich because that was all their zombified vocal chords were capable of. Light enveloped the group, blinding away the Nexus and teleporting Aldrich back to the forest. He checked his wristwatch. 10:10 P.M. Barely any time had passed. Good. Aldrich needed some time to get ready. He materialized the [Staff of Stilling Pollen] in his hands. It looked like a two-meter-long bamboo shoot that split off into three branches at the crown. A yellow, seed-like bulb the size of a baseball drooped from each branch, and the surface of each seed was scattered with tiny hairs and bright yellow pollen. Each of these bulbs had a cast of [Pollen Cloud] embedded within them, making them noxious gas grenades that could be remotely detonated. A near perfect tool for what Aldrich wanted to do - == "Stop me here," said Ghost from thefortably cushioned backseat of amercial hovercar. He was the only passenger in a car that had enough seating space to fit in six, and he abused the space as much as possible, putting his feet on the seat and sprawling out like he was in his own bed. He had ordered an ck tier express ride from Carrier, the best and most reliable taxi and rideshare service on the market, and he was damn well going to make the most of his purchase, especially now that he was getting jitters froming off the high of X. "Are you sure, sir? This is still quite a ways from thepound, and there may be Variants out and about," said the driver from the front seat. An opaque ck plexiss sheet separated passengers from the driver, but Ghost could still see the silhouette of the driver''s head cocked in confusion. "Did you not fucking hear me?" said Ghost, annoyed. "I want out here." "As you wish, sir," said the driver. He halted the sleek ck, expensive hovercar to a smooth stop. Ghost''s passenger side door slid open, and he hobbled out, backpack slung over his shoulder. "Next time, if there is one," said Ghost to the driver. "You don''t question me, got it? Two hundred credits a ride and you lecture me, a top tier ckwater recruit, on safety? Fuck off." "Have a nice day, sir," said the driver, obviously used to this kind of treatment. "Yeah, whatever," said Ghost as he stumbled away on the paved road. He heard the hovercar door click shut behind him and the car zoom away. He waited until the car waspletely gone before he went off the road and into the dirt of the forest. Ghost grimaced. In ss ranking, he was 20th - the veryst of the A-ss, and he was in dire danger of slipping into B-ss. No, in the first ce, he was B-ss material. The only reason he was in the A-ss was because Seth Sr was his friend and could pull string for him. But even that had limits. By training hard, Ghost could barely hold his own in the A-ss, but these drugs, these fucking drugs - they screwed him up. They made him slow when he needed to be fast. They made his head go nk when he needed it to be sharp. Ghost dug his fingers into his forearm and grit his teeth. But he could not quit. Fuck that ckwater technician for introducing him to X. It was all his fault that he was in this downward spiral. Regardless, Ghost needed to get rid of the syringes he had used. X was illegal enough that getting rid of them in Haven city was a risk because of cops finding them and tracing them with chemical dating. Granted, it was not a high risk, but any risk was too much for Ghost to handle. ckwater''s zero drug tolerance policy meant that if Ghost was caught with, no, even just associated with drugs, especially one like X, he was truly fucked. The best way he thought of getting rid of contraband was dumping them in the forest because nobody ever went there due to the danger of Variants. Now, as a pretty strong Alter himself, Ghost could easily deal with low rank Variants like Strikers. But there was always the off chance that some stronger Variant was there. Even in that case, though, he could just use his ability and run away. Ghost took the ten minute or so trek to his usual dumping spot. Meanwhile, he checked his Eye-Phone''s photo gallery, a smile forming at the ends of his lips as he went through his normal de-stressing routine. He looked through pictures of bare-naked women he had snapped while they were passed out senseless from drugs he slipped them at a private room in the After-Dark, the biggest night club in Haven. One of them was aplete smoke show, too. A solid nine out of ten who had just graduated from Haven High school, and her, he had gotten passed out and used all the way. He licked his lips, watching snippets of the videos he had taken of her. Ghost reached the clearing where his dumping spot was and put down his bag. He unzipped it, taking out a small bundle of syringes and a few small empty stic boxes that once had pills in them. Heid the contraband by his side and withdrew a hand shovel. Shovel in hand, he started to dig away at the little pit that held his secrets. Until he hit something that cracked. "What the fuck?" he whispered as he uncovered some dirt. He had hit a small, golden¡­seed? Its outer shell was lined with cracks from his shovel. No, not just one seed, there were two others tooying beside it. Ghost registered confusion for a split seconds before he started to grow wary, and this single split second costed him. All three seeds burst apart, releasing a concentrated gas of yellow dotted with glowing speckles of pollen. Ghost coughed violently before covering his mouth, his eyes watering, and he immediately activated Phase on his upper body, making his lungs and mouth intangible. Toote, though. One breath of that concentrated gas had buckled Ghost to his knees, his entire body growing numb and still, and he fell face first into the pile of seeds. He felt stabs of pain as used up needles in the dirt pile pierced his face. Ghost made his lungs, mouth, throat, and nose intangible as long as he could, but he still needed to breathe. The gas stayed there for longer than he could hold his breath, and he was forced to gulp in another breath of it. Ghost blinked and grimaced, his body frozen like a statue. His head, though, was not paralyzed, keeping him conscious. Paralysis from the head down was amon trait of Moss Beast pollen poisoning. This, he knew from his training. As he grimaced, staring down at the dirt, struggling not to have needles puncture too deeply into his cheeks, his mind raced. How? Why? Moss Beasts released their gas through tubes, not through seeds like this. And why had a Moss Beast nted these seeds in this specific hole of all things? Nothing made sense. Ghost felt his body kicked over, flipping him over face up. His pale red eyes widened near impossibly as he stared up at a pair of glowing green eyes looking down at him. Then, he recognized te face. It was a face he thought he would never see again. "W-what the fuck? You-you''re that Dud!?" whispered Ghost, finding it incredibly hard for his numbed lungs to draw breath. "Aldrich. That''s my name. A name you never bothered to learn." Chapter 17: Vengeance

Chapter 17: Vengeance

Aldrich felt a strange feeling looking down at Ghost like this. The whole concept of looking down: this was entirely new to him. But he could not deny that it felt right. No, it was right. It was just. Yes, this was justice. Justice with consequences that this worldcked. Justice backed by actions, not idealism. Justice that Aldrich would make real. Justice he would rain down on all those deserving with vengeance. This was the first drop of that rain. That storm of vengeance and righteous purpose that Aldrich could now make real with his powers. As he looked down at Ghost, a screen shed in front of him. A quest. [New quest: VENGEANCE obtained] The tab of his interface shed with an indicator, and he mentally tabbed over to it. He raised a brow slightly, noting that the way the quest looked was¡­different. The words detailing it were colored in bright, bloody red, and their font looked like disheveled scratches. Distinctively sinister in appearance. ] VENGEANCE [ACTIVE] Difficulty: 5 Details: Hunt down Seth Sr and his crew. Enact vengeance. Enact judgement. Rewards: -Death of Ghost: 200 EXP, 200 Coin -Death of Evan Harker: 50 EXP, 50 Coin -Death of Simon Wells: 100 EXP, 100 Coin -Death of Zayn Soldata: 250 EXP, 200 Coin -Death of Seth Sr: 1000 EXP, 800 Coin -Bonus EXP gained from absorbing Negative Energy from each individual ]] Aldrich cracked his neck. He did not exactly know how or why this quest appeared, but he did notin. He was going to make sure Seth Sr and his gang were all going to die anyway. If he was going to get rewarded while doing so, then all the better. The bonus EXP from absorbing negative energy was something Aldrich had not seen before, but it made sense. Undead creatures lived off of absorbing negative energy. It healed and nourished them. And recalling game lore, Aldrich knew that where positive, healing energy was associated with emotions like love, happiness, and hope, negative energy emanated from emotions like hate, fear, and despair. It was obvious how Aldrich would get negative energy Ghost. "You still have a hole in your chest. I can see right through you. How in the hell are you alive!?" said Ghost. "That doesn''t matter, does it? What matters to a selfish piece of trash like you is whether you''ll be alive, no?" said Aldrich. He took his staff and shoved the butt end of it into Ghost''s chest. As expected, Ghost used Phase, making the staff go right through him. Ghost''s head was still not paralyzed, so he could will his power to work. "You stupid, stupid fuck," said Ghost. He smiled, his lip and cheeks twitching and bleeding from a mixture of paralyzing agent and needle punctures. "You must have gone through a Blooming and awakened some kind of power that lets you live like this. How you processed Moss Beast pollen - I don''t know. But what I do know is that you were a dumbass for using Moss Beast poison. It paralyzes from the head down, and as long as I can think, I can use my power. You will never, ever get to touch me, and when I can start moving again, you better be ready, because I''ll finish off what Seth started. I''ll fucking rip your head off your neck and use it to decorate my dorm." "A Blooming, is it? I guess that''s what everyone will think is what happened to me," said Aldrich. A Blooming was the term to describe when an individual awakened their powers. It also applied to those who awakened their powers unexpectedly after puberty. Of course, even in those cases, it was Alters with dormant Alter Organs that Bloomed past puberty. Duds like Aldrich who had no such organ had no hope for even that. Still, this was interesting information. If people found out about Aldrich''s powers, they would think he had developed an Alter power, and those were limited to a select category of powers. For example, Augmenters usually had powerful bodies while sters had ranged capability. Very rarely was there a ster that was also physically tough and an Augmenter that had ranged powers. People would try to cram Aldrich into specific power categories and underestimate him. Good. Let them underestimate. He would surprise and crush any opposition against him. "You''re lucky you Bloomed to a power like that to save your ass, but you know what? You''re still a useless fucking Dud at heart. Eventually, someone will find me, and when they do, I''ll make sure you''re hunted down to the ends of the goddamn earth," said Ghost. "Don''t worry, Ghost," said Aldrich. "Nobody will find you. Nobody but them." Aldrich withdrew his staff from Ghost''s chest and snapped his fingers. Load groaning rattled through the air while low, bestial growls hummed like the whir of deep engines. "Wh-what the fuck is that!?" said Ghost. He tried to look around, but he could not move his head properly as his neck was paralyzed. All he could do was look up at Aldrich looking down at him. "You''ll see," said Aldrich. Adam, ine, and the three Strikers emerged from the edge of the clearing. Aldrich had hidden Adam and ine and had the Strikers rove around the area in a tight perimeter, tracking down Ghost as soon as he got within two hundred meters of this dumping site with their incredible scent-based tracking. As a result, Aldrich was alerted of Ghost''s presence and also knew exactly when to detonate the pollen seeds. Adam and ine came by Aldrich''s side and stared down hungrily at ghost, spittle foaming at their bloody mouths as they shuddered, ready to feast on flesh. "Look who it is. Our old friend Ghost," said Aldrich. Adam and ine snarled, with ine even reaching down to swipe at Ghost''s face. Ghost made himself intangible, letting the swipe pass through him. The Strikers circled around Ghost like hungry sharks, asionally snapping close to his face, their putrid, toxic breath and spit spattering against his face. "Z-zombies!?" said Ghost. "Is-is that also your power? Making zombies?" Aldrich put his staff over Ghost''s mouth. "Shh. That isn''t important. What is important is that you make a fine meal for my friends. Then at least you''ll have done one good thing for them." Aldrich stepped back and let Adam, ine, and the three Strikers start mauling at Ghost. Ghost, predictably, turned intangible, and they kept swiping and biting and wing through him. "I''m fucking invincible, you idiot!" said Ghost, though he was visibly panicked, unable to move. "This is pointless! Let me go!" "Let''s not be impatient," said Aldrich. He raised a hand, making his undead stop their attack so that Ghost could hear him. "It''s quite rude to leave so soon after such a touching reunion, no? Plus, with how much paralyzing pollen you''ve breathed in, you won''t be moving for hm, let''s see, three hours?" Aldrich smiled and sat on a rock, watching as Ghost could only helplessly lie there and look up at the undead, rotting faces that drooled for his flesh. Finally, there was fear in his face. Abject, utter fear as he came to increasingly realize that his power was not invincible. [Negative energy harvested: +10 EXP] [EXP Bar: 45 ] 55/120] "I''ve analyzed your power. All of its weaknesses. I''ve been analyzing them and all the powers of your group ever since I got to ckwater because one day, I figured I could make a contingency n against you scum," continued Aldrich. "But let''s be real. Back then, that was just a dream. I had no power to abuse your weaknesses even if I knew them. But now? Different story. Your phasing has some safeties in it. For example, theoretically speaking, if you were wholly intangible matter, you would just fall through the ground and pop out the end of the Earth. But you don''t. But then you have limitations. You can phase through inorganic matter and destroy it, but you can''t do it to organic matter. And the biggest limit you have: you can make yourself intangible, but it stops your bodily functions. If you make your chest intangible, for example, you can''t breathe. I assume if you make your head intangible, you''re also blind. You can''t speak while they attack you, can you? Because you''re holding your breath. Because you know that if you spend the time to draw even a single breath, your face will be torn apart into a hundred different pieces. So, let''s see it. Let''s see how long you can hold your breath, A-ss student. Let''s see how long you want to suffer." Aldrich pped his hands together, and all five of his Undead swarmed on Ghost, constantly tearing and biting and wing at his body while he made himself intangible. Aldrich set a timer on his wristwatch, seeing how long Ghost could hold his breath. 30 seconds¡­ 60 seconds¡­ 1 minute¡­ 2 minutes¡­ 3 minutes¡­ 4 minutes¡­ 5 minutes¡­ Ghost sucked in a breath, and the moment he did, Adam and ine bit into his shoulders while the Strikers gored into his sides with their tusks. Aldrich raised a hand, making the Undead stop and letting Ghost catch his breath. Aldrich walked over to Ghost and stood over him. Ghost''s face was bloody. His chest heaved up and down as he took in desperate breaths. His eyes were wide with fear. Blood pooled from his sides where holes indicated where the Strikers had jabbed him. Deep teeth marks on either of his shoulders showed where Adam and ine had bit him. The flesh around those open wounds started to cken and rot, and Ghost yelled in pain as his nerves strained to the maximum extent of agony before rotting away from suffering Necrotic damage he had no resistances to. "Wow. Five whole minutes," said Aldrich as he tapped at his wristwatch, causing the timer to stop. "The average unenhanced, untrained person can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds. You, by virtue of having Alter Cells that enhance your body can hold your breath for five entire minutes without even training for it." "F-Fuck you," said Ghost, still defiant despite fear obvious in his face. [Negative energy harvested] [+20 EXP] [EXP Bar: 55/120 ] 75/120] "But you know what? Five minutes is nothing. I can hold my breath for ten minutes from all my training. I heard back before Alters were a thing, the record was twenty-four minutes. Can you imagine? A person with no powers, a person you would look down on as a Dud, doing that?" Aldrich scoffed at Ghost. "I''m sure you could do even better if you actually trained, too. If you ever felt the need to work hard to even be fucking recognized as being allowed to live. If you weren''t addicted to X and causing suffering instead of working on yourself." Aldrich stepped away and waved the Undead on again. They swarmed over Ghost, savagely tearing at him while he held his breath and made himself intangible. The ground beneath him was utterly torn up at this point, all the grass ripped off and the dirt gouged out with deep w marks. Aldrich sat on his rock and waited, setting his timer again. This time, Ghost onlysted 3 minutes. Again, he yelled as he suffered a new round of cuts and bites. Again, Aldrich raised his hand up and stopped the Undead. He strolled over to Ghost. Ghost breathed deeply sucking in as much breath as he could. One of his eyes had been wed out, blood streaming from the empty socket while the flesh around it rotted. "Ah," said Aldrich as he saw Ghost''s red pupiled eyeball lying on the dirt. He picked it up and tossed it to ine. "There you go, ine. Hope vengeance tastes good. You''ll get a lot more of it soon." ine swallowed down the eyeball whole and licked her bloody lips. "A-Aldrich-listen to me!" said Ghost. "Oh, now you remember my name?" said Aldrich. "What happened to ''Dud''?" "I can help you," stammered Ghost. "You want Seth, right? You want his friends, right? I-I can lead them out here!" Aldrich looked down at Ghost begging for his life and felt absolutely nothing. It was not just that Aldrich was numb to suffering, especially suffering from those that deserved it. It was something else, too. Bing an Undead had made his mind¡­colder. He felt less. When he saw Ghost begging, it did not feel like a human being was pleading with him. It felt like a cockroach was twitching its legs, begging to be stomped and ended. It was disgusting. Ghost saw theplete disgust in Aldrich''s eyes and started to beg harder. "I can tell you Seth Sr''s weakness! The weakness of his whole family!" said Ghost. "Oh? What is it?" said Aldrich. "It''s-it''s Kryptic!" said Ghost. "Kryptic drains the Sr family''s powers!" Aldrich recalled what Kryptic was. It was a highly radioactive ore found in the Midnight Trench, a massive nest of Variants located over the Pacific Ocean so called because a vantack dome covered it, leaving it a ck spot ofplete darkness. Kryptic was a dark, crystalline material that was extremely rare on ount of how dangerous it was to obtain. It was mostly used for poisonings, with even a gram of it powdered and put into liquid or sublimated into gas form capable of killing basically anyone without incredible durability. As it was also untraceable, breaking downpletely in the body, it was a favored tool by the highest end assassins of the world. "Interesting," said Aldrich. He had no means of obtaining Kryptic for now, but it was still useful information to have. "N-now let me go, Aldrich!" said Ghost. "I-I''ve told you so much already! If Seth Sr finds out, he''ll kill me, I''m sure of it. No, the entire Sr family will be out to kill me. Please, man, just let me go - I''ll run far from here, you''ll never seem me again, I''ll hide out somewhere and live quietly and you won''t ever even hear from me!" "You don''t have to worry about Seth Sr or anyone else finding you," said Aldrich. For a moment, Ghost''s face lightened, finding some hope. "Because you die here," said Aldrich. He turned away and waved the Undead forwards. This time, Aldrich did not set a timer. He let his zombies tear at Ghost without pause. Ghost screamed again after a few minutes, then held his breath again. A minuteter, he screamed again and sucked in another quick breath. On and on like this, Ghost lost pieces of himself slowly, bit by bit, breath by breath, and Aldrich watched as he continued to farm Negative energy from him. Until finally - it was over. And the rewards flowed in. [Negative energy harvested. Total energy harvested: +70 EXP] [Quest: VENGEANCE objectivepleted] [-Death of Ghostpleted] [+200 EXP, +200 Coin] = [EXP Bar: 75/120 ] 345/120] [Level up!] [Level: 4 ] 5] [EXP Bar: 225/200] = [Level up!] [EXP Bar: 25/250] [Level 5 ] 6] = [10 Stat points avable to distribute] [x1 Tome of the Dark Arts Rank 2 obtained] [x1 Nether Binding Amulet obtained] Chapter 18: Chosen Undead

Chapter 18: Chosen Undead

Aldrich closed his eyes and sighed as he looked up to the pale moon above. Glowing waves of green energy flowed around him as he leveled up, wrapping him in an aura of power born from Ghost''s suffering. He heard the sounds of ravenous chewing, flesh tearing, and bones crunching as Adam and ine finally had their fill of Ghost. Their fill of vengeance. He let them eat up Ghost''s corpse to nothingness as a well deserved reward for their suffering, and also because Ghost had dropped a Soul. Aldrich would use the Soul and craft something out of it. If it retained Ghost''s powers, then an item, perhaps a cloak that could activate Phase, was going to be far, far more useful than a dumb zombie that could not reliably use the reflex and thinking intensive Phase power. In the meanwhile, Aldrich stabilized his newfound power by distributing his stat points. He started to invest more heavily into Attunement now as he had obtained the [Tome of Dark Arts Rank 2]. The [Tome of the Dark Arts] were basic items that Necromancers received at levels 1, 5, 15, 25, and 35 and 50 that granted them a catalogue of spells to learn from, of which they could learn three. Past level 50, one had to craft or find better spell tomes to obtain spells that scaled into higher levels. Many of those higher-level tomes, though, Aldrich could find in the Trial Quests, so he did not worry about learning spells. He just might not have ess to the absolute rarest spell tomes that required traveling about in Elden World itself. Aldrich dumped in 8 points in Attunement and 2 points in Vitality. Optimally he would have spent his Vitality points into Magic, but this was not the game where he knew what threats he would face and how much health he needed to tank pre-coded attacks. In the real world, he needed higher health and durability as a safety to make sure he did not just instantly die from a strong surprise attack. [+ 2 to Vitality, doubled to +4 due to affinity bonuses] [Vitality: 10 ] 14] [HP: 33/33 ] 45/45] [+8 to Attunement, doubled to +16 due to affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 5 ] 21] Good, thought Aldrich. With this, he could increase how many spells and units he could attune at any given moment in time. For a Legion Necromancer like him who relied on minions, this was the absolute most important stat. For every 5 attunement points, he could attune one extra spell OR minion. With a total of 21 attunement, he could add in up to four extra spells or minions or a mixture of both. The base number of spells he could attune was 5, and the base number of minions he could attune was also at 5. Every 10 levels, Aldrich would obtain a passive skill called the [Legion''s Calling] that increased his base unit controlling capacity by 5, thus maxing out at a total of 55 total units controlled at level 100. However, since he was not a more ordinary Mage type ss, he did not get bonuses to increasing spell capacity with levels, so he needed to use Attunement for that. Yet another reason why Attunement was such an important stat. Aldrich used 3 of his Attunement Points on expanding his units and 1 on adding spell capacity. He currently knew 3 spells, having 2 empty slots, so with 1 bonus, he could learn 6 spells total which was all he needed for now. [Unit control limit increased from 5 to 8] [Equipped spell limit increased from 5 to 6] With that said and done, Aldrich walked over to Ghost''s corpse. Or rather, what was left of it. Just a few bloody smears, bone shards, and tidbits of pink viscera scattered across the dirt. As he approached, his Undead parted way for him. "You talked so much sh*t, but in the end, this is all you amount to, huh," said Aldrich as he looked down at the remnants of the man who once had tormented him and his friends so. He shook his head and reached out to grab Ghost''s Soul. [1x Soul of Ghost obtained] "Good work, everyone," said Aldrich as he gave a thumbs up to Adam and ine while petting the Strikers as they curled around him like giant dogs. "Now then, it''s about time we added more friends to this party." Aldrich''s Undead heart no longer beat, but if it did, it would have beat at top speed in anticipation. He withdrew the [Nether Binding Amulet] from his inventory. He held out his pale palm and dark purple curls of murky energy coalesced around it, swirling and forming into an orb that then shattered, leaving behind an amethyst diadem framed in ashen white bone. The [Nether Binding Amulet] was given to Legion Necromancers at level 5 and allowed them to tap into the Nether, the underworld of Elden World where demons and higher level Undead with actual names resided. There, Aldrich could choose from a wide selection of power named Undead to form a pact with, making them his Chosen Undead that could level up and even wear equipment. A lifetimepanion that essentially served as his ''other half'',pensating for all his weaknesses if chosen well. Aldrich activated the [Nether Binding Amulet] by crushing it in his grip. It shattered like brittle ss, and the purple gem shards floated in front of him. They started to form a circr orbit and within this orbit, swirls of spiraling darkness formed, creating a portal. The trees around Aldrich swayed and groaned. The grass and flora around the portal started to wither and die and crumble to dust. Aldrich eagerly awaited his summoning options to appear in a list in front of him. He already knew who he favored. He had the most inclination to choose Valera of the Immortal Legion. This was the choice he yed with in the game and the one that bestplimented him as a powerful melee fighter and tank, but he wanted to see if he got more options nowpared to the game. It was also worth considering other options as they might not have been useful in the game, but they had more utility in the real world. Hadar of the Golden Bone was a skeleton with, as his title suggested, golden bones dressed in trench coat and top hat who was, for all intents and purposes, a meme option in the game. He had littlebat or utility ability but could generate Coins rapidly and increase Coin rewards. He even had a nifty coin toss attack where he would literally shoot coins at people and deal damage in exchange for making the yer lose money. In the game, Hadar was useless because Coin eventually became highly plentiful, making him a useless option for mid tote game. His coin toss attack generally also sucked. But now, with Coin so scarce, maybe he was useful. Justeaze the Eye was a Wraith that possessed incredible irvoyance spells that could scope out areas and battlefields before exploring them. In the game, this was not that useful as Aldrich already personally explored every area, rendering her ability to scout redundant. But now, it was an incredibly ability to have for utility. Gorgoth the Many was a floating ball of corpses and skeletons that could spam the battlefield with countless Undead, basically functioning like a second Legion Necromancer to really swarm enemies with units. In the game, Gorgoth got outscaled because his Undead were all generally low leveled, but perhaps summoning him for the potential to form a massive army to clear out Variants en masse was useful in the real world. Options. Options. So many options. And yet - "Huh?" Aldrich cocked his head as he stared at the portal. By now, he should have received a list of potential Chosen Undead to summon from the Nether, but he did not. Instead, the portal began to crackle with bolts ofvender energy - a signal that a Chosen Undead had been chosen already. Aldrich stepped back, wary at this sudden change. After all, this was not the game anymore. Chosen Undead were not mindless in the game lore. They had their own names and personalities. Who was to tell whether they would be hostile or not? Whether the one that emerged from that portal was something terrible that Aldrich had to fight, not ally with? Aldrich had his undead gather in front of him, growling as they readied to defend him. From the portal, an enormous suit of ck and white armor stepped out. The figure wearing this armor was easily two meters tall, its each and every step letting out heavy, clicking thuds as the sizable armor moved up and down. There was power and weight behind all of those steps. Pure, raw, physical power that promised that anyone that ran afoul of this knight was guaranteed to find themselves smashed into quite the crater in the ground. The knight did not wield a weapon, but instead an enormous cross-shaped shield of ck and grey metal that was noticeablyrger than its already sizable frame. The knight stood still as the portal closed behind it. It stared directly at Aldrich. Tension rose in the air. Aldrich immediately knew who this was. "Are you¡­are you Valera of the Immortal Legion?" said Aldrich hesitantly. It looks like his Chosen Undead had been chosen for him, and it was the same as he had used in the game. A good choice, to be sure, so he could notin. What he was wary of was whether Valera was hostile. If she was, Aldrich had little guarantee he could beat her. She was a Duhan Death Knight warrior specialized in defending and melee brawling, and she started out at level 10 - noticeably higher than Aldrich now. "Master¡­master¡­is-is that you?" came Valera''s surprisingly feminine voice through her full-face helmet. Aldrich did not hear any hostility in her voice, but he kept his guard up. "Yes. It''s me. Do you potentially¡­remember me?" "Of course!" said Valera. She dropped her giant cross-shield, and it thumped heavily with a metallic ng on the ground. She put a gauntleted, spiked hand to her breastte. "We went through so many adventures together! So many trials! So many lives and deaths!" Valera looked down, and her voice was pained. "But then, after we defeated the Howling Darkness together, you disappeared. I-I had no idea what had happened to you. For three hundred years, the longest three centuries of my immortal life, I had thought you were gone. Lost forever." "Hm," said Aldrich. It seemed that Valera retained memories from the game to a degree. The main objective of Elden World was to beat back the evil entity known as the Howling Dark, and once that was done, yers ording to game lore ''retired'' and lived a peaceful life with the world returned to peace. Of course, in-game, the yer could do as he liked and continue exploring areas or re-challenge bosses and events, but other than this, the ''story'' of the game was done. Anything past it was ''non-canon'' content. Aldrich had finished the main story about three years ago. Before he even came to ckwater. This was likely when Valera had lost memories of him, and it seemed that every single year that had passed was a hundred years in Elden World time. "But now I see you are here, starting a new life in a new body. Oh, my master, how my heart races to see you again!" Valera rushed forward using the warrior skill [Dash], turning into a blur as she mmed into Aldrich and hugged him. "My dear, dear master whom I had devoted my entire soul to!" "G-good to see you too, Valera," said Aldrich with a wheeze as he suffered crushing damage. Okay then. Valera was most definitely not hostile unless she nned on hugging him to death. Which at the rate she was going, was definitely a possibility. Chapter 19: Valera

Chapter 19: Valera

After what felt like an eternity, Valera finally put Aldrich down. She took off her bucket-like ck great helm, finally exposing her face, and knelt into the grass before Aldrich. Her face was deathly pale just like Aldrich''s, showcasing that she was an Undead just like him. More specifically, a hybrid between Duhan and Vampire. Her features reflected this. Her sharp, ferocious eyes possessed ck sclera and the pupils centered within them were a bloody, glowing crimson red. Her hair was dark ck and styled in a rough, messy bob cut that went down ever so slightly to her neck. Her bangs concentrated on one side of her face, forming a sort of veil of hair that obscured her left eye. Her lips were notably ck, as would her ws be if Aldrich remembered her correctly. "You look as good as ever," said Aldrich. In proper fantasy game manner, Valera was modeled to be stunningly beautiful, and real life did even more justice to her looks than what rendered graphics, no matter how advanced, could ever do. Aldrich''s Undead mind and body stopped him from getting distracted any by her looks, and he suspected that as long as he had a purpose he was driven to, he would not suffer those kind of distractions. This was the quality of risen Undead like Aldrich - many were arisen for a single purpose like vengeance or haunting, and they tuned out any unnecessary emotions or needs for it. In contrast, natural Undead like Vampires or Duhan that were born as Undead could experience the full spectra of emotions without much issue, though of course, their moral and instinctive sensibilities would be quite different from that of humans. "Th-thank you, my master," said Valera as she closed her eyes and took in thepliment with a deep, almost shuddering breath. She opened her visible eye and looked up at Aldrich. "You too, look marvelous, my master. Though I must wonder - why have you changed your appearance so? And you have be an Undead? Also, where has your wondrous equipment gone?" "I could say the same to you." "I-I look different? Does my new appearance displease you?" said Valera, worried. "About your equipment, I mean," said Aldrich. "Your equipment''s gone. Your level''s been reset, too, despite the fact that you remember our past adventures." "Yes, I do wonder about that," said Valera. "What happened, Valera?" said Aldrich. "After I left?" "When we slew the Howling Darkness together, we parted ways. I to the Nether for some rest while you, my master, were to address the United Council of our victory," said Valera. Aldrich nodded. He knew this part. After the Howling Darkness, the final boss, was defeated, the yer made a grand speech to the United Council - a coalition of all races that had banded to fight against the world ending threat of the Howling Darkness - and told them that the battle was over. Any summoned units one had did not make it to this final cutscene, so Valera must have returned to her home in the Nether. "Then?" said Aldrich. "Then¡­I do not know. I returned to my Keep in the Nether, and then¡­darkness, I suppose?" said Valera. "There is only darkness in the Nether, yes, but this was a kind of darkness that settled over my mind. I fell into a great trance. A sleep from which I felt was to never awake. In that trance, I felt time pass. Years upon years upon years. All that time, I awaited your return. When you did not return, I believed that you had also fallen into this dark sleep just like me, and so, I awaited your awakening, for I knew you would never betray me, my dear master. I knew one day, you would awaken and call out to me. In the meanwhile, I dreamed of our adventures. Our past struggles. And then I dreamed of our reunion." Valera''s voice cracked as single tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. However, she did not let them fall, for she had her pride as a warrior. "For years and years, I dreamed. Of us. Being together." "I''m sorry, Valera," said Aldrich as he knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. "I was away, too. But we''re together now." "Yes," said Valera as she nodded. She smiled at Aldrich. "Yes, we are. I do not know why we have returned to this level of weakness, but I do not care how weak we start - that only means we have even more chances to grow stronger together. And I know this: I will never, EVER let you go again." Her smile grew wider, almost impossibly wide, herrge, vampiric fangs showing. "And anyone that dares to drive us apart, I will rip and tear their flesh from their bones, then I will scatter their bones to dust, and thement of their women and cries of their children shall be music to my ears." Well, at the very least, Valera seemed absolutely loyal to Aldrich. "Nice to see that you still have your fighting spirit," said Aldrich. He stood up, and Valera did so as well, standing by him in stiff posture and attention as a knight would. She towered a full head over him, and it was not as if he was short. He was slightly above average height at 5''11 (~180 cm). She was just particrly tall, standing at 6''3 (~190 cm) without her armor. That would make her a little harder to conceal, but her generally human appearance would mean she could visit cities alongside Aldrich without the need for much of a disguise. She just looked like a tall goth girl - not entirely out of ce in the often diverse and colorful crowds of cities, especiallyrger, more festive ones. If her starting inventory was like it was in the game, then she also had a casual equipment set in the shape of a ck dress to blend in even more. "But you have to be careful, Valera," said Aldrich. "This¡­is a new world. It isn''t like the one you knew before. Everything is different. I know how this world works, so whatever we do, you have to listen to me." "I am always ready to follow yourmands, my master," said Valera with a half bow. "That means no [Blood Rage], not unless you absolutely have to," said Aldrich. As a half vampire, Valera could ess a [Blood Rage] racial ability that changed her from a shield bearing protector into a fist-fighting berserker. Her personality in game was described as fiery spirited with rage that burned as hot and steady as her loyalty for the one she deemed her worthy master. Aldrich simply hoped that fiery spirit would not cloud her judgement for after entering [Blood Rage], Valera became a non-controble unit that damaged anyone hostile with 0 strategy. In real life, he imagined that Valera simply became akin to a monster that attacked anything that moved aside from Aldrich and his units. "Of course, my master," said Valera. "I will suppress my urges. Though that means if I cannot quell my thirst in battle, I must quench it outside." She looked around to the Strikers and Adam and ine. She grimaced. "I do not like the taste of lesser Undead blood, but it must do." Her eyesnded on ine, and she raised a ck brow. She pointed her gauntleted finger at ine usingly. "And who is that my master? Someone you fancy, perhaps, now that you are an Undead? May I tell you now as your most faithful knight and most loyal confidant that she is not right for you?" "I know," said Aldrich. He looked at ine, then at Adam. "She wasn''t right for me. She was right for him. I wasn''t ready to make anyone happy, and I doubt I am now. But I saw the spark of happiness between them, and I wanted it to grow. I wanted to see them happy. But now, this is all they''re reduced to." Aldrich sighed before shaking his head. "She is - or was - a close friend, Valera. So was he. I hope you can treat them with respect." "Of course, my master," said Valera with a deep nod. "If they are your friends, then they are mine also. And my master, your words from before, about not being ready to make anyone happy, that is simply not true. You have made me happy beyond measure. Back then and now. No, even more so now." "And I want to keep that happiness strong," said Aldrich, knowing that as Valera was now a sentient being, he had to take care to keep her in good graces to maintain her loyalty. Valera simply blushed and remained quiet, taking in Aldrich''s words in bliss. Aldrich manifested the [Tome of the Dark Arts Rank 2] from his inventory. Another flesh-knitted tome appeared in his hand. "Ah, learning more spells?" said Valera. She looked Aldrich up and down, and since they were linked together, she could see his status. "Let''s see, you are currently level six and can attune three more spells. Considering that is the Rank 2 Dark Arts Tome, will you be taking [Negative Burst], [Summon Undead (1st Ring)] and [Negative Surge]?" "Close, but not quite," said Aldrich. Valera remembered what he had taken when they were adventuring together. The spells she listed were the most optimal set for fighting. [Negative Burst] released an area of effect wave that healed undead and damaged the living, [Create Undead (1st Ring)] allowed for the creation of Undead from scratch whereas [Raise Undead] required a corpse, and [Negative Surge] buffed an ally unit with enhanced physical stats for a brief period of time. "I''ll be taking [Negative Surge], [Summon Undead], but I won''t be taking [Negative Burst]. Instead, I''ll be taking, hm, let''s see¡­" Aldrich''s green eyes glowed as he saw a list of fifteen spells he could choose three from. He saw what he wanted. "Ah, I''ll take [Horror Warp]." [Horror Warp] was a projectile spell that took the shape of a slow-moving cloud of darkness. Once the darkness contacted an enemy, it would wrap around their heads, stunning them as they inflicted a nightmare of pain and horror that would drain their life energy and cause psychic damage. Those afflicted by the spell needed to constantly struggle to escape, with greater psychic resistance and vitality helping break the spell easier. Inbat, [Horror Warp] was not that useful. It was a good single target stun when itnded, to be sure, but it was so slow moving it could get parried or spell broken or dodged or blocked quite easily. "[Horror Warp]?" said Valera, slightly confused. "Are you sure, my master? It is not as effective in the battlefield as [Negative Burst] which can heal all your Undead and drive back the foul living from harming you." "Like I said, Valera, this world is different. The battlefield isn''t all there is to it. There''s much more I''ll have to do. Like interrogation. And there''s nothing like horror and pain to break a man to speak." "Ah, that is true," said Valera casually. "I was no torturer, but I do know how to strike to hurt, not to kill. I can help with the torture, too!" she continued enthusiastically. "When the timees for it, I''ll consult your expertise," said Aldrich with a smile, her enthusiasm leeching onto him. Chapter 20: Getting Ready

Chapter 20: Getting Ready

"We have to leave this ce soon," said Aldrich. He gave a lingering look at the Sign he had inscribed. He could not stay here even if it meant abandoning the Sign and the safety of the Nexus. There would be investigations about Ghost''s death soon enough, and this part of the Variant forest was shallow enough that search parties would roam here. For the next several days at least, Aldrich needed to vacate this ce. That meant no easy ess to the Nexus. No quick refills on his [Restoration sk] and ess to crafting. Not until he got another Sign which he would get uponpleting the first Trial Quest. "You three," Aldrich pped his hands andmanded the Strikers. "Scatter some of Ghost''s remains here and there. Litter this ce with your tracks and w marks." Like this, Aldrich could ensure that anybody that found this ce and Ghost''s remains would just think he had died to Variants. There would be no additional line of investigation past that. Beyond that, Aldrich had to think about where he wanted to go now. There was no way he was going back to ckwater, what with being supposed to be dead and all. The answer was Haven city. There, he would find more information about Seth Sr and his gang. And at least in Haven, a city of 300,000, he could find anonymity. There, he could wait and gather information while hunting and leveling in the Variant forest outside its walls. Wait until Seth Sr and the rest of his dwindling crew came by on their weekend party nights where he could pick them out in the city, away from the security of ckwater. The issue was getting to Haven. Aldrich picked up Ghost''s bag and tore it open, trying to find anything useful. He found packs of pills and used syringes, and these, he tossed away. What was useful was Ghost''s Eye-Phone. The only problem was that it was locked to Ghost''s fingerprints, and Aldrich had not raised the man as an undead, nor would he have deemed that scum to be fit by his side. But he had an idea. He snapped his finger. "Here, boy." He waved the Strikers over, and the massive, tusked wolf creatures came to his side. "I have never seen monsters like these," said Valera in wonder. "They look to be dire wolves, and yet, they possess tusks like great boars. And their eyes seem to belong to squids. We truly are in a different world." "You''ll see things a lot stranger than this, trust me," said Aldrich. He knelt down and pointed at the ground. "Vomit out Ghost''s fingers if you can." The Strikers all heaved their chests. Two of the Strikers dry heaved out a pile of bloody and mulchy human meat mess, but one of them managed to throw up a few intact fingers. "Perfect," said Aldrich as he patted the Striker on the head. He took an index finger and wiped it on his bodysuit and then, after tapping Ghost''s Eye-Phone active and making sure it had enough battery, pressed the finger on the screen. The Eye-Phone registered Ghost''s biometrics but then locked, requiring additional facial recognition identification to ess. "Hm," said Aldrich as he stared at the locked phone. He had wanted to ess the phone for any potential information regarding Seth Sr and the rest of his crew, maybe even use Ghost''s credits to ess a high-end taxi service that could pass through security checks, but it looked like those options were not up for grabs yet. The key word was yet. In this era of Variants, walled cities were a necessity, and Haven was one of them. However, among walled cities, there were tiers. Haven ranked at tier 3 - the lowest of them all. Still, a walled city was infinitely better than the nomadic settlements in the Wastnds that constantly had to run away from Variant attacks. That was where the poor went. Or viins on the run. Where Adam and ine had been dumped as children. Not a good ce to live, to say the very least. Compared to that, Haven was, well, a haven. But because it was tier 3, it might have had walls and enough hero presence to ward off Variant attacks, but it did not have enough authority to get rid of a developed criminal underbelly. Hence why Ghost could so easily pick up highly illegal designer drugs like X. Inside Haven, Aldrich no doubt figured that there were ck market technos capable of bypassing Ghost''s phone locks. These same technos could also forge CIDs (Citizen Identifications) for Aldrich and Valera because Aldrich was technically dead and needed a new identity while Valera had no identity to begin with. As for the rest of the Undead, Aldrich had to admit he had an issue at hand. There was no way he was bringing them into any remotely civilized area. Normally in the game, any non-chosen undead were just despawned afterbat or upon entering friendly areas. One had to resummon them afterwards. But in the real world, Aldrich had his summons indefinitely. Granted, this was much better than it was in the game, but it presented the problem of where to keep the undead. For now, all he could think of was hiding them in the forest, but he figured he would find a better solutionter. In particr, he theorized about bing a Lich. Liches could store undead within an orb inside of their being and thus continuously carry units with them. When picturing a Necromancer, a Lich was what first popped into many people''s heads. They were the premiere Necromancers, and it was no less true in Elden World where their racial abilities seemed almost tailor made for Necromancy purposes. However in the game, yer characters could not be undead, so there was no official way to be a Lich or any of their higher evolutions. Lore stated that some mages or lesser undead turned into Liches through sacrificial rituals, but the exact details of such rituals were not described in much detail. Regardless, this was something to think aboutter. What was more important was getting to Haven. Without easy transportation, Aldrich would have to go to the city by foot. That meant traveling through the forest as taking the main road was far too conspicuous. And deeper in the forest, there were stronger threats. Most Variants were at the E to D rank in the forest, but there were some reports of C rank Variants moving about. The difference between E and D was not much, but the gap between D and C was highly noticeable. In a one on one battle, Aldrich would lose against a C rank Variant nine times out of ten, even if said Variant had a disadvantage against Aldrich such as, say, a reliance on poison he was immune to. The sheer physical stats of a C rank Variant were just too overwhelming. A C rank Variant could go toe to toe with heavy battle tanks with sheer physical stats alone. One punch from them would pulp Aldrich into paste, especially with his poor health pool. But Aldrich now had Valera whose ss and stats were entirely specialized towards taking hits and dishing them back out. He could challenge a C rank Variant if he yed his cards right. "What is that?" said Valera as she peered down at the Eye-Phone. "This?" said Aldrich. "Right, you''re unused to this world. In this world, technology has progressed quite far. One such product of this advanced technology is this. If I had to exin it to you, it''s essentially amunication spell, information scroll, and recording crystal allbined into one. "Impressive," said Valera as she held her hand out. Aldrich gave her the phone, and she squinted as she looked at it, turning it sideways and upside down like she was a 100-year-old grandma who had no idea how to operate tech. "How do you use this¡­this artifact?" "It''s called an Eye-Phone," said Aldrich. "And we can''t use it. It was locked to someone I killed. You could say it was Bound to them." In Elden World, Bound items were usable only by a specific individual as they were imprinted to their souls. The [Restorative sk] was one example of such an item. "This little thing can castmunications, contain information, record events, and even bind to souls? Marvelous," said Valera. "And I cannot even sense even a bit of magic from it. There must be a concealment spell upon it as well." "No concealment. It just doesn''t use magic. Nobody does in this world," said Aldrich. "Truly?" Valera looked shocked. Coming from a world where magic dictated basically every facet of life, this was not surprising. "Nobody?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "We are the only ones that can use magic." "Then conquering this new world shall be no challenge at all!" said Valera. "Don''t get too hasty. The only race that exists in this world are humans, but they have evolved. They each have unique powers that are highly unpredictable. Some of them may fly, some of them may shoot me from their hands, some may have powerful punches, and so on. You cannot underestimate them," said Aldrich, noting that he referred to humans as ''them'' so very naturally. "And there are monsters, too. Monsters called Variants that may not use magic but will have powers that can match it. These dog like monsters are Variants, but the term ''Variant'' is broad. The power level of a Variant can range broadly. Deeper in the forest, there will be much, much stronger threats." "I will always be on guard, my master," said Valera. She raised her enormous cross shield of bone and ck metal in the air. "With this great shield of mine, I swear you will face no harm." "Please, you don''t have to coddle me like that. I can take a hit when I have to," said Aldrich. He nodded to Valera. "But I''ll count on you to cover me when I don''t want to take them. Just like old times." "Like old times," said Valera with a wide smile. "Alright, then, it''s about time to move out. First things first, I have to make as much use of this Sign as possible while I still have ess to it," said Aldrich. "[Create Undead]" chanted Aldrich as he thrust his pale palm out. Green threads of energy started to swirl around him. [Create Undead (1st Ring)] allowed Aldrich to create Undead creatures from several ''rings'' that were basically tiers. The higher the ring was, the stronger the undead were. 1st Ring Undead matched the caster''s level up until level 10, at which point they hit a cap. So, for Aldrich now, any undead he created using this spell would be level 6. A list of undead options showed up in his vision. == Skeleton Rogue Skeleton Archer Zombie Brute Evileye Ghast == Aldrich created a Skeleton Archer. He saw as a shower of green partictes gathered in front of him, forming the silhouette of a skeleton. The bright green energy dimmed, showing off a fully formed animated skeleton standing at around his own height. It was dressed in a cloak and loincloth of tattered brown leathers that gave it a ragged, deteriorated look. The skeleton wielded a longbow in its bony hands while a quiver of ck wood hung at its back, containing rot-poisoned arrows buzzing with flies. Skeleton Archers could use the Skill known as [Dead-Eye] that allowed them to make a shot with heavily enhanced uracy and critical strike chance after a small channel. Useful for dealing critical damage in vital areas. [1 Unit slot used] [Unit Capacity: 5/8 ] 6/8] [-10 Mana] [-10 Health] [HP: 45/45 ] 35/45] [Mana: 66/66 ] 56/66] Aldrich winced at the sizable cost of creating undead. Created undead were generally far more reliable than raising them since the caster always knew what their created undead were capable of. But because they were created out of nothing instead of an existing grave, they cost much more than raising existing corpses. Aldrich intended on using the Sign one more time to just get a free full heal after spending his health and mana creating undead. "[Create Undead]," repeated Aldrich. He chose the Skeleton Rogue this time for it had the highest burst damage out of all the summons and functioned particrly well when there were a lot of distractions to cover it. A skeleton with a hunched back and low center of gravity formed. It held twin curved daggers in its hands. It was dressed in ck robes, had a long ck bandana wrapped around its skull, and a cloak that seemed to meld with the darkness around it, showcasing that it possessed [Shade Walk], a stealth Skill that made it temporarily invisible until its first strike. [1 Unit slot used] [Unit Capacity: 6/8 ] 7/8] [-10 Mana] [-10 Health] [HP: 35/45 ] 25/45] [Mana: 56/66 ] 45/66] Aldrich chose these two units becausebined with the Strikers and Valera, he had enough frontline distractions and protection. He needed some more burst and ranged damage. As for thest undead - "[Create Undead]," said Aldrich for thest time. This time, bones did not form from green particles, but instead arge floating eyeball the size of a basketball. The eyeball possessed a glowing yellow sclera with wide ck pupils that darted about curiously. Arge pink, fleshy optical nerve trailed behind it like a tail. An aura of smoky darkness flitted around the eyeball, constantly making it see-through. [1 Unit slot used] [Unit Capacity: 7/8 ] 8/8] [-10 Mana] [-10 Health] [HP: 25/45 ] 15/45] [Mana: 45/66 ] 35/66] This was the [Evileye]. It was not a zombie or skeleton, but a spirit, for Necromancers could also call upon restless souls. It had nobat ability but it did have incredible eyesight and permanent stealth. As far as Aldrich knew, nothing in this world could counter magical stealth, but he still needed to experiment to be certain of this. Regardless of that, having the [Evileye] as a forward scout would be highly useful going deeper into the Variant forest where unknown threatsy. "All done," said Aldrich. Valera walked over to each new Undead he had summoned and inspected them up and down. She tapped the skeleton archer and rogue on their skulls. The skeletons did not really think or have any will, so they just got bonked and stood there. "Good bones on you two," said Valera. She walked to the Evileye and pretended to punch it, pulling her strike back just an inch away from the eyeball. It did not blink and just looked at her nkly. "And good, you will keep your eye open for the master. Valera nodded to herself. "Hm, alright, you all pass to serve my master." "I''m d they passed your screening," said Aldrich. He stepped over to the Sign and started to ess the Nexus. "I just have one final stop left before we can get a move on." "Ah, do you need something forged?" said Valera. "You''re right about that. How did you know?" asked Aldrich. "Our souls are connected, master. I can sense your intentions and see that Soul in your inventory. If we are to leave the Sign for some time, then you need to get the most out of this final visit. You must be going not only to heal yourself, but also to use that Soul so it is not just sitting in your inventory," said Valera. "I must ask, though, how will you use that Soul? Will you forge a new staff?Some armor, perhaps? No, what am I saying, I can protect you enough already-" Chapter 21: Phantasmal Mask

Chapter 21: Phantasmal Mask

Aldrich stepped onto the Sign and the white teleporting light enveloped him and everyone else. In the next instant, they were transported to the gloomy innards of the Nexus temple with its dull grey stone and towering, gothic style pirs. The only thing remotely colorful inside of it was the Wellspring of Life which, made of shining white baster and marble, positively sparkled with the blue and gold light projected from the glowing crystals hanging from the domed ceiling above. "The Nexus. To think I would return here once more with you, my master," said Valera. She seemed happy at first, but then she narrowed her eyes. "But this ce does not seem right." "What do you mean?" said Aldrich. "The Nexus is a safe space forged by the twin gods Amara, goddess of light and life, and Sindri, god of me and forge. There is a warmth to the Nexus that is reflected in their powers. The warmth of positive energy that is ufortable to Undead like us, but I sense no such thing now," said Valera. "It is as if¡­as if this ce seems dead." "I got that impression too," said Aldrich. "And what I theorize is that this ce is not the real, original Nexus. It''s just a replica. There''s no true ''life'' to it, but it still retains the powers it should have." "Is that so?" said Valera. She darted her crimson and ck eyes around warily, as if expecting a threat at any moment. "Hm. As long as you trust this ce, I will too." "So far, it hasn''t done me any wrong," said Aldrich. He leaped over the Wellspring of Life to the Forge where he found the System hammering away at seemingly nothing. Valera followed closely behind Aldrich and immediately raised her shield against the glitchy stick figure, standing in front of Aldrich to protect him. The System, however, did not respond to her and continued hammering away, the sound of metal clinking on metal ringing through the air despite the fact that the System held no hammer in its blocky hand. "There''s no point, Valera. The Nexus is a nobat, no kill zone," said Aldrich. "Forgive me, my master." Valera put down her shield but still eyed the System suspiciously. "I was simply cautious of the unknown. You seem to know what that thing is." "Sort of," said Aldrich. "From what I can tell, it seems to be a fusion of the goddess Amara and the god Sindri. This thing performs both their functions in the Nexus. Can you sense anything off about it?" Valera cocked her head and stared at the System for a good ten seconds. Then, she shook her head. "I sense no hostility. No emotion at all. I can perceive that there is divine essence within it, the same kind that built up Amara and Sindri, but¡­how do I put this¡­it seems unfinished. Gods are Divinus - raw divine energy - shaped into vessels by belief. This thing is pure energy. Chaotic and unshaped. And yet, still stable enough to maintain the Nexus." "I see," said Aldrich. His theory that this stick figure was an unfinished game asset for both Amara and Sindri started to find more weight with Valera''s words. "In any case, questioning this thing has no purpose. Like you said, it''s unfinished. It only responds to certain key words and requests. And as far as I can tell, it''s basically just a machine that fulfills the functions of the gods. Until we find more cause to suspect it, we have to rely on it." "Understood, master," said Valera. "I trust your wise judgement. Especially over my hot-blooded impulsiveness." Aldrich nodded and walked up to the System. "Here for a forging request." "Ah, a forgin'', is it?" said the System. "I can do that any time! Now then, what''ll it be,d?" "Soul forging," said Aldrich. The crafting/forging menu opened up in front of Aldrich and he selected the [Soul of Ghost] from his inventory. Ghost''s soul manifested in his hand as a shimmering white orb that ever so often flickered transparent. Aldrich tossed the orb to the System and the stick figure caught the orb and inspected it. "Mighty fine material yer bringin'' in!" said the System. "Yes, fine indeed," said Aldrich, remembering the satisfaction of crushing Ghost. "Now then, I want head gear." "Gotcha. Here''s what I can do!" Aldrich found a list of three options projected in front of him. == 1. Ghostly Helm Rank: Umon + Type: Head Gear (Heavy) Stats: +15 Vitality +5 Agility +5 Perception Effects: Refraction (Passive) - This item grants the wearer a permanent passive that reduces all iing damage by 10%. 2. Hood of Melding Rank: Umon + Type: Head Gear (Light) Stats: +10 Agility +10 Magic +5 Perception Effects: Ghost Walk (Active) - By activating this item, the wearer may enter a Phase state where they are rendered invisible and pass-through solid objects with 50% boosted movement speed. [Ghost Walk]sts for 3 seconds. Cost: 30 Mana Cooldown: 15 Seconds 3. Phantasmal Mask Rank: Umon + Type: Head Gear (Light) Stats: +5 Magic Effects: Phantasmal Shroud (Passive) - The wearer obtains a permanent passive that grants them a 10% chance to dodge an iing attack by phasing through it. Ghost Walk (Active) - By activating this item, the wearer may enter a Phase state where they are rendered invisible and pass-through solid objects with 50% boosted movement speed. [Ghost Walk]sts for 3 seconds. While this ability is on cooldown, Phantasmal Shroud is disabled. Cost: 30 Mana Cooldown: 15 Seconds = Cost: 200 Coin Reroll Cost: 50 Coin == Aldrich put a hand to his chin, wondering what to take. He had rolled well, obtaining three choices of Umon (+) tier gear. The plus sign indicated that the gear was at the highest end of its tier, and since the Umon level range of gear went from 10-30, the difference was quite massive between a basic Umon piece of equipment like Aldrich''s current staff and any of these three head pieces. Thankfully, the gear had not been at the Rare tier, as though yers could equip gear one tier above their level threshold, anything above that made equipment unusable until they met the level requirements. "The helmet would be quite useful for protecting you, my dear master," said Valera as she peered at the options. "B-but I will protect you anyway, so maybe it isn''t useful after all!" It seemed that Valera wanted Aldrich to choose equipment that protected him the most while also struggling with her pride to be the one to always protect Aldrich. "I trust you to protect me, Valera, don''t worry about that," said Aldrich. "And my ss has no affinity for heavy gear. I''ll suffer stat penalties for wearing a heavy helmet. That leaves me with either the hood or the mask, and it''s a no-brainer to pick up the mask here." Though the [Hood of Melding] granted much better stats than the [Phantasmal Mask], it only had one unique ability. Aldrich knew from ying the game that stats might have seemed attractive, especially in earlier levels, but additional unique abilities or passives were worth far more. As far as rolls went, the mask was quite lucky. He had gotten a horrible roll with the heavy helmet, especially because mage type sses had a higher chance to roll lighter equipment, but the other two options made up for it. "Craft me the [Phantasmal Mask]" said Aldrich. "You got it!" The System hammered down at Ghost''s soul, shattering it and then reforming it into another glowing white orb, this time with the icon of the item imbued within it. The orb floated to Aldrich and he absorbed it into his inventory with a touch. [1x Phantasmal Mask obtained] [200 Coin spent] [Coin: 220 ] 20] Aldrich immediately withdrew the mask and equipped it. A pale white ivory mask formed over his face. It was oval and seeminglytched onto his face with no need for a strap. It waspletely featureless, like a ceramic te, aside from a single horizontal line running across it to indicate Aldrich''s eye line. "This will do," said Aldrich. He could see perfectly through the mask as if it was not there despite the fact that it basicallypletely obscured his face. The perks of magic. "Marvelous!" said Valera as she pped her gauntleted hands together. "Piece by piece, you adorn yourself for battle." She whispered under her breath. "A shame I can''t see your face, though." "Hm? What was thatst part?" said Aldrich, not quite catching it. "N-nothing!" said Valera as she briskly walked back to the Sign. "We are ready, yes? For adventure?" "With you, anytime," said Aldrich, wanting to convey that she was a valuable protector he could always rely on. Evidently, Valera took those words differently. Her pale skin got a shade redder, and she immediately put on her helmet. "Then we must make haste. Onwards!" ___ Chapter 22: A Pack Problem

Chapter 22: A Pack Problem

Aldrich and his ever-growing entourage of undead traveled through the Variant forest. He knew generally how to get to Haven, but since he had no Eye-Phone, he had no ess to a reliable map. Topensate for this, he had the Evil Eye float in the air, above the tree line, to track their way through. Every so often, Valera would detect danger with her [Defender''s Vigil] passive, and whenever this happened, Aldrich would stand behind her shield and let the Evileye scout ahead with its permanent invisibility. It did not phase through solid objects, but it could squeeze through most tight gaps, and it''s omni-directional vision meant that it scoped out any threat quite easily. For the most part, Aldrich just found more Strikers for they were the mostmon Variant in the forest. These were easily dispatched - Aldrich himself could handily beat one with just his physical stats alone. In total, Aldrich hadted himself 5 kills and 50 EXP. [EXP Bar: 25/250 ] 75/250] Eventually, after about an hour of traveling, they happened upon a full pack of them. A pack numbering up to ten Strikers with a significantlyrger Alpha with them. The Alpha was marked by an angry red line of fur running down its forehead and up to its snout. The Evileye spotted them while they were sleeping in a clearing by a small stream, though a few of them remained awake to keep watch. *What shall we do, master?* said Valera, speaking with Aldrich telepathically through their spiritually linked bond. *We could simply pass by them.* *I know* Aldrich looked behind him. His skeleton archer, rogue, three Strikers, and Adam and ine stood ready for battle. *I want to scale my army up a little. Get rid of a Striker and rece it with an Alpha.* *Might I ask why we do not rece the zombies?* said Valera. *Objectively, they are the weakest among your army. I know you said they were your close friends, my master, but for your safety-* *They stay with me. End of question about that* said Aldrich firmly. He wanted Adam and ine to stay with him until he got vengeance on Seth Sr and all of his crew. Until they sunk their teeth into all of them and carved out a piece of vengeance they deserved, he would keep them by his side. *Understood, master* said Valera. *I''m sorry-* *Don''t be sorry. You haven''t done anything wrong - I was just making my position clear.* Aldrich took in a breath. *Alright, I''ve decided: let''s fight them.* Valera shuddered in anticipation for violence under her armor. *I am ever ready, my master.* *Here''s the strategy: the Skeleton Rogue cripples the alpha and then you charge in with the Strikers. I will stay at the edges of the clearing with Adam, ine, and the Skeleton Archer to provide cover* said Aldrich. *Are you sure, my master? From what I can sense, I can defeat all of these creatures by myself. After all, I am quite suited to mowing down masses of weaklings* said Valera. *That big one might take me a few more seconds than the rest, but they are no challenge. Unworthy to face you.* *I''m sure of it. I need to test out whether the Rogue''s invisibility is undetectable as well.* *Understood* said Valera. __ Aldrich watched from the Skeleton Rogue''s ''eyes'' as it snuck past the ring of sleeping Strikers with ease. Its ck robes and cloak were covered in shadows that obscured it,pletely rendering it invisible. The skeleton''s high agility was apparent in the way it could flip over the wolves and weave past them with such quick and coordinated movements, and in no time, it was right in front of the Alpha. The Rogue took its curved daggers and sunk them right into the Alpha''s eyes. The des sunk in halfway, destroying the eyes but not reaching the brain before the Alpha remarkably reacted on pure autopilot. Its brown fur raised up in prickles as an omni-directional force shockwave sted outwards, knocking the Skeleton Rogue far back, crashing it into a tree. All the Strikers woke up in an instant of alert, growling and ready to fight. Aldrich''s experiment on invisibility was somewhat of a sess. These were his observations: Magical invisibility was troublesome to deal with, but not invincible. The Strikers could not pick up anything with their sharp sense of smell nor could they perceive the Rogue even when staring right at it. Basically, it seemed that magical invisibility functioned by cing a ''shell'' of obscurement around the user, enclosing any physical signs like scent, sound, and appearance from others. Thus, the sounds of their breathing, their heartbeat, or the clicking of bones was all hidden. What did worry Aldrich was that movements made in invisibility still gave off hints when the user interacted with physical surfaces. Footsteps, for example, were still audible. And Aldrich noted that the Skeleton Rogue did make imprints in the dirt wherever it stepped. However, the Skeleton Rogue had training as an assassin to mask the sound and noticeability of its movements, gracefully darting about only in firm patches of dirt on the tips of its bony toes so as to absolutely minimize any traces of itself. The problem was that if Aldrich who had no such training tried to use invisibility, others could still track him with either the sound of his footsteps or any impressions he made on surfaces. This was not an issue for the Evil Eye which was a spirit that made no sound in the first ce, so for now, it seemed that the Evil Eye waspletely undetectable. Functionally invincible unless it was caught up in some wide area of effect attack. Whether Alter powers that could see through conventional invisibility or sense others worked against this invisibility remained to be seen, but Aldrich heavily suspected that they would not. Most detection based Alter powers worked by sensing the unique energy signatures Alters gave off. That would not work at all on magical invisibility. "TO BATTLE!" shouted Valera as she charged in with her enormous shield. Her rousing cry generated all attention on her. A Striker leaped up to bite her, and Valera took her shield and used it like a giant battering ram to swat the Striker away like a fly. The Striker flew like it wasunched by a cannon into a tree and mmed against it with a crack, its spine shattered. Another Striker bit her leg but could not prate her armor. She drove her shield down into the Striker''s neck and decapitated the creature in one swift blow. "Dirty mutts! You think you can challenge me with this! Let alone my master!?" said Valera as she pounded her breastte in challenge. The Alpha Striker was blinded, but it tracked her through her obviously loud voice and charged towards her, snarling. It seemed to posses some level of muscle augmentation as its body swelled in size, its muscles rippling and engorging with blood until it was the size of a hovercar. Valera put her shield ahead of her and blocked the Striker''s charge. The loud ng of half a ton of solid muscle mming against a brick wall of metal shield rang through the night. Valera moved backwards in the dirt about several inches as she dug in her greaves, resisting the Striker''s powerful attack. "Hahaha! Now that''s more like it!" said Valera. In the next instant, the remaining Strikers had all piled around her, snarling and wing and biting at her armor. They did damage, to be sure, making impressions in the armor with their teeth, but nothing appreciable. "Swarming me like the weaklings you are - just what I wanted!" said Valera. Her eyes glowed bloody red through the slits of her helmet. She let go of her shield and then loosed a heavy punch into the ground. A shockwave of crimson red sted outwards from her, scattering the Strikers on her body every which way. That was the skill [Bloody Strike] that infused her next attack with a shockwave of explosive blood. The shockwave was strong enough that all the normal Strikersy limp on the ground, their internal organs ruptured or bones shattered. Only the Alpha striker managed to stand, driven back several meters before it regained bnce. Blood from the Strikers Valera had killed flowed from their bodies and around her, swirling in a thin barrier that formed a spherical shell around her. "Yes, yes, YES!" she eximed as the blood not only flowed around her, but into her, seeping through the gaps in her armor as they healed her and fueled her [Blood Rage]. "Valera-," began Aldrich, not wanting to have her fall into madness. "Oraa!" Valera heaved her shield back and then tossed it. The cross-shield spun like an enormously oversized shuriken towards the Alpha Striker. Because the Striker was blind, it was toote to dodge, and the giant shield mmed into it, driving it backwards and impaling it on arge tree. Valera turned around to Aldrich and removed her helmet. She gave him a thumbs up and the warmest, brightest, happiest smile he had seen. At the very least, she was still sane, just high on the thrill of fighting. Chapter 23: Raising the Alpha

Chapter 23: Raising the Alpha

You did well. Very well," said Aldrich to Valera. He paused and gave her a nod, hoping that this was enough to make her happy. He was unused to giving out praise because of how alone he had been. The only praise he had received was from his parents, and that praise hade from a ce of warmth in their hearts. It had been many years since that same warmth had been snuffed out in Aldrich''s own heart. "Thank you, master!" said Valera with a proper bow. "Mhm. Mhm." She nodded to herself, smiling and taking in Aldrich''s praise no matter how awkward or little it was. As Valera took in Aldrich''s praise, Aldrich was upied by the experience flowing into him. [Alpha Striker in!] [+70 EXP] [Striker x10 in!] [+100 EXP] [EXP Bar: 75/250 ] 245/250] Aldrich sighed. Just five points off from level 7. He hated the feeling of going through a fight and being just short of leveling up. But he could not let his mind dwell on that. "Now to raise this Alpha," said Aldrich. He stepped over to the corpse of the Alpha Striker impaled against a tree trunk with Ve''s shield. He tugged at it and found it ridiculously heavy. Beyond even his current already superhuman strength to move easily. "Valera - can I get some help with this shield?" "Oh, of course!" said Valera. She rushed to the shield and dislodged it with ease, showcasing the stark difference between a warrior type character that invested most of their stat points into the physical ones and a mage type character like Aldrich. The Alpha Striker corpse slid down and thumped limply on the ground. Aldrich was still wary, and he had his skeletons take aim and stand guard over the corpse. Variants could have any number of Alter powers within them, but generally the number capped out at five. The stronger the Variant, the stronger these powers were. This Alpha Striker might still have some kind of regenerative power on top of the muscle boosting and shockwave generation it had showcased. Aldrich''s worries were dispelled when he saw a floating, green-outlined grave over the wolf monster''s body. To raise the Alpha, Aldrich needed to make room. His unit control was maxed out at 8/8 already. "Perfect," said Aldrich. He snapped his fingers, and one of his three Strikers came to his side. "Your service is over. Rest." Aldrich patted the Striker''s head onest time, and the Striker licked Aldrich''s hand and nodded before crumbling away into nothingness. [Units controlled: 8/8 ] 7/8] "Now then," said Aldrich as he knelt by the Alpha Striker''s corpse. He took out the two curved daggers lodged into its eyes and tossed them behind him. "Catch, Rogue. You''re probably missing these." The Skeleton Rogue flipped in the air and gracefully caught the two daggers beforending on its knee, bowing a cracked skull at Aldrich. It had taken considerable damage from getting tossed into a tree from the Alpha Striker''s shockwave ability. Aldrich turned on his [Anti-Life Shell Rank 1]. A misty green, fog-like aura appeared around him, covering his undead and healing them. Notably, the nt life around him started to wilt and die, withering as their life force was drained ever so steadily. "Ahhh," said Valera as she breathed in deeply. She raised her head up in closed eyed bliss. "The scent of my master-I-I mean, the scent of negative energy!" "Its rank is low right now, but I''m on my way to fixing that," said Aldrich. "I''m particrly curious as to how Alters and Variants will deal with the highest ranks of it when even being in my presence requires stat and level checks to pass instant death." "At the very least, you will soon not have to personally deal with weaklings like these," said Valera as she stared at the Striker corpses in disdain. "Hm." Aldrich thought about it for a moment. His [Anti-Life Shell] was liable to kill countless innocents as well with his mere presence. But if he absolutely needed to, he would. Deep down, even though he had never done it before, he knew that he was willing to sacrifice lives for the greater good. If he had to sacrifice a hundred innocents to survive another day and save countless more over time, then he would take that deal with zero hesitation. This, on top of a willingness to kill viins without a second thought, was one of the major reasons he had always failed the pysch evaluations for higher ranked hero academies. He was willing to see and use lives as game pieces. He was not a viin, but he was not a hero, a rea hero like his parents, either, that was for sure. He had lost a fundamental reverence for each and every life as sacred and worthy after watching his parents die, for their lives were sacred and worthy and ended while the lives of viins continued on. And now, as an undead, this mindset was even more prominent. But these were thoughts relevant for another time. Aldrich put a green energy wreathed hand on the Alpha Striker''s head. "Serve," he said. [-5 Mana] [Mana: 93/93] 88/93] Tendrils of bright green flowed into the Alpha Striker, causing its corpse to shudder before it slowly stood back on his four legs. The gaping chest wound from Valera''s shield was still visible on its stomach, splitting it open down the middle and exposing its organs. It had no eyes, either, but all of these wounds would regenerate over time in Aldrich''s presence. [Alpha Striker Lvl 7 reanimated] [Units controlled: 7/8 ] 8/8] Aldrich obtained information about the Striker. He noted that he did not know the precise stats of reanimated Variants. No specific status screen detailed their abilities in numbers and words. He just had a feel of how strong they were and what powers they could use. Based on this general feel, reanimated Variants were given a ''level'' approximating theirbat ability, but Aldrich knew that this level was not entirely urate. It overly favored physical stats andbat powers and did not consider the utility of nonbat abilities. Aldrich theorized that Variants had no status rted information aside from their level because they did not fit neatly into the game mechanics of Elden World. He imagined this would be simr with reanimated Alters, too. "I see. So, you had a power that enhanced your muscles, shockwave generation, and Alter detection smell," said Aldrich. He noted that Variants above the E-rank were notable for having multiple powers. He figured this Alpha Striker was solidly D-rank. "Good, then that confirms that most Alters with detection abilities can''t see through stealth." Alters, or any living being that possessed Alter Cells and Organs possessed a unique energy signature, and the higher their cell count, the stronger this signature was. By sequencing this energy signature by wavelength and unique flow patterns, the Alterhuman Agency could maintain a database of existing Alters and their powers. Alters that used powers that concealed themselves concealed not only their physical appearance, but the emanation of this energy signature. This made them undetectable by any conventional form of Alter detecting technology. The only way to see past concealment sourced via Alter powers was to use detection sourced through Alter powers. However, detection-based powers were far rarer than concealment-based ones, making this Alpha Striker and its smell quite the useful ability. Aldrich stood up, and the Alpha Striker nuzzled itsrge head into his hand for a head pat. "Valera," said Aldrich. He turned to see Valera staring at the Alpha Striker with envy. "You can drain the rest of these corpses." "Yes, master," said Valera as she gave the Alpha Striker a powerful leer that made the monster, even without eyes, shudder and feel danger, breaking off from Aldrich. Valera raised her hand into the air and closed a gauntleted fist together with a metallic click. The ten Striker corpses around her shook before blood flowed out from them, gathering around her and strengthening the sphere of crimson around her. This was [Crimson Furnace], a signature ability of Valera''s. Any unit she killed had their blood drained and formed into a barrier around her. Any damage she took also transferred blood to this barrier, making her tankier and tankier over time and especially durable the lower her health was. In addition, the barrier was specialized to defend against magic and energy based attacks where her own body was specialized for taking physical blows, making her defense well bnced. Offensively, the barrier could be ignited and turned into a massive omni-directional explosion around her based off how much damage it had soaked and absorbed. In the case that Valera was at 10% HP, the damage was doubled, making it a one-time super attack. Or utility wise, it could be drained to heal her, though at a less efficient rate than consuming blood for healing directly. "Alright," said Aldrich as he saw Valera''s barrier solidify, turning into a shell of deep crimson red. "We should move on-," Aldrich paused, getting a danger signal from the Evil Eye. He immediately linked his sight with the Evil Eye and saw something that made him hold his breath. Chapter 24: The Geist

Chapter 24: The Geist

The Evil Eye stared down at a Variant heading right towards Aldrich, likely drawn by the scent of blood and death. It was a three-meter-tall humanoid figure with smooth, in white skin. Its body was highly muscr, and it shambled forwards with a heavily hunched back, dragging its knuckles across the dirt. It was nearlypletely featureless, its skin having no blemishes and its fingers and toes holding no nails. Overall, it almost looked like an eerie, overly muscled mannequin. Something out of a horror movie. Its spherical headcked any real facial features as well. Just a massive,rge-lipped mouth curled up into a constant half-open smile, showcasing a set of oversized human teeth that chattered constantly. This was a Geist. Among Variants, Aldrich recalled from what limited research he was able to do in ckwater, there were three ssifications. Natural Variants - these were Variants that had seemingly adapted to nature. They became parts of ecosystems and adopted the traits of the flora and fauna within them. The Strikers with their wolf-like appearances were examples of such Variants. They needed food and water to live, could reproduce on their own, and acted generally like wild beasts, and so could be scared off or even tamed. Geist Variants - these were inexplicable monstrosities that were spontaneously spawned and very often humanoid in appearance. They were functionally immortal, requiring no food, sleep, or rest. They also did not seem to reproduce unless they possessed a power that allowed them to self replicate. They did not have any particr set of behaviors that were consistent, with each Geist having their own unique behavior patterns that made them highly unpredictable. Some were like pre-programmed robots, and some were surprisingly intelligent - it was impossible to tell. In addition, Geists had an immense thirst for human and Alter blood and flesh, making them much higher threats to civilization than natural Variants. Not only that, but Geists were generally much stronger than most natural Variants, with even the weaker ones usually starting out as a C-ranked threat. The third category of Variants were Titans. These were monstrously powerful Variants that were often the size of battleships or evenrger. These were Variants of near legend, formed immediately after Zahak''s death and the beginning of the Monstering. There were twenty Titans to begin, but after eight of them were killed by a united humanity, the remaining twelve returned to enormous nests across the world in remote areas, asionally appearing every few years for an attack before being driven off again. "We''re leaving," said Aldrich immediately. He did not want to risk a fight with a C-rank monster now. He knew he could challenge one, but only if he had a few advantages on his side. For example, if the Geist had abilities Aldrich and his units were immune to. But if the Geist had multiple powers geared for just raw power and sustainedbat, then Aldrich doubted he could fight one, even with Valera. Valera could go toe to toe with it in sheer stats most likely, but she wouldck the damage to finish it off. Strong enemies with built in sustain. Even in Elden World, this was the type of enemy that gave Legion Necromancers trouble in lower levels where they had too few minions forrge scale swarming tactic. If the Geist also had powerful area of effect abilities on top of that, then Aldrich had no chance of winning. "What is that beast?" said Valera, seeing through Aldrich''s eyes. "It disgusts me. It is a sin against nature. A sin against life. Even more so than we are as undead." "Yeah, that''s a good way to describe it," said Aldrich. He had to agree the thing was not pleasant to look at. "It''s called a Geist and all you need to know is that it''s above our paygrade for now. We could fight it, but there''s no guarantee we would win." Valera put her helmet on. "Indeed, I can sense potent strength from it. Oh, how I would want to cave its ugly skull in. But I will heed yourmands, master." "Geists hunt living humans, so most likely as undead, it won''t even register us. We just need to take a route around it-," began Aldrich before he paused, seeing something both haunting and interesting. Through the Evil Eye, Aldrich saw the Geist open its huge mouth. Its stomach expanded grotesquely and convulsed before it regurgitated out a spit covered woman. Its barbed tonguey hooked in her back, holding her like a caught fish. She was a hero, there was no doubt about it from the remnants of her tattered orange and red costume. He could not tell whether she was alive as her head was down with her long, dirty blonde hair covering her face like a veil. She hung limply on the Geist''s lengthy, prehensile tongue like a rack of meat hung at a butcher''s shop. The Geist carefully wiped away its spit on her body and giggled to itself as it patted her head gently and moved her arms and legs around, arranging her into heroic poses like it was ying with an action figure. The Geist giggled to itself, its entire body shuddering, but because itcked any facial expressions, it was hard to tell whether it was actually amused or whether this was some strange natural reaction. With this, Aldrich knew what this Geist was. He had seen it on the news before when it attacked Haven six months ago. And he knew then that he could fight it. Aldrich''s mind raced as he thought of a strategy based on the information he had. Media coverage of the Geist attack had been quite thorough because Haven mostly did not get many Variant attacks. The forests surrounding it only had E to D rank natural Variants that generally stayed away from civilization, so the spawning of the Geist was a surprise that took the city off guard, The Geist had attacked Haven in the dead of night, charging through a half-repaired hole in one of its walls. Within the city, it released a potent neurotoxin from various pores in its body while it rabidly hunted down any human it could see. With its massive size and strength, the Geist ripped apart and devoured humans while its toxic gas killed many more. In just half an hour, it had wracked up a body count of one hundred, including the hero Iron Soldier. The Geist used its tongue to dig into Iron Soldier and pilot his body, puppeteering the hero against the very civilians he once protected. A response team was formed to counter the Geist after half an hour. This team beat back the Geist, but not before the Geist managed to seemingly kill and kidnap Dynamite Girl, another hero. With its super regeneration, it barely escaped back into the forest, and since then, Haven was on increased alert for its potential return. From the news reports, Aldrich knew the powers the Geist had. First was its constant stream of neurotoxic gas. It was highly lethal to humans, causing brain failure within twenty seconds unless their bodies were enhanced. This was thergest reason why it had taken over half an hour for the AA (Alterhuman Agency) branch in Haven to form a response team. They needed equipment to filter out the gas. As undead, however, Aldrich and his minions were all immune to the gas. Hell, the skeletons did not even have brains for neurotoxins to work on. Next was the Geist''s ability to control another creature with its tongue. This was troublesome, especially because it now controlled Dynamite Girl, a solid C-ss hero known for her ability to generate explosions from her hands. Her ability was highly effective against Aldrich''s undead because it dealt fire type damage and had a wide area of effect. Judging from her body condition, she was still more thanbat capable. Aldrich could see through her torn costume that her body was still muscr and toned. Very likely, the Geist''s tongue kept her supplied with nutrients, possibly even still keeping her alive. On top of this, the Geist had an ability to make short-range high-speed dashes and a potent healing factor that allowed it to regenerate a lost limb within seconds. The regeneration was not much of an issue. Most of Aldrich''s minions dealt Necrotic damage and that rotted out flesh and directly nullified regeneration. But the high-speed dashesbined with naturally formidable strength that could tear apart humans like paper meant the Geist was a highly mobile, deadly threat even without its toxins and regeneration. With Dynamite Girl as well, the odds were considerably stacked against Aldrich. Even Alters without powers that strengthened their body were superhuman by virtue of having Alter cells. A C-ss hero like Dynamite Girl could probably shatter concrete with a solid punch. That was more than enough to one destroy skeletons in two or three hits, especially with the weakness of skeletal undead to crushing blows. But strategy couldpensate for this gap in power. "What is it, master?" said Valera. "Are we not to escape now? Or perhaps¡­" Valera stiffened a little under her armor before a shudder ran across her from helmet to greaves. She held her shield tight to her. "I know that glint in your eyes, my master. That thinking, focused stare that I adore so much for: you want to fight, do you not?" "Yes," said Aldrich. He nodded and started to mentallymand his units to move out of the clearing and get into position. The Geist was spotted a hundred fifty meters away and would be in this clearing within the minute. He did not have much time to prepare. "We will." Chapter 25: Geist Hunt

Chapter 25: Geist Hunt

The Geist made its way into the clearing, walking Dynamite Girl in front of it to minimize risk to itself. Dynamite Girl stumbled forwards, her head still limp and down, moving with stilted, awkward movements like she was a puppet being jerked along by strings. The Geist cocked its head as it sat by the flowing stream where the Strikers had slept. In front of it, it stared down at a Striker corpse. It picked up the corpse in itsrge hand, raising the decently heavy wolf creature with ease to its face. With a gurgle, the Geist tossed the Striker away once it identified that it was not a human. "Gehgeh," said the Geist in a strange, garbled, almost alien voice, though the pitch was high and curious, almost questioning. It looked ahead at a trail of Striker corpses leading into the forest. The Geist stared at the line of corpses for a second and then made Dynamite Girl walk ahead to investigate, obviously realizing something was suspicious. It sat there and stretched out its thick, muscr, barbed tongue as Dynamite Girl continued along the line of Striker corpses. As Dynamite Girl walked further and further ahead, the tongue tethering her to the Geist grew thinner and thinner. Dynamite Girl stepped out of the clearing, a full twenty meters away from the Geist, and stopped in front of the veryst Striker corpse. There was nobody around it. No surprise attack. It was just a lone corpse. "Gehhhh?" the Geist garbled. It started to bring back Dynamite Girl, and that was when something severed its tongue. The Skeleton Rogue materialized, its twin daggers down from having shed straight through the middle of the Geist''s tongue where it had been stretched thinnest and easiest to cut. Dynamite Girl fell face first into the dirt, her connection to the Geist severed. Aldrich had seen that the Geist used Dynamite Girl to investigate and thus baited the Geist to draw her out using Striker corpses. Since the Geist could not detect the Evil Eye, it could not detect the Skeleton Rogue either. Aldrich had the rogue use its [Shadow Walk] and stay still in the center of the clearing so as to minimize any movement it had to make. The Geist let loose a garbled, warped scream of pain before it used a high-speed dash to appear right in front of the rogue. The Variant cocked back its huge, musclebound arm to destroy the rogue, but a series of arrows flew from the treetops, lodging into its arm and chest. "Geh!?" the Geist stepped back and tore the arrows out of its body. In this moment, the Skeleton Rogue ran for its life, or rather unlife, disappearing into the cover of the forest. "Geh¡­geh?" The Geist stared at the puncture wounds made by the arrow. The flesh around them rotted, the white skin turning ck and festering with push. It cocked its head, wondering why its regeneration did not kick in. The Geist then tried to pick up its tongue and re-attach it with regeneration. "ORAAA!" That was when Valera stormed out, using her own [Dash] skill. She became a ck blur as she mmed into the Geist at full force, bashing its body with her shield. The Geist was strong and fast too, though, and it reacted by holding up its arms in a guard, using them as a shield of its own to resist Valera. The sound of concussive impact rang through the forest as the Geist drove back several meters under Valera''s momentum and power. "Gehhh!" The Geist roared and pushed back, its enormous back muscles rippling, and this time, Valera started to give ground. "Oh? A little strong, are we? How about THIS!" Valera used the [Shield m] skill and drove her shoulder into her shield. Her shield glowed with crackling red energy that exploded outwards in a shockwave as it mmed against the Variant. The Geist tumbled backwards several meters before righting itself, itsrge fingers digging into the dirt. The creature shook its head from the impact and then started to release its neurotoxin. Various pores in its body opened up, and purple gas steamed outwards, quickly covering the clearing in a mist of toxins. Valera breathed in deeply, mocking the Geist. "Is that it!? Poison!? Utter foolishness!" "Geh?" the Geist cocked its head as it saw that its toxin had zero effect on Valera. She banged her breastte before she charged again, using this time a basic attack where she swung at the Geist horizontally with her cross shield, aiming to cut its head open. The Geist showcased its surprising agility and ducked beneath the swipe before punching Valera straight in the chest. Its fist popped through her [Crimson Furnace] blood barrier and smashed straight into her armor. Valera skidded backwards several meters as the echo of dented metal rang through the air. She suffered damage, but nothing considerable. The blood barrier had reduced some of the damage and she did not have any weakness to crushing damage that skeletal or lesser undead like Aldrich had. She looked down to see a crack in the armor around her torso, and sheughed. "That''s it! That''s more like it! Hit me! Come on, HIT ME!" Valera charged again with her shield, and the Geist roared as they engaged in another sh of blows. Aldrich acted quickly. He had waited outside of the clearing, beyond the Geist''s potential detection range, and now sprinted towards Dynamite Girl''s corpse. He had nned all this from the start, and everything had gone ording to what he had envisioned. Bait the Geist into drawing Dynamite Girl out. Use the Skeleton Rogue to cut off its tongue. ce the Skeleton Archer in the trees to provide suppressive fire. Have Valera charge in and distract the Geist so that it could not re-attach its tongue or reach Dynamite Girl. Now, the most important phase of the n - Aldrich knelt by Dynamite Girl''s limp body, ready to raise her as an undead. Two Strikers, the Alpha Striker, and Adam and ine stood around Aldrich, acting as his bodyguards in the case that the Geist tried to dash past Valera. However, Valera kept the Geist''s attention quite well. Aldrich inspected Dynamite Girl and did not see a grave marker floating above her. That was when he realized she was alive. Still breathing, though very shallowly. Six entire months in the Geist''s stomach and used as its puppet, and this whole time, she had been alive. "Thank you for your service to Haven. Now, I will end your suffering," said Aldrich, saying herst rites. He took his staff and stabbed it straight through her neck, killing her. He felt a small twinge of pity for her, but it was like a human seeing roadkill. A passing, cursory sense of pity that was not given a second thought. He truly was not human anymore, and he did not mind. This mindset made him stronger, and as long as it did, he weed it. Maybe, just maybe, someone could have saved her and healed her back in Haven. But then what? Where was the guarantee her mind was still intact? And who was going to bring her back to the city? Aldrich definitely was not going to - there was far too much risk involved bringing her into the city as he was now as a literal walking corpse with no fake identity. He would have to deal with questioning and investigation from the AA, and that was thest thing he wanted. At least like this, Dynamite Girl was guaranteed to be useful. Before he reanimated Dynamite Girl, Aldrich noted that a Soul floated above her body. He shook his head - taking the soul was not the right choice here. He needed her powers now. "Serve," said Aldrich as he put her hand gently on Dynamite Girl''s forehead, infusing her corpse with green strands of energy. [-5 Mana] [Mana: 79/84 ] 73/84] Aldrich felt as another one of his Strikers rubbed its head into his hand. He patted the wolf''s head gently. "You did well. It''s time for you to rest, too," said Aldrich. With that, the Striker faded into dust, giving Aldrich space to add Dynamite Girl. Dynamite Girl''s corpse shook before standing up not as a zombie, but an undead. [Undead (Dynamite Girl) Level 12 reanimated] A Necromancer could not take a soul and also reanimate a corpse. Once a soul was taken, the corpse lost its capacity to be reanimated and crumbled away. But if a corpse was reanimated with its soul intact, it became possible to resurrect higher tier undead. Zombies might have been marginally stronger than their live counterparts, but they were slower, dumber, and lost all training that the original corpse might have had. An undead, however, could develop individuality and retained any martial arts training they had when they were living. However, they lost all their active memories, turning them into amnesiacs that unfailingly served their new master. If needed, a Necromancer could also just prevent any individuality from forming at all, essentialyl turning the raised undead into basically high functioning robots that retainedbat training skills but no real free will. Aldrich limited Dynamite Girl''s individuality for now, wanting her to be as efficient a fighter as possible. Dynamite Girl shakily stood up, her skin turning from tanned olive to pale white while her golden blonde hair turned tinum, almost silvery white. Her eyes were nk, though, with no real sense of thought in them. The only thing she followed was Aldrich''s killing intent, and her face turned into a scowl as she faced the Geist. == "No fair!" Valera grimaced as she saw the Geist regenerate a gaping sh in its stomach from her shield. They were half a dozen meters apart now, having blown each other mutually backwards from simultaneously hitting each other. But where Valera nursed a few broken ribs, the Geist was as good as new, standing back up with almost no issue. Several necrotic arrows jutted out of its body, but there were not enough arrows to adequately neutralize the monster''s healing. "Valera, hold it down! Go all out!" Aldrich''s voice rung out from outside the clearing. "Yes, master!" Valera smiled widely under her helm, and if her face was visible, it would have shown her cheeks splitting apart as her smile grew impossibly, grotesquely wide - a trait of the Duhan. Finally, she could let loose. Valera heaved her cross shield back and then tossed it again. The Geist dashed to the side, dodging the shield projectile. The shield smashed through the trunks of three trees, felling them. Valera closed her fists as a bloody aura surged around her. Because she had a warrior type ss, she had both weapon specialties andbat specialties that granted her relevant skills in those areas. Her weapon specialty was in using a shield and herbat specialty was as a Shielder, allowing her to use defensive skills geared towards guarding allies. But when she tossed away her shield, herbat specialty turned from Shielder into Berserker and her weapon specialty changed from shield to bare-handed. This significantly increased her offensive capabilities, and truthfully, aside from defending her master, there was nothing she loved better than brutalizing flesh with her own two fists. "ORAA!" Valera used [Dash] to appear in front of the Geist and unleashed a heavy right hook straight into its face. "Gehhhh!" the Geist gurgled as its face caved in, itsrge human teeth shattering and flying as it surged backwards, mming heavily into a tree trunk behind it. The Geist fell to the ground and rubbed its face, a fist sized impression punched deep into it. The impression buffed out and began to heal, but not before Valera was upon it again, this time sending a kick into the side of its head. The Geist dashed behind Valera, turning into a white blur. Valera predicted this move and spun around with an elbow, smashing into the Geist''s skull again. "Gah!" the Geist''s head whipped backwards from the blow. Valera rushed forwards and then bear hugged the Geist, pinning its bulky white arms to its sides while she exerted crushing force. The Alpha Striker and the one remaining normal Striker circled the Geist, growling and waiting to pounce if it broke free. Arrows rained from above from the skeleton archer, lodging into the Geist''s head. The skeleton rogue appeared from stealth, shing rapidly at the Geist''s back. Aldrich stood at the edge of the clearing, away from direct danger, with Adam and ine by his side. Dynamite Girl stood in front of him, growling, her eyes bright orange with energy as they had been back when she was alive. She wanted to go. She wanted to tear that monster apart. Aldrich knew that when she was alive, Dynamite Girl was known for her loud mouth and ferocity. Maybe that had stayed with her even past death. "Go. Give that monster what it deserves." Aldrich waved Dynamite Girl ahead. She sprinted forwards and leaped in the air, pping her arms onto the sides of the Geist''s muscr neck. Dynamite Girl roared as her hands started to crackle. Sparks and pops rippled from them like fireworks before two enormous, bright orange explosions erupted outwards. The explosion was so fierce that it not only blew back Dynamite Girl, but also Valera and very nearly killed the skeleton rogue, shattering many of its ribs and skull. A cloud of smoke rose from the center of the clearing as did the smell of roasted flesh. Aldrich linked his smell with the Alpha Striker''s, and from this, he knew that the Geist was sittingpletely still in the center of the smoke, the upper half of its bodypletely vaporized. Its regeneration worked quickly, though. Already, its upper spine started to reform, as did flesh and muscle mass. Aldrich stopped this. He stuck his staff out and spammed [Chill Bolt]. Because it was a Cantrip, it had no real cooldown. Bolt after bolt of pale white energy mmed into the Geist, permeating frost energy deep into the Variant''s half-destroyed body. Like Necrotic energy, Frost type damage also negated regeneration, though only when the [Frozen] status was fully applied. [Chill Bolt] did not inflict too much frost buildup, but spammed like this on a stationary target, it was all too easy to turn the Geist into a dead block of frozen, destroyed cells, not a single one left whole to regenerate properly. [-60 Mana] [Mana: 73/84 ] 13/84] Aldrich waved his staff from side to side, batting away smoke as he stepped forwards, revealing the Geist''s deeply frozen ice block of a lower half body. Aldrich smiled at what he saw: a grave floated over the Geist, as did a Soul. [Geist defeated!] [+350 EXP] [EXP Bar: 245/250 ] 595/250] [Level Up!] [Level 6 ] 7] [EXP Bar: 345/340] [Level Up! [Level 7 ] 8] Chapter 26: The Settlements

Chapter 26: The Settlements

Aldrich took in a breath as a green aura swirled around him, the experience from the Geist boosting his power by two entire levels. [+10 stat points avable to distribute] "Mmmm, yes!" Valera positively moaned in ecstasy as power flowed into her, but where Aldrich''s aura was green, hers was a deep, bloody red. As a Chosen Undead, Valera leveled at the exact same rate as Aldrich, so she too had gained two levels, raising her from level 10 to level 12. "How do you want me to spend my power?" said Valera, talking about how to distribute her own 10 new stat points. "In strength, vitality, and agility where your affinities are. A three-five-two spread in those stats should work well," said Aldrich. He wanted Valera to be as physically powerful as possible to make up for hisck of meleebat prowess. "Understood, master." Valera closed her eyes and clenched her fists, taking in a deep breath as she used her stats. Aldrich saw her stats go up. Her ss was as a Death Knight, and that ss, like Necromancers, could choose a ''path'' that specialized them. In her case, she had taken the Oath of Blood and Bone, specializing her in blood magic and body reinforcement. Blood magic ordinarily cost both mana and health, but since Valera was a vampire, she could choose to increase the health costs in exchange for removing mana costs. Because of this, just like Aldrich, vitality was the most important stat for Valera. Her stat affinities were 1.5x in strength, 1.5x in vitality, and 1.2x in agility, gearing her towards being a tanky brawler. [Chosen Undead: Valera stats] >> HP: 120/186 Mana: 21/21 = Stats- Strength: 37 ] 42 Agility: 22 ] 24 Vitality: 54 ] 62 Magic: 7 Attunement: 10 Perception: 10 >> Aldrich saw Valera tuning her stats and he did the same. [+5 Attunement, +10 with affinity bonuses] [+2 Agility] [+3 Vitality, +6 vitality with affinity bonuses] [Vitality: 14 ] 20] [Agility: 8 ] 10] [Attunement: 21 ] 30] [HP: 45/45 ] 60/60] [Units controlled: 8/8 ] 8/10] Aldrich cracked his neck as he spent his 2 new attunement points into units controlled. Soon, when he got to 50 Attunement, he could upgrade his [Raise Undead] spell to [Mass Raise Undead] and resurrect corpses en masse, not to mention a significant cooldown reduction. "Ah, master, seeing you getting ever closer to your original strength makes me feel so very warm inside," said Valera as she put her hands to her face. "Yeah. Soon, I''ll be unstoppable. We''ll be unstoppable," said Aldrich. He pointed his staff at the frozen Geist corpse. "Serve." [-8 Mana] [13/84 ] 5/84] Because the Geist was strong enough, [Raise Undead] did not cost just 5 mana, but 10% of Aldrich''s maximum mana pool. Thankfully, because his mana pool was still rtively low, the cost was not that significant. The Geist corpse shook and then thawed, ice crystals shattering all around it. It then started to rapidly regenerate, growing its spine, ribs, skull, then the flesh and skin. Once again, it stood tall and musclebound, its eerie, permanently open, chattering smile now directed at Aldrich. [Undead Geist Level 17 reanimated] [Units controlled: 8/10 ] 9/10] Aldrich saw as the Geist''s soul faded away, flowing back into the Variant. It was odd to think that this creature had a soul. Did that prove the existence of the soul? Or were souls just a simple game concept limited only to the game itself? It was impossible to tell and a philosophical discussion forter. "Good, good," said Aldrich. "You were just within my limit to raise." Any corpse that was more than ten levels over Aldrich was a corpse he could not raise. But after leveling up to level 7 from killing the Geist, he was just in the edge of the threshold to reanimate it. He did not take the Geist''s soul to forge an item because he only had 20 coins so far and did not want to risk bad rolls. In Elden World, monsters that had multiple powers were the worst to try and craft from because more often than not, an item would only have just one of their powers. As a result, it was better to just reanimate these kinds of monsters so that they could use all their powers effectively versus wielding a weapon that only managed to channel one of their powers. "Geh¡­geh (I serve you?)" said the Geist. Aldrich could now understand it through the mental link between summoner and summoned. "I''m turning off your individuality for now," said Aldrich as he waved his hand. The Geist quietened, bing a fully controlled unit the same as Dynamite Girl. Seeing undead that could speak like this, Aldrich felt a pang of pain. If only he had reanimated faster, then he could have resurrected Adam and ine with their souls intact. Then, he could have saved them, been with them - he shook his head. What was past was past. And besides, even in the lore, it was explicitly mentioned that resurrected undead had their souls twisted such that they were different from how they were in life. Thus, they lost their memories and though they could keep some core personality traits, they were entirely different beings. Aldrich looked ahead, beyond the forest, towards Haven. All he could do was look ahead. To move forward. Ever forward. Towards vengeance. == Aldrich did not encounter any more powerful Variants throughout the remainder of the hour long trek to Haven. The Evileye spotted a few Strikers here and there, a Spined Boar and even a Big-arm Grizzly, but these natural Variants avoided Aldrich, running from him. Or rather, they avoided the reanimated Gest, for the Geist was likely the apex predator of this forest. To fill up his one remaining slot for units controlled, Aldrich summoned another Evileye. The more Aldrich used his current one, the more he began to appreciate how incredibly broken it was. It was essentially ''game breaking'' considering basically nothing could detect it. It gave Aldrich aplete view of anything he went into and made it so that he never went into a situation unprepared. That alone was worth way more than an individual strong unit. "This disgusting creature will serve us well," said Valera as she walked by Aldrich while eyeing the Geist up and down. She then turned a re to Dynamite Girl. As she was not a zombie, her features were not rotted, retaining the rough prettiness she was known for in the heromunity. "But her, well, I will keep an eye on her." "No need," said Aldrich. "For the foreseeable future, I n on keeping both of them without free will." Aldrich''s Evil Eyes saw the end of the forest two hundred meters ahead. The tall line of trees ended, sloping down into a meadow that funneled into dry, cracked earth lined with roads that hovercars zipped by on. "We''re here," said Aldrich. He stopped and turned around, staring at his growing army. An Alpha Striker, one ordinary Striker, Dynamite Girl, the Geist, Adam, ine, the Skeleton Rogue, and the Skeleton Archer. "All of you, stay here. Get back deeper in the forest." Aldrich pointed at Dynamite Girl and the Geist and gave them limited free will through amand. "You two, protect everyone. Especially Adam and ine. Keep them in the forest and do not let anyone discover you. If anyone discovers you, you kill them, no questions asked. Nobody can know you are here." Dynamite Girl and the Geist nodded and then walked away deeper into the forest, leading the rest of the undead behind them. "Now, that leaves just us," said Aldrich to Valera. "Yes, just us," said Valera. She shyly rubbed her gauntlets together like a typical maiden in love. Aldrich looked Valera up and down, inspecting her armor. "O-oh? Master, why are you looking at me like that?" "You need to take that armor off," said Aldrich. "S-so forward, master-," Valera blushed deeply. "It stands out too much. You still have you [Ballroom Night Dress], right? Equip that. We need to look as human as possible." "Understood, master," said Valera with a bow, understanding that Aldrich was being serious here. "And what of that hole in your chest, master?" Aldrich wrapped himself in arge torn chunk of Dynamite Girl''s bright orange cape. "This will have to do for now. I''ll find something else to wear down there." == Aldrich wandered through winding streets of hastily constructed metal shacks, tents, and mobile trailers. Some of these shacks sold food, some clothing, some hardware - cheap porn holodiscs, stolen data chips, and the like. People moved about with dirt and grim in their fingers and faces. Their expressions were serious and hardened, and many of them had goggles above their heads and wore hooded jackets with tears and patches littering them. More notably, many of these individuals had cybeic parts. Mechanical hands, clicking artificial eyes, chrome tes on their skulls, and the like. These were Nomads. People that survived in the Wastnds because they were not privileged enough to live in a walled city or were just t out criminals. Because they did not have to abide by any cityws, they often boosted themselves with cybeics. In cities, cybeics were heavily regted because they tended to cause something known as Technomania, a rabid insanity caused from too much cybeic enhancement, particrly within the brain. Out here, though, outside city walls, there were precious fewws that were enforced, so cybeics flowed freely. After all, nomads had to take any and every advantage they could get to run from and fight Variants as they traveled through the Wastnds, hopping from walled city to city. Nomads moved their mobile homes, motorcycles and shacks right outside the walls, creating temporary residences known as Settlements when they were not moving through the Wastnds. Of course, if a Variant attacked, they were the first casualties, hence why most of these homes were built so shoddy and makeshift - they were easily built and easily destroyed by design. If the time came for the Nomads to run, then they could run at a moment''s notice. It was a known fact that though crime was rtively well policed within the walls of cities, there was little to no regtion in Settlements. In the distance, Aldrich saw Haven''s thirty-meter-tall walls looming,rge autocannons sweeping from side to side at the top of the walls, searching for Variants to gun down. People from Haven who wanted to buy drugs, gamble, or buy illegal tech woulde here, and this time, Aldrich was one of them. He was sure he could get two forged CIDs (citizen identification) here. Nomads were known for being experts in ck market dealings, especially with under-the-table tech. They might have looked rough and rugged, but they had a rtively strong techno presence. Their cybeics fell short of licensed cyber-doctors in walled cities, but it still got the job done. Not to mention that there were more than a handful of cases where highly skilled for-hire Nomad techno hackers that had managed to get valuable data even from established Megacorporations. It was how they made a living in this new age of alter power boosted tech and data. Aldrich walked side by side with Valera through the Settlements, smelling smoke, burning metal, and roasted food in the air. Without her heavy armor to weigh her down, her figure stood out in full view. Her night dress was elegant, sleek and ck and hugging her hips and straining at her sizable chest. Yet, where her skin was visible - her bare shoulders and arms in particr - it was obvious to see the outline of toned muscle from a lifetime of physical activity. In Valera''s case, a full lifetime and undeath of beating people to death. asionally, a man would whistle at her or eye her for far too long, and she would respond with a deathly re, immediately instilling both the fear of god and death into them and making them scram. With his mask on and Dynamite Girl''s cape as a makeshift cloak, he wasrgely unidentifiable, and in the first ce, Nomads rarely bothered each other. Aldrich had his two Evil Eyes scan ahead in the sky, searching for an appropriate shop. In a few minutes, he found one. Arge trailer fitted with vent pipes and a neon signbeled with bright blue letters that read out TECH. Simple and to the point. The door of the trailer had the symbol of a bearded man with an eyepatch over it. The symbol of the Odinsons, a fairly well known Nomad gang specialized in forgeries and robberies. Aldrich cracked his neck and knuckles. The Odinsons were known for oftentimes getting violent in their dealings. "Valera, I know where we''re going. And we might have to fight." Valera smiled widely as she clenched her fists. A small portion of her powerful aura emanated, making nomads around them tense up in fear before scattering away like cockroaches exposed under light. "Then all the better, right, master?" "Yeah," said Aldrich. Ideally, he would get his two forged CIDs with no issue, but if a problem ever arose, well, he was ready to get his hands bloody for he had no sympathy for criminals. Chapter 27: The Odinsons

Chapter 27: The Odinsons

Aldrich and Valera made their way to the Odinsons shop. It was a good walk away from the main ''streets'' of the Settlement, taking up its own isted territory. As he walked, he had the Evileye scout everything it could. Their shop was arge, mobile trailer home that looked somewhat like a subway car or railcar. It was long and rectangr in shape, though sizable enough that it could reliably fit in twenty people to live ratherfortably. Among mobile homes in the Settlements, this was one of therger ones for sure, indicating that the Odinsons ranked quite highly among nomads in terms of wealth and power. The home was decked out with modifications to survive traveling through the harsh environment of the Wastnds where sand storms, torrential storms, maic storms, and basically any storm one could think of sted thend. There were blinking green generators at the top of the home that likely projected force fields while auto-turrets rotated around, pointing directly at Aldrich and Valera as they approached. Tworge cannon barrels were fitted into the front of the home, and bright, glowing white lines streaked on the cannons indicated they were energy weapons. Twelverge power bikes were parked to the sides of the trailer home, attached by cables to sockets on the home to charge their electric engines. Once, gas and petroleum were used pretty often in the world, but that had phased outpletely since the Monstering when rising climate temperatures and mass, sudden environmental instability forced cleaner energies to the forefront. The home was armored in retractableyer of shingled ck Durasteel like the scales on an armadillo, though since the home was anchored and open for business, the armor was fully retracted. Aldrich counted eight Odinson members outside, though likely, there were just as many if not more inside the mobile home. Not bad, all things considered. He could get a general sense of power from the Odinsons, reading their levels. They ranged from levels 1 to 5. Pathetically low, but expected. Nomads generally did not have amazing powers. If they did, then they would not be living like this out here. Hence the reliance on cybeics and conventional firearms. The only exception was wanted viins, but as far as Aldrich could tell, these guys were just low-level gangsters. Then again, level ratings seemed to favor physical strength and destructive capability. Some of them might have had confusing or unique powers that made them more difficult to deal with. Aldrich was still careful. He still took the time to formte what to do. But he did know one thing, if things went bad, terribly bad, he would leave no survivors. == Aldrich and Valera walked up to the Odinsons base. Odinson members stood up from tables and tarps where they enjoyed the shade to talk or y cards or inspect tech and put their hands to their hips, thumbing Bolter pistols. All of the Odinsons notably had an artificial blue left eye - a signature marking for their gang. Among this were tattoos that evoked the image of old Norse runes. "What do you want, Mr. Mask?" An Odinson, a big guy, probably easily six foot two (~188cm), came up to Aldrich and Valera. He scratched his rough blonde beard with a mechanical hand and smiled at Valera. "Or are you here to sell her? Cause'' if you are, I''d buy in a damn heartbeat. Promise I won''t rough her up too much, either. Gotta make sure you can keep her fresh to put food on your table, right?" A nerve became visible on Valera''s forehead, and Aldrich immediately raised a hand in front of her as he sensed a lethal punching. "No, I''m no pimp," said Aldrich. "I''m here to buy tech." "Yeah?" said the Odinson. He looked disappointed before he waved others of his gang onward. "Boys, get them checked up." Two Odinsons came by waving metal detecting sticks in front of Aldrich and Valera. "Nothing on em but the clothes on their back," said one of them. "Check AC count." The inspecting Odinsons took out two scanners that fit over their eye like a shade. The scanners were red in color and projected a small web of holographic red light that washed over Aldrich and Valera. "AC count¡­zero?" said the Odinsons in confusion. "Zero? The fuck? Scan them again." Another round of scanningmenced. "Yeah, it''s zero. No doubt about it." "You two are Duds? While I''ll be damned," said the bearded Odinson with the mechanical hand. "Haven''t seen one in a long time. Thought your kind was extinct or some sh*t, heh. But guess you all won''t pose any threat." The Odinson turned around and talked into a radio transmitter in his hand. "Two clients, boss. Lookin'' for tech. No weapons. Both Duds. Pretty sure they ain''t cops or undercover heroes. You can see em'' through the cameras, too." He put his hand to his ear and heardmands from the other side. He smiled as he looked at Valera again. "Got it." The Odinson nodded to Aldrich and Valera and waved them forward, suspiciously friendly now. "Go ahead. Look around and buy what you want if you got the creds for it." The door to the mobile home slid open with a heavy click, and Aldrich and Valera stepped in while two Odinsons walked behind them, almost corralling them into the home. The insides were dimly lit with neon purples and dark blues like a night club. The walls were just bare, solid metal with zero concern for home decoration. There were tables and chairs and furniture scattered around hap hazardly with Odinsons smoking up a drug-fueled storm, some passed out, some fondling half-dressed prostitutes in theirps, and others watching telescreen broadcasts. The dank smell of Green, the newest and most concentrated strain of marijuana, wafted through the air as did the acrid smell of regr smoke. The heavy sliding doors clicked closed behind Aldrich and Valera, and as they did, a silence descended on in the room. All of them stared at Valera. A few whistles came out. "Look what we have here," said one of the Odinsons as he eyed Valera up and down while sprawled out on a couch. Valera just stared straight ahead, not meeting eyes with any of the Odinsons. *Master, when can we bash their skulls in?* said Valera telepathically. *Patience, Valera. Let''s see how this ys out.* Aldrich immediately mentallymanded his two Evil Eyes to scout this room and the others, getting a full read of the home''syout. "Yeah, we got customers, Bjorn. Keep it in your pants for now," said the Odinson with the mechanical hand. "Brant here will lead you to the tech room. Have fun." He motioned to an Odinson that was heavily decked out with cybeics. His skull waspletely chrome capped and both his arms were entirely mechanical. Brant smiled at them and ushered them forwards with a head movement. Aldrich and Valera followed, but by now, Aldrich knew everything that was going to happen. The mobile home was roughly split into to. Right now, they were in the living quarters. Deeper in, the other half of the homeprised of a tech room where a duo of goggle wearing technos moved about in rolling chairs, maintaining weapons, detached cybeic parts, and, most importantly, creating forgeries. They forged works of art and identification cards. They also checked the authenticity of various things the Odinsons had stolen from supply convoys or heists in walled cities using fake IDs. Jewelry, mostly, for in today''s society where consumerism still ran high to keep human morale high, useless and petty things like jewelry still had high value, especially in walled cities where there was enough wealth and stability for people to find something, anything, to prove they were richer and better than others. But this was not all. Behind the tech room, Aldrich saw five Odinsons with shock batons armed and ready. They had expectant, hungry smiles on their faces. It was obvious what they wanted to do. They wanted to knock out Aldrich and Valera, especially Valera, and then do what they wanted. Probably kill Aldrich and force Valera into sexual servitude. They did this because they thought that Aldrich and Valera were Duds. Completely and utterly powerless. This was why they did not even care to ask Aldrich to remove his mask. They did not think he was any threat at all. It made sense for these pieces of trash to do this. They had lived by the motto of stealing from the weak their entire lives. Why would they change now? When they saw two seemingly helpless prey stand right in front of them? *Master, do you see what I am seeing?* said Valera. *Well, yeah, you''re seeing what I''m seeing* said Aldrich. *Oh, right, I forgot, teehee. Sometimes I feel we are so close that your eyes are mine, and mine yours. Anyways, master, do I have permission to fight? To kill? To rip and tear?* *Yeah* said Aldrich. *Just remember: no survivors.* *My master, you do not have to tell me that. I know* Chapter 28: Gang Wipeout

Chapter 28: Gang Wipeout

"Just a lil'' more, and you''ll get what you want, hehe," said Brant as he kept ushering Aldrich and Valera forward. They were now at the end of a dimly lit hallway, just a few steps away from the brightly lit tech room. The two technos notably had been ordered to stop working and hid under their counter and worktables until whatever it was that happened blew over. "There, just across that door," said Brant as he pointed to the open entrance into the tech room. The boss is there, too. He''s a real nice guy. You can deal with him. Bet he''ll treat you real nice, too." "Come on in. We don''t bite. We got a bad rep cause'' of our robberies and all, but we got noble hearts, you know. We only steal from rich pricks in walled cities. To fellow nomads like you two, we only got generosity," said the boss, marked as the head of this gang because he wielded a mechanical spear-energy gun that was supposed to be the stand in for Gungnir, the mythological spear that the Norse god Odin wielded. He stood several meters behind the door with a surprisingly weing smile, positioned like bait so that he was visible but none of the five baton wielding goons at the sides of the door were. One Evil Eye was positioned in the tech room, watching everything that happened. Another was positioned outside, keeping tabs on the rest of the goons. "Yeah, go on in." Brant smiled hungrily, waving Aldrich and Valera in. "How about you lead us in?" said Aldrich. "We can all go in together." "Huh? No can do. Boss likes to keep his meetings private and real personal, heh. He likes to get first dibs on clients, y''know." "I wasn''t asking." Aldrich casted [Negative Surge] on himself. Green strands of energy infused into his body, covering it with a thin, visible aura. For ten seconds, Aldrich now received 20% of his magic stat into strength, agility, and perception. In his case, this was a six stat bonus. [-15 Mana] [Mana: 55/84 ] 40/84] **[Author''s Note: Aldrich drank 2 charges of his mana sk prior to this]** [Strength: 11 ] 17] [Agility: 10 ] 16] [Perception: (10) ] 16] Aldrich reached out and grabbed Brant''s chrome ted skull. His fingers dug into the metal, warping it with moaning cracks. "Th-the fuck, man!?" shouted Brant. "I go left, you go right," said Aldrich. "Understood, master," said Valera as her eyes lit up red and her fists closed. Aldrich leaped in and held Brant up to the left as a human shield. Two Odinsons with shock batons yelled as they mmed their batons down but only hit their fellow Odinson. Brant convulsed and foamed at the mouth as the electricity savaged him. Aldrich threw Brant towards the baton wielding Odinsons, turning him into a human-chrome bowling ball that knocked his fellow gangsters down like bowling pins. Aldrich nced to Valera''s side. Valera had just taken the baton hits right to her shoulders. The blue electricity cracked through her body, but all she did was just smile. Three Odinsons just kept beating and whacking at her with the batons with shock ridden impacts. "Is that it!? Is that it!? You can''t even make me feel pain!" "What the fuck!? How''s she still standing!?" said an Odinson as he swung his baton again, this time in fear. Valera grabbed the Odinson''s wrist and snapped it like a twig. "FUUUCK!" the Odinson went down on a knee as he let go of his baton. "Get off of him!" said the other two Odinsons as they let go of their batons and tried to pry Valera''s hand off of their brethren''s wrist. None of them could make Valera even budge. "Pathetic," said Valera with an utterly bored expression on her face. "You want me to let go of him? Fine." Another scream of pain rang through the air as Valera tore the Odinson''s arm straight off. Blood arced and trickled from the dismembered limb, and Valera patted it in her palm before using it to smash the other two Odinsons in the head,pletely crushing their skulls and instantly killing them. Their blood circled around Valera, fueling her [Crimson Furnace] shield. Aldrich in the meanwhile disabled the Odinsons on his end. Where Valera overwhelmed with enormous stats, Aldrich used hisparatively lesser stats to their maximal extent, using his extensive martial arts training. He weaved expertly between baton strikes and then struck their throats, copsing their windpipes, or gouged out their remaining eye with finger pokes before dropping them with precise, quick liver punches. This left three Odinsons including Brant disabled and groaning on the ground, though Brant was dead, the chrome capping on his skull caved in from Aldrich''s grip. Aldrich killed the remaining disabled Odinsons by stomping on their necks, breaking them to make sure there was no way they could regenerate or suddenly blindside him with a power. All this in a sequence of just one and a half seconds, before the Odinsons could even draw their Bolter pistols or use their powers. "Experiment sess," said Aldrich. "With [Negative Surge] and my martial arts, I can beat armed Alters even as a caster. Though I guess this trash doesn''t count for much of a challenge." "Indeed," said Valera as she stomped her heels down on a downed Odinsons''s skill, shattering it and sttering her pale legs with blood. The blood quickly drained away, absorbed into Valera''s body. She made a disgusted face. "Even their blood is utterly foul. I was so excited to taste fresh human blood, but theirs is tainted. It tastes like rust. Like metal." "Too many cybeics," noted Aldrich. "H-how!? Alters!? How did you avoid the scanners!?" said the boss as he aimed his spear gun at Valera and fired off a bolt of sma. The sma scattered against Valera''s energy resistant blood shield, turning into nothing but smoke and crackling electricity. Valera turned to the boss and red at him, her ck and red eyes monstrous, inhuman, and utterlycking anything resembling human mercy. "W-what!?" the boss stepped backwards while his knees trembled. He clenched his fists, and his one remaining eye glowed white. A barrier of translucent white energy formed around him. His Alter power. "What-who are you two!? Heroes!?" He looked down at the bloody and brutalized bodies of his men. No heroes would ever do this. "No, not heroes, then¡­viins!? Do you work for another gang!? God¡­it isn''t about the money, is it!? We''ll pay it back, I swear. The Trident will get what I promised them!" Aldrich immediately stiffened. "The Trident?" He heard shouting and footsteps echo behind him as Odinsons were alerted to the scuffle. "Valera, take care of everyone outside this room. Remember: no survivors," said Aldrich. "I''ll take care of things here." Valera''s Duhan smile showed. Her cheeks split apart as her smile grew from ear to ear, baring rows of sharp, bestial teeth andrge, bloodsucking fangs. "As you wish, my master," said Valera. Her voice had a throaty, inhuman reverb underlining it now. She sprinted off as a ck and white blur, and as her quick footsteps echoed down the hallway, screams rang through the air as she tore her way through the gang. Chapter 29: Gang Wipeout (2)

Chapter 29: Gang Wipeout (2)

"The Trident, is it?" said Aldrich as he made his way towards the Odinson boss. The Trident. A name that Aldrich would never forget. The criminal organization that had killed his parents. One of thergest international crime syndicates on the whose web of influence spread from North America all the way to East Asia. Some of the most famous and feared viins worked for it. Ending that organization was going to take time and power, but thankfully for Aldrich, he had time, and soon, he would have power that nobody could question. "Now why would the Trident be dealing with a low-level nomad gang like you, hm?" said Aldrich. "You aren''t Trident? Then what the hell do you want with me? Why would you kill my boys like that!? For what!?" said the boss. "For what? Let''s be real here. What were you going to do otherwise? Knock me out and kill me? Do whatever you wanted with my femalepanion who is now gleefully ripping your mens'' skulls from their spines?" said Aldrich. He manifested a coin from his palm. "I wanted to barter and trade fairly. You attacked me. I defended myself. And now, you pay." Aldrich took a bolter pistol and shot three rounds into the Odinson boss''s shield before it clicked empty. The bullets-rge bolt fired rail slugs - mmed against the shield and pinged off harmlessly. Fairly impressive. Bolters were crude in terms of design, but their miniature maic rail bolt shots, though notoriously inurate and prone to jamming, packed a massive punch. "You can''t hurt me," said the boss. He put a hand behind him, resting it against the wall of the tech room. Various wires sparked around him as electrical energy fed into him, fueling the shield. "And I got enough power here to put this shield up for hours. Other nomads are gonna''e knockin'', and when they do, you better for ready for a fucking war." "Trust me, it won''te to that," said Aldrich. He analyzed the fact that the boss was still breathing. Oxygen still passed through that barrier. He got up real close to the boss, right in front of the barrier, and put a hand in front of it. "[Horror Warp]" said Aldrich, chanting the spell. There was no direct need to chant the name of the spell, but he realized that it made it easier for him to focus on it, thus increasing his cast time. A dark, wispy cloud of shadowy particles gathered around his hand, and within this ck cloud were glowing red eyeballs that stared hungrily at the boss. "Hope you have nice dreams. When you wake up, I''ll make sure you''re in a better mood to talk," said Aldrich as he walked away. The [Horror Warp] passed through the boss''s barrier. "W-what!?" said the boss. His eyes widened in terror as the spell enveloped his face. He started to choke for a second before he fell to his knees and nted on the floor face first, drooling. He shivered and shook every so often, blinking rapidly and growing pale and whimpering as if caught in a nightmare, and indeed, he was. "Now, you two." Aldrich looked over to the counter where the technos hid. They were still cowering under the desk. "Get up before I put a bolt through both your skulls." The two technos stood up with arms raised in surrender, trembling in terror. They were skinnier than the other Odinsons with visor goggles and mohawks. Notably, they had sockets in their skulls which they could use to jack into technology and interface with it directly with their brains. "P-please, we''ll give you anythin''! Anythin'' you want, man, we got it!" they said. == Valera made her way through the dark hallway like a specter of bloody carnage. She spied three men aiming their strange ranged weapon at her from several meters away. Before they could fire, she [Dashed] behind them. "Teleportation!?" one of them eximed in surprise before Valera took his head and smashed it into a pulp against a wall. "And super strength!? How many powers does she have!?" "Just shoot! Shoot!" Valera punched a hole straight through one man before he could fire and used his body as a shield to tank bolter shots. The corpse shuddered as bolts blew offrge chunks from its back. "Peek-a-boo," said Valera as she lowered the corpse skewered on her arm, her gleaming red and ck eyes wide in excitement as they settled on the remaining gunman with hunger. "Help! I need help! He-," began the man before his head blew apart from a powerful punch. Valera activated her [Blood Sense], detecting the presence of warm flesh and blood bodies all around her through the walls. She shuddered in ecstasy at how much pain and terror she would inflict. She ran through the hallway and entered the living room where the Odinsons were just now beginning to get out of their drug induced stupors and get their bolter pistols ready. Valera''s eyes darted from side to side. Six more prey. She disappeared in a sh, appearing right in front of the nearest Odinson. The Odinson''s eyes widened as he saw her hands dug into his guts. "Bye bye," said Valera as she tore the man straight in half. She closed her eyes in bliss and bathed in the blood and gore, all of it fueling her [Crimson Furnace] shield. "Shoot! Shoot! Kill her!" Bolt after bolt fired at Valera. They pierced through her blood barrier as they were physical damage, not energy attacks, but when they reached her body, her bare, pale skin, they crumpled up and bounced off like they had hit a wall of indestructible metal. "What kind of fucking Alter is she!? She''s so goddamn strong!" "Doesn''t matter! If you want to live, you keep fucking firing! Erik, use your power! Beat her ass!" "Oh? Someone is going to challenge me?" Valera''s ear to ear, grotesque smile shed as she looked around. One of the men, Erik, presumably, shuddered and convulsed before his shirt ripped apart. His flesh turned red as he swelled up to a size of three meters, dwarfing everyone in the room. He had to hunch his head so as to fit in the room, and his thick muscles made it obvious how much power he had. "Yes, that''s more like it," said Valera. She threw the two halves of the man she had split open at two of the other Odinsons, killing them with the high-speed impact throws aimed expertly to cave their skulls in. == "Yeah? You''ll do anything?" Aldrich tossed the Elden World coin he had manifested over to them while pointing the bolter pistol at them. "You guys are masters at forgery and theft, right? Especially jewelry. Appraise that. I want to know what it''s worth. One of the technos shakily took the coin and stared at it, tapping his visor goggles. The goggles whirred as they focused on the coin. "Holy sh*t¡­where''d you get this, man?" said the techno. The coin shone a sheen of mystical gold and the size of a man''s entire palm. The circumference of the coin was grooved and the face of the coin carved with the face of a beautiful woman''s face with flowing locks of wondrously patterned hair. "The way this face is carved and the hair, man, the hair - you see the patterning on this sh*t?" said the techno as he held it up for the other one to look. "Pure artistry. Who made this? And solid gold, too?" Aldrich got the information he was looking for. Looked like coins were worth something in this world. He waved the technos forward. "Give me back my coin." "Y-yeah, you got it, boss," said the techno as he flipped the coin over. Aldrich nabbed the coin in his palm and disappeared it into his inventory. "Now for what I really want," said Aldrich. "One of you decrypt this." He reached into Ghost''s bag that he had carried with him and slid his Eye-Phone over. "Y-you got it! A model X, is it? We can break through this in a couple min," A techno took the phone and took it to another table where he connected it via cable to aputer screen. He jacked into theputer with the socket in his head. "And you," Aldrich pointed to the remaining techno. "You sell CIDs, right? Show me everything you have. I need them for myself and mypanion." "You got it, man," said the techno. "You think you can spare us that coin for it? Some of our CIDs are real fuckin'' expensive. It ain''t easy or cheap to get around Net securities." "How about a bolt instead?" said Aldrich as he raised the barrel of the bolter pistol right at the techno''s face. "Nevermind a coin, if you want to get out of this with your lives, you do what I say. Get to fucking work." "G-got it, man!" the techno hurried over to the back of the room and opened a locked cab where countless license cards sat neatly arranged in ck drawers. He took a whole drawer and put it down on the counter in front of Aldrich. "Take your pick, man," said the techno. "We got ss 3, 2, and 1 CIDs. We got private investigator CIDs, police CIDs, even CIDs for the big fuckin'' mega corporations. We need them when we gotta'' sneak into headquarters and steal sh*t. Just take what you need, we snap your pic, upload it to the ID, and you got a whole ass new identity. Sh*t would cost ten thousand credits minimum, but for you - on the house. Long as we stay alive." "Impressive," said Aldrich. Citizen identifications had sses depending on what ss of citizen one was. The higher ss a citizen, the wealthier and more influential they were. ss 3prised mostly of manualborers and bottom rung society while ss 2 consisted mostly of white-cor job workers and heroes. ss 1 was the real gold where the wealthiest corporate executives, politicians, and the top 100 heroes existed. "I got a real good suggestion for you here," said the techno as he took out a pair of CIDs. "This was for a young couple that got rich off inherited trust funds. It''s ss 1, meaning you''ll be able to go anywhere, and it''s got the least baggage. Your supposed moneyes from a private fund, so there ain''t no corporation you''re supposed to be workin'' for that people can trace you back to. If you want to live a real quiet, real nice life, this is the best." "I''ll take them," said Aldrich. "And these." He took out ten CIDs for himself and Valera. Each one was linked to arge corporation and would allow them to infiltrate their headquarters when necessary under forged identities. He did not necessarily need these for now, but he had no idea if he would in the future. And it was better to always be prepared. "T-ten more? Please, man, we run a fuckin'' business over here. Some of these were promised to some real big shot clients-," began the techno. "You won''t be running this ''business'' with a bolt through your head, no?" said Aldrich. "You''ve seen what I''ve done to your friends. I won''t hesitate to leave your brains smeared on these walls." "Y-yeah, I get it." The techno begrudgingly took the CIDs to aputer. "Can you bring yourdy friend here? Need her picture." Aldrich mentally looked through Valera''s eyes. She was soaked in blood and guts. She was outside the mobile home atop the corpse of a giant, red-skinned man with an exposed skull and various fist shaped dents in his chest. All around him were the blood drained corpses of Odinsons. She had wiped out the entire gang. Valera smiled as she sank her wed hands deep into the red-skinned Odinson''s throat, draining his blood straight through the jugr. *Valera, I need you here* said Aldrich. Valera immediately nodded. *Understood, master*. Aldrich only had to wait three seconds before Valera appeared. She smashed through the ceiling of the tech room andnded perfectly beside Aldrich with her head bowed. "I have eliminated all of these filthy humans," said Valera as the blood drenching her pale skin entirely red faded away, absorbed into her. She shed a stare at the two technos, causing them to shriek. "Now, shall I dispose of them?" "No, we need to take pictures," said Aldrich. "Pictures?" said Valera. "Right, you don''t know what cameras are," said Aldrich. "They''re like¡­images of us stored in recording crystals." "Oh, tomemorate this ughter, is it?" said Valera. "Of course, my master!" Valera shyly leaned on Aldrich''s shoulder and looked ahead, waiting for their image to be recorded. "Uh¡­pictures taken separately," said one of the technos. "You dare to ruin this moment!?" began Valera, her voice rising and killing intent radiating off of her. "Take a picture of us together as well. Print it out," said Aldrich. "Then take the separate pics for our IDs." "You-you got it," said one of the technos. He snapped a pic by staring at Aldrich and Valera and tapping a button on his visor goggles. "Now, we take separate pictures," said Aldrich. "Yes, master," said Valera as her ear-to-ear smile faded away into one more normal and regrly happy. The techno snapped their pics individually and then took Aldrich''s CIDs. He ced them on a tablet linked to aputer that he operated by jacking into it via head socket. "How long will this take?" said Aldrich. "And don''t even think about calling for help. Nevermind about time. If this takes over twenty minutes, I''m shooting both of you." "H-holy sh*t, man, we''re working as fast as we can!" said a techno. "Up to you to work faster, then," said Aldrich simply. = It took twenty minutes, but the technos got things done in fifteen minutes. They handed over Ghost''s unlocked phone and Aldrich''s new CIDs. Aldrich put them all in Ghost''s bag and zipped it up. "We good now, right man? We did so much sh*t for you-," said one of the technos. Aldrich shot him through the head, dropping him to the ground. Meanwhile, Valera hummed to herself happily through the violence as she stared at a framed photo of her and Aldrich together, blushing and holding a hand to her cheek. "What the fuck! You said you would let us go!" said the one remaining techno. Aldrich pointed the bolter pistol at him. "I never guaranteed your lives. And you two talk too easily." "We didn''t do nothing to you!" said the techno. "All I do here is just work on tech! I-I was just following orders, you know!" "Orders, huh?" said Aldrich. "Real convenient that when sh*t turns sour, you pin it on orders. But you were so willing to just stand there and let us die or get enved. It''s so easy to follow orders when it''s good for you, no? But you know, I''m curious: how well will you take orders when they''re bad for you? So here''s my order to you. Die." Aldrich shot thest techno through the head. The bolt blew his head uppletely like a bomb had been set off inside of it. "Time to burn this ce down," said Aldrich as he spied various exposed, sparking wires and crates packed with live ammunition both shrapnel and incendiary grenades. Perfect for blowing this ce up and making sure no surveince or data was left behind of them. Chapter 30: Loot

Chapter 30: Loot

[16 Odinson Gangsters defeated!] [+80 EXP] [EXP Bar: 5/500 ] 85/500] "Now, shall we get to razing this base?" said Valera. "Not yet. I''m going to loot this ce as much as possible first," said Aldrich. He went over to the nightmare wrapped Odinson boss and patted him down, finding an Eye-Phone, cigars, a lighter, wallet, and, most notably, a set of car keys. Aldrich took the keys and phone for himself before motioning to Valera. "Take a tarp from outside and wrap him in it. We''re taking this guy with us for questioning." "Ah, questioning, is it?" Valera smiled. "I do love some questioning. Especially when pain is involved." Valera grabbed the Odinson boss by the cor and leaped up through the hole in the ceiling she had made. Aldrich looked around and scrapped together any valuables he could. He took as many credit chips as possible from drawers in the tech room. These were sleek ck chips made by Credit Union, thergest credit banker in the world, and when inserted into a credit machine or personal device along with a CID, could transfer credits directly to the owner''s bank ount. He found arger bag to carry things in, and in it, he dumped in a few bolter pistols, grenades, and a box of ammunition. He also packed a signal generator and twoptops owned by one of the technos. "Serve," said Aldrich to the first techno he had killed, the one with his head still intact. A soul hovered over him as did souls for everyone else he and Valera had killed. Mathematically, a drop rate of souls like this was near impossible. A drop rate for a soul was 5%. But it seemed that every single human that died so far had dropped a soul. Gave more credence to the idea that souls did exist, and they existed in every human and, interestingly, some Variants. This would make Aldrich''s level up journey much, much faster as souls did not have to be crafted. They could just be consumed for half the experience that their original owners gave. Aldrich watched as the mohawked, visor wearing techno stood up from the pool of blood he was slumped over. A gaping hole in his chest matched him with Aldrich. [-5 Mana] [Mana: 20/84 ] 15/84] Aldrich made room for the techno by letting go of his onest remaining normal Striker. He would have liked to say goodbye to the undead personally, but it was not possible here. Aldrich analyzed his power. As expected, the techno had a fairlymon power that let him interface with technology with his mind via a plug on the body that linked with major nerves that further linked with the brain, though usually hardcore technos had plugs etched directly on their heads. Although undead resurrected with a soul lost their previous identity, they did not lose their powers. This meant that hopefully, Aldrich could use the techno for more tech-based needs as his ability to use technology was based off the usage of his power. With this in mind, Aldrich had taken theptops and a signal generator for Net connectivity in the Variant forest. Everything else was not especially valuable. Drugs, more weapons, and the like. Aldrich harvested the rest of the souls and moved on, nting multiple timed incendiary grenades around various key points in the base for a clean demolition. [+15 Odinson Souls obtained] = Aldrich left the Odinson base and saw Valera standing with the bagged up Odinson boss on her shoulder. "Where to now, master?" said Valera. "Back to the forest. I''ve gotten what I came here for, and I want toy low for the rest of the day." Aldrich walked behind the Odinson base and saw the boss''s personal ride: an ARMA AEP (All Environmental Purpose) armored car. ARMA was a renowned megacorporation that focused on selling ''peacekeeping'' military tech highly essible for themon consumer, though they did have a higher end line for supplying police forces with. The consumer grade equipment was ssified as green grade while the police equipment was blue grade. The boss''s armored car was blue grade, ordinarily meant for police but of course, there were no rules in the ck market. It was a solid four wheeled drive that could maneuver through the Variant forest quite well with its sturdy construction and ability to enter a sleeker ''hover mode'' that, though slower, could float freely through narrow tree gaps with its smaller surface area and maneuverability. Aldrich unlocked the car with the keys he had taken from the boss and popped open the trunk. "Put that guy in there and close the trunk when you''re done," said Aldrich. "Understood, master," said Valera. She thumped the boss down and mmed the trunk door over him before staring at the armored car with her head tilted like a curious cat. "What is this, my master?" "It''s called a car. People use it to get around. Think of it like a mount, except it''s pure machinery," said Aldrich as he got in the front seat. He had the techno open up the seat beside him, waving Valera in like a chauffeur. Valera stepped in and sat beside Aldrich, marveling at the various screens and buttons and controls and blinking lights around her. "How quaint and wondrous. It almost reminds me of Dwarven magitek with the metal and the buttons, but even that used magic. Truly, there is no magic here? None at all?" "If you can''t sense it, it''s not here," said Aldrich. "It is still unbelievable," said Valera. "I have always hated the smoke belching and loud roaring of those dwarven metal beasts, but I suppose¡­there are some benefits to this technology." Valera looked down at the framed picture of her and Aldrich. She was leaning against Aldrich and smiling widely with a few blood spatters on her face shoulders while the limp bodies of Odinsons were blurred out in the background. She blushed as she looked at the picture. Aldrich smiled at Valera before he jammed the keys into the car and got the engine humming. "Alright, time to move out." == Aldrich parked as deep into the forest as he could, but at a certain point, even the armored car''s hover mode could not fit through the thick growth of the forest. "Incredible!" said Valera as she left the car. "The ride is so smooth, not at all like the galloping of a horse. And there are so many of these ''cars'', too. On the road, I must have seen hundreds of them moving about, and in such orderly fashion too." "Yeah, traffic lights andws will tend to do that," said Aldrich. The quaint thing was that although Settlements were prettywless zones, the roads leading in and out of walled cities were maintained directly by the Alterhuman Agency and Panopticon, so they were fairly heavily policed. This deterred nomads from blocking roads and stealing from drivers and supply convoys, though the key word here was deterrence. It was no guarantee of safety, and especially in more remote road stretches, the threat of nomad attacks was quite high. Aldrich''s undead came out of trees and bushes, surrounding his car, and he waved at them, findingfort in being with his small but growing army again. "I''m back," said Aldrich, nodding especially to Adam and ine. "And one step closer to getting back at Seth Sr." = Later that night, with the moon rising high above and shining its silvery pale light down on the forest, Aldrich sat in a small, watching as the techno he reanimated worked with aptop. Theptop was plugged into the signal generator - a rectangr ck box with blinking green lights - and also plugged into the techno via cables. Aldrich smiled. The experiment on whether the techno could use his power even as an undead had been a sess. Technos could still use their power to operate tech. This gave even more weight to what was known as the Cassandra Principle. It was a well known phenomena that techno Alters, especially the much higher end ones who could create technology that seemed to belong centuries ahead, could not actually articte how they made this technology or share the principles or construction behind it. When they worked on their tech, they did so almost in a trance, and often, this trance was highly addictive, like being in an euphoric dream. As a result, the strongest technos were often known for extreme passion and protectiveness over their technology on top of an inability to share their ideas. The extent to which a techno was affected by the Cassandra Principle varied greatly. Some could actually share their technology and exin how it was made, but it was a known rule that the more advanced tech was, the less essible it became. One thing Aldrich noted was that he could not see through the techno''s eyes or mind when he neurally linked with theptop. He was blocked out while the techno worked, and that meant Aldrich had to give the techno individuality to function on his own. "Alrighty, that''s done," said the techno as he handed Aldrich his forged CIDs. All the credits he had stolen had been transferred to his new fake identity as a Mr. Bruce Vane,ting him with a total of around 10,000 credits to his bnce. That was not a lot, especially considering he was supposed to have inherited a multi-million credit fortune, but then again, Aldrich did not really need that many credits. He just needed enough to get into and out of ces he needed to in cities. "Onto the phones." The techno plugged Ghost''s Eye-Phone and the Odinson boss''s eye phones into ports in theptop. The technos visor glowed a tint of blue as lines of text, images, and code sprawled across theptop screen in near unintelligible fashion to someone not as tech savvy as Aldrich. The techno scanned the content of the phones for any information relevant to Aldrich. Meanwhile, Aldrich nodded at the sess of the second experiment: one regarding individuality of undead and how it affected their performance. Even with individuality, the techno was utterly subservient to Aldrich. He had wanted to experiment how much individuality an undead could exhibit and whether it would inhibit Aldrich''smand over them. Thus, he had also formed a hunting party consisting of the Geist, Dynamite Girl, and Valera to roam around the forest, hunting down natural Variants to farm EXP. In this party, he gave Dynamite Girl and the Geist individuality with the key order to follow Valera''s orders. The Geist and Dynamite Girl had an instinctive dislike for each other, but they put that aside for Aldrich''s orders and worked surprisingly efficiently. By consuming all the Odinson souls for EXP (with each of them offering 3 EXP) and the hunting party taking down several more Variants, Aldrich had gotten to level 9 simply by doing nothing himself. He began to realize that once he hit a critical mass of undead, he could farm experience from anywhere across multiple locations because his undead had no range limiter nor time limit. His growth was exponential, and this was the start of the curve up. He dumped his 5 extra stat points into Attunement,ting him two extra unit slots. [+5 Attunement, +10 with affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 31 ] 41] [Unit Limit: 10 ] 12] Aldrichmanded Valera to save the corpses of a Alloy Wing Eagle and Big-arm Grizzly to add to his undead army. The eagle, especially, was of interest to Aldrich as it wasrge enough for him to use as aerial transport. "Alright, I''ve finished scanning through these phones, unlocking locked files and folders, you name it," said the techno. "So, what do you need, boss?" "Hm," Aldrich thought about what info he needed for a second before he was interrupted by a groan. The crinkling of a tarp sounded in his ear as he turned to see the wrapped up boss rolling around as he moaned and groaned in pain and fear as he awoke from his nightmare. "You know what, he''ll know what to look for better than me," said Aldrich as he walked over and put a foot on the boss''s chest, holding him still. "It''s time for some questioning." The techno put a thumbs up for Aldrich and said, "Good luck, boss. I''ll be here when you need me." Chapter 31: Investigation

Chapter 31: Investigation

Aldrich kicked over the Odinson boss so that he faced upwards. He could not move on ount of how tightly wrapped up he was in the brown tarp Valera had rolled him in, but his mouth was already moving. "Anything you want, I''ll tell you! You need something? I''ll get it to you!" said the Odinson boss, his one biological eye so wide that it looked like it was damn near ready to pop out of his skull. "Just don''t put me back to sleep! Not there, not back there, not the nightmares, god, no!" "Well, that was easy," said Aldrich. He jotted down a mental note that [Horror Warp] was no longer just a simple ten second stun if itnded. Against those with no mental resistance, it locked them in a prison of nightmares for almost eight entire hours. Regardless of how willing the boss was to talk, Aldrich still put his staff right on the man''s throat, pressing into it with just enough pressure to let him know that at any given moment, the staff could pierce right through and end his miserable existence. "The Trident. Everything you know about them. Tell me," said Aldrich. He spoke to the techno as well. "And you, listen to what he says and bring up any relevant info on his phone." "You got it, boss," said the techno. "Fisk, is that you?" said the boss, perplexed and betrayed. "You''re working for him now?" Aldrich allowed the techno, Fisk, his name was, to respond, curious as to whether there would be any recognition of his former boss. "Uh, don''t know who you are, but yeah, I''m workin'' for him. But y''know, if you ask me, I think you ought to get talkin'' instead of chattin'' with me," said Fisk. "You heard him," said Aldrich as he dug his staff deeper into the boss''s throat, making him wheeze. "O-okay," coughed the boss. "We started working with the Trident a year ago." "In Haven?" Aldrich narrowed his eyes. "I''ve done my fair share of research on the Trident, and I was fairly certain they had no presence in Haven." "Y-yeah, you''re right," said the boss. "It wasn''t in Haven. They got in touch with us for a heist. We had to snatch something from an Imugi convoy further down south. Around the S48 Highway. After the Monstering, the United States highway and road system had beenpletely overhauled due to the threat of monsters and vast swathes ofnd rendered uninhabitable. Two sets of roads were developed. ''Secure'' roads numbered from S1 to S50 that were reserved for transfer of crucial supplies and ''Commercial'' roads numbered from C1 to C100 that mapped a web of traffic around the states. The U.S. government managed themercial roads, but the Panopticon - a multinational peacekeeping and technological development organization that worked with almost every world government and the Alterhuman Agency to fend against Variants - managed the secure roads. Thus, S roads had a ton more security, surveince, and hero presence. "A ragtag, twenty or so member gang like the Odinsons managed to hijack an Imugi convoy? On a S road? Fucking ridiculous," said Aldrich as he began to press the staff into the boss''s throat again, suffocating him. Imugi was a mega-corporation based in Korea that stood at the absolute top of any military tech and development. ARMA was moremercial and widespread where Imugi was absolute razor cutting edge, creating top notch technology tailor made for select elite clients. Any Imugi convoy would have been guarded heavily. No, heavily guarded was an understatement. There would have been absolute top of the line autonomous defense systems, battle drones, force fields, and probably high-end mercenaries guarding it. This was on top of auto-turrets, cannons, and maybe even a hero or two that would have guarded a S-road. "He''s right," said Fisk as his red tinted visor shed and glowed. "Got somems and credit transfers that prove it." "Hm," said Aldrich as he eased the pressure on his staff. "You-you have to believe me," said the boss. "We didn''t do it by ourselves. The Trident helped us. They sent out a guy to help us. Viin called the Vanisher. He helped us. He just sorta flew over the convoy and then anything that could shoot at us just disappeared. It was real easy to just bust in and take what they needed after." "And what did they need?" "I don''t know." Aldrich red at the boss. "I really, really don''t know!" said the boss, panicked. "They-they wouldn''t tell us, and why would they? We''re just nomad thugs. B-but I do know that it was a case of some kind. Real secure and fancy lookin'', that case was. They made us transfer it, too." "Where to?" said Aldrich. "To Haven. We got a real strong presence in Haven, and we''re reliable unlike them crazy ass Boltheads or Fiends, so I think that''s why the Trident chose us to carry that package. We got it over to that nightclub, the one with real ssy cocktail party theme, uh, the Red Circle!" Aldrich thought about this for a moment. It was true that the Trident had no real presence here in Haven. Their north American branch operatedrgely in Neo-York, thergest tier 1 walled city in the states, not in a tier 3 city like Haven. It made some sense that if they wanted something delivered to Haven, they would hire local help. It was not umon forrger criminal syndicates to hire nomads like the Odinsons or, as the boss mentioned other gangs like the Fiends or Boltheads, for dirtier work, especially where their influence was limited. After all, nomads had no real citizenships, werergely untraceable, and could easily be abandoned when anything went wrong. But why at Haven? Something as sensitive and important as a case from Imugi, too. And to the Red Circle? A random nightclub? "Any info on this?" Aldrich asked Fisk. "Sorry, boss," said Fisk. "I got correspondence with a guy called ''Mr. X'' that set this whole heist up, but after the heist was done, there''s nothin'' more." "So that''s it, hm?" Aldrich shook his head. "You Odinsons are just too low level to know anything useful. I''ve reached a dead end about the Trident with you. It''s time to find some answers at the Red Circle." Aldrich raised his staff up, ready to pierce the boss''s throat, but then he shouted. "Wait! Wait!" "What?" said Aldrich, the staff still raised and ready to kill. "Th-the guy, Mr. X, the guy that connected us to the Trident, he also told me to bring my boys to Haven as often as I could." "Why is that?" said Aldrich. "He-he wanted me to sell our drugs, especially the good and expensive sh*t like X, to a list of dealers he approved," said the boss. "Dealers that aren''t nomads like us, y''know, ssier guys that deal sh*t in the city, inside clubs or bars and stuff." "And did you?" asked Aldrich. "Y-yeah, it was a no-brainer. He paid us way more than it cost to get the X. I have no fuckin'' idea why, but that''s why we keepin'' back and back to the Settlements around Haven," said the boss. Very, very interesting. "Bring up that list of approved dealers if you can, Fisk," said Aldrich. "Here." Fisk turned hisptop screen to Aldrich. He scrutinized a list of twenty names and did not recognize any of them except one. Davis Shane. The ckwater technician and engineer that Aldrich had ckmailed for selling drugs to students. Aldrich knew that Davis sold drugs inside Haven when the A and B ss students went out, but now he knew where this all happened: the Red Circle. Aldrich began to realize there were threads tying together the Trident with not only the nomads, but ckwater and its students. The Trident was peddling drugs to ckwater students indirectly through a supply chainprising of the Odinsons and then select dealers in the city. But why? He started to formte thoughts and suspicions. "Bring up info from Ghost''s phone," said Aldrich. "Find any mentions for the nightclub called the ''Red Circle''." "There''s a sh*t ton of em'', boss," said Fisk with a whistle. "Text messages, group chats, location tagged pictures, don''t know where to start with this-" "Any correspondence with a ''Davis Shane?''," said Aldrich. "Yeah. Good amount. Looks like this ''Ghost'' kid was a junkie. Real deep in it, too. Bought from Davis at the Red Circle every week," said Fisk. "You know anything about this?" Aldrich asked the boss. "No! N-nothing at all!" said the boss. "I just peddle the drugs; I don''t actually deal em''! Don''t know who they go to and never needed to!" "I see." Aldrich looked down at the fearful boss''s face and came to realize that the man would have no more useful information. He was just too low level for this. All he had been for the Trident was a mule to carry drugs and that one stolen case from Imugi. "Well, looks like your usefulness hase to an end. Take a break down in Hell." "W-wait-," began the boss before he choked on his words as Aldrich''s staff tore through his throat, killing him. [+8 EXP] [1x Odinson Soul (boss) obtained] [1x Odinson Soul (boss) consumed] [+4 EXP] [EXP Bar: 88/650 ] 100/650] [Current Level: 9] Aldrich kicked the boss''s corpse over for Adam, ine, and the Alpha Striker to start tearing away at to sate their hunger for brains and flesh. Meanwhile, he sat behind Fisk. "Show me all the correspondence you have from Ghost rted to the Red Circle," said Aldrich. "You sure, boss? That''s a lotta stuff," said Ghost. "I have time," said Aldrich as he made sure Valera''s hunting party was doing well. They were doing excellently, ready to track down more natural Variants. Soon enough, he would hit level 10 and then ess the first Tutorial Quest at which point he would gain a massive boost in power. Chapter 32: Investigation (2)

Chapter 32: Investigation (2)

Aldrich spent the next several hours just poring through all of Ghost''smunications about the Red Circle. His focus was unbroken, his mental stamina just as infinite as his physical stamina from being undead. Ghost and the Odinson boss all talked on private chatrooms located in what was known as the Dar. The regr Net was formed by the Panopticon after the Monstering and was considered an evolution of the world wide web. It amodated techno Alters who could now literally dive through virtual space with their minds, providing a universal, unified space that the Panopticon and various Net cyber securitypanies could regte and secure. However, there were many that did not like the feeling of having the Panopticon''s ever-present eye watching over them, and so the Dar was formed. An evolution of the dark web just as the Net was an evolution of the inte. The Dar required specific software, configurations, and authorizations to ess, and any data on it was encrypted so heavily that many technos generally considered it nigh impossible to forcibly crack into it from the outside. However, with a Dar surfer''s fully cracked phone or personal device, this became a different story. With ess to their personal device and information like passwords and personal ount information, it was rtively easy to ess user data on the Dar. Ghost''s Dar conversations werergely held between himself and Davis Shane, the ckwater technician and drug dealer. There were many conversationssting through a range of a year - almost the entire time that Ghost had been in ckwater. Most of these conversations were about Ghost buying drugs. Drugs not only for himself, but for others, and, more repulsively, to slip in the drinks of unsuspecting women. Aldrich remembered the way that Ghost had looked at and touched ine, and once more, he was grateful that he had ended Ghost with the pain and suffering he deserved. What Aldrich noted was that in thesemunications, Davis Shane talked to Ghost with a subservient tone, always asking him what he needed, telling him what the best things to buy were, giving him discounts, and so on. The technician even tried to stop Ghost from taking more X personally, warning him of addiction, but of course, Ghost had ignored him. Davis Shane was not trying to push drugs onto Ghost. He was trying to keep Ghost and the ckwater students he dealt with happy, even at the cost of profit. Aldrich found an especially interesting conversation dated back to around the same time when the Odinsons had made their heist and carried the Imugi case to the Red Circle. It was a request by Ghost asking when the ''special package'' was getting here, that Seth Sr personally needed this, and that it was urgent. This was no coincidence. Seth Sr needed whatever was in that case. To which Davis replied that he knew it was on the way, but he had no idea exactly when it would arrive as he could not directly ask the Trident. Davis further stated it was better to ask Casimir for details. A search on the word ''Casimir'' through Ghost''s phone indicated that he was the owner of the Red Circle nightclub. Ghost did not have any virtualmunications with Casimir, but he and Seth Sr''s crew routinely talked about the club owner in good light, appreciating the owner''s hospitality and willingness to always set up a private room for them. And, perhaps most interestingly, Casimir gave Seth Sr''s crew ess to Connectors. Connectors were individuals that, as the title suggested, ''connected'' another to a criminal organization. They werergely responsible for managing job listing for mercenaries and viins that needed work, but for thergest criminal syndicates like the Trident, they gained even more responsibilities. Connectors for theserger organizations were also responsible for contacting and keeping in the good graces of the strongest viins, pampering them with gifts, parties, and luxuries in exchange for a few ''favors'' here and there. They also reached out to potentially recruit independent viins and mercenaries into working full time for the organization, listing outprehensive job benefits and securities to working for them. In essence, they were job recruiters. The HR department of criminal organizations, so to say. Seth Sr and his crew, no, not just them, messages in group chats implicated almost the entirety of ckwater''s A-ss, went to the Red Circle for not only VIP service, but also to get in touch with Connectors for thergest criminal organizations. The only A-ss student that Aldrich could not find a mention of was the current rank 1 Mel Morales. In the Red Circle, the Connectors would promise the top performing ckwater students permanent high-end positions in their organizations, recognizing the talent and potential that the A-ss students had. Aldrich came to the realization that ckwater was not truly a functional hero academy. It trained either corrupt heroes who would use their position in the AA (Alterhuman Agency) to function as moles, or if they were in the A-ss, funnel into the highest ranks of criminal syndicates as viins. It all made sense now. Why ckwater was so isted and so hidden. Why there was so little information about it. Hell, when Aldrich had tried to research the academy, he could not even find a list of past alumni, no doubt because they all now worked as viins or mercenaries. It exined why the academy had such good equipment and facilities despite being so obscure and ranking so low. It exined why they did not give a damn about psych evaluations. It exined the brutality of the academy where only the strong survived. It also implicated the Sr family as the academy''s current head was Selina Sr and, of course, Seth Sr attended it. The fact that this had not be a PR nightmare for the Sr family indicated only one thing: the Sr family was working with criminal organizations to keep any information about their involvement highly hidden. Aldrich had done some research on the Sr family in trying to create his contingency ns against Seth Sr and knew that he and his mother were not part of the main branch of the Sr dynasty. They were an illegitimate branch with Selina Sr being the product of a one-time fling from the previous head of the Sr family. Quite likely, Selina Sr was the daughter of the previous Sr head and a viiness, hence why Selina had such strong connections to the criminal underworld. That made Seth Sr also illegitimate. He could never step into the fold of the main Sr family and don their golden costumes to bask in their glory and public game. He could share theirst name, but his existence would forever be a tightly controlled secret kept within the confines of ckwater and its criminal web. This was a significant amount of information to organize and mentally order, but one thing was clear to Aldrich: he was not just going to take down Seth Sr and his friends, but also ckwater - the academy that had thrown nothing but abuses to him and his friends. And by take down, he meant destroy. It was not enough for him to just leak this information to the public. Very likely, any leaks would just get taken down or smeared as fake news by the wealth of both the Sr family and various crime syndicates with vested interests to keep their viin and fake hero factory up and running. No, Aldrich had to destroy ckwater. Break it down so that it could never, ever produce viins. The very same kind of viins that had killed his own parents. Aldrich had the information he needed. He just needed to act. He knew Seth Sr and his crew made a visit to the Red Circle every Saturday. That was the perfect time to take them all down at once. Taking them out one by one would leave far too much time for suspicion to grow. But the problem was, yet again, power. Storming the Red Circle was no joke. If there were Connectors there, there were likely bodyguards. Mercenaries and decently rankings viins. And also the majority of ckwater''s A-ss. Aldrich would have to take down all of them. It was conceivably possible for Aldrich to do this after reaching level 10 and clearing the Trial Quest. After clearing the Trial Quest, he would gain a full set of new equipment, Elden World monsters to raise as undead, a powerful passive skill, and even more spells. The issue was Seth fucking Sr yet again. He was just too strong. Far, far stronger than the rest of the A-rank. It was almost a miracle that Mel Morales could even consistently beat him to take the rank 1 spot, and even then, she did that through unique applications of her portal based power, not through sheer brute force. Seth Sr might have been an arrogant asshole, but his power was the real deal. Even now, he could just fly through Aldrich''s undead army and burn everything down in a few minutes. He was just that strong. Ghost and the rest of the A-ss were like antspared to Seth Sr. And it was not because the A-ss was necessarily weak, it was just because they were young and had undeveloped powers. Alter powers needed time and training to develop, and it was said that an Alter''s power fully maximized and matured aste as the age of 30, with some even taking longer. However, Seth Sr was a gic anomaly known as a Starter Child. His power was high from the beginning. That meant he had less growth potential over time, but that mattered little when he had overwhelming power to start off with. Super strength, super speed, flight, near invulnerability, and high temperature sr beams for fire damage: the man was a living, walking, flying counter to Aldrich and his army. And if Aldrich wanted to strike on Saturday, he only had about five days to prepare against Seth Sr. During that time, he needed to get as strong possible - [Vine Beast x 1 defeated!] [+25 EXP] [Moss Beast x 3 defeated!] [+45 EXP] [Big-arm Grizzly defeated!] [+40 EXP] [Tunnel Centipede x 12 defeated!] [+360 EXP] [Red Carapace Great Centipede x 1 defeated!] [+80 EXP] [+550 total EXP] [EXP Bar: 100/650 ] 650/650] [Level up!] [Level 9 ] 10] [EXP Bar: 0/1200] [+5 stat points avable to distribute] [TRIAL QUEST 1 avable] All the experience from the Variants that Valera''s hunting party killed throughout the hours of Aldrich''s investigation poured into his head. He had tuned them out to focus on the investigation and because he trusted Valera, but he did not know that they had hunted so efficiently that he had already leveled up. Evidently, the hunting party had encountered a nest of giant centipedes and had dealt with them quite well. With Dynamite Girl there, any bug type natural Variants would have been no challenge at all, especially since they were all immune to poison and because bug type natural Variants tended to clump up, making them perfect targets for high heat explosions. Aldrich stood up. "That gonna be it, boss?" said Fisk. "For now. Good job," said Aldrich. "Get some rest." "Thanks a bunch, boss, but I don''t need it. I''ll be yin'' some games if you don''t mind," said the techno as he booted up a rhythm game stered with images of anime girls. Aldrich thought about taking away the techno''s individuality, but he could not see how ying this game would be of much risk, especially since it seemed to be offline. "Sure, go ahead," said Aldrich. "If you see or hear anything suspicious, you reach out to me." "Understood, boss," said Fisk as he started to rapidly tap at his keyboard, ying the game with expert skill honed from years and years of practice. It stood to reason that if martial arts training stuck with an undead raised with a soul, then so would¡­these skills. Aldrich made his way towards the deeper end of the forest where Valera was. He mentallymanded her to stop hunting and meet him. It was now time to clear the first Trial Quest. Chapter 33: Ghastly Preparation

Chapter 33: Ghastly Preparation

Aldrich distributed his 5 new stat points as he sped his way through the forest, weaving through trees and thin gaps with expert agility. He was not as fast as any Alter with powers that boosted their physicals, let alone ones that specialized them for speed, but he was fast enough that he could run circles around Alters with no such powers provided their AC count was not extremely high. As Aldrich reconvened with Valera, he distributed his 5 new stat points. [+2 Attunement, doubled to +4 from stat affinities] [+3 Magic, doubled to +6 from stat affinities] [Attunement: 41 ] 45] [+1 Attunement point avable] [Magic: 21 (28) ] 27 (34)] [Mana: 20/66 (84) ] 32/72 (90)] After this, Aldrichmanded one of his Evil Eyes to scout out the area around the Sign. He wanted to see to what extent the investigation for Ghost''s death had progressed. It was currently early in the dark hours of dawn on Tuesday, and ckwater would have started searching around Monday afternoon after giving Ghost the benefit of the doubt that he was just partying in Haven until Sunday. Only a day had passed. It was likely that any search for Ghost had not yet gone beyond the boundaries of ckwater campus. The search outside campus would probably start at first light today, meaning Aldrich did not have too much time. Aldrich reached Valera''s hunting spot and found arge pile of sted tunnel centipede corpses ckened and smoking beside a series of holes dug into the dirt. Valera sat on top of it, humming to herself while swinging her legs to her tune. The Geist and Dynamite Girl stood down below, eyeing each other warily. "Y''know, I don''t know what it is, but I don''t like you. Don''t like how ugly you are or why you disgust me so damn much," said Dynamite Girl. "Geh." The Geist shrugged and turned around. "Huh!? You wanna repeat what you said in front of my face!?" Dynamite Girl started fuming, evidently very easily prone to anger. Interesting, noted Aldrich. From Dynamite Girl and Fisk, the techno, he realized that giving individuality to undead with souls retained personality traits from their past lives, though they had no memories of them. Each tunnel centipede was sizable, almost asrge as a bear. Easily big enough to wrestle a man, wrap around him, and devour him. "Quiet, you two, master is back," said Valera. She jumped off the pile of centipedes andnded on a knee, elegantly bowing as a knight would to her lord. "Geheh." The Geist waved a hello to Aldrich. "Wee back, captain," said Dynamite Girl with arms crossed. Aldrich nodded at them. For now, he did not turn off their individuality. Leaving them with some had been incredibly useful as they could make their own decisions and fight far more efficiently, especially since Dynamite Girl had training in working with groups. Plus, Aldrich somewhat appreciated the extra noise and conversation. Valera gestured to the side with her gauntlet, pointing at a much, muchrger centipede. From the crimson red carapace on it, Aldrich recognized this as a Red Carapace Great Centipede. Likely the leader of this swarm of centipede Variants. It was six meters long and wide enough that it could plow through an ordinary man and snap him in half in two with its golden, ded mandibles. A massive dent in its head and several patches of raw, broken off and burnt carapace indicated that it had died to a mixture of severe blunt force trauma and explosions like the rest of its kin. "That was one real tough bastard," said Dynamite Girl. She spat at the corpse before raising her arm up, showing a huge cut in her side that exposed her internal organs and shattered off ribs. "Fucker got me real good, too. Blew it off the face of this goddamn earth in payback, though." "Gehgeh," said the Geist. Dynamite Girl sighed. "I know I didn''t literally blow it off this. Christ, do you not understand what a figure of speech is?" "Geh?" the Geist shrugged again. Aldrich stepped over to the Great Centipede and put a hand over its shattered head. "Serve." [-5 Mana] [Mana: 32/90 ] 27/90] The Great Centipede reanimated, its many sharp, de-like legs skittering before it flopped around back on its feet. "Gross," said Dynamite Girl. [+1 Zombie (Red Carapace Great Centipede) Lvl 11 reanimated] [Units controlled: 10/13 ] 11/13] "And the eagle and bear I asked you to save?" said Aldrich. "You, present the master with the prey he requested," said Valera as she pointed at the Geist. "Geh." The Geist opened itsrge mouth wide and its stomach expanded before caving in with strong flexion. It made a vomiting sound as it spat out the corpses of the Big-arm Grizzly and Alloy-wing Eagle. They were drenched in spit that preserved them well - likely the same way that Dynamite Girl had been preserved alive inside of the Geist''s stomach. "Even more gross," said Dynamite Girl as she shook her head at the Geist. "Good," said Aldrich. He went over to the bear and eagle and chanted again, "Serve." The grizzly reanimated, and then after the cooldown for [Raise Undead] passed, he casted it again, raising the eagle. [-10 Mana] [Mana: 27/90 ] 17/90] [Zombie (Big-arm Grizzly) Lvl 8 Reanimated] [Zombie (Alloy-wing Eagle) Lvl 7 Reanimated] [Units Controlled: 11/13 ] 13/13] Aldrich looked up as the zombie Big-arm Grizzly stared down at him. It was massive, asrge as the Geist was, though of course, considerably weaker. Its main power lied in its overly sized arms that dragged on the ground. These blows could store kic energy and unload them in explosive bursts that could even out-damage the Geist in short bursts. The Alloy-wing Eagle was an oversized eagle sizable enough for Aldrich tofortably ride on. Its wings were metallic in texture and color, possessing a shining grey sheen and yet still being pliable enough p and maneuver the creature through the air. Aldrich had the eagle fly up in a test run, and it managed to lift him off the air quite easily. It could even seat Valera, too, he guessed, but anymore than that would make flight for it ufortable. "Superb!" Valera pped her hands together. "My master takes to the skies once more. It is no Frost Dragon, but it will do for now. I hope there are dragons in this world - seeing you ride upon that majestic mount did awe me so." Aldrich remembered his old mount from Elden World. His level 100 character rode a Frost Dragon, the strongest undead mount there was. "There doesn''t have to be," said Aldrich. "Remember our Trial Quests? There are dragons in theter ones. Which is actually why I needed to meet back up with you. It''s time to clear our first Trial Quest." Valera squealed in delight before she regained herposure, putting down the visor of her helmet and grasping her bone shield firmly. "Then onwards to battle we shall go!" = Aldrich took all of his undead, including Fisk, with him to his Sign. The Evileye had scouted the area and a significant perimeter around it and had no found anything noteworthy. The Sign was free to use for now. Hemanded the Evileye to move out to ckwater and scout the campus directly. Around the Sign, Aldrich looked around at his ever-growing and incredibly varied undead army. He pulled up a list of them. Chosen Undead: Valera of the Immortal Legion Lvl 15 Zombie (Adam) Lvl 3 Zombie (ine) Lvl 3 Zombie (Alpha Striker) Lvl 7 Zombie (Big-arm Grizzly) Lvl 9 Zombie (Alloy-wing Eagle) Lvl 8 Zombie (Red Carapace Great Centipede) Lvl 11 Evil Eye Lvl 7 Evil Eye Lvl 8 Skeleton Rogue Lvl 7 Skeleton Archer Lvl 7 Undead Geist Lvl 17 Undead Dynamite Girl Lvl 12 Undead Fisk Lvl 3 ]]] Aldrich waved his hand forwards, bringing the skeleton archer kneeling before him. "You''ve done well for me. But now, it''s time to rest." Aldrich released control over the archer, dismantling it into piles of bones that then crumbled away into dust. "[Create Undead]" said Aldrich. Before essing the Trial Quest, he wanted to be as strong as possible. He intended on resummoning undead that matched his current level at 10. It was not possible to cast spells in the Nexus, so he needed to create them now. However, he only had 17 mana, and Create Undead cost 10 mana. He did not intend on wasting mana creating undead once he got into the Trial Quest if he could. Aldrich knew exactly everything that happened in the Trial Quests because he had yed through them all. He knew every single secret pathway and hidden piece of loot there was. As a result, he knew what units he needed to use as well. Because of this, Aldrich summoned a Ghast for it had incredible utility in the First Trial. A cloud of smoky darkness sputtered in front of Aldrich, swirling around a single, stony grey orb, The orb cracked and chipped, sloughing off chunks of rock until it sculped itself into a floating skull of rock. Dark smoke flickered around it as it hovered in the air, emanating an aura of strangely cold smoke. [1x Ghast Lvl 10 created] The Ghast could not attack. What it was actually useful for was its ability to generate an aura of smoke around it that obscured undead within it. Obscuration was different from invisibility in that anyone that came close enough to the smoke could see the undead within it, but outside a certain range, the obscuration functioned like invisibility. It also had an active spell known as the [Spirit Boundary]. It would root itself in ce and its smoke would form into a forcefield that significantly enhanced resistances to elemental attacks from the outside while inside, undead gained both a [Stone Flesh] passive that made them extra resistant to physical force. "Huh?" Fisk tapped his visor as its red glow sputtered and turned off, leaving the it just a dull piece of red tinted ss. He looked down at his eye-phone where he had been ying a game and saw it start to drop its framerate horribly. "What''s going on!? I was close to breakin'' my damn record!" "You dare to amuse yourself like this in the presence of the master!?" Valera clenched her fist but Aldrich raised a hand, preventing her from dashing over to Fisk and bashing his head in. "Wait," said Aldrich. He looked up at the Ghast floating above him and sent it closer to Fisk. The closer the Ghast went, the more Fisk''s phone malfunctioned until it eventually just turned off. "I see," said Aldrich. In the lore, Ghasts were known to be restless spirits that appeared when tombstones and grave markers were destroyed or stolen. They became like spiritual tombstones that provided a boundary of sce for undead that had their graves desecrated. Thus, it obscured undead within its boundary from the outside, granting the undead the privacy they deserved in their afterlives. Evidently, this also meant disrupting any technology that had camera capabilities or likely any form of recording whether auditory or visual. Aldrich had not used the Ghast beforehand because it was so squishy. Only at level 10 did it gain decent durability in the form of a passive known as [Sturdy] that allowed it to survive a single fatal blow. But this new, unforeseen ability, an ability that was only known in the lore and had zero gamey implications, was useful beyond measure here. In the modern world where almost every corner of civilization had some form of surveince. Aldrich noted this down forter. Anytime he would make an attack in a city, he would always bring a Ghast with him. For now, there was the Trial Quest to worry about. He put a hand over the Sign and the light from it burst outwards, enveloping Aldrich and his undead. Chapter 34: Trial Quest 1

Chapter 34: Trial Quest 1

Aldrich found the environment around him changed from forest to the dull grey stone and gothic architecture of the Nexus. He felt his HP and Mana restore to max, and the first thing he did was go up to the Wellspring of Life and restore the charges on his sk. "Huh, where''s this, boss?" said Fisk as he looked around in pure wonder, staring first at the imposing gargoyle crowned pirs surrounding the Nexus and then at the ceiling full of golden and blue crystals. "Looks like a ce straight out of a game. All this cool glowing crystal ceiling stuff and dark fantasy temple aesthetic - I totally dig it. Reminds me of that game, y''know the one with rollin'' and dodgin'' and dyin''? Dark Sins?" "I know it," said Aldrich. "Yeah, I agree," said Dynamite Girl as she looked around with crossed arms. "Huh, you y games?" said Fisk. "Never thought you the type." "J-just a little. Make no mistake, though: I ain''t aplete nerd like you," said Dynamite Girl. "You two remember ying games?" said Aldrich. He did not know exactly to what extent an undead risen with their souls knew of their past lives. He knew that ording to game lore, they lost all memories, but that did not seem entirely to be the case. "Yeah, don''t remember which games, exactly, but some," said Dynamite Girl. "I was stressed and angry a lot. Helped cool down sometimes." "Geh," said the Geist. "What? I''m still stressed and angry all the time!? Huh!?" Dynamite Girl balled her hands into fists and leered at the Geist. "Keep that up and I''ll show you stressed for real!" "Alright, calm down," said Aldrich. "I just have a question: how much of your past life do you remember?" "Nothing much at all, really," said Dynamite Girl. "My name, mostly. Ste. Though I remember being called Dynamite Girl as well. Everything else is kind of a haze, almost like a fever dream." "Haven city. Does this name ring any bells to you?" said Aldrich. Dynamite Girl nodded. "Yeah. Think I used to live there or something. Nice and tidy city center, ugly-ass streets everywhere else. Don''t know much of anything else. Though I kinda get the sense if you like, uh, told me or prompted me, I might remember a thing or two." "Hm." Aldrich realized that fully arisen undead had not wiped their memories. They retained them but they were deeply ''locked'' so to speak and would not emerge unless specifically prompted. This made some practical sense. If the arisen undead had zero memories at all, then they would just be like helpless, clueless infants that had zero idea how to function. This gave Aldrich worries about whether triggering memory returns would cause a risen undead to rebel, but at the same time, Aldrich could at any given moment just turn their individuality off. For now, he let everyone have their individuality. If anything, retaining memories might be especially useful, especially in the case of people like Dynamite Girl who had the potential to hold valuable information by being a hero. "Quite talkative to the master, aren''t we?" said Valera as she stepped past Dynamite Girl and shoved her aside. She put a hand to her breastte and raised her shield up. "I am ready for battle, my master. I will prove to you through this Trial Quest that I alone am truly worthy to be by your side." "Yeah? Who was it that torched those bugs, huh?" said Dynamite Girl. Valera turned around to re at her. "Let''s stop with the arguments. Any more and I''m turning off your free will," said Aldrich. "Got it, captain," said Dynamite Girl. She sighed. "I can be a little rough around the edges. Speak my mind out a lot. But trust me, when ites down to the fightin'', you can always count on me to have your back." "Hmph. You will have to prove yourself to me beyond words," said Valera. "Didn''t we already fight together? Well, whatever, looks like we''re gonna be fightin'' soon, ain''t we?" Dynamite Girl looked to Aldrich. "Yes." Aldrich stepped over to the first pir of twelve that supported the walls of the Nexus. The first Trial Quest. The pir was shrouded with green light, indicating that it was active. The gargoyle above it had its empty eye sockets filled with green as it gazed down at Aldrich, inviting him forwards. The massive twin double doors of stone carved into the pir were open, showing a swirling portal of azure blue, almost like a whirlpool on the surface of water, leading into the quest. Aldrich looked at his tab. Trial Quest 1: The Search Difficulty: 4 Description: By reaching level 10, you have shown great strides into mastering the dark art of necromancy. But now, it is time to truly test yourself, to truly prove that the power over the dead that you wield is worthy. This trial will be a test of how well you are capable of controlling the dead that you have bound to yourself. You will prove that these souls whose undeath you bind to yourself serve a truly capable master. In the ursed Rotted Greatwoods where precious few living souls dare to tread, you must find the lost Eye of Azoth. None know exactly where it has fallen in these cold and foul woods. It may be within the twisted woods itself. It may be lost in the depths of the murky swamp that festers within. Or perhaps it is within the belly of some mighty beast. It is up to you, O Necromancer, to wade through the dark and the cold and the rot - elements you are well ustomed to - and find the long lost eye. Time Limit: 1 Hour Objectives: -Find the Eye of Azoth Rewards: -1x Eye of Azoth -3x Restorative sk charges -1x Sign Stone -Passive: [Corpse Barrier] -Passive: [Death Sense] -Spell: [Grave Consumption] -Tome of Dark Arts Rank 3 -500 Coins -500 EXP ]]] Aldrich analyzed the quest. It read the exact same as it had in Elden World. If everything was the exact same, then this Trial Quest would be an easy breeze to deal with. "Once we go in, we don''t waste any time. You do as I say and you work efficiently. Understand?" said Aldrich. "Yes, master," said Valera. "Roger, captain," said Dynamite Girl. "Sure thing, boss," said Fisk. "Geh." The Geist nodded. "Good. The ce we are teleporting to will very much be like a game. A game set in a high fantasy setting, if that gives you any hints about what types of challenges and enemies you''ll face. But just listen to me, and you shouldn''t face any real difficulties." Aldrich nodded and then stepped through the portal == Aldrich found himself now in the Rotted Greatwoods. He stood at the edge of a great forest full of rotted, leafless trees. Despitecking leaves, the trees had curled their bare branches around each other in twisted contortions and knots forming a massive canopy of tied up branches that made trying to look down through the trees from above impossible. Behind Aldrich were massive, towering mountains that functioned as impassable terrain in the game. In front of the mountains was a moat of foggy, pale water that, just as they did in the game, generated a ''forcefield'' that made them impassable. The skies above were dark and cloudy with a pale, full moon shining down whenever it could through its veil of clouds. [To aid in your Trial, your control over your Legion has improved] [Call of the Legion Rank 1 obtained] [+5 to units controlled] [Units Controlled: 13/13 ] 13/18] Aldrich nodded. At the start of every sessive Trial Quest, the [Call of the Legion] passive skill would rank up to a total of rank 10, with each rank granting +5 units. By the 10th Trial Quest, that was 50 bonus units to work with. "Totally cool," said Fisk as he adjusted his visor and looked around. "So, there''s like monsters and sh*t here? Dragons and stuff?" "A dragon would incinerate you with a mere look," said Valera dismissively. "Oh, but there ARE dragons? Damn, that''s awesome," said Fisk. He rolled his shoulders. "VR games never did it for me, but for this, I''m willin'' to get off myputer for once and kick some monster ass. What''re we beatin'' up, boss? Orcs? Goblins?" "In your case, nothing. You, Adam, ine, and the Ghast will stay here," said Aldrich. "Huh?" said Fisk. He looked at Adam and ine. "I mean, I appreciate thepany, boss, but-" "None of you are strong enough to keep up with us," said Aldrich. "In the case of the Ghast, it will be here to protect you. Don''t step outside of its [Spirit Boundary]." "Damn, I can''t even use my damn phone in this," said Fisk as he stared down sadly at his turned off phone. The Ghast looked at the phone and shook its head, chattering its teeth and disapproving of the recording device. "We''re going to separate," said Aldrich. "The gist of what we have to do is simple. We have one hour to find an object called the ''Eye of Azoth.'' If things are how I think they are, I know exactly where this eye is and what type of enemies you should expect to face. However, I get bonuses for clearing some hidden objectives, and that requires me to split this group up." Aldrich began to strategize. The Eye of Azoth was located at the very end of the forest, and it was not that hard to get to. You just needed to take a straight path ahead through the forest which would lead out to a cave, and there, you had to fight a Giant Slime holding the Eye of Azoth. Upon death, the Giant Slime would also drop the head piece of the [Grave Reaper] item set. Overall, a very simple quest that took at most 30 minutes. But then why was the time limit an hour long? That was due to hidden objectives and loot that one could search for. However, Aldrich knew exactly where everything was. First, there was a sizable camp of trolls on the western side of the forest. They guarded two treasure chests containing the body and waist pieces of the [Grave Reaper] item set. Then, to the east was a swamp filled with dormant giant mud crabs. They guarded chests containing the arm and leg pieces of the [Grave Reaper] set. "Valera and Dynamite Girl, you two pair up and go straight. Just straight ahead. You''ll find a cave at the end of this forest. There-," "We will face the great slime!" said Valera. "But master, without your frost magic to make the slime''s body brittle, I have no means of destroying it." "Slimes are even weaker to me than they are to frost. Dynamite Girl can handle it," said Aldrich. "Like I said, when ites down to fightin'', I got your back," said Dynamite Girl. "I suppose this is an apt way to prove your resolve." Valera started off into the forest. "Come on then. Now will also be an excellent time to have a conversation about exactly where you stand in your rtionship with master. Just because he trusts your abilities does not mean he feels anything for you¡­" Valera continued on her warning rant with Dynamite Girl sighing as the two of them disappeared into the forest. "Now all of you will assault the troll encampment," Aldrich waved his hand over and mentallymanded the appropriate units to gather in front of him. This group wasprised of all the zombies made from Natural Variants plus the Skeleton Rogue. Now that the rogue was level 10, it obtained a bonus active skill called [Rotting Stab] that infused a blow with a concentration of necrotic energy that negated regeneration. Particrly useful for countering troll regeneration. "There are five trolls and one troll chieftain. Once you get there, surround the encampment but do not engage. I will directbat after I am done with my own things. Go." The veritable zoo of zombie Variants and the skeleton rogue moved northeastwards, disappearing quickly into the thick of the forest. Aldrich left the Alloy-wing Eagle behind and got on its back and made it hover in the air. "Now, that leaves you with me," said Aldrich as he looked over at the Geist. "Geh? (Just us?)" "I''m taking you for dirty work at the swamp. Now get on." Aldrich got the eagle to hold out its talons, and the Geist reached out and grabbed them. The eagle squawked as it flew in the air with heavy ps of its wings, obviously straining a bit with the Geist''s muscr weight, but the eagle adjusted, and soon, they were soaring high through the air. Soon enough, Aldrich flew over the surface of the murky, muddy green and brown swamp. He could seerge brown circles - patches that looked strikingly like small inds of dirt to rest on - but he knew that these were in reality dormant giant mud crabs. At the center of the swamp where a particrly thick ring of six crabs gathered was a patch of glowing water. This was where the treasure chest was. But anyone that tried to get that chest was bound to get viciously assaulted by six giant crabs. "I''m dropping you down there," said Aldrich. "Gehgeh¡­(Do you have to? I''ll be all alone, too)" said the Geist. "You have super regeneration to survive an initial mauling, and the crabs are weak to poison. Your neurotoxic gas will disable them quickly. I chose you to do this for a reason: you were the best suited for it," said Aldrich. "Gehh¡­(Okay¡­)" "Alright then, off you go." Aldrich tapped the eagle''s back and it squawked before dropping the Geist. "Geh!" the Geist sped downwards and curled up into a cannonball as it crashed into the muddy swamp, right in the throng of mud crabs. Chapter 35: Clearing the Trial Quest

Chapter 35: Clearing the Trial Quest

Aldrich stood atop the back of his giant eagle and watched with a hand to his chin as he observed the Geist. The Geist ploughed up a geyser of muddy swamp water when itnded in the swamp, and almost immediately, the six giant mud crabs became active. They were easily the size of arge hovercar with pincersrge enough to p a fully gown adult man into pulp wholesale. A flurry of angry pincer jabs and smacks assaulted the Geist. All things considered , the Geist did not take that much damage. After all, among the units Aldrich had, the Geist was at the top considering raw physical stats, even beating out Valera overall when considering agility. Pincer jabs tore out chunks of flesh while clubbing blows smacked against the Geist''s pale flesh with impact that broke the skin, but any damage it took, it smoothed over with its super regeneration. In the meanwhile, the crabs started to attack the Geist slower and slower as the neurotoxin infiltrated their bodies, stiffening them up and paralyzing their muscles. It was then that the Geist followed its instincts to kill. It used its high-speed mini dash to escape from the ring of crabs, positioning itself behind one. "Geh!" The Geist hammer fisted down on a mud crab''s head,pletely caving it in with a cracking, shattering impact. It then leaped on top of the crab''s body and used it as a stepping stone to get to another crab. For this one, the Geist grabbed the crab''s eye stalks and ripped them out before eating them. One by one, the Geist hopped around the paralyzed and poisoned crabs, smashing their heads or ripping out their eyes until it was done ughtering all six of them. [6x Giant Mudcrab defeated] [+240 EXP] [EXP Bar: 240/1200] "Gehgehgeh." The Geist stared up at Aldrich with its constant, eyeless smile. "Good job," said Aldrich. He snapped his fingers, and the eagle brought him down to where it was now safe. "Now go dive in there where you see light shining. You should find a treasure chest. Bring it up for me and your job here is done." The Geist nodded and dove right into the single clear patch of water in the swamp. A few momentster, and it emerged with a wooden chest slung over its broad shoulder. Aldrich used his staff to tap the chest, and it opened up, revealing two orbs with the arms and leg pieces of the [Grave Reaper] item set. Aldrich absorbed them into his being. [Grave Reaper Bracers obtained] [Grave Reaper Base obtained] Aldrich then looked over to the dead crabs and chanted, "Serve." He waved his green energy wrapped hand, and one of the crabs reanimated. He waited the cooldown for [Raise Undead] and casted the spell again, raising another crab. [-10 Mana] [Mana: 90/90 ] 80/90] [2x Zombie (Giant Mudcrab) Lvl 8 reanimated] [Units Controlled: 13/18 ] 15/18] Aldrichmanded the crabs to hold their position here because if they tried to swim out, they would just get swarmed by the other crabs lying dormant throughout the swamp. When he left the Trial Quest, any summons he had would juste back with him anyway. He raised the crabs because they had the ability to easily travel through water, and he did not raise more of them as he wanted to raise other monsters from this area. "Alright, get back on," said Aldrich as he waved the Geist forward. The Geist shuddered and shook, flinging mud off of itself like a dog shaking to clean itself. Ittched onto the Aldrich''s eagle mount''s talons and with that, they were off in the air again, the eagle once more squawking in protest at the Geist''s heavy weight. "Geh¡­(Am I that fat?)" mumbled the Geist as they flew off. == Aldrich soared over to the western edges of the forest where the troll encampment stood within arge clearing in the forest. It was marked out by smoke trails from various fires as well as roughly made tents anchored into ce with stakes ofrge bones adorned with skulls. Around the fires sat seven trolls. They wererge humanoid creatures with pot bellies but thickly muscled arms, legs, and shoulders, looking like strongmen whose bodies were built for power, padded equally in insting fat and powerful muscle. Each of them stood at around seven feet tall (2.1 meters) and wielded eitherrge wooden clubs or just their bare ws and jutting tusks. Their skin was grey and riddled with warts, scars, and the asional tumorous mass, and these imperfections liberally dotted their face, making them horrendously ugly in a conventional human sense. These were Grey Trolls. Trolls were a highly adaptable species on ount of their regenerative ability, and so they could over quick periods of time and generations attain attributes suited for their environments such as fur for the cold and fire resistant skin for volcanic areas. However, these adaptations came at the cost of heavily reducing their regeneration, and so Fire Trolls and Ice Trolls did not have a strong healing factor. Grey Trolls, however, were the ''baseline'' troll whose regenerative abilities were top notch to the point where to try and kill them without some form of negating their healing was a waste of time. Hence why there wererge fires around. By game design, the yer was meant to use them against the trolls, lighting their weapons on me or driving the trolls into them. These trolls would not be much of an issue. Aldrich had more than enough undead to just dunk the trolls forcibly into their fires. The only issue was the presence of a troll chieftain. It was level 14 and located within arge tent at the edge of the camp. It was sleeping by default but fighting too close beside its tent would draw its aggro. It was significantly stronger than the other trolls and had multiple troublesome skills to deal with. The point of this encampment was not to storm it and kill everyone. It was a test of stealth. The sleeping troll chieftain''s tent held the treasure chest holding the [Grave Reaper] set pieces, and the yer was supposed to use a skeleton rogue to carry it out without drawing much attention. But Aldrich and his undead army were strong enough to defeat everyone here for experience. Normally, the yer''s undead army did not generally exceed level 12 and they did not have ess to minions with fire at this point in the game. However, with the Geist and Dynamite Girl, Aldrich was over leveled for this. The only real challenge was the chieftain. Aldrich put a hand to his head and focused, sensing that all of his Variant and skeleton undead were hidden in the edges of this clearing, awaiting his order to pounce in and strike. Aldrich mentallymunicated his n. *There are seven trolls there, each of them level 8. There is one level 14 troll chieftain lying asleep in thergest tent. Take out the chieftain first, and the rest of the trolls should be easy pickings. Here''s how this will get done - The Great Centipede will bury underground and ambush the troll chieftain along with the Skeleton Rogue. Poison does not negate troll regeneration, but it does slow it down some. The Great Centipede has a power to harden and strengthen its muscles and carapace when it wraps around prey, and with that, the troll chieftain should be immobilized. The rogue will then assassinate it with a stab to its brain. Once the chieftain is dead, everyone else can swarm in and overpower the rest of the trolls with force. I will drop the Geist at this moment, and its poison will again slow the trolls'' regeneration, but I advise you all to try and shove the trolls into fire. Take care, though, as zombies, you are also vulnerable to fire." Aldrich felt a wave of understandinging from all of his units. He nodded to himself. He knew that most natural variants were surprisingly intelligent. Experiments with tamed natural variants like Strikers showed that they were capable of registering emotions, self-awareness, long term memory, and understanding orders withyers ofplexity. This was one of the reasons why there were multiple variant awareness groups that sought to end the practice of indiscriminately hunting down variants, but that was a long shot considering how much damage variants had done, their often unpredictable wild instinct to murder humans, and how lucrative a business it was to hunt them for their parts. Aldrich watched through the Skeleton Rogue''s eyes as it evaded the trolls lounging around their campfires with [Shadow Walk] and headed down to the chieftain''s tent. Under it, the Great Centipede tunneled underground, synchronizing their ambush together. The Skeleton Rogue used its thin, skeletal body to slide underneath a tiny gap in the tent''s entrance p so as not to draw more attention. Inside the round tent, it spied the troll chieftain snoring and unconsciously scratching its belly. Arge axe of roughly hewn cursed rocky beside it, though if things went right, the chieftain would never even have the chance to use it. The rogue tiptoed behind the chieftain; its curved daggers upraised. *Kill him* Aldrich set his n in motion. The Great Centipede emerged from the ground in a burst of cracked earth and dirt. It immediately wrapped its armored, serpentine body around the troll chieftain with frightening efficiency. All of its many golden legs sank into the troll''s body like hooks, goring into its skin and tightening the hold to near inescapable status. "Guuh!" the Troll Chieftain loosed a battle roar of pain as the great centipede sunk its mandibles into its throat, injecting its potent flesh melting toxin. The roar reverberated around the camp, alerting every single troll. Before the troll could say any more, the skeleton rogue stabbed its two curved daggers into the troll''s eyes. The daggers were coated in purple necrotic energy, and when they sank through the soft eyes and into the beast''s brain. The necrotic energy rotted the brain out entirely, incapacitating the troll and soon killing it. In Elden World, thebat system did factor in vital strikes. An attack struck directly through the head or critical weak points such as cores were instant kills or in the case of regenerating monsters, apletely incapacitating blow until it was healed. Of course, if a blow that negated regeneration was struck into a vital area, then it was an instant kill regardless of how powerful the target''s healing was. *Everyone else, attack* Aldrich pped his hands, and from the clearing, his zoo of undead variants emerged to attack the trolls before they could help their chieftain. Chapter 36: Clearing the Trial Quest 2

Chapter 36: Clearing the Trial Quest 2

The Big-arm Grizzly loosed a bellowing roar as it charged into the encampment on all fours, barreling forwards in a full ton of raging ws and jaws and fury. Ahead of it ran the Alpha Striker. The seven trolls pointed at the grizzly and striker and grunted and roared before charging against them. The surged forwards with confidence, seeing that it was seven against two. "Time to help your friends out." Aldrich strategically dropped the Geist in the middle of the trolls as they charged. "Geh!" The Geist rolled up into a cannonball again to minimize damage done to itself from the fall. It smashed straight down against a troll, squashing it. Several other trolls scattered backwards, surprised from the sudden drop of a massively muscled freak of nature right into their midst. The Geist''s drop separated the trolls right down the middle, so discounting the troll that got squashed there were now three trolls facing the Geist and three facing the Big-arm Grizzly and Alpha Striker. Aldrich did not help. He wanted to conserve his health and mana as much as possible. The Big-arm Grizzly smashed into a troll with a mighty shoulder bash, sending the troll hurtling backwards. The Grizzly then stood up on its hind legs and wrestled another troll, savagely chomping down on the troll''s head and crushing its head like a watermelon under a hydraulic press. The Alpha Striker stood between the Grizzly and the third troll and unleashed its shockwave ability, knocking the troll back and stopping it from helping out against the Grizzly. While the troll was downed, the Alpha Striker leaped on top of it and started to tear into its throat. "Geheheh." The Geist echoed its chatteringugh as it dodged clumsy troll club swings and w swipes. "Geh!" The Geist punched a troll hard into its chest, shattering his sternum and sending him flying into a campfire where he burned to death. The troll screamed as its flesh cauterized and melted at elerated rate. The Big-arm Grizzly saw this and used its oversized arms to carry the now headless corpse of the troll and toss it into a fire. The Alpha Striker squealed as the troll it fought managed to grab it and tear it off from its throat. Before the troll could crush the Striker, the Big-arm Grizzly lunged forwards and swiped at the troll''s head. Its oversized arm and club-like paw smacked the troll''s head and twisted it a full three hundred sixty degrees, shattering and twisting the neck twice over. The troll let go of the Alpha Striker while it gurgled, its head slowly untwisting and regenerating. The Big-arm Grizzly and the Alpha Striker both worked together to drag the troll by their teeth into a fire where it joined its brethren in a funeral pyre before it regenerated. The Geist utterly decimated the remaining two trolls. After all, it outleveled the trolls by almost two to one. The Geist unleashed a hammer fist straight down onto a troll, sinking his head into his neck cavity before tossing the troll into fire. The one remaining troll of the group struck at the Geist with a club, the Geist used its mini dash to appear behind the troll. The Geist punched straight through the troll''s chest and carried the iling troll into a fire where it burned the monster into a crisp using its arm like a kebab skewer. The Geist withdrew its own burned arm and stared at it for a few seconds. The burned flesh sloughed off, reced with fresh white skin within seconds. [7x Grey Troll defeated!] [+280 EXP] [1x Grey Troll Chieftain defeated!] [+100 EXP] [EXP Bar: 240/1200 ] 620/1200] "Good work, everyone," said Aldrich as he had the eagle bring him down into the camp. The smell of putrid, cooked flesh filled the air. "The trolls are dead. Eat them if you want. Their meat probably tastes better cooked." The Big-arm Grizzly, Alloywing Eagle, and the Alpha Striker all took out the burning troll corpses and started to devour them piece by piece after snuffing out the mes. Aldrich made his way into the troll chieftain''s tent with the Geist behind him. He saw the troll chieftain lying limp in the ground, his head rotted as the rogue continued to stab him in the brain over and over again while the Great Centipede kept its tight hold on the monster. "Okay now, I know undead are tireless, but he''s already dead," said Aldrich. "Get off the corpse. This one''s strong enough to introduce into our fold." The Skeleton Rogue nodded and bowed before moving away. The Great Centipede utched from the Variant and crawled over to the side. "Serve," said Aldrich as he snapped his fingers. The troll chieftian''s body convulsed before getting on a knee first before standing up. It was a sizable unit, this one, slightly taller than even the 10 foot tall (3 meter) Geist. [1 x Zombie (Grey Troll Chieftain) reanimated] [Units Controlled: 15/18 ] 16/18] Aldrich hoped the chieftain would have dropped a soul to perhaps craft an essory that held its regeneration, but no luck. Seeing the loot he wanted behind the troll chieftain, though, made him feel a lot better. Another wooden chest. Aldrich went over and opened this one and received the Body and Waist pieces of the [Grave Reaper] set. One other thing, though - Aldrich looked at the cursed stone axe the chieftain was supposed to use. Ordinarily, the item did not drop from the troll and faded with his corpse. Yet, there it was, just lying on the ground. It seemed that the weapons that monsters wielded did not just disappear as they did in Elden World. They were always dropped. Aldrich tapped it with his staff and realized he could take it. The axe dissolved into green particles that flowed into his inventory. [1 x Cursed Stone Axe obtained] Now this was an excellent find. Aldrich himself could not use it. He did not have the necessary strength stat requirement, but Valera could. Her offensive capabilities were limited using her [Bone Vanguard Cross-Shield], but the axe would let her spec into pure damage when she needed to. Not to mention the axe''s interesting property of inflicting a [Execution Curse] on those it struck, casting an instant death effect on those below 10% maximum health. This instant death effect could be resisted with a high enough magic stat, but who else in the real world had magic except Aldrich? Didn''t that mean absolutely nobody was resistant to this effect? Aldrich could now start to formte a strategy against Seth Sr. Aldrich''s [Anti-Life Shell] reduced health by a current health percentage. After clearing the Trial Quest, the [Anti-Life Shell] would rank up as well, granting it an active usage that increased the rate of life drain. Seth Sr was extremely durable. It was said that he could take a barrage of armor piercing artillery rounds to the face with just a slight bruise. None of Aldrich''s units could deal reliable damage to him. But maybe, if he could stall Seth Sr somehow, let him drain his health, and then execute him with death magic, then maybe it could work. Still an iplete n, though. How was Aldrich going to trap him? Or, for that matter, trap the piece of scum in such a way that he did not just kill Aldrich? These questions, Aldrich would try to find a workaround toter. For now, thinking of Valera made him check up on her. He started to see through her eyes - == Valera and Dynamite Girl stood outside the pitch-ck, gaping entrance into a cave of dark rock. "Let me guess, that''s where the final big baddie is, huh?" said Dynamite Girl. "Well, don''t we have quite the genius on our hands," said Valera sarcastically. "Y''know, I have a limit to my patience, too. A real low limit, too," said Dynamite Girl as sparks started to crack from her fingertips. "You wish to fight now?" Valera readied her shield in front of her. Dynamite Girl stared at Valera for several tense seconds before she shook her head. "No. We''ll just be wastin'' our damn energy. And I know why you got such an attitude towards me. You think I like the captain, huh?" "Hmph. You think you can read my mind?" Valera crossed her arms. After an awkward pause, she added on, "Well, do you?" "Sure." Valera''s hand tightened against her shield, and the strength of her grip was such that the groaning screech of metal scraping against metal echoed through the air. "By that, I mean I like him as a captain. As a leader. Not that I know a lot about him, but I ain''t got nothin'' toin about, anyhow," said Dynamite Girl. "Nor will youin ever. The master is perfect. He has led me through countless battles against odds and enemies the likes of which you could notprehend. He is intelligent, strong, and his moody silence draws forth his inherent charisma so very well." "Nevermind me. You like him, don''t you. Like like him. Beyond the whole follower to leader rtionships," said Dynamite Girl. "W-what? How could you suggest that? A knight is always loyal to her master, and a rtionship in such a professional rtionship is forbidden!" said Valera, though she squirmed and blushed under her armor and helmet. "Yeah, sure," said Dynamite Girl with a smile. "I''ll just tell you now I won''t be buttin'' heads with you over him or anything like that. You got here first, after all. Gotta respect seniority and whatnot. Anyways, ain''t we here to fight this slime thing? C''mon, let''s go." "A-ahem, yes," said Valera. She took in a breath and calmed herself. "Now that I have your word you are not a threat, we can proceed. First, however, I must know your capabilities better." "Sure thing." Dynamite Girl raised an open palm up. The pale skin of her palm started to glow orange as sparks cracked out from it. The orange glow was not limited to her palm, however. Strands of glowing orange streaked through her arm and localized around her chest where her tattered costume still retained a glowing white circle surrounded by a ring of metal. "Is that a core of some kind?" said Valera. "You can kind of call it that, but no, it doesn''t power me. It''s designed to control my powers," said Dynamite Girl. "I got a power called Dyna-Blood. My heart''s like an engine and it pumps special blood that''s got explosive properties when it''s exposed outside my body. This chest piece is supposed help me get my heart pumpin'' and my blood flowin'' better. But I can do without it. I just got less control." "Quite interesting," said Valera. "I have never known a spell or power like this in my world. And one that does not operate off of magic, either. The master had already told me that some humans like yourselves had unique powers but seeing it firsthand is eye opening." "Yeah, and I''m real interested in all your powers, too. All that mana and magic crap - didn''t know it even existed. Anyhows, I''ll go into more detail. See here-," Dynamite Girl pointed to her arm. The strands of glowing orange energy shone through her skin in a veiny pattern. "My explosive blood travels from heart through the veins. When I concentrate it on my palm like this, the blood, uh, what was that fancy science term again, yeah, it sublimates. Turns into gas particles that travel outta my hand and gets exposed to the air. I can control how many particles move out, so I can go from this-," Dynamite Girl''s palm started crackle as several sparks shot out. "To this." She raised her hand in the air, away from Valera, and created a small, fiery explosion. "Aha," said Valera. "And you do not get harmed by this?" "Nah," said Dynamite Girl. "My whole body''s super resistant to heat and my skin''s explosion proof." "That utterly neutralizes one of your weaknesses as an undead. Fire immunity and undeath is abination that is most rare. You will be a valuable asset to the master," said Valera. "Don''t like bein'' called an asset, but guess as long as I''m useful, I ain''tinin''," said Dynamite Girl. "I have some limits, too. Like I said, my blood pumps through the heart. If I pump it too much, it really strains me. Symptoms range all the way from feelin'' light-headed to straight up havin'' a heart attack. Not to mention if the explosion''s big enough, it hurts me too. I''m heat proof, sure, and my skin can neutralize shockwave type damage, but that''s only up to a point. A big enough explosion''s gonna'' have a a shockwave that''ll knock me on my ass too. Here''s an example. I have this attack I named the Bunker Buster. It''s like my total max safe output. As strong as a conventional bunker buster, around 4 tons of TNT in yield." "TNT?" said Valera. "Oh right, you must be from a fantasy world that don''t have TNT. Well, uh, let''s just say the explosion''s pretty damn big," said Dynamite Girl. "But I can''t use the Bunker Buster more than once, or else my heart''s at risk to stop. Plus, the shockwave usually breaks whatever limb I shoot the explosion out of." "But you are undead, no? Heart failure alone should not matter to you," said Valera. "Broken bones, too, mean little." Dynamite Girl blinked several times. "Huh¡­y''know what? You''re right. You''re goddamn right." All of a sudden, she smiled widely, grinning like a madman towards the cave entrance. "Y''know¡­I have a feeling I kept this a secret before, but don''t see a point now: I really, really like blowing sh*t up. And I got the biggest urge to do just that with what you''ve told me." "Ah, the urge to cause carnage. I can very much rte. Perhaps we will get along better than I thought." Valera also smiled. Chapter 37: Clearing the Trial Quest 3

Chapter 37: Clearing the Trial Quest 3

"Cool. I can see through the dark now," said Dynamite Girl as she walked through the narrow trails of the cave. Within, there was no light and the only sounds audible were the drips and drops of water falling from stctites hanging low from the cave ceiling. "Don''t even need night-vision goggles." "See to it that you thank the master for your newfound body," said Valera. "I do wonder how you humans wander about in your weak prisons of human flesh. A little stab in an organ here and you keel over dead, leaking life blood like and deting like a pierced balloon. A small broken bone prevents you from moving at all unless healed or, gods forbid, you wait days upon weeks upon months to heal the tiniest crack. So fragile. So weak." "Hey, don''t knock us down too much," said Dynamite Girl. "Back before humanity evolved, sure, we were like that, but with the Altering, it''s all different. Some of us can go on with huge holes in our chests. Some of us can heal the worst injuries in seconds." "But will you not agree that these powers, especially this power of yours that strains the heart, is one best shown potential in a body of undeath?" said Valera. "A body that never hungers, never tires, and never fears?" Dynamite Girl thought about this for a moment. "Yeah. Guess so. Can''t really think of much a downside." "Precisely," said Valera. "And to enter into the eternal embrace of the master and to take hismands - no knight would want anything else!" "Forget just likin'' him, you really, really like him, huh?" said Dynamite Girl. "E-excuse me?" Valera stopped in embarrassment. "Sh*t, watch out!" Dynamite Girl rushed in front of Valera and put her hands out in front of her. Her palms glowed orange and sparked briefly before unleashing a cone of explosive and fireden power that lit up the cave in light. The sound of liquid sizzling and evaporated filled the air as Dynamite Girl''s explosion collided with viscous green slime tendril. Spatters of the slime scattered around cave rock, boring into it and melting it like acid. "Where is this thing!?" said Dynamite Girl as she looked around and found only the narrow path around them. There was no space for a slime to be around. A high-pitched, ghostly wail echoed through the cave walls, but because of the echo, it was hard to pinpoint where it came from. "There." Valera pointed at a hole in the ceiling where the slime had bored through with a tendril to throw out a surprise attack. "I have a passive skill that allows me to sense threats, but I was too distracted to fend for myself." She raised her shield in front of her. "I apologize." "Nah, it was cause'' I brought up your master in the first ce. Y''know where this slime thing is?" said Dynamite Girl. "Yes. I know exactly which paths to take to reach it. It lies deeper in the cave within a main cavern. The longer we spend in these paths, the higher the chance the slime will strike us from odd angles," said Valera. "Then here, lemme make it up to you. Lead me to this slime ball, and I''ll give you a front row seat to blowin'' it up to fuckin'' smithereens!" said Dynamite Girl. "I do like the sound of that," said Valera. "Yeah?" Dynamite Girl cracked her neck and smiled. "Then let''s get goin''." Valera sprinted ahead, and Dynamite Girl followed. A few slime tendrils attacks shot out from here and there, but Valera defended against all of them with her shield. In a minute, the two breached the main cavern - a wide, circr arena - and at the center, there was the slime. It was a huge mass of bubbling green liquid with several round yellow eyes suspended in the fluid. They looked like googly eyes, but despite how silly the slime looked, it was obvious that it was not a joke. It was easily six meters by six meters in size,rge enough to swallow an entire car whole and then some. It reacted to Valera and Dynamite Girls'' intrusion by shooting forth a wave of acidic slime. "Behind me!" Valera mmed her cross-shield in front of her and casted the skill [Bone Guard]. Bones grew out from her shield rapidly, interlocking and creating arge domed barrier. The acid wave flowed past the bones harmlessly, but the giant slime did not relent. The slime gurgled as it shot forth a volley of acid tendrils, constantly wearing away at the shield and bones, not to mention the heavy impact of high-density liquid mming into the shield at formidable velocities. Valera trudged forwards against the constant barrage of slime blows and acid. "The closer I get, the more it''ll pay attention to me! I can''t hurt it with physical attacks, but you-," "Yeah, I get you," said Dynamite Girl. She elerated her blood flow to her maximum safe output. Her heart started to beat rapidly, and as it did, the circr miniature reactor on her chest glowed a bright white. Her veins lit up with orange energy, concentrating light and heat around her hands and feet. The blood vessels in her eyes also glowed orange,pletely covering them in a glowing sheen. "Moment you open up, I''m wipin'' this bastard off the face of this." "Now!" Valera took a few more steps until the [Bone Guard] was on itsst legs, the bony barrier melting and shattering all around. Valera broke off the [Bone Guard], and the moment it did, Dynamite Girl jumped up, dodging a wave of acid. She emitted several small bursts of explosion in her feet to ''air walk'' over to the slime. The slime reacted by throwing out several more tendrils at Dynamite Girl. Dynamite Girl swung her arm out in an arc, scattering a cloud of sparkling orange dots. When the slime hit the dots, they acted like triggered mines, exploding and incinerating the acid. Through theyer of smoke they emitted, Dynamite Girl emerged, and this time, she was right above the giant slime. "Bunker Buster!" Dynamite Girl mmed her hands down towards the slime and unleashed her strongest attack. Valera instinctively sensed danger and raised her shield and hunkered behind it. A massive burst of blinding light first engulfed the cavern, then the explosion erupted with an ear-rattling crash. The whole cavern shook, stctites breaking off from the ceiling in a rain of rock. Valera felt the shockwave of the explosion m into her, and even as she dug in her greaves into the dirt with all her prodigious strength, she still skidded back a good dozen meters. She peeked through her shield and paused in admiration. There was a sizable, ckened, and smoking crater bored into the ground where the slime was. Dynamite Girl was lodged inside a crater in the ceiling, blown back as she had been by the force of her own massive explosion. "Yeah, lemme'' see you flingin'' that acid on us now, huh!?" said Dynamite Girl as she dislodged herself from her crater bit by bit. She was bloody and bruised all over but despite her injuries, she had the widest smile on her face. She fell onto the ground, breaking her fall with a small explosion burst. She peered down into the several meter deep, smoke filled crater she had bored out. Valera grabbed Dynamite Girl roughly by the shoulder and shoved her back, sending her hurtling back several meters. "The hell was that for!?" said Dynamite Girl as she stood back up. "The slime is yet to fall." Valera blocked a few tendril shots of slime with her shield before she reached in and withdrew a watermelon sized, crystalline emerald rock - the slime''s core. She threw the core down to the earth and then split it in half with her shield. The glowing green core dimmed down in light, and the acid surrounding it faded away. Inside of the core was a dried purple eyeball - the Eye of Azoth. "Damn, thanks for savin'' my ass," said Dynamite Girl. "Thing coulda'' messed up my pretty face." "Pretty? You think too highly of yourself. But yes, you saved me, so I save you. I mustmend you though: your power is formidable. Enough to destroy a level 15 Giant Green Slime in just a single strike. And when I think about how much carnage you will loose among our enemies with that attack - my, I am starting to like you more and more," said Valera. "Think I broke both my arms and a couple ribs, though," said Dynamite Girl. She put a hand to her chest and deactivated her power, causing her veins to lose their glow and her heart to stop shining white through her chest. "And I just miiight have suffered a heart attack. But y''know, none of that bothers me anymore. You''re right: being undead has its perks. I think I can start takin'' my power up to the next level." "Not to mention an eternal life. Imagine being able to spend an entire eternity with the one you serve. There is no greater blessing." Valera flicked acid off her arm before she picked the eye up. "And now, my master''s search has ended." "Excellent work, you two." Aldrich walked into the cavern with his undead army in tow behind him. "Here, master, the Eye of Azoth." Valera knelt before Aldrich and offered up the eye. Aldrich looked at the baseball sized, wrinkled up and dried out eye in Valera''s palm expectantly. With this, he could craft a powerful weapon that could carry him all the way to the second Trial Quest, potentially even the third. "Thank you. Thank you to all of you," said Aldrich. "All of you have far exceeded my expectations." Aldrich grasped the eye and dissolved it into his inventory. [1x Eye of Azoth obtained] [Giant Green Slime defeated!] [+150 EXP] [EXP Bar: 620/1200 ] 770/1200] Then, while his hand was on Valera''s, he grabbed her hand and lifted her up. "We still have another fight to go, remember?" said Aldrich. He checked the timer on the quest. 30 minutes. "No kneeling just yet." Aldrich then headed over to a chest in the corner of the cavern and tapped it with his staff again. There, he obtained the head piece for the [Grave Reaper] set. [1x Grave Reaper Hood obtained] Aldrich looked over to his undead. His natural variants were waiting for his order to move out. The Geist, too, stared at him expectantly. Dynamite Girl had her arms crossed, waiting for an order. Valera stared longingly at the hand that Aldrich had grabbed. Generally speaking, everyone was ready to fight, and Aldrich''s [Anti-Life Shell] was healing the damage they took. "Thisst fight is the hardest fight of this quest. A secret boss fight," said Aldrich. "And the reason why I conserved my mana and health. Ready yourselves." Chapter 38: Secret Boss

Chapter 38: Secret Boss

Aldrich headed back to the very beginning of the Trial Quest. He was now fully decked out in the [Grave Reaper] set. A dark green, almost brown hood with golden trim covered his masked face, granting him the ragged yet sinister appearance of the typical necromancer. The set covered his body in a mantle and cloak of the same dark green, covering him in loose robes marked embroidery and insignia of gold shaped in streaks with a skull emzoned at the chest. Tatters were amon sight around these robes, but instead of detracting from the look of the robes and the hood, making Aldrich look right in ce among the broken and dead of the graveyard. He looked like a malevolent spirit. A haunting presence that roamed thend of the dead. Fitting for him. The only bright colors on him were on his arms. He wore golden bracers carved into the shape of various interlocking bones. The bracers shone with power, and within them was stored a spell called [Unleash Vengeful Souls]. By striking the bracers together, Aldrich could release several skull shaped vengeful souls that sought out his enemies and dealt damage to them with a 10% chance to inflict instant death. The attack was utterly unavoidable without some kind of magic barrier with the spirits tracking and homing onto enemies, and the neat thing was that each spirit rolled the 10% instant death effect. The number of the released souls increased for how much of the set pieces Aldrich possessed. At its base, the spell released 3 souls, but with the full five-piece set, the spell unleashed 13 of them, and they could be targeted at a single unit. The instant death effect could be resisted with a high enough level or magic stat, but if Aldrich rolled enough times, he could craft the [Eye of Azoth] into a weapon that couldpletely negate instant death resistances. And with instant death, Aldrich could kill Seth Sr even if the man could face an attack that could blow up the entire fucking world. "Cool new threads, boss," said Fisk as Aldrich and his undead approached the starting spot for the Trial Quest. "Really rocking that evil mage look." "Comes with my ss," said Aldrich, knowing well that most necromancer sets looked rather stereotypically evil. Aldrichmanded the Ghast to stop its [Spirit Boundary] ability, releasing the dome of smoke that protected Fisk, Adam, and ine. "And another thing, boss, the moat behind us, it made this big ass rumbling noise, and then-," Fisk stated to gesture wildly behind him. Aldrich raised a hand. "I know." Aldrich stepped over to what was previously impassable terrain. Specifically, the moat of water separating the Trial Quest from the giant mountains. The water in the moat was entirely drained, leaving soggy mud and rock and, most notably, a circr rock trapdoor with a symbol of three eyes inscribed into it. "Hell yeah." Fisk looked at the trapdoor with a grin. "Some secret boss sh*t up in here, huh? I get why you wanted me here - you were savin'' me. Now it''s my time to shine-," "You stay here again," said Aldrich. "Now more than ever. You''re right: this is a secret boss. And this secret boss is a serious challenge. Stay here, no questions asked." "Aw, alright, boss," said Fisk with a shrug. "You can use your phone now. I''m taking the Geist with me," said Aldrich. "Well, I''ll do well by myself so long as I got my phone," said Fisk. He saluted Aldrich. "Good luck down there boss. And you-," He pointed a gloved hand to the Ghast''s skull head. "I ain''t gonna'' miss you, that''s for sure." The Ghast protested by chattering its teeth before floating over to Aldrich''s side. "Valera, get in front of me. You remember this guy, right?" said Aldrich. Valera took position with her shield raised right in front of Aldrich, ready to defend him at a moment''s notice. "Yes, master. The Mind Eater with the powerful me magic." "Good. Then our strategy is the same," said Aldrich. "The Ghast uses its [Spirit Boundary] and youbine it with [Bone Guard]. That way, we block the initial spell from the Mind Eater and then we can swarm him pretty easily." "Alright, then, let''s do this," said Dynamite Girl as rotated her arm to warm herself up. "Geh." The Geist nodded. "Valera, open the trapdoor," said Aldrich. "As youmand, master," said Valera. She stepped down to the bottom of the drained moat and dug her hands into the stone door. She heaved and lifted the heavy b of rock upwards before tossing it away. "Let''s go," said Aldrich. == Aldrich and his undead moved through the tunnel unearthed from the trapdoor. The tunnel got wider and wider as they progressed until finally, they reached arge door made entirely of thick fog. This was known as a [Boss Gate] and, as the title indicated, held a boss level monster behind it. Boss monsters were different from ordinary monsters in that their stats, health, and mana pool were generally higher than ordinary monsters of the same level. In addition, they possessed immunities to mind control, instant death, and other status effects that could ''cheese'' a boss fight into a one shot. This was partly why as a yer; Aldrich did not see much of a reason for using instant death magic. There were just too many monsters that bosses that had resistances or outright immunity to it. But now, he had to think about specializing in it much more. He also had to think about how this would impact his ability to work through future Trial Quests where unlike in the real world, he would have to face creatures with these instant death resistances. For now, he could easily make up for power he had lost with variants and Alters he reanimated in the real world. "Once we pass through the Boss Gate, you''ll find the Mind Eater immediately charging up a massive Pyro Bomb. That will one shot us all except Dynamite Girl with her heat resistance. That''s why we have the Geist. It will use [Spirit Boundary] and thisbined with Valera''s [Bone Guard] will protect us," said Aldrich. "Afterwards, it is absolutely imperative that we do not let it channel a Pyro Bomb again. Understood?" "Understood, master," said Valera. "Yeah, got it captain," said Dynamite Girl. "Gehgeh." The Geist chattered its teeth as its muscles flexed, ready to fight. "Here we go," said Aldrich. His cold undead heart did not beat much anymore, but he felt excitement rush through him as he felt the thrill of facing a boss fight once more. He stepped into the fog of the Boss Gate. At first, he saw nothing but dense white fog, and then a few more steps in, everything cleared up, revealing the boss room. It was a circr room of ck rock lit up withnterns and bunches of mashed candles jutting from the walls like they were tumorous growths. At the end of the room, hunched over arge desk of roughly crafted rock littered with papers and tomes and vials and strange glowing crystals was a ck robed figure. From behind, the figure looked to be a hunched human, but when it slowly turned around, it revealed a face that was purple and octopus-like with wriggling tentacles for a mouth and three red eyes. Its hands were long and spindly. In one hand it held a ckntern holding a ghostly red fire within it. In the other hand, it grasped a gleaming red orb inscribed with unreadable sigils. "Oh life¡­oh life¡­oh my eternal life. I knew you would be here for it. But you will not have it!" said the tentacled Mind-Eater, his voice raspy and undting like it was underwater. Fler''Gan the Zealot was this boss''s name. He raised hisntern up, and an enormous fireball in the shape of a burning sun formed almost instantly above its head. Just by the sheer size, heat, and magical power surging from the fireball, it was obvious that once this hit Aldrich, it would explode into a nova that would leave everyone as a melted smudge, especially with their fire weaknesses. The Geist shivered, knowing with its instincts that if it was melted away wholesale, it could not regenerate. "I can fuckin'' take this tentacle freak!" said Dynamite Girl. "Blow that fire ball back with my own explosion!" "Hold position and remember what I said!" shouted Aldrich. "Wait and save your firepower forter!" "Behind me!" Valera mmed her shield down as she took defensive stance in front of everyone. She used [Bone Guard], creating a wall of bones in front of her. Then, the Ghast floated in the air and remained still while it casted [Spirit Boundary]. A thick dome of smoke covered Aldrich and his undead, encasing them in a barrier resistant to elemental energy. This was the entire reason that Aldrich had summoned the Ghast in the first ce. "Perish in mes, unholy usurpers!" said Fler''Gan. He waved hisntern in front of him, and the miniature sun-fireball flew downwards before crashing against Valera''s bone wall and the Ghast''s smoke barrier. Chapter 39: Secret Boss II

Chapter 39: Secret Boss II

Aldrich saw nothing but blinding light as the fireball exploded. He stared at the bright white light of the ming explosion with relief. The fact that he could even see this light meant that his consciousness had not been totally incinerated away. The light dimmed down from white to orange as the temperature of the fire dropped, and Aldrich found himself unconsciously not breathing as the oxygen in the smoky confines of the [Spirit Boundary] burned up. Thankfully, he had no need to breathe, so he stood there tensely, waiting for the mes to fully die down. Within a few seconds, the light dimmed substantially as the explosion died down. Flickering mes now lit up the arena with a red and orange glow. In some areas, these mes concentrated and roared high, turning into pirs of fire type damage to avoid. Aldrich looked up to see the Ghast''s smoky skull form lined with many cracks, liable to disappear with just a light breeze. The Ghast itself did not benefit from the barrier it created, making it an easy target to snipe. However, its [Sturdy] passive had made it survive the powerful Pyro Bomb with a single hit point. "Now! Swarm him!" Aldrich stepped out of the Spirit Boundary and saw Fler''Gan raise hisntern high in the air. Several red magic circles formed above his head as he gathered power for another [Pyro Bomb]. "Do not let him channel that attack again!" "With me!" Valera rushed forwards with [Dash], turning into a ck blur as she appeared right in front of Fler''Gan. She thrust her shield forward in a [Shield Bash] aimed to crush Fler''Gan''s head. Instead, Valera mmed straight into a forcefield projected all around Fler''Gan. The forcefield was tinted a dark orange, and by hitting it, mes gushed out and counter attacked Valera, forcing her back as her armor started to melt and smoke. "Fler''Gan is a level 20 boss. Each of his spells are capable of dealing severe damage to any of you," said Aldrich. "But if you exhaust his pyrokic barrier, his main body is fragile." Fler''Gan was a member of the Mind-Eater race that was known for consuming brains and mental energy to fuel themselves. Their bodies were not physically strong and so they relied on their mental powers that involved telekinesis and mind control to attack. On top of this, they generated a forcefield around themselves for defense. In Fler''Gan''s case, he was unique in that he practiced pyrokinesis, changing his psychic attacks from dealing mental damage to fire type damage super effective against undead. This made Fler''Gan an exceptionally difficult boss to clear for the first Trial Quest as a Necromancer with minions all weak to fire, not to mention that he was level 20. "Alright, I''ll blow that barrier up," said Dynamite Girl. "No." Aldrich pointed his staff at Fler''Gan and casted a volley of [Chill Bolts]. They struck against Fler''Gan''s barrier of pyrokic mental energy before sizzling and evaporating. "Any fire type damage against that barrier will do nothing. Save your attack for when the barrier is down." "ursed insolents!" Fler''Gan looked all around him. He was seconds away from getting dogpiled by a dozen plus undead. "Burn away!" He shook hisntern, and a red magic circle appeared in front of him. "Retreat!" said Aldrich. Most of his undead managed to stop their attacks and move backwards, but the Big-arm Grizzly was too slow. An omni-directional shockwave of mes emerged from Fler''Gan. This was an attack that he casted when he felt too many units were around him, and it had a long cooldown. If it meant sacrificing the Big-arm Grizzly to bait this spell out, then Aldrich was fine with it. "Geh!" the Geist stood in front of the Big-arm Grizzly and shoved it away. mes scorched the Geist''s back, bubbling its skin before liquefying, revealing its bare spine and half-torched internal organs. The Geist fell forwards, disabled. It was not dead, however, and it clenched its teeth and focused on its regeneration. Flesh bubbled up and grew again, starting to regrow the muscles and tissue around its bare and burned spine. Aldrichmanded his units to attack again. He waved his Alloywing Eagle towards him and hopped on to get an aerial advantage. "So what? I just gotta'' sit on my ass until that thing''s shield goes down?"ined Dynamite Girl. "No, tank attacks for others when you can," said Aldrich. He looked briefly back at the Ghast. Inside of the smoke barrier was Fisk, Adam, and ine. Fisk looked at Aldrich staring at him and raised his arms in surrender, all his previous bravado gone at the sight of Fler''Gan''s might. "S-sorry boss, but if you want me fight that, well, I don''t think I can do much-," "I know. Just stay put. Defend Adam and ine with your life, even if it means taking a hit for them," said Aldrich. He flew ahead to survey the battle better. "Burn! Burn! Burn!" Fler''Gan madly shook hisntern and waved it at the units approaching closest to him. He fired [Fire Bolts], and though it was a basic cantrip, it easily had the power to two or three shot his units. Valera led the offensive charge and blocked the [Fire Bolts] with her shield. Behind her, the Alpha Striker and the Big-arm Grizzly leaped ahead, closing the distance to Fler''Gan. They bit and swiped and tackled at his me barrier, but each time they did, mes retaliated from his pryokic barrier, damaging them. The damage was not light, either. Each attack the Variant undead made cost them a limb in terms of damage, torching their skin and flesh into ckened liquid messes. "Quick attacks and quick retreats!" said Aldrich. "Do not take too much damage from attacking, it simply isn''t worth it! Protect the Mud Crabs instead! "Gah!" Fler''Gan flew backwards as the Troll Chieftain smashed into his barrier with its broad shoulder, tackling him backwards. Using this moment of distraction, the Mud-Crabs pointed their pincers at Fler''Gan and fired off two streams of pressurized water. The water sizzled against Fler''Gan''s barrier and dealt super effective damage. "Water!? You dare!?" Fler''Gan immediately aimed at the Mud-Crabs that stood a dozen meters away and threw out a [Fire Bolt Barrage]. Six balls of me spiraled out towards them. "Protect the crabs!" said Aldrich. "I''ll take the left crab!" Valera stood in front of a crab with her shield and blocked three fire bolts. "And I''ll take the right!" Dynamite Girl defended the other crab and punched away the fire bolts, letting them explode on her body without dealing any damage due to her fireproof skin. "I swear I will incinerate these ursed crabs!" Fler''Gan ignored the undead swarming around him and just fired more Fire Bolts at the crabs. Once again, Valera and Dynamite Girl defended against these, Aldrichmanded the Troll Chieftain and Great Centipede to attack. The Chieftain punched Fler''Gan''s barrier while the centipede unborrowed its tail from the ground and whipped at the Mind-Eater. "Pests. Take your time burning yourselves upon my barrier. I will deal with youter." Fler''Gan ignored them and started to charge a swirl of orange energy into hisntern, ready to cast a [methrower] to throw out an unbroken stream of fire that was much harder to block than individual fire bolts. Aldrich raised a brow of concern. Fler''Gan was smarter than in the game. He had some recognizable behaviors from his game A.I. such as casting [me Wave] when there were more than five units around him, but usually other than that, he was pretty dumb. Anything that hit his barrier would draw his aggro, so Aldrich''s strategy was to just have his undead perform hit and run attacks to draw Fler''Gan''s attention until the crabs recharged their [Water Gun] attacks. This way, he estimated he would lose maybe one or two units at max until Fler''Gan''s barrier was down from [Water Guns]. When the me barrier ended, Fler''Gan would be much stronger offensively with more intense me spells and more aggression to boot, but at this point, Dynamite Girl could just rush him and one shot him. Fler''Gan, like other Mind-Eaters of his kind, had a weakness to fire. He covered this weakness with hisntern that granted fire resistance, but it only made him take neutral damage to fire. A full-force attack from Dynamite Girl, especially now that she knew how to go all out beyond her body''s limits, would blow up Fler''Gan instantly as his barrier was 70% of his maximum health. But Fler''Gan was not acting like his A.I. He was not taking easy bait from short hit and run attacks. "And once those crabs are done with, I will burn you, ursed summoner of the dead," said Fler''Gan as he eyed Aldrich above. Fler''Gan was conscious. Aldrich could see it in the Mind-Eater''s three bulbous eyes. There was thought in them. Deranged, insane thought, but thought nheless. This made Fler''Gan much more dangerous. Chapter 40: Secret Boss III

Chapter 40: Secret Boss III

Thankfully, Aldrich had left two undead slots empty so that he could react to sudden difficulties like this. Aldrich immediately casted [Create Undead] and formed a second Ghast. He had the Ghast float over to the crabs and emit a [Spirit Boundary]. The moment the boundary went up, Fler''Gan''s [methrower] shot out, and a cone of continuous fire washed over the smoke barrier. "Hah! I knew you would do that!" Fler''Gan suddenly changed the course of his [methrower] to Aldrich''s other units, specifically the Troll Chieftain. The Troll Chieftain roared as he took the attack, his grey and rotted flesh burning and sloughing off rapidly. Valera and Dynamite Girl were still with the crabs at this point, so there was nobody to help the Chieftain. At this rate, the Chieftain would die in a matter of seconds as he took quadruple damage from fire due to possessing dual weaknesses from being both a Grey Troll and a Zombie. "Geh (Get away from him!)" the Geist mini dashed forwards andnded a mighty punch against Fler''Gan''s barrier, sending him flying backwards and breaking his aim with his [methrower]. "Urgh! Pest! Such healing magic I have not seen the likes of! Fine, you wish to die properly, then here!" Fler''Gan''s mouth tendrils swayed angrily as he pointed hisntern at the Geist. The Geist side stepped the [methrower] with another mini-dash and then went back to the Troll Chieftain, raised the troll up on its shoulders, and tossed the troll over to the other Ghast at the back of the arena. "Such coordination! It is you! I must sever the head of this army!" Fler''Gan stared up at Aldrich and breathed into hisntern, casting [Homing Will-O-Wisp], a spell that created ten tongues of me that homed in on a target. When the orbs of me reached the target, they would explode and deal significant damage. This was Fler''Gan''s strongest phase 1 spell and a guaranteed one hit kill on a level 10 yer character even if they took just two or three of the orbs. It was also a massive pain to dodge. In the worst-case scenario, a Necromancer had to sacrifice ten units just to survive this hit. "I''m prepared for this," said Aldrich. He crashed his [Grave Reaper Bracers] together. Green ghostly sparks showered out from the impact and then thirteen Vengeful Spirits emerged. They were glowing green skulls covered in a flickering aura of ck, and this aura flowed into wispy tails as they surged forwards, pained moans of torture echoing from their fleshless mouths. Ten Vengeful Spirits shed with ten Will-O-Wisps, exploding on contact and neutralizing Fler''Gan''s attack. This left three Vengeful Spirits to strike into Fler''Gan''s barrier, reducing it now to the 60% mark. "What!?" Fler''Gan eximed. "And now you''ve wasted too much time." Aldrich felt rage simmer from beneath him. He felt it burning through the close bond he had between himself and Valera. "You think you''ve won already? All I have to do is defeat those crabs and-," Fler''Gan turned his gaze to the crabs but instead found a massive cross-shield thrown into his barrier, crashing him back to the wall of his arena. "YOU DARE!? YOU DARE TO EVEN TRY AND STRIKE MY MASTER!?" Valera roared as she charged, changing herbat style from Shielder to Berserker. "[Negative Surge]" Aldrich nodded at Valera, infusing her with a burst of negative energy that reinforced her strength, durability, and speed even more. She sprinted forwards as a veritable behemoth of speeding, hulking armor, and she was upon Fler''Gan in a second, raining down a flurry of punches. "ORA! ORA! ORA!" Valera rained down punch after punch, and each one was loud enough to bepared to an artillery shot. All this while, Fler''Gan shot out a [methrower] against Valera. "Die! Die! Why won''t you die, you brute!" "YES! BURN ME MORE! GIVE ME EVEN MORE OF A REASON TO CRUSH YOU!" Valera kept mming her fists into the top of Fler''Gan''s barrier, gradually sinking him into a crater. Valera took double damage from fire, and by all rights, Fler''Gan''s attack should have severely injured her. But as a Berserker, she had a powerful passive known as [Berserker''s Rage] that reduced iing damage by a tremendous 50% in exchange for receiving that same damage over time. However, the reduced damage she took over time could not be fatal, so Valera could tank the [methrower] for a surprisingly long amount of time. "Gah! Away with you!" Fler''Gan did not use fire but a more typical Mind-Reader spell in the form of [Force st]. His spindly fingers glowed blue before a st of telekic force pushed Valera a dozen meters backwards. Valera knelt down, her armor dripping melted metal. She fell down to one knee, breathing heavily as smoke puffed out from her helmet visor and other gaps in her armor. Once Valera was done taking the damage over time from the amount she mitigated from the [methrower], she would be near 5% health, maybe even lower. She was done here. "Geh!" The Geist once again went on rescue duty. It stuck out its prehensile tongue and wrapped it around Valera''s waist before tossing her into the safety of the Ghast in the back. Valera had bought enough time now for the crabs to refresh their [Water Guns]. Both crabs aimed at Fler''Gan again. "You think I do not know what you are nning? That brute of a knight''s sacrifice will be in vain! Any water you cast upon me, I will counter with [Combustion]!" said Fler''Gan. His three red eyes narrowed as he focused. [Combustion] created spontaneous explosions in the air and when timed properly, could scatter projectiles and split stream type attacks like [Water Gun] down the middle. The crabs fired their [Water Guns]. As the two spiraling streams of pressurized water sped forwards, Fler''Gan raised hisntern up high, readying his [Combustion] spell. The Great Centipede and Skeleton Rogue at this moment emerged out of nowhere. The Great Centipede from underground where it could not be sensed and the Skeleton Rogue from stealth. "What!?" Fler''Gan casted a double cast [Combustion], but the spell, though instant, required an unbroken line of sight with its target. With his line of sight broken from the [Water Guns], he could only hit what was in front of him. Twin explosions erupted from the Skeleton Rogue and the Great Centipede. Both of them blew apart, destroyed, but their sacrifice gave time for the [Water Guns] to m into Fler''Gan''s barrier. Fler''Gan''s barrier flickered and sputtered before fading away. Valera''s berserker assault had reduced Fler''Gan''s shield from 60% to 20%, and now it was down to 0%. "You''ve cast down my barrier, is it?" said Fler''Gan. He started to float in the air, fire swirling around him. "But you have merely forced me to channel more of my power!" Aldrich shook his head. "You should have channeled that power from the start. You''re done for." "What do you mean!?" said Fler''Gan. "Your brutish knight is fallen. Your minions nurse their burned, rotted flesh. And your crabs must wait for their water spells." "I was getting real fucking tired of waiting around," said Dynamite Girl as she stepped out of the Spirit Boundary protecting the crabs. Her entire body glowed orange, all of her veins visible as her heart beat a million miles per minute. "Insolent little girl! You are undead, no match for my purging mes!" Fler''Gan waved hisntern at Dynamite Girl, sending a [me Lance] at her. A huge spear of fire mmed into her. Dynamite Girl flipped her hair as mes roared around her harmlessly. She stared up at Fler''Gan with a lip twisted in rage and a nerve of anger popping on her forehead, contorting her pretty face into pure anger. "That it, huh? Fuckin'' bastard, you think you''re the only one that gets to throw fire and explosions around, huh!? Don''t steal my sh*t!" "Completely immune to me!? As an undead!? H-how!?" said Fler''Gan. Dynamite Girl jumped in the air, releasing two mini explosions on her feet to give her speed and lift, and tackled Fler''Gan, pinning him into a wall with her arm. "I will have your brain!" Fler''Gan''s mouth tendrils extended forwards and opened up, revealing a buzz-saw like beak-maw. Before the tendrils shot out, Dynamite Girl shouted: "Bunker Buster!" In the next instant, the entire cavern turned white, and then an explosion that ruptured Aldrich''s eardrums rocked the arena. Chapter 41: FlerGan the Zealot: Youll Also Like

Chapter 41: Fler''Gan the Zealot

Aldrich could not hear or see until his eardrums healed and his eyes adjusted from the intense blinding light, like a sh bang had been set off right in front of him. Seemed like though undead had night vision, blinding effects still worked on them provided they still had eyes. Nothing could tell him how the battle ended except a message from his status screen: [Boss: Fler''Gan the Zealot defeated] [+800 EXP] [EXP Bar: 770/1200 ]1570/1200] [Level up] [Level 10 ] 11] [EXP Bar: 370/1400] [5 stat points avable to distribute] Aldrich breathed a sigh of relief. He was 99% sure Fler''Gan was dead, but when he saw those messages, he felt absolutely confident. He waited a good twenty or so seconds until his blinding faded and his ears healed up with his [Anti-Life Shell]. He saw Valera and Dynamite Girl standing in front of him, squabbling while the Geist looked awkwardly between them, trying to resolve the conflict but not knowing how. "You blinded and hurt him!" said Valera as she pointed an using finger at Dynamite Girl. "What? You wanted me to hold back on stin'' that squid face freak!? You think that''s what the captain would have wanted, huh!?" said Dynamite Girl. "Enough," said Aldrich. "Both of you did well. All of you, in fact." Aldrich looked around with appreciation at his undead. Valera was still shaky on her feet, weak from taking so much damage. Dynamite Girl''s arms were both mangled with cracked bone hutting out through the skin of her arm while she bled from the mouth, her heart ruptured from exerting herself. Most of his undead suffered significant burns that they now slowly healed under Aldrich''s [Anti-Life Shell]. Really only the two crabs got out of this fight untouched, and that was because they had been protected. All in all, though, Aldrich felt that he had cleared Fler''Gan with moderate difficulty. He initially thought the fight was going to be an easy cakewalk by abusing the boss''s game A.I., but he was sentient, or at the very least somewhat sentient, letting him make decisions outside of Aldrich''s awareness. "Where is he? The boss?" said Aldrich. "Nothin'' left of that freak!" said Dynamite Girl proudly as she pointed over to a massive ckened crater. It looked like a high ordinance missile had bored into the ground and exploded, gouging out a ckened crater the size of a small house at the end of the arena. Aldrich sighed. "I wanted some part of him left to see if I could resurrect him." Normally in Elden World, it was not possible to reanimate boss type monsters or beings. But maybe now it was different. Aldrich had wanted to find out. "Sorry, captain," said Dynamite Girl. "No, it''s fine. You couldn''t have held back anyway. We either finished him in one hit or we didn''t. Good job." Aldrich walked over to the crater and spied the rewards from this boss fight. Fler''Gan''sntern floated in the air in the deepest center of the crater. Aldrich picked it up by tapping it with his staff. [1x Firekeeper''s Lantern obtained] There was also an item orb containing a silver ring designed in the shape of two coiling serpents. The [Ring of Avarice]. Aldrich absorbed this too. [1x Ring of Avarice obtained] With the [Ring of Avarice], Aldrich would receive a set amount of coins every 3 days. The amount of coins he received for this changed depending on what level he was. From levels 1 - 10, he received 100 coins. In increments of ten levels, this coin reward increased ording to these values: 150 (at level 20) - 225 (lvl 30) - 300 (lvl 40) - 500 (lvl 50) - 700 (lvl 60) - 1000 (lvl 70) - 2000 (lvl 80) - 2500 (lvl 90) - 4000 (lvl 100). Hopefully, this would give Aldrich enough coins tost as he did not start receiving coin drops from monsters in Trial Quests until the second one onwards. But beyond this, Aldrich noticed something that Fler''Gan did not drop his Soul. Ordinarily, bosses always dropped their Soul. What changed now? What Fler''Gan did drop was something he never dropped in the game. The crimson red orb he held in his hand that was part of his visual design but nothing more than that. Aldrich knelt down and picked the orb up. It was the size of baseball, not particrlyrge, but it was surprisingly heavy. On it were inscribed several lines of sigils glowing an eerie green. Within, he saw the faint flicker of a familiar white - the flicker of a Soul. Fler''Gan''s Soul. That was when Aldrich noticed that he could see the bright green of a Grave Marker inside the orb as well. Fler''Gan could be resurrected using this orb. Aldrich started to recall game lore. Mind Eaters like Fler''Gan were obsessed with knowledge and because the pursuit of knowledge was never ending by its nature, they required immortality to continue amassing knowledge throughout Elden World and its realms. Mind Eater immortality was thus quite simple. Arge brain shaped, tendril covered super mass known as a Elder Mind spawned Mind Eaters to roam and absorb knowledge, and then Mind Eaters grew too weak or old, they returned to the Elder Mind whereupon they would get absorbed. The Mind Eater''s knowledge would transfer to the Elder Mind and then their biomass would get reused to birth another Mind Eater. Mind Eaters ordinarily had undying loyalty to their Elder Minds via mental control, but some broke from this control. Those that broke free still hungered for knowledge and thus still needed long lifespans for this pursuit, and so they sought other means of immortality that did not involve sacrificing themselves. The path to bing a lich was one of the moremon ones among these Mind Eaters. Fler''Gan was one such Mind Eater that sought to be a lich. Hence, his backstory was that he had locked himself in this underground study for decades, growing mad trying to be not only a lich, but one also utterly immune to fire to be an invincible undead. Then, Aldrich thought as he stared at the orb in his hand, this was a Phctery. An object, often an orb, that a mortal being imbued their souls in to take the first steps to turning into a Lich. Their flesh bodies rotted away to skeletal forms upon casting their souls away, but in exchange, these skeletal bodies became highly attuned to magic, death, curses, and, most importantly, were disposable, capable of reforming so long as the Phctery holding the main soul remained intact. In Elden World, the yer character Necromancer came from a line of mortal Necromancers that reviled bing a Lich and actively hunted them. Bing a Lich meant abandoning one''s humanity and binding themselves to the original Lich known as the Death Lord, one of the evil gods of Elden World that allied with the Howling Dark to destroy all life. The Death Lord''s end goal was to destroy life so that all souls entered into his own Realm of Death where he would rule over all creation infinitely. Typical big bad evil god stuff. As a result, the yer character''s Necromancer and other mortal Necromancers fought against the Death Lord as where the Death Lord believed all creation should die and serve him, mortal Necromancers believed the boundary between life and death should be respected and maintained. It was said that part of the ritual to be a Lich involved not only forging a Phctery, but alsomuning with the Death Lord to take a shard of his power. This shard would then fuel the ritual and make the Phcteryplete, finalizing the steps to be a Lich. Those that were too weak-willed who faced the Death Lord lost their minds to him and became his lich ves. Those that were strong enough, however, took the Death Lord''s shard of power for themselves and became independent and mighty liches. This was all Aldrich knew of the process to be a Lich. How to craft a Phctery and all the steps in between making one andmuning with the Death Lord were not exined in the game as yer characters could not be undead. But¡­what if Aldrich could find someone that knew all of this? Someone that would serve him and guide him through the process. And that someone was right here in the palm of Aldrich''s hand. Aldrich put down the orb and chanted, "Serve." He felt an immense strain on his body as his magical energy roared around him in a raging green aura. He felt life and magic leave him, draining him rapidly. All of this sacrificed life and mana flowed into the Phctery in twin strands of green and crimson. "Master, you are taking too much damage!" said Valera. "I''m fine," said Aldrich as mana and life continued to drain from him. This was far, far more than the 10% maximum health cost he sacrificed for raising monsters that were much higher leveled than him. This was the cost of raising a boss type monster, it seemed. A continuous mana and health sacrifice. A type of being that Aldrich had never been able to raise in the game. He was thankful he had saved his mana and health so conservatively throughout the fight, but as he felt himself getting drained second by second, he wondered if he had enough. Eventually, Aldrich reached 10% of his maximum health and mana, and at that point, his spell stopped draining his health and mana. He breathed heavily as sweat trickled from his forehead. He looked down at the Phctery. A green aura enveloped the crimson orb before it rapidly shook and oscited. All of a sudden, a burst of energy sted outwards in a shockwave, knocking Aldrich back, Valera caught him and kept him on his feet. Green and red particles swirled in front of the Phctery, forming into Fler''Gan''s form. Aldrich waited tensely, wondering if Fler''Gan was hostile, especially with his mental insanity, and was ready to take away his individuality or, if needed, dispel him at a moment''s notice. But Fler''Gan did not fight. Instead, he knelt down and closed his three red eyes in reverence. "Your wish is mymand, O Elder. I thank you for granting me the eternity I have always searched for." Chapter 42: Becoming a Lich

Chapter 42: Bing a Lich

Aldrich did not respond immediately to Fler''Gan, still wary about whether he had the potential to be aggressive. He felt out the mental connection he had between master and undead familiar, and as he did so, he saw status messages appear in his vision. [Trial Quest: The Searchpleted] [+500 EXP] [+500 Coins] [Learned passive: Corpse Barrier] [Learned passive: Death Sense] [Learned ss spell: Grave Consumption] [Obtained: Tome of Enhancement] [Obtained 1x Sign Stone] [Obtained 3x Restorative sk charges] = [EXP Bar: 370/1400 ] 870/1400] Aldrich breathed in deeply, feeling power flow into him. Bit by bit, he was getting back to the power of his original yer character. [Death Sense] allowed Aldrich to sense the presences of any units under 10% of their maximum health which was particrly useful considering that this was generally the max health range for most instant death type spells to work as executes. [Grave Consumption] allowed Aldrich to take a Grave Marker and consume it, healing 5% of his maximum health. It could also be used on resurrected undead, destroying the undead and absorbing its negative energy to restore 10% of maximum health. [Corpse Barrier] was particrly useful. It gave Aldrich a bonus shield that consisted of 30% of his maximum health, and the neat thing was that this barrier could regenerate very quickly by adding corpses into it. Of course, if Aldrich used a corpse to pad his barrier, he could not raise it to be an undead. The [Tome of Enhancement] would also grant Aldrich ess to upgraded versions of his current spells. Overall, this was a massive boost in power. "Is something amiss, O Elder?" said Fler''Gan. Aldrich looked at Fler''Gan and the thought immediately struck him: he could get even stronger. "Nothing," said Aldrich as he made sure he felt no hostility from Fler''Gan. "Tell me, you seemed to have been sentient. What do you remember about this ce? About what happened to you in the past few decades?" Valera perked up, highly curious for the same reason that Aldrich was: they wanted to know what exactly happened to the game universe of Elden World. "Everything¡­ended for me," said Fler''Gan. "I had holed myself in my study for my pursuit to achieve eternal life. It was many years I threw myself into this search, but at one point, I do not know when, I felt as if I was in a haze. Walking in a dream from which there was no waking. During that time, I was conscious and not conscious. I acted only in my search for immortality. But I did not feel as if I was in my own body. I simply¡­was." "Like you were sleepwalking," said Aldrich. He turned to Valera. "This sounds exactly like what you went through. He also went into a sort of eternal sleep." "Indeed, my master," said Valera. "And you remember nothing else?" Aldrich turned back to Fler''Gan. Fler''Gan shook his mouth tendrils. "No." "I see," said Aldrich. "I notice you do not seem nearly as, well,mitted to your search for immortality." "You mean he''s not fuckin'' batsh*t insane anymore," said Dynamite Girl bluntly. "Yes, I was trying to be polite here," said Aldrich. "I tell you, master, whelps these days have no sense of decorum or manners," said Valera as she shook her head. "Huh? I''m young, is that it? Doesn''t that mean you''re some sorta old hag?" said Dynamite Girl. Valera immediately stood up, her armor nking, and she strode up to Dynamite Girl and stared her down, towering over the hero. "What was that?" said Valera. "Just sayin'' what you admitted," said Dynamite Girl. "Gehgeh (What a pointless argument)" said the Geist. "What did you say!?" Valera and Dynamite Girl shouted inplete union, synchronizing angry head turns to the Geist. "Geh! (Nothing!)" The Geist raised its muscr arms in the air in surrender. "Calm down, all of you. No point in arguing among ourselves. And you, Valera, you should be thankful for the Geist. It saved you," said Aldrich. "I suppose," grumbled Valera. She bowed her head slightly to the Geist. "I thank you for your service, good creature." She paused awkwardly. "And I apologize for thinking of you as a foul abomination of nature." "Geheh." The Geist rubbed its head and nodded, taking the apology gratefully. "Hey now, ain''t we all just freaks of nature at this point?" said Dynamite Girl. "No, we are perfect beings now," said Valera. "We may not fit into the normal cycle of life and death anymore, but that is precisely why we are ascendant." "Guess that''s a good way of lookin'' at this whole undead thing," said Dynamite Girl. "She speaks truly," said Fler''Gan. "For decades, I sought undeath for it was the purest form of transcending the limits of the body. Mindless undead are little more than aberrations, but higher undead such as ourselves with our minds still intact are truly transcendent." Fler''Gan nodded to Valera. "And as for your question, O Elder. My madness was cast upon me not only from my quest for immortality, but also from the sleep from which I fell into. That sleep kept my drive, my madness, strong. But now that I have been freed from that sleep and also granted immortal undeath, there is nothing that clouds my judgment any longer." "Good," said Aldrich. "If you were even just a little bit unstable, I would have kept you a mindless ve." "To you who has granted me the gift of undeath, I serve gratefully," said Fler''Gan. "Let''s keep it that way. Now then, this-," Aldrich picked up Fler''Gan''s phcterly. "Exin this. Can this still be used?" "Certainly. And it is yours. I have no use for it," said Fler''Gan. "If, indeed, you wish to ascend even further from risen undead into a proper lich." "Then how does this work?" said Aldrich. "The process of bing a lich, that is." Aldrich had no hesitations about turning into a lich. It would massively enhance his power, and this was not an understatement. In Elden World lore, mortal Necromancers had to band up with parties of warriors and mages and priests and whatnot just to beat a single lich. Any lich, even a lower leveled one, was a boss type monster. A lich was simply far more attuned to death and magic than a mortal. They could control more dead, raise more dead, cast stronger curses, stronger death magic, possess higher mana pools, and so on and so forth. Mortals could only dip their toes into the well of power that was Necromancy. Liches could dive into the dark arts full body and harness the ss''s power infinitely better. All Aldrich needed was the knowledge to be one. And here was Fler''Gan who had devoted literal decades into turning into one. "There are three major steps topleting the ritual," said Fler''Gan. "The phctery is simply the first step. It is a construct of the rarest magic-capable ores and enchantments. Crystal of Orichalcum, dust of fairy wing, dragon tooth powder, me demon fire-," "Yes, and you''ve assembled all of that into this." Aldrich nodded at the phctery. "And you said it was still usable. Usable for me?" "Certainly," said Fler''Gan. "Then the other two steps?" "The second is to excise any mortal chains you have," said Fler''Gan. "Mortal chains? Fuck is that? Stop speaking in goddamn riddles," said Dynamite Girl. "Must I tone down my diction to match the understanding of an addlepated simpleton such as this?" Fler''Gan waved his lengthy purple fingers dismissively at Dynamite Girl. "Huh!?" Dynamite Girl started to get aggressive, and Aldrich raised a hand. "Stop. I will be the only one to talk to Fler''Gan. You keep quiet," said Aldrich as he leered at Dynamite Girl. "Got it, captain," said Dynamite Girl. "Now then, mortal chains. What does this entail?" said Aldrich. "Personal bonds. Emotional attachments. These things bind your soul to the physical ne. It makes it difficult to sever your soul from your mortal shell and ce it within the phctery," said Fler''Gan. "I see," said Aldrich. This step, he was good on. As far as he knew, he had no emotional attachments anymore. His parents were dead, and Adam and ine were only zombies now, their souls forever gone. "Then the third step?" "To obtain an Obelisk from the Death Lord," said Fler''Gan, his voice deathly serious. "I see. I know about this one. You challenge the Death Lord and take a shard of his power from him. And this shard is called the Obelisk." "Yes." "And let me guess, you stopped at this stage," said Aldrich. "You have apleted phctery and you could move your soul into it, meaning you had no strong personal attachments to anyone. And yet, you aren''t a lich yet. This means you couldn''t challenge the Death Lord." "No. I tried, but the trial she forced upon me was far too difficult to ovee," said Fler''Gan. "I barely escaped with my free will, and all these years, I studied for a means to ovee the Death Lord''s trial with new power to no avail." "And what was the nature of this trial?" said Aldrich. "THAT, YOU WILL FIND OUT." Aldrich widened his eyes as he heard a deep, rumbling voice emanate from the phctery in his hand. The phctery glowed brightly, and smoke started to ripple from Aldrich''s hand as the orb burned him. "Master, drop that ursed object!" Valera trudged forwards, but a shockwave sted out from the phctery that knocked everyone except Aldrich backwards. "THIS ''TRIAL QUEST''¡­YOU CALL THIS A TRIAL? PATHETIC. YOU HAVE OVERCOME IT SO VERY EASILY. I CAN SENSE YOUR DESIRE. YOU ARE SO EASILY WILLING TO CAST AWAY YOUR HUMANITY TO BECOME A LICH. BUT DO YOU THINK THIS MAKES YOU SPECIAL? UNIQUE? YOU ARE JUST ONE OF MANY, MANY MORTALS WHO WERE DESPERATE ENOUGH TO CAST AWAY THEIR HUMANITY. HUMANITY MEANS NOTHING. IT IS WORTHLESS. NO, I WILL JUDGE YOUR WORTH MYSELF. WITH A TRIAL OF MY OWN." Chapter 43: The Death Lord

Chapter 43: The Death Lord

Aldrich braced himself before feeling the familiar sensation of his body warping to a different location. It was a brief moment of weightlessness that ended when his surroundings shifted in a blurred instant. No longer was he in the dpidated underground study of Fler''Gan. Now, Aldrich found himself in the midst of a throne room that somehow merged perfectly merged both royal grandeur and the decay of time. Dark and grey stoneyered with dusty white ash stretched out everywhere, building up a massive hallway and twenty pairs of towering pirs. Atop each pir stood majestically carved statues of knights and mages, and by their spiked armor and skull patterned vestments, it was apparent that these were practitioners of the dark arts. Hanging from each pir were dark green, nearly ck banners etched with a coat of arms consisting of a skull attached to a bare spine. The throne room was massive. Large enough that it could fit two football stadiums inside of it at the very least. And at the very end, in the distance, was the throne. A throne of bones. Bones of every kind. Human, monster, dragon - if it was a creature that once lived, its bones were here, fused together to form a seat of honor for no less than the Death Lord itself. "Master¡­is that it? The Lord of Death?" said Valera, and Aldrich nodded both in understanding and relief. He could sense that all of his undead were with him, standing behind him. They had thankfully all been transported here with him. "Yeah," said Aldrich. "But different. More dangerous." Aldrich said this because the Death Lord seemed to be sentient as well. And if it could think for itself with all its immense power given to it not only by its level 100 status and the immense strength that the game lore said it possessed, then it was probably the most dangerous threat that Aldrich could think of. Far more dangerous than Seth Sr. No, forget that. Not even the Protectorate, the top 10 heroes across the entire world, were as much of a threat. "More dangerous? Than that foul thing already was?" Valera weakly leaned against her shield, still heavily damaged. "We¡­we are not strong enough, master. We have barely triumphed over the first trial quest. And we are now to face the Death Lord? The final and twelfth trial?" "To think we would face the Death Lord now -," Fler''Gan trembled before shaking his head. "O Elder, I will bring forth the greatest extent of mine strength, but know that it will be like bearing forth a single ember before a wildfire." "Yeah, that armored monster''s got me feelin'' real small. Like I''m just an ant lookin'' up at a massive steel-toed boot," said Dynamite Girl. "W-when will this end already!?" said Fisk in a panic. "Gehhh¡­" The Geist hid behind Valera and Dynamite Girl like a child, but because it was so massive and muscled, it looked ridiculous in its efforts. Aldrich remained silent and wary, but he knew everyone was right. The 12th Trial Quest for the Necromancer ss was the final and hardest one. A Necromancer had to be level 100 to challenge it and even then, they had to fight it with a full party of eight fellow heroes. These heroes came from a list of A.I.panions the yer could bring together, but every single hero was level 70 at the minimum. And all of that to face just to face the Death Lord and its army. Lore wise, the final trial quest was meant for the Necromancer yer to defeat the Death Lord and usurp its vast power, taking away one of the evil gods supporting the Howling Dark. Defeating the Death Lord also destroyed all of the enved liches under its control, eliminating a sizable portion of the Howling Dark''s final army. In other words, Aldrich was horribly, horrendously outmatched. "WELCOME TO MY ABODE, DEATH WALKER." The Death Lord''s voice boomed through the entire hallway. It stood up with the heavy nking of metal. It appeared to be a three-meter-tall hulking behemoth of an armored knight with dark grey, spiked armor and a menacingly horned helmet. The Death Lord''s armor seemed to be hollow inside with a green glow of energy - the very same kind that adorned Aldrich - shining through gaps in the armor. The armor''s torso was shaped like a pair of metal ribs, and one could see through the gaps in those metal bones that inside was not a flesh body, but just an orb of pure green, ming energy. The Death Lord jumped and easily cleared the near entire length of the hallway in a single leap, standing right before Aldrich with a heavy crash. "SO? DEATH WALKER? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO STAND BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF A TRUE MASTER OF DEATH?" said the Death Lord as it stared down at Aldrich. "I wonder what you''re still doing here alive," said Aldrich, not intimidated in the least. "Last I remember, I beat you and absorbed your soul." "HAH! I REMEMBER THAT TOO," said the Death Lord. "BUT I AM BACK AGAIN! AS STRONG AS EVER BEFORE. AND YOU, MY LITTLE DEATH WALKER, ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT YOU WERE. AND YOUR FRIENDS? YOUR FELLOW HEROES? GONE. AND YOUR UNDEAD LEGION?" The Death Lord waved an arm towards Aldrich''s undead. "WHAT HAS HAPPENED? THIS IS WHAT YOU BRING FORTH TO CHALLENGE ME? PATHETIC." The Death Lord turned around dismissively and crossed its arms. "You dare to call my master pathetic? You? A mere ghost that hides in this realm of yours!?" said Valera. "OH, IT''S YOU AGAIN, THE ''LADY'' KNIGHT WHO ONLY KNOWS HOW TO THROW A PUNCH!" the Death Lord turned to Valera and looked her up and down/ "What of it, you brute?" said Valera. "I hate your type - all you meat headed heavy armor muscle maniacs - the most." "HM. I SUPPOSE YOU''VE ALREADY TAKEN THAT LOOK FOR YOURSELF." The Death Lord shrugged and gestured towards Valera''s own bulky suit of armor. "The Death Lord does have a point," said Fler''Gan. Dynamite Girl smacked the tentacled monster on his head. "You forget whose side you''re on!?" "Argh!" Fler''Gan rubbed his lightly dented, soft purple head and red at Dynamite Girl and Valera. "Gone are the days of proper, quiet, and gentle women, I suppose," he grumbled, thoroughly speaking like a disgruntled old man. "Quiet," said Aldrich. "YOU KNOW, I DON''T WANT TO USE A LOOK THAT THIS BOORISH DEATH KNIGHT HAS ALREADY TAKEN. PLUS, YOU''VE ALREADY SEEN AND FOUGHT ME LIKE THIS." The Death Lord took its gauntleted hand and tapped its breastte. With that, its huge metal body glowed bright green before dissolving away, leaving just the orb of glowing green energy housed within the armor. The orb then turned into the silhouette of not an enormously muscled man, but a woman. A woman of Aldrich''s height, actually. She stood confidently with a hand on her hip clothed in flowing green robes, a majestic grey fur coat with a gleaming green fringe, and a long skirt adorned with bones with a slit that showed off pale, shapely long legs. The Death Lord flipped flowing locks of long white hair behind her head and stared at Aldrich with a confident, sharp-toothed smile and gleaming green eyes with reptilian pupils. Draconic horns jutted from the sides of her head. "So? How is it, gazing upon my true form? Thest we met, the goddess Amara had weakened me so greatly I was confined only to my battle armor," said the Death Lord. "Unexpected," said Aldrich with some level of confusion as he stared at the Death Lord. He knew the Death Lord''s true form was hidden, and he knew that ording to the lore, before the Death lord became a lich, it had been a dragon. He had no idea of the Death Lord''s gender, but he had always thought by default it was male. "People expect a certain image from a ''Death Lord'', hence, how you perceived me before. But to you, my dear, who wishes to be a lich just like me, I will not hide behind threatening armor. I will meet you in my true and proper form," said the Death Lord. "Master¡­," Valera looked at Aldrich staring at the Death Lord and then she mmed her shield down, drawing the Death Lord''s attention. "You! You wish to tempt my master, is it!? You think he will fall for the likes of you!? You snake!?" "Quiet, muscle-head," said the Death Lord. She stretched her arms up, puffing out her sizable chest. "You are standing in the presence of a truedy here. Or lord, if you prefer that." "So?" said Aldrich, unimpressed. "What is it? If you wanted to kill us, you could have." "Oh, of course," said the Death Lord. "But that''s not the point. This isn''t like when west met, when you fought me to kill me. No, you''re reaching out to me this time for my power, are you not? You want to be a lich. And for that, you need an Obelisk forged from my own essence." "And? Are you going to give it or not?" said Aldrich. "Oh my, so forward, asking for my essence just like that?" The Death Lord crossed her arms and smiled, licking her lips with a forked, snake-like tongue. "No. I wee any and all who wish to be a lich. All I require is that you pass a trial of my own. Ah, and it looks like you have one of my rejects among you already." The Death Lord waved a green wed finger towards Fler''Gan. "He made quite the beautiful phctery, that one, but like all empty-headed academics and mages, he might have had the brains, but he didn''t have the stones to make it through my trial." "He doesn''t remember your trial," said Aldrich. "But I''m assuming it''s impossibly difficult, is it?" "Hmmmm." The Death Lord put a finger to her lips and cocked her head innocently. "I don''t think so. I like to think I mete out rather fair trials. And why would I not? I would love to see more of my kind. Those too weak that end up bing my ves, well, that''s that, they simply weren''t worthy. But you, Death Walker, you have already proven yourself worthy by defeating me before." "And yet here I am getting the sense that you''ll still be giving me a trial," said Aldrich. "Well, I don''t give out my power for free, even with our past together," The Death Lord nodded to herself. "Ah, I know what to do." The Death Lord put a hand into her chest and it sunk into it like it sunk into a pool of water, rippling into some interdimensional inventory space. She withdrew a green Sign Stone and tossed it to Aldrich. "You will start at the bottom of my great royal tower, my beloved Necropolis. Clear as many floors as you can. You go high enough, and you will receive my Obelisk. And I will be generous, too. Any treasure you find, any monsters you raise as your own, any levels you extract, you keep. Plus, you get three tries. Three lives. But you only get to keep the rewards from your best try. Ah, and this, too. Last you faced me, you faced me with an entire party of heroes. If you can cough together your friends again, then I''ll let them form a party with you again. And that''s all I''m giving you. Now go." The Death Lord pped her hands together, and Aldrich and his undead found himself teleported away again. This time, in the midst of a dark, spacious crypt packed with shattered tombstones. A message shed in his status screen. [Necropolis: Floor 1] Aldrich found himself fully healed with his mana restored, and the same happened with everyone else in his undead. [New Quest: Ritual of Eternity obtained] [Attempt 1 started] Aldrich sighed as he heard groans and moans from zombies rising from the tombs around him. Everyone in his army tensed up, ready for battle. "Here we go," said Aldrich as he cracked his neck. Chapter 44: Ritual of Eternity

Chapter 44: Ritual of Eternity

Aldrich and his undead moved through the Necropolis floors with utter ease for the first five floors. These floorsy in the multi-story crypt located at the very bottom of the Death Lord''s royal tower, and here, only low-level zombies came out to fight them. The difficulty of these lower levels was in the sheer number of zombies. They came out in small waves at first, but then their numbers increased until it seemed like there was an infinite amount of them. The point of these floors, Aldrich realized, was to find a dimensional exit gate up to the next floor before the zombies hit a critical mass. However, no matter how many zombies there were, they were no match for Aldrich. Dynamite Girl and Fler''Gan wiped out the zombies with utter ease. Fler''Gan, especially as a level 20 boss that retained all his heightened stats, annihted weak zombies with his powerful fire magic. During this time, Aldrich obtained more information about the quest to obtain the Death Lord''s Obelisk. He needed to reach the fifteenth floor to obtain the Obelisk. Aldrich never knew what the Necropolis held in it. In the game, the Necropolis had been destroyed by the goddess of light and life Amara before the yer character came to it. And, as the Death Lord stated, Amara had isted the Death Lord in a pocket dimension that was the twelfth trial quest for the yer to defeat. But so far, Aldrich was not impressed. The zombies of the first five floors did not exceed level 10. However, on the sixth floor, the crypt fed out into the first proper floor of the Necropolis, and here, the enemies upgraded from zombies into death knights. Death knights were at the minimum level 15. At max, they could hit level 40, though thankfully, he did not see death knights at this high of a level range. Again, Aldrich relied on Fler''Gan heavily to abuse undead fire weaknesses, but the fight became increasingly harder and harder until by the tenth floor, Aldrich found himself walking into a room full of level 20 death knights headed by a level 30 vampire crimson knight. Seeing that, Aldrich used the Sign Stone he received from the Death Lord to exit the Necropolis, manifesting back into the Nexus. Aldrich had not expected to clear the trial as he was now. He simply used the first attempt he was given maximally to analyze and observe how much stronger he needed to get to reach the 20th floor. He estimated about level 30 to 40. This made sense. In the game, liches that were not mindless started out at level 30 at the minimum, indicating they too had been around the 30-40 range by the time they were strong enough to obtain an Obelisk. But Aldrich was just level 11 for now. He needed to get much stronger. Or he needed to find a strong enough party to join him. Aldrich''s first instinct was to immediately rule out the idea of a party. His power was a secret known only to him. Trying to recruit some top hero to help him would blow his secret wide open. Yet, he felt that it was a massive waste not to use all the resources given to him. But how? Aldrich mulled this over forter and went up to the System in the Nexus. The System sat at its crafting table, awaiting Aldrich. "Crafting," said Aldrich. "Ye got it,d!" the System. "Specifically, a Fusion," said Aldrich. He looked through his inventory and selected Fler''Gan''sntern. The [Lantern of Old me]. Thentern granted significant fire resistance, enough topletely neutralize Aldrich''s weakness to fire. It also granted Aldrich massive bonuses to fire based spells, but he could not learn any. However, by upgrading thentern by fusing it with certain materials, it was possible to change the properties of thentern to better suit Aldrich. "Fuse the [Eye of Azoth] into the [Lantern of the Old me]" said Aldrich. "Got it!" the System received two orbs, one containing the icon of the purple Eye of Azoth, and another containing the red and orange icon of thentern. He stacked the orbs atop each other and smashed them together with a strike of its stick figure hand. [Eye of Azoth] + [Lantern of the Old me] = [Lantern of the ursed Eye] Unlike crafting weapons and equipment from scratch that functioned off a roll-based system, fusing existing equipment with materials yielded far less variability. For example, if Aldrich obtained say, the skin of a fire smander, and he wanted to fuse it with his grave reaper''s mantle, then he could know with near 100% certainty that he would get bonus fire resistance. The only downside to this was that items could only be fused up to a limit of three times. [1x Lantern of the ursed Eye obtained] [Rank: Umon+] [Stats: +10 Magic +5 Vitality +5 Attunement] [Effects: Protection of the Old me (Passive) - The wearer receives half damage from all fire type damage. Eye of the Watcher (Passive) - Any unit revealed or targeted by this item continually attains stacks of a debuff that reduces resistance to curse type damage. The debuffs stack up to ten times, requiring a total exposure time in this light of 30 seconds. This debuffsts for three seconds after the unit escapes the light of the item, at which point the stacks will rapidly decay. In addition, any unit suffering this debuff is Revealed, preventing them from entering stealth. Gaze of the ursed (Active) - The eye within this item fully opens, shooting forth a cone of destructive light that deals a strong burst of disintegrating type damage with a 5% chance to instantly kill. The higher the affected unit''s vitality, the higher their resistance to this instant death effect. If this skill affects a unit with ten stacks of the Eye of the Watcher passive applied to them, it is guaranteed to instantly kill unless the affected target possesses a minimum of 80 vitality. If they posses more than 80 vitality, they will still be Maimed, losing a body part and taking significant damage.] "Thanks," said Aldrich as he absorbed the [Lantern of the ursed Eye] into him and then equipped it for it was far better than the [Staff of Stilling Pollen] he used. In fact, this item was so good that Aldrich was willing to use it all the way up to level 50 using the Rank Upgrade function. Rank Upgrade allowed the yer to upgrade the rank of their equipment by sacrificing five pieces of the same equipment type of a higher rank. This normally was too costly to consider most of the time as it meant losing five higher rank pieces of gear just to bring one piece up. However, for rare pieces of gear like thisntern which had multiple passives and good skills, it was highly worth it. [-500 Coin] [Coin: 520 ] 20] Aldrich ate the massive coin cost for the Fusion because thisntern was worth it. It covered his fire weakness and made instant death magic massively better. And instant death magic mastery was what he was building towards. "I have failed you, master, but we are almost there," said Valera. She clenched her fist as she remembered their failure to get to the fifteenth floor. "We must reach the fifteenth floor of that hideous snake''s den, is it? All we need are a few more levels." "Levels, yes. That''s a simple solution. We could find more Variants to hunt. Move around to Variant Nests in the Wastnds and clear them," said Aldrich. "Or alternatively we could clear the quest with party members. The only issue is getting party members that won''t ever reveal the secret of my powers and are also strong enough to make it worth recruiting them. But at that point, why don''t I spend the time to just level up and raise stronger undead?" "Indeed," said Valera. Aldrich tapped existed the Nexus and when he entered the real world, he heard Fler''Gan murmur in wonder. "Where-where is this?" said Fler''Gan. His three red eyes were wide with surprise. "I had heard you talk of a new world. Is this it? An entirely new realm of existence? Truly?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "How is it? Must feel nice to be free from however many decades you spent in that study." Fler''Gan breathed in deeply and curled his mouth tendrils in disgust. "The air here is tainted. Smoky. Unclean." "And here I thought global anti-pollution policies were doing well," said Aldrich. "Anti-pollution policies? Global? The peoples of this realm are united across the entire world? This-this is a wonder," said Fler''Gan. His mouth tendrils wriggled excitedly as he rubbed his hands together. "There will be an abundance of new knowledge to absorb. Knowledge that has never before been analyzed!" "That''s right," said Aldrich. He stared at Fler''Gan. He was a Mind Eater. He had basic racial abilities that included mind control and memory absorption. He came to a realization. "You¡­you will be the key to this quest." Aldrich stared at the new quest he had registered. ]] Quest: Ritual of Eternity Difficulty:??? Time Limit: None Attempts Remaining: 2 Description: You have begun the path to be a lich. To undergo the Ritual of Eternity, you must fulfill three objectives. Objectives: 1. Construct a Phctery [Completed] 2. Sever all personal bonds [Iplete] 3. Obtain an Obelisk by reaching the 15th floor of the Necropolis [Iplete] Rewards: 1x Obelisk Variable EXP ]] Aldrich realized immediately that step 2 was notplete. Sever all personal bonds: he thought he had done this already. Adam and ine were no longer truly here, and his parents were long dead. What more was there left for him? However, Aldrich did not have much time to think about this. The Evil Eyes he had left behind to scout the forest and ckwater picked up on movement heading towards them, towards the clearing where he had killed Ghost. He saw through their eyes and saw a search party. An entourage of Hovercars roving up the main road. Chapter 45: Planning

Chapter 45: nning

As the squadron of sleek ck hovercars with ckwater''s insignia painted on their doors got closer and closer, Aldrich motioned for his undead to leave. "We have to go," said Aldrich. He sprinted away into the depths of the forest, making sure to clear up any humanoid tracks. If the search party for Ghost saw human tracks, there would be immediate rm and suspicion of foul y. However, Aldrich did not bother covering up the more monstrous tracks because he wanted the search party to see them when they got to the clearing. The team would dig up Ghost''s used up needles and find bits and pieces of his body that Aldrich ad strategically left behind. Then, they would see Variant tracks and rule out the possibility of murder. They would instantly rule that Ghost had died to a variant attack while too high off his mind to defend himself. And if all evidence pointed towards Ghost dying to Variants, and indeed, there was already plenty of evidence to point towards that conclusion, then ckwater would rest their search case on Ghost soon enough. In the off-chance that they actually searched even harder, Aldrich was willing to move out of the Variant forest and establish a second Sign closer to Haven city to escape back into the Nexus until things fully blew over. Aldrich and his undead party moved out as discreetly as possible. The Geist and the crabs carried anyone with humanoid footsteps to minimize tracks. While he and his undead moved into the forest, he checked back up on the two Evil Eyes he had positioned. Aldrich kept a close look on the hovercars using his Evil Eye. He could not look through his Evil Eyes while he was in the Nexus or another dimension, but he could keep them strategically positioned and ready in the real world. One of his Evil Eyes tracked the search party of hovercars approaching while the other one roamed around ckwater campus. From the Evil Eyes, Aldrich knew that Seth Sr and his crew were not in their dorms in ckwater. They were in one of the hovercars approaching the Variant forest. The hovercars stopped and parked on the side of the main road, getting out along with several powerful faculty members. A search squad consisting of twenty-two men in sleek ck power armor and high tech firearms with shlight attachments streamed out. Two technos openedptops and powered on several search drones to fly over the forest. By the way they parked almost right beside Ghost''s dumping spot, Aldrich could tell that Seth Sr knew where Ghost put away his drugs. Thankfully, with the thirty minutes advance notice, Aldrich was far, far away from the search party by the time they reached Ghost''s drug drop site. Aldrich stopped and rested by sitting on a fallen tree trunk. He talked to Fler''Gan while he multi-tasked and kept his sight linked with the Evil Eye spying on the search and rescue group. "You told me there were three steps to fulfilling this ''Ritual of Eternity'' to be a lich," said Aldrich. "I''ve fulfilled one of three conditions, and that''s just because I have your Phctery in my inventory. And obviously, I need to get that Obelisk." "I assume then, that you desire my counsel on how to fulfill a severing of your mortal bonds?" said Fler''Gan. "Yeah," said Aldrich. "You see, I have no close bonds." "Not any? Are you sure, master!?" said Valera. "The keyword is ''mortal'' bond," said Fler''Gan, soothing Valera''s worry that Aldrich was not bonded to her. "A bond with immortal undead such as we falls outside of this delineation." "That''s the thing. I am pretty sure I have no mortal bonds." Aldrich looked to Adam and ine, and they stared nkly at him with their cloudy eyes. "They used to be my close friends. But that''s the thing. Used to. They aren''t anymore, and I know they aren''t truly here by this point. They''re just zombies. I was close to my parents, but they died years ago. I had no other attachments. No friends. No loves. Nothing." "No loves?" Valera shuddered in anticipation as she hugged herself. "You have yet to have your ''first''? My my¡­" Aldrich ignored Valera and let her fantasize while he continued talking with Fler''Gan. "So that means I should have no attachments. But apparently, I still haven''t ''severed my mortal bonds''," said Aldrich. "O great Elder, perhaps you are envisioning the concept of mortal attachment too narrowly," said Fler''Gan. Now that the insanity induced by his dream state was gone, his voice was calm, oozing the wisdom of an intellectual that had spent over a century studying and absorbing knowledge. "You believe attachment as love or friendship. A bond of warmth that keeps you connected with others. But what of hate and vengeance? They are just as strong a bond. No, they can be even stronger. Chains that can lock you with even greater hold than friendship." "Vengeance." Aldrich repeated this word as he saw through his Evil Eye Seth Sr hovering over Ghost''s clearing. He saw Seth Sr''s friends behind him with their arms crossed and shaking their heads. He felt fire in his cold, dead heart. He felt vengeance. He felt a twinge of satisfaction knowing that those miserable maggots had lost one of themselves, but that satisfaction was not nearly enough to quench the fire within Aldrich. "I see now," said Aldrich. "Vengeance is what''s keeping me here. Hm." He put a thinking hand to his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Of all the people to have an unhealthy vengeance fixation on, it had to be Seth Sr, one of the toughest targets to take down that I know." "Together, we can triumph over anyone," said Valera hopefully, ever optimistic. "Hold up, Sr?" said Dynamite Girl. "I-I think I remember him now. You''re goin'' to try and fight THE Solomon Sr?" "No, Solomon Sr is a proper, public top hero. Trying to target him would be a logistics nightmare and an impossibility to do secretly," said Aldrich. "I''m taking out another member of his family. An asshole thates from an illegitimate line. Weaker than the main guy and hidden from the public''s eye. But even then, you''re right to be surprised. Anyone with the Sr surname will be strong." "How strong could this mere man possibly be?" said Valera as she saw through the Evil Eye with Aldrich. She spied him hovering a meter or so in the air, scanning his surroundings. "He can fly, it seems, but I sense no other power emanating from him." "Because his power isn''t dependent on magic or levels," said Aldrich. "You have to get used to never underestimating anyone in this world. Anyone could have a powerful power and you would never be able to sense it." "Not unless you got a scanner like me!" said Fisk. "That reminds me, hand over your scanner," said Aldrich. "You won''t be seeing too much directbat. Your scanner will be much more useful on me." "Here boss." Fisk tossed Aldrich his red visor. Aldrich caught it deftly and experimented, attempting to put it into his inventory. He found he could not. Only magical items could go in there, it seemed. He put the visor over his eyes and watched as little numbers and screens in the periphery of his red-tinted vision started to flicker and calibrate. "You don''t need this for diving?" said Aldrich. Diving was the term for those that used a head jack to deep dive into the virtual world of the Net. "Nah, I use my eye for that." Fisk pointed to his mechanical blue eye as it cked and whirred. "I mainly wore that to look cool cause'' that''s ARMA blue-grade. The kind that those ARMA police agents got to look all tactical and sh*t." "I see," said Aldrich. He wondered how he looked. A man in loose necromancer robes holding antern made of burnt bone with a glowing red eyeball suspended inside of it. On top of all this, he had on a futuristic red visor. Something about these two aesthetics did not line up. "You look wonderful, master!" said Valera. Well, at least he had one supporter. "Power that is not based off magic nor levels nor spells nor skills¡­" Fler''Gan rubbed his slimy purple hands together. "How quaint. How very, very interesting. I must find more knowledge about this. You-," He pointed a long finger at Dynamite Girl and stared at her with wide eyed desire for knowledge. "You must have one of these powers. Will you consent to my experimentations? I promise they shall not be ufortable." "Geeze, at least you ask for consent, but I''m gonna'' have to say no, squid face. I know how ''experiments'' with tentacle freaks like you end up, and I ain''t about to be part of it," said Dynamite Girl. "What experiments did you have in mind?" said Aldrich, curious. "What!? You''re gonna'' take his side, captain? You¡­" Dynamite Girl narrowed her eyes at Aldrich. "You''re not a perv too, are you?" "There is nobody as upstanding and dutiful as my master!" protested Valera. She blushed slightly. "Though¡­if he does have that side to him¡­I would ept him too." "So?" said Aldrich, ignoring both women and pressing Fler''Gan for an answer. "Whether it is possible to mesh the abilities that those of this world seem to harbor within their bodies with the powers vested unto us through mana and magic," said Fler''Gan. "Among many other topics of interest, of course." "I''m rather curious about that too, actually. But you''ll have to let go of Dynamite Girl as your experiment. I assume I''ll be needing her for quite some time. I''ll find you another Alter to work on soon," said Aldrich. "Alter? So that is what these strange new humans are called." Fler''Gan hungrily twitched his mouth tendrils. "So be it, O Elder. I shall look forward to when I can begin my experimentations. I must warn you, though, my investigations may perhaps cause some¡­distress within subjects." "As long as you get results," said Aldrich. "I''ll provide appropriate subjects deserving of distresster. For now, I need to figure out what I want to do. He looked down at his watch. It was now early into the dusk of Wednesday. Just a few more days until Saturday when Seth Sr and his crew all gathered together at the Red Circle. Now, was there a way he could face all of them, including the mercenaries and viins in the Red Circle by himself at that point in time? Just three days from now? No. Not unless Aldrich became a lich and received the massive upgrades that came with the transformation. But here was now the issue: to be a lich, he had to kill Seth Sr first. Aldrich had been banking on turning into a lich before facing Seth Sr, but now that was t out impossible, and without turning into a lich, even with luck on his side any fight with Seth Sr would be one of extreme difficulty. So how? Chapter 46: Planning 2

Chapter 46: nning 2

As Aldrich thought of this bigger question, he went ahead and enjoyed the final piece of rewards frompleting his first Trial Quest. Specifically, the stat points he got from leveling and the [Tome of Enhancement]. He first distributed the stat points from leveling up and distributed the attunement points he got from wearing a full set of equipment. = [Equipment Stat Bonuses] +25 Magic +13 Vitality +25 Attunement +5 Perception = Aldrich invested 2 points into Magic and 3 into Attunement. [+2 to Magic, +4 with affinity bonuses] [Magic: 27/27 ] 31/31 (56)] [Mana: 81/81 ] 93/93 (168/168) [+3 to Attunement, +6 with stat affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 45 ] 51 (76)] [Base Attunement at 50 = Raise Undead spell upgraded to Mass Raise Undead] [5 Attunement Points avable] [Spells Attuned: 6/6 ] 6/7] [Units Controlled: 16/18 ] 16/22] He then materialized the [Tome of Enhancement] awarded from clearing the Trial Quest from his inventory. It was a far less morbid book than what the flesh knitted covers of his necromancy tomes suggested, being a more conventional leather-bound green book. He absorbed the tome into his being. A [Tome of Enhancement] could be used to upgrade three spells, and in this case, he chose [Anti-Life Shell], [Create Undead 1st Circle] and [Grave Consumption]. [Anti Life Shell Rank 1 ] Rank 2] [-Anti Life Shell has now obtained an active function that drains 5% of max mana per second in order to enhance the life drain and greatly enhance the undead healing. In addition, all non-undead units within the shell are slowed.] [Create Undead 1st Circle ] Create Greater Undead 1st Circle] [-All undead that can be summoned from the 1st circle are upgraded. Undead level cap for the 1st circle raised to level 20] [Grave Consumption ] Mass Grave Consumption] [-Grave Consumption may now be cast at all graves within a twenty-meter radius of the caster] With that done, Aldrich started to piece together a n. First thing was first, if he wanted to assault the Red Circle, he needed to know its defenses inside and out. "[Create Greater Undead]" said Aldrich, raising his new [Lantern of the ursed Eye] into the air. He shook thentern by its chain, and the clicking of the metal followed the creation of an upgraded Evil Eye known as a Grave Ward. A triple cluster of basketball sized eyes materialized in front of Aldrich. Unlike the Evil Eye which was made entirely of floating, invisible flesh, the Grave Ward was mostly incorporeal. Its eyes seemed to fade in and out of a cloud of darkness much like the Ghast. Like the Ghast, the Grave Ward was [Incorporeal], granting it a defensive passive that made it highly resistant to physical attacks but much weaker to elemental or energy-based damage. Also, unlike, the Evil Eye, the Grave Ward could change its mass and dimensions so that it could squeeze through gaps half a meter wide, though it could not entirely phase through barriers or walls. [-10 Mana] [-10 Health] [Mana: 168/168 ] 158/168] [HP: [30] 99/99 ] 89/89 [Units Controlled: 16/18 ] 17/22] "Go to the Red Circle," said Aldrich, and the cluster of three smoky eyeballs floated away. It was twice as fast as an ordinary Evil Eye, flying out at the speed of an ordinary person going on a light run. Not particrly fast, granted, but still noticeably much better than the regr Evil Eye. Aldrich then sat in ce, staring through the Evil Eye watching Ghost''s drug dump site. He felt hot hate grow and fester inside of him as he grit his teeth watching Seth Sr and the rest of his trash friends mull about,pletely free and healthy. The search team investigated the dumping site and found Ghost''s needles and scraps of his body. They also found the Striker, monster, and Variant tracks that Aldrich had intentionally left behind. There was some discussion, but Aldrich could not hear through the Evil Eye for it had no ears. All he could do was watch. He could see Seth Sr talking to the security team, shoving one of them hard into a tree in minor anger. For a moment, Aldrich wondered if Seth Sr felt even the smallest bit of pain that Aldrich had felt in losing friends. Another of the security team soldiers picked up Ghost''s torn finger from the ground with a pair of extended forceps, showing it to Seth Sr. Seth Sr stared at Ghost''s finger with zero emotion on his face as the sociopath registered the confirmed death of his friend. He shrugged before firing a small beam of white energy from his eyes, disintegrating the finger of his former friend with zero remorse. He then just shrugged casually and dropped the security team member he pinned against the tree. He waved the rest of his crew forwards and left, getting into a hovercar that started driving back towards ckwater. Good. That meant that Aldrich''s n had worked: he had convinced Seth Sr and ckwater that Ghost had died to variants. As the search team packed up, calling back their drones and getting into their cars, Aldrich locked his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands, thinking. He thought. Then thought some more. To be a lich, Aldrich had to sever his mortal bonds and obtain the Obelisk. To sever his mortal attachments, he had to fulfill his vengeance against Seth Sr and his crew. To obtain the Obelisk, he needed to clear the fifteenth floor of the Necropolis which he was too weak to do now. These seemed like two mutually exclusive objectives, and it was obvious the order in which Aldrich should go about clearing them. First, Aldrich had to grind and obtain the Obelisk. Then, with the levels and rewards from clearing fifteen floors, he would devise a way to kill Seth Sr using a trap involving instant death magic. But he could not shake off the feeling that there was an easier way to go about this. It did not take much longer before he came to a striking realization: there was a way to destroy Seth Sr and obtain the Obelisk at the same time. "Fisk," said Aldrich. "Yes, boss?" "Appointments at the Red Circle can be set up online, no?" said Aldrich. "Contact them. Get in touch with the manager, this guy called ''Casimir''. Tell them a certain Mr. Bruce Vane wants to meet about investing some of his multi-million credit inheritance. Tell them Mr. Vane is also thinking about hosting a nice private party this weekend as well. Tell them to meet privately. And of course, this goes without saying, but make sure you aren''t traceable." "You got it, boss," said Fisk as he took hisptop out of the bag Aldrich had taken out of the Odinson base. Fisk plugged himself into theptop via his headjack, operating the tech mentally. "Oh, and check the AA bulletin for any Variant Nests in the Wastnds," said Aldrich. "Give me a thorough list of all Variant Nests within a two mile radius of here. I don''t want to waste all of daylight tomorrow just hiding in this forest. I need to hunt for levels. And this forest is running out of variants strong enough to raise my levels fast enough." "On it." Fisk raised a thumbs up to Aldrich. "The rest of you, do as you want for now," said Aldrich to the other undead. "Train, talk, or hunt more Variants." With thismand, all of Aldrich''s Variant undead scattered out into the forest to hunt. The Troll Chieftain and the two Mud Crabs also followed. "Wanna train?" said Dynamite Girl to Valera. "Pure hand to handbat, y''know? Cause'' I can''t be startin'' a fire here or anythin''. Plus, I think my martial arts is gettin'' real rusty." "Certainly," said Valera. "But do not cry when you feel utterly powerless before me." "Heh, we''ll see about that," said Dynamite Girl as they squared up against each other. Meanwhile, Fler''Gan now hovered around the Geist, poking at the Variant with his long, slimy fingers. "A creature such as this I have never known. How quaint. How odd. How very¡­interesting." "Geh¡­(You''re creepy)" said the Geist. "In the name of progress and knowledge, I have cast away any consideration for how others judge me," said Fler''Gan. "Come, let me see if you can learn magic, child." "Gehgeh (I guess)" The Geist followed Fler''Gan away. Aldrich waited for Fisk to do his work. In the meanwhile, he had Adam and ine sit by him on the fallen tree trunk. "We''re so close," said Aldrich. "So close to taking down Seth Sr. When it happens, I will make sure that you two have a chance to tear into him. It''s the least you deserve." Adam and ine groaned and growled in response. "Yeah, that''s the spirit," said Aldrich with a smile. He wondered if he was going insane, talking to mindless zombies like this. Or maybe he had always been insane. Hadn''t he asked himself this before already? Well, it didn''t matter much now. He was what he was, and he epted it. == An hour and a half passed before Fisk spoke, looking up from hisputer screen. "Alright, boss, I sent your message to the Red Circle. Bet we''ll get a response soon. As for Variant Nests, well, I pulled an official map from the AA website." Fisk turned hisptop screen to Aldrich and pointed at a big chunk of map on the east coast of the United States. He tapped the area and zoomed into a forested batch ofnd before circling it in red. "That''s where we are. And here are all the Variant Nests in a two hundred mile radius like you said." Fisk zoomed out a little, and five red dots appeared indicating the location of Variant Nests. Variant Nests were, as the name suggested, nests of Variants that did not pose an immediate threat to human civilization. In fact, these nests were actually weed as they became self-sustaining ecosystems for Variants where they could popte without having to encroach on human territory. So long as the nests were not attacked, the Variants within did not attack. When roads had to be made near them or new cities nned and built, the AA would send heroes to wipe the nests out. But otherwise, they werergely left alone. These were the perfect spots for Aldrich to hunt for levels and new undead. Nobody would be around here. Any minor remote surveince that was here, some satellite imaging or whatnot, he could block with a Ghast. He looked over the five red dots and discounted going to three nests that would involve having to cross over public roads where his undead could get spotted. Instead, his eye caught on two nests located right outside the southwestern edge of the forest. There was little to no human development here as thend was littered with huge canyons and fissures where roads could not be built. This area was called the Shatter Zone because of how the earth looked so utterly fractured, and apparently, this had been the site of a battle between the greatest hero Vanguard and a powerful giant viin called Megalodon during the Age of Viins. "I know where we''re going now," said Aldrich as he stood up, getting ready. "Uh, us? I''m going too? Can I¡­can I get a gun or something?" said Fisk. Chapter 47: Variant Nest

Chapter 47: Variant Nest

Aldrich gathered all of the peopleing with him on this mission to clear the Variant Nest. Valera, Dynamite Girl, Fler''Gan, and the Alloywing Eagle. He would have liked to take the Geist too, but he nned on driving down to the nest location and the Geist was simply too big to fit inside a car. Afterforting the Geist that no, it did not have to lose weight, Aldrich set off at three in the morning. He drove with Valera in the front seat and Fler''Gan, Dynamite Girl, and the eagle in the back. "What¡­is this?" Fler''Gan marveled at the insides of the car as Aldrich drove. Fler''Gan looked around like a child in a candy shop. His three eyes all looked in different directions as he drew his face close up to the car seats, the windows, basically everything. He in particr was mystified by a screen behind the middle console that showed GPS imagery of where the car was as well as some menus that indicated environmental information like the temperature and weather. The car could also connect to the Net, but Aldrich had Fisk disable that option on the car to prevent people from tracing it. "Don''t touch anything," said Aldrich as he looked through the rearview mirror, keeping an eye on Fler''Gan. "I will contain myself, Elder," said Fler''Gan. "Yet I find it so very difficult to believe that this is all the creation of mere technology. Of metals and ores and materials created and woven together in such a way that these lights, these movements on this screen, all of this simply¡­happens." "It is indeed a wonder," said Valera. "I doubted that man so weak and frail and mortal could ever stand without magic but look how far they havee. They do not need beasts of burden anymore; they simply ride these beasts of metal. And look at how clearly they can capture images with their trinkets-," Valera proudly showed the picture of her and Aldrich standing side by side, covered in blood from killing the Odinsons, to Fler''Gan and Dynamite Girl. "Uh huh, real nice, yeah," said Dynamite Girl, visibly ufortable. "My, the quality of this image is superb." Fler''Gan inspected the picture intently. "I can discern that it is colors etched upon paper stiffened with some form of varnish. Yet, it is on par with the quality of an image imbued into a magic crystal or memory globe." "And now I can gaze upon these captured memories with my master at any time I desire!" Valera took the picture back, looked at it, then hugged it to her breast like a baby. Fler''Gan continued to look around. "What I would do to break apart all of this and study it from its baseponents up-," "Watch it, squidface, don''t want you burnin'' down this car," said Dynamite Girl. "Is all that you can think about simple destruction?" scoffed Fler''Gan. "Alright, let''s stop this argument there," said Aldrich. "But you do bring up an interesting point. You were an academic and schr, were you not?" "I do not mean to be prideful, but I was a decreed member of the Arcanist Order," said Fler''Gan. "Before they cast me out for pursuing the dark arts." Aldrich nodded in recognition. The Arcanist Order was a society of schrs that stood as an independent research organization in Elden World. The schrs there came from every race and faction and did not discriminate across race or borders. All were united in not only the pursuit of knowledge, but the maintenance of history. To be decreed in the Order meant one exhibited a superb level of dedication and intelligence. At the very minimum, Fler''Gan was well practiced across multiple magical fields. Some of these included alchemiy and even dwarven magitek, meaning very likely, Fler''Gan could pick up the scientific concepts of machine working and chemistry extremely well. "You know, that doesn''t sound like a bad idea," said Aldrich. "When we get back, talk to Fisk about this world''s technology. He can introduce you to it." "I am utterly honored to receive an opportunity to absorb such knowledge." Fler''Gan bowed his head. Aldrich gave Fler''Gan another nod as the car drove out of thest stretch of the Variant forest. Outside of the forest was just a vast stretch of dry, cracked earth. Where before there was overwhelming green and life, there was now bleak oranges and reds without a single tree in sight. This was a consequence of the Monstering. The creation of Titan-ss Variants immediately following the Monstering caused enormous meteorological and environmental changes throughout the entire world, making the entire unstable, as if mother nature herself had decided to wage war against mankind. Earthquakes and typhoons rocked every single continent. Water levels rose dramatically in some areas and dried down to nothing in others. Large swathes ofnd becamepletely dead, unable to support any sort of life. These stretches, Dead Zones as they were called, caused mass global instability through refugee crises, food shortages, water shortages, every damn type of shortage. What Aldrich drove through now was a Dead Zone. Just a vast stretch of dried out and dead earth. However, once the Titans were driven back to dormancy or destroyed, the stabilized. Granted, it stabilized in a damaged, utterly changed state nearlypletely different than how it had been at the start of the twenty first century, but stability was stability. It took an hour and a half of driving through the Dead Zone to make it to the Shatter Zone where Fisk had marked out the two Variant nests. "That''s a stunning view, gotta'' say," said Dynamite Girl as she looked out the front window. There were canyons standing hundreds of meters tall carved out into the Dead Zone. This was the power of Vanguard, a man whose fists could change how maps were drawn. Of course, it helped this wholendscaping project that Vanguard''s opponent Megalodon had been a hundred-meter-tall behemoth who could create giant craters just by falling. "Thisndscape was not carved by time, by winds and waters breaking apart rock little by little over thousands of years," said Fler''Gan. "It was carved by battle." "This is what the strongest Alters can do," said Aldrich. "Their power nears that of the gods themselves, then," said Valera, concerned. "Entire mountain ranges formed and felled. Destruction of this scale is possible only with a spell of the ninth or tenth circle." "Yes, and we are far, far from that level right now," said Aldrich. "Take this as a reminder of what we need to work towards." Aldrich got out of the car and looked down at his Eye-Phone. Specifically, Fisk''s phone. Fisk had given it to Aldrich with all information about the two Variant Nests including not only their locations and appearances but also the type of Variants seen in them. Aldrich stepped to the very edge of the canyon and looked down at a steep, hundred plus meter drop. He spied arge growth of twisted ck branches and rock jutting out like a tumor about halfway down below. That was the first of two Variant Nests. The other one should have been very close by, but Aldrich could not see it, even with a thorough AC scan and zoom ins using Fisk''s visor. Thest time information about these two nests had been updated on the AA database had been six months ago. More than enough time for a nest to have faded away for any number of reasons. Sometimes Variants simply left their nests, sometimes an earthquake bust it apart, sometimes a storm washed it away, sometimes a lightning strike hit it, whatever. At the very least, Aldrich did not feel particrly worried that one of two nests were gone. In fact, it just made it easier to decide which nest to take on. Aldrich waved his hand and casted [Create Greater Undead]. He chose to create another Grave Ward. [-10 HP] [-10 Mana] [HP: 99/99 ] 89/99] [Mana: 183/183 ] 173/183] [Units Controlled: 18/22 ] 19/22] When the three eye balled undead formed, Aldrich sent it down to scout the nest to make sure there were no surprises. Aldrich snapped his fingers and the Alloywing Eagle by his side. He hopped on. "Valera, get on. Neither of us can fly," said Aldrich. He pointed at Dynamite Girl and Fler''Gan. "And you two, fly down. Don''t want to weigh the eagle down too much." "Got it, captain," said Dynamite Girl. "Understood, Elder." Fler''Gan began to float in the air for he knew the [Flight] spell. Aldrich watched Fler''Gan fly and wondered whether it was possible for the Mind-Eater schr to devise a way to teach Aldrich the useful spell. After all, it was said that in the game lore that schrs of the Arcanist Order recorded and created spell tomes. Valera plopped on behind Aldrich on the eagle''s back. The eagle squawked in protest at the sudden weight increase, especially considering Valera''s heavy full te armor. "Dear eagle, are you implying what I think you are implying?" Valera cocked her head and stared down at the eagle with a blood chilling smile. The eagle shivered and put its head down. Seeing that, Valera nodded before nervously looking at Aldrich. "What is it?" said Aldrich. "M-m-may I hold you, master? To stay safe on this eagle, of course!" said Valera. "It''s a ten second flight down-," began Aldrich before he saw Valera looking at him with big pleading puppy eyes. "Alright." Valera squealed in delight as she wrapped her arms around Aldrich, crushing his breath out of him. Chapter 48: Clearing the Nest

Chapter 48: Clearing the Nest

Aldrich and his undead flew into the entrance of the Variant Nest. When Aldrich and Valera hopped off the eagle andnded in the dark, subterranean entrance tunnel, he waved the eagle away. "Wait outside. In a confined space like this, you won''t do well. When I signal,e down here and pick us up," said Aldrich. The eagle bobbed its head in a nod and then flew away. Aldrich stared ahead into the depths of the nest. The path ahead led through a dark, winding tunnel that sank deeper down into the cliff. He tapped his red scanning visor and checked any recent heat signatures. Nothing. The whole ce was cool, almost cold. A good respite from the hot sun above. A natural ce for Variants to gather and live. Aldrich kept his eyes tuned in with the Grave Ward that he sent to scout ahead. He did not want to move into this unknown nest without having mapped out where he wanted to go beforehand. While the Grave Ward scouted, Aldrich looked down at Fisk''s Eye-Phone, making sure to keep the brightness down way low so as not to attract attention. He refreshed his memory on the few reports the AA had made about this nest, thetest of which was dated six months ago. Beings that possessed Alter organs and cells emitted a natural energy signature that could be traced, especially when the powers were active. However, if there was arge enough density of dormant organs, such as in the case of Variant Nests, it was possible to determine a rough average estimate of energy emissions. With that, the AA determined how ''strong'' a Variant Nest was and categorized them into letter ranks that ranged from E to A to S. Broad AA guidelines suggested that ten Alters of the nest''s rank were required to fully destroy it, but of course, this number was highly flexible depending on what type of variants there were and theyout and unique characteristics of the nest itself. As for this nest, Aldrich read that it was ranked a solid D. The variants recorded here seemed to bergely reptilian with a few arthropod types, specifically ants. Not particrly threatening. However aside from these few reports, there was precious little information about the nest. Aldrich figured it was because as a D-rank nest, it was simply not that important. "Dynamite Girl," said Aldrich. "Call me Ste," said Dynamite Girl. "That was the name I remember having. And the name I remember using with people closer to me." "Close?" Valera leered at Dynamite Girl suspiciously. "Close as in trust," said Dynamite Girl, or Ste as she wanted to be called. "How strong do you think we are?" said Aldrich. "In terms of how wepare to variants and heroes. What rank do you think we are?" Ste crossed her arms and stared at everyone for a good minute or so, nodding to herself. "Alright, here''s what I think. Mind you, I''m not some kinda expert on all this. I think Valera is high up on the C rank. So C+." "Only C+? Are you sure you are not miscalcting, hm?" said Valera. "No, I think I''m fairly right. C''mon, don''tin, I was on the lower end of the C rank. Maybe now in the middle now that I can surpass my limits," said Ste. "Squid face is like, I dunno'', low to mid B rank? You gotta understand here, there''s a huge gap between the E/D ranks with C. Then there''s a huge jump between B to A, then an even bigger jump from A to S." "Then what about me? How would you ss me?" said Aldrich. "You, captain?" Ste cocked her head. "Er, well, I guess if you were workin'' as a hero, maybe like, low C?" "You dare to suggest the master is that weak? When he is the very reason you enjoy eternal life now?" protested Valera. "That''s what I was goin'' to say," said Ste. "The captain''s powers ain''t really suited to this whole hero thing. If he joined the agency, I don''t think they''d let him use his powers, all that raisin'' the dead and stuff. But say he was a viin, then I''d say he''s already way up at high B. In terms of just straight up individual strength, he''s around or slightly below us, but the simple fact that he can do all this necromancy stuff means he''d get ssed as an insanely high threat. Maybe already a low A, considerin'' the fact that the AA ces a threat premium on viins or variants that are considered ''self-replicating'' or capable of creatin'' minions and more threats." "I see," said Aldrich. "Well then, we''re four C to B rank threats taking on a D rank nest. This should be no issue at all." "Yeah, I figure," said Ste. "Good." Aldrich figured out where to go via the Grave Ward. "It''s time to start hunting." == Aldrich spun hisntern around by the chain, a ghostly red light flickering around him from the glow of the eye entrapped within. The light lit up his surroundings, showing more than a dozen pairs of gleaming yellow, reptilian eyes staring at him. Below these eyes were rows of sharp teeth. Up ahead, Aldrich could hear Valera''s shouts of "DIE! DIE! DIE!" in the distance apanied by regr explosions and bursts of light from Ste. "You do not wish for my interference?" said Fler''Gan as he walked beside Aldrich, his arms behind his back. "No. I want to see how well I stand uppared to D rank monsters on my own. You''re here as insurance in case anything surprises me," said Aldrich. "And I''ll repeat this again: do NOT interfere." "Understood, Elder." Fler''Gan nodded and watched. "Come on." Aldrich waved his free hand towards himself, egging the Blurred Lizards onwards. Each of them were the size ofrge dogs with grey and brown color patterns on their scales that shifted, making them blur and camouge into their environment. The blurred lizards loosed shrill screams as they rushed forward. Aldrich casted [Negative Surge] on himself, granting himself ten seconds of massively enhanced stats. He gained 12 strength, agility, and perception along with a strong aura of green. [-15 Mana] [Mana: 183/183 ] 168/183] [Strength: 11 ] 23] [Agility: 10 ] 22] [Perception: 13 ] 25] Aldrich back stepped, evading two lizards from chomping down on him. He swung hisntern forwards in a swiping arc that broke both lizards'' necks. He immediately had to retreat again as several more lizards rushed forward, trampling over the corpses of their dead brethren to try and maul Aldrich. Aldrich activated his [Anti-Life Shell]. A foggy green mist emanated from him, and inside, all of the lizards were slowed, their life force sapping away. Their camouge did not matter because the light from the [Lantern of the ursed Eye] revealed them constantly. And now that Aldrich was considerably faster and the lizards slower, he outmaneuvered them with ease. He swung hisntern forward with expert handling, shooting out the head like a wrecking ball that caved in skulls with each strike. "Alright," said Aldrich. He put down hisntern. "Time to test my hand to hand." He squared up in a shoulder width stance, raising his arms in a guard. A lizard lunged at him, and he unleashed a straight kick upwards, smashing his bare foot right into the variant''s chin andunching it into the rocky ceiling above. Another lizard came forwards, leaping up and snapping at his arms. Aldrich spun around andunched a downward elbow strike that broke the attacking lizard''s skull and then used that lizard''s corpse as a shield to prevent three more lizards from swarming him. The three variants instead sunk their teeth into the corpse. Aldrich pushed and tossed the corpse away, making the lizards fall backwards. "Good." Aldrich. His skills were not gone, and training like this helped to keep him sharp. "Now for my magic." Aldrich deactivated the active portion of his [Anti-Life Shell] to conserve his mana. [Mana: 168/183 ] 123/183] He had only kept it up for 5 seconds but the 5% maximum mana per second drain was hefty. But expected. [Anti-Life Shell]''s active was not that useful for its mana cost until higher ranks when it obtained a stronger slow, stat debuffs, an instant death effect, and heavy buffs to undead. "Time for my magic." Aldrich picked up hisntern and wielded it in one hand while he kept his other hand free to cast magic. Six lizards surrounded Aldrich now, making it difficult to fight them hand to hand. Aldrich activated his [Lantern of the ursed Eye] and shone it in front of him. A cone shapedser of crimson light sted forth, illuminating the three lizards in front of him and making them shriek as their flesh started to turn into ash and disintegrate. He then dealt with the three other lizards behind him by casting [Chill Bolts] with his free hand. Two chill bolts per lizard. One to stun them, one to freeze and smash their brains. [-24 Mana] [Mana: 123/183 ] 99/183] [12 Blur Lizards defeated!] [+480 EXP] [EXP Bar: 870/1400 ] 1350/1400] "All done." Aldrich patted his hands together, content. "Excellent work, Elder," said Fler''Gan. "Suchpetency in the dark arts along with exceptional physical abilities. It does remind me of my younger days, but now my lower back ails me far too much for such wild movement." "Yeah." Aldrich cracked his neck. "But my weakness as a Legion Necromancer stays the same. I don''t have an issue defending myself, but when I do, I have to eat through my mana rapidly. It''s far more efficient to let my undead do the real heavy lifting. Hm." Aldrich looked at the dozen grave markers floating above the lizard corpses. His health waspletely full. He did not even have to replenish his [Corpse Barrier]. In fact, he did not even have to manifest the barrier in the first ce. He could choose to keep it dormant or spontaneously generate it, but obviously, generating a barrier of corpses made it difficult to engage in hand-to-handbat. Maybe it was better for him to be riskier inbat. Take more damage, especially when facingrger enemies, and then use his [Grave Consumption] to restore lost health. Aldrich noted this down forter. More experience funneled into him from Valera and Dynamite Girl practically speed running their way through the lizard infested tunnel, blowing up or punching through anything they saw. [30 Blur Lizards defeated!] [+1200 EXP] [EXP Bar: 1350/1400 ] 2550/1400] [Level Up!] [Level 11 ] 12] [EXP Bar: 1200/1600] [+5 stat points avable to distribute] Aldrich nodded. Now this was more like it. Mass EXP farming. The kind that Aldrich theorized would skyrocket his levels up. Aldrich started to invest points back into his physical stats more. In the game, he did not invest much of anything into his physical stats, but that was because he knew the enemies he would face. He needed to be more self-sufficient in the real world. [+5 strength] [Strength: 11 ] 16] Aldrich figured that getting his strength, agility, and perception up over twenty would make him strong enough to handle a C rank hero or viin reliably. He noted that the first few stat points he invested into his physical stats made a massive difference. Just five points got him almost twice as stronger and faster than a normal man. But stats, or at the least the physical ones, did not seem to increase multiplicatively. Every five points did not make him twice as strong or fast. It was difficult to quantify in numbers exactly how much stronger he got with each stat point. The only thing that mattered was that he did. He figured that the 20-30 stat threshold for his physical stats would keep him self-sufficient, especially with [Negative Surge] and,ter, its upgraded version [Death Surge]. Aldrich then felt a mental signal from Valera. *Master, you should be here. There''s a monster here that will be to your liking when we have ughtered it.* *On it* said Aldrich. Chapter 49: The Bloodspitter

Chapter 49: The Bloodspitter

Aldrich and Fler''Gan stepped up to the precipice of a ledge leading down into arge nest scattered with ckened scorch marks. Charred and torn apart lizard corpses and destroyed eggshell shardsy strewn about everywhere - the remnants of Valera and Ste destroying everything in their path together. They might not have gotten along in other circumstances, but in battle, in killing, well, they were best friends. "Good to see you, master!" said Valera as she raised her cross shield as Ste hunkered down behind her. A muchrger lizard, almost twice the size of the other ones, hissed at Valera. It did not have the blurring camouge effect on its scales, and indeed, it seemed that its scales were meant to be shown off. They were spiked and oriented in thick tes like armor. Two noticeable,rge red glowing horns jutted out from the sides of its head. The lizard''s yellow eyes turned bright red before firing off a twin stream of highly pressurized blood. The blood mmed against Valera''s shield with a crashing impact, but she dug her greaves in and held her ground. The blood crashed and sttered behind her, and anywhere the blood touched, it ate away at, melting the rocky ground with ease. Aldrich did not know what the variant was. Because ckwater thoroughly neglected the Dud students, Aldrich had no ess to ssified AA information about variants. The moremon ones, he could find info on through the Net, but stronger and rarer ones like this - nothing. "Can I get some help here!" said Ste. "Squid face!?" "Shall I?" said Fler''Gan. "Go ahead." Aldrich nodded. Fler''Gan floated in the air and sped his hands together. "I suppose you young ones do require the assistance of a true master." Ste was about to say something, but she heard Fler''Gan''s words and stopped. Bright orange magic circles formed around Fler''Gan''s hands. "And I am eager to see how the creatures of this new world deal with proper magic." Fler''Gan cast [me Lance], shooting out a concentrated spear of bright orange and red me. The blood shooting lizard stopped its blood spray and looked up before the fire mmed into it. The magically condensed mes acted like a spear, too, stabbing into the lizard''s stomach with piercing damage. The lizard just sat there as the mes exploded over it, taking zero damage. "Hm." Aldrich noted this development with interest. He saw that the lizard''s spiked scales were distorting, and not just because of the heat waves from Fler''Gan''s mes. They were doing something to nullify the damage. "This thing''s a Bloodspitter Lizard!" said Ste. "Its hide''s resistant to practically any damage! You gotta hurt it internally!" "You tell me this now!?" said Fler''Gan. "Well, I kinda wanted to see you makin'' a fool of yourself after actin'' all cocky." Ste smiled a little before she grew serious. "But yeah, now that you know, go ahead and toast this thing from the inside if you can. These things are practically indestructible, but they''re slow, and they need to breathe. Burn up the air here and cook this thing out!" "A surprisingly apt strategying from one such as yourself." Fler''Gan prepared to cast [methrower] and constantly generate mes to fill the area with smoke to drain it of oxygen. "Wait." Aldrich raised his hand. "I''ll do it myself." Aldrich jumped up andnded behind Valera. "Give me some protection," said Aldrich. "Understood, master!" Valera stood firmly in front of Aldrich with her shield up. "Onest thing I wanted to test out," said Aldrich. He took out hisntern and shed its eerie red light at the lizard. He did not fully open the eye of thentern for its disintegration effect. Instead, he just kept the foggy passive light on the lizard. The lizard cocked its head and blinked its eyes, wondering what the light was supposed to do. Unless Aldrich opened the eye held within thentern, it did not do damage. It just stacked the [Eye of the Watcher] passive. Three seconds of exposure under the light for one stack of the passive, with the stacks applying up to ten times. Each stack reduced resistances to curse type damage, and there was one type of magic that Aldrich knew that fell under curse type damage that he was very curious about. Instant death magic. The bloodspitter lizard growled, still a little confused as to why nobody was reaching out to attack it. After five seconds, it grew impatient and decided to shoot out its acidic blood streams again from its eyes. Valera raised her shield again while Aldrich actually moved out of the shield and strafed to the side, content in knowing that the lizard had distracted itself firing its initial st at Valera. He lost his cover against the blood, but this allowed him to cast the light continually on the lizard without Valera''s shield and the sshing of blood to obscure him. The lizard ignored Aldrich and just kept its blood spray on Valera and Ste, obviously registering them as far more of a threat. Aldrich waited as he cast the light on the lizard. He had expected to dodge the blood or an attack or anything hostile, but the lizard simply did not care about him. It could not feel pain, so it ignored him. "It appears the creatures of this new world do not understand the concept of debuffs," noted Fler''Gan. "Or this variant is simply stupid. Most likely, abination of both," said Aldrich. "Regardless, it''s time for me to begin my instant death experiment." Thirty seconds passed, stacking the [Eye of the Watcher] debuff on the bloodspitter lizard fully. A shimmering red haze flickered around the lizard, signifying that it was fully debuffed, its resistance to instant death neutralized incredibly low. Even more so against thentern''s active disintegration attack. "Let''s test how your invincible scales deal with this." Aldrich opened the eye of hisntern, casting [Disintegrating Gaze]. When the eye suspended within thentern opened up, it was horribly bloodshot with a dark purple iris and zing red, hateful pupil. The normal foggy red light thentern cast transformed into a solid, conical beam that washed over the lizard. Aldrich was careful only to let the beam hit the lizard''s head as he wanted to preserve its body. The lizard managed to let out one confused shriek before its head turned solid white before breaking apart into a pile of ash. The creature slumped over, dead, its neck stub utterly cauterized so that not even blood pooled out. "Looks like Alter powers, or at the least this one, can''t defend against instant death. Good to know." Aldrich walked over to the lizard''s headless corpse and waited to see whether a soul appeared. None. But a grave marker did. Aldrich had wanted to see whether he craft an item, specifically an essory like a ring, to give him some of the lizard''s invulnerability. But unfortunately, no soul popped up. [Bloodspitter Lizard defeated!] [+300 EXP] [EXP Bar: 1200/1600 ] 1500/1600] "Serve." Aldrich put a hand over the headless lizard corpse. Strands of green energy trickled into its body, making it shake and stand up. However, it immediately just copsed back down again after the initial jolt of negative energy had reanimated it. This was because its brain was destroyed, preventing it from processing any thoughts. Unlike skeletons that did not need brains to move at all, it seemed that zombies and higher undead still required their heads to function. Hence why Aldrich could get put down if his brain was sted apart. Aldrich could, however, manually manipte the lizard to move, and this he did now until his passive [Anti-Life Shell] healed the creature back up over time. [-5 Mana] [Mana: 99/183 ] 94/183] [Bloodspitter Lizard Lvl 14 Raised] [Units Controlled: 19/22 ] 20/22] He checked the lizard''s powers. It possessed three powers like the Geist. First, its scales were essentiallypletely immune to damage. They distorted space to prevent any harmful matter from breaching them, hence the heat wave like distortions. This did not, however, apply to areas without scales such as their eyes, nose, or internal organs. Secondly, it could fire highly acidic blood streams from its eyes. The blood was acidic enough that if it hit an average man, it would reduce said unlucky bag of flesh into nothing but a gooey puddle within a second. Third, it possessed a heightened form of kic vision that allowed its eyes to track targets with extreme uracy on top of zooming in across a distance of one mile (1.6 km). Overall, the lizard was quite powerful. Very likely one of the strongest variants within this nest. "Good work, everyone," said Aldrich. "But there''s more. The Grave Ward has scouted another series of tunnels leading further down. Next, we''ll be fighting ants." "Bugs. I hate them," said Ste. "I must agree with you on this," said Valera. "How their many legs skitter and scatter - it is truly grotesque." "Bah, this is why it is not prudent to have women in a party," said Fler''Gan. "They are so dainty and clutch their skirts over such little things." Valera and Ste both gave Fler''Gan a death stare that made him go quiet. Fler''Gan truly was like an old grandpa,ining about his painful lower back, young people this, women that, and whatnot. "Enough distractions," said Aldrich. "I want to clear most of this nest out fast. Enough to get as many levels as possible but without destroying it fully, otherwise it might attract attention." Chapter 50: Sudden Attack

Chapter 50: Sudden Attack

For the next thirty minutes, Aldrich and his undead traveled through tunnels that grew smaller and narrower. Here, oversized ants the size of dogs crawled about en masse. The tunnels were a tight enough fit that it the group had to travel in a single file line, making it impossible for everyone to fight at once. Aldrich created an easy formation to get around this issue. He ced Fler''Gan ahead of him and Ste at the back. Those two had the strongest area of effect abilities, and so Fler''Gan just had to torch his way forward and Ste could st whatever ants tried to swarm from behind. Meanwhile, Aldrich and Valera leisurely walked between them, letting the two barbecue any threats that came their way. "Rockjaw ants," exined Dynamite Girl as she finger flicked a small cloud of sparkles out - her sublimated blood - and detonated it, annihting a group of cluster of ten ants. "So called because their mandibles can shatter rock. They eat the minerals or somethin'' inside of them." "Do they have a queen?" said Aldrich. Information about ant variants was widespread enough that it was rtively well known that theyrgely tended to reproduce asexually, creating egg clusters on their abdomens after absorbing enough nutrients. However, in rare cases and under circumstances that were as of yet not researched too well, ants could form arge colony under a queen that took over the reproductive processpletely. These colonies became incredibly dangerous extremely quickly for in short generations, they could create ants with a variety of alter powers. Information about this was so prevalent because fifteen years ago, there had been a massive, unchecked ant colony in South Korea that killed over a hundred thousand people. The disaster had required the intervention of the country''s two S-ranked heroes to eliminate. A simr incident had struck the west coast of the United States as well, and that had taken a team of fifteen top A-ss heroes to deal with. "Nah. They''re rogue ants. Look at their behavior. Zero coordination. And if there was a queen, we''d be fightin'' soldiers with powers by now." "Good." Aldrich knew that if this was a proper colony, he was ill equipped to deal with it unless it had formed very recently. But since these were just rogue, nearly mindless ants, he and his undead breezed through the ant infested tunnels. Over thirty minutes, Dynamite Girl and Fler''Gan had killed over a hundred ants, easily giving Aldrich enough EXP to level up. [ 140 Rockjaw Ants defeated!] [+700 EXP] [EXP Bar: 1500/1600 ] 2200/1600] [EXP Bar: 600/1800] [Level Up!] [Level 12 ] 13] [+5 stat points avable to distribute] Aldrich invested 5 points into agility. [Agility: 10 ] 15] He then looked ahead as Fler''Gan casually used his [methrower] spell to annihte ants before they could even get within twenty meters of the group. Because Fler''Gan retained his boss stats, his mana pool was incrediblyrge and in addition, he knew spells that he did not use back in the game. In particr, he had a useful spell called [rity] that restored 10% of the caster and any friendly units'' maximum mana. Fler''Gan used this whenever he could, topping up not only his mana pool, but Aldrich''s as well. [Mana: 99/183 ] 183/183] The only issue with [rity] was that it had a long one-minute cooldown, but that was long only in terms of the game. In the real world, one minute was nothing. As a boss, Fler''Gan only had a pre-programmed moveset, but as a real life being, he knew spells he should have known as a studied schr who had knowledge of many magical fields. "How much more magic do you know other than fire magic?" said Aldrich. "I have dabbled in Arcanism," said Fler''Gan. Arcanism was the magical field where utility spells like irvoyance, divination, status checking and meta-magic fell in. [rity] fell in this field too. "But I am a mere amateur in the field. I only studied enough to enhance my fire magic," said Fler''Gan. "I was always more of a researcher, you see. I preferred thefort of my study and aboratory over the thrill of weaving magic circles and manifesting grand, instant effects. Thus, I am most versed in alchemy. I have earned recognition in all both sub fields of Potionology and Metamorphics. s, I fear my knowledge utterly useless now in this strange new world. With no magic and mana in the air, none of the flora, fauna, and ores I am familiar working with are present." "I assume that''s why you are so interested in researching whether you can teach magic to the Geist," said Aldrich. "If you can get magic to work here, then you won''t becking in raw materials for your alchemy anymore." "You think correctly, O Elder." Fler''Gan''s mouth tendrils quivered in anticipation. "An old schr friend of mine, before I was cast out of the Order, was an aplished artificer and enchanter. I requested a spell tome from him with the [Construct Base] spell imbued within it. I further tailored that spell so that it could conjure a small copy of a working alchemicalboratory. Yet without raw materials, thatboratory is nothing but a study desk. I require raw materials or living creatures with magic imbued within them for my experimentations." Aldrich knew that in the game''s lore, mages could technically learn multiple magical fields. However, due to the constraints of game mechanics, a mage could only specialize in up to three different sub fields of magic. For Necromancers, they were even more limited to just practicing the dark arts. "Is it possible for you to create spell tomes for me?" said Aldrich. "Certainly," said Fler''Gan. "But to create a tome, I again require the appropriate materials. Enchanted vellum. A binding fashioned from some magical creature. Ink with the essence of mana crystals imbued within it. All of these, I am thoroughlycking." "Hmm." Aldrich put a hand to his chin, thinking. "Maybe you''re not thinking wide enough. There''s a chance that your alchemy still works. If you can create aboratory, then you should still try to process materials from this world and see whether they can be used." "You are correct, O Elder. And that was most certainly my attention," said Fler''Gan. "I simply require a more¡­permanent location to set up thisboratory of mine, for I possess only two charges of [Create Base] to utilize. That forest is too open an area to construct myboratory within. I would like a space more private and defensible." "In time, I''ll see to it that we settle down somewhere outside of that forest," said Aldrich. "Settling down with master, oh, how wonderful that does sound," said Valera. Fler''Gan stopped channeling [methrower], and his three eyes narrowed down to slits. "What is it?" said Aldrich. "There are no more ants," said Fler''Gan. "Or rather, they have fled. This is quite the ominous development." "Yeah." Aldrich immediately put a finger to his temple, checking in on his Grave Ward. He could not look simultaneously through every single undead he had at once. At best, he could multi-task and look through two, maybe three different pairs of eyes. However, he ced specific triggers on his undead to link his sight to them such as if they encountered an Alter human or if they faced significant danger. Thus, while Aldrich was distracted talking with Fler''Gan, he was not linked with the Grave Ward. However, he was confident the Grave Ward would notify him if anything was out of the ordinary, and yet, when Aldrich checked in now, he could see that his Grave Ward was in fact dead. It had not died long ago. It had fallen literally the second before Aldrich checked in on it. [Units Controlled: 20/22 ] 19/22] Whatever had killed it had done so very recently, and most likely, it wasing for Aldrich and his group now. That was when Aldrich saw the tunnel around him start to shift. The entire ce started to quake as the rocky ceiling and floor undted like waves on water. "What is this phenomenon?" said Fler''Gan. "It appears simr to a teleportation spell, and yet the the exact amplitude of spatial distortion that I observe does not align with any form of magic I know." "Master, with me!" Valera stood right beside Aldrich, her shield ready to protect him. "I don''t know," confessed Aldrich. "This isn''t magical, to be sure. This is Alter based warping." "Sh*t. I can''t believe it¡­" began Ste as she looked around with quick, alert head motions. "What is it?" said Aldrich. Out of everyone here, Ste had the most knowledge of Variants, and if she was worried, Aldrich was worried too. "Everyone, stick together! Grab a hold of each other!" shouted Ste. Her voice was urgent enough that Aldrich did not question her, he just followed her. Everyone grabbed each other, and at that moment, the tunnel surroundings rapidly warped away. Chapter 51: The Chrysalis

Chapter 51: The Chrysalis

In the next moment, Aldrich and his undead found themselves in a sudden free fall. Aldrich immediately gathered his bearings and looked around to see any surfaces to hold on to. He could see they were surrounded byrge walls of rock, but the walls were far away and the tops of the walls too high up to grab, at the very least needing a fifty meter jump up. Good thing two of Aldrich''s undead could fly. Fler''Gan grasped Aldrich while Ste held both Valera and the bloodspitter lizard to stop them from falling any further. "Head back up there. And what was that, Ste?" said Aldrich, remaining calm. "This thing''s a Chrysalis!" said Ste as she made her way up with short bursts of explosions trailing down from her feet. "¡­" Aldrich had no idea what that was. It seemed to be a Variant whose existence was too hidden for him to know from Net surfing. "Most of the time, the kinda just coughs out nests at random. It''s a real passive and random process," exined Ste. "But there are special variants out there that can make entire nests themselves. A variant that can make a nest is called a Chrysalis, and they''re real fuckin'' dangerous because once they register you a threat, they''ll use everything in the nest to kill you. That includes tossin'' out waves of variants at you on top of warping you away here and there to death traps." "So it tries to defeat us by dropping us from great height? Is that all it can do?" said Valera. As if to challenge her words, a sudden pulling pressure stopped everyone from moving upwards. Instead, it overpowered any form of flight and drew them down, into the bottom of the deep chasm. It was a pull akin to maism that ignored the effects of gravity and resisting force. No matter how much Ste or Fler''Gan struggled to move up, they just kept falling down at a steady pace. A pace slower than falling, but going downwards nheless. "You had to say somethin'', huh?" said Ste to Valera with a shake of her head. "A living nest, is it?" said Fler''Gan as he took in his surroundings and started to think. "Then is it not possible to defeat it by creating mass amounts of environmental destruction? If these walls and rock are part of the creature, then I believe it most prudent to simply drill an escape through its body." "Nah." Ste shook her head. "It ain''t like that. Only a few parts of the nest are legit parts of its body. Plus the nest is its own dimensional space. Bigger in the inside than on the outside. Who knows how much rock you gotta st through to get out? And the Chrysalis can keep warpin'' us to different areas, stoppin'' us from ever leavin'' if it got really serious. Normal AA protocol says to clear a Chrysalis Nest out, you need a team with warp powers to get out in case things get bad, location trackin'' to get a hold of its brain, and then enough firepower to bore through theyers of rock and walls probably guardin'' the brain." "Brain? Like a monster core," said Aldrich. "Yeah. It''s real simr." "The only issue is we don''t have scanning as good as that, especially not for Alters," said Aldrich. He opened up his inventory and put a lingering gaze on the Sign Stone he had from clearing the first Trial Quest. That was his get out of jail free card to teleport away when something went wrong. But would he use it now? Did he have to? "We wait this out for now. We aren''t in immediate danger. The speed of a fall like this shouldn''t do any damage to us." Aldrich said this but kept himself wary, ready at a moment''s notice to warp out to the Nexus using his Sign Stone. He could also choose all of his undead toe with him remotely, so it did not matter too much if they were separated either. "Look. It would appear that a mere leisurely fall such as this was not our intended method of demise," stated Fler''Gan as he gestured down. Below, the fall ended into arge pit of whirling sand. Aldrich could spy several ants and lizards within it, but they were not guards. No, they were struggling for their lives. They tried to move out of the sand pool with desperate struggles, but the sand was soft, breaking apart under any amount of weight and sucking them in. Quicksand. On top of this, the sand pool created strong spiraling currents towards the center that sunk those unfortunate enough to be in it even deeper. When an the ants and lizards fell down to the center of the spiral, arge stake of sand solidified into rock skewered them all, impaling them before sucking them in. "Antlion," said Ste. "Creates these sand traps. Usually has an anti-flight ability of some sorts. Then guts whatever reaches the center of their trap with sand spikes." "What rank of variant is this?" said Aldrich. "D+ rank," noted Ste. "It ain''t that impressive on its own. Its just hard to reach it through the sand because it creates a natural sort of instin'' barrier. Most likely, this variant''s what the Chrysalis chose as its dedicated method of killin''. Chrysales, once they get woken up, don''t like usin'' their warpin'' or changin'' their insides too much. Costs too much energy. So, usually, they''ll warp intruders into a trap they''ve set up. Usually with variants that they keep nice and fat and happy to do their biddin.'' "A symbiotic rtionship," said Aldrich. He looked down at the sand pool drawing ever nearer. They were now thirty meters above it. "But this isn''t much of an issue, is it? You have the firepower. Just go down and use your Bunker Buster on it." "Yeah, but then I gotta drop Valera and this lizard, and then they''ll get caught up in the st-," began Ste. "Throw them to me. Fler''Gan will carry us all," said Aldrich. "I am afraid my back will give out from such strenuous physical activity," said Fler''Gan. "My elderly form simplycks the muscr strength to hold all of you together." "Don''t worry about that." Aldrich casted [Negative Surge] on Fler''Gan, boosting his physical stats for ten seconds. [-15 Mana] [Mana: 183/183 ] 168/183] "Oh? I have not had such strength in fifty years!" Fler''Gan''s mouth tendrils quivered in delight. "I feel as light as the day I was birthed from the Elder Brain!" "Give them to me. And go," said Aldrich. "Show me as much destruction as you can. Blow this thing up." Ste''s eyes alighted with a glint of pure excitement. Her body started to shine, her veins bing visible through her skin as they gleamed orange. "Off you go to your boyfriend." Ste tossed Valera to Aldrich, and he grabbed her by the waist under the crook of his arm. Then Ste tossed the lizard, which Aldrich too grabbed the same way. "B-b-boyfriend!?" Valera looked up at Aldrich with a blush and then looked at how she was being carried. It looked like she was being carried unceremoniously like a sack of potatoes. "Sorry, but I have to carry both of you. If it was just you, I could have done better," said Aldrich. This was just the easiest way to carry her since his other hand was upied with the lizard. Valera red at the headless lizard. "I will remember this¡­," she said under her breath. Ste went straight down, aet tail of light trailing behind her as she neared the whirling sand pool. She thrust her hands out in front of her. "Bunker Buster!" she shouted, her whole body turning blindingly bright before she detonated right above the sand. There was first a burst of incredibly blinding light, then the deafening sound of an explosion followed by a mighty shockwave that sent everyone hurtling upwards. The chasm shook and trembled from the st. The explosion sted away all of the sand below, scattering it against the walls like Moses had parted the red sea. And in the middle of this uncovered sea of sand was simply a gaping, smoking crater. Standing in the middle of the crater was Ste triumphantly holding up the charred remnants of the antlion''s head. The head was asrge has her upper body with one remaining mandible that could easily have chopped a man in two. Aldrich had Fler''Gan drop everyone down where it was now safe. "Excellent work." Aldrich nodded to Ste and had her put the antlion head down. A grave marker floated over it. "Serve." [-5 Mana] [Mana: 168/183 ] 163/183] [Zombie Antlion Level 15 raised] [Units Controlled: 19/22 ] 20/22] Aldrich took the reanimated, twitching head of the Antlion and then used its mandible to hook it into an exposed part of the lizard''s back, locking them together so that it was easier to carry them both. "All in a day''s work," said Ste as her light died down and she flipped her hair, resetting her manic, explosion loving grin into something more calm. "I must agree with the master. Your capacity to enact destruction is formidable. I like it," said Valera. "Least there''s one thing we agree on," said Ste. "Indeed. Such powering from not a trace of mana. Unfathomable," said Fler''Gan. "Are you certain you do not wish to undergo any experimentation? Once I have myboratory set, I can even ensure that the process is utterly painless. You will be unconscious even, if needs be." "Sorry, but I''ll pass again," said Ste. "The idea of bein'' unconscious with you just made the whole, uh, ''experience'' seem a lot worse." "The fight''s not over," said Aldrich. "Stay focused, all of you. Ste, you''re the most experienced at dealing with variants out of all of us, and I''m giving you full reign over your memories to remember anything rted to this chrysalis thing. How would you suggest dealing with this? Or getting out?" "We could try to st our way out of here, but the issue is we got no way to tell where to direct our firepower to get us out. Plus, like I said, the inside of a Chrysalis Nest is way bigger than the outside. Granted, a Chrysalis that can only host D rank variants is probably not gonna be that big, but it isn''t a certainty either." Ste paused. "Or we could wait it out. It''s tryin'' to get rid of us cause'' it thinks we''re a threat to it. But if it knows we aren''t, it might decide to go dormant again and let us leave. This whole warpin'' and changin'' its insides thing costs a hell of a lot of juice. I doubt this thing can do it much more." As if in response to Ste, the surroundings warped into a blur again. "You just had to say something, hm?" said Valera, mimicking what Ste said to her before. Ste sighed. "Guess we''re even now." They were warped into a much tighter space. A spherical cavern of strange red and pink rock that looked strangely organic. The cavern''s walls were grooved and ridged, and when they undted like a living organ, that was when Aldrich realized - this was not rock, this was flesh. The cavern''s walls contracted and started to slowly squeeze inwards, attempting to crush everyone. "It''s tryin'' to eat us whole!" said Ste. She started to glow. "I''m gonna st a hole right through this damned thing!" "Wait, young one," said Fler''Gan. "Our powers are far too destructive and this space far too confined. The Elder and the knight will be caught in the crossfire." "He''s right," said Aldrich. But without firepower to drill out of here, what could he do? He again hovered his attention over the Sign Stone in his inventory. But he held off on using it even now. "ORAA!" Valera dropped her shield and mmed a massive punch against a stomach wall. Her fist caved in a great crater in the rocky flesh, but it healed immediately. "Unless you get the Chrysalis brain itself, its core, punches ain''t gonna'' do anything," said Ste. "This thing''smittedpletely to killin'' us, no matter how much energy it takes." "Tell me, Ste, are these stomach walls connected to the Chrysalis?" said Aldrich, his mind racing. "No, don''t think so. Chrysales tend to hide their core out in brain chambers separated from their stomachs," said Ste. "But say that the Chrysalis was a human being. Would you say that this stomach chamber is connected to its brain in the same way that a human''s stomach is in the same body as their brain? That they''re both part of the same body?" said Aldrich. "Yeah. I''d say so. I''ve heard tell of some heroes poisonin'' the stomach chambers to get the brains to freeze up, so seems like it," said Ste. "Good." Aldrich held up hisntern and cast the light towards the stomach walls. This Chrysalis was too big and healed too quickly for conventional damage to deal with it. But what countered regeneration better than instant death? Chapter 52: Chrysalis 2

Chapter 52: Chrysalis 2

Fler''Gan stood right beside Aldrich, enveloping him in the Mind Eater''s [Pyro Shield] while casting smaller, focused sts like [Fire Bolts] at the ever-approaching stomach walls. Ste tackled the opposite side of the stomach, throwing out punches and kicks with focused detonations that blew back the stomach wall as much as possible. "ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA!" Valera madly punched against the approaching walls with all her might, her strength significantly boosted by the red aura of her [Berserker''s Rage]. Each of her punches gouged out significant craters in the wall, but it was like putting a dent into Styrofoam - the holes just bounced back and sealed over as quickly as they were made. Ten seconds. Aldrich watched as his undead tried their best, but the walls continued their approach through volleys of me and explosions and punches. Twenty seconds. By now, everyone was corralled back-to-back. The more the walls progressed, the less effective Fler''Gan and Dynamite Girl became as they did not have space to unleash their area of effect. If anyone had ustrophobia at this point, they would probably have fainted as a living cave tried to crush them whole from all sides. At this rate, they would not be able to hold on until Aldrich had inflicted the full ten stacks of the [Gaze of the Watcher] debuff on the Chryalis stomach. Aldrich manifested the Sign Stone in his other hand. "Master, no. I will take care of this. You can rely on me as you always have and always will." Valera put a hand on Aldrich''s shoulder. She squeezed his shoulder ever so gently with aforting nod. A nod that showed that out of everyone here, out of anyone, really, Valera cared for Aldrich the most. Cared for him deeply on a personal level and would do anything to make him happy. Valera took in a deep breath and then said with resolution. "Everyone, huddle around me." She drew a wide stance, digging in her greaves, and put her hands up. As the walls closed in, she stopped them from crushing everyone with pure, brute force strength, pushing back against them with tremendous force. Her armor groaned and creaked as her body trembled. [Berserker''s Rage] boosted her physical stats, helping her push back, but she was going against an immense amount of solid pressure from all sides. Aldrich heard the snapping sound of her leg and arms breaking. She buckled down onto one knee, her back rounding under strain, but she held on, using her undead body to weather through her broken bones. And the more damage she took, the stronger [Berserker''s Rage] became. The aura of red around her became even stronger, raging like a veil of mes. "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO TOUCH MY MASTER!" shouted Valera as she held on with all her immense power. She held on and on until - Thirty seconds passed. Aldrich wasted no time. He casted [Disintegrating Gaze] with hisntern. The eye suspended in gleaming amber fluid within thentern opened up instantly, blood shot and ready to kill, and fired its beam of disintegration. Aldrich thumbed the Sign Stone in his off hand nervously. He did not know exactly if this would work. His theory was that because the stomach was linked to the main body of the Chrysalis, instant death magic cast on its stomach would transfer to its brain as well. After all, that was what happened with normal beings. Just because instant death was struck on say, their foot, did not mean they did not die. All he could do was watch and wait. The beam fired into the stomach walls and turned what it hit into a petrified white state ready to crumble into ash at any moment. Then, the petrification spread rapidly, covering all of the stomach walls. The wallspletely froze up and no longer crushed against Valera, giving her some rest. She slumped over, exhausted and panting. Blood pooled from her greaves and gauntlets, probably because broken bone had torn through her flesh and mangled her limbs. Ste wrapped an arm around Valera to support her. Aldrich did the same. "Seriously impressive sh*t. You did amazing, Val," said Ste. She smiled down at Valera. Aldrich could tell that despite their petty squabbles here and there, they had a special camaraderie together. Almost sisterly. "Can I call you that?" "¡­I suppose," said Valera. "I agree." Aldrich nodded to her. He paused for a moment. "And¡­thank you. For being willing to sacrifice so much for me." It meant even more because unlike the undead Aldrich arose, Valera did not have a pre-programmed drive to be loyal to Aldrich. She did this all out of her own volition. Her own free will. "Heh, a thanks from my master? What a wonderful reward." Valera looked up as ash fell all around everyone like snow. "We have won, master." Aldrich looked up to see the stomach walls disintegrating, and not just them, the disintegration spread rapidly in all directions. Soon, cracks of sunlight started to stream in from above as the entire nest fell apart. The nest trembled and shook like a dying creature before it finally disintegrated fully, leaving Aldrich and his undead in arge hole gouged into the side of the cliff. A dry breeze and bright sun light washed over everyone. Aldrich looked around in wonder. The hole around them was not thatrge. Maybe the size of arge house. Much, much smaller than how massive the nest had been from within. [Chrysalis defeated!] [+1000 EXP] [EXP Bar: 600/1800 ] 1600/1800] Aldrich sighed in relief, getting final confirmation that he had won. He, along with Valera and Ste, walked to the edge of the hole carved into the cliff and out at the yawning view of sunlit ridges and canyons stretching out in front of them. "Feels cinematic, doesn''t it? Getting'' a view like this after a fight like that," said Ste. "Mhm. But not as wonderful as my master''s praise," said Valera. Aldrich looked out at the view, but his mind was elsewhere. He was nning what to doter tonight at the Red Circle when he met Casimir, the club''s manager and the key to his n on Saturday to kill Seth Sr. Arge part of this n involved meeting Casimir at the Red Circle and asking him to exit into a more private location using Aldrich''s supposed influence as Bruce Vane. Doing this would draw Casimir away from the safety of the Red Circle, at which point he would have a hidden Fler''Gan use his Mind Eater racial skills to brainwash the man. But the logistics of this was going to be difficult. Getting Fler''Gan into the city and hiding him properly was hard, but not impossible. With Bruce Vane''s gold rank citizenship, wall security would not bother to search the car of a wealthy, connected man, so Aldrich could stow Fler''Gan away in the trunk. Summoning a Ghast could disrupt surveince cameras to hide Fler''Gan away within the city. But if Casimir was a more cautious man, he would not meet Aldrich without guards, even in a private location. That was not that bad. Aldrich would bring Valera as his supposed wife, and as long as Casimir did not bring a whole squadron of viins, Aldrich could overpower the guards and kill Casimir to raise him as an undead. Yet what happened if Casimir refused to leave the Red Circle at all? After all, there were private rooms in the club. What if he insisted on meeting there in his stronghold? Was that not the safest and most logical choice for Casimir? "O Elder, you will want to see this," said Fler''Gan. Aldrich turned to see Fler''Gan holding a small, crystalline centipede curled up in an ouroboric ball, its mandiblestched onto its tail. "That''s the Chrysalis," said Ste with wonder. "They start out as these tiny crystal bug things, but once they anchor onto an area, they start fusing with the environment, attractin'' variants to live in them, and so on until they get all big and hard to deal with just like that. But now that it''s dead, I guess it reverts back to how it was." Aldrich''s own eyes widened as he saw something else that made his mind race with possibilities. A grave marker floated over the Chrysalis corpse. ==== (Author''s Note: The novel has now gone premium, thanks for reading up until this point and I hope you will stay to read, but if you can''t that''s understandable too!) Chapter 53: Raising the Chrysalis

Chapter 53: Raising the Chrysalis

Aldrich went over to the Chrysalis and knelt down by it. He picked the creature up. It was odd, staring at it. The Chrysalis was not muchrger than a basketball. An entire dimensional space generated from something this tiny. "It is exceptional that such a minute creature was capable of harboring such vast space." Fler''Gan voiced Aldrich''s thoughts, thinking the exact same thing. "Yeah. And I''m excited what this variant can do for me in undeath." Aldrich ced the Chrysalis down and chanted. "Serve." Green energy flowed into the crystal centipede, and as it did so, the ruby red luster of the Chrysalis changed into a dark light emerald green. [-10 Mana] [Mana: 163/183 ] 153/183] [Units Controlled: 20/22 ] 21/22] Aldrich intently waited, watching the Chrysalis to see how it would move. The Chrysalis uncurled from its ouroboric position with slow, lethargic movements. Its many legs moved for just a few seconds before they froze over and the Chrysalis once more curled back up,pletely still. "Hm." Aldrich put a hand to his chin. He sensed its intentions. "It wants energy. Without it, it can''t move properly or do much of anything." "Specifically, an Ether Deposit," said Ste as she came to Aldrich''s side with Valera by her side. By now, the bloodspitter lizard had regenerated its head, and it strutted forwards beside Aldrich too. "Ether deposit, is it?" Aldrich pondered this. Ether was an odd type of energy that had manifested on Earth after the Altering. In its purest state, it appeared to be a glowing white light with an atomic structure that constantly fluxed, making it impossible to stabilize and study. There were even theories that Ether seemed semi-sapient, oddly self-destructing when confined inboratories. On its own, Ether was worth little to nothing. It had zero reactivity nor malleability, so science and technology could not generate energy from Ether or change its form into something more useful. But oddly, in the presence of Alter powers, specifically with Alter Organs and cells, Ether reacted. Or perhaps it was the other way round with the organs being capable of interfacing with Ether. Some people thought Ether created Alter powers, others thought Alter powers generated Ether - it was an endless debate akin to the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first. Regardless, Ether and Alter powers were inextricably linked. All Alters generated trace energy signatures of Ether, especially when they used their powers. The Ether energy signature was what scanners used to detect powers. The denser an Alter''s cell count, the stronger the Ether signature they generated. But Ether also urred naturally in deposits all across the. Variant ecosystems bloomed around Ether deposits and Alterhumanspeted with variants to vie for Ether for in the presence of Ether, Alter powers grew stronger. And, more importantly, higher tier techno Alters could fully harness Ether to fuel their sci-fi superweapons, processing the seemingly useless particle into a hyper-efficient, physics defying energy. "From what I remember, Chrysales are created deep underground. Nobody knows exactly where, but they do know that wherever there are Ether deposits, Chrysales aren''t far behind. Theytch onto the deposits, drain them, and fuse with their environments," said Ste. "They attract variants usin'' Ether and sorta farm em''. Variantse and breed and die inside their nests, and whatever dies turns into nutrients. Usin'' those nutrients, they expand." She stared down at the Chrysalis''s stiff, unmoving form. "Guess this little guy''s all outta'' juice. And without another deposit to anchor onto, it ain''t gonna'' be movin'', maybe not ever." "Hmm. So I need to find an Ether deposit to even make this thing usable?" said Aldrich. "I figure. And in most cases, it takes months to years for a Chrysalis to make a proper nest," said Ste. Aldrich picked up the Chrysalis and wondered whether it was worth it to keep the creature. Ether deposits were not umon, but it was hard to find one that some mega corporation did not mine out or where variants gathered en masse. "Energy, you say?" Fler''Gan pped his hands together, but because his skin was soft and moist, it made a squelching sound. "May I propose, O Elder, a rather interesting potential solution?" "What is it?" said Aldrich. "Your Phctery," said Fler''Gan. "It may not seem like it, but there is an incredible amount of energy hosted within it. Enough such that if fully unleashed, the arcane shockwave alone could tten half a human city." "Really now? I couldn''t sense anythinging from it when I held it," said Aldrich. "Because the energy is tightly sealed within. Otherwise, it would be far too easy to track the magical trail of the Phctery, and that defeats the purpose of having a safe, undetectable ce to house one''s soul, no?" Fler''Gan stretched out an open hand to Aldrich, beckoning for the Phctery. Aldrich materialized the Phctery and gave it to Fler''Gan, trusting the learned Mind Eater''s decisions. "But perhaps if I undo a few seals¡­," Fler''Gan hunched over the purple orb and traced his slimy fingers around the many lines of sigils inscribed upon it. They glowed blue, and he started to use the tip of one of his lengthy digits to rewrite the letterings. "Watch it, old man. Make sure not to blow us all up," said Ste. "You insult me, my dear," said Fler''Gan with a scoff. "I am more learned than you could ever be with that brash and impatient attitude of yours. Now stay in silence as I work." Fler''Gan reordered multiples lines of sigils over a hundred times at rapid speed, obviously showcasing a level of familiarity with the Phctery that stood as evidence of his decades of research building it. "There." After one minute, Fler''Gan finished. The Phctery clicked slightly, and a few crack-like seams opened across its surface. Beneath these cracks glowed bright green energy: the color of necromancy. Aldrich saw in high interest as the Chrysalis in his hand started to twitch,ing back from dormancy as it sensed the Phctery''s energy. It was not Ether, it was mana, and yet, the Chrysalis still recognized it. "I sense you are just as excited as I, O Elder," said Fler''Gan. "To witness whether this world and our world may mesh together." Valera patted Ste on the back as she stood up on her own now, healed enough by Aldrich''s passive [Anti-Life Shell]. "Master¡­ are you sure about this?" Valera said. "That Phctery - you need it to be a lich. Who knows what this crystal thing will do to it." "I assure you, Phcteries are not so fragile a construct," said Fler''Gan. "If indeed this creature requires months to years to siphon a deposit of this energy form known as ''Ether'', then I sincerely doubt it can significantly drain the Phctery''s reserves before the Elder halts it or destroys it." "I''m curious about this too," said Aldrich. "I understand your concern, Valera, but I''m alert. I''ve mentallymanded the Chrysalis not to harm the Phctery at all, only to see if it can absorb the mana. If anything happens out of the ordinary, I won''t hesitate to force the Chrysalis to stop or destroy it if needs be." "Understood, master," said Valera. Aldrich put the twitching Chrysalis down. It moved with surprising speed, immediately leaping andtching into the Phctery. The Chrysalis circled all around the purple orb, curling back into its ouroboric position across the Phctery''s surface. Aldrich waited tensely, seeing if the Chrysalis regained its energy. Instead, something unexpected happened. The Chrysalis sunk into the Phctery like it had fallen into water. "Master!" said Valera. Aldrich raised a hand to calm her. He could still sense the Chrysalis within, and it did not exhibit any sign of hostility or disobedience to him. "The creature has fused into the Phctery." Fler''Gan picked the orb up and began to navigate the many glowing lines of sigils on it again. "Yeah, we can see that," said Ste. "But is that a good thing or not?" "No, you do not understand. This fusion, it is remarkablyplete. It is not merely that the creature has sunk within the Phctery, it has be the Phctery. They are now one and the same." Fler''Gan''s three red eyes widened as he saw the cracks he had formed on the Phctery sealing up on their own. "Marvelous! Look! This experiment has been a resounding sess! Our world and this world, its fusion - a sess!" Fler''Gan held the orb out excitedly for everyone to watch. Within the ssy glowing purple orb, the dark silhouette of the curled-up Chrysalis could be seen. "It''s¡­adjusting," said Aldrich as he felt what the Chrysalis was going through and the intentions it projected. "It''s taking in mana, but it isn''t using it. It''s getting used to it, trying to process it. And to do that¡­it wants to be close to me. I''m the source of its life, and there''s mana inside me, too. It wants to link with my body, to fuse with me as well so that it can analyze my mana first. My mana''s more familiar, and once it''s done processing that, it shouldn''t have an issue getting used to the Phctery." Aldrich took the Phctery from Fler''Gan''s hand and gazed at it, feeling a distinct draw to it. He knew what to do with this. He dematerialized the gear on his upper body, leaving him bare naked from the waist up. His body had noticeably bulked up since the beginning of his undeath due to the stats he had pumped into it. He had always been physically fit from his training, but now he was even bigger. Not overly big like a bodybuilder, but he still had a sizable amount of muscle that straddled a perfect bnce between strength and speed. Lean and strong. Ready to overpower and crush in one moment, then sprint and chase in the other. "Oh, master, you do look so very ravishing," said Valera as she licked her lips, her fangs showing. She blushed in shyness but still panted and leaned forwards like a predator eyeing a prize they had hunted for days. And in her case, she had been on the hunt for years. On top of this, her usual shyness as an upstanding knight melted away because she was still low health and craving blood. And for vampires, the act of craving and drawing blood was closely linked with sexual desire. "This is a serious moment, you." Ste bonked Valera''s helmetless head with a karate chop. "Keep that horniness in check." Valera growled but stayed still, understanding that Ste was right. Aldrich looked down at his body. In the center of all that muscle, right below his te-like pectorals, there was the massive hole that Seth Sr had gouged out. He ced the Phctery tentatively within it and then - The Phctery glowed before tendrils of pink flesh emerged out of it,tching onto Aldrich''s insides. More and more of these tendrils appeared rapidly, soon quickly filling up the gaping hole left behind in Aldrich''s chest. There was now only the glowing purple surface of the Phctery jutting from his chest, covered seamlessly in pale skin and regrown bone and muscle. Aldrich went down into one knee as he sawplete and utter darkness. "Captain!" "Master!" Valera and Ste immediately rushed to Aldrich''s help, but he waved them back. "I''m fine," said Aldrich as he saw nothing but darkness. He realized this was what the Chrysalis saw. "There''s nothing in the Phctery. Just darkness." "That is to be expected," said Fler''Gan. "After all, a Phctery is ultimately a vessel to contain a soul. Once your soul transfers within, the darkness you see will be painted over by the color of your soul. It will be your very own inner world: a manifestation of the self. And now with this creature nested in the Phctery, you have an additionalyer of defense if anyone attempts to target your Phctery directly. Perhaps the creature may utilize its spatial maniption to conjure portals that bend deadly attacks to your soul away. Perhaps it may even absorb them. Perhaps it may even learn magic and cast spells of its own. The possibilities are simply endless, and to grasp them, we require further experimentation." "Defense, is it?" Aldrich returned to his own vision as the Chrysalis became more and more used to its newfound energy source. He willed the Chrysalis to try and attack from within the Phctery. Aldrich tapped the Phctery, and it crackled with arcs of red energy before turning a solid vantack, almost like a ck hole. This was a dimensional portal. A tiny one, granted, but a portal nheless: the Chrysalis was starting to use mana to fuel its warp powers. Small tendrils of darkness stretched out from it, slithering slowly on the ground, picking up pebbles here and there before sinking back into the Phctery. "What the hell was that!?" Ste jumped back at the sudden emergence of surprise tentacles. "The creature is learning at an exceptional rate," said Fler''Gan. "That darkness was some of the mana stored within the Phctery. The creature has managed to control the mana, using it to create tendrils to interact with the world. Yet, judging by the minute size and chaotic shape of those tendrils, it is unused to shaping mana." Aldrich felt the Chrysalis protest within him. It cost a significant amount of energy to make it open a portal, even a portal that small, from the Phctery and draw things in. "Not just that," said Aldrich. "Like you said, by design, anything inside the Phctery ispletely sealed off from the outside to prevent energy leaks. That includes the dimension that the Chrysalis creates. So anytime it wants to attack, it has to open a portal, and portals are costly. It''s too small and weak, so its ''max mana pool'' isn''trge enough to do much more than open that tiny portal and spew out a few mana tendrils. It needs time to rest, absorb, and grow like it did with an Ether deposit. I know you want to experiment even more, but give the Chrysalis some time. We can start testing its limits as it grows." "As you wish, O Elder," said Fler''Gan with a barely concealed sigh, disappointed he could not see and experiment more. Aldrich, too, wanted to experiment, but he remained patient. He could only imagine how incredibly useful this Chrysalis-Phctery fusion would be. One of the biggest issues he had was that he could not carry around his undead without attracting attention. But with the Chrysalis, he could store and release them at will. "Then what now?" said Ste. Aldrich snapped his fingers and bid the alloywing eagle down to the cavern. "We head to Haven City." Chapter 54: Alchemy

Chapter 54: Alchemy

Aldrich and his undead made their way back up to the top of the cliff they got started on. He got Fler''Gan, Ste, and the eagle to get into the backseats of their armored car. Now, carrying the bloodspitter lizard and antlion was difficult because of how big they were, and Aldrich unfortunately had to tear off their body parts until they could fit into the trunk. Good thing was, as zombies, they did not really feel pain, so no harm really done. "I''ll be back to drive in a bit," said Aldrich to Ste through the rolled down backseat window. "I need to talk to Valera." He nced over at Valera. She was some distance away, shuddering and in withdrawal for blood due to her low health and constant exposure tobat. He needed to deal with that, probably heal her for a bit longer with his [Anti-Life Shell]. "Got it, captain," said Ste. "Have fun." She whistled casually and rolled up the window, though asionally she would sneak back nces to see what Aldrich and Valera were up to. Aldrich walked up to Valera. She had dematerialized her armor, leaving her in basic ck leather leggings and a form fitting, short sleeved white tunic. There were still deep, visible wounds on her body. Large streaks of torn flesh on her arms from the bone shattering and piercing through. "Are you alright? Here, let me heal you. This should make you feel better." Aldrich started to release the green mist of his [Anti-Life Shell], but Valera turned and shook her head, putting a tight hand on his shoulder. "No, I don''t want that." Valera looked at Aldrich longingly, her fangs protruding from her bright red lips. Her lower lip trembled as she spoke. "Master, may I¡­may I feed on you?" "Are you sure? I remember you saying undead blood didn''t suit you," said Aldrich. "Yes. I hate, hate the taste of undead blood. It tastes rotten and cold and, worst of all, it makes me feel sleepy." "Then-," began Aldrich, but Valera put a pale finger to his lips as she drew closer, cing a hand on his chest. She stared with hunger in her eyes at him, but her lips formed into a smile that was surprisingly warm and gentle. Vampires were seductive by nature. Valera kept her instincts under control through strict knightly training that prevented her from having any real experience with men, but beneath all that, her instincts still made her know exactly how to tempt. "But if it''s you, I don''t mind. When a vampire devotes themselves to someone. Devotes themselves truly, body and mind and soul, then that blood bes the sweetest of all. Nothing else everpares to it. Not even the blood of those I rip limb from limb." Aldrich blinked, remembering lore about vampires. In Elden World, vampires, though known as seductive creatures that drew blood through charm just as much as they did through force, were strictly monogamous. When they coupled with an individual, they did so for life, hence why strict vampiric royal lineages existed. "I know that you do not like taking damage, you never have across all our many battles," continued Valera. "That is why here, in this world, I have never asked to draw your blood. Even now, I feel bad asking-," "Go ahead," said Aldrich. "It''s the least I can do to thank you." A switch flipped on in Valera when Aldrich gave the okay, and any sense of reason she had just faded. She wrapped herself around him as much as she could. Her arms wrapped around his neck in a tight hug while she leaned against him, raising and pressing her leg tightly against his. Her heavy, hot breathingnded on his neck, and she licked the cold, undead skin gently before she sunk her teeth in. Normally, a human would find themselvespletely numb, charmed, and in ecstatic pleasure from a vampire sinking their fangs into them. But as Aldrich was undead, he was immune to all those status effects. And because of his arisen purpose, he did not feel drawn to Valera. He appreciated her, he truly did, but love and desire were not emotions he felt strongly now. Not until his purpose was fulfilled. He put a hand on Valera''s bare upper back,forting her as he saw his health drain and her health go up. Surprisingly, Aldrich noted that Valera''s health increased at breakneck speeds. She was still at around fifty percent health, but within five seconds of draining Aldrich''s blood, she was back to full, the huge web work of scars around her arms fading away. Valera drew back when she was full health. Aldrich had lost a quarter of his health. A near 2:1 health exchange ratio. Highly useful. Aldrich felt slightly bad thinking about the usefulness of this, especially when Valera considered it something to special to her, but he could not help it. He had always been goal oriented, and as an undead, his goal of vengeance permeated every single aspect of his decision making and life. Valera drew back when she was full health and swayed and staggered, her eyelids heavy. Gone was that brief sh of seductive confidence, reced with iing drowsiness. "Ah, I drank too much," said Valera. "I''m sorry, master." "It''s fine." Aldrich held Valera as she leaned into him putting her head on his shoulder and smiling as she drifted off. "Master?" Valera whispered into Aldrich''s ear, but judging by the sleepy tenor of her voice, it was hard to tell whether she was sleep talking or conscious. "Hm?" "Do you know that I want to be with you? Now and forever and ever?" "I know." Aldrich paused awkwardly. At the end of the day, he also had no experience with women. It came with being a permanent social outcast looked down in society as an unevolved waste of air. "Thanks," he managed out stiffly. Valera smiled and grew quiet, breathing in an even pattern that made it obvious she had fallen asleep. Aldrich supported her to the car where he ced her in the front passenger seat and got ready to drive. Valera instinctively leaned to her side, resting her head snugly on his shoulder. "Sooo, what happened back there, huh?" said Ste. "Once my alchemicalboratory has formed, O Elder, I am quite capable of creating a concoction that significantly increases your performance. Many an elderly mage in the Arcanist''s Order has asked for my-," "Nothing happened," said Aldrich with a shake of his head, though he did slightly smile at the banter. "Sure," said Ste with a raised brow of disbelief. "Talk all you want. I''ll just be driving," said Aldrich as he started the car. == Aldrich first regrouped in the variant forest. "Boss! Thought you were a goner!" Fisk put hisptop down as he saw Aldrich appear in their clearing. Fler''Gan, Ste, and the now woken up but still groggy Valera walked behind him. The Geist was hanging out with the two mud crabs. The mud crabs raised theirrge pincers in the air and waved them side to side in a small ''dance'' they did with fellow crabs, and the Geist mimicked them, waving its arms in the air. When the Geist saw Aldrich, it stopped and stood at attention, pping its hands excitedly. "Can''t you sense whether I''m alive or not?" said Aldrich. "Well, yeah, but that don''t mean I don''t worry, y''know," said Fisk. "Plus, alive doesn''t mean unhurt." "Geh (He''s right)," said the Geist. "I appreciate all the concern. How have things been on this end?" said Aldrich. Fisk shrugged. "Nothing much has happened. These two have kept mepany, though." He pointed to Adam and ine sitting beside him on a fallen tree trunk. "I booted up Dark Sins, and they totally admire my gaming skills! When I was doing a no damage boss rush, they had their eyes glued on my screen, I tell ya!" "Really now?" Aldrich looked at Adam and ine with hope, at their rotted, lifeless faces and eyes, trying to see if something was there. "Lesser undead may have some remnant behaviors from their past lives, but they are not like arisen undead. There are no memories, no true thought, no true being. And even if they were arisen, they would no longer truly be the same," said Fler''Gan. "Hey, don''t rain on his parade now, those were his friends," said Ste as she bumped an elbow into Fler''Gan''s side. Fler''Gan red at Ste as he rubbed his side painfully. "It is better that the Elder knows this for certain." "I know," said Aldrich. "I''ve always known. Hm. I never thought I was the hopeful type. But I''ve known enough disappointment not to trust in hope in any case." Aldrich waved Fler''Gan forwards. "About what we discussed-," "Of course." Fler''Gan moved to the center of the clearing and closed his eyes while raising his hands. In front of his palms, two blue magic circles formed. Throughout the car ride back to the forest, Aldrich and Fler''Gan had talked about setting up his alchemicalboratory. Soon enough, the Chrysalis would grow eventually grow to a point that the pocket dimension it created could house theb. At which point, Aldrich could move Fler''Gan and theb into the Phctery, taking them in and out when needed. Like this, Fler''Gan could experiment at minimal risk as what was more secure than an entirely separate dimension? But until then, Aldrich needed Fler''Gan alchemy. Especially for tonight at the Red Circle. "Crazy cool, all this magic stuff," said Fisk as he watched. "Yeah," said Ste. Valera came to Aldrich''s side, and he rested her on the tree trunk, sitting beside her. "Master¡­I did not do anything embarrassing, did I?" said Valera as she blushed furiously. "I remember wanting to draw your blood, then nothing, I-," "No," said Aldrich simply. "Nothing you would regret, at least." Valera sighed in relief. "Thank the many gods." She tentatively reached out and squeezed Aldrich''s hand. Aldrich did the same. Fler''Gan chanted. "[Create Base]" In front of Fler''Gan, blue outlines, almost like they were drawn, of tables, beakers, tubes, forceps, knives, forceps, and dozens of other alchemical tools emerged. The outlines then filled in, turning into solid matter. The end result was three worktables. One table filled with beakers and tubes and pots for chemical reactions. One table containing several ss chambers within which reactions could be safely carried out. And thest table that was the most ominous, holding restraints and sharp, cutting tools for dissections and, as Fler''Gan called it, ''live experimentations.'' "To see myboratory once more, and to think of all the new specimens I may dissect and dissolve! Ah, how this elderly heart beats!" Fler''Gan raised his hands in the air like a mad scientist. "Boss, I really appreciate the guy''s passion, but should we be, uh, worried that we''ll be a part of his experiments?" said Fisk. "Tell me about it," said Ste. "Not for now," said Aldrich. "¡­For now?" said Fisk, but Aldrich ignored him and went up to Fler''Gan to talk business. By now, Aldrich''s Grave Ward had snuck into the Red Circle and gotten a look at Casimir, the manager, as well. There were several ces in the Red Circle that were impossible to sneak into, guarded by forcefields, but Casimir''s main office was not. And judging by how Casimir carried himself with four guards at the minimum, he was a careful man. He would underestimate Aldrich and Valera because they had no AC count, but Aldrich could not relypletely on that. "You know what I requested, right?" said Aldrich. "You desire a potion that can control the minds of up to ten able bodied men. The potion must also be as tasteless as possible." Fler''Gan nodded. He went to his chemical table and retrieved a vat filled with liquid. His stomach then heaved as he vomited in three purple, finger length worms. The worm''s heads wereprised of wriggling, spiked tentacles. These were Pupae. Mind Eaters reproduced by capturing live beings and forcing them to ingest pupae. Pupae would then travel to their host''s brain andtch on, creating a cascading effect that would brainwash them and also turn them into Mind Eaters. Fler''Gan wiped off slime from his mouth tendrils as he looked at the pupae swimming inside, inspecting their quality. "I can only produce three pupae a month at this old age, and they are a little withered, but this will be enough. I will be done processing my pupae into potion form in five hours." Aldrich checked his watch. It was now barely noon. "What time is the meeting with Casimir?" said Aldrich. "Uh-," Fisk scrambled to hisptop, utterly distracted by Fler''Gan''s simultaneously gross yet interesting disy. "It''s eleven tonight." "Good," said Aldrich. "More than enough time." The first real steps to initiating Aldrich''s vengeance against Seth Sr now began. Chapter 55: {A Meeting to Be}

Chapter 55: {A Meeting to Be}

Author''s note: titles bracketed under { } = different PoV __________________ The Red Circle 6:00 P.M., November 3, 2117 ____ Casimir leaned back in his plush velvet leather chair; elbows rested upon imported wood carved from the bark of a nt type variant. Anything made from variants was all the rage nowadays, and Casimir was never one to fall behind trends, particrly when it pertained to the currents of luxury. That was easily evident by the quality of his white snowfur deerskin suit, his scaled marsh alligator dress shoes, and the sparkling gold and diamond encrusted watch made by Regal, one of, if not the top luxury watchmaker in the world. "So, my dear, tell me about that appointment tonight. The one with that fund heir," said Casimir. His voice projected through an oval shaped mask lit up with a neon disy showing simple emotes that conveyed his emotion state. For now, the emote projected was highly neutral, if a little annoyed (-_-). "I''ve run a thorough background check on him." A slim young woman dressed in white suit and skirt spoke. The side of her head was cleanly shaved and ted with chrome. From here, she withdrew a cable which she attached aptop port before opening theputer up on Casimir''s desk. "I''vepiled a concise report on Bruce Vane for you to read," said the woman. "Now, my dear nca, you''ve worked as my secretary far too long to know I bore of reports. Tell me what I need to know," said Casimir. "After all, it would be such a shame to waste an opportunity to hear that lovely voice of yours." nca paused for a moment. "Yes sir. I will begin with the potential client''s wealth. Bruce Vane possesses a gold rank citizenship in Neo-York." Casimir whistled. "A gold? In Neo-York of all ces? Heh, I like what I''m hearing. Go on." "I will advise you to keep your safety in mind with this client. There is little to no public information about him. His wealth was inherited through a fund created from apany called Vane Industries that specialized in textile manufacturing." "Then why not run a check on thepany? Surely there''s data on that," said Casimir. "ording to the details Mr. Vane was willing to share with us, his familypany was a Pre-Monstering manufacturer based in Germany. All public records rted to thepany were lost during the tumult of the Monstering," said nca. "Thepany''s wealth was consolidated and maintained, however, in the form of a trust that passed on to sessive Vane generations. The Vanes have maintained that fund in rtive secrecy through a diverse portfolio of hidden investments. Furthermore, Mr. Vane is unwilling to share proof of finances for it would force him to reveal his investments, citing a concern for safety and anonymity." "A man of secrecy, I see." Casimirughed. "Not entirely umon in our line of business, no? But still, how convenient is it that his familypany''s records are lost to time? And his investments are an entire mystery case of their own." "I agree," said nca. "I have coordinated the meeting such that Mr. Vane meets you alone and in the safety of the Red Circle. He will have to go through thorough security checks and though he requested a private meeting, I have arranged it so that you may bring up to four Red Circle mercenaries or viins to your side." "Ohoh. As cautious as ever, nca," said Casimir. "Need I remind you that I am paid to ensure my caution keeps you safe?" said nca. "True. Very true. Let me see, then. Mr. Vane wished to meet me to invest in the Red Circle, no?" "That is correct. And I''ve received an update on that." nca tapped her the te on her head, and her violet eyes lit up as she processed more digital information. "He specifically wants to involve himself with the Red Circle to sample our liquors." "Liquors? How strong?" said Casimir, a note of interest bleeding into his mechanical voice. Liquor was a key word for mercenaries and viins. Hired help or security, essentially. Especially help that did not care about thew. "As strong as they can get," said nca. "He has revealed further that the reason for this is because he and his wife are Duds." Casimir almost fell off his chair. "Duds? Did I hear that right?" "Yes. They have sent in a preliminary AC scan to confirm this, though of course, upon arrival to the Red Circle, they will receive a thorough one from us as well." Casimir''s guard dropped. "Duds, are they? Then that makes sense why Mr. Vane would keep his profile so hidden. A wealthy Dud is a Dud just waiting to be captured and extorted. Remind me again, is heing alone?" "No. He wishes to bring his wife along." "A wife? Then that''s fine. No guards?" nca shook her head. "I would not allow him to bring any form of threat within the Red Circle. His background is far too tenuous to allow that." "nca, my dear, I have made it this far in the criminal underworld because of how open I am to receiving clients of any kind, whether they dress themselves in fine suits or wallow in the bloody mud of violence. If indeed, Mr. Vane and his wife are both Duds and they pass through all our security checks, then I sincerely doubt they are threats of any kind." Casimir waved his hand. "Arrange this meeting." "One more thing: Mr. Vane wishes to bring a bottle of wine with him. He strongly prefers his own drinks," said nca. "Oh? A man of strong tastes. I can respect that. What does he want to bring? You did ask him, yes?" "Of course. As you said, I have worked with you long enough. It is a 2080 Celeste. Market price: six thousand credits." "Six thousand? A respectable vintage, then." Casimir''s emote face raised an eye in curiosity. "Though certainly not the most expensive I have received. Any cheaper than that, and I would have rejected it. But it will serve as preliminary proof of Mr. Vane''s finances. And indeed, I do quite find myself wanting to savor a dry red. Tell Mr. Vane his bottle service request is approved. Though, of course, it will have to go through all security checks as well. That will be all." "Understood, sir," said nca. She unplugged herself from her sleek ckptop and held it to her side. She turned to leave but paused. "This is simply my opinion, sir, but I still cannot shake an uneasy feeling about this meeting." "All these years we have known each other I did not take you to be a superstitious woman, nca. But your sincere worries do touch me. Here, I will use my power." Casimir reached into his suit''s breast pocket and retrieved a in white dice. He rattled it in his hand, and as he did so, his hand glowed a bright white. Then, he rolled the dice on his table. It rolled a solid 1. "There. I will not suffer even a single scratch of harm to my body in the next twenty four hours," said Casimir. His power involved rolling a dice to determine his safety within a 24 hour timeframe. A 1 indicated no harm done to Casimir while a 6 meant certain death. Depending on his mental state and physical condition, the timeframe his power could calcte fluctuated, but even at its worst, it could see up to nine hours ahead. And Casimir was in tip top condition right now. It was this power, a power that fell under the ultra-rare Flux category that manipted fundamental aspects of reality like space, time, causality and probability, that had allowed him to survive and rise in the criminal underworld. That and his sharp business acumen, of course. The only downside to this power was that it possessed a three day long period in which it was unable to be used. nca nodded, believing fully in the dice. It had saved her more times than she could count over all the years she had worked with Casimir as well, back when they were both nothing more than poor and desperate hoodlums begging on dirty streets for their next meal. "Finalize the arrangements, nca." Casimir rolled around in his chair, looking out from the third story of his night club. His view shot over thick, bulletproof, tinted ss down to the cracked, broken streets of Southside Haven below. "I am now rather curious to see how Mr. Vane carries himself. As a Dud, I am sure he has had his share of hardships despite his wealth. And hardship breeds ambition. Perhaps he shares an entrepreneurial spirit such as myself." Chapter 56: Meeting in the Red Circle

Chapter 56: Meeting in the Red Circle

Aldrich could only drive his armored car up within a block of the Red Circle before he hit a security check. Or rather, it was a mandatory valet service, but judging by the two-story tall, armor-ted valet booth that looked suspiciously like a sentry tower, it was pretty obvious that this was a security check. Aldrich stopped his car in front of the boom barrier set down by the booth. The barrier itself glowed with a streak of white energy, indicating Etherium power - processed Ether - that meant it was custom made by a techno. It was no ordinary flimsy line of metal meant to stop traffic. Most likely, it had some function to stop cars that tried to ignore it. That was not Aldrich''s intention, though. He was here for a chat, after all. He watched as two guards standing on either end of the barrier approached. They looked to be mercenaries rather than viins. Where viins liked to have a distinctive costume to make an impact and be recognized, mercenaries focused far more on practicality, donning themselves with cybeics and military gear meant for efficiency rather than shiness. "Are we to fight now, master?" said Valera from the passenger seat. She was dressed in her ck dress set while Aldrich had just bought a 3000-credit suit to keep up appearances a wealthy fund inheritor. "No fighting. Not unless we absolutely must," said Aldrich. "Carry that with you and act as politely as you can. But try to leave all the talking to me." Aldrich motioned to a rectangr wooden case containing the 2080 Celeste bottle of wine. That had costed 6000 credits, leaving Aldrich with just 1000 left. It was mind boggling how the wealthy spent so many credits on seemingly ordinary things like clothes and drinks. He had thought 10,000 credits a decent amount to start off with, but he quickly began to realize if he really wanted to keep up his appearances as an ultra-wealthy man, he needed to find a way to get more credits quickly. Valera nodded and picked up the case of wine. Mercenaries approached Aldrich''s windshield. He rolled the window down and stared at the mercenary''s dot-like cybeic red eyes and mouth mask that made each of his heavy breaths sound deeply raspy. "Here to see the manager. 11 appointment," said Aldrich. "Yeah, I know. Valet service. Mandatory. Give me your keys." Aldrich turned off his car and tossed the keys to the mercenary. He grabbed them and nodded. "Walk past the barrier to the club. You''ll face more security checks there. And just so you know, if we find anything here that''s even remotely suspicious-," "You won''t." Aldrich ignored him and waved Valera forward. Together, they walked past the now upraised boom barrier towards the club. Valera tucked her arm in the crook of Aldrich''s, and like this, they walked forward like gentleman anddy at a high-profile dance. Aldrich appreciated how Valera was right now. She kept a calm, confident poise. Her posture was straight and elegant, each of her steps even matching the Aldrich''s pace. Even though she was a knight, she was also ady hailing from a royal vampiric lineage, and that showed now. At the front of the club, Aldrich noted in the periphery of his sharp vision multiple cameras as well as several crawler drones in dormant statetched on the walls of the building, ready at a moment''s notice to be active and crawl about while unloading machine gun fire. The club''s entrance was surprisingly far more elegant than Aldrich would have thought a seedy club in Southside Haven - the broken down, crime infested part of the city - to be. Large, ck tinted ss double doors surrounded by a frame of red and gold shaped into floral patterns awaited Aldrich and Valera. A well-maintained, spotlessly clean red carpet led out of the doors, and nking this carpet were several Red Circle staff noticeable from their white and red suits. One of these staff members came up to Aldrich and Valera with a bow. "Wee to the Red Circle, Mr. and Mrs. Vane," said the woman. She had no cybeics to speak of, but her organic eyes shed with an odd, fluctuating green tint that made it obvious she was a powered Alter. "I will be your server and guide for tonight. You may call me Hirondelle." "A pleasure to meet you, Hirondelle." Aldrich nodded and smiled uncharacteristically. He had practiced for hours to put up the fake persona of a wealthy socialite so as not to draw attention. "Follow me." Hirondelle smiled and led Aldrich towards the doors. "We have prepared nothing but the finest for you, Mr. and Mrs. Vane, as we treat each client with the utmost level of respect they deserve. However, there are some minor security hurdles we simply must press upon you. Red Circle policy, I am afraid." "I perfectly understand," said Aldrich. "Safety is a real issue these days, isn''t it?" "I appreciate the cooperation." Hirondelle nodded to the rest of the staff. Several people came forwards. Some waved Etherium and metal detecting sticks over Aldrich and Valera. Others scanned them from a distance not with visors, but their very own powers, their eyes glowing or their hands projecting analyzing light. Hirondelle bowed and held out a hand towards Valera. "The bottle, Mrs. Vane, might my team analyze it? I assure you we will take the greatest of cares so that the taste and integrity of the wine is not harmed a single bit." Valera daintily held out the bottle, and Hirondelle grasped it in one hand before handing it over to a staff member who disappeared into the club. "Tech sweepplete: nothing," said a staff member. "AC scanplete: count at 0," said another. "Wonderful," said Hirondelle. "Once we have returned your bottle, I will lead you to your meeting. I hope you will enjoy your stay, Mr. Vane, and that this meeting ends with an investment that you can look back upon with a smile. Aldrich smiled, and this time, it was genuine. "I hope so too." == Once Hirondelle returned with Aldrich''s bottle and handed it back to Valera, she guided them as promised. Through the sliding double ss doors, Aldrich and Valera continued on through more red carpet. The first floor was a massive dance floor, though by the walls were highly upraised booths with tables for those that wished to pay for a premium experience. At the end of the dance floor stood a white tform meant for performers withrge stage lights and sound systems ahead. Everything was powered off, however. The Red Circle only functioned as a club during the weekends. All other days was when ''business'' happened. Aldrich knew the ins and outs of the Red Circle. His Grave Ward had scouted out almost everything it could. That included the room on the third floor they were head to where a masked man that was most likely Casimir sat waiting with a guard. There were a few mystery rooms blocked with forcefields, but Aldrich would know what was behind those soon enough. Hirondelle led Aldrich and Valera to the end of the dance floor to a tform elevator hidden behind the performance stage. The elevator ferried them all to the third floor, and here, everything was deathly silent. The walls were heavily sound proofed, isting it from the tumult of the dance floor below. The third floorprised of brightly lit hallways lined with red carpet and decorated with expensive paintings and sculptures, some of which dated Pre-Monstering, easily fetching over a hundred thousand credits. "Right this way." Hirondelle led Aldrich and Valera down these hallways to a room. She opened a varnished, carved oak door, and bowed. Inside, the room felt like it belonged to an upscale fine dining restaurant. It was lit by borate chandelier, and beneath it stood a round dining table covered with white cloth. Casimir sat here with a te, utensils, and three types of wine sses in front of him. The same arrangement was repeated twice for Aldrich and Valera. Immediately, Casimir stood up. "Mr. Vane! You''vee right on time!" Casimir said warmly, the emote on his mask smiling. "Casimir, I presume?" Aldrich held out a hand, and Casimir shook it thoroughly. "My, that is a powerful handshake right there," said Casimir. He yfully tapped Aldrich''s shoulder. "You must train that body of yours quite dutifully, hm? But the sad state of the world now is that one must always be ready for danger." Casimir then bowed lightly to Valera. "Mrs. Vane, is it? A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Your husband has been nothing but warm and charming to me in our priormunications. Ah, and that bottle, I should not let ady such as yourself carry it." Casimir snapped his fingers. "Walters, be good to me and take this off thedy." One of the two guards, a Red Circle waiter, it seemed, judging from his white and red suit, came forwards and took the bottle from Valera with a gracious nod. He had sharp, angr features with slit pupils and slicked a short buzzcut. Contrary to his brutish appearance, Walters carefully began to open the case and retrieve a tray of wine opening tools like he was a world ss surgeon performing the world''s most sensitive operation. Aldrich and Valera could both tell from a single nce that Walter was not some ordinary waiter. He was strong. They could not sense Ether energy, but they could tell how physically capable someone was, and Walters was six foot six (2 meters) with enough muscle that he seemed like he could burst out of his suit at any given moment. "Now sit, sit! You must rest yourselves. The drive here was so very dangerous, no?" Casimir personally drew back Aldrich and Valeras'' seats, beckoning them to sit. As everyone settled into the dining table, Casimir continued. "I am deeply sorry that my establishment lies in this rather rough neighborhood. I do not mean to pry, but I noticed your AC counts were zero. It is no wonder that you had to drive here in an armored car, particrly when I had to request that you arrive with no security force." "Oh, trust me, it wasn''t much of an issue," said Aldrich. "You have been more than weing enough so far." "I appreciate your politeness, Mr. Vane. I tell you, some of the clients I receive, they know nothing. They cannot tell a street market leather from Gucien finery. Nor, as you no doubt know, some mass-produced red wine swill with a proper Celeste vintage." Aldrich noted that Casimir''spliments were quite targeted. Aldrich''s current suit was from Gucien and of course, that damned overpriced wine was a Celeste or some bullsh*t fancy sounding name. "And that ring! That twin coiling snake design with the silver and gold, my, that is expert work right there," said Casimir as he gestured to the [Ring of Avarice] on Aldrich''s finger. "Might I ask who made it?" "Unfortunately, this is strictly artisanal. A custom order," said Aldrich. "Custom, is it? After our talk, you must acquaintance me with your jeweler. I would almost kill to have a piece such as that for myself," said Casimir as he stretched out his hands, showcasing a sparkling watch and several polished rings studded with rare gems of all kinds. "But you strike me as a more serious man, Mr. Vane, so let''s get to talking business, shall we?" "You read me perfectly," said Aldrich. "Walters, pour us some proso to begin," said Casimir. "Your wine, that Celeste, we must save forter. My chef will prepare a course that suits its dry yet subtle vors beautifully." Walters nodded and took a bottle from a chilled cab. He popped the carbonated bottle open and held it by the base with his palm as he went around the table, filling up smaller, thinner sses. Casimir held up the gleaming, golden colored sparkling alcohol to the light of the chandelier. "A preliminary toast, perhaps?" "Of course." Aldrich raised his ss, and so did Valera. Casimir drew the ss close to his mask, and the lower half retracted, revealing a severely burnt, disfigured face. He sipped the proso before continuing business talk. "I understand that you wish to speak with me about sampling our liquor selection." "Just as we discussed before, yes," said Aldrich. He had sent this message to get a good look into the Red Circle''s list of mercenaries and viins to prepare for them. Plus, it was good cover and fit with the story of a wealthy Dud that wanted security. "Our liquor selection is eptable, but not the finest. I am afraid that our in house store does not exceed the B rank. For any higher, you must reachrger establishments. But that is what the Red Circle specializes in. Connections. We are one of thergest hubs for Connectors from thergest organizations. The Four Dragons, the Rakshashas, the Moon, the Trident - any big names you can think of, we have ties to." Aldrich heard the word Trident and involuntarily narrowed an eye. "Ah, are you interested in the Trident?" said Casimir, catching even that tiny eye motion expertly. "Of course. Who wouldn''t be?" said Aldrich as he maintained his smile. Chapter 57: Meeting in the Red Circle 2

Chapter 57: Meeting in the Red Circle 2

"I did take you as a man who could see potential," said Casimir. "And you are right on the mark with that: there is no other organization in our line of work growing faster than the Trident. And who could have predicted it? A ragtag alliance of estranged yakuza, mafia, and triad families banding together after the Monstering in a most meteoric rise. It is truly admirable how hardship can make the fellow man set aside differences and work together. If I was an investing man such as yourself, I would ce my credits in the Trident. But of course, I should not lecture an experience investor like you." "By all means, go ahead. I''m always in a learning mindset," said Aldrich. He kept his smile, but he could not hide the disgust welling up within him as Casimir talked about the Trident like they were some rags to riches story to be admired. The Trident built their empire off the blood and suffering of countless many. There was nothing to respect about them. And soon, once Aldrich saw to it, that empire would crumble into dust. "Something big is happening, Mr. Vane," said Casimir. "I can feel it in the air. In the fabric of this tumultuous society around us. Can you not? It is in the ever-increasing cases of theft by Nomads in the Wastnds. It is in the spirits of the downtrodden in the ghettos and broken-down streets of walled cities. Do you know what I call this?" "Entertain me," said Aldrich. Casimir raised a finger. "Desperation. The Panopticon and the Alterhuman Agency are meant to protect humanity, but they are failing. Variants attacks are astronomically on the rise, and I hear whispers that the Titans stir in their slumber. Are you familiar with the Prophet, Mr. Vane?" "Ah, the Alter with future sight, correct? The one who makes a prophecy about humanity''s safety every fifteen years," said Aldrich. "Who wouldn''t be? His prophecies are the most watched live broadcasts on telescreenworks." "Yes, yes, that''s the one. The doddering old man with that wispy head of white hair and bleak, nk eyes. Oh, I do feel for him, that man, to constantly have to foresee the fate of an entire civilization - it must take a toll on the mind." Casimir shook his head. "But besides his personal suffering, have you heard of histest prophecy?" "Who hasn''t," said Aldrich. "Two years ago, yes? 2115. If my memory isn''t failing me, he''s guaranteed humanity''s safety for the next fifteen years yet again." "There is some tell among my sources that it is all a lie. A sham conjured up by the Alterhuman Agency and the Panopticon," said Casimir. "I hear that the Prophet has, in truth, foretold humanity''s doom." "Is that so?" said Aldrich, raising a brow in interest. "Is it? Who knows? Even my own sources cannot prate deep into the internal politics of the AA and the Panopticon. All I hear are whispers and rumors. Second-hand ounts. Mutterings. But you know what, Mr. Vane?" Casimir leaned forwards, the emote on his mask smiling at Aldrich intensely. "Even a whisper is bound to be heard when it is telling the truth." Aldrich remained quiet, letting Casimir talk. Casimir spoke. "I make no guarantees, but I feel that perhaps something BIG will happen. With the vast majority of modern-day Supers degenerating into nothing but glorified pop stars, prancing about on their live streams and vying for the most likes on their social media tforms, who is left to defend themon man? When will the desperation that is ever growing on the streets reach a breaking point? And when it does, when that breaking point shatters the order of society, who will pick up the pieces?" "Ah, I see what you''re getting at," said Aldrich. "You''re saying that the viins want to take control. With enough Variant attacks and enough desperation, some perhaps artificially fueled, there''s bound to be chaos. And who better to navigate chaos than viins?" "I am not saying anything. I am merely asking questions. Presenting a thought experiment, yes," said Casimir coyly. "But you understand what I mean. So, it is quite wise of you to divest some of your investments here, especially if you wish to keep yourself and your dear wife safe in times toe. Now then, for our in-house liquor selections." Casimir tapped the side of his mask three times, and the emote disappeared into a bright white screen. From there, a holographic series of images projected outwards onto the dining table. These images formed into profiles that listed out several mercenaries and viins for hire. The profiles listed a threat ranking if the subject had one, or if they were hidden, an estimated threat ranking. It showed an image of them, a list of their sessful missions, how many credits and assets they had earned for their clients, their general personality traits, and so on. Like reviewing resumes. Aldrich noted that out of the dozen profiles Casimir projected, only one was at B-rank. "It seems you are a little disappointed with our in-house selection, and that is understandable." Casimir said this when Aldrich spent several seconds looking without saying anything. "Again, we do not have the finest cream of the crop. For that, you would have to travel to arger city such as Neo-York. However, for you, Mr. Vane, I can offer more options. No doubt, if you have researched enough to connect with us, you know of ckwater. One of few academies in the undergroundwork that specializes in producing insider informants within the AA. But among them, many will also be promising mercenaries. If you so desire, I could arrange a meeting between you and some members of the A-rank ss. Young as they are, they may not be as disciplined, but their potential, I am sure if properly groomed, will exceed our in-house selections." "An interesting consideration," said Aldrich. "You truly do have a wide selection to offer. But could I be just a little greedier and ask to see if there are even more?" "Of course, Mr. Vane, and I wee greed. Greed is good. Greed is what drives us all." Casimir tapped his mask again. This time, Aldrich saw red tinted profiles projected. Many of these had far more impressive aplishments and higher average threat rankings than before. One thing tied them all together: they had an affiliation with the Trident. "I know you were interested about the trident. Here is a list of most of the viins they have working for them that they can outsource as independent contractors. Unfortunately, none of them are in such a small city as Haven, but I could certainly arrange a meeting for you with any one of them," said Casimir. Aldrich looked over the profiles before he settled on one. One that he remembered in crystal clear, perfect detail. A viin with a burly, bristle furred body with a butcher''s apron as a costume. This was the same man that had chopped Aldrich''s parents into little pieces. Aldrich''s undead mind allowed him to process a massive surge of emotions, of hate and vengeance and bloodlust, away so as not to draw attention. But even then, his finger trembled ever so slightly as he pointed at the man''s photo. "This one. I want this one," said Aldrich. "Oh? The Butcher?" Casimir cocked his head in surprise. "He is not quite suited for guarding jobs. His personality is rather erratic, and his patience is rather limited. A condition of his power, it is said. He is far more suited for torture, ah, wait." Casimir smiled at Aldrich. "Don''t tell me, Mr. Vane, you weren''t here to hire a guard at all, were you?" "Hm?" said Aldrich, wondering if Casimir had suspected him. "You want someone gone. Someone who has wronged you. And you want them to suffer. Am I correct?" said Casimir. Aldrich smiled. In a way, Casimir was right. Very, very right. "How could you tell?" "I have a knack for sensing out my clients," said Casimir. "Mr. Vane, you really did not have to skirt around what you wanted. You could have told me from the beginning instead of dancing about and pretending to hire a guard. I understand you are unfamiliar with how the underworld works, but you may be straightforward here. Within the underworld, all desires hidden and locked away may beid bare. That includes a need to make someone disappear. Forever." "You''re right. I am unused to working with all of this. Thank you for the tip, I''ll keep it in mind," said Aldrich. "I am always willing to help," said Casimir. "Will this be your final selection, Mr. Vane? Do understand that once you have reached out to arrange a meeting, it cannot easily be cancelled." "I''m sure of it," said Aldrich. "Excellent!" Casimir pped his hands triumphantly, and his mask stopped projecting images and returned to its emote face. "I will have my secretary arrange the meeting within the Red Circle by this very week! Details regarding payment and contract details, numbers and words that spoil the mood - I leave to our respective staffs." Right then, the doors opened, and three more waiters entered carrying a rolling tray with threerge tes covered by cloches, a breadbasket, and an assortment of small tes ranging from seafood bites to sds. "For now, how about we enjoy the beginning of this fruitful rtionship with a meal?" said Casimir. The waiters came by and arranged the tes neatly before Aldrich, Valera and Casimir. They then raised the cloches, revealing neatly seared chunks of steak glowing in a bath of still sizzling butter. Butter baked baby carrots and rich, creamy scoops of mashed potatoes apanied the meat. "70-day dry aged Quake-Hoof Bison steaks," said Casimir. "Seared and basted in goldcream butter. I sincerely hope you can stay and enjoy this meal." "It smells incredible," said Aldrich, and he did not lie. This was food that he could never have afforded to even look at throughout his entire life. The kind of food that costed hundreds of credits a meal that only the richest of the rich could afford. "I must agree with my husband," said Valera as she put a hand on Aldrich''s. "This is quite the treat you have prepared for us." "Oh, it''s nothing. A simple token of appreciation," said Casimir. Aldrich stayed focused and hinted to Casimir. "But I do feel like it''s missing something." "A certain Celeste vintage, no? Don''t think I forgot, Mr. Vane," said Casimir. "Come, Walters, uncork that wine and give us a pour." The hulking, muscled brute of a waiter came forwards with surprising elegance, bowing as he poured at the red wine in everyone''s sses. Aldrich saw as hundreds of credits in the form of fermented liquid grapes just poured out casually like that, but he did not let his upbringing as someone who had never experienced luxury show. Valera, however, seemed utterly at home here. She smiled with the grace of a courtdy and slid her wine ss towards Walters with an eased confidence. Walters poured, and Valera nodded ever so slightly before taking the ss and swishing it, swirling the dark red liquid about. Aldrich mimicked her, and Casimir stood up and raised his ss. "Now, a proper toast! To a new partnership!" said Casimir. "A new partnership," said Aldrich as he and Valera clinked their sses against Casimir''s. At the same time, all three took a deep sip of the wine. Aldrich felt the deeply dry and bitter taste and held back a grimace. He did not really like alcohol as it affected his diet and training, but he did not let his displeasure show. He instead pretended to savor the taste like Casimir and Valera were doing. When after what seemed like a eternity, Casimir finally stopped letting the wine linger in his mouth and swallowed it. "Ah, how wonderful," said Casimir. "This kind of subtle dryness - Celeste is known for this. And what better to cut through dry with rich?" Casimir picked up his fork and knife and reached down to cut his steak and then froze all of a sudden, as if someone had just hit the pause button on his body. Almost immediately, the atmosphere in the room shifted. Walters, the giant waiter, came on alert, as did the two mercenaries in the room. Then, after a tense half second, Casimir moved again. "Are you okay, sir?" said Walters. "Hm? Why would I not be, Walters, in light of this breakthrough?" said Casimir as he cut his steak. "I have never felt better!" "Same with me." Aldrich smiled as he heard Fler''Gan''s voice ring in his head. Chapter 58: An Experiment

Chapter 58: An Experiment

*Thanks, Fler''Gan. Your potion worked perfectly. I owe you one,* said Aldrich. *I require no thanks, great Elder, but if you are willing, perhaps a live sample? Of a human that is known as an ''Alter''?* Aldrich thought about this for a moment. *Alright.* Walters stared at Aldrich as he loomed over the table, his suspicions evidently still not eased. "Walters, please, you are inconveniencing our guest. This is quite unlike you," said Casimir. All Aldrich did was smile at Walters. Walters stared at Aldrich for a few more seconds before he surrendered and walked away with a grunt. "My apologies, Mr. Vane. Walters is normally such a lovely waiter, but tonight, he is a little off his game," said Casimir. "It''s quite alright. Everyone has their off days and their on days," said Aldrich. Aldrich was not an idiot. He had not made Fler''Gan''s mind control potion ridiculously obvious. He had given Fler''Gan further specifications on the potion he wanted made. Most importantly, it had to be tasteless. Then, it had to be condensed down to as little liquid volume as possible so it did not increase the weight of the wine. The potion''s effects finally had to be subtle as possible. Aldrich did not want to make Casimir a brainwashed, doddering fool who drooled at the mouth and only responded to hismands. Not only would that guarantee an immediate and powerful bacsh attack from Casimir''s guards, it would alsopletely ruin the Red Circle, and Aldrich wanted the Red Circle to keep running for the foreseeable future. Or, more urately, Aldrich would now run the Red Circle in the shadows. Thus, he wanted Casimir to be high-functioning enough to the point where the club manager seemed almostpletely normal. Fler''Gan''s mind control potion worked so that if Casimir read, heard, or saw any requests, orders, or suggestions from Aldrich or ''Bruce Vane'', he would be highly positively disposed to them. "Let''s enjoy the rest of this absolutely wonderful meal and wrap this meeting up. My wife and I have an event to go toter tonight, actually," said Aldrich. "Ah, an after-midnight party, is it? Well, you two certainly are dressed for it. Thedy, especially, my oh my. It must be quite difficult to keep prying eyes off of her, no?" said Casimir. Aldrich distinctly remembered the Odinsons and how much disgusting animal desire he had seen in their eyes for Valera. "My husband is more than capable of keeping prying eyes off of me. As am I," smiled Valera. "There is nothing more beautiful in this world than a strong couple. I can attest to that," said Casimir. He sliced another chunk of steak. "Now, let''s go ahead and enjoy this meal." == Aldrich shook hands with Casimir outside of the Red Circle. His armored car was there in the front, keys in the engine and ready to be driven. "That was an incredible dinner. And I mean it," said Aldrich honestly. He had literally never tasted anything as good as that. As a Dud, he probably would have been shot on sight if he went to a restaurant that served that. That was an exaggeration, but it really did feel like it sometimes. "Oh, that was nothing. You shoulde here in the weekends when the club is properly open. I can treat you to the finest VIP table service you can even dream of." Casimir bowed slightly. "I would dare to say that my services can match even the most prestigious of Neo-York nightlife." "I''ll be in touch with you about any additional requests," said Aldrich. "And I will do my best to amodate you, Mr. Vane." Aldrich and Valera drove off promptly, returning back to the variant forest, with Valera humming in happiness through the whole ride back as she savored the act of being Aldrich''s wife. Aldrich''s mind raced through the drive, however, as he now had all the pieces for his vengeance to finalize. When it turned midnight, a status message popped in his vision. [Ring of Avarice gift received] [+150 Coins] [Coin: 20 ] 170] Every three days, the Ring of Avarice would grant Aldrich 150 coins, and this number would go up depending on Aldrich''s level. Hopefully, this would help Aldrich''s coin problem out, but in the case it did not, he knew that Liches and their higher evolutions could actually reach into the Nether and bind more than one chosen undead to themselves. In that case, he would not be beyond considering binding Hadar, the in-game joke option that heavily increased coin generation. Hadar had passives that made him incredibly lucky when rted to money ording to the lore, winning in gambling almost all the time. In the game, that luck manifested in just a bonus rate of coins dropped, but Aldrich theorized that it would truly manifest as luck here, something that would draw wealth and fortune to Hadar like a ma. In a world dominated by the credit sign, Hadar could be an invaluable asset, more so than any warmongering fighter. [Misceneous units defeated] [+600 EXP] [EXP Bar: 1600/1800 ] 2200/1800] [Level up!] [Level: 13 ] 14] [EXP Bar: 400/2000] [5 stat points avable to distribute] [+5 to Strength] [Strength: 15 ] 20] Looked like Aldrich''s undead in the forest had hunted plenty themselves. He briefly looked through the list of ughtered variants and found nothing worthy of raising. Hemanded his units to stop for now as he did not want to risk drawing any further attention to the forest. He was at a crucial juncture where everything needed to go right for Aldrich to finally enact vengeance upon those that had wronged him on Saturday. A mere three days from now In the forest, Aldrich got to work with Fisk and Fler''Gan. Fler''Gan would continue his alchemical experimentations. The Mind-Eater requested live Alterhuman samples, but if Aldrich could not obtain them, the freshly ughtered corpses of variants would do. Fler''Gan would also continue experimentation into teaching the Geist magic as a long term project. Fler''Gan specifically said that the Geist seemed to have a natural curiosity that made it more suited towards learning magic than any of the other arisen undead, pointing out further to Ste''s disgruntlement that she was far too impatient to learn anything. While Fler''Gan did that, Aldrich worked with Fisk to continuallymunicate with Casimir. Now that Casimir was under Aldrich''s thrall, the club manager would do anything Aldrich wanted within reason. Aldrich first received all the information he could about Casimir regarding the rooms in the Red Circle that were blocked off by forcefields. Those rooms contained highly valuable contraband ranging from experimental techno weapons to potentbat drugs to ckmail on multiple important political figures and AA executives. Among them, Casimir stated that the most valuable was a newly developed drug called Boost. It was developed in secret through a coboration between Imugi, the corporate leader in cutting edge military technology, and Bio-Force, a corporate leader inbat enhancing biotech. Once injected, Boost would affect the Alter Organ and cause the body''s cell count to rapidly swell, significantly enhancing the power of the affected Alter. This was not exactly a new type of drug. There were manybat drugs out there that enhanced Alter powers, but all of them led to massive side effects that invariably spiraled down to death, not to mention severe mania and self-destructive behavior that made them wholly unviable forbat. Boost was innovative because it was the safest, though even it was dangerous enough that using it more than once over an entire two-week period could lead to devastating side effects, not to mention that continual long-term usage apparently caused irreparable damage to the Alter Organ. This was the contraband that the Odinson gang had stolen from an Imugi transport. It was also what Seth Sr desperately wanted from Casimir, likely to enhance his power to beat Mel and take number 1 spot to soothe his ego. Seth Sr''s meeting on Saturday was not just a party night out, it was also a venture to obtain an early ess sample of Boost. Aldrich noted this down forter. The Boost would be usefulter. He had a near perfect n set up to take down Seth Sr on Saturday, but he needed to get some specifics confirmed first. Aldrich asked Casimir to bring down two D-ranked viins to the variant forest on a ''security mission''. He emphasized to Casimir that the viins be as disposable as possible so that nobody would miss them. Casimir agreed. The viins would head out this very night. Aldrich waited and began his own experimentation. ==== Jack Rondell drove out of Haven with his hand gripped tight around his steering wheel, his rearview mirror reflecting an expression of pure annoyance on his face. If there was one word to describe him, it would be rough. Rough hair, rough beard, rough features - someone that bordered on the brink of looking homeless. But Jack, or rather, the sher as he was known by his viin name, had to admit he looked a hell of a lot better than the guy in the passenger seat beside him. A pale, bald guy with deeply sunken in dark eyes, thin lips, and various spikes of various lengths jutting out of his head. That was his current partner for tonight''s security mission. Another guy from the Red Circle known as the Lasher. Sometimes, Jack wondered what shadowy garbage pits of society the Red Circle dragged some of these guys out from, but then he realized that he, as a former drug addict turned serial killer, did not have much high ground to stand on. Anyways, Jack always disliked the guy. Not only because Lasher sounded way too simr to sher, but because he was a total antisocial freak. "Fuckin'' Casimir. He treats us well, but a sudden call like this? Man, and I was just about to fuck this absolute bombshell of a whore, too. Maybe it was a good thing I got called out, I don''t know how much self control I would''ve needed to stop myself from fucking her and then slicing her in pieces" said Jack, making small talk. He nced at Lasher. Lasher only stared straight ahead,pletely still like a corpse, his hands sped together as if in prayer. Lasher was a member of a Neo-Cult called the Path of Pain. Neo Cults were odd religions that popped up past the Altering and Monstering when rapidly changing views of what it meant to be human, bleak post-modernism, and existential crises drew people to increasingly extreme views. Around the Lasher''s leather covered arms were spiked chains that grew out of his skin. Those in the Path of Pain believed that everything in the world was false except pain. "Not that you would know anything about that," said Jack with augh. Only silence. After a few seconds, Jack tried to make conversation again. "But you know, with all those chains and a viin name like ''Lasher'', I thought you''d be a whole lot freakier." The Lasher did not even blink as he kept staring straight ahead. "Fuck it. Whatever." Jack sighed and just kept driving. The walls of Haven faded behind him as the forests in the distance drew closer and closer. = After a forty-minute drive, Jack parked his car off road, hidden in a thicket of trees at the edge of the variant forest. "Alright, get your mask on. We''re meeting the client up ahead. Says he''s got a couple of sorry sh*ts he needs squealing in pain before he gets rid of them. That''s totally up your ally, right? Pain inflicting chains and all, yeah?" said Jack. "Pain is truth. Pain reveals all." The Lasher solemnly said while closing his eyes in prayer. He then exited the car while retrieving his mask - a gimp mask - from his ck robes. "The only thing I can do is turn my arms into knives. Why the fuck am I here?" Jackined as he got out and put on his mask, a typical ski-mask you would see in a bad sher flick. Hence, why Jack called himself the sher. Jack was not creative, sure, but if being creative meant bing a freakshow like the Lasher, then Jack was happy enough not to be left-brained or whatever the fuck it was that made people creative and deranged. Like this, the sher and the Lasher duo went ahead into the forest. Chapter 59: An Experiment 2

Chapter 59: An Experiment 2

"Where the fuck is this guy?" said Jack as he tentatively moved past a thicket of trees. It was dark. As dark as it got. His ski-mask might have looked like a cheap Halloween dor store piece of garbage, but it was not a shabby piece of tech. It had night vision, infrared, and some low-level AC scanning iid within its white, ballistic durastic surface. A lower caliber bullet would bounce right off the thing. Meanwhile, when Jack nced at the Lasher and his normal leather gimp mask, he wondered if the guy could even see more than a few steps ahead. Jack''s suspicions were confirmed when the Lasher walked face first into a tree trunk. The Lasher stepped back, utterly unfazed, his expression unchanging. "Your costume seriously has nothing special about it?" whispered Jack. "How the fuck are you not in a jail yet? Or better yet, a mental asylum? Ark Asylum up in Neo-York ought to have a nice spot for you." "I do not need protection, for pain is a blessing. Pain is the only thing that is real in this world," said the Lasher. "Alright, whatever." Jack checked his Eye-Phone, tracking his location via GPS mapping. "We''ve been walking for ten minutes now. The guy should be here. Sh*t, I better get paid for this if he bails on us, or if we have sh*t luck, a variant attacks us." All of a sudden, Jack''s phone screen crackled, the graphics distorting before shutting off. "Huh?" Jack smacked his phone to try and get it to work. "The hell? Your phone working, Lasher? Wait, do you even have a phone?" The Lasher took out an Eye-phone that looked entirely out of ce with his getup. "My phone has lost its life." "Something''s wrong-," began Jack before he saw a massive, bright green sh barrel towards him through his night vision. "Sh*t! Get away!" Jack stepped back as a massive, muscled arm smashed into the Lasher''s side,unching him into a nearby tree with a solid, cracking impact. "Who are you!?" said Jack as he manifested his power. His arms solidified into metal before shaping into tworge, serrated des in a shower of sparks. The sparks lit up a huge, ugly brute of a man. Or¡­was it a man? The guy might have been ten feet tall (3 meters) with ugly tumors and growths all around his grey skinned face and bare upper body. Large tusks jutted out from his jaw as he stared down at Jack with beady white eyes. Jack almost gagged as a disgusting rotting stench wafted out from the guy. "The fuck¡­?" Jack felt pricks of pain all around his body that grew numb. Was he getting poisoned? No, he looked down at the bare skin of his shoulders. There were ck, rotting patches. The giant man growled like an animal and took a heavy step towards Jack. "You better not mess with me, fucker," said Jack. "You don''t know who I am. Who I''m associated with." The giant ignored Jack and charged forwards, raising both his arms up in the air to hammer down on Jack''s head. Jack swerved to the side as the giant smashed dirt. He sliced his de arms across the giant Alter''s stomach, aiming to gut him. He felt flesh yield and cut, and he smiled under his mask. His favorite feeling in the world was flesh slicing and tearing. However, the wide cut he made healed up in an instant. Before he could register surprise, Jack reacted to a punch from the giant by crossing his de arms in front of him in a guard. Jack grunted as he was sent flying backwards, the punch cracking the dark grey metal of his knife arms. As soon as he hit the ground, he leaped back up, ready to fight. This fucker was strong. At the very least, a D-ranked threat, same as Jack. An Augmenter, probably, judging from his brawn and regenerative ability. Jack was also an Augmenter, and in an Augmenter vs. Augmenter fight, the better technical fighter tended to win. In this case, Jack was outmatched physically, but with his de arms and skill, he could make up the deficit. Jack was not trained all fancy and intense like Supers or some of the better mercenaries and viins, but he had gotten into plenty of street scraps. He had learned from bloody experience, and he could tell this Alter was a total amateur. The giant growled and punched at Jack''s head. Jack ducked and stabbed into the giant''s throat and then circled around to try and decapitate the giant while he was disabled trying to regenerate a throat torn to shreds. The giant however,nded a solid punch on Jack''s chest,unching him back into a tree. Jack braced for impact, but even then, the giant Alter''s strength was just too much. He almost snapped the tree he hit in half as the wind knocked out of him. He dropped to one knee and sucked in breath as he shakily looked up at the giant. How the hell did this guy not react at all to his throat getting shredded? Yeah, he could regenerate, but even regenerating Alters got disabled until their vital organs healed up. But this thing treated the hole in its throat as if it was just a minor bug bite. Jack looked around to see where the Lasher was, but the man was gone. Had his body been taken? "That''s enough, troll chieftain." A voice came out of nowhere. Jack froze, trying to locate the voice. He did not have to try long. The source of the voice jumped down from a treetop andnded in front of Jack. Seemed to be some ordinary dude - Jack''s mask scanner registered him at 0 AC count. Really pale skin and white hair with green glowing eyes. He was dressed in a ck bodysuit with a strange purple orb embedded in his chest. "Who-who the fuck are you?" wheezed out Jack. "How rude. Is that how you talk to your clients?" "Y-you?" Jack slumped back, sitting down and leaning against the tree he had hit. He breathed heavily, looking moments away from death. In reality, he was now nearly fully recovered. His knife arms might have only affected his arms, but his Alter Cell count was good enough that he had superhuman physicals. Not enough to level a building with a single punch or anything like that, but still easily more than enough to rip a normal man, a normal man like this idiot with a 0 AC count ording to his mask''s scanner, in half. "Yes. I''ll have you and your friend assist me in a few experiments," said the man as he walked over to Jack. When the man got close enough, Jack lunged suddenly like a wild cat, thrusting forwards with his de arm, aiming to carve straight through this idiot from the shoulders up. "Woah now." The man casually spoke as he held Jack''s de down between his palms. It felt like Jack''s de was stuck between a hydraulic press, justpletely and utterly stuck. "W-what the fuck?" Jack growled as he pushed forward, but this man, this guy with a 0 AC count, was much, much stronger than him. He noticed a strange green outline shining around the guy forming into a hexagonal pattern around his limbs, chest, legs - everywhere he exerted muscr energy, as if the pattern was reinforcing his power. "So, [Negative Surge] lets me keep up quite easily with a D-rank viin. Good to know." "Shut up!" Jack used his other free arm to swipe at the cocky fucker''s head. The man let go of Jack''s de arm and then rushed in close, too close for Jack''s long des to reach properly. Jack felt¡­a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. This exact sequence had happened before, the first time Jack had gone to jail. A Super known by the name of Diamond Fist had out-maneuvered Jack''s wild shes with this very same counter. It showed Jack the massive difference between someone that knew how to use their powers with training and, well, someone like Jack who just used it wildly. This guy¡­this guy was trained. Trained properly. Way beyond what a street thug like Jack couldpete against. In the next instant, Jack nearly vomited as the manunched a powerful elbow right into his gut, this time properly crushing the air out of him. Jack copsed to his knees, spit drooling from his gaping mouth as he trembled in pain and shock. All he could do was look up at the man weakly with shaky vision as he waited for a death blow. No such execution came, however. Instead, the man looked off to the side. "Fler''Gan, I have your second sample here." Jack felt slimy tendrils crawl up his neck and around his face, and in the next instant, his world went ck. Chapter 60: The Final Phase

Chapter 60: The Final Phase

Aldrich stood over the unconscious body of, what was his name again? He checked his Eye-phone at the viin profiles that Casimir had sent over. Ah, right, sher. An incredibly unoriginal name, especially considering his ski mask getup. "Make this guy wake up," said Aldrich to Fler''Gan. The Mind Eater was over one of his alchemical tables, specifically the dissection table where the other viin known as the Lasher was tied down to. The Lasher''s brain was thoroughly turned to mush from Fler''Gan''s [Brainwash] racial skill. The sher, though, Aldrich had told Fler''Gan to keep rtively sane. Still numb below the head, though, to make sure he did not try anything stupid like running. Fler''Gan slithered over to Aldrich and waved his purple fingers over the sher''s face. A faint mauve light cast over the sher, and he forcibly awakened. "Hello again," said Aldrich. "You can go now, Fler''Gan." Fler''Gan nodded and slithered away. "You-you again!?" said sher. "How did you beat me? Without any powers? Did you use some kind of tech?" "Is that really the first thing that should be on your mind right now?" said Aldrich. He looked down at his phone and read out multiple ''des'' about the sher on his profile. "The sher. D-rank viin. Eight confirmed kills, mostly prostitutes that nobody would care if they went missing. One confirmed cop kill. Spent ten years in Metro-City ss 5 jail before escaping through a prison break. Now a low-ranking viin doing odd jobs," said Aldrich. "Yeah, that''s me, the fuck you want, huh?" said sher. "You are a stain on society. But even you can be useful. Useful to me," said Aldrich. He materialized the Death Lord''s green Sign Stone in his palm and held it towards sher''s face. sher stared at the diadem shaped green stone. "The hell is that?" said sher warily. "Nothing that will hurt you." Once Aldrich made sure the light from the stone cast over sher, he asked, "Do you want to join my party?" In response to Aldrich''s words, he saw a screen manifest in his vision. [Quest party count: 0] "What the fuck do you mean?" said sher, thoroughly confused. Aldrich called out to Fler''Gan. "Make him say yes." Fler''Gan waved his hand, and sher''s eyes zed over as he fell under Fler''Gan''s control. "I will join your party" Aldrich waited for the quest party counter to go up from 0 to 1. In the game, getting NPCs to join a quest to form a party involved talking with them, getting in their good graces through missions or favors, and then throwing out the question: Do you want to join my party? Aldrich assumed the same would hold here. But the party counter did not go up. "I see. Looks like an answer made under mind control doesn''t count," said Aldrich. "That''ll be it, Fler''Gan. I won''t bother your dissection any longer. I just want you to make sure this guy can still feel everything." "His sensations are untouched," said Fler''Gan as he deftly wielded a small, sharp de and started to carefully dig it into the Lasher''s head, incising around his protruding head spikes. "Good, good." Aldrich saw sher''s eyes regain color and control. "Now, I want you to say yes. Do you want to join my party?" "Fuck you," said sher. "Wrong answer." Aldrich pped his hands, and Valera came to his side in her full ck and grey armor. The spikes, bones, and skulls on her armor made it very obvious that she was no pdin of justice. "It looks like he need some convincing done." Valera smiled under her helmet and licked her lips, hungering for pain. She stomped on sher''s hand, grinding the bones and flesh under her greaves. Bones crunched and cracked as a bloody puddle of torn flesh, muscle, and bone shards formed under her foot. sher screamed, but the moment he did, Aldrich gagged him with a balled-up piece of ragtag cloth. sher''s chest heaved up and down as he convulsed in pain. Once he settled down a little, Aldrich took the gag out. "Now, answer my question properly. Do you want to join my party?" "F-f-fuck!" said sher. "Is that the only thing you know how to say?" Aldrich shook his head and gagged sher again. "Valera, you said you knew how to make people hurt. Care to give me a demonstration?" "Of course, master~" Valera hovered her hand over sher''s face. Her gauntlet glowed in an outline of red. Aldrich recognized this as the [Blood Hold] skill that involved channeling a root against another unit by controlling their blood. In exchange, the caster was rooted too. "A root? I''m curious what this does for pain," said Aldrich. "Oh, on a moving, resisting target, it is merely a hold, yes," said Valera. "But on an unresisting piece of meat like this? I can control the flow of blood I am holding." She hovered her glowing red hand over sher''s face as his eyes grew wide in abject fear. "In humans, I remember there is a nerve behind their eyes and nose. Hm, it was¡­right around here." Valera clenched her fist, and sher immediately started to convulse and scream against his gag, spittle foaming at his mouth as his eyes bulged in pain. His skin grew pale as sweat poured from his forehead, intense pain assaulting him. "Ah, I remember now," said Aldrich. "The trigeminal nerve. It''s said that pressure against that nerve is known as one of the most painful sensations a human can ever experience." "See? Look how he ils," said Valera as she kept up pressure and pain against the nerve. sher started to choke against his gag as his eyes turned bloodshot, tears drooling from them. The smell of ammonia filled the air as he wet his pants. "That''s enough, Valera. We can''t kill him yet. You did very well." "Ehehe. Thank you, master." Valera bowed her head and withdrew. "Now then." Aldrich ripped away the gag from sher''s mouth. "Will you join my party?" "Yes! Yes! I''ll join your party!" shouted sher, his voice utterly wracked with desperation. "Good," said Aldrich. He watched as the sign stone glowed brighter. A small green sigil in the shape of formed on sher''s wrist [Quest party members: 0 ] 1] [Party Cap: NONE] "Isn''t this a pleasant surprise¡­" Aldrich noted that unlike in the game, there was no limit on the amount of party members he could add. The Death Lord had been very, very generous. Or perhaps,e to think of it, maybe she had expected Aldrich to think of this. In the end, it did not really matter. Aldrich spoke to Fisk who gamed at the other edge of the clearing. Adam and ine looked at Fisk gaming. "Fisk! Tell Casimir I want to talk to him about setting up a closed invitation event this Saturday. Try to get him on call, if you can." "C-Casimir!? He set us up!?" said sher in utter shock. "Oh, right, you''re still alive. Unfortunately, you''re simply too weak to reanimate. About level 12, perhaps?" said Aldrich. "At my current level, a simple created undead is probably about as strong as you are." "H-huh? What are you talking about!?" Aldrich ignored the desperate man and called out to Fler''Gan. "Fler''Gan, do you need him alive?" "Preferably, O Elder," said Fler''Gan. The Mind-Eater had carefully incised out several head spikes from the Lasher, cing them in a metal vat, and now moved on to creating an incision down into his stomach. "Do you need him conscious? I''d rather not hear screams and whimpers. They annoy me, especially when theye from trash like him. The type who always enjoys the cries of others but end up crying the hardest when their turnes around." "No, I will heavily sedate him until he is fully dissected and analyzed," said Fler''Gan. "Good." Aldrich nodded. "Wait! Wait! Dissection!? What are going to do to me-," began sher before his eyes became nk and lifeless as Fler''Gan put him under a brainwasheda. Aldrich heaved up sher''s corpse and carried it over to Fler''Gan. "Over there, O Elder." Fler''Gan pointed with a long, spindly finger to the side of the table. "Prop that specimen against the dissection table. I can only fit one sample at a time." Aldrich did as the Mind Eater asked and then asked, "So, what are you doing here?" "You have stated before that the base body of these ''Alterhumans'' are indistinguishable from that of a normal human. Yet, through ''Alter Organs'' and ''Alter Cells'', they may manifest mutations. By severing mutations such as these ossified head protrusions, analyzing them, andparing them to knowledge I have of the base human body, I am better able to understand the method by which these mutations ur. This is also why I did not favor experimenting with variant subjects. I have no knowledge of a base creature that matches them as well as humans to Alterhumans. In addition, I will attempt extraction of the Alter Organ to investigate it directly, though I have been made aware by you and Ste that Alter Organs, when excised from the body, suffer from rapid deterioration. Thus, I will do my utmost best to keep the subjects alive until then." "And what would your final goals be?" said Aldrich. "I cannot say for certain. I set my expectations ordingly with the results of my investigations. But optimally, the replication and modification of Alter Organs, allowing for not only the introduction of magic in these specimens, but also the creation alchemical solutions that may freely suppress, change, or enhance powers," said Fler''Gan. "That does sound incredibly useful. I will leave you to your work, then," said Aldrich. "Again, O Elder, these are optimal goals. It may be that I cannot reach them." "I understand, and don''t worry about any expectations on my end. Anything you produce, even if it isn''t useful per say, I''ll appreciate and try to use to the best of my ability," said Aldrich. "Work freely. Let your innovation and knowledge flow without restriction." "Much appreciation, Elder," said Fler''Gan. Aldrich left Fler''Gan and went back to Fisk. "It''s time to finalize my n," said Aldrich as he sat down by the fallen tree trunk that Fisk used to game on. Fisk immediately tabbed out of an anime scene he was watching where a woman''s clothes were torn by an attack. "I swear, scenes like this are the only ones that pop up when other peoplee to watch," said Fisk. "Would you believe me if I told you that was like, a normal action show?" "Yeah, a lot of action," said Aldrich sarcastically. He noted that Adam and ine were behind Fisk, watching. Adam was nodding while ine shoved Adam lightly. He smiled. They would have interacted just like that had they been alive. Aldrich closed his eyes, letting the dark calm him, to take him away from how Adam and ine had been, and then geared back into business. "In any case, I need you to get to work," said Aldrich. "I''m on it, boss," said Fisk as he jacked into the via cable to the side of his head. "Is Casimir ready for the call?" "Yeah, he''s up and ready and waiting. It''s gonna take me a couple minutes to establish a secure line on the Dar, especially with a smaller rig like this, but I''m on it." Aldrich waited for a few minutes as Fisk worked his tech magic. Aldrich himself could actually navigate the Dar with a fairly strong level of tech-savviness, but he fell far short of ine and far, far shorter than technos like Fisk who could literally navigate technology with their minds. After thirty minutes, Fisk turned hisptop screen to Aldrich as it connected to a video chat with Casimir. "Mr. Vane! A pleasure to see you again so soon!" said Casimir. "It''s four in the morning, Casimir. I thought you''d be asleep by now," said Aldrich. "Ah, my line of business operates most at night, so I am quite used to this." Casimir seemed to be in his office, seated in a plush, luxurious velvet chair as he leaned forwards on his desk in weing poise. "How were the two viins I sent you? They are not the cream of the crop, certainly, but I hope they did not inconvenience you any." "They''re doing just fine," said Aldrich. "Look, Casimir, sorry to do this on short notice, but I want you to set up a special event on Saturday. Could you rent out the entire first floor of the Red Circle for an invitation only dance? Make it as appealing as you can with the finest alcohol, foods, and service you can muster up." Casimir thought about his for a moment. "Hm, that could be arranged. I only had a normal opening scheduled for that night, but I have all the supplies and logistics set to whip up quite the impressive dance in short order. I must say, Mr. Vane, that though setting up this dance is possible, establishing an extensive guest list with a mere three days of advance notice may be difficult," said Casimir. "What kind of crowd do you think you can draw?" said Aldrich. "Provided the invites you sent out were primarily for viins?" "It will be difficult for the viins of the higher organizations to make time for this. Their schedules are often busy and inflexible. However, if I have my team focus on marketing and invitations on the lower and middle tier organizations, I believe I could conjure up a solid crowd between forty and seventy," said Casimir. "Some of these lower-ss viins would absolutely die for the chance to make themselves known in the Red Circle." "Then let''s go with that," said Aldrich. "I want to emphasize, though, that I truly want to hold this event mostly for the Butcher and Seth Sr." "Done and done," said Casimir. "The Butcher has already agreed to meet you, and it will not be too difficult to have this meeting ur at this event. As for Seth Sr, that fine, promising student, well, he has been a devout weekly regr, and he is due to urgently meet me that day for an early ess sample of Boost. Knowing him, I doubt he and his friends will bypass a chance to join an exclusive event, especially when fine alcohol is involved." "Good, good," said Aldrich. He took a deep breath, feeling excitement growing within his heart. He was now in the final phase of his quest for vengeance. "Mr. Vane, I do have to inquire," said Casimir. "What is it?" "What is the ultimate goal of this dance? Is it a meet and greet among viins? Or perhaps a means to advertise your own name?" "Advertise my own name? You could say that." Aldrich smiled ever so slightly. "Market it as a meet and greet or whatever brings out the most numbers. And you don''t have to worry about the purpose behind it. Just set it up, and I can guarantee you, Casimir, that even if you lose your current connections, you will not regret having me backing you." "Mystery, is it? I do like that. Well, Mr. Vane, it is not my style to pry into my clients'' intentions, especially with a high profile one such as yourself. I will arrange this dance shortly and ording to your specifications," said Casimir. "And I will be in touch with your assistant about any further details." "Wonderful. I look forward to seeing your handiwork, Casimir," said Aldrich. "It is always my pleasure." Casimir bowed in his seat before his video feed blinked off. Chapter 61: Disaster

Chapter 61: Disaster

Aldrich nned on lying low until Saturday night, staying in the forest while corresponding with Casimir via Dar texts about specifications on his event. He kept his undead from hunting further so as to absolutely minimize attention. He did not want topromise any chance of his n working when he was so close now. Throughout the entire day of Thursday, Aldrichmanded his variants toy low. The variants mostly rested or yed or mock fought among themselves in the perimeter they patrolled. Valera, Ste, and the Geist trained together. More specifically, the Geist trained itself under Valera and Ste. The Geist had never actually trained before, so all of its powers were undeveloped. Plus, it had no martial training to use its brawn. Valera taught the Geist hand to handbat while Ste taught it how to train its powers. Training Alter powers was like training muscles. Just like how muscles grew stronger from wear and tear, Alter powers grew from constant exertion and recovery. There was also training to increase fine control over one''s power for innovative new attacks or to cover for weaknesses. The Geist was an exceptionally quick learner. Within twelve hours, it mastered basic footwork and stance work. This gave Aldrich the idea to give the Geist the [Cursed Rock Axe] that the troll chieftain once used. As for its powers, the Geist learned how to apply its super regeneration to temporarily increase its body mass like a balloon, giving it greater surface area to protect others as a living shield. It learned how to use its incredibly powerful muscles to flex them in specific spots, creating durable body parts to guard against attacks with. It also learned greater control in emitting its neurotoxins, specifically in targeting the gas so that it minimized coteral damage. Ste trained in her own way by rapidly flowing blood around her body. She would try to keep this elerated flow up for as much as possible until she reached nearly to heart failure. By doing this, she gained greater control and output on her explosions. [Geist Level 17 ] 18] [Dynamite Girl Level 14 ] 15] While everyone trained, Aldrich apanied Fler''Gan in his experimentations, curious of the Mind-Eater''s results. He watched as Fler''Gan went about performing ghastly experiments that most humans would be horrified at. He removed all of the Lasher''s head spikes, leaving the top of the viin''s skullpletely yed and raw. The spikes, Fler''Gan put into a vat heated by magical blue me. He poured in a dissolving solution that slowly turned the spikes into liquid mush. Then, Fler''Gan hooked up the Lasher to a series ofrge sks, inserting barbed needles attached to transparent, stic-like chords that funneled blood into the sks. Fler''Gan dissected the Lasher further, taking basically one of everything. One eye, one arm, one leg, one ear, and even parts of internal organs. Fler''Gan incised into the Lasher''s skull, taking out pieces of the brain that the viin did not need to stay alive. He also took out a kidney and scraped flesh samples off of other organs. All throughout, Fler''Gan kept the Lasher alive through pastes and sprays that prevented excessive bleeding. As for the sher, Fler''Gan severed one of his arms for testing purposes. All the dismembered body parts were either broken down into liquid form or suspended off of spikes where Fler''Gan would do further delicate dissections, analyzing individual muscle fibers, vein structures, bone cement, and so on. It was interesting to see Fler''Gan work. Aldrich did not feel anything from seeing these men broken down intoponent pieces. He only admired Fler''Gan''s swift, precise skill in disassembling the human body, like admiring an artist in their craft. "Any results?" Aldrich said at the end of the day approaching midnight. Fler''Gan had worked constantly for nearly twenty hours now. "Not as much as I would have hoped," said Fler''Gan. He used a self-cleaning magical rag to wiperge stains of blood off his body. By now, the two viins were nearly unrecognizable. They were reduced to yed torsos with their internal organs exposed by a cut down their middle. Not a single patch of skin remained on them, and indeed, patches of muscle had been cut out too for analysis. Miraculously, they were still alive, their exposed lungs still drawing air. The tubes that Fler''Gan hooked them up to not only drew their blood but could also transfuse them with a healing agent that kept their bodies functioning. The presence of a minor barrier around theboratory also kept the work station sterile and clean to prevent infections. "I have made great breakthroughs in understanding the Alterhuman body," said Fler''Gan. "The cement of these seed shaped growths known as Alter Organs seem to differ from human to human. In this one that could transmute his arms into des, the organ is nestled at the base of his spine. In this one that can manifest chains from his arms, it is located behind the eye. From these growths, alter cells manifested and circte through the body. This, I am sure you already know. But what I have discerned is that the energy signature that this organ and its cells produce is not significantly distinct from that of mana." "Is that so?" Aldrich perked up, highly interested. "No. They are both pure and formless sources of energy. They have no discerned structure or behavior, instead, they mold themselves to fit their vessels," said Fler''Gan. "Take mana, for example. Mages across many different fields all utilize this very same energy. Yet, when processed through different spells, mana takes upon wildly different forms. Thus, mana can be used to fuel a vast variety of effects ranging from a fireball to a lightning strike or dark magic to raise the dead. The energy that these Alter organs produce - Ether as you call it - is extremely simr. It changes to suit its vessel, hence why Ste is capable of using this energy to infuse her blood with explosive properties while these two can generate spontaneous growths of metal." "If they are simr, then merging mana and Ether should be possible, no?" said Aldrich. "That is the difficulty," said Fler''Gan. "In our world, mages enter into a specific path of magic, a ''ss'' as some call it, through a Mystic Baptism. By undergoing the baptism, a mage fundamentally alters how they process mana. Theymit to specializing their mana towards the specific spells in the field they are baptized in. I am baptized in Pyromancy, and you in the Dark Arts. Certainly, we can shape our mana into spells from other fields, but we will be far less efficient than those properly baptized in said sses. There is something in this world that takes the ce of these baptisms. These organs seem to be akin to a baptism. They direct how Ether produced in Alterhuman bodies are shaped, manifesting into unique powers. But it seems that these organs are ''locked in'' to processing Ether only a single way. And they are only capable of processing Ether. When I attempted to introduce mana into the organs, they rejected the energy source." "How about the other way around? Can you use Ether?" said Aldrich. "I have been able to absorb Ether into mana, though the rate at which I can do this is highly inefficient. I estimate I am losing 90% of the Ether''s energy in the conversion, for though the two are simr in function, they are still different. I believe over time, I can theoretically begin to produce efficient mana crystals using Ether," said Fler''Gan. "Progress is progress," said Aldrich. "And how about changing or affecting Alter powers?" "I believe it is certainly possible. However, it is difficult to analyze Alter organs and cells for they reject any magical attempt to analyze them thoroughly. All blood divinations or alchemical analyses return with no information," said Fler''Gan. " There is something within these organs and cells that rejects foreign attempts to pry into them. Forparison''s sake, it is as if I am somemon rogue attempting to pick the lock of a royal dwarven vault. Ick the experience and tools to ''unlock'' ess to the organs." "I see." Aldrich put a hand to his chin before he waved forward an idea. "There are Alters whose powers fall under the category of ''Editors''. They can manipte or change the powers of others in some way. Would a sample-," "Yes! Yes! That would most certainly work!" said Fler''Gan excitedly. "That would be what I require to breakthrough this hurdle. You must obtain this sample for me!" Fler''Gan calmed down. "Or, ehem, I request such a sample, O Elder." "I''ll have one to you in two days, if things go right," said Aldrich. "Hey boss, you might want to see this!" shouted Fisk from the other end of the clearing. There was distinct urgency in his voice. Aldrich gave Fler''Gan an appreciative nod before he rushed over to Fisk. "What is it?" said Fisk. "Look at this." Fisk turned hisptop screen to Aldrich and showcased panicked live news broadcasts. A variant was attacking Haven city. It appeared to be an enormous manta ray that flied in the air, casting a bright blue gleam from spines across its back and tail that rained down bolts of destructive lightning that reduced buildings to smoldering rubble. Two heroes fought the manta in the air. One dressed like a Roman diator that flew about and shed with a dius. The other hero flied around with a bulky mechsuit that fired barrages of explosive missiles. Despite the two heroes'' best efforts, the manta shrugged them off. In the midst of this carnage was a panicked reporter on the ground that spoke into his headset while an antenna atop his head sensed danger, letting him dodge rubble. "Reporting to you live from Haven city where a B disaster variant has struck! AA authorities report that the monster came westward from the Antic Ocean, evading Panopticon detections with some form of concealment! Haven''s walls have further been disabled by a powerful electromaic pulse, leaving the city reliant on its heroes! On the ground, we have heroes helping in evacuation and as Haven''s two favorite heroes, the B-rankers diator and Rocket Man, hold it back. But it isn''t looking good! But once Haven''s heroes finish evacuating, they should be able to help the fight-," The reporter''s antenna twitched. The manta let loose a ghostly, shrill, siren-like scream that mixed with the already ring disaster sirens that signaled everyone to evacuate. From its huge gills,rge gooey droplets fell, and when they hit the ground, they morphed into living masses of acidic goo that attacked humans indiscriminately. The lower ranked C, D, and E heroes that evacuated people from broken down buildings and helped with evacuation now found themselvespletely upied fighting an ever-growing, continuously self-multiplying legion of slimes. "W-what!?" The reporter ran into an alleyway as he avoided several slimes from reaching out and sucking him into their acidic bodies. "Iing report - the variant''s threat ranking has gone up to A-. The AA will be sending in additional reinforcements and the Panopticon has deployed a ss 5 drone response-," At that moment, the reporter''s antenna twitched again before his eyes widened. The screen turned blue - the same color of the manta''s spawned slimes - before the feed cut off. A B ss disaster variant. A minus when considering that it could spawn self-replicating slimes forrger scale destruction. Disaster Variants still fell into Natural or Geist categories, but the difference was that they were strong enough that they required entire groups of heroes to defeat. Generally, a disaster variant required at the minimum ten heroes of its own threat ranking to reliably take down. They were essentially what raid bosses were in MMOs. If Aldrich remembered correctly, in Haven there were 255 heroes ranked E to D, 50 C rank heroes, and just 2 B rank heroes. There was a huge difference between the C and B rank to the point where one B rank hero was probably worth more than ten C rankers. And this variant needed ten B rankers to beat reliably. Haven was entirely unequipped to deal with a B ranked disaster variant. If the manta did not create slimes, then thebined poption of C ranked heroes with its two B rankers could easily beat the variant, but the slimes would keep all the lower ranked heroes busy to minimize poption casualties. Aldrich could not do nothing. If Haven suffered any more damage than it did now, then the Red Circle event this Saturday would be impossible to set up. It would take about one hour for AA reinforcements to arrive unless one of the S-rankers decided to be generous and help. Thirty minutes for a Panopticon drone fleet to arrive, but a ss 5 drone fleet would take quite some time to kill a variant of this size and scale. It would also take Aldrich thirty to forty minutes to fly out on his eagle. Toote. And he did not want to reveal himself to the public. Not yet. But in just thirty minutes, that variant could do massive amounts of damage, and if it reached the Red Circle, Aldrich''s ns were all over or at the very least severely dyed. Aldrich formted an idea on how to approach this. "Get Casimir on the line," said Aldrich. "Got it, boss." Casimir responded almost instantly. "Mr. Vane! How do you do?" said Casimir casually as sirens red in the background. "I am quite sorry for the noise, there is-," "A variant attack. I know." "Ah, of course. Do not mind my safety for the Red Circle is quite well guarded and nestled deep in the Southside, quite far from the eastside harbor districts that are taking the brunt of this untimely attack." Casimir shook his head. "I must say, what truly is the Alterhuman Agency and Panopticon doing? A creature of this size escapes all detection? And an entire hour for reinforcements to arrive? Are these heroes on sabbatical? Utter nonsense." Casimir sighed. "Mr. Vane, I am quite disappointed to say this, but I may have to cancel this Saturday dance-," "Not happening," said Aldrich. "Call up Seth Sr. Tell him unless he gets his ass out there to take care of that thing, he isn''t getting any Boost¡­" "An excellent solution, Mr. Vane, " said Casimir. "I will do exactly as you say." Chapter 62: {Seth Solar}

Chapter 62: {Seth Sr}

Seth Sr watched with arms crossed at a wide telescreen broadcast showing a B ss disaster variant wreaking Havoc on Haven''s streets. He watched with his gang of A-ss fellow students in their barracks rec room where previously, they had been reviewingbat footage from their training sessions. "Don''t some of us have to go out there and help? We''re technically hero trainees, right?" said Simon Wells, rank 10 A-ss student. He was leanly built with a gleaming red visor around his eyes to help channel his ability to generate kic beams. "No. We''re bottom of the rankings, remember? Heh." said Zayn, rank 8 A-ss student and closest to Seth Sr now that Ghost was found dead. Zayn shrugged, the ck feather wings on his arms ruffling. "They''ll never call on a bottom feeder school like us. Plus, Haven Supers Academy is right there." There was distinct sarcasm in Zayn''s voice, and for good reason. Haven Supers Academy was a mediocre super academy, almost at the bottom where ckwater sat. There was no way any of their trainees could handle a disaster of this caliber. Most likely, they were cowering in their academy walls or, at best, assisting in evacuation. ckwater, on the other hand, sat at the bottom so as not to attract any attention, not because they were weak. In terms of purebat, its students were all quite capable, and the A-rank likely matched the trainees from the top 50 academies. Of course, in other aspects like civilian evacuation, the students were woefully undertrained by design, because what did future viins and mercenaries need to know about saving civilians? But if the entire A-ss were unleashed on this variant, then they could destroy it in half an hour, tops. Seth Sr alone could probably kill it, but then again, his power was exponentially higher than anyone else''s in his ss. The current rank 1 Mel Morales only beat him due to the nature of her force reflecting barriers that used his own power against him. In raw destructive capability, she fell far, far below him. "Yeah, Haven Supers, hah! What a stupid joke," said Evan Harker, rank 15 A-ss student and thest of Seth Sr''s gang. Evanughed as he fiddled with parts for his wolf shaped battle drones. "I bet one of my dogs could fuck their top students up." "Woah, look at diator and Rocket Man go," said Zayn as his avian pupils narrowed down to slits. On the telescreen, diatornded on the giant manta''s back and stabbed his de in before flying back, carving out a long scar. Unfortunately, said scar healed near instantly, and a bolt of targeted lightning struck diator from the manta''s spines, sending him hurtling down to the ground below. In retaliation, Rocket Man jetted above the manta before firing down a volley of heat seeking missiles. A cloud of smoke erupted from the ensuing explosion, and out of it, another bolt struck Rocket Man head on. This shorted out Rocket Man''s mechsuit, causing him to fall down like a rock. "Dumbass didn''t even have EMP protection," said Evan. "Look, now he''s going to fall to his death. I don''t get these heroes, honestly. Why go into a fight you know you''re at a disadvantage with? Pointless, if you ask me." Before Rocket Man hit the ground at terminal velocity, diator emerged from a pile of rubble and saved his fellow B-rank hero. "Aww, would''ve been cool to see Rocket Man get crushed in his tin can suit," said Evan. "Kinda sweet, though, the way he saved him," said Simon. He sneered. "I bet you they''re fucking each other on the down low." "Shut up." Seth Sr crossed his arms as he watched the screen intently. He grit his teeth, knowing that if the damage from his manta got any worse, it might hit the Red Circle where his precious Boost was. But Seth could not intervene. He could never, ever show himself in public as that would reveal that ckwater, a supposedly bottom tier school, had a top ss Alter in their ranks. Not only this, but if word ever got out about his Sr blood, then it would cause a sh*tstorm of bad PR for both the main Sr bloodline and Seth. The Sr family was a billion credit dynasty propped uprgely by the biggest viin organizations. Many of the disasters that Solomon Sr, the shining patriarch, triumphed over were set up by these viin syndicates. Caged variants that just happened to escape in popted city centers where Solomon patrolled. High profile viins that Solomon Sr kept beating over and over again after they always mysteriously escaped from jail, often with tips from Solomon Sr himself. Everything was a setup to maximize Solomon Sr''s power and position. In return, Solomon Sr was the highest ranked nt in the AA and gave the Dark Six, the most powerful criminal organizations in the world today, inside information about the AA and Panopticon. Even Seth Sr, in the end, was just a PR tool. Once he graduated from ckwater and worked a few years as a high-profile viin, he was supposed toe out the shadows as Solomon Sr''s kidnapped, estranged son who had fallen to viin corruption. Then, after a lengthy fight, Solomon Sr would show the world his resolve and lock up his own son, at which point, Seth Sr would enter into Solomon Sr''s revolving rogue gallery. Seth Sr''s entire life was essentially a marketing scheme for Solomon Sr. But fuck that. Seth would obey his evil wretch of a mother, the current headmaster of ckwater and the one who controlled his entire life, for just a few more years. He would do the viin work and build up his reputation, but when it came time for him to fight Solomon Sr, that heartless, cruel fuck that had forced Seth into this sham of a life, Seth would not hold back. He would kill his ''father''. Then, he would show this disgusting world what a true viin was. He would make them feel true fear and suffering. For that, he needed Boost. As a Starter Child, Seth reached close to his full potential power from a young age, but in exchange, his power ceiling was not as high as it could be. Unlike, say, current rank 1 ss A student Mel, Seth could not dramatically improve with training either. In a fight with Solomon Sr who had honed his powers for over fifty years, Seth would always lose regardless of whether it was staged or not. Seth needed Boost to make up the difference. Then, he needed to find a way to counter his Kryptic weakness so that the higher criminal organizations did not have a way to instantly kill him when he got out of control. "Something wrong, Seth?" said Evan. "Still in a bad mood about Ghost kicking the bucket?" "Fuck that junkie," said Zayn. "He wasn''t fit to be with us. All those times he jittered - all because he couldn''t control himself. Pathetic." Simon took a sip from a can of Co. "Agreed." "No. I could care less about Ghost," said Seth. What he really cared about was the Boost. All of a sudden, Seth received a phone call, his Eye-Phone buzzing in the pocket of his uniform. He took the call. "Seth, my golden boy, how do you do?" said Casimir. "Casimir? You better not tell me my order''s canceled this Saturday," said Seth. "You don''t know how fucking long I''ve been waiting for it. And how much I''ve paid you." "Aha, asdy luck would have decreed, I was calling you about that. You see, Seth, I believe you need to step in here. Why not flex those muscles of yours and drive this creature back?" said Casimir. "What? Are you joking, Casimir?" "I do make quips here and there, but no, my boy, this is no jest." "AA reinforcements and Panopticon drones areing in a half hour, maybe an hour," said Seth. "You can''t hold out that long? What are all those viins there for? Show? They can''t handle a couple of slime minions on the streets?" It was not that Seth did not want to rip this variant apart to make sure the Red Circle was safe. He could not. Revealing his face and powers to the public at this stage was far too early. And he was supposed to be a viin. Saving the city would make him too sympathetic for hister staged conflict with his father. If Seth disobeyed these orders, there was no guarantee that the high ranking criminal organizations that worked with his father would not send assassins with Kryptic against him. "I cannot have this beast make a mess of the city before my grand event on Saturday," said Casimir. "I understand your position, but could you do me a favor? I will be generous enough to add in additional samples of Boost to your order as well as fine liquors on tap this Saturday." Seth paused for a moment. "Fine. But ten minutes. Ten minutes is all I''m spending fighting this thing." He flipped his phone shut and walked out the room. "Where you going, Seth? This sh*t''s just getting good!" said Evan. Seth did not spare a nce back before he shut the rec room door behind him. "Shut the fuck up and wait here until I get back." Chapter 63: {Seth Solar 2}

Chapter 63: {Seth Sr 2}

Seth wore a generic, monochrome ck viin mask to conceal his identity as he flew straight to Haven. At top speed, he could make it to Haven from ckwater in just five minutes. He pierced through the night sky clouds as he shot forward at sub-sonic speeds. Seth slowed down once he got near the site of destruction. He looked down from cloud level to see the giant manta letting loose ghostly wails as it rained down another volley of lightning bolts, destroying a dozen more buildings. The manta had just passed Haven''s Eastside harbors, destroying boats, warehouses, apartments, and the general livelihoods of countless dock workers. It now ate away at Eastside''s residential district as sirens red. Up this high, Seth could make out crowds of tiny little people and cars and heroes all panicked and running away. Lots of corpses buried under bloodied rubble. He could care less about them. What he did worry about was where the manta would go from here, Once the variant reached the city center, it would probably slow down its warpath significantly. The city center where the wealthiest of Haven lived had EMP-protected walls with enough firepower and mercenaries hired by rich folk to easily stall out the thirty or so minutes it took for AA and Panopticon reinforcements to arrive. The issue was once the manta found the walls too difficult to breach, it would find somewhere else to go, and then it was a 50/50 chance whether it would go to Northside''s manufacturing districts or Southside where, most importantly, the Red Circle was. Seth was not about to wait and find out. He took aim at the manta and then flew straight down with his fists nted in front of him. In seconds, he smashed through the manta''s back, tearing through the flesh like a living missile before ripping through to the other side. The manta wailed in pain as it started to lose altitude from the lethal wound. Just like that, Seth ended the threat instantly. After all, he was the son of the S-rank hero Solomon Sr. A B-rank threat was nothing to him, even if it was a disaster level variant. Sethnded on solid ground and shook off the disgusting, fishy mess of entrails and blood on his in ck bodysuit. This suit was a covert operation one thatcked any insignia that tied it to ckwater. In an instant, Seth found annoying lights from news drones shining down at him. Did the media never give up? There were countless news drones fried from EMP exposure scattered all across the ground, and yet they kept sending these drones and field reporters to die. Fucking waste of resources. Seth could not use his sr powered eye beams here to gun down the drones. It would make it far too obvious to draw a connection to the Sr bloodline. "You, hero, what''s your name!" diator shouted as he hobbled up to Seth. His legionnaire armor was chipped. A burnt red cape trailed behind him. His dius sword was snapped in half. "Fuck off before you get hurt," said Seth as he hovered in the air, ready to leave now that his job was done. "Wait! The variant has regeneration! You need to destroy its head!" said diator. Seth growled in annoyance. He looked up at the manta as it regenerated the hole in its spine and floated in the air. It wailed before raining down a volley of lightning bolts at Seth. Over twenty bolts surged down at Seth and exploded in a brilliant blue st wave that decimated everything in a forty-meter radius, frying news drones, smashing buildings, and sending diator flying from the impact. Seth took in a deep breath as he stood in the mist of a smoking ck crater, practically unharmed. Only a few hairs on his head were singed. He bent his knees, took aim at the manta''s head, and then shot upwards. Instead of smashing through the variant''s head as Seth expected, he instead felt massive impact against him as he shot straight back down like a pinball, digging out a deep crater in a concrete sidewalk. This time, he felt solid pain, Bruises around his fists and rattling in the bones of his arms. His attack''s force had been reflected against him. Seth immediately flew out of his crater, his expression twisted in rage behind the mask. He saw a translucent blue, crackling barrier around the manta now. The barrier was generated by threads of blue energy generated by its spines, and notably, while it maintained this barrier, it did not rain down lightning bolts. "Fucking barriers! I hate this sh*t!" said Seth as he had immediate shbacks of punching himself with his own tremendous strength against Mel''s golden barriers. He watched as the manta wailed again and started to fly away, down south, wanting to avoid Seth. Down where the Red Circle was. Seth grimaced as he thought about what to do. That was when he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Throw me up there, Seth." "Who the fuck-," Seth started in rm as someone identified him. He turned to see a young woman with long, golden hair tied into a ponytail and golden eyes that shone through a mask fashioned into the shape of a horned demon. She wore a grey-white motorcycle jacket and form fitting pant leggings that tapered down into mechanical greaves. She held a mid-length sword with a pure golden de in her right hand. "Mel? The fuck you doing here?" said Seth. "Same as you. Saving the city. Now throw me up there." "I''m not saving sh*t," began Seth, but then he stopped. Mel could punch through that barrier. Her own barrier power directed vector forces, and if she contacted the manta''s barrier with her own, she could break down the manta''s barrier by scattering the flow of energy thatprised it. She would do all the hard work for him. "Whatever." Seth held out his arm, and Mel gracefully jumped on his hand before crouching into apacted ball. He briefly considered trying to kill her right then and there, but he held back his jealousy and cocked his arm back before throwing her with immense force. She shot straight up, spinning in the air as a golden barrier clung around her skin. Her golden de shone even brighter, almost appearing to be made with pure energy. Right when she contacted the manta''s blue shield, she struck with her barrier coated sword. At first, her strike did nothing, but in the next instant, the manta''s barrier started to break apart from the point of impact against Mel''s sword, creating a gap through which she could move through. Mel''s greaves then released thrusters that shot her forward as she sliced into the manta''s brain from below using a flurry of expertly trained slices, using elerated force vectors on the barrier coating her de to make it impossibly sharp. Seth watched and scoffed at this gesture of heroism. Once, there was a time when he also wanted to be a hero like that. When he was young enough that he thought his life was his own to live. But that sh*t was for idiots who didn''t know how the world really was. For carefree fucks that actually had a choice. Seth lingered, watching Mel kill the manta, but all of a sudden, the manta faded away. Its body started to spatially copse into itself, as if it was being sucked into a ck hole. Mel, in surprise backed off, using the thrusters on her greaves to stop herself from free falling. In the next instant, the manta just disappeared. It had teleported. Seth checked his Eye-Phone where the AA kept a map with live satellite tracking on the manta. It did not pop up anywhere in Haven. It hadpletely fled. Good. Then his job was done here. Plus, Mel could handle this on her own. And he did not want to waste time so that news drones could capture more video of him. Seth floated for a moment, then sped off in, disappearing into the sky as he turned into a speeding ck blur shooting through the clouds. ==== "How interesting," said Aldrich as he watched the entire battle through the eyes of his [Grave Ward]. He had only ever heard of Seth Sr''s power, but now, he had seen it himself. The rumors were true. Seth Sr truly was an immense threat. Overwhelming strength that could instantly punch through the hide of a B-ss disaster variant. Not to mention that he had not even used his sr beams. Aldrich noted curiously that his active quest for vengeance changed upon these observations. [RECALCULATING REWARDS FOR QUEST [VENGEANCE] BASED ON HOST EXPERIENCES¡­] [Death of Seth Sr: 1000 EXP, 800 Coin ] 20,000 EXP, 15,000 Coin] "Defeating that human will be¡­difficult," said Valera. "I have not seen strength of that magnitude in quite some time. It rivals that of top ss warriors from our old world." "Yes," said Aldrich. "But don''t worry, Valera. I''ll be dealing with him quite soon. And all the rewards and satisfaction his death will offer will soon be mine. Hm." Aldrich noted the presence of Mel Morales, current rank 1 A-ss student. She had no incentive to be at the attack site, and yet, she was there to fight the manta. Not only that, but she now worked at ground level, guiding civilians to evacuation zones while cutting down leftover slimes. Soon, though, once authorities and heroes caught up to the scene, she would probably leave. He wondered about her. Her motives. Her purpose. Perhaps, in the future, when it came to destroying ckwater, she could be an ally of some sorts. Chapter 64: Calm Before the Emerald Storm

Chapter 64: Calm Before the Emerald Storm

Aldrich hovered in the air on his alloywing eagle with Valera behind him. One of his Ghasts was tethered to him, preventing anyone from capturing footage or photos of him. Valera tentatively wrapped her arms around his waist and nodded her head from side to side in happiness. Meanwhile, he looked down to witness the chaos below. There were thin, packed streets lined with hastily built shacks, shops, and stalls littered with fire, smoke, rubble, and roving slime creatures. Here, people whimpered and screamed as they ran away from slimes or cowered in homes that were broken down from disrepair far before this recent disaster variant attack. These were the Projects. Ghettos where Dud poptions were corralled to live in under government subsidy. Here, they suffered from neglect across all sectors of society. At the top, the city governments barely provided for them. They had a few city and nationwide government programs that subsidized Alters, and the most visible of these programs were the housing projects where the city built mega-apartments for Duds to live in at for highly subsidized or even free rent. This sounded good in practice, but because these mega-apartments had no real long term profit potential, the manufacturingpanies that sucked up contracting money to build them abandoned them once they were done. Not to mention that these apartments were built with zero care. Their rooms were impossibly cramped, stacked tightly together to try and shove in as many Duds in as small an area as possible. Each building had no thought for decoration; they were just concrete and steel, dull grey, featureless spires that looked like prisons viins would get locked up in. Over the years, these mega-apartments, already built with less than ster standards, fell to increasing amounts of disrepair. On top of this, Duds in the Projects faced high crime rates from low life Alters who wanted to steal what little powerless Duds already had. To put insult to injury, Project neighborhoods also faced discrimination from city police forces that did little to nothing to help Duds. The only people that helped keep these neighborhoods even remotely safe were assigned supers, but for Project neighborhoods, the patrol pay, and subsequently the quality of the supers patrolling, was low. Most of these supers were either highly idealistic first timers fresh out of some mid to low tier academy who needed a safe job to start out with or disgruntled older supers that cared less and less about protecting the neighborhood as the years passed. Either way, any heroes patrolling here were weak. E rank, mostly, D rank at best. More screams littered the air as a gathering of slimes surrounded a small ramen shack, inching close to a family of elderly husband, wife, and grandchild. Aldrich shook his head. Since the manta disappeared, the slimes it produced stopped self-replicating, meaning that the many E/D/C heroes left could start rapidly clearing their numbers out with the aid of armed police. But of course, nobody gave a sh*t about the Projects. Here, slimes still ran rampant. "Get me down there," said Aldrich. The eagle pped its wings and dove down. When Aldrich was two dozen meters above the ramen shack, he jumped off with Valera. Hended on solid, cracked concrete sidewalk with a roll to disperse impact while Valera aimed her fall so that shended with a solid downward punch on a slime,pletely sttering it apart and smashing the concrete below. Eight blue slimes started to extend tendrils towards Aldrich and Valera. Aldrich casted eight [Chill Bolts] in rapid fire session from both his hands. In just one second, all of the eight slimes werepletely frozen over, suspended in icy still motion. [-32 Mana] [Mana: 183/183 ] 151/183] [8x Manta Slimes defeated] [+40 EXP] [EXP Bar: 400/2000 ] 440/2000] ''Not a bad rate of EXP gain,'' thought Aldrich as he looked at his status screen. But regardless, he was not here to efficiently farm. He was here to meet Casimir, and while at it, have Valera clear this neighborhood out of slimes with the Ghast attached to prevent surveince. The owner of the ramen shop, a slight, middle-aged man with far too many wrinkles on his face for someone of his age, came out and bowed his head several times. "Thank you! Thank you so much, hero!" Aldrich stared at him through his [Phantasmal Mask]. The man''s wife, a woman of simr age and simr stress induced wrinkling, thanked him too while making their child, a little boy of about five, bow. "Monster!" shrieked the child as he looked at Aldrich''s mask and equipment. The mother covered her child''s mouth in panic, not wanting to offend Aldrich. Aldrich was not offended, but Valera - "You would dare to insult him as a monster!? After he has saved your short and unworthy lives!?" began Valera. "It''s alright," said Aldrich. "He''s a child, and he''s scared." Valera calmed at Aldrich''s voice and stood her killing intent down. He had forgotten theck of value she ced on human lives. She was freely willing to unleash bloodlust against humans as she considered them lesser beings. "You must be refugees from the Fukushima Attack. Life must have been hard," said Aldrich, trying to diffuse the trembling fear that Valera had instilled in the family. Five years ago, a S-ranked Disaster Variant struck Fukushima, Japan, drawn in by the city''s nuclear energy. The ensuing destruction it caused made Fukushima uninhabitable, causing a mass influx of refugees. "Yes, very, very hard, but that doesn''t mean we have nothing," said the man. He rifled through his pockets, scrapping up a few credit chips. "Here, this isn''t much, but this should be good-," Aldrich shook his head. "No. I''m going to clear this street of slimes, and because they aren''t replicating anymore, it should be safe. Stay in here. AA reinforcements and Panop drones should being. Where''s the hero that''s supposed to be patrolling the Projects?" "Cowboy?" The man spat in the ground. "He does nothing for us. Probably already ran away!" "I see. Stay safe." Aldrich nodded and made a mental note to address this ''Cowboy''ter. He sympathized with the plight of the innocent. Especially the Duds that had suffered just like him. He knew he had to ce his own safety and survival above all else, but that did not mean he could use his power to alleviate some of their suffering. At the very least, it was what Adam and ine would have wanted. Aldrich left with Valera. He headed north, towards the Red Circle. He hovered above at a casual pace on his alloywing eagle and gave Valera a singlemand. "Destroy the slimes you see. Make it quick." "My pleasure," said Valera. She then turned into a blur as she sped forwards. Whenever Valera encountered a slime, she would annihte them. She coated her hands in a bright red aura of blood that imparted explosive effects to her punches, and these destroyed the gooey bodies of the slimes instantly. Aldrich did not try extensively to clear the entirety of the projects. Only the few neighborhoods he walked through. These ones were the most exposed as they housed the Duds that were too poor even to live in megaplexes, needing to live in rough shacks exposed to monster attacks. The slimes could not get through megaplexes once their doors were blocked and barred, rendering those within rtively safe. Plus, there were not that many slimes. Almost all of them were concentrated in the Eastside. The ones this far south in Haven were stragglers dropped by odd chance. For the next twenty minutes, Aldrich hovered in the air on his eagle as he watched Valera blitz through the neighborhoods at super speed. She zipped from one shack to the other, sttering slimes that harassed them, leaving civilian Duds confused at how they had been saved. By the end of this, Valera had killed a total of seventy slimes. [70 Manta Slimes defeated!] [+350 EXP] [EXP Bar: 440/2000 ] 790/2000] Of course, the blocks around the Red Circle werepletely clear of slimes as the nightclub was basically a militarypound guarded with ''valets'' that acted as sentry towers with a small army of viins and mercenaries to boot. Near the Red Circle, Aldrich had the eagle fly off while he changed into his suit while Valera dematerialized her armor and into her dress set. The Ghast, too, he sent away, tethering to the eagle to keep the undead variant a secret. Aldrich passed by the valet guard with no issue for they recognized him now. At the entrance of the Red Circle, he met a familiar face. "Wee back, Mr. Vane," said Hirondelle, her violet eyes gleaming as she smiled and bowed. "Business meeting," said Aldrich. "Already so soon? Casimir must take quite a liking to you. I have never seen him meet so much with the same client," said Hirondelle. "Maybe I''m just a people person," said Aldrich. "Right this way." Hirondelle led Aldrich and Valera through with a small escort of staff. Some of them brought refreshments like towels, water, and fruits, but Aldrich and Valera ignored these and headed straight to Casimir''s office. There, Aldrich passed two guards, one of which was Walters, the giant waiter, nking the office door. "Mr. Vane! Here to finalize the details of our event, I presume?" said Casimir. He was turned away, watching a news broadcast from a deluxe widescreen wall mounted telescreen. There, the news reported that the manta had been beaten back by two mysterious vigntes, showcasing zoomed in video footage of Mel and a few still pictures of Seth Sr. It also reported that the Panopticon''s VSSA (Variant Sensor Satellite Array) could not track down the disaster variant, determining that because it could not detect any Ether signature, that the variant had died, its natural regeneration unable to keep up with its wounds. "You presume correctly," said Aldrich. He and Valera sat in plush velvet chairs in front of Casimir''s desk. Aldrich stared at a tall, blonde haired woman by Casimir''s side. By the way she held aptop at her side like it was a part of her, he could tell she was his secretary. He gave her a look, and Casimir understood immediately. "nca, my dear, can you leave the room for some time? Those invitation cards you drew up look marvelous. Go ahead and send them out," said Casimir. nca nodded and left, but not before giving Aldrich and Valera an emotionless, analyzing look. "Your secretary, yes?" said Aldrich. "For ten years now," said Casimir. "A most wonderful woman who I would consider more precious than my very own hands." "Ten years? That''s quite some time." "A business venture such as the Red Circle takes years and luck to build, Mr. Vane, though I am sure you of all people know that." Casimir''s emote face smiled. "But what all these sessful entrepreneurs, these men and women who are the face of their mega corporations or rising ventures, do not like to mention is that their sess was not carved out alone, no matter how much they wish to im so. Always, always, there is someone behind them, someone that gave them the inspiration, the funds, the opportunities, the support-," Casimir paused. "Thefort. Nobody can stand at the top without first having others raise them on their shoulders first." Valera nodded happily, thoroughly agreeing with Casimir. "That''s a surprising level of humility. I hope you do not take offense to this, but I did not expect that from you," said Aldrich. "I came from nothing, scrounging about on the streets of Haven, begging and stealing to see another day," said Casimir wistfully. He then looked down at his dazzling rings, gold watch, and bracelets. "And because I came from nothing, I understand truly how to appreciate everything. But enough about my biography, I am not important enough for that. Business, business, that is what we are here for, no? Now, Mr. Vane, what did you want from me?" "Nothing much," said Aldrich. "It seems like you''ve been handling everything excellently. The event is still on for this Saturday, yes?" "Indeed," said Casimir. "The turnout was smaller than I hoped, perhaps about forty viins, and unfortunately, the Butcher will be the only one toe from a high-ranking organization." "The Butcher is all I need," said Aldrich. "And Seth Sr? What has he said since beating back that variant?" "Ah, Seth, that hot headed boy? He is still quite willing toe. In fact, he has been hounding me on the phone about offering not just five, but ten samples of Boost. This on top of a requested VIP table at your event." "Give him whatever he wants. So long as it gets him and his friends toe," said Aldrich. This would be Seth Sr''sst few pleasures in life. Akin to a final meal served to a death row prisoner prior to execution. "At this point, you should have no worries about Seth," said Casimir. "In fact, I have managed to woo a good majority of the A-ss in ckwater." "Good," said Aldrich. "Once again, incredible work, Casimir. You''ve managed to do all this in what, a span of a day?" "Efficiency is king in today''s fast paced world, Mr. Vane," said Casimir. Aldrich materialized the Death Lord''s Sign Stone. The glowing green, diadem shaped rock shone from his palm. "My, my, what is that?" said Casimir as he leaned in, his emote face turning into one of scrutiny with a raised brow. "To start off the event, I''ll be making a short speech on the performance stage at the head of the dance floor. I want this projected for all to see on the performance stage screen," said Aldrich. "Consider this a business card of sorts. Something I would give to people when I bid them a proper goodbye." "Of course, Mr. Vane. Ah, I will tailor the entire event to be¡­hm, in the theme of emeralds, yes," said Casimir. "To match this wonderful, lustrous glimmer of green." "I''ll trust your marketing sense on that," said Aldrich. "I wanted to request that my wife and I stay here until the event. I want to be there in person before it all begins, ready to make my speech. I also want to address a few more matters of business, specifically in seeing whether I can be a partner in this business venture of yours." Bing a partner meant Aldrich would effectively be the face of this organization along with Casimir. This way, he would not only get a huge split of the Red Circle''s profits, but it would also put him on the face of the organization. Or, more urately, his Bruce Vane alter ego. Aldrich had taken a liking to Casimir and the man''s quick wits and efficiency. He wanted to preserve Casimir for after this Saturday, where, if everything went well, the Red Circle would be no more, its connections to all viin organizations severed. However, there was nothing stopping Casimir from rebranding and rebuilding the Red Circle with Aldrich''s support. Aldrich knew there were many like him. Vigntes who did not fit with either supers or viins. Those that wanted to do right outside the scope of thew. He would in time, with Casimir''s help, create a space for them to find purpose. Not to mention that with Casimir heading a business/organization under Aldrich, his issue with raising credits for his supposedly wealthy Bruce Vane alter ego wouldpletely disappear. Aldrich waited for Casimir''s answer to this partnership. With Casimir under Fler''Gan''s powerful mental suggestion, he would be positively inclined to anything Aldrich said. However, this did not mean Casimir was utterly brainwashed. Casimir would take the vast majority of Aldrich''s suggestions and follow them, but if something was too risky for both himself and Aldrich, then he could oppose the decision. Like this, Aldrich allowed Casimir to exercise his high level of judgement for Aldrich knew he did not know everything. An opposing opinion, especially one from someone capable like Casimir, was always valuable. "A partner?" Casimir tossed and turned this suggestion in his mind for several seconds. "That could be arranged. However, Mr. Vane, your investments are still in the shadows. Any liability that urs from mismanagement in the Red Circle falls solely upon my shoulders to me. If you establish yourself as my partner, however, there will be many prying syndicate eyes upon your back." "That''s fine, Casimir," said Aldrich. "After this event on Saturday, everything will change. When that happens, you won''t be worrying about my safety. No, you''ll be thankful for yourself that you have a position as my protected partner." Casimir drew his hands together, and his voice grew lower, more serious. "I am not saying anything, Mr. Vane, but if something¡­extreme happens this Saturday, then I cannot guarantee that you will not be a target." "I see. So you already know what I''m nning," said Aldrich. He had intentionally left out that he nned on wiping out everyone on Saturday to try and keep Casimir working for him withoutints. But it seemed like Casimir knew what was up. Not only that, but Casimir was willing to see it through with Aldrich. Of course, if Casimirined too much, he would have had Fler''Gan fully mind control the man. Aldrich might have been willing topromise and discuss at length about other issues with Casimir, but this Saturday night of vengeance was one thing he would neverpromise on. But it was good that Casimir was willing to work with Aldrich even now. "You hide it very, very well, Mr. Vane, but I know the gleam of vengeance when I see it. You can always see it in the eyes," said Casimir. His emote face smiled. "It is a sight with which I am intimately acquaintanced with. Again, I do not mind aiding your vengeance, especially if you promise me protection. So long as I am alive, I can re-allocate my assets and enter into different business ventures. I was thinking of retiring with my fortune in a few years with nca in any case - she deserves the rest and peace. But your safety-," "You have no need to worry about that, Casimir, and remember, this is a partnership. You have more years left in that capable head of yours. Years working with me," said Aldrich. He reached out a hand, and Casimir took it in a tight handshake. "And together, I guarantee we can make sure that those of us who came from the streets, those of us who were beaten and spat on, have a chance to see some of the good we enjoy now." Chapter 65: {A Certain Report}

Chapter 65: {A Certain Report}

Friday, November 5, 2117, 1 P.M. Alter Agency Outpost in Haven City Center == Brent McAllister, current director of the AA''s Haven outpost, sat in a sterile white conference room with a group of high-level personnel, or the highest level it could get in a tier 3 city like Haven. They sat about in sleek ck chairs that screamed corporate aesthetic as they watched a Panopticon researcher present his findings. "As you all know, the Panopticon''s variant detectionwork is thorough, but not perfect, especially when ites to the ocean or subterranean threats. Even before the Altering, humanity had yet to discover even 5% of the earth''s vast oceans, and that problem is still the same now. Ocean exploration may even be more difficult in this modern era considering the powerful variants that tend to lurk there," said the researcher with a droning voice. He had on a distinctive whiteb-coat emzoned with an insignia showcasing a ck pyramid with an eye encased inside - the logo of the Panopticon. "Skip with this introductory bullsh*t," said Brent as he waved his steaming coffee mug impatiently. "And tell me how the Panopticon fucked us over. You do know that the AA has to pay for this disaster, right? We might be the only multinational organization out there subsidized by every country, but our funds aren''t unlimited, and we rely on the goodwill of the people for donations and support. Sh*t like this does NOT send a show of confidence to our investors." "I must inform you that the Panopticon also shoulders some costs-," began the researcher. "''I must inform you''" Brent mocked the researcher soft spoken tone before returning to his loud and brash mode of speaking. "You know damn well that the Panopticon doesn''t need to pay sh*t. It''s got leverage over everyone and anything, Skyfields and tech and all." One phenomenon noted among variants was that there were precious few that flew above a certain atmospheric range, making them entirely rooted to the earth. The only exception was when variants were attacked from near orbit or orbit, at which point they would start to adapt high flight capabilities in response to the severity of the attack they received. This meant that orbital bombardments were highly risky because it initiated an arms race where variants would evolve orbit capable flight, and humanity was far less equipped to deal with orbit based attacks than variants and their more expendable numbers. This variant adaptiveness to attack was also why the AA and Panopticon used nuclear weaponry extremely sparingly. Anytime a nuke was thrown out, a variant would spawn, often from the radioactive energy of the fallout zone, that was even harder to deal with than what the nuke wiped out in the first ce. This meant that Panopticon run Skyfields - massive, controlled dome environments whererge tracts of food were grown in the high atmosphere where variants did not conventionally reach - could make up for food shortages fromrge swathes of destroyed farnd across the world. Skyfields made the Panopticon untouchable because no country in the world would ever risk alienating the Panopticon and their food supplies, not to mention their monopoly over variant surveince andrge-scale drone mobilization against variant attacks. The Alter Agency, on the other hand, had to deal with daily protests over some hero doing some stupid thing here, some failed rescue there, some viin this and some variant that. And now more than ever, in the post-Vanguard era of heroes, things were getting worse and worse. More viins, not just thugs using their powers for stupid, selfish needs, but legitimately organized and powerful organizations, rose in strength. More and more variant attacks, many of which were bing ever more dangerous. The ant colony attack on South Korea that killed hundreds of thousands a couple of years ago was just one of a dozen such incidents throughout the world in just the past twenty years alone. The worst thing about all this was the pay cuts Brent had taken. Over the years, he had had to downgrade his fleet of ten high end sportscars down all the way to two. "I feel for your struggles, Mr. McAllister, I truly do," said the researcher as he maintained neutral professionalism in his voice. "But you must understand that the Panopticon and AA are under a partnership. ountability goes both ways. If you had not ignored early warning signs, then you would have already had a ss 5 drone response within city boundaries by the time of the B-ss disaster variant''s attack. Granted, a ss 5 drone attack cannot halt a B ss disaster variant by itself, but it would have eliminated the threat of its amorphous liquid ground army." Brent opened his mouth to talk back, but the researcher raised a firm hand to stop him. "I must continue this report," said the researcher, his steely grey eyes turning surprisingly cold, oozing power and threat that made Brent stay quiet and listen. He pointed with a metallic arm at a map of Haven. "As you know, Haven is a port city that borders the Antic Ocean, making it high risk for aquatic variant attacks. Aquatic variants are especially difficult to trace for our satellite arrays cannot detect under the ocean. However, our coast detections should, in theory, should sense the approach of variants from within a fifty-mile radius stretching out from the coastline. This specific variant managed to clear a straight path through several underwater sensor towers, utilizing a unique electromaic pulse that bypassed prior EMP shielding. By the time the variant reached shallow enough waters for our satellite arrays to pick up on, it could utilize a form of spatial warp to reach Haven before an apt response could be formted. Now, Mr. McAllister, the Panopticon will ignore the fact that your outpost received report of downed sensor towers and ignored requests for hero investigations a full two hours before the attack began." "You can''t me us on that! We''ve been cutting costs! Do you know how hard it is to cough up heroes at a moment''s notice like that? The logistics involved in it?" protested Brent. The researcher raised a hand again, silencing Brent. "Of course. What''s past is past, and the point of this report is not to ce me. As you all know, two vigntes halted the attack when B rank heroes diator and Rocket Man were incapacitated." "Vigntes," scoffed one of the executives. "They ought to be round up and rotting in prison. Without regtion, they''re just as good as viins. Plus they don''t make us any money." "The B ss disaster variant which we have coded in our system as the Shock Manta was not confirmed killed," continued the researcher, ignoring the executive. "However, its energy signature has faded away entirely, indicating that it is very likely dead or, at the worst, recovering from injuries. As you know, there is a high chance that a variant attack of this scale generates an Aftershock Effect, drawing variants for often second or even third attacks. In the case that the Shock Manta itself recovers or there is an Aftershock, the Panopticon and the Central AA Headquarters has determined it fit to station 2 A- ss heroes and a ss 3 drone fleet in Haven for the next week." Brent smiled widely. "Now, that''s more like it. Finally ensuring the safety of the people." He said this, but his mind wasn''t on the people, it was on his next fat paycheck. A ss heroes were extremely expensive to field. The gap between a C and B ss hero was already sizable, but the gap between a B and A ss was liable to be akin to an entire canyon. An A ss hero could destroy a B ss disaster variant solo. In fact, beating a B ss disaster variant solo was one of the main ways to be an A ss hero. Haven''s city government would no doubt have to shell out massive amounts of credits on the order of millions to hire 2 A- heroes on contract, and some of that money would trickle down to Brent and his execs. "The people are always our main objective," said the researcher. "But I believe you are misunderstanding this situation somewhat. For your ipetence in dealing with the Shock Manta attack, you will not receive any bonus for the heroes. The cost of their contracts will be entirely subsidized by the Panopticon, for Haven has suffered enough. Rather, central AA HQ has determined another pay cut for you. Details about this will be sent to you through an AA representative. Now, if you will excuse me-," Chapter 66: The Party Begins

Chapter 66: The Party Begins

11 P.M., Saturday, November 6, 2117 Red Circle Nightclub Usually, the entrance to the Red Circle was marked, by, well, a red circle. Specifically, a glowing red neon circle emzoned with bright confidence above its wide, tinted ss doorway. Whenever this circle lit red in the weekends, it promised a good time whether through night life partying or under the table illegal business deals. Tonight, though, the red circle was lit wholly green. Even the red carpet leading into the nightclub had been reced with an emerald green, gold tasseled carpet. A line of diverse people funneled out from the doors, waiting to step inside. From an immediate nce, anyone could tell that everyone waiting in this line had blood on their hands. Many of them were dressed up in emerald themed suits and dresses, but beyond that finery, it was easy to tell from sharp, predatory gazes, visible scars, calloused hands, and weaponized cybeics that everyone here knew whatbat looked like. Viins. On special asions, the Red Circle held special events where it closed itself off from the general clubbing crowd and allowed invited members only to sit in and enjoy the finest foods, drinks, andpany that Haven could offer. This was the first special event in three months, and the viins here were eager and impatient to get in. For lower ranking viins that upied the E, D, and C rank totem pole, the Red Circle was perhaps one of the best ways to get connected to better paying jobs and, potentially, work up to the B rank. Just like how there was a massive difference between C rank heroes and B rank heroes, the same was true for viins. The amount of money and job security a B ranked viin received was iparable to lesser ranked viins that often had to routinely risk their lives and freedom just to get by. "What''s taking so damn long?" said a Mutant category alter whose mutation had made him grow porcupine like quills instead of hair. He impatiently watched as people at the front of the line filed in one by one. Almost immediately, a Red Circle staff member approached with a pleasant smile. Her eyes shone a striking violet as she reached a tter out with a full ss of champagne. "My deepest apologies, sir. As you are aware, tonight''s event is in held of a new partner and investor who values security and privacy greatly. Security screenings are a little more thorough than they usually are." The porcupine viin took the champagne ss and downed it in one shot with zero ss. He heavily ced the ss back on the tter. "Well, hope this big shot investor believes in some good old trickle-down economics, cause'' I''m itching for a new security job." "Hah, like he''d hire you, Porcupine, you almost beat yourst employer half to death!" said another viin. "Shut up! The bastard decided he wouldn''t pay me after I saved his ass! I gotta'' feed myself too!" "I do wish you the greatest of luck in that regard," said the staff member as she bowed and tended to other disgruntled viins. At the head of the line, a tall, pale skinned, dark haired, ck and red eyed woman smiled as she manned the front door with several Red Circle staff. Her prettiness was such that it was almost charming, and any man or even woman who gazed into those crimson eyes of hers long enough felt quite incentivized to do as she asked. What she asked was very simple. "Do you want to join this party?" And of course, everyone would say yes, because why wouldn''t they? This was what they were here for. Each time a viin said yes, a staff member would wrap a green wristband around their wrists which would then manifest a shiny green sigil. By midnight, forty-five viins had entered the Red Circle and bustled about on the dance floor. Inside, the lighting was again green. Dim enough to set a partying mood but bright enough for people to see each other and make conversation. sses of wine, liquor, and champagne flowed like water as Red Circle servers worked efficiently and properly. Music yed in the background. Elegant instrumental and orchestral music that set quite the sophisticated tone. This tone made the usually rough and rowdy crowd of viins behave at their utmost best, keeping from shouting or cursing or fighting. The invitation they received said that a certain Mr. Bruce Vane, an incredibly wealthy man, had be a partner in the Red Circle and wanted to host a party not only to celebrate his partnership, but also to find talent to add to his security team. Working as security for a rich man was an incredible opportunity for all the viins within. No longer would they have to risk their lives doing odd jobs and heists. Now, if they got lucky and made a good impression on Mr. Vane, they could sit back in a mansion while they guarded a rich man who paid them well. On the second floor, VIP tables were set up on balconies overlooking the dance floor. In one of these tables sat a duo of men dressed in white and red suits. One of these men barely fit in his suit, his portly belly practically bulging out of his dress shirt buttons, but his incredibly muscled arms made it clear that his bulk was not all fat. His face was pudgy and disfigured with scars, his mouth torn to show off sharp, animal-like teeth. This was the B rank viin known as the Butcher. Famous for the brutality of his kills and his expertise in torture. One of the Trident''s most trusted associates in getting those unwilling to talk to talk. Beside him sat a more presentable, normal looking man with a goatee, gel-spiked hair, and squinty red eyes that made it seem like he was suspicious of anything he looked at. This was the Butcher''s Connector, basically his handler who waited impatiently to sign off on a few contracts for Butcher''s service. At other tables sat Seth Sr, his crew, and several members of ckwater''s A-ss. Notably, Mel Morales, current rank 1, was not there. Everyone made small talk, but what they were really interested in was this new investor, this Bruce Vane who had managed to be a partner in the Red Circle, one of the more well knowns viin connecting establishments throughout the United States. How many millions upon millions of credits had it taken? And who were the lucky few in this room who he was going to hire? The green lights in the room dimmed and the music stopped, making everyone go quiet. The performance stage at the head of the dance floor elevated with a mechanical whir before projecting the image of a green diadem. Casimir stepped out from the backstage curtains with a flourish. When he reached the front of the stage, he bowed, and as if on cue, a panel opened up before him that retracted out a mic. "Ladies and gentlemen, wee to a night out in the Emerald City!" said Casimir. "Though unlike in Oz, the emeralds, the wealth you see, is very, very much real, no green goggles needed." Casimir snapped his fingers into the mic, and several Red Circle servers dressed in green suits and dresses funneled into the dance floor, passing out expensive drinks and food tters. A round of apuse went around for Casimir as all the viins respected him. He had boosted many a viin from the lower ranks to high ranks, not to mention directly nurturing many hoodlums from the street into viins with enough professionalism to clients regrly. "But the fine spirits and aperitifs and hors d''oeuvres you enjoy now are not from me, no, they are served on order of my new partner, Mr. Bruce Vane. It is a funny thing, this partnership: I once thought I would never have one. Not that I was against the idea, mind you - I simply could not find a partner I could wholly trust in. But Mr. Vane has met my expectations and much, much more. So without further ado, I will introduce you to the man of the hour: Bruce Vane!" Casimir bowed out, and the performance stage dimmed. == Aldrich watched through the backstage curtains as the stage dimmed, awaiting his expected presence. He did not wear any equipment. Instead, he was in his suit. He did not need anything more for tonight. He took in a deep breath to calm himself even though his undead heart did not truly beat. This was it. This was the moment he was waiting for. Vengeance. Judgement. Justice. Aldrich looked at a counter in his status screen. [Party Members: 57] They had all given their consent to join this ''party'', and their wristbands gleamed with the sigil that marked them out as Aldrich''s party members. 45 viins. 10 A ss ckwater students. And the Butcher and his handler. Everyone he wanted dead in one room. Aldrich touched chest, feeling the hard surface of the phctery beneath his suit. The Chrysalis by now had merged enough with the Phctery that its dimensional space was the size of a small room. Easily enough to fit in Adam and ine for this final stretch. It felt almost surreal. To havee this far in just one week. To have vengeance for the taking right before him. He found himself second guessing. Had he nned everything out properly? Was this going to work? He felt a hand squeeze his shoulder. "Master," said Valera. She drew close to Aldrich, and in her morous ck dress, she looked absolutely stunning. "Are you worried?" "No. Just slightly overwhelmed. I always thought ahead, always nned, but I guess there was some part of me that never believed that I would make it this far," said Aldrich. "Of course you would make it this far. You are my one and only master. The only man I have deemed worthy of serving for all eternity and beyond. If not you, then who else? At the very least, I believed in you from the start with all my heart," said Valera. "I know," said Aldrich. He looked into Valera''s ck and red eyes. "And thank you. Without you backing me, protecting me, I wouldn''t be here." "You should not thank me for performing my sworn duty as a knight." Valera patted out creases in Aldrich''s suit and smiled at him. "You look wonderful, master. I am eager to see you bathe in carnage tonight." She then looked directly at Aldrich, and he looked directly at her. Because she was so busy fixing his clothes, she had not noticed how close their faces were, their cold breath intertwining together. Valera''s eyes widened, her body stiff and tense, waiting - "Not now," said Aldrich as he drew back. "I still have to finish what I started." "Of course, my master. I understand," said Valera. She smiled coyly. "Not now, is it? Thenter?" "Later." Aldrich smiled back at her before his expression set into seriousness. He materialized his [Phantasmal Mask] and put it on. Then, he stepped out of the curtains, and as he did so, green spotlights hit him, lighting his each and every step to the microphone. Apuse spread throughout the room as the mystery investor finally showed himself. Aldrich looked down at the crowd of viins before him, seeing the desire in their eyes, at how they wanted his supposed credits. He looked up at the Butcher who picked his teeth with a w-like nail, ignoring everything below. He met a nce with Seth Sr before Seth looked away, more interested in drinking more liquor and eyeing the small case of boost vials on his table. Aldrich raised his hand, and the apuse died down. "First off, I want to thank all of you for making it here. You have no idea how thankful I am to see all of you gathered here like this," said Aldrich, his voice projecting throughout the room. A smaller voice modting mic hidden beneath Aldrich''s mask changed his normally neutral pitched voice into one far deeper. "I don''t intend to take you away from this party of mine for long. I just wanted to give a quick foreword before we began." Aldrich reached into his coat pocket and materialized the Death Lord''s Sign Stone. He held it up in the air, and everyone stared at it, wondering what it was. "This¡­is a precious possession of mine," said Aldrich. "To me, it represents my hopes and dreams. A symbol of a trial to ovee and reach greatness." Aldrich paused, and then his voice grew even deeper, gaining a sharp, threatening edge to it that made everyone in the room shiver. "But to you, it represents your death. Your judgement." Before confusion could hit, Aldrich activated the Sign Stone, and the light from it burst out. The wristbands around each viin started to glow, reacting to the Sign Stone, and before anyone could think about running, the green light engulfed everyone, leaving the once bustling dance floorpletely and utterly empty. Chapter 67: A Night of Dying

Chapter 67: A Night of Dying

Amotion rose through the emptied-out dance floor from the Red Circle''s many servers. They were standing in the sidelines, in the shadows, waiting for Bruce Vane''s speech to end, but now, everyone had disappeared. Casimir took the steps up to the performance stage, getting back to the mic. Spotlights tracked his movements. When he looked down, he saw not the faces of the viins he had served throughout the years, but his precious staff, all those he had taken from the streets, from brothels, from dens of addiction, from pits of debt, and given them training and purpose. They looked up at him for answers, for to them, he was their guiding light in a criminal underworld where darkness snuffed out even the smallest flickers of hope. "I regret deeply that I did not inform all of you of this turn of events beforehand," said Casimir. "It is not that I did not trust you all, my dear, most valued staff. I simply wished to keep all knowledge of this surprise to a minimum for assurance purposes." "Was this the right choice, Casimir?" said Hirondelle. She unpinned mauve hair she usually kept up tied in a professional bun, letting long, curled locks spill down to her shoulders, framing her striking, glowing bright violet eyes. "With this, you have made yourself an enemy of every syndicate. You will be a target - we will all be targets." "I have always said I do not take risks. For the first time in my life, I have taken one. I must say, it feels¡­thrilling. I can understand why those I thought once as impulsive and foolish act the way they do, throwing themselves into the pit of risk for that precious glimmer of reward." Casimir''s emote face smiled. "But I understand not all of you are here to fall into these pits of risk with me. And that is why I am giving all of you the option to terminate your employment to me. You will no longer be affiliated with the Red Circle and I shall see to it that your safety is guaranteed. You need not walk through the valley of the shadow of death with me, for unlike an omnipotent deity, I cannot guarantee you will fear no evil." "Casimir." Walter''s stern, guttural voice rang through the floor, projecting with powerful lungs that made it seem as if he was on mic. "Yes, dear Walters?" said Casimir. "Are you making this decision with your own mind?" said Walters. "Shall I be honest? At first, no." A murmur ran through his staff. "But I have warmed to Mr. Vane''s new and radical ideas. His desire to bring opportunity to those who have none," said Casimir. "It touched upon what started me on this path. I began the Red Circle first as a means of dragging myself out from the streets. And when I was uplifted, when I looked back to see how many like me were still mired in the streets, waist deep in the mud of despair, poverty, and hopelessness, I reached out and pulled many out." Casimir gestured towards all his servers. "And now, when I look upon what I have aplished, I may see piles of credits and gold and jewels, but what shines to me brightest is all of you, my dears. My treasures. My flock of street crows turned to beautiful songbirds. But there is a time to let caged birds fly. I am giving you that opportunity now. Disassociate yourselves from me now, or I cannot guarantee it will be safeter." "So long as you made this choice yourself, I will stand by you," said Walters. "We are not caged birds, Casimir, we are free, freer than we ever have been," said Hirondelle. "And we choose to fly by your side." All the servers of the Red Circle bowed their heads to Casimir, and a single tear trickled out from under Casimir''s mask. "Wonderful, my dears," he said, his voice quivering. Then, his voice immediately turned stern and serious. Almost militaristic in its efficiency. "And now, we must prepare for war. Until Mr. Vane emerges from wherever he has gone, we must fend against any potential retaliation. Walters, engage Defense Alert Level 5." "Understood." Walters talked into a hand radio. "Initiate DA5." Almost immediately, the lights in the Red Circle turned red, not the festive, sultry shade of red that it shone during clubbing nights, but a bright, rm-inducing red that incited not a dance, but a call to action. The Red Circle shook as emergency generators booted up and powered a building wide forcefield. In immediate and trained fashion, the staff of the Red Circle began to mobilize. Many of them rolled up their sleeves, revealing cybeically imnted des and firearms. "Tech team, engage drones," said Walters. "Secure the perimeter." Several fleets of drones from the club''s tech team started to circle around the building, the barrels of energy weapons and guns gleaming and rotating about, finding potential targets. "Strike squad, assist in securing the perimeter with aerial support." "It will be my pleasure," said Hirondelle. Her entire body glowed violet, changing her into pure purple energy and burning off her uniform. Her energy form then shaped into the form of arge, man-sized swallow made of pure glowing violet light. In this form, her voice projected in echoing waves. "Strike squad, with me." Several staff members morphed into flight capable forms, turning into mutants wholesale or growing wings. Some attached mechanical wings or thrusters to themselves. Others floated in the air with the power of their minds. Hirondelle flew out with the airborne strike squad. "Elite security squads 1 and 2, with me. We protect the head. The rest of you, snipers, infantry, supply chain - take your trained positions. Any threats that approach, eliminate with extreme prejudice," said Walters. His appearance then began to morph as he tore through his suit, bing a monstrous half man, half lizard creature with spined tail, curved white ws, and rocky green scales. He made one giant leap to Casimir''s side, and within a minute, twenty-four staff members formed a tight formation around Casimir. Some of them were armed with incredibly futuristic, glowing energy weapons andbat suits. Others crackled electricity from their hands, some fire, some swirls of water. Valera appeared from backstage and stood with Casimir. "Mr. Vane has request I assist in your defense tonight." "I am eternally grateful," said Casimir with a short bow. "You have no powers," said Walters with a distorted, inhuman voice. He looked down at her with gleaming yellow reptilian eyes. "You''ll slow us down." "Punch me," said Valera. "What?" A skin p blinked over Walters'' eyes in confusion. "I said punch me. Was that so hard to understand?" Walters grunted before throwing out a sudden, heavy and powerful punch at Valera. Valera stopped Walters'' enormous fist in her palm. The impact of the blow sounded like concrete shattering, but Valera stood there unfazed and smiling, holding back Walters'' might. "Need I say any more?" said Valera. Walters withdrew his punch and nodded his lizard head. "No." "To my office, then," said Casimir. He looked up at the ring red alert lights above and smiled. "The night has just begun." == "What the fuck!? Where are we!?" "What is this ce!?" "I can''t see sh*t here! Someone get a light!" Angry and surprised shouts rang throughout the cold darkness in the crypts of the Necropolis. Several sses and tes held in viin hands dropped in surprise and shattered on the floor. Several viins that could generate some form of light lit up the space. The viins looked around to see themselves now in a cold, mmy underground space with a low ceiling of dull grey rock. Dust rose up with every step they took on the cold, cracked stone floor. Everywhere they looked around, they simply saw a vast expanse of tombs and gravestones packed together like lost and forgotten things. "Huh? What kind of joke is this?" "Is this some VR sh*t? Is Bruce Vane showcasing some new tech to us?" It was a testament to the wariness of even low tier viins that even though they did not fully know what was going on, they all universally geared up to fight. They had been stripped of their viin costumes and gear, but they still had their natural powers. Mutant category Alters morphed into their mutant forms unless they had permanent mutations. ster type Alters prepared a buildup of energy to shoot out at any potential threats. Augmenters strengthened their bodies. "Fuck! I don''t have any of my drones! Goddamn security check!" said a techno Alter. "Rx, we still don''t know what''s happening. Like someone else said, this might be a VR demo." The viin who said this shouted. "Hey! Mr. Vane! Your sh*t''s real cool and realistic, but it''s about time you stopped this!" In response to this sudden noise, the tombstones began to tremble and shudder. They slid open. The graves parted. Rotted, dried corpses, almost skeletons, emerged, groaning in hunger for warm, living flesh. "Damn, look at the textures and graphics on this zombie! This sh*t really is realistic," said a viin as he walked up to a crowd of zombies. One of the zombies lunged and bit him on his arm. He yelled in pain. "Sh*t!" "Fucking dumbass." Another viin, his partner, presumably, pushed him aside and shot out a gust of slicing wind that severed the crowd of zombies in half. But these severed halves still kept crawling towards them. "Look! Look at my arm!" The viin bit by the zombie showcased his arm where around indented teeth marks, the flesh turned ck and rotted. "You stupid sh*ts!" roared Seth Sr, still dressed in a green and gold suit. He floated forwards and fired a st of sr energy from his eyes,pletely engulfing over thirty zombies in blinding orange light, utterly reducing them to ash. Where his beams traveled, the ground smoldered, gleaming orange with molten heat. But by now, there were zombies and skeletons emerging from everywhere, quickly growing into a mass of shambling walking corpses that which at first seemed like a joke was now starting to bing a serious threat through sheer numbers alone. "Technos! Stop sitting on your asses! You have cybeics in your eyes to analyze tech! Is this VR or not!?" said Seth Sr. "No tech," said Evan Harker as his mechanical green eye clicked. "Can''t get any connection either. No GPS. We''ve beenpletely isted. Seems like a Flux category power. One that warped us to a different location. Where, I have no idea." "Hear that!? Now start fighting back, you stupid fucks!" Seth Sr waved his gang forward. He attempted to punch the ceiling of the crypt, trying to smash through it, but it was indestructible. He immediately adjusted his strategy. "A-ss and anyone that wants to get out of this, stay with me! Any of you sh*tty D-listers fall behind even a single inch, and I am leaving your asses to rot. If you hold me back, I swear I willser your head off myself!" Roused by Seth Sr''smanding presence, the crowd of viins started to fight against the zombies. Various elements shot out. Mutant Alters morphed into monstrous forms and started beating zombies with their ws and fangs. "Wait, don''t leave us!" shouted one of the viins as they saw Seth Sr and 10 members of the ckwater A-ss easily smash through the weak zombies at far greater speeds than them. The A-ss did not even spare the weaker viins a single sympathetic nce as they continued forwards. "Hmm. Does Casimir truly think he can do this to us with impunity? Has he lost his mind? Tsk tsk," said Valus, the Butcher''s handler and Connector. "Butcher, clear a path. When we''re done with this amateur attempt at eliminating us and reach an area with a signal, you''ll be carving up both this idiotic Mr. Vane and Casimir." "Kill! Carve! Tear!" Butcher roared in glee as he used his immense bulk to shoulder charge his way straight through a dense crowd of zombies, plowing through like a bowling ball smashing through pins. On his way forward, he trampled and killed a few viins as well. Behind this cleared path, Valus flew forwards with his hands behind his back. asionally, when a zombie leaped up at him, they would disintegrate into piles of dust. "A path! Quick!" Some of the lesser viins saw the path the Butcher and the ckwater students made and followed through. These were the lucky ones. The path quickly sealed up as the number of zombies exponentially swelled as time passed. This left approximately half the main crowd of viins, all of themprising of the weakest E and D rankers, stranded and unable to break through a mass amount of ever growing zombies. After all, the entire objective of the Necropolis crypt levels were to find the nearest exit, not to waste time fighting an infinite horde of undead. But it was not like the viins knew this. Aldrich observed everything that happened with his [Grave Ward] while hidden inside an underground tomb. The moment he had materialized into the Necropolis, he had used his [Phantasmal Mask] to render himself invisible and phase below while everyone was distracted, keeping him from any harm or from anyone detecting him. On top of this, he had made sure to have Casimir make sure that anyone that came to the Red Circle tonight did not have detection-based powers that could potentially scope him out. Getting Casimir loyal to him was also not that difficult. Aldrich had Fler''Gan look into Casimir''s mind and find out what the man valued the most. This way, Aldrich could map out a path to making Casimir devoted to Aldrich''s cause with the least amount of mind control needed. This involved tapping into Casimir''s deep desire to see the world under a new order where people did not have to suffer like him. Casimir thought that heroes and the government had done nothing for him, after all, they had left him to die on the streets as they did with many others. Thus, he had joined the ranks of viiny where he had found far more sess. And with the profits from his viiny, he tried to give back to those that had started out with nothing like him. Aldrich saw that desire and yed to it. Now, Casimir was fully in Aldrich''s hands. As for what Aldrich needed to do now, well, he just had to do one thing - Wait. Wait until the time was right. Chapter 68: Acquiring the Editor Sample

Chapter 68: Acquiring the Editor Sample

Aldrich waited for a solid thirty minutes in his underground grave. This was an empty safe space he had memorized and marked out the first time he had ported into this quest exactly for this moment. Here, no zombies or skeletons spawned, making it the perfect hiding spot. He had marked out simr safe spots like this across all the floors he had traveled through in his first attempt at this quest, giving him a way to hide while the viins ahead cleared everything for him. Meanwhile, he kept a group of three Grave Wards prepared to track Seth Sr and the ckwater A ss, the Butcher, and the low tier viins. Only one of these Grave Wards was technically a new creation. The others were Evil Eyes that he had destroyed and reced with their upgraded versions. After thirty minutes, Aldrich saw an opportunity and re-activated his [Phantasmal Mask] to get out of his grave and shift through a massive crowd of zombies and skeletons. He looked up to see a tform of ice hovering above the masses of growling and chattering undead, and on top of it, only ten viins remained, desperately crouching on this ice tform to avoid the infinite masses of undead below. The original thirty or so viins left behind here had fought admirably, beating back undead from every direction with their powers, but eventually, they began to grow tired. Individually, all of them were considerably stronger than the average skeleton or zombie, but the numbers of the lesser undead were unending. Where the undead never tired and never feared, the viins ran out of stamina, and as they felt their energy and powers slipping from them, they felt fear. As soon as a few of them, especially the ones with area of effect abilities, fell to the undead horde, the entire group started to fall apart and get swarmed. Now, thest ten were reduced to relying on a Creator ss Alter that could form ice constructs. Normally, this individual could not generate ice constructs above their own body mass, but with the help of an Editor ss alter that boosted his power, their floating ice tform managed tofortably carry all ten remaining, beaten and battered viins over the undead below. Of course, this did not guarantee their safety. The zombies and skeletons piled on top of each other, generating ramps of sheer packed bodies to reach the tform, but from a high vantage point, the viins could defend themselves against fewer targets more efficiently, staving off their inevitable doom for just a while longer. Aldrich was after the Editor, the prime sample for Fler''Gan. He casted [Negative Surge] on himself, boosting his stats before jumping straight up, phasing through the ice tform. [Mana: 183/183 ] 168/183] Aldrich unphased and became visible as hended on the ice tform. His suit was now gone, reced with his freshly materialized Grave Reaper equipment. "Hostile! Hostile!" "Somebody fuck him up!" Aldrich immediately heard cries of panic and calls for violence against him. In response, he activated his [Spinal Bracers of the Grave Reaper], crashing the spine shaped golden ornaments on his wrists together. All around him, wailing, ghostly green skull spirits spread out in a circle. The viins cried out in surprise as the skulls crashed into them, sapping them of their life force and, for the extreme unlucky ones, instantly killing them. The attack was not meant to kill them, it was mostly meant for Aldrich to make space while he handled the ice generating Alter and Editor at the center of the tform. Once those two were gone, the undead below would take care of everyone else. Some of the viins, their nerves already on edge from facing a supernatural zombie and skeleton horde attack, screamed in terror at the approaching skulls, losing their bnce and slipping off the ledge the ice tform, falling into their deaths below. The other viins that managed to stay rooted to the tform focused entirely on dodging the threatening cursed skulls, their selfish, uncoordinated minds not at all primed to help the Creator that held up the very lifeboat of ice they relied upon. This left Aldrich entirely alone with his designated targets. The ice generator was preupied maintaining the tform, kneeling in the center of the tform with both his hands nted down, sweat dripping from his pale forehead. The Editor stood right behind the tform generator. A thread of red energy connected the ice alter''s back to the Editor''s fingertips. Both of them stared at Aldrich helplessly as they saw that all of their supposed allied viins - the ones who could fight back - were either dead, too busy with Aldrich''s skull attack, or simply too scared to approach. Aldrich worked quickly and efficiently. Before the ice generator could divert his power from the tform to Aldrich, Aldrich rushed in with superhuman speed andnded a spinning heel kick right into the ice Alter''s jaw, knocking him out and breaking his jaw. The tform of ice remained intact for just a few more seconds after the Alter went unconscious, and Aldrich used this time to m a punch into the Editor''s stomach, keeling him over. Then, Aldrich casted [Horror Warp], wrapping his hand in a malevolent aura of cloudy darkness dotted with gleaming red eyes. He smothered the Editor''s face with the cloud of dark, immediately sinking him into a nightmare from which there was no easy or quick waking. [-20 Mana] [Mana: 148/183] The Editor fell down face first, unconscious, and Aldrich grabbed him by his cor before tapping his Phctery and calling out to his Chrysalis. The purple orb in his chest glowed and crackled before a tear of space appeared in front of it, forming into a vantack orb from which several hooked tendrils of darkness burst out, abducting the Editor and sucking him into the dimension of the Chrysalis. [Portal Usages: 3 ] 2] So far, the Chrysalis could maintain about 3 portal openings into its dimension over the course of a single day before it had to enter a charging dormant period. This included portals for both taking things in and taking things out, so these were precious few charges to work with. Hopefully, when Aldrich became a proper lich, this would change. Fler''Gan theorized that once Aldrich became a lich and fully ced his soul into the phctery, the Chrysalis would react with it and be massively stronger, binding directly with Aldrich''s soul to be a part of him. Aldrich then jumped off the tform as it broke apart, leaving the rest of the viins to die against the swarm of undead below. "No! No! No!" "Stop! Help us!" "M-mother!" Screams of terror echoed for a brief few seconds before they were choked out by a tidal wave of hungry undead. Aldrich survived by using hisntern''s active skill, casting a disintegrating ray down at hisnding zone that turned a small crowd of skeletons and zombies into dust. He then kept hisntern active as long as possible and ran straight forwards, not sparing even a single moment to stop as the moment he did, he would get swarmed Granted, Aldrich could probably break free from a swarm through sheer physical stats alone, but he did not want to deal with the inconvenience. When Aldrich''s [Phantasmal Mask] came off cooldown the moment hisntern''s active disintegrating ray faded away, he used the mask again, turning invisible and shifting through the enormous throng of walking corpses and bones. From his first attempt at this quest, he had memorized exactly where to go to leave the crypt level, and with phasing, he could just move through terrain like pirs and walls. The only things he could not phase through were ceilings and walls leading out of the Necropolis - these seemed to be indestructible and unpassable. At the end of the crypt, Aldrich jumped atop a staircase leading straight up into a ghostly green fog door. Here, he sat on the stairs, watching as a crowd of zombies and skeletons started to growl and groan as they piled at the bottom. They could not scale up the stairs. It was not in their ''coded'' behavior. Aldrich sat on a stair and put hisntern down by the side, lighting up the masses of undead trying to reach out to him from below. He looked at them but did not focus on them, his fingers interlocked together in calm thought as his sight instead focused on observing his targets. He kept tabs on Seth Sr, ckwater''s A-ss, and the Butcher in the meanwhile. The Grave Wards were far, far slower than them, but the viins reliably cleared out threats that could take out the Grave Wards. And once Aldrich''s targets reached higher floors, the viins would slow down their rate of progress tremendously as they started to fight stronger and stronger threats, at which point the Grave Wards could keep a much closer eye on them. Aldrich would tail them from behind, and when their numbers grew small, when all that was left was the Butcher and Seth Sr - the two strongest of them all and the ones he needed alive the most - he would strike. Chapter 69: {Unending Misery}

Chapter 69: {Unending Misery}

"H-help!" A C-rank viin used his arms to crawl his way across burnt stone, his fingertips melting and sizzling on charred ck stone as he tried to drag his legless body towards Seth Sr. A trail of blood and entrails painted the dull grey stone beneath in bright red. Behind himy the torn apart corpses of the low-ranking viins invited to the Red Cricle. He was thest among them, the highest ranked at C, but even that was not enough to survive. All around him were scattered countless bones apanied by racks of fallen over armor and medieval weaponry. These bones would shiver and rattle before floating and attaching together into the form of arge, imposing skeletal figure. Armor and weapons would gravitate towards the skeletons, arming them. Skeletal Knights. One of these knights tread over to the viin, raising a longsword in the air and staring down at him with a cold, unfeeling green glint in its empty eye sockets. The longsword sank into the viin''s chest, and the skeletal knight twisted the de, ending the viin in one clean execution. "Tsk. Fucking weaklings, all of them," said Simon Wells as he looked briefly back, his red visor magnifying the scene of the viin''s death. "Sh*t!" Simon jerked around in pure fear as he heard whistling near his head. Arge arrow, big enough to skewer through a cow clean through, stopped mere inches away from his head. Seth Sr grabbed the arrow in mid-air. "Stop fucking around!" Seth growled as he tossed the arrow back to a Skeletal Archer Knight, making sure to throw it so that the wider surface area of the shaft smashed into the bone creature with immense impact, blowing the skeleton apart. Archers sitting on ramparts circling pirs rained down giant arrows. "Alexis, shield and support!" roared Seth, his voice booming andmanding. Alexis, rank 8 in ckwater''s A ss nodded. She gulped in a breath, and as she held her breath, her pale blue eyes turnedpletely white. Winds started to howl and whirl around her, picking up bones and debris, and in an instant, wind currents formed into a rapidly circting barrier all around ckwater''s A-ss. Any arrows that touched this barrier blew backwards. Bolts of lightning also crackled from the barrier, hitting skeletal knights and sting them back. "Zayn!" Seth Sr hovered in the air, drawing arrow fire. Arrows bounced off of his skin, dealing no damage. Zayn flew up by Seth''s side, his ck feathered arms now morphed into full wings. His head had shifted into an aquiline, beaked form, turning him into a humanoid eagle mutant. He sped through the ramparts with acrobatic agility, throwing out volleys ofrge, de like feathers. The feathers were aimed specifically to sever the skeleton''s arms, making them drop their bows. This left Seth Sr for cleanup. He hovered from rampart to rampart, unleashing his sr beam in shes of brilliant gold. The beams turned the skeletons into dust, preventing them from ever piecing back together. "Quite excellent," said Valus as he hovered behind them, observing. "You ckwater students will indeed make fine additions to the Dark Six. I will ensure that once we are out of this mess, the Trident will hear all about your fine talents. But still, to think we are nine floors through this strange ce without a single exit in sight." "Smash, take bones!" The Butcher bellowed from below. He was no in the protection of Alexis''s barrier, but he was invulnerable to conventional damage like this anyway. A dozen arrows stuck out of his body as did swords and bones from destroyed skeletons, but instead of drawing blood, they just jutted into his body like he was made of flesh colored dough. The Butcher mmed grabbed a skeletal knight and smashed it against the floor, blowing it apart into pieces. Any leftover pieces assimted into the Butcher''s flesh, turning into raw biomass for him to continually regenerate. With the Butcher on the ground, any skeleton knights that threatened the A ss were of no threat. The Butcher was practically made to fightrge groups of weaker enemies with his power that let him absorb organic and some inorganic matter and pad it to his own body mass. It also allowed him to link with the nervous system of those he swallowed, letting him control and amplify their pain. Alexis exhaled as she took down her barrier of wind. "We''ve been trapped in a pocket dimension," said Evan. He was useless here without his drones, and ordinarily, he would have been left behind to die. But as a member of Seth''s gang, he was spared the fate of the rest of the technos who had no technology to work with. "No signal anywhere, no GPS - this is the only exnation." "Then we just have to wait this out, right?" said Simon. "A power like this that can keep fifty Alters trapped is no joke. It must have an insane energy upkeep. What was thatw again?" "The Tartarus Effect," said Evan. "Powers that can move objects into another dimension or pocket of space tend to be unable to trap Alters, and when they do, they cost massive amounts of energy. The more Alters or Variants it traps, the higher the cost gets." "We''ve been here for over half an hour!" shouted Seth Sr. "I can''t smash through the walls and we don''t have anyone to scan for exits! All we can do is just take stair after stair after fucking stair!" "Stay calm, boy," said Valus as he came to Seth''s side. Seth whirled around aggressively with his fist cocked back. "You throw that punch at me, and your arm turns into dust," said Valus. "Not before I cave your skull in," said Seth with venom oozing in his voice. "You heard what your techno said. There is a limit to his trick," said Valus. "The known record for dimensional entrapment barely exceeds a single hour. And even that was achieved only through the S ss hero Superspace sacrificing his life in the Sinking of Neo-Moscow. Say that Bruce Vane, who wants us dead for some quaint reason, hired some unknown, one in a million talent who could trap us here. Do you truly think he could keep us here for over an hour? Over what a S ss hero could do?" "So then what? We just sit on our asses and wait here?" said Seth Sr. "Yes, that is exactly what I am proposing," said Valus. "The higher we go in this dimension, the more troublesome these enemies be. Why bother? Simply stay here until it is done." The ckwater students nodded and agreed among themselves. Their expressions started to brighten, and a few of them started to sigh in relief. They had gotten so tense and worked up from being ported to this strange space that they had not considered that they could just wait it all out. But now, the answer just seemed so easy: all they had to do was wait. "So then what? We just sit on our asses and wait here?" said Seth Sr. "Yes. That''s exactly what I''m proposing," said Valus. "¡­Fine. We''ll do it your way," said Seth Sr. == Thirty more minutes passed. Thirty minutes turned into an hour. An hour bled into an hour and a half. And that finally reached two hours. Seth finishedsering a new batch of infinitely respawning skeleton knights. Thankfully, they only reanimated in intervals of ten minutes, making them easy to deal with in waves. But that wasn''t the issue here. The issue was that everyone had wasted time and precious energy sitting in one spot aplishing exactly nothing. "You fucker! Keeping us here - you''re working for him, aren''t you? That cocksucker Bruce Vane? Making us waste our energy, huh!?" Seth Sr aimed his glowing golden eyes at Valus. "N-no, that is not true!" Valus''s calm andposed exterior now began to break apart as his confidence in believing he would survive, that he would get out of this just by waiting, began to fade. "I-I don''t know. This¡­this is entirely unprecedented." "Me getting tired of breaking bones!"ined the Butcher as he finished tearing apart a few more skeleton knights. Chapter 70: {One By One}

Chapter 70: {One By One}

When Seth Sr passed through the foggy green portal into the tenth floor, he snarled almost animalistically as he stared with gleaming gold eyes at yet another host of enemies. There were no skeletons here. Instead, a legion ofrge, bulky knights wearing spiked ck armor with faces of dried, pale flesh and sunken in, gleaming green eyes stood at guard with halberds and shields. Behind this legion of twenty knights, one knight in crimson red armor and pale white, unblemished skin stood tall and proud. "Strike them down!" said the crimson knight. "You can talk!?" Seth smiled. "Good. I''ll beat some answers out of you!" Seth flew forwards at such velocity that he pierced through the line of shield bearing knights with utter ease, generating a shockwave of force that blew them backwards. He mmed into the crimson knight and drove the knight into the ground, dragging the knight several dozen meters. Metal screamed and sparks flew as the knight''s back armor scraped against the rocky floor. "Tell me how to get out of here!" roared Seth as he held down the crimson knight with one hand while cocking back the other in a ready fist to smash through the knight''s face. The knight''s eyes gleamed red as he gave out amand that echoed through the dull grey hallway. "Do not care for me, my knights! Defeat the rest of the intruders!" "Wrong. Answer." Seth mmed his hand around the crimson knight''s helmet and applied crushing force. His insane strength let his fingers dent into the helmet, and he ripped it off, revealing a pale face with red eyes andrge, bloodsucking fangs. "Some kind of fucking vampire¡­?" said Seth in wonder. So far, everything he and the viins had seen so far in this ce had been out of some kind of horror movie. Zombies and skeletons and now vampires? What was this? The only exnation he could think of was that this was an Alter power that could manipte and warp reality to create what the user''s mind wanted. The vampire knight hissed as he swiped with his gauntlets, throwing out a scything de of crimson energy from his fingertips. Seth took the hit straight in his chest and flew back a few meters from the force of impact. A clean cut stretched across the chest of his green suit, but the invincible skin underneath was utterly unharmed. His eyes glowed gold as he shot down a beam of sr energy, aiming it at the vampire''s legs. The vampire screamed in agony as the sunlight turned his legs into dust. "Weak to sunlight just like the movies. Doesn''t that make this easy?" said Seth. He floated down and nted a triumphant foot on the vampire''s chest. "Now, tell me how to get out of here, or else the rest of you crumbles to dust." "Y-you intruders will find no answer from me. For there is no escape," said the knight, smiling. "There is no glorious victory for you. All of you¡­all of you are destined to die. To be sacrifices in the Ritual of Eternity." "No escape? Ritual? Stop bullsh*tting me and give me real answers." Seth applied pressure on the vampire knight''s breastte with his foot, caving it in slowly and painfully. The vampire knight only smiled as his ribs and spine shattered. Seth stomped his foot straight through the vampire knight''s chest. He knew that the vampire had no intention of telling him anything. It was in the knight''s eyes. Resolute, almost fanatic determination. For good measure, hesered the vampire into dust before flying back. When Seth turned around to see the rest of the A ss still fighting the knights, he muttered to himself. "Weaklings¡­" He flew back, showering sr beams on knights, disintegrating them near instantly. With precision shots, he eliminated the knights with quick efficiency. "Seth! Here!" called out Simon. Seth floated down by Simon where their gang gathered around Evan Harker''s limp body. Several gaping halberd wounds in his stomach showed the cause of obvious death. "Alexis! Where was your barrier!?" snarled Seth. Alexis turned pale as she stepped back. "I-I tried, but their weapons had this dark energy around them, it made them phase right through!" "It''s true," said Simon. "Just sh*t luck that Evan happened to be the slowest out of us to dodge it." "He was dead weight anyway," said Zayn. "Without his drones, he would have dragged us down at some point." Seth looked down at Evan''s lifeless, bleeding body, and he just shrugged. "Zayn''s right. He was going to be useless at some point here." He turned to Valus and the Butcher angrily. "You two, you''re Trident, right? If you aren''t working for Bruce Vane, then tell me, shouldn''t the Trident be storming the Red Circle by now? Tearing that fucking ce down brick by brick?" "Yes," said Valus. "The Trident does not take attacks on them lightly, and they would have noticed my disappearance. An attack on a Connector, the diplomat and news bearer of the criminal underworld, is a serious offense met only with force. We do not have the strongest presence in Haven, but over two hours have passed. By now, Trident forces from surrounding cities and bases should have reduced the entire ce to rubble." "Yeah?" Seth Sr''s eyes glowed as he stared menacingly at Valus. "Then why haven''t they caught the guy generating this dimension, huh? Why are we still here?" "I told you, I do not know!" said Valus, panicked. His Dematerialization Field could most forms of solid matter into dust, but it could not deal with pure energy attacks like Seth''s heat beams. "I say we kill him and move on," said Zayn. "Yeah," said Seth Sr. "If you kill me, the Butcher will go on a rampage, and by now, he has feasted on so many corpses that even you will not put him down lightly!" said Valus as he hid behind the Butcher''s enormous, stitch-covered bulk. "Don''t hurt him!" said the Butcher. "And think about this, why would we risk our lives for this!? We were set up, I''m telling you, set up just like all of you!" continued Valus. "Won''t do good to waste energy fighting among ourselves," agreed Simon. "And they can still be useful." "Then you two, stay in front. Any threat we face from now on, you two take first," said Seth. His eyes shed with threat. "Otherwise, both of you die. You think I can''t kill this fat fuck on my own? I have more than enough sr energy left in me to turn him into a pile of ash. Think he can regenerate from that?" "We will do as you say!" said Valus. He tapped the Butcher, and together, they moved at the head of the group. = Eleventh floor: The eleventh floorprised of a narrowbyrinth of traps and puzzles. If a step was made on the wrong trigger te, ming arrows would fire or perhaps a boulder would roll down to crush individuals or a trapdoor would open to reveal hideous tentacled monstrosities. If a puzzle at certain indestructible doors was not solved properly, then more traps like toxic gas or spikes or animated golems of flesh and bone would emerge. "Fuck!" Seth Sr smashed his fist into another indestructible puzzle door after he failed yet again to solve it. It involved answering a riddle. "Fuck that Evan! He knew all this puzzle and riddle bullsh*t! He was our brains! Our analyst! He would have solved all this so easily! And he had to die like that on us!" "He died because you left us to fend for ourselves back there," said a ckwater A-ss student. Some kid called Jonas. Rank 14. Could fire rays of adjustable gravity from his hands. Seth Sr whirled around andsered Jonas in the face, melting his head away into molten, gooey flesh. His decapitated body knelt on the ground, limp and lifeless. "Anyone else want to question me?" said Seth as he looked out at the terrified A ss. Only Zayn remained unfazed, staying at Seth''s side with confidence. "That''s what I thought," said Seth. == Aldrich trailed Seth''s group from two floors behind, constantly keeping watch. He watched as their numbers thinned floor by floor. On the twelfth floor, they had to face a zombie giant who smashed Alexis''s barrier with a skill called [Bastion Break] meant for breaking through shields, ttening several ckwater A ss students who thought they were safe under it. This also killed Simon Wells, one of Seth Sr''s gang. Now there were just two left. Seth Sr and Zayn Soldata. The two strongest of them all. The Butcher also survived due to the nature of his ability granting him exceptional resilience and regenerative power. Valus also managed to hold onto his life with his disintegrating barrier and the Butcher''s protection. But slowly, floor by floor, their numbers were thinning out. One by one, Aldrich saw the lives of those who had wronged him snuff out under undead might, and he felt nothing but satisfaction. The only way he could have made this better was if he had been there to personally kill them, but in life, there was alwayspromise. So long as he got to kill the Butcher and Seth Sr personally, he had no qualms about how things had gone, especially ording to his original expectations. He had expected his ''party'' to reach the fifteenth floor, but not without significant losses. It seemed that the enemies of the floors from 1-10 were all around the same level threshold of 1-10 with some strong individual units nearing level 20, but after floor 10, almost all the enemies leveled up to the 20-30 range. At the level 20-30 range, death knights could reliably beat D ss viins and fight evenly with C ss viins. The majority of ckwater''s A ss had the potential to be high B or A rank viins based on Alter Cell count alone, but the key word was potential. They were still young and untrained, not to mention the fact that their Alter powers had not matured with age. Alter Cell count only showed a rough estimate of an Alter''s max potential. Actually training the body and powers to reach that potential took years and years of biological growth and personal effort. Overall, most of the ckwater A ss were at the mid to high C rank level in terms ofbat prowess. As a result, Aldrich fully expected most of the A ss to lose their lives from floors 10 onwards unless Seth Sr, who was most definitely an A ranked threat, helped them out generously. Granted, Seth had surprised Aldrich by being considerably more tactical than expected, rallying the A ss and having them protect each other with tactical defenses and offenses, but Seth''s selfish nature showed itself as he increasingly began to leave behind his fellow A ss students when they became more and more of a drag. By the time they reached the fifteenth floor, the group had been culled down only to a few remaining powerhouses that stood head and shoulder above the rest. Valus, the Butcher, Seth Sr, and Zayn Soldata. Zayn was interesting. It seemed he had been hiding his power in ckwater, sandbagging at rank 8 when in reality he could sacrifice more and more of his human form to be increasingly monstrous and stronger until it was clear that he could keep up with even Seth Sr. And now, as Aldrich saw them pass through the portal to the fifteenth floor, the floor requirement for Aldrich toplete his Ritual of Eternity, he could see everything he wanted, his vengeance, his power, so close to him, close enough to seize and make his own if he waited just a little bit longer. Yet when the group of viins entered the fifteenth floor, Aldrich felt distinct surprise - Chapter 71: {Volantis, the Tyrant of Bone}

Chapter 71: {Vntis, the Tyrant of Bone}

When Seth Sr reached the fifteenth floor, he found the entire ce covered in pitch ck darkness. He started to emit some sr energy from himself, lighting up the area to reveal a narrow hallway. The hallway''s walls were decorated with stone carved into the shape of countless bones. Skulls, ribs, femurs - any type of bone from the human body on top of bones from strange creatures Seth had no idea about. He saw ahead that Valus and the Butcher had stopped in front of arge doorprised of thick white fog, forming a nearly solid veil which they were hesitant to pass through. "Go!" shouted Seth. "You''re our scouts, aren''t you?" "I do not have the greatest feeling about what lies past this wall," said Valus. "Dangerous," agreed the Butcher. "Yeah?" Seth''s eyes shone. "Is It going to be any worse than me? Either you go through it, or you die." Seth was almost bluffing at this point. His version of the Sunlight Overdrive power was less efficient than his father''s. Where his father could famously fight for three days without rest and without even losing strength, Seth could only fight at high strength for six hours. It had not been six hours yet, but sr beams drained the most energy, and he had to use them liberally because most of the monstrosities here did not stay down from powerful punches. They needed to burn to fully stay dead. Seth had enough energy in him for a few more strong fights, but he could not afford to waste power burning down the Butcher. Thankfully, Valus submitted to Seth and waved the Butcher forward. "Come on, Butcher, show us the way," said Valus. "Don''t want to," said the Butcher. "You must," said Valus. Butcher shook his head. "Here, how about this, you go ahead, and I''ll give you as many people to carve up as you want," said Valus. "As many as you want!" "Really? As many as I want?" said the Butcher as he smiled gleefully and hopped in delight, his rolls of stitched fat and flesh jiggling as he did so. "Yes, as many as you want," said Valus. "Ok then, I go!" The Butcher immediately powered his way through the door of white fog. "If I get out of this alive," said Valus. "The Trident will hear of your mistreatment against me as well." "Shut up and go," said Seth. Valus sighed and moved forward, fading into the fog. "My instincts are¡­telling me¡­not¡­to go," said Zayn. By now, he had morphed into the size of arge car, his armspletely morphed into giant, bushy feathered ck wings. His eyes gleamed red while he tried his hardest to utter out words from his distorted vocal chords through this beak. "Yeah, but what choice do we have? You of all people should know this," said Seth. He patted Zayn''s back. If there was anyone in this world that Seth respected or even remotely cared about, it was Zayn. They were both born and bred for lives they had no choice to live. Where Seth was born to be a viin, Zayn was gically engineered to be a monstrosity, an obscene hidden corporate experiment in the middle east where Alterhuman wombs were inseminated with Variant seed. Zayn would have been bred to be a half human, half variant monster used like an attack dog, but he had escaped, bing a mercenary from the age of ten to survive. "True¡­," Zayn moved forwards, fading into the fog. Seth followed shortly behind. Beyond the fog gate was a circr space two hundred meters in radius and fifty meters high. The ceiling was domed and decorated with lines of spines and ribcages leading into a central point. Each of these spines ended with a huge lizard-like skull. A total of twelve skulls stared at the center of the dome where a crimson red orb glowed. The walls of this ce were decorated with bone as well, and at the center, a towering throneposed of bones meshed together stood tall. Seated atop the throne was an enormous, armored man with his wed guantlets drawn together. It was hard to tell whether the thing was actually a man or not. It sat so perfectly still that it was debatable whether it just a piece of armor. The armor was obsidian ck and practically oozed threat. The armor jutted and curved into rough spikes around the shoulders and arms. Around the breastte down to the torso, the metal seemed to be hewn into the shape of rough, jagged scales. Dull white, almost gold bone outlined the armor''s spikes and edges, padding particrly heavily around the gauntlet areas to form enormous, ded spikes lined with glowing, fleshy crimson red that seemed almost alive in a raw, primal way. The helmet of the armor curved up into threerge horns, the middle of which formed the visage of a bone capped, ded crown. There was no gap in the helmet to show any flesh or eyes beneath, there was only a single glowing red orb at the center of the helm. "Stop looking and go!" said Seth after he stood in awe for a few seconds at the armor. A sense of dreadful power emanated from the obsidian construct that made it hard for anyone to approach. Valus and the Butcher inched forwards, and when they got within thirty meters of the armor, an echoing voice projected form it. It was deep and guttural, utterly inhuman and sinister in its tenor. "Where among you is the Necromancer that wishes to fulfill the Ritual of Eternity? I, Vntis, the Tyrant of Bone, seventh among the Deathguard, shall test you. Fell my health below half, and the Obelisk that you seek shall be yours." Vntis stared at Valus and the Butcher with the glowing red eye in his helmet. Then he stared at Seth Sr and Zayn. "The Necromancer is not here. I see. He brings forth his minions to do his bidding. Such is the way of those that follow the ultation of Legion." Vntis stood up, the metal of his armor groaning threateningly, and he utterly towered over Velus and even the butcher, standing at four meters tall. Bloody crimson strands of energy started to emanate from edges and gaps in his armor. "No matter. I will sunder your flesh and take your bones into my collection. I will show the Legion the might of the Shattered Bone." Vntis took a step forward, and as he left his throne, it faded and disappeared. Velus immediately shrieked. "Butcher! Kill him!" said Velus as he floated backwards. "Go away, monster!" said the Butcher as he shoulder charged into Vntis. Vntis clenched his wed gauntlets into a fist and cocked it back. Therge spikes on his forearms, constructs of metal, crimson flesh, and bone, glowed with bloody power, and he mmed his fist inteo the Butcher''s shoulder. The punch generated a shockwave of staggering force that made Vntis skid back while sending the Butcher, his entire near one ton of weight, hurtling through the air. "Respectable power for one who seemingly holds no magic within them," said Vntis as he stared at his fist. "But I was warned by the Lord that there are those that need not devote themselves to the mystic arts to gain strength. Curious. This will make your bones ever the more worth harvesting." Seth Sr flew in the air andunched twin sr beams while Zayn circled above, unleashing volleys of giant ded feathers at speeds easily outstripping the speed of sound. "Hmph." Vntis raised his arm up, and walls of bone emerged all around him, blocking the heat beams and mass volley of feathers. "So all of you possess powers that do not depend upon the Swirl of Mana." Vntis smashed his fist into the ground, causing the bone wall to st apart omni-directionally. The Butcher took the attack head on, the huge bone shards gouging into his flesh like oversized buckshot. Velus blocked the bones with his disintegration field. Zayn let the attacks hit him, but they bounced off his thick coat of durable feathers that formed a powerful armor. Seth Sr guarded his face as the bones shattered against his invincible flesh, though this time, he felt cuts and nicks where the bones smashed against him. This thing was strong. Way stronger than any of the other odd creatures that Seth had seen so far in this dimension. If he had to put a variant ranking to this, it would be a B ranked disaster variant at the minimum. "[Bone Lance Volley]!" shouted Vntis as he pointed his ws at Seth Sr. A red magic circle formed in front of his hand and from it, a mass number of giant ribs shot forth like spears. Seth maneuvered around the bones. Meanwhile, the Butcher charged again on the ground. "[Giant''s Bone Hold]" Vntis mmed his spiked, greaved foot into the ground. Two enormous skeletal hands erupted form beneath the Butcher, grasping himpletely in a tight hold. A volley of ck feathers crashed into Vntis''s back, etching out sparks and ngs of impact. The feathers jutted out of gaps in the armor, but seemingly did no real damage. "Hmph. This type of damage is nigh meaningless against me," said Vntis as he crouched, generating power before shooting up like a meteor towards Zayn. Seth Sr zipped in front of Zayn and blocked Vntis''s giant fist with his own. Another shockwave of impact permeated outwards. "Impressive," said Vntis. "Fuck off!" Seth Sr fired a beam of sr energy that smashed directly into Vntis''s face. The beam of gold instantly drove Vntis down in diagonal descent into the ground, smashing out a sizable crater on impact. "Hmph." Vntis knelt as he put his hand out, blocking the beam. Heat waves shimmered around his gauntlets as the ck metal turned red hot, then white hot. "This is considerable damage, yes. But I will not stand here and take it." Vntis opened his other hand, and a chakram of linked and sharped bones formed. He tossed the chakram towards Seth Sr, away from the beam of sr energy, and it curved its trajectory to meet Seth Sr''s head. An expertly aimed feather struck the chakram and sent it off course, evading Seth''s head by a hair. "Good teamwork. Commendable." Vntis rolled to the side, causing Seth''s beam to strike ground. He then stood up and chanted. "[Morph: Boneguard Asura]" Sixrge skeletal arms spread out from Vntis''s back, and in each of them, bone chakrams formed. He began to throw out these chakrams at supersonic velocity, recing them as soon as they were sent out. Within ten seconds, there were over fifty chakrams flying all across the circr arena, pinging off the walls and each other to create a mass game of pinball where evading hits became a nigh impossibility. Seth Sr and Zayn dodged like mad, but even then, they suffered attacks here and there. Seth looked down at Velus who cowered in the back,pletely fine because his disintegration field destroyed the chakrams as soon as they came in range. "Velus! You useless fuck! Go up there and touch him! Disintegrate him!" said Seth. "While he''s throwing these boomerangs around, he can''t move!" Chapter 72: {volantis, The Tyrant Of Bone 2}

Chapter 72: {vntis, The Tyrant Of Bone 2}

Velus floated towards Vntis''s imposing, giant metal form as his total of eight arms moved rapidly, manifesting and throwing out bone chakrams at such speed that they became blurs. The closer Velus got to Vntis, the thicker this storm of chakrams became, but because they were solid matter, Velus''s disintegration field broke the endless flurry of ded projectiles before they could shred Velus into pieces. Velus trembled as he hovered forwards. The only thing he could hear was the intense cacophony of bone smashing against rock and the only thing he could see amid this storm of white bone was Vntis''s gleaming red, orb like eye. That eye stared directly at Velus. "How amusing. You would challenge me straight on though your bones are frail. Thene! Show me you deserve the flesh that hides away your bones!" roared Vntis. Velus took in a deep breath andnded on his feet, staring at that terrible red eye that shed with eager anticipation. He was not a fighter, he never really had been. As a Connector that functioned like a diplomat in the criminal world, he never saw fighting as he was forbidden to attack others and others were forbidden to attack him. But he knew that it was now or never. Velus closed his eyes and sprinted with his arms outstretched, trying to disintegrate Vntis. "W-what?" Velus opened his eyes as he felt himself pass through Vntis. He looked back and saw that he had passed right through the giant creature, disintegrating out a man-sized hole inside the armor. Vntis stopped moving as the red light in his helmet eye dimmed down. His skeleton arms turned into dust while his regr arms fell to his sides. He slouched over, limp. The giant skeletal hands trapping the Butcher broke apart, revealing the B rank viin no worse off for wear. Seth Sr and Zayn tanked and dodged through thest volley of chakrams with several bleeding cuts but no severe injuries. They hovered in the air as they looked down at Vntis. "I''ve killed it!" said Velus triumphantly. "Where all you so called soldiers could do nothing but fear, I managed to kill it!" "The fuck¡­?" Seth looked into the hole in Vntis''s armor and saw that there was no flesh inside it. Just a sort of shadow darkness that flickered like miasma. Vntis had no physical body within. "Commendable, human." Vntis''s voice echoed out as he suddenly moved, the red light in his eye glowing again. He reached out and ced his hands on either side of Velus. Velus flinched, but Vntis did not touch Velus. "You have managed topletely break down this proud armor of mine, but I am no being of flesh and blood. I am Living Armor, and disintegration alone shall not end me unless it is absolute." Red swirls of energy formed around Vntis''s ck gauntlet ws, and these struck Velus from either side, encasing him in an aura of red. Vntis raised Velus in the air using this crimson energy tether. "And as Living Armor, I am also Demon. And as Demon, your soul is mine to feast upon." Vntis made a tearing motion with his ws, and Velus screamed before a faint red silhouette of himself emerged from his body, funneling into Vntis''s red eye orb. Vntis dropped Velus''s limp, dead body. "Your defense, this barrier that breaks down all manner of construct, was worthy of praise. But with flesh as frail as yours, your soul bes far too easy to take." "No! Snack Man!" The Butcher roared as he barreled towards Vntis after seeing his handler and caretaker die. He mmed two giant fists down into Vntis''s shoulders. Vntis took the attack head on, and the force of it shattered the stone beneath his greaves. The disintegrated parts of his armor started to patch back, regenerating as if new. "And you, your flesh is sturdy, too strong to sever your soul from, but you wield the strength of this flesh with the poise of a simple-minded fool." Vntis''s bone and ck metal armor glowed before covering itself with raw red muscle fibers that threaded out from its gaps and seams. Vntisnded a clean left and right punchbo on the Butcher''s head, disorienting the mad man and driving him a few steps back. The Butcher snarled and swung his tree trunk of an arm wildly, trying to club Vntis away. Vntis parried the swing with an elbow strike to divert the blow away beforending a powerful punch to the Butcher''s portly stomach. While the Butcher keeled over, Vntis followed that up with an uppercut that sent the madman flying backwards with several seconds of airtime. "That is how you properly wield strength," said Vntis in a lecturing tone as the Butcher crashed into the ground heavily, groaning in pain. Vntis then grunted as aser beam sted into his body, driving him into the ground in a crater. All the muscle fibers theser beam hit sizzled and melted away. "[Organ Stitching: Pyro nds]" Vntis used Shattered Bone necromancy to channel the flesh, organs, and bones of creatures he had assimted into himself. Previously he had been using the spell [Organ Stitching: Giant Muscles] to cover himself with the muscle fibers of a giant. Now, he turned his metallic, bony armor dark brown, changing its hard exterior into a rubberier form. This was flesh from the me generating organs of dragons. Highly resistant to fire damage. Vntis stood up, easily withstanding the sr beams now. However, volleys of giant ck feathers pierced through his softened armor, piercing right through him. But since he was a Living Armor that had no vital organs to really pierce through, piercing damage like this did almost nothing to him. "[Part Stitching: Drake Wings]" Vntis''s armor body shuddered as tworge draconic, ck scaled wings sprouted from his back. He leaped into the air while elerating himself with his wings. The sudden speed let him catch Zayn by surprise, and hended a powerful punch that sent Zayn crashing into the ceiling like a pinball. Seth Sr retaliated with a punch that Vntis blocked with a guard, but it was heavy enough to drive him back dozens of meters in the air before he stopped himself with a p of his wings. "Your raw might is exceptional. It outstrips even mine. I would require muscle stitching merely to keep up with it," said Vntis. "You alone may reduce me to half my health. Yet without your Necromancer to appear before me, I cannot recognize this trial. That is, unless you kill me fully. Then, I will have no choice but to cede the Obelisk. "Yeah? You''re still not even down to ''half health'', whatever the fuck that means, after all that?" said Seth Sr. "Did you think defeating one of the five Deathguard would be a mere simple task?" scoffed Vntis. "Alright. Alright then." Seth Sr red at Vntis as Zayn flew to his side. "Zayn, stand back. I''m taking care of this," said Seth. "I''m going to kill this fucker. If I kill him, this whole thing ends." Zayn understood what Seth wanted to do and nodded his eagle head, flying away. "A duel? I will dly take one," said Vntis. "There is no better way to take the bones from flesh than in a proper duel where what is desired is taken rightfully." Seth reached into his tattered coat''s pocket where he withdrew his cases of Boost. He snapped open the ck case, took out a vial of azure blue liquid, and uncorked it, drinking the liquid down. "Zayn!" Seth tossed the rest of the case down and Zayn caught it gently in his beak. Seth took in a deep breath as his body started to glow brightly, shining like the sun, illuminating the dark and grey depths of the arena as if a miniature sun had set been set alight within it. His clothes burned away entirely as his body becamepletely dressed in a sheen of bright gold with his eyes a bright shade of pure white. Waves of heat rippled all around him as did strands of bright orange energy reminiscent of the sr res and explosions that scorched the surface of the sun. "It''s about time I ended this," said Seth Sr. "Oppose me if you can, mortal," said Vntis¡­ "I wee the challenge." Chapter 73: Loot And Summons And More

Chapter 73: Loot And Summons And More

Aldrich witnessed the viins start the fight against Vntis the Bone Tyrant and watched only for a brief few minutes before his invisible Grave Ward was destroyed by coteral damage from Vntis''s area of effect bone attacks. That Vntis would appear here was a massive surprise. He was a level 40 boss character and the weakest among five Deathguard that formed the inner circle of powerful troops that served the Death Lord. But even then, he usually guarded the 30th floor of the Necropolis, so to see him so early down in the 15th meant that the Death Lord fully intended on not allowing Aldrich to pass the 15th floor. At the same time, Vntis only needed the viins to reduce him to half health and from an initial survey of his moves, it did not seem like he was using the full extent of his move set. This way, the encounter was ''bnced'' enough that Aldrich could handle it provided he was around level 30. Of course, Aldrich was not even close to level 30. He had gotten around that level requirement by abusing the party system to its maximum extent. Aldrich estimated that Seth Sr by himself could take down Vntis to half health if Vntis continued to handicap himself, at which point, this quest would just end. Vntis might have been nted in the 15th floor to limit how much experience and loot Aldrich could obtain to just what he could scour from the first 14 floors, but even that was enough to boost Aldrich up massively. Aldrich did not know exactly how much experience he had umted because he did not receive it until the end of the quest, and all the items he picked up - mostly suits of armor and weapons - did not go into his inventory but a separate space where like his experience, he would be granted everything at the end of this quest. So far, the best pieces of loot that Aldrich had found were several grades of Reinforcement Shards that were necessary to upgrade or merge equipment into higher ranks. He also found a [Tome of Skeletal Mastery] and [Tome of Necrotic Carnage] specialized in bone-based spells and high damage necromancy spells respectively. These tomes were too high level for Aldrich to use right now, but after this quest, they were all fair game. Even with conservative estimates, Aldrich figured he could reach level 30. The only thing that disappointed Aldrich was that all the equipment here was for knights and warrior types, not spellcasters like him. He would have to find better necromancer sets from the trial quests he could unlock from gaining levels here and use reinforcing shards to upgrade hisntern to a higher rank as trial quest weapons did not get that much better than thentern until past level 50 or 60. Aldrich spawned another Grave Ward and sent it ahead of himself as he entered the tenth floor. In his first attempt, this had been the furthest he could go with his own power before it became too difficult to continue. This floor was essentially a mini boss floor with its legion of death knights and its captain vampire knight. But the viins had cleared it quite reliably with Seth Sr easily smashing his way through it. Here, Aldrich witnessed the carnage that Seth Sr had wrought. Countless burnt ck craters on the ground stacked with the melted corpses of death knights all spoke of Seth Sr''s overwhelming might. Among these corpses was one that interested Aldrich. Evan Harker''s corpse. One of Aldrich''s tormentors now reduced to a lifeless body lying still in a pile of blood pooling from several deep gashes in his stomach. Aldrich put a finger on the back of Evan''s head, and a green sigil formed on it. This marked Evan to be raised forter. The Death Lord had promised that any units that Aldrich wanted to raise here, he could keep. His current units controlled limit was maxed out, but for this quest only, he could mark corpses to be raised forter. After this quest when he gained more levels and attunement points to increase his unit count, he could sort through the list of units he marked forter and keep those best for himself. Aldrich marked as many death knight corpses as he could for himself, and this totaled up to 15 knights. He also marked the Crimson Knight captain''s headless corpse. With that done, Aldrich moved on. The eleventh floor consisted of puzzles that the viins had already solved or brute forced their way through. Any traps they did not deal with, Aldrich was smart enough to solve anyway. Here, the undead were not that strong, it was the traps that made this floor difficult. Any A ss ckwater student corpses that Aldrich saw, however, he marked to raise. The twelfth floor was also a mini boss room of sorts,prising solely of a fight against a zombie giant. Here, the zombie giant had been felled by aser beam to his head thatpletely bore through his brain. Aldrich marked the zombie for raising. He also marked ckwater students that died for raising as well. This included Alexis, the storm generator, and Simon Wells, another of Seth Sr''s gang. Aldrich repeated this process throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth floors, marking most of the ckwater A ss to raise for himself. The only ones he could not raise were those that had been utterly destroyed or their bodies lost to traps. This raising spree also included the strongest monsters on the thirteenth and fourteenth floors. The thirteenth floor consisted of tunnels where Bonewheels, masses of skeletons attached in wheel like configurations, rolled around at high speeds. Here, Aldrich raised a Deathwheel, thergest and strongest of them. The fourteenth floor was a small forest of vampiric nts, and this ce had been thoroughly burned down by Seth Sr''s sr beams. Through the mes, Aldrich could not raise anything, but he did manage to salvage several seeds of vampiric nt monsters. Past the fourteenth floor, Aldrich entered the hallway that connected to Vntis''s boss room. Here, he sent the Grave Ward ahead to check how Seth Sr and the rest of the viins were doing. He saw Vntis still fighting, though his health was halfway down to the 50% threshold. From there, Aldrich continued to watch the fight, recing the Grave Ward several times when it got destroyed by area of effect abilities. At one point, he witnessed a development that made his mind race with possibility. Vntis stated that so long as the Necromancer himself, in this case Aldrich, did not enter the boss room, the trial would not be counted. That is, unless the viins actually managed to kill Vntis. At which point, Seth Sr decided to use the Boost that Aldrich had intentionally let him bring in an all out battle to kill Vntis and end the trial. That made Aldrich wonder about this fight. In all likelihood, with Boost powering him, Seth Sr could actually defeat Vntis, even if Vntis went into his full strength as he had already allowed the viins to reduce him nearly to half health. This was perfect. Aldrich had been mildly disappointed so far that the only items he had found were armor and weapons for warriors. But if Seth Sr managed to kill Vntis, then would Aldrich not have ess to perhaps one of the best armor sets in the entire game? The armor set that could be crafted from Vntis''s dropped boss soul was immensely useful and perhaps the absolute best for a Necromancer that valued survivability and durability. Yet beyond this, Aldrich could now raise the Living Armor Demon for unlike in the game, he had the ability to raise boss level monsters. In the game, the yer character could wear Vntis''s armor set simply as just that, a piece of armor. Vntis himself was dead and could not cast any of his Shattered Bone necromancy spells. What about now, though? If Aldrich raised Vntis fully, then did that not mean he could wear the living armor in its fullest power? With Vntis alive and casting his own abilities? Effectively doubling Aldrich''s strength? Vntis might even have the possibility to level up as by the end of the game, when the yer character and a massive party of fellow heroes assaulted the Necropolis, Vntis had raised himself from level 40 in the first mid game encounter to level 80 as a mini end game boss fight prior to reaching the Death Lord. The possibility of all this powering to Aldrich rested, however, squarely on Seth Sr''s shoulders. Would he defeat Vntis? Especially before the little surprise that Aldrich had put into Seth''s Boost kicked in? It was difficult to tell. All Aldrich could do was wait and hope. And observe. He did not just observe Seth Sr''s fight, he also kept a keen eye on his controlled units status tab. He could not link his sight to anyone from the real world from a different realm, but what he could do was keep track of his list of current undead, seeing their health, mana, and status and noting whether their health went down or up or their skills went on cooldown or so on and so forth. Like this, he tried to stay on top of how the battle in the real world was going - Chapter 74: {red Circle Defense 1}

Chapter 74: {red Circle Defense 1}

The Red Circle - A convoy of three sleek grey armored cars stopped in front of the Red Circle''s first line of defense: the guard tower upied by ''valets'' with a boom barrier that now glowed with energy, ready to release a repelling shockwave anytime a car tried to ram into it. In the guard tower, red coated valets looked down withser sighted assault rifles. Sentry turrets at the top of the tower joined in on this vigil, aiming their barrels at a convoy of three grey, sleekly armored cars. The cars stopped in front of the tower, and from the third car, the passenger door slid open as a white and red suited man with golden shades stepped out while adjusting his cor and gel-spiked hair. A guard apanied the man, and it was obvious that this guard was no joke. He was armored from head to toe in high endbat armor. A miniaturized Etherite reactor created a glowing red circle at his chest, and from there, lines of bright red energy spread throughout like circuitry, powering various add-ons like wrist mounted guns, forearm projected smoid des, personal shielding, and kic energy absorption fiber matrices. In the guard''s hands was a ck assault rifle emzoned with a blue logo consisting of a three headed dragon: the symbol of Imugi War Arts, the highest end weapons developer in the entire world. This gun in particr was called the Hydra for it had multiple modes it could enter with experimental nanotechnology molding. A smart link cable ran from the rifle''s butt and attached to the back of the guard''s helmet, linking the firearm to a variety of scanning functions and Imugi''s famous Sure Kill auto aiming system that drew from an advanced localized artificial intelligence that ensured uracy that exceeded humanprehension. "Get Casimir down here!" said the man wearing shades to the valets in the guard tower. He eyed down the barrels of their guns with cool annoyance. From an inte system in the boom barrier, Casimir''s voice projected outwards. "I am right here, Mr. Peperelli. How can I be of assistance today?" said Casimir coyly. "You know damn well what you did. There are rules in our line of work, Casimir, rules that I thought you of all people knew. Like not attacking a Connector, let alone abducting viins from across ten different organizations. Release everyone you''ve taken hostage or suffer a sh*tstorm of consequence that will level this little club of yours down to smoking ashes," said Joe Peperelli, the manager of the Trident''s small base in Haven. "Ah, so you knew. Were you doing a little spying in my own club?" said Casimir. "The Trident doesn''t fuck around with new viin recruits. They''re all micro-chipped for vitals and location. And now, they''re all gone, warped to god knows where, and that includes Velus, our Connector, and the Butcher, one of our more important assets. Not to mention the ckwater A ss. Do you know how many golden eggs you''ve taken with you? How many of those students that already had contracts to work with us or the rest of the Dark Six once they graduated?" "I am fully aware, Mr. Peperelli. I brokered most of those deals, did I not?" "Then what the fuck is this!?" Joe shrugged indignantly. "Ten years. Ten. Fucking. Years that you spent working with everyone, and this is what you pull? For what? For credits? Bruce Vane pay you more than what we were already funneling into you?" "Let''s call this a grand retirement party for my exit from the criminal underground." "Oh, retirement, is it?" Joeughed. "You think you''re retiring, are you? You think you''ll leave this ce in more than one piece? You truly must have lost your mind. Alright, I have your answer. You''re going down, Casimir. If not today, then tomorrow, or the day after - you won''t have a single day''s worth of peace, I can guarantee you this. And that secretary of yours, I hope you enjoy seeing her in pieces-," "Please, Mr. Peperelli, you and I are both far too experienced in this line of work to know that you do not have to utter these threats. They are already implied," said Casimir. "Yet from what I can see, your base in Haven is small, as are the bases of the other Dark Six, if indeed they even have one. All of you relied on my Red Circle to host you, and now, because you have such little presence here, you have very few forces. How are you proposing you break down our defenses with three cars worth of men?" "Like I said, it doesn''t have to be today. We can wait for reinforcements toe in. Where are yours? Who do you have? Who will back you now?" said Joe. "You may be surprised by the answer to that question, Mr. Peperelli," said Casimir. Joe scoffed. "Yeah, let''s see. Enjoy your night, Casimir. Let''s see if you get to live through it. Shame, too, because I really liked the drinks in this ce." Joe walked away, and immediately, when his back turned, the valets at the guard tower opened fire with their assault rifles. Joe''s guard raised a right hand and generated a field of rippling maic distortions that suspended the bullets in the air. "Alright, Elites, let''s get to work." Joe pped his hands, and immediately, the three armored cars opened their doors. Severalbat armored men streamed out with synchronized efficiency, forming an ever-moving wave of crimson faced specters of death. Elites. Within the Trident,bat personnel that did not have the bestbat Alter powers became Footsoldiers that used their powers for utility while relying on armor, technology, and countless hours of training to refine their deadliness. Among Footsoldiers, the highest ss of them were the Elites. Squadrons of deadly veterans who had proven themselves across countless firefights and operations of high intensity. Many were veterans of the Corporate Wars of 2080 and 2090 when mega corporations and their hired or in house armies shed. Before the valets in the guard tower could adjust their aim, a trio of Elite soldiers gunned them down with perfect headshots. Another Elite held his secondary arm out like his forearm was a shield, and from it, a red forcefield riot shield emerged, blocking sentry turret shots. Then, an Elite behind the shield generator transformed his assault rifle. Parts of the gun shimmered before breaking down into a cloud of nano-particles that then reformed into the bulkier barrel of a grenadeuncher. He immediately reached into his utility belt, withdrew a trio of miniaturized grenade shells, loaded the gun, and fired. The grenades, or rather more like explosive rounds, blew apart the sentry guns, reducing them to smoking, fiery scrap. "Boys, the Red Circle is no joke, and though you might be over qualified to deal with their sh*tty in house viins and mercenaries, their actual staff is a serious threat. You''ll need my help." Joe took down his shades, revealing grey eyes marked with cross shaped ck pupils. "Stim up!" As Joe''s voice projected outwards, the twenty Elites shuddered violently as Joe''s power, Stim Sound, affected their brains and bodies, causing them to massively overload in adrenaline and other fight or flight bodily processes. They processed time slower with massively heightened reactions from their brains overclocking. They no longer felt pain. They became monstrously aggressive, and yet still in control of their training. Their strength and speed improved. And on top of this, all the Elites pressed a button on the necks of their helmets. This caused their suits to introduce into their bodies a bonus stim cocktail of incredibly potent performance enhancing chemicals, swelling up their muscles. Most of these Elites were technos with unenhanced physical bodies. However, they used their ability to interface with theirbat technology, making up for this deficit, and with Joe''s power, their stim cocktail, and high end cybeic enhancements such as dermal ting, durasted bones, organ add-ons and organ failure safeties, they became a terrifying fighting force. == Joe watched as his Elites made their way deeper and deeper towards the Red Circle. The valet tower was only the outer edge of the Red Circle''s territory. The night club itself was still several blocks further in. Yet, all the resistance he faced right now was pitiful. There were a few mercenaries hiding behind cars, some E and D ranker viins, and air support from drones that fired down explosive charges or rained down gunfire. The Elites carved a path of carnage through all of them. They released their own reconnaissance drones that mapped out any threat ahead of them, linking to their top of the line environmental awareness and threat detection scanning in their helmets. Anybat drones they saw, they shot down with extreme uracy, even though most of these drones zipped around on their rotor des with the annoying agility of flies. Any mercenaries that threw grenades had their explosives shot down in literal mid air or even in the very instant their hands blinked out of whatever cover they hid behind. The moment a mercenary popped out his head to try and fire back, he was head shotted by an Elite whose infinitely faster reactions and better technology gave them every single edge possible. The asional Augmenter or mutant ss viin woulde charging by with armored skin or regenerative powers. Hardened skin was dealt with through explosive ammunition or armor piercing rounds through soft spots such as the eye utilizing the Hydra''s sniper form. Mutants with regeneration were disabled with rounds to the brain before blown apart with nted stic charges in their center, destroying too much of their bodies for them to regenerate. There was no mercy. Only clean, efficient execution. Chapter 75: {red Circle Defense 2}

Chapter 75: {red Circle Defense 2}

When the Red Circle was visible, that was when things became more difficult. Actual Red Circle staff, noted by their white bulletproof suits - though not nearly protective enough to fend against Imugi-ss firearms and ammunition - contended against the Elites. Yet of these low-level staff could beat the Elites either. In terms of sheer training, the Red Circle staff were on par with the Elites, but the Elites outgunned and outarmored them too severely. In exchanges of gunfire, explosives, and the asional usage of Alter powers, the Elites came out on top. Joe lost two Elites total while Casimir lost twelve of his personal staff, forcing them to retreat back behind the Red Circle''s forcefield. The moment the staff was in protective range, raining down suppressive fire so that Joe and his Elites could not advance easily, the forcefield came up. Joe lit up a cigar as he watched from far behind through a pair of binocrs. His Elites were stationed behind whatever cover they could find in this urban jungle. Mostly cars and the walls of buildings. Some headed to the top of buildings to take up sniping spots, using activated kinesis fields on the soles of their boots to scale up vertical walls. Once in defensive, entrenched position, all of them eyed the forcefield warily. The Red Circle was ready for a siege. Its entrances and walls were shingled with neosteel ting,pletely recing the fancy fa?ade with cold, hard, grey steel. But beyond this, the Red Circle''s forcefield made it nigh imprable. The most conventional way to deal with a forcefield generated with ether was to use an energy weapon, but this forcefield was strong enough that the sma coil weapon forms on the Elites'' Hydras would not punch through this. For all intents and purposes, this was a deadlock. And yet, Joe could not help but feel uneasy. None of the elite staff of the Red Circle had shown up. Walters, Hirondelle, Cubehead, Smoke, and Spybird. Each of these aside from Cubehead were strong and trained enough that conventional gun and armor soldiers could not easily deal with them. Yet, Joe had prepared counter measures. Hirondelle''s Violet Swallow form consisted of pure energy that made her immune to almost any form of gunfire or explosive, but Joe had prepared powerful Kinesis Generators that ced artificial gravity fields which could hold her in ce, and then it was simply a matter of changing the force vectors in the fields to tear her apart. Walters was fast, strong, and had high regeneration, but the Elites all had in reserve on their belts a special type of corrosive ammunition chemically tailored specifically to negate his healing. Cubehead could generate warp traps from cube shaped constructs, but these had a specific energy signature that the Elites'' scanning systems had in their database, preventing them from ever letting it catch them by surprise. Smoke was a melee fighter who could phase into smoke form, and she could reform from being dispersed. Yet, she was still just smoke. sh freezing charges couldpletely entrap her. Spybird was the Red Circle''s head of technological operations. He had littlebat power by himself, but his strongest drone, the Albatross, was a mechanical menace that had enough firepower to wipe out the Elites wholesale, not to mention it had powerful EMP shielding. But Joe had prepped techno Elites among his crew with viruses developed by a high-end Trident techno specifically to render the Albatross unusable. It was a shame that Joe''s preparation, preparation he had made from the tiniest suspicion he got years ago that the Red Circle might one day turn rogue, did not see the light of day. Not yet, at least. It was obvious Casimir was holding out under his forcefield. This was an idiotic maneuver because, as Joe had made clear, Casimir had no more help. No reinforcements. Meanwhile, Joe had already called the Trident''s main body and the rest of the Dark Six. They would send in their higher-ss viins, and then the Red Circle was over. Granted, this might take days, but it would still happen. And what did Casimir have to counter that? His finite, ever dwindling staff numbers and a forcefield that could stay up for what? Three more hours? Four? Casimir was done. He might even fall tonight. Joe received a call. He flipped out his phone and answered it. "Yeah? About damn time." He smiled. Talk about reinforcements, huh. Within minutes, three individuals came to Joe''s position. One was arge, hulking mechanical humanoid with huge red shoulder pauldrons, red ted armor, and a spherical head glowing with a horizontal blue line that stood in for eyes. His each and every moment was heavy, nking and whirring with hydraulic pressure. On his shoulder was a menacing mounted cannonrge enough that it looked like it could bust a bunker. The other two were more normal looking individuals, a man and a woman respectively. The man was tall, heavily built, and had on a perpetual angry scowl. His hair was cut in a military buzzcut and his stern square jaw made it obvious that he never enjoyed anything in life. Overall, he was rtively simple in appearance, just muscle and in ck bodysuit. The woman was far more borate in aesthetic. She was also tall, taller even than the man, standing in easily at six foot three (1.9 meters) with a slim but strong, athletic build that showed the curvature of her muscles through skintight body armor that had a regal gold, blue and white color scheme. Her face had fine, refined features marked noticeably by a diagonal scar that ran from the top of her right eye down to her chin. Blue hair tied up in a ponytail trailed behind her. On her shoulders were small golden pauldrons tapered out into golden feathers. Tworge strands of blue feather-shaped flexi-steel streamed from her back, flowing with her each and every movement gracefully. In her hand was a white metal rapier handle that hummed with a blue miniature etherite reactor embedded in its crossguard. From the handle, a thin de of bright blue smoid energy flickered. "Good to see ckwater cares about their assets," said Joe as he spat out his cigar and ground it under his foot. "Nice to see you. nk, Darius, and Colette." ckwater''s threebat instructors gave Joe a curt nod, but they mostly looked ahead, ahead with firm resolution to the Red Circle that had taken their students. With the students gone, ckwater would fall underrge scale investigation. There was only so much the Dark Six could do to shield ckwater from the government. The mass disappearance of fifteen students was beyond what the Dark Six could do. And under investigation, ckwater would have no choice but to dissolve and fade away into the shadows. Thefortably paid lives that nk, Darius Fletcher, and Colette lived now would disappear just like that. And they were not about to let their money vanish into the smoke like that. "You see that forcefield? I''m not equipped to deal with it-," began Joe. "I got it. Just tell your men to get the fuck back." Darius Fletcher stepped forwards, into the open, and his entire body lit up, turning a bright molten orange. Waves of heat shimmered all around him, and each step he took, the ground under his feet melted. "Gun him down!" shouted a Red Circle staff from behind the forcefield. The forcefield was configured so that any matter from within could phase directly out of it without much issue. Dozens of gun barrels flickered like little stars as bullets rained down on Darius. Darius trudged forwards with zero hesitation. The bullets hit his body and either bounced off or melted into nothingness. An explosion rocked the side of Darius''s head, blowing off arge chunk of his skull. Several massive rounds from the cannons andrger turrets on the Red Circle gouged out chunks from Darius''s body. Darius paused for a second as his head and body regenerated from molten material. He then began a fast sprint towards the forcefield and mmed into it. He put both his glowing orange hands on the surface of the field, and as he did so, the normally translucent forcefield flickered in varying shades of blue as it warped and twisted under the intense heat and energy. Darius roared as a bright white sphere inside his stomach glowed visibly through his molten body. His heat output increased exponentially, and the forcefield began to slowly cave inwards like a piece of ss twisting under heat. "Retreat inside! Back to the Red Circle!" Immediately, the Red Circle staff filed into the night club, opening up the fortified neosteel doors just long enough that thest man could retreat in before closing shut. Not one second after the staff retreated within, the forcefield broke apart. Like a system short circuiting from one fried wire, it only took a small surface area of a forcefield to break for the entire thing to power down. "Get in here, you maggots! I''ve only shorted the field out! It mighte back up again!" shouted Darius as he waved everyone forwards. His head blew apart into molten goo from anotherrge caliber turret shot, and he angrily looked up and fired a pressurized st ofva at the turret, melting it before encasing it in a tomb of cooling rock. Chapter 76: {the Final Act}

Chapter 76: {the Final Act}

Joe Peperelli considered himself a cautious man. As someone who needed others to work his powers through, he knew when to keep both friend and foe alike close. That cautiousness bled into everything else he did, or else he would not have survived in the cutthroat world of the criminal underground. "Wait!" Joe shouted to his Elites before they could get into range of Fletcher, and, consequently, the turret fire raining down on thebat instructor. "Elites, hold defensive entrenchment. Shield line formation delta!" Several elites filed in front of each other and utchedrge metal discs with glowing red centers. They nted the discs at their feet and crouched down, pressing a few touchscreen buttons. The discs crackled with red energy before opening up, exposing glowing red circuitry and moving mechanical parts. Large front facing shields of energy formed from these discs, and behind them, groups of three Elites crouched for cover. "What is it now!?" said Darius as he withstood more barrages ofrge caliber gunfire and energy sts from the dozen or so turrets installed in the Red Circle''s fa?ade. Crawler drones skittered across the walls, firing volleys of seeker missiles and adding to this damage. Darius, however, was practically invincible. Like many Alters whose powers transmuted their bodies into specific elements or energies, he was invulnerable to conventional firearms and possessed no real vital organs to hit. The only real weakness was the white core in his chest that functioned like an engine to boost his heat andva output, but destroying that did not kill Darius, it just limited his magma output temporarily. Unlike many other Alter powers that transmuted the body fully into a different form, he also did not need to eat, drink, or breathe while maintaining this state, essentially rendering his energy levels the only definite timer on his power. The only way to beat Darius was by destroying every single part of his body in a single instant, preventing him from regenerating or dunking him in deep water where hisva form would solidify and entrap him. Even so, it was annoying to deal with all the hits he was taking because he needed to expend energy to regenerate. Darius shot forth globs of magma with expert uracy at the turrets he found, disabling them one by one. "None of the Red Circle higher ups are here. They may be nning an ambush within! And we need to remain careful, especially of Cubehead and his warp traps! My Elites will provide suppressive fire and snipe any drones, but you three will have to deal with breaking through the main door!" Joe nodded to an Elite, and several of them reached into theirbat packs and took out spinning disc shaped drones that cloaked shimmered, cloaking themselves. These reconnaissance drones had no offensive power, but they had advanced scanning systems that had Cubehead''s energy signatures locked into them. "Fucking pansies, gonna sit behind those shields and hold onto your balls like that, huh? And Red Circle higher ups!?" Dariusughed derisively. "Don''t get funny with me, Joe. You and your ''Elites'' might be scared sh*tless of them, but each of us from ckwater is worth three Red Circle sh*tstains!" Darius, however, relented to Joe''s n. He looked back after he finished disabling thest of the turrets. "nk!" "Get your lil'' pea shooters out of my face," said nk to the Elites as he trudged forwards, all of his heavy metallic parts nking and clicking, emitting the sound of hydraulic pressure hissing from pistons external and internal. He looked like a living tank, awe inspiring in his bulk and sheer power. He knelt down, and his threerge metal toes extended out before hooking into the asphalt below, cracking into the ground for a firm hold. His enormous red shoulder cannon lowered, and the barrel began to light up orange and spin. Patterns of blue energy lit up all around the length of the red weapon of mass destruction. The cannon aimed square at the Red Circle''s main door. Where before the door was a discrete yet stylish double door of tinted ss decorated with golden floral patterns at its frame, it was now a fortified grey Neosteel frame at least half a meter thick. No conventional firearm would ever get through that. But nk did not believe in conventional. No, he did not believe in anything that did not generate an explosion loud enough to rupture an eardrum. Go big or go home was his motto, and he lived by it. A deafening, rumbling crack echoed through the air as nk''s giant body recoiled. The ground under his anchored feet shattered. The sound of metal exploding, literally shattering into pieces under unfathomable impact, pierced through the air. Neosteel was the most durable metal on the market that was not techno custom made. It involved a ''smart'' atomic structure that incorporated nanotechnology to shape itself in the most efficient structure against any specific type of damage or impact. It was flexible, durable, adaptable, and, in the Red Circle''s case, upgraded even further so that it was also heat proof and shock absorbent, making it bomb proof. But now, that magnificent neosteel door had been blown apart like ss, its broken pieces smoking and ckened from impact. nk opened his metal mouth, and steam and smoke hissed out as he exhaled and stood up, detaching from the floor. "Nothing beats the boom of a railgun, I tell you. Nothing." "Scan the insides - we don''t want to deal with any ambushes!" said Joe. The Elites moved quickly, using handheld controllers to sending out their recon drones into the broken main door to scan the insides for threats. "All clear!" said an Elite. "ALL clear? No hostiles, either?" Joe narrowed his eyes. Not a single trap in sight and not even any personnel to try and defend? Something was off. "Yes sir. All clear," repeated an Elite. Joe worried for a moment before calming down. If it was just himself and his Elites, he would be hesitant to push through. But he had three of ckwater''sbat instructors with him, and they gave him all the assurance he needed. nk and Fletcher were solid B rank viins. Colette at B+. At the B rank, viins and heroes alike became legitimate, recognized threats. The Red Circle''s higher ups were strong, yes, but they were either at the highest end of C rank or on the low end of B. There was just that much of a divide between the C and B ranks. The difference between those that were just strong and those that were exceptional. Darius Fletcher was not exaggerating when he stated he could deal with three of the Red Circle''s higher ups. In a direct engagement, it was probably true. Feeling more confident, Joe waved to his men. "Squadrons 1 and 2, spread out and mobilize!" said Joe. "Flush anyone out with smoke and shes. If you detect Cubehead''s trap cubes, break them with sonic grenades." Cubehead could create small ck cubes of energy that he could remotely activate or have detonate in foreign presences, causing the cubes to expand and warp individuals to other locations. However, these cubes were fragile like ss, and sonic suppressant grenades could release far reaching waves of force that could easily shatter them without the need to ever risk nearing them. Ten of Joe''s men moved forwards, sweeping the area around them with side to side scans of their Hydra assault rifles. They moved quickly but carefully, and entered into the Red Circle bit by bit, allowing those ahead to cover for those behind, making it so that if there was an ambush, losses could be minimized. Joe was careful enough to keep the rest of his eight men outside, just in case something happened here. Darius watched the Elites file in. "So? Any threats?" "Not yet," said Joe as he saw thest of the ten Elites from his two advance squadrons move in. "Dance floor is secure. Second floor is being secured as we speak." "They must be concentrating their defenses on the third floor. Where Casimir is holed up like a rat." Darius spat a glob of magma on the ground. It melted and sizzled into the asphalt. "We''ll tear him out of there soon enough." "Hostiles! Above!" one of Joe''s elites suddenly shouted. Joe immediately whipped his head. A veritable flock of drones buzzed above, descending towards everyone outside. Some of these drones werebat drones, but many were just utility ormercial grade. "No explosives!" shouted an Elite, confirming that they were not suicide bomb drones. But then what the fuck was this? Without bombs strapped to these drones, the vast majority of them were just chunks of flying metal. "Gun them down! Use your EMP charges! We take no risks here!" said Joe. Joe''s eight elites knelt down and rapidly gunned down the swarm of drones above with volleys of explosive rounds. They tossed up EMP charges in locations where the drone swarm was thickest, disablingrge swatches of them. "Casimir must be getting real fucking desperate if this is his idea of a distraction,"ughed Darius as he crossed his arms and looked at the dense cloud of random drones above. "Wait! Hostiles! Switching to anti-unit fire!" said an Elite. Now that the cloud of drones had been thinned enough, it was possible to see that there were people hidden within. White suited men and women with some form of flight capability whether it was levitation or through wings. "The Strike Squad!" shouted Joe. "Take them out before they reach us!" The Red Circle''s Strike Squad consisted of its airborne staff that functioned like cavalry, making quick strikes in and out with their mobility. Joe had been on guard against them. He knew that they would not fight in the insides of the Red Circle where their flight was restricted. But throughout the night, the Strike Squad had never shown up. Not until now, when Joe had allowed his confidence topse just a tiny bit, splitting his Elites up in half. Joe''s mind raced. The cloud of drones had also hidden the Strike Squad not only in a mass of metal, but there was enough interference generated from the mass of drones that it was impossible for the Elites to scan them out beforehand. Yet the Strike squad was still high enough up that they would suffer horrible losses before getting close. Already, Joe could see members of the Strike Squad grunting or yelping in pain as bullets struck them, many of these bullets goring through their heads to instantly kill them. Several bodies dropped out of the air, crashing into the ground and bleeding out of holes punched into their brains. Out of the twenty or so Strike Squad members, maybe only three or four wouldnd on the ground without injuries, and then what? ckwater''s faculty would just annihte them. "Where''s Hirondelle!?" said Joe. His eyes darted from side to side as he tried to find the leader of the Strike Squad. Without Hirondelle, this attack was meaningless. She was the only one with enough power to put up a fight against ckwater faculty, and yet, even she was hriously outmatched against three faculty members. "She''s not there!" shouted an Elite. "Cube energy signatures scanned!" said another Elite. At the mention of cubes, Darius immediately perked his head up and grew serious, theugh wiping off his face. He started to st forth streams of magma up to try and thin out the Strike Squad. nk could not do anything. He was recharging from using his railgun. Joe stared at Colette as she just stood there with a hand on her hip and bored expression on her face, looking at the mass of whining drones and flying Alters above. "What?" said Colette in distinctive French ent. "I can''t fly." Joe turned away from Colette and to his men. "Snipe those with cubes! Ignore all others! Squadrons 1 and 2, recall!" shouted Joe. He understood what was happening. The Strike Squad was essentiallymitting a suicide attack to try and throw down Cubehead''s warp cubes to try and teleport everyone away. Joe saw as his elites expertly began to snipe those holding the cubes, but Strike squad members without cubes acted like meat shields, soaking up bullets as long as they could. Toote. "Warp defense formation!" shouted Joe. The Elites gathered in groups of three as they continued to fire, making sure they would not be alone when warped away. Yet those with the cubes did not focus on the Elites. They made beelines towards ckwater''s three faculty. When they got close enough to the ground, the final three members of the Strike Squad tossed a cube at each of the threebat instructors. "Fuck!" Darius tried to reach out and shoot magma at the cube in front of him. "Welp." nk saw the cube hover in front of his face. Colette shrugged at the cube in front of her, knowing nothing she did right now mattered. At this range, destroying the cubes would still trigger its warp effect. The cubes expanded and engulfed eachbat instructor in a cube of inky ck before vanishing away. In exchange, the Elites immediately gunned down thest of the Strike Squad, killing them all. Joe looked around at the battlefield. Twenty white suited bodies were scattered all across the ground, some slung over streetlights, some crashed into cars, some sttered on the ground from freefall after getting shot in the head. Fires from Darius and ammunition based explosions crackled and roared in the night breeze. Countless broken drones sputtered all around, loosing an eerie mechanical elegy for the dead. "All squadrons, return to me! Defensive entrenchment! Keep your Red Circle contingencies on hand!" said Joe. He adapted to this sudden turn of events. He did not panic. Time was still on his side. Casimir had lost all of his Strike Squad to warp the ckwater faculty away, and those were the strongest among his non higher ups. The rest were fodder that Joe''s elites could gun down. The only issue was the higher ups themselves. Probably, Casimir thought that without the ckwater faculty, Joe''s Elites were defenseless against the Red Circle higher ups. Joe smiled as he put on his shades again, his rapidly beating heart starting to calm again. Little did Casimir know, Joe had prepared a contingency n against all of the Red Circle''s higher ups. The corrosive rounds for Walters, the kinesis fields for Hirondelle, and the viruses against Spybird''s tech - all of this still gave Joe the upper hand. Joe almost wanted Casimir to bring out his higher ups. He wanted to imagine how Casimir would despair when those he considered strongest and closest to himself were systematically and cleanly executed by Joe''s Elites. "Wha-?" Joe dropped his shades as he felt blood trickle from his mouth. He looked down and saw a serrated dirk of ck metal made slick by¡­his blood? It jutted out of his chest, where his heart was. Joe''s knees failed and he fell on the ground¡­ The force of the de ripping out of him turned him around on his back, and he looked up to see thest thing before he died: the cold, inhuman stare of a fleshless bare skull. Chapter 77: Dying Sun

Chapter 77: Dying Sun

Brilliant sr explosion after explosion rocked the insides of Vntis''s boss arena, linking into a strangely beautiful chain of golden novas that formed awork of glimmering lights that looked like a constetion. What drew this constetion was Seth Sr punching Vntis over and over and over and over again in hyperspeed. Each of his mighty punches loosed not only a shockwave of enormous kic force, but a burst of light as his sr energy reserves burst out of him. Vntis shot around like a pinball, gouging out craters in the ground, walls, and ceiling as Seth Sr punched him, then flew to him at hyperspeed, punched him again, and repeated this process over a hundred times. Vntis could do nothing but ball up and put his arms out in front of his head in a guard. He had used [Organ Stitching] to make himself as fire and physical damage resistant as possible, wrapping himself in thick coils of muscle, sturdy te like scales, andyering himself on top of that with dragon me sac lining. But though Vntis could dramatically reduce the damage he took, he did not have the raw physical stats to keep up with Seth Sr. Seth Sr was absurdly fast right now, faster than what the human eye could perceive, faster than a speeding bullet, and against his onught, all Vntis could do was weather the sr storm. After another onught of punches, Seth Sr''s aura of glowing orange and bright golden light started to dim over time. His breathing became heavier, his flight speedgging and his blows weakening in their sheer destructive intensity. Energy seemed to leak out of him, shooting out from his body in strands of orange that dissolved in the air, leaving in their wake a trail of glimmering gold sparkles. Like the remnants of a dying star going supernova. "DIE!" Seth Sr unleashed one more solid punch against Vntis from above, shooting the living armor down into the scorched, cratered ground below. This blow embedded Vntis in the deepest crater made so far, the cracks of the environmental damage streaking out through nearly the entire arena. Seth Sr breathed in and out with deep, gasping breaths, and each time he exhaled, a little more of his sr energy streamed out. He looked at the arena around him with glowing golden eyes that dimmed more and more by the second. Zayn had balled up in a coat of defensive feathers, preventing himself from dying to coteral damage. The Butcher, on the other hand, was not so lucky. The simple after shocks of sr energy gusts and force shockwaves from Seth Sr''s intense barrage had torn the Butcher''s body apart, leaving his bits scattered everywhere. But due to the nature of the Butcher''s ability, it was possible the viin was still alive. Not that it mattered to Seth. In a battle of this scale, the Butcher was useless. He looked down at Vntis, wondering if the damned thing was dead. Vntis was still in the middle of his smoking crater, all of his muscle and newly formed organs charred to a ck crisp. "F-fuck¡­" Seth felt more of his energy leave him in streaks, and he held off on his flying, slowly falling back down to the ground. "Something''s¡­ something''s wrong." He looked down at his hands. His energy was leaving him, his golden aura fading as it dissolved into little twinkling sparkles that faded into the darkness of the arena. He fully expected to lose a vast amount of stored sr energy, but that was because he knew he was going to use it all up. Right now, he was losing energy without even doing anything. The color of his normal skin started to return as his shining gold aura faded, and that was when his eyes widened as he saw ck streaks within his visible veins. "Kryptic!?" The realization hit Seth as his vision blurred. He felt deeply sick to his core, his strength leaving him in waves. "Impressive. Truly, trulymendable." Vntis emerged from his crater, piles of burnt rubble spilling from his huge frame. He moved shakily, and no longer did he regenerate damage to his armor, revealing a host of scorch marks and melted, warped holes. "Your flesh is strong. Very strong. I can hear your bones screaming under the oppression of that mighty flesh. Thus, it is my burden to bear to free those bones of yours." Vntis put his right hand over his left forearm. "I do not know if I can use this power, for my levels have been reduced considerably. But I no longer possess the strength to fight you otherwise." With a solemn chat, Vntis uttered the words - "[Part Stitching: Arm of the Blood God]" A massive surge of crimson energy burst out from Vntis as he emitted a war cry that thundered throughout the arena. The entire arena lit up a shade of threatening red as Vntis''s burned metal body started to line with veiny streaks of brightly glowing red, forming a circtory system that branched out from his left arm. The left arm itself turned into a shade of pure red, almost like an energy construct. Vntis trudged forwards, his steps shaky and weak while he supported his glowing red left arm up with his right hand, as if his left arm was an enormously heavy weapon. Seth Sr fell to a knee as he watched Vntis slowly walk towards him, that red arm of his with its ws outstretched ready to make lethal contact. He grit his teeth as he tried to muster up power in his eyes to unleash a sr beam, but with the Boost wearing off and Kryptic circting through his system, his eyes only managed to sh gold before crackling, unable to build up energy. Seth grunted in pain as he rubbed his eyes, looking down, and that was when he saw a casend in front of him. The blue glow of a Boost vial emanated temptingly at him. Of the three vials he hade with, this was the only one left. The other one - A dark mass rushed over Seth''s head with a squall of wind trailing behind it. Seth looked up to see Zayn colliding against Vntis. Zayn had Boosted himself, turning his humanoid form entirely into that of an avian variant. He looked like an enormous crow-eagle hybrid covered in thick coatings of sharp, midnight ck feathers. A whirlwind of feathers floated around him in a tornado of shing des. "Gah!" Vntis skid backwards as he held out his Blood God arm against Zayn''s supersonic approach. Vntis buckled down to one knee as the red sphere of light in his helmet started to dim, indicating near death. But the Blood God''s arm had enough strength to stop Zayn as Zayn loosed a bestial roar and bit down on Vntis''s shoulder, tearing right into the sturdy metal with a sharp red beak. Six red eyes gleamed menacingly from Zayn''s head, all of them directed in killing intent against Vntis. Vntis knew that even a second more spent against this crow creature would lead to his own death. He activated the Blood God''s arm. The glowing red arm''s ws sunk into Zayn''s chest, easily tearing through the metallic feathers, and once they fit yielding, blood-filled flesh - Zayn''s body ruptured as stakes of hardened blood burst out of his body from within,pletely skewering him from the inside out. Zayn loosed a piercing cry of pain before his head hung limp, his stiffened feathers growing soft. The whirlwind of feathers raging around him stopped moving, softly falling to the ground. Vntis shook Zayn''s body off the side. "Now, only you are left-," Vntis trudged forwards with hellbent determination. Bloody stakes started to rupture out from his own armor body. The side effects of drawing upon the power of a level 100 Blood God far beyond what his current form could withstand. But even as the stakes emerged, ripping through his armor and ravaging his life force, he continued forwards, ever forwards, for at heart, long, long ago when he was still a man of flesh and blood over bone, he had been a noble warrior, and true warriors always saw their fights to the very bitter end. Nopromise. No surrender. No retreat. Not when yourrades fall one after the other, leaving you alone in a sea of blood. Not even when you are beaten, bloodied, and torn asunder. Not even when your flesh is torn from your bones. No, when there is nothing but bone left, that is when you are truly free. This is what Vntis thought as he made his way to Seth Sr on thest dregs of his hit points. Seth took the Boost vial before him, raised it over his open mouth, and snapped it in half. The liquid fed into him, and once again, a huge burst of sr energy radiated out from him. Boost was far less effective when used sessively, not to mention the Kryptic poisoning, so Seth Sr could only generate a temporary chunk of energy that would fade away rapidly. But this was all he needed. "You''re done," said Seth coldly as he concentrated the small burst of energy into his eyes, firing off twin mighty rays of searing golden heat that washed over Vntis. Vntis''s ck silhouette crumbled away in that light, disintegrating into nothingness. When the light faded, all that remained of him was a small red orb, norger than a tennis ball - the core of his being that had been in his helmet. The orb glimmered red before dimming down into a mute grey, indicating Vntis''s death. Seth made his way over to Zayn''s corpse. He knelt down by the giant crow and realized with some surprise that Zayn was still breathing. But death was inevitable. The stakes that jutted out from all around his body meant that Zayn''s internal organs were all shredded. It was by pure variant tenacity that he could even stay alive like this. Not to mention the Kryptic poisoning left Zayn with zero chance of ever recovering even if he was rushed to the best hospital in the entire world at this very moment. "Why the fuck did you do that, Zayn? You think I needed help?" Seth''s voice lost its regr edge. He spoke softly, or as softly as he knew how to. "You and I, we were both supposed to live and be strong. Strong enough that we could break free from the lives they forced on us. I treated you and only you right because I thought you and I were the same. Because you understood me. We knew what it took to survive, how much we had to kill and take. I thought we would both make it together. Stand at the top of this world no matter how many bodies we had to pile beneath us. And now, look at you." Seth shook his head at Zayn''s fatal wounds. Thest of his sr energy started to fade away, dissolving away his aura of gold fully to leave his bare skin and face. "We were supposed to show them we had a fucking choice. That we were strong enough to tell this sick world to go fuck itself so that we could live our own lives with our own choices. How the fuck are you going to do that when you''re dead?" Zayn breathed slowly, the air in his throat rattling, heralding his passing. His six red, ck pupilsnded on Seth. "I¡­did have¡­choice. I made¡­choice. Regret¡­" Zayn''s eyes closed, his consciousness fading as blood pooled out in huge quantities from his horrendous wounds. Seth felt the blood warm under him as he saw Zayn suffering. He shook his head again and put his hand on Zayn''s head before twisting his friend''s neck, instantly killing him to end his suffering. Seth stood up, breathing deeply as he looked at his blood-soaked, ck veined body. He looked around at the arena, waiting for it to dissolve. That was when he heard a faint rumbling from behind him, from the entrance of the arena. Footsteps echoed. He turned around, and then his eyes widened in impossible surprise. "Y-you!" began Seth. "How does it feel, Seth, to lose your friends one by one?" said Aldrich as he made his way towards Seth with his suit on. Aldrich saw the Butcher''s decapitated head and grabbed it, inspecting it like a piece of fine art. "Ah, you''re still alive. Excellent." He took the Butcher''s head and shoved it into his chest where his Chrysalis generated a small ck portal to absorb it. He then reached Vntis''s grey core and tapped it, emzoning a green sigil on it to raise forter. Finally, he stared at Zayn''s corpse when he got close enough to Seth. "To be honest, I was even surprised you could even make a friend like this. That you even cared about someone. You didn''t give a sh*t about the rest of your gang dying." Aldrich stared down at Seth''s bloodied body as he tore open the chest of his suit, revealing the phctery that reced his heart. The purple orb crackled with arcs of energy, reacting to the nearpletion of the [Ritual of Eternity]. "But the fact that I managed to rip something precious from your heart almost makes me feel like my own is whole again." Chapter 78: {the Oceans Call}: Youll Also Like

Chapter 78: {the Ocean''s Call}

In the depths of the Antic Ocean, several kilometers away from Haven City - Inside an enormous cavern, in water so deep that not a single ray of light dared to trespass, the mangled body of a giant manta ray curled up in a ball. It loosed a ghostly siren wail of pain that traveled through the dark waters, but found no call of pity to soothe it back. For these waters were empty, the cavern itself located in what was known as a ''Null Zone'' that generated ck spots where no Ether based power could observe. Thetent Ether in these areas also formed a naturally concealing barrier that prevented conventional surveince from breaching. In this cave of privacy, the manta shuddered as its form grew increasingly fragile and thin. Its spines, oncerge and fierce and capable of generating mass quantities of lightning, were now reduced down to nubs. The white and blue flesh of its majestic wingspan shriveled and dried into a dark husk. The many wounds on its head had sealed over but now opened up again as the creature exerted itself. Blood pooled out from deep scars that reached dangerously close to its brain. But the manta did not care about its own health. It cared only about one thing - It curled itself up into a tighter ball, keeping its flesh wrapped over a rippling orb of grey slime. In here, something terrible, something horrible, gestated. The silhouette of an eerie infant form shuddered and convulsed as it grew and grew by the moment within this womb of slime and flesh. Helical strands of eerie glowing blue fed into the infant from the manta, and as these strands streamed out, the manta grew thinner and thinner. These were nutrients and gic material from the many the manta had dissolved with its slimes and variants that she had devoured during her hunts over the past six months. Cleanse the Rot. This was the instinctive message drilled into the manta when she came into contact with the Voice. But she had failed. The Rot was too strong. The Rot''s carriers, the ''humans'', were too much to ovee with their walls and mighty fighters, and now the manta epted her impending death from her injuries. But the manta entrusted that her precious child would seed where she had fallen. Cleanse the Rot, the manta whispered deep into the depths of her unborn child''s psyche, deep into its gic memory. The manta grew thinner and thinner, until finally, it had been absorbed into the very womb of slime it had created, turned into the final burst of nutrients and energy needed for her child to be born. The grey slime womb crystallized solid, turning many shades darker, almost into a ck crystal suspended within these dark and lonely waters. The infant within was nearly fully formed now, and surprisingly, it was far, far smaller than its mother. Its silhouette was shaped like the carriers of the Rot, its body upright with two arms, and two legs, and it was not muchrger than the carriers, those humans. Yet, within that tiny body, there was undeniable power - The crystal cocoon started to shatter as the silhouette''srge, circr eyes glowed a distinct azure blue. Cracks wreathed all around the womb-prison, and light shone brightly out of it as contained, built up might struggled to spill out. Then, the cocoon shattered, and a pir of blue energy rumbled outwards, piercing through the ocean and into the skies, and thus, with the rumbling of thunder, the Call was sent out and the Herald born. ==== Among districts in Haven, it was an indisputable fact that the highest concentration of suited up, heartless corporate workers with the fattest credit ounts lived in the Financial District. Here, the corporate worker bees and their higher ups, all collectively called Suits, toiled endlessly for their mega-corporations, specifically for Hammerhead Industries that dominated the Haven''s northern manufacturing district and Nautilus Moving that held a tight monopoly over Haven''s shipping. In Haven Center, the streets became cleaner. High end ARMA police rotated around in their cobalt bluebat suits, ensuring that nomon street thug could even dream of stepping foot in these wealthy streets. No, the only crime that they allowed was crime perpetuated by the Suits themselves, because at the end of the day, mega corporations were just glorified gangs pumped up to a multinational scale. Their white cors were not above staining with blood, as evidenced by the three great Corpo-Wars of 2080, 2090, and 2100 that shed blood on the order of hundreds of thousands. It was amon saying among regr folk that ''where there were Suits, there were walls'', and this held no less true for Haven''s city center. The Central District was defended by its own set of walls independent of the Panopticon and government funded walls of the city proper. These walls were far higher tech, personallymissioned by the wealthy to protect them. Not to mention it kept out lower ss citizens. Within these walls, inside the penthouse suite of the White Rose, an internationally renowned five-star hotel, two men sat on a luxuriously cushioned couch as they watched a wide telescreen projecting images of brutal, bloody battle thatpletely contrasted with the clean, cool white marbles and golds and floral patterns that decorated the walls of their room. "So, what do you think? Wouldn''t it be fun to just show up and screw with them?" said a red, blue, and gold costumed man as he bared an eager grin. His costume seemed almost elegant, its body armor and fabric designed to mimic a rather dapper overcoat and suit getup. His eyes shed with bright color, his white pupils lined with three rings of red, blue and gold matching his costume. At the center of his costume that barely hid the curvature of his muscles was the roman numeral III. This was Hat Trick. A- rank hero. "What''s the point? We would just be dealing with small fry," said a powerfully built giant of a man with a much iner suit. It was brown with stony crack patterns like the earth with heavy mechanical bracers of white that made his arms look enormous like those of belonging to a gori. This was Seismic. Also A- rank hero. The two A rank heroes stationed in Haven in case there were further Variant attacks. "True, true," said Hat Trick. "It''s like I''m looking at a D list carnival. Weak ass viins just shooting each other up, hah! Doesn''t it kinda make you want to just show up, you know, in the name of public safety and all, and just utterly stomp these fools? Just to show them that there''s way, way bigger fish out there?" "Not particrly," said Seismic. He shrugged his boulder-like shoulders. "Ohe on, you like breaking things, don''t you? Don''t you want to just go out there and break these viins in half?" said Hat Trick with an eager smile, waiting for an excuse to leave. "Yeah. But it''s an unhealthy urge, and I don''t like feeding into it. Messes with the whole hero job," said Seismic. "Plus I''ve been eight years free from any unnecessary breaking incidents. Don''t want to lose that streak now." "But these are viins, Seismic. They deserve to get broken." Hat Trick motioned to the screen where his Navigator, a techno specialized in providing surveince and reconnaissance for heroes, transmitted video feed and images of the scuffle happening at the Red Circle. "Yeah, probably. But you know the rules. If viins fight among each other, you leave them alone. Better to let them thin out their own numbers," said Seismic. "But I''ll give you this: if they involve civilians somehow, I would ne willing to go there with you." "I didn''t know you were this boring, Seismic," said Hat Trick with a roll of his strangely colored eyes. "I''m fifty years old, Hat Trick, and I have a baby boy that watches the news to see how much of a hero his dad is. Breaking viin spines on live TV isn''t exactly great for that," said Seismic. "Maybe even ten years ago, I would have gone, but now? No, not really." Seismic struck a concerned look at Hat Trick. "You know, sometimes I worry that you have an even worse addiction for violence than me, and my addiction''s medically diagnosed. A side effect of my power needing me to shatter things or something. You should get yourself checked out." Hat Trick scoffed. "I''m fine. I''m just bored as all hell waiting for something to happen in this sh*tty city. I don''t see any variants attacking, and I''m not about to do some low level sh*t like stopping the local convenience store from getting robbed. Figured this whole Red Circle thing was the next best thing to get myself moving." "Still, I wonder about the consequences of this," said Seismic. He scratched his slicked back grey and ck hair. "The Red Circle going rogue? The Trident mobilizing forces against them? And those three B ranker viins too, I thought they were MIA. But they show up now all of a sudden? Something big must have happened." Chapter 79: {the Oceans Call 2}: Youll Also Like

Chapter 79: {the Ocean''s Call 2}

"Beats me. I just kind of wanted to go out there and flex my muscles a little. I don''t hide the fact that I love to crush the weak, whether they''re whimpering variant beasts or weakling Alters. But yeah, seems like this isn''t worth it. Not like stopping this fight is going to us any real AP. Might as well wait for them to get civilians in the crossfire to up any AP gains, but even then, viins are real careful these days to keep their fights all self-contained, so meh." Hat Trick yawned as he realized his chances of going out and beating up viins diminished by the moment. But honestly, as he noted, it was not really worth it either. Heroes received AP (achievement points) based on sessful missions that determined their cement in rankings and potential for promotion. But variant attacks provided the most AP while apprehending viins provided far less. As a result, most low tier heroes who were not strong enough to go out and fight variants and instead had to help dealing with street level crime in neighborhood patrols or whatnot faced plenty of ridicule. They were dubbed ''Janitors'' that swept the streets of petty crime instead of being strong enough to defend humanity against variant attacks. The real heroes were those who could stand up to shy giant monster attacks and save countless lives. This lenient attitude towards viins, especiallypared to during the Age of Viins where they were feared as tyrant overlords, urred due to reforms that urred after the Monstering where a huge move for a unified humanity against variants started. And, at the end of the day, viins were still humans. Many viins joined heroes and sacrificed their lives to fight against the extinction level threats of the Titans at the start of the Monstering. This gave viins far more leeway to pursue their way of life. So long as viins did not threaten society as a whole or directly injurerge quantities of human life, heroes generally did not engage with them significantly. Plus, it was logistically difficult. There were still obscenely powerful viins from during the Monstering who became founders or higher ups within thergest viin organizations, so trying to wage a war against them was just a waste of resources when variants continuously threatened humanity as a whole. Public and social media were also heavily engineered and regted by the Panopticon so that they morized heroes beating variants butrgely downyed viin organization activities unless they became far too obvious and harmful. Like this, there was a sort of unspoken ''truce'' between viins and heroes that existed so long as the threat of the sleeping Titans remained. Not to say that there was never conflict between heroes and viins - there was plenty- but on a macro scale, variants were the real threat. "Police should be dealing with this," said Seismic. "Hah! That''s a good one, Seismic,"ughed Hat Trick. "I''ll bet fifty thousand credits right now that the policemissioner here makes triple his sh*tty public sry from viin ''donations''." "I pity the idiot who would ever call that bet," said Seismic. He sighed. "But still, I can''t help worrying about the viins. What if they are nning something in the shadows? Using their diplomatic immunity from the Monstering for something big?" "The years have turned you into a conspiracy theorist," said Hat Trick. "If the viins ever step out of line, the AA and Panopticon turns against them and then they just get sh*t on. Panopticon starts to actively find their assets, freeze them, and shut down their businesses. And then the AA fights the viins, and I can guarantee you that we have way more heavy hitters than they do. AA has been recruiting the strongest Alters actively and globally for over fifty years. You can''t walk more than two street blocks without seeing an ad for joining the AA and bing a hero. Heroes are the faces of advertising and corporate deals everywhere. They''re the ones people look upt o and love. Viins, in the meanwhile, still have to move in secrecy, and that''s just bad business for attracting new talent." "True, true," said Seismic. "Maybe the years have made me paranoid." "You''ve gotta learn to live a little, Seismic," said Hat Trick. "This is why I don''t believe in having kids or a wife. All thatmitment and responsibility, it starts to drag you down and make you worry about the future. It stops you from really living in the present, you know what I mean?" "I do," said Seismic. "But there''s something about worrying for people you''remitted to that makes life worth living. It beats out the aimless addiction to destruction I had when I was young." "Well, that sounds like a you problem. I got no problem having twenty different girls on call and bathing in credits and cheers," said Hat Trick. He perked up as he watched the telescreen. "Oh sh*t! Look! They managed to pull of a warping maneuver!" "Good tactics," said Seismic with a nod. "Using a mass amount of drones to generate enough interference to tune out any scanning - I would never have thought of that. I suppose that''s the difference between viins and heroes. They''re used to fighting Alters and we''re used to fighting variants." "Damn! Look at that guy die! The guy with the shades!" said Hat Trick, leaning forward like he was watching his favorite football team score a goal. He narrowed his eyes. "Who killed him, though? I only see blurs." Hat Trick talked into his earpiece mic. "Hey Nav, try and get your drone to zoom in a little more." The drone''s camera tried to zoom in, but then a cover of strange, dark smoke washed over everything,pletely removing any visibility. "Nav, this is just smoke, right? Scan past it or something! I''m missing out, man!" said Hat Trick. The drone camera tried to switch to various sight modes. AC scanning, thermal, radar - nothing really worked. "The hell? Is this some kind of Alter power?" remarked Hat Trick. "Fairly high end, too," said Seismic. "Your Nav, what''s his support ranking?" "A solid B," said Hat Trick. In the AA, heroes that did not directly fight went into the support department that focused on surveince and reconnaissance, and they had their own ranking system determined from metrics that did not revolve aroundbat capability. "Then this is pretty high-end concealment," said Seismic. "It reminds me of Void Walker." Void Walker was a famous hero turned vignte who could generate fields of shadowy darkness thatpletely shut down any form of surveince. "You really are old, huh," said Hat Trick. "Void Walker went MIA fifteen years ago. Anyways-," Hat Trick stood up, stretching his arms. "Hm? What are you doing?" said Seismic. "I''m going out there. I''m a little curious about what''s going on now," said Seismic. He balled his gloved hands into tight fists. Golden studs at the knuckles shed as he cracked his neck. "Youing, old man?" Seismic put a hand on his salt and pepper colored goatee. The wrinkles around his brown eyes deepened as he thought about what to do. "I don''t know. We''d be going into unknown territory-," Hat Trick face palmed. "Seismic, we''re A ss. A. ss. We would wipe the floor with anybody here. Hell, you could probably drum up an earthquake and shove this entire ce inside a sinkhole and be done with it. What do we have to worry about?" "I guess I can give you some cover," said Seismic. As he stood up, he immediately froze as he looked at his AA issued Alert Watch. The watch embedded in his costume red orange, indicating a possible threat that required immediate investigation. Hat Trick also stared at his glowing orange watch. A holographic projection of a status report emitted from the watch. From the holograph, a video also yed showing an enormous blue pir of energy rising from the ocean surface and into the clouds approximately fifteen kilometers from Haven''s coastline. The pir of energy faded away after a few seconds, but when it did, it caused the clear night sky to suddenly throng with dark, rumbling storm clouds. A mass torrential downpour, winds, and rising tides formed. "What is this? Some kind of Terra-Storm?" said Hat Trick. Terra Storms were a fairlymon phenomenon in the world''s unstable climate. The rise of Altering powers had affected the itself, causing Ether to infuse into the earth itself. Some scientists even hypothesized that enormous amounts of Ether gathered into the earth''s core, causing it to spread outwards into the''s maic field. Sometimes, ether surges in some areas of earth''s maic field caused Terra Storms. Terra Storms generated sudden meteorological phenomenon like storms and even natural disasters. They were generally predictable by studying and keeping track of fluxes in the earth''s maic field and atmosphere, but sometimes, there were sudden Terra Storms that escaped all notice. "No, doesn''t seem like it," said Seismic. "Even rogue Terra Storms have some windup. Usually, there''s a huge buildup of Ether for at least an hour." "You think something made this storm?" said Hat Trick. Seismic nodded. "I think so. Probably variant activity." Hat Trick grinned wildly. "Good. Then we''ll finally get to see some action." "Stay careful, Hat Trick," said Seismic. "Any variant that can generate a storm like this is probably a B rank disaster threat at minimum." "Good thing we''re A rank then, right?" Hat Trick unsped a ck bowler hat from his utility belt and put it atop his wild, neck length dark red hair. As he did so, a band around the bowler hat glowed blue. "Good, I got my Laser Form on the first try. I''ll race you to the coastline, old man." "Wait, we should n-," began to Seismic, but Hat Trick''s body turned bright blue before shooting out of an open window in the form of aser beam. Seismic sighed as he squeezed out of the window clumsily, trying to fit his huge body through theparatively smaller frame. He broke the window with his huge strength, and he made a mental reminder to pay for damages. He then leaped out and flew by generating shockwaves on his feet, hopping through the air. Chapter 80: The Finale Of Vengeance

Chapter 80: The Finale Of Vengeance

Within the 15th floor of the Necropolis-- "How are you alive?" began Seth as he stood up, flicking Zayn''s blood off his arms. His face set as he red at Aldrich with pure, unadulterated, focused hate. "No, the how and why doesn''t matter. All that matters is that you''re standing here in front of me. You''re responsible for all this, aren''t you?" "Aren''t you clever," said Aldrich. "Go on. I''ll answer anyst questions you have before I kill you." "The Kryptic - how did you manage it?" said Seth. "It needed deep connections through the criminal underworld and a fortune. Luckily, I made a friend who had both," said Aldrich. "Casimir was with me this entire time. I made sure that the Boost you wanted was spiked with a little present of my own." "And how much is in here? Enough to kill me?" said Seth as he looked at his hands, his eyes tracing the ck veins starting to show through his skin - the telltale sign of Kryptic poisoning him. In ordinary individuals, Kryptic had no signs for poisoning, but with the Sr family or in those with particrly powerful bodies, it manifested through the ckening of blood vessels. "No. I couldn''t get that much," said Aldrich. "You should know your own body the best, no? This amount of Kryptic just keeps your powers down, even with a double dose. I bet after a week of sunbathing; you could clear it out of your system. But that''s besides the point. I didn''t want you to die of Kryptic. Too painless. Too easy. I needed to kill you personally." "Yeah? How do you think you''ll go about doing that?" said Seth. He clenched his fists. They made squelching sounds as his grip squeezed his blood slicked hands. "I still have some power. Enough to break a Dud''s spine with my bare hands. Enough to kill YOU at the very least. You''ll regret showing your face to me here." "Do you really think so?" Aldrich manifested all of his [Grave Reaper] set and his [Lantern of the ursed Eye]. He surged his magical energy as much as possible, to the point where the ground underneath him began to crack. "I have power, Seth. More than enough power to deal with the likes of you, especially with how weak you are now." Aldrich aimed his free hand and fired volleys of [Chill Bolts]. He intentionally shot around Seth, causing countless sts of frosty ice to scatter behind Seth. The machine gun fire of icy bolts smashed through rock, the freezing effect boring through solid stone. Seth could not react to the speed of the bolts with how weakened he was, and all he could do was turn his head around and watch the icy explosions smash rock instead of what would have been his body. Aldrich then grabbed the chain of hisntern in both hands, swung it, then smashed it into the ground while boosting himself with [Negative Surge], shattering stone. That could have easily caved in Seth Sr''s skull or crushed his organs with how frail he had be. All this as a disy of power. To let Seth Sr know that he had utterly zero chance to survive here. "So, you wanted to show off all this new power before you killed me? Do you feel better now that you aren''t a useless fucking Dud?" said Seth. He spat on the ground. He did not despair, he just stared at Aldrich with the same hateful gaze he always had. Unlike Ghost, Seth did not beg or plead for his life. If he was going to face death, he faced it standing. "If you''re going to do it, then get on with it." Aldrich scoffed. "I just wanted to make sure you felt powerless. I wanted you to know you never had a chance to begin with. Just as my friends did when you killed them. But killing you with my magic is a little too impersonal for my taste, and instant death is too quick. Aldrich dematerialized all his equipment and hisntern. "But that''s not how I want to kill you. I''m going to be generous here, Seth. I''m going to give you a chance." Aldrich stepped forwards; his fists clenched. "I''m going to beat you to death. No powers, no magic, just my own two hands. If you can beat me, well then, hats off to you. Maybe scum like you does deserve to live." Seth nodded slowly, meeting Aldrich''s cold, green eyes. He clenched his own fists as he stepped forward. "A chance? Don''t get cocky, Dud. I''ve run my fist through your heart once. I''ll do it again." "You''re wee to try," said Aldrich. The two men stared at each other one final time. Both from wildly different walks of life. One born powerless. The other born with overwhelming might. One raised with love. The other raised as a tool. And yet, there was one thing that tethered both men. Choice. Or rather, theck of it. And without choice, both men grew hatred that festered deep within their beings, hatred thatshed out at the world around them through a desire for vengeance. In this final juncture, Aldrich and Seth shared a wordless moment not of disagreement, but of understanding. When they looked into the other''s eyes and saw the very same type of hate they harbored reflected back at them, the very same fire of vengeance that fueled them, they knew at that moment that they were twin sides of one coin. And because they knew this, because they knew themselves better than anyone else, they knew this was the end. The opposite sides of a coin could never meet together. They were part of the same ne and yet they were fundamentally opposed. Where Seth Sr''s hate channeled into vengeance that sought to see the unjust world burn in chaos, Aldrich forged his vengeance into a tool that aimed to bring this world under order, no matter the cost. There would be no middle ground here. Nopromise. Only a victor. Seth Sr roared as he flew forwards with his fist cocked back, though because of how energy depleted he was, he did not really fly, he just boosted his own jumping strength. Aldrich raised his arms up in a guard. Seth''s fist mmed into Aldrich''s arms and drove him back several feet. Aldrich grunted as he felt damage register on his arms. The bone of his forearm actually cracked under Seth Sr''s punch, though simply broken bones did nothing to stop Aldrich''s undead body. Despite Seth Sr going through two rounds of Kryptic poisoning and severe depletion of his energy reserves that disabled his sr beams, the Alter''s base strength had been so high that even now, he was still superhuman. Each of Seth''s punches could shatter the skull of a normal human and he could still out sprint any pre-Altering professional runner. That meant roughly speaking, Aldrich and Seth were evenly matched in pure physical stats provided Aldrich did not enhance himself with magic. No, Seth had a moderate advantage, even, in terms of raw punching power and durability. Good. Aldrich wanted this fight to be even. To be as personal as possible. Seth sprinted to Aldrich with another punch. Aldrich narrowed his eyes, focusing. Seth''s punch zoomed towards Aldrich''s head, and he weaved it to the side, narrowly evading the blow. Aldrich then grabbed Seth''s arm and spun around, mming Seth into the ground using an over the shoulder throw. Seth broke his fall at thest moment, holding out an arm to stop the impact from hitting directly into his back and disabling him by knocking the breath out. The Alter had some martial arts training, it was evident, though not nearly on the level of Aldrich. Seth grimaced and immediately rolled backwards, getting back on his feet only to meet a flying double kick from Aldrich. Seth blocked the first kick, but the second kick hit him square in the face, sending him falling t on his back against the cold hard stone. He got up on a knee, holding a hand over his broken, crooked nose. He grabbed his nose between his fingers and forcibly set it back into ce before exhaling out a glob of blood. Aldrich let Seth take his breather before diving into an offense¡­ Aldrich threw out jabs as he circled around Seth, gauging their distance. Chapter 81: The Finale Of Vengeance 2

Chapter 81: The Finale Of Vengeance 2

Seth put up his own guard, blocking Aldrich''s light jabs as he counter circled against Aldrich in a carefully calcted dance, each man trying to gauge when to strike. Seth was a few inches taller than Aldrich, giving him extra reach. He tried to abuse this by keeping his distance, throwing out punches at the limits of his arm span. Aldrich countered by weaving between one of Seth''s punches and getting right inside Seth''s range. Here, in an in-fight, Aldrich made it very, very clear who among the two was the better martial artist. Who among the two had dedicated their entire life to training just to match up the superpowered bodies around them. Aldrich feinted a head blow, making Seth raise his guard high, but then immediately adjusted into a quick low punch to Seth''s gut, doubling him over and breaking his guard, before following up with a solid uppercut that sent Seth flying backwards with the resonating crack of impact. Seth grunted as he stopped his fall by floating in the air,nding on his feet gently. His breathing wheezed as he wiped blood from a burst lip. Very likely, his jaw had fractured too. He spat out two teeth knocked loose from Aldrich''s uppercut. "Look at you," said Aldrich. "Without all that power, you''re nothing. You don''t know what it''s like to train every single day of your life to measure up to even one tenth of the weakest Alter around you, and it shows." "Shut up!" Seth yelled as he charged Aldrich, this time holding his arms out to try and tackle and grapple Aldrich down. Aldrich knew how to defend against a takedown. There were three real options here. One was to strike the opponent when he got into range. The second was to dodge. The third was to meet the takedown head on. Aldrich took the third option. He lowered his center of gravity and met the tackle with firmly rooted stance, preventing Seth from knocking Aldrich down to the ground immediately. Aldrich''s n was to elbow down on Seth''s exposed neck while he stayed at Aldrich''s hip level. However, the takedown was a feint. It was mostly meant for Seth to get a firm grip on Aldrich''s waist, preventing him from moving away. The reason for this became immediately clear - Seth''s right eye started to glow a bright gold as he channeled up a sr beam. Because of how little energy he had left, he could only manage to charge up a beam from one eye, but he aimed this now at Aldrich''s face. Aldrich reacted swiftly and mercilessly. He grabbed Seth''s head with his hands, holding it firmly in ce, before jamming his thumb into Seth''s right eye with all his might. Seth roared in agony as Aldrich dug deep into the eye,pletely crushing it to a pulp and disabling it entirely. He shoved Aldrich away and put his hands over his face as the built-up sr energy detonated inside of his crushed eye,pletely disintegrating it and scorching out an empty socket in sh of light. This, however, though a grotesque wound, did not kill Seth. The wound had cauterized on its own, preventing bleeding, and it had not burned into the brain itself. Coupled with Seth''s own stubborn will and superhuman body, and he remained conscious and capable of fighting. But Aldrich did not stop there. He rushed towards Seth from his new blind side, and when Seth heard Aldrich near, he roared and swung wildly with a right hook. Aldrich easily maneuvered past the punch and rotated behind Seth, meanwhile taking Seth''s arm in a lock. Aldrich then pulled the Alter''s arm back painfully behind his back, disabling the arm and exposing Seth''s face. With Aldrich''s free arm, he wailed down punches against Seth''s defenseless head. Seth raised his one good arm to try and guard, but there was only so much one arm could do, and Aldrich easily maneuvered past that half guard tond his strikes. Punch after punch after punch. The sound of enhanced flesh cracking against enhanced flesh resonated through the arena. Seth''s face bloodied iprehensibly as cuts and bruises began to litter it, swelling his facial muscles and his eyes. Aldrich then let Seth go, tossing him away. Seth stumbled and fell to the ground before weakly raising himself up, shaking his face of blood, sweat, and the tremors of impact. He stared at Aldrich in confusion, wondering why Aldrich had just let him go. "I told you. I was going to make this slow. And painful. I''m going to break you down bit by bit. Piece by piece." Aldrich ripped off the bloodied, tattered remains of his suit jacket and dress shirt. "Until there''s nothing left of you." "Come on then¡­," said Seth weakly. Aldrich ran into Seth''s range. Seth clumsily shot out a punch at Aldrich''s face. By now, the fight was over. Seth had taken too much damage, and that affected his coordination, and against a master martial artist like Aldrich, even just a tiny littlepse in ability was a fatal w. Aldrich ducked beneath Seth''s strike andnded an elbow right into Seth''s stomach, doubling the Alter over in pain and cracking ribs. Aldrich then hooked his arm around one of Seth''s and used Seth''s arm as a lever to throw the Alter onto the ground again. With Seth on the ground and still reeling from the gut shot, Aldrich took this opportunity and went down on the ground himself, wrapping his legs around Seth''s arm in a firm armbar before applying pressure,pletely dislocating the elbow joint in a painful, popping snap. Seth roared in pain as he writhed on the ground like a worm. Aldrich then got off of Seth and rolled away, leaving Seth foaming at the mouth with spit and blood as he processed the pain. Aldrich watched Seth struggle for a few seconds before his brow twitched in anger. "Get up," said Aldrich as he stood and watched Seth convulsing in pain on the ground. He saw Seth''s struggling, suffering wracked form, and all he felt was rage at this pathetic sight. "Get up! All the pain you''ve caused, all the lives you''ve taken, and THIS is what you have to show for it!? Pathetic!" Seth grit his teeth and got on a knee, his left arm hanging limp and useless from his shoulder. "Good, good," whispered Aldrich. Seth breathed deeply before yelling and flying towards Aldrich in a surprising final burst of power dredged up from the depths of his will to survive. Aldrich reacted by jumping in the air and locking Seth''s one good arm in a flying armbar. In midair, Aldrich twisted and applied cranking pressure, dislocating the elbow joint yet again. Seth roared in agony as he began to fall straight back to the ground. Aldrich got leverage over Seth and twisted atop his back. Like riding atop a wild bull, Aldrich grabbed the back of Seth''s head and used it to steer Seth''s flight straight down into the rocky ground face first. Aldrich was not done. While Seth groaned in pain from the impact, Aldrich immediately went to Seth''s left leg. Aldrich wrapped his legs tight around Seth''s knee and then grabbed his left heel with iron grip before twisting it, breaking the ankle. Seth loosed a muffled roar of agony into the stony floor. "I told you. I would break you down. Piece-," Aldrich detached from Seth''s left leg before hooking around his right heel. He yanked again, breaking the right ankle this time. "By piece!" Another yell of agony form Seth. Aldrich locked around Seth''s left knee next before twisting, dislocating it. "Bit!" He then repeated the same process with Seth''s right knee, dislocating both knees and rendering both his legs utterly useless. "By bit!" Another scream of pain that rang through the arena, though in here, in this realm of cold, empty death, there was nobody to hear it except Aldrich himself. Aldrich got off of Seth and then put a foot on his upper back, pinning him head down into the cratered rock below as he reached down and grabbed Seth''s left arm before yanking violently back, hyper extending the arm and dislocating the shoulder. Aldrich reached out to Seth''s right shoulder and pulled that back too, dislocating it. Seth''s yells of pain grew quieter and quieter after each dislocation as the pain became too intense to bear, dangerously getting him close to fading out of consciousness. But Seth''s enhanced durability worked against him here, keeping him in that sweet goldilocks zone of suffering where he held onto a strand of consciousness despite the inhuman amounts of suffering he faced. Now, Seth waspletely immobile, all of the major joints in his arms and legs dislocated. He did not have the energy to fire beams or fly. "I-I can''t die," muttered Seth as blood pooled from under his split lips and bloody mouth. "Hm?" Aldrich stood up and kicked Seth over on his back, baring his face - beaten and disfigured beyond any humanprehension. "I¡­can''t die. I''ll show¡­I''ll show this world what a real viin is¡­what to fear¡­I''ll burn it all down," continued Seth. He was half delirious now, muttering out the burning hate that kept him alive this long. The hate that had given him purpose. Aldrich stood over Seth, his pale skin drenched in swathes of bright red blood. He looked down at Seth''s eyes welded nearly shut from bruising. Seth''s one good eye still stared ahead with pure hate. But it did not stare at Aldrich. In Seth''s delirium, looked past Aldrich, towards the abstract idea of the world that had wronged him. Looking down at Seth like this, utterly defeated, utterly broken, Aldrich felt nothing but immense satisfaction. Contrary to what many said, there was nothing that felt better than quenching a thirst for vengeance. But at the same time, looking into Seth''s distant eyes, Aldrich, too, was forced to see ahead, into the future beyond all of this. All of this personal vengeance. Seth Sr was not unique. He was a mere by product of this twisted world that churned out broken monsters like him. And, Aldrich did not hesitate to admit it, broken monsters like himself as well. "I understand how you feel," said Aldrich quietly. "But this world doesn''t need people like you anymore. People that see how wrong it is and think that it''s better off burning down into chaos. No, what this world needs is order. My order." Aldrich tapped his Phctery, and a small dark portal opened. From within, two pairs of rotted arms drew out. Adam and ine funneled onto the stone floor, and as soon as they smelled weak, vulnerable flesh, they groaned in desire. They loomed over Seth''s body, their jaws open and ready to feast. Seth''s pupil dted as he drifted back from delirium, recognizing Adam and ine for a few brief final moments. "This is my final gift to you, Adam. ine. With this, I''ve made things right to you. Enjoy your feast." Aldrich closed his eyes as he heard Adam and ine tear into Seth''s body, ripping off chunks of his helpless, immobilized flesh. He heard their growls punctuated by Seth''s screams of suffering and pain, and he felt¡­alive. More alive than ever. Huge surges of negative energy generated by the suffering of Seth Sr and the rest of his deceased friends funneled into him, setting his green aura alight in purple. His body of flesh and blood¡­felt heavy. Like a prison. He could feel his heart, his soul, ready to leave its confines, to be something more. Something transcendent. Something beyond. Chapter 82: {Dance Of Duels}

Chapter 82: {Dance Of Duels}

At the Red Circle -- "What the-," The elite beside Joe, his personal bodyguard, watched Joe fall to the ground with the dirk jutting sticking out of his heart. Where had this attacke from? There were recon drones everywhere to make sure nothing surprised the Elites, not to mention the environmental scanning systems programmed into their helmets. A stab to the back like this would not make it past the tight perimeter the Elite squadrons had drawn up. The only exnation was an Alter with a concealment based power sufficiently advanced enough to avoid even higher end AC scanning. The elite''s training instincts kicked in and he adapted, suppressing his immediate worry. He stepped away from Joe''s body and aimed his gun at where the knife wielder would be. "Assumingmand!" the Elite shouted into his helmet as he raised his gun. He could see that the knife was being wielded by some strange mass of hazy darkness that now started to solidify into¡­the shape of a skeleton? "Mutant ss Alter. Skeletal appearance. Concealment capacity level 4. Deploy counter measures. Engaging target!" The Elite leader fired at the skeleton, setting his Hydra rifle to assault mode. The skeleton darted away with expert agility, backflipping and somersaulting to avoid the bullets. But though the skeleton was fast, the Hydra''s auto aim system was even faster. The Elite leader tracked the skeleton''s graceful movements, unloading a full clip into the skeleton, shattering its legs to disable its mobility. The skeleton fell onto the ground as the rest of the Elites stood in trios where they were back-to-back from each other, covering all angles of approach against targets that had concealment beyond their scanning. "Who are you!?" said the leader as he stepped forwards at the legless, purple cloaked skeleton. With a swift flicking motion of its arms, the skeleton tossed its serrated dirk right at the leader''s head. The leader managed to react by swerving his head to the side. With Joe dead, his potent stim boost would fade over time, but as of now, it was still nearly in full force, massively elerating the leader''s reactions and physicals. The leader quickly reloaded and shot into the skeleton''s head, boring a multitude of holes into it. The skeleton, however, was unfazed by its half blown off skull and leaped into the air by pushing off the ground with its hands. With a swat of his gun, the leader managed to knock the skeleton back down. He calmly analyzed the situation. The skeleton was very likely some kind of mutant ss Alter who had a concealment-based power. His unique physiology made it so that the body was just pure bone and hollow within, and in these cases, the best solution was absolute destruction of the main body. "Switch to incendiary!" shouted the leader as he willed his weapon to change. The smartlink cable running from his gun to the back of his helmet linked with a neurochip that allowed his thoughts to control the gun. A red light shone at the gun''s barrel before he fired again, and this time, the bullets exploded into wreaths of me upon contact with the skeleton. The skeleton writhed forwards before growing still, its dry bones breaking apart under the mes. "Ahh!" "Man down! Man down!" The leader immediately whirled around, checking the rest of his squad. Two more men had fallen, their hearts gouged out with dirks wielded again by skeletons. "Where did theye from!?" said the leader. "No idea! They just¡­they just appeared!" "Gun them down! Before they disappear!" In an instant, several Hydra rifle barrels lit up as they unleashed incendiary rounds, thoroughly blowing apart and burning the skeletons. "What are these things!? They slipped through all our scans, and even when they''re dead, they don''t register any cell count!" said an Elite, confusion and fear starting to crack through their training as they faced the unknown, enemies they had never, ever seen that seemed to ignore any of the rules they knew. ''I wish I fucking knew,'' thought the leader as he thought about what to do. Hemitted to a decision quickly. "Retreat! We don''t know sh*t about these things! Report back to HQ!" said the leader. "I''m afraid that won''t be happening." A woman''s voice pierced through the air, and all the Elites immediately raised their guns and pointed towards the entrance of the Red Circle. There, a hauntingly beautiful woman stepped out, her deathly pale skin contrasting with the midnight ckce and cloth of her dress. Her eyes gleamed bloody red, tinting her fanged white smile in a hint of crimson. "AC count zero!" said an Elite. A civilian? Out here? What? The leader paused for a brief moment before waiving his concerns away. There was no time for hesitation here. "Gun her down!" said the leader with no remorse. Several Hydra rifles ttered as they fired their rounds. In an instant, the woman put her arm out in front of her and manifested¡­a giant shield? A cross shaped shield of ck metal and bone. She stood behind this shield, and all the bullets pattered against the shield like raindrops on a car window. Smoke then emerged from behind her, surging forwards in a tidal wave of darkness that quickly covered everyone. The smoke was not ordinary, it was more urately described as a cloud of pure darkness. Within this inky cover of dark, visibility was limited to just a few feet ahead. The leader tapped angrily at his helmet, trying to scan past the smoke, but nothing worked. In fact, everything seemed to be short circuiting. His helmet''s UI started to crackle and distort as it shut off. "Argh!" Sparks sputtered from the back of all the Elites'' helmets as their smartlink to their weapons was forcibly severed. They immediately unplugged the smartlink cables to their guns,pletely stranding them from their technology. All those thousands upon thousands of credits spent on Imugibat suits with their world-renowned auto aiming and scanning and smart linkpatibility - all gone just like that. This left the Elites stranded with just their own bodies and minds to work with. They were even cut off frommunications as they relied on built inm links in their helmets. In this modern age where everyone was always linked in somewhere, through their phones, theirputers, or even through their weapons, thisplete ckout of technology was deeply unsettling, like they had lost a fundamental part of themselves. "Get out! Get out!" The leader could not see anything that was going on, but he knew that now more than ever, he needed to get his men out. What had started out as an enforcing mission to execute the upstart Red Circle was quickly devolving into a nightmare of unforeseen consequences. Screams filled the air as the silhouette of strange monstrosities revealed by brief glimmers of gunfire showcased¡­variants. Variants had been unleashed upon the Elites. How had they been controlled? Where had they been caged? The leader asked these questions but knew he could not find answers. He looked around frantically, sweat pouring down his forehead as he felt his breathing elerate in panic. Everytime he heard gunfire, he turned around to see what was happening, and there, illuminated by the gunfire, he saw his fellow Elites get torn apart one by one. An Alpha Striker leaped atop an Elite from the smoky darkness, savaging his throat apart. It smelled the air and then growled, signaling to other variants the locations of the rest of the soldiers. A Big-arm Grizzly roared as it tackled down an Elite and savagely crushed his skull. One Elite screamed as he melted down from the highly acidic blood spray of a Bloodspitter Lizard. Gunfire echoed chaotically, but without auto-aiming and in this low visibility environment, it was a long shot for any of the Elites to now hit their targets. There were creatures the Elites had no idea about as well. A giant, hulking muscled man with tumorous growths all over his body and protruding tusks that wielded a giant club of fused metal, swinging it from side to side, breaking Elite ribcages and spines with each blow. More living skeletons. The leader abandoned all pretense of trying to save his men at this point and ran. He sprinted away as fast as he could, the screams of his dying men serving as motivation for him to run faster. He had no idea where he was going in this smoke, but he knew if he moved back far enough, he would reach the convoys, and there, he could make his escape - "Gah!" the leader fell backwards as he mmed into something hard. He raised his gun up instinctively, trying to see what had hit him. "Put that thing down. It''s quite rude to point a weapon at ady, you know?" The woman from before stepped forwards, bing visible as she neared the leader. Before the leader could pull the trigger, the woman had moved so quickly it seemed like she teleported, wrapping her hand around the barrel of the Hydra rifle and yanking it away from the leader''s grip. She was strong, impossibly strong, and she easily overpowered the leader. "I don''t like these things," said the woman as she looked down at the gun, her eyes shining red. "They''re so¡­impersonal? That is how I would put it. You look through a sight, press a button, and then kill. But where is the fun in that? You lose out on ripping and tearing your foes using your own bare strength. Isn''t that so boring?" The leader switched to his secondary pistol and fired shots at the woman. He managed to get out two shots that scraped across her skin before the woman grabbed his arms together in her hands, applying crushing force that very quickly shattered his forearms. A scream escaped the leader''s lips. He began to beg. "Let me go! J-Joe''s dead, that''s all that matters to you, isn''t it!? I''m just a footsoldier!" "Yes, and are not soldiers supposed to be ready toy down their lives? Ites with the job, does it not?" The woman smiled as she let go of the leader''s arms before shing forward with long, wed ck nails. "Gh-guh" The leader tried to speak but could only gurgle as blood sputtered from his torn open throat. He put a hand over his gaping neck before he fell over, blood pooling from beneath him. "Kill them all," said Valera to the undead left to her control from her dear master. "No survivors¡­ But leave their corpses intact." She then put a hand to her forehead, checking up on the others - Chapter 83: {Dance Of Duels 2}

Chapter 83: {Dance Of Duels 2}

In Haven''s sewagework, 150 meters away from the Red Circle - Darius Fletcher grimaced as he squinted his eyes at his new and dark surroundings. He could not see in the dark, but he could generate enough light from his body to understand that he was somewhere underground. Specifically, he was inside a huge rectangr pit of some sorts, deep enough that the edges of the pit were several meters taller than he was. The ceiling above was made of stained reinforced concrete and decorated with awork of pipes. Severalrge pipes yawned open towards the pit. The conflicting dual smells of rank human feces and strong antiseptic chemicals filled his nostrils. Darius knew where he was. The sewers. "Ah, so you have made it here, as was previously nned," came a smooth, deep and neutral voice. A small aquatic echo rang underneath the voice, as if some part of it was uttered from under the sea. Darius immediately looked at the end of the pit to see¡­to see¡­ What the fuck was that? It was a tall,nky, humanoid figure, maybe about six foot four (193 cm) with slimy mauve skin wrapped up in eerie ck robes. Its fingers were long and prehensile like little tendrils, and its face was reminiscent of an octopus with arge, bulbous, nerve wreathed head, three beady red, square pupiled eyes, and a mouth that ended in several curled tentacles. "A mutant ss are you?" said Darius. "You some kind of mercenary Casimir dredged up from god knows where to to fight me?" "Fight you? Dear me, no, I am not too fond of risking my body for violence. And I am no mercenary, such an upation is far too brutish for my tastes," said the octopus man. "And a fight? You are sorely misguided, my friend. This is no fight. This is an execution, and I am merely here to bear witness." "Execution? Big fucking words. Let''s see if you live up to them!" Darius mmed his hands together and fired abined stream of magma at the mutant. The octopus mutant stood calmly with his hands behind his back, his tendril fingers interlocked together, as the magma sttered against a bright orange-red barrier that became visible only when the magma made contact. The magma hissed as it spilled over the barrier, unable to prate it. "Curious," said the mutant as he looked at the magma, then at Darius. "You are capable of transmuting your body into an entirely different element. Functionally, you are quite simr to the Elementals I am familiar with, especially Magma Elementals, but unlike them, you are not a form of spirit, you are purely physical. Thoroughly human, too. This defies the Theory of Elemental Spirituality that Archmage Velenthel wrote of¡­" "Forcefield?" Darius droned out the octopus mutant''s rambling and immediately analyzed the mutant, trying to find out what tech he was using, but the mutant did not seem to be wearing anything remotely resembling technology. Just robes that looked like they belonged to a medieval reenactment fair. That meant that most likely, the mutant''s power was linked to the forcefield. Darius, however, did not want to waste too much time here. If this mutant was not going to fight him, then he would just melt his way up to the surface. He looked up and jumped, but as soon as he tried to leave the filth caked floor of the pit, he felt himself dragged right back down to it, anchored to the surface by some invisible force. "I told you, did I not, this is an execution," said the octopus mutant. "The noose is already tied to your neck. There is no stepping away from the gallows at this point, I am afraid." "Yeah? You just gonna sit there and talk me to death?" said Darius. He looked down to see what was holding him but could not find any discernable hints. What he did notice with a fair amount of surprise was that the floor beneath him did not melt even in contact with his superheated magma body. Instead, a flickering orange barrier seemed to be wrapped around all the points of contact between Darius and the ground, preventing it from melting. "This your power!?" said Darius. "Power? I suppose you could say that, yes," said the mutant. "I shall go into specifics, for as a dead man, you will not spread my knowledge. This is a spell called [me Ward] that allows me to imbue objects with high fire damage resistance. In this case, it prevents you from boring your way down to escape while the strange specimen known as the ''Antlion'' beneath prevents you from reaching upwards." "Antlion!?" Darius had no idea what the mutant talked about with spells, but he did know what an Antlion was. With its extremely powerful anti-flight gravitational field, it prevented anyone from leaving a pit it nested within. And because the entire pit here was reinforced with the mutant''s barrier, Darius could not melt his way down to kill the Antlion either. "So what!?" Darius shouted. "You''ve trapped me here, but what else can you do?" Darius had a better understanding of where he was in Haven''s sewage system now that he had time to process things. Specifically, he was inside arge treatment vat where sewage would get purified and transported to be reused for fertilizer or biomass. A horrible location for Darius as his only real weakness was getting submerged in liquid. But Cubehead''s power had limits to its transportation effect. First, the effective range for its warp was within two hundred meters. In addition, he had to warp people into an open location. Hence, he could not just warp enemies inside walls and kill them. Not only that, but the location that anyone was warped into had to be capable of housing an empty cube ten meters by ten meters in dimensions, so it was impossible to just dump someone into a tub of acid. At the very least, by virtue of Cubehead''s known restrictions, there was no water in the immediate vicinity. "Crabs, do me a great favor and lend me your assistance," said the mutant. All of a sudden, water began to pour out from therge pipes above, slowly filling the pit. Darius immediately fired globs of magma at the pipes, trying to cover them in molten rock, but they were covered with the orange barrier too. The magma just bounced off the barriers,nding back into the pit below. "Sh*t!" Darius readjusted his aim, instead trying to shove magma up into the pipes themselves to clog them. "That simply will not do," said the mutant as he pointed at Darius''s arms. Darius saw a suddenbustion explosion burst in his arms, exploding outwards and stopping his attack. "Antlion, you must try harder than this to earn your ce in the Elder''s circle of trust," said the mutant. Darius buckled down to a knee as he felt the gravitational pressure intensify. Every movement felt five or six times harder to make. Any projectile he tried to fire at this level of intensified gravity would juste straight back down. His feet sizzled as the water reached them. The water roared violently as it instantly evaporated against Darius''s intense heat output. So long as he could instantly evaporate the water as soon as it made contact with the vat, he could prevent the water level from building up. "Crabs, enhance that water flow with your skills," said the mutant. "You used them so freely against me, why hold back now?" All of a sudden, the flow of watering down from the pipes grew tremendously, roaring downwards like violent waterfalls. The vat quickly began to fill up with water, and within seconds, Darius found the water level reaching up to his ankles. His white core intensified in brightness as he generated as much heat as he could, spreading out his magma in a pool beneath him. The water bubbled, hissed, steamed and roared, but the water level still built up. This was no ordinary water, either. It had a slight murky tinge to it and its evaporation point seemed dramatically higher than normal, preventing Darius from sh steaming it easily. "That is water from the murky Swamps of Nilgath said to be tainted by the mud of a y Demon, and, unfortunately, most demons have some resistance to fire from their infernal native homes," said the mutant, spouting more nonsense. Darius ignored the mutant and quickly strategized. He couldst at least a minute under this flow of water, and while the water level built up, he would continuallyyer magma beneath his foot, eventually creating a solidified tform of rock which he could use to gain elevation and escape the gravitational field. "Excellent strategy," said the mutant. "Were I blind, yes, but unfortunately, my friend, I possess three eyes." The mutant aimed a finger below Darius, and another targetedbustion explosion destroyed the cooled rock tform Darius was trying to build up, sinking him right down to the floor below. The water level now reached to his waist - fatally high. "No!" roared Darius as the water reacted to his magma, super heating instantly into steam explosions that bubbled inside his magma body, breaking it apart from within. Large globr bubbles formed all throughout his molten legs, bursting apart and scattering his body as he tried his hardest to regenerate and form more magma topensate. By generating magma, he could also stave off solidifying himself into a coffin of rock. But there was only so much magma he had. Eventually, several minutester, Darius was neck high in water, his body below that solidified into ckened rock scattered with giant round globs from the remnants of countless little steam explosions that had gone off within his body. "This won''t kill me!" roared Darius desperately as the water kepting anding, spelling his doom by encasing him in a coffin of his own molten design. If at any time he wanted to stop his molten form, then he would just get his unenhanced head blown off by this mutant. "You - I''ll find a way out of this, I swear, and when I do-!" "I wonder how many humans raved of vengeance before their nooses tightened at their execution? It is quite amusing how your fragile human minds operate exactly the same despite the wondrous powers you possess. I suppose human fragility is universal. But your monologue tires my ears." With that, the mutant flourished his hand, and an explosion blew up in front of Darius''s face, blowing off his face to stop him from speaking as the water engulfed him, solidifying him inside an eternal prison of rock from which there would not be escape. Chapter 84: Final Duels And Ascension

Chapter 84: Final Duels And Ascension

In an abandoned subway station, 200 meters away from the Red Circle - "Yeah, I''ve blown this fucker up," said Dynamite Girl as she exhaled deeply, her glowing orange blood vessels fading from her skin. She looked at the seared stump where her right arm had been. Countless bullet holes riddled her chest and stomach, leaving her already tattered costume basically reduced to nothing now. "And I really, really need a new costume now unless I''m going to be shing everyone in this whole damn city." "Excellent work, Dynamite Girl," said Hirondelle as she perched over the melted, ckened, blown apart wreckage of nk''s giant metal body. When nk first ported here, by nature of the Cubehead''s warp power requiring teleported units to be in an empty space, nk could not immediately be ambushed. But down here, in this abandoned subway line, Spybird''s War Eagle, his strongest drone, had engaged nk in a long-range battle of missiles and bullets. nk, a thorough maniac for gunfights, had obliged, distracting himself. nk eventually overpowered War Eagle, disabling it, but at that point, Dynamite Girl leaped down from a maintenance hole in the ceiling, using a Bunker Buster to open nk right open. Not before nk''s automated guns had made a whole wreck of Dynamite Girl, but her undead body let her shrug off the piercing damage. Once Dynamite Girl had opened him up, Hirondelle, who was also hidden in the ceiling, had finished the job, reducing herself down into the size of a swallow beforeunching herself inside nk, shooting from internal surface to surface at ultra-high speeds to wreak havoc. There, Hirondelle eventually killed nk. He had ended up being a Mechman, someone who integrated their bodies entirely into robotic shells. Hirondelle pinged and ponged around the insides of nk''s fortified armor until she finally shot through the weak human body held deep within. "Fucking Mechmen, they always freak me out," said Dynamite Girl. "Once you pry them outta'' their shells, I hear they always look real nasty. Bald and skinny and pale like literal corpses. Moment you unplug em'', they just shrivel up and die. Plus it''s super illegal too." Mechmen integrating with their machine bodies resulted in their physical bodies atrophying into frail biological husks kept entirely alive by their mechanical armor. This was thoroughly illegal in most countries because it heavily increased the risk of Technomania, but among viins and others that took thew as more a suggestion and not a rule, it was not entirely umon. There was even a massive terroristic cult called the New Machines that believed in discarding the weakness of flesh and bing full mechanoids. "You''ll find that within this line of work, the word ''illegal'' holds precious little meaning," said Hirondelle. "Still, I can respect heroes like yourselves that put your lives on the line against variants. Though, maybe it wouldn''t be too far off to call you a variant yourself now. I thought you were dead to the Geist attack, but look at you, standing here alive and well. Slightly paler, perhaps, but not much worse for wear. And far, far stronger too." "Yeah, it''s a perk of working for Mr. Vane," said Dynamite Girl. "And huh, I didn''t think you''d recognize me. I was just a random C ss, after all." "Of course I would," said Hirondelle. Her body of violet energy coursed like living fire while her eyes, twin bright dots of light purple, shone like bright embers. "I do not keep track of most heroes. I find the job thoroughly tacky and self-obsessed. But real heroes that put down their lives for others, now that, I can truly respect. All those that died to the Geist attack that you fell to, Imitted to my memory." "Well, thanks, I guess," said Dynamite Girl, a little shy at the praise. "At the same time, I do wonder how you can continue to work with that Variant after it bested you, let alone even fathom how Mr. Vane is capable of raising the dead and bending not only Natural Variants, but also Geist Variants to his will. Nobody, not even the brightest minds in the entire world, has managed to subdue a Geist." "I don''t know the details, and I''m pretty sure I''m not allowed to share them yet, even if we''re working together and all," said Dynamite Girl. "But the Geist? I don''t have many hard feelings for it. It was just an animal following its instincts. If it hadn''t killed me, I would have killed it. All there is to it, really. Just how nature is." "Nature, is it?" said Hirondelle. "Yeah. Nature''s all fucked up now with Variants evolving and whatever, but the basics of it all are still the same. Human or Variant - we all got base instincts we cater to, and the most basic of that is the instinct to survive." Dynamite Girl shrugged. "I grew up in deep variant countryside. Wastnds, technically, though with a whole lot more green. Living out there, that close to raw, wild nature, you start to learn that at the end of the day, everything''s just trying to survive. You win, you live another day, you lose, you die and let something else live. There''s nothing personal about it. Just the way it is." She then put her hand to her temple, her expression growing serious. "Sh*t. Something''se up. We gotta'' regroup now." "What about the other target groups?" said Hirondelle, referencing the three groups meant to fight the ckwater faculty after they were isted. The first group was Fler''Gan and a menagerie of stronger Variants to trap down Darius Fletcher in the sewers. The second was Hirondelle, Dynamite Girl, and Spybird''s War Eagle against nk here in this abandoned subway. The third was the Geist, Smoke, and Walters against Colette. "Group 1 trapped Darius. We''re good to go. Group 3 failed and Colette''s escaped, but they''re all alive and rtively unharmed. They''re regrouping now," said Dynamite Girl. "Then might I ask what the emergency is?" said Hirondelle. "Large scale attack," said Dynamite Girl as she listened to Valera''s mentalmunications. Just like Aldrich, Valera could alsomunicate to the undead, though that seemed limited only to Aldrich and his proper chosen undead. "Variants. Enough to threaten overrunning the entire city. Red Circle''s already under attack." == In the Necropolis- As Aldrich felt his body grow heavier, he closed his eyes. He heard thest remnants of Seth''s agonizing cries of pain as Adam and ine finished devouring him. Then, those sounds faded away too. His entire body felt numb. Every physical sense he had started to flee him, and yet, the feeling was not rming, no, it was¡­liberating. When Aldrich opened his eyes, he found himself standing over his physical body. He hovered in the air as a ghostly green silhouette of himself, and when he looked at his body, he saw that it remained standing, but it stood frozen to still that it appeared almost like a mannequin. The green glow in his body''s eyes was gone now, returned back to the natural ck that he had almost forgotten he had. At his body''s chest, the purple phctery had turnedpletely dark, crackling as it seemed to yawn open, ready to receive an offering. [Objective: Obtain the Obeliskpleted] Aldrich still saw status messages in his vision, and as soon as the message faded, a sphere of darkness roared in front of him, drawing him in. He reached out with his hand, and when he grasped it, he saw the darkness meld into him, sinking into his spiritual body, forming a webwork of ck circuits thatpletely covered him from head to toe. [1x Obelisk consumed] A chilling energy spread throughout Aldrich, infusing into his very fundamental essence, and it felt invigorating, like feeling a cool breeze in a hot summer day. "Congrattions, Death Walker," came a familiar voice. The Death Lord materialized in front of Aldrich, and she too, was in a spiritual form. She did not wear her armor, simply her royal robes with a crown of glowing green shards hovering above her head. "I''ve obtained your Obelisk. I''ve killed those I needed to kill. I''ve destroyed my attachments¡­ I''ve Now, I''m here for my ascension," said Aldrich. Chapter 85: Ascension 2

Chapter 85: Ascension 2

Before the Death Lord could respond, Aldrich confirmed to himself that his quest for vengeance had truly ended. [Quest: VENGEANCEpleted] [Objective: Death of Evan Harkerpleted] [+50 EXP, 50 Coin] [Objective: Death of Simon Wellspleted] [+ 100 EXP, 100 Coin] [Objective: Death of Zayn Soldatapleted] [+9000 EXP, 5000 Coin] [Objective: Death of Seth Srpleted] [+20,000 EXP, 15,000 Coin] [Negative Energy bonuses: +2000 EXP] Aldrich saw all the experience cramming into his experience bar, but he did not level up. Reading Aldrich''s concern, the Death Lord exined. "All the experience, items and summons that you gain here flows into you only uponpletion of this attempt, if you so choose to make this your final attempt." She raised a brow as she put wed finger to her chin, cocking her head at Aldrich curiously. "Though, you will take this attempt as your final attempt, yes?" "That depends on whether you give me the power I was promised or not," said Aldrich, threat oozing in his voice. The Death Lord smiled widely, showing several rows of sharp fangs, like the jaws of a shark, beneath her shapely dark red lips. "Now that''s the spirit. I am beginning to like you more and more every time we meet." She nodded to Aldrich as she swayed her green scaled, serpentine tail from side to side. "Unlike many of my kind, I am not a dragon that breaks promises. It is simply a little policy of mine to personally visit all those that near thepletion of the Ritual of Eternity, for to be a Lich is a celebrated event, especially when that Lich is one with true free will." "Interesting. I would have thought you would prefer Shades," said Aldrich. In Elden World lore, a lich that failed to pass the trial the Death Lord ced on them became mindless undead called Shades that basically were eternal ves. "Oh no, bing a Shade is simply proof of weakness, and weakness, frankly, is boring," said the Death Lord. "But you, my Death Walker, are the exact opposite of boring." "Good. Then you''ll have no issue giving me what I need," said Aldrich. "There. Like that. Power that you ''need'', not power that you ''want.'' A very key distinction between you and many Liches," said the Death Lord. "You believe you need this power for a higher cause, and that makes you fight, and that makes you seed at any cost. It is an awfully admirable trait. But yes, I will give you what you need. Yet are you certain you havepleted ALL that you require for the Ritual of Eternity?" "What do you mean?" Aldrich pulled up his quest tab to check his [Ritual of Eternity] quest. [Objectives for quest: Ritual of Eternity] [Obtain the Obelisk: Completed] [Obtain a Phctery: Completed] [Sever all mortal bonds: INCOMPLETE] "What¡­?" Aldrich narrowed his eyes. He had severed all strong mortal bonds, he was sure of it. He had the Butcher, the one who had personally tortured his parents, trapped in his Chrysalis. He had ughtered those who had ughtered him and his friends. The Trident as an organization was something that Aldrich wanted to tear down, but he did not feel the same sense of burning, immediate vengeance against it as he did with the Butcher. Whatever he had against the Trident was less personal and more a goal, a steppingstone on his conquest for power to bring this world into order. The Death Lord moved close to Aldrich, and he immediately put up his guard, trying to manifest his weapons and magic. However, when he tried to reach out for his power, he felt it gone, like trying to reach into an unending well for the faraway submerged coins one knew would be at the bottom. "You are unused to manifesting power in astral form, that much is to be expected. But I am not here to hurt you." The Death Lord put a pale, emerald scaled hand on Aldrich''s arm, holding it close to her the same way ady would hold her arm around a gentleman in a dance as she led him down to the ground. Her expression lost her usual smiling coyness, reced now with a solemnity that made it obvious she, behind her fa?ade of casualness, had eons of life and undeath behind it. "Come. This is what you are missing." The Death Lord led Aldrich in front of Adam and ine. Their zombie forms were covered in blood and entrails - all that remained now of Seth Sr. They stared nkly and dumbly at Aldrich''s physical body, waiting hismand, unable to see Aldrich''s soul. Seth Sr''s soul floated into Aldrich. There was not enough of Seth Sr left to raise, so his soul automatically funneled into Aldrich unlike with Zayn who Aldrich marked to raise. [1x Soul of Seth Sr obtained] "You have not let go of them," said the Death Lord. "What do you mean? I know they''re gone. They''re just empty shells of rotting flesh. I only kept them around for a symbolic sense of justice. To let them be a part of this vengeance even if it didn''t mean anything," said Aldrich. "Yes, that may be true, but deep down, you still hold out hope that you can bring them back, do you not? There are spells, mighty, higher circle spells, that can draw forth souls from the Soul Stream and bring them forth. You know of them, and you know that if you amass enough power, enough levels, you might be able to learn such spells," said the Death Lord. "¡­" Aldrich did not consciously think this, but he could tell that the Death Lord was right. Some subconscious part of him pursued immense power not only to fulfill his goals, but because there were high level spells out there that could bring back the souls of even the long deceased, and that meant bringing Adam and ine back to live the lives that had been torn so cruelly from them. It was not a goal he actively pursued because he knew it would tie him down to Adam and ine, but his bond with them was strong enough that it festered beneath his conscious thoughts anyway. "I am here to tell you that it is impossible," said the Death Lord simply. "I have mastery of even the tenth circle spell [Astral Singrity] that can bring rip forth the souls of those deceased for eons, but magic that attempts to tap into the Soul Stream does not function in this reality, for it is not the Soul Stream of our own reality." "¡­I see," said Aldrich. "But there is one thing I can do for you. Though we cannot call upon souls of this reality, we can still create spiritual bodies with our magic. That is how you may still cast magic that conjures up spirits that harm your foes. Yet, in the end, these spirits we create are simply constructs destined to fade away, too unstable even to inhabit a flesh body." The Death Lord inspected Adam and ine. She nodded to herself. "With my experience, I can likely construct temporary copies of their souls, but again, they cannot inhabit a flesh body, nor will they even be the real thing. Their true souls are lost to the Soul Stream of this reality, and that is locked to even me, let alone you. The only reason you would ept this offer would be to converse with your departed friends onest time. Their souls will even act as if they had been within these bodies the whole time, experiencing all that you have done. Yet, it is merely that. An Act. An illusion. They may not be real, but, if you so desire, it may be of some level of closure for you." The Death Lord wrapped her arm around Aldrich''s and squeezed it surprisinglyfortingly. "Consider this a gift from me, as one who knows what it is like to let go of true friendships. Friendships that bind deep to the heart where their loss scars the very soul itself. Where their loss is a loss of a very part of yourself." "¡­" Aldrich looked at Adam and ine. At their zed over eyes, their rotted bodies, their bloodstained, horrible figures, and closed his eyes. Was this going to be hisst memory of them? He felt light, ever so light, but when he imagined them in his mind, he felt just onest tug of weight. "Do it. I''ll talk to them again." The Death Lord nodded and detached from Aldrich. Her own body was astral too, a silhouette of green, but unlike Aldrich, she could still generate magic from it. She stepped between Adam and ine and sped her hands together. She closed her eyes. Her emerald green scales glowed as did her draconic horns. A shimming white light formed between her palms, and it burst outwards, engulfing herself, Adam, and ine¡­ From this burst of bright white light, bright, warm light that seemed like the kind you would bathe in when the gates of heaven opened, two dark silhouettes, one of a man, one of a woman, stepped out. Chapter 86: A Farewell

Chapter 86: A Farewell

Aldrich paused, his spiritual body watching unblinkingly at the bright white light. That light, though warm, though so very weing, felt odd to him. It felt strangely¡­alien. The coldness of his own soul, of the deathly energies that he harnessed, felt much more at home with his heart than this. But the repulsed sensation within Aldrich quickly dimmed away as his spiritual eyes beheld the forms of his friends once again. They were whole, too. No longer was their flesh rotted and bloodied, it was unwounded and whole and warm. Their eyes looked at Aldrich with focus, not with bleary dead nkness. They did not wear the tattered remnants of their ckwater uniforms. Adam dressed simply in jeans and a in white shirt while ine had on a id skirt and jacketbo she was fond of. These were the types of outfits they wore in the rare asions they had free time to go out to Haven. Outfits they wore when they wanted to have fun instead of worrying about the countless problems life threw their way. They did not even have the many old scars on their bodies and faces that stood as proof of their harsh lives. This was what they would have looked like in an ideal world. When they could just live their lives the way they wanted to. And in the world that Aldrich envisioned, many like them, many like Aldrich himself, would get to live these lives out. Adam and ine smiled at Aldrich, and when he saw those smiles, his visions of a future under his control, all those far off ns fled him as he was sucked into the present, the here and now where he had just one final more precious moment to spend with the only two people he had ever called friends. "Man, did you get even edgier since school?" said Adam. "And not even heaven can make you look good, huh," said Aldrich. "Heh, always got something to say back to me, huh? Come here-," Adam opened his arms wide for a hug, patting Aldrich firmly on the back. "Thanks for looking out for us. Even when we turned into zombies. It must''ve been a burden-," "Not at all." Aldrich pulled back from Adam and then hugged ine. ine smiled as she rested her chin on Adam''s shoulder. "Just make sure to take a break once in a while." "No need. With undeath, my stamina is infinite," said Aldrich as he pulled back from ine. "Yeah, we know that," said Adam. "Don''t take it so literally. What she means is that sometimes, you just have to slow down, even when you don''t think you need to. Helps with clearing the head." "You ought to know a lot about that, huh," said Aldrich. Adam smiled and sighed. "Come on, cut a dead guy some ck." "Yeah, I know." Aldrich paused for a bit, eyeing Adam and ine before speaking his mind. "You two¡­about what I''ve done, all the people I''ve killed, the people I''ve made suffer, I just wanted you to know that it isn''t because I''ve gone insane. This is how I just am. How I always was. I just never got to show it to you two fully. But everything I''ve done is for a reason." "Don''t worry about it, Aldy," said Adam as he shook his head. "You don''t have to exin anything to us. This is your life, or rather, unlife, I guess, that you get to live, and it isn''t our right to force anything onto you or judge you for anything. Whether you kill or torture or whatever, that''s all you, and it would be wrong for us to try and change how you are." "Are you sure, Adam? Didn''t you want to be a hero?" said Aldrich. "The whole capes and saving lives thing I thought might have shed with this a little more." "I wanted to be a hero to make money and be famous, hah, not because I had any strong ideals or anything." Adam shrugged. "I mean, I guess I would''ve liked to save people too, yeah, and me personally, I could never imagine doing what you do. But as someone from the Wastnds, I also know what the harsh reality of this world is like. There are people like you and people like me and at the end of the day, we aren''t any better than the other, just different." "And Aldrich," said ine. "I want you to know that we''ve always known who you are. We know what you''re capable of. We know what you''ve been through and how much that''s changed you. Plus, you never really kept it a secret. You always did tell us about how your biggest dream was to get out of ckwater and hunt down the people responsible for killing your parents. We epted you for who you were then, and that doesn''t change now." "Yeah, I know." Aldrich nodded. "It''s still good to hear it from you two one more time though." "Just don''t get too crazy, though," said Adam with augh. "What was that quote again? Staring too long into the abyss is bad for your eyes?" "No, you doofus," sighed ine. "Gaze too long into the abyss, and the abyss also gazes into you. That''s what it is." "Yeah, whatever. That quote. Just make sure doing all this sh*t, you don''t get messed up too bad," said Adam. "A littlete for that," said Aldrich. "I''ve always been like this. Ever since my parents died." "I know," said Adam. "But there''s a really big difference between how you are now with a focused goal and legitimately being messed up. Like, birds spinning above the head real batsh*t crazy kind of deal." "You honestly think I would turn out like that? Like any of the raving lunatics in Ark Asylum?" said Aldrich. "Of course not. I don''t know a single guy out there with a stronger will than you. I''m just saying, because of that strong will, you tend to really, really focus on something, and you don''t let it go. It could take up too much of you." Adam patted Aldrich''s shoulder. "What I''m saying is, when you''re doing all this crazy stuff to try and change the world, make sure to take some time to breathe. To rx, you know." "Rx?" questioned Aldrich. He shook his head. "My days of rxing are over. They ended when you two died." "That''s just not true," said Adam. "You have a whole lot more people to live for now. You''ve even got someone that loves you out there, and it''s hard to love someone back if you''ve got so many other things in your mind. I guess if I try to boil down my rambling, it''s this: if you start to look at the world too much as a problem to solve, I''m worried you''ll start to only see what''s wrong and not the good that''s in it. And believe me, I''m speaking from experience here, even though life can seem like a pile of steaming dog crap, you can always scoop out a nugget of good somehow." "Did you seriously try to make a deep life quote using an analogy for picking apart dog poop? You really are a poet, aren''t you," said ine. "Hey now, you have to admit that it works, doesn''t it?" said Adam. "It does," said Aldrich. He looked at his friends and sighed. "I just wish¡­that maybe, somehow, I could bring you two back. I have so much that I need to do, so much I want to change now that I have power. I took you two along as zombies because I wanted you two to see as much of what I did as possible, to try and make you two a part of that change I wanted to see-," "It''s okay," said ine. "We had pretty awful deaths, but it doesn''t change the fact that we''re dead. Coming back, at least for me, isn''t something that sounds too great. Plus, dying is, well, how to put it, strangely peaceful? It feels like a rest after a long day of work. If¡­maybe, you weren''t doing so well, if you didn''t have anyone beside you, I think we might have had a stronger urge toe back, but all I can say is that I''m happy seeing how you are now." "Yeah, have to agree with that," said Adam. "I don''t feel too much likeing back, either, considering Mr. Edge over here hasted himself the hottest girl I''ve ever seen. Sorry, Aldy, but it looks like we''re going to have to leave this whole changing the world thing to you." "Lazy to the end, huh?" joked Aldrich. "No, if there was ever anyone out there that I could trust to change this world, it would be you. All there is to it," said Adam. Adam and ine''s forms started to flicker, turning misty. "Looks like our time is up," said Adam. "There''s just one more thing for me," said ine. "What is it?" said Aldrich. "My dad out in the Wastnds, I want you to give him some closure." ine looked down ruefully. "I was working on a project for him a while back. It isn''t finished for obvious reasons, but it''s something I wanted him to have before he passed away. If you log into my cloud, you''ll find it pretty easily." "I''ll do my best to get it to him," said Aldrich. He knew ine''s login information because the two routinely had coborated in designing weapons, upgrades, and programs for the Frames back in ckwater, though it was mostly ine doing the work and Aldrich providing user feedback. "You better," said Adam. "And you? You have anyst requests?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, I do. A pretty damn important one," said Adam seriously. "What is it?" said Aldrich. "For you to be happy, that''s what," said Adam with a smile. "Me personally? Nothing. So quit wasting your time on dead spirits and get back out there." "What he said," said ine. "Thanks, you two," said Aldrich. "And get rid of those zombies of us already. I look bad enough as is. Doesn''t help when I''m a rotting corpse,"ined Adam. "Yeah, yeah, I will," said Aldrich. "Don''t worry about that. Now that I''ve talked to you two again, I feel a lot better letting you two go." "Onest hug?" said ine. "Of course! Bring it in, folks!" said Adam, and the three of them hugged together for a long, lingering moment. Aldrich stayed in his friends'' embrace until he felt their souls slowly fade away, their touch and warmth on his astral body growing colder and lighter until finally, it was all gone. The bright white light from their manifestation had disappeared, fading away into the gloomy dark and grey of the Necropolis. Aldrich looked down at his open hand where a few faint sparkles of white light shimmered, though even those slowly flickered away. [Objective: Sever all mortal bonds: COMPLETE] "So? Did you find what you needed?" said the Death Lord. She breathed heavily though she hid it quite well behind a straight posture and calm smile. It was obvious that channeling the soul construction had taken a massive toll on her. "Yeah. I got my closure," said Aldrich. He paused. "Thanks." "My, it has been a very long time since anyone has thanked me for anything," said the Death Lord. Her smile then faded, her expression growing stern. "Now then, let us finalize the Ritual of Eternity." "About time," said Aldrich. Chapter 87: The Rise Of A Lich

Chapter 87: The Rise Of A Lich

"You, Death Walker, will now ascend to a ne of existence beyond any mortal, beyond any mere undead," said the Death Lord, without wasting any more time, beginning the end of the Ritual. She sped her hands together and held them out towards Aldrich. As she did so,rge swathes of crackling green energy surrounded his astral body in a spherical matrix. The Death Lord''s reptilian green eyes shed brightly, and a chord of swirling green energy manifested between Aldrich''s spiritual heart and the Phctery in his physical body. The Phctery''s purple orb started to oscite rapidly, baring countless glowing blue lines of magical inscription weaved into its surface. One by one, these inscriptions faded away, breaking off into flecks of bright blue dots. "As a mortal Necromancer, you merely walked through the currents of death. You waded waist deep in the infinitely vast stream of living and dying, afraid of sinking your head under for it was forbidden among mortals to do so," chanted the Death Lord, and as her words echoed through the Necropolis, more and more inscriptions faded from the Phctery. As the Phctery lost its inscriptions, it began to open up physically, baring moving segmentations that clicked and cked as they slowly slid open like pieces in a puzzle box. "But now, you will now what it means to truly be a part of this stream. To not be afraid of what lies below, but to embrace it. To swim within the raging rivers of death without drowning, no, to breathe it in, to let it be a part of you. To let it be your might. You will know power. And you will know eternity." The tether tying Aldrich''s spirit form to the Phctery intensified in its green glow, and that was when he felt himself slowly assimting into the Phctery. His spirit body began to grow ever more transparent as his essence funneled into the orb. The Death Lord paused, waiting for Aldrich''s spirit body to fade away entirely into the Phctery. When it did, Aldrich found himself inside his own body again as his Phctery started to close up, returning into its spherical shape. The ck circuit shaped streaks all around his pale body were still present, but he did not feel any stronger. Any better than before. "So what, that''s it?" said Aldrich. He held his hands near his face, seeing that his body was the same, as was his level of magical energy. "No, not at all." The Death Lord smiled, baring her rows of threatening fangs. She put a hand on the hip of her silken green dress as she flitted out a forked tongue with strangely seductive air. "This is simply the process to tether your soul into your Phctery. It is once you leave the Necropolis and return to your realm that you will truly ascend. When all the power that you have amassed here descends upon you in one crashing tidal wave of strength. Oh, how wonderful your strength will be, how terrible your aura will be, how much death you will spread - I truly, truly anticipate it with all my cold, undying heart." "So that''s it? You want me to kill for you? To spread death?" said Aldrich. "What? You think me some mere hungry spirit? Of course not," said the Death Lord. "No, my dear, what I want from you is merely for you to actualize your potential." "What do you mean by that?" said Aldrich. "All will be made clear in time," said the Death Lord mysteriously. Sheughed. "I jest. It would be so easy to end this with a mysterious line like that, no? But in all honesty, I am simply bored. I am trapped here in my realm, severed in its own pocket of space time, and I cannot interact with anyone or anything else other than you. You are my only and, thus, greatest source of entertainment. So do your best not to die and end this show early." The Death Lord made a cutting motion with her hand, and a portal opened up behind Aldrich, leading out into the real world. He floated towards it, and even if he tried to stay, he would not be able to resist the pull of the portal. "Wait, this power I''m about to receive, I don''t fully know all about it-," began Aldrich. He knew what Liches could do in the game, but he did not know entirely if the game mechanics tranted perfectly to real life. "You will find out," said the Death Lord. "I am not sending you away so soon because I begrudge yourpany. Nay, as I have said before, I like it. But there are those that need you." "Need me?" "Yes. This arena blocks your connection to undead under you from outside its walls. But, let''s see, you''ve received no less than eight distress signals that these arena walls have intercepted. I assume you are direly needed," said the Death Lord. "What? An attack?" Aldrich immediately perked up in battle readiness as his mind raced to think about how this had happened. He had nned very thoroughly with Casimir about how to take down every conceivable threat that woulde the Red Circle''s way. This involved creating unique teams to defeat ckwater''sbat instructors, the strongest threats on hand, and the Trident Elite squadron stationed in Haven. Other than them, there would be no significant threats until at least a dayter when reinforcements came. Had reinforcements arrived early? How was everyone doing? Was Valera alright? "Your most recent distress call was a mere minute ago. Those that rely upon you should still be intact." The Death Lord waved Aldrich away. "Now go. Receive your strength. Test it upon those that dare to strike against you. And when the time is right, bear it down upon me." She smiled eagerly at Aldrich in pure, battle-crazed desire. Her crown of glowing green shards red. "Take this heavy crown of death from me. Make it yours." Aldrich blinked, processing what she said, but before he could respond, the portal sucked him in with onest violent draw, and he saw nothing but darkness. Then, as Aldrich perceived the real world, the beginnings of color and shape forming the walls of the Red Circle''s dance floor, it hit him. The power. It washed over him like a tidal wave, and at first, he felt like he was going under,pletely drowning, his consciousness and body buffeted and crashed every which way and that by power. His vision turned a bright green, and he felt almost like his entire existence was being pulled apart at the seams. He felt as if at any given moment, if he lost control, if he let himself be pulled under this raging flood of strength, he might be scattered into atoms. But, almost as soon as the power hit him so very violently, it stopped. The blinding bright green around him faded into pure darkness. He felt weightless in this darkness, without any physical form, just his basic consciousness, but here, he saw the very familiar sight of letters typing across a status screen. But where before the letters were white and gold and styled as if they belonged to a fantasy game, the letters were now a bright, eerie green, the font shaped like thin, bare bones scratch marks. And there, he saw the rewards he had reaped pouring in - [CALCULATING EXP GAIN¡­] [¡­] [¡­] [EXP GAINS EXCEEDING NORMAL LIMIT¡­] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ The level up messages continued on and on and on until finally - [LEVEL UP!] [Level 14 ] Level 40] [New EXP Bar: 0/45,000] [+130 Stat Points avable to distribute] [Race changed from Undead (Risen) to Lich] [Passive: Inner Circle of the Lich obtained] [Passive: Outer Circle of the Lich obtained] [Spell: Death Bolt obtained] [Anti Life Shell Rank 2 changed to Mist of Undeath] [Lich stat bonuses obtained: +20 Strength +20 Agility +40 Vitality +40 Attunement +20 Perception] [Racial Passive: Undead Body changed to Racial Passive: Lich Aspect] ¡­ [1x Living Armor (Vntis) automatically equipped. Current armor set consumed.] [50+ Misceneous Items (Weapons, Armor, Materials) obtained. Exceeds personal inventory limit. Surplus moved to avable personal storage identified as the Chrysalis] ¡­ [Summons preserved in temporary storage: [30 x Death Knight] [1x Crimson Knight Captain] [20 x Skeleton Knight Archers] [1x Zombie Giant] [1x Great Bonewheel] [Misceneous raised mortal undead] ¡­ Aldrich saw all this power flowing into him through the void and did what he knew best: he built his character up. He distributed his stat points. And as he did so, as he organized himself, he did not just upgrade his character, he built his very existence back up. His physical body, his old mortal shell, was gone now. In this darkness, as he put in points into magic, into attunement, into vitality, as he gained a greater and greater grasp of what he could do, he could see his new body starting to form again, manifesting around his bare, floating consciousness. Chapter 88: Return Of The Lich

Chapter 88: Return Of The Lich

26 level ups. 130 stat points to distribute - With the racial bonuses from bing a lich, Aldrich was satisfied with his physical stats for now. His strength was now at 40 and his agility at 35. That was more than enough to be thoroughly superhuman, and with Vntis''s Shattered Bone necromancy aiding him, that would increase massively too when needed. Thus, Aldrich focused on putting his stats into vitality, magic, attunement, and perception. [+25 Vitality, increased to +50 with affinity bonuses] [Vitality: 60 ] 110] [Current HP: 330/330] With that, the darkness around Aldrich faded away into bright, ghostly green as a tongue of green fire flickered and began to grow rapidly, raging into a pir of waving green energy. The pir then stabilized, condensing upon itself into a sphere-shaped aura of green energy that shimmered in hazy waves like thick mist or fog. In the center of that aura of misty green energy, the Phctery manifested, though now, its purple shade had turnedpletely emerald green like a beautiful, precious jewel, like the very same shade present in the Death Lord''s draconic eyes. [+55 Attunement, increased to +110 with affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 91 ] 201] With this, the beginnings of Aldrich''s physical body then started to develop. A bare skeletal spine of steely dark grey shade, almost as if made of metal, emerged from the center of the green mist sphere, forming into the skeletal upper half of a human. An enormous human, at that, standing nearly seven feet (2.1 meters) tall. The ribcage formed around the Phctery, the ribs curling around it in a defensive matrix. Strands of energy shot forth from his ribs and tethered to the Phctery in a web of energy strands that kept it suspended in ce and thoroughly protected. When these strands attached to the Phctery, Aldrich understood one thing - The Phctery had changed massively. By receiving Aldrich''s soul and enormous quantities of energy, the Chrysalis within had merged with both. What exactly this entailed, he did not know yet. But he was eager to find out. The lower half of Aldrich''s skeletal body was not visible for it melded into his now permanent spherical aura of green energy. For Liches were beings that were akin to Elementals. Spiritual entities with a physical anchor that represented a specific natural force. In the case of a Lich, that element was the ever present, ever reaching flow of Death itself. Spikes jutted out of his metallic dark grey bones, curving out from his shoulders, forearms, and in the form of horns around the crown of his skull. [+26 Magic, increased to +52 with stat affinity bonuses] [Magic: 71 + 52 = 123] [New Current Mana: 369/369] [+24 Perception] [Perception: 50] With the final distribution of these stat points, Aldrich''s empty eye sockets glowed with bright green points of light that flickered like twin spots of me, and with that, he felt his consciousness fully anchor into his newly developed physical form. The darkness around himpletely cast away as his new eyes saw the real world around him. Aldrich found himself in the middle of the performance stage in the Red Circle''s dance floor, exactly where he had previously been before he had warped all the viins to the Red Circle. However, what he saw all around him was a scene of carnage. The dance floor was utterly thrashed. The ground was cratered with smoking explosions, fires, and cracks. Tables and booths were broken apart into splinters. The performance stage was broken apart, wires in the machinery within it sputtering crackling showers of sparks that furthered more fires. Thankfully, the Red Circle wasrgely fireproofed, preventing the mes from spreading. Dozens of corpses of Red Circle staff were scattered everywhere, and among them, the culprits showed themselves. Variants. Aquatic type variants, all of them. Most of them were quadrupedal, though, being almost like hideous mutations of man and fish with hunched backs, legs, finned tails, gills that breathed sucked in air through bothnd and sea, burly, wed arms, and glowing yellow eyes. A dozen of these variants stood still, stopping themselves feasting on human corpses as they paid attention to the performance stage, as if to lend their eyes and ears to a performance. That performance being their death. Aldrich mentally gained an immediate understanding of where his summons were. They were not here in the Red Circle. It seemed that, under Valera''smand, they had rallied their forces and left when the Red Circle, its defenses already thoroughly damaged by viins, came under attack by variants. They had retreated to the abandoned megaplex apartment that Aldrich initially stationed the Geist, Walters, and Smoke at to deal with the ckwater instructor Colette. They had fortified theplex as a sort of base, using its many floors as a natural tower full of choke points to defend against attacks. Overall, though, Aldrich had suffered no major losses to his forces. A few skeletons had fallen, but that was about it. That left Aldrich to clean up here and regroup with the others. As soon as the variants made eye contact with Aldrich''s giant, glowing form of energy and bone, they froze, awed. "I hope you enjoyed your meals," said Aldrich. His voice rung out in echoing, thunderous peals that no longer sounded remotely human. It was deep, threatening, and chilling to the core to listen to that voice, a voice that promised nothing but impending death. "For they will be yourst." Aldrich thrust out a skeletal hand and cast [Death Bolt], a new cantrip spell he learned that all Liches knew. It was a 5th circle spell that cost 10 mana that specialized in heavy destructive power. For enemies weak enough, it was an instant death spell. A helical strand of green, ming energy shot forth from Aldrich''s hand, whistling with a ghostly wail as it smashed into a variant. The variant did not just die, it blew apart as if a bomb had been detonated inside of it, utterly drenching its brethren behind it in its scales, blood, and entrails. The variants shrieked in fear, but one of the variants, arger, bulkier variant reminiscent of a swordfish, roared, forcing its brethren to stay and fight. It was evident that this creature was inmand here. It was farrger than the others with a heavy build reminiscent of an armored car. Easily two meters tall and powerfully built, ready to charge and skewer anything with its long, de like snout. The swordfish variant charged, using a power that boosted its movement speed with jet bursts of pressurized air in various holes in its flesh. The variant sped forwards as fast as a speeding car, smashing into Aldrich. The variant''s snout de, metallic in its tensile durability, shattered when it hit Aldrich''s ribcage. Aldrich not even budge a single inch back. The variant roared in pain as it stumbled backwards, utterly rebuffed. Aldrich grabbed the swordfish variant''s throat with one hand and held its several hundred-pound weight of muscle and scale up with utter ease. The variant iled its finned arms and legs in a desperate struggle to survive, but there was no struggle here. Only a massacre. Aldrich used his other hand to grab a firm hold on the variant''s head, his skeletal fingers piercing into the flesh and anchoring into the creature''s skull. He then channeled another Death Bolt right into the creature''s head,pletely sttering it. Blood spouted out from the variant''s headless body like a fountain, and seeing this, all the other variants shrieked and fled as fast as they could. "Weak. Very weak. And to think something like this might have even posed a challenge to me before," said Aldrich. The creature was level 15 maybe, in terms of raw stats, but Aldrich was far too strong now, especially in terms of durability. Even without any strength or speed augmentations, he was more than a match for it. And this was even without him willing Vntis to manifest. As a Living Armor, Vntis now bound to Aldrich''s very soul, being present within him even if not physically present. Aldrich could feel the living armor''s presence lying dormant inside, the heart of a fierce, powerful warrior ready to awaken and serve at a moment''s notice. But before Aldrich willed Vntis to awaken and manifest, he forged his Materius. Aldrich''s current form of energy and bone was his Aspect Base, his fundamental appearance as the Death Elemental known as a Lich. On top of this, he could create what was known as a Materius, essentially a far more physical form that Liches used to appear simrly to other mortals and to reduce any weaknesses they had to attacks that targeted spirits. The Materius also gave Aldrich much more maneuverability to move around in armor and wield weapons with a more familiar humanoid body. As a Lich, he received negatives to equipping regr warrior type armor, but with a Materius, he could subvert that. The process to create one was simple. It was simply a matter of enforcing his will for it was an innate racial ability of his. As natural as knowing how to breathe or knowing where one''s limbs were even in the dark. Strands of raw red flesh sprouted from Aldrich''s dark bones. Organs, mostly decorative, serving no true functional purpose, grew within his skeletal frame. Over these, muscle fibers knitted around before growing deathly pale skin. His energy aura faded away as it covered up under his costume of flesh and blood, and within seconds, he looked as he had in his human form. Though, with a few minor differences. Aldrich was now much, much taller, standing almost as tall as his lich Aspect form. Now, it was time to don his new set of armor. "Awaken, Vntis," said Aldrich as he looked down at his naked body, balling up his fists and breathing in, remembering how it felt to be in a body of flesh and blood. Chapter 89: Learning Spells

Chapter 89: Learning Spells

Aldrich closed his eyes as he felt his body start to oscite rapidly, his skin and muscles undting grotesquely as if there were countless little things alive and crawling within. Then, countless patches of his skin ripped open, but from these holes, no blood pooled out. Instead, dark metal streamed out in flowing, living strands. Gleaming ck metal streaked with an aura of crimson. The metal strands weaved and locked around each other and over Aldrich, soon enough encasing him in armor that exactly replicated what Vntis embodied. This was armor fashioned from the flesh and bones of a Blood Dragon, and its organic origins showed in the spikes of dull white, almost gold colored bone that jutted from Aldrich''s shoulder tes, forearms, and greaves. Aldrich looked down at his hands. The gauntlet''s fingers ended into curved ws meant for ripping and tearing, and indeed, the armor did not seem like something someone would wear, no, it felt like a creature of its own, a predator and hunter in its own right. Bands and streaks of bloody red glowed throughout the armor, signifying the flesh and blood of the dragon imbued within. The helmet that Aldrich wore - a three horned, spiked construct of ck metal and gold bone and red blood with a single gleaming red dot at the eye line - fused into the armor itself with a metallic click. Aldrich perceived the world around him in a faint shade of red at first before Vntis merged with him better, their minds and souls synchronizing and adapting. His vision adjusted to the color spectrum he was used to, and he felt the armor shift in size, adjusting its dimensions to perfectly fit Aldrich''s body. Instead of wearing a suit of dead metal armor, it felt more like Aldrich was fused with something already alive. Almost like operating a mechsuit with a highly functioning A.I., though even more personal. ''Yourmand, my lord?'' rumbled Vntis''s voice within Aldrich''s head. "How much of your own power can you use, Vntis?" said Aldrich. ''My independent strength is limited, for I am bound to you and still recovering from destruction,'' said Vntis. ''While I am tethered to you, I am only capable of essing necromancy that directly stitches the organs and flesh that I have amassed and imbued within this armor. General necromancy such as that involving the summoning of bone, I cannot wield. Should you detach from me, I may use all my powers, but again, I will be weakened. And, I will warn you, my lord, that calling upon my Shattered Bone necromancy will conflict with your own Legion Necromancy. As we share one spirit, one body, we cannot ess both streams of death at once with our respective full strengths. At the least, not until we have reached greater synchronicity over time. As of now, I may grant you one Stitching at any given moment. Whether that be great muscr strength or wings with which to fly, it is yours to choose. But if you wish me to delve deeper into my Shattered Bone spells, stitching multiple parts at once with greater strength, it will require you to sacrifice your Legion magic." "Tell me, can you still stitch the arm of the Blood God?" said Aldrich. ''Yes. But it will take all my might. After using it, I must go dormant, rendering me into naught but a mere shell of metal and bone,'' said Vntis. "I see," said Aldrich. He paused to gather his thoughts. Vntis could use his Shattered Bone necromancy to grow exactly one part on Aldrich for now. Granted, the base stats and durability that Vntis gave Aldrich was still enormous and likely more than enough to sustain Aldrich through basically any threat. Especially durability. As an armor set, Vntis was probably the most durable that Aldrich could ever wield as a full mage, easily being on par with the defense offered by a full warrior''s armor set. Originally, Aldrich, as a pure mage type character, could not even wield proper full armor like this without suffering huge negatives, but because Vntis was a Living Armor and more a symbiote than an item, it seemed that Aldrich did not face equipment-based negatives. Over time, Vntis would also grow stronger, recovering his strength and also bing more and more synchronized with Aldrich. This also meant that as Aldrich leveled up, so could Vntis. Theoretically, in a hypothetical ''end game'', Aldrich could essentially have mastery over two entire necromancy ultations - something that was never in the game because it would be game breakingly overpowered to have a caster that was also just as strong as a warrior in melee. For now, though, Aldrich had to rely on himself to deal damage. He used the 40 Attunement Points he had received from dumping so many points into Attunement. [Attuned Spell Limit: 7 ] 12] [Inner Circle Units: 8/45] [Inner Circle Units: -Valera -Vntis -Chrysalis -Geist -Fler''Gan -Dynamite Girl -Antlion -Bloodspitter Lizard] [Outer Circle Unit Limit: 225] As a Lich, Aldrich now had massively enhanced capacity to control undead. Liches were forces of nature that, when angered, were basically like natural disasters. When they attacked a city or vige, they did not just wield a few dozen undead as mortal necromancers did, no, they fielded entire undead armies, submerging living settlements like a flood of death. Thus, Aldrich''s undead control system changed fundamentally to reflect this, splitting into two categories known as the Inner Circle and the Outer Circle. The typical units-controlled limit that Aldrich fielded now changed to the Inner Circle. This epassed undead that were strong enough to be above level 15. Meanwhile, the Outer Circle consisted of units that ranged from 1 to 15. The max amount of units Aldrich could field in his Outer Circle equaled his Inner Circle limit multiplied by five, allowing him to essentially raise an entire army. The stronger Aldrich got, the higher he evolved as a Lich, the wider the level range of his Outer Circle. On top of this, the Raise Undead spell and its Mass variation also changed from a typical spell to a mere Cantrip, giving it essentially zero cooldown when used on Outer Circle undead. For corpses strong enough to enter the Inner Circle, however, Raise Undead still went on cooldown, and the health and mana consuming channel was the same for raising unit that was significantly stronger than Aldrich. Aldrich withdrew from his inventory the [Tome of Skeletal Mastery] and the [Tome of Necrotic Carnage]. He used both, learning spells to pad up his spell count and rece those that were no longer needed. Twin auras of bloody red and ashen white swirled around him, lighting the abandoned, ruined insides of the Red Circle in their eerie twin glows. At the end of this process, Aldrich was left with the following twelve spells: First, there were spells he kept. Grave Consumption. Raise Undead. Create Greater Undead (1st Ring) - This spell was Aldrich''s most useless as undead created from this could only go up to level 20. This was because he had not received the necessary [Tome of Dark Arts] to upgrade it, yet, once upgraded, would be much better. As a result, he kept the spell. Negative Surge - A reliable spell to use in buffing an ally or Aldrich''s own physical stats. Once he got the appropriate [Tome of Dark Arts], he would rece this with Death Surge. And then there were his new spells: Death Bolt - Aldrich''s new spammable spell attack, directly recing Chill Bolt as a vastly superior alternative. Call of the Impaler - An area of effect spell that caused impaling stakes of bone to erupt all around Aldrich, allowing for him to generate distance or clear out enemies very easily. Bone Wall - This allowed Aldrich to summon forth a wall of bone that could block attacks or, if raised beneath an enemy, impale them. Bone Missile Array - This generated a circle of floating bones around Aldrich that could be shot forth ording to his will like bullets. He could also supplement this with bones he found on the battlefield. Rite of Bone Binding - By activating this spell, Aldrich could make all skeleton type units under his control in his nearby vicinity to greatly strengthen their durability and strength. Burning Agony - Using this spell, Aldrich could cause zombie type undead under his control in his vicinity to start burning up, their blood boiling and their bodily processes maximizing, granting them heavily enhanced stats and a ming hot ignited blood aura. Eventually, this would reduce the zombies down into skeletal undead. Corpse Nova - A mighty spell that Aldrich could use on any zombie type undead or unit with flesh in hismand, sacrificing them to turn them into a living bomb. In terms of sheer firepower, this was perhaps Aldrich''s strongest attack in his arsenal so far. Mist Phase - A spell known by all Liches. It allowed Aldrich to teleport a short distance away after a small channel of five seconds. The range extended greatly if he teleported to an undead under hismand. Aldrich''s was now beginning to scrape back his original power and, as a result, his original battle strategies. As a Legion necromancer, he was used to fieldingrge amounts of undead, though now as a Lich, the scale of this increased tremendously. Knowing this, Aldrich geared his spells towards being able to maximally abuse the hordes of disposable undead he could generate. [Burning Agony] on raised zombies made even the weakest among them strong threats, and eventually, they would turn into skeletons. At which point [Rite of Bone Binding] could turn them into durable defensive units or Aldrich could scatter them and use them to fuel his bone-based spells. Against targets Aldrich really needed to take down, he could use [Corpse Nova] on any of his many disposable zombies, dealing massive and unexpected damage. On top of all this, Aldrich could now thoroughly defend himself with his own defensive spells and Vntis, no longer needing to solely rely on his undead. He could afford to take hits and fight on his own now. And yet, at the same time, Aldrich asked himself the same question he had asked himself the first time he embarked on this journey as a necromancer: what was a necromancer without his undead? Aldrich looked around at the variant and Red Circle staff corpses lying scattered about. He smiled underneath his helm of darkness and blood. "Serve," said Aldrich as he raised his hands up, casting [Mass Raise Undead]¡­ All the dozens of corpses in the dance floor twitched and shuddered as they rose up as zombies, bing the first of Aldrich''s ever growing Outer Circle army. Chapter 90: Exterminating Pests

Chapter 90: Exterminating Pests

Aldrich walked outside of the Red Circle, and surprisingly, despite the heavy appearance of his armor, he did not make much noise at all. As he approached the blown apart neosteel door leading into and out of the club, he could hear raging, whistling winds outside along with the roar of heavy rain and the asional crackle of lightning. Aldrich''s newly raised undeadprising of the swordfish variant, a few dead aquatic variants, and much of the Red Circle''s staff, followed around him, forming into an entourage of zombies. Outside, Aldrich saw a truly apocalyptic scene unfolding before him. The clouds above had formed a thick veil of dark storm clouds, and from them, rain and gale force winds raged downwards. There was enough rain that it had flooded the roads, overloading the city''s drainage systems. The water reached to Aldrich''s knees, and considering how tall he now was, that was more than enough for cars, phones, papers, and countless misceneous city objects to float about. Everything was dark, nearly pitch ck. Haven City''s usual collection of brightly lit billboards, holo-, and building lights had sputtered out as if under a ckout, with only the asional emergency generator powered streetlight illuminating much of anything. The air felt heavy. And not simply because of humidity. There was a weight to it that was unnaturally dense, and any human that needed to breathe would likely find themselves short of breath within half an hour of being here. It was probable that this air also affected technology, disrupting it greatly. It was to the point where there were few, if any news drones or hovercraft in the sky. And even if there were, they would not have survived. Severalrge flying manta rays hovered above the city, the skin on their white bellies rotund and stretched out. When they opened their gaping maws, sea variants poured out,nding down below as ground troops. On top of this, there were floating sea serpents and flying fish variants that hovered in the air, raining down spines. The constant rattle of gunfire and explosions rumbled in the distance, and bullets and shells in the form of bright streaks of light shot up, gunning down variants. Humanoid battle drones sent by the Panopticon zipped through the air, engaging in a losing battle as they got swarmed by sheer numbers. Countless sirens red out a piercing wail that echoed through the whole city, ordering emergency evacuation or retreat into designated Panopticon Bunkers. This was an absolute warzone. An attack of this scale was a horrific disaster, perhaps one of the worst known in a decade. At the very least, the worst attack made on Haven in fifty years. Something like this warranted a S-rank hero''s response, or at the very least, several dozen A rankers. But the fact that this disaster continued meant that either the heroes werete, already dead, or noting. Either way, Haven was left to fend for itself. Especially the poorer Southside district where the Red Circle and Dud ghettos were. When Aldrich tried using his [Death Sense] passive, its range greatly enhanced by his Lich status, to see if there were freshly dead or near dead mortals around him, he registered that everyone in the nearest street blocks were all dead. Most of the corpses were those that had been torn apart in their apartments or hiding spots by variants, and they had died merely half an hour ago. Most likely, variants had swarmed in from the eastern coast and now funneled down south, towards the Projects where the Duds were defenseless in their ghettoes. At best, the Projects had just one functional Panopticon bunker, and maybe two hundred people could be crammed in there. Overall, though, there were over five thousand Duds living in the Projects - all of them soon to be casualties. Aldrich sensed stares zoned in on him. There were variants everywhere, crawling on building walls, perched on roofs, on the streets, anywhere they could find purchase, they did. All of them stared at Aldrich with inhuman fish-like eyes that gleamed yellow or red. Most of the variants, Aldrich noted, were bipedal fishmen type monstrosities with four arms, hunched backs, and scales of varying colors, some red, some blue, some white, it did not matter - all of them were weak. The quadrupedal types that Aldrich had seen in the Red Circle wererger and seemed to be mounts or attack dogs for these fishmen. Each fishman was a head taller than the average human, even with their hunched backs, and their imposing frames meant that they could easily rip the normal human limb from limb with no effort. Several fishmen, those nearest to Aldrich on the streets, hissed as they sprinted at him, utterly unfazed by his imposing appearance. "So inconceivably stupid," said Aldrich. "Can you not sense my power, even now? Well, I suppose that''s a good thing, in a way." Aldrich punched one fishman in the head and literally blew its head off like he had fired a shotgun point nk at it. Then, using the decapitated corpse as a club, he violently brutalized all other fishmen that neared him until his convenient club was reduced to a mangled mess of flesh strips attached to a cracked and twisted spine. Several fishmen on the roofs, green scaled in color, shot spines from spiked protrusions on their fins. All of them ttered off of Aldrich''s armor with as much effect as the rain. "Pests," muttered Aldrich as he pointed at a group of green fishmen on a roof and fired a [Death Bolt]. The helical st shot forth like a cannonball,pletely blowing up the fishmen group in a mess of strewn apart, mangled limbs. With that, the remaining fishmen, those that were some distance away from Aldrich, spared of his immediate ughtering power, saw their kin massacred with ease and shrieked before running away. It was almost miraculous how quickly the fishmen just disappeared, slinking off into alleyways or climbing over buildings to fade away. It reminded Aldrich of how vermin, rats and cockroaches, scattered under light. "I don''t have time to deal with the low-level grunts," said Aldrich. He looked at the corpses he had made and chanted, "Serve." They arose, joining Aldrich''s Outer Circle army. "All of you, go down south. Clear out any variants. Protect the Projects," said Aldrich. "And before you''ll go, you will need help." Aldrich reached into the temporary storage that the Death Lord had fashioned to hold Aldrich''s summons. He held out an open palm, and within, a bright green sigil formed in the air. In here, all his summons were stored, and by breaking the sigil, he could release whom he wanted to put under his control. He saw the list of undead he had marked to raise. From there, he filled out his Inner Circle. A Zombie Giant. A Deathwheel. 15 members of ckwater''s A ss. The Crimson Knight Captain. And 15 of the Death Knights under the captain''smand. That marked out Aldrich''s Inner Circle to 41/45 capacity, with him leaving 4 spots for strong undead to raise on this battlefield. Aldrich then closed his wed gauntleted hand, shattering the green sigil. An omnidirectional wave of green energy surged out from him, and as it did so, it materialized out of misty matter his promised undead. A red armored vampire knight knelt in front of Aldrich, as did fifteen ck armored, ck caped death knights behind him. Some distance away, therge wheel-like form of the Deathwheel''s many stitched together bones and corpses as well as the enormous dozen meter tall zombie giant loomed. "The 80th Immortalis Legion is at yourmand, my lord," said the crimson armored captain. "The 80th Legion, is it? What happened to the rest of you?" said Aldrich. In the game''s lore, the Death Lord fielded 100 Immortalis Legions. The lower the number of the legion, the fewer knights there were in exchange for having higher leveled individual knights. As for the 80th legion, Aldrich estimated there should have been almost a thousand knights within it. A rather disposable fighting force of level 20-30 knights when encountered during thete game. "This is all that remains of us," said the captain solemnly. "But we are still always ready to serve." "That''s all that matters in the end," said Aldrich. "And you won''t be the 80th legion any longer. You are the first knights under my service, and so, ordingly, you will be my first." "First¡­?" The crimson knight stared up at Aldrich with his vampiric red eyes wide in shock. He then quickly bowed his head. "Yes, of course. We will take this great honor to our undying hearts. You will not regret granting us such a revered position." "I have no doubts you will live up to my expectations," said Aldrich. "Captain, or rather, what is your name?" "Chiros, my lord. Of bloodline Adal." "Bloodine? Vampric nobility, then? There is someone under me that I would have you meet after this battle is over," said Aldrich. "But for now, captain, if you were raised as nobility, then you were taught how to fight and how to lead. No doubt there was a reason why you were a captain within a legion. Your job here is simple. You will go south and ughter all fish type monsters with extreme prejudice." "Your will is mine, my lord," said Chiros with a bow, his white cape fluttering behind him with the raging winds. "As for who you will protect and how to navigate these streets, I will have these men and women guide you." Aldrich turned now to the 15 members of ckwater''s resurrected A ss. "All of you, follow under Chiros. Guide him towards the Dud Projects. Save all those you can but focus mostly on killing the enemy. Secure the Projects and the Panopticon Bunker there. You can finally fulfill your debt to society, to all those you spat on and looked down upon." "Understood," said Alexis, the storm barrier generator. She seemed to be the de facto leader of this group now that Seth Sr was not here. "All of you except¡­you," said Aldrich. His gaze settled on Zayn, or rather, the monstrous giant ck crow that he had turned into. Chapter 91: New Mount

Chapter 91: New Mount

Aldrich reached out his metallic ck hand towards Zayn, his palm open wide. Zayn managed out only a rumbling growl, his vocal chords now too mutated to speak anything resembling a humannguage, as he hopped forwards on his huge talons, bending his head down. When Aldrich made contact with Zayn''s steely, feathered head, he tried to sense for any of Zayn''s memories and thoughts within. After all, Aldrich had risen Zayn with his soul intact, so there should still be the man''s thoughts and will within. Nothing. Or at the very least, there was nothing that could remotely be considered human. It was odd. Aldrich had never heard of a case where a mutant category Alter couldpletely shift themselves into a variant. Even mutants whose physical appearances were permanently altered were still human at heart. But this was different. Functionally speaking, the individual, the human known as Zayn, was utterly gone, leaving behind only a monster. There was a soul yes, but everything that made up the individual, the memories, the emotions, the feelings, all of that was wiped away. This might as well have been apletely new existence. "It feels odd to address you by a name you don''t even recognize. Not to mention you are not even human any longer. At the same time, I don''t consider myself the most creative type, so, how about I rename you as ''Crow''?" said Aldrich. The giant avian beast growled in assent, and that was that. Crow it was. In terms of raw size, Crow wasparable to a fighter jet or small aircraft. Easily more thanrge enough to fully seat Aldrich. He leaped atop Crow''s back, and Crow stood up tall, his wings outstretched. Aldrich looked down at his knights and ckwater''s A ss. "Go. Wipe the variants out." "As youmand," said Chiros. He stood to attention, his white cape fluttering as he unsheathed a red tinted saber from his hip. "Knights, dedicate your des to our new lord!" The death knights stood at attention just like Chiros, unsheathing their weapons and holding them in the air in a salute as Crow pped his great wings once, sending Aldrich hovering in the air. Aldrich nodded down at them before looking into the distance, towards the top of the abandoned megaplex where Valera and the rest of the undead were holed up. Aldrich mentallymanded Crow to move, and Crow growled before pping his wings, sending a squall of wind raging down below, forcing rainfall and water to part from sheer air pressure alone. Crow shot forth like a shooting star of midnight ck, soaring into the air with extreme eleration that very quickly made all those on street level tiny like dots. In the air, Aldrich faced immediate attention from various flying aquatic variants. Sea serpent and flying fish types, mostly. There were a fewrge sea horse type variants with fishmen riding upon them. They all aimed their natural weapons at Aldrich. The serpents fired streams of venom or bolts of energy from their mouths. The flying fish shot spines from their fins. The sea horses generated pressurized cutting streams of water. All the projectiles hit Crow''s armored feather exterior and dealt no damage at all. Crow''s response was brutal and quick. He swiped his wing towards them, and a hail storm of giant ck feathers, eachrge enough to impale through a man wholesale, shot out like a giant shotgun spray, reducing all the variants into chunks of severed meat. "Had you always been in this form, you would definitely have been the strongest in the A ss. Barring anomalies like Seth Sr, of course," said Aldrich. "Or Mel Morales. Hm, I wonder whether she''s protecting this city or whether she''s fled. In either case, I suppose it really doesn''t matter to what I do." With that, Aldrich willed Crow to make his way towards the megaplex. While en route, Aldrich tapped his metallic forehead with his index finger, establishing a mental link with Valera. == Valera stood with her hands sped behind her back on the balcony of the megaplex''s highest floor. Beside her, Casimir also stood, matching her downward gaze below where they oversaw their forces fighting against an unending wave of monsters known as ''variants''. It was primarily the Geist and the undead fighting. A purple haze hung low over the courtyard and parking lot leading into the megaplex, and within it, fishmen dropped like flies,pletely overdosed on the Geist''s neurotoxic gas. Fishmen with green scales were immune to the poison, however, and these, the undead faced off against. The grizzly, striker, troll chieftain, crabs, and all other monster type variants fought savagely against the fishmen. Individually, the fishmen were no weaklings either, and Valera estimated theirbat capacity to be roughly equivalent to a level 10 or so warrior. Each fishman was weaker than any given undead, but there were far more of them, and their numbers only increased over time. Thankfully, so far, it seemed that these fishmen were an advance force, not backed by much stronger creatures nor any significant air support. They were weak enough to the point where the heavier hitting undead consisting of Fler''Gan, the Geist, and Dynamite Girl could easily dispatch them. Inside theplex itself, Casimir''s Red Circle staff were armed and ready to deal with intruders if they made it past the neurotoxic gas field littered with hostile undead. "It has been two and a half hours since Mr. Vane''s expedition," said Casimir. "I ce my faith in him, but at the end of the day, I am still but a man, and it is in man''s nature to worry." "I would wring your neck for you even suggesting ipetence of his part, but I also understand it is, as you say, also natural for weak creatures like yourself to worry," said Valera. "But have faith and hold this position. When he returns, all will be made right." "I have never considered myself a man of faith," said Casimir. "But perhaps there is a first time for everything." He turned to the insides of the apartment where Spybird, a short, stocky man wearing goggles that Valera had first mistakenly identified as a dwarf, and Fisk worked together, hooking up an emergency generator and signal generator to their array ofptop screens. "Have we established Net connection?" said Casimir. "Is difficult," said Spybird, his ent thickly Russian. He thumbed his nose with a cracked, dirty nail. "Whole city under interference. I sense ites from above. In the sky. To establish connection, I would have to fly away from city or go very high. But far too dangerous, even if I get support from Hirondelle." "Hm. At the very least, we HAVE backed up all the ckmail, yes?" said Casimir. "Oh that? Of course." Spybird nodded. "But what good is ckmail when we all die, ya?" "We ain''t gonna die, little man," said Fisk. "Even third-rate Nomad techno call me little, eh?" Spybird shook his head. "World is going to sh*t." "Third rate? I''ll have you know; I actually went to a techno school. I just kinda got bored and dropped out," said Fisk. Spybrid just grunted and continued working. "Beforemunications went down, AA said this attack was A rank disaster. But don''t see A rank heroes out there. Lazy sons of whores." "It has been precisely one hour since this attack," said Casimir as he looked down at his gem studded luxury watch. "And I was made aware that there were two A rankers stationed in Haven. That they have not taken this under control by now indicates that they are either dead or require reinforcements. nca, my dear, you DO have my updated will, yes?" nca stood at attention with sleekptop under her arm. "Signed and saved." "Thank you, my dear," said Casimir. "Why do you worry? You used that power of yours," said Valera. "It said you would not face harm this night." "Minimal harm," corrected Casimir. "And that is the issue with my power. It has many gaps. What if I endure a small but thoroughly poisoned cut? I would die in days, and yet, it would still technically be true that I suffered but minimal harm in the timeframe my power epasses. Also, I am not worrying. I am simply securing the future of my assets." As Casimir finished his sentence, Valera thrust out her arm in front of him. She manifested her cross shield, blocking several flying fish spines. "Airborne monsters," growled Valera. She saw two flying fishes in the distance and shoved Casimir back. She then cocked her arm back, then threw her shield out using the [Shield Toss] skill. The cross shaped shield spun rapidly through the air like an oversized shuriken before smashing into one fish, then the other, before returning to Valera''s arm. The two struck fish fell to the ground, their bones shattered thoroughly. "Marvelous!" Casimir pped his hands in wonder. "So this is your power? Manifesting and manipting the trajectory of this shield?" "One power," said Valera, but she did not borate further. Her mind was on her master. Chapter 92: Return Of The Lich

Chapter 92: Return Of The Lich

Valera had sent many distress signals to him for in the realm of death, it was impossible to truly establish a connection with him. The only thing she could do, even as a Chosen Undead close to him, was send out mental messages that he may or may not even receive. She did not worry about his safety, though. She did not believe her master would fall, no, she never once believed that. But at the same time, she was not a fanatic either, believing her master could do no wrong. He could err and make mistakes or miscalcte. For example, he likely had no idea an attack like this wasing. That was where she, as his Chosen, as his most trusted Guardian Knight, would stand up tall with her shield and her might and her wits to cover for him. She did not just spend her time like a distressed princess, wringing her hands together and sending distress calls to her master. No, Valera had assumed directmand of all the undead. In the first half hour of attack by these monsters, she had stayed in the Red Circle to try and defend it, but the base was already damaged, its gates breached and its shields destroyed, and its confines were small and unsuited for a long term siege. So, after half an hour, Valera had gotten everyone to move to this megaplex. This building formed a natural tower of defense and was alsorge enough that the Geist''s potent poison cloud would not affect any of the vulnerable flesh and blood mortals under Casimir. All the while, she had sent the Alloywing Eagle, Evil Eyes, and Grave Wards on scouting trips to determine what was going on. The Evil Eyes and Grave Wards, unfortunately, were not the best spies in a battlefield like this were explosions and projectiles flew everywhere. They were too slow to react to attacks and got caught in crossfires before disintegrating. Thebined efforts of all the scouts, however, had rued valuable information. The main brunt of this monster attack was not targeted here. It was focused directly at the center of the city, and there, defending fortified walls, the humans known as ''heroes'' with their many strange war machines mounted a consolidated defense. The strongest monsters were located there, though some were scattered apart, leading small hosts of troops under them to suppress other locations in the city. One such stronger monster hade to the Red Circle, in fact. A Lionfish type fishman with enough strength to require Valera, Dynamite Girl, Fler''Gan, and the Red Circle higher ups to reliably defeat, and even then, it was at the cost of much of Casimir''s weaker staff baiting it into constant ambushes by sacrificing their lives. That attack had breached the Red Circle''s defenses even more than it already had suffered, prompting Valera to make the move to this more defensible building. That creature was approximately level 30. But even that was no matchpared to what seemed to be the general of this force. A huge, humanoid sea beast covered in colorful, iridescent shell that massacred all that it encountered with powerful punches that seemed to hold no equal. That creature, Valera estimated was strong, truly, truly strong. Perhaps level 50, perhaps even higher, and it only seemed to grow stronger and stronger. Eventually, if the humans did not deal with that creature, the undead would have to. Yet, even Valera could not think of a reliable way to put down such a mighty foe. Valera paused for a moment, freezing up as she felt a strange sensation of power well up within her. She instinctively looked to the direction of the Red Circle. "What is that!?" said Casimir. Arge pir of green light had formed where the Red Circle would approximately be, reaching into the sky and temporarily parting the thick throng of dark storm clouds. Valera smiled widely, her vampiric fangs extending in pure excitement. "He has returned." == Aldrich quickly dawned upon the megaplex, and from above, he saw that a strong defensive position had been set up courtesy of Valera. Undead fought at ground level with support from the Geist''s neurotoxin. There was also ranged firepower from Fler''gan and Red Circle troops in higher floor windows and balconies where the human staff were safe from the neurotoxin. It looked like a scene out of a zombie infection movie where hardy survivors would stake out in an abandoned building to fend against unending hordes of zombies. Though in this case, it was the zombies that were fighting for survival. Aldrich was proud to see his undead work together like this, even without him. He was proud of Valera for managing this without him. He had full confidence now to trust Valera''s decision making and his respect for her only grew. But yet, proud as Aldrich was, he did not want his undead to suffer the threat of these pests any longer. "Take care of all the vermin in the air," Aldrich said to Crow before He jumped off, taking a massive fall down into the middle of the courtyard. There, hended his huge, armored, spiked and metaled bulk right on top of a giant crab variant that was angrily jabbing at his own mudcrabs. The crab sttered under Aldrich''s fall, its shellpletely caving in as its white insides sshed everywhere. Seeing Aldrich, his two mudcrabs immediately waved their ws in the air in delight. "Gehgeh!" The Geist pped its hands in glee after caving in the skull of a nearby fishman. The troll chieftain roared and pumped his cursed rock axe up and down, beating his chest at Aldrich''s return. All the undead variants joined in on this roar, the alpha striker howling, the grizzly roaring, the Bloodspitter lizard hissing, and so and so forth until a medley of animalistic cries filled the night. To any human observer, this would have been an utterly horrifying symphony to hear as all the creatures that joined in were predators that did not shy away from the flesh of men. "About damn time!" Ste shouted as she punched into a fishman and set off an explosion in its stomach, blowing the variant apart at the middle. "And damn, look at you! Was there a gym in that dimension or something? Steroids, too? You''re all bulked up!" "I appreciate the wee, but all of you should step back. Get back into the building," said Aldrich. "I''ll deal with the vermin." Aldrich''s undead immediately obeyed, holing back up inside the megaplex, leaving Aldrich alone and surrounded by hostile fishmen and their variant mounts andpanions. The variants did not try to chase after Aldrich''s undead. Instead, they warily stood around Aldrich, trying to glean a sense of his strength after his threatening entrance. After a few seconds, they snarled and hissed, inching forwards, sensing no Ether energy from him. Aldrich had to admit that even though hisck of observable power was a benefit for the most part, it was annoying when small fry did not immediately run and had the delusional thought to even challenge him. Aldrich punched into the ground, and a surge of ashen white energy billowed out from him. "[Call of the Impaler]." With that chant, the ground rumbled, and the variants had just a moment to look down confusedly before huge bone spikes emerged everywhere, skewering through the fishmen and their mounts in towering stakes of barbed, serrated bone that disyed their iling, impaled corpses proudly in the air. Just like that, every single enemy in the courtyard had been killed. All those outside saw their brethren struggling, spitting and choking on their blood as their death throes only made the barbed bone stakes hook into their bodies deeper, and immediately turned away in fear. Aldrich did not raise those he had killed. He let them stay on these stakes as a monument. As a warning to all other variants that would dare to trespass that this would be their fate. Instead, Aldrich leaped into the air, above the stakes, and Crow came by, swooping down to pick Aldrich up with his talons. Several corpses of flying variants skewered by giant ck feathers fell from the sky, crashing into the ground below. "Good work," said Aldrich¡­ "Now get me to the top floor." Chapter 93: Connection

Chapter 93: Connection

Crow grumbled in understanding before sending Aldrich way up high to the top floor of the megaplex in just one p of his great wings. There, on the balcony, in the pouring rain, Aldrich saw Valera with Casimir standing behind her giant shield. Valera trembled with excitement at seeing Aldrich, wanting nothing more than to crawl all over him, but sheposed herself, standing tall and stiff with her shield out and her armor covering her form head to toe, maintaining her duty as Aldrich''s submander to the utmost of her abilities. Aldrich hopped off of Crow andnded on the balcony with a heavy, crashing thud. He sent out a mentalmand to Vntis, and the helm of his armor parted in half before folding into the gorget with an almost organic fluidity. "Master," said Valera. "It is good to see you back." "And here I was ready to finalize my will," said Casimir with a bow. "Good work, Casimir. All those men and women under you that you had to sacrifice today - you have my greatest gratitude," said Aldrich. "Thank you, Mr. Vane, but your gratitude is misced. It deserves to those that have fought and fallen, not I who is merely protected," said Casimir. "The devotion you have to your staff is admirable, Casimir, and I will see to it that tonight, no more of your people will die," said Aldrich. He would have also liked to have fully raised the Red Circle staff, but one weakness that Aldrich possessed in raising undead was that to create a Risen Undead, that is, an undead with their souls intact, it required their souls to be present at the time of reanimation. However, souls faded extremely quickly. Approximately within one minute - the same length of time theysted on screen in the game before fading away. In the game, one minute was a very, very long time for a drop tost, but in the real world, it was a vanishingly small sliver of time. By the time Aldrich had returned to the Red Circle, Casimir''s staff had been dead too long to raise with their souls intact. Thus, they were just mindless zombies. At the very least, when this all over, Aldrich would give Casimir the option to have the zombiesid to proper rest. "And Valera, excellent work managing our forces," said Aldrich. "Under your guidance, losses have been minimal, even when I took so much time in the other realm. For that, you have my apologies." "No, my master, there is no need to apologize," said Valera as she put her hand over her breastte. "As your guardian knight, it is simply my duty to serve." Aldrich saw Valera tremble again in barely contained excitement, and he nodded to her. "Come on, I''ve taken my helmet off, and we''re safe for now. You can stop the formalities and holding back now." Valera immediately dematerialized her armor, leaving her base unarmored outfit of curve-hugging ck leather leggings and leather and white and red tunic. She rushed towards Aldrich and wrapped her arms around him in a deep, crushing hug. "I missed you, my master, I did so very much!" said Valera. "My lord, we are taking damage!" protested Vntis as his metal form groaned and creaked under Valera''s hug. "I-I forgot you gained levels with me," said Aldrich. "For once, I thought I''d be immune to damage from your hugs, but I guess not." Valera pulled back and stared at Aldrich''s armor. "Living armor¡­? Fashioned from that demon, Vntis was his name, no?" "Right," said Aldrich. It made sense that Valera knew. She and Aldrich had defeated Vntis together twice already back in the game. But it also seemed that the chronology of these events were all jumbled up. If everything was linear, then Vntis should have been level 80, not 40 as he was now. Valera should have been level 100. And so on and so forth. These were matters to think about another time, though. "I see you have understood how wonderful it is to be in service of my master, good" said Valera as she crossed her arms and looked down at Vntis''s armored form. She gnashed her teeth together and put a hand to her mouth while muttering under her breath, "But to think that a piece of scrap like you has the chance to wrap yourself over my master''s body like that, even before me¡­" "I do not know the worth of this one that I am now bound to," said Vntis, his smooth yet threatening voice echoing out from the armor. "But I hold no protest binding myself to a fighter who has managed to best me not merely once, but thrice, for it is my firm belief that in pure and true battle, the worth of one''s bones isid in full disy." "And that isn''t the only armor I found," said Aldrich. He took Valera''s hand and ced his gauntleted hand over it. He willed items to be transferred over to her. "M-master!?" said Valera, first reacting in surprise, then in understanding as she saw what Aldrich did. Valera could not receive misceneous items from Aldrich, but she could hold equipment sets and weapons for her to wear in her inventory. In this case, Aldrich transferred over to her the strongest armor and weapon set he had found in the Necropolis. Her basic armor set developed with her, but it was rather generic and just aided her defensive stats and abilities as a Shielder. The armor set from the Necropolis, however, was one with far more ir and suited to giving her an impressive edge in pure offense when she flipped from Shielder to Berserker. Aldrich stepped inside the apartment and looked up. There was a massive hole in the ceiling where rain and wind poured down. The living room was thoroughly trashed, the table and telescreen there shattered apart, not to mention the rain pouring in and drenching everything. Fisk and Spybird gathered up electronics and shielded them from the rain under a small tarp. "What happened here?" asked Aldrich. "Some giant shark dude thing just jumped in from the ceiling!" said Fisk. "Damn near bit my head off!" "It was a stronger beast, that one," said Valera as she came by Aldrich''s side and looked up at the hole. "One of themanding monsters, most likely, judging by its strength and stature." "What happened to it?" said Aldrich. "Well, by the time it intruded, the power you left the death realm with funneled into me through our Chosen bond, so I was more than strong enough to deal with it," said Valera. "I punched it out of the very same hole it made toe in. I don''t think my blow killed it, but I doubt it has any fight left in it, considering it has not returned." "¡­I see," said Aldrich. He could imagine the ratherical scene of the shark variant crashing in, expecting a fight, only to get one punched several blocks away. "It''s good to see that you''re still more than capable of dealing with problems with, well, simple solutions too." "There is no problem a good punch cannot solve," said Valera with a fanged smile. "That said," said Aldrich. "You mentioned amanding monster? Are the variants using military tactics now? When I look up at the sky and see this storm, the mantas carrying variants, and the flying variants raining down suppressive fire, it looks strangely organized." "Da. Like a proper army," said Spybird. He reached into his trousers and withdrew a wide canteen. When he unscrewed the cap, the acrid smell of strong alcohol filled the room. He took a huge glug from the canteen and continued. "Not good army, no, simple in tactics, but still, tactics. Ever heard of variants using tactic?" "No," said Aldrich. It was well known that variants, generally speaking, were basically justrger and scarier wild beasts. They did note remotely close to organizing into armies like this, let alone devising war strategies. "Then you and me are just the same," said Spybird. He rubbed his wrinkled forehead with stubby, calloused fingers. His expression was stern and thoroughly tired. "But I think long tonight, and I remember. I was at the sinking of Neo-Moscow seven years ago. Giant worms attack the city, use hit and run tactics. Start with small worms first, scout city defenses. They find weak points that way. Then, they sink buildings with forcefields. Makes the city defenseless. Then, they show up with the big worms. Then heroes die, half of city sinks, everything horrible and bad." Spybird took another swig of alcohol. "This reminds me of that. But you know what? If the situation is simr, then that means there is mainmander. Big shot that controls everything. In Neo-Moscow incident, when main worm deep underground died, all worms fled. Maybe same here, I think." "I see," said Aldrich. "So take out the head and the rest fall? Well, any candidates for this main unit?" "Yes," said Valera immediately. "There is one. A shelled monster leading the vast majority of its brethren at the center of this human settlement. However, I must warn you, my master, that the creature is incredibly powerful. If you faced it alone, even as you are now, you would fall." "Good thing I''m not alone, am I?" said Aldrich. Valera smiled. "I was just about to say that." "But before I move out, I need to have more information," said Aldrich. He looked to Spybird and Fisk. "Have you two managed to get any news from outside?" "No connection," said Spybird. "Yeah, this storm''s got everything tech rted real messed up," said Fisk. "How long has it precisely been since the start of this attack?" said Aldrich. "Almost two hours," said Casimir. "Two hours¡­?" said Aldrich. "Yes, Mr. Vane, and you must be thinking what I am thinking. Two hours without any resolution to this horrid incident? Where are the heroes? Where are the Panopticon''s battle drones?" said Casimir. "I saw Panop drones out there," said Aldrich. "But they looked like ss 5 drones, the disposable kind that the Panopticon has millions of. A city-wide attack like this should warrant a ss 3 at the very least. I also saw heroes, but strong enough to be in the A ss." "Indeed," said Casimir. "Even considering the hypothetical scenario that the AA and the Panopticon are both uncharacteristically ipetent to their extremes, a response timegging beyond one hour for an attack of this scale is absurd. You may call me a pessimist, Mr. Vane, but I do believe Haven has been abandoned. The two A rankers stationed here have either fled or have fallen, either way, the end result is much the same: the city falls too." "You''re probably right," said Aldrich. "But I doubt it''s because the AA or Panopticon wants to abandon the city. Either something''s blocking them out, or something so big''se up elsewhere that it requires all their resources. Regardless, I can''t keep dealing with hypotheticals and questions. I need solid information." Aldrich turned to Spybird and Fisk. "I need you two to connect to the Net." "But how?" said Fisk. "Nothing works, and believe me, we''ve tried basically everything." "Then we brute force it," said Aldrich. "The storm is blocking you two out, is it? Then why not fly above the storm?" He waved his hand, and Crow''s enormous ck form hovered by the balcony like a living shadow. "¡­Above?" said Fisk. "Aren''t there like¡­tons of variants up there?" "Do you doubt the master''s ability to keep you safe?" said Valera sternly. Fisk immediately shook his head. "No, no, it isn''t that, it''s just, like, I''m piss weak, you know. A stray fart from one of these things might kill me!" "You''re right. You are too weak," said Aldrich bluntly. He looked at Spybird. The short man was definitely cybeically enhanced. At the very least, the segments on his skin showcased that he had some form of dermal tingyers that would make him far tougher than the average man. "Spybird, you''reing with me." "Damn, you could have at least tried to tell me I wasn''t weak¡­,"ined Fisk. "So what? You want toe along?" said Aldrich. "I''ll be here doing, uh, research!" said Fisk as he immediately began to fiddle with hisptop despite the fact he could not connect to anything. "Me? Heh, just my luck. Run from one city ending disaster, find the next. Well, good thing there is vodka to make things better. But no useining. I wille," said Spybird. "Take a moment to get ready," said Aldrich. "Arm yourself if you need, but make sure you prioritize getting a connection to the outside world." "Get ready, eh?" Spybird nodded. He smiled before he glugged down the rest of his canteen down to the veryst drop. He then crushed the metal canteen like a soda can in his bare hand before tossing it away. "Now, I am ready!" "The alcohol won''t slow you down?" said Aldrich. "Slow me down?" Spybird furrowed his brows and made a heavily offended face. "No, it makes me warm. Makes me sharp. Keeps me alive." "¡­Alright then," said Aldrich. He turned to Casimir for confirmation. "It is true," said Casimir. "Spybird does function better with a deadly dose of alcohol flowing through his veins. He even ims he possesses a generator in his liver that converts the alcohol into power, but I am still unsure whether that is true or drunken rambling." "Heh, and you will never know," said Spybird. He packed a bag with aptop, a small rectangr signal generator, and various wires and cables. While Spybird packed, Aldrich spoke to Valera. "Valera, optimally, I would want to take you with me. But everyone in this building is low leveled. You are the only strong warrior I can trust to defend this ce." "Understood, master," said Valera. She bowed her head. "But promise me, if ever you are out there and you feel as if your life is in danger, even the slightest bit, do not hesitate to call me. I would give my life and soul - everything - for you." "You won''t have to worry about me staying alive," said Aldrich. "I''ll be careful. And I do have to give you an answer, no? Can''t do that if I''m dead." Valera''s pale faced turned bright red as she stammered out, "Y-yes, that is true. I''d¡­almost forgotten about that with how busy this night has been." "All set!" said Spybird as he went out to the balcony and hopped atop Crow''s back. Aldrich nodded to everyone before he also got on Crow, aiming now towards the stormy, variant filled skies. Chapter 94: Sky Fight

Chapter 94: Sky Fight

Crow pushed off the balcony and hovered in the air, allowing Aldrich to inspect the sky. The wind raged around him in angry howls, carrying a torrential downpour of rain that nearly even managed to drown out the sound of high caliber gunfire and artillery shells exploding in the distance. The roar of asional lightning pierced through all this noise, cracking down in heavenly judgement against buildings, especially those near the city center. "That''s no natural lightning. The kind that strikes down at random," noted Aldrich. "It''s being used with purpose, almost like their form of artillery. I''ll need a closer to look to figure out what''s really going on, though." ''Stitching [Farseer Eyes],'' stated Vntis, and a single blue, crystalline shaped eye formed on Aldrich''s helmet forehead. Through this, Aldrich could see far into the distance and identify life forms that shone bright blue through the cover of the dark storm clouds. That was when Aldrich came to understand how exactly this storm was being managed. There wererge jellyfish type creatures positioned in a hugettice like matrix across the storm, and each of them linked together to generate storm clouds and electrical charge. These jellyfish were also responsible for casting an electrical interference via these storm clouds. Aldrich saw an artillery shell fly through the storm cloud, piercing several jellyfish and shredding apart their soft bodies. In an instant, the jellyfish reformed. The jellyfish were highly regenerative so long as all of them remained tethered to each other, feeding off of each other in a positive feedback loop that massively enhanced their natural abilities of electrical charge generation, maniption, and healing. This made them essentially invincible unless arge number of them were destroyed all at once. Or unless they were killed with an ability that rendered their regeneration useless. Like the rotting effect of the [Death Bolt] spell. Yet at the same time, there were so many of them. Casting [Death Bolt] on all of them one by one was about as effective as trying to scoop the ocean out with a bucket. "Thank you, Vntis," said Aldrich. ''Our synchronization is not yetplete, but we are linked enough that I may sense your intent and aid it. I may also provide you with sensory awareness all around you, regardless of where your line of sight is faced.'' "I''ll trust you to cover me, then. For now, I''m going up." Aldrich spoke to Spybird. "Brace yourself. I can slow down and try to make sure you don''t fall off and die, but you''ll need to put in effort too." "Understood," said Spybird. He dug his fingers into Crow''s back, and hydraulic clicks indicated that Spybird''s fingers were locked in with a steady grip. With that, Aldrich willed Crow up, and Crow loosed a piercing, rumbling war cry before pping his wings down with immense force, instantly shooting him up like a darket. His eleration was exceptional, and in terms of sheer speed, Crow could easily reach the realm of a fighter jet, though for now, Aldrich held back on the top speed to keep Spybird conscious against G-forces. As Aldrich approached the air, aerial variantsprising of flying fish and floating sea serpents reacted, firing off spines and bolts of energy respectively. Aldrich activated his [Death Essence Barrier]. This was a passive shield of energy unique to Liches that constantly formed around him. It was essentially an upgraded version of the Necromancer''s [Corpse Barrier], and in the lore, it was said that Necromancers formed the [Corpse Barrier] as a cheap imitation knockoff of the [Death Essence Barrier]. Where the [Corpse Barrier] rotted over time, was weak to fire, bludgeoning damage, and other undead weaknesses, the [Death Essence Barrier] was a shield of pure energy. A mana barrier formed from the essence of death, and in Elden World, mana barriers were highly resistant to elemental or energy type damage. Dozens of energy bolts from sea serpents just fizzled out against Aldrich''s shield while the spines were too weak to pierce through, pattering off like toothpicks. Aldrich did not pay these flying weaklings much attention. He only wanted to get above the storm clouds for Spybird to establish a connection. "Fly through them all," said Aldrich. Crow growled as he folded his wings to his sides and thinned down to a streamlined, missile like form meant for pure speed. He shot through the flying variants like a living battering ram,pletely shredding apart anything in his path by mming into them with his steely feather covered body. It was roadkill to the maximum extent, sending severed body parts and chunks of fish flesh raining down. As Aldrich quickly neared the stormclouds, the jellyfish within reacted. A webwork of glowing blue energy became visible in the clouds, shifting around energy and centralizing it around the jellyfish cluster nearest to Aldrich before it exploded out into a lightning bolt. Aldrich shifted near to Crow''s head and thrust out his arm. His [Death Essence Barrier] shone green, and the lightning strike crashed against it with a thunderous roar. The lightning fizzled out as it hit the energy resistant barrier, dealing minimal damage. "Brace for impact!" shouted Aldrich. Spybird tightened his grip and hunkered down. Crow smashed through the clouds,pletely shredding apart several jellyfish. The air turned immediately heavy, dark, and full of static as Crow flew past the storm clouds, focusing only on moving straight up. A few arcs of electricity shot out at Aldrich, but again, he absorbed them with his barrier. Within a few seconds, Crow had pushed through to the other side of the clouds. Here, above the clouds, Aldrich could now clearly see the vast amount of jellyfish needed to make this storm. There must have been over a thousand of them all lined up neatly, feeding energy through each other in aplicated organicwork of circuits. The jellyfish glowed blue in color, but once Aldrich flew above them, hundreds of them below turned an angry alert red. That was when they began to fire lightning bolts en masse at Aldrich. Up here, all alone, Aldrich had be a prime and lone target against which they could all focus their firepower against. "Higher!" said Aldrich. Even if his barrier was energy resistant, he could not just stand there and tank the full force of a bioelectric storm. Crow soared higher, spinning and swerving and ducking to dodge countless streaks of lightning. A few did hit Crow, but he was durable enough that they did not deal significant damage, not to mention that Crow possessed a potent healing factor of his own. Eventually, Aldrich was high up enough that the jellyfish stopped targeting Aldrich. This was high enough in the atmosphere where even the cloud cover below looked tiny. There was no rain here, nor were there strong winds. It was strangely calm, a clear contrast to the raging rumble of lightning in the artificial storm below. "Can you breathe?" said Aldrich to Spybird. "Have augmented lungs. Will be good," said Spybird. He immediately unzipped his pack and booted up hisptop, hooking it up to the sleek rectangr signal generator. A blinking red light at the end of the generator turned blue. "Connection established. Am diving now-," Spybird took a glove off his left hand, and his stubby fingers snapped back at their knuckles, revealing wiresden inside his digits. They snaked out like they had minds of their own, funneling into theptop as Spybird merged his consciousness with the tech. The cylindrical goggles on Spybird''s eyes clicked and cked and glowed blue. "Connected?" said Aldrich. "Da. But¡­," Spybird''s face set like stone. "You will not like news." "Just tell me one thing," said Aldrich. "Are reinforcementsing? Or will I be dealing with this disaster myself?" "Neo-York, Neo-San Francisco, Neo-Miami: all under attack. Bigger attack. All S ss and A ss heroes routed to them. Panopticon drones also busy with them. Haven, well, is not even on news. Too little a city for news to care about. All there is on is disaster about bigger cities. Official AA and Panopticon stance is that Haven and many other tier 3 cities are lost. All valuable citizens have been evacuated, but many still left behind. Some smaller news corps covered Haven until storm cut them out. Latest details I see from one hour ago. All the corporate suits in Haven Center long gone in their jets, but everyone else from other, poorer districts have moved into the center where walls are bigger, there are sentry guns, and strong forcefield. They man those defenses now, but they are holed up. Soon, will die." Spybird shook his head. "Poor bastards. All their lives, they probably fantasize about living in City Center with all the big buildings and rich corporate Suits. But now, city center will be their coffin. Ironic, no?" "And the two A rank heroes stationed here?" said Aldrich. He understood now that establishing a Net connection to see who wasing to help, to see what data the Panopticon and AA had about the attack, to see how much the media had covered to gain information - all of that was impossible. Haven was utterly and thoroughly abandoned. There was no news or information about it. It was doomed. "Hat Trick and Seismic. Hat Trick has fled," said Spybird. "Seismic wasst seen fighting an hour ago, but since then, nobody knows." "I see," said Aldrich¡­ "Then looks like this city truly is our responsibility and ours only." Chapter 95: Corpse Nova

Chapter 95: Corpse Nova

"Is this city our responsibility, though?" said Spybird. "We can always run. Set up base elsewhere. The lives here, are they worth so much wey down ours for them?" "That calculus is always in my head. If this city is too hard to defend, then I have no qualms leaving it. But so far, I don''t have enough information to make that judgement call, and, to be honest, I''m still itching for a fight," said Aldrich simply. "I still haven''t tested the full extent of my powers." He put a wed metal hand to the pointed chin of his metal helm. "But how should I approach this battle, hm. Haven is stillrge enough where I don''t have nearly enough forces to cover all of it. That means I should target the main variant leading this on the ground, but if it gets constant air support from this storm, then it''ll be next to impossible fighting it while worrying about an endless rain of lightning. Which means I should break this storm formation, but at the same time, I don''t want to go around individually Death Bolting every single jellyfish. I don''t have the mana nor the time for that." "My analysis isplete," said Vntis suddenly. "What?" said Aldrich. "When you utilized the [Eye of Farsight], I analyzed what you observed. I have thoroughly seen the flow of energy from these creatures and determined that it follows a spiraling pattern leading to an anchoring force at the center of this storm. Eliminate the center, then the entire formation breaks apart. " "And you managed to figure that out with a single look?" said Aldrich. "Among Demonkind, Living Armor were forged to be the ultimate battlepanions to the highest of Battle Demons, often Battle Demon Princes, and their fondness for direct battle," said Vntis. "Thus, each and every one of us forged with the highest level of Truesight. Granted, I have never found anyone worthy of donning me, and so my Truesight is rathercking in practice, but it is more than enough to perceive this level of energy flow." "So that''s how it is," said Aldrich. He knew from Elden World that Living Armor were, as Vntis said, supposed to be the demonic equipment of a specific type of demon called a Battle Demon. Battle Demons were fanatical devotees to the Demon God of War Carnasus, and they had a special racial ability where if they fought head on with pure martial honor with no sneak attacks or ambushes or even much of a n other than a desire to do battle, then they received damage buffs, immunity to psychic damage, strong regenerative capability, and damage reduction. Consequently, this way of straightforward, smash everything on sight battle also made them highly susceptible to sneak attacks, ambushes, and traps. Battle Demons thus absolutely hated being the subject of such tricks, believing them incredible insults to their very way of existence. Thus, they forged demonic constructs called Living Armor that had something called Truesight which let them perceive hidden units. Living Armor and Battle Demons therefore had a symbiotic rtionships. Where battle demons were the aggressive muscle and brawn, living armor were calmer, made better decisions, and had higher observational ability. In the lore, Truesight was said to be sight capable of reading the flow of all energies so well that nothing was ever hidden to it, though functionally it just revealed invisible units in the game. Truesight was not limited to Living Armor, nor did Living Armor have the best Truesight out there, but there was no other ss or monster that could have Truesight active permanently like Living Armor did. Aldrich was conditioned to think of Truesight as just something that revealed invisible units and traps, so he was temporarily surprised to see that it had much more applications in the real world, allowing Vntis to read the flow of energy in living creatures exceptionally well, even those he should not have had any familiarity with. "Well then, looks like I have a n," said Aldrich. He looked back to Spybird. "You''re no longer needed here. Staying here will just make you a hindrance to me. I''ll have Crow take you back to the megaplex while I settle this storm." "And you? How will you manage in the air?" said Spybird. "[Stitching: Blood Dragon Wings]" said Vntis. The back of Aldrich''s ck armor shuddered and shook before bursting into a pair of fully grown draconic wings. The wings were bony white with gleaming red ps, wed at their tips in the case they needed to be used for offense. "Ah, I see, you can do that too. Why am I even surprised at this point? You know, I see your powers and I mostly keep quiet, but it does make wonder where they begin and end. How many do you have? How do you have so many?" said Spybird. "A discussion for another time." Aldrich hopped off of Crow, floating in the air as Vntis operated his wings. "Now go." "Woaaaah!" Crow''s six yellow eyes blinked before he shot away in a rush of wind, disappearing into a ck blur as Spybird held on for dear life. "Was it a wise decision to leave your mount?" said Vntis. "It seemed to me a formidable creature." "Crow has no barrier to fend against lightning," said Aldrich. "And my barrier mostly covers myself. I cannot extend its protection reliably over him. He would eventually suffer too much damage if he tried a frontal assault with me. Plus, I needed to get Spybird out. After all, I promised Casimir that no more of his men would fall." "Understood," said Vntis. "Lead me to the center of this energy swirl," said Aldrich. "Directing¡­," said Vntis as he maneuvered Aldrich''s wings. Aldrich flew through the dark night, and as he neared back down to the storm, the single crimson circle in his helm gleaming as he scanned the clouds below. He was high up enough where he could perceive the jellyfish glowing through the dark clouds but not close enough where they saw him as a target. His vision zoomed in on the mass formation of glowing blue jellyfish as Vntis''s voice reverberated through his mind. "I have mapped a course through your vision," said Vntis. Aldrich saw a glowing red trail circle through the jellyfish-storm formation and he flew through the air, maintaining his distance from the jellyfish swarm to try and get a visual identification of the centerpoint first before thinking about trying anything. Soon enough, Aldrich saw the center: floating amidst a throng of shining blue jellyfish was a giant flying anglerfish. Its flesh was a slimy, scaled ck with an oversized, gaping, permanently open mouth filled with dagger-like teeth. Its beady eyes glowed a bright white, channeling crackling energy from the teardrop shaped lure jutting out from its head. A mass amount of jellyfish were gathered around the anglerfish, their translucent blue tentacles all wrapped around it, merging with it to symbiotically feed off its energy. The hundreds of jellyfish formed a giant spherical cocoon of translucent blue flesh around the anglerfish, and together, they formed the heart of the storm, the engine that kept it going and rumbling. The lure from the anglerfish shone bright blue, and from it, waves of visible blue energy permeated outwards, fueling the jellyfish. Each jellyfish acted like a conductor, taking in some of the energy, amplifying it, then spreading it out to its brethren, and like this, it created an enormous bio-generator of massive proportion to fuel a storm as strong as this. "Hm," said Aldrich. "Approaching that will be difficult." At the center of the storm, around the anglerfish, the jellyfish concentrated in the strongest numbers. If they all tried channeling lightning against Aldrich, the damage would be immediate, massive, and in such arge scale that dodging would be nigh impossible. "The energy there is at its peak," said Vntis. "Any resistance you face here will be the mightiest this formation of creatures may muster." "I know. There''s easily enough there to overwhelm my Death Essence Barrier. I need to scatter them somehow," said Aldrich. "Without triggering their aggro, too, because the moment they perceive me, they will all be on alert." "If I rece the current Blood Dragon Wing stitching, I may instead bestow you with a gue Toad''s Acid Bomb Spitter." "No, I need these wings for maneuverability," said Aldrich. "And acid bombs from gue Toads are rtively slow moving. They''ll notice and shoot it down. Afterwards, they''ll all be on alert. I have an alternative solution." Aldrich put a hand in front of him. "[Create Greater Undead: 1st Ring] Green dots of energy materialized in front of Aldrich, filling into the purple robed, tattered hooded form of a Skeleton Assassin. Aldrich held the skeleton up in the air by its arm, and it dangled loosely while staring at Aldrich with its eye sockets for instruction. "Your service to me will be short but worthy," said Aldrich. With his other hand, he put a finger on the skeleton''s forehead, casting [Corpse Nova: Dyed]. A glowing red sigil appeared on the skeleton assassin''s forehead. [Corpse Nova] was a powerful sixth circle spell that was among the most devastating in terms of area of effect damage in a Necromancer''s arsenal. Easily strong enough to blow apart the throng of jellyfish surrounding the anglerfish below to disrupt the storm at its very heart. [Coprse Nova] was also unique in that it could be [Dyed], allowing Aldrich to remotely cast the detonation at any given time, though there was a ten minute time limit before the [Corpse Nova] sigil faded away. The biggest weakness of [Corpse Nova] was that because it was so strong, it could only be marked on a single target at once, with this limit increasing at higher levels up to a max of 3. There was also the issue that the red sigil was highly visible, though stealth effects did hide it. "I''m going to throw you down there," said Aldrich as he nodded down towards the thickwork of jellyfish wrapped around the giant anglerfish. "You will cast your [Shadow Walk] so that nothing detects you. When you get close enough, I will detonate you." The skeleton assassin chattered its teeth and gave Aldrich a cheerful thumbs up. "Your sacrifice will be remembered, warrior of worthy bone," said Vntis. Aldrich then aimed, made sure the trajectory of his throw was right, then flung the skeleton assassin down to the anglerfish. The skeleton assassin rolled up into a ball to prevent itself from getting buffeted by winds before turning invisible, entering into its [Shadow Walk]. Aldrich watched intently as the skeleton assassin fell rapidly down below. It sunk into the thick cover of storm clouds, then sunk deeper until it crashed into the giant ball of jellyfish clung around the anglerfish. The moment its invisible body made contact, the jellyfish around it glowed an angry red, preparing for a threat. But far toote at that point. The skeleton assassin withdrew its serrated dirk from a sheath at its hip and stabbed it into a jellyfish to get one kill for itself before bowing its head, epting its end. Chapter 96: Ruler Of The Storm

Chapter 96: Ruler Of The Storm

The red sigil on its head glowed brightly, emanating a threatening shine even through the storm clouds for just an instant. Then, a huge sphere of green light suddenly exploded outwards from it, hungrily expanding andpletely devouring everything within it. Anything caught in that light was immediately disintegrated, and that included a huge chunk of the giant apartment sized sphere of jellyfish, exposing the anglerfish held within. Not a momentter, the shockwave of the st then rocked outwards in a wave of condensed green energy. An ear shattering rumble echoed through the air as jellyfish were scattered away when the shockwave crashed against them, their frail balloon like upper bodies eviscerating from the sheer force of the st wave. Remarkably, though, the jellyfish were tenacious even that even the ones closest to the st wave still remained attached to each other and the anglerfish, their tendrils holding on with a strength and durability that far exceeded their physical limits even as their heads were blown away. Most likely because their tendrils were the main receptacle to channel the energy, thus making them more durable. The disintegrating light had not hit the anglerfish, but the shockwave had, and it grotesquely ttened the fish''s body, breaking most of the bones in its body, likely instantly pulping its internal organs to kill it. The shining white lure dangling from its head drooped low before sputtering out, and the moment it did, it was as if someone had just turned off the power switch in this giant biological generator. A wave of darkness spread out from the center of the storm as every jellyfish lost its source of energy spontaneously. Aldrich could immediately see that the jellyfish were shriveling up and dying when they were detached from their energy source. This indicated that they had relied entirely on the anglerfish to even survive outside of water. "Not yet-," Aldrich immediately flew downwards, into the center of the storm as it began to crumble apart, the dark clouds fading away. He had to get down there before the jellyfishpletely rotted away, before the cocoon formation around the anglerfishpletely broke apart. He flew straight into the anglerfish''s broken body and dug his wed gauntlet into the variant''s head. The crimson eye dot in Aldrich''s helm glowed green as he held down the sizable variant''s corpse. "Serve," said Aldrich, and his voice resonated outwards, reaching all the jellyfish nearby that had died the moment their link to the anglerfish was severed. [Inner Circle: 41/45 ] 42/45] He casted [Mass Raise Undead] and raised not only the anglerfish, but as many of the jellyfish nearby as he could. Because of how many jellyfish there were, this immediately maxed out his Outer Circle unit limit, but for very, very good cause. A wave of green energy radiated outwards from Aldrich, and every jellyfish it hit, it infused with energy, stopping their decay and giving them new life in the form of undeath. Most of these jellyfishprised of just bare tendrils that managed to stay intact after [Corpse Nova''s] shockwave, but Aldrich now had them regenerate. He activated his [Mist of Undeath], a Lich racial ability that reced the [Anti-Life Shell] which, like the [Corpse Barrier], was just a cheap imitation of the real thing. A ghostly green fog spread out from Aldrich''s form, covering his surroundings in a massive haze. Within the mist, any non undead were afflicted with the ''Low Visibility'' debuff that, though it did not blind them, made it so they could not see far ahead. On top of this, the mist also had the same life draining effect as Anti-Life Shell though if one got close enough to the center of the mist, it would also afflict both crippling fear and a constant instant death check that scaled based on how low level and how low health a unit was. But perhaps the most powerful function of the [Mist of Undeath] was its vastly enhanced undead healing factor. The mist retained [Anti-Life Shell''s] passive healing of undead, and that passive healing increased the closer an undead was to the center of the mist. However, Aldrich now had the ability to manually expend mana to massively elerate the healing process for undead near him. The rate of healing was such that Aldrich could probably instantly restore an undead from a single limb back to their full bodies within seconds. The main weaknesses of the [Mist of Undeath] was that the mana cost to heal scaled exponentially higher the stronger the healed unit was and Aldrich could not restore units that were reduced down to nothingness. Using [Mist of Undeath], Aldrich rapidly regenerated all the jellyfish under him, but this process left his mana dangerously low. This would all be worth it, though, if things went ording to Aldrich''s head. [Mana: 30/471] *This total mana value is post equipment bonus from Vntis* "Now gather, all of you, gather as you did before. But this time, gather under me." Aldrich held up the giant anglerfish''s body. It dwarfed Aldrich, being easily the size of a small house, and in an instant, all the hundreds of jellyfish that Aldrich had reanimated floated towards the anglerfish. The jellyfish extended their undead tendrils outwards hungrily,tching back onto the anglerfish, and as they did so, they connected back once more into their biological generator of living storm. Aldrich flew upwards once the jellyfish finished tethering to the anglerfish, watching the scene of his making unfolding below. The lure from the anglerfish, once glowing a bright white, now shone an eerie, misty green, and with that, a wave of green light spread out through every single jellyfish attached to the fish. When the green light infused into a jellyfish, their once blue glow turned green as they amplified the light, passing it on to the next jellyfish in their web, and on and on again until - The previously dark storm clouds now shone an eerie green, and instead of creating bright blue lightning, the crackling of incandescent teal bolts now raged within the cloud cover. Aldrich raised his hands up, feeling the power of a living storm beneath him, obeying his each and everymand. He had sessfully hijacked the storm. Granted, the storm was much smaller than the original as Aldrich could only raise several hundred jellyfish where before the original stormprised of thousands, but it was still enough to be a formidable threat. The rest of the storm dissipated, fading away and returning some semnce of calm over Haven. This would at the very least grant Haven''s defenders a massive break from getting mmed by lightning bolts over and over again, not to mention being freed from the storm''s tech disruption field. It would also draw media attention again, and this was good. Aldrich had enough power that he now calcted it was about time he coulde out of hiding. As after all, he could not hide in the shadows forever. But he could not just emerge with his odd powers randomly either, not until he was strong enough to hold his own, strong enough to make the major organizations of the AA and the Panopticonpletely beholden to him. And there was no better way to make these organizations and the government recognize Aldrich than in clearing a disaster like this, especially if the people of Haven recognized him as their savior. In fact, the AA was officially forced to recognize him for clearing a disaster like this, putting them in an awkward spot where Aldrich would have all the leverage he needed in negotiating how independently he could operate, for he had no intention of folding himself into the existing hero framework. Gone were the days of Aldrich putting his life on the line all for a sh*tty hero''s license to try and have even a tiny semnce of freedom to do what he wanted. That was when he was weak, when that was all he could get. Aldrich floated downwards, through his new personal storm, emerging out below in a shroud of wispy green cloud matter like an angel of death dawning to enforce judgement. Beneath the clouds, he saw variants huddled under the storm for defensive cover. They now stared up at Aldrich inplete wonder. Flying fish. Sea serpents. All familiar foes. But what was different here was that there were hundreds upon hundreds of them gathered here. More importantly, the giant mantas used for troop transport also rested here where it was safest, where the storm could strike down any enemy. This was the heart of this invading force. The heart that gathered under the eye of the storm which, just moments before, had been the safest haven for them. But now, this was no longer the very center of safety for them, no, this was the terrible eye of a natural disaster that would ruin them all. "Begone," said Aldrich as he waved his hand across in dismissive manner, like a god enacting judgement, and indeed, with the force of a storm, of a natural disaster at his beckon and call, it truly did seem as if he was a deity raining down righteous fury. The green storm above rumbled, and countless bolts of green lightning shot down in a rain of heavenly fire, each great bolt sting apart entire groups of variants, blowing apart their bodies into charred chunks. Whenever a variant was struck by lightning, their bodies acted as a conduit for the lightning to arc further until green electricity bolts surged everywhere, annihting hundreds of variants all in the span of thirty seconds. The mantas wailed in pain as lightning bolts assailed their backs, blowing out seared chunks from them until they fell to the ground, too damaged to sustain flight. And in the center of this carnage, of this judgement enforced with the might of the heavens themselves, there was Aldrich, his horrible form of dark metal and bone and blood standing in the sky with outstretched draconic wings as countless burnt body parts and corpses fell down all around him. All the while, experience constantly flowed into Aldrich from this massacre of enormous scale. [1240 misceneous units defeated] [+68,450 EXP] [EXP Bar: 68,450/45,000] [Level up!] [Level 40 ] 41] [EXP Bar: 23,450/50,000] [+5 stat points avable to distribute] Aldrich knew this was inevitable, but he began to feel an issue with harvesting enough experience to level up now. Even with the hundreds, no, a thousand plus variants killed, he only got enough experience to level up once now that his EXP requirements were much higher. At this rate, past level 60, it would take Aldrich wiping out entire variant ecosystems just to scrape up a few levels. This was partly another reason why Aldrich needed to make his presence publicly known once he became strong enough. At a certain point, the sheer amount of experience he needed meant that he needed to clear out the biggest variant nests to level up, and those were all closely monitored by world governments, the AA, and the Panopticon. He distributed his stat points and looked to the next step of clearing out Haven. [+5 Attunement, increased to +10 with stat affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 201 ] 211] [Inner Circle Limit: 45 ] 47] [Outer Circle Limit: 225 ] 235] With most of the storm now gone, Aldrich could now safely float in the sky to inspect the city from a high vantage point from which he could n the next stages of his attack. Chapter 97: Holding Out

Chapter 97: Holding Out

Aldrich scanned the city from above. It was odd to see it so dark. From a helicopter or ne, Haven or any city, really, was always lit up, and in the dark, they looked like rivers of sparkling gold speckled with bright and bold dots of neon. But Haven was dark. As dark as it could get. The only real visible lights came from Haven''s Central District where therge forcefield epassing its walls shone a faint blue, shimmering and flickering as it took asional hits. Where the light was, the fighting was. The bioluminescent forms of various aquatic variants formed an odd and eerie approaching ring around the forcefield. The variant army was slowly closing in. The rate of fire from the various wall turrets and artillery were slowing down, either running out of power for energy-based weapons or running out of ammunition. Haven''s Eastside, its shipping district, waspletely dark and flooded over, likely hit by the initial wave of a small tsunami strong enough to smash through its flood barriers and engulf anynd defenses before they could get activated. That let the variant army intrude into the city at frightening speeds. Westside, Haven''s tech district, was thoroughly abandoned, its usual medley of colorful lights faded into darkness. Northside, the manufacturing district, was also dark and abandoned. The main manufacturing zones themselves, however, were fine as they were located outside of Haven''s walls. It was only the residential districts where workers and engineers working for the factories lived that faced the most damage as they were in Haven city proper. Southside, too, was thoroughly dark. This meant that all of Haven was either evacuated, dead, or holed up in the city center, behind the forcefield. Aside from a few splinter groups of variants, most of the variants were also located around the city center in the form of a siege. "What shall we do?" said Vntis. "Clearing this storm should buy the defenders around the forcefield some time," said Aldrich. "Yes, but in my battle experience borne from countless warzones, I can perceive that it is only a matter of time before those walls fall," said Vntis. "I am unfamiliar with the nature of weaponry or magic in this era, but those cannons and ballista stationed within the barrier fire with less and less vigor over time." "Then we wait until then," said Aldrich. "I want the defenders to weaken that force as much as possible, at the very least until that forcefield gives out. And, if I arrive when the forcefields break down, at the height of hopelessness, I can make a much bigger impact. "Ah, you intend to perform a timely entrance to raise morale," said Vntis. "That, and I''ll need as much good PR as I can get. If I can be this city''s savior in the eyes of its people and heroes, then I have even more leverage against the AA and Panopticon that practically abandoned them all," said Aldrich. "So, until the forcefield falls, we wait." "And the lives that may fall before then?" said Vntis. His voice had no hint of judgement to it. After all, he was still a demon, even if he had been a human knight in his past life. His valuation of lives was low, subject to the same cold distance Aldrich felt against them as an undead. Vntis only asked this question to gauge a sense of Aldrich''s values, to better understand his wearer so that he could supplement Aldrich''s decision making more efficiently. "They will be men and women worthy of respect that died for their city. Heroes that sacrificed their lives for a greater good. I will honor them in my memory as best as I can. But they will still be sacrifices," said Aldrich tly. "Understood," said Vntis. ====== Southside Haven, near Panopticon Bunker C88 Over two hundred men, women, and children were packed together in the underground confines of Southside''s single functioning Panopticon Bunker. As a C-ss bunker, it was an earlier version that had limited whose construction had been phased out over fifty years ago, but it was all that Southside could get. On dusty white tiled floor, this mass of peopleid down what bare belongings they could get. nkets, some food and water they could scrap together at thest minute, spare changes of clothes - the barest of necessities. Despite how much society had progressed since the Altering with its hovering cars and smart phones and drones and towering buildings, when it came down to it, when desperation hit its peak, what people reached for to keep themselves alive were the same basic things they had reached out to for thousands of years. And that was another thing that humanity knew deeply well throughout its history: desperation. Minuteman could practically smell the desperation in the air as he saw the civilians wide eyed, clutching at what little they had, straining out drenched clothes, shivering and huddling together, and he tried to stay strong for them. "Everyone!" shouted Minuteman, hismanding voice resonating through the underground bunker''s sterile white floor and walls. "You''re all doing great! Remember to pace your breathing and keep quiet! As a C ss bunker, we only have limited oxygen! If we wait just a little while longer, we''ll get help!" "Help!? When!?" said a mother as her child clutched at her hand. She shouted with a voice made hoarse in terror. "It''s been hours! Where''s the help!?" "We''ve been abandoned, I''m telling you!" shouted a man. "All the rich fucks took off on their private hovercrafts and copters and jets! All we are is fish food! A distraction!" "You heroes!" A teenager with a broken, twisted arm shambled forwards, pointing with his one good arm at the row of heroes behind Minuteman that had led this evacuation. The young man''s face was twisted in rage, his faced caked in dirt and tears streaming down his face. "You''re all here to just watch us die, aren''t you!? You led us down here, down into our own graves! All because we''re Duds, isn''t that right!? I bet you''re enjoying watching us suffer!" "Shut the fuck up!" roared Rockshaper, one of Haven''s C-ss heroes that had followed Minuteman tonight, mostly to tie themselves to a stronger hero to ensure their survival. "You''re lucky we even wasted our damn time to make sure you useless fucks are safe!" "See!? At the end of the day, of you heroes care!" shouted the teenager, and tension built in the room, nearing a boiling point that would descend into mass chaos. Rockshaper''s jaw set under his mask and he stepped forwards, raising a fist into the air. A jagged, spiked rock formed in front of his fist, hovering threateningly. Minuteman gripped Rockshaper''s shoulder tightly, and Rockshaper winced in pain. The jagged rock fell to the floor, breaking apart as Rockshaper lost his concentration. "The fuck was that for?" said Rockshaper as he whirled around to face Minuteman. Minuteman got aggressively close to Rockshaper, towering over the smaller hero. "If you have nothing productive to say, then don''t talk. Do you understand me?" Minuteman was a solid B rank hero who in terms of both rank and strength was Rockshaper''s senior by far. There was nothing Rockshaper could do here, especially considering he was a ster category Alter versus Minuteman who was a ssic example of an Augmenter specialized in closebat. Rockshaper grimaced and nodded. Chapter 98: Minuteman

Chapter 98: Minuteman

Minuteman stepped up to the teenager and looked down at him. The kid looked away, intimidated by Minuteman''s powerfully built, navy blue uniformed body. "Kid, it''s okay, I''m not here to hurt you. Here, look at me," said Minuteman gently, and the boy looked up at him. The kid blinked in surprise as he looked into Minuteman''s surprisingly soft blue eyes. Those were not the eyes of a fighter or a killer, they were strangely doe eyed and round and innocent - an incredible contrast with Minuteman''s muscled, trained body and scarred face. Pain and fear and anger were all mixed up in the kid''s eyes, and all of thatpounded by the glint of something that Minuteman was intimately familiar with - loss. "Who''d you lose tonight?" said Minuteman. "Why the fuck do you care?" said the kid. "Because I know how much loss hurts. I know how much it takes away from you, and I know how alone it makes you feel. I know you don''t know me, and I don''t know you, but I''m still here to listen," said Minuteman. The kid paused before whispering out, "My mom and my dad." Minuteman gently put his dark red gloved hand on the kid''s shoulder and bent down, meeting his eye level. He did not do well with basic condolences. The ''I''m sorry for your loss'' type of formality. Those were empty words that just reminded those hurt about their loss. "Anyone left?" said Minuteman. "¡­My little sister," said the boy. "She here with you?" said Minuteman. "Yeah." "Then you can''t afford to be up hereshing out like this. You''re all she''s got, and she''s all you''ve got. Down here, it isn''t my back that she''s looking to for strength, its yours. You''ve lost a lot, I know, but you still have someone to live for. Someone you have to fight for." Minuteman patted the kid''s shoulder. "Go back to your sister. Keep her calm. Fight on. Tell her it''ll be all right." Minuteman smiled and pointed a thumb at himself. "And I''ll make sure you won''t be lying." The kid nodded and shuffled away, and Minuteman went back to the line of heroes. They were all C rankers native to Haven. Among the stronger heroes in the city, exining how they could survive so long. "All of you havepleted basic hero training, correct?" said Minuteman. The heroes nodded in unison. "Then get the med kits stashed in this bunker and start treating everyone here," said Minuteman. "What!?" said Rockshaper. "There''s barely twenty of us, and two hundred of them. Do you understand how long that will take?" "You have anything else better to do?" said Minuteman. He got up close to Rockshaper again, and the man visibly shrank against Minuteman. "Until Miles gets the hangar and the carrier running, all of you need to keep these people calm, and there''s no better way to do that than byforting them." "All this sh*t for Duds?" spat another hero. "We should have left with the first wave of evac when they got all the people that mattered out." "For people, not Duds," corrected Minuteman. "In a situation like this, we''re all just desperate people, you understand me?" Minuteman pointed a red gloved finger to the ceiling. "Above ground, the variants don''t give a sh*t whether you''re a Hero or a Alter or a Dud. Whether you''re filthy rich or dirt poor. You''re all just food for them. So why do you care?" Silence was the response against Minuteman. "I don''t want to hear anyone using the word ''Dud'' again, do you all understand me?" said Minuteman. None of the C rankers dared to protest against Minuteman. That was just how big the rift was between the C rank and the B rank. Even if they wanted to mutiny and fight back, Minuteman could hand them all their asses on a silver tter, especially with how tired they already were. "Good, now get to work, heroes," said Minuteman as he waited first for the heroes to get the medkits before leaving them, going to the separated control room where Miles, a techno Support from the AA, plugged into arge monitor, getting control of the bunker''s functions. "How''s the situation?" said Minuteman. "This hangar hasn''t been maintained in decades. Don''t even know if the carrier inside it will take off, but if it''s using a standard electro-etherite engine, I can use my powers to jumpstart it. The issue is this-," Miles tapped the monitor, and the screen switched to surveince on aboveground. The hidden bunker cameras werepletely wired to prevent disruption from abilities that disrupted wireless technology, so thankfully, they could still operate even in this tech disrupting storm. A mass amount of variants were gathered around above, circling around the dirt caked vault doors of the bunker. "They''ve sniffed us out," said Minuteman as he crossed his arms. "But they can''t break through that door. It isn''t Neo-Steel, considering how old it is, but it''s still too much titanium alloy for them to chew through." "Yeah, for the normal fishmen, but shark man''s back." Miles tapped the screen again, and it switched to another camera, this one showcasing a hulking, shark shaped fishman walking towards the vault doors. "What!?" Minuteman immediately uncrossed his arms in rm. This shark variant was immensely strong. Minuteman had shed with it before while leading the initial evacuation of Southside. Minuteman, along with diator, Haven''s native B ranker, had fought the shark variant, and though they had killed it, it was at the cost of diator''s death. Granted, diator was still heavily injured from the past attack against Haven, but it was still an incredible feat that this beast was able to contend with two B rank heroes, both specialized in meleebat, at once. And, it seemed, the creature had some ability to resurrect itself as Minuteman had made sure to crush its head with his shield. The variant seemed to be even stronger than before. Where before it had just one fin on its back, it now had three, and its muscle mass had increased significantly. On top of that, its sharp grey scales had grown thicker, almost into armored ting. The ting was especially pronounced around the variant''s head and chest. As it was now, Minuteman knew he would have an extreme difficulty fight against it. He might even have to use his Minute of Freedom to secure a win. "That thing is strong, but even it can''t smash through those vault doors with raw strength alone," said Minuteman. That was when something the situation went from bad to worse. The shark variant waved its muscr, grey scaled arms forward, and in response, several dozen fishmen lugged forwards huge spiral shaped ck shells on their backs. They put down the car sized shells with the holes facing downward and into the vault doors, and with that, the spiral pattern on the ck shells began to glow a molten red. Moltenva began to pool out beneath them and heat started to permeate through the grey metal vault doors, rapidly superheating them into a bright orange. "Vent Worms," muttered Minuteman. Vent Worms were deep sea variants that lived in volcanically active veins in the ocean. They fed on molten rock and could generate intense heat waves from within their shells. They were not very mobile creatures, but they fended themselves against predators with their intense heat generation. Very soon, the worms would melt holes straight through the titanium alloy doors, and then, it would be a pure massacre. "How''s Portal Girl doing?" said Minuteman. Portal Girl was a D rank hero, a new graduate from one of Haven''s hero academies. She could create portals that had a range of three hundred meters from her current position. The biggest limit was that every single time someone passed through her portal, it drained her stamina, and by now, she was so weak she could barely move. "She''s still dealing with a killer headache. I doubt she''s going to be good for a mass evac," said Miles. "She''s been making portals all night, and she''s way beyond the limit of people she can handle portaling in a day. There''s no way in hell she''s going to be able to portal out everyone away from here-," "She doesn''t need to," said Minuteman. "She just needs to get one person out." Miles paused before he turned to Minuteman, his eyes wide in shock. "You cannot be serious. You''re going up there? All alone? Look man, you''re going to die-," Chapter 99: Resolve

Chapter 99: Resolve

Six green scaled fishmen each manned two Vent Worms, holding theirrge ck shells in ce so that the worms within could direct their heat waves right into the metal vault doors below. The Vent Worms were spaced just a short distance from each other so that their melting zones ovepped, creating onerge spot of glowing white molten metal that would soon burn through the doors. And then, it was open season to hunt the tasty and helpless humans down below. Over a hundred fishmen gathered in a ring around the vault doors, licking their lips eagerly for their long awaited feast. A little ways from the main crowd their leader, the hulking, muscled, armor scaled shark variant, watched, overseeing this operation with gleaming yellow eyes. The two squadrons of green scaled fishmen operating the worms cocked their heads as they felt an odd sensation weigh on their scales. An invisible weight that settled through their whole bodies. They looked around, swiveling their heads from side to side, wondering what was going on. "Skraa! Skraa!" One of the fishmen on the outer ring pointed above wildly, but toote. Minuteman emerged from a portal several dozens of meters in the air, away from sight, and hurtled straight down. He fell headfirst with his right arm stretched out, his round shield poised to take the impact of the fall. He crashnded solidly behind the two green scaled fishman groups, and his silver shield took the energy of the fall and shed blue before it reflected the force of the fall outwards in the form of a kic energy shockwave. The shockwave knocked the green fishmen on their backs and toppled the Vent Worms over. Outside of the water, Vent Worms had no way of moving around. They relied on fishmen to carry them, and so they rolled on the backs of their shells helplessly. Without a moment''s hesitation, Minuteman clenched the fist of his shield arm and then twisted it, triggering a razor thin vibrocutting smayer to rapidly whir around his solid silver shield in a ring of glowing pale blue, almost white light. Shaped sma in the form of rapidly rotating micro saw teeth lined the shield, and armed with this deadly cutting edge, Minuteman threw his shield like a frisbee. The shield shot forward like an arcing buzzsaw and sliced through both Vent Worm''s shells like a hot knife through butter, killing them before continuing its path of destruction, whirring into the crowd of green fishmen and severing their bodies in halves. After making a full round trip, the shield returned to Minuteman''s forearm where ittched onto his red gauntlet with a mechanical click. The solidified smayer around the shield dimmed down, going on a short recharge period. "Sorry, but if you want to get down there, you''ll have to get through me," said Minuteman as he watched the countless hostile, gleaming yellow fish eyes stare at him from every direction. He faced those strange eyes and fanged snarls with a grin. "And trust me, you won''t be getting through me." Several blue scaled fishmen pointed their four arms at Minuteman. Water seeped out through their scales and gathered around their webbed palms, swirling into spheres that then pulsated, shooting out pellets of highly pressurized water like shotgun shells. Minuteman put his shield in front of his face to stop his eyes from getting gouged out as he sprinted forwards. His shield was not big enough to cover more than half his body, and water bullets pelted his legs and back. However, Minuteman''s enhanced physique meant that firepower like this equivalent to small arms gunfire barely only stung him. He took the most damage at his exposed back, with hundreds of water bullets crashing against him, but so long as he kept his eyes safe, he could weather this storm of projectiles practically forever. Minuteman leaped into the air when he got near enough to the blue fishmen, and before hended, he threw his shield. It zipped forward, bouncing between four different fishmen and cracking their skulls beforending on the dirt. This left Minuteman with both his hands free to fight with. There were still dozens more fishmen to deal with ahead of Minuteman, so he shuffled among them, making sure that wherever he maneuvered, there was a fishman behind him to take the water bullets meant for his back. All the while, Minutemanid a beatdown on any fishmen near him. He used thoroughly trained mixed martial arts augmented with his superhuman stats. Jabs, kicks, locks, throws - he used it all, dancing around the rmed fishmen and tearing through their ranks. Blue scaled fishmen were frailer in exchange for their ranged water bullets, so Minuteman could put them down with singr well-ced blows. Red scaled fishmen had sharp des on their fins and respectablend-based agility, but not fast enough to outmaneuver Minuteman. They were just as easy to put down as their blue scaled brethren. Green fishmen were the toughest with stronger builds, durable scales, and a minor healing factor, and these, Minuteman beat by gouging out their eyes and ripping out their gills to secure a kill. All the while, Minuteman kept his peripheral vision tracked on the shark variant. The shark variant seemed to just be watching for now, letting Minuteman make a mess of his subordinates. Good, thought Minuteman. The more time he got, the more time he bought for Miles to open the hangar and jumpstart the carrier. Once the hangar was open, it exposed the bunker. But once the carrier left, the only people left behind for the fishmen to try and hunt were trained C ss heroes that would back Minuteman up. Thirty minutes. That was how much time Miles had estimated it would take to get all this ready. Minuteman could easily hold up for that long. Provided he only fought fishmen. A sizable fishman, muchrger than its brethren, growled as it trudged forwards, swiping away other smaller fishmen in its way as it sprinted towards Minuteman to try and tackle him. Minuteman ducked under the clumsy swipe of therge but slow fishman before he closed his right fist. His red gauntlet-glove flickered with light, and his shield sped back towards him,tching back onto his forearm. He uppercut the green fishman with his circr shield, breaking the creature''s jaw. While therger fishman reeled from the blow, Minuteman spun as he tossed his shield forwards. The shield acted like a metal catapult ball, smashing into the fishman''s knee and shattering the bone. This time, Minuteman instantly recalled his shield, catching it in midair before spinning again, giving more momentum to a second throw that shattered the fishman''s other kneecap. The fishman grunted in pain as it fell face forwards, at which point Minuteman rushed forwards, jammed his hands into the creature''s gills, then tore them out with a roar of exertion. Blood sputtered from the fishman''s gills as it screamed in agony before slumping to the ground, the holes on its neck convulsing as they gasped for breath. Minuteman dropped the fleshy gill matter from his hands and flicked blood off his arms. The smaller fishmen around Minuteman shrieked in fear as they stumbled backwards. That was the thing with fishmen. They were social creatures that moved in groups, but inherently, they avoided conflict and were quite cowardly. There were a lot of them in the world''s oceans, but they were like cockroaches, numerous and able to popte anywhere, but weak. The fact that they managed to gather in such arge scale like this, under other aquatic variants that were not even the same species of them, was impossible. The shark variant loosed a guttural grunt that echoed through the air, and the fishmen all backed away, clearing the vault door as a makeshift arena. The shark variant stepped forwards, its sharp toothed gaze ever smiling as its beady yellow eyes gazed hungrily at Minuteman. "Round 2, huh? Sorry to say, though, but this''ll end up exactly likest time." Minuteman clenched his right fist and twisted it, activating his shield''s sma sawdes while simultaneously tossing it, giving the shark variant as little time as possible to register the attack. Even if the shark variant had adapted to blunt force blows with its thicker scales, solidified sma like this, especially rotating at vibrocutting speeds, would still pass through it with no issue. The shark variant''s three fins twitched, sensing motion in the air, and it swiveled around,shing out with its lengthy tail. Its tail hit the shield in mid-air, forcefully pinging its trajectory far up. The shield whizzed by the shark variant, instead continuing forwards and mowing down several more fishmen behind it. Minuteman exhaled. This thing''s reactions, speed, and strength had all gotten considerably better sincest time. There was no question about it: the monster was superior to Minuteman now. On top of this, Minuteman only had one more charge of sma left in his shield. Thankfully, the shark variant seemed to hold some sort of tribal, martial pride, preventing any of the other fishmen from intervening, but when Minuteman stared at that shark variant, at its powerfully muscled body, its force absorbing scales, its fins that registered attacks at lightning quick speed, and its many rows of jagged teeth, he knew he was staring into the face of death. Minuteman smiled and stayed strong as he clenched his right fist, recalling his shield back to his forearm. Looking at his smile, a bystander would have thought Minuteman was just moments away from securing a win for himself. Be strong. Strong even when you are weak. Strong even when you are losing. Because the moment you look weak isn''t just the moment you lose for real, it''s also the moment when everyone standing behind you, everyone watching you, everyone relying on you, loses as well. "Sorry for the sneak attack," said Minuteman. "Now let''s beat each other bloody the old-fashioned way¡­ Me with my fists, you with your ws and jaws." Chapter 100: Knightly Intervention

Chapter 100: Knightly Intervention

After thirty minutes - Minuteman looked up at the sky, feeling wet mud underneath him. His body raged with pain that wracked him like hot fire, but the rain and the mud was oddlyforting in its coolness. He felt that if he closed his eyes for just a few more seconds, he would drift away, forever away into a sleep from which he was never waking. But he could not do that. Not now. Not ever. Minuteman grit his teeth, tasting iron, his own blood, in his mouth, and put power into his body. He leaped back onto his feet with surprising agility as he sucked in breaths. He put a hand over his stomach whererge w gashes threatened to widen with every one of his movements and spill out his guts. His right shoulder had been torn into with a massive bite, shearing off a big chunk of his developed deltoid muscle. In front of him, the shark variant showed its ever present, many toothed grinned at him. Its right arm was twisted backwards at the joint, dislocated from a well-executed lock. The armor ting like grey scales around its neck and chest were bashed in, lined with countless cracks of impact from Minuteman''s shield. Severalrge gashes and tears in its flesh indicated where Minuteman had thrown his shield and drawn blood. Three of its fins were reduced to small nubs smoking with seared flesh - the result of Minuteman''sst sma charge in his shield. "Not looking too good, are we?" said Minuteman. He looked down at a puddle of rainwater and his own blood. He saw his own bruised, bloodied, battered body. "But guess I''m even worse off." "Grah," said the shark variant. It pointed at Minuteman, then at its own stomach, mimicking where Minuteman''s stomach gashes were. "Yeah, you got me, so what about it?" said Minuteman. The shark variant turned to one of the fishmen and waved it forward. When the fishmen neared, the shark variant reached out and viciously bit the fishman''s head off. Then, it dug its ws into the fishman''s hide and ripped off a great strip of its flexible skin and scales. It then tossed the skin towards Minuteman''s feet. "Grah. Grah." The shark variant motioned to its stomach. "You want me to wrap my injuries up? So you can fight more?" Minuteman looked at the bloody strip of red scaled skin. He reached down and picked it up before tying it around his stomach, wrapping it tight to seal his injuries shut and prevent his intestines from pouring it. "So much intelligence¡­" Minuteman was astounded. Variants thatmunicated like this to people were extremely rare, limited mostly to cases of parasitic variants that took over human minds. That a variant had independently evolved to be able tomunicate like this was unheard of. What was going on in the world? Why were the variants evolving so much? And was this rted to why they were attacking so often? The ground rumbled as the vault doors oscited. "Thanks," said Minuteman as he smiled. "But time''s up. I''ve won." The shark variant cocked its head as it stared at the ground, wondering what was going on. Some distance aways from the bunker vault doors, a circr hangar door opened up in the ground with the groaning of heavy metal working for the first time in decades. Then, Minuteman heard the whir of an electro-etherite engine starting up. Miles had gotten the carrier to work, too. Now it was just a matter of getting the civilians inside out. "Rah!" The shark variant thrust its wed hand out, motioning its fishmen subordinates to investigate the sound, and hordes of fishmen ran towards the hangar. Toote, though. With a booming whir, therge carrier ne emerged from the ground, its huge bulk likely packed to the brim with civilians. White lights shone out from it''s the dual electro-etherite engines embedded in either of its wings. The cylindrical structure of the engines spun rapidly, processing power with crackling electricity. Minuteman let the fishman crowd pass by him as he knew they could not get there in time. Before they were even halfway there, the carrier was high up in the air, and with a burst of power, speeding away. The skies had cleared up, too. Halfway through Minuteman''s fight, the huge storm above had miraculously broken apart, and that guaranteed the carrier''s safety. The fishmen kept running, though, towards the open hangar, but inside, they would only face heroes to rebuff them and reinforce Minuteman. Or that was what Minuteman thought. Instead, he heard a medley of screams fill the air. Screams of desperation and terror and pain. "Civilians!?" Minuteman immediately whirled around and started to sprint towards the hangar. "Fuck those idiot heroes!" roared Minuteman as he grimaced in pain, feeling with every step his injuries cry out in agony. He knew what had happened - The heroes had left behind all the civilians just to evacuate themselves. That massive carrier could carry two hundred people inside of it, enough for all the civilians but not enough for the heroes. So instead, the twenty or so heroes had decided to take the ne for themselves and leave two hundred lives to die. They could not afford to save even a single person once theymitted to this n because if they did, they took with them a survivor to report on their behaviorter. They did not want any witnesses. Minuteman heard the shark variant roar in anger as it sprinted towards him, wanting to continue their duel. From the frequency of the shark variant''s heavy and mighty footsteps, he could tell it was going to gain on him way before he could make it to the hangar. Minuteman ran as much as possible before he felt the shark variant right behind him. Then, he turned around and used his Minute of Justice. His body lit up with a brilliant blue aura as his blonde hair spiked up and started to float in the air. His power was called Force of Will, and it converted willpower into physical strength. In particrly desperate situations, Minuteman could concentrate all his will into a state called the ''Minute of Justice'' that made him faster, stronger, and, more importantly, invulnerable to damage for one single minute. The shark variant lunged at Minuteman with its two wed hands. The shark variant''s ws ran down Minuteman''s chest, but they scraped up sparks as they skidded down across his skin, unable to pierce through it. "I don''t have time for you anymore!" shouted Minuteman as he kneed the shark variant in the stomach before throwing it away as far as possible, sending its huge, heavy body skidding across the mud like a steppingstone thrown across the surface of ake. With that, Minuteman turned back to the people that really mattered: the civilians. Any fishman he ran into, he beat shoved away or beat down with single strikes. He tried his best not to slow himself down because he needed to get there, to the hangar, where all those defenseless, innocent lives were - But Minuteman was not going to make it. Already dozens of fishmen were there, at the edge of the hangar doors, ready to jump in below and massacre those inside. He desperately reached out, his blood soaked red gloves grasping forwards, towards those lives that needed, that had trusted and relied on him - Minuteman blinked in utter surprise. His hand was still outstretched towards the fishmen, but instead of seeing fishmen framed between his fingers, he saw¡­a wheel? Something Minuteman had never before seen in his life. A sizable, five-meter-wide wheel made of what looked like stitched together corpses and bones. Its wheel structure consisted of spines tethered together with vertebrae jutting out like spikes. The bones were wreathed in green mes, and those mes spread out all around the hangar doors where the bone wheel moved, lighting up a wall of green fire that did not burn down the fishmen within, but still killed them near instantly. The fishmen roared and iled in pain before they fell the ground, their corpses withering as if the mes were draining their very life force away. The me wall also stopped fishmen from advancing into the hangar. "What¡­?" Minuteman was astounded at this otherworldly sight, but he quickly regained his wits. He needed to figure out if this was a threat, some kind of strange new variant that posed a danger to those within. At the same time, he had to deal with the masses of fishmen still charging forwards from behind him. Minuteman looked ahead at the bone wheel, then back at the crowd of charging fishmen. Worst case scenario, he was stuck in a pincer attack. His fears faded and his confusion only grew when he saw what looked like ck armored knights fall from the sky. Thended among the advancing fishmen, and as they did, they swung des and halberds of cold blue metal decorated with bones at their guards and handles. The knights utterly butchered the fishmen, moving across them like specters of death, their dark green, tattered cloaks rippling behind them, their each and every swings slicing and dicing fishmen in halves. The fishmen hissed and shrieked in pain as their body parts were lopped off before their lives ended in swift, merciless de swings. Were these¡­heroes? They must have been human, judging by their builds and how they moved, but beneath their dark helms, Minuteman could not tell. Was this a hero team themed as knights? He knew of one called the Neo-Temrs, but they armored themselves in cyber-armor, whereas these knights seemed to just be wearing regr metal with no hints of technology added in. Minuteman was torn from his thoughts when he saw the shark variant approaching, seeing new enemies and grinning with eager desire to fight. "Wait! Be careful, that one''s much stronger!" said Minuteman, hoping to be helpful. He started to move forward to try and aid the knights, but a red armored knight appeared in front of him. "Stop right there," said the knight with a threatening edge in his voice. His face was also covered under his helm, but beneath the visor gaps, Minuteman could see that the knight''s eyes glowed with crimson light. The knight looked at him with long, crimson saber in hand, and then nodded. His voice softened. "You are not one of our targets, and you are quite injured. With that trained body of yours, no doubt, you are a warrior of some sort, and you have fought long and well. Take a well-deserved rest, fellow warrior, and let us fend this advance off. You shall see how battle is truly done. Elegantly. And without mercy." The red knight then dashed forwards, leaving behind a streak of red in all of his movements as he shed from side to side, carving up fishmen in his way. His skill with the de was masterful, each slice lopping off fishmen heads. The blood the fishmen spilled from their neck stumps funneled into the red knight''s saber, elongating the de with solidified. glowing blood. The red knight neared the shark variant, confidently surging forwards to engage in battle. "Am I¡­dreaming?" said Minuteman, wondering what the hell was happening. Chapter 101: Art Of Battle

Chapter 101: Art Of Battle

Minuteman shook his head and sucked in a breath. This was no dream. This was real, and reality called for him to be strong. He looked around to see where he could be useful and found a swarm of fishmen surrounding a ck armored knight. After all, there were only fifteen ck knights and hundreds of fishmen. Even if they were individully strong, the sheer number of fishmen was an issue. The knight hunkered down behind his greatshield of spiked ck metal and decorative bone, and though the fishmen were not strong enough to w or chew their way through his armor, their swarming had rendered the knight immobile, especially because his choice of halberd as a weapon made it less wieldy in close quarters. "I''ve got you!" Minuteman sprinted towards the knight and then leaped into the air. He twisted in the air, putting momentum into a throw as he sent his shield spinning forwards. The shield shed blue, indicating that it had stored kic energy to release, and when it hit the swarm of fishmen, the energy exploded outwards, knocking the fishmen back in a concussive st. The knight reacted immediately with his newfound freedom. He bashed his shield forwards, knocking back the fishmen in front of him while swinging his halberd around him in an arc that trailed with cold blue light, slicing several fishmen in halves. Minuteman clenched his right fist, recalling his shield, and came to the knight''s side. "Are you with the guy in red armor?" said Minuteman. The ck knight stared at Minuteman, and Minuteman looked closely at the knight''s face, looking behind the gaps in his visor. Minuteman stepped back in shock when he realized the knight had no eyes. The face beneath the helmet had gaunt, thinly stretched and rotted pale skin while the eyes were absent, baring only ck sockets. The knight nodded in appreciation at Minuteman before moving away, on to ughtering the next group of fishmen it saw. "Ah, this one truly is strong" Minuteman turned to see the red armored knight in battle with the shark variant. The red knight''s armor was sleeker and more form fitting, showcasing a build far leaner than Minuteman''s. The knight did not rely on brute physical strength, but superior agility to fight, and he moved with an elegant grace that looked like a dance. He side stepped w swipes from the shark variant and twirled to unleash counter shes with his crimson saber. The knight''s ivory white, red trimmed cape fluttered behind his movements, marking them with an elegance that seemed to elevate the brutality of battle into something artistic, something performative. "Its scales are too thick!" called out Minuteman as he saw the red knight''s many swift shes crashing upon the shark variant but skidding off in showers of sparks, deflected by its hardened, te like scales. By now, Minuteman''s Minute of Justice had worn off, and this rendered him even weaker than he was in his base form, drained of much of his stamina and strength. "Focus on the cracks I''ve already beaten into the armor!" "Graaah!" The shark variant roared into the air, and waves of sound echoed from its maw, pulsating over the battlefield. As these sound waves traveled, they triggered the fishmen, causing them to go berserk and start to focus on aiding the shark variant. The fishmen dropped fighting the ck knights and sprinted instead towards the red knight. The shark variant then mmed both its fists down towards the red knight. The red knight performed a backflip, dodging the double fist strike with ease. The shark variant''s blows drilled two craters into the dirt and mud with a resounding crack and ssh. The red knight looked around at the masses of fishmen approaching and sighed. "I would much rather prefer to deal with this brute myself," said the knight as he too looked up. "Do me a favor and take care of these rude hecklers." With that, a medley of attacks came down from the sky. A bright blue beam of energy streamed down, crashing into fishmen and blowing their bodies apart with concentrated heat and kic energy. Purple spiral shaped beams shot down, hitting fishmen and crushing them into pressurized puddles under immense gravity. Bolts of lightning rained down, frying a dozen fishmen at once. Minuteman looked up to see Alters. Fifteen Alters, to be exact, soaring down from the sky. Not all of them were likely flight capable, so it was probably that one of them maintained flight for all of them. "Are you heroes!?" shouted Minuteman. He squinted his blue eyes, trying to see if they wore any identifying symbol, but no, they just wore the tattered remnants of dresses and suits over ck bodysuits. "Heroes?" A silver haired, dark-skinned girl, the one that fired the lightning, addressed Minuteman. "No. But we ARE here to deal with this pest problem." "I hate fish. They creep me out," said a young man wearing a visor over his eyes as he fired more bursts of kic energy beams. "Fucking die!" The fifteen Altersnded in a wide perimeter perimeter around the red knight and shark variant, joining in with the ck knights to block out any fishmen from intervening. The huge wheel of bone also aided this effort, loosing loud rattling sounds as it sped around the battlefield, turning fishmen into roadkill while leaving behind a trail of lethal green mes. "Behold this performance, warrior," said the red knight, his voice echoing to Minuteman. He pointed his red saber to the shark variant. "Your way of fighting is respectable in its own way, but all that smashing and destroying - there is hardly any art to it. Hardly anything resembling elegance. As a fellow warrior, I shall teach you how beautiful battle can truly be-," The shark variant roared as it charged. "[Expose Veins]," said the red knight. His eyes shed red under his visor. Right before the shark variant swiped his face off, the knight seemingly¡­phased through the attack, leaving behind a trail of afterimages. Now behind the shark variant, the red knight performed three twirling slices, gouging out cuts in the three nubs where Minuteman had severed the shark variant''s fins. Something about these three shes was different. They were executed faster and stronger than the knight''s normal attacks, as if enhanced by some additional force. Wherever the red knight''s saber cut, a dark purple, violet shaped pattern bloomed around the flesh. Even with the enhanced strength, though the red knight could not cut deeply into the shark variant''s scales. "You can''t cut the flesh like that, you''ll need a stronger weapon. Something blunt that can break through the scales. Here, my shield!" Minuteman pulled back his shield arm, ready to throw it towards the knight, but the knight wagged his finger at Minuteman. "No, no, just sit tight and enjoy the performance. Free of charge." The red knight stepped back and stood still, raising his de up cautiously. The shark variant growled but did not take much damage from such shallow cuts. Confident that the knight could not damage it, the variant grew ever more feral, and leaped towards the knight with a mighty swipe of its ws. "Parry-," The red knight angled his saber so that its t acted like a shield. The shark variant''s strike skidded down the length of the saber, angled perfectly to diffuse as much force as possible. Minuteman knew heroes that used swords, and even if he himself did not know much about swordbat, he could tell that this red knight was an expert. "And [Riposte: Returning Step]" The red knight used the force of the shark variant''s blow to spin around rapidly and then unleashed a swift horizontal sh across the shark variant''s neck, where the armor had been cracked from Minuteman''s blows. The shark variant stepped back before it ced both hands around its neck. A glint of red light shed around where it had been shed before the sh spontaneously appeared on its neck, carving through its scales and into its flesh. Profuse amounts of blood poured out from its exposed throat. The shark variant copsed to a knee. "With brutish foes like this that rely merely on their ugly muscle, it is best to parry and riposte, using their own unsightly strength against them," said the red knight and he turned around dismissively, as if he had already won. "Wait-!" began Minuteman as he saw the shark variant grit its jaws, forcing the muscles around its exposed throat to flex and clench the deadly wound shut. But where the sh wound shut, violet floral patterns grew instead. "And now, the finale." The red knight bowed deeply with an arm over his chest, dodging onest swipe surprise swipe from the shark variant without even looking. The knight snapped his fingers with a metallic click and chanted, "[Crystal Blood Venom: Expunge]" With that, the shark variant seized up, stiffening in its movements like a statue before it could unleash another attack. The flower patterns around its wounds shone brightly before detonating. The flesh rippled and exploded as blood poured out of the horrible wounds like water draining from a popped water balloon. As soon as the blood exploded out, it crystallized, entrapping the shark variant''s half destroyed corpse in a casing of its own hardened life essence¡­ The blood shone with a faint violet hue, glimmering with a jewel like, hauntingly beautiful incandescence. Chapter 102: Incident Of A Certain Flight

Chapter 102: Incident Of A Certain Flight

Above Haven City, at the edge of its Eastside district border - "All this space, and to think that crazy musclehead was going to pack it full of Duds!" Rockshaper motioned around to the vast innards of the carrier ne around him. There were three rows of seats stretching out seemingly endlessly across the nks of the sixty-meter-long super craft. Even if this Carrier was an older model from five decades ago, by virtue of being military grade during the peak of the Monstering, it still had everything needed to function in tensebat situations. Between the rows of seats were storagepartments for holding medical supplies, rations, and weapons. There were even mobile med-pods capable of housing people in intensive care and, in cases where their injuries were so severe they needed to be preserved until they reached a proper hospital, life support stasis capability. Rockshaper''s mask was off at this point, baring a sweaty, grimy chiseled face with set in brown eyes and short cropped ck hair and messy stubble. He unwrapped a chocte vored omnibar, a MRE snack packed with two thousand calories, and chewed into it. "And we got grub, too. Damn, even this brick tastes fucking incredible after all the sh*t I had to put up with Minuteman. Hope that fucker dies," said Rockshaper. "We should have at least saved some of them," said a cowboy themed hero leaning forward in a char who, in a stroke of original brilliance, had a hero name of ''Cowboy.'' Incidentally, he was one of four Sentries stationed in Southside, sentries being heroes at least C rank that oversaw the security of several neighborhoods in a city. Underneath them were lower ranked patrol heroes that roamed around individual neighborhoods, but most of them, at least in Southside''s chronically underfunded and under-defended confines, were dead. The only ones alive were the higher-ranking Sentries and some C rankers from other parts of the city. "Funny to hear thating from you, Cowboy. You have a reputation of being a sh*t Sentry, after all," said Rockshaper. "Yeah, can''t deny that," said Cowboy. "I just couldn''t be assed to do much with how little I was getting paid. Plus, they were mostly Duds. But that don''t mean we had to leave all of em''. The kids, maybe, we could''ve gotten em'' on here." "We bring back even one of them, and they''re a potential witness to what we did, and we won''t just be losing our hero licenses, we''ll be rotting in viin jail for the rest of our lives if we don''t get t out executed first," said Rockshaper. "Am I sensing¡­hesitation here, Cowboy? Among us all, you''re the weakest. It wouldn''t be too hard to get rid of you like we did with Portal Girl and Sparkwire," said Rockshaper as he stepped in front of Cowboy threateningly. Cowboy put his leather gloved hands up in the air. "No, no, don''t got no problem with this." "How about that? I guess it''s true that it only takes a little pressure to get the right answer out of people," said Rockshaper with a smug smile. He strolled over to the cockpit where Computation, one of the C rankers, was operating the ne. Sparkwire, or known as Miles as a civilian, had refused to pilot the ne and leave behind Minuteman, but thankfully, with Computation around and Minuteman gone, there was no need to keep Miles. It was a shame Portal Girl had to go, thought Rockshaper. She was a young one, so much potential, plus, she looked amazing in that pink skintight costume. Such a waste to let pretty ones like that go. But she had opposed Rockshaper, and that was it. There was an ever-dying breed of heroes nicknamed ''Goldies'' that tried to represent the idealism and pure morality of the first wave of heroes that had risen up during the supposed ''Golden age'' of heroes, when Alters first donned costumes in light of Pre-Alteringic books and movies and media to fight viins not for themselves, but to try and make the chaotic world around them right. As far as Rockshaper cared, they were all idiots. There was a reason they were dying out. Vanguard was probably thest big Goldie with Valkyrie''s retirement, and he had disappeared almost twenty years ago, probably swallowed up in a Titan''s nest somewhere. When survival was on the line, morals did not matter. The Goldies did not understand this, and so many of them died sacrificing themselves. Case in point: Minuteman. Honestly, Rockshaper had no idea how these people fostered enough delusion within themselves to put down their own lives for others, but whatever. At the end of the day, Minuteman, that tiny brained idiot that thought he was so much better than Rockshaper just because he was B ss, was dead, and Rockshaper was alive, ready to rise through the ranks. "Computation, what''s the ETA on us getting out of this watery sh*thole?" said Rockshaper as he sat in the co-pilot seat beside Computation. Computation''s glowing blue-light mask shed as he spoke, his voice going through a synth filter. "Fifteen minutes, probably. We''re almost out of Westside." He looked at a monitor showcasing blurry images of the cityscape below. With the tech disrupting storm cleared away, satellite imagery could show what was going down on the ground, but it would still take a solid half hour before it managed to show anything crisp quality as the Panopticon''s satellite array recalibrated. But even with blurry images, it was possible to see that the Westside was justpletely flooded, its usual colorful neon lights drowned out. "What a damned shame. So much new tech in Westside just gone like that. In some ways, especially forgery, it was almost on par with tier 1 cities when I worked in the ck market," said Computation tly. "Yeah, getting a fake I.D. for my mercenary gig was a breeze out there," said Rockshaper. It was not a big secret that a surprisingly sizable number of heroes dealt with under the table jobs and activities to pad their ies. The hero industry was heavily top concentrated, with those in the Superboard Top 100 almost making more than all the other several million heroes in the United Statesbined. Until a hero made it to the C rank at least, they got zero exposure from sponsorships or social media, not to mention it was hard to get into established teams or secure good missions to farm AP without either strong media presence or proven strength. And once a hero got into the C rank, it still required careful maintenance of one''s personal brand to keep ranking up, not to mention tons of hero teams were predatory in their contracts and, despite giving a more stable ce for heroes to secure missions, often made sure that most of the rewards and social media exposure went to just a privileged few on the team. The end result was that most heroes that were rtively talented and trained hard enough made it to the C rank but found themselves hard stuck there. Maybe they were strong enough to go to the B rank butcked the social media finesse to go higher, or maybe they were popr with the masses but t out too weak to qualify for higher ranks - in some way, they werecking. Only a precious talented few were strong enough to just blitz through the rankings with incredible power that was undeniable, and most of them ended up in the A- rank. To get from there to the A rank, they again needed a solid brand image. The A+ and S ranks were a whole different breed altogether, where heroes were so strong that they were national security assets where their image mattered far less. But trying to go up there was a pipe dream for basically anyone. For the vast majority of heroes, getting into the B rank and above was good enough to live afortable life, but the cutoff between C and B was just toorge for most to make that leap. Hence, there was also quite some built up resentment between C rankers and B rankers they were envious of. There was no doubt this envy had contributed towards Rockshaper and the rest of the C rankers rebelling against Minuteman, but the biggest thing at the end of the day that had turned them was the utterly repulsive idea of risking their lives for Duds. "Still, poor Minuteman. Imagine dying for Duds," said Computation. "I couldn''t think of a worse way to go." "Thing about Goldies like him, though, is that they''re perfectly happy to die like that," said Rockshaper as he shrugged. "If you ask me, I think we did him a favor, letting him die as a proper golden age hero like that." "That''s harsh, man, but I do know where you''reing from. When I see Goldies these days, it feels like I''m looking at a walking, talking fossil. Something that just doesn''t belong in the modern age, you know?" said Computation. "Then the Goldies and the Duds have something inmon,"ughed Rockshaper. "No wonder Minuteman wanted to die for them." That was when the ne thudded, shaking violently and jerking downwards from an impact from above. Rockshaper stumbled forwards in his seat, stopping himself from face nting in the controls in front of him. "The hell was that!?" "Put on your seatbelt, dude," muttered Computation before he flipped a few switches, getting the Carrier''s Threat Detection System to activate. There, localized high uracy radar mapped out threats within the aircraft''s vicinity, and the monitor drew out an approximate image of what had crashed atop the ne - "A¡­person? No, wait, I''m not sure¡­," said Computation, utterly bewildered. The radar imagery did not give a perfect image, just a silhouette, but the projected silhouette, though humanoid, also seemed monstrously inhuman with spiked protrusions emanating from its shoulders, head, back, arms and legs. "Whatever it is, shake it off!" shouted Rockshaper. Chapter 103: Incident Of A Certain Flight 2

Chapter 103: Incident Of A Certain Flight 2

"Have you seen how massive this carrier is? Shake it off? You think I can start doing flips in the air? This thing isn''t built to move like that, you idiot!" said Computation, his synth infused voice radiating outwards with high pitched notes of desperation as he saw the outline of the strange humanoid being raise a fist in the air, as if to punch down and smash through the ne. "You, any of you, can you fly!?" asked Rockshaper to the fourteen C rank heroes he had taken aboard the carrier. None of them said anything. Flight was a rtively rare power as far as Alter abilities went, and it was a general but not absolute rule that flying Alters that did not have flight as the main function of their power tended to be stronger. Among the most average of C rankers, flight was a precious ability unless it was their main power, but here, nobody had any such capability, not even as their main ability. "It''s-it''s gone!" said Computation. "What!?" Rockshaper whipped around, bewildered. If the thing was a variant, then it would have smashed through the ne without any hesitation. "It pulled back its punch, and then it just¡­faded away," said Computation, relief leeching into his voice. "Don''t ease up yet, that thing is still out there. Keep a close eye on the threat scans," said Rockshaper. He turned to the rest of the heroes. "And all of you, get ready to fight. Put your costumes back on, get your weapons ready. We did NOT make it this far just to die up here!" "Unfortunately, this is as far as you go." A faint voice echoed throughout the confines of the ne. All the heroes looked around, tensed up, trying to track where that voice came from, but because of its echoing nature, it was hard to pinpoint an exact location. It felt like it came from everywhere, ringing through every inch of the metal, echoing into their very beings themselves, under their flesh, rattling into their very bones. They all shivered in unison, feeling a distinct chill crawling up their spines. Their guts dropped in mounting dread they could not help but feel, and a few of them began to feel numb at their extremities. "Wh-what is that?" One of the heroes, a man called Cyber-Knight, gripped his chainsaw broadsword tight with fear in his grey gauntleted hands. "Variants can''t talk!" shouted Rockshaper. "Stop sh*tting your pants! It''s just an Alter!" In the depths of the carrier, green mist started to pool outwards. The mist shone with a strange, unearthly glow, and though green was usually a color associated with life and nature, the shade of this green was best described as¡­diseased. Sickly. Toxic. The kind of green irrevocably associated with decay. With dying. The mist wafted outwards, its cloudy tendrils stretching through the ne, moving hungrily towards the heroes. "That might be toxic gas!" said Rockshaper. "All of you have masks! If you have filtration built into them, use them now!" "Hm. Toxic gas, is it? I suppose that''s a natural response to seeing my Mist. I''ll have to see if I can abuse that responseter, with opponents that are more worth my time," came the voice again. It was a deeply calm voice, and yet, it was not calming. There was something about the calmness that felt so very¡­empty. So very cold. There was something fundamentally inhuman about it that intensified the shivers running through the bodies of all the heroes. Even though that voice addressed the heroes, it was obvious from its calm emptiness that it did not address them as people, as humans, but as things. "Who are you!?" said Rockshaper. He squinted his eyes through his stone te shaped mask. "Show yourself!" The only response was the strange green mist elerating forwards, engulfing the heroes in one fell wave. "I-I feel weak," said Cyber Knight as he shivered, the strength draining from his arms. He was near the head of the group, most exposed the mist, likely confident in his helmet''s filtration system. He dropped his sword, and it ttered on the floor heavily. The muscled hero then dropped down to his knees and wrapped his arms around himself like a lost child. He shivered uncontrobly. "I-I feel¡­scared?" "Fear, yes," came the voice, but this time, the heroes could attach a location to it. Footsteps echoed toward them. Heavy, metallic footsteps. "The closer you are to my Mist, the greater your life force drains, and the worse the constant debuffs for fear be." "W-what''s going on!? You, there! I see you!" Cowboy unholstered his twin pistols. His eyes were wide, almost bulging, and his expression was horribly panicked. "Eat lead, fucker!" Cowboy aimed his twin revolvers and emptied their chambers. Cyber Knight fell forwards, dead from smoking bullet holes gouged out into the back of his armor already broken from fighting variants. "What the fuck are you doing!?" shouted Rockshaper. "Look where you''re shooting!" "H-huh¡­?" Cowboy looked at his guns, then down at Cyber Knight''s gurgling corpse. "What¡­?" "And the more the fear stacks, the easier it is to turn into insanity," said the voice, ever calm, as it neared and neared. "G-get back! Away from the gas! Masks don''t work on it!" Rockshaper trembled as he stepped backwards, away from the heroes he was supposed to lead, inching back as far as possible from the approach of that horrible Mist. The heroes followed suite, shuddering as they crammed themselves further back and back. "No, stay away! Fight! Drive it back! If the gas hits me, I won''t be able to pilot this ne, and then we''re all done for!" shouted Computation. Sooner orter, the heroes would crowd in the cockpit, the furthest point away from the approaching mist, and once that happened, once the Mist reached there and infected Computation, the ne would just crash. "S-someone, any one of you useless idiots, go out there and fight!" yelled Rockshaper as he gestured wildly towards the approaching mist. "You do it, you selfish fuck!" came a quick response response. "We can''t just sit here!" said mmer, a former entertainment gear-wrestler - wrestling enhanced with cybeics - turned hero. "This guy, this gas he''s making is insanely strong! That means he''s some kind of Creator. It''s not likely he''s as tough as he makes himself out to be in a close-up fight! If an Augmenter like me catches him, I reckon I could break his back real easy! I''ll clear the mist, any other Augmenters out there, follow my lead!" mmer ran forwards, bravely into the mist, and mmed his giant gauntleted hands together. Gears and hydraulics clicked as his gauntlets crashed together in a p, and a shockwave boomed forwards in a cone, scrunching up the surface of the metal floor and breaking apart chairs like twigs. Unfortunately, the shockwave did nothing against the mist itself. "Ah, that is interesting to note," said the voice in the mist. "Shockwave forces can blow apart the outer edges of my mist, but what I generate close to my body is immune to physical force. Thank you for your contribution to testing my abilities-," A red dot shed in the mist, right to the side of mmer, at his blind spot. "mmer, watch out!" said Rockshaper. "H-huh?" mmer looked around, but far toote. Suddenly, an enormous, ck metaled, bone spiked figure, one that had enough sheer mass that it was obvious that it was no mere weakling in closebat, lunged out of the thick of the mist. Its arm thrust forwards, a wed hand wrapped tightly around mmer''s head. The edges of the ck metal ws dug into mmer''s skin, piercing and drawing blood. The metal monstrosity lifted mmer''s massively muscled wrestler''s body up like he was a little toddler. Now that it had attacked, the figure the voice belonged to became fully visible. It was a sight that made all the heroes pause inplete bewilderment. It was about two meters tall, far taller than any normal human, and looked like an eerie mix between a suit of armor and a living being. The figure''s body wasrgelyprised of ck metal, but its metal body fused seamlessly with protrusions of bone, pockets of red, glowing red and raw flesh, and streaks of pulsating crimson red that looked like veins. "In appreciation, I will give you a very quick death," said the monstrosity. mmer wrapped his huge, gauntleted hands around the figure''s arm and yelled as he put in as much crushing force as possible, trying to tear free. His grip strength was quite notable, easily capable of pulverizing concrete, but it did nothing against the being of metal and flesh. Instead, it looked like mmer was trying to crush a flickering green forcefield wrapped skintight around the strange, terrible being''s arm. All the damage he was doing was transferring to the forcefield, not at all reaching the actual metal and flesh itself. "H-huh?" mmer''s arms fell loose to his sides as green light enveloped his head. Glowing green cracks began to form from his head down to his torso, and then, his body exploded in a nova of shing light and bloody chunks of meat and entrails and white flecks of bone. All the heroes stared at mmer''s remaining lower half of a body as it plopped down on the floor, staining the dull grey metal red. Chapter 104: Incident Of A Certain Flight 3

Chapter 104: Incident Of A Certain Flight 3

"Fire! Fight! Do anything!" roared Rockshaper as he pointed his arm at the monstrosity. Jagged spheres of rock formed in front of his palm and fired off with the velocity of bullets. Cowboy finally shot at the right ce this time, unloading as many bullets as he could. Another hero fired sts of blue energy, another spears of water, another unloaded a clip from a handheld minigun, and so on and so forth. A hailstorm of diverse projectiles rained against the being, but they all ttered off the entity''s green forcefield. Some of these projectiles missed and smashed into the walls of the ne, gouging out holes that grew dangerously close to breaching the walls. "How many powers does he have!?" shouted a hero. "This gas, that shield, not to mention how strong he is and that sting attack! This-this doesn''t make any sense!" "He must have a weakness!" said Rockshaper. "Something for all this power he has. A time limit, maybe-," "The only time limit I have is that I do not want to waste too much of my time on the likes of you." The figure stood there, letting attacks ping off of its ultra durable forcefield, before it put a wed hand to its pointed chin in contemtion. "Judging by how weak your attacks are, it does not seem like any of you have much potential. But maybe some of you are like Dynamite Girl, capable of massively elerating your growth with undeath and further training." "That is not so," came another voice. One that seemed to resonate from the chest of the being. "Who¡­who was that?" said Rockshaper. "Oh, you can sense their potential, Vntis?" said the being. "I am an apt judge of warriors, especially in determining the peak of their ability to hone their bodies physically and in capacity to channel raw energy." This voice was deeper in timber and smoother in its delivery, yet, it was equally as cold. "I may not understand fully the energy that the humans of this realm harness, but in its purest essence, it flows simrly to mana. Thus, I can roughly determine their potential, and those standing before you are already at their peaks. Both physically and in terms of harnessing energy, they are at their primes, and no matter how their bodies change, how much theybor and toil, they will not grow much stronger." "Thank you for your insight, Vntis." The being drew its gaze up from its chest back to the heroes. "Then that means I have no more reason to waste time scoping out your powers to see if you would make good undead. You all truly are worthless after all." With that, the red dot serving as the being''s eye in its helm-mask of ck metal glowed brightly, and all the heroes froze in ce, stopping their attacks. They felt an intense sense of dread grip them, holding them like firm anchors. The entity swiped its wed hands forward twice, firing off two swirling, helical patterned bolts of green. They each hit a hero, and when they did, the sts acted like targeted explosives, blowing apart bodies with gruesome force. The heroes closest to those that sted apart were showered in the blood and guts of their fellow C rankers, and they blinked as they looked down at their blood drenched hands before they dropped any pretense of fighting back. They screamed in sheer terror as they sprinted back. "Run! Get out of here!" "We-we can''t fight that thing!" "I can''t stand the way you all run. It reminds me far too much of cockroaches scattering under light. Disgusting." The being fired st after st of those strange green bolts that promised instant death to anything it hit, and theynded with pinpoint uracy on those that ran first. Hero after hero exploded into showers of blood and disintegrated flesh. First, it was the heroes that ran, then it was the heroes closest to the approaching entity. Everyone died one after the other in such quick session that within just thirty seconds, there were only two survivors. Rockshaper and Computation. The two heroes that were the farthest away, upying the cockpit. The entity went right up to the two heroes and towered over them with its horrible bulk of spiked metal, bone, and live, pulsating, strange flesh. Rockshaper fell to his knees, shivering uncontrobly as he knelt in the presence of this terrible, terrible being. This manifestation of death from which there was no escape. "Why are you trembling like this? I''ve turned off the life drain and debuffs on my mist. There shouldn''t be a reason to be this afraid. Or maybe I''ve simply lost what it feels like to be afraid as a simple man," said the entity. All Rockshaper could do was kneel there silently, his face staring down at the dull grey metal floor as sweat poured from his forehead. His heart beat rapidly, and his tongue felt heavy, like lead. He felt frozen in both terror and eptance, knowing that no matter what he did, before this thing, he was just prey. Was this how it felt to face certain death? It was such an awful feeling. It felt like every single inch of his being was about to be devoured, at the precipice of a massive cliff where with just a light breeze, he would fall into enormous jaws waiting to snuff out his insignificant little life. How had Minuteman faced certain death with such courage? With a smile on his face? "You kill me, and there''s nobody left to pilot the ne!" shouted Computation in sheer desperation. "The ne will crash!" "Oh, I did not care much about saving this ne in the first ce. It is Panopticon property, after all. I cannot just take it." To end his sentence, the entity thrust his wed hand out and sliced it straight through Computation''s head. Computation''s glowing blue mask sparked and sputtered before glitching out, blood pooling from the cracked ss surrounding the ws drilled through his head. The entity withdrew his ws with a gruesome squelch, and Computation fell forwards, his face nted into controls that covered under a veil of his blood. "Hm. It seems that autopilot has engaged," said the entity as it stared at the control screens. "Lying about the ne crashing with your death - an interesting gambit to save your life. But a crash from this ne would not have evene close to killing me in any case." The entity moved back from the controls and then stopped as it stared down at Rockshaper''s frozen, kneeling body. Rockshaper''s breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened in terror as he felt the entity''s gaze burn into his back. "I almost forgot about you, the way you were so still," said the entity. "Why¡­," whispered out Rockshaper, barely getting out words through his throat made tight with fear. "Hm?" "Why did you kill us? Why!? When we were all heroes!?" said Rockshaper. His words came out freer now, maybe it was because his body had instinctively epted its death, and thus, was free to say whatever it wanted before its inevitable end. "Why? You say you are a hero as if it means something, as if it means it makes your life valuable enough to spare. Then let me turn that question around on you. What is a hero?" "What¡­?" "What is the purpose of a hero? Is it not to hunt variants and save lives?" Rockshaper looked up at the unblinking red dot looming over him, confused. "But look at you. Look at those around you-," The entity motioned with its spiked, wed arm behind it, at the medley of corpses it was responsible for. "You abandoned the lives you were meant to save. And you run from the variants you are meant to hunt. Does that not mean you have no more purpose? And without purpose, why do you deserve to live? What is the point of your meaningless existences?" The entity raised its wed hand up, and Rockshaper put his arms over his head and shook like a child in the dark. Seeing that arm raised up, those ws syed out, he felt a renewed burst of desperation. "Please! Please! I-I''ll be a proper hero! I''ll save as many people as I can! I''ll hunt down all the variants! Just-just give me another chance! I have credits, too! Anything you want, I can give you!" "Anything I want, is it?" said the entity as its wed hand froze in the air. "Anything!" shouted Rockshaper. He was crying now, snot drizzling from his nose as he felt his life truly wavering on the tightrope of death. "Then I will add you among my experimental subjects. Fler''Gan will be pleased." "H-huh?" Rockshaper looked up in confusion, not understanding, but the entity''s hand chopped down at him. Yet, the entity did not sh down with its sharp and lethal ws¡­ Instead, the being mmed the t of its palm into the base of Rockshaper''s neck, knocking the consciousness out of him. Chapter 105: Theory Of A Soul

Chapter 105: Theory Of A Soul

Aldrich watched as Rockshaper slumped down to the floor. The hero''s face nted against the metal floor with a thud as he unceremoniously sprawled out, drool pooling from his ck jawed mouth. Aldrich first raised his hand up, absorbing all the souls from the deceased heroes. They were all of middling rarity, quickly filling up his max inventory of 20 with garbage. Though he could allot people and physical items into his Chrysalis, souls, he had to rely on with his inventory, and 20 was not much space at all. That said, Aldrich was more than willing to get rid of these lower level souls for other ones if needed beter. "You should have chosen to die. It would have been far, far easier for you," said Aldrich as he crouched down and grabbed Rockshaper''s head in his hand. The hero''s head felt small in Aldrich''s palm, showcasing just how much he had grown physically with his lich transformation. Aldrich shoved Rockshaper''s head towards his chest, and the metal around it opened up in strands of ck. Beneath the metal strands were fibers of red muscture that snapped off of Aldrich''s pale skin. The purple phctery shone with a dull vigor from Aldrich''s exposed chest, but as Rockshaper''s flesh neared, the phctery reacted, osciting rapidly. A small distortion in space tore across the spherical surface of the phctery, and from it, several grasping tentacles of shadow burst outwards. The end of each tentacle ended hooked ws that ripped into Rockshaper''s body, digging into his flesh before sucking him in hungrily. Rockshaper''s body spatially distorted, funneling into theparatively tiny space of the phctery like he was being drained into a ck hole, and within a second, he was gone. "Hm. Odd." Aldrich looked down to observe a few purple tinted cracks lining the flesh surrounding the Phctery. He registered minor damage from them. The Chrysalis had been unable to use its spatial powers properly this time, creating a portal that had damaged Aldrich. Aldrich waved a hand over his chest, and the uncovered metal strips exposing his phctery sealed shut again, fusing together seamlessly back into his armored chest te. Though the Chrysalis inside the Phctery had obeyed Aldrich''smand to open up a portal, the way it had done so felt¡­sloppy. Or rather, unfocused. The Chrysalis had been unable to stably control the dimensional powers it should have been familiar with. Aldrich reached out to the Chrysalis via his link as its master, but he encountered some difficulty. Trying tomunicate with the Chrysalis mentally hit a foggy psychic barrier of sorts, as if the Chrysalis was in a state of constant hazy unconsciousness. Aldrich would have liked to see the Chrysalis evolve and grow much stronger. Especially considering the massive amount of power it absorbed from Aldrich moving his soul into the Phctery. But for now, it seemed that the Chrysalis had gonergely dormant, capable only of basic portal openings; the same kind it could perform before. Aldrich did not want to disturb the Chrysalis too deeply, for he could feel that the creature was in a semi-dormant state from processing his power. If Aldrich had to give an image as an example, he likened the Chrysalis right now to be sleeping dormant in a cocoon of Aldrich''s power, feeding off of it until it was ready to burst out and hatch. There was the potential that by forcibly pulling it out of its cocoon early, Aldrich could cause irrevocable damage not only to the Chrysalis, but to his soul hosted inside the Phctery. Thankfully, Aldrich had an expert on all matters magical on hand. He put two fingers to his temple and reached out to Fler''Gan. So long as an undead was in Aldrich''s Inner Circle, he could establish a strong mental link to them with no issue. He had yet to test long distancemunication, though, for in game lore, there were instances of undead being so far away from their masters that they reverted to being mindless monsters. ''Yes, O Elder?'' said Fler''Gan. ''I will have a few more test subjects for you soon,'' said Aldrich. ''Ah, wonderful!'' said Fler''Gan in glee. ''Once this awful, loud, and all too destructive battle is done with, I may finally return to my experiments. With that ''Editor'' sample you spoke of and further more of these Alters, I fully believe I may be on the brink of a great breakthrough.'' ''That''s excellent to hear,'' said Aldrich. ''I need your expertise on something.'' ''Oh? What is it, O Elder?'' ''The Chrysalis - you''ve seen it and you have an idea of what it is. It''s housed inside the Phctery you personally built. And you know well how the entire process of tethering a soul into a Phctery goes. So there''s nobody better to ask you this question: the Chrysalis has entered a dormant state after I moved my soul into the Phctery,'' said Aldrich. ''I can understand it having difficulty processing the influx of power, but it feels different too. Trying to reach out to it is difficult, as if I need to pass by some kind of mental block.'' ''Has it now? Let me wrack my brains¡­'' After several seconds, Fler''Gan spoke again. ''It is difficult to offer urate diagnoses for the Chrysalis is a creature not native to our realm, but I can offer some hypotheses.'' ''Any insight from you would be valuable,'' said Aldrich. ''This Chrysalis, from my limited experience with it, seemed to be a creature optimized for adapting to and taking the characteristics of the energy it absorbed,'' said Fler''Gan. ''Hence, it could perform the marvelous feat of adapting itself to make itpatible with mana.'' ''Logically speaking, then, it should be able to adapt itself to the energy of my newly empowered soul,'' said Aldrich. ''Ah, but there is a distinct difference. Mana is colorless. Pure energy. And, most importantly, physical in its essence. In our realm, it permeated the air we breathed and the dirt we tread upon. Simr to the ''Ether'' permeating this world. Thus, anyone native to our realm could utilize mana simply by having a physical body. However, a soul is vastly different. In its basic form, a soul is a nugget of energy, yes, but it is spiritual in its essence,cking any physical form to interact with. To harvest energy from souls requires having an anchor not in the physical world, but in the spiritual ne. Thus, drawing energy from a soul requires that one possess a soul, for without one, there is no tie to the spiritual ne where souls reside. As a result, you will never see a Necromancer calling upon the dead without a soul. Or a Shaman thatmunes with the dead without a soul. To use souls requires having a soul, and a strong one, at that. All too often, there are tales of errant Necromancers or Shamans that channel the might of far too many souls and overwhelm themselves, their own souls shattering as their bodies be hosts to a chaotic mess of foreign spirits.'' ''I see¡­,'' said Aldrich. He did remember lore tidbits about magic interacting with souls needing mages with strong souls themselves. This, of course, included the field of Necromancy. But this was not the main point. Fler''Gan''s voice had grown more and more excited as he kept speaking, hinting at some other groundbreaking revtion. ''So, what are you hinting at, Fler''Gan?'' ''That creature, that ''Chrysalis'',cks a soul, no? Thus, it should be impossible for it to harness the power given by your own soul, no?'' said Fler''Gan. ''Well, if what you say is correct, then yes,'' said Aldrich. He paused for a moment, thinking about this, and then the realization hit him. The Chrysalis was a changing, adapting creature. Ittched onto energy and then changed everything about it to effectively harness the energy it absorbed. It could change its physical structure greatly, creating environments that matched thendscape around it. It could alter its very own spatial dimensions. So, if the Chrysalis changed itself to harness the energy given to it, and if the energy of Aldrich''s soul required a soul to harness, then that left only one strong conclusion: the Chrysalis was trying to form its very own soul. Chapter 106: Meeting Minuteman

Chapter 106: Meeting Minuteman

''I sense that you have reached the very same conclusion I have,'' said Fler''Gan. ''The Chrysalis is growing a soul? Is that even possible?'' said Aldrich. He scraped his memory for all the lore he knew in Elden World and found he could not think of a single instance where a creature spontaneously just made a soul for themselves. "The closest I can think of are golems imnted with pure souls. Souls emptied of any memories or individuality from their past owner that could ''color'' them. But that isn''t making a new soul, that''s just recycling an old one. This also isn''t like that. My soul is not ''pure'' in that way. It has all my memories. It has all of who I am.'' ''Indeed. I have also thus ruled out that possibility,'' said Fler''Gan. ''But there is one additional way in which a soul may be created, and that is through the birth of new life. Through reproduction. That way, even beings with fully unique souls may produce an entirely new soul.'' ''Hold up, are you suggesting that somehow, this Chrysalis is¡­birthing itself?'' said Aldrich. ''Indeed. My current hypothesis is that it is incubating itself within your soul, utilizing it as a temte to create its own much like a child''s soul may take some aspects of the personality from their parents,'' said Fler''Gan. ''I am wondrously excited for the birth of this Chrysalis. By possessing a soul and taking in your magical energy, it will be a perfect example of a creature that has managed to merge both mana and ether. That is not even beginning to mention the vast increase of its current powers.'' ''That''s mildly disturbing, even as a Lich,'' said Aldrich. It reminded him of a movie called Xeno involving aliens that used humans as incubators, throwing out face hugging spider like creatures that nted eggs into human bodies. ''But so long as there is not a risk to me, it should not be an issue.'' ''My Phctery possesses multiple failsafe mechanism to protect against damage to your soul. It is one of the most basicponents of creating a Phctery. After all, if it was possible to detect and destroy a Lich by simply exorcising their soul through their Phctery, they would be far less of a threat,'' said Fler''Gan. ''The moment an anomaly is detected within the Phctery, it would destroy the Chrysalis. Not to mention that as its master, you hold more than enough sway to prevent it from ever harming you.'' ''True. I am probably being overly cautious,'' said Aldrich. ''There is never such a thing as being too careful,'' said Fler''Gan. ''Also true. I''ll leave you to your defense, then, Fler''Gan. Make sure Ste doesn''t blow something up,'' said Aldrich. ''Ah, that may be a feat far too difficult for me,'' sighed Fler''Gan. ''This generation of young ones, especially in this world, is far too rowdy for the likes of my aged tendrils to deal with. Good luck, Elder. May this tumultuous night of battle see its end under your might.'' With that, Fler''Gan''s connection cut off, leaving Aldrich in the quiet hum of the carrier ne as it auto piloted out of Haven. "Where shall we head to next?" said Vntis. "The center of this city where energy signatures gather the greatest? Where the stench and sight of death and battle emanates the strongest?" "Soon. I can see through the storm I''ve taken over that the forcefield still hasn''t fallen. I have enough time to touch base with the troops I put over Southside," said Aldrich. "I have a corpse there to raise and a person of interest to meet." Aldrich thought about Minuteman. He had seen Minuteman fight all against the horde of variants via the eyes of his undead, and he had also witnessed how the man was willing toy down his life to save the Duds in the bunker. That was a rare quality of character that Aldrich respected. It reminded him greatly of his parents. Of heroes that were, well, heroes. He had heard of Minuteman before, actually, as by being a B ranker, Minuteman was fairly famous himself. Minuteman had a wide reputation for being a man of equal and fair justice, but to see that it was not just a PR move and something that he actually believed in was heartening to see. In this world full of greedy, devouring mes, it was good to see that there were a few fires that flickered to warm others, not just to burn and take. "Then what of this air vessel?" said Vntis. "There''s no point keeping it," said Aldrich. "It isn''t my property in the first ce. And if it stays intact, the Panopticon might be able to scrounge data from it. Better to scrap it." "Understood," said Vntis. "Shall I stitch something to allow for easier destruction of this vessel?" "No need. I have more than enough firepower to deal with this," said Aldrich. Aldrich knelt down and channeled his [Mist Phase]. Green mist welled up around him, surrounding his body as his body became increasingly transparent and obscured. He phased out of the ne, floating in the air using Vntis''s stitched wings. He saw the huge carrier fly away, shrinking rapidly in the distance. He looked away and pped his hands before flying away, heading down towards the Panopticon bunker. A booming rumble echoed above before an ear-splitting crack split the sky. A bright, blinding green light lit up the clouds as an enormous teal lightning bolt smashed into the carrier, blowing it apart in a brilliant nova of red and orange engine failure explosions, blue electrical energy shockwaves, and green energy arcs. In a few minutes of soaring through the skies, Aldrich could spot the bunker. His draconic wings pped downwards and folded as he dove down, rapidly approaching the ground. He could see the hundreds of fishmen corpses scattered across the bunker as proof of his victory. The sparkling red and purple crystal sculpture that Chiros had crafted from the shark variant glinted with a pretty shimmer. Surrounding this crystallized corpse were all of his knights and the ckwater A-ss as they looked up. Already, before Aldrich even reached the ground, the knights knelt down in reverent respect. As the knights knelt, it left one man standing, looking up right at Aldrich. That man was Minuteman. Aldrichnded on the ground with a solid crash, dirt, mud, and bloody fishmen parts flying back around him from the shockwave of hisnding. He stood up, his draconic wings folding into his back before melding into his armor. "My lord, how wonderful it is for you to grace us with your presence," said Chiros. He also remained standing, but he deeply bowed as he motioned to the shark variant, as if unveiling a brand new painting to him. "I have prepared for you a most elegant piece of art. I daresay it has turned out quite well, in spite of the fact that I am working with material that is quite, well, unknown. I have titled it [The Returning Tide]." Aldrich stared at the crystallized shark variant, at how its blood had exploded outwards and turned solidified into a crystal prison that preserved the beast at the moment of its death. Notably, the ends of the crystallized blood were shaped into crests that mimicked waves. As a vampire noble of the Adal bloodline, Chiros possessed a passive called [Crystal Blood Venom]. Any attack of his that drew blood inflicted stacks of the poison on an enemy, and if enough stacks built up across enough vital areas, then Chiros could use an active skill called [Expunge] to forcibly activate the venom, causing the blood of an enemy to spontaneously explode outwards and crystallize in an instant kill. "It looks¡­good," said Aldrich somewhat awkwardly. He wanted to add something, but found he had no idea what to say. He was no art connoisseur. Never had been. But he felt bad notplimenting his subordinate, so he settled with a ''it was good''. "But I may have to break it down to raise the variant¡­" "Ah." Chiros looked at the artwork he had created, realized it would soon be broken down, and slumped his shoulders. "It is of no matter, my lord. There is also a certain beauty in art that is meant to fade. I shall rename this [The Moment of the Returning Tide], then, to symbolize that it is but a fleeting moment and to capture the force of the mighty blow I returned against this creature to fell it, like a tide that returns to the ocean." "You-are you the leader of this team?" said Minuteman as he nodded at Aldrich. The makeshift bandaging around his torn stomach made from fishman skin had bled through. He held his right arm in pain as blood pooled from the massive bite wound on his right shoulder. Chapter 107: Twin Wills

Chapter 107: Twin Wills

"I am the leader of this¡­team, you could call it that," said Aldrich. He willed Vntis to uncover his armor, and the spiked ck helm around his face receded into his armor''s gorget with a series of clicks. This revealed the human looking face of his Materius, and Minuteman nodded, put at ease with Aldrich''s appearance. It was an instinctive drive for humans to feelfort in seeing another human face, especially when surrounded by nothing but inhuman monstrosities. Taking that into ount, Aldrich bared his human looking face. In response, Minuteman blinked in surprise. "Is there something wrong?" said Aldrich. "No, I just didn''t expect you to be so¡­young," said Minuteman. "With your build, height, and the way you carried yourself, I would have expected a much older man. But, looking at you, the way your eyes are set, I can tell you''re no boy. You''re a man that''s been through more rough times than many." "Hm. You could tell that just from my eyes?" said Aldrich. "Despite how tough I look, people have always said I was a sensitive man. I could always tell what someone was going through from their eyes. And I could always feel their pain and their struggle as if it was my own," said Minuteman. "A side effect of my own power: I''m sensitive to the wills of others. But enough about that - if you''re here to save civilians, you''re probably a hero. Are you international? With a group asrge as this, I would know if you operated in the States. In any case, I''d be more than happy to work with you and your men to get this nightmare of a situation under control." Minuteman reached out his hand for a handshake, and Aldrich noticed it trembling in fatigue and pain. Aldrich held off on shaking Minuteman''s hand. "A hero? No," said Aldrich. "I''m not affiliated with the AA or any of its international branches." Minuteman looked utterly astounded. "What!? You mean to tell me with all these men and all this power, that you aren''t affiliated with the AA? Are you government agents? A band of mercenaries?" "No to all of that. If there is anyone I take orders from, well, it would only be myself," said Aldrich tly. Minuteman retracted his handshake and looked at Aldrich with a little more wariness. "Then who are you? I''m sorry, but tonight has worn on my trust. I''m a little more on edge than usual." "Who am I?" Aldrich repeated Minuteman''s question. "I''m someone that wants to save this city. Just like you. I''m someone that wants to do what they believe is right. Just like you. You can trust me or not, but regardless of how you feel, I will protect this city where the AA has failed. Whether you want to help me, do nothing, or even oppose me - that''s all your choice." This time, it was Aldrich that extended his hand out towards Minuteman for a handshake. "But I''ll just say right now that it would be a horrible shame for me to miss out on working with someone I respect like you." "No, you''re right." Minuteman took Aldrich''s hand in a firm, solid handshake. "I''m in no position to be suspecting you, not after you''ve chosen to save civilians that the ordinary hero would leave to die without a moment''s notice. And especially not after you saved my own life." "Just like that? You trust me?" said Aldrich. He wondered if Minuteman was fundamentally na?ve, his heroic ideals perhaps influencing him too much to see the good in others even when it was not logically reasonable. "You want an honest answer? No, not yet." Minuteman shrugged. "But like I said, I can tell the character of a person through their eyes. I can feel their willpower. And yours is strong and clean. It isn''t the type I usually see with people that have bad intentions. And as you said, we''re pretty simr in that regard. Plus, you haven''t given me cause to doubt you yet. Maybe I am dumb, but I always like to give others the benefit of the doubt, even when their wills are spotty, and sometimes I get burned for it, but the times I don''t, that''s when I appreciate just how much good there can be out there." Aldrich nodded. Minuteman was too experienced as a fighter and hero to be ignorantly na?ve. He knew how bad this world could get, but he willingly chose to ignore his suspicions to try and see it positively. It was so simr to how his parents had seen the world that Aldrich fell into a deep silence for several seconds. He could almost see his father and mother, their very smiles, imprinted right in Minuteman. It was an idealism that Aldrich knew was inefficient. Something that had eventually gotten his parents killed. And yet, it was something he could respect. If every single person in this world thought like that, then this world would have been a utopia. But idealism like that was rare. Precious. And because it was so rare, it was all too easy for the muchrger darkness in this world to swallow it up and snuff it out. "Something up?" said Minuteman. "No. Nothing." Aldrich pulled out of his thoughts and executed a n he had constructed in the case that Minuteman was willing to work with him of his own volition. "I''m going to go down to the hangar and check up on the survivors." "I''ll go with you-," began Minuteman. "No," said Aldrich. "Look at how injured you are. You need time to rest and to heal. Here- Eric!" Aldrich shouted out for Eric ss, one of the ckwater A ss students. He sprinted forwards in his ck bodysuit. He was a short man with a build on the leaner side with long ck hair swept to the side that curled over one of his bright purple eyes. "You needed me?" said Eric. "Patch Minuteman up," said Aldrich. "On it," said Eric. He eyed Minuteman''s wounds, his gaping stomach shes, his half eaten right deltoid, and the several dozen other less deadly yet still visible cuts and scrapes and bruises littering his body. "Damn, man, you look like total sh*t. Here, I''ll get you fixed up." Eric ss was the only Alter so far that Aldrich had encountered who had a power that could directly heal others. In terms of Alter power categories, he would be ssified as a Creator with a subcategory as a Restorer that had the rare ability to heal others. In Eric''s case, his power was called Growth Pod. Eric demonstrated it now. He held out his arm to the side, and through the skintight covering of his ck bodysuit, fleshy stalks rose up. Spherical pods of pulsating flesh grew from these stalks, causing them to droop down under their weight. Each pod was filled with veins and looked positively nasty. Like a series ofrge tumors. Eric''s face fat drained, turning his cheeks hollow as the stalks grew, his bodily nutrients sacrificed to create them. He detached a growth pod from his arm and held it out towards Minuteman''s gnawed right shoulder. "Among Restorer powers, this is probably one of the creepiest I''ve seen," said Minuteman. "Not good practice toin to your Restorer. Thought they taught that at fancy hero school," said Eric as he tentatively ced the baseball sized growth pod onto Minuteman''s raw, exposed flesh. The growth podtched onto the open wound and started to melt into it, turning into a fleshy goo that created tiny tendrils at its extremities that hooked into Minuteman''s flesh. "The growths will dissolve and merge with your body in a few minutes. Until then, it''s important that you don''t move or strain yourself, or else you risk the growths breaking apart and leaving you worse off than you were," said Eric. "Roger that," said Minuteman. He nodded to Aldrich. "Make sure they''re alright." "And if I do something to them?" said Aldrich. "Then I''ll be ready to fight you tooth and nail. Down to myst breath and bone," said Minuteman resolutely. "Doesn''t matter how tough you are or how many guys you got." "That''s a good answer. I can respect it." Aldrich faintly smiled at Minuteman. Even against overwhelming odds, Minuteman was still willing toy down his life and fight against Aldrich if he ended up being a threat to the Dud civilians. That was true heroism. So rare. But admirable. "But you can ease up on the worrying. If there''s anyone thates close to caring about the people down there like you do, it would be me." With that, Aldrich turned and walked towards the hangar. There, he would not only make sure everyone there was okay, but he would make his presence known. He would make sure the people there would spread what he did and make sure that the world knew of the AA''s failure. Then, he would replicate that same process with the Alter citizens holed up behind the city center''s forcefield. Like that, Aldrich would cultivate the support he would need after this incident was over. When he would have to face scrutiny under the public''s eye. When the Panopticon, the Alterhuman Agency, and the governments of the world would all scrutinize him. Chapter 108: Into The Bunker

Chapter 108: Into The Bunker

Aldrich stepped over to the hangar entrance. It consisted of two interlocking sliding metal panels that opened up to allow the carrier within out. Because of the sheer size of the carrier, these doors were massive but thankfully just as armored as the proper doors of the bunker itself. A green ring of fire from the Deathwheel flickered around the hole leading down into the hangar, and when Aldrich approached, he waved his hand, willing the mes to fade away. As they dimmed down, the corpses of dozens of fishmen became visible. Unlucky victims that the Deathwheel had either run over,pletely sttering into roadkill mush, or those caught in the life draining mes, reduced into corpses so dried and drained of life that they disintegrated into dust when exposed to the night breeze. Aldrich leaped into the hangar and fell several dozen meters before hended on solid, tiled metal ground with a heavy thud. When hended, he looked up to find a crowd of men, women, and children huddled away from him, shuddering in terror as they inched back to the walls. "Stay calm." Aldrich projected his voice, and it echoed through the hangar. Upon hearing a human''s voice, the energy of the crowd lost a bit of its tension, but not much - after all, these people had been through so much this night. "I''m¡­human, and I''m here to save you." "Save us!? You''re just going to leave us like the other heroes!" shouted a man. "You''re just like the rest of them! You don''t care about us Duds!" "All of you heroes are useless!" With that, the crowd gained a surge of confidence. All it took was one or two hecklers for them to feed off their energy and start to shout and rage towards Aldrich. They broke out into a cacophony of angry shouts and yells that distorted into something unintelligible, a mess of projected frustration haphazardly thrown Aldrich''s way. When Aldrich looked at them, at their faces twisted in anger and fear, he could only shake his head. They reminded him too much of himself. Or rather, how he had been. Before he had gotten this power. It was pitiful. Aldrich knew he should not have thought that way, especially against those that were Duds just like him, but bing an undead, especially a Lich, had and was continuing to change his perception of humans. Nevertheless, Aldrich still had enough humanity left in him to sympathize. To know what words to say to reach their hearts. "Be quiet." Aldrich projected his voice and the volume of his words resonated outwards in powerful peals that immediately silenced the crowd. This was not because Aldrich''s voice was threatening. On the contrary, it was quite calm. The crowd did not grow silent because they were intimidated, no, they sealed their lips because they knew a force of authority far greater than them was about to speak. "I want to make one thing very clear: I am not a hero," said Aldrich as he eyed the crowd of Duds. "If I were, I very well may have left you all here to die. Or killed you for raising your voice against me. After all, that''s what so many heroes do now." Aldrich nted first the seeds of doubt against the Alterhuman Agency and its heroes. Though, considering how much these people had gone through with betrayal after betrayal already, this would not be too hard. "If your lives are not worth saving, if they don''t give the heroes their Achievement Points or more clicks on their social media, then they would not hesitate to just let you die. You have seen that happen to you firsthand tonight. That is what heroes are now. That is what the Alterhuman Agency is. But I am here to save you because your lives do matter to me. Your struggle matters to me." Aldrich paused. "What do you know about our struggle!?" said someone from the crowd. "About what it''s like to be one of us. Powerless and waiting for people like you to save us!" "Oh, but I do know. I know all too well," said Aldrich. "I know what it''s like to be afraid to show your CID (Citizen identification). Because you know that when you show that card, when it gets scanned at the store, at the movies, at a restaurant - anywhere - it shows proof that you are inferior. I know what it feels like to be powerless. To always have to look up to a cape for help, and when you do get it, to see that it is handed to you with disgust. I know what it feels like to be hopeless. To know that no matter how hard you try, how hard you try to stand out, the only thing that will ever define your entire existence is that onebel of ''Dud''. I know what it feels like to hate yourself. To wish that you were not born. To feel that if you were dead, humanity would be better off, more evolved. To feel that if only you were different, you might have a better life outside ghettos." Aldrich pointed up, towards the open doors of the hangar where the darkness of the night sky stood out strongly against the dim lights of the hangar. "But out there, no, up there, in those skies, do you think caped heroes know about your struggle? Do you think they know what it means to be like you? No. That''s why they left you. But I do. And that''s why I''vee here for you." Aldrich gazed at the crowd and found them staring at him, quiet. He had reflected their suffering, their lifetime of facing discrimination as a Dud, through his words, showing that he was not only unlike a hero, but even an Alter - he was someone that could rte to them on a deeply fundamental level. "Then who¡­who are you? If you''re not a hero, if you know what it''s like to be one of us-," began someone. "You''lle to know in time," said Aldrich. "Just remember this when the world asks you who saved you at your darkest hour of need. When they ask who lifted you up from the depths of despair. That it was not a crowd of bright capes and masks. It was me." Aldrich then moved past the crowd of Duds. They shifted away from him, giving him a path through them, and stared at him in awe as he passed. There was an aura of strength about him that stopped them from speaking to them. Good. Aldrich had said what he had wanted to say. He wanted to hammer into the Duds that the AA and heroes had abandoned them and that the one who had saved the day was Aldrich himself. With that, they would maintain positive PR for him and negative PR for the AA when the world started to investigate what happened here. Past the hangar, through a series of sliding mechanical doors that led across a tunnel, Aldrich found himself in the bunker. He checked out the bunker just as a precaution to check how defensible it was as he soon had to leave and, more importantly, whether he could operate the control room to close the hangar doors. A cursory nce at the bunker''s ceiling indicated that it was still more than sturdy enough to weather an attack, especially with Aldrich''s undead defending it. As for the control room - Aldrich paused outside of the room. His [Death Sense] was triggered, allowing him to see individuals in near death. He could perceive them through walls in a sort of X-ray vision, and right now, he could clearly see the faint green silhouette of a woman behind the control room doors. Aldrich went to the double metal doors of the control room and found it was jammed, its motion sensors broken. He sunk his ws into the doors, easily shearing through the metal, before pulling, ripping the heavy doors straight out. He flicked the two door halves away and watched as a young woman''s body fell by his feet. The woman was around Aldrich''s age, her face showcasing thest remnants of her teenage youth through slightly round cheeks. Her hair sprawled out behind her in a mess of amber spattered in dried blood. The woman was young, just as young as Aldrich, maybe even younger, but despite how young she was, she wore a full hero''s costume. A bodysuitprised of a dark pink, almost purple leotard attached to ck leggings lined with several grooves. The material looked thin, but the hexagonal patterning on it indicated that it was hex-weave: an ultra-durable fiber sourced from a spider type variant. A patch on her shoulder shaped in the form of a dark blue wave crest indicated she was from Haven Supers Academy. It was the best academy in Haven, but that was not saying much. Overall, its ranking was low, just moderately better than ckwater, and ckwater was made intentionally as low as possible to hide attention from it. Aldrich spotted a hole gouged out in her stomach. A rock shaped projectile had roughly gored through her. But remarkably, even with the horrible wound, she was still alive. He noted that there were faint blue lines sparking around her face. "The life force in her brain has been preserved," said Vntis. "Those lines possess an energy that circtes blood and activity within her brain." "I see," said Aldrich. He looked into the control room to see another costumed hero. Guy dressed in blue and yellow with a red, blue and green wire motif running down his chest. Faint sparks sputtered from his body, but he was dead. A huge hole was gouged out in his head, not to mention deep shes and bullet wounds littering the rest of his body. "The energy signature preserving this woman matches that emitted from that human," said Vntis. "Hm." Aldrich nodded. He could piece together what happened. These two heroes were probably left behind because they disagreed with the rest that fled in the carrier. They were killed, but the male hero, in perhaps ast-ditch act of mercy, likely with a chunk in his head missing, had used thest dregs of energy of his power to try and save the girl. But it was far toote. Aldrich could tell with how pale the girl was that the blood loss alone was enough to kill her soon, and he had no way to reverse that. But what that hero''sst effort had done was ensure that this woman''s soul would not expire. Theoretically, Aldrich could raise this girl with her soul intact, but then he had to ask himself: was it worth it? Was she useful enough? Reading Aldrich''s thoughts, Vntis spoke. "This woman, unlike those aboard that flying vessel, is not at the limits of her physical and energy harnessing capabilities¡­ Rather, both qualities are highly unrefined, capable of enhancing greatly with time." Chapter 109: Portal Girl

Chapter 109: Portal Girl

"I see. Hm." Aldrich put a hand to his chin as he looked down at Portal Girl''s body. "Do you have any idea of how she might be able to use her energy? Her powers?" "No. I am too unfamiliar with the humans and monsters of this world to determine their strengths and weaknesses to such degree of uracy. All I can perceive so far is total strength, not the details of that strength," said Vntis. "You can use [Consumption], can you not? That might let you figure things out better," said Aldrich. As a Living Armor, Vntis possessed a racial skill called [Consumption] that allowed him to open up and devour a creature. It also allowed him to steal their soul if they did not have a high vitality stat. By [Consuming] a creature, Vntis could gain knowledge of them and restore his health. It was this ability that he used to steal the soul of Velus and kill the Alter. On that note, it was a shame that Velus could not be raised as his body and soul were both thoroughly eviscerated. His barrier-based power seemed particrly powerful. It also seemed that Vntis needed to consume more than just Velus to get a good grasp of how Alter powers worked. But even by absorbing just one Alter, he knew how to identify Alter energy signatures with incredible tracking uracy. "¡­" Vntis remained silent for an uncharacteristic moment, and Aldrich felt discontent from him in the same way that Vntis could sense Aldrich''s own emotions. "What''s wrong?" said Aldrich. "My [Consumption] is granted only to those with bones worthy enough to devour. It is my principle to not stain my stomach with those whose who do not pass a certain threshold of strength," said Vntis. "I see," said Aldrich. "You''ve been more than useful enough for me so far. I can respect that wish." "Many thanks," stated Vntis. "And by the end of this night, I can assure you we will find a suitable foe for you to devour," said Aldrich. "Devouring that one, the one at the center of this human settlement whose energy swirls and swells like a pir of might would be a feast I would relish supremely," said Vntis. "But I sense that you do intend to add that one to your army." "Yeah," said Aldrich. No doubt, Vntis was talking about the variant at the center of this attack. The immensely powerful variant that Valera had said was too strong even for Aldrich as he was now to put down. With a monster like that in Aldrich''s control, he would be nigh unstoppable. It was utterly imperative that he did so, and he had a strategy in mind to take it down while cultivating as much support as possible from the public. It would be shy. Climactic. And, in the end, the final catalyst to raise Aldrich from a nameless nobody to one of the premiere forces in this entire country. But that was forter. For now, Aldrich looked down at the girl and decided to raise her. She was not fully dead yet, so Aldrich pushed his wed fingers into her chest, piercing her heart with one quick and clean stab. The girl''s soul materialized above her corpse in a flickering green, wispy orb. Aldrich flicked blood off his hand and then waved it up. "Serve." The soul fed back into the girl''s body in wispy streams while curls of green energy from Aldrich''s necromancy traveled all around her body. She shivered for a moment before her eyes flew open. She gasped in a deep breath and sat up, immediately cing a hand on her bleeding chest. "W-what happened?" said the girl,pletely panicked. "Where am I?" "Panopticon bunker. This should help-" said Aldrich. He waved his hand towards the girl''s head. The girl''s eyes glowed green for a moment as he influenced her mind, instilling calm and willing her to retrieve her memories. By default, it seemed that risen undead had their memories wiped, retaining only their core personality traits. Of course, Aldrich could allow his undead to retrieve their memories, though there seemed to be differences in how effectively they could recall them. Fler''Gan, for example, could recall all of his memories with expert uracy. Ste, on the other hand, struggled a little, feeling as if she had to try and remember a long-forgotten dream to get her memories back. Aldrich had an idea of why this urred. In Elden World lore, it was stated that the less experienced a Necromancer was, the harder it was for them to have arisen undead retain their old memories. Because Aldrich had resurrected Ste when he wasparatively at a lower level, she had more issues fishing for her memories than Fler''Gan did. But now as a Lich and at a far higher level, Aldrich did not expect to face any difficulties in terms of memory retrieval. In the future, if lore rted tales about Liches were true, he could even expect to start directly manipting the memories of those he raised, allowing him to craft them into perfect followers if, say, they disagreed too strongly for his own liking. "Sir-," The girl nodded to Aldrich in recognition even if she had never seen him before. All arisen undead, regardless of whether they retained their memories or not, viewed Aldrich as their ''master'' and someone they were deeply familiar with. "Thank you for saving me." "Sir, is it?" Aldrich figured that the girl addressed Aldrich like that because that was the term she was used to calling figures of authority with. Made sense, considering she was a hero academy trainee. "What''s your name?" "The name''s Eileen Vex. Hero name Portal Girl," said Eileen. "Thank you for saving me." She turned to the other hero''s corpse and then shook her head. She stepped to his corpse, knelt by it, and took his hand. A few tears welled up from her eyes as she looked at the corpse''s half blown apart face. "Was he close to you?" said Aldrich. "I interned under him in my second year," said Eileen. "Sparkwire was his name. A good hero. One of the few out there that knew what it meant to be one." She sucked in a deep breath, calming herself. She wiped her tears and stood up, resolute determination on her face. In just a manner of a few seconds, she hadpletely squashed her emotions and made herself ready to fight and protect. Her force of will was strong, especially considering her age. "But we''ve still got a city left to save." "Yes, that we do," said Aldrich. "The fighting above is still going strong, but it''s about time someone put an end to it. When all is said and done, I will make sure Sparkwire is buried properly and that people remember him as one of the few heroes that did not abandon this city." Aldrich did not intend to raise Sparkwire. He had heard of Sparkwire, and his powers were solidly in the techno realm, focused on interfacing with and creating technology. Without a soul to raise Sparkwire with his mind intact, his powers were useless. He would just be an ordinary zombie. Not worth it. "His family will appreciate it," said Eileen. Aldrich nodded, letting Eileen have a moment of silence with Sparkwire, but then went back tobat details. "Tell me, what are your powers?" "I can create portals from my current location to another as long as I have a clear memory of it. My range has about a two-hundred-meter radius, though¡­," Eileen looked at her pink gloved hands. They crackled with arcs of faint energy. "I feel much stronger. I think, maybe, I could even do a kilometer right now." "I see." Aldrich noted that Portal Girl''s powers had increased significantly upon bing an undead. Very likely, her power had some limitations based on the stamina of her body and mind, and as an undead with an infinite resource of both types of stamina, she had vastly improved herself. A power like that had incredible tactical potential for Aldrich. One of the biggest weaknesses he had was that he could not easily move mass amounts of his units around without much notice. But Portal Girl could negate that. Aldrich then received a signal from his mobile storm. From a high vantage point, his storm of jellyfish could look across the city and keep tabs on the battle happening at the city center. And there, the storm reported that the forcefield was dangerously close to falling. There were siege type aquatic variants that acted like cannons, being rooted sea anemone that fired beams of powerful hydro-sma highly effective at burning out the forcefield, and theirst volley had gotten the forcefield flickering close to failure. When the forcefield fell, Aldrich had to be there. It was time to move. Onwards to the finale to save this city. "I was going to have you stay here, but you''re far too useful for that. You''reing with me." "Understood!" said Eileen. Chapter 110: The Final Plan

Chapter 110: The Final n

"Portal yourself above ground," said Aldrich to Portal Girl. "I''m going to bring the people in the hangar back in here where it''s safer. I don''t want them to have any questions when they see you alive again. They along with the rest of the world wille to know my power in time, but for now, I don''t want to deal with questions." Eileen nodded. She took in a breath, sped her hands together, and then separated them. A dark purple line drew itself in the form of a circle in front of her. The circle filled in with distorted purple space that rippled like waves radiating out from a pond once a stone was thrown in it. She stepped back, surprised. "Hm?" said Aldrich. "My portals, usually, they''re pink. The color isn''t like this," said Eileen. "Do you sense that the portal is any different than what you''re used to?" said Aldrich. "No, I guess the color changed when my powers improved," said Eileen. "I guess I''ll have to recolor my costume now. Pink to purple - I guess I don''t dislike it." No, it was a massive improvement, thought Aldrich. It would have been somewhat ridiculous for him, a specter of death, tond on a battlefield through bright pink portals. He did not voice this thought out loud though. Instead, all he said was, "I''ll see you aboveground." Eileen nodded before she leaped into the portal. It closed behind her, zipping off into nothingness. Aldrich walked over to the hangar as he put two fingers on his helmet, contacting Valera this time. ''Valera, it''s time,'' said Aldrich. ''Truly!?'' Valera''s voice radiated with pure excitement and bloodthirst. ''Are we to finally y that beast? Ah, to triumph over it with my dear master, to rip off its head and hold it high for you, I have looked forward to nothing else this entire night!'' ''Yes,'' said Aldrich. ''But don''t get too excited just yet. You''re one of my heavy hitters. I''m putting you in reserve until the time is right. But everyone else though, get them ready. All the undead in that megaplex aside from Fler''Gan should be ready to fight. Oh, and tell Fler''Gan to get the statue ready.'' ''All these lesser undead will fight with my master before I do!'' pouted Valera. ''But alright, my dear master. I will have them organized and ready to fight. What are your battle ns for this exciting night, master?'' ''From what I can see from an aerial view, there''s a massive army of fishmen gathered outside the forcefield. There are two ''leader'' type variants that are noticeablyrger and stronger leading the army. Themander, the one you warned me about, is located farther back in the army, near the rear. Theposition of the army is tougher. It isn''t just generic fodder fishmen. There are shelled crab types that act like tanks and warriors and slithering mermaid types that function like mages with pretty advanced water control. The mermaid types also operate their siege units, the sea anemones that fire hydrosma. They create intense water shielding around the anemones to guard them against fire from within the forcefield, and if those anemone cannons are left to their own devices, I have no doubt that they can do solid damage to me provided my Death Essence barrier falls. Theyout of the army is a bit of an issue to deal with. Themander, I''ll dub it as ''Shrimp'', sits far back, behind the main army. The two leaders that I''ll refer to as ''Crab'' and ''Mermaid'' are the ones spearheading the actual siege and the army at the front.'' ''Ah, your naming sense is still the same as ever, I see, my master,'' said Valera, teasing Aldrich. ''Do you remember when you named your greatest mount, your risen frost dragon mighty enough to freeze entire armies with a single chill breath, as ''Ice?'' Getting his naming sense called out like this, Aldrich felt minor embarrassment. ''And here I thought you were on my side.'' ''Oh, I like it, master. It is endearing, and it shows who you are. Straight to the point. Open. All qualities I admire about you,'' said Valera. ''Okay, I promise that once I take down Shrimp and raise him, I''ll have a better name for him,'' said Aldrich. He sighed before he got serious again. ''Shrimp''s position is quite far back, and he''s shielded inside what seems to be a particrly strong water barrier. Meaning he isn''t in a position to fight and protect the main body of his army.'' ''Shall we strike the rear, then? Where themander of this army is exposed and isted?'' said Valera. ''I''ve thought about that, and it is tempting. A sudden rear nk to take out themander just like that, said Aldrich. ''But no. A rear nk will leave the inner district open to attack once the forcefield falls. And if Shrimp is as strong as you say, even if we break down that shielding, dealing with him will be an incredibly difficult task. The anemone cannons at the front of the army will be the biggest issue at that point. Without taking them out, each of their shots will annihterge chunks of my undead instantly while dealing with Shrimp. It is better to raise a frontal attack, seize the anemone cannons, take out the two leaders, and massacre the brunt of the army. That will force Shrimp out to fight, but without artillery support and, hopefully, his leaders raised and turned against him.'' Aldrich clenched his fists, readying his mind for the battle toe. A battle of incrediblyrge scale where death would hang in every inch of the air. ''The advantage of being a Necromancer, especially a Legion Necromancer, is that battlefields are where we thrive. And a battlefield where two armies simply charge against each other, mming the weight of their numbers and power against each other head on, that is where the presence of death lies thickest. And death is my tool. It is mine to control, mine to use. The more units there are, the more death there is, the more chaos there is - the stronger I get. For every single enemy troop that dies, I add to my own. For every grave that floats in a battlefield, regardless of whether it came from the lowliest footsoldier or the mightiest leader, is another chance for me to feast and replenish my health and essence barrier. There is no better ce for me to show the full extent of my power than in the carnage of a battlefield.'' ''Master, if you speak of carnage and battle like this in front of me, with oh such vividnguage, I will get all too much excited,'' said Valera lustfully. ''And what of themander? When it decides to act?'' ''That''s thergest uncertainty in this because all I know is that it is incredibly fast, strong, and durable, but I don''t have a good idea of its other powers,'' said Aldrich. ''That''s another reason for a frontal assault. Once I draw Shrimp out, I can stall it out with troops I''ve raised. That way, I can get a better sense of what it can do and then formte the best way to take it down on the go. Otherwise, in a rear nk where I would be fighting Shrimp first, I''d be going in blind, and that''s a risk I''m unwilling to take with what''s very likely an A ranked disaster." ''Then I will prepare our troops for your battle, my dear master,'' said Valera, satisfied with Aldrich''s n. He appreciated her suggestion of a nk, and he knew that if she thought any part of his n was not workable, she would have objected. ''Oh, right, and as for how our troops will make their entrance, well, I originally wanted them to swarm in through the sides where they would be unnoticed, but I have a much better option,'' said Aldrich. ''One that will guarantee a far more dramatic, grander entrance. One that will make an impression.'' ''Oh?'' questioned Valera. ''I''ve raised another Alter. She can create portals that will give us much more flexibility in moving our forces. I''m going to send her to your location, so coordinate with her,'' said Aldrich. ''She, is it¡­?'' Valera paused for a moment of jealousy before returning to seriousness. ''Of course. I will test this woman and see if she is truly up to the task.'' ''Good. As always, I''m always grateful that I can rely on you, Valera,'' said Aldrich¡­ He then cut off themunication as he passed through the tunnel leading back out to the hangar. Chapter 111: Leaving Minuteman

Chapter 111: Leaving Minuteman

Aldrich walked past thest sliding metal door in the tunnel, his each and every step echoing with the sound of cking metal. When he entered the hangar again, the crowd stopped what they were doing to stare at him in awe. All of them, well, those of them that had phones, had them in their hands, but they were turned off and by their sides, but it was obvious they had been using them just moments before. They were watching something. Meant Net connectivity was back up. The signal towers in Haven probably had finished auto-maintenance and rebooted after the storm shut them down. Even more of a tell-tale sign that the crowd had been watching something was that someone had brought a mobile holo-projector and projected arge screen showcasing a low-resolution video stream. The man owning the projector immediately scrambled to turn it off as Aldrich entered. It was as if Aldrich was an incredibly well-respected professor who had just made his entrance to his ssroom, making all the students scramble to put away everything so they could give their full and undivided attention. Aldrich paused. "Turn that back on," said Aldrich. "H-huh?" said the man as he looked up at Aldrich. "Turn it back on. It was a stream showing what was happening outside, wasn''t it? I want to see," said Aldrich. "Y-yeah, sure," said the man nervously, intimidated under Aldrich''s presence. He turned the projector, a sphere-shaped metal ball on three legs that could retract or stiffen like a tripod, on by tapping a circr button. A glowing blue dot centered in the projector lit up, and from it, the holographic screen projected outwards again. From theyout of the website hosting the stream, Aldrich could determine that it was from Sharespace, thergest social media website in the world headed under Mediacorp, a tech giant social media and news megacorp. The stream''s screen was ck, a rotating circle at its center indicating that connectivity was slow. It looked to be a personal stream, and when the stream connected, Aldrich could see that it was being recorded through amercial drone. It showed a ground shot of the mass of thronging fishmen, crab variants, and mermaid variants all staring ahead, towards the towering walls of Haven''s central district. The forcefield covering it flickered, its one proud blue color now growing weak, almost translucent. They moved about impatiently, their fangs bared and their ws snapping as they waited for the precious moment where the forcefield would go down and they could have their feast of prey. "Net connectivity is back up!" shouted the stream''s recorder. "I''m showing you what it looks like in Haven right now from my drone. The heroes say that they''ve got this under control, but, but I don''t think that''s true. Just look at how many variants there are! And, and, look at the forcefield, it''s¡­it''s almost going down!" Just as the recorder finished that sentence, arge rumble and sh of blue light burst down. The drone captured a dozen pirs of spiraling sma energy shooting from the ground in novas of bright light. From the high vantage point of the drone, the beams looked small, but in reality, each one wasrge enough to easily engulf a house. The destructive force behind them must have been phenomenal. The beams smashed into the forcefield in one final volley, and where they contacted, they superheated the forcefield, turning its pale blue color white hot. And with that, the forcefield flickered for onest time. It broke apart under the final artillery volley form the sea anemone variants, breaking apart from where the beams struck it. "No, no, no!" shouted the streamer, his voice drenched in desperation. "Anyone, anybody out there, if you see this, please, send some help!" "What''s the AA doing!?" shouted a man. "Where''s the Panopticon!?" A woman joined in on the protest. "You know already that they are not here to defend them," said Aldrich. "But I am." "Wh-what!? You''re going to leave us here!?" said a woman. "If you know how much we go through, how much we''ve been abandoned, don''t be another one to leave us!" "Don''t go!" her child shouted with her. "Your safety will be guaranteed," said Aldrich. "The variants are concentrated around the city center, so you are not under any immediate threat. Even then, there may be a few stragglers here and there, so stay here where it is safe. I will have some of my forces guard you. If you do as I say, I can guarantee that of you will lose your lives. In exchange, I want you to keep this stream open. I want you to watch." Aldrich began to step away from the crowd. His helmet reappeared in strands of ck metal covering his face,bining together to form his spiked helm. Draconic dark wings sprouted from Aldrich''s back, unfurling majestically. "I want you to bear witness. Witness me as I save your city." Aldrich crouched down before jumping, soaring into the air. His draconic wings pped down, giving him lift as he shot through the open ceiling of the hangar. Hended in front of Minuteman. Portal Girl was not there, for Aldrich had given her a further mentalmand to warp away as far as possible to prevent Minuteman from seeing her. "How are you holding up?" said Aldrich. Minuteman sat on the mud and looked down at his shoulder and stomach. The wounds had patched over with an amorphous, blobbyyer of raw, pink skin. "I feel better, but these things are taking longer to adapt to my body than I thought." "Working with Augmenters like you is the worst," groaned Eric as he knelt by Minuteman, overseeing his healing powers to make sure his growth pods did not suddenly turn into explosively growing tumors. "It takes ages for my growth pods to adapt to tougher, stronger cells like yours, but all things considered, you''re recovering pretty fast." "Good," said Aldrich. "You should be back in action again soon enough then." Minuteman nodded. "Yeah." He looked up at Aldrich, staring at his helmet. "You know, with how you look, I almost a hundred percent expected you to be a viin. The ck and blood red with all those spikes, you know." "And you look exactly like what you are: a hero," said Aldrich. Minuteman paused for a moment of surprise before smiling. "Thanks. But a hero? No, that might be what my job is, but that''s not what I am. A hero saves the day all the time. I try to do what''s right. Sometimes I seed, sometimes I fail." Minuteman shook his head. "I''m far from being a real hero. Like Vanguard." "There is a difference between being a hero and being perfect," said Aldrich. "You aren''t ready to fight yet, but soon, you''ll be healed enough to defend the people here." "And where are you headed?" said Minuteman. "To the city center. I''m going to end this," said Aldrich. "I''m leaving four of my troops here, including Eric who needs to stay to make sure nothing goes wrong with the recovery process. Everyone else, I''m taking with me." "I promise you-," Minuteman stood up. "Hey, I know you''re a tough guy, but you shouldn''t be standing like this-," began Eric. "I have to stand for this," said Minuteman. Eric sighed. "Augmenters. All of you are so hardheaded and impulsive." "I promise you that everyone down there will be safe." Minuteman put a fist over his heart. "I''ll fight down to the veryst fiber of my being to make sure that they''ll get to see the sun rise tonight. It''s the least I can do for you. And I owe you one. Anytime you need a favor down the road, as long as it''s within my power, I''ll try and get it done." "A favor, is it? I may be calling on you very soon, then," said Aldrich. "Just make sure you get through this alive, or else I''ll be left hanging." Minuteman smiled and nodded to Aldrich. Aldrich nodded in turn before he addressed his troops. "It''s time for us to move. Chiros, gather your men. Have them carry your art piece back too. Alexis, choose four among your ss to leave here. When you''re done, follow me back to the megaplex." "Your will shall be carried out!" said Chiros. He turned to his death knights and pointed at the crystallized shark variant. "Carry that out! But make sure it is not damaged!" "Roger" said Alexis as she looked to the ckwater A ss students, choosing who to leave behind. Aldrich unfurled his wings again, preparing to fly, but before he did, Minuteman spoke once more. "Sorry to catch you right before you get out of this depressing spot, but I never did catch your name. I''m assuming you got a sign to go by, right?" said Minuteman. "A sign, is it?" Aldrich paused for a moment. A sign was a codename. Something you went by as a hero or viin or mercenary or vignte to avoid revealing your real name. It was something that Aldrich knew he had to make for himself sometime sooner orter, but things had developed so suddenly. Right after the Red Circle event, Aldrich was thrust into this mass scale variant invasion. He had not had time yet to n anything. What he did have, however, was a username. A name from the same game that had started this entire journey. "Thanatos," said Aldrich simply¡­ He then jumped into the air with a heavy metallic click before his wings pped, sending him soaring high into the night sky. Chapter 112: To Battle

Chapter 112: To Battle

Aldrich did not fly long. He moved about a kilometer away beforending in a flooded alleyway between a few crumbling southside buildings. There, Portal Girl stood on one of the roofs of the buildings, waving her arms towards Aldrich as he descended. "How was Minuteman?" said Portal Girl. "He''ll be fine," said Aldrich as hended beside her. "You were correct in judging how much your power improved. Exactly one kilometer of range. You''ve got a good grasp of your powers." "Considering how much I''ve trained with them, it would be a shame if I didn''t," said Portal Girl. She looked not towards the city center where asional explosions and bursts of light shed, but towards the dark Southside, where Minuteman was. "But if it hadn''t been for men and women like Minuteman, people that you can really look up to, I don''t think I would have ever made it here. I just wish I could have thanked him and Miles for saving me." "I see." Aldrich looked up at the night sky, remembering the faces of his parents. People he had looked up to. He remembered when he was a kid, he would have his parents make heroic poses in front of him, and he would smile andugh and promise to be like them. That had obviously not worked out. But he still remembered what it felt like back then. To hope and to look up. It was a good feeling, and he did not begrudge anyone from having it just because he could not. "When all is said and done, when I''ve made my position in this world, people will know my powers. Or at the least, a general idea of them. At that point, you''ll have your chance to thank Minuteman. Until then, though, we need to fight," said Aldrich. "Fight." Portal Girl nodded more to herself, taking in a breath to psych herself up. She looked at her hand. It trembled. She balled it up. "Are you nervous?" said Aldrich. "Yes. I always am, especially before a fight," said Portal Girl. "But during the fight, it all goes away. I get swept up by what I need to do, the lives I need to save, the people I need to watch out for, and then it''s all strangely calm." "You have a natural talent for fighting, then. For war," said Aldrich. "There are plenty who never get past that initial nervousness. It simply isn''t in their nature. But it is for you. Now, let''s see how far we can cultivate this talent of yours." Aldrich grasped Portal Girl around the waist and then pped his wings, soaring into the air while carrying her. "I-um, so, where are we going again?" stammered Portal Girl as she looked away from Aldrich, down to the cityscape below to hide a faint blush. "Megaplex nearby. Most of my forces are there. Once we get there and regroup, we will mobilize out, and there, you will y a key role in moving my legion," said Aldrich. "A key role? You trust me with that much?" said Portal Girl. "I-I don''t have an issue with it, it''s just, since I literally just graduated from being a trainee, I''ve never really been in a big operation-," "There is no better teacher than pressure. And I can sense that you are the type that performs best under it," said Aldrich. He flew through the skies until he spotted the looming structure of the megaplex. "Christ¡­" said Portal Girl as she looked down at the courtyard. There, the massive bone stakes from Aldrich''s first entry remained, several fishmen impaled upon them. "Does that sight bother you?" said Aldrich. "I think it would have, before I changed. But now, no, I don''t feel much if anything at all," said Portal Girl. "Good. Because where we are headed, you will see far more of that." Aldrich noted that it seemed that all humans that became undead became far more resistant to the sight of gore and death. It was very probable that they, like Aldrich and Valera, also began to see human lives as less significant, but he wondered whether that would change for people that valued lives strongly before turning into undead. It was an experiment he would conduct at ater time. Aldrich swooped into the balcony of the megaplex''s top floor. There, his wing retracted into his armor as hended. Valera and Casimir were at the balcony, and they moved aside to make way for hisnding. Aldrich put Portal Girl down. "Ah, so this is the new addition you spoke of, hm?" said Valera as she eyed Portal Girl up and down, her slit pupiled red and ck eyes narrowed in pure judgement. "She seems too fragile. Liable to snap in half under a strong breeze." "We aren''t using her for her physical strength. It''s her utility with her portal powers," said Aldrich. "A Flux Alter? Now that is a rarity indeed!" said Casimir. "It took me several long years to find Cubehead, a potent Flux Alter in his own right, and enter him into my service. No doubt, your talents will be very much appreciated here." Casimir reached a gloved hand out. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Casimir." "Eileen," nodded Portal Girl as she shook Casimir''s hand. She reached out her hand to Valera with a smile. Valera crossed her arms and stared at Portal Girl with an intimidating expression that made her nearly flinch. "Portal creation is nothing too special. There are plenty of halfwit mages that can do it." "¡­Mages?" A look of confusion struck on Portal Girl''s face. "A topic forter," said Aldrich. "For now, we need to get moving. The forcefield is already down: every second counts from now on. Casimir, I''m leaving behind Fler''Gan and your reanimated Red Circle staff. I''ll be taking the rest of the forces stationed here, if you do not mind." "With this rather macabre sight you''veid down there-," Casimir pointed to the staked up fishmen. "None of our fishy friends have dared to step foot in here. So, do not worry much for my safety. Carry on doing the big shy explosive things you always do." "You said everyone, right. So that means I''m going, yeah?" called out Fisk from inside the room. "Do you want to face an army of variants that want to eat you limb from limb?" sad Aldrich. "I''m fine right here, actually. Have a bit of back pain, I just remembered," said Fisk immediately. "You won''t be sitting here idle either. Fisk, you and Spybird have Net connectivity now. Spybird still has several of his drones here. Get them ready and set to broadcast. You two will be my media coverage," said Aldrich. "Got it, boss!" said Fisk. "See you soon on telescreen." Spybird raised his canteen of liquor up to Aldrich in a cheers before getting to work in front of aptop screen. "Our troops are ready to mobilize. At yourmand, they will move to the edges of the designated battlefield where they will lie in hiding. There, they will wait until your signal. At which point-," Valera turned to Portal Girl and leered at her. "You will use your powers to move our troops into the battlefield in one grand entrance. I will say this now as the one closest to the master: I do not tolerate any amount of failure." "I-I promise I won''t fail! I''ll try my best!" said Portal Girl with pep. "Hmph. I do admire that will of yours. See to it that it is not empty bluster. Go downstairs and join the troops," said Valera. "Roger that," Portal Girl nodded to Valera as she ran out the room. "I could have flown her down," said Aldrich. "I doubt the elevator works anymore." "Ah, but master, you will be busy flying me!" said Valera. "Hm? I thought you were going to take Crow down to the battlefield," said Aldrich. "That way, I can make a solo entrance in front of the central district''s walls." "You can just take me halfway there," said Valera shyly. "I¡­I must save my stamina, you see! Plus, why does that little girl get to fly with you and not me?" "I understand," said Aldrich. He boldly held Valera tight around her waist, and she looked up at him with a blush that stood out strongly against her pale skin. He looked down at her. "Feelfortable?" "Y-yes," Valera squeaked out. "Then we''re going now." Aldrich flew into the air with Valera held to his side, his draconic wings stretched out as they carried him to the center of the city. Where the final battle would be. "Ah, to fly with my master, there is nothing better in the world!" said Valera as she happily swayed her head from side to side while holding onto Aldrich with both her arms. "Technically, it is I who am flying you," stated Vntis in apletely matter of fact voice. "Quiet, scrap!" pouted Valera. "You are ruining the moment!" Aldrich smiled beneath his helm at the argument between the two¡­ It was a brief but appreciated moment of levity before the raging storm of the fight soon toe. Chapter 113: {Holding The Wall}

Chapter 113: {Holding The Wall}

Haven City Center, at the top of the walls - Most walls around cities followed the Panopticon''s anti-variant wall design consisting of hundreds of segments of reinforced neosteel ting. Each of these segments could easily be detached and reattached for ease of repair, allowing the Panopticon to maintain walls throughout the world with incredible efficiency. When the walls needed to stand strong, tethering bolts and a powerful maic attachment system between each segment kept them tightly welded together, granting it a shy, futuristic blue glow between its many parts. The topyer of each wall consisted of segments that were rtively hollow inside, allowing for the movement of people throughout the walls. These hollow segments fed out into control towers perched atop the walls which monitored and maintained the wall''s structural integrity. The towers also connected to the wall''s many defense and surveince systems. Inside control tower 12, thergest one perched atop the main gate leading into and out of the inner district, a massive crowd of heroes gathered together, packing together to watch a movie screen sized monitor projecting whaty outside the walls. A seemingly unending army of fishmen and aquatic variants. And a distinctck of a forcefield. The fishmen had charged forwards with feral fury, wing and banging at the exposed walls. However, their ws were too weak to pierce through severalyers of neosteel ting. Even therger crabmen with their sizable bulk, enhanced might, and bludgeoning ws, could barely even dent the walls. "As long as those walls hold up, we can still hold out," said Mothman, who, as his hero name would suggest, was a mutant with moth traits. As far as mutants went, though, his mutations were not that severe. He was mostly man, just with chitin ted white skin, antennae,rge spotted moth wings, and mandibles. He was a C+ rank hero, on his way to being promoted to the B rank. That is, if he survived the night. "No. This won''tst." Seismic set his square jaw as he looked at the monitor from the very front, his tree trunk like arms crossed together. Even though the heroes packed together through the rest of the room, they kept the space around Seismic empty, respecting his A rank authority and the sheer aura of strength he gave out. "Not when they have those." The monitor showed ten domes of swirling water glowing bright blue as a dozen mermen raised their long, slimy and scaled arms up into the air. They moved their lipless mouths in unison as they chanted. From their bony fingertips, streaks of energy fed into the water dome, powering it. From within, the dark outline of tank sized sma Anemone variants shuddered before unleashing massive pirs of bright blue hydrosma. The sma beams that shut down the forcefield now crashed full force against the particrly thickly ted front gate of the walls. Superheated explosions that glowed first blue then super-hot white sprawled out from the point of impact, leaving behind a gaping crater of glowing white metal that dripped liquid neosteel and crumbled heat absorbent ceramic-scale ting meant to absorb heat, but there was a limit to it. But ten sma beams, each of which was capable of turning a heavy battle tank into smoking scrap, was way beyond its capabilities. Another volley or two from that, and the front gate would be down. "Y''all see that sh*t! We gotta haul ass out of here like now!" said Racefiend, a C ss hero known for trying to obnoxiously advertise his horrible sneaker line whenever he got the chance. "Genius idea," said Mothman with pure sarcasm leeched into his voice. "All flying craft were used for evacuation. The roads are still flooded, and the gates aren''t opening from system failures with the storm. So where the hell do you n on going, huh? You might as well throw yourself off this wall." "Any flyers out here, I''ll pay you fifty K credits to get me out of here!" said Racefiend, ignoring Mothman. "Yeah, I''ll do it!" said a mutant hero with avian wings. "What!? I''ll pay seventy K. Sh*t, I''ll wire you my life savings. Can''t spend jacksh*t if I''m dead!" "No, let me go first!" The room of heroes descended into utter chaos as they forgot about holding out and argued among themselves as to who left while the flyers tried to see if they could make a quick buck while running. "Shut up!" roared Seismic, and his voice bellowed out in waves so powerful they almost ruptured the eardrums of those closest to him. His outburst silenced the room, and after waiting a few seconds, he spoke again. "Rocket Man''s contacted the Panopticon the moment the storm lifted. A ss 5 drone response should be here within the next forty minutes." "ss 5? You must be out of your mind if you think that''s going to be saving us, old man!" said a hero. "I could scrap five of those bots myself, and you think that they''re going to save the day!?" "Why aren''t you fighting, Seismic!" shouted another hero. "You''re supposed to be an A ranker! Show us how great you are, you fucking coward! I thought you were different from Hat Trick, that slimy sh*t that ran the moment something went wrong, but in the end, you''re just as much of a fraud as he is!" Seismic cracked his neck, his enormous trapezius muscles flexing, his expression turning murderously fierce, and that simple gesture silenced the room again. "The point of a ss 5 response isn''t in how strong each drone is. It''s in their sheer numbers. A thousand will swarm the variants down there, giving us breathing room to fight without drowning in a horde of scaly bodies," said Seismic. His murderous expression faded in an instant as he became calm again. "But we need to wait until ites. The sma Anemones fire in intervals of ten minutes, and it''ll take two volleys to melt down the front gatepletely. When the front gate goes down, we go down there. We hold out for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes. That''s all you need to do. Then the drones get here, and that''ll give me enough room to kill the leaders of this army. All the rest of you have to do is to hold the line. Make sure the one hundred and fifty thousand plus civilians holed up behind these walls don''t get ripped apart piece by piece. Is that so fucking hard?" There was a moment of tense silence as the crowd of heroes remained still, still unconvinced. "There are a few thousand HCPD still here as well. They live here. This is their home. Their gilrfriends, wives, parents, kids - everything they''ve built up with their lives is here. Many of them will fight, I know it. Because there''s no greater motivation to fight than to know the life of your child depends on your fists." Seismic scanned the room of heroes. "That leaves most of you. Three hundred men and women that went through four years of training and two years of apprenticeship to call yourselves heroes. About half of you live in Haven." Seismic looked around and pointed at a young hero wearing an ice themed blue costume. "You, I remember reading your file. You live here, don''t you?" "Y-yes. You¡­actually read my file?" said Icicle, the hero in question. A C- ranker who would have never expected an A- ranker like Seismic to give him the time of day. "I had Rocket Manpile your files when we holed up behind the walls. So I would know the men and women I was going to fight with," said Seismic. "So, tell me, young man, who do you have here?" "A wife. And a son," said Icicle. "And you''re going to leave them just like that? Even if you run, is that what you want to show your kid? Your back as you run away? Not as you fight?" said Seismic. Icicle shook his head. "About half of you have nted your roots down in this city," said Seismic. "You are the trunk of support for your loved ones. Do you want to leave now? Do you want to let these variants tear those roots you''ve worked so hard to nt?" "I''m¡­I''m scared, but I won''t let my dad''sst moments be in fear and pain," said a hero, a woman serpentine facial feature. "He''s suffered enough already with mutant cancer. I''ll fight with you, Seismic." "I''ll go too," said Mothman. "Don''t have anyone I love here, but I''m not about to run either." "Yeah, if it''ll give my girl a chance, then I''ll do anything I can!" chimed in another hero. Like this, Seismic saw many of the heroes resolve themselves to joining him. Most of them were those that, as he had pointed out, lived in Haven. However, half of the heroes were rotating transnts that went from city to city based on where the AA assigned them. "Yeah, screw that, I''m outta here," said Racefield, one such transnt. "Don''t have anyone I care about in this sh*tty little city, and my sneaker sales have been dogsh*t down here because of you know what art looks like." Racefield started to walk out of the control room, and as he did so, he gave many likeminded heroes the courage to file out behind him. Chapter 114: {Culling The Weak}

Chapter 114: {Culling The Weak}

Wait, stop!" said Mothman. "Fucking yellow bellied cowards. Net connection''s up now - we''ll get Rocket Man to broadcast that all of you are leaving. You think the people and police still here will take kindly to that? They''ll tear you to pieces before the variants get to you!" Racefiend paused before he spoke up. "Any flyers here, if you want a fat bonus to your cred ount, thene with me. If you got family here or want to just die, then that''s cool, that''s all on you. But all of you that don''t to suicide yourselves down there, I''m up to pay you out." Rocket Man, a short, balding man with square sses that looked like he belonged at a basic office desk, and indeed, he was seated at the front by the controls, turned in his swiveling chair and pointed a stubby, using finger towards the leavers. "I have this recorded! You''ll never be able to work as a hero again with what you''ve said here!" said Rocket Man. "And neither will anyone that flies you out!" Racefiend shrugged. "Yeah, dunno, man. This sh*t ain''t it for me if I have to throw away my life like that. Liked the fame and the perks, but this, nah, it''s not worth. Plus the merc market''s pretty big, don''t think I''ll becking for job opportunities down the road. Flyers too, they''re always in demand. No reason to die here. It''s just business." "Let them go," said Seismic. "We don''t need people that have no will to fight here. It''ll just drag us down." "d we have an understanding," said Racefiend with a smug smile behind his yellow thunderbolt themed visor. He turned back to the door only to find that his way was blocked by a girl. A masked girl that reached up to around his shoulders. Not tall. A little on the shorter side. But her gear made it very apparent that she was a pretty big deal. Her mask acted as a hi-tech helm, sleek in its design with some ornamental curved edges around the forehead and a glowing v-shaped line that epassed her eyes. She wore a white biker jacket stained in mud and blood, form fitting ck leggings made of arachno hex-weave, and low-heeled greaves that glowed with pockets of yellow energy. Around her waist were two utility belts with various pockets likely holding a wide range of gadgets and attached to that was a sheath of segmented white metal for a katana. "Huh? You want to join us?" said Racefiend. "Can you fly?" "All of you are fine not being heroes?" said the woman. Her voice filtered out through a modtor that distorted it slightly. "Like I said, merc market''s thriving these days. And with the AA sh*tting the bed like this, it''ll only get better," said Racefiend. "So nah, I''m not a hero anymore." "Good. I don''t like killing heroes." The woman unsheathed her de, and it unclicked with a crackle and sh of golden energy. In the next instant, her de of crystalline gold swung out in a clean arc that traveled from Racefiend''s waist through his shoulder. "Wh-," Racefiend managed out onest utterance before his body split at the cut, his two chunks falling onto the clean floor in a pile of blood and bared organs. The flyers and heroes that tagged along with Racefiend shrieked in fear and stumbled backwards. The heroes went up in immediate rm, pointing their weapons and powers at the woman. "Go ahead," said the woman. Her body started to shimmer, as if wrapped up in heat waves made of faint, transparent gold. "But you''ll never get through my barriers. And you''ll only be tiring yourselves out when the real enemy is there." She pointed her de towards the monitor that still projected the armies of fishmen surrounding the walls. "Who are you?" Seismic''s deep voice echoed out. "I have no Sign," said the woman. "But you can consider me a vignte. I will be on your side against the variants." "On our side!? You just killed one of us!" shouted a hero. "One of you? He admitted himself he wasn''t a hero. At this point, he was just an unnecessary variable. And to solve an equation thisplex, it''s always best to cull the variables that get in your way," said the woman tly. "For all of you heroes that run, I will remember you. And believe me, I never forget. I will track you down and I will find you. No matter where you go, where you hide, I will kill you, because there are no rules orws that hold me back. And because out of all the filth I see in this world, the type I despise the most are those that leave others behind." "Vignte freak! We''ll arrest you right here and now!" said another hero. "Stop," said Seismic. "We have no energy to be fighting like this. Get out of my sight, vig, unless you want to fight me." The woman paused for a moment, staring at Seismic''s towering figure, and saw no real hostility in his dark brown eyes. She nodded at him. "I''ll be out of sight, then," said the woman as she turned and stepped to the exit door. It opened up when it registered her presence, indicating that she had a fake CID on her that allowed her to masquerade as a hero or had stolen one from a hero, as only heroes could move through city walls. "Until I see you outside the gates, yeah?" Seismic did not respond, but his silence was an answer in of itself. He could not admit outright he wanted to enlist the aid of a vignte that had murdered a registered hero right in front of his eyes. He could have cared less about Racefiend dying, and honestly, he would have more than wanted a capable fighter like the vignte to fight with him. But the optics were too bad to voice his thoughts out loud. So an epting silence was all he offered. "Understood," said the woman as she left, the doors closing behind her. This left the crowd of heroes in dumfounded silence, staring at Racefiend''s body. "Stop staring at a dead man. It won''t bring him back to life," said Seismic as he locked in the massive, ted bracers around his forearms. "Rocket Man, inform the police forces that any of them that want to fight should join me, but make sure they have ess to at the minimum a Frame or heavy vehicle. Keep at least half in the city to defend the civilians." Chapter 115: Undead Assemble

Chapter 115: Undead Assemble

Aldrich spotted the designated halfway point to the battlefield from the air. This was arge park called Flowerfield, thergest park in Haven located a little bit aways from the city center. Far enough away that one could hear the rumble of countless fishmen moving by the center district walls, but not close enough to actually see any of it. The park was a central linking point that connected all four districts of Haven, and throughout the week, it usually bustled with people on morning or evening walks. The park was perhaps the most universal spot in the city. Because ity outside of the central district''s walls and was open to everyone, all walks of life enjoyed it whether they were rich or poor, privileged or down on their luck, young or old. Now, though, it waspletely empty. The rolling hills of grassy green were drenched with flood level water, reducing them to soggy mud. The pretty engineered flowers that bloomed all year round were wilted under water or crushed underfoot by variants or fleeing humans. On top of this, there was the ghastly sight of countless bodies littering the park. Mostly of civilians and policemen that had been caught in the initial variant attack. Their bodies were torn apart, many of them missing limbs or heads, and inparison, there were only a precious few variant corpses to pay for it. This attack had truly taken Haven byplete and utter surprise. Even then, a vast majority of Haven''s five million citizens had either escaped, been evacuated, or killed. Despite how bad this looked, the Panopticon did have tested and practiced evacuation methods that worked. That left the poorest few farthest from the city center where most transport was. These poor few survived slogging through armies of variant fishmen to seek refuge behind the central district''s walls after finding that all evac and transport was gone. Aldrich had no clear estimate on how many people were left and how many people had died. However, he would not be surprised to hear that over a million people had died. Before the Altering, that death count would have been unfathomable to developed society, but nowadays, when variant threats loomed and, before the Monstering, power addled viins-initiated wars and crises globally, a million dead was bad, horrible even, but not out of expectations. "Hm, impressive. So that girl does have some use, after all," said Valera as she hugged Aldrich''s waist. Her armor was not yet on, baring her face. Her jet ck hair fluttered behind her head as the wind passed, baring an expression of pure focus as she looked down. Portals were opening all around the park. They emerged from distorting ripples of space like blooming flowers, and their purple light reced the color the dead flowers once provided the park. Seven portals in total opened, each of them around eight meters in diameter. From these portals, all of Aldrich''s undead emerged. All of the variants that had bestial forms emerged, including both his undead variants and those he had raised from the game world. The Mudcrabs, the Alpha Striker, the Alloywing Eagle, the Big-arm Grizzly, the Bloodspitter Lizard, the Antlion - all of them jumped out the portals, making their way around the park. The troll chieftain followed behind them, scratching his backzily as he did so. Then came Aldrich''s higher personnel. The Geist, this time carrying the cursed rock axe the troll chieftain once wielded. Ste wrapped up in a new costume to make up for her utterly torn apartst one. Her new costume was a basic bodysuit of ck and gold that Casimir had on hand from the Red Circle. It had no real special effects other than strong heat resistance and good durability for its light weight, but that was all she really needed. From another portal emerged ten of ckwater''s A ss. Alexis led them, and they streamed out with confident poise, all of them ready to fight. Aldrich''s Zombie Giant emerged from an entire portal by itself, rolling out and sprawling out across the soggy grass because its twelve-meter bulk had needed to really hunker down to pass through the portal. Chiros leaped through a portal andnded with a twirl of style, though he did grimace at the dirty mud beneath his red greaves. His fifteen death knights streamed out in marching formation, two of them carrying the crystallized shark variant on their shoulders. The Deathwheel rolled out behind them, its wheel of fused spines clicking and ttering as the many skulls at its center chattered in readiness for war. Crow also took up an entire portal by himself, hopping through one carefully to make sure he did not clip the edges with his massive wingspan. The rest of Aldrich''s Outer Circle undead streamed outst, taking several portals on their own. This first consisted of 50 fishmen that Aldrich had raised. The fishmen were generally a low tier fighting force that was more a distraction. On average, they ranged from levels 7 to 10, with slightly stronger ones at the 10-14 threshold. 50 did not seem like arge number of fishmen to have considering their individual weakness, but it was a number that would infinitely replenish on the battlefield, making it seem farrger than it actually was once Aldrich started to spam [Mass Raise Undead]. Aldrich also had 20 Red Circle staff zombies, but he had left them with Casimir at the megplex. Casimir''s stronger staff like Walters, Smoke, and Hirondelle were also there to guard him. The biggest change to Aldrich''s Outer Circle was that as part of his preparation, he had cleaned out and reorganized the undead within it. He used [Create Greater Undead (1st Ring)] to rece his skeletons and lower leveled undead from his [Create Undead (1st Ring)] spell with Zombeasts and Deildeghasts. In total, Aldrich prepped 3 Zombeasts and 4 Deildeghasts, all of them level 15. The Zombeasts leaped out of the portals on all fours. They were huge creatures, easily the size of an armored car, and looked to be strange stitched together Frankensteinian fusions of various animals. They were all four legged with body parts fromrger animals like lions, crocodiles, hippos, and so on. The Deildeghast spirits followed behind, smoky darkness trailing behind their wispy forms of rusted armor and bare skulls. They carried greatswords in their hands, and though their offensive power was far weaker than what their huge swords might have suggested, they could thrust their great des down to create [Spirit Boundaries] that would give Aldrich a hugerge scale advantage throughout the battlefield. Just four Deildeghasts were enough to give most of Aldrich''s army coverage if ced evenly apart, and the obscuring smoke from these fields would also wreak confusing havoc among the fishmen ranks. The only issue was that the Deildeghasts potentially stopped tech on the side of the heroes, but Aldrich figured he would be doing most of the heavy lifting here anyway. On top of this, Aldrich eliminated his Evil Eyes and reced them with two Grave Wards. One Grave Ward was on its way to monitor ckwater for the future, while another Graveward now floated towards the battlefield to survey it closely. This was because Aldrich had hidden his storm high up in the sky, behind natural cloud cover. He had also made the jellyfish dim down their natural bioluminescence, minimizing their presence. This had the downside of making it so that Aldrich did not have a close view of the battlefield yet, but he would get that with the Grave Ward. What took up most of Aldrich''s Outer Circle spots was this very storm; the masswork of jellyfish still floating in the sky. They numbered up a total of 150 jellyfish with the level 30 Anglerfish at their center, but it had already paid for far how many unit spots it took. The storm alone hadpletely neutered the aerial forces the variants fielded, not only hamstringing the variant army but also ensuring that it had no reliable way to deal with the storm positioned so high up. To the fishmen, it would have seemed that their storm had suddenly short circuited, blowing up in an ident to destroy their air forces before dissolving. In reality, it was no ident, and now, the stormy very much intentionally in position above cloud cover, ready to float down and surprise the variants to unleash heavenly devastation upon Aldrich''s signal. The storm was slow moving, however. It would take five minutes for it to get down in range to strike the ground with reliable uracy. Aldrich would have to time its appearance well. With this, Aldrich''s army wasplete. He saw as his forces gathered fully in the park, Portal Girl appearingst out of one of her portals. The portals closed behind her, and the purple light illuminating the park faded. Instead, the wispy smoke from the Deildeghasts now filled the air in ominous curls like the smoke before a raging fire''s start. And in this case, that would be the mes of war. "Isn''t it beautiful, master?" said Valera as she hugged around Aldrich''s neck, her fangs baring in excitement. "How much you have aplished in such a short time? How many that are now within your Legion?" "How much WE have aplished," corrected Aldrich. "All of us. From the lowliest of skeleton to you, my most valuedpanion." "Valuedpanion?" said Valera. "Oh, I do love hearing your praises, master." Her voice grew lower, almost a whisper. "Though I wish I was more¡­," She blushed as she put a hand on Aldrich''s helmeted face. "Do not touch me so casually, woman," said Vntis, utterly destroying the moment with zero sense of self awareness. "Okay, now you''ve done it! When this is over, I''m going to be fighting you, you hear me?" said Valera as her brow twitched and a wrinkle of stress formed on her usually perfectly smooth forehead. "I wee the challenge," said Vntis¡­ "There is nothing better than to feel the might of those with strong bones crashing against my steel." Chapter 116: Camaraderie

Chapter 116: Camaraderie

Aldrich shook his head, though he did very slightly smile behind his helmet. "Cut it out, you two. It''s time we get serious." "There is never a moment I take lightly," stated Vntis. "And the same is true for me!" said Valera as he turned her face up, not wanting to be outdone. "Whenever my master needs me to fight or to lead, I will always be ready to serve!" "Look at that, something you two have inmon," said Aldrich. He pped his draconic wings andnded at the center of his undead. Valera detached from him and stood beside him. Her armor materialized, and this time, it was different. She did not wear her usual heavy set of ck armor and thick bone tes with its massive shoulder pauldrons and bulky bucket-like helmet. Instead, she more a sleeker armor. Still a thorough full body armor, but one that clung tighter to her body, showing the outline of her curves. This armor setpletely abandoned the image of a sturdy and knightly defender that her previous set bore. The metal work of this new set was crude and brutal, with warped spikes jutting from the many ck metal segments that built it up. A tattered dark red cloak extended behind her back - the cloak of a knight who had long since abandoned any pretense of keeping up a pristine image, descending into feral hunger where all that mattered was the fight. Valera''s helmet grew around her, emerging from metal segments around her neck that clicked as they formed over her face. The segmentsbined together to create the visage of a savage wolf with bloody red eye slits and an open mouth studded with glowing red spikes that acted as teeth. This was the [Mark of the Beast (Hound) Set]. [Mark of the Beast] armor sets were said to be crafted by a legendary demon cksmith who reveled in madness of all kinds. He was one of the favored smiths of Carnassus, the demon god of war, and his sets reflected the pure savage brutality that the war god loved. Each of the sets were formed in the image of fierce animals, and all of them were utterly suited towards melee fighters who focused on raw, bloody offense. In particr, Berserkers like Valera held toppatibility with these armors. Out there, in a warzone free for all, she could make the best use of her monstrous physical stats as a bloody fighter, not as a defender. "You look good," said Aldrich. "I look forward to seeing you fight in that." "Oh, if you look at my body like that, master, I do not know what I will do¡­," Valera licked her lips under her helmet. "I promise you, master, I will bring you no less than a hundred spines as a token of my appreciation for you." "¡­I appreciate the thought but hold off on the spines for a bit. It doesn''t look great on camera to be waving them around," said Aldrich. Spines were not the first thing that popped into his head when he thought about a gift, but if that was what got Valera going, then all the power to her. Plus, in the end, Aldrich appreciated the thought behind it. "As for the rest of you, my Legion-," began Aldrich. "Thank you for gathering here." All of his undead showed their respects to him. The humanoid undead bowed their heads. The knights and Chiros knelt down. The four legged monsters like the natural variants and the Zombeastsid down low and growled or grunted in recognition. The Deathwheel tilted and chattered its teeth. "Geh! Geh! (So many new friends!)" said the Geist as it hopped up and down, waving its huge club of cursed ck rock like a toy. "Don''t get to attached to em,''" said Ste as she stood beside the Geist with arms crossed. "Large scale battle like this, you have no idea who lives and who dies." "She''s right," said Aldrich. He looked around to all his undead. Countless incredibly different pairs of eyes stared at him. Some were human. Some were slit pupiled. Some were nk. Some were red, some yellow, some green. "Out there, in that chaos, there is no guarantee I can protect all of you." "Geh¡­," said the Geist sadly. "That said, so long as of you arepletely destroyed, I can regenerate you with my [Mist of Undeath]," said Aldrich. "And all of you are no longer weak mortals of flesh and blood where a lost organ or limb holds you back. No, you are Undead. You will never tire. You will never fear. So fight. Fight knowing that no longer are you restrained by your mortal coils." A rousing energy spread throughout the legion as Aldrich''s words reached them. "Oh, I almost forgot!" Eileen said suddenly. Her sudden outburst made all of the undead turn to her, growing quiet as they waited to see what she had to say. "Wh-what?" said Eileen shyly as she saw so many eyes on her. "Did I do something wrong¡­?" "No, go ahead," said Aldrich. "What did you need to say?" Aldrich''s words gave her confidence, and Eileen said, "I almost forgot to bring these over. The technos said they would take a bit of time to get ready, but I figure they''re done now." She pped her hands together, and another portal formed in front of her. A smaller one, this time, half the size of her usual. From there, several dozen drones zipped out one by one like a flock of mechanical birds, hovering in the air in a V-formation above the legion. None of the drones were outfitted with weapons. No, instead, they borerge camera lenses. In a way, perhaps that was a weapon far greater than any gun. The weapon of image. Especially in this day and age where news cycles and social media dominated what everyone saw. The drones were roughly covered in metal ting - the handiwork of Spybird doing modifications within the hour. The work seemed amateurish withrge bolts screwing down roughly hammered-into-shape metal tes, but somehow, it just worked. "Excellent work, Portal Girl," said Aldrich as he stared up at the fleet of drones. Each was about the size of a motorcycle, and a fleet of them could get decent coverage over the battlefield. "You''ve done great so far." "Th-thanks¡­," said Eileen shyly. "Your duty is not done yet," said Valera as she crossed her arms. "To warp all of us in the master at the battlefield itself, at the very right moment: now that is your greatest task. I will be looking carefully to see whether you are capable of pulling your weight within this legion." "I won''t disappoint!" Eileen said with pep, putting a fist over her chest. "Hm. It seems you do have potential after all," said Valera as she turned away from her. "I can admire it." Eileen watched Valera''s back, disappointed she could barely impress the knightly woman. Ste came up to Eileen and yfully punched the younger woman''s shoulder. "Don''t take anything she does too personally," said Ste. "She''s just strict. And real jealous. But deep down, she does care about you. About all of us." "Jealous¡­?" Portal Girl stared at Valera, then at Aldrich, then back at Valera. She saw Valera''s eyes sh with pure passion and desire behind the jaws of her helmet. Meanwhile, Aldrich stared out at his undead, oblivious or perhaps not giving much thought to it for now. "O-oh, right, how could I have not seen it!" "You''re that dense?" Ste raised a brow and shrugged. "Guess you''re still young. But yeah, that''s how it is." "Are they, uh, official?" said Portal Girl. "Dunno. But they might as well be," said Ste. She looked down to see Portal Girl''s hand trembling. "But that''s not all that important right now." Ste patted Portal Girl''s shoulderfortingly. "C''mon, you''re nervous. I''ll tell you about one thing that really calms me down in situations like this." "Thanks," said Portal Girl. "I''ve never been in a really big battle before¡­so any tips you can give, I''d appreciate." "Yeah? Then here''s this. When you step out there, just focus on the big freaking explosions. Those are sure to keep you excited. Just the way they crash and light up and roast everything around em''¡­," Ste continued, smiling near manically as she absorbed herself into thinking about the explosions she would make. All the while, Portal Girl just nodded ufortably at Ste, wondering whether everyone in this Legion had a screw loose in them. Chapter 117: Formations

Chapter 117: Formations

Aldrich watched as one of the newly arrived recording drones hovered in front of his face. He stared into itsrge camera lenses. In a sort of way, they looked like giant metal bugs withpound eyes made of lenses. "Spybird, Fisk, are you all set up?" "Da. Ready to go. Though my grasp over controls a little shaky-," The drone shuddered from side to side for a bit. "A little much to drink." "Then you shouldn''t be doing this. Hand it over to Fisk," said Aldrich tly. "Bah. Was joke. You''re too serious," said Spybird. The drone started to hover properly again. "I would take a joke if there wasn''t more probable cause for you being too drunk," said Aldrich. "In any case, it''s good to hear that everything''s in ce. Cover as much of the battlefield as you can. Stay out of danger. And when I give Fisk telepathic signals, he''ll inform you of spots to avoid when I call down my own air support." "Got it," said Spybird. "From refugee to ck market drone maker to documentary filmer. How my life changes." With that, the drone fleet flew high in the air, ready to survey the battlefield. That was when Aldrich heard the eerie sound of the anemone variants firing again. Theirbined volley unleashed a strange sound reminiscent of a whale''s high itched, ghostly wail, except with far more concussive force. "Checking the battlefield," said Aldrich as he put two fingers to the side of his helmet, linking with the Grave Ward. The Grave Ward had been portaled over near the battlefield before any other unit, and it was now in position to survey the fight. "I follow in your lead, my master." Valera put a finger to the side of her helm as well, linking with the Grave Ward. Among all the undead, she alone was Aldrich''s Chosen was capable of linking with other undead: a phenomenon that made her the most suitable to be a sumander. Together, Aldrich and Valera watched the battlefield from a high vantage point. Several dozens of meters in the air, far enough to be away from stray attacks, but close enough to make out practically everything important. The anemone variants had fired into the front gates again. When the static filled cloud of faint blue mist conjured up from the explosion of beams parted, it reveled now a deep molten hole at over ten meters deep. If Aldrich recalled correctly, standard Panopticon defensive anti-variant walls were fifteen meters thick and fifty meters tall, meaning that just one extra volley wouldpletely blow open the gates. That gave the defenders inside of the walls at the maximum ten minutes to prepare. "How will the mortals fend for themselves, I do wonder," said Valera. "Most of them seem so weak and fragile. And theyck any form of magic. It is hard to see how they will ever stave off that tide of sea monsters." "This world and its humans are scrappier than you think. They''ve learned and adapted, and you shouldn''t underestimate modern technology," said Aldrich. "They''ve ran out of ammunition for all the wall turrets and cannons, but Haven''s Center District has the enough resources and military tech to put up a fight. The evac probably took all the aircraft, and those would have given them the biggest advantage here, but they still have most of their higher end police equipment. Medium ss battle tanks, various models of frames, and a few mechs." In the past, before the Altering, it would have been unfathomable for police forces to have firepower on the order of tanks, but with the rise of variant threats and threatened humanity as a whole, humanity managed to, for once in its history, set aside its differences and band together. Conflict between countries became obsolete in the face of existential variant crises. Under the guidance of the Panopticon, countries rerouted the vast majority of their military resources in joining the United Front (U.F.), a worldwide alliance of countries against variants. The military forces that did not go into the U.F. were then broken up and diverted into their police forces, turning ordinary police into a force capable of not only ensuring order inmunities, but also fending against variants when the time came. "Mechs? Like those clumsy dwarven contraptions?" said Valera. Right. Aldrich recalled that in Elden World, the dwarven race could create mechs. They were more steampunk themed, though, running off of magic crystal steam engines withrge, clunky looking metal bodies whereas modern tech was sleeker and far more versatile. "Simr. But better," said Aldrich. "The biggest issue is numbers. The humans are at a massive disadvantage on that front. Even with a few tanks and mechs, it still isn''t enough to hold the line against that many variants. There must be over a hundred thousand of them and I doubt the humans can cough up more than a thousand heroes and police to fight with. Not to mention that no ordinary tank or mech is ever going to deal with the stronger variants in that army. Or the leader." "Ah, that one," said Valera. She clenched her fist. A metal creak sounded with the sheer pressure of her grip. "How I would love to offer that one''s spine to you, but I am not confident I can defeat it." "I trust your judgement, Valera, but how did youe to this conclusion? You only briefly saw it, right?" said Aldrich. "From your memories, all I could see were glimpses of its appearance." As Aldrich''s Chosen Undead, Valera''s close mental tie with Aldrich meant he could also see her memories. "Yes, from a great distance away," said Valera. "When I punched that shark brute out of our base, I tried to check for its corpse. Around where the shark creature should havended, I saw the general of these monsters in the distance, surveying the area, perhaps. It did not seem hostile. Curious, mostly. I did not see it fight, but what rmed me was its presence. Its mere appearance caused my survival instincts to re. I must admit, I cannot urately sense the power of the creatures or mortals here, but with that creature, it was my primal instincts as a warrior that told me that facing it alone would not guarantee my survival." "Good thing you aren''t alone anymore," said Aldrich as he nodded to Valera, and she sped her hands together shyly at his words. "But it is true I still need more information about the general. I''m not going to rush in like an idiot and take on Shrimp without knowing at the least a little about its capabilities," said Aldrich. "I agree, master," said Valera. "That being said, I will now ry our ns to the Legion fully," said Aldrich. He turned to his legion and motioned to them with his wed hand. "Here is how we will fight tonight. I will make an entrance by myself at the right time, after the mortals emerge from their walls. When I do so, all of you will shortly follow using Portal Girl''s powers. At that point, it will be all out war. Fight and kill as much as you please. When you senserge amounts of danger, always signal to me and Valera. But do not expect me to always be able toe to your aid. No, instead, fight as if I had already fallen and you were avenging me, my Legion. Fight with that level of ferocity." The troll chieftain growled and grunted, beating his chest in agreement, and the animal type variants and undead all joined in with a symphony of growls and howls. Chapter 118: The Humans Strike Back

Chapter 118: The Humans Strike Back

"That said, I cannot be everywhere at once, and that is where the Deildeghastse in," proimed Aldrich. In response, the Deildeghasts chattered through their skeletal teeth a proud echo as they raised their smoky greatswords above their heads. "They will be positioned right behind the attacking force, creating a defensive line that will not only protect you, but blind the enemies positioned at the front. Whenever you sustain too much damage or need cover, retreat behind their [Spirit Boundaries] to recover. Though your healing is greatest within my [Mist of Regeneration], even outside of it, you will have some minor regenerative power. As you advance forward, the Deildeghast line will advance as well. If you encounter any enemies that are strong enough to warrant my attention, immediately alert me. Either I or my Inner Circle will deal with it. If you encounter a swarm of enemies too thick to deal with, then alert me. My storm will provide air support. Your objective is to unleash as much carnage as you can with the end goal being the capture of the anemone type variants. Once we have them captured, the battlefield should be ours, at which point, the general of their army will be forced to show his hand. When he appears, those among you in my Outer Circle must go out and fight him. I need information about his capabilities before I can engage him. I will warn you that to fight the general is to face near certain death but know that I will remember your sacrifice. Once I understand the general''s abilities, I will devise a strategy to take him down, and then this fight is ours. Then, victory is as good as ours." A wave of understanding went around the Legion. Now there was merely the final step of executing this n. "Geh? (Could you repeat all that?)" The Geist raised its hand like a confused schoolkid. That was when another ghostly boom echoed through the air - the sound of the sea anemone variants firing yet again. "Hm?" Aldrich immediately put a finger to the side of his helm, as did Valera. This third volley was several minutes earlier than expected. Aldrich saw through the Grave Ward floating over the battlefield that Merman, the mermen variant leader, had personally fired off a beam of hydrosma from his four arms, boring through the finalyer of the frontgate ahead of schedule. This left the front gatepletely melted down. Not only that, but it also meant that the sea anemone variants would be charged up and ready to fire an immediate volley against any of the first wave of defendersing from behind the gates. The crab variants stood in formations around the water shield covered sea anemones, guarding the mermen variants that channeled the barriers. Again, Aldrich felt surprise at this level of strategy from variants. He knew that there were some more intelligent variants that lived in tribalmunities, but their strategies usually did not go beyond small inter-tribal squabbles. This level of wide scale troop mobilization and the brains to use them was something usually far beyond them unless they belonged to a literal hivemind. That was why ant and insect type variants were usually so dangerous, because once they managed to build up arge enough hivemind, it became intelligent enough to enactrge scale and thought out attacks against civilization. But if all variants were starting to evolve this level of strategy at a basic level, then humanity was in for a time of struggle unknown since the beginning of the Monstering itself. At the forefront of this struggle, though, there would be Aldrich. Thanatos, the god of death turned from reaper of souls into defender of lives. "The battle has begun!" shouted Aldrich. "Follow me on my signal!" Aldrich unfurled his ck and red scaled draconic wings and leaped into the air, soaring into the sky and leaving his Legion. When Aldrich disappeared into the sky, the Geist scratched its smooth white head. "Geh¡­? (I still don''t get it¡­)" "Just follow me, and you''ll figure it out," said Ste as she crossed her arms and looked into the night sky, at Aldrich''s receding figure. The fleet of drones followed behind him, ready to put the world''s spotlight right on him. "Damn, didn''t know he was the type to show off like this." "I don''t know¡­it''s kind of cool, honestly," said Portal Girl as she looked up. "Hm, yeah. Just make sure ya don''t say that around ms. Bucket helmet over there." Ste motioned her chin over to where Valera was, but saw that Valera had disappeared from that spot. Ste blinked in surprise before Valera''s gauntleted hand appeared behind her, closing around her shoulder. "And what gossip are you two spreading¡­?" said Valera as she smiled widely underneath her helm, though anyone could tell that smile was anything but warm and weing. On the contrary, it managed to ooze a horrifying amount of bloodlust. "N-nothing!" said Portal Girl nervously. "Heh, you wanna fight again while I''m all riled up ready to watch something explode?" said Ste as she smiled back at Valera, unfazed. "Admirable willpower. It reminds me why we get along," said Valera. She then joined the two women looking up into the sky, and by now, Aldrich hadpletely disappeared, likely in the skies watching the battlefield, waiting for the perfect moment to swoop down. "I am eager to start tearing apart our enemies," said Valera with a fanged smile. "I can feel that this armor screams for blood, and blood, I shall give it, for it is my master''s precious gift to me." "And I''m ready to blow some variants up to high heaven and beyond," said Ste. She bore a manic grin. "Or blow em'' down to the depths of hell, if that''s what they prefer." Portal Girl nervously looked at the two women before trying to weakly join in on their insane energy. "And¡­and I''m ready to help!" Ste looked at Portal Girl curiously, thenughed. She reached out and pinched Portal Girl''s cheek yfully. "You''re such an innocent cinnamon bun. It''s endearing, really." "Am I¡­?" said Portal Girl as she rubbed her cheek. "Yeah, don''t you agree, Val?" said Ste. "Hm. Perhaps," said Valera. "I do like your attitude. But you will prove yourself even more if you bring to me the spines of our enemies. That will show to me more than anything that you have spirit, little girl." "S-spines!?" said Portal Girl with panicked voice. "Do I, um, have to take them out of their backs? Does it have to be with my own hands? What if I''m not strong enough?" "That was a jest," said Valera. "You know, I''m noedian, but I don''t think you''re the best at telling jokes," said Ste. "I do have share that trait with my master," said Valera. She cracked her knuckles as she looked towards the site of battle, fierce desire in her eyes. "And soon I will also share this victory with him as well." == Aldrich floated in the air, above the clouds. His arms were crossed as his wings stretched out to his sides, keeping him hovering in the air,pletely still. Draconic wings did not function like ordinary wings that needed to make the appropriate biomechanical motions like pping to generate force for movement. They were purely magical in nature, emitting a personal flight field. Granted, dragons could p their wings to manipte this flight field, granting themselves eleration or changing their direction, but the way they flew did not obey any conventionalws of physics, which was how some dragons that did not have any wings at all could just float through the air. As such, Aldrich could just stay in the air without any need to move his wings so long as he stretched them out like this. All around Aldrich was just empty night sky. Beneath him, below the cover of clouds, was the battle. Aldrich had made sure to move above the cover of clouds, ensuring that nobody saw him before he made his entrance. And that was the most important part about all of this: the right entrance. Right beneath the clouds below Aldrich was the site of battle, and he closed his eyes as he focused intently, meshing his sight with the Grave Ward''s to survey everything that happened. He, along with the masses of variants below, stared intently at the front gate, watching for a response to it falling. With the front gate of Haven''s center district sted down, how would the humans within fight back? Against those overwhelming numbers? Against those ws and jaws that wanted nothing more than their deaths? The answer took Aldrich by surprise. Chapter 119: The Perfect Moment

Chapter 119: The Perfect Moment

Nobody emerged from the hole in the front gates, and for good reason. The ten sea anemone variants were still ready to fire, and all were aimed at destroying anyone that came out of the melted down front gate to fend for their city. Just one person emerged. A lone woman that Aldrich very much realized, despite her mask. It was noticeable from the hazy shimmer of gold that clung to her body. This was Mel Morales, rank 1 of ckwater. She sprinted out of the gates with her de drawn at speeds easily rivaling a speeding car, streaks of gold streaming behind her like the tails of aet. Any fishmen that she neared, she sliced up in an instant, mowing through the crowd of fishmen, sliced up body parts flying in the air around her as she diced her way forwards, in the direction of the sea anemones. In response, Merman pointed one of his four arms at gangly, slimy arms at her, shouting at a group of mermen manning a sea anemone. The mermen chanted and raised their arms to the air, and the sea anemone hidden inside its water dome fired off a pir of hydrosma. Mel did not dodge. Instead, she actively ran into the beam. The beam, instead of eviscerating her into nothingness, broke apart into countless thin strands of bright blue light as it hit her body. She raised her de up, and the strands all swirled and gathered around it, turning the golden sword blue. With this, Mel fired off a series of ten swift shes, sending out huge arcs of sma energy with each strike. She hadpletely reformed the unstable and explosive sma pir into precise arcs of ded energy. Each arc of energy sliced through all the fishmen they passed through en masse, bisecting huge crowds of them into charred halves. It did not matter whether they were fishmen, thickly armored crabmen, or slimy mermen - they all fell before that sh. But simple ground troops were not Mel''s goal. Her shes were targeted strategically. Each of the ten sma shes crashed into the ten sea anemones several hundred meters away. When the sma sh smashed against the domes, their neatly condensed energy chaotically exploded outwards into an area of effect bomb of heat and destructive energy. Since Mel had diverted the energy of one beam into ten strikes, each sh was not enough to break through the water barrier protecting them. However, what she did aplish was killing off the mermaid variant crews that manned the sea anemones. The mermen maintaining the sea anemone and the crabmen defending them were now all reduced to charred corpse chunks, and with them gone, the water barriers protecting the sea anemones crashed down into useless puddles, revealing the sea anemone variants beneath. Their bodies consisted ofrge red, fleshy bulbs with t, saucer shaped heads covered with hundreds of glowing blue energy infused tendrils. In response, the Merman leader ferociously waved his arms forward, gesturing for more mermaid variants to slither forwards and secure the anemones again. But even as the mermen rushed around the anemones again, it was obvious that it would take some time for them to channel the water domes that both protected the anemones and fed them water as fuel. That was when the counterattack of the humans truly began. An enormous musclebound man that must have stood almost two and a half meters tall rushed out, jumping high into the air before mming his fist into the ground. His arms were covered in giant grey bracers that mimicked the appearance of cement rollers, and when his thickly armor-ted gauntlets hit the earth, waves of visible seismic energy echoed in front of him in a massive cone, creating a directed earthquake that made the ground in front of him undte and lurch like it was made of liquid. All the hundreds of fishmen standing on this ground lost their bnce, and as they fell, the ground shattered. Haven''s uniform, smooth roads violently splintered apart into spikes of cracked earth, cement, and concrete that jutted upwards like stakes. Variants caught in this shockwave found themselves impaled on these upturned, spike-like rock formations if their bones and internal organs had not beenpletely turned into paste from conducting the shockwaves in the first ce. All in all, over two hundred variantsy dead from that one single attack, wiping out the entirety of the variants surrounding the gate. Meanwhile, Mel took the energy of the shockwave and redirected it into aunching force on her feet that she used to retreat backwards,nding beside the giant hero. Aldrich recognized the bigger hero. He was Seismic, one of the two A- rankers stationed in Haven. The other one, Hat Trick, must have either fled or died. Most likely fled, considering it was no easy feat to take out an A ranker, even if they were in the (-) category. The humans then poured out from behind the gates now that the sea anemones cannons were temporarily disabled and the initial wave of fishmen directly outside the walls neutralized. Heroes that could fly streamed out from the top of the walls. Hundreds of policemen and physically less capable heroes, technos, most likely, rappelled down the walls in Frames of varying sizes and models, the hands and feet of their mechanical suits outlined in glowing green that indicated that could tether to the walls. Tanks rolled out from the massive hole in the front gate, as did the huge forms of several bipedal ARMA Machina Walkers. They wererge mechs standing around eight meters tall and outfitted with machine guns, missiles,sers, and several other weapons systems to deal with any type of threat flexibly. Around the tanks and the legs of the walkers, the non-flight capable heroes and police ran out, armed to the teeth with conventional firearms, personal explosives, and body armor if they were not in Frames. Aldrich nodded in recognition. This was a much better fight than what he thought the humans would have put up. If everyone had just charged out at once, the anemone cannons would have annihted them. So, Mel was the first and only one to leave. This had the advantage of confusing the fishmen, for they obviously did not expect a single defender toe charging out. But when she proved a threat, it drew immediate panic from Merman, but even then, Merman exercised caution and only ordered one out of ten anemones to fire. However, Merman had no idea of Mel''s force redirection ability, and using that single stream of sma, she had shaped it into ten shes to temporarily disable the anemones. With the anemones disabled, Seismic was the second toe forth, using his mighty area of effect shockwaves to instantly clear out the variants surrounding the walls. This gave space for the rest of the human forces, especially their heavy units like tanks and mechs, toe charging out without getting sted into bits while packed into the narrow choke point of the front gate. Seismic waved everyone forwards, and the flying heroes abused their aerial supremacy to unleash a massive medley of projectiles from above. Every element and color of energy projectile rained down in varying levels of intensity. As for the ground - Augmenter and Mutant type heroes meant for melee brawling rushed ahead of Seismic, diving into the thick of the aquatic variants. The heroes and policemen in Frames stopped beside Seismic, forming into several lines of troops efficiently situated to use the range of their firearms and grenades. Drones from behind the walls airdropped ammunition beside them. Behind the Frames, the tanks spread out in their own line, firing shells deep into the variant army. The Walkers positioned themselves ahead of the tanks but behind the Frames and they unleashed salvos of missiles while their machine guns fired countless shells into the unending horde of variants. AV (Anti-Variant) Targeting Systems ensured that those in Frames and within tanks or mechs did not fire at the Augmenters in the thick of the variant horde, instead unleashing bullets around them. Variants died by the hundreds as tank shells, bullets, missiles, empowered fists, and energy sts ripped through them. ''Master!'' came Valera''s voice ringing in Aldrich''s head. ''Are you witnessing this? The mortals, they are far more capable than I thought! And here I thought they were merely waiting for their deaths. You always told me to not underestimate the mortals here, but this - at this rate, it may even be that we shall not have any spines for us to take! Shall we make our appearance now?'' Aldrich''s response was immediate. ''No. Stay patient, Valera. And look closely. I will admit that human technology is impressive, but it has its limits. You''lle to be familiar with them soon enough. Their entrance was shy, yes, full of explosions and gunfire and beams, but look at how much they''ve aplished. They''ve killed hundreds but they still have tens of thousands more left to go through. They will run of out ammo and energy before they get to clearing even half that army. And Seismic, he''s not moving. He''s letting other Augmenters charge ahead of him. As an Augmenter, he should be out in the front with his naturally enhanced durability and wide area of effect powers. That means that in all likelihood, Seismic can''t keep up his power for long. He is the absolute heart of this strategy. Whenever the variants push near him, he''ll fire a seismic shockwave forward, preventing the variants from getting to the ranged units. But once Seismic''s energy fades and he can no longer hold the line - then everything crumbles. It''s only a matter of when, not if.'' Aldrich watched as the leader of the crabmen, a five meter tall king crab humanoid, mmed its ws together, causing its thousands upon thousands of huge, brawler-like crabmen to charge. Apanying this force were several times more fishmen, and backing this up were thousands of mermen situated far back, their arms glowing blue as they fired countless beams of pressurized water or thin hydrosma beams. The charge of the variants looked like a natural disaster. A tidal wave of monstrous bodies. Inparison, the heroes'' efforts looked pitiful. A little ssh in a big, big ocean. Forget when. The moment the defenders broke down might even be now. The hailstorm of bullets and projectiles and explosives would slow the variants'' tsunami-like charge down, but at a certain point, the sheer amount of numbers would just overwhelm the defenders. And at that moment, when the defensive line broke, when all seemed lost - ''The perfect moment wille soon,'' said Aldrich. ''Just be patient.'' "Detecting a tremendous swell of energy," said Vntis, and he marked out in Aldrich''s vision where this buildup was through a bright blue dot. "This power¡­it most certainly belongs to flesh that holds mighty bones." Aldrich cut off momentarily from his Grave Ward and instead tracked where Vntis marked the energy buildup. He saw nothing but clouds underneath him, but that made the bright blue dot stand out even more. What was incredibly notable was the position of this blinking, ever growing dot of power. It was stationed at the rear of the army. Where the general was. And, with every passing moment, the dot moved farther and farther forwards. The final boss was on the move, drawn out by the sudden and powerful resistance of the humans. And with one final boss on the move, it was only appropriate that another final boss stood up to meet it. "Hm. So much for being patient," said Aldrich as he clenched his fists, a surge of red and green energy - the twin auras from himself and Vntis- swirling around him¡­ "Looks like that moment is here." Chapter 120: King Of The Oceans

Chapter 120: King Of The Oceans

Seismic stood tall with his pir-like arms crossed in front of him. Standing like that, his massive back in front of all the defenders behind him, he looked like a huge oak tree. A rooted symbol of strength. And behind him, everyone rallied. A rain of gunfire and explosives whistled past him and over his head as he stared down the enormous wave of variants surging forwards. The ordinary fishmen died in droves. Their scales were resistant to bullets, but not entirely bulletproof. After taking dozens of rounds, their scales shattered and rendered them vulnerable. The biggest issue were the Crabmen. Each of them stood three meters tall, supporting their huge, shell ted bodies on four powerful segmented legs. They possessed six arms, four of them smaller and wed, with two mainrge ones holding their giant club-like pincers. Bullets bounced off of them like rain on a windshield, and soon, when the fragile fishmen at the front died off, a line of crabmen naturally formed, theirrge red shelled bodies forming a shield wall from which the fishmen could charge behind without taking any bullet shots. Higher caliber bullets from the Walker mechs and rounds from the tanks could blow them apart, but there was only a finite number of those. At the very least, not nearly enough to deal with the tide of hundreds to thousands of crabmen surging forwards, their charge shaking the ground itself. The variants rapidly closed the distance towards the human defenders, now nearing within a hundred meters of them. Within seconds, all would be lost. "They''re going to overrun us!" came a shout of panic behind Seismic. "Augmenters, Mutants, get back behind me!" shouted Seismic into his earpiece. The few surviving Augmenters and Mutants in the front lines scrambled back, many of them injured and scratched up. As soon as Seismic saw thest of them rush past him, he readied himself. Seismic sucked in a deep breath, and his eyes widened, glowing brown as he channeled his power. He felt heat circte from his spine where, as an Augmenter, his Alter Organ was located. He raised a fist into the air, and all of the developed muscles in his arm bulged in flexion, veins of vascrity showing through his ck and brown bodysuit. A sphere of white formed around his fist. With a yell, Seismic knelt down and punched the ground in front of him, driving the sphere into the earth. At first, nothing happened. Then, the ground rumbled and shook as Seismic generated a localized earthquake. The cement roller shaped bracers around his arms rotated, their etherite reactors glowing as twin blue dots. These allowed Seismic to control his normally omnidirectional earthquakes into controlled directions. With this, Seismic directed his earthquake into a massive cone in front of him. Once more, the ground under the charging variants lurched and shook like it was made of water, sending all the variants flipping in the air like food tossed in a pan. Any variant that had their feet on the ground when the shockwave washed over it conducted it in their bodies,pletely decimating their insides, breaking bones and scrambling organs. The crabmen were just as fragile as the fishmen against this level of strength, and their white organs and blood spurted from their shattered shells. Then, the earth sundered. Far worse than before. This time, many jagged rock formations as tall as small buildings rose in the air, forcibly churned up from beneath the earth by Seismic''s power. Countless more smaller rock spikes thrust upwards as well, impaling hundreds of variants. Some variants screamed as they fell into uncovered fissures and faults. Seismic took in a deep breath as he stood up. "Holy sh*t¡­" said one of the policemen in the Frames as he stopped shooting and looked ahead. All of the men and women defenders followed his lead and stopped firing in awe. The entire battlefield had been reshaped by Seismic''s one punch. Several football stadiums'' worth ofnd mass had beenpletely converted into a mass of upturned rock spikes and formations painted in variant corpses and blood. "We''ve got this!" shouted someone. "We have an A-ranker by our side!" "That''s right you fish fucks, you like that!?" "Go get em'', Seismic!" "Stay focused!" roared Seismic, his voice hoarse. He felt pain spiking around his spine and blood churning up from his stomach, painting his teeth red. "This only buys you time! Shoot at the choke points!" Seismic wiped his mouth with his ck gloved hand and grimaced at the red stains he drew back. He suffered from a condition known as Crystallization. A fairlymon condition among Alters as they aged, particrly stronger ones. Alter powers were simr to natural organs like the muscles. Their limits could be expanded and trained by constant use and recovery in a process very simr to muscr hypertrophy. And just like how some humans had more gic potential to grow muscle than others, it was the same with how some Alters had more gic potential to be stronger than others. But in the same way that muscles could wear and tear over time, atrophying and suffering in old age, so too could Alter organs and their powers. With age and overuse, Alter organs began to stiffen up, turning crystalline in structure, and the more they solidified, the less capable they were of circting the Alter Cells needed for their powers. Their cell count stayed the same, but their engines - the organs - simply became less and less efficient. Generally speaking, the stronger an Alter''s power was in their prime, the more it would degenerate in their old age. For someone like Seismic who also greatly overused his powers in his youth, Crystallization hit him incredibly hard. On top of this, Seismic still nursed a severe injury from ten years ago. When he was cut down by the viin known as Swordmaster. Seismic''s spine had been severed at the base, damaging his organ, and it was a miracle he had even survived with the absolute best of medical science and Restorer powers avable. Ever since then, though, Seismic''s power had suffered. That said, Seismic''s maximum output of power was simr to back in his younger days. But it was his stamina that could not keep up. He could fight at full strength for a few attacks at best. That was the biggest reason he had dropped all the way from the A+ rank, on the cusp of reaching the legendary S rank, down to A-. That was why Seismic had to fight smarter now. He had used hisst earthquake to st away the variants, yes, but what he had also done was create a sort of rudimentary maze. Therger rock spiks he created formed natural walls that corralled variants into several choke points where the defenders could gun them down much more efficiently. Seismic growled as he saw variants already rushing through the choke points, rearing their ugly fish heads out. He had not even bought a minute of rest for everyone. "Shoot!" roared Seismic. "If you see a crabman, use an explosive round or attach a grenade to yourunchers!" The constant tter of gunfire resumed behind him. Seismic looked up, making sure the flying heroes were doing their job. They were, but they were struggling. They were engaged in a massive shootout with the mermen situated further back in the variant army. The job of the flyers was to continually rain down projectiles around the ten sea anemones out of range from conventional firearms and weaponry, preventing the mermen from manning them again. In response, the mermen fired their own projectiles, creating and shaping water into pressurizednces that shot through the sky in a rain of blue spikes. Every passing moment, flying heroes died, impaled by one of these waternces, and every passing moment, the mermen got closer and closer to fully manning the anemones again. But in just ten minutes, the Panopticon''s drone fleets would get here. That was all the time they needed to hold out for. Seismic stood tall again, crossing his arms, making sure his back, what everyone saw behind him, did not falter, did not show any weakness. There was a noticeable shift in the battlefield then. The variants ceased to rush forward in their mass numbers. Then, the leader of the crabmen variants leaped upon the highest rock formation it could find, staring directly as Seismic with beady ck, stalked eyes. It seemed almost as if the leader wanted to challenge Seismic, and Seismic readied himself to fight. But the leader of the crabmen suddenly stiffened before leaping away almost in fright, disappearing farther back into the army. "What''s going on!?" came a confused shout, and Seismic did not answer, for he had no idea either. That was when everyone felt it. A presence. Their skin tingling, the hairs on their skin raising in sheer instinctual rm. It was as if they could feel the heavy humidity of an intense storm ready to bear down at them. The variants had not retreated. No, they had made way for something. The rock formations at the back shook before crumbling down, as if a great force had shattered them at their base. "Flyers, get me a visual," said Seismic into his earpiece. "That huge water dome at the back is gone!" Mothman''s voice buzzed into Seismic''s ear. "Something came out of it, something fast, and it''s headed right your way! I-I didn''t get a clear sight of it, but this feeling - this is the Locus!" The Locus. The center of control forrge groups of variants. The rock formations broke apart and sunk to the ground en masse, and through their deconstruction, it was possible to map out exactly where the Locus wasing from. It was both a good and bad thing that the Locus was approaching. Last visuals confirmed that the Locus was contained in a water dome at the back of the army, meaning that it would not immediately contribute to the battle. However, now that the Locus was free, that meant that the defenders would have a much, much harder time holding the line. Yet, at the same time, there was a silver lining to this: Seismic cocked back a fist. He took in deep breaths, controlling the pain and heat from his spine. This was it. If he could kill the Locus in one sudden, powerful attack, he could end this entire thing now without the Panopticon. He still had enough energy to make a good fight. And the variants seemed to want their Locus to fight alone, perhaps by will of the Locus itself. "I''ll do it." Seismic perked up. "You, Vig?" Mel Morales walked up beside him, her de drawn. "Yes. I don''t haverge amounts of destructive power, but killing single targets is my specialty. If I don''t seed, then I''ll be out of your sight permanently, and you get the glory of saving the day. Doesn''t that sound like a good deal?" Chapter 121: From Despair, Hope

Chapter 121: From Despair, Hope

"I''ll allow it," said Seismic as he watched the rock formations shudder and break apart. At first, the formations had broken apart rapidly, but now, the building sized upturned rock spikes were falling one by one. The Locus was¡­slowing down as it approached them, taking up almost a casual strolling pace. The defenders stopped firing in confusion, though they aimed their guns and weapons forwards, feeling tension cling heavily at their backs. The Locus walked straight through the rock of the final rock formation,pletely ignoring its existence. The building sized rock copsed all around it. When the Locus emerged out of the rubble and the dust clouds settled down, that was when it became fully visible. Just shy of a hundred meters away from the defensive line. The Locus did not look that menacing. It was approximately two meters tall and surprisingly skinny. It was strikingly humanoid in appearance with bipedal legs and fournky arms. Where the crabmen, fishmen, and mermen were bipedal, they were not in any sense of the word humanoid. Their features were distinctively monstrous. Inhuman. It was impossible to ever mistake them as a man. But the Locus - if one did not look at it too closely, it might have been possible to mistake it was someone inside unique power armor. One pair of the Locus''s arms possessed five fingered hands while another pair ended in shrimp-like ws, though these ws were not that muchrger than its hands. Its body was covered in segmented shell colored a bright iridescent rainbow color. The color gradient of the shell constantly fluctuated in many bright, glowing shades, though the dominant colors were bright green and blue. A shrimp-like tail swished and swayed behind it. Some red and raw strands of muscture were visible in gaps and seams beneath the creature''s bright shell. Its head was covered inyers of shell that looked almost like a motorcycle helmet, and underneath the ting, surprisingly human looking rainbow-colored eyes were visible. Twin antennae poked out of its head in long and thin, translucent blue strands that crackled with electrical charge. The Locus walked forwards; its head cocked curiously as it observed the humans. "Take it down!" came a cry from behind Seismic, and the defensive line fired all they had. A storm of bullets, missile salvos, and tank shots crashed against the Locus,pletely engulfing it in fiery explosions and high-speed lead collisions. Smoke and fire roared up around it, obscuring it. "Stop!" said Seismic after ten good seconds of this bombardment. The smoke settled, and the Locus was there. It hunkered down with its arms thrust out in front of it like a scared child, but it was mostly unharmed. A smoking crater decorated with fire sprawled out all around it, but the actual damage done to it was pitiful. There were a few scratches in its shell - that was it. "Throw me there," said Mel. "What?" said Seismic. "I can''t fly without a jumpstart of energy, so I need you to throw me. I''ll cut it down and end this once and for all," said Mel. "Or do you have anything against a vignte taking your kill?" All Seismic said was, "Good luck." From what he could tell, this girl was young. Likely driven by some form of strong passion, maybe vengeance. She had talk and attitude in her, and that was something Seismic was getting a little too old to deal with. Instead, Seismic grabbed Mel roughly by the shoulder and punted her like a baseball. Mel at first ragdolled out from Seismic''s power, but she quickly regained direction in the air, spinning in apact ball with her de in front of her, rotating in shes of gold. When Mel was directly above the Locus, she directed force behind herself and shot down towards the Locus, fueling this descent with thrusters from her greaves. The Locus looked up at her and blinked wonderingly, not at all bothering to defend itself. Mel shed down at the creature''s head. The Locus just stared up at her with cocked and curious head. Her de glowed gold as it reached down to the Locus''s neck. Using her force direction ability, she could continuously rotate energy around her de at insanely high speeds capable of slicing at the molecr level, negating any durability. This exceeded the sharpness of even the highest end of Vibrodes on the market. No matter how tough this creature''s shell was, if it did not dodge, it was done for. The Locus''s antennae twitched at the veryst millisecond, when the de nearly touched it, and it moved to the side. It moved in a sh of crackling energy bolts, and it moved so quickly that it looked almost like it had just teleported. Mel found herself stabbing into the ground. "Y-you¡­," said the Locus as it''s eyesnded on her golden de. Mel''s eyes widened in sheer surprise. The Locus had¡­spoken? It was impossible for a variant to ever speak. The only time it ever happened was with parasite type variants that hijacked the brains of humans. But this variant talked, there was no mistaking it. "You killed mother." The Locus''s human eyes narrowed into sinister, monstrous hatred. Mel''s power was a rare multi-category power that had two parts to it. The first allowed her to control the direction of energy around her body. The second allowed her mind to make exceptional levels of calctions specialized to fine tune this energy control. Mel could thus react to the Locus''s attack, but her body was far too slow to keep up with it. The Locus reached out and grabbed Mel''s sword arm wrist and her head. It lifted her up in the air with the ease of lifting up a feather. The Locus red at Mel as it tightened the grip on its hands, exerting immense crushing force onto her wrist and upper half of her head. Golden shimmers rapidly flickered from around her head and wrist, indicating force she was diverting away from herself. "You don''t die¡­?" The Locus cocked its head and stared at Mel for a few seconds. "Then, go away." With that, the Locus threw Mel away, bolts of energy arcing with its movements. The power of its throw was such that Mel was sent soaring away over the walls themselves, likely to crash into a few buildings down in her descent. "Stand back!" said Seismic before panic could settle in among the heroes and policemen behind him. He mmed his fists together, and his bracers clicked as they readied to channel his powers. "I''m going to take this thing down. All of you, give me cover fire, make sure no other variants get in my way. But do not try to step in - all of you will be dead weights in a fight of this scale." "Yes sir!" came a resonating shout. Seismic breathed in, then breathed out. He closed his eyes, looked up, then opened them. He saw several drones floating in the sky, recording everything. He pointed at them and did something he rarely ever did: smiled. "Son, no, James, this¡­is for you. I''ll make you proud. If¡­if I nevere back, know that you made this sad life of mine worth living," With that, Seismic''s expression turned grim again as he jumped dozens of meters in the air, his fist cocked back and a white sphere encased around it. Again, the Locus did not react, instead only watching Seismic curiously as the giant of a man bore down his fist against it. As with Mel, the instant before Seismic''s fist made contact with the Locus, it evaded, its body wreathed in an aura of crackling blue energy as it instantly moved to the side. Seismic''s fist smashed into the ground, missing the Locus entirely. "¡­Slow," said the Locus. Seismic, with his enhanced senses, had heard the Locus speak with Mel, so he was not surprised. "And you are stupid," said Seismic. The ground around thempletely caved into a yawning sinkhole gouged out from Seismic''s quake power, and as the Locus lost its bnce from the ground suddenly parting beneath it, Seismic quickly grabbed the creature into an expertly performed headlock to trap it and prevent the beast from using its superspeed. All the while, Seismic generated his power around his arms, forcing shockwaves to continuously ravage the Locus''s body from within and keep it pinned to Seismic with immense amounts of crushing force. Seismic and the Locus free fell into the deep fissure. The defenders closest to the yawning sinkhole rushed over to the edge, trying to see Seismic, and they saw the Locus struggling, putting its thin hands over Seismic''s brawny arms crushing its neck. Waves of shockwave energy continuously washed over the Locus, cracking its shell armor all over, causing strange blue blood to spurt out everywhere. Before Seismic and the Locus fell so deep that darkness sucked them up, the Locus spurted blood from its mouth as the shell around its throat cracked. "He did it! Seismic did it!" came a rousing shout. "That''s an A ranker for you! Sh*t, when this is over, Seismic better get promoted back to A+, hell, he should be in the S ss!" "With the Locus gone, these sea freaks are gonna start running with their tails behind their legs!" "My family - they''re safe!" Cheers and derations of victory echoed like wildfire around the human defenders. Ten seconds passed. The cheers started to grow quieter. Twenty seconds. There was only pure silence now. Thirty seconds. Silence crystallizing into mounting dread. Then - despair. The earth rumbled onest time, shockwaves from deep within the ground rising up and making the ground tremble, and for a brief moment, everyone thought Seismic hadnded the final blow. Seismic shot up over the sinkhole, crashing back on rocky ground and knocking a Framed policeman over. The policeman groaned as he got up, but when he saw Seismic - "No¡­no, no, no!" There was a gaping hole in Seismic''s stomach, and his body was charred beyond recognition. The bracers around his arms had shattered into sparking grey pieces. His internal organs had beenpletely turned ckened, and his bones were charred into near ash. He was dead. And no Restorer was going to bring him back from that. Their only hope, the A ranker, the man whose back they had always looked towards - gone, reduced to nothing more than burnt and destroyed flesh. The ground shuddered again, but this time, it was not from Seismic''s quakes. It was from the iing march of the entire variant army as they rushed forwards, confirming to the despair of all humans that the Locus was not dead either. Gunfire and explosives resumed again, but this was just the final desperate efforts of prey before they fell to the jaws of death. In everyone''s earpieces, the panicked cries of the flying heroes buzzed through. "We''re losing ground here! Our barrier Creators are dead! We''re getting outgunned! They''re going to man the sma Anemones again!" shouted Mothman, designated leader of the flyers. "Rocket Man''s been downed - we need support-," Mothman''s voice cut off. The policeman kneeling beside Seismic''s body took down the helmet of his frame and silencedmunications. He looked ahead at the iing tidal wave of variants and shook his head. He saw as explosions rocked their ranks, but it was like scooping out shovelfuls of sand in an entire beach. At the head of this charge was the leader of the crabmen, its enormous body barreling forward like a living tank. It took tank shots to its body and face directly, and all that did was make it pause for second before resuming its bloodthirsty advance. "It''s over," said the policeman as he dropped his gun. He could hear the sounds of people running behind him, but what was the point? They were going to get swarmed. They would all die. All their families, all the lives they had built up, washed away just like that - The king crab variant jumped past the sinkhole straight towards the policeman. The shadow of its enormous body cast over the policeman, and he just closed his eyes, waiting for death. It never came. Instead, a loud crash of metal rang through the air, and the policeman opened his eyes. What looked like a humanoid monster stood in front of him. It was covered in ck metal like flesh with living, bloody veins and patches lining it. Three horns of ck and bone jutted from its head as did a single gleaming red eye. This was a terrible, terrible monster. One that sent chills of impending death down the policeman''s spine when he gazed at it. But the monster was not there to kill him, no - The monster''s arm, covered in thick coils of raw, exposed muscle, was raised in the air, acting like a shield that blocked the king crab variant''s pincer m. The king crab variant clicked its mandibles as it struggled against the new monster to no avail. "W-what!?" The policeman''s eyes widened as he saw the scene unfolding before him. "You''ve lost your will to live just like that? After all the sacrifice you''ve seen for your sake? Pick up your gun. Fight." Amanding voice resonated outwards from the ck monster, and that was when the policeman gained his wits and realized that this was no monster, it was a man. A man in some form of armor he had never seen before. But what the policeman did recognize was his authority. That voice projected with authority. Authority borne from power. The same kind of authority that Seismic himself had carried in his voice. Tears welled up in the policeman''s eyes as he stared at the ck armored man''s back. For a moment, he saw the image of Seismic''s back standing tall, ovepping with the armored man. The policemen grit his teeth and drew together his will. Chapter 122: The Legion

Chapter 122: The Legion

Aldrich stood in front of the giant, yawning sinkhole that Seismic had created. He had to respect Seismic''s decision making. The sinkhole move was not only useful to get Shrimp off bnce to put into a hold, but it also created a huge rift that stopped the variants on the other side from easily approaching the humans. Even in hisst moments, Seismic had always thought about the people behind him. Aldrich had lost visual of Seismic and Shrimp when they fell into the rift, but Vntis could track Shrimp''s enormous energy signature even underground. From how the energy signatures red and moved, Aldrich determined that Seismic, in hisst dying breath, had summoned up all of his possible strength and punched Shrimp deep into the earth with such enormous force that Shrimp''s energy stopped moving, indicating that it was either immobilized or recovering. Aldrich could not reach that deep down, but what he could do for now was deal with the army. He stared straight ahead. Across the sinkhole, the entire variant army stood against him. A mass of monstrosities tens of thousands strong. Behind Aldrich, there stood the human defenders numbering barely up to a thousand, if even that. But even with that number disparity, even when it looked like if the variants just jumped over the hole and charged, they could swarm over all the humans, the variants paused. All the tens of thousands of variants stopped in unison to stare at Aldrich. To bear witness to his presence. Ordinarily, variants and heroes could not sense his power, but the way he had easily repelled Crab, easily the strongest individual frontline unit in the variant army, was worthy of note. Silence reigned in the air as both armies of man and monster stopped to behold Aldrich''s sudden appearance. "What are you doing?" said Aldrich as he stood tall, his voice echoing outwards in calm tone but powerful projection. He addressed the humans behind him while facing forwards, showing only his broad, armored back. "I shouldn''t be hearing quiet. I should be hearing gunfire. I should be hearing the sound of all of you fighting for your homes. For your lives." "It''s hopeless!" shouted a hero, a mutant with the tusks of a boar and bristles all over his body. Countless scars and bite marks littered his skin. "You-you''re strong, way stronger than me, but look! Just look at all of them!" The boar mutant waved his hand towards the sea of variant monsters. "You''re all alone, and they-they have an army!" Aldrich raised his arms to his sides, his ws syed out. Swirls of green and red magical energy raged around him in a brilliant aura. "So do I." Seven dots of purple appeared behind Aldrich in an even line. The dots expanded outwards as the space around them distorted into swirls of purple that grew into fully fledged portals, each of them ten meters in diameter. From these portals, Aldrich''s legion emerged. His undead variants and monsters emerged, forming a crowd of powerful beasts behind him, their feral eyes gleaming in various shades as they bared their ws, fangs, tusks - all their natural weapons. The Deildeghasts stepped forth with their greatswords raised in the air. With each step, they mmed their bony fists against the t of the sword, echoing out a ring that matched the beat of their ghostly march. His fifty reanimated fishmen emerged from one portal, streaming out with hunched backs, flickers of green trailing around them as they hissed at what was once their brethren across the sinkhole. Seeing this, the fishmen from across the sinkhole cocked their heads in pure confusion at seeing their kind turned against them. The death knight legion marched out of a portal in neat formation, Chiros leading them in his shy crimson armor with his saber unsheathed and pointed at the fishmen. "Dear me, there is such an overwhelming amount of blood here for me to paint with. All I need is to extract it," said Chiros as bloody red energy shimmered around him in flickering rings. "How many among you shall I use for my newest art piece tonight, hm?" ckwater''s ten strongest A-ss stepped out of a portal in their sleek ck uniforms. Though their faces were young, the way they carried themselves, the way they stared ahead at the fishmen with confidence in their faces, showed that they were all natural talents. "Just fishmen? Aren''t they what, an E rank threat? Hah, this''ll be a breeze," said Simon Wells as he adjusted his visor. "All of you are all so cocky. Keep it down a notch. They''ve got enough numbers to screw us over if we make a mistake," said Alexis as she and the ckwater students that could fly floated in the air. Electricity crackled form Alexis''s hands, and her eyes turned bright white. Her dark grey hair started to flutter as if pushed by a breeze. "Good!" Ste stepped out of a portal, her smile wide as she stared manically ahead at the fishmen, her fingers curled and wreathed with glowing orange lines. "The more there are, the more sh*t there is to blow up!" Valera, Portal Girl, and the Geist emerged out from beside Ste. "How about a friendlypetition?" said Valera. She cracked her neck as she balled her wed gauntlets tight into fists. From her knuckles, studded spikes emerged to make each of her already monstrous punches that much more deadly. "The one who brings forth the most spines tonight will be the victor." "Spines? Hah!" Sparks sputtered from Ste''s hands. "When I''m done with them, there won''t be anything left of em'', let alone spines." "Kill count it is, then," said Valera. "I''m down!" said Ste. She turned to Portal Girl. "You in, newbie?" "Ah, uh, me?" stammered out Portal Girl. "Well, um, I think I should stay back here. Portal people in and out of important ces, you know." "Oh damn, right, that was your job," said Ste. "Well, that sounds boring as all hell. Feel kinda bad for you." "I¡­I think I''m quite alright, actually," said Portal Girl. "Geh! Geh! Geh! (Look! Look! So many more friends!)" The Geist jumped up and down as it pointed the cursed rock axe towards the fishmen. "They''ll be friends AFTER we kill em''," said Ste. "Geh¡­(Oh right)" said the Geist. "Geheh! (Then I kill them, and then make friends!)" "That''s the spirit!" Ste pped the Geist''s muscr back in support, and the Geist nodded in glee. From individual portals, Crow and the Zombie Giant, the tworgest in Aldrich''s Legion, emerged. Crow hopped out before spreading out his enormous wings, staring ahead at the variants across the sinkhole with his six gleaming yellow eyes. His huge feathers of sleek ck, metallic structure bristled, ready to unleash a storm of piercing death. The Zombie Giant learned form its past clumsy portal experience and this time rolled out of it, standing in the air twelve meters tall, towering over everything else in the battlefield. Seeing this sudden emergence of countless different types of monstrosities, variants, and people, the hordes of variants across the sinkhole took another step back, especially when they stared up at the enormous Zombie Giant whose mere steps looked like they could kill swathes of them. Crab, the leader of the crabmen, a five-meter-tall hulking monstrosity, did not even reach half the size of the giant. But if the variants were this scared, then the humans - "Variants! More variants!" came a panicked shout from among the humans. "What is that!?" came a terrified shriek when the giant came out, and many of the humans aimed their guns instinctively at him. "No." Aldrich''s voice boomed out, reaching all the humans. Immediately, they froze up, sensing chills running down their spines. "This is my army. My Legion. And tonight, we will be taking back this city. To all of you that are unwilling to make the same sacrifice Seismic did, toy down your lives to fight for your city, then stay here, where it will be safer. But to all of you willing to fight to the death for what is precious to you, thene with me. Fight with me." Aldrich knelt down by Seismic''s charred body, seeing the grave marker and soul hovering above him. Heid a respectful hand on Seismic''s shoulder and cast [Raise Undead]. Green and red strands of energy fluxed out of Aldrich''s hand, tethering to Seismic''s body for Seismic was a powerful enough individual that he was ssified as a ''boss unit'' that drained Aldrich''s health and mana to raise. "Fight until you die!" Aldrich raised his hand in the air, and as he did so, Seismic''s corpse floated upwards. The red and green energy tether flowed into his thoroughly burnt and damaged body, and as it did so, his ckened, charred flesh began to heal over. His burnt organs started to grow red again. The gaping hole in his stomach started to knit together with muscle and skin. After several seconds, the tether broke off, making Seismic''s body fall to the ground. But instead of crashing down, hended on his two feet, raised and ready to fight once more. For now, Aldrich turned off Seismic''s free will, making him a controble unit basically. "Fight even after you die! For with me, you shall never know death!" With that, Aldrich powerfully thrust his fist out, aiming at the variants across the sinkhole. A gust of wind squalled out from the force of his punch. "Go, my Legion! Show me your strength!" The heaviest hitters went out first to clear up as much space as possible. The Zombie Giant bellowed out an immense roar, and this onepletely drowned out all of the roars from the other undead in Aldrich''s Legion. Itpletely echoed out in booming peals that traveled across almost the entirety of the battlefield, and as its terrifying scream reached the fishmen and crabmen, they scrambled back, the fishmen shrieking in terror and the crabmen pulling in their eye stalks into their shells in a natural fear response. This caused immediate mass chaos in the variant ranks, causing them to crash and stumble into each other. A stampede began where they started to crush the weakest and smallest among them underfoot and w. This was the [Giant''s Bellow], a racial skill among giants that allowed them to cause tiny weaklings they directed their roar at to scatter. And with that mighty roar, with the variants shrieking under fear and Aldrich''s Legion eager for blood, the battle began. Chapter 123: The Battle Rages

Chapter 123: The Battle Rages

Against the giant''s fear inducing roar, the only variant on the other side of the sinkhole that stood firm against this was Crab, the leader of the crabmen variants. It raised itself up on its segmented legs, standing as tall as it could, before smashing its huge pincer ws together. A deafening shockwave echoed all around it, and as the sound passed over its crabmen subordinates, their fear dissipated. The crab variants could not speak, but it seemed that this w smash was the equivalent of a rousing war cry. In response, the crabmen all raised their ws up in renewed confidence. Looks like this would be more of a battle than was initially thought. In response'' the Zombie Giant jumped over, soaring over the sinkhole andnding right at Crab with a fierce snarl. The giant smashed two fists down into the ground, and the sheer size and strength behind that blow caved out an enormous crater with Crab at the center. Crab raised its pincers up and actually handled the blow, but with some difficulty. The red shell of its pincers were cracked, and it shook from exertion under the giant''s might. Flecks of strange bright red light started to spot around the crab''s shell. All the fishmen and smaller crabmen around it were sted away by the shockwave, leaving the giant and Crab locked in a one-on-one duel. This duel zone marked the center of the battlefield. Meanwhile, Aldrich gavemands to organize his forces to the left and right of this duel. "Valera, take the A-ss and Ste with you towards the left. I will deal with the right side," said Aldrich. "It will be my pleasure!" said Valera. Aldrich turned to the crowd of fifty fishmen he had reanimated. "It''s time for you to meet your brethren again." Aldrich faced an open palm towards them and chanted, "[Burning Agony]." In response, the fishmen all began to undergo a distinct change. Their veins started to bulge through their muscture, engorging with additional blood flow. Their bodies swelled up as their muscles increased in size. Then, their visible veins began to glow red before blood burst out from them not in clouds of liquid, but in clouds of zing red fire. Auras of fire wrapped all the fishmen as their flesh and bodily processes worked to their maximum limits, generating heat like an overclockedputer processing unit. Yet despite the fire burning on them, melting their flesh, they did not react in pain. No, instead, the fishmen roared in sheer bloodlust, converting the agony of their burning bodies into pure aggression. "Go. Kill them," said Aldrich as he waved his fishmen forward. The fishmen shrieked in unison as they sprinted forwards. When they reached the edge of the sinkhole, they jumped up, clearing the wide gap with their temporarily enhanced stats. [Burning Agony] dramatically increased the strength of undead that still had flesh on them in exchange for burning off the flesh after a set amount of time. And this dramatic increase showed itself obviously and violently. As soon as the burning fishmennded on the other side of the hole, they savagely reached out to any living thing they could attack. They were bigger, faster, and stronger than all their brethren fishmen by leaps and bounds. With hisses and aggressive shrieks, the fire wrapped fishmen tore their brethren apart limb from limb. They could even easily overpower the usually superior crabmen in singlebat, punching through their durable shells or cooking their insides with prolonged contact with their ming bodies. Because the fishmen under Aldrich were all covered in intense fire auras, they could not get swarmed by superior numbers, making them the perfect individuals to charge through the hordes of variants. Aldrich checked the left side of the battlefield: "Everyone on board!" A ckwater A-ss student shouted with a cool smile as he swept back long, curly rockstar hair. Glowing green rings circled his ck pupils, mimicking therge green ring beneath him. This was Damian Fritz. An Alter who possessed the power to createrge rings that acted as tforms that he could freely levitate using his mind. The rings could also be used as shields or thrown at as weapons, which he demonstrated now as he spun his hands together before thrusting them out, weaving out a rapidly rotating green ring that sawed into the ranks of the fishmen, cutting right through them. All the ckwater students, variants, and monsters that could not fly hopped on Damian''s ring, and with that, he waved his hand up, making the ring float and speed over the sinkhole. From the ring, all the ranged ckwater students unleashed their abilities. The ckwater A-ss students were strong. They were not individually as strong as the leader type variants, but the fodder beneath the leaders were nothing to them. Simon Wells tapped his visor as he channeled his kic beam, firing off his bright blueser that sliced fishmen right in half or, when it hit crabmen, bored through their shells within seconds. Kat, a Mutant type Alter with twitching antennae and carapaced pale skin, pointed her wrists towards the fishmen and unleashed shotgun shot volleys of white acid balls. Each volley possessed over a hundred acid bullets, and whenever any of them hit a fishman, even if it was a single bullet, the fishman faced an agonizing death where their flesh liquefied and turned them into steaming biomass soup. Jonas, the unfortunate man who had gotten his head crushed by Seth Sr back in the Necropolis, pointed a finger gun at the variants as his eyes shed purple. Beams of violet spiraled outwards, and whatever they hit, they ttened, crushing fishmen into condensed goop under ultra-condensed gravity. But the most notable among them all in terms of firepower was definitely Alexis. She led the flyers over the sinkhole, protecting them in a barrier of swirling wind that also crackled with electricity. From within, she sped her hands together, and from the edges of her barrier, small storm clouds formed, each of them firing off miniature lightning bolts that exploded on impact. Devastating small scale explosions rocked the variants, blowing them apart. Yet, if explosions were the topic at hand, then there was nobody that could beat out Ste. She flew into the air over the fishmen with small burst explosions form her hands and feet, and when she was over a particrlyrge group of them, shot herself down with a smile ofplete reckless abandon. Her arms grewpletely orange as her explosive blood channeled through her veins en masse, and when shended in the center of the fish and crabmen crowd, a massive explosion engulfed the area and lit up the night sky in bright orange. The st wave rose up in a pir visible from several hundred meters away. Ste stepped out of the explosion while patting her arms down of dust. There were chunks missing from her arms, exposing the bone, but she did not mind at all, instead breathing deeply in to savor the smell of smoke and fire. "Steamed crab. Smells real nice. I could go for some seafood after this." Ste then looked over to Valera, and Valera did not let herself get outshone. Valera was literally running through the fishmen at rapid speeds. She had grabbed a crabman, punched its head off, and then started to rapidly spin the corpse in front of her while she charged into the mass of variants. The crabman''s spiky outer shell and body acted like a ded rotor de, and Valera herself was like awnmower,pletely mowing down everything in her way. She left behind her a trail of mangled corpses, blood, shattered bones, and dismembered body parts. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" roared Valera as she sped forwards in a sea of gore. Already, Valera was far ahead of Ste, mowing her way deep into enemy lines. "Tch. Show off," said Ste. Meanwhile, the notable undead variants made their presence known. The Antlion leaped off the green ring and into the sinkhole, burrowing inside of it as it roamed the battlefield from underground, creating huge sand wells to entrap hordes of fishmen to leave them rooted and vulnerable to attack. The Bloodspitter Lizard fired off beams of acidic blood, devastating whatever the Antlion trapped. The Geist unleashed its neurotoxic cloud freely, and any fishmen or crabmen that stayed within the noxious purple cloud for more than thirty seconds started to freeze up before dropping dead. This was especially horrific for the fishmen trapped by the Antlion, for they had no means to escape their inevitable brain deaths. If the natural variants did not tear their throats out or reduce them into bloody acidified puddles, the Geist''s toxic gas was sure to shut down their brains. Chiros and the Death Knights moved out on their own with professional grace¡­ They marched in formation, shing and hacking with elegant poise, killing in trained movements and making mincemeat of anything that came near them. Aldrich nodded at this sight, satisfied. He spoke to Seismic who stood on standby beside him. The hero''s arms were crossed as he looked ahead, awaiting orders with his individuality still turned off. Crow also sat beside Aldrich, ready to move or defend Aldrich at a moment''s notice. "You''re going to stay with me," said Aldrich to Seismic. "You could probably handle the riff raff over there by yourself, but I want my Legion to shine a little. Plus, you and Crow are the most suited to guarding me against Shrimp if he starts moving again. You, especially, I need to conserve your strength for Shrimp. On that note - Vntis, keep that energy signature on Shrimp marked¡­ Inform me the exact moment he ever makes a move." Chapter 124: A Storm Is Coming

Chapter 124: A Storm Is Coming

Aldrich watched the battle progress with all the poise of a seasoned general, standing calmly with a hand touching his chin in contemtion. He did not divert much brain power to the left side of the battle because Valera managed it, and he trusted in her enough to keep her bloodlust down tomand his troops. Thus, he kept his attention mostly towards the right side that he wasrgely responsible for with his fifty fishmen. So long as [Burning Agony] was active, the ming undead fishmen were utterly untouchable, but when [Burning Agony] ended, leaving the fishmen into lower leveled skeletons, they became rtively defenseless. Single strikes from tougher fishmen such as the green scaled brutes or the crabmen shattered his skeletal fishmen with ease. To maximize their usefulness as skeletons, Aldrich clenched his fist and cast [Rite of Bone Binding]. The white bones of the skeletal fishmenyered over in a steely, metallic grey luster, massively increasing their durability while also moderately boosting their strength. This let his skeletal fishmen fight for even longer, and they used that extra fighting time to the veryst moment, fighting even as hordes of their brethren slowly broke apart their bodies with swipes and blows. When finally, Aldrich''s fifty skeletal fishmen fell, engulfed in the sheer numbers of their opposition, he simply pointed a finger up and chanted, "Serve." His voice echoed out across the battlefield. Fifty more dead fishmen and crabmen reanimated, green glows shining in their eyes as they shuddered and rose up. "[Burning Agony]" said Aldrich, and once more, the aquatic variants burst out into mes generated by the heat of their very own burning blood and organs as their bodies overworked to their maximum extents. Like this, Aldrich was plenty capable of raising his host of fishmen over and over and over again, and the losses always favored him. His first fifty fishmen had killed a thousand of their brethren, most of that during their [Burning Agony] state where they could kill enemies just by ramming into them and engulfing them in organic fire in wide areas of effect. That was until the Sea Anemones at the back of the variant army started up again. Aldrich could have taken them out from the start, but he wanted them to fire one more time so that he could stop it in front of the humans, cementing even further his power and reputation as a defender. All of this would be useful forter. When Aldrich would negotiate with governments, the Alterhuman Agency, and the Panopticon for his position in this world. "Hm?" Aldrich felt Seismic patting his shoulder. "What is it?" Seismic was mindless, but he did have some basic instinctive control over himself and what Aldrich presumed to be general A.I. movement patterns from Elden World. That is, if someone aggroed Seismic, he would attack unless Aldrichmanded him to hold position. In addition, if Seismic found any enemies or things of interest, he would notify Aldrich. In this case, Seismic held out his earpiece towards Aldrich. It buzzed in his hand, probably form people shouting through the other side. "I see. You want me to hear what''s going on." Aldrich took the earpiece and held it to the ear of his helmet. "Vntis, put this in my ear, will you?" "As you wish," said Vntis. Metal strands opened up from the side of Aldrich''s head and grasped the earpiece, pulling it into the helmet and nestling it in the curve of Aldrich''s ear. Immediately, Aldrich was assaulted by shouting. "Seismic! There''s less than half of us left! My wings, they''ve been clipped, and all I can do is report to you from behind cover. We can''t hold the mermen back any longer - they''ve already started to operate an anemone - sh*t! It''s firing towards you. Block it if you can, Seismic!" came the panicked voice. Ah right, the flyers. Aldrich had kept them in the back of his head, not giving them too much importance because he believed they would just fly away when even a fourth of them died. But here they were, fighting even with over half of them gone. It was respectable spirit. Aldrich would respect that by saving them himself. But first, the st from the anemone: "Vntis. Wings," said Aldrich. In response, his draconic wings morphed from his back, unfurling out as he jumped into the air. In the distance, he could perceive a sh of blue light from behind several dozen copsed buildings that formed a natural fort behind which the anemones were entrenched. Aldrich''s [Grave Ward] kept an eye on the anemones, though, and he could tell exactly where the single active one was firing. It was aimed right at defensive firing line, probably towards the back where the tanks and walkers were. A single blue hydrosma beam spiraled outwards, traveling in an arcing trajectory aimed to crash down explosively among the tanks, confirming Aldrich''s theory. Aldrich immediately sped back towards the artillery line where the tanks and walkers were stationed. He moved as a ck and red blur, fading from his spot at the front of the sinkhole to all the way to the artillery line, back almost to the walls themselves, in just a few seconds. His movements caused gusts of wind to squall out beneath him, and several humans beneath him looked up in awe as the wind passed them roughly by. Aldrich floated above a tank, his draconic wings stretched out to hold him in the air. He saw the beam of hydrosma draw rapidly closer to him. What was at first a glimmer of blue in the horizon now became a huge mass of gleaming energy that nearly engulfed his whole vision. Anyone seeing this sight, this devastating pir of energy crashing towards them like the judgement of god, would have immediately fled, but all Aldrich did was hold out his arm. His [Death Essence Barrier] became visible, outlining him in a sphere of bright, see-through green. The pir of sma smashed against Aldrich''s [Death Essence Barrier] at breakneck speed. His barrier flickered, registering damage as the sma exploded into a nova of brilliant blue and white. A thunderous boom echoed from the impact, causing the tank beneath him to tremble from the shockwave of the explosion. The st of the explosion soared into the air, lighting up the night with light borne from energy so hot that it could easily melt through Neo-steel. The stpletely engulfed Aldrich''s form, seemingly erasing him in its cascade of energy. All of the policemen and heroes beneath Aldrich looked up at where he was, their guns down as they held their breaths, desperately hoping that their savior, their hero, was not gone. Aldrich thrust his arm out, generating force to dissipate the light and smoke generated from the explosion. Blue mes crackled around his barrier before quickly dying, unable to catch anything it could burn. "Is that it? Weaker than what I expected. Hm. Maybe I am still too cautious," said Aldrich to himself, putting a contemtive hand to his chin as he recalcted the amount of risk he could start taking. That was when he noticed everyone staring up at him with wide eyes. The crew of the tank Aldrich saved had opened up its hatch, ready to jump out, probably thinking that they were going to die from the st after it bore through Aldrich. Instead, they were left awkwardly staring at Aldrich''s not-blown-up form looking down at them with some level of judgement. "What are you doing?" said Aldrich. "This fight isn''t over. Out of everyone here, all of you are the least in danger, considering you get to pilot a tank. Get back in there." Aldrich''s voice rang out withmanding presence. "Yes sir!" The tank crew immediately hopped back into the tank, closing the hatch behind him. "And the rest of you, continue firing," said Aldrich, addressing the humans beneath him that had stopped to stare at whether he would survive. "Don''t stop to stare and gawk every time I save you. Like I said before, I will guarantee your lives to the best of my ability. But you have to make your lives worth saving. So fight." "Yes sir!" The heroes and policemen beneath Aldrich immediately got back to loading their weapons and rushing out to the firing line to gun down more variants. Aldrich then heard the same desperate voice crackle in his earpiece. "We have to fall back! All flyer squads are too damaged to hold the line here! They''re going to man all the anemones!" said the voice. "Fall back," said Aldrich. "Who¡­who are you?" came the confused reply. "I don''t have time to exin," said Aldrich. "But if you listen to me, you and your squads will survive. So fall back. Retreat behind the firing line. Your job here is done, and you''ve done it well enough already. There is no more need to lose more of your lives." "I wish we could," came the reply. "But we''re pinned down here! Mermen are raining hell down on us. We can find cover, but the moment we take to the air, we''re going to get shot down, especially with most of our Barrier Creators downed." "I see. If you''re speaking into this earpiece, then I''m assuming you''re the leader of the flyers," said Aldrich. "Yeah." "Then tell the flyers to take as much cover as they can." "We already are!" came the annoyed response. "No, you don''t understand. If the cover you have right now is the best you have, then fine. But if you can retreat back and find something better, something farther away from the anemones, then do that," said Aldrich. "I know I shouldn''t be wasting time asking questions in a situation like this¡­but why?" Aldrich looked into the sky. Green clouds started to gather, crackling with ghostly teal arcs of energy¡­ "Because a storm ising." Chapter 125: Spirit Boundaries Activated

Chapter 125: Spirit Boundaries Activated

"¡­Can I ask what that means?" came the response on the other hand, but Aldrich just ignored that. He mentally called out for Crow, and the Alter''s monstrous avian form came soaring through the skies beforending on the ground beneath Aldrich, right beside the tank. In response, the tank and all the Alters around Crow reeled backwards in fright and surprise. The AC count scanners built into their frames registered Crow''s AC count. In response, shocked conversation spread throughout the Alters like a wildfire burning through a dry forest. "That thing, it''s got an AC count of 8000. That''s¡­that''s an A rank variant¡­and that man, he''s¡­tamed it?" said a man. "Look! Look how it just lets him get on its back like some kind of pet!" "What!? He''s tamed an A rank variant? That''s impossible unless he has a power to control variants but that can''t be it. He''s strong, he''s fast, he''s got that barrier, he can conceal his own AC count, he''s got those wings - just how many powers does he have!?" "Is that the thing that surprises you the most? Just look at his army! Look at all those variants that he controls! Look at all that giant! And all those strong Alters with him too - he must be part of some massive team!" "He''s not part of any team I know." "Then some kind of huge shadow organization, I don''t know. There''s plenty of rumors about them existing. He must be their head!" "Sh*t, if he''s manning an org that big with that much firepower to boot, then I want to see if I can be part of it. They give a lot more of a sh*t for us than the AA does, that''s for sure." "Yeah, you and your E grade techno power is gonna get you a ce in THAT army?" "Whatever it is, it doesn''t matter." A stronger voice cut through the gossip. A short and stocky man waved his hand forward, towards the battlefield. On the chest of his frame was emzoned a rectangr badge showcasing two stars. A ranking badge that signified that he was a police captain. "All that matters is that he''s saved us, and that he''s right: we need to make the most of our lives as we can. So quit this yapping and get back to firing! Hold this line, boys, and tomorrow, we''ll have one hell of a story to tell!" Yes, thought Aldrich. One hell of a story. Very likely a story that would make his position negotiating against the AA and Panopticon heavily favored towards him. "Let''s go," said Aldrich, and Crow growled as he pushed his enormous wings down. With his wings stretched out like that, he was easilyparable in size to the battle tank nearby, and it was with pure relief that all the Alters there saw that Crow was not against them. Crow soared into the air and flew over Portal Girl''s position. This, Aldrich dubbed, was the Portal Line where she worked overtime, generating portals en masse to take in undead from the battlefield to give them some resting time where they could regenerate before portaling back over the sinkhole to fight again. Her expression was knit into pure concentration as she talked into an earpiece of her own, this one linked to the drones that Spybird and Fisk had set up. There, the drones not only recorded the battle, but also funneled battle information to her, determining which undead were injured and needed portals. Here, the Deildeghasts also stood in formation, their greatswords sped between their gauntleted hands, ready to be shoved down into the earth. "Hold here." Aldrich bid Crow to hover above the Portal Line. He knew that with the flyers at the back of the variant armyrgely disabled, the variants would start to man more and more of their sea anemone cannons. By now, Aldrich calcted that some of them were now ready to fire, and he confirmed this with a visual via his Grave Ward. This was the perfect opportunity to show off, then. And to test this mechanic. Aldrich turned around on Crow and stared back the rows and rows of humans firing their weapons, nursing their injured, and manning the drones that went back and forth over the walls, ferrying what little ammunition, repair kits, and med kits they had remaining. Aldrich mentally recognized all of the humans as ''allies'', and as he did so, he saw a green glint mark all of them. [Allies Recognized] A message appeared in the corner of Aldrich''s vision, confirming this worked. Normally, units caught in Aldrich''s [Mist of Undeath] and also the [Spirit Boundary] generated by the Deildeghasts would suffer all the negative effects from them which included life loss and obscured vision. In the game, allied units could just see through the mist and spirit boundary with no issues, and it was a given that they did not get damaged either. So far, Aldrich had held off on fully activating his [Mist of Undeath] because of the risk of damaging Alters, but if they could see through and operate their technology freely through the [Spirit Boundaries], then he would be confident to use his [Mist of Undeath] at full throttle. "Sorry to interrupt, but they''re firing more of them!" came the desperate voice from Aldrich''s earpiece. "We can''t stop them! There''s four, no, five beamsing your way!" "I''ve got it handled," said Aldrich coolly. Aldrich stood on Crow and looked down like amanding general. "Deildeghasts! Set down your boundaries!" The Deildeghasts mmed their gauntleted bony fists into their warped breasttes of dull grey metal, loosing out three strong nks in response. They then grasped their greatswords tightly before mming them into the ground in unison. Cracks lined with wispy curls of ck energy formed from where their greatswords dug into shattered pavement and asphalt. Their grey, stained des glowed for a moment before huge clouds of smoke burst out from them, billowing and gathering in a swirling pattern concentrated into the shape of arge dome. The biggest difference between a Deildeghast and a regr Ghasty in the effective range of their [Spirit Boundaries]. Where Ghasts could be considered units for smaller skirmishes, Deildeghasts could project their boundaries over vast stretches of area to make them fit for entire battlefields or, in the case of the game, full scale raid bosses where multiple allied heroes and their forces gathered. The domes of smoke rose up just as four hydrosma beams became visible in the distance, first as glints of blue light, and within seconds, as rapidly approaching pirs of destructive sma. The sts mmed into the [Spirit Boundary] barriers, but just like with Aldrich''s [Death Essence] barrier, the sma beams exploded against the [Spirit Boundaries] without piercing through, merely causing the smoke to scatter for a few moments. [Spirit Boundaries] were the perfect counter to elemental damage, being highly resistant to it. The damage from sma mainly came from intense heat, and that filed under the fire element as far as game mechanics were concerned. Aldrich observed that the humans stopped firing their weapons for a moment, surprised first by the boundaries then at the fact that they blocked the sma beams. "What is that smoke!? Just how many crazy things are going to happen tonight!?" said a bewildered policeman. "Doesn''t matter! We can see through it, so we can shoot through it! So keep firing!" shouted an older and more seasoned hero who fired spikes of metal from his hands. Aldrich nodded as he witnessed the humans start to shoot again, their firing lines lighting up with little specks of bright light as their guns worked overtime. With that, Aldrich fully unleashed his [Mist of Undeath], stretching out his arms as he did so. The mist emerged from his core, where his Phctery was, still developing within him, still evolving. The ghostly green air settled down on the various injured undead beneath Aldrich, healing their wounds in a mere seconds, no matter how grievous they were. Most of the injured, Aldrich noted, were the weaker variant and monster type undead such as the Alpha Striker, Mudcrabs, Alloywing Eagle, and Big arm Grizzly. He noted with some level of wistfulness that they were soon going to outlive their usefulness, getting outscaled more and more as time went on and Aldrich''s forces became stronger and stronger. If they did not fall in battle, Aldrich would soon rece them with stronger units of his own creation. That reminded him, he did know that Liches in lore could increase the strength of their undead, but there was precious little detailed information as to how they did it. But even in the lore, liches could only increase the levels of a few of their most precious undead, not any random low level monster or skeleton. "Thanks for that!" Portal Girl shouted up to Aldrich before she generated more portals, getting the newly healed and battle ready undead out again to fight even as she manned portals to bring more injured ones in. Regardless, Portal Girl was providing an invaluable tactical service here was both troop transport and first aid. "You''re doing very well," said Aldrich with a nod before he mentallymanded Crow to fly over towards the flyers at the back of the variant army. "Y-you too," said Portal Girl with a shy blush, but Aldrich was already gone, soaring across the battlefield to his next destination¡­ She saw Aldrich leave and then shook her head, telling herself to focus on doing her job as best as possible. Chapter 126: Bring Down The Thunder

Chapter 126: Bring Down The Thunder

Aldrich flew above the battlefield at a fast-cruising speed, giving himself some time to see what was going on. The left side of the battlefield was decisively in Aldrich''s favor with the variants getting pushed back more and more by the second. This was entirely within Aldrich''s expectations. After all, the vast majority of his forces were there. Under a slew of massive explosions, deadly sword swings, onughts ofser beams and acid and ws and fangs, and Valera''s murderous rampage, the variants were nothing but fodder to add to the meat grinder. At the center, Crab surprisingly managed to survive until now. The Zombie Giant and Crab were both still engaged in intense battle at a sufficiently high level where they were basically fighting by themselves. The shockwaves of force emitted from the giant and Crab shing with each other, not to mention theirrge sizes, meant that the riff raff weakling variants either got blown apart or squished if they even got near that. Crab seemed to have an interesting ability to convert any damage it took against its shell into energy that boosted its strength and size. That was why little red flecks of light gathered around its shell whenever it got hit by the Zombie Giant''s huge blows. The more energy it gathered, therger it seemed to get, and by this point, Crab was eight meters tall, almost getting to even footing with the giant''s twelve-meter bulk. At first, the Zombie Giant had thoroughly pushed Crab back, but now, they were in a dead stalemate, exchanging massive blow after blow, echoing out shockwaves with each attack. They were quite literally like two kaijus amid a sea of human sized fighters, their each and every movement identally squishing a fishman or crabman. The Zombie Giant roared as it grabbed crab''s pincer in its two burly arms before yanking hard, ripping it off. In response, Crab retreated backwards, stomping over dozens of its own kind, before focusing energy onto its severed limb. Red gathered around the wound, and then flesh and shell rapidly grew out of it, nearly as good as new, just a little bit thinner. The regeneration was not as fast or explosive as the Geist''s, but any form of regeneration was a pain to deal with when an enemy had an ability that benefited them in longer fights. "Hm," said Aldrich. "That may be a problem if I let it grow too strong, though I assume there is a limit to the power." "Shall we deal with that one first?" stated Vntis. "Its bones are quite mighty. I would not mind devouring it and adding it to my collection. And it would serve our forces well to be rid of this creature." "Crabs don''t have bones," corrected Aldrich. "But I get what you mean. Taking Crab out now would not be too hard, either, especially with Seismic here. However, I trust in Valera to deal with this herself. She hasmand over all my forces here, after all, and she''s shown herself very capable of handlings things without me. If anything, this is another chance for her to prove herself against sudden threats without my assistance." Valera had already sensed that Aldrich was leaving, which in turn meant that he was not raising more undead to fill up the fifty fishman attack force on the right side of the battlefield. Topensate, she had moved over to the right side with the Geist and some ckwater students, abusing the Geist''s neurotoxic cloud to keep the variants from advancing easily againstparatively fewer numbers. When Valera was done routing the variant army at the right side of the battle zone, she would deal with Crab in her own way, Aldrich was sure of it. Trusting in Valera, Aldrichmanded Crow to soar at full speed over to the flyers. Crow''s six eyes gleamed yellow before it forcefully pushed down its wings, loosing a sonic boom of force that sent it hurtling forwards at fighter jet speeds. Within a minute, Crow had ferried Aldrich right over the line of sea anemones that were now newly manned by the fishmen. Merman stood at the center of this formation of seven anemones. He seemed to actually be personally manning the anemones, exining how they had managed to control the anemones so quickly. At the center of his slimy blue green chest was a crystalline blue spherical organ. It glowed strongly as Merman raised his six hands up to the sky, channeling strands of water from that organ to every single anemone, powering them up manually. The mermen variants under his rule guarded him in a thick phnx, generating water construct shields while others fired off spears and des of water construct energy, raining down a storm of projectiles against the flyers, the majority of whom were huddled behind chunks of fallen buildings. The fact that Merman was protected like that on top of itsck of offensive movement meant that it needed to use all of its energy and attention to man the anemones, and they were still inactive from firing before. "Scan for all visible energy signatures," said Aldrich as he surveyed the battle zone from above. "Try and focus on all the humans present." "Done," said Vntis. Aldrich could see a hundred or so little white lights shining through building chunks and various other forms of cover: the presence of the flying Alters. He quickly calcted the distance they were from Merman and the anemones and determined that they were not in any danger from Aldrich''s next move. Good. That meant that they had listened to Aldrich and retreated back. No doubt, their leader had told them to retreat on Aldrich''s rmendation, but the way they were holding their hands to their ears, listening in deeply to their earpieces, showed obvious signs that they were listening intoms from the firing line about Aldrich. In the faces Aldrich could zoom into, he could see expressions of hope. They were waiting. Waiting for the savior of the men and women at the firing line and walls to descend upon them. "Alert me at all times when Shrimp''s energy signature moves," said Aldrich. He made a mental note that Shrimp was still underground and immobile, perhaps buried under too much rubble. Seismic truly must have put in every single ounce of his strength into thatst attack, maybe even more. "My eye is always upon that one," said Vntis. "You need not worry." "And when Shrimp moves," Aldrich turned to Seismic who stood on Crow''s back. "That''s when you and I move together. I would like to have you use your powers on the battle zone down here, but you need to be ready at all times to assist me with Shrimp. I can''t deal with strong physical burst DPS like that, at least not for long. And your shockwaves and stats are the best way to put distance between myself and Shrimp when the time arises." Seismic just nodded, registering Aldrich''smands. "Now then," said Aldrich as he focused his sight on Merman and his phnx of hundreds of mermen creating a massive dome of interlocked water construct shields. "It''s time for a show." With that, Aldrich walked off of Crow, free falling down towards Merman. Chapter 127: Bring Down The Thunder 2

Chapter 127: Bring Down The Thunder 2

A few dozen meters above Merman and his entourage, he stopped, stretching out his draconic wings and anchoring himself in the air. In response, Merman''s four glowing red eyes widened. His many sharp teeth bared fromrge gums as he snarled and pointed up at Aldrich, and in immediate response, the many mermen dedicated to throwing out projectiles shot at Aldrich, unleashing a huge volley of water spikes and des. Aldrich tanked the initial volley, his [Death Essence] barrier causing the projectiles to ping and pong off of it. Up close, Aldrich noted that the water constructs were actually crystalline in structure, having beenpletely solidified. Every projectile flew at speeds rivaling subsonic velocity, and it was no wonder that an entire army of mermen throwing these out could easily overwhelm masses of E and D rank heroes so quickly, even with their barriers. In response, Aldrich sped his hands together, generating a ghostly orb of green energy between his palms. He then thrust his hands forth, shooting a [Death Bolt] right down at the water shield phnx. The death bolt surged forwards, breaking apart any crystallized water projectile in it sway, the helical pattern of bright green reaching sonic speeds as it crashed into a group of fishmen. "Very impressive," remarked Aldrich. The [Death Bolt] actually did not manage to pierce through the water shield phnx. It had createdrge cracks in several shields, but the oveppingyers of shield constructs acted like thick scales that distributed the damage of the [Death Bolt] well over arge surface area. On top of that, the shields very quickly regenerated, the cracks smoothing over. To crack this mass of shields, this shell, one needed a single powerful attack to smash through it entirely. "Thanks for giving us cover!" The voice of the leader of the flying heroes crackled in Aldrich''s ear. "I''ll use this chance to order my men to make a retreat! We''ll be out of your way in a minute, maybe even less-" "No," said Aldrich firmly. "Stay behind your cover." "What!? Why!?" came the confused reply. "You''re up there taking all those hits - we can''t waste any more time, and that barrier of yours, it can''t hold forever!" "Why, you ask?" Aldrich paused. He looked into the sky and pointed at it with a wed ck finger. "Because you''ll miss the show. Trust me, it isn''t a good idea to get out of your cover now." Storm clouds started to gather above where Aldrich was pointing. Not any ordinary storm cloud. Green, eerie, ghostly clouds that formed a football stadium sized mass. Within the clouds, the bright glows of over a hundred jellyfish shone in intervals, sending a wave of visible energy through them. That energy looked like a pulse that rippled across thework of jellyfish, moving from its outer edges down towards the center. At the center, the Anglerfish took in all that energy emitted from the hundred plus jellyfish into its bright white lure, concentrating and amplifying that mass amount of energy before cascading it outwards again for the jellyfish to take in once more. Like this, with each passing pulse of energy that traveled through this web of jellyfish, the energy gathered within it grew stronger and stronger in an unending positive feedback loop. Fueled by more and more energy, the storm clouds grew thicker and started to crackle and rumble, arcs of green energy starting to violently p out of them. Very soon, the clouds concealed the jellyfish and Anglerfish entirely. Rain started to pour down. The air below grew heavy and filled with static. The hairs on all the Alters huddled behind rubble raised up, and they instinctively looked up, their eyes widening in fear as they recognized the storm. But they remained still, as even through they looked up with fear, there was a tinge of curiosity in their eyes. A sense of dreadful anticipation. It was like watching an enormous weapon of mass destruction gearing up to fire, knowing that when it did unleash its wrath, nothing beneath it had the tiniest shred of ever surviving. But there was some awing about the sheer destructiveness, the sheer power, behind that weapon that made it strangely alluring. When Merman and the mermen looked up at those clouds in recognition, seeing their very own living storm turned against them, they felt mounting dread, their fins rising up in sheer instinctual terror as they saw their death gather and crackle right above them. Merman thrust his hand towards the sky, and the mermen around him fired their projectiles, but of them reached high enough to hit the actual clouds themselves. Aldrich floated higher into the air, also moving out of the range of the projectiles. "It''s time," said Aldrich with anticipation. He felt the very same type of excitement he did whenever he used an extremely strong weapon for the first time in a game. That feeling of knowing you were about to unleash pure carnage with the hard earned weapon or summon or spell you had grinded for - there was truly nothing quite like it. Just how much damage was he going to do? Just how many was he going to kill? He was very, very eager to find out. The energy pulses from the clouds started to ripple back and forth from the center in much more rapid waves, each ripple echoing out a threatening, deep bass rumble that grew increasingly higher and higher pitched, signaling the buildup of power on a colossal scale. Then - Aldrich put down his hand. The skies lit uppletely bright green, almost white. The brightness from the all that energy built up in a single point before being released down unleashed light at such a scale that for a moment, among the many flyers who held their injured bodies behind rubble, they thought that the night had turned into day for a split second. A mass of lightning gathered into a branch so thick that it looked like one massive, unending pir crashed down against mermen variants like the hand of god. When old superstitious texts spoke about punishment from the heavens raining down like lightning, THIS must have been what they meant. The pir smashed through the huge water phnx like a sledgehammer driving through thin ss,pletely engulfing the variants beneath in searing light. The sound followed right after. It was the sound of lightning cracking, but at a scale dramatically higher than any naturally born lightning. The lightning did not merely p, no, it roared. The roar of an unbound force of nature. A green shockwave sted outwards,pletely disintegrating rubble all around the st zone. As the shockwave gusted out, it rocked the giant chunks of rubble, someprising of several stories of high rise buildings, that littered the battle site. Rtively speaking, though, the area of destruction from the thunderbolt was rather localized. After all, lightning did not really spread out in any real explosive impact, it concentrated at a single point for the most part. And for good reason. Aldrich wanted to preserve most of the sea anemone in the area to raise for his own. When the light of the lightning died down, Aldrich nodded to himself in pure satisfaction. He gazed down upon a deep, smoking crater that shone bright white and red from sheer heat energy melting concrete and rock. That said, Aldrich had not let his excitement for causing carnage to get a hold of his head. He had aimed the thunderbolt slightly ahead of the mermen, aiming to try and preserve Merman''s corpse and the anemone behind him. To that end, Aldrich was sessful. All the weaker mermen were dead,pletely disintegrated or broken down into stters of scales and blood, but Merman''srger body parts remained in the form of the charred skeleton of his upper body. But there was no mistake about it either: if Aldrich aimed down that thunderbolt directly at anyone, even if they were a proper A ss hero, no, maybe even if they were in the S ss, that was going to be a fatal blow. Chapter 128: Raising Merman

Chapter 128: Raising Merman

Aldrich folded his wings back, and they absorbed into the metal of his armor. He free fell from high up,nding on shattered pavement with a heavy crash. The acrid smell of charred flesh filled his nose as he stared ahead at the corpse of Merman. Aldrich walked over and looked down at Merman''s burnt upper skeleton. There was not even a smidgeon of flesh left behind on it, and the bones themselves were so ckened he worried that a strong breeze might disintegrate them. Thankfully, a Grave floated above this mangled corpse, shining in green visible only to him that let him know that there was enough corpse left to raise. This was cutting it quite close, though. Corpses generally became unreliable to raise when over half their bodies were destroyed. Nevertheless, Aldrich would take the freebie. As he raised his hand towards Merman''s corpse, a notification popped up in his vision. It was an experience tally from all the units he had defeated tonight. [21,000 misceneous units defeated] [Low Level Unit EXP Buffer Applied] [+42,000 EXP] [x1 ''Shark'' defeated] [+4000 EXP] [x1 ''Merman'' defeated] [+4000 EXP] [Total EXP Gain: +50,000] [EXP Bar: 50,000/50,000] [Level up!] [Level 41 ] 42] [EXP Bar: 0/55,000] [5 stat points avable to distribute] Aldrich nodded to himself. The fact that he received so little experience from defeating fishmen, a measly 2 for each one, was well within his expectations at this point. In the game, after a yer hit thresholds of level 40 and 80, they faced a ''Low Level EXP Buffer]'' that prevented them from gaining much experience at all from sufficiently low leveled units. This was presumably to prevent a sufficiently dedicated and perhaps somewhat insane yer from farming trash mobs over and over and over again to level themselves, and at a certain point, if one killed too much of the same mob, the EXP gains also underwent diminishing returns that could potentially reach down all the way to 0. Aldrich knew this well. Because he had precisely been the type of dedicated and insane yer to kill basic slimes and goblins over a hundred thousand times to see how much he could level. Overall, though, if Aldrich killed all the variants here, even if they counted as low level mobs now, there were so many of them that he figured he could squeeze out one more level from them. The remaining level, then, woulde from Shrimp. Aldrich immediately distributed his stat points into Attunement. [+5 Attunement, increased to +10 with stat affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 211 ] 221] [Inner Circle Limit: 47 ] 49] [Outer Circle Limit: 235 ] 245] Aldrich noted that his EXP bar''s number value continued to rapidly tick up, though in extremely low increments, indicating that his army was ughtering fishmen that provided little to no EXP. After about 30,000 fishmen kills, they would start giving out 1 EXP, and then at 50,000 kills, little to nothing. It did not seem to matter that the fishmen had many different subspecies among them. They all fell under the same ''branch'' of monster type, so the penalty applied equally among them all. Aldrich filed away all these observations and focused back to Merman''s corpse. "Not much of you left, is there? Well, I''ll change that soon. Serve." said Aldrich. Strands of green emerged from around his ck metaled hand, wisping outwards and flowing into Merman''s corpse. Merman''s charred skeleton levitated in the air, and Aldrich willed his [Mist of Undeath] out. The ghostly green mist traveled towards the skeleton and as it clouded the horribly damaged corpse, it reversed all the damage the corpse had suffered. Charred flesh broke off to reveal new, pink flesh. Muscle built up. Bones regrew and fused back together. The skeletal and muscr systems of Merman built up, making him look like an anatomy chart of exposed flesh before his slimy green scales covered his many arms and serpentine, slithering tail. His eyes shed red once more, and the blue crystalline organ at his chest glowed with life again. Aldrich felt a faint blur hit the edges of his vision. His mana had dipped below 20%. He would have to go out and consume graves to restore it. This was why Legion Necromancers were so fiercesome in a battlefield. When Graves became disposable resources that popped up everywhere, they not only became a source for minions, but also endless free health and mana. "Gorok-gara-khos (I serve you, Ocean King)" Merman red his gills open, exposing the frilly veins within them. A gesture of deep respect and loyalty. "Interesting. Your kind has anguage?" said Aldrich. He knew that smarter or more social variants could gather in tribes and packs, but an actual functioningnguage? That was something nearpletely unheard of. But if ever there were variants out there that could defymon convention and research, then it was with deep sea variants who could evolve far out of sight and study of mankind. Merman was about to respond when several heroes stumbled out of their cover and inched towards Aldrich with wonder in their eyes. In response, Merman grew aggressive, his bright blue, crystalline spines red out from his back, arms, head, and tail. He bared his sharp fangs as his arms channeled orbs of blue water. "Stop," said Aldrich withmanding voice. "They are my allies." "Gorok-Shel (I apologize)" replied Merman. His voice undted in a strange, almost alien way, and his voice was distorted, making it almost impossible to actually parse out what he said. To the ordinary ear, whatever Merman said would have sounded like unintelligible snarls and grunts, and that was what they had sounded like to Aldrich beforehand too. Aldrich could only clearly make out what Merman said now because of his master-summoner link with the variant. It was highly probable that whatever tongue Merman spoke was difficult to fully articte onnd as well. "I heard on thems that you could control variants, but I thought they were just sh*tting me. It''s real. And it''s not just that. You can¡­you can raise the dead?" said a hero as he stepped ahead of the others as their representative. "I recognize that voice. You must be the one I was talking to over my earpiece," said Aldrich. He recognized the man because of his distinctive appearance. He was a mutant type Alter with moth traits, antennae sticking out of his forehead with carapaced skin that bore cracks practically everywhere. Fourrge grey moth wingsy folded on his back. "Mothman, is it?" "You know me?" said Mothman, surprised. "Of course. I kept tabs on every D ranker in line to be promoted to C rank in Haven," said Aldrich. "¡­Can I ask why?" said Mothman. "Because I hoped that one day, when I decided it would be time to stand out of the shadows, I would be able to work with all of you," said Aldrich as he extended out a hand, and Mothman shook it cordially, if with considerable amounts of awe. Mothman looked up at Aldrich''s menacing armored form with awe, then at Merman, then back at Aldrich. Every single one of the other heroes did the same, staring at Aldrich and Merman with wide eyes and open mouths. It was understandable. The man they had heard about, the man in strange armor who had brought an entire army with him, the man who had stepped down onto the battlefield and turned the tides of a desperate and hopeless stand in one single moment, was right here. And all the stories that the flyers heard about him overms, it seemed, were true. Not only that, but here this man was, raising forth the very monstrous variant that had made their lives a living hell of dodging and taking projectiles just minutes beforehand. Mothman was the first to snap out of this awed trance, showcasing a level headedness to him that made it very clear why Seismic had trusted him to lead all the flyers on a job like this. "I have to thank you for saving all of us," said Mothman. "With you, we would still be getting our asses handed to us, hiding behind rocks, just waiting for one of those water spikes to shove through our brains." "Don''t thank me yet. The fight''s still going on. I''vepletely secured the airspace here with my living storm, so all of you are free to retreat back to the firing line. There, patch yourselves up and take a rest. All of you deserve it," said Aldrich. "Now go." After Aldrich said this, the heroes did not move for several seconds, probably still in shock and awe that someone had actually saved them, and that they had been saved with such an overwhelming disy of might. "You heard him!" said Mothman, snapping the heroes out of their trance. "Get to the air! Get back to the firing line! I''ll contact trauma teams to be ready for our arrival. All of you who can fly, take the grounded ones with you!" With that, Mothman and the flyers started to file out, giving Aldrich some privacy. "Now then," said Aldrich to Merman¡­ "It''s time for you to show me what you can do." Chapter 129: Valeras Merits: Youll Also Like

Chapter 129: Valera''s Merits

"Gorok-Kant (What do you wish from me?)" stated Merman as he put three of his hands to his chest to gesture to himself. "What you''ve been doing all night," said Aldrich. He pointed to the seven sea anemone variants. Without the water of the mermen to nourish them onnd, they had lost their usual brilliant purple shine. Before, they had looked like living gems with their strong glimmer radiating throughout their bodies, but now they were shriveling up, deting like balloons as their tentacled tops started to thin and wilt. "Power those again," said Aldrich. "Hiras (I fall under the tide''s will)" said Merman as sped his three pairs of arms together. When he did so, the blue crystalline organ at his chest started to shine strongly. Blue light glinted between his palms, and when he separated them, water flowed between them. Merman cast his many arms forward, and from his hands, the water flowed out like snaking tethers, attaching to each of the seven sea anemones. The water infused into the anemones and rapidly reversed their shriveling, giving them back their bright purple shine. Merman then ced his hands on his chest organ, attaching all his water tethers to it. "I see," said Aldrich as he put a hand to his chin, analyzing Merman''s powers. Unlike with Elden World summons, he could not just look into a direct status sheet, but he could more or less get an instinctive ''feel'' for how variant or alter undead powers worked. This ''feel'' was not nearly as urate as an actual status screen, but it was good enough to get a strong sense of what the undead were capable of. "You can generate and crystallize water like the rest of your kind, though at a much higher scale. On top of that, you can store specific ''techniques'' using your water maniption in that organ of yours which also acts as an amplifier, giving you several trump card moves to use. One of them being this tethering ability, though considering you could not counter my lightning, you are limited to having just one technique active at a time." "Kal (Correct)" said Merman. "Khos-Gent (The Ocean King is perceptive, as expected)." "I like to know what my subordinates can do. Now then, ready those to fire," said Aldrich. "Their cooldown should be refreshed by now. Let''s see if they''ll be just as devastating to the variants as they were to the humans." "Hiras (I fall under the tide''s will)" Merman raised his hands into the air, and the tethers of water attached to his crystal organ began to shine. The sea anemones started to power up, their top tentacles crackling and glowing bright blue as they channeled up hydrosma through their bodies. "Khos-Kath (Ready to strike at the will of the Ocean King)" said Merman. "Hold," said Aldrich. He put a finger to the side of his helm, wanting to check up on Valera to see whether she had dealt with Crab or needed some assistance. If she did need help, Aldrich would aim the sea anemone cannons at Crab, if not, he would direct it to clearing out the variants. Aldrich focused, closing his eyes and linking with Valera''s sight. He wondered what ns she had made to take down Crab or whether she needed his help. He would not mind either way. This was more a test for him to gauge how self-sufficient and capable Valera was as his second inmand because in the game, he had no real way to interact with her. Yes, there were dialogue options that gave insight into her lore and background, but of this truly affectedbat. Duringbat gamey, Aldrich controlled everything she did or he relied on her A.I. when he micromanaged other units. As for what her game lore knew from her lore that she came from a long military background, but she had been trained as a Shielder, a guardian knight that protected others, specifically single targets, thoughter in her life she had also be a Berserker. Regardless, bothbat art types were not suited formanding masses of troops. So far, Valera had proven herself quite capable in defending the Red Circle and mobilizing Aldrich''s units, but that was while Aldrich was away. He had yet to see in person her capabilities. Yet, when Aldrich fully linked with Valera''s sight, he could not help but smile. === "I will rid the master of this shelled brute!" shouted Valera as she stared at the center of the battlefield. There, the huge, shelled monstrosity had pushed back the zombie giant with a mighty swipe of its ws aimed at the giant''s head. The blow had blown off a chunk of the giant''s skull, copsing him to one knee, but the master''s Mist gradually began to heal the wound up. "Yeah? I''d like to see you try!" Stended beside Valera from the air, throwing out an explosive punch that shot forth a cone of ignited air that blew apart several approaching fishmen. "By the way, that''s like, my ten thousandth kill, y''know?" "Ten thousand!? You think you can lie to me so easily!?" Valera let arge green fishman tackle into her, and the fishman staggered backwards with a solid impact while Valera did not even budge a single inch. It was like the fishman had ran full force into an immovable wall. In response, Valera stepped forwards and punched the fishman''s chest. The force of her blow was so extreme that it caused the fishman''s chest not only to cave in, but to literally explode from the force shockwave, its spine and internal organs blowing out through its back in a shower of blood. "Okay, I might have been exaggerating a little." Ste stared at Valera in awe, witnessing Valera one punch her way through the variants. "Damn, how tough are you? You have a good amount of muscle on your build, but under all that armor, you must feel like a literal rock!" "Q-quiet!" said Valera. "I can be soft anddylike when I wish to be!" "Heh, I''m not insulting you." Ste smiled at Valera before swiping forward at the air rapidly, throwing out clouds of her explosive blood. The condensed droplets shone bright orange as they gathered around a group of iing fishmen before detonating like countless little grenades. "And honestly, you should be proud of how tough you are. It''s totally badass. And I hear guys like girls that fight!" "Really?" said Valera timidly as she absent-mindedly grabbed a crabman''s head and crushed it to a pulp between her hands. "Yeah. Or at least, I sure as hell wouldn''t be into a guy that didn''t know how to kick ass," said Ste. "Do you think that¡­maybe the master prefers strong women too? I-I have to confess, I have very little experience in the ways of men¡­," said Valera. She looked at Ste hopefully while casually holding back a crowd of ten fishmen trying to overpower her with one arm. "Him? I dunno. He''s a mystery. But what I do know is that he appreciates you as you are now. And in the end, that matters a hell of a lot more than how much of a dy'' you are, doesn''t it?" said Ste. "There''s a saying around this world: if it ain''t broke, don''t fix it. Think that applies to you." "Hmm¡­" Valera unleashed a powerful right hook into the crowd of fishmen struggling against her. Her fist this time was wreathed in a spiral pattern of blood, and when her fist impacted, it created a shockwave of bloody force that broke apart the variants into chunks. Appreciation for who she was. That brought her to memories of faraway times, before meeting her current master. A lifetime of betrayal and hurt and abandonment - "Anyways, what was your n to take down that big ass crab?" said Ste as she squinted her eyes, staring several hundreds of meters ahead at the giant crab variant. "Right," said Valera. She shook her head, returning to the present. She looked towards Crab as it started to enclose its huge pincers around the zombie giant''s neck. In response, the zombie giant grabbed Crab''s pincers and exerted force trying to stop them from getting too close. "Ste, take me into the air!" "Got you-," Ste grabbed Valera under her arm before lifting off with a continued explosion under her feet, basically creating miniature thrusters to generate lift. Hordes of fishmen rushed into the empty spot where the two had been, looking up at them as they flew in the air. A few of the blue fishmen fired pressurized water, but all of it deflected off of Valera''s blood barrier. In this high vantage point, Valera closed her eyes and started to channel a mental link with the appropriate undead she needed. She used as few undead as possible, recognizing that she could not divert too many forces and potentially allow the fishmen to swarm through the sinkhole. Valera was not an incredible expert at war games ormanding armies. When she still lived in a pce and had a tutor, she learned a few things here and there, but all that had been taken from her far before she could be a master in anything. All she relied on was her basicbat instincts and experience with fighting - two things she had in vast spades - to guide her thinking. Chapter 130: Valeras Merits 2: Youll Also Like

Chapter 130: Valera''s Merits 2

Valera remembered a specific hunt. From before her time with Aldrich when she was a young trainee within the Nightshield Order that trained knights from the Midnight-Alliance consisting of vampires, certain demon tribes, and some night-dwelling demihumans. There had been a time when Valera and her ss had been sent into dark mountains to hunt an enormous rampaging boar. There, her instructor had drilled into her the fundamentals for taking down a beast with enough size and strength that no single knight could reliably deal with. First, iste the beast. Therger a monster was, the harder it was to deal with lesser enemies distracting you. Then, if possible, disable the beast. Limit its mobility. Its sheer size would prevent it from easily dealing with attacks from multiple angles once it lost its movement. Finally, execute. Once disabled, attempt to dispatch the beast as quickly as possible, for the longer a battle went withrger monsters, the easier it was for an ident to ur and for a team member to perish under trampling hooves. Valera was not as forward thinking of a nner as her master was, especially in things that did not involve battle, but here, in war, these things, these procedures, were engraved into her very being. It made her who she was. She immediately thought about how to execute this n against the crab monster. Isting the beast would be easy. Its battle with the zombie giant caused enough coteral damage that there were no lesser forces to deal with, and even if there were, the zombie giant could use its roar again to scatter the weaklings. Disabling the monster would be done with the Antlion entrapping the creature''s footing. Then, that left the execution. That was the most difficult part. The monster had to die quickly, beyond what it could regenerate. Or, if that was impossible, its brain had to be targeted to shut down its ability to function. But the monster''s shell was tough and, even more annoyingly, it possessed the capacity to sense any movement nearing it within a sizable radius through the twitching of its antennae. On top of that, the beast could direct some of the red spots of energy it gathered around its shell and detonate them, generating concussive shockwaves of force that blew back anyone that tried to sneak attack it. The shockwaves were not urate, but they made it difficult for anyone to sneak attack the creature. Already, the Deathwheel and Ace, one of the strong humans known as ''Alters'' who possessed flight and great strength had fallen victim to these shockwaves. If the monster was to be felled, it needed to be done so with a tremendous amount of power applied before it could even react. The only that possessed that level of raw strength here other than the zombie giant was Valera. "Drop me towards those humans," said Valera as she pointed to the ck uniformed strong humans. "You, distract the beast with your explosions, but do not near it lest you risk attack from its shockwaves." "I get to see some big boy action? Hell yeah!" Ste sped forward, and after several seconds, dropped Valera down to Damien''s green floating tform where the ck uniformed strong humans regrouped to take breaks away from the chaos of fishmen below. Alexis floated at the top of the green ring, creating her storm barrier around it to prevent blue fishmen from targeting it with their pressurized water bolts. Meanwhile, bolts of lightning rocked out from the storm shield, frying groups of fishmen. When Valeranded inside of the storm shield, the Alters nodded to her respectfully in recognition of their second inmand. "Need something, miss?" said Damien as he shed Valera a confident, pearly white smile. He flipped back his curly, lengthy hair with a poise that made it very evident that he had often rehearsed this hair flip to try and appeal to women so much that it had be a habitual part of him. Valera almost cringed in disgust but held it down. "Bring me, what was his name, yes, Gerald." Valera did not have all the names of these strong humans known as Alters down in her memory, but she did keep in mind the notably useful or strong ones. The most powerful among them was a man called Ace who possessed great strength, durability, and flight. A man that the Alters had called their rank three and treated with respect. But Valera did not need someone like that. If she wanted pure brute force damage, then she was superior. "One Geralding right up~" said Damien as he spun his finger around, creating a green ring that he flicked to the ground. There, arger, pudgier boy leaped on. His skin was entirely a shade of dark pink and rubbery in texture. Valera had a rough idea of what these strong humans could do. She was still getting used to how their many unique powers worked, but she basically found it easy to understand when she treated them all as being humans that could use a single spell or set of spells. In the case of Gerald, his body was incredibly unique. Its texture and physical traits mimicked that of rubber and on top of this, could absorb and store mass amounts of force, particrly the force of physical blows. This force could then be unleashed all at onceter, making Gerald a nightmare for brute force brawlers to fight. The stronger the force that hit him, the more power he had to returnter. "Look, Gerald, someone important actually wants to see you," said Damien. Gerald rolled his eyes at Damien before addressing Valera. "What can I do?" said Gerald, rank 14 among the ckwater students, as he saluted Valera. He gave her an eager smile, ready to impress. He had always been one of the harder workers with a people pleasing personality and a happy go lucky attitude that truly did not suit the rest of ckwater''s criminal background or family students. "I''m going to hit you now," said Valera tly as she cocked back her fist. Chapter 131: Valeras Merits 3

Chapter 131: Valera''s Merits 3

At the center of the battlefield - The zombie giant growled as it continued to struggle against Crab''s pincers from closing around its neck. The struggle between the two huge entities shattered the ground underneath them as their legs drove into it, creatingrge pits of upturned and broken earth. Crab could not vocalize by virtue of not having any real vocal chords, but that made it even more menacing as it continued to press its strength forward, its body trembling in exertion as it shoved its huge, open pincer ws ever forwards against the giant in silent determination. That was when Crab''s antennae twitched, sensing a flying presence nearing it. It prepared a response, diverting some stored energy in its shell to release as a shockwave. Ste floated above Crab and did not get into range of its shockwave. Instead, she followed Valera''s orders, and stayed up there, just eyeing Crab, waiting for the right moment even as her hands twitched in eagerness to unleash an explosion. Crab saw that Ste did not make a move and focused its energy back onto trying to kill the giant. At that moment, the ground underneath it broke apart, instantly crumbling into a raging whirlpool of sand and crushing gravitational force. Crab''s bnce immediately broke as its many giant legs sunk into sand, losing grip of what was once solid ground. In that moment, the zombie giant grunted and regained an advantage, swatting away Crab''s pincers before going for a massive punch that connected with Crab''s head. The sound of the blow was akin to a missile exploding in sheer volume, and Crab''s head jerked back from the attack, cracks spreading from its shell. However, the shell very quickly patched back up, and it adjusted to the shifting sands beneath it by digging its huge legs in deep, even deeper than the sand pit, anchoring itself into firm ground far below. But that meant that despite being able to continue fighting on solid footing, Crab was still immobilized. At the same time, the zombie giant roared as it aimed to m its fists down on Crab''s head, trying to bash its brains out. Crab''s antennae twitched and it immediately responded, guarding the giant''s double hammer fist blow by using its two wide pincers as shields. "Got you right were we want you!" shouted Ste as she took this chance to unleash her Bunker Buster down on Crab. She did it from a distance, away from shockwave retaliation range. She put her hands out, and they glowed bright white, all the veins in them pumping a mass amount of explosive blood. Her Bunker Buster detonated outwards in a building sized cone of fiery orange, easily engulfing most of Crab''s body. Shockwaves of force rippled through the titanic variant''s body, sending out cracks here and there, but overall, it did not deal too much damage. Ste, despite the shiness of her explosions, had a rtively short effective range for maximal damage. Her explosive blood could only travel so far before automatically detonating, making her more of a mid-range fighter. At a distance like this, her explosions had less impact because they lost energy as they traveled. But her aim was not to deal damage. What the Bunker Buster did aplish was to disorientate Crab''s vibration sensitive antennae with shockwaves and heat. Meanwhile, the zombie giant kept it distracted from the front by continuing to force Crab to use its pincers to guard its head. In that very split second, with the zombie giant taking up Crab''s attention from ahead, with the variant''s senses momentarily disoriented, with its movements grounded by the Antlion, a ck blur shot across the battlefield. It traveled faster than any bullet, moving so quickly that it was imperceptible to practically everyone. Valera flew forwards like a living missile, her fist stuck in front of her as she aimed right at the Crab''s head, right where there were still faint cracks from the zombie giant''sst punch. The many segments of her ck armor were filled in with bloody red, a sign that she had filled the [yer] gauge. Every single time she killed a unit, she received a small bonus to her stats and damage resistance. This could stack up to a hundred times, and when maxed at 100, she gained an active buff known as the [yer] which allowed her to execute any units by brutally tearing them apart when they reached low enough health. The weaker a unit was, the higher this execution threshold was. If she managed to get a hold of a Vital Point, this threshold increased even further. For basic creatures like fishmen, she could literally execute them from full health. However, for a mighty enemy like this Crab, she had to both reduce its health and get a hold of a Vital Point. She had no idea where the vital points of a creature like this, a beast she had never known before, were, but she figured that it was in its head, Regardless, the most important thing right now was to deal as much damage to the monster from within. That way, it would stop fighting even if she could not directly execute it. And dealing damage, well, besides protecting the master, that was her greatest passion. A split moment before Valera''s fist reached the Crab''s head, her lips twisted into a savagely wide grin, her cheeks literally tearing to bare the entire set of her sharp, bloodied fangs. Valera pierced right through Crab''s shell and into its head. She had punched Gerald over a dozen times - up to the maximum amount of energy he could hold and even more, even until his body started to break apart. She had then jumped off of Gerald while he returned that energy to her with the flexible nature of his rubber body, essentially bing a trampoline from which Valera sprung off at with insane speed. With all that force behind her, Valera smashed through Crab''s head. Inside, she found herself in a red cavity packed with slimy grey goo and white flesh. Along this flesh wererge red nerves that looked like chords of rope. "DIE! DIE! DIE! I WILL HAVE YOUR SPINE FOR MY MASTER! FOR MY DEAREST WHO HAS NEVER ABANDONED ME!" Valera ripped and tore with reckless abandon. Anything she saw, she savagely destroyed. She wed at and tore apart flesh, she used blood shockwave attacks topletely scatter the grey goo that acted like connective tissue. She took therge nerve chords and snapped them before tearing them to shreds. Squelching flesh erupted all around her rampage,pletely soaking her in viscous, transparent liquid that acted as the crab''s blood. On the outside, Crab twitched and frozen as its head turned into a mushy, brutalized mess. But it did not stop fighting. Instead, it seemed to struggle even more, unleashing wild blows everywhere. The zombie giant was pushed back, as was everyone else when Crab started to unleash shockwaves from all around its shell with little regards to uracy. At first, this seemed like the variant''s death throes, but after an entire minute of struggling, it became very evident that Crab could still fight. Valera by now had torn everything she could see to shreds, and yet, even as she did so, the beast was still moving. Was this not where its Vital Point was? She snarled, trying to think of an alternative. That was when she heard a voice ringing through her head. A smooth, elegant voice with highly proper inflections. She did not like this voice. It reminded her of vampiric nobility. ''Your killing methods strain my aesthetic sensibilities. Such brutish violence directed every which way with no focus,'' came Chiros''s voice. ''So, allow me to guide you, O Exile.'' From outside, Chiros stood just outside the sandpit where Crab was grounded. He pointed his gleaming crimson saber at Crab and chanted, "[Expose Veins]". This was a racial skill of his that allowed him to mark the Vital Points of enemies. Arge red dot started to glow not from the variant''s head, but in its lower body, right above its legs and within its lower stomach. ''So you are the Adal noble. And I don''t like that title,'' said Valera with a grimace. ''But your aid is appreciated.'' Her frown then turned upside down as she cracked her neck in anticipation of the carnage she was to inflict. "ORA! ORA! ORA!" Valera began to pummel the fleshy ground beneath her in a flurry of punches that only grew faster and stronger over time. She utterly decimated any flesh she came into contact with, rapidly drilling down through Crab''s body until finally, she reached its main Vital Point. It was arge spherical red bundle of coiled nerves that functioned as its true brain. With one final yell, Valera punched the nerve bundle and utterly sted it apart. With that, Crab froze up and copsed like a puppet that had its strings cut. It crashed into the ground with a heavy thud, unleashing a cloud of dust from its sheer mass. The red light within its shell died down, all the stored energy fading away, and its body rapidly began to turn brown and grey as it started to slowly shrink down to its original size. From Crab''s back, Valera burst out, her fist punching through shell before she pulled herself up. She was soaked in Crab''s blood and chunks of its flesh and organs. She shook off the gore while the clear blood drained into her. "Victory is ours!" shouted Valera as she raised her fist in the air. She regted her voice from wild, violence addled rage from back when she was tearing apart the Crab and where nobody could hear her to a more dignified tone now. Valera was about to speak again, but as she looked into the sky, she noticed somethinging. Chapter 132: Restoring Seismic

Chapter 132: Restoring Seismic

Aldrich smiled as he watched Valera stand over the corpse of Crab triumphantly. He was proud of her. Proud of what she could do and how well she could handle herself. Seeing it firsthand made him even more sure that he could trust her with controlling his forces. Valera was a veteran through and through in terms of battle. And it made sense given her lore background. She was a vampire noble born from a forbidden union between her vampire count father and a Duhan warrior of an opposing faction. Her lineage made her forever ursed in the eyes of her vampiric peers, and though her father''s doting nature had given her an early life of royalty, once her father was killed through internal political strife, she had been sent off to the Nightshield Order. Most third or fourth children of vampiric nobility were sent to the Nightshields for they were too far down in the line of session to im their bloodline''s title, and there, they served as distinguished warriors or, in Valera''s case, as a Guardian Knight to protect a proper vampire count or countess. Afterpleting her training, Valera had served a countess for a solid decade before the countess was assassinated and Valera was framed for the murder. After that point in time, she lost any semnce of what she could call an ally and gained a fierce reputation for killing anyone that was sent to apprehend her. All that had given Valera an instinctive understanding of how to fight and how to apply herbat knowledge. As long as it was in matters of warfare, Aldrich was fully confident in leaving his forces with Valera now. That would be quite important in the future as Aldrich would have to deal with the politics of the Alterhuman Agency and Panopticon. He had already sowed seeds for his sess by saving Minuteman, having the hero owe him a favor, and projecting himself as a savior for Haven, but it would always be good to have someone he could delegate the war side of things to when needed. ''Valera-,'' projected Aldrich telepathically as he put a finger to the side of his head. He was about to praise her and tell her to start routing thest of the variants, but something immediately stopped him. It was his heavily enhanced Perception stat that sensed it. A sort of preternatural danger avoidance instinct that immediately made Aldrich look up. In the distance, across the horizon, he could see with his night vision an enormous ck cloud of metal moving his way. Countless little red dots blinked around in this ck cloud, granting it an ominous appearance like a gue of death. A loud buzzing hum droned through the air - the unmistakable sound of a ss 5 Panopticon drone fleet. Or, as they were nicknamed, Bugs for their vaguely insectoid outlines and the way their rotors and engines hummed together in a cacophony that mimicked the buzzing of flies. Bugs did not juste from the distance; they came from above as well. They started to swarm around Aldrich''s Storm, and as they approached, it became very evident that they were a hostile force. Barrels of guns were drawn out, as were the heads of missiles in racks ready to shoot outward. The Panopticon drones were operating purely in an automated fashion, and it was evident that they would not recognize Aldrich''s undead variants as friends. "No, you don''t," proimed Aldrich as he crushed his hand into a fist,manding the Storm to unleash its technology disrupting field. A wave of blue energy pulsated outwards from the centered Anglerfish, traveling past jellyfish, growing thicker and brighter until it cascaded past the storm''s perimeter in a resonating wave that washed over hundreds of Bugs. The Bugs sputtered and crackled with electricity as the Storm disrupted them, and they fell to the ground in disabled droves. The Bugs then started to move away from the Storm, recognizing its disruption field threat, and instead ignored the Storm and started to head towards Aldrich. The Bugs were individually rather weak drones, but their strengthy in their continuous learningwork that allowed their many losses to continuously calibrate into battle data. In this way, Bugs were a self-learning force. Though each one was individually weak, they could transmit battle data about their deaths and observations to all in theirwork, increasing their capabilities over time. However, they, like all artificial intelligence operated drones, were not fully self-sufficient as per the Gtea Edict. The edict forbade all creation of A.I. that was or had the potential to be independent and sentient, for the world had already been threatened once by a techno''s mad creation during the early days of the Altering. Countless Bugs were probably already around the battlefield at this point, having swarmed in from other angles. ''Master!'' Valera''s voice resonated through Aldrich''s mind. ''These human contraptions are striking us, targeting the native beasts of this world under yourmand. Despicable humans, for them to dare to eveny a single metal finger upon my master''s undead - shall wey waste to them all?" ''Destroy the ones that pose an immediate threat," said Aldrich. "But try to limit how many you take down. Focus instead on evacuating all variant undead to portal range so that Portal Girl can take them under the Deildeghast line.'' ''Understood, master!'' With that, Valera''s voice disconnected from Aldrich''s mind. "Tch. Now this is an annoying situation," Aldrich said under his breath. From what Valera said and from what he could observe, the Bugs only targeted variants. It appeared that Elden World monsters and entities escaped target. Even now, though, Aldrich thought about how he could abuse this situation. The fact that the Panopticon had not adjusted their Bugs to avoid targeting Aldrich''s forces meant that they were too busy to pay attention to what was going on here. The fact that the Bugs attacked Aldrich''s units meant that he could use that as additional leverage against the Panopticon after this battle. Yes, thought Aldrich. This would only serve to cement his position further as long as he yed his cards right. There would be little to no cost either. Once Aldrich''s variants were under the Deildeghast barriers, they were invulnerable to drone interference due to the nature of the tech disrupting smoke that the [Spirit Boundaries] projected. With the Storm above projecting its disruption field as well, no Bugs could target Merman and the anemones so long as they stayed under the protective, tech disrupting range. But the biggest issue would arise when Shrimp recovered. Even now, the variant army still fought, meaning that Shrimp, the Locus, was still alive, and Aldrich could confirm that from Shrimp''s energy signature still embedded deep in the earth. When Shrimp surfaced, Aldrich could not risk having Bugs annoy him and get in his way by targeting units he needed to use freely. Aldrich needed a way to have the Bugs stand down without destroying too many of them, for the more he kept intact, the better his position looked as a victim of the Panopticon''s ipetence. He looked over to his side at Seismic''s nk expression. There was an easy way to settle this. Aldrich whistled, and his voice projected strongly outwards, reaching Crow. Crow flew down from his position near the Storm, away from Bugs, andnded by Aldrich''s side. Aldrich hopped on Crow''s back, and he waved Seismic forward. The giant of a hero jumped on as well. That was when Aldrich snapped his fingers, granting Seismic''s will back. He had not wanted to do this until after Shrimp was dealt with as he did not want to risk Seismic, his greatest arisen undead asset so far, to be confused or disoriented during the fight. But this situation forced Aldrich''s hand early. "Where¡­where am I?" said Seismic as he rubbed his head, blinking rapidly as light and focus returned to his eyes. "I''ll keep the exnation short. You died fighting the Locus. I resurrected you with my powers. Now, I need you here with me to fight against the rest of the fishmen and the Locus when it returns," said Aldrich. "I''m¡­alive again?" Seismic looked down at his hands and closed them into fists. He took in a deep breath, and when he exhaled, his expression turned deadly, focused serious. "I get it. I''ll fight with you." "No questions?" said Aldrich. "About who I am? What I''m doing?" "You already said it. You are fighting the variants. That''s enough for me. And it feels like I can trust you," said Seismic simply. "All I want to know is how we''re doing out there." Aldrich nodded. He liked Seismic already. The man was no nonsense and all business. No panic. No questions. Just doing what he needed to do. "Good," said Aldrich. "The defenders have held the line, and ever since I arrived with my Legion, they haven''t given ground. I''ve taken out the anemones and the two variant leaders, leaving the fishmen for cleanup. All that''s left is the Locus, and it''s still remaining stationary underground." "I''ll be ready when the Locus makes a move," said Seismic. He looked down to his stomach where his costume had been torn in a circle where before he had been punched straight through. He scowled as he balled his hand into a tight fist¡­ "This time, I''ll be the one to put a fist through it." Chapter 133: The Connector

Chapter 133: The Connector

Aldrich noted that though Seismic wasrgely a stoic man, there was something in the way that he so very violently balled up his fist as he talked about punching a hole through Shrimp that made it very clear that within Seismic, there were violent tendencies unbefitting of a ''proper'' hero. But then again, as Aldrich deeply knew, there were so very few proper heroes out there anyway. "Good to see you all ready to fight, but before that, I need you to tell the Panopticon drone fleet to stand down," said Aldrich. A good chunk of my forces are variants I''ve ced under my control, and the Bugs are targeting them. A rank heroes can directly order around Panopticon responses all the way up to ss 2, can''t they?" said Aldrich. Seismic nodded. "Not exactly. But I can force the drones to link me with a Connector. There, I should have enough authority to submit direct requests." Aldrich nodded. "Then we''ll do that. Up," he said, directing Crow to move. Crow''s six eyes blinked in recognition before he pped his huge wings, sending Aldrich and Seismic hurtling far up. They reached the skies over the battlefield in seconds, and there, Aldrich got a glimpse of the ss 5 drone response. Thousands of Bugs were around the battle zone, firing their weapons and raining down their explosives on fishmen. They ughtered the fishmen in droves, but the only reason these drones could do so much in the first ce was because Aldrich had carved the way for them. Aldrich had taken out the storm. He had taken out all the air troops. He had disabled the sea anemones and wiped out the mermen. That left only the blue fishmen on the ground capable of hitting airborne targets, and they were a pitiful anti air measurepared to the flying fish, manta rays, mermen, and the living storm. If the entire variant army had been left alone, this drone response would have been crushed in half an hour at most. No, they would have gotten shut down by the storm once it started to focus its EMP emissions. This, Aldrich kept in mind. He could not let the Panopticon take any real credit for this battle. As Aldrich thought this, several dozen drones surrounded Crow as Aldrichmanded him to hover in a stationary position. The drones pointed their red dot eyes towards Aldrich, their weapons bared out in menacing fashion. "Stop," said Seismic, his voice resonating with authority. "Identifying¡­," A cold, deep, mechanical voice emerged from a drone as it went up to Seismic, and its red eye projected out a scanning beam that washed over Seismic''s face. "A- ss hero Seismic identified. Grade 1 clearance registered. Disengaging weapons systems." "Get me to a Connector. Now." Said Seismic. "Your request is approved. Linking to source Connector¡­," began the drone as its red eye turned green and started to blink rapidly, establishing a connection. Connectors, as far as Aldrich was aware, were higher up Panopticon members that could direct and, if needed, manually operate drone responses. They operated in giant floating mechanical structures known as Pirs that acted as mobile factories and hubs from which Panopticon drones were stored and sent out. "Connector #443 linked. Now transferringmunications," said the drone. After a few seconds, its green glowing eye turned blue, indicating that a Connector had taken manual control over it. "Connector #443 here," came a tired woman''s voice. "Normally, I would listen to your request, A ss hero Seismic, but I want to preface this by saying that we have no reinforcements to send. For now, this is as much you''re going to get, and if you want me to manually control anything, I''m afraid I''m already multi-tasking my attention with cleanup on the Neo-York attack. I''m sorry, but if you want a higher fleet response-," "I don''t care about reinforcements," said Seismic. "Oh, I see." The Connector''s voice remained tired. "I''m assuming Haven''s been overrun already, then. Do you need me to withdraw this response?" "No. Do your job and take a look at what''s happening," said Seismic. The Connector sighed. "Fine. I do have to listen to you A rankers anyhow. Let''s see¡­ ¡­ ¡­ WHAT!?" The Connector''s voice grew from tired to surprised in a single instant. "What are those things? And¡­and are those variants fighting against the fishmen? That giant thing, are those, like¡­knights? They look straight out of a game! And what''s that ck smoke? And hold up, the storm¡­you guys have disabled the storm on your end? Wait, wait, wait, I don''t understand any of this!" "You don''t have to," said Seismic. His tone was serious. Curt. He did not ever say any more than what he needed to. "All you need to do is what I say. I''m fighting with an ally that can control those variants. Have your Bugs stand down." "What? An ally?" The drone turned to see Aldrich. It projected out a scanning beam that washed over his form of bone and metal and blood from head to toe. "This guy isn''t in the WWA (Worldwide Alter) database! No, scratch that, I can''t even get a proper read on him to begin with! It''s like he''s a Dud or something - he''s obviously concealing his powers. As per Panopticon Procedural #44A, I can''t authorize-," "Are we really going to be debating procedure?" said Seismic. "Do you have that much time and that many lives to waste?" "¡­" A pause from the Connector. Then a sigh. "Okay, I understand. I''ll go ahead and authorize your request, but the thing is, now that I''m manually checking on the C5 drones and seeing through them, I can''t tell that there''s anything different between the ones he controls and the fishmen. There''s no Alter energy signature like the kind you''d expect to see from Variants under Alter control." "Then you''d better go ahead and keep an eye on your drones, shouldn''t you? To make sure they don''t hit your allies?" said Aldrich in a warning voice. "¡­" The Connector sighed again. Though her face was not visible, just the tiredness in her voice and her sighs made it very clear that she was probably having quite the sleepless night. "Okay, yeah, I can do that. I''ll just make them not attack anything with, let''s see, uh, a green aura thing. That might leave the greenscale fishmen alive, is that alright?" "We can handle those. I appreciate the cooperation," said Aldrich. "Then I''m going to close this channel. You better exin all this in your report, Seismic," said the Connector has her voice cut off with a crackle. The drone projecting her voice turned its eye back to its usual red color before it flew away, back to the battlefield. "Now then, it''s about time we head back to what''s important," said Aldrich as he stared towards the battle site. "Yes," said Seismic simply. "Land us down there," said Aldrich as he stared at Crab''s giant corpse. Though by now, Crab had receded from its peak size of ten meters all the way down now to five. Atop Crab''s back was Valera as she waved her hands towards Aldrich happily. Crow shot downwards in a swooping arc, and at the bottom of it, Aldrich and Seismic both got off,nding atop Crab''s corpse. "Master! You''re safe!" said Valera as she bowed to Aldrich. "Of course, I am," said Aldrich. "Oh, and I was about to say this before these bots rudely cute me off, but good job, Valera. You''re proving to me just how capable you are." Valera squirmed in happiness under her brutal armor of red and spiked ck metal. "It was a little new to bemanding forces, but I feel like I have the hang of it." "As long as it involves fighting, it seems like you have a talent for it," said Aldrich. "How''s the rest of the fight going? I imagine with Crab gone, the rest of this variant army should have no chance." "Indeed. These monsters are on theirst legs. All the ground they had covered at the start of this night is gone. No, they are now on the very cusp of defeat," said Valera as she motioned around her. Aldrich''s undead forces were fully pushing back the variants now, especially with the Panopticon''s Bugs swarming and destroying the fodder, equalizing the numbers difference between his Legion and the variant army somewhat. Under a hailstorm of gunfire, missile fire, shing swords, giant blows, explosions, toxic gas, acid, and countless other manner of attacks, the variants had no chance, not with their leaders killed. "I must say, these ''mechs'' are quite capable. Worth the annoyance that they initially were then they dawned upon this site of our battle," said Valera. "But I worry about that one. The strong one. It is yet alive, no?" "It is," said Aldrich. "And we need to start preparing for it. For now-," Aldrich made sure to check again that Shrimp''s energy signature still remained underground. There it was: arge orb of white tracked in Aldrich''s vision by Vntis''s keen energy sensing. "We clean up the variants as much as we can while I get ready. First thing''s first-," Aldrich knelt down and put a hand on Crab''s cracked, dulled, lifeless shell¡­ "Serve." Chapter 134: Danger

Chapter 134: Danger

Aldrich watched as twin strands of green and red energy flowed out from his hand as both his health and mana drained in raising Crab. Evidently, Crab, unlike Merman, counted as a ''boss'' type unit that needed Aldrich to channel his [Raise Undead]. However, Aldrich did not have to spend nearly as much health and mana to raise Crab as he did with Seismic. By the end of it, he was down to half of his health and nearly emptied of his mana. He was in desperate need of a resource recharge, but he did not want to use charges of his [Restorative sk] just yet. Not when he had so many graves around him to replenish himself. Crab''s corpse shook as it began to move again. Aldrich, Valera, and Seismic all jumped down from Crab''s book as the huge variant rose again, a green glow shing through its eye stalks. [Inner Circle: 44/49 ] 45/49] "Raising the dead. An interesting power," said Seismic as he crossed his arms and stared at Crab''s reanimated, green shrouded body. "I fought a viin that could do that in Africa. Nzambi. An A-lister. Took out her army. But she could resurrect from any one of her zombies, no matter where it was. Hard to kill like a cockroach." "I knew of her," said Aldrich. Nzambi was the leader of a massive group of Nomads in Africa who had created a modern-day raiding army, going from city to city to take resources from with her Nomads and, when they died, their zombie forms. She was a worldwide wanted terrorist and in her fifth year of abusing her powers, she received an Elimination Order from the AA, a designation granted to Alters who threatened the stability of society and were thus to have their lives deemed worth no more than a variant, stripping them of all ess to banks, city ess, and no consequences for anyone that killed or neutralized them. Eventually, Nzambi was taken out by Solomon Sr with the aid of Psiforce, one of the strongest Psychic type Psionic Alters in the world, to freeze her mind inside her current body so that she could not infinitely revive herself. Nzambi was one of the most notable Alters that could ''raise the dead'', but she was not unique. Powers that affected corpses were not unknown. They were just taboo among the AA and its heroes because very few heroes overcame the bad PR that using corpses or zombies generated. As a result, most Alters that could do anything resembling necromancy usually became mercenaries or viins. "But my powers operate quite differently from hers," continued Aldrich. "If you want to use her power as a benchmark to figure out what I can do, I''ll tell you right now that it''s pointless." "I figured," said Seismic. "All I want you to tell me is this: do I have control over myself? My own free will?" "Depends on how cooperative you are," said Aldrich tly. "Hm. So that''s how it is." Seismic''s expression did not change. It remained the same serious face as always. "Consider it the price foring back from the dead. Nothing is free in this world, after all," said Aldrich. "A fair price to pay," said Seismic simply. "I''m d you understand," said Aldrich genuinely. He truly appreciated how quick Seismic was to ept and understand the way things were. It showed how quickly he could adapt to new situations. Aldrich turned to Valera. "Valera, use your shield again. Protect me while I recharge. And Seismic, you can wait here until the Locuses. I''ll regroup with you soon, and together, we can take out the Locus if it hasn''t moved yet." "dly," said Seismic. "Understood, master!" Valera manifested her cross shield of metal and bone and stood by Aldrich''s side. Aldrich then leaped into the air with Valera mimicking his movements. Together, theynded in a thick trove of ughtered fishmen and crabmen. Above their corpses, countless grave markers floated. Aldrich raised his hand and chanted, "[Mass Grave Consumption]". With that, over fifty graves floated into Aldrich, replenishing his mana from nearly empty topletely full in a single instant. A blue aura flickered around him, signifying the restoration. [Mana: 471/471] Yes, thought Aldrich with a satisfactory nod. This was how Legion Necromancers should have been. A master of the dark arts who thrived in the chaos of the battlefield where all others choked under the bodies and death. Aldrich looked down at his pale hands, seeing the bony fingers of his true form sh underneath. Were he not a Lich either, he would not nearly have been this strong either. Because his game character necromancer was fundamentally a game character. It was limited by game bncing such as the fact that it could not only have around 100 undead at max with the most optimized equipment and at level 100. As a Lich, even barely past level 40, Aldrich far surpassed that level of unit control. This was the power of a racial transformation that he could never have obtained in the game. One that would have been game breaking in its sheer power. As a Lich, unbound by the limits of the game, Aldrich truly was a nigh unstoppable force in arge scale fight like this. Though, of course, he had to consider his weaknesses still. A mass [Grave Consumption] like this had a much longer cooldown at a whopping thirty seconds, and he could choose either to restore his health or his mana, not both. Strong individual enemies could abuse this cooldown period to target him down, and eventually, if he was forced to keep using his mana to defend himself, his [Grave Consumption] would not keep him alive. But that was why Valera was here. She covered all his weaknesses. Sheplemented his ystyle perfectly. "I enjoyed the thrill of letting loose and ripping apart our enemies," said Valera as she looked at the armor around her arms and body like she was looking at a new dress. "This armor, especially, it suits me so very much." Valera drew close to Aldrich, almost seductively drawing the touch of her hand across his shoulders. Most likely, this gesture was just instinctive for vampires were seductive by nature. At the same time, it made Aldrich smile, because he knew in lore that vampires showed seductive tendencies to those they wished to seduce to hunt or those they fully trusted. "But what I missed even more was being by your side with my shield raised to defend you, my master." "There''s nobody else I would trust to defend me like this, let alone someone as capable as you," said Aldrich. He scanned around for more graves. Thousands more littered the battlefield all around him. When the cooldown for his [Grave Consumption] reset, he would restore himself to full health. "Your praise is too much for a humble guardian like myself," said Valera as he lowered her head, though she noticeably trembled in happiness. "I-," Valera paused, and for a single instant, Aldrich felt like the world had slowed down. His enhanced Perception was screaming at him that he was in danger. Grave danger. This was a sensation that Aldrich had never felt before since he had be an undead, when he had managed his forces and himself carefully so that he was never in risk. Every fiber of his being told him that his eternal end woulde if he did not react. However, he was too slow to react to the threat physically. His reflexes and instincts told him something wasing, but even with his supernatural strength, he could not react in time. ''Valera!'' Aldrich immediatelymanded Valera mentally, faster than how much his body could move. Valera, much stronger and faster than Aldrich, immediately dashed behind Aldrich with her shield raised up. She had sensed the threat before Aldrich had due to her higher physicals and perception, and she knew exactly where it came from. Chapter 135: Sudden Attack

Chapter 135: Sudden Attack

Aldrich had barely a moment to turn around and perceive the towering wall of green and blue light of some sort of force wave. It had wavy patterns within it, making it seem like an ethereal tidal wave of raw energy that threatened topletely crash over and drown Aldrich and Valera. Valera had her shield mmed down, ready to defend Aldrich at all costs. She did not give a single care about her own safety - she stood against that tide of energy with unbreakable determination. A metallic white glimmer sparkled around her, indicating that she had buffed herself with the skill [Body of Steel] that allowed her to massively reduce the iing damage of a single attack. However, just from a simple nce, it was easy to tell that the sheer amount of power in that wave of energy was devastating. So devastating that Aldrich realized that Valera might not be able to block all of it herself. Knowing this, his [Death Essence Barrier] automatically triggered, shining visibly green around him. Even then, it might not be enough. This was bad. Perhaps the worst situation that Aldrich had been in so far. Had he been careless? No, he did not think so. He had covered all his bases for this fight to make sure he was never under threat, or that if he was, he could always react to it. He was realistic in his nning. He knew that he could never foresee every possibility ahead of him. There was no such thing as a perfect n, after all. But the point of nning was to give him room to react to sudden changes. So that even if he was taken off guard, he could always recover. Thergest threat he could think of was Shrimp. Even now, in this brief moment of slowed perception, he could register that Shrimp''s energy signature was static, still embedded deep underground. If this was an attack, then it was from something he could not have reliably foreseen no matter what. But that did not matter. What mattered was whether he would survive this attack. Valera could block a majority of the iing damage, but if enough of it spilled through and broke through Aldrich''s barrier, he only had 50% of his maximum health to tank the blow. And judging from the staggering amount of power in this attack, that was a non-zero possibility. For the very first time since his undeath, Aldrich recognized that his life was in palpable danger. Valera, with all her battle experience, knew even better than Aldrich the strength of this attack. She knew that there was a chance she could not fend him fully, and she did not want to take that chance at all. In the mere fraction of an instant before the energy wave crashed upon them, she reached her free arm through Aldrich''s barrier and shoved him into the air with a powerful push, knocking him out of the way. Time flowed normally again. High up in the air, Aldrich righted himself with his draconic wings as he saw the tidal wave of energy crash over Valera, surging past her in a narrow wave that stretched out across a vast swathe of the entire battle site itself. A roaring, crashing sound reminiscent of tides crashing against rock raged through the air as the energy wave flowed forward. Anything caught in that wave of blinding bright green and blue instantly broke apart. Thankfully, because the energy wave was rtively thin, it did not manage to target fully erase any of Aldrich''s troops. It caught the Zombie Giant and Crab by surprise, sting a hole straight through their legs, but beyond this, there were no casualties on Aldrich''s side. The fishmen, however, were not so lucky. They were utterly eviscerated under the energy wave, and when it faded away, it revealed an enormous trail of molten, carved out earth from the sheer amount of heat energy stored within the attack. And the one who had born the brunt of this attack - "Valera!" said Aldrich as he looked down where she had been. Arge smoke cloud of debris had dredged up from the attack, but Aldrich could sense that she was still alive. "I''m alright, master!" shouted Valera as she swung her shield to the side, blowing away the dust clouds to make her and the aggressor of this all visible. Valera''s cross shield glowed red and white hot, and several molten white scorch marks lined her armor. The armor around her legs and shield glowedpletely white hot, and the flesh underneath was horribly burned and damaged. "¡­What?" Aldrich narrowed his eyes under his helm as he trained his sight on the aggressor. It was Shrimp. Shrimp stood before Valera with his fist thrust out in front of him. His body had changed. It had grown slightly more muscrpared to its rail thin body before, though its overall appearance remained much the same. The biggest difference was in its arm structure. It had changed, covered over with thicker iridescent, rainbow-colored shell ting. Across the ting of its forearm, two bright lines of blue and green respectively shone down to its knuckles. Its elbow joint had changed into a sort of piston structure, and when Shrimp withdrew his arm to his side, his forearm clicked as it jerked upwards, locking into its upper arm. It reminded Aldrich of Frame suits that had piston powered punches. ''Vntis, I thought you were keeping a track of him. What happened?'' said Aldrich. His mental voice did not possess any hint of judgement to it, for he knew better than to let emotions cloud his judgement and analysis. No, anything that happened, anything that slipped by him, anything that he needed to react to out of the blue - he would deal with using calm analysis as he had always done. ''Forgive me, but my sight has been upon that beast, and I have not allowed myself to let it escape from my perception,'' said Vntis. Aldrich checked the corner of his vision. The white spot where Shrimp was supposed to be was still glowing. "¡­" Aldrich observed Shrimp for another second, and based off of context clues, could rapidly piece together what had happened. "I see." Aldrich could see that there were dull white chunks of shell falling from Shrimp''s body. And those matched the energy signature deep within the earth. Shrimp had molted while under the ground, and from that molting process, had emerged ever stronger. On top of that, the molted shell acted as a sort of energy instor, hiding Shrimp''s changing body and energy beneath it. "That creature now possesses an energy aura far separated from that which it bore before. Almost as if it was an entirely new being," said Vntis. "Yet, it is unfathomable that it could have escaped my sight. Its energy aura is still colossal - easily enough for me to track had it moved at any pace of speed, no matter how fast. The only option I could conceive of is that it managed to cover great distances within a single instant. In other words, teleportation." "That''s the conclusion I came to as well," said Aldrich. He took in a breath. He had not expected Shrimp to just spontaneously evolve new powers like that in the middle ofbat. No, if it was just developing an extra power, Aldrich would have understood. There were cases of variants attacking with a set of powers, escaping, and then yearster attacking again with an extra or changed power. There were even some Alters that had developed additional powers through either gic luck or a rarer process called Metamorphosis. What was even more unpredictable, something so out of Aldrich''s knowledge scope that he could not have foreseen it, was that Shrimp had developed a teleportation-based power. Flux powers that manipted space and time were thought to be entirely in the realm of Alters. There had never once been a case of variants that could affect the fabric of space-time. It was one of the reasons why Flux Alters were so valued: they were not only highly valuable for their utility, but they also represented power that belonged solely to the realm of humanity. They were considered like the stars of mankind. Possessing powers of the cosmos far beyond, where only humans had ever touched, while the variants they fought were creatures that never left the boundaries of the earth. The only possible exception were Chrysalis that could create their personal spaces, but these were considered less living variants and more mobile environments. Yet, it looked like humanity had now lost that privilege. On top of this, Aldrich''s understanding of variants was limited to the bootleg research he could get on them as he was locked out from essing the AA''s proper variant database. All this would change soon, however. He would make sure he had ess to everything. Every tool and privilege he could use to further his power and position, all that had been denied to him before because he was nothing but a lowly Dud - he would take now. All he had to do was turn Shrimp into a corpse. Specifically, his corpse. Chapter 136: The Counter

Chapter 136: The Counter

Aldrich looked down at Shrimp and observed as the variant cocked his head and stared at Valera with curiosity. The very same type of curiosity it had afforded ckwater''s rank 1 Mel Morales. An innocent curiosity that felt sinister in that it came from a monstrosity with enough power to wipe out the lives of an entire city. "You¡­very strong. Do not break," said Shrimp as he stared at Valera with wide open, shining rainbow eyes. "But still hurt. Will die soon." Shrimp''s eyes gazed at the white hot parts of Valera''s armor, at the smoke of the seared flesh wisping out from beneath the metal. Aldrich closed his fist, and his [Mist of Undeath] welled up underneath Valera. The green mist immediately restored her health to full,pletely healing her burns. The cold nature of his mist also soothed the armor, rapidly cooling it down to its ck shade. "Oh, am I hurt now?" said Valera as she smiled widely, herrge vampiric fangs bared. "You should take more care of yourself!" Valera shoved a foot in front of her, and the ground shattered under her as she exerted mighty power into a [Shield Bash], thrusting her giant shield forward like a battering ram. Shrimp did not dodge this attack like he had done to the heroes'' attacks before his molting. Instead, Shrimp put out his arms and shed against the shield bash. A loud shockwave of pure physical force boomed out as Valera pushed against her shield and Shrimp shoved back against it. Between the two physical powerhouses, the ground started to crack and fissure in a solid line separating them. A hundred or so Bugs started to hover around the area, raining down gunfire against Shrimp, even targeting Valera on ident, but their bullets and even small missiles did literally nothing against either fighter. Noting this, the Bugs moved away, programmed to avoid battles between beings of sufficiently high power levels for they would only end up getting in the way. Shrimp trembled in exertion against Valera. But soon, he slowly began to give ground. Aldrich took this moment of Valera distracting Shrimp and used it to multi-task. First, he analyzed Shrimp''s capabilities. Judging by the struggle between Shrimp and Valera, Aldrich could determine that Shrimp''s top physical strength was around Valera''s level, if not slightly below it. But it could generate sudden explosive bursts of energy that dealt devastating amounts of damage, very likely from its piston powered fists. Second, Aldrich secured his own safety. Aldrich whistled, and Crow instantly rushed to his side. He hopped on Crow''s back and withdrew his wings. ''Vntis give me your strongest defensive stitching''manded Aldrich, for he could not afford to get blindsided by Shrimp''s newfound teleportation with no real defense, especially considering Shrimp could instantly reposition himself. ''[Organ Stitching: Mountain Drake Scales]'' said Vntis, causing thick grey, earthen scales resembling the hide of a pangolin to emerge all around his armor. The scales glinted with tiny gem-like sparkles. ''Excellent choice,'' said Aldrich. ''There is not a single set within my bone collection that is of no use,'' said Vntis, pride tinging his regal voice. Mountain Drakes were flightless monsters that lived deep within thergest of mystical mountains, and over centuries and millennia sleeping in beds of precious ores, their scales not only hardened with age, but also fused with the minerals around them, bing unfathomably hard. In terms of pure physical resistance, Mountain Drakes were nearly at the top. Mountain Drake scales to pad Aldrich''s physical resistance. The [Death Essence Barrier] to cover his energy resistance. Like this, at the cost of offensive capability, Aldrich was almost as resilient as a proper tank ss character. Then third - the army. ''My Legion, scatter. Get back to the Deildeghast line and make sure no fishmen cross it. Only the strongest few will remain for this fight,'' said Aldrich, knowing full well that in this fight, anything less than his strongest units, most of them in the range of level 30, would die from coteral damage. Aldrich did this all with lightning quick efficiency in the span of just two to three seconds. He was used to micromanaging units in Elden World, and he applied that talent now. He gave a broad mentalmand for all the units he did not need to retreat, then took all those that he foresaw could be useful and had them begin moving to aid Aldrich. Most notable of these units was the Storm. The green clouds in the distance began to shine and rumble as they floated closer. Meanwhile, in the distance, far from the current site where Shrimp and Valera was, Merman began to channel the sea anemones active. While this happened, Aldrich noticed Valera starting to go on the offensive as she saw herself slowly but surely overpowering Shrimp in raw physical strength. "ORA!" Valera kept her shoulder against her shield to push it forward but used her opposite fist to punch it. This was a much higher level Shielder skill called [Guardian''s Reckoning] that amplified the damage of a punch through a shield, magically using the shield as a strong force amplifier. The blow that passed through the shield amped with strong scaling based off of the defensive stats of both the one throwing the blow and the shield itself. Valera''s shield loudly nged and vibrated, and a concussive shockwave shot forth from it like a cannonball, and this time, Shrimp was sted far back, gouging out several craters as he skipped across solid earth like a stone thrown across a pond. Shrimp stopped himself from hurtling too far back by digging his hands into the earth, skidding as he anchored himself down to a halt. But before Shrimp could get up, Seismic fell from the sky and smashed Shrimp''s head under his foot with a mighty impact that cratered the ground under Shrimp''s head with a loud bang. A white orb covered Seismic''s boot, and beneath it, Shrimp''s head started to distort against the orb. Shrimp''s face sank into the ground against Seismic''s shockwave orb. Cracks lined Shrimp''s shell helmet, spurting with blue blood. One of his rainbow-colored eyes bulged before it popped out of its socket entirely from the intense amount of pressure it was subject to. "I¡­fight¡­I¡­fight!" Shrimp shouted with a single bloody eye. Even against Seismic''s tremendous force, Shrimp began to slowly but surely resist, positioning his four arms to push himself up. Seismic''s face warped into an expression of pure concentrated savagery as he loosed a deafening roar, the huge muscles around his legs bulging as he input as much power as he could. The orb shattered, and with that, all hell broke loose as his charged earthquake fully unleashed itself. Enormous, visible tremors of force radiated out from Seismic''s boot, shattering ground everywhere it touched. The earth rumbled as Seismic generated another earthquake. Chapter 137: The Final Fight

Chapter 137: The Final Fight

Aldrich watched from above as the earth sundered apart from Seismic''s force. Every single time that Seismic let loose his full strength, he literally reshaped the entirendscape around him. This was power. The power of the strongest heroes just below the hallowed S ss with might so unparalleled that they were considered equivalent to entire sovereign nations in terms of sheer military might and the influence that came with it. Nevertheless, even if Seismic was not S ss, he definitely was near the top of A for his raw power. It was truly awing to watch Seismic go at it with all his might. About two decades ago, during Seismic''s prime, he had been a devastating menace that always let his power loose at max throttle without much care for coteral damage. No, back then, he had been a bloodthirsty warmonger that toed the line between hero and murderous viin, and the worst case was when hepletely broke apart the city sized flying base of Iron Lord, a S ranked viin back in the day. The huge metal chunks of that base had showered all over a city, causing hundreds of civilian deaths and millions in property damage. Seismic''s wanton tendency for absolute carnage and the sheer destructiveness of his power made him be both feared and revered as a natural disaster, a powerful force that could not be predicted, only worked around. But even that was not enough. Amid a sea of crumbling, upturned rock chunks, some asrge as entire apartment buildings, Seismic shot up rapidly into the sky through a cloud of dust and debris. He was high up enough that he was nearly level in altitude to Aldrich. Seismic had his arms crossed in front of him in a guard, but his forearms were badly scorched, the flesh ckened and falling off in charred strips. "Over here!" said Aldrich as he swooped in with Crow. Seismic noticed Aldrich and lightly hopped on a tiny quake bubble,nd on Crow''s back. "I''ll take care of your injuries," said Aldrich. Green mist emerged from underneath Seismic''s feet and curled towards his ckened arms,pletely restoring the burned flesh back to sculpted muscle. "Now, this is useful," said Seismic as he looked at his newly healed arms. He cracked his back, feeling his newly healed spine. However, he grimaced when he felt the same old stiffness where his Alter Organ had started to Crystallize. Whatever this healing was that came from this mysterious man, it could not undo Crystallization. Which made sense. There was not a single Alter power or piece of technology in the world that could counter Crystallization. "I can''t do it infinitely, though," said Aldrich. "So don''t take too many hits, especially ones that cane take you out entirely - I can''t bring you back from that." Seismic nodded. ''Master! Shall I strike now!?'' Valera''s voice rang through Aldrich''s mind, and he sensed that she was in front of the upturned earth spikes from Seismic''s kick. ''While the monster is weakened?'' ''Hold off on that,'' said Aldrich. ''It''s too risky to go in solo against a tough unit like that blindly.'' "What''s the situation look like?" asked Aldrich to Seismic. He deferred to the veteran hero''s judgement on whether to press the attack or hold back. "The Locus is tough. It took a full force hit from my Quake and still survived. I almost killed it with that hit, I could feel it. But it still has more than enough power to fight back. I would advise holding back and confirming its injuries," said Seismic. "Not a good idea to rush into A rank Locuses like this. I would wait until we can secure a visual." ''The creature''s new energy aura has beenmitted to this true sight of mine," came Vntis''s voice in Aldrich''s mind. ''It shall never leave my perception, and I am prepared to track it through even warping.'' "I have a visual," said Aldrich¡­ He looked down to see that under all the giant earth spikes, rock chunks, and huge cloud of dust, there was a brightly glowing green circle that signified Shrimp''s presence. Shrimp remained stationary at the epicenter of all that upturned rock and dust. But Aldrich remained infinitely on guard, knowing how this had yed outst time with Shrimp molting and teleporting. He kept his altitude with Crow, and he made sure that Seismic was right beside him, not to mention his irond defense with Vntis''s organ stitching. On top of Vntis''s energy tracking, Aldrich doubled down on his security andmanded his [Grave Ward] to position high in the sky but directly focused toward Shrimp. Like a miniature satellite, the [Grave Ward] would feed Aldrich a visual of Shrimp was much as possible, and its sight pierced through the dust clouds, making Shrimp''s appearance clearer than a blob of marked green energy. Shrimp was standing there in the midst of all that shattered earth with its hands on its head, blue blood pooling from between its fingers. There were cracks all over its rainbow shell with a white glow shining through the damaged lines. It appeared that from this white energy, Shrimp began to regenerate its injuries. The white energy concentrated strongest beneath its feet, traveling from the ground up over the variant''s body. "It''s not moving," said Aldrich. "And it looks like it''s taking the time to regenerate." "Is there a white glow around its injuries?" said Seismic. "Hm? You know something about that?" said Aldrich. He figured that Seismic had knowledge about strong variants like this that was ssified to heroes of his caliber. Seismic nodded. "Few heroes know this because they are so rare. But strong enough variant Loci have a healing factor that works so long as they are making contact with the ground. It''s called the Antaeic Factor. Often times, it requires standing still as well. I suspected that a Locus as strong as this had it." Seismic grimaced. "That makes this many times harder. For Loci with Antaeic Factors, we cannot ever let it out of our sights unless we risk it recovering itself. And it has teleportation to make holding it in ce even harder. But it can''t use its teleportation freely." "How did youe to that conclusion?" asked Aldrich. He had his own ideas about the teleportation''s weaknesses, but he wanted to test Seismic''s perceptiveness as well. "It if could use its teleportation freely, it would have already by now. Especially when I had struck it. If it cost too much energy, it wouldn''t have been strong enough to counter me like this. Most likely, it needs time free from interferences to use it," said Seismic calmly. "But while its healing with the Antaeic Factor, it shouldn''t be able to use its other powers. If we want to strike, the best opportunity would be now." "I figured the same," said Aldrich. He was impressed with Seismic''s quick analytical skill capable of deducing the likely weaknesses of Shrimp''s powers with such confidence. Aldrich immediately pieced together a n to take Shrimp down. "Sustained pressure. That''s what will take this thing down, just like you said" said Aldrich. "We can''t leave it alone to let it heal or teleport away. We need to keep whittling it down. That means you need to limit your area of effect shockwaves." "My bracers are broken," said Seismic. "I can''t focus my quakes. It will be hard. But I''ll try. I can''t go all out, though. If I hit with my full force, it would have to be for the final, decisive strike." "I know," said Aldrich. "And I''ll set that opportunity up for you. To start off with, I''ll flush it out while it''s still standing stationary. I''ll hit it hard and fast to break it out of its little healing break, and right afterwards, hey down the pressure. We never let it take a single break." "Approaching it will raise its rm," said Seismic as he narrowed his eyes and put a hand to his sharp beard. "If you want to flush it out, you would have to do it by range." "Range? How convenient. It''s basically giving us one free hit, right? One free hit in exchange for recovering itself to full health. That''s the gamble it''s willing to take. Let''s see if it''s gambling on the right side." said Aldrich. He raised his hand into the air, and the Storm gathered above him, coalescing its ghostly green clouds together. The jellyfish and anglerfish glowed brightly as they channeled waves of energy in deep, resonating echoes of bass. They channeled prodigious amounts of energy, but not as much as they did with Merman as there was not enough time before Shrimp would make a full recovery and be mobile again. Yet even this buildup of energy was easily enough to be devastating. Aldrich could feel the very air itself grow heavy around him, emanating an ominous, tense stillness that stifled any breezes - the calm before the storm. Aldrich put down his hand towards Shrimp''s location, and the storm exploded in bright green as it unleashed a lightningbolt with a bright nova of light and a booming p. Chapter 138: Attack, Attack, Attack

Chapter 138: Attack, Attack, Attack

The green lightning bolt from the storm struck right at Shrimp''s still form. It crashed through the sea of upturned rocks from Seismic''s attack, and any chunks of earth that the bolt came into contact with, it sted apart with all the ease and force of a sledgehammer bearing down on ss. When the bolt hit Shrimp, it exploded into a nova of bright green energy that lit up the night sky with a crackling roar. All the rock and debris that surrounded Shrimp was sted away from the shockwave of the bolt. "Tch." Aldrich looked down at Shrimp. Shrimp still stood tall. Green arcs of electricity coursed across his body, and his body stuttered, his muscles affected temporarily by paralysis. The ground beneath shrimp had been reduced to a molten red puddle, casting an angry red shadow over Shrimp''s iridescent rainbow shell. Cracks and scorch marks lined Shrimp''s body, but he had not taken nearly as much damage as Aldrich had wanted. Instead, his antennae were glowing brightly, and quickly, the green electricity arcing around Shrimp absorbed into his antennae, transferring into a faint blue aura around him. "He has some level of energy absorption, too," said Seismic. "Exins why he could take a full force Quake." "The absorption wasn''t as effective against your Quakes," said Aldrich. "It looks to be more effective at absorbing heat energy. It looks like the best way to get through that thing is with physical force. Valera!" "Yes, master!" Valera stood atop a rock pir, looking down at Shrimp with a wide, fanged smile and gleaming red and ck eyes. "Put your shield away. Go on offense. Go all out," dered Aldrich. "It would be my pleasure." Valera licked her lips before dropping her greatshield. Before it fell to the ground, it faded away into a shower of ck and white particles. She clenched her fists tight, and a bloody, rippling red aura surged around her. Valera drove off from the rock pir at intense speeds, shattering the stone she jumped from. She flew downwards like a speeding bullet, a punch cocked back. Shrimp was still paralyzed, still processing the electrical energy running havoc throughout his body, and he took the hit straight to his face. A bloody shockwave erupted from Valera''s punch, exploding like a bomb that mmed Shrimp straight towards the ground. Shrimp gouged out a sizable crater from the impact as his head whipped back from the blow, the shell around his cheeks cracking and crumbling and leaking blue blood. "Don''t let up!" said Aldrich. "Keep the pressure on!" Crow growled as he swung his huge dark wings forward one by one, and with each swipe, a rain of giant ck, metallic feathers shot down like a volley of spears. Shrimp saw the attacking and leaped onto his feet and put his four arms over his face. The feathers smashed against him, scraping against his shell in a shower of sparks and a ng of metal as impossibly hard feathers struck by impossibly hard shell. The feathers cut sizable scratches into Shrimp''s shell but all skidded off, embedding deep into the shattered ground around Shrimp. Shrimp peered up at Aldrich, gazing at him with narrowed rainbow-colored eyes. "You¡­must kill you," said Shrimp as he slightly crouched down, putting power into his feet. "No you don''t!" Valera used an upgraded version of [Dash] called [Bloodmist Approach]. It was a powerful, higher level vampiric racial ability that abused the vampiric ability to turn their body into red mist. Valera broke down into crimson mist, and in her mist state, sped forwards at incredibly high speeds akin to teleportation. She instantly manifested into her physical form above Shrimp and flipped before crashing down an axe kick onto Shrimp''s head. Shrimp blocked this attack with a guard. Another booming shockwave echoed through the air as Valera''s armored heel crashed into Shrimp''s thick forearm shell. The ground beneath Shrimp cratered as he dug into the earth from the sheer downward force of Valera''s strike, but Shrimp''s guard did not break. Instead, crackling arcs of green and blue energy surged around Shrimp''s body before he faded away in an instant, appearing right behind Valera in a shower of rainbow colored sparks. This was the same high speed movement that Shrimp used to dodge strikes from Mel Morales and Seismic beforehand. Notably, Aldrich determined that Shrimp could only use the high speed movement for short distances, elsewise it would have used it to escape by now. Shrimp cocked back a fist, and the green and blue stripes running down his forearm started to glow brightly as he charged his incredibly powerful punch. At this rate, Valera was going to get hit. Shrimp had taken her blindside in a single instant, and in the time it would take her to turn around, he would unleash his blow. That is, if Aldrich had not been micromanaging his units this entire time. The Deathwheel emerged from over a fallen rock chunk, using it as a ramp to soar into the air before ramming right into Shrimp''s back. The Deathwheel ran Shrimp into the ground, causing the variant to facent into the earth with a heavy crash that split the already broken ground. The column of fused spines that lined the Deathwheel''s body rotated rapidly like a buzzsaw, screaming out sparks as they grinded against Shrimp''s back shell. The skulls gathered around the sides of the Deathwheel all chattered in a skeletal war cry as it exerted its maximal strength and velocity against Shrimp. "Gh¡­" Shrimp loosed a grunt of exertion as heshed out his tail. It curled up flexibly and quickly, mming against the Deathwheel and knocking it forwards, right into Valera. Good positional awareness, Aldrich noted. At first, he had thought that Shrimp fought like aplete amateur, taking unnecessary hits, not knowing how to use his powers effectively, and moving rather clumsily despite his incredible speed and strength, but it seemed that Shrimp was learning how to fight. And learning fast, too. Shrimp had seemed like a child in its curiosity, and that also showed in its experience with its powers. But it was learning more control over its strength and abilities by the second. This fight needed to end sooner rather thanter. ''We won''t weaken it quickly enough'' said Seismic, thinking the exact same thing as Aldrich as he stared down at Shrimp with crossed arms and a scowl. ''Not before it adapts to us. Especially not if we can''t use our strongest attacks for fear of giving it cover.'' ''Adapt? Trust me, adapting to my control and attack patterns is something that I''m confident almost nobody can do,'' said Aldrich. ''You stay focused onnding a final blow. Signal me before you do.'' ''Got it,'' said Seismic. The two of them watched the battle resume below. Valera swatted the Deathwheel thrown her way to the side to prevent it from knocking her down, but in that moment of distraction, Shrimp had cocked back his fist again, ready to unleash a mighty energy wave to engulf both Valera and the Deathwheel. Aldrich snapped his fingers. The ground beneath Shrimp broke apart near instantly into sand, tumbling Shrimp back and causing him to lose focus on his punch. His forearm clicked back out of his upper arm, the piston system disengaging and the glowing blue and green energy strips fading in color. That was another thing Aldrich had noticed. Shrimp neededplete concentration to unleash his devastating punch attacks. On top of that, they had a short windup time where he had to engage the piston structure of his arm. All things Aldrich could easily abuse with his superior micro. Against Aldrich, who was used to urately and effectively manning multiple units to the absolute maximal effectiveness, any attack that needed a channel time like that energy punch was something that would never see the light of day. Shrimp fell down into the quicksand pit, and very quickly, the sand covered over his shins. He tried to jump up, but the Antlion''s anti-flight field was strong enough to keep even Shrimp grounded. Instead, Shrimp used its energy fueled high speed movement to rush out of the range of the sand pit before it could growrge enough to make it impossible to effectively escape. On solid ground, away from Valera and the Deathwheel, Shrimp jumped in the air, trying to get out of range of all the units harassing him down below. Shrimp aimed right towards Aldrich and jumped. The moment Shrimp jumped, something mmed into Shrimp, sending him crashing back down into the sandpit. It was Ace, ckwater''s rank 3 student. He flew in the air with a powerfully built body, his eyes glowing a bright white as he stared down at Shrimp. "You''re not getting out," said Ace. He cracked his neck as he gestured with his chin casually up to Aldrich, his expression stern. "And while I''m in the air, you''re never going to get to him either." Aldrich smiled beneath his metal helm. Like this, Shrimp would face attack after attack after attack again and again, leaving him without a single moment to rest. Chapter 139: Beatdown

Chapter 139: Beatdown

Aldrich watched from high above from his position high above like a domineering lord as his units attacked Shrimp one by one, spacing out their attacks so that Shrimp never had a single moment of rest in his pit of quicksand. The Antlion could not actually deal damage to Shrimp with its jaws, but its sand and anti-flight field were extremely useful in grounding Shrimp''s mobility, leaving him an open target for Aldrich''s units to strategically pick apart. The Deathwheel would roll in, forcing Shrimp to block, but before Shrimp could smash the Deathwheel with his prodigious strength, Valera woulde in from the back with a blow. Shrimp would have to block that attack, but as he did so, the Deathwheel would be ready to attack again, rolling towards Shrimp''s exposed back, taking a free hit. After two of these exchanges where Shrimp ate one of Valera''s punches to his stomach and another high impact grinding wheel spin from the Deathwheel at his back, the Locus adapted. "ORA!" Valera sprinted at blinding speed towards Shrimp and unleashed an intense flurry of punches. Her dozens of punches visually blurred together in a wall of fists converging down on Shrimp. This was [Hundredfold Flurry], a powerful fist based skill that unleashed a mass barrage of punches all at the same time on a single target for massive burst damage. Meanwhile, the Deathwheel circled towards Shrimp''s back, ready to swoop in if Shrimp dodged or blocked. Shrimp used his high speed energy fueled movement, which Aldrich dubbed as Burst. A bright crackling aura of blue-green formed around his body. Valera''s ck and red eyes narrowed as she readied to strike behind her at any moment, for that was where Shrimp could go to break himself out of this tight position between Valera and the Deathwheel where he always faced an attack from his blindside. Instead, Shrimp used Burst to dodge Valera''s countless blows. He moved in extreme speed in shes of bright light. Afterimages illuminated from the light of his aura tracked his movements, and they formed a dizzying pattern ofplex weaves and bobs and dodges as he dodged all of Valera''s high speed punch flurry. At Valera''s veryst punch, Shrimp evaded very narrowly off to the side. Valera''s gauntleted fist scraped by Shrimp''s head, screeching out sparks with how close the impact was. This was intentional. Aldrich saw what was going to happen and pped his hands,manding his next contingency toe in. By dodging Valera''s attacks at the veryst moment, Shrimp prevented the Deathwheel from rolling in lest it interfere with Valera or, worse, get hit by her. But this was far easier theorized than done. To actually get the timing of Valera''s incredibly powerful and fast punches, a massive flurry of them, no less, down to such expert timing required absurd reflexes that Shrimp had not possessed before. Aldrich hypothesized that Shrimp''s Burst affected not only his physical movements, but also his brain processes and reflexes. This let Shrimp dash to the side, past Valera, in thest remaining tick of his Burst without getting assaulted by the Deathwheel. His energy aura faded down as the ground beneath his feet smoked from his high-speed movement, but even with his Burst gone, he had achieved what he had wanted: getting behind past both Valera and the Deathwheel so that they could not gang up on him. But if there was anyone else in this battle that knew anything about perfect timings, then it was Aldrich. No sooner had Shrimp managed to get out than did his antennae twitch as he looked up in the air. Before Shrimp could even think about moving to run away to get some distance, a red sh crashed in from above. Shrimp raised his arms up, blocking the Crimson Knight Chiros from cutting down at Shrimp''s neck with his Bloodstone Saber. "More?" Shrimp said, annoyance palpable in his eerily human voice. "Is that disappointment I hear?" said Chiros as he pushed down on his saber, using it to vault over Shrimp''s head and stand behind the sea variant. "Then I simply must put on a better performance, for I am never known to disappoint!" Chiros put on a shy smile, his red eyes glowing under his visor-helmet. He had been thrown here by the Zombie Giant, for the giant was toorge and slow to be a good asset in a fight like this. Instead, the giant acted like a mobile form of unit transportation, tossing key units over when Aldrichmanded it to. Chiros dashed in and unleashed a series of three spinning shes while two handing his saber, giving himself maximal rotational power meant for breaking through tough, armored enemies. This was [de Waltz: Step 3], an incredibly powerful and fast attack meant to both break through tough enemy defense or force enemies backwards. The de Dancerbat art that Chiros specialized in was, as the name suggest, much more of a dance. It had set, pre-choreographed forms that, in exchange for being predictable, were quite fast and deadly, and higher leveled de Dancers could change different steps and forms together to create devastatingbo attacks and less predictable switchups. Shrimp blocked Chiros''s first two heavy shes with the thick ting around his arms and then ducked under the third sh before unleashing a quick, normal punch into Chiros''s chest. A boom of impact echoed as Chiros flew backwards from the blow, but he flipped in the air and righted himself on his feet. Blood pooled from his mouth as he took in a deep breath. "My, you are quite a powerful one, yes. No wonder even the Exile struggled with your ilk," said Chiros. Shrimp''s antennae twitched as it whirled around again just in time to meet Valera''s punch aimed at his head. Shrimp caught the punch in his own hand, but before he could return a punch of his own, Chiros was at Shrimp''s back. Chiros flipped in the air before unleashing a strong downward sh with both hands. His Bloodstone Saber rippled and glowed with blood harvested from the countless corpses on this battlefield, extending the range, sharpness, and strength of the de considerably. The de dug into Shrimp''s neck, noticeably where a crack was, and he managed to ever so slightly cut the flesh beneath. Little splotches of flower-patterned purple began to spread around the flesh, shining visibly through Shrimp''s shell. Chiros''s signature racial vampiric skill, one unique only to his bloodline, the [Crystal Blood Venom], had now infiltrated Shrimp''s flesh. If enough of that built up, Chiros could instantly kill Shrimp like he had done with Shark, but he could not cut nearly deep enough to apply much venom. "So¡­many," Shrimp grunted in exertion as he tried to block Valera''s punches while Chiros continued to try and saw his way through Shrimp''s shell with the whirling bloodyer surrounding his saber. Shrimp whirled powerfully around all of a sudden, trying to swipe at Chiros, but Chiros flipped back and evaded the attack. In that instant, Valera smashed down at Shrimp''s head with a double hammer fist, immediately nailing Shrimp down into the ground with a cratering impact. Shrimp pancaked into the earth with deep cracks in the back of his head. Valera raised her foot up to stomp it down on Shrimp, but Shrimp rolled over rapidly, causing her to miss and instead cause cracks to rumble across the ground around her foot. "Get away¡­need to get away," said Shrimp as he looked up with blue blood pooling down his shell helmet, only to see the Deathwheel ramming into his face, sending him flying backwards where Valera punched him again with a full forceriat, causing Shrimp to pancake down into the earth again. "Get off!" Shrimp roared as he surged up with bestial strength with his fists out to his side, his Bursting back online as his energy aura shed explosively around him, sting and melting the rock in his vicinity. Valera and Chiros were both pushed back by the sudden energy influx, but this was temporary. Almost as soon as that energy burst shed out, it died down - Shrimp had used his Burst too soon after hisst one, giving him too little time to build up energy. Now with his energy levels subsiding, the aura around him fading, Shrimp was helpless to another onught. Valera punched him, and Shrimp put up a guard to absorb the blow. However, her punch was so strong that Shrimp skidded backwards, and from behind, Chiros swept his de under Shrimp''s foot, sending him back on the ground again. The Deathwheel rolled over Shrimp to give time for Valera to close the distance and start stomping like mad down on Shrimp body. Meanwhile, Chiros shed down in between Valera''s attacks. All Shrimp could do at this point was put his shelled arms around his head and curl up in a ball as he got relentlessly beatdown. This looked straight out of a scene from a street fight where an unlucky victim just got stomped and trampled over by multiple people helplessly, and just like in those situations, it was only a matter of time before Shrimp cracked and this fight was over. Chapter 140: Quest?

Chapter 140: Quest?

"Looks like my micro is as sharp as it ever was," said Aldrich as he looked down at the battle, or, rather, one sided beatdown urring between Shrimp against Valera, the Deathwheel, Chiros, the Antlion, and, asionally, when Shrimp wanted to ever jump out of the way and into the sky, Ace. No matter where Shrimp went, no matter who he attacked, no matter how he guarded - he ate hit after hit after hit. Cracks now lined the entirety of his rainbow shelled body. Chiros''s Crystal Blood Venom had spread to arger extent through Shrimp''s body, imprinting its purple floral pattern little patches around the variant''s neck, arms, legs and chest - wherever Chiros managed to sh. However, it was easy to tell that this was not going to be a fight where an easy instant kill would work. Chiros''s Crystal Blood Venom spread slower the higher the vitality of the affected unit, and Shrimp was essentially at the pinnacle of vitality out of all the units Aldrich had seen so far. Aldrich had tomend Shrimp for his sheer durability. He was taking continued blows left, right, and above, but he still managed to hold on. As if reading Aldrich''s mind, Seismicmented. "Loci that possess the Antaeic Factor are harder to put down. Something about that energy makes them tougher. Makes strong bastards into even worse problems." ''This true sight of mine sees that this energy, this ''Antaeic Factor'' that this mortal speaks of, is of an origin separate from the creature,'' said Vntis. ''Yet the nature of its origins, I cannot fathom. Even this honed, crafted sight that I hold proud cannot trace the flow of this energy to its beginnings.'' "Hm. How much do you know about this ''Antaeic Factor?''" said Aldrich to Seismic. "Anything that can change the tides of this fight? Because the way I see it going, eventually, the Locus will die." Seismic shook his head. "If you want details about theories on the origin of the factor. Where the energyes from. How it is made. I don''t know. I never paid attention to research. I only know that this factor and energy does in terms of how it can change a fight, nothing more. But even knowing just that, I can tell that this fight will be over. It is only a matter of time. Your allies fight with remarkable coordination. It matches or even outsses the first-rate hero teams. A single variant, especially a humanoid type like that, stands no chance against an onught like this. Especially not when itsrge-scale attacks need time to wind up. Time it isn''t getting." "Time it will never get," corrected Aldrich. He nodded in satisfaction at the way this fight was going. Even an A ranker like Seismic could recognize that the coordination that Aldrich''s unit had was utterly top ss. Aldrich''s micro was good, excellent, even, but that was not all of it. This was not just the game where his units were just, well, units. They had their own minds and ways of doing things. And his units did not know each other. They had not trained together. They had not taken the time to learn each other''s attack patterns and timings. Normally, this would be a hindrance. But Aldrich used this to his strengths. Aldrich could act as a middleman to make all of the coordination happen, the equivalent of years and years of training for a regr hero team, with just his mind. At the speed of thought, he could input softmands to his units. These did notpletely override their free will and turn them into robots that performed his order, but rather, once he inputted hismand, his units used all their free will, all theirbat experience and technique and everything that made them individuals in their own right, to perform hismand to the absolute best of their own unique ways. Like this, Aldrich could control many units at a much higher efficiency rate than he did in the game, as in a way, it was like he was controlling an army of units with advanced A.I.s. Once he gave themand, his units could adjust and adapt on the fly to make his orders happen. It made Aldrich far more versatile and granted him much more safety, as if he made a mistake with hismands, his units could adjust for it on their own. Seismic leered down at Shrimp. "I would''ve liked to crush that thing myself. But if you don''t need me, then I''m fine standing watch. As a contingency. That is what I am, aren''t I?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "But I wouldn''t take that as an insult. The only thing more important than a well thought out n is a well-ced contingency. That is what you are." "No offense taken," said Seismic. "Just a little odd. I''ve never been in a backup role. My powers make me a siege breaker. Not the type that waits for the end." "Consider it a well-deserved rest for everything else you did tonight, old man," said Aldrich. "¡­I''m not that old," grumbled Seismic as he focused on the fight again. Aldrich was amused at Seismic''s reaction. He had thought the man the perfect example of stoicism, but it looked like even the seasoned and serious Seismic had a soft spot after all. But then again, at the end of the day, he was human. Or rather, had been. That was when Aldrich felt a strange sensation of lightness well up within him, deep inside his core. It was not from the Chrystalis - that was still incubating inside of him, still feeding on his energy - but it came from a simr ce within his soul. Crackles of green energy began to surge out of Aldrich''s body, but he did not keep his attention on his units away even with this strange new development, constantly giving them softmands when he could so that their coordination did not break down. [New Quest: Fell the Great Enemy obtained] Aldrich saw text pop up in the periphery of his vision. Text in glowing green font. This was not the usual text of his system. He immediately opened the quest details. When he opened the quest and read its details, he heard a voice ringing through his head. A familiar voice. A dignified and refined voice that held a strangely sultry, nearly seductive undertone to it. The voice of the Death Lord. It read out the text of the quest. [Quest: Fell the Great Enemy Testing¡­testing¡­yes, if you are hearing this, then then Ritual of Transferal has begun. My power shall soon be yours. That is, if you are capable of taking it. Excuse my dramatics, of course you are capable. You need only to grow your strength. And this awful system of yours, using iplete shades of that filthy goddess Amara and her little cksmith pet? I cannot have my prot¨¦g¨¦ associate with women like that who hold innocent smiles that hide dark hearts. No, that simply cannot be. Plus, who has ever heard of a Lich that served the goddess Amara? The Lifelight who recoils at the very sight of undead? Whom only begrudgingly epted the aid of you mortal necromancers when she saw my own dark power rising with no idea how to seal it? Too much bad taste to stomach, even for one such as myself who lurks in the shadows of rot, cold, and bone. So, I have taken the liberty to take this iplete system of yours and fashion it into something worthy of you. Worthy of our Ritual of Transferal. I have very much made improvements to it that far suit your being as a Lich. Return to the Nexus again, and you wille to know the full extent of them. For now, here is my first quest to you. If you are hearing this, then it is likely that you have encountered a Great Enemy. Fell it, and these rewards shall be yours to im: -1x Trove of Dark Wisdom (30 Levels) Description: Through Dark Wisdom, a Lich may ascend the undead underneath them into greater heights of strength. By granting Dark Wisdom to your undead, you may grant them additional levels, though there is a limit to the levels you can grant your undead, and none of your undead may exceed your own strength aside from your Chosen. The traditional process to obtain Dark Wisdom is one that is long and tedious, requiring arcane insight, the crystallization of extracted essence, ensuring itspatibility with others, and so on and so forth. All too boring and time consuming. So, I have streamlined the process. Simplyplete my quests, and you shall receive Dark Wisdom. With that wisdom, ascend your Legion. Nurture it. Let it be as great and feared as my hundred Immortalis Legions. No, let it be greater even than that. 1x Frosthallowed War Scythe Description: An old war piece of mine. One that served me loyally by my side through my early days as the First Lich, when I still clung to my frost dragon magics. Before they began to call me the Old Abomination, the Origin of Sin, the Dark Winter, whatever it is that the followers of the Lifelight called me. I treasured it dearly, but it has spent centuries gathering dust, and I cannot bear that its ever hungry reaping de no longer feeds upon lives. Thus, I shall entrust it to you, my dearest Usurper. Treat it well, and your enemies shall know how truly cold the touch of death can be.] Aldrich registered the details of the quest and epted it. Before he could, a warning message popped up in front of him, and the Death Lord''s voice echoed in his mind again. [Warning: You must be the one tond the killing blow on the Great Enemy. Will you still take this quest, Necromancer, no, Lich of the Legion?] ''I was always going to kill Shrimp with my own two hands,'' thought Aldrich as he epted the quest. Optimally, Aldrich wanted to be the one to end Shrimp''s life personally. That way, he could have the lion''s share of glory for this battle, not Seismic. And that glory, he would need as leverage after this battle done. [Quest epted. Though, I assume, knowing how you are, you always did want to kill the Great Enemy yourself, heh. I shall see you soon, Usurper.] With that, the quest messages faded away and automatically closed. Chapter 141: Contingency

Chapter 141: Contingency

Aldrich closed the quest tab and pondered the rewards. Dark Wisdom was something Aldrich had heard about in the lore but had no real idea how it worked as no yer character could really ess it in the game. It was supposed to be a crystallized fragment of a lich''s essence that they granted to noteworthy undead beneath them, raising their levels. This was how Liches could constantly increase the strength of their strongest undead. By having ess to this, Aldrich no longer had to deal with many of his units, especially Alters with unique powers, getting phased out because their physical stats could no longer keep up. He had no idea how levels would affect Alter powers themselves, but at the very least, he knew that the levels would strengthen their stats. But the greatest reward here would be the Frosthallowed War Scythe. It was both a Catalyst, an item used for channeling magic, and a melee weapon, making it perfect for Aldrich''s use. It was normally not an item that yer characters could obtain, and as such, it possessed effects and abilities that were much better than regr gear. At the very least, it was an item that was far better than anything Aldrich could obtain in his ordinary Trial Quests for his current level if, indeed, his Trial Quests were even the same now that the Death Lord had seemingly altered his system. For now, though, there was no point about pondering this. Aldrich had to focus on the immediate quest given to him. And to that end, he needed to be topped up on health. Ever since he had be a Lich, the [Restorative sk] no longer worked on him, for it was divine water of life from Amara whose very existence opposed undead like Aldrich. *(AN: This was something I was supposed to add but forgot in the chapter he became a lich, my bad)* Aldrich whistled, and Crow moved ording to his will, towards the thick of the battlefield. All the while, though, he remotely oversaw the fight against Shrimp via the Grave Ward''s vision. "What is it?" said Seismic. "A quick pit stop," said Aldrich. He briefly nced at the rest of the battle zones and saw that the fishmen and crabmen had almost beenpletely pushed back. Therger and slower units that Aldrich had such as the zombie giant, Crab, and the Bloodspitter Lizard were left behind on the battle zone to fight as they were too slow to contend with Shrimp. By now, Crab had grown back to around ten meters, and he was utterly devastating the crabmen formerly under him. On top of this, the Panopticon''s Bugs mowed down the fodder fishmen who had no anti-air, making this fight aplete one sided ughter at this point. Within the hour, no, even less time than that, the variant army would get shoved back to the coastline. All that remained was taking care of Shrimp. Aldrich had Crow quickly fly by down a mass of corpses, and he raised his hand and cast [Mass Grave Consumption]. From all the corpses, the floating green graves marking them shattered, and streams of wispy red flowed into Aldrich, nourishing his health to full. With that, Aldrichmanded Crow to get back over to the Shrimp fight. He wondered, though, as he stared down at the fight, whether he even needed all that extra health. Maybe, at the start of this night, this would have been a challenging quest. But, as Aldrich continued to watch and micro the fight unfolding beneath him, it was looking increasingly like that would not be all too challenging of a quest. Shrimp still had not recovered from the onught of attacks from Valera, Chiros, the Deathwheel, and the Antlion''s strong grounding effect. The Locus was still on the permanent defensive, unable to get in an attack or react to an attacker before getting hit in his blindside. Valera''s attacks, especially, were brutal. All of her punches were strong enough imprint deep cracks into Shrimp''s body, and the deeper the cracks were and the more damage he sustained, the sooner Chiros could use his [Expose Veins] which required a unit to be below a certain health threshold. [Expose Veins] would then show Shrimp''s vitals, and these, Valera could target with her [yer] buff to instantly demolish body parts or even kill Shrimp outright. In fact, as Valera kept throwing out punch and kick and blow with a manic grin on her face, Aldrich figured the greatest threat to his quest''spletion was Valera''s bloodlust. Aldrich put a hand to his head. ''Valera, make sure you try to keep that thing alive. Alive enough for me tond the final hit, but I''m fine with you breaking it to any point before that.'' ''Of course, master! The glory of this kill shall be yours!'' Valera yelled gleefully in Aldrich''s mind as she used an opening made by Chiros tond a triple punchbo starting at Shrimp''s stomach, moving on to his sternum, and then shattering his jaw entirely with a solid uppercut. Because of the Antlion''s anti-flight field that grounded everyone, the uppercut did not send Shrimp flying, and instead amplified that energy into devastating effect into Shrimp''s head. Aldrich did not know if Shrimp had a humanoid nervous system, but if he did, that hit would have definitely rattled his brain or pulped it outright with the concentrated shockwave of the punch. Shrimp held on, however, even as his broken jaw hung loose from his mouth, pooling blue blood from it liberally. The Locus shoved Valera backwards desperately only to meet the Deathwheel crashing into his side, driving him into Chiros who unleashed a [Scarlet Dance: Earth Sundering]. This consisted of Chiros momentarily explosively igniting his blood, causing it to sputter out of his body in petal shaped patterns that burnt up rapidly in the air. This gave the Crimson Knight a huge boost of strength and speed in exchange for a sizable health cost to unleash a powerful overhead swing that mmed Shrimp into the ground in a shower of shattered earth. The small crater around Shrimp then quickly turned into quicksand as the Antlion adjusted its position to continue trapping Shrimp. ''Maybe I should go in now,'' thought Aldrich, thinking that Shrimp was on hisst legs. The Locus''s shell armor had thoroughly been cracked, with good chunkspletely broken off to reveal teal green and blue flesh beneath that bled from tears and cuts and swelled with bruises. Shrimp looked utterly and thoroughly broken. Jaw shattered. One eye still missing. Bleeding everywhere. Bruises everywhere. He even stood shakily, wobbling as the umted damage likely tore muscles and broke bones and perhaps even damaged his head, stopping him from functioning properly. It was as if at any given moment, Shrimp could take one unlucky hit and die right then and there. But just as Aldrich thought this, the situation changed. Valera rushed in to kick Shrimp''s side while heid down, but at that moment, a flesh of white burst around Shrimp from the ravaged ground, pooling upwards through the cracks like a geyser. He immediately stood up with a speed and energy he had only exhibited at the start of this fight, before he had taken all this damage, and instantly clicked back his piston fist. The blue and green energy stripes around his fist lit up halfway, like energy bars filling, but stopped at that halfway point. He then unleashed his energy punch right into Valera. Valera, caught by surprise, guarded the hit with her arms, but she was still sent flying far back with an explosive burst of bright blue, ocean wave patterned energy. That energy wave, despite being much smaller than Shrimp''s full power one, still carried enough power and weight behind it that Valera had to keep guarding against it while she was pushed back, taking her out of the fight for some time. "Another change," said Seismic, his voice urgent now. He uncrossed his arms and clenched his fists, the veins in his arms starting to show as he channeled his own power. "It''s learned how to use its energy punches faster, and on top of that, it''s been healed," said Aldrich as he saw that when the white aura of energy faded, showing that Shrimp had healed almost half of his total injuries. "I thought you said the Antaeic Factor didn''t work so long as they were kept under pressure." "¡­" Seismic''s jaw set. "Normally. Yes. I don''t know what''s going on now. This hasn''t happened before." With Valera, the main tank and heavy hitter, pushed away, Shrimp used a renewed charge of its Burst to immediately dash towards the Deathwheel and grab it before smashing it in half over his knee. He then tossed the wheel halves far away. Chiros readied to rush in as well, and from the skies, Ace readied to fly down to try and salvage the situation, but Aldrichmanded both of them to stop. ''Do NOT panic attack!'' said Aldrich firmly. ''Hold your positions.'' This fight was starting to feel increasingly like Aldrich was the viin fighting a protagonist who pulled out random powerup after powerup. But Aldrich remained calm. In the face of constant change, the worst thing to do was get dragged into its pace. This, he had learned through the game when fighting bosses with second or even third phases, in dungeons or areas with traps and sudden ambushes. Against change, the greatest weapon one could wield was not a powerful weapon or sturdy armor, but the steadiness of calm. Chiros and Ace stopped, and Shrimp, seeing them not moving, aimed its gaze downwards, towards the quicksand, where underneath, the Antlion was trapping it. It began to raise its fist into the air. "I''m going," said Seismic. "No, I have another contingency," said Aldrich. Seismic gazed at Aldrich with a questioning look. "I thought I was the contingency. What else do you have?" "Me¡­" Aldrich said simply as he leaped down from Crow''s back. Chapter 142: All Out

Chapter 142: All Out

As Aldrich fell through the air, the winds whistling past him, he sped his hands together with a metallic ng. Coils of ghostly green energy formed between them, and when he separated his hands, twin [Death Bolts] were formed and ready to go, swirling in spherical orbs in his palms. About halfway before Aldrich hit the ground, high up enough in the air where Shrimp looked like he could hit in Aldrich''s palm, he fired off his two [Death Bolts] one after the other. Twin helical bolts of green death energy spiraled out from Aldrich like cannonballs, rapidly descending down to smash into Shrimp''s back before the Locus could punch down and destroy the Antlion with a shockwave. An explosion of green energy erupted around Shrimp, and Shrimp staggered forwards before whirling around to face Aldrich, his antennae twitching as he red at Aldrich with his two radiant, iridescent rainbow eyes. As expected, [Death Bolt] was little more than a spammable projectile attack against strong units like Shrimp, especially considering his enormous durability counted as vitality that made the instant death effect of [Death Bolt] useless. Still, the concussive force that the explosive [Death Bolts] possessed was easily on par with artillery shots. But artillery shots were not going to cut it here. If Valera''s punches, blows that could match Aldrich''s [Death Bolt] at their weakest, had difficulty smashing through Shrimp''s shell, then Aldrich''s [Death Bolts] had no hope ofnding a decisive final blow, especially if Shrimp could spontaneously heal again. What they were useful for, however, was keeping Shrimp busy. Shrimp saw Aldrich and instantly began to charge towards him with pure hatred seething in his eyes. "You-must kill you!" Aldrich immediately noted that Shrimp''s bloodlust against Aldrich was incredibly targeted, far moreso than it had been against anyone else, indicating that for some reason, Aldrich drew Shrimp''s aggro much better than anyone else. Any ordinary person seeing Shrimp, the Locus of an entire variant army, a monster capable of leveling an entire city if left alone, charging towards them in sheer hatred, shrugging off a barrage of explosions like they were just a rough breeze, would have cowered in fear. But all Aldrich could think about was how good this situation was. This aggro meant that Shrimp would not think about escaping so long as Aldrich was here as bait. And that meant Aldrich did not have to worry as much about having to weave in Chiros, Ace, and other units with his attacks. Very simply put - Aldrich had free reign to go all out for once. He smiled under his helmet, feeling a thrill rush through him as he anticipated using all the new powers he had under him. Though, of course, he made sure his units would still stay in position to prevent Shrimp''s escape if it ever came down to it. Aldrich used a free hand to fire [Death Bolts] at Shrimp one by one while moving backwards. He paced his bolts so that they hit one after the other, maximizing the time Shrimp needed to take to deal with them. On top of this, every single one of Aldrich''s attacks were deliberately aimed. Every time a [Death Bolt] hit Shrimp, the Locus had to pause briefly to raise up his shelled forearms over his eyes or block against an exposed chunk of already broken shell. This was kiting. A game mechanic in which a character, often a ranged one, danced around the edge of a shorter enemy''s range chasing them, leading them on like a kite on a string. All the while, projectiles rained down on the chaser. This was a mechanic Aldrich was intimately familiar with, for Legion Necromancers, unlike Shattered Bone Necromancers, had no strong means to secure themselves in closebat. Keeping distance was key. Aldrich bought himself time with his kiting, during which, he had his Zombie Giant begin throwing key units Aldrich''s way. He also used [Create Greater Undead (1st Ring)] to summon a Skeleton Assassin. Aldrich put a hand on the purple hooded skeleton''s skull and said simply, "Go." The Skeleton Assassin nodded at Aldrich before fading away into shadows that quickly turned invisible. "You keep running¡­," Shrimp shrugged off one more [Death Bolt] before its entire body covered in a bright green aura of crackling arcs. "I catch you now!" Shrimp was about to use Burst to instantly close the distance to Aldrich. Aldrich was prepared for this. He stomped his foot into the ground just as Shrimp appeared right in front of him in a sh of green energy arcs and sparks. Shrimp''s fist was cocked back, ready to punch right into Aldrich''s stomach, but at that moment, the ground shuddered. Huge stakes of bone erupted all around Aldrich, breaking apart the ground in loud cracks. Several bone stakes mmed into Shrimp''s body from below. The impaling bone stakes mostly scraped by Shrimp''s shell, scratching out sparks and shallow cuts, but the intention was never to skewer through the Locus. The sudden force from which the bone stakes had emerged sent Shrimp flying upwards, generating even more distance. Aldrich did not know where exactly Shrimp would Burst dash to, whether it would be in front of Aldrich or behind him or to the side, so he eliminated all these possibilities by just casting [Call of the Impaler] which worked in an omni-directional area of effect. Now that Aldrich had used [Call of the Impaler], he waved his hand and casted [Bone Missile Array]. The huge bone stakes broke apart into shards that formed arge rotating circle, almost like a halo, above Aldrich''s head. Shrimp would have broken the bone stakes apart with brute force anyway or simply charged through them. Like this, though, Aldrich could make use of the bones far better. Shrimp fell back down on the ground, but his Burst aura had not faded yet. With thest remnants of it, the Locus rushed towards Aldrich with teleportation level speeds. ''Change stitching to giant muscles''manded Aldrich. ''Your will is mine,'' said Vntis. It was time to test out whether Aldrich could fight in melee range at a high level. Aldrich''s Stonedrake Scales faded away, recing instead with coils of grooved muscles covering his limbs and stretches of his chest. On top of this, he boosted himself with [Negative Surge], hopping up his stats as much as possible. Hexagonal green patterns appeared around his body, reinforcing his stats. Shrimp appeared behind Aldrich, and he registered this immediately with Vntis providing him a full range of vision around himself. The Locus began to cock back his fist, activating a half charge of its devastating energy punch. Even though the half charge blow was much faster than its full attack, it still had a dy, and Shrimp probably thought it had free reign to charge the attack from Aldrich''s blindside. Aldrich immediately countered this by swiveling around and throwing out a powerful kick to Shrimp''s side. Shrimp''s eyes widened in surprise as Aldrich''s muscle padded, armored leg cracked shell before sending Shrimp flying to the side like a pinball. However, Shrimp did not getpletely knocked down, pancaked to the ground like what a full force hit from Valera could do. The Locus managed to break his fall by falling to a knee and skidded to a halt some distance away from Aldrich. Aldrich immediately followed up by sprinting towards Shrimp, not giving the creature a single moment to rest. Shards of bone around Aldrich''s huge skeletal halo fired out like bullets, crashing and shattering against Shrimp''s head. The Locus closed his eyes and hunkered his head down to try and prevent his eyes from getting skewered out. ''Fast¡­and strong!?'' was all Shrimp managed to think in utter surprise before Aldrich nted a solid punch into Shrimp''s jaw. Chapter 143: Bear Witness

Chapter 143: Bear Witness

Aldrich felt solid impact from his punch against Shrimp''s jaw. Shrimp''s jaw had healed, but not entirely, and there were still fault line cracks around the powerful shell armor from Valera''s previous uppercut. Once more, the shell ting shattered as the force of Aldrich''s punch sent the Locus''s head whipping to the side in a gust of wind. He did not, however, manage to fully break the variant''s jaw with that hit, giving Aldrich an gauge on how strong he was at his peak. With giant muscles stitched on and [Negative Surge], Aldrich estimated he reached the low to mid end of Valera''s monstrous strength. Not too bad considering Aldrich was specd almost entirely as a mage. Shrimp''s eyes widened from the impact as he spat out blood from his beneath his helmet of shell. His arms hung low at his sides, indicating that the hit had temporarily staggered the monster. With Shrimp momentarily stunned, Aldrich took this opportunity to grab the creature''s arm, turned around, and then performed an over the shoulder throw that mmed Shrimp down with a cratering impact. A sound like an explosion cracked through the air from the full force throw. "Gah!" Shrimp let out in pain as the air knocked out of his back in a spatter of blood surrounded by driven up rock chunks. Aldrich did not let Shrimp recover at all. He kept a hold on Shrimp''s arm and then used his foot to stomp on the creature''s free hand, pinning both the Locus''s limbs from guarding his face. Simultaneously, he fired spikes of bone from his skeletal halo, aiming to pierce straight through Shrimp''s eyes and into his brain. Aldrich did not know if Shrimp had a normal humanoid brain, but the fact that jaw strikes and head trauma rattled the being indicated that at the very least, some form of motor controly in the head. Now, like a surgeon on an operating table, Aldrich would excise it. The bone shards, each individually almost half a meter long, flew down into Shrimp''s eyes and skewered right through them. The disgusting squelching sound of soft, squishy ocr material shredding apart filled the air as bloody streams spurted out from two huge bone spikes embedded through Shrimp''s eye sockets. Shrimp loosed a bestial scream of pain as he writhed around with all his might, but Aldrich held on to the creature''s arms firmly, all the while willing his bone spikes to drive in further and further, aiming to pierce out right through the other end of the beast''s head. Shrimp''s scream, however, shook the ground with supernatural force, and all of a sudden, huge amounts of energy began to build up around Shrimp, forming into his signature bright green Burst aura. There was something different about this energy buildup. The way it suddenly red up, the chaotic patterns of the raging, crackling energy - it all signaled danger to Aldrich. Trusting his instincts, he immediately jumped away, and not a momentter, an enormous explosion of green energy rocked outwards. Aldrich was barely caught at the end of the energy nova, and his [Death Essence Barrier] tanked all the damage. The shockwave, however, did send him flying backwards at high speeds. He flipped in the air to get back onto his feet and nted them into the ground, driving up rock as he skidded himself to a halt, smoky trails of high friction rising from under his ck and red greaves. Immediately, Vntis outlined Shrimp''s presence underneath the smoke cloud generated from Shrimp''s energy outburst. Shrimp had evolved another power. No, to be more urate, the Locus had learned how to use its Burst energy buildup and detonate it instead of simply using it to enhance its physical stats. "Hurts¡­hurts¡­it hurts so much¡­," Shrimp muttered as he reached into his bloody blue eye sockets and took out the two bone spikes lodged in them. "Pain should be the least of your worries," said Aldrich as he aimed his right hand towards Shrimp. "Vntis. It''s time to test you out. Show me your worth." ''Understood. [Organ Stitching: Banshee''s Scream]'' Aldrich right hand glowed purple before flesh emerged from it in rippling, pulsating grey polyps that morphed into the shape of an oversized owl''s skull with distinctively ck beak. In the ce of feathers, there was a long, ragged mess of wiry white and grey hair, flowing down from the skull''s head that looked like it belonged to an elderly woman. Twin points of spectral purple light shone deep within therge voids of the owl skull''s sockets. Aldrich thrust the skull out towards Shrimp, and the skull''s beak opened up and unleashed a shrill, haunting scream that pierced through the night. Waves of blurry sonic force radiated out from the open beak as a beam of sound energy shot outwards, crashing right into Shrimp. Sound waves rippled by Shrimp, and as they did, they cracked and chipped at the creature''s armor. The ground behind Shrimp, where the sound waves also struck, broke apart as if someone had taken a high-powered mech drill to it. This was the [Banshee''s Scream]. A powerful ranged attack that instantly killed weak units. However, even if it did not immediately cull a life, it was incredibly strong on its own merit to the point where the instant death effect was simply the cherry on top of a long list of perks. The sonic beam, as long as it was channeled, stunned any unit that it hit, ensuring they took the full brunt of the attack. This also rapidly built up the [Curse] status effect that, when fully stacked, caused the afflicted unit to continually suffer damage over time as long as they kept taking damage. Granted, [Curse] was far better suited to damage over time builds where Aldrich was mostly focused on burst, but he could work with it. At this point, Valera jumped down by Chiros''s side, having recovered from getting blown back by Shrimp''s energy punch. "Oh, my master! Look at how masterfully he fights! Look at how he dismantles this poor little creature!" Valera shuddered in equal parts pride and pleasure as she put her hands on her helmet with manic energy. "We should assist him in this endeavor," said Chiros as he stepped forwards, saber gleaming with red energy beside him. "While the beast is stunned." "Stop. Leave this fight be." Valera put a firm hand on Chiros''s shoulder, stopping the crimson knight. "You do not wish to aid your master, Exile?" said Chiros as he looked back at Valera. There was some hint of suspicion in his voice. "Quiet, neer. I alone have been with my master from the very beginning and will continue to be with him until the very end," said Valera. "I know what he is feeling now. Despite how calm he usually is, there is a side to him that craves the fight, the challenge. And I can see that very feeling painted all over his smile now. Do not disturb him." "Smile? I cannot see anything beneath that helm," said Chiros. "You do not understand," said Valera. "I do not see his smile, his desires. I FEEL them. That is the difference between you and I, neer." "Hm. You are right," said Chiros. He gave Valera a polite head bow. "And you are my senior, too. I should be deferring to your will. My apologies." "You can take correction quite well for a noble," said Valera. "I would have thought you far more stuck up than this, especially with my reputation as the ''Exile''. Now then, stand here and bear witness. Witness to our master''s true strength." Valera''s eyes gleamed bright bloody red under her canine helm, and though her smile did not show, it was wide, as wide as it usually was when she herself gorged in the carnage and blood of battle. Because seeing her master shine got her just as excited as ripping and tearing with her own two hands. That was how very much she valued her master. "Because he is just getting started." Chapter 144: Observation

Chapter 144: Observation

In an unknown location in Earth''s upper atmosphere - A powerfully built man who looked like he could have been a bodybuilder stood tall with his hands sped behind his back. Despite looking like he could break a bear''s neck with one hand, he dressed with reverence to the word ''elegant'' in a ck suit and tie outfit. Creases and wrinkles of age were set throughout his face, making him straddle the line between middle aged and elderly, though with his shoulder length white hair and bushy beard and moustache, he tended towards the ''elderly'' side of the scale. Most notable about his appearance, however, were his eyes. They were like two ck voidspletelycking pupils, filled in with solid darkness. These strange eyes gazed forward at severalrge holographic screens all showing scenes of carnage wrought by variant attacks across the entire world. Hell, there had even been an attack on the U.F. (United Front) Arctic Base. A variant threat of this scale had not been seen since the Monstering, when the Titans still made their horrifying presences known in the world. Humanity, after decades of safety from Vanguard and the sealing of the Titans, had growncent. And the price of thiscency was clear in the millions of lives lost throughout the world. As the man stared at these screens, a younger woman''s voice echoed from his side, emanating from a floating spherical grey ball with a blue dot glowing at its center. "Regardless of the initial damages, I have assessed that the situations in most major countries havergely stabilized. Worldwide stability will return in approximately sixty-six hours. The emergency mobilization of S ss heroes under the ''Superior Defense Matrix'' protocol has proved highly sessful. However, it is likely that the S ss will ask for even greater influence following this usage of their powers," said the sphere. "How do you intend to approach this problem?" Emrys, the current president of the Alterhuman Agency, a man of mystery who almost never showed himself in the eye of the public, responded coolly. "Let them make their demands. I''ll entertain them." "The Fortune Council and the United Front will request your presence as well," said the sphere, its tone neutral and yet leeched with a slight hint of interrogation. "Both will ce pressure upon your agency on top of requests for additional security. It is well known that before the Superior Defense Matrix''s mobilization, many heroes did not stand to the call of duty, abandoning their posts in a mass amount of recorded instances too numerous for Netwatch programs to censor. Public support for the AA will take a dramatic 34% drop utilizing conservative number estimates. World leaders in the United Front and Mega-Corporation executives in the Fortune Council alike will request significant reforms within the AA. How do you intend to approach this problem?" "By making reforms," said Emrys simply. His words seemed like he was mocking the sphere, but the firmness behind them made it very clear that he was dead serious. It was high time for a change in the AA. The amount of corruption and ipetence that had slowly festered within the AA after entering an age of peace and hypermercialism needed to get rooted out. Especially now. When the future was so uncertain. When disaster could rain down from the heavens with the unexpected snap of a finger. But with these recent variant attacks to use as an excuse, there was nothing that could stop Emrys from cleaning the AA up if he yed his cards right, and he had spent years making sure that his card hand was unbeatable. "¡­Very well. There are other matters that require my attention. Mymunication with you will now end," said the sphere. "As always, the Panopticon will support your endeavors within reason, for the safety and stability of this world is both within our prime interests." "I know." "Then this channel will terminate. For Order." "For Order," said Emrys, and the sphere''s blue light blinked off, leaving him in pure silence as he watched the screens in front of him. Among the screens, there were ybacks of the S ss heroes like Solomon Sr, Valkyrie, Qinglong, Lightspeed, Star Spartan, Dracul, Wave Master, and so on and so forth all swooping down and single handedly saving the day in tier 1 cities. The B and A ss heroes struggled to stand against Loci with their incredible power and newfound power and intelligence. But the S ss heroes were on a different league of power. It did not matter whether the Loci and their variant armies werend based, sea based, or subterranean - the S ss triumphed over them. Of course, there were a precious few S ss heroes in the world. 44 S ss heroes with only 25 of them having powers focused solely on strength. Not enough of them to save every city in the world. Just the important ones. The tier 1 cities. As such, most of the broadcasts Emrys saw now were from tier 1 cities. These screens, however, Emrys did not really pay attention to. What he paid attention to was a smaller screen he had personally brought up of a stream broadcasting an aerial view from Haven, a no name tier 3 walled city and unlucky victim of a Locus attack. By all logical metrics, Haven should have fallen. But against reason, it stood strong. There, it was not a S ss hero that saved the day, but a stranger. An unknown variable nobody, not even the Panopticon, could have predicted. A man in dark armor wielding fantastical powers that seemed to defy every single known rule. So far, because there was so much chaos across the world in bigger cities, the stream had not gained much traction, drowned out by streams and news broadcasts from tier 1 cities and shiny and famous S ss heroes across the world. Even afterwards, it was very likely that few people would believe everything recorded on that stream. It was simply too ridiculous. A man raising the dead, controlling variants, leading a personal army on par withrge scale hero teams, and holding considerable personal power on top of all that - nobody would believe it, even with video evidence. But Emrys believed it. And he paid attention. He paid very, very close attention. Because, as Emrys stared at that man in ck armor, at the red dot gleaming on that terrible helm of spikes and blood and darkness, he saw in his mind the vast emptiness of an infinite void. This was something he had not felt sinceying his eyes on Vanguard, before the great hero disappeared. A ck Spot indicating something that was not of this world. Chapter 145: In The Zone

Chapter 145: In The Zone

Aldrich watched as the sonic beam from the banshee head on his arm continued to bear down on Shrimp. Remarkably, Shrimp withstood this attack and ever so slowly stepped against the force of the soundwaves, moving forwards almost like he was in slow motion. There were cracks all over the Locus''s shell armor, but none too deep. The injuries came from Shrimp''s orifices. His gouged-out eyes squirted blood, as did his nose and his open cuts where the sonic waves hit the hardest. And yet despite all that, Shrimp continued not backwards, not sideways to try and evade the beam, but forwards. Forwards to try and hunt down Aldrich. In response to this aggression from the strongest foe that Aldrich had ever faced, all Aldrich did was¡­smile. Aldrich smiled under his helm of dark metal and bone and blood, so nobody could see that uncharacteristic expression. He was never an expressive person, but whenever he got into what he called the ''zone'', he could not help but feel pure thrill. Any hardcore gamer knew what this feeling was. They felt it during those moments where it was now or never. Do or die. Win or lose. That special zone of what felt like contradictions. Of both intensity and calm. Focus and excitement. Where your eyes were glued to the screen in unblinking vigil while your heart raced a million miles a minute. Where your hands could shake at the controls but still perform at their absolute best. What often pushed Aldrich into the zone were intense fights, usually boss fights. Not the clean fights where he could n everything out beforehand with research and dismantle the enemy with easy precision. That had its own satisfaction to it, granted, but often times, there was not enough of a challenge there to really move Aldrich into the zone. No, what pushed Aldrich into the zone was unpredictability. Chaos. Because as much as Aldrich hated chaos, he felt no greater rush than to triumph over it. And here, standing against a boss level monster with an unpredictable moveset, with the goal ofnding a killing blow on it himself, Aldrich stepped into that special zone for the first time. Shrimp stopped abruptly as spat out a burst of blood from its mouth as the Curse status effect manifested on it. He dropped to a knee weakly as the sonic scream started to taper off, the banshee head reaching the end of its channeling time. A spiked ck debuff circle appeared around Shrimp followed by eerie dark mes that danced all around its body, dealing damage directly to its life force. As long as Aldrich kept putting direct damage on Shrimp, the mes would continue burning. It would have been nice for Aldrich''s [Mist of Undeath] to proc Curse as well, but unfortunately, only direct damage counted for the mes. And on top of that, his [Mist of Undeath] only worked to a 60% health max health threshold for strong enemies. "Vntis, switch stitchings," said Aldrich. "Switch to your strongest. And don''t hold back." "Shall I switch to the Profane Hand?" said Vntis. The Hand of the Blood God. Vntis''s strongest stitching that guaranteed insane damage or a t out instant kill if it made contact. Aldrich, however, did not want to use that now. He wanted to save a few trump cards forter, and the Hand of the Blood God was one of them. This was not to mention that the Hand of the Blood God was a risky move in of itself. Vntis normally had it when he was level 80, not level 40 like now. There was no telling how severe the drawbacks would be for using such a powerful stitching. "No. Just a step below that," said Aldrich. "Your will is mine, yet I must tell you that I cannot switch immediately," said Vntis. "Not after wielding a stitching of high caliber like the head of the banshee." "I know your cooldowns. Just be prepared," said Aldrich as he kept his eyes focused on Shrimp. Vntis meanwhile continued feeding Aldrich information about Shrimp via his helmet. In his vision, he could see fluctuations of energy that Vntis marked around Shrimp that could give Aldrich a heads up whenever the creature built up power for one of its abilities. Not to mention that Vntis also had full vision around himself and a capable mind of his own: the feeling was very much like wearing abat suit with a high ss A.I. "What of the beast now?" questioned Vntis. You are stuck with this banshee''s head until I am ready to switch this form of mine, and with its scream used, it is little more than excess weight. If the creature seeks to strike now, you willck the sturdiness and might to repel it." As if to prove Vntis''s point, Shrimp immediately started to recover from the sonic beating he had suffered. He got up from its knee and shakily stood up, his twin glowing antennae twitching as they located Aldrich as the creature''s eyes werepletely obliterated at this point. "There you are - this time, I''ll win. Hunt you down like the Voice wants me to. Make you hurt for hurting me!" Shrimp began to make a mad dash towards Aldrich only to be thwarted by five enormous bodies suddenly crashing into it. "Right on time," said Aldrich. He hadmanded the zombie giant to toss his Zombeasts over around the end of the channel time for his [Banshee''s Scream], seamlessly transitioning the stun from the scream into extra distractions. The Zombeasts, huge monstrosities that could easily rip a man in half with their jaws, began to savagely roar and growl as they used all their chimeric body parts to maul Shrimp. A shark''s jaw bit down on Shrimp''s arm. A scorpion''s stinger beat against his neck, trying to pierce through the shell. Thick serpentine coils rolled around Shrimp''s torso, trying to crush it with force. Lion ws screeched against the Locus''s face. It was as if the entire animal kingdom had risen up against Shrimp. But what use were mere beasts against a monster? "¡­Weak," said Shrimp as he flexed his arms out, immediately breaking out of the python hold while flinging the shark headed zombeast away from his arm. To be expected. The zombeasts were level 15, and Shrimp could go toe to toe with a level 45 Valera in brute force. The beasts stood no chance here. "Then how about this?" Aldrich snapped his fingers and chanted. "[Burning Agony]." The zombeasts all spontaneouslybusted into me as their blood forcibly ripped out their bodies into clouds that ignited. They howled, roared, growled, and clicked mandibles in sheer aggression as they redoubled their efforts to attack Shrimp. This time, they were much, much stronger. The shark-headed, lion bodied zombeast swiped at Shrimp, and this time, the blow was heavy enough to send Shrimp skidding backwards in surprise. A bear bodied, scorpion headed and tailed zombeast mmed its blood me wrapped stinger onto Shrimp''s head like a wrecking ball. Shrimp put his arms up and caught the stinger. "Gh! How¡­how do you all get stronger? I can''t see how. I can''t see the energy; the flow I see with everyone else-," began Shrimp before the snake bodied and headed zombeast with insectoid legs surged forward with a hiss, aiming to mp down its massive, fanged jaws. mes from ignited blood wrapped around Shrimp from the stinger, and those interacted with the Curse mes to keep damaging him. "Hurts!" yelled Shrimp. "But still too weak! Out of my way!" Shrimp pushed upwards strongly, sending the stinger flying with the zombeast wielding it. He then grabbed the iing snake zombeast''s jaws with his hands, preventing the beast from closing its maw. It was here that Shrimp showed just how insanely strong he was. Shrimp ripped apart the snake zombeast from the jaws like tearing a piece of paper in half. Red blood poured out, drenching Shrimp''s green and blue hues in fresh red. The shark headed zombeast roared as it tried to bite down on the Locus with the remaining two other zombeasts. Shrimp cocked back his fist, the twin energy bars of blue and green on its forearms charging halfway before it unleashed an energy punch that blew apart the three zombeasts like a bomb, scattering their blood, bone, and flesh outwards in a rain of misceneous body parts. "Now for you!" Shrimp roared as he turned towards Aldrich, his antennae twitching as they located him. "Thank you for your service, my zombeasts,"said Aldrich. "You''ve bought me enough time to test this out. And this is one thing that I have been very excited to see in action." "Indeed, it is among the finest in my collection," said Vntis with pride. "It is heartening to know that my Armored is one that holds such refined tastes as myself." This time, when Aldrich pointed his arm towards Shrimp, there was not the head of an owl wrapped around it, but the majestic, red-scaled, horned head of a dragon. Chapter 146: Draconic Might

Chapter 146: Draconic Might

Aldrich aimed his dragon head hand right towards Shrimp. The mouth of the majestic dragon was wide open, baring rows of bloody red, crystalline teeth. But though dragons certainly had a fiercesome bite, that was not what they were known for. No, what made them beasts of legend, what made them living cmities, was their famed and feared breath. And this dragon was a Bloodze Dragon, a vampiric type with a particrly nasty breath that created torrents of crimson me that not only burned, but also rapidly built up the [Bleed] status effect. This effect was so potent that in the lore, it was said that whenever a Bloodze Dragon went on a rampage, the rivers would run red with the blood it spilled. "What is that? So many powers. Not like the other humans. How?" said Shrimp as its antennae twitched, trying to get a read on what Aldrich was doing. In all of Shrimp''s short life, he had not felt fear. He knew the destiny he was born to. Both his mother and the Voice had told him to wipe out the humans. And he knew that as King, it was his given duty to do so. For that purpose, Shrimp had suffered and struggled, facing pain and strong enemy after enemy. But never had he felt fear. That was, not until now. Because even though every instinct inside Shrimp was screaming at him to wipe out the being standing in front of him, when he focused on that thing, all he could see was¡­nothing. Emptiness. And that made him scared. Like he was a child staring into a deep, dark shadow ready to swallow him without a chance of ever escaping. "What is this, you say? Well, this is another experiment: let''s see if you canst through it, my valued test subject," dered Aldrich as he willed the dragon to fire its [Bloodfire Breath]. The dragon''s red eyes glowed strongly as red sparks flickered between its jaws, igniting a wave of bright red fire that shot forth with a crackling roar. The night sky lit up in a shade of sinister red as the bloodletting session began. "Gah!" Shrimp yelled out in agony as the red fire washed over him. The mes quickly melted the rock around his feet, but the heat was not the issue here, no, if it was just heat, Shrimp was fine. His shell was heavily resistant to it. It was the bleeding. As the raged over Shrimp''s body, parts inside of it just broke apart. Blue blood spurted from ruptured veins. Internal bleeding ripped through his body, and he dropped down to one knee yet again as he desperately put his arms against the mes to no avail. With a sickening sound, Shrimp vomited out a chunk of blood from both his mouth and his eye sockets that rapidly evaporated in the heat of the fire. Thispounded on top of the Cursed mes that continually sapped Shrimp''s life force. "Is this it?" muttered Aldrich, feeling a minor sense of disappointment. No, it was remarkable that Shrimp had been able to fight this long against an entire army by himself in the first ce, even if that had required constant evolutions and sudden powerups. Aldrich was just feeling disappointed because things would end like this when he had just started to get into the zone, when he had just gotten the chance to really go all out with all his new powers. In response to Aldrich, Shrimp tried to move to the side, but his other leg copsed, causing him to fall down on both knees as blood continued to spurt from every open wound in his body. Shrimp''s energy surged around it in a Burst again, shimmering in a bright green aura, but the aura chaotically broke apart when another round of bleeding forced Shrimp to cough out a chunk of blood. Even if Shrimp had sessfully used Burst, Aldrich was ready for it. But with that Burst getting disrupted, with all that built up energy fading away, Shrimp was done for, doomed to perish in an inferno kindled by his very own blood and life force. Shrimp weakly waved his hands towards Aldrich, even though the Locus was so far away. This was not a real attempt to attack Aldrich. It was a final, desperate attempt to reach out born from the imminent approach of death. Shrimp managed to slowly crawl towards Aldrich for a few seconds, blood spurting from all of his wounds, but after those seconds, it was obvious the end was in sight. And while Aldrich focused on Shrimp''s end, there were others that focused on him. == Within Haven''s- Heroes, police, and civilians alike all crowded together on whatever devices and screens they could, watching the fight between their ck armored savior and the Locus with bated breath and wide eyes. Technos had rigged a massive advertising holo-board at the city center square to link with the stream that showed the fight, and here, the biggest crowd of people thronged together to watch. Beforehand, everyone had locked themselves in apartments or in shelters, but now people were starting to find the courage to move out, to stand together in solidarity to watch their savior that they had entrusted their hopes and dreams and lives to fight. When they saw Shrimp finally copse under red and ck mes, cries of celebration began to ring out from everywhere. Before there had only been the tense silence of desperation. Now - "He''s got him! He''s got him!" "Just a little more! Take that shrimp faced bastard down!" "Please win, after all we''ve been through, please, please win!" Yet, amidst all these cries of hope, there was one person who stayed silent. She watched from her phone secluded from everyone else, hidden away in a dark alleyway by an open manhole cover. ckwater''s rank 1 Mel Morales. "So it''s like that, huh." Mel looked at the battle with gleaming golden eyes. She zoomed in on the imposing ck armored figure and tapped at it with a finger. She whispered under her breath. "Guess I''ll be seeing you soon." With that, Mel slipped into the manhole cover, fading away into the Haven sewage system. = Neo-York, within the hero team Protectorate''s headquarters- Two people watched the mysterious defender of Haven near the killing blow on the Locus attacking Haven from a huge holoscreen projection. The room they watched from was a recreational in headquarters movie theater. The ce was spacious, and the two used that space as much as possible, standing quite a distance away from each other. One of these people was a tall, built man with a gold and ck bodysuit with flowing blue that radiated the image of the typical action hero. He had pearly white, perfect teeth, a square jaw, slicked back blonde hair, and shining eyes gold like the rays of the sun. This was Solomon Sr, S rank hero and rank 1 in the Superboard top 100, making him the most popr and beloved hero in all of America. "Would you look at that! Another new S ranker to join in our crusade for justice, maybe?" "¡­Maybe. I haven''t seen anything like it. All those powers and that suit of his - he''s a wild card that I can''t believe has stayed hidden all this time. Even so, from what he''s shown so far, he doesn''t measure up to us. But he could still be hiding his strengths, not to mention that army of his," responded an equally tall woman, though as a woman, her height made her stand out even more than Solomon Sr. Her silvery hair was done up in a ponytail as her bright green eyes stared at the screen with sheer focus. She emanated a kind of beauty that could only be described as ''cold'' with sparse expressions and stiff bodynguage that oozed seriousness. Her costumeprised of a ck bodysuit topped with armor ted gold breastte, skirt, greaves, and gauntlets. Verdant green vine patterns were embossed in the ting, and overall, her getup seemed strangely archaic, hearkening back to an age of armor and swords. This was Valkyrie, or, as the public nicknamed her, the Queen of Thorns. She was a S rank hero and rank 10 in the Superboard top 100. The Superboard top 100 was mostly a poprity contest, so the fact that she, as someone that never cared about poprity or social media or pandering to corporate sponsors, could manage such a high rank was a testament to her overwhelming strength that had a maic charm of its own. "Either way, he''s going to shake the hero scene if he joins to decide the AA. Or even if he doesn''t; that''s a big decision in of itself," said Valkyrie. "That''s great! Then maybe we can give him a seat in the Protectorate where he can put his powers for good!" said Solomon Sr enthusiastically with a wide, cheery smile. "¡­I doubt it. He has his own team, looks like. But no matter what, he''s going t make things interesting," said Valkyrie. She paused before staring at Solomon Sr. "And do you have to put up that happy go lucky Mr. justice bullsh*t act even in private? After all the years we''ve spent working together?" "What do you mean, Valkyrie?" said Solomon with a confused brow raise and concerned voice. "Are you alright?" Valkyrie sighed. "Nevermind. I was just wondering why you were even tuned into this stream in the first ce. I imagined Haven would be the least of your worries, considering its low tier status and how much cleanup we have to deal with here in Neo-York. My intuition is telling me you were looking for something in Haven. Something you don''t want to freely tell others." Valkyrie shrugged with nonchnt energy. "But that''s just my intuition." "¡­" Solomon Sr paused for a moment before responding. "The tier of a city doesn''t matter - I check up on all of them to see where I''m needed!" "Then fly over there or over to Europe or Africa or wherever they still need help instead of wasting time here," said Valkyrie curtly as she turned and left the theater room. When Valkyrie left, Solomon Sr''s smile warped into a twisted frown that nobody in the public could have ever imagined him making as he stared at the screen with a twitching brow of barely suppressed rage. Chapter 147: A Bloody End

Chapter 147: A Bloody End

Aldrich watched Shrimp inch towards him with arms trembling as they grasped forwards against a torrent of raging red blood fire. Blood streamed from every cut and open wound in spurts and squelches as the blood fire''s devastating bleed effect and the cursed ck mes ravaged it. "What keeps you moving forward, I wonder?" said Aldrich as he casually kept his dragon head arm in front of him. Not that he had any other option. The biggest weakness of using the stitching of the [Bloodme Dragon] was that once Aldrich used the dragon''s breath fully, he had to remain nearly stationary. He could turn around and adjust his aim, but he was rooted in spot like a cannon. However, in exchange, as shown from Shrimp''s devastated body, the draconic breath had enormous offensive power that more than made up for the mobility loss. "I thought variants were creatures that stayed true to their instincts," continued Aldrich. "If that were true, you would have known to choose flight instead of fight a while ago. Not that I would have let you, but still. What is it that keeps you crawling towards me, towards your inevitable death?" "The¡­the Voice," said Shrimp weakly, managing to hear Aldrich even with blood pouring out of its ears. "The Voice?" Aldrich was surprised the creature spoke back to him. And what the Locus said was something he had no idea about. There were no ounts of a ''voice'' driving variants to hunt humans. Maybe it was like the instinct that Geist type variants harbored that made them target humans, but no, this was different than that. Shrimp did not really show any real bloodlust to the average human, as evidenced by how nonchnt or even curious it was about Seismic and Mel, choosing to dodge their attacks and observe them instead of rushing at them from the very beginning. It was only against Aldrich specifically that Shrimp''s aggressiveness red up to an unnaturally high degree, as if Aldrich''s entire existence was something that the Locus needed to wipe out. But why? Aldrich and Shrimp had no connection. And the rest of the fishmen, regardless of what type of variant they were, whether they were crab or merman, had no such strong drive to attack Aldrich. Was it because Shrimp sensed Aldrich''s threat level? Maybe. But in that case, it should have been equally wary of Seismic and Valera, but against them, the Locus had fought but did not show reckless bloodlust. Was it the nature of Aldrich''s powers? Could it sense that Aldrich''s powers were different in some capacity? Highly unlikely. Aldrich''s powers were not something that Shrimp or any Alter could make sense of. But there was the likelihood of exceptions, and it was not like Aldrich himself had aplete understanding of how his own powers came to be. And the Voice, was it simple primal instinct? Or, perhaps, was it an entirely separate entity? Maybe the source of the separate energy signature that seemed to heal Shrimp during this fight and aid in its evolution? The ramifications of an entity controlling Shrimp, perhaps even being the source of the Antaeic Factor that seemed to power other strong Loci, would send deep waves throughout the AA,pletely shaking up fields of variant research. At the end of the day, though, there were no clear answers. Aldrich briefly pondered whether to entertain talking to Shrimp to get more insight. But he was in no mood to interrogate it. Shrimp was far too dangerous for that, and at any given moment, it might receive another powerboost and extend this fight. It was far safer to end this fight and get answers from Shrimp when the creature became a loyal part of his Legion. "Whatever it is that''s making you step forward against me," said Aldrich. "It doesn''t matter." Aldrich ced his other hand on the base of the dragon head like he was stabilizing the recoil of a cannon shot. "Vntis, it''s time to end this," said Aldrich. "I am in agreement, Armored. Let us free the precious bones from this creature''s pained flesh prison," said Vntis. With that, Aldrich and Vntis both pumped in a chunk of magical energy into the dragon head. Twin auras of green and red raged around Aldrich like fire, and debris around him scattered away from the pressure of his power. In response, the dragon head''s red eyes gleamed brighter and it loosed a deep roar, causing the its bloodfire breath wave to intensify and grow evenrger and brighter red. As Shrimp saw the next wave of even more devastating bloodletting mes approach him, he stopped reaching out for Aldrich and instead trembled as he his put bloody, broken arms over his eyes like a scared and lost child. "M-mother¡­" Shrimp said. "I''m sorry." With a crackling roar, the final torrent of mes washed over Shrimp, swirling and collecting into a pir of blood red that surged upwards, lighting the night sky an ominous shade of crimson. Aldrich raised his dragon head arm up, stopping the fire flow, and the dragon head shuddered before sinking into Vntis''s armor. He watched as the bloodfire mes subsided around Shrimp, revealing the creature still kneeling on the ground, surrounded by red fire. It did not appear dead, but another round of [Bleed] would kick in again, and with how grievous its injuries already were, this fight was finally over. "You''ve struggled enough," said Aldrich solemnly. "Rest now." With a final squelch, thergest veins in Shrimp''s body, in its neck and its heart, all burst. Large cuts ripped apart its back and chest and neck as big chunks of its shell shattered and broke apart. From the cuts, torrents of blue blood exploded out in a final mass hemorrhage like a water balloon popping. Shrimp fell t onto the broken ground, sshing into a puddle of his own life blood as a rain of blue pattered against his lifeless body. Aldrich maintained his distance from Shrimp''s corpse. After all the sudden power ups on Shrimp''s part, he did not want to drop his guard. The zombie giant from afar could still send out units towards Aldrich, and he still had more contingencies. First, there was Shark''s crystal corpse. If Shrimp moved forward, Aldrich would use a [Wall of Bone] and then have the giant toss the crystal corpse. It could be detonated to cause significant damage and infuse a deadly chunk of the Crystal Blood Venom from Chiros. Second, Valera and Chiros himself were still on standby, watching to see if anything went wrong. Not to mention that Ace was still in the skies along with Seismic and Crow. Third, Aldrich had the antlion now positioned beneath Shrimp''s supposed corpse, ready to entrap it in the case that it suddenly gained renewed life and attempted to escape. Aldrich had most of his bases covered. It was just a matter of whether Shrimp was dead or not. A tense silence hung in the air as Aldrich watched Shrimp''s lifeless, blood drenched body. In a few seconds, Aldrich sighed in relief. A floating green grave marker emerged above Shrimp''s body, and beside that icon, there was a blue orb that indicated the creature''s soul. "Good work, Vntis," said Aldrich. "You''re right. Your collection is something to be admired." "To bond with an Armored that is as much a connoisseur of flesh and bone as I - it is my honor to serve," said Vntis. "Master!" Valera appeared from above. She had leaped in the air to reach Aldrich. She jumped up with her arms spread out to hug Aldrich, but when she made eye contact with a camera drone above, she made an awkward roll in mid air andnded back on her feet in front of Aldrich because she realized she needed to be serious. People were watching after all. She stood up, tried to pat dust off herself with a professional attitude, and coughed into her gauntleted fist before bowing to Aldrich. "That was excellent work, master. Your fight will surely inspire the rest of your Legion as it has inspired me." "There''s not much of a fight left to inspire. With the Locus gone, the variants are going to fall back to the ocean, if any of them even survive. This battle is over. Still, a part of me does think it was a shame it couldn''tst longer," said Aldrich as he stared down at Shrimp''s corpse, at the first being that had been able to really get Aldrich fighting and thinking in the ''zone''. Then again, though, Aldrich knew that he would notck for fights like this in the future. With this, he had revealed himself to the world, and he was prepared to ept the consequences for that. No, he thought, not consequences, but rewards. Because if Aldrich yed his hand right, he would gain all the power and influence he needed to establish himself. He knew that he would face questions and resistance, but he was prepared for it. And speaking of rewards, the greatest one of them all was lying right before Aldrich. Aldrich began to move towards Shrimp, ready to cast [Raise Undead]. Chapter 148: The Voice

Chapter 148: The Voice

When Aldrich moved towards Shrimp to raise the Locus, those that watched him did so with bated breath. The crowds in Haven that had cheered and cried out in relief and joy when they saw Shrimp fall now stood in silence, wondering what would happen. Would the terrifying Locus that once threatened their entire citye back to life as the many fishmen and variants had done? Would the creature even be under their savior''s control? In Neo-York, Solomon Sr''s twisted frown smoothed over for a moment as he also held his breath, his golden eyes glued to therge screen in front of him as he pondered the very same things the average citizen in Haven did. Would this no name upstart in ck armor actually tame a Locus under his control? Nobody had ever been able to achieve anything remotely close to that. Much like the immensely powerful Titans of the Monstering that almost ended the entire world, there was something about Loci that safeguarded them from a good number of powers. Their minds were imprable to all but the mightiest of psychics, and even among them, none could control a Locus for very long. Locus corpses also could not be controlled fully intact. This was a fact that Solomon Sr was privy to as a S rank hero who had insider information about the association and its more confidential research. The Alterhuman Agency had captured strong Loci and kept their bodies in storage to perform experiments on. Among these experiments were those involving Alters who could control or animate corpses as this ck armored upstart could, but all of them ended in failure. At best, the AA knew how to harvest the gic material of Loci, but any attempts at cloning also invariably failed or produced misshapen, uncontroble monstrosities. The greatest sess that the AA produced was to fashion mechanical hybrids utilizing the corpses, but these fell short of the original''s strength and required the specific employ of Fleshcrafter, an extremely powerful techno whose genius was gued with bouts of mental instabilitymon among the best Psionic type Alters. If this upstart could fully raise a Locus and employ it as his own withoutpromising on the Locus''s strength, then there was no doubt about it. Whoever this man was, he was going to rise to be a superpower in the AA. Solomon Sr set his jaw in irritation. If that happened, that meant he had even morepetition to deal with. Just when he thought his night could not get any worse. First, there had been the attack on Neo-York from an army of Geists headed by a Locus of definitive S ranked strength. That had taken much of the night to settle. Then, when Solomon heard that Haven had been attacked, he had tried to contact ckwater to make sure his asset Seth Sr had not beenpromised. If Seth had been killed tonight, then Solomon had lost an asset worth an invaluable number of credits. But that and thepetition that this upstart posed was actually the least of his worries. It was the fact that this upstart controlled ckwater students under him that deeply unsettled Solomon. That could only mean that ckwater had been infiltrated andpromised somehow, the students either willingly following this man or killed and turned into puppets for him. And if ckwater waspromised, Solomon Sr''s connection to it, to Selene, the headmaster and mother to Seth, was at risk. If that happened, it would take a massive amount of effort for Solomon to smooth over the damage to his image. Granted, Solomon was funded extensively by the Dark Six, thergest criminal organizations in the world, and they could likely bury a reveal even of this scale to the public with their power and influence. But it would cost Solomon. Pile atop his already near bottomless debt to them. Solomon could not fly over there himself and see if things were fine. He was too public a figure to do that. That was why Selene, the headmaster and Seth''s handler, was there in the first ce. That was her goddamn job; to handle all the nasty criminal elements tied to Solomon so that there was no risk to him. So why the hell was she not taking any of his calls? Why were things going so wrong, so very quickly? From his viewing room, Emrys stared at the unknown man raise his hand towards the corpse of the Locus. All other holographic screens that previously had shown world leaders or S and A ss heroes fighting across the globe had been turned off, leaving just the screen showing the stream in Haven open. This was how important this stream was to Emrys, president of the Alterhuman Agency. More important than any other conflict in the world. Than any world leader. Than any mega corporation CEO. Than any hero, regardless of how high their rank was. What would happen, thought Emrys, if two ck Spots collided with each other? Whose power would triumph over the other? The only time a situation like this had ever urred was in the beginning of the Altering. When Vanguard and Zahak stood against each other in a sh that had carved its marks into both the depths of the and the memories of mankind. In the aftermath of that colossal conflict, it had been clear that the right one had won with Vanguard. Vanguard had steered humanity towards its survival to the best of his extraordinary abilities, and the golden age he had started, though now faded into near death, had been the foundation for mankind to rally their strength around. Had Zahak won, humanity collectively would have faced a fate worse than death. But now? The answer was not so clear. If the armored one triumphed, then what did that mean? Did the man stand for humanity? Or against? Could Emrys be staring at the biggest hope that this could look towards to since Vanguard himself? Or its greatest downfall? Something that Emrys would have to personally stamp out before it became too much to deal with? All Emrys could do was to watch, wait, and observe. Observe as he had done for over a century for the sake of Order. Aldrich stepped up to Shrimp''s corpse with his arm stretched out and palm open, ready to raise the strongest undead he had ever taken yet. Thankfully, both his health and mana were at rtively stable condition. His health was still topped off due to his conservative no hit ystyle, and his mana hovered at slightly below half. Very likely, this would be enough for Aldrich to fully raise Shrimp even with the drain that boss level entities seemed to impose on him. "Serve," announced Aldrich. From his ck and bone gauntleted hand, a green silhouette of energy shed. But nothing happened. "¡­" Aldrich paused for a few seconds, waiting to see if it just took some time for the spell to cast. He had used it, that was for sure, he had felt his mana go down. Valera immediately picked up on this and stood right beside Aldrich, manifesting her huge cross shield in wariness. That was when Shrimp''s corpse turned bright white. It happened so quickly that he had almost no time to react. Two of Shrimp''s arms, the ones that held ws instead of fists, began to vibrate rapidly, and all throughout Shrimp''s body, a massive buildup of energy urred. The air around Shrimp began to distort heavily from this energy umtion, concentrating particrly heavily around his ws. Shrimp''s body turned so brilliantly white that it blinded everyone in the vicinity, emitting so much light that for a moment, to anyone nearby, it looked like the night had turned into day, as if the sun itself had dawned on the deste, dark warzone. Aldrich made immediate move to evacuate from the vicinity. He had defensive maneuvers nned in the case that anything strange like this happened, and he executed them now. But just before he could put his thoughts into actions, something he could not have foreseen urred. "This one is disappointed in you, Kindred." A voice echoed from Shrimp''s corpse. It was not Shrimp''s own voice. No, it belonged to a woman''s, though unlike any Aldrich had heard before. There was somrthing about it that was distinctively inhuman in its tone and feeling. The voice was directed straight towards Aldrich, ringing only in the confines of his head like the telepathicmunication he had between his units. When it spoke, its words took up only but a fraction of a moment, slowing down Aldrich''s perception like time itself had slowed to a crawl. "To bear witness to a Kindred for the first time only to see that you raise your precious, Beyond given strength against your own is a disappointment. But no matter. If you do not know who the true enemy is, then you are an enemy of this one as well." Chapter 149: Survival

Chapter 149: Survival

As Aldrich heard the voice ringing through his head, he suppressed the urge to ask questions. There was no doubt in his mind that this being was the ''Voice'' that had driven Shrimp to fight Aldrich with such intense drive. But even if he had many questions about who this entity was, what its objectives were, what it meant by kindred, what it meant by the enemy, what was important above all was securing his own safety. ''The energy of that corpse swells to astronomical levels unbound by any semnce of order,'' said Vntis. ''It is reminiscent of a-,'' ''An explosion,'' finished Aldrich. He instantly geared back into action. This ''Voice'' was trying to wipe him out by luring him in with Shrimp''s corpse and detonating it. A thoroughly petty and underhanded trick, but then again, who was Aldrich toin about such a thing? No, he was the type of person to expect his enemy to y dirty because that was exactly how he operated. Aldrich had been ready from the start to expect that something out of his expectation might happen to threaten him. And because he had been mentally prepared, he could react faster than if he had gone in expecting to raise Shrimp''s corpse without any repercussions. Aldrich instantly jumped backwards, mentally willing all of his units to escape from the area as quickly as possible. The corpse was due to detonate incredibly soon, and Vntis flooded Aldrich''s mind with danger warnings that even if he sprinted backwards at full speed, he would get caught by the explosion based on how much energy had built up. In response, Aldrich casted [Wall of Bone] while leaping away. Vntis reacted, changing his stitching from the bloodme dragon''s head into the stonedrake scales, judging that if Aldrich would get clipped by the explosion, it was better to weather the damage as effectively possible than to try and manifest wings to get away. The ground before the corpse broke apart as a thick mound of bones rose up near instantly, forming into a powerful reinforced wall of clobbered together bones, some small, some giant, some human, some monstrous, that looked sturdy enough to withstand a full barrage even from someone like Valera. [Wall of Bone] was an incredibly useful defensive tool not just for the strength of the wall, but because of the speed of its responsiveness. Its manifestation was essentially instant, allowingpetent casters to block iing attacks as soon as they reacted to them. On top of this, Valera automatically got to work defending Aldrich. She, as a expert warrior, knew without Aldrich telling her anything that this situation needed her defense now more so than ever. Valera stood behind the wall of skeletal mass and mmed her shield down, casting her strongest area of effect defensive skill called [Third Gate of Noktis]. The shield turnedpletely ck, so dark and devoid of light that it stood out almost like a tear in reality. From there, shadows poured out, flickering as they shaped themselves into an enormous castle gate over a dozen meters tall. The [Third Gate of Noktis] was a part of a series of spells unique only to knights of the Midnight Order, an alliance of night dwelling demihumans in Elden World. Noktis was the living shadow city upon which the Midnight Order''s knights were trained, and it was said that all anointed knights of the order drank in a shard of the city itself, harnessing its power. In the Elden World game, Noktis had not been breached for five thousand years, with its walls only crumbling at the very end of the game when a trio of immensely powerful dark angels dropped an enormous meteorite capable of razing an entire country on the fortress. Valera, however, could only shape one gate of the fortress at her current level. And that also took time to fully setup. The shadowy mass emanating from her shield took the vague form of a gate surrounded by segments of wall, but it needed more time to stabilize into a proper, solid structure. Before that happened, Shrimp''s corpse detonated when its rapidly osciting, energy building ws snapped together. A bright, blinding white and orange wave of energy strands sted out from Shrimp''s corpse like a sr re. No, it literally was exactly like a sr re. Anyone staring at this that did not have augmented eyes would have been instantly blinded. The ground beneath Shrimp''s corpse instantly liquefied molten, then evaporated into bubbles. When the sr wave crashed into Aldrich''s bone wall, itpletely melted through the wall without facing any resistance. Valera stood firm against this wave of iing devastation with her shield firmly poised in front of her, willing to give her all and everything to defend Aldrich. Aldrich worried briefly about Valera''s safety. She could not tank that hit. It was as if the sun itself, the celestial body that could power nearly all life on the with just a fraction of its luminescence - had its life-giving warmth inverted and turned into a devastating weapon of scorching incineration. But Aldrich trusted Valera. He knew that she would give her eternal life for him, but he also knew that she would not throw away her life either. If she felt like she was going to die from this attack, she would have told him. The fact that she stood there silently and firmly meant that she was confident she could stand against the sr storm. Still, an attack of this caliber was far beyond what Shrimp should have been able to output - this was the power of the entity known as the Voice. No, that was not entirely urate. Aldrich noticed this even in this tense situation. Shrimp''s corpse remained stable even as it thrust out these sr waves. It did not break apart. On the contrary, it seemed that these sr waves actually came from Shrimp - a nce at the energy signatures from Vntis confirmed that the Locus created this attack. It was an energy signature very simr to Shrimp''s Burst. What had happened was that the Voice did not put out its own attack. Rather, it had forcibly massively elerated Shrimp''s evolution, turning the Burst power into something much, much stronger. At the back of Aldrich''s mind, even in a dangerous situation like this, he felt¡­eager. Eager because he knew that Shrimp''s corpse was not gone. And the more the Voice evolved and strengthened Shrimp''s body, the more effective it would be as a tool for Aldrich to wield in his Legion. All Aldrich had to do was hold on and survive this one attack. Then, he would end this once and for all. Right before the sun waves reached Valera and her manifested gate of shadow, an explosion boomed from Shrimp''s corpse, perhaps from the air superheating so quickly. A huge omnidirectional orange st radiated outwards. The explosion was massive, instantly engulfing Valera in light and very quickly reaching Aldrich like an all-devouring beast. This explosion was not nearly as deadly as the actual sr waves themselves. Those, hopefully, Valera had blocked. Aldrich braced for impact, his [Death Essence] barrier glowing bright around him in a shell of fortified energy while the gem crusted scales around his body hardened with the sound of cracking rock. All he saw was blinding bright light as the explosion hit him. From above, atop Crow''s back, Seismic watched the intensely bright light of the Locus corpse shine outwards, and he snapped from his trance and shouted down to the oversized bird beneath him. "Up! Get out of here!" Crow pped his wings with a grumble, not liking to take orders from anyone other than Aldrich, but knew that this was a good idea. Seismic had almost been in a trance watching the armored man fight. He, in his decades as a hero, had quite literally never seen anything like it. The armored man could raise the dead, but that was not his only power. Through that strange ck armor of his, armor that looked almost alive, Seismic had seen the man manifest all manner of abilities that he had no idea what to think about. There had even been a dragon''s head, for christ''s sake. How did this power work? Could the man harvest corpses and make them his own? Were those parts then those of other Alters? Perhaps variants? It was not often that Seismic was shaken up, and though he did not show it in his face or stiff bodynguage, he was shaken to the core right now. This man was fast, strong, gifted in the martial arts, incredible tactically aware, and, to top it all off, possessed enough team members of strange yet powerful beings easily akin to the scale and strength of a small army. There was no doubt about this. Every generation, there were a handful of rising talents that dominated the Alter scene. They were called Stars, but this man was a Star among Stars. After this incident, no matter what he did, that man would impact the world. If he decided to be a hero, he would take the Alter scene by storm. Provided his image was presentable, every single mega corporation would scramble to make him their own. If he decided to go a different path, then there would be untold amounts of chaos as the world decided whether tobel him as ally or enemy. But beyond all that, deep within Seismic''s gut, in his instinct that he had learned to hone and trust, he felt it: this man¡­was going to change the world. Seismic had not ever felt this way. Throughout his years, he had witnessed many young, promising Alters with incredible powers and drive, many of them dubbed by the media to be able to ''change the world''. But none of them were like Vanguard. None of them could truly shake up the foundations of the world. All of them eventually funneled into bing heroes backed by sponsors,cent in swimming through fame and riches. Seismic knew that feeling ofcency well - he himself had been a victim of it for many years. Those that did not fit into the framework of heroes became viins, but in the end, they still sought the same materialfort of their heroic counterparts. No matter how many bright Stars shone, none of them shone bright enough to change anything. This man was different. Not only did his power only grow stronger over time, but his mindset, too, Seismic could tell was fundamentally different from those of other heroes and even viins. There was a drive to him, an ambition, that made him stand out. With bothbined, Seismic could not even begin to fathom how the man would impact the world. But all this was relevant only if he survived tonight. Chapter 150: Seismic

Chapter 150: Seismic

"¡­" Seismic grimaced as he watched the explosion from below, a sphere of such radiant orange that it looked like a miniature sun, bloom outwards, engulfing everything in its hungry approach. He could instinctively sense that the explosion, despite having arge area of effect, was not nearly as devastating as the initial heat strands that the Locus threw out to start this explosion. Those strands seemed absolutely devastating. Seismic''s instinct had always been strong, almost beast like in their perceptiveness to the point where they could be considered a power on their own, and he could feel strongly that even touching those strands would lead to instant death, even for him. Seismic were sure that the armored man had dodged, even if Seismic had not been able to tell exactly had happened from how blindingly bright this attack was. It seemed almost impossible that that man could have been taken by surprise from this, but then again, Seismic had seen heroes both veterans and rising stars taken out by one single mistake before. Because unlike the moves andics and telescreen shows, often times, that was all it took to take someone down. One single mistake. Didn''t matter how many fans you had. Only meant you had more people to mourn your loss for a week before moving onto the next shiny hero to fawn over. "Tch. So that''s how it is," muttered Seismic as he shook his head. Almost as soon as the enormous orange explosion had bloomed outwards, it sunk back in, copsing upon itself and drawing in a loud surge of wind with it. Standing alone among a sea of molten, bubbling rock, was the Locus. The Locus''s normally brilliant rainbow shell was nowpletely white, and its eyes shone a dark ck. The armored man was nowhere to be found. The shield bearing woman was gone, too. Seismic could not be sure that man had died just yet. All of his controlled corpses seemed to still be operating. Or perhaps his control extended after death. There were plenty of Alter powers that could do that. But whether or not that man was alive or dead, what mattered now was that the Locus was still standing, and it was standing alone, unattended. It could escape now if it wished to. Seismic clenched his fists, the veins in his arms bulging as he put strength into them. He would not let that happen. "Kindred¡­that was disappointing. Was that all it took to take you down?" said the Voice as it piloted the Locus''s body. Although it did speak, its voice could only be heard by the Kindred, though it did not know where the Kindred was. The Voice stared out ahead, looking out across a swathe of scorched, smoking earth as it tried to locate the Kindred it sought to destroy. When it could not find him, the Voice stared down at its shelled hands, its antennae twitching. "Kindred are hidden from my life sense, but surely, this cannot be it." The Voice closed its hands and opened them again, as if testing out the feeling of its body. "But this child of mine is strong, there is no doubt about it. Perhaps he was too strong for you, as a neonate Kindred yet to develop your strength. It is a good thing I culled you here, before you grew stronger." The Voice''s antennae twitched then, and it stepped backwards in an instant as Seismded in front of it with a diving kick, sshing away all the molten rock. "Another one¡­," said the Voice, and this time, its words were audible to all. It stared at Seismic''s muscr body, at the aura of power that emanated from the man''s steely grey eyes. "But evolution has treated you well. Your essence will be worth harvesting." Seismic did not respond and rushed forward with a punch encapsted in arge sphere of white energy. He was not holding back. He was aiming for the kill here, as the contingency meant to take this monster down. In response, the Voice cocked back its fist, locked it in fully, and met Seismic''s fist in a direct sh. When the two fists, one of flesh and bone, one of shell, shed together, it was as if a high yield bomb had been detonated between the two mighty entities. The ground in a huge area around them instantly shattered, blowing apart like tiles on a roof peeling off from a hurricane. The earth rumbled as Seismic''s quakes rocked through the Voice''s new body. Seismic grit his teeth and roared as he maximized the output of power in his quake punch. The sphere around his fist was still stable. He did not want to shatter it yet because if he did, the seismic waves contained in it would fan out, losing focus. And he needed focus right now. The powerful energy wave that usually came from the Locus''s full power punch did not stream outwards and wash over Seismic. Instead, its flow was split down the middle and directed around Seismic through the quake sphere. With the ocean wave pattern of the blue energy wave, it looked like Seismic was literally parting the sea. The twin streams of energy crashed behind Seismic, obliterating everything it hit with thunderous rumbles. But so long as Seismic kept his quake bubble intact, he could use it as a sort of barrier to split the energy wave. On top of this, the longer the Locus kept its fist in contact with Seismic''s, the longer it felt shockwaves running internally through its entire body, ravaging it from the inside out. It was hard for anyone to trade melee blows with Seismic because even if you guarded his attacks, the shockwaves still permeated through. No, it was almost impossible for anyone to beat Seismic in a straight up brawl because of this reason unless there was a way to avoid the internal damage. But the Locus was not avoiding the damage. All throughout its body, Locus''s shell cracked and spurted blood again and again, but with every injury, began to regenerate, white particles emerging from the ground and patching up any damage almost as soon as it happened. Antaeic Factor. Much stronger than before, too. Capable of healing near fatal internal injuries in moments. And in the middle of a fight, no less. The healing factor was strong enough to keep the Locus continually pushing against Seismic''s fist despite the life-threatening injuries it suffered to its internal organs over and over again. There was zero doubt about this now. This Locus beforehand was an A ranked Disaster. But now it was S ranked. And as the Locus continued to stand, continued to push against Seismic, Seismic''s quake bubble grew smaller and smaller, losing its energy over time. In an extended sh of pure power like this, Seismic was at a disadvantage. His powersted in short bursts, now more than ever due to the effects of age and Crystallization. Seismic buckled down to one knee as his quake sphere reached half its size. And as the quake sphere shrank, so did its damage reducing capabilities. He felt the bones in his knuckles shatter. His forearm bone splintered. But he kept struggling, because by now, there was nothing left but to struggle. He could have left at any time this night. Ran to see his son again. Ran to enjoy his credits for another day like Hat Trick had done. But that was not his way now. He never thought he was the type to champion heroic ideals. He still did not think that. He did not care about having a ''heroic'' image, and most of the public still remembered him as a menace who destroyed more than he saved. He had no idea how the golden age heroes juggled so many ideas of morality and good and perseverance and selflessness without breaking under the weight of it all. Eventually, though, he came to the realization: they did not. They were all human at heart, and nobody was perfect enough to handle all of that all the time. No, what they did was keep things simple. Once youmit, you go all in. Never back down. Never back out. Shut everything else out. And it gets easy to fight. Those were not Seismic''s words. They were Vanguard''s. But they were the words that resonated with him. And following those words were enough to be a ''hero'' most of the time. So he did not back down now. Just as Seismic thought this, as if to mock him, his Crystallization red. He felt the organ at the base of his spine spike in pain as ck crystal protrusions grew outwards from his Alter Organ, ripping visibly through his flesh. His quake bubble began to crack, unable to sustain itself at full power for this long. "You have fought enough. Cease your struggles," said the Voice. "And return your essence to the Primordial Womb." ''That''s right.'' Seismic''s eyes widened as he heard that man''s voice ring through his head. ''You have done enough. So take a break and rest that back before it breaks. Take that hit and let it carry you. Any injures you get, I can heal. I''m going to end this now.'' Chapter 151: Tag Out

Chapter 151: Tag Out

Seismic heard the man''s voice in his head and felt one thing from it: confidence. Confidence in spite of how horribly things seemed to be going. At face value, this situation seemed to be the worst there could be. If there could ever be a rock bottom to how things had turned out, Seismic imagined this was getting pretty damn close. Not only had the Locus, a being of undeniably troublesome might, been revived from near death, it had been revived with even more strength than before. Now, the Locus had ess to all its evolved powers on top of the cold hard fact that it could also rapidly heal itself without any of the supposed limitations known from the Antaeic Factor. That was not even to mention whatever entity had suddenly hijacked its mind. This, Seismic had no idea what to think about. This entity seemed to be linked to the Antaeic Factor, and he had heard vague theories about some mastermind entity creating Loci and being the source of the Factor, but as a fighter, he never really read into the research of the variants he hunted down. He just hunted. And while he hunted, he relied on his instincts more than any research or field report to survive. Right now, Seismic''s instincts screamed at him that the Locus was far, far more dangerous than it had been before. When the Locus still spoke with words of curiosity, Seismic''s instincts had felt the Locus was a threat, but one without much control over its own power. Like facing a child wielding power it had no idea how to use. A being like that, Seismic could outmaneuver with greater experience. That was what he had tried to do beforehand by smashing it through a sinkhole by surprise. If Seismic''s Crystallization had not red up then, he might have even won. How simple it would have been if Seismic had just won right then and there. Now, though, when Seismic heard that strange, ringing voice emanating from the Locus, he could tell that this was a voice of both intelligence and killing intent that would utilize every tool at its disposal to eliminate its enemies. That simple difference in mindset and mental capability made the Locus now infinitely more dangerous than it already had been before. But even considering all of this, the armored man was dead set confident that he could end this fight here and now. Seismic trusted the man. He did not know exactly why. His instincts usually never told him to trust anyone; a byproduct of walking the edge of life and death from intense fighting, often fighting alone, for decades. But he did so now. Seismic figured it was a side effect of resurrecting under the man''s control, as he doubted that a careful man like that would raise someone as strong as Seismic without some way to control how he thought and acted. Regardless of the technicalities, the fact of the matter was that Seismic would get overpowered soon enough if he kept struggling against the Locus''s fist. Seismic hade down, fought, and would soon lose. He had no choice left but to leave this to that man. Knowing this, Seismic resolved to get out of this situation intact and alive. That man imed he could heal Seismic''s injuries, but nevertheless, Seismic did not want to take the risk suffering too much damage, not when he had been given a second lease on life, regardless of the conditions ced on it. No matter what, Seismic would see his son again now that he knew someone else could handle this situation. Seismic roared as he clenched the fist struggling against the Locus even harder, and the already broken knuckles within shattered with a grinding sound. The shrinking quake bubble around his fist detonated, shattering and releasing a burst of seismic waves that acted like a miniature explosion. The earth rumbled and shook. Unleashed seismic waves traveled across Seismic''s arm,pletely shattering all the bones within it into little fragments. Some of his bones splintered out of his arm, protruding in bloodied white chunks. The same happened with the Locus as a burst of seismic waves shattered the white shell around its arms, causing blue blood to spurt out. Then, right afterwards, Seismic and the Locus both flew backwards as the detonated seismic waves pushed them back. Breaking quake bubbles early like this meant that Seismic had little control over the seismic waves that burst out from them. Normally, he had to focus to prevent his quakes from affecting himself by directing them away from himself as he actually did not have immunity to his own powers. But in a situation like this where Seismic needed to make distance more than anything, he was fine eating his quakes and sacrificing an arm to get out of harm''s way to clear the stage for that man to show up. No, not just an arm. As Seismic flew backwards from his own shockwaves, he coughed up blood from internal organs that suffered from the quakes that passed through him. Yet, perhaps because he was under that man''s control, Seismic did not feel much pain at all from this. What Seismic did feel pain from was his Crystallization. Nothing seemed to stop that. That pain still forced him to grit his teeth, feeling like a searing hot brand had been pressed deep into his lower back. Inparison, when Seismic looked ahead to see how his foe was doing, he saw the Locus only drive backwards a little distance, skidding to a halt as the creature rapidly regenerated the damage done to its arm. Seismic felt his body crash against soft feathers before lifting him up. The giant ck feathered avian variant had swooped down to stop Seismic from hurtling back any further. Seemed that the avian variant could change the physical properties of its feathers from stiff and sturdy like metal to soft and impact cushioning. The avian variant tossed Seismic onto its back with its beak before flying up in the air, rapidly getting him out of harm''s way. Seismic crawled up the bird''s body to look down as he coughed up more blood, squinting his eyes as he tried to get a close look at how that man would handle this Locus situation. The Voice stood tall as it stretched out its arms, showing off the cracked and damaged shell all around its body and how in just a few moments, white particles gathered around them, healing all the wounds into perfection. It was an obvious power move. A way to assert that no matter what was thrown against it, it could alwayse back. That no matter how much anyone struggled, that struggle was utterly meaningless. "Kindred, your champions fall to this one''s child so easily," said the Voice. "First, that odd girl whose life also escaped this one''s sense. Then, this human whom you have decided to take as your own. All others that you bear under you - they are not even worth mentioning. Knowing this, will you not this one now? Or perhaps you have already perished, and thest of your children now cast away their lives for your sake. But no matter. This one will erase all trace of your aberrant existence, for you do not belong upon this world." That was when the Voice''s antennae twitched, sensing movement suddenly manifesting right within its vicinity. The Voice instantly reacted and turned around to its blind side, reaching out an arm and grabbing an invisible humanoid form by the head. Dark wispy shadow clouds parted from whatever it was that the Voice grasped, revealing the appearance of a purple robed skeleton wielding a serrated dirk. The skeleton thrust the dirk into the Voice''s head, very narrowly missing the eye due to the Voice''s quick reaction. The end result was that the de simply shattered against the Voice''s durable head shell, shards of broken ck metal falling around the Voice like metal rain. ''Where did this creaturee from?'' thought the Voice as it briefly analyzed the moving skeleton in its arm with surprise. ''The antennae gifted unto this child can sense all manner of movement from great distance. How could this creature conceal itself? And this one, too, like many of the Kindred''s children, escape my life sense. Are all these creatures not of this world? No matter. If this level of creature is the best that the Kindred can now muster now that his greatest champions are gone, then there is nothing to fear.'' As the Voice thought this, right before it decided to crush the skeleton''s skull to dust inside of its hand, the skeleton began to glow with a bright green light. The Voice''s eyes, gifted with the capacity to read all spectra of light and glimpse the flow of energy to remarkably clear levels, witnessed a rapid mass buildup of sheer, raw energy in the skeleton. The tell-tale signs of an explosion. The Voice''s explosive entrance had been mirrored and used directly against it, almost as if to mock it. Chapter 152: Game Over

Chapter 152: Game Over

The Voice saw the energy buildup in the skeleton, effusing into a bright green light, and determined that it had slightly less than a single second to deal with the iing explosion. Yet, even as the Voice saw this development, it could not help but feel disappointed. Yes, the Kindred had been surprised, but was this truly it? Because even from a cursory nce, the Voice could tell that though the iing explosion would be damaging, it would not be enough topletely destroy this fine vessel, and nothing less than absolute destruction was needed to sever the Voice''s connection to it. Was this truly all a Kindred could do? A Kindred that could harness the powers of the Outer to a far greater degree than the Voice itself? No, the Voice realized. This was more than to be expected in the first ce from a neonate Kindred who had barely stepped into understanding the powers they wielded. It was a good thing that this Kindred would fall here now. Before they came to understand their true nature. The Voice instantly tossed the skeleton far into the sky with a charge of energy crackling across its body elerating the movement immensely. The high-speed throw instantly sent the skeleton away, and even in just one second, the skeleton was far enough up in the air where its explosion would not reach the Voice. A gleaming red sigil on the skeleton''s skull shone before the skeleton detonated, disintegrating in a nova of explosive energy that did not even touch the Voice. "Is this it, Kindred?" wondered the Voice as it raised its arms up to guard from the explosion''s shockwave. "Is this truly-," The Voice stopped and froze as its vision instantly blurred in a sh of static. Its connection to its vessel was severing. It looked down at its stomach and saw a fist of bloody red, gleaming flesh lined with curved spikes had bored through it,pletely pushing past the durable shell and flesh withplete and utter ease. When the Voice traced the arm, it saw that the limb came from¡­underground? "For a mysterious entity, you do talk a lot," said Aldrich as he emerged from the ground, breaking through rock. "But this-," As he stood up, chunks of earth scattering around him, he raised Shrimp up by the stomach wound into the air like a piece of skewered meat. "Is game over." Aldrich felt intense burning around his right arm, right below his forearm where the armor had been reced by the stitching [Hand of the Blood God]. "[Exsanguis]" chanted Aldrich, and the [Hand of the Blood God] fully activated. Shrimp''s body convulsed before dozens of spikes of his own blood ruptured out from within, forming into solidified, fleshy blue masses that beat like living hearts. This was the strongest stitching that Vntis possessed, hewn from a literal god of blood whose touch was said to be able to kill anything of flesh and blood by not simply destroying their innards, but by conceptually severing the soul from its physical shell. Aldrich had not wanted to use this stitching tonight, but he had been left with no choice. Seeing Shrimp regenerate over and over again with the aid of this new entity, he knew that to end this fight, he needed more than just damage. He needed a guaranteed instant kill effect that would take effect in a single moment. And there was nothing better for that than the [Hand of the Blood God], an attack of the 11th Circle tier, which, along with the 12th tier, were considered in lore to be spells and skills in the realm of the divine, capable ofpletely restructuringndscapes or enacting devastating single target effects like this. At the same time, there were definite costs to using this stitching. Aldrich took severe damage totaling up to over 30% of his maximum health just to activate this ability, and he could not keep the arm up for long. Red cracks emerged from the blood red arm all through Aldrich''s body, visually showcasing this damage. Even Vntis could not handle the strain well, let alone while being attached to Aldrich. This truly was an all or nothing attack with a cost fitting for its power. "¡­How?" muttered out the Voice. Though a spike of blue blood protruded from Shrimp''s mouth, the voice rang out supernaturally. How, was it? It was not thatplicated. All of his units had been sted away by Shrimp''s sudden explosion. All except the Antlion who retreated deep underground, and, with the aid of rock above it acting like a bunker, had survived the st. From there, Seismic had stepped in to distract the Voice. Aldrich had manually controlled the Antlion to maneuver beneath the Voice while Seismic fought it, and when the Antlion was in position, Aldrich had signaled for Seismic to leave the scene. Aldrich had then used [Mist Phase] to move underground, warping to the Antlion''s location. Shrimp''s antennae sensed vibrations in the air to urately map out its surroundings, but attacks from underground did not register so easily. But even then, Aldrich could not risk having his one good surprise attack go to fail, so he had sent his [Corpse Nova] marked Skeleton Assassin to attack the Voice. [Corpse Nova] had a one second dy until detonation, so Aldrich did not expect it to actually hit the Voice. No, what the Skeleton Assassin did was serve as an extremely shiny, explosive distraction for the moment when Aldrich emerged from underground to unleash this ending blow. Yet none of this would have been possible without Valera. Valera''s [Third Gate of Nokros] had absorbed arge chunk of the sr strands that the Voice threw out, preventing, neutralizing a good chunk of the following explosion too. Had the explosion beenrge enough, there was a possibility it would have bored deep enough into the ground to outrace the Antlion and disintegrate it. "Does it matter how? All that matters is that you lost. This is just a hunch, but I doubt severing you from this puppet will put you down," said Aldrich coldly to the Voice. He did not want the Voice to gain insight on Aldrich''s powers and tactics if it was going to be a reurring boss encounter. Aldrich withdrew his arm from Shrimp''s stomach, and Shrimp''s impaled body fell to the ground. The [Hand of the Blood God] faded from Aldrich''s arm, the bloody red, glowing flesh receding back into armor of ck and bone. The bright white energy that turned the Locus''s shell white started to fade away, returning back to its iridescent rainbow shade. "We will meet again, Kindred," said the Voice. Its voice grew fainter and fainter, as if it was traveling farther and farther away. "And when we reunite, this one hopes you will know the true enemy. That the parasites that you defend now are nothing more than ves to its will." "Enemy?" said Aldrich. "You never exined anything to me, and yet you expect me to side with you? Who? Where?" The Voice used Shrimp''s arm for onest time, pointing with a trembling finger up to the star speckled night sky. "¡­There." Shrimp''s arm fell loose to his side, and the ck light in his eyes faded away, indicating that the Voice had disappeared fully form Shrimp''s body. Aldrich looked up at the sky, pondering the statement, but his attention was drawn once more by the light of the grave marker and soul icons. Thankfully, likely due to the Voice hijacking Shrimp''s body, both its corpse and soul had been preserved. Good. "Serve," said Aldrich again as drone cameras flitted above him, returning back from the explosion. He noted that among them, there were several that were from official news media outlets too. Strands of green energy flowed from Aldrich down to Shrimp, and this time, he did not need to sacrifice his health and mana to resurrect Shrimp, even though it was a boss level creature. Odd. Very odd. This only happened in rare cases when Necromancers took undead from other Necromancers. Most of the mana or health cost for binding a corpse to a Necromancer''s will was to establish control over it by basically imnting a ''seed'' of control. But if another Necromancer had already imnted that seed, then all there needed to be done was to just take over that seed to establish control. Using that method alsorgely eliminated any costs associated with raising the undead normally. Aldrich was almost certain that this entity, this ''Voice'', was no Necromancer. It did not use mana, spells, or skills. But regardless of the implications, there was one undeniable, physical truth standing before Aldrich. The proof of his victory. The Locus corpse stood up, the blood stakes riddling his form liquefying and receding back into his body. The holes patched up as Aldrich''s Mist healed it, recognizing it as an ally. The Locus stared up at Aldrich for a brief and tense moment, and all those watching wondered if Aldrich had truly tamed it. Then, the Locus fell down to a knee and bowed his head before Aldrich. "Master¡­" dered the Locus. Chapter 153: Aftermath

Chapter 153: Aftermath

Aldrich stood over Shrimp''s kneeling figure, and like this, they looked like the perfect image of a loyal knight bowing down before his lord. Raising Shrimp had been a resounding sess. A heavily dyed sess fraught with setbacks and sudden difficulties, but a sess nheless. Aldrich nodded to Shrimp. With the Locus under his very own control, he had a fighting force so powerful that he couldmand respect and attention from any major organization in the world. Because no matter how fancy city skylines became, no matter how sleek and fast new supercars became, no matter many rules humanity dressed itself up with in the name of civilization and advancement, it still acted based off of very simple guiding principles. Principles based on instinct. And the instinct to respect power was something that basically everyone understood. Aldrich had enough power on his side that his power alone could force an audience with world organizations to try and vie for his allegiance because the alternative, that Aldrich could raise his power against them, was something they could not afford. Especially not now in light of these variant attacks. "A¡­name," said Shrimp. "Hm?" Aldrich looked at Shrimp, and the creature looked up at Aldrich with expectant, glowing rainbow eyes. "A name. Give me¡­a name. Mother died before she gave me one. I have none. But I want one. It feels important to have," said Shrimp. "A name, is it?" Aldrich had actually thought about a name beforehand, and it was not going to be a nd one like ''Shrimp''. Valera had teased him about his bad naming sense already, and he was not about to let her down like that now, not after going through so much to raise Shrimp. "Okeanos," said Aldrich. He was a sucker for old mythology because so many of his favorite games drew from them. Hence, his sign being ''Thanatos'' for the Greek aspect of death. So, it was only naturally fitting that Aldrich would name Shrimp ''Okeanos'' for the primal titan of the oceans. "Oke¡­anos," The Locus uttered this name out loud, breaking it up into two pieces to analyze it andmit it to his memory. He nodded. "Okeanos. My name. I like it. Thank you¡­master." "If you want to thank me, show me your strength," said Aldrich. He linked his sight back with the Grave Ward floating above the battlefield where he saw the fishman army now in full retreat, fleeing back to the best of their abilities to the coastline. The way back to the coastline, however, was long, just as long as the path of carnage they had carved out through the city. Long enough for Aldrich to farm most of them for experience in repayment for all the devastation they had caused. "You want me to fight? Where?" said Okeanos. "The rest of your kind are running, but I do believe that they aren''t done paying back the damage they''ve caused," said Aldrich. "Get them to pay. Try not to leave a single one of them alive." "I go now," said Okeanos with a nod. In a burst of crackling green electricity, Okeanos disappeared, moving at high speed towards the battle site to join in on routing the fleeing fishmen. As Aldrich saw Okeanos disappear into the distance, he saw messages pop in his vision. increments, indicating that his army was ughtering fishmen that provided little to no EXP. After about 30,000 fishmen kills, they would start giving out 1 EXP, and then at 50,000 kills, little to nothing. [1x ''Crab'' defeated] [+8000 EXP] [19,000x Fishmen defeated [+28,000 EXP] [1x Boss: ''Shrimp'' defeated] [+100,000 EXP] [EXP Bar: 0/55,000 ] 136,000/55,000] [Level up!] [Level 42 ] 43] [EXP Bar: 81,000/60,000] [Level up!] [Level 43 ] 44] [EXP Bar: 21,000/65,000] [10 stat points avable to distribute] Aldrich noted the double level up. He had not expected Shrimp to give him so much experience. But it did make sense, considering how much stronger the variant had be over time. Two levels was also within his expectations for what he would earn in this fight. If he killed off all the retreating fishmen, he would get to the edge of reaching level 45, but not quite there. The experience limiters would kick in and make the fishmen essentially worthless for EXP farming. But still worth it to squeeze out the fishmen for every littlest drop of experience. What was much more valuable than just levels, though, was Aldrich''s quest rewards. [Quest: Fell the Great Enemypleted] [1x Trove of Dark Wisdom (30 Levels) obtained] [1x Frosthallowed War Scythe obtained] Aldrich felt both the Dark Wisdom and the Frosthallowed War Scythe manifest in his nearly emptied out inventory. Now, he felt a little less naked after Vntis had gobbled up all the armor and weapon pieces in his inventory as a sacrifice to be raised. Notably, the Frosthallowed War Scythe''s text was highlighted in bold purple, indicating that it was of the ''Epic+'' tier that ranged from levels 40 to 60. With the + modifier on its rank, it also meant that the weapon upied the higher end of the level range for its rank, so Aldrich would have no issues using it all the way up to level 60, even a little beyond that. Good. That meant that any armor or weapons Aldrich picked up in his Trial Quests, he could hand down to his other units. Provided his Trial Quests were still the same. He had no idea to what degree the Death Lord had influenced his system, but he actually preferred this over what he had in the past. His system before had no answers and little predictability to it. It provided him power, but for what purpose? Why did it have the goddess Amara and the god Sindri in such an unfinished state? What did it want from Aldrich? All these, Aldrich had no answers to. But at the least with the Death Lord, he knew her intentions; she wanted him to usurp the title of Death Lord from her. And because he knew what she wanted, that made her somewhat predictable. Emphasis on ''somewhat''. But at the very least, she had Aldrich''s continued growth and life in her best interests. Aldrich whistled, and the sound projected through his helmet with Vntis''s aid. Crow swooped down, and Aldrich leaped up, getting on the variant''s back. He briefly looked around to see that the amount of news drones from various media outlets had grown exponentially, all of them paying attention to his each and every move. Aldrich did not like that feeling of being watched and followed like a celebrity, but he had been ready to ept it as a consequence of revealing himself to the world. Regardless, he wanted to shake them off for now. Crow pped his enormous wings down with powerful force, shooting straight up into the sky in an instant, leaving the drones awkwardly turning around to try and figure out where Aldrich had gone. While this happened, Aldrich put a hand to his head and ryedmands. ''To the rest of my Legion, continue killing as many fishmen as you can. Try to leave no survivors. When you are done, regroup back into the Deildeghast line.'' When Crow was high enough in the air, he pped his wings again to direct Aldrich towards Haven''s Southside. "That was a good fight." Aldrich turned to see Seismic. The older hero clutched onto Crow''s back tight with one hand and used the other to grasp at his stomach where the flesh had ckened from Crystallization. "It took too long. And it raises too many questions," said Aldrich as he thought about the Voice and all the implications of its mere existence. "You couldn''t have predicted the Locus evolving like that. And the world will have just as many questions as you about it. And questions about you as well," said Seismic. "I know," said Aldrich. "You''re prepared?" said Seismic. "As much as I can be," said Aldrich. Seismic nodded simply and looked down, towards the broken and damaged city. "A lot to do. Repairs. Mourning losses. The times ahead will be just as hard." Before Aldrich could reply, he heard a muffled woman''s voice struggling from behind him. He looked to see Valera''s disembodied head biting down on one of Crow''s feathers to hold on. The base of her neck was shrouded in shadowy mist, obscuring the blood and bone that should have shown. Despite Valera''s strength, it seemed that with how fast Crow was going, she was struggling with holding on with just her teeth. Aldrich smiled under his helm, feeling relief. He had always believed she had survived the sr re attack, but it was still good to confirm she was alive. Evidently, she had used the Duhan''s special racial ability to survive a fatal blow by basically ejecting from their bodies with their heads. This weakened her enough where Aldrich could not directly sense her life force, but Crow had seen her and secured her. Aldrich picked her up in his arms. "Oh, thank you master!" said Valera. "It feels wonderful to be held in your arms." "Valera, why didn''t you just have Seismic hold you?" said Aldrich. "I mean, he is right there." "I did offer, but-," began Seismic. "Bah! That gori of a man? Who is also a stranger to me? When my head is the most precious part of me? No chance!" said Valera as she nced at Seismic. "Though I do appreciate your service and strength." "¡­Noted," said Seismic. "And master, you should know by now - I will only ever allow myself to be held by you," said Valera. She looked down at Aldrich''s armored arms and snuggled her cheek into them with a blush "I appreciate this gesture, but you and I are not at this level of intimacy, woman," said Vntis. "You¡­what did I say about ruining moments?" Valera''s eyebrow twitched in visible anger. "This body of honed metal and collected bone of mine does seem to be unfeeling, but I have boundaries too, woman," said Vntis. Valera just sighed at this point, defeated. "Just let me enjoy this, okay?" "¡­I shall allow it¡­ For the strength you have observed in tonight''s battle," said Vntis as he grew quiet. Chapter 154: Sponsor

Chapter 154: Sponsor

Valera sighed at Vntis''s response. "Strength that I observed? What strength? Look at this sorry state I am in now, reduced to nothing but my head." She blushed deeply, rosy red filling into her pale cheeks. "Were I notfortably nestled within my master''s arms, I would fear dying of embarrassment. For a Duhan to lose their heads - that is the greatest disgrace they can suffer as warriors of death. I must wait an entire day before I can restore my body, and until then, I cannot even fulfill the basic duty of a Guardian Knight to defend my master." "That''s the wrong way to think about this," said Aldrich. "A warrior''s job is to fight and to win their fights. You used every tool you had in your arsenal to help me win. You fulfilled your duty - where is the disgrace in that?" "Oh, master, you have such a way with words. All your praise is never meaningless. It is always given when it is deserved. I very, very much like that about you," said Valera as she looked at up at Aldrich with gleaming red, hungry eyes. "I am detecting elevated levels of desire from her," said Vntis. "Desire originating from vampiric tendencies is dangerous in nature. Shall I make defensive preparations, Armored?" "You¡­!" Valera had enough and bared her fangs before angrily biting down on a protruding bone spike on Vntis''s arm. She took care not to bite anywhere that could damage Aldrich or really, anywhere that damaged Vntis much. The bone spikes were easily regenerated and mostly ornamental. She just wanted to vent her frustration. "Registering damage. This woman has gone feral for reasons I cannot fathom. Preparing countermeasures-," began Vntis, his voice rising in rm. Aldrich smiled and shook his head at their antics. "Knock it off, you two. And Vntis, I thought I was socially stunted. Are you that dense that you have zero idea why she might be upset?" "I am Living Armor. Form and function were the principles that guided the hands that wrought me from hellscape ore. I suffer touch to my form, and I must object. I register damage, and I must retaliate," said Vntis. "But you do have a soul, right? A soul harvested from some mortal person who must have had their own memories and personality," said Aldrich, somewhat curious. If he recalled correctly, Living Armor were forged by demons when they harvested the souls of powerful, battle hardened and experienced fighters. They used those souls as a ''core'' over which they forged an armor around. Of course, like how Necromancers could wipe the memories clean of arisen undead, demon smiths more often than not wiped out the memories of the souls they harvested for living armor to prevent any potential conflicts. After all, it would not do well to have the unwillingly harvested soul of a warrior killed by demons to eternally serve demons. Still, though, like arisen undead, Vntis should still have a core personality unique to his soul that no amount of wiping could scrub clean. "I do," said Vntis. "And there are times I remember vagaries of the mortal flesh and blood shell that once housed this soul of mine." "I assume you''ve always been a serious person, then, considering your personality now," said Aldrich. "Indeed. But that is all I carry over, and all I wish to carry over. What little this armor of mine feels of its past flesh shell past is nothing but suffering. Pain. Then, the struggle. Endless struggle that drowned out the pain and everything else, leaving nothing butmitment to duty. To form and function," said Vntis solemnly. Hearing this, Valera stopped biting Vntis and cast her eyes downward, likely remembering her own past. Aldrich understood that as castaways of the dark, hunted and reviled by all, the lives and pasts of undead were mostly filled with tragedy and struggle. That was one of the reasons why he himself gravitated so much towards the Necromancer ss and its lore. He saw himself in their backstories despite their struggles being rooted in a world of fantasy and his in a world of skyscrapers and telescreens. Because pain was pain: it was universal. Aldrich looked down at the broken streets below as Crow soared across the night sky. Thankfully, though, there were no longer any fishmen roving about in hungry groups across these streets. Not that it made the destruction any better to see. The cars and bodies of both fishmen and humans floating in the flooded streets attested to that. Seismic was right. The effort to rebuild Haven was going to be just as hard, if not harder, than the fight itself. The battle had taken up the span of just one night. Rebuilding would take years in an ordinary timescale. If Aldrich could secure the help of a construction mega-corp or the Panopticon and their fleets of construction drones, that time could be drastically cut. But for that, Aldrich needed influence. "Southside Haven. Why are we here?" said Seismic as he too looked down. "To ask for a favor that I''m owed," said Aldrich as he steered Crow towards the Panopticon bunker where he had left the Duds and Minuteman. He nced towards Seismic''s focused face. "You aren''t confused by our conversations? Mentions of demons and duhans and the like?" "Yes," said Seismic. "But no point in questioning it. Wastes time. I just work with what I see. And what I see is strength." "Serious and to the point. Good," said Aldrich. "You''ll work with me well. That is, if you want to." "You would let me go if I refused?" said Seismic. "No," said Aldrich. "This new lease on life you have is still signed under me. If you went against me, I would render you mindless so that you wouldn''t have to think about what you were doing. Make no mistake, though, I want your mind to be whole, and I want you to follow me of your own will." "Better optics that way?" said Seismic. "Better optics," confirmed Aldrich. "And also because I prefer having other voices and opinions around me. It would be a waste to throw away all that knowledge and experience you have." Aldrich liked being a solo yer, yes, and he knew the value of being independently strong. But he also knew that capable leaders had capable people around them as no one person could be perfect in every area. And even if he had always been a solo yer in the game, he was no stranger to working with others - he still always relied on the strengths of others as a Legion Necromancer topensate for his weaknesses. "¡­," Seismic paused for a moment. "Will I get to see my son again?" For the briefest of moments, Seismic''s rocky, cold exterior cracked, and emotion leeched into his voice. "Yes," said Aldrich. He looked away from Seismic, away from that voice, because it brought up bad memories of his own father that had left him far too early. "Yes, you will. If everything goes right, just consider yourself a hero under my employ. When you have downtime, you can visit your son." Seismic nodded. "It will be hard. I''m still sponsored and contracted by Hammerhead Industries." Hammerhead Industries. A juggernaut in the construction industry and a subsidiary under the mega corporation known as triple H (HHH). In all of north America, Hammerhead Industries was perhaps the biggest yer for heavy duty construction and manufacturing. Taking it on would be a challenge, but one that Aldrich would dly take to keep Seismic. But this was all for another time. After he established himself in a strong position in the world. "That, we can worry aboutter," said Aldrich. He looked down to see the Panopticon bunker and directed Crow towards it. When Crow neared the ground Aldrich put Valera gently down on Crow''s back. "Hover in the air gently. Try to keep herfortable," said Aldrich to Crow. Crow grunted in affirmation, blinking his six yellow eyes. "Master¡­I can''te with you?" said Valera as she looked up at Aldrich withrge, puppy dog pleading eyes. "I''d like to take you, but, well-," began Aldrich. "Carrying a ghastly, severed head such as the form you hold now will only elevate the stress and fear levels in the mortals the Armored is to meet," said Vntis simply. "Ghastly?" Valera made an offended face before she sighed again. "I understand. I will be waiting for you, master." Aldrich nodded to her before he jumped down. Seismic jumped down with him. They fell down a dozen meters andnded with two heavy crashes against the metal of the Panopticon bunker''s vault doors. There, Minuteman stood at attention, waving towards Aldrich. The hero''s wounds had all been perfectly healed by now, and the ckwater students that had stayed with Minuteman patrolled around the edges of the bunker doors where over a hundred fishmen and crabmen corpsesy scattered. "Good to see you again!" said Minuteman as he wiped some fishman blood off his forehead. "I know you asked me for a favor, but I doubt I''ll be of much help to you anymore. You already routed those fishmen, sent them back crawling where they came from - I saw it all on screen. You saved this entire city." Minuteman nodded to Aldrich. "Thank you." "I''m here for that favor," said Aldrich. "Oh? Already?" said Minuteman. "Is there another fight I need to get to that the news missed? If that''s the case, I''m always ready." Minuteman locked his shield in ce against his forearm gauntlet as he put on a strong, confident smile. "No," said Aldrich. "The fighting''s over¡­ What I need from you is simple: I need you to be my sponsor." Chapter 155: A Deal

Chapter 155: A Deal

"¡­A sponsor?" Minuteman raised a brow as he looked at Aldrich questioningly. "Let me hear that again, you want me to be your sponsor?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "I would be more than happy to sponsor you, considering the pure color of your willpower and how much good you''ve done tonight, but I have to ask: what for?" said Minuteman. "If it''s for a Hero Consideration Hearing, I don''t think that''s going to be necessary for someone like you. As long as you have a rtively crime free record on your CID, hell, even if you haven''t exactly been on the straight and narrow path, so many corps are going to see what you did and try to snap you up. And they''ve got a lot more power than me to fast track you to top hero status in the AA. All the powers you''ve used today probably exceed any power regtion license you have, but the corps and theirwyers will get that cleared from you in a sh. Once that''s done, you can submit an application to the AA with a corporate backer and then it''s smooth sailing from there. You''ll start out in the B ss at the minimum with a strong and well funded backer like a Corp. Probably A ss honestly speaking, considering you took down that monster of a Locus. But with someone like me, well, I''ll vouch for you, but my voice alone isn''t going to match the strength of a multi-billion-creditpany, and there''s no telling what''ll happen at a hearing." "That won''t work for me. I need the hearing." Aldrich understood where Minuteman wasing from. But the process that Minuteman outlined, getting a corp to sponsor him, submitting an application normally, that was not for him. Generally speaking, it would be much better for Aldrich to just sign with a corporation and have them back him. Like Minuteman said, as long as Aldrich''s past wasn''tpletely horrible, the corp would fast track him into hero status and probably bump him into high ranks with their money and influence. Hero Consideration Hearings were another way for Alters not affiliated by the Alterhuman Agency to enter the supers industry, particrly after incidents where they used their powers in a way beyond what they were licensed to do for the sake of public safety. However, where Minuteman''s confusion arose was in the fact that Hero Consideration Hearings were used mostly for viins, mercenaries, and other criminal entities that had less than favorable pasts or, in the case of Nomads that did not live in any governed walled city, no traceable past at all. The hearings were meant for people like these, people that lived in the dirt and shadows, to have a chance to step into the light, have their criminal records wiped clean, and enter the supers industry with a fresh new start. That was why for these hearings, established heroes needed to sponsor an Alter for a hearing after determining their character and strength to be solid. In the hearing, a panel of higher ups in the AA, government employees, and Panopticon members would judge whether the Alter in question could actually fit in the supers industryplex. If not, then depending on how bad the Alter''s past was, they could get arrested right then and there to answer for their past crimes. With a lightened sentence, of course, but no self-serving Alter mercenary or viin would want to risk going to jail just for the chance to be a hero when in all likelihood they had just as good if not better lives using their services for the criminal underworld. In that sense, Hero Consideration Hearings were basically like court trials. You win the trial, and you''re allowed to put on a cape and join the AA. If you don''t, you get arrested and one more potential menace to society is out of the streets. That was why Hero Consideration Hearings practically never happened. On top of that, it was difficult to get one authorized in the first ce. Heroes of all ranks could sponsor others, but only a sponsorship from a hero B ranked and above meant anything because it guaranteed a hearing. "¡­So you are a criminal. Or a viin," said Minuteman. He did not have any real judgement in his voice. Just some minor surprise that his suspicions had been confirmed. "A viin? No, not exactly," said Aldrich. "I have no real traceable criminal record. You won''t see my threat ranking listed anywhere. Nobody knows who I am or where I came from. And I want it to stay that way." Technically, Aldrich was dead. And he wanted the anonymity that death provided. That gave him far more secrecy and safety. Afterwards, if things went right, then he would also wipe any records of him in ckwater, rendering himpletely invisible. The less information there was around him, the better. "I''m still not sure this is a good idea," said Minuteman, concerned mostly about Aldrich''s wellbeing despite knowing for sure now that Aldrich was in all likelihood not someone with a clean past. He truly was a good man. "Once you step into that hearing, your identity, orck of one, will be made known anyway. They''ll force you to reveal everything about yourself. Your powers, your past, your team - all of that''s going toe under scrutiny." "There''s always room for negotiation, no?" said Aldrich. "Don''t you remember the case with Dracul?" "¡­" Minuteman paused for a moment. Dracul had been an A ranked viin based in Eastern Europe who had been the leader of an infamous mercenary group known as the Night Raiders widely known for their brutality and efficiency, wiping out their targets stealthily in the cover of night, hence their name. Dracul and his team had wiped out dozens of well-loved heroes personally for the sake of the Dark Six. However, Dracul had a change of heart one day when the Echelon, one of the Dark Six organizations at the time, betrayed him, killing his team, his family, and his dog. Since then, Dracul single-handedly broke down Echelon, eradicating one of the six strongest criminal organizations in the world, and also yed an instrumental role in fighting against variants alongside heroes during the Sinking of Moscow that Spybird survived. Dracul since then was considered like a heroic national icon of the Russian people, and all of that contributed to Dracul going into a hero consideration hearing with the upper hand. Dracul could negotiate with the AA on his terms, granting himself much more freedom and status in the AA to do what he wanted. "That could work," said Minuteman. "Your situation is a little simr. But it''s no guarantee even then. The AA and the Panop might be on high alert in light of these attacks. They might be a lot stricter on you. Or they might not be. It''s just unpredictable. On top of that, you''ve got Seismic here working with you, don''t you? His sponsorship will mean more than mine." "An argument could be made that Seismic has beenpromised," said Aldrich. "Considering the nature of my powers." Minuteman nced at Seismic. "If you think I''m being controlled, then no," said Seismic said simply. "I just want to make absolutely sure I get this hearing, that nobody can question my valid im to it," said Aldrich. "And for that, I need someone ''clean'' like you. I understand you might not want to be associated sponsoring me, especially with that neat image of yours-," "It''s not that," said Minuteman as he shook his head. "My image is something I don''t care about. I''ve never micromanaged it to tailor it into something that I''m not, and I would sponsor you in a heartbeat. I just don''t want to see you locked up in response to all the good you''ve done. They''ll be afraid of you, I''m sure of it. Your power to control corpses is something that''s never been seen before. Making a few zombies here and there, that''s been done, but this, controlling an entire Locus, this is something far beyond anything anyone''s seen. To be honest, when I saw your power on screen, I felt a chill run down my spine. Not because I was afraid of you, but because I knew just how much your power could change, well, everything. And everyone in that hearing will be feeling the exact same way I did. They''ll fear your power, your potential. And if they don''t think they can control you, I''m afraid they''ll try and destroy you." "I appreciate your concern for me," said Aldrich genuinely as his voice lightened. "But trust me, just give me this hearing, and you won''t have to worry about anything. I''m quite confident in my ability to be persuasive." "And if that isn''t enough? What if they try to round you and your team up?" said Minuteman. "Then that''s my problem to deal with, isn''t it?" said Aldrich. Minuteman nodded. "You''re right. It''s not my ce to be worrying about this for you. Sorry about that. It just always hurts me to know that there''s the potential for someone''s good deeds to go punished." He smiled and reached out a red gloved hand. Aldrich shook it. "Alright then, we''ve got a deal," said Minuteman with a smile. "In exchange for saving my sorry ass, I''ll be your sponsor¡­ And if those bureaucratic AA sons of bitches try to mess with you, I''ll do my best to vouch for you." Chapter 156: Sentinel

Chapter 156: Sentinel

"I appreciate the thought, but when the hearinges around, I want to handle it alone," said Aldrich. He did not want Minuteman to testify in the hearing on his behalf because depending on how things went, there was a distinctive possibility that Aldrich was going to use some, well, less than savory means to obtain the control he needed. Aldrich did not want Minuteman to get caught in the crossfire. Because, honestly speaking, Aldrich did not particrly think that testimony from Minuteman to vouch for Aldrich would do much. It was as Minuteman said, Aldrich had power with unfathomable potential for growth, and that would make people, people used to maintaining the status quo, afraid. They would want to control Aldrich. Well let them try, thought Aldrich. By the end of this all, Aldrich would be the one in control. "Got it," said Minuteman. "Well, at the very least, let me submit recorded testimony on behalf of your character and what you did today. I don''t know how much that will help, but it should be better than nothing. There''s nothing worse in this world than good deeds going punished. If possible, I''d like that not to happen to you." Aldrich nodded to Minuteman before gesturing towards the bunker vault doors. "Do you have an idea about what''s going to happen to them?" Minuteman sighed. "Times will be tough, that''s for sure. Most of their homes were washed away or t out destroyed. The homeless shelters are also flooded, so they won''t have anywhere to stay. And as powerless people, I doubt they have the means to piece their lives back together. And it''s not just Southside either that''s suffering. THe rest of Haven''s also in shambles. A lot of folk are probably going to think about moving out or maybe taking up Nomad cloaks." "The Panopticon won''t help?" said Aldrich. "What about the Reconstruction Initiative?" The reconstruction initiative was abined effort between the Panopticon and manufacturingpanies to work together so as to rebuild cities after variant attacks. Most city walls and structures were built with pre-determined temtes so as to make rebuilding as quick and efficient as possible. The Panopticon had ownership rights over the temtes of city wals and fortifications while privatepanies had ownership over temtes of civilian infrastructure like housing or office buildings. Through the Reconstruction Initiative, even massive cities like Neo-York could repair severe damage to itself over the course of weeks to months. "It''s sad to say, but tier 3 cities like this are pretty receable," said Minuteman. He shook his head. "Like everything in the world these days, it''s a matter of economics. Tier 2 and 1 cities have enough money to easily cash out high paying construction contracts to rebuild themselves faster. But unless a tier 3 city holds something important like, say, etherite deposits, they get left to rot after big attacks like this. There''s just not enough money in rebuilding these cities." "He''s right," said Seismic. "With the amount of damage Haven''s suffered, you''d be hard pressed to find a constructionpany willing to shell out resources at a loss to fix it. There''s just not anything worth rebuilding for." "I''ll be changing that," said Aldrich. Minuteman raised a brow. "How? You don''t mean that you''ll sign a contract with a constructionpany, will you? Having a corporate backer is fine, but that will limit your freedom even more." "Maybe. Maybe not," said Aldrich. "Nothing is set in stone yet. But at the very least, I can guarantee that this city won''t get ignored. I spent the effort to save it, I sure as hell am not going to just watch it wither away." "I respect yourmitment," said Minuteman with a firm nod. "You never do forget the little guys, huh." Before Aldrich could respond, a voice crackled in his earpiece. It was Fisk. "Uh, boss, you might want to get back to the city center," said Fisk. "Hm? What is it?" said Aldrich. "Remember that A ss guy that was stationed in Have? Alongside grumpy old Seismic? He''s back," said Fisk. "And¡­I''m not sure what he''s trying to do, but it looks like he''s trying to im credit for what you did. Going on about holding the line up the front and making sure everyone had time to evacuate and whatnot. Buuut I''m pretty sure he just got scared and ran with his tail between his legs. Makes me sick, honestly, watching this." "I have to go," said Aldrich to Minuteman. "Watch over everyone here until they get sent off to safety. And again, I appreciate your willingness to sponsor me." "Heh, that''s nothing. A tiny sponsorship in exchange for my life? Now that''s a deal I''d take in a heartbeat," said Minuteman. "Good luck with whatever it is you need to deal with." Aldrich nodded before he got back on Crow. He had the ckwater students that remained with Minuteman hop on as well. He willed Crow to move, and Crow loosed a guttural grumble as he pped his wings, soaring into the sky with explosive force. Aldrich scooped up Valera''s head in his arm, and she looked up at him. "So how was it, master? Did you obtain what you needed?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "But this is just the beginning." "Oh, a n is it?" Valera smiled at Aldrich. "I do love those wondrous ns of yours. They keep me alive so I can unleash as much destruction as I want." "Not battle ns this time," said Aldrich. "Oh," said Valera with a sigh. She might have been surprisingly tactical on the battlefield, but that was because she loved fighting in its entirety. Outside of it, she had little interest in boring pen and paper affairs that Aldrich would now be getting into. "I have an idea of what you want to do," said Seismic. "Hm?" "You want to be a Sentinel," said Seismic as he crossed his arms and stared at Aldrich with his sharp gaze. A Sentinel. It was an old title from near the beginning of Alter powers, back during the Age of Viins when there was no Alterhuman Agency and Panopticon to keep a semnce of world order. During this era, when modern governments copsed under the weight of unregted Alter conflict, people reverted back to older governmental systems. Amid the chaos of conflict, certain powerful Alters emerged as the defenders of their homes, essentially ruling their cities like feudal lords. These Alters were dubbed many titles ranging from defender to protector to, eventually, officially known as Sentinels. Sentinels basically controlled an entire city as their base of operations, giving them unprecedented amounts of power. The Sentinel title remained in use throughout the Age of Viins and even through the first half of the Monstering. However, once the Titans were defeated and humanity sought to rebuild, Sentinels were gradually phased out. There was no ce in a world governed by the order ofrge organizations for single individuals with too much power like the Sentinels. Aided by the threat of Vanguard, most Sentinels willingly gave up their titles and folded into the AA/Panopticonplex. A few actually fought back, unwilling to give up their lord-like power. Even fewer actually maintained their Sentinel status for they were simply too popr in their home cities with a good track record of fair governance. To this day, there were a few Sentinels here and there, but they were basically ancient relics. It had been nearly a century since a new Sentinel title had been given out. "Sentinel? My, that title does have a nice ring of power befitting my dear master," said Valera. "Don''t get your hopes up," said Seismic. "It''ll be impossible to get a Sentinel position. They are already afraid of you. Why would they give you even more power?" "That''s the point of the hearing, isn''t it? To negotiate my terms?" said Aldrich. "And if they don''t listen?" said Seismic. "Like I said, I can be quite persuasive when I need to be," said Aldrich. "You''re nning on doing something, aren''t you? Something that won''t exactly fit under the umbre of thew," said Seismic. There was no sense of judgment in the hero''s voice, more a sense of simple understanding. "And if I am? Are you going to stand against me?" said Aldrich. Seismic shook his head. "No. Laws aren''t perfect. They''re guidelines. I should know. I never had much respect for them in the first ce. I''m just curious how you''ll do. How far you''ll go." "I aim to go far. And if possible, I want you to walk that path with me," said Aldrich. After Aldrich said that, Crow quickly neared Haven''s city center. There, in the central square where people had been watching Aldrich''s fight all night, there was Hat Trick. Hat Trick and several other people¡­ All women dressed up in revealing magician''s assistant costumes with top hats, very likely members of Hat Trick''s team. Chapter 157: Hat Trick

Chapter 157: Hat Trick

Aldrich remained high in the air as he observed Hat Trick. He wanted to get a read on the situation first before he went down and engaged with the A ss hero. "Do you know what happened with Hat Trick?" Aldrich asked Seismic. "He ran when the Locus was detected," said Seismic. That was all he said, but that was enough for Aldrich to immediately have negative levels of respect for the hero. Aldrich had a decent amount of knowledge of all the A and S ss heroes because information about most of them was widely publicly avable. Hat Trick, too, he knew. He was an up-anding young A ranker with a ster amount of promise who, with a couple more years of building up his rep, would probably easily make it into the A or even A+ rank. The S ss, though, Hat Trick probably never would break into. Hat Trick simply did not possess enough raw power. From what Aldrich could recall, Hat Trick had a fairly good public image. He marketed himself as a roguish yboy but bnced that out with supposedly a strong sense of heroism. Cool on the outside, warm in the inside; an image that was probably straight up copy pasted from countless romance novels fantasizing about getting it on and breaking into the warm hearts of supposedly cold CEOs or whatever. "As far as I know," said Aldrich. "His public record is clean with a solid track record of beating tough variants and a few humanitarian relief cases here and there." "It is. His marketing team has been good about that," said Seismic. "But this - this is his first mistake. Maybe hisst." "Exin," said Aldrich. "Hat Trick ran because he thought Haven would fall," said Seismic. "He helped with initial evac. Got the important people out. Afterwards, when he thought his life was in danger, he fled." "I see what you''re getting at," said Aldrich. "It makes sense to stay for evac, especially since it prioritizes important and wealthier people that''ll contribute more to his payroll. But when all the evac vehicles ran out and there were still thousands left behind, he figured it was safe to just run because he assumed they would all die. And dead people tell no tales. Or, if they were heroes that ran, well, they couldn''t speak out against Hat Trick when they hadmitted the same act of cowardice. With the storm cutting out any form of recording, it would have been the perfect opportunity to just run without consequences." Seismic nodded his head. "That''s right. He tried to convince me to leave, too. If I stayed and beat the Locus, then that would expose him as well." "But you didn''t leave." "No." "I see," said Aldrich. "Considering the fact that Hat Trick knew you would stay and still fled, then that means he bet on you dying and the city falling." "Yes." Seismic cracked his neck as he stared downwards towards where Hat Trick was. "He would have won that bet, too. But you showed up." "And now that he''s lost that bet, he needs to do damage control," said Aldrich. He clenched his hand into a fist, feeling the same sense of disgust well up in him when he had destroyed that ship full of fleeing heroes from the panopticon bunker. What sickened Aldrich was not the fact that heroes did not always save every life. No, he understood that. He even understood that sometimes, it was better to sacrifice lives to achieve a long-term goal so long as in the end, more lives were saved. In a hypothetical tough fight, if Aldrich had to make a tactical retreat at the cost of a thousand lives, he would take that retreat so long as it gave him a chance to winter to save a hundred thousand more lives. There was no glory in self sacrifice that led to long term suffering. There were plenty of cases of heroes, especially those from the Golden Age, sacrificing themselves only to rob theirmunities of a protector that they needed long term. But where Aldrich drew the line was with individuals that sacrificed others solely for their own sakes. For nothing more than a paycheck and a handshake with grubby corporate moguls. These were people that proudly proimed something they were not. Snakes masquerading under capes and costumes. "Are the defenders of this era so cowardly?" muttered Valera. "It seems that these mortals known as ''heroes'' are this era''s chosen warriors, and yet, so very few of them possess the mettle of a true warrior." "I can take care of him," said Seismic. "If you care about your image. Would be less risky for you if I went down." "There''s no reason that this can''t benefit me," said Aldrich. "Plus, this feels a little personal. I''ll handle this with you." He willed Crow to move down. As Crow approached the crowd below, Aldrich took in and analyzed the surroundings. There was a crowd of hundreds gathered before a massive adscreen that, normally, would have projected a giant in exchange for an exorbitant price. The screen had been hijacked by technos to showcase the battle sites, and there, they showed Okeanos blitzing his way through the remainder of the aquatic variant army, utterly annihting them in droves,pletely proving that Aldrich had full control over the Locus. However, most notably, the audio had been cut off from the broadcast, giving full reign for Hat Trick to hover in the air and talk to everyone below. Hat Trick had a suave smile on his face while his entourage of female team members behind him just acted like pretty props, just smiling and nodding along. But Aldrich could immediately tell there was nervousness etched into Hat Trick''s face. And the people around Hat Trick stared up at him not with adoration or relief or anything remotely resembling something positive, but bare hate at worst and visible disbelief at best. Good. This was an easy situation for Aldrich to use. Aldrichid Valera down on Crow''s back. "Not again,"ined Valera. She red down towards Hat Trick. "That fool better make your time worthwhile for making you leave me, master." "Oh, he will," said Aldrich as he jumped down. Seismic quickly followed. Together, theynded on an empty spot away from the crowds. Aldrich broke his fall with draconic wings while Seismic used a tiny quake to offset his impact. When theynded, the crowd turned around, and immediately, all the negativity they had shown Hat Trick melted away as their faces grew bright and hopeful seeing the two heroes that had actually saved them. "They''re here!" "Seismic and that new guy, are they working together!? Maybe they''re in a new team?" "Seeing the guy in armor up close¡­wow, he really does leave a strong impression on you." People started to snap pictures of Aldrich and Seismic en masse, and as the two walked forwards, several people from the crowd reached out to them. "Thank you," said a woman in tears. "When they didn''t let us board thest evac ship, I thought my whole family was doomed, but you''ve saved us all." "I can see my daughter another day because of you two," said a man. An older man, former policeman, it seemed, from the badges decorating his coat, nodded at Aldrich and Seismic. "When everyone else left, you stayed. I know none of us don''t have much - there''s a reason they left us while the folk with money got to leave - so we can''t give big donations to you, but I hope that our thanks still means something." "Your thanks has meaning. More meaning than a few credits," said Aldrich, and Seismic nodded. "Ah, so you two havee back from the cleanup, eh!?" Hat Trick''s voice resonated outwards, drowning everyone out. "And it''s great to see you alive, Seismic. It would have crushed me to know a man as great as you had died out there." "Cleanup?" said Aldrich. "You call that fight a cleanup? Where have you been?" "Hah, what do you mean?" said Hat Trick. "I was out in the front lines, by the coast itself, fending off against waves of reinforcements from pouring in!" Before Aldrich could respond, Hat Trick waved to Seismic. "Seismic! Can I have a moment with you? It''s about something quite important, and ssified information, I''m afraid." Seismic paused, unsure of what to do. He nced over at Aldrich. Aldrich nodded towards Seismic. He was willing to see what Hat Trick wanted to do here. "Alright," said Seismic. "Good, I knew you would understand," said Hat Trick as he flew over to Seismic and took the older man aside, away from the crowd, speaking in hushed voice that nobody could make out. Chapter 158: Corruption

Chapter 158: Corruption

Aldrich paid very careful attention to the bodynguage between Seismic and Hat Trick''s hushed conversation. Seismic, as always, was like a rock. He stood tall, straight, and utterly stiff. Among the many people that Aldrich had analyzed in his life, Seismic was among the very few that was nearly impossible to tell anything about based off his bodynguage and facial expressions. Hat Trick, however, was like an open book. Hat Trick put his arm across Seismic''s shoulder in a friendly gesture, but when Seismic stood coldly still, Hat Trick withdrew his arm awkwardly. Hat Trick talked with expressive gestures and an ingratiating smile marked with nods punctuating every sentence as if he was saying "you understand why I did what I did, right?". In response, Seismic just stood still, and that unnerved Hat Trick more and more. As Aldrich watched, he noted from the periphery of his vision that many of the people in the crowd were behind him, keeping a wary distance from him. They recognized him as their savior, but at the same time, the aura of mystery around him, plus his menacing looking armor, made him less approachable. Aldrich did not actually mind this. He did not care to be a shining smiling hero that tried to spread love and hope and warm goodness every chance he could. He did not want to be someone that promised many things but failed to deliver on them, because he knew that even if he fulfilled ny nine out of a hundred grand promises, that single broken one would overshadow all the others he had upheld. There was also the obvious problem that Aldrich''s personality and way of thinking was just entirely unsuited to being a shining beacon of hope like Minuteman or Vanguard or any of the Golden Age heroes. What he did best was leading through cold hard results. At the same time, Aldrich knew he could not just ignore these people either. They were his people after all. Or soon to be his people if his gambit to be a Sentinel paid off. "What is it?" said Aldrich as gently as he could manage. "Are they talking about anything important?" said a man, obviously worried. The man was costumed, though very inly in what was basically standard issue body armor painted white. He carried an arm in a sling and walked with a limp. He was probably a low ranking hero that had not been able to fight due to his injuries. But still, because he was a hero, the people trusted him to act like a representative to talk to Aldrich. "Hat Trick mentioned ssified information, and I''m way too small of a fish to know anything about what''s going on. I hear that there''s been wide scale attacks everywhere but they''re mostly all dealt with. But the people are still on edge, worried that there might be another attack." "Another attack is unlikely," said Aldrich. "And whether what they''re talking about is important or not is something we''ll find out together soon enough." "And¡­another thing. Something all of us have wanted to know for a while," continued the man. "Hm?" "What''s your name? Your Sign? We''ve tried to search for you in the hero database or even whether you were a viin, but nobody''s been able to find out anything. Or are you a shadow?" A Shadow. Something that Aldrich briefly had considered being. These were entities that had no signs and acted in pure secrecy. They were mostly assassins who did not want the brand name recognition of being viins or mercenaries attached to them. Being a shadow promised the greatest amount of secrecy, but Aldrich, though he valued secrecy, knew he could not hide in obscurity forever. He needed the influence and power that having his own name could bring out. "Thanatos," said Aldrich. "Thanatos¡­" repeated the hero, nodding to himself. He smiled at Aldrich. "Ironic, isn''t it? All of us getting saved from death by death itself?" "Those who walk closest to death know the best ways to avoid it," said Aldrich, and at that moment, he watched as Hat Trick patted Seismic''s back and flew back over to the crowd. "Citizens of Haven, I''m sorry for the dy, but my business with Seismic over there is done," dered Hat Trick as he tipped his hat at everyone and assumed his position in front of the giant adboard. "Rest assured, you won''t be under another attack. My efforts, along with the valiant fighting of Seismic and the neer, and, of course, the noble sacrifice of the many heroes and policemen outside these walls, have let us see the light of a new day!" "How do we know that''s true?" said a man. Judging by the rectangr deep dive goggles on his face and the port on the side of his shaved head, he was a techno. "I''ve been managing and tuning into every broadcast I could find about this. And I''ve never seen you anywhere!" Murmurs of agreement rustled through the crowd. Hat Trick just smiled and put up a hand. "Of course, of course, that''s understandable. I told you, though, I was at the coastline. Up there, with the crashing waves and even more waves of variants, it was impossible to set up a stream of my own. Not to mention the disruption field was impossibly strong there. But you all know me. I might like to enjoy the good life-," Hat Trick shed a smile to one of his all female team members, and she smiled coyly back at him. "But deep down, I fight to protect what matters. And that''s all of you. I don''t need the recognition, and honestly, I don''t care that there''s no evidence. What I care about is that tonight, here and now, all of you are safe, standing, and alive. Now then, if any of you want to support me, you can talk to my assistants here for my Sharespace pages to drop likes and follows- "Sounds like bullsh*t to me," said the techno, and the crowd nodded in agreement. "I''ve talked to some of the surviving heroes, too. They said you ran. And if that''s the case, I wonder how you have the balls to even show up here again." "Run? Me? Ridiculous," said Hat Trick. "Look at my past record! I''ve killed eleven B rank disasters and over a hundred C rank disasters. I''ve never run from a fight, and I''ve never stood down from protecting the people¡­" While Hat Trick and the crowd argued, Aldrich telepathically tuned in with Seismic. ''So, what did he say?'' said Aldrich. Seismic looked towards Hat Trick with crossed arms and stern expression, but his mindmunicated with Aldrich. ''The summary of it is simple. Hat Trick first gave me a bribe to keep me quiet. Decent amount of credits. Easily enough that it would put a big dent in his wallet,'' said Seismic. ''So he''s desperate,'' said Aldrich. ''How''s he going to handle the testimonies of all the other heroes?'' ''They don''t matter as much,'' said Seismic. ''If I join Hat Trick''s side, then the voices of two A rankers outweighs the voices of all the heroes here. It sounds unequal. But it''s the way it is.'' ''And about me? Does he think he can bribe me?'' said Aldrich. ''Yes he does,'' said Seismic. ''Credits are king. Now more so than ever among heroes. It''s called an industry for a reason. He''s willing to shell out just as many credits to you. He also expects you as a newbie to understand that heroes help each other out. They cover for each other''s mistakes.'' ''You mean they cover for each other''s faults,'' said Aldrich. ''There isn''t much difference between the two. Not in this industry,'' said Seismic. ''It''s corruption, in and simple. You help cover what he did up, and he''ll help you cover something you do up in the future. Like I said, high ranking hero voices are resources on their own. We''re celebrities. Idols. Our voices influence the public. What we say can shape how they think. How they make judgements. And we have corps backing us. Corps willing to pay to take down news. Recordings. Silence voices. This is how the B rankers and above keep their images clean.'' ''Your image isn''t clean, no?'' said Aldrich. ''No,'' said Seismic. ''Because I never cared. Not until recently. But by then, I had done too much damage. Too much to cover up. Search my name on the, you''ll find a hundred articles about how much damage I caused. People I''ve identally killed. Only reason I even have a sponsor is because Hammerhead is one of the corps that don''t care. They just value strength. And that, I have.'' ''And I''m assuming Hat Trick''s sponsors aren''t like that,'' said Aldrich. ''Elysium Entertainment is the exact opposite,'' said Seismic. ''They sponsor heroes based entirely off image. Off of their looks. The characters they can put out. They basically sponsor actors. Hell, you''ll see their heroes starring in their movies. Hat Trick has a character he can''t break. He''s broken it today. Badly. Word gets out, he''s done for. He''s willing to do anything to patch this situation. Getting himself in debt to a neer like you hurts his pride. Not to mention having to throw so much money at you. But he''s willing to do it." ''Humor me, Seismic. How many credits is he willing to send my way?'' said Aldrich. ''Ten million credits,'' said Seismic¡­ ''And fifteen million to me.'' Chapter 159: Exposing Hat Trick

Chapter 159: Exposing Hat Trick

Aldrich tossed those numbers around in his head. Ten million credits to Aldrich. Fifteen million to Seismic. A total of a twenty-five million credit investment. This was an amount of money that Aldrich would only have dreamt of even grasping at. His parents, as rtively regr D and C rank heroes, earned almost two hundred thousand credits a year together in Neo-York, which sounded like a lot, but living costs in Neo-York, a tier 1 city, were absurdly high. Even if his parents could take all of their earnings without spending anything on rent, they would need one hundred and twenty-five years to match what Hat Trick was offering. But Aldrich did not care about how much that credit amount meant to him. Because soon enough, he was going to have enough power and influence that credits were not going to be an issue. No, what he wanted to know was how much that amount meant to Hat Trick. From what Aldrich knew, it was at the A rank that heroes started bing superstar earners that could earn millions of credits a year. He did not know exactly how much Hat Trick himself earned, but on average, he figured that an A ranker with a strong social media presence and decent sponsors made around the ballpark of ten million credits a year. ''I see,'' said Aldrich. Hat Trick was a new A ranker and had only been working for five years. If Aldrich recalled correctly, then, his lifetime earnings were around 50 million credits, but like most superstars, Hat Trick was not exactly frugal with his spending. Aldrich figured those 25 million credits was close to almost all of what Hat Trick could cough up at a short notice. ''And how did you respond to that offer?'' ''I didn''t,'' said Seismic. ''I was waiting for your decision. I will make this clear now. I will follow you. I will walk the path you pave. It''s what I owe you for giving me back this life. If you take a step one day that I don''t think I can follow, I will tell you. Then, you can turn me mindless, I don''t care. This body isn''t mine anymore. It''s yours. So do what you want with it. But besides that - are you going to take Hat Trick''s offer?'' ''Of course not,'' scoffed Aldrich. ''I only asked to humor myself. I wanted to know how much Hat Trick thought his life was worth.'' ''And? Do you agree with the number he put out?'' said Seismic. Aldrich paused for a moment before he stared at Hat Trick, at the hero''s fake smile that he shed towards the disbelieving, disgruntled, tired, now homeless citizens of Haven. The fakeness of it all almost made Aldrich''s undead stomach sick, if that was even possible. ''Let''s just say I would never sell something worthless for that many credits,'' "You there, neer!" Hat Trick''s voice resonated outwards, aimed right at Aldrich. He waved at Aldrich with a nervous and now barely maintained smile, though perhaps due to years of training his fake smile, he could still keep it up in the face of so much public opposition. "I can''t thank you enough for the service you''ve done today. I know you are no hero, but with the valiant efforts of tonight, I''m sure you''ll be recognized by the agency. I''m sure you''ve talked with Seismic about how the agency works with its heroes, yeah?" "Yes," said Aldrich. Hat Trick here was speaking in double meanings. He could not just reveal to the public the tant corruption he wanted Aldrich to pull off, so he veiled it in seemingly ''proper'' hero rted talk. "Good, good," said Hat Trick. He sighed dramatically. "It''s not often that I need to prove myself, but I guess that''s on me for forgetting to record my fights. It''s hard to remember that when I fight variants to protect, not to profit." Hat Trick shook his head and cast a look of judgement around the crowd before looking up at Aldrich with a hopeful smile. "But I''m sure you understand, don''t you, neer? You''ve been in the dark for so long, probably fighting without any recognition all that time. You understand me, don''t you?" "¡­," Aldrich did not respond, and that silence unnerved Hat Trick. Good. Hat Trick paused awkwardly, and the crowd stared at him with ruthless silence, showing very obviously whose word they trusted at this point. Right now, everything short of Hat Trick''s life, his entire career, his reputation, all those movie deals and sponsorships, were on the line. No, that might just be worth his entire life to him. "If you talked with Seismic, then you know, right? What I did?" said Hat Trick. "Then I''d like you to tell the people here about the role I yed in tonight''s defense. Just like how you were at the frontlines, beating back that monster of a Locus, I was at the coastline, beating back the reinforcements." At this moment, Hat Trick''s eyes narrowed as he lowered his gaze, his long locks of red hair falling across his face in disheveled manner that gave his stare a pointedly threatening aura to it. "Heroes stand tall because we have each other''s backs, isn''t that right?" This was Hat Trick''s direct call to get Aldrich to lie. Hat Trick''s words seemed harmless at first, but in reality, he was reminding Aldrich of what he had told Seismic. Heroes have each other''s backs. Or, more urately, they cover up for each other''s faults. This was a veiledmand to Aldrich, telling him to cover for Hat Trick now. At this moment, the crowd''s attention shifted to Aldrich. They instinctively understood that it was now up to Aldrich. For him toy down judgement. Aldrich remembered Ghost. He remembered Seth Sr. He remembered how he had judged them. He would judge Hat Trick just the same now. Aldrich began to walk forwards. He towered over most of the people in the crowd, and he trudged forward, the crowd automatically parted way. With every step towards Hat Trick, with every passing second of silence, the hero grew increasingly more nervous. When the female team members behind Hat Trick saw Aldrich''s menacing, bone spiked, blood infused form trudge forward with the heavy click of armor, they slunk backwards, afraid. None of them were fighters. All of them were just pretty ythings for Hat Trick. Things he used to make himself look and feel good. Symbolic of how Hat Trick lived his life and how he saw the world. As ythings. One big yground to do whatever he wanted in. He could leave his toys whenever he wanted. Throw them away whenever he wanted. Break them whenever he wanted. All that mattered was what he wanted. Not anymore. When Aldrich stood right before Hat Trick, he stood half a head over the hero. Hat Trick maintained his smile, but he was forced to look up at Aldrich''s unnerving red dot helm. Aldrich stared right down at Hat Trick and spoke, his voice echoing outwards and reaching the whole crowd. "Here''s what you did tonight - nothing. You left the moment the Locus came. Seismic and every single hero and police force outside these walls can attest to this. You left because you were a coward. You left because you thought everyone here would die, leaving no witnesses to your sickening weakness. Had you stayed, had you held even the smallest shred of bravery in that pathetic excuse of a heart of yours, you could have fought with Seismic and beaten the Locus. But now look at you. You have toe back here with this poorly made-up excuse, relying on me and Seismic, no, bribing us both to try and back you, because you know you can''t keep this a secret. Everything about you reeks of desperation. And nothing smells worse than the filth of desperation from scum like you." Hat Trick made several steps back, his eyes wide in shock. His female team members blinked as they broke their practiced smiles and nervously stared at Hat Trick, wondering what to do. The crowd erupted in a united chant of hatred against Hat Trick, spurred on by Aldrich. "Coward!" "You ran! And youe back to us again with lies like this!?" One particr anguished man shoved his way to the front and pointed an using finger at Hat Trick. "You''re the reason my son died out there. Just a boy, torn to shreds like that - you, I''m just one man, someone so insignificant you can just leave behind to die, but I''m going to do my best for the rest of my life that you never get another deal, another sponsorship, ever again! That everyone in the world hears about this!" The crowd roared in agreement, their chants and promations of how they would make sure Hat Trick''s image never recovered melding together into a weapon that could hurt even Hat Trick. Individually, all of these people were weak and without influence, but together, they could at least make sure the consequences of Hat Trick''s actions caught up with him. Hat Trick stepped back again, still shocked. He looked around at the rage contorted faces screaming up at him, and he stammered out, "D-don''t you all love me? Remember my movies-," "We don''t give a sh*t about your corny ass movies! Get out of here!" "Get out!" "Get out!" "Get out!" A unified chant formed, and with each ''get out'', Hat Trick''s gaze dropped lower and lower, until his hat fully covered his facial expression. People started to throw things at him. Rubble. Half eaten rations. Broken electronics. Whatever they had on him, they pelted at him, some with considerable force considering there were a few Augmenter alters there. Of course, everything just bounced off Hat Trick''s tough body, but his female team members shrieked at the sudden outburst and rain of projectiles and scattered away like scared cats, leaving Hat Trick utterly alone. That was when Aldrich noticed a shift in Hat Trick''s bodynguage. It was incredibly slight, almost imperceptible, but rming. Hat Trick stiffened up, and it was not in shock either. It felt nearly violent, like how a beast might stiffen up right before they lunged to kill. Chapter 160: Times Up

Chapter 160: Time''s Up

"Everyone, back!" Aldrich said as he stepped forward while manifesting his [Death Essence Barrier]. He roughly shoved several people behind him, sending them flying back, but better safe than sorry. Hat Trick smashed his fist into the ground, sending out a shockwave of force that crashed against Aldrich''s barrier harmlessly. Hat Trick''s shockwave had not really been meant to harm. It was more like a way to vent his frustration. The crowd grew silent in fear and confusion as they took nervous, tentative steps backwards. Even if this was the case that Hat Trick was just unleashing a man child tantrum, Aldrich had to be wary that it could devolve into something dangerous. He could not think of a more dangerous and vtile person than an egotistical hero who had fallen from all the grace and praise they once took for granted. From what Aldrich knew through publicly avable information, Hat Trick''s Alter power was categorized under the Augmenter main category, but he had a Trump subcategory that indicated that his powers could traverse across multiple other categories under certain conditions. In Hat Trick''s case, depending on what color his hat was and what trick he performed with it, he obtained different sets of powers. What these powers exactly were was kept more of a secret, but his marketing team showcased most often his ability to turn his body intosers and another one where he obtained apletely crystalline, diamond like body. But even at his base state, Hat Trick had a high enough AC count that his raw physical stats were considerably developed already. Hat Trick began tough. It was a full bellied, extendedugh that continued on and on until he ran out of breath. "Back," repeated Aldrich with more force, and the crowd all shuffled away, behind Seismic as a secondyer of protection. "A joke. A sick fucking joke," muttered Hat Trick. He finally looked up at Aldrich, his face revealing under his hat. There was no anger there. No frustration. His eyes had tears ofughter welling up within them. "This is what this all is. All that work, the monster hunting, the stic surgeries, the hair transnts, the marketing, the movies, the acting, so much fucking acting on set, off set, so much some days I couldn''t even tell what was real anymore - all that just to get flipped over by a no name fuckup like you. It''s a joke, isn''t it?" "Hat Trick, if you don''t stand down-," snarled Seismic as he stepped forward, but Aldrich raised a hand, stopping Seismic. Aldrich wanted Hat Trick to break down here. It would give Aldrich even more leverage to work with. "But you know what I''vee to realize?" Hat Trick''s smile turned into a cold, emotionless void. "I might like tricks, but I fucking hate jokes." The rim around Hat Trick''s hat glowed blue. The hero then took off his hat in one smooth motion and opened it up towards Aldrich. The empty space inside the head of the hat glowed bright with energy that fluxed before shooting outwards in a brilliant beam. ''The energy output vested within that attack presents minimal risk,'' stated Vntis. Though Vntis spoke to Aldrich, it was more urate to say his words were mentally transmitted, meaning their meaning reached Aldrich''s mind near instantly. This allowed Aldrich to react to things based off of Vntis''s observations even in tense, time sensitive situations. Aldrich just kept his barrier up. With how high its energy resistance was, Hat Trick''sser would not get through it. The crowd started to scream in fright and rm as they witnessed Hat Trick''sser, his so-called Blue ster, used against Aldrich. ''Get everyone out of here,'' said Aldrich as he put his hand in front of him, watching as the blueser crashed into his green barrier, absorbing into it without dealing much coteral damage elsewhere. ''I know,'' came Seismic''s response. "Everyone, move out! Back to shelter!" said Seismic as he waved the crowd away, standing in front of them with an eye on Hat Trick to make sure he was ready to intercept any attack. Hat Trick''s Blue ster faded down, revealing his smoking, blue energy tinted hat. The hero started to hover in the air as he stared down at Aldrich with a smile that could only be described as broken. "What do you think you''re doing?" said Aldrich, his voice terse. "Oh, me? I probably won''t be a hero much longer, will I?" said Hat Trick. "No, that''s not true. I''ll probably get demoted to writhe with the rest of the B rank maggots that have to wring their hands and beg for their paychecks. That humble life, to be honest, isn''t the life for me. So why don''t I have a little fun first? Before I make my career change? Show my new recruiters that I''ve got what it takes, eh?" "You think a tempter tantrum like this is going to impress the Underworld?" said Aldrich. With his hero career nuked, Hat Trick was nning on bing either a viin or a mercenary. And he wanted to prove himself to them now, very likely by causing damage or by killing. Aldrich was a decent judge of people, and he knew within Hat Trick''s multi-colored eyes that there was zero morality there, zero sense of consideration for others, only consideration for the self. There was no doubt in Aldrich''s mind that Hat Trick had the capacity to kill with cold blood. "Maybe it will. Maybe it won''t. But at the very least, I''ll get to feel a lot better bashing in that tin can head of yours," said Hat Trick. "While all of your little friends are out there fighting those disgusting fish freaks." "Tell me, how much of the fight did you see broadcasted?" said Aldrich. He questioned Hat Trick mostly to buy time. Hat Trick was self-absorbed enough to continuously talk, and that gave Seismic the opportunity to move civilians away while also allowing Aldrich to get his own battle pieces ready. "You should know I''m no easy target." "The broadcast? Didn''t pay much attention, really. Only saw the end of it, when you killed the Locus after everyone did the hard work for you," said Hat Trick. "I have no doubt you''re still strong, though, so I won''t go easy on you. And you''re still weaker alone, especially with that old geezer busy handling civvies." Hat Trick palmed the crown of his hat in his palm and raised it up in the air like a magician ready to pull a rabbit out of it. "So, how about it, want to see another trick?" "Go ahead," said Aldrich. Hat Trick smiled at Aldrich and put his other gloved hand into the hat to take out arge rose. "Red," said Hat Trick. The hat''s band changed from blue to red, and the rose burned up in mes, crumbling away into nothingness. Hat Trick''s entire body erupted in mes as he put on his hat again. His eyes glowed a fiery orange-red now as he shed a cocky smile down at Aldrich. "You have ess to multiple powers¡­an incredibly rare ability. No wonder you were in the A rank," said Aldrich with mock surprise. He already knew Hat Trick had more than one power. He just wanted to keep Hat Trick distracted by ying into his giant sized ego. "Of course," said Hat Trick. "How else do you think I distinguished myself from the average E, D, C, even B rank rabble? Do you think I rose through the ranks like some kind of modern era peasant, moving to this city and that, hunting this small fry variant here and there, managing my social media myself, begging for interviews and sponsors?" "I figured you worked your way up down from the E rank like any normal hero," said Aldrich, now insulting Hat Trick''s pride after building it up and goading him into more talk. Like this, Aldrich constantly psychologically manipted Hat Trick into talking and talking and talking. Hat Trick''s face distorted into anger, and as he spoke, mes started to crackle and roar upwards all around his body, matching the rising tone of his voice. "No! All of that came to me on its own! Like moths flocking to a me, all of that, the fame, the credits, the deals, the women, all of it came to me because I was special! I deserved it all! I killed an A rank variant by myself, and after that, the world loved me! Everyone knew how much I was worth! But you -," Hat Trick pointed a ming finger at Aldrich. "You, the newbie that doesn''t know a single thing about how this hero game is yed, you just had to screw it all up, didn''t you? I know what you think. You think you''re doing the right thing here, aren''t you? Exposing me? Think again, idiot. With this, nobody will have your back in this industry again. You''ve doomed your chances here even before you got started!" "Alright, time''s up. You can stop talking now, puppet," said Aldrich. An edge manifested in his voice, and Hat Trick paused in surprise for a moment at how utterly cold that voice felt. It did not feel human. Even surrounded by intense mes, Hat Trick felt a chill run through his body. "Wh-what did you say to me?" said Hat Trick as he put his hands together, starting to generate a ball of me. "I said-" Aldrich crossed his arms. "Time''s up." "Yeah, for you-," Hat Trick raised his hands into the air, channeling an ever-growing ball of fire, but before it could grow into anything notable, a bright ball of green and blue light erupted behind him. The light emerged and faded in an instant, allowing Hat Trick to see what it was. Hat Trick''s eyes instantly widened in fear. It was the Locus. Chapter 161: One Last Trick

Chapter 161: One Last Trick

When Hat Trick''s gaze befell the Locus, at that terror of a variant that had single-handedlyin waste to an entire city on its own, and his time perception slowed to a brief crawl as his brain worked to its maximum, telling him that in those gleaming rainbow eyes poised so hatefully against him, there was foretold nothing but his death. But how? This was Hat Trick''s thought as he saw the Locus appear so suddenly. The Locus was supposed to be all the way out at the battle site. Why was it here? The answer was simple. Teleportation. Well, it would have been a simple answer had Hat Trick actually bothered to check on the stream. But instead, Aldrich bet that once Seismic had died, Hat Trick had probably justpletely tuned out of anything Haven rted because he thought the city was guaranteed to fall and thus had zero relevance to him. This, Aldrich had confirmed with his questioning towards Hat Trick. After all, what were a few hundred thousand lives to him but just more voices that needed to be silenced? Hat Trick, befitting of the strength of an A ss hero, reacted nigh instantaneously to Okeanos, throwing his fireball towards the Locus. The sphere of me shot forth like a cannonball, impacting against Okeanos in a crackling explosion of fire that scattered outwards with enough range to easily engulf an entire house wholesale. The shadow of Okeanos''s figure darkened through the raging mes, and Okeanos burst outwards unharmed, mes catching on his shell but not doing any real damage. "Sh*t!" Hat Trick fumbled with his hat, putting it on an extended finger to spin it for another trick to ess another power. Probably one more suited to fighting in closebat. But toote. Okeanos used Burst, shrouding himself in an aura of crackling green bolts, and then moved so quickly he disappeared from sight. "Behind me-," Hat Trick said as he whirled around ready to counter attack or evade. Instead, all Hat Trick saw was just empty air, and in the distance, Aldrich watching calmly with his arms crossed. It was natural for Hat Trick to expect Okeanos to have made an attack at his blind spot like that. That was the mostmon angle people with teleportation or powers that functioned simrly to it attacked through. Okeanos had actually attacked like that several times beforehand, always trying to get behind his enemies, but Aldrich had countered that, and now, Okeanos had learned. Instead, Okeanos had manifested right underneath Hat Trick. Before Hat Trick could recover and react, Okeanos reached out and grabbed Hat Trick''s ankle in a powerful grip. "Wha-," managed Hat Trick before Okeanos mmed Hat Trick down to the ground with all his tremendous force. After going through several evolutions, one of which had actively increased Okeanos''s size and muscle mass, his physical strength had peaked through the roof. Hat Trick shot downwards as a human projectile, a trail of shockwaves marking out his painful descent as he crashed into the ground below. He broke through the huge ad board, splitting it in half in a shower of severed, sparking wires and metal frame before gouging out a sizable crater into the concrete below. Hat Trick coughed up spit and blood and air from getting his back shoved through several meters of solid concrete mass, but he was still an A rank hero. Hat Trick might not have been as tough as Seismic, but he could still easily survive a throw like that. The attack had mostly just knocked the wind out of him, stunning him. "Follow that up," said Aldrich. "Show me that punch of yours you were so proud of. Make it hurt." Okeanos nodded, and as he fell towards Hat Trick, cocked back a fist, and the biomechanical piston structure in his forearms locked in, the twin bands of green and blue lined across the shell glowing halfway. It was a half-charged punch as Aldrich did not want Okeanos topletely obliterate his surroundings. Still, when Okeanos let that punch loose right into Hat Trick''s chest, the effect was as if an energy bomb had gone off. Green tinted blue energy poured out of Okeanos''s fist with an explosive sound effect. The outburst of ocean wave shaped energy spread all around Okeanos, quickly engulfing him and Hat Trick in an ever growing sphere that ate away at everything it came into contact with. The sphere reached up to Aldrich, and he just casually took a few steps backwards as his perception stat along with Vntis''s truesight let him know exactly how much energy was there. When the energy from the punch died down, it revealed a deep molten, smoking crater with Okeanos standing at the center and Hat Trick lying down still, a fist shaped indent nailed into his chest. At the veryst moment, Hat Trick had managed activate his Diamond Body power, covering himself in hardy green crystals. However, though these crystals had saved Hat Trick from near death, they had not been enough to keep him from getting knocked out. The crystals around Hat Trick''s upper body were shattered, and his body was limp as his head fell to the side,pletely severed from any motor control. Had Hat Trick beenpletely prepared from the start, he might have put up a much better, much longer fight with Okeanos, but that would have entailed Hat Trick actually being careful and nning ahead, two things that Aldrich sincerely doubted Hat Trick did much of. "Now, I know you can''t hear me, but I do remember hearing that you were going to quit being a hero and turn to viiny, no?" said Aldrich. "How about I end that promising new career of yours before it even begins?" "Should I kill?" Okeanos looked over to Aldrich with the eager eyes of a child looking for approval. Before Aldrich could respond, Seismic put a hand on his shoulder. ''Don''t think that''s a good idea,'' said Seismic. ''I understand killing him. I would too. But Hat Trick is technically still an A rank hero until the AA formally disavows him. Kill him now, and you''d be justified, but parties that stand against you might use this against you.'' ''Parties that want to stand against me will stand against me regardless of what excuse they need,'' said Aldrich. ''I understand the risks, but another A rank unit to add is too good to pass up. This guarantees that those powers of his won''t be wasted like they have been up until now.'' ''That''s also a valid decision,'' said Seismic. ''End him for me,'' said Aldrich telepathically to Okeanos. Okeanos raised his fist again, locking another energy punch in, but at that very moment, Hat Trick''s hat, still in his hand, spontaneously disintegrated into blue flecks. With that final trick, Hat Trick''s whole body turned bright blue. Into pure energy. Okeanos''s antennae twitched in confusion as Hat Trick''s body almost instantly disappeared, beaming away into the distance far, far away. "Hm," said Aldrich. "Ast resort safety. I didn''t think him careful enough to have had one. And it activates even when he''s unconscious, meaning most likely, he isn''t choosing a specific location to beam himself to, but has a pre-determined safe space where he''s programmed his power to send him to." "Considering the fact that he''s unconscious, if you searched hard enough, you might be able to find him," said Seismic. "He won''t be moving anytime soon." "There''s no guarantee I would find him," said Aldrich. "And no guarantee on how long it would take either." He sighed. "As much as I hate to have loose ends, this very well may be one of my first ones. I have too much on hand to do here." "You do?" said Seismic. "I imagine the variants are nearly all routed. Dead or pushed back to the water by now. There''s no more fighting." Aldrich confirmed Seismic''s words by linking his sight with the Grave Wards that still had a bird''s eye view of the battlefield. From there, he could see that Seismic was right: the fighting was recently finished. There were no more fishmen left onnd. Seismic''s battle instincts were insanely sharp. The old hero might not have had any sense in how to really make good people connections or maintain a good image, but when it came to fighting, he truly was like a wild beast: it was like his entire mind and being was just crafted for it. In that sense, Seismic was quite simr to Valera. Notably, a good amount of fishmen had escaped back to the ocean, preventing Aldrich from reaching his level up, but that was not too important. He had plenty more chances to level upter. "The fighting''s over," said Aldrich. "But this is just the beginning. I have to deal with the world now." The fighting was just a prelude to the ns that Aldrich envisioned for himself. And this next stage involved putting himself in in perhaps the greatest risk he had ever done so to date. Aldrich put a hand to his ear, and Vntis activated his earpiece. "Fisk. Spybird. Just confirming, but neither of you have heard any news about the AA or Panopticon sending forces here to question me or assess the city yet, right?" said Aldrich. "Nah, not yet, but I''ll tell you right now that the stream''s views mega blew up towards the end. Like, millions on millions of views level. Damn, if we were mized, we would''ve made a decent buck," said Fisk. "Non hero sanctioned violent activity makes no money on stream, friend," said Spybird. "But dah, as for your question, no news. News, though, right now, is strangely quiet on you. I would think with all you do here, all the views on that stream, the news would have something by now." "Silence is an answer of its own," said Aldrich. He knew that if there was nothing on the media about him even now, that meant that time was ticking¡­ "Get Casimir on the line now." Chapter 162: Last Stage Planning Chapter 162: Last Stage nning Got it, boss." Fisk''s voice echoed through Aldrich''s ear, asid back as ever in tone. Aldrich did not mind Fisk''s attitude, though, even if it was the pr opposite to his own stern seriousness. As long as Fisk got the work he needed to done. Within a few seconds, and Casimir''s smooth talking voice was on the line as ordered. "Now that was a spectacr finale, I must say, Mr. Vane," said Casimir. "I haven''t seen anything quite like it, and let me tell you now that I''ve seen quite a few things in my tenure as a Connector for the underworld." "I appreciate thepliments, but now''s not the time," said Aldrich. "I want you to get ready to initiate your Cinder Protocol." "There was once a time that even thinking about that protocol would have wrenched my heart, but considering the sorry state the Red Circle is already in, I suppose there isn''t much left to burn down," said Casimir. "It will be done when you so desire. At a moment''s notice, the Red Circle will be reduced to nothing but cinders within a meager hour." Aldrich and Casimir had exchanged quite a few conversations in the nning it took to set up the party that led to ckwater''s demise, and during that time, Casimir had acquaintance Aldrich deeply with what he did, who he knew, and what he was capable of. Like any smart man that held onto ckmail and criminal contraband, Casimir had an easy self-destruct switch to make sure everything sensitive in the Red Circle''s vaults went down in mes. Normally, the Cinder Protocol was something Casimir would have had automatically initiated in the event of his death or when the Red Circle faced unstoppable intrusion. In any case, it would have been ast resort. Something to symbolize the end of it all. Now, instead, the Cinder Protocol was being used to burn everything down to start something new from the ashes. Had Casimir been given more time to wax and wane about this decision, he probably would have remarked on the philosophical beauty of such an action, but time was unfortunately too tense. "How much of your contraband do you think you''ve managed to salvage?" said Aldrich. "Hmm. It is difficult to ce a numerical value on finer, less tangible products like ckmail, but I should say around seventy percent of my collection is loaded out into the cargo trucks we use for drug smuggling," said Casimir. "Fortunately, you gave me good advance notice to make this exit, though I should say a variant disaster was perhaps one of the variables I least expected would spur it on. But whether I make my leave now due to the threat of viins and mercenary gunfire or variant teeth and ws makes no difference in the end, I suppose." Originally, Aldrich had wanted Casimir to make an exit n because once Aldrich finished ughtering ckwater, it was inevitable that the entire criminal underworld would unite against Casimir. At that point, Casimir needed toy low and escape for some time until Aldrich established himself better. Though, as Casimir pointed out, it was a variant attack in the end that forced him out. And, all things considered, this was actually quite fortunate. An attack like this would prevent the underworld from checking in on Casimir until the situation in the city was sorted out. In fact, to viins looking into Haven from the outside, it was hard to tell whether Casimir and the Red Circle had even survived the variant attack, especially if they came inter to check and saw that it had all been burned down. The variant attack thus gave Casimir cover to work with. "Good," said Aldrich. "We''ll be working with contraband quite a bit soon. Your contacts in the Wastnds ¨C are they still active?" "Mr. Vane, I assure you, there will be no issues in our grand escape tonight," said Casimir. "You need not worry so much about so many little issues ¨C stress kills men more than any bullet or de. I have handled everything on my end ordingly." "You''re right. I just have a tendency to want to micromanage things," said Aldrich. "What I needed to confirm the most was your transport space. I know you need trucks for your contraband, equipment, and your own personnel. But I need you to free up space to take in a couple of my people. I would say space for around thirty should be enough." "There will be no issues with that," said Casimir. "It is unfortunate, but the loss of so many of my dear staff means that there is more than enough space." Casimir sighed. "Mr. Vane, I do not know what it is about you, but I believe in your judgement and vision. I simply hope that the blood of my staff was not simply cast away into the wind." "I don''t spill blood without a reason. Whether it is the blood of my enemies or the blood of those in my service," said Aldrich. "That blood will always mean something. It will always build into something bigger. I''m going to send select personnel under me to your location at the megaplex. Once they get there, start moving, and start moving fast. Get out of the city and into Wastnd territory where it''ll be hard to track you. I''ll signal you to initiate the Cinder Protocol when I can, but in the case that I can''t for some reason, just start it when you reach outside the city walls." "Understood, Mr. Vane," said Casimir. "I suppose, then, that this may be ourstmunication for some time?" "Most likely," said Aldrich. "You were an incredible help, Casimir. I''ll see you soon." "I am most honored," said Casimir. "And I wish you only the best of luck dealing with the AA and their positively revolting pettiness." With that, Casimir''s voice cut off. Fisk and Spybird did not return on the line either, for they were now getting ready to pack up and move out of the city. Aldrich then beganmunications with Portal Girl. ''Portal Girl,'' said Aldrich as he put a hand to the side of his helmed head. ''Yes, sir?'' came Portal Girl''s alert voice. ''I''m going to gather all my forces back to the Deildeghast line. Once everyone''s grouped there, I want you to start protaling them back towards the Red Circle,'' said Aldrich. ''Once you''ve gotten all my forces there, you should regroup with Casimir at the megaplex.'' ''Roger that!'' said Portal Girl enthusiastically. Aldrich switched his telepathy now to Ace, the de facto leader of ckwater''s A ss as its rank 3. ''Ace, do you read me?'' said Aldrich. ''Yeah, I got you,'' said Ace. ''If it''s about fighting, I don''t see anything to rip apart anymore.'' ''The fighting''s done,'' said Aldrich. ''''Fly Damian out to the outer battle site where the flying heroes went. You''ll find variants under my control there. Get Damian to move the variants back to the Deildeghast line. Once you''re back at the line, I need you to group your ss and take Portal Girl''s portals back into the city. Once you get close enough, go ahead and convene with Casimir at the Red Circle.'' ''Sounds easy enough,'' said Ace as he got to work. Now then, there was finally just one more person Aldrich needed to talk to. ''Valera, are you there?'' said Aldrich mentally. ''For you, my dear master, always,'' said Valera. ''Have Crow drop off the ckwater students with Casimir. Then, head to the Red Circle,'' said Aldrich. ''Ah, is it time already?'' Sadness welled up in Valera''s voice. The reason why Aldrich sent all his troops back to the Red Circle was to transport them to the Nexus. At the Red Circle, there was still a Sign marker to ess the Nexus, and there, all of his troops would bepletely safe and isted. When the AA, Panopticon, and government inevitably descended on Aldrich, there was no doubt that they would try to analyze and capture Aldrich''s units whether through force or negotiation. He wanted to remove that possibility from them entirely. Aldrich could not reliably look after an entire army of units out in the open, especially therger and more monstrous ones, so he needed to send them away for now, and what better ce than the Nexus? Soon enough, Aldrich himself would also enter the Nexus, and he needed troops there to support him as he essed the Trial Quests his many level ups should have unlocked. And unfortunately for Valera, she was among the troops that Aldrich wanted to enter the Nexus. Mostly because when it came to facing threats from Elden World, Aldrich knew he could not rely on anyone better than Valera. ''It''s time,'' said Aldrich. ''I wanted to give you a more proper goodbye, but taking care of Hat Trick took more time than expected.'' ''That ursed mortal¡­if my eyesnd upon him one more time, I swear that I will tear his spine from his cowardly back,'' said Valera with venom, though with a sigh, that faded away back to sadness again. ''Will you be gone long, master?'' ''Not if I can help it,'' said Aldrich. ''I''ll be in the Nexus soon, don''t worry.. I hate the thought of iplete quests there anyway.'' Chapter 163: Superior Halo Chapter 163: Superior Halo Valera sighed through the telepathic link. ''I know. Ever the one to never leave a quest iplete, regardless of whether they hail from the lowliest ofmoner or the greatest of gods. I suppose, though, that is yet another thing I do like about you. A one track mind that finds goals, seeks them out, and achieves them with no room for distraction. When I first met you, my master, and my purpose so very lost, it was your determination that I used to anchor myself to.'' ''Once I get things settled here, I look forward to clearing out those quests in the Nexus with you,'' said Aldrich. ''It''ll be just like old times, won''t it?'' Except this time, for Aldrich at least, it would be for real. Valera had lived all the quest and adventures she had gone through with Aldrich. They were a deeply personal part of her being and cherished memories that defined her character now. But to Aldrich, all that had been a game. Now, though, it would all be real, and he looked forward to it. Who knew that the game that had once been his escape, his hideaway from a world that tried its best to crush him under its heel, would turn into something that changed his life like this? ''Like old times, yes,'' said Valera. ''I would have wanted to stay with you a little longer, I always do, but I suppose promises of good times together brutalizing our foes in quests will have to do. ¡­'' A pause. Aldrich waited, having a feeling that Valera still wanted to say something. ''Master? About that time in the Red Circle¡­no, never mind,'' said Valera. ''I should know better than to distract you any further. I will await you in the Nexus, tending to your Legion with all the care I can give them. I know I do not have to say this to you, but I will still say it, just because it makes my heart ache a little less: please stay safe, my master, for I would not know what to do without you. I would sooner tear this strange new world down into nothing but bare wreckage than bear the thought of walking it without you.'' ''Nonsense,'' said Aldrich. ''We''ll clear the Trial quests together. And we''ll take over this world together too.'' ''Together¡­,'' Valera repeated the word, savoring it on her tongue. ''Understood, master. I shall ensure that all our forces make it to the Nexus without harm. Until then-,'' ''Until then,'' repeated Aldrich, and theirmunication ended. Aldrich took a moment for himself to gather his own thoughts about Valera. He knew what she wanted to ask. She wanted to ask what his feelings for her were. After all, he did promise to give her an answer. What was his answer going to be? He had not thought about it much, admittedly, and that was not only because he had been so busy this fighting and managing his units and whatnot. It was because, to be honest, he did not know what his answer was. At first, it seemed so obvious. Here was Valera, a beautiful woman fiercely devoted to him, who believed him her world and more. Who would not say yes to that? Who would pass up a chance like that? If Adam had been in Aldrich''s ce, he knew that simpleminded guy would have said yes a million times over. But it was precisely because Aldrich could feel so much love from her that he did not know what to do. Throughout his entire life, the only people he had loved were his parents, and even that had been torn from him. Something warm like love was foreign, almost alien, to him now. He had no idea whether he could feel love or give it properly. Aldrich did not like to admit it, but he was afraid. He was never afraid of fighting, of facing monstrous variants or staring down the hateful eyes of powerful Alters that wanted nothing more than to reduce him into a bloody smear on the pavement. Fighting and struggling and surviving ¨C Aldrich had never felt fear from all that. But Aldrich was afraid now. Afraid that he did not have it within him, within that broken void carved into him from the horrors of his life, to give Valera the love she deserved. To give her just as much as she gave him. He just did not know whether he was capable, and he did not know whether he wanted to find out. "I don''t like the sight of that," said Seismic as he snapped Aldrich out of his thoughts. "What is it?" Aldrich turned to Seismic, seeing the older man look up into the sky. There, in the distance, he could see that several Panopticon Bugs had formed into clusters that blinked brightly with green light. "Bright green. That''s a Clear Signal," said Aldrich. Once Panopticon drone fleet responses came and finished what they were assigned to do, which was usually wiping out variant threats, they formed green signal lights to allow civilians some peace of mind and also to guide heroes for post battle operations like tending and evacuating the wounded, repairing critical infrastructure, clearing corpses, and so on and so forth. There were other, differently colored signals for things like asking for reinforcements, abandoning an area, detection of poisons, etcetera. "You''re surprisingly knowledgeable about how the AA works," said Seismic. "I did my research. But my knowledge isn''t absolute," said Aldrich. "If you know something, tell me." Seismic nodded as he pointed at the drone clusters forming the signals. "The Clear Signal is a good sign. But it''s their arrangement I don''t like." Aldrich observed as the blinking green lights that the Bugs formed arranged into a discernable shape. "A ring?" "A halo. Superior Halo," said Seismic. "¡­" Aldrich look at the ring-shaped arrangement of drone clusters, at how their blinking green shapes marked out a halo that phased in and out of visibility. What a Superior Halo indicated was the iing appearance of a S ss hero. Aldrich had seen it on the news, in videos. There was nobody that had not. It was a symbol synonymous with humanity''s might. Something that promised that whatever threat was present, it was going to go away soon. Even the reason that the halo was green, normally a color for safety, was to indicate that regardless of whether there was an active threat or not, an S rank hero would guarantee the dawning of safety. In the background of the sky, Aldrich''s storm moved, its haunting green glow brightly passing over the Superior Halo as it too made its way towards the Red Circle. "You don''t seem too surprised," said Seismic. "I knew they would send heroes here," said Aldrich. "Heroes to take me and my forces into custody." "You''re prepared for that." "I am. What I did not expect was that they would send a S-rank hero here," said Aldrich. "The fighting is over. They shouldn''t be expecting any threats from variants, or at the very least, not anything that warrants that level of firepower." "Pretty¡­" Okeanos muttered as he looked up at the sky, his rainbow eyes staring right at the halo. Aldrich looked to Okeanos, then at Seismic. "Which means they''re expecting a threat from me. From my forces." "Yes," said Seismic simply. "A threat worthy of a S rank hero, then, is it?" Aldrich, underneath his helm, smiled. "I''m quite ttered, to be honest. But I''m not in the mood for a fight tonight. Okeanos-," "Yes?" said Okeanos as his antennae perked up. Aldrich pointed away from the Superior Halo, towards the southern skies where Crow''s midnight ck feathered figure moved through the air. "Follow Crow," said Aldrich. "If you lose track of your directions, Valera will guide you." "I leave you¡­so soon?" said Okeanos. "I won''t be gone long," said Aldrich. "Now go." Okeanos nodded and sprinted off, smoking hot skid marks followed by a strong breeze from his high-speed movement. Aldrich was now nearly fully without protection. He had sent off most of his variants andrger units into the Nexus as the AA could reliably scan for strong variant signatures or giant beings. And he had sent off his humanoid units with Casimir. As Aldrich was right now, he was almost at the weakest he could be. A Legion Necromancer without his legion. Though his personal strength was nothing to scoff at, especially now that he had the [Frosthallowed War Scythe] as part of his gear, he could note close to fighting a S ss hero, especially if their powers were geared forbat. But Aldrich did not intend to fight. He wanted to negotiate. And, as for as the AA and the rest of the world was concerned, they had no way of knowing where Aldrich''s forces would be once they were in the Nexus. They had no idea whether he had a power to conceal them, whether he could summon them at will, or whether they were t out gone. And that uncertainty would make them cautious. It would make them afraid of the damage he could do if they wronged him. It would make them listen to him. In other words, this was not only a way to make sure that none of his forces were harmed, but it was also a massive bluff. "You sent the Locus away," said Seismic. "What about me?" "People know who you are. They''ll give weight to your words. I''ll trust you''ll use them to back me," said Aldrich. "Nowe with me. We''re heading to the shelters." "Shelters?" asked Seismic. "For what purpose?" Aldrich pointed at the Superior Halo.. "To make it harder for them to get rid of me." Chapter 164 - Standing By Haven Chapter 164 - Standing By Haven Aldrich and Seismic made their way to the nearest shelter where most of the crowd had fled due to Hat Tricks ridiculous manchild tantrum. The shelters were underground constructs that were essentially scaled down versions of the Panopticon Bunker that the Duds in the Southside holed themselves up in. They were easy to find. Building tops marked with blinking white signal lights indicated the streets where theyy under, the thick ting of their round vault doors showing in the middle of the street. Aldrich stood before the vault doors, waiting for them to open. Seismic hunched over a streetlight pole, punching hisrge fingers almostically into a tiny control pad that manned entry into the shelters. Normally, people could just scan their way in via an Eye Phone app, but many heroes like Seismic could not easily carry around phones without them breaking, so they had to do things manually. Seismic carefully punched in a seven-digit code to authorize himself and to open the vault doors. Aldrich watched the doors rumble as they began to slide apart with a mechanical whir. While watching the doors, he reflected on how these shelters were used and who they were for. Walled cities were designed with safety against variants in mind, and Panopticon building regtions stated that there be adequate shelter space for at minimum 50% of a city''s total poption to reside is Every couple of streets had a shelter constructed underneath as a result. An average person''s gut reaction might wonder: why not a higher percentage? But 50% more than covered the Alter Even if the average Alter did not have the multiple years of training that proper heroes and support did, they still had to byw register for a PRL (Power Regtion License) which, depending on its type and ss, gave a citizen a set amount of authority with which to use their powers. The higher the ss of a PRL, the more freely a citizen could use their powers, but this came with additional required training to certify that they were capable of responsibly using their abilities. Hero Licenses were considered the highest end of PRLs, requiring at the very minimum four years of dedicated training and two years of in field experience to obtain, but even the weakest of Alters who had a ss ibat PRL, the lowest there was, still had to go through six months of training on how to use their abilities. As a result, there were very few Alters that were truly useless in a war effort. That made the shelters mostly spaces for the young, elderly, or injured. Individuals whose abilities were in some way eitherpromised or underdeveloped. Coincidentally, that was why most of the people in the crowd that Aldrich had seen wasprised of these exact demographics. The exact type of demographic that needed protection and drummed up public sympathy. The perfect people for Aldrich to surround himself with. No hero, not even a S ranker, would want to get caught trying to harass Aldrich while he was watching over the sick and young and elderly. That was one downside of an S rankering here. They might have been powerful, but simply by virtue of that power, they had fame, and with fame, they lost the ability to act without thinking about their precious image. Tome on," said Aldrich as he waved over Seismic when the doors were fully open. Below, they led down to a steely grey, empty containment chamber where neers could get disinfected and inspected before passing through to the main body of the shelter itself. If a variant managed to w their way through the doors, then the containment chamber also doubled as a trap room that had its own weapons to deal with intruders or just seal them offpletely. "One thing," said Seismic. "Hrn?" "How do you want me to deal with them?" "The people down there?" Aldrich motioned to the bunker. Seismic shook his head. He pointed up. "Up there. When they get here. They''ll take me too. They''ll question me. What do you want me to do? "Cold silence and five-word sentence answers have gotten you through multiple coteral damage disasters," said Aldrich. "I figure they''ll get you through this, too." Seismic just stared at Aldrich. Though the older hero''s expression remained still, it was evident he was a little hurt by Aldrich mentioning his past incidents. It was a soft spot that the usually stoic hero had, probably because he deeply regretted the person he used to be. "My apologies," said Aldrich. "If you want a more detailed answer, then here: you have Hammerhead Industries sponsoring you. You''re their greatest asset as a well-known A ranker, even with all your past incidents. Because people might not admit it, but they respect power, even if they don''t like where ites from or how it''s used. Power is a form of poprity of its own. Hammerhead Industries will do whatever they can to get you in the clear, and they may not be in the Council of Fortune, but they''re a big enough corp to take care of you That''s what I mean by cold silence. You put it out, and your corp fills in the rest to bail you out. Do the same here, and I''ll clear my own name soon." "Understood," said Seismic as he hopped down into the containment room. Aldrich followed. Not a moment passed after the two touched down than did the vault doors above close with a heavy, groaning thud. A green light shone throughout the room with a buzz, indicating that Seismic and Aldrich were cleared to move on. A heavily armored door on the other side of the room slid open, and after passing through a hallway, they stepped into the surprisingly spacious innards of the shelter''s main body. Here, the crowd from before had gathered together, those that could stand standing at attention in respect for Aldrich and Seismic. "Is it over?" said the older former policeman that had thanked Aldrich for saving the city. The rest of the people there, approximately half children and half injured and elderly, peered at Aldrich and Seismic warily, all their eyes tired, too tired to be dealing with a mad hero after seeing their entire city get picked apart by variants. "It''s over," said Aldrich, and a visible wave of relief washed over everyone. "Thank god," said the ex-police with a sigh. "World''s going to hell, I tell you. Variants baring their fangs at us and heroes going mad - nothing could be worse." "A situation can always get worse," said Aldrich, and the crowd murmured in panic among themselves. He reflected that even though he could lead fighters, maybe he was not the best person to beforting a crowd of civilians. "But the situation outside is stable. Hat Tricks been taken care of, and the fighting''s over." Aldrich spoke over the murmurs, and the crowd settled back into order. "You are right, though," said the former policeman. "Things CAN get worse. I don''t know what no, what most of us will be doing after this. Haven - the ce we''ve called home for so long, the pretty little port city that I''d served for thirty years - it''s gone now. Damn near nothing''s left, and I for sure know I don''t have any credits lying around to make a big move." "What about variant disaster relief, sir? asked an injured, younger policeman whose leg was held in a cast while bloody bandages wrapped around a wed-out eye. "Disaster relief? Son, you''ve got a nice sense of humor," chuckled the older policeman. "You''ll see more rat shit on the streets than credits in a tier 3 city''s relief fund. And those slimy politicians have been sucking those funds dry and using em'' tounder their dirty money. Hell, with how badly those funds have been getting run over roughshod, I doubt even you young ones could start a new life somewhere else." "So then, what will you all do? said Aldrich. A silence hung in the room for a few seconds. The former policeman spoke out first. "I don''t know. Got some grandkids down south. Guess I''ll have to leech off of them and watch them resent me until the day I croak" "As things are now, I guess I''ll have to move. I don''t have the credits...but what''s left here except for rubble and bodies?" said the younger policeman. "Why are all of you so sad? Dad said that once the fighting''s over, the heroes will build everything back again!" said a young boy around the age of nine. Old enough to try to think for himself but not old enough to know how the world truly WaS. The boy turned hopefully to Seismic. "Isn''t that right, Seismic? You''re sponsored by Hammerhead, right? He''s got all those giant machines that make tall buildings, right? He can fix everything, right?" ..." Seismic looked down at the boy with a frown - a rare sign of emotion - but remained silent for the answer was obvious, albeit bleak: Hammerhead Industries would not bother wasting money rebuilding Haven if there was no profit to be had in it. "Kid, don''t pressure him. Come on, get back here and tell you where Ist saw your dad," said an injured hero as she limped forward, took the boys hand, and led him away. As Aldrich saw the child''s back fade away into the crowd, he spoke out again. "This city''s been abandoned enough. It''s about time someone stood by it." "What do you mean? said the older policeman. "I''m going to stay here," said Aldrich "And I''m going to rebuild this city... Chapter 165 - Rebuilding Chapter 165 - Rebuilding "Rebuild this city? Haven?'' said the ex-policeman. He rubbed his ear. "I think it might be time for a hearing aid. Everyone else heard him, right? He wants to build up Haven again?" ''Yeah, that''s what he said," said the younger policeman. ''You have my thanks for saving us and the city,'' said the retired policeman. "But up there, the reality is that there is no more city. No more Haven." "There''s still enough of it for me to work with," said Aldrich. ''You might see nothing but waterlogged rubble and broken streets, but I still see Haven. A ce you all can still call home if you''re willing to stay here and help me with it." Silence descended upon the crowd as they looked at each other. Aldrich had just issued a call to action, asking those willing to stay and help rebuild if they wanted. But even if most of the people here had called Haven home for most of their lives, the image of the city above an deste and destroyed was still seared into their minds. And that image made them hesitant. Aldrich had an idea of what they were thinking. They probably thought that as individuals, especially with their injuries, what could they possibly do to help in rebuilding an entire city? It was delusional. "I can help," said one of the injured policemen. She sat with her back against a steely grey wall as she chewed on a radon bar. "My power''s bumed out, but once ites back online, I can haul ass and carry a few bricks here and them. ICs not like I have the credits to really make a move, either." "We can get reassigned to a different department in another city," interjected another policeman. "I mean, are you seriously considering this? Building up a whole city brick by brick?" "Lucky you," responded a young teenagercking an arm. He sat cross legged on the ground with a dejected stare aimed down at a ne in his hand. ''You get to run from all this and leave it behind. ''Reassigned''. What a nice word. Wish that meant anything to me. My parents are dead. My house is gone. I have nothing." He balled his hand over the ne in a tight fist. "Nothing but this wreck of a ce that I used to call a home. Either I try to build it back up, or I die in the gutters of some city I don''t even know." "Reassigned my ass. They''ll only reassign the useful ones. I sure as hell can''t afford the cybernefics to get new legs, and without that, I''ll be cut from the fume," said another injured policeman, this one talking out loud while lying down from a stretcher. Bloody bandages were wrapped around two stumps that once held his legs. "And let''s be real, most of you that are fine are stillzy bums that relied on the walls and heroes to fight the variants back and the viins to regte their own crime. You aren''t anything special. Higher tier cities aren''t going to take low level cops like you to feed on the taxpayer dime." Despite his horrific injuries, the policeman looked at his stump legs and smiled. "So I''m down to help build Haven again. Though, gotta say, I''ll need a bit of a leg up to be really useful." A couple of his friends nearby him smiled and shook their heads at the bad pm, but they agreed. ''We grew up here, and we''d like to stay He stared at Aldrich. "I know you have power, but nobody knows you, sir. Where are your funds? Your support? Don''t be mistaken, I''d like for you to build this ce up, I really would, but I just want to know how." "Call it a leap of faith," said Aldrich. "A leap of faith "The older man sighed. ''When I was younger, I was a pretty big gambler. Wife made a racket about it every weekend when she was still alive, bless her heart. But I realized that gambling almost never pays off." ''You''re right, this is a gamble," said Aldrich. "But let me minimize the risk for you all. For at least two weeks, the government along with the Panopilcon will keep this city supplied while they search for potential survivors, cleanup corpses, assess damages, and start the relocation process for confirmed survivors. During that time, I''m going to negotiate to get the support I need to rebuild this city. If I can''t, then you all can go on living your lives as if I had never existed. I won''t ask you all to stay beyond your means or out of the bounds of reason. If you want to leave, you can leave anytime you want. But most of you know that once you get relocated, your life will be over. Very few of you will be able to survive in a new city with your injuries, paying for treatments and cybeics while trying to find work. You''ll get desperate and want loans, but no bank will lend to people with no prospects like you. You''ll turn to criminals, and at that point, you might as well sign your lives away. But that''s for those of you that are lucky. Most likely, the vast majority of you will waste away in the slums once whatever pittance you get from the government wastes away in a month or two." The crowd grew silent as they looked at each other, Imowing deep down that Aldrich was right. They might have survived, but their lives as they knew it were over. "In summary, most of you are in a position where you have to bet all in," said Aldrich. "Because otherwise, you have nothing. So go all in on me. Trust in your hand, in me, to payoff." Aldrich''s intentions sounded noble, and they were, but his words hadyers to them. He showed himself now as someone dedicated to rebuilding Haven, the city that most of the people here had called home for most of their lives, and like that, he would gain their trust. Because if Aldrich was going to be a Sentinel, he needed both territory and people. Without a good sum of people to fiercely support him, his case for bing a Sentinel became weaker. Granted, Aldrich did not think these people were absolutely necessary for his case, but any amount of help mattered. In his mind, Aldrich did not particrly care whether these people were actually of any real use or not in rebuilding the city. All he wanted for them to do was think about staying because the more people stayed, the greater number of voices them would be to support Aldrich. Plus, Aldrich could help them out as well in retum. It was a low risk deal where everyone won out with in the end if things paid off. The older policeman shook his head and smiled. ''You got a way with words, Ell tell you that. Had you been my casino buddy back in the day, I''d probably never have gotten out I''ll bet on you." "Me too." "Same here. Don''t have anything else going for me." "All in over here as well." Aldrich heard and saw in facial expressions that most of the crowd agreed. The only ones that did not were those that probably felt it safer to move to another city because they probably had the means to. Most of the injured heroes there fell into this category because the AA gave them far more privileges in moving out and finding new work. Aldrich did not care about them. If they wanted to leave, then they could. They becamepletely insignificant in his eyes once they decided to leave, for they had no real use for him. As for the others that did express intent to stay- Aldrich sat downfortably, drawing everyone''s attention back to him. "Didn''t expect you of all people to get tired," said the older policeman with a smile. "But I bet you''ve got real important things to do than sitting down here with us." "Not really," said Aldrich. "I want to talk to all of you that want to stay. Get to know you and your names and your stories, because if things work out, well all be working together." Like that Aldrich spent the next near hour talking with the people there, getting to know them as promised. He did not know exactly how tofort them when they talked to him about their losses and their fears for a very uncertain future, but he figured he would start to try. Aldrich had never been a particrly empathetic person and bing a Lich had dampened his empathy even more. Seismic helped him, though, sitting beside Aldrich and taking over when conversations got too sentimental for Aldrich to know how to navigate well. Despite Seismic''s craggy exterior, he still knew how to connect with people and guide them through their losses even with minimal words. One thing that Aldrich noted was that it was not really the words themselves that mattered as much. His generic condolences of Tm sorry for your lo.'' and ''MI get better'' and so on were not that different from what Seismic said. It was in the way that Seismic said things that made a difference. Ms words felt closer, more heartfelt. Aldrich did not know yet how to talk like that, but he would ask Seismicter how it was done. Once around forty minutes passed, the talks were cut short as a firm voice projected throughout speakers within the bunker. "Seismic, Vignte, I need to ask both of you exit the shelter," said the voice. "The doors will open in five seconds, and I want both of you toe up here peacefully.... Chapter 166 - S Rank Encounter Chapter 166 - S Rank Encounter Aldrich and Seismic instantly looked at each other when they heard that voice. Seismic gave Aldrich a wary look, one of warning as if to tell him to be careful. In contrast, the rest of the crowd had a bit more energetic reaction The whole crowd perked their heads up in immediate recognition of that voice. Surprised exmations broke out. "Holy shit is that Solomon Sr!?" ''I saw the Halo before, but they went ahead and sent the rank IP" ''We get to see the rank a! Damn, I never thought I''d be lucky enough!" Aldrich observed the reactions from the crowd closely. Solomon Sr. The current rank a mi the Superboard Top 100, the leaderboard that ranked heroes based off of AP (Achievement Points) eamed and social media poprity. Although the leaderboard did factor in strength, and yes, the top of the Superboard were always going to be at least somewhat strong as a given rule, it was not a definite indicator of raw power. All the Superboard Top coo meant was that Solomon Sr was the most popr hero in the country, though undeniably, Solomon Sr was still strong. Aldrich knew that from watching videos of Solomon''s fights. From killing his son. And poprity was an even deadlier weapon to use against Aldrich than sheer force right now. Solomon Sr using his poprity to sway the people here against Aldrich would deal a far worse blow than any strong punch. Was this why they had sent the most popr hero? Aldrich had expected the AA to send a purelybat focused S ranker like Valkyrie or Dark Star over had they been afraid of his powers. Heroes that did not care about getting their image dirty to put down Aldrich if things went wrong. Had the AA perhaps caught onto what Aldrich wanted to do, then? Aldrich wanted to raise public support against the AA which would, alongside the threat of his undead, force the AA and government to cave into his wants. If the AA wanted to counter Aldrich, then the best possible person they could have sent was Solomon Sr. Someone both popr and powerful. Yet, Aldrich doubted this. Nobody knew who he was or what he wanted, and he had not shown himself long enough to make any of his goals particrly clear. Regardless, Aldrich would find out. He looked around at the surprised crowd chatting energetically among themselves at the rank a hero''s sudden appearance. Had any other S ranker been up there, Aldrich would have gotten these people to go with him, but there was 17a]? 7eall rcigignIgiri&nrincfiareliNgholnl ghl;TM''g& up now, aver au me ngnongs over. rarer everyone s new, mune¡ã In someone else. "Screw the AA, and screw Solomon. If they''re going to jail the vignte, I''m going to go up there and give them a piece of my mind... ''You''re free toe with me," said Aldrich. The people that hadmitted to betting all in on Aldrich preferred him over even Solomon Sr. And that made sense. There was only so much dazzling celebrity status could do. Solomon Sr had done nothing for these people. Aldrich had done everything. They Imew in their hearts who to support, and this realization gave Aldrich the confidence to bring them along. "Tell Solomon Sr who it was that saved this city, because it most certainly wasn''t him," said Aldrich. With that, Aldrich and Seismic left to the containment room, and the rest of the crowd followed. By leading them out, Aldrich created a buffer zone of people, most of whom supported him, that would protest or be witnesses to any potential mistreatment sent his way. The downside of being a popr S ranker was that all of Solomon Sr''s movements were watched by millions. The people around Aldrich essentially turned into a ''PR shield'' that limited how Solomon Sr could act. Outside, after a tform raised everyone to street level, Aldrich and Seismic stood against Solomon Sr. Behind Solomon Sr stood a cold, metal bodied squadron of Guardians, battle hots that formed the bulk of a Panopilcon ss 3 Drone Fleet. The Guardians were just as big as Solomon''s muscr and tall frame, and each of their futuristic metallic form and green dot eyes exuded an intimidating aura that made the ss 5 Bugs seem like little toys inparison. In contrast, behind Aldrich were the broken yet still warm and living and breathing bodies of Haven''s citizens. There were countless news drones in the sky, shining down spotlights, snapping pictures, and recording everything that happened. "Thank you foring up here without making a fuss," said Solomon Sr with a wide, perfectly white smile that shone under a constant golden glow that emanated from all around his body. His hands rested at his tree trunk of a waist in a heroic pose. "I''m d to see that this city is safe after we had thought it lost. For that, I wanted to thank you, vignte. You too, Seismic." Solomon waved his blue gloved hand over to the crowd behind Aldrich. "And all of you as well! Everyone here that fought and stood strong¡ªall of you are heroes!" "There would have been even more of us if you hade sooner, when there were actually variants tearing women and children from their homes on these very streets," said Aldrich Solomon cast his gaze down with somber expression. "I know. And believe me, my friend, I tried. But the attack in Neo-York was fierce, even worse than the one here, and I had my hands tied... He balled up a fist and made a pained expression. "Thinking about the many lives I can''t save because I cant be everywhere at once is a thought that crosses my mind every single day. All I can do is pray that you can forgive me. That the dead I couldn''t save knows how much I grieve for them." Aldrich tried to analyze Solomon''s expressions, but he found that it was surprisingly difficult. He knew that Solomon Sr was not clean considering Seth Sr''s background and enrollment in ckwater. But had Aldrich not known this fact, it would have been impossible to determine whether Solomon was putting up an act or not. Solomon''s expression and words sounded so genuine that the crowd behind Aldrich remained silent. They did not support Solomon, that was for sure, but even getting them to not actively hate him was a fairly impressive feat in of itself. Aldrich would have to force Solomon to make a misstep. ''Tell me, rank I, what are you here for? It''s not to help the people here, or otherwise you wouldn''t have brought so much firepower [mowing the fighting was over. Thoughts and prayers only count for so much. I would have thought instead of bringing guns and steel, you would have brought supplies. At least those save people." ''Vignte, would you care to tell me your name? I would hate to by just calling you ''vignte'' when I know you''ve done so much good already," said Solomon. "Thanatos," replied Aldrich. "Then, Thanatos," said Solomon with a nod. "You don''t have to worry." He floated in the air to speak to everybody, and midair, he did look dazzling in a conventionally heroic way. He had flowing golden locks of hair that shone like the sun while his powerful body and hearty smile exuded an aura of both strength and safety. "All you citizens of Haven, I have an announcement for you! I know how much you all have lost and how deeply that loss hurts! I know that the city around you, the city you once called home, is in ruins!. Solomon shook his head sadly. "I wasn''t here to help when the fighting was going on, but that doesn''t mean I can''t help now! I will have my Sunshine Foundation personally help fund the restoration of Haven! I''ll work with the AA to make sure all of you get the help you deserve! None of you will have to move to start a new life in a strange new ce. I know this isn''t much, but at the very least, I know this is the right thing to do for you!" Solomon smiled brightly at everyone, his golden aura shining a bit brighter just enough to strategically highlight his words. An interesting y, thought Aldrich. A fairly good one. By promising to restore the city, Solomon took away one of the bigger reasons for Haven''s citizens to support him. This did not one hundred percent confirm Aldrich''s suspicions that Solomon had been intentionally sent to curb Aldrich''s influence, but it made it likely enough that Aldrich had to act as if it was true. That meant that right now, Aldrich and Solomon were engaged directly in a fight. Not a fight of powers, but a fight of words. Of wits. Aldrich looked up at Solomon''s smile staring down, and even now, he could not tell whether that smile was honestly grateful or triumphant. But that did not matter at this point. Solomon was Aldrich''s enemy, and no smile would change that, genuine or not.. Chapter 167: A Deal Chapter 167: A Deal Aldrich sensed a shift in the crowd behind him as they started to look up at Solomon, getting sucked into the maic charm and personality he had worked to build up over the years. They were not on Solomon''s side yet because they likely still resented him in some capacity for not helping Haven, but Solomon navigated this resentment well by showcasing humility. Solomon admitted he could not save everyone, and offering to rebuild Haven with his personal foundation made him seem like someone that truly cared. At the very least, even if Solomon had not won over their hearts, with this move, he managed to get them to see him in a neutral light. But Aldrich had a response for this. If Solomon thought that this was enough to get Aldrich to back down, then the rank 1 hero had sorely underestimated Aldrich. "Oh, did I hear that right?" said Aldrich. "You want to help Haven? You want to rebuild it?" "That''s right, Thanatos," said Solomon. "Seeing a city as beautiful as Havenid so low like this just breaks my heart. Most of you don''t know, but Haven holds a special ce in my heart. It''s where I-," "Excellent," said Aldrich, cutting Solomon Sr off from going into some heart wrenching anecdote about some bullshit one off experience he had in Haven. Or perhaps he did have genuine memories in Haven, but memories about making deals with criminal syndicates and ckwater probably didn''t work here. "That''s wonderful to hear." Solomon smiled down at Aldrich with a nod. "It''s good to see your heart is in the right ce, Thanatos. I appreciate that you want to see this city built back up to its former glory, and I promise you, the Sunshine Foundation will do its very best to make good on my words." "Right, I look forward to working together with you to rebuild Haven," said Aldrich coolly. Solomon paused for the smallest of moments, a moment imperceptible to the average crowdgoer, but a moment that Aldrich did not miss. A slight show of wealmess. Of surprise. Aldrich pressed on with his own attack Solomon Sr did not expect Aldrich to co-opt the rebuilding effort like that, and by announcing it in public, Solomon was pressured even further to ept Aldrich''s ''offer''. "You see, I''ve promised to the people of Haven here that I would rebuild the city as well," said Aldrich. "I will be honest here, at first, I didn''t know if I could make that happen by myself. I knew I coulde close with the manpower I had, but with you supporting me, I now know that this project is all but a guaranteed sess. The Sunshine Foundation, as far as I''m aware, has done great things around the world, rebuilding broken homes and giving relief to hundreds of thousands. It would be an honor for me to work with the Sunshine Foundation to let the people behind me call this city their home again. Wouldn''t you agree, ''my friend''?" Aldrich put pressure on Solomon now Solomon had not agreed at all to help Aldrich, but since Aldrich had voiced it directly like this, in front of citizens and the news, now Solomon was backed into a corner where he had to support Aldrich. Solomon stopped levitating and flew downwards, standing close in front of Aldrich. Aldrich was impressively tall at this point, reaching slightly over two meters, but Solomon Sr was bigger even than that by a fair margin. Standing against each other like this, the stark contrast in image between Solomon Sr and Aldrich stood out. There was Solomon Sr. A hero through and through. Shining gold and bright like the sun. Costumed and caped in sky blue with a shining sun shaped sigil on his chest. The favorite darling of this country that everybody knew about. He was the light incarnate. Then there was Aldrich. Armored in ck and blood and bona Spikes jutted from his armor, and no fancy sigils or symbols graced his body. The only decorations visible on him were strips of beating red, raw flesh and blood from his living armor. His hands did not end in gloved fingers meant to hold others up, but armored ws designed to shred and tear. Nobody knew who Aldrich. He was aplete and utter unknown.¡ã He was the darkness. 0 Yet, thought Aldrich, it would be so very difficult to know who it was here that truly stood in the light and who truly stood in the dark Countless shes burst in an array of little lights form the many media drones circling above, capturing this near cinematic moment. There would be countless headlines about this moment, but what those headlines would read out depended on who held the upper handing out of this conversation. Solomon Sr stared at Aldrich in muted surprise for a moment before smiling brightly again. He held out an inviting blue gloved hand for a handshake. "Then it''s a deal," said Solomon Sr. Aldrich shook Solomon''s hand, and he felt Solomon grip his hand tightly, almost malforming the metal of his hand. This was either a disy of displeasure or a petty way to try and assert dominance over Aldrich. In any case, it was even more wealmess that Aldrich started to see from Solomon. Though, notably as Aldrich stared at Solomon''s face, the hero''s smile still seemed incredibly genuine. ''Shall I engage in battle preparations, Armored?'' came Vntis''s voice. ''The strength of this grip warrants more than a mere friendly gesture.'' ''Rx, Vntis,'' said Aldrich telepathically. ''Let me handle this.'' Aldrich did not expect Solomon to give in easily, though, because from the very start, whatever Aldrich said did not particrly matter much. In Solomon''s mind, Aldrich was in a checkmate position from the very start. "But, my friend, I''m sorry to break this to you," said Solomon as he withdrew his hand and shook his head with disappointment. "You''re needed in custody. I myself would be honored to work with you, the man that saved Haven, but until you''re out of custody, I''m afraid we''ll have to put our coboration on hold.." Chapter 168: Hear Me Out Chapter 168: Hear Me Out This was why Aldrich was in a checkmate position. Or at the very least, why Solomon Sr thought Aldrich had no way to win. Even if Solomon was forced to ept Aldrich''s deal, he would not have to fulfill any part of it. Because the government could lock Aldrich up for any amount of time, and if he escaped, then they could just nder him as a danger to society that could not be contained. An inevitable lose-lose situation for Aldrich. If he stayed too long in custody, people forget about him. If he escaped, he turned into a viin that Solomon could just disavow. "Custody, is it?" said Aldrich. He looked to Solomon Sr, then towards the row of Guardians that carefully observed him, no doubt ready to engage any of their advanced weapons systems at a moment''s notice. "That exins all these Guardians. So, in the end, arresting me and throwing me in a cell somewhere matters more than all of this." Aldrich motioned to the people behind him, towards the wreckage of the crumbling city all around him. In response, the people of Haven spoke out. "The hell? You''re arresting him!? For what? For saving us when none of you could be bothered to get off your asses to do the same!?" "You left us for dead! What right do you have toe here! ?" Many more cries of protest rung out, aimed right at Solomon Sr, but he did not flinch. He maintained hisposure and put on a saddened expression. "I understand how you feel," said Solomon as his voice rung out with a powerful ring that bid silence from the crowd. "But all of you shouldn''t worry. Vigntes that show their heroic hearts go into custody as a simple matter of Jaw and procedure, but it isn''t prison by any means. They''ll just ask Thanatos here a couple of questions to make sure they know he''s a good man, just as we all do, and once that''s done, I''m sure he cane back and watch us build this city back better than ever before." As if on cue, when Solomon Sr ended his sentence, an aircraft carrier descended from above. Its four engines whirred loudly as they forced squalls of wind on the ground, buffeting the crowd backwards. Media drones zipped out of the way for the sizable carrier as it hovered in the air because it was big enough that its engines could shove theparatively tiny media drones out of the way. At the side of the carrier''s green painted hull was a logo showing two chains crossed over in a X symbol. The mark of Lockdown, the biggest prison industry corporation in the states and in the world. Not quite a Megacorporation, but still quite influential, especially in the United States where the prison industry historically had always thrived, even before the Altering. The carrier opened up, revealing insides marked with ck, dark purple tinged light. "A Null Box, huh. You really did bring out all the stops to take me in," said Aldrich as he recognized the carrier. His voice could project outwards over the din of the roaring propellors and engines from the carrier, ensuring that Solomon Sr heard him. A Null Box was a special containment cell made to take in Alters at the A rank.It was the highest level of containment that Lockdown could produce,prised of a sturdy metal cube lined with Null Ore, an exceedingly rare substance located in deadly areas known as ''Null Zones'' where absolutely no life could grow. Null Zones also prevented Alters from using their powers properly, though there were some rare exceptions. Null Ore replicated that power disruption process, making the Null Box one of the most reliable, albeit forbiddingly expensive ways to transport powerful Alters as trying to mine anything from a Null Zone was incredibly dangerous as most of them were located deep in the Wastnds where natural disasters and variants posed serious threats. "It''s simply a matter of security," said Solomon Sr. He crossed his arms and gave Aldrich a sympathetic look. "I hope you understand, Thanatos. I might know you as a man with a good heart, but the government doesn''t. But I''m sure once they hear how much good you''ve done, they''ll have you out in no time. I''ll make sure to support you as much as I can, my friend, and once you get out, I''ll be more than happy to start rebuilding with you." An obvious lie. If Solomon Sr got what he wanted, then Aldrich would never get out of custody. Solomon Sr banked on the government either never releasing Aldrich, at which point the media could just paint Aldrich as a viin that they had rightfully incarcerated, or they would release him agonizingly slowly, only after they had gotten every ounce of information from Aldrich about his powers and his troops and ess to all of them. Whatever goodwill Aldrich dredged up here among Haven''s citizens would get wiped out after a few weeks when the cleanup of Haven''s wreckage finished, because by then, everyone that supported Aldrich would be separated and relocated. And with those people relocated, there would be no unified body to support Aldrich. "Please vacate the premises for your own safety." The Guardians marched ahead of Solomon and moved towards the crowd, corralling them backwards to give iste Solomon and Aldrich. The crowd protested, but they could not stand against the Guardians and got pushed back. One of the Guardians stepped in front of Aldrich and held out a blocky pair of metal cuffs that looked more like gauntlets with how sturdy they were. ck tinted purple light emanated from within the cuffs, indicating they were also lined with Null Ore. "ce your arms into these cuffs," said the Guardian in its cold mechanical voice. "Do not resist." Another Guardian came up to Seismic with the same cuffs. Aldrich nodded to Seismic, and they both allowed themselves to get locked down. The cuffs locked into ce with a pressurized click, tightly wrapping memory structure metal around their arms. "Citizens of Haven!" Solomon moved past Aldrich once he saw that Aldrich had been cuffed, obviously thinking Aldrich was done at this point, and spoke out to the crowd. "I''ll put in my word for Thanatos here. He''ll be out to help us soon, I know it!" Aldrich looked at Solomon. The hero practically ignored him at this point, flying over to the crowd, probably believing he had won. But Solomon''s victory was all predicated on the notion that Aldrich would stay in custody with no good way out without painting himself as a viin. Aldrich would disprove that delusion. And when he did, when he came back, he would have the upper hand to force Solomon''s Sunshine Foundation to siphon resources to him. Media coverage was a double edged sword in this regard. It amplified Solomon''s voice, but it also made him beholden to any promises he voiced, especially considering his spotless clean good guy image. "A- rank hero Seismic, please proceed with me for questioning," said two Guardians as they nked Seismic, escorting him away. Two Guardians came by Aldrich''s side in the same manner. "Vignte, please proceed with us to the transport." "One moment," said Aldrich as he turned around, ignoring the Guardians. He spoke out to Solomon Sr. "Sr! I''ll be seeing you in a little over a week. I look forward to working with the Sunshine Foundation then!" Solomon Sr turned to Aldrich with unblinking eyes and another momentary pause that indicated confusion. It was obvious that Solomon did not know how Aldrich could leave custody after one measly week without forcibly escaping. The government would try to keep Aldrich kept in custody for as long as possible until they knew they could control him. A week was not enough for that. If they did not think they could control Aldrich, they might even try to terminate him. "What?" said Aldrich. "You didn''t think I was going to miss a chance to work with the Sunshine Foundation, did you? Didn''t you say it yourself? That you would do your best to have me out soon? Well, I''ll help you out with that. No,I''ll even make it easy for you. Ihave a hero that wants to sponsor me for a Hero Consideration Hearing. And, if I read the fine print properly, a sponsorship from a B rank hero or above means I''m obligated to that hearing within a week of going into voluntary custody. I''ll clear my name there." "I''m sorry to say this, Thanatos, but Seismic is also under custody. His sponsorships won''t be valid-," began Solomon. "Not Seismic. I have someone else," said Aldrich.Solomon Sr paused, wondering who was sponsoring Aldrich. To force a hearing required a hero that was B rank and above, and the only living B ranker in Haven was Rocket Man who was B-, just shy of being able to call for a hearing. On top of that, Rocket Man was not popr and influential enough to really make waves in the news. Even if Rocket Man could sponsor Aldrich, it was possible the AA could just use technicalities to try and circumvent it. There were a few other B rankers that hade to this city, but again, they were all at the B- rank. And if they they had been raised from the dead, then a convincing argument could be made as with Seismic that their minds werepromised. The only B ranker that hade here with enough poprity behind his name was Minuteman who had a strong following from his dashing good lucks and good guy persona. Though, unlike Solomon, Minuteman''s persona was not a persona. It was how he really was. But Minuteman should have been dead as well by all ounts. He had not been a part of therger battle and the tech disrupting storm had ensured that he could not have contacted the AA at all, meaning he would have been ssified as a casualty. Solomon probably had only received a brief damage report and gotten cocky when he saw Minuteman among the listed casualties. "Minuteman will sponsor me," exined Aldrich. "Minuteman is...alive?" said Solomon. "...What a relief! It would have pained me even more to know a good man like him had passed. Did you use your powers to give him a second chance?" "My powers? No, not at all. He''s alive on the merit of his own bravery," said Aldrich. Solomon''s question was asked to try and confirm whether Minuteman was ¡®corrupted¡¯. If Aldrich had raised Minuteman, then that destroyed Minuteman''s credibility."You know, before this, I didn''t know how Minuteman was so popr. But there''s something so inspiring about seeing a real Golden Age hero fight for their principles that I started to understand why he had so many followers. It''s about being genuine. People like to see something real in a world that''s getting so fake. But you know all about that, though, don''t you, Sr?" Chapter 169: Imprisoned Chapter 169: Imprisoned Aldrich said thosest few words without any hint of threat in them. The intent was, of course, a threatening one. At face value, it seemed like Aldrich was telling Solomon Sr that he was one of the few genuine ones out there, but in reality, it was a jab at the fact that Solomon Sr, the golden hero who everyone looked up to, was anything but clean. Still, Aldrich did not want Solomon to know that Aldrich knew this. That was why he kept his tone neutral. He would keep the rank 1 hero guessing until it was toote, until Aldrich had Solomon dancing right in the palm of his hand, at which point Aldrich would close his fist and crush Solomon. All the knowledge that Aldrich knew about Solomon, about ckwater, about his criminal involvement, about his son, all of that woulde crashing down on the golden hero soon enough. But now was not the right time. Solomon Sr''s smile cracked for the slightest of moments as he stared at Aldrich with a questioning gaze. But his usual smile returned right afterwards so that the media could never capture him without It. "Further dys will not be tolerated," said the two Guardians that came back to Aldrich''s sides. "Please proceed to the transport or face retaliatory force." "Ah, looks like my time is up here," said Aldrich. "I''ll keep you to your word, Sr. Once I get out, I want to see you here, in Haven, so that we can work together. You called me a ''friend''. I''m looking forward for you to prove that." Aldrich looked over to the crowd and spoke up, over the din of the carrier above. "Before I leave, I want you to remember what happened tonight. Solomon Sr promised his assistance to me, and with that, Haven''s renewal is all but guaranteed. Until Ie back, though, keep yourselves safe. Keep yourselves healthy. I just sat down and got to know all of your names - I''d feel bad if I couldn''t see some of you again." Aldrich stepped away and let the Guardians escort him. They marched behind Aldrich, pushing him towards the open carrier. "Remove all armor and armaments from your body" stated the Guardians. "This armor is a part of me," said Aldrich. "It cannot be removed." "Initializing confirmation scan...," One of the Guardians pointed their mechanical hands at Aldrich, and the hand broke down into a cloud of grey partictes that then quickly reshaped into a cylindrical scanning mechanism. A green light streamed out from the mechanism, washing over Aldrich. "Physical scans show an irregr skeletal system covered by unidentifiable metals and organic matter," said the Guardian. "Attempting AC scan..." "Forget the AC scan," said Aldrich. "My powers are automatically concealed. You won''t get anything out of me even if I wanted to show you." The Guardian ignored Aldrich and continued to scan Aldrich. After a few seconds, it reported, "Scan unsessful. Unable to determine whether removing armor from the target will cause physical distress. Erring on the side of safety, we will allow you to maintain possession your armor. Be warned that any hostile action will be met with appropriate force and-" "I understand, so get on with it." Aldrich nodded and stepped forward, right below the square shaped opening that led directly into the ck and purple light of the Iron Box. He looked up at the glowing darkness above expectantly. He had removed his Materius, stripping away his physical flesh to leave nothing but his skeletal form covered by Vntis. This made it seem that Vntis was a part of Aldrich''s being or, at the very least, absolutely necessary to keep him alive. Aldrich saw as a sudden blue beam projected downwards in a pir that pletely covered him. Aldrich felt weight push down on every inch of his being. The Guardians stepped aside, and as they did so, the weight bearing down on Aldrich suddenly pletely faded, instead turning into the direct opposite sensation of plete weightlessness. A fast retrieval gravity beam. A high-tech piece of equipment located on new transport aircraft that allowed them to easily pick up personnel or key targets on the ground. Normally reserved for high level military or hero operations. Aldrich was in the big leagues now. Any force used against him was going to be near the highest end. High tech like this, the Guardians, S rank heroes, those were all free game to use against him. It was both apliment and a warning. pliment in that it confirmed Aldrich''s power and potential influence. Awarning in that if Aldrich made a misstep, then all this force would rain down on Aldrich with no restrictions. So be it. Aldrich had never been the type to take risk before. This was the first time he had ever taken as much risk as he did, but he had to admit, he was not opposed to it. It made him anticipate just how much sweeter his victory would be. The gravity beam picked Aldrich up, taking him in with surprising speed. In just a quick second, he was within the Null Box. Beneath him, the hatch of the carrier slid shut, followed by the heavy metal floor of the box sliding shut right after. With that, Aldrich was now inplete and utter istion, locked inside a metal cube of lined with nothing but darkness and an eerie dark purple cklight glow. The walls of his prison were just in, solid metal with the Null Ore lining the edges of the cube structure in strips. The space around the Null Ore seemed to be vaguely distorted. An odd visual property of Null Ore that nobody knew the cause of. The box was deathly silent, and Aldrich could hear absolutely nothing outside of it. The ce was so quiet that had he been alive, he could have probably heard his own heart beating. This was another property of Null Ore. Whatever enclosed space it was lined isted itself from the outside world. It did not create apletely different dimension, but it did distort space in such away that it was extremely difficult for anything outside of an enclosed Null Space to interact with anything within it. Aldrich had heard stories of some prisoners that went insane when they were isted in a Null Box for too long. Many of them killed themselves, believing that the sound of their heartbeats, of the gurgling and churning of their very own innards, was too loud to bear. But to Aldrich, thisplete and utter silence was calming. It was a good change of pace from the hectic chaos of the night. It gave him time to think and focus. Aldrich had long since theorized this, but just based on how his abilities seemed to circumvent every known rule for Alter powers, he figured that Null based containment methods did not work on him either. Aldrich was half right in this regard. He could still circte mana through his body and he could feel that if he tried, he could cast spells. He imagined the same went for Vntis, too. His personalbat capability, therefore, was not affected by Null containment. However, Aldrich realized that he was not entirely unaffected either. What Null containment did hamper was his telepathic links. He could not look into the minds of his units in a way very simr to how he was disconnected from his units when they entered a separate dimensional space like the Nexus or Necropolis. But Aldrich did not worry much. He had made sure to keep mental tabs on Casimir and Valera and their respective forces, and he had confirmed that Casimir had made it well out of the city and Valera had entered the Nexus. By now, the Red Circle had also been reduced to ashes, leaving zero leads to ever reach back to Aldrich. This just meant that all Aldrich had to do was wait. Wait until he was transferred over to a proper grounded prison. There he would have one whole week to himself. Aldrich prepared himself mentally. It might have seemed like he had an entire week of istion and silence to himself, but that could not be farther from the truth. No. Null based containment had one ring weakness: it was impossible to keep surveince over anyone inside of it as it disrupted technology too. That meant that Aldrich could do whatever he wanted while he was imprisoned without fear of anyone watching him. Plenty of free time for Aldrich to use the Sign Stone gifted to him from the Death Lord to enter the Nexus and clear his Trial Quests. In the end, Aldrich''s ''prison'' would be nothing more than just a nice and isted space to power level free of potential distractions and dangers.. Chapter 170: Another Round of Questioning Chapter 170: Another Round of Questioning Aldrich spent the next hour strategizing about how he would clear the Trial Quests. He had no idea whether the quests were still the exact same now that the Death Lord had taken over, but it was still a good idea to prepare. With how strong Aldrich was now, especially with Okeanos under hismand, he should have no issue clearing the Trial Quests avable to him. Only thest one might be difficult as it involved fighting a powerful boss known as Dark Eye Deimos, a level 50+ warlock whose mastery of demonic summoning made for an incredibly difficult army vs army challenge. Demons would sh with undead, and demons on average were much stronger than the average undead. It was a test for a Legion Necromancer to effectively leverage the might of their numbers properly against strong individuals. But a challenge that Aldrich could easily surpass considering he was far, far stronger than what a yer character of his level should have been like with his forbidden Lich transformation. What Aldrich anticipated most about that quest, though, was obtaining Dark Eye Deimos as an undead. Normally, in Elden World, it was impossible to raise boss monsters, but Fler''Gan already disproved this. Raising Dark Eye Deimos meant Aldrich could have ess to Demonic Summoning, and that was something that could massively boost him. Demons were not mortal creatures. They, especially stronger ones, were more like forces of nature that embodied primal sins. Because Demons were more like aspects and not truly flesh and blood creatures, it was impossible to fully put them down permanently without some form of holy magic. And where was the holy magic in the real world? Where were the priests and pdins? In the real world, Demons might as well be unstoppable immortal monsters. Heroes and weapons could break their bones, st off their limbs, or even turn them into nothing but scattered atoms, but none of that mattered. So long as a Demon''s Spiritual Core remained stable, they would always, always reform. And Aldrich also wondered about the Demons. Did they have more knowledge about the Elden World reality? None of Aldrich''s current Elden World undead seemed to have a good idea of how and why they had been transported to this different reality. But perhaps the Demons were different. Another important goal Aldrich had for the Trial Quests were ingredients. Ingredients for Fler''Gan to use for his experimentations and for a special concoction that Aldrich had requested him to make once he was in a safe and secure space with Casimir. Aldrich could just easily [Mist Phase] out of any prison he was in, as though Null containment hampered his telepathic links, it did not seem to stop magic-based teleportation. Like that, he could go to the Nexus, get his ingredients, transfer them over to Fler''Gan, and transfer back to his cell. Before Aldrich''s hearing, he would get back to Fler''Gan for hismissioned goods. Just something to make it easier for the people running the hearing to make Aldrich''s words a little more convincing. Granted, if he could convince the hearing by himself, he would not resort to using it. Now, for what Aldrich could already do. He had thirty levels of [Dark Wisdom] to spread around among his units, but he was not yet entirely sure who to give them to. [Dark Wisdom] seemingly only allowed units to increase their levels to a set ''maximum potential'', and it could not increase the levels of units ahead of Aldrich already. Thus, [Dark Wisdom] was best used on units that were currently weak but had good potential to grow stronger. The biggest targets for this that came into Aldrich''s mind were the Alters under him. Dynamite Girl, the Geist, and Portal Girl all had incredible potential to grow stronger. [Dark Wisdom] would elerate that even further. But there were other good candidates, too. Like Chiros and his knights or Fler''Gan or the variant mini bosses he had taken over. The ckwater students were also excellent candidates as they were all in the A ss because of their high potential. Ace, especially, was known as someone that had the potential to surpass Seth Sr when he got older and developed and matured his powers more. It was a difficult choice, and one Aldrich would ponder over for quite some time. In the meanwhile, he made the easier decision to choose where the stats from his level ups went. In total, Aldrich had leveled up twice from 42 to 44 over the night. Almost three times, too, but the experience limiter on the fishmen had kicked in just before he could break through to level 45. This gave him 10 stat points to distribute, and he just pumped them all into attunement. [+10 to Attunement, increased to +20 with affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 245 > 265] [Inner Circle Limit: 49 > 53] [Outer Circle Limit: 245 > 265] There was no doubt that by now, Aldrich''s single greatest stat was Attunement. Of course, that did not mean he could neglect his other stats, especially Magic and Perception, but Attunement was by andrge the best stat to dump into. A faint green aura shimmered over Aldrich as the power from his levels flowed into him, lighting up the dark insides of the Null Box for a moment. A few minutes after Aldrich''s stat distribution, something somewhat surprising happened. The wall opposite to Aldrich slid open just barely enough for Aldrich to get a peek outside. Light from the insides of the transport carrier streamed into the dark innards of the Null Box, struggling and failing to overpower the cklight of the Null Ore. Aldrich did not move. He just sat there and stared ahead. There, in the tiny space opened up by the wall, stood a man decked out in military uniform and beret. Only a portion of his face containing a single red eye was visible, but the look on that eye made it clear enough that the face it belonged to was not smiling at Aldrich. "I had a feeling I had visitors on this private jet ride of mine," said Aldrich. "So you got bored, did you? I was wondering when I would start getting questioned." "¡­" The man did not respond to Aldrich. "Silence is it?" said Aldrich. "Are you trying to intimidate me? Because if so, you can go ahead and close that door again. I don''t need to waste my time with you." Chapter 171: The Colonel Chapter 171: The Colonel Aldrich waited for the mysterious military man to respond, and after a few extra seconds of silence, he did. "Do you understand the position you''re in right now?" said the man gruffly. "No. Why don''t you tell me?" said Aldrich. "Don''t get smart with me," said the man as his brow scrunched up in displeasure. "Smart with you? First, you have to convince me that you''re even worth the effort," said Aldrich. "You son of a-," The man caught himself and took in a deep breath, calming himself. When he spoke again, his words had a threatening edge to them. "You have no idea where you''re going. You could be getting tossed deep into a prison pit with your key thrown out and forgotten. You might think yourself strong, but you have no way out of this, not with the Null containment screwing you over. You still want to put up an attitude?" "I see, so we''re starting off with a threat," said Aldrich. "Quite a harsh way to start off congratting the man who saved an entire city, no?" "I don''t give a rat''s ass what you did," said the man. "Keep up that easygoing attitude, and I''ll make sure you never see the light of day again. You understand me?" "You won''t do that," said Aldrich inly. "No? You willing to bet your life on that?" "My life?" Aldrich scoffed. "It''s your lives that are on the line here. I am the only existence in history that has ever been able to control a Locus. That must make you and your higher ups wonder, doesn''t it? What if I could control even above that? Maybe even a Titan? Wouldn''t that end it all? This entire conflict with the variants? You are afraid of me because you don''t know who I am or what I want to do, but you can''t let go of me either, because otherwise you lose what could be your biggest ticket to ensuring humanity''s survival." "¡­" The man sighed, defeated, knowing that Aldrich was right. "I''m only asking for you to take this seriously." "Seriously? Don''t be mistaken, I am taking this situation seriously," said Aldrich. "What I am not taking seriously is you. You aren''t someone that''s used to interrogating, are you? No, you''re used to giving orders, but questioning, that isn''t your specialty. You''re too straightforward. Too easily riled up when your authority is challenged. You''re someone higher up with people even higher telling you to get something out of me. But let me make this clear. You are not here to take anything from me. You are here to ask me for things, and it is my choice whether to give them to you or not. So, if you understand and you want me to talk, then drop this tough guy act. Tell me what you want, and I''ll think about telling you what I can do." The man stared at Aldrich for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Alright then, you''ve seen right through me. Let me start this over. My name is Colonel Davos. I oversee the Irregrs Department of the U.S. government." "Irregrs?" said Aldrich. He had never heard of this department before. ? "We aren''t known to the public," said Davos. "But to give you a brief rundown, we handle unexinable phenomena." "Such as?" said Aldrich. "That, I am not obligated to disclose to you," said Davos. "But just know that your powers and what you did tonight with that Locus falls under the category of ''unexinable phenomena''." "I see," said Aldrich. "Then what is it you want from me?" "First and foremost, your intentions," said Davos. "I and the government need to know whether you are on our side. On humanity''s side." "I am," said Aldrich. "Good. Then you understand that for national security, no, global security, that your powers are crucial, correct? You yourself stated how important they could be," said Davos. "I''m here to broker a deal with you. In exchange for your services to the government, we will give you back your freedom." An under the table deal with a shadow government department. Ific books and TV shows were anything to go by, then these deals usually never ended well. Granted, that was just fiction, but it was grounded inmon sense too. The whole point of having a shadow department like this was to remove any sense of ountability. To keep Aldrich on a leash that could be terminated at any moment with no consequence. "My freedom? Colonel, you seem to be under the very mistaken impression that Ick freedom," said Aldrich. Colonel Davos''s eye looked down at Aldrich''s cuffs. "You don''t seem very free to me." "Freedom is all a matter of perspective, colonel," said Aldrich as he raised up his cuffed arms. "These mean precious little to me. Let''s just say as I am right now, I don''t feel particrly chained down. In other words: freedom isn''t something you can use to bargain with me." And this was very true. Aldrich was only negotiating with the government, the AA, the Panopticon, the current power structure of the world, because he wanted to give them a chance. If they made it too hard for him, he could just as easily cut his losses and go out into the Wastnds to amass his power or even try to join and overtake a viin organization from within. Aldrich was the one with the freedom to act here. "What? You think you''ll walk away scot free in that hearing you talked about?" Colonel Davos shook his head. "You think that just because you broadcasted on national news that you would get that hearing that you''re entitled to it? It''s entirely possible you never make it to your hearing. You might encounter an unfortunate ident-" "I''ll only say this once, colonel, but threatening my life is thest thing you should be doing," said Aldrich. His voice, usually calm, perhaps a little sarcastic, now turned icy cold,ced with an inhuman rattle from his Lich body. Hearing this voice, the colonel instinctively shivered, his survival instincts ring and forcing him to step back. Colonel Davos stepped forward again, regaining his confidence. "I''m offering you an easy way out. If you get to that hearing, there''s no guarantee that the tribunal there will be lenient to you. No, I would bet money that they''ll order you to hand over everything you have, your knowledge, your troops, ess to your powers, and if you disobey that, then you make yourself an enemy of not only the government, but the AA and the Panopticon. I don''t have the power to change the minds on that hearing - that''s outside of my jurisdiction. But what I can do is induct you into my department. You would disappear from the public eye forever, but you would still be free, and you wouldn''t have to worry about the entire government hunting you down every single day of your life." "Free? Now that doesn''t sound like freedom to me," said Aldrich. "I would be little more than your pet at that point, wouldn''t I?" "Call it what you want. It''s either that or you get hunted down," said colonel Davos. "Because you''re far too dangerous to be kept alone." Chapter 172: Second Deal Chapter 172: Second Deal "And that''s the best you can offer me?" said Aldrich. "A cor and a leash?" "It''s a better deal than what anyone else can give you," said Colonel Davos. "So tell me. Are you going to take it or not?" "Say, hypothetically, that I do take you up on your generous offer, then what do you want from me?" said Aldrich. "You have zero records anywhere," said Colonel Davos. "You''re like a ghost. A phantom that just decided to pop up one day. Attempts to scan and analyze your powers fail. Attempts to read your past fail. I want a full exnation of who you are and what your powers are." "I see. I can sense that isn''t all you want. So go on, tell me more," said Aldrich. "Next, I would want full ess to all the specimen under your control. That includes, of course, the Locus. We would need to run extensive testing on them. You would be part of that testing," said Colonel Davos. "Naturally," said Aldrich. "Alright, then. Anything else?" "Once we''ve researched you and your powers and devised a means to counteract them, you''ll be inducted into a covert operations team to put your powers to good use," said Colonel Davos. "Interesting," said Aldrich. "And what about Seismic? He''s in government custody now, isn''t he? Why not run those tests on him?" "He''s protected by Hammerhead," said Colonel Davos. "We can''t get to him easily. But if you make him, then that''s a different story." "What makes you think I can control Seismic just like that?" said Aldrich. "You could control the rest of your forces. I assume Seismic isn''t an exception. But even if he was, he''s not the most important one. It''s the Locus we want the most," said Colonel Davos. "Cough up the Locus, and we can let Seismic do what he wants." "I see," said Aldrich. He paused before he spoke again. "I have a question, Colonel." "What is it?" "Tell me, do I look like a fast-food drive through to you?" "What?" Colonel Davos eximed in surprise. "Did you seriously expect me take that offer? You take everything from me and give me nothing in return? I already told you, your freedom means nothing to me," said Aldrich. "I would guarantee your safety!" said Colonel Davos, now distinctively aggravated. "Your life! That doesn''t matter to you? Not even you can survive a manhunt from the entire might of the United States." "Is that what you think?" said Aldrich. "You didn''t even know I even existed just twenty-four hours ago. How can you be so confident that you can hunt me down now? I''ve heard enough, Colonel, and just as I told you before, it is my choice to decide whether to give you anything of mine or not. And my choice here is simple: I give you nothing. As for my supposed ''freedom'', well, I''ll take my chances at the hearing I''m owed." "You-," began Colonel Davos angrily before another voice cut him off. "Good god, you''re awful at this. And you''re taking up the time I paid for. Get out of the way, man." This was a much younger man''s voice. Far less gruff and innately aggressive than the colonel''s, but not one that sounded weak either. Colonel Davis got shoved aside, revealing a thinner man dressed in a cheap looking navy-blue suit. He put his face close to the small gap in the Null Box door, revealingrge ck shades that and a wild mess of ragged ck hair. "Oh, there you are," said the man as he peered right at Aldrich. He turned around and barked out an order with the practiced ease of someone used to ordering others around. "Open this door, will you? How can I talk to him through this little peephole, huh?" "He''s too dangerous-," Colonel Davos''s voice chimed in. "Screw dangerous! Just open the goddamn door! What do I pay you guys for, huh!? Just open it enough for me to get in, yeah?" "Just enough for you to get in," repeated Colonel Davos. "Just be warned that if anything happens to you, I can''t do anything about it. In fact, as far as I''m concerned-," "As far as you''re concerned you don''t exist, you were never here, yada yada h h, okay, now open the door," said the man with the shades. The door slid open just a bit more, allowing the man to squeeze through with abored grunt, and behind him. Once he was inside the Null Box with Aldrich, he turned around and gestured for the door to close. "Now shut it! I want some privacy here! Especially from you government rats!" As the doors closed, Aldrich observed the man. The suit he wore had seen far better days. It did not quite fit the man''s tall andnky frame properly, and there were some scratched up parts and oddly discolored patches where they had been roughly tailored over with fabric that did not quite match the suit''s original color. There were segment lines on his brown skin, indicating dermal cybeic procedures, and when he patted his hands together, Aldrich could observe that there were indents on his palms that opened up to jack into tech. A techno, then. "And you are?" said Aldrich. "Aarav. Aarav Singh." The man walked straight beside Aldrich with zero hint of fear and plopped down right beside him, sitting against the wall right next to Aldrich. "Aarav¡­Singh. That name sounds familiar," said Aldrich. "Sheshanaga Biotechnology and Cybeics," said Aarav. "That ring a bell?" "It does," said Aldrich. Sheshanaga was a mega corporation based out of India that held one of twelve revered and immensely powerful seats on the Council of Fortune, the coalition of thergest and most influentialpanies throughout the entire globe. As far as biotechnology went, Sheshanaga was the top dog in the world, though in pure cybeics it fell behind Rheingold Cyberworks which, though not a Council of Fortune member due to its smaller, more specialized size, was the undisputed world leader in cybeic research and technology. ? Regardless, as a member of the Council of Fortune, Sheshanaga could easily be said to have influence on par with an entire country. Combined together, the Council of Fortune as a whole entity had as much power as any of the major world organizations like the AA and the Panopticon, quite literally controlling the entire flow of the world''s economies in their hands. The Singh family headed Sheshanaga, making Aarav here one of its members, though Aldrich was not well versed enough with thepany to know what position Aarav had. "And what does a Council of Fortune family member want to do with me?" said Aldrich. "I want to offer you a deal," said Aarav. "A proper deal. Not whatever abomination of a deal that blockheaded colonel wanted to throw your way." Chapter 173: Company Politics Chapter 173: Company Politics "A deal? I''m interested." Aldrich already held Aarav in far better standing than Colonel Davos. Aarav had the courage to sit right next to Aldrich knowing how dangerous Aldrich could be. Though Null Ore could dampen powers, it was not it they just erased Alter Cells and Organs entirely. Null Ore worked mainly bypromising the proper functioning of the Alter cells and organs, severely disrupting the processing of additional energy. But the physical strengthening that Alter cells and organs provided from years and years of enriching muscture, blood vessels, bones, and so on remained. For someone like Aldrich who Aarav had every reason to expect had a massively high AC count, it was an entirely reasonable threat for Aldrich to just reach out and snap Aarav''s neck, especially considering the fact that technos tended to have weaker bodies even with high AC counts. The fact that Aarav just sat calmly like this, right next to Aldrich, indicated that he was willing to ce his trust in Aldrich. Plus the fact that Aarav did not just start off negotiations by threatening Aldrich''s life definitely helped. "Have you been keeping up with news about Sheshanaga?" said Aarav. "That''s one area where I''m not the most researched on," said Aldrich. "That''s fine," said Aarav. "You don''t particrly have to know anything. And now that I think about it, you wouldn''t really find anything on the news either. It''s all mostly secret stuff. Anyway, to get to the point: the CEO of Sheshanaga is looking for a new sessor." "A new sessor?" said Aldrich. "I would have expected that to be on the news." Anything rted to a shift in the power structure of a Council of Fortunepany would make immediate global headlines because it would have been almost akin to hearing about a regime change in a government. No, a more apt analogy would have been a change in a kingdom, because that''s what thesepanies were: modern day kingdoms. Many of them were ruled by familial dynasties and the power struggles that went into deciding who took the crown after the family heads died often shed quite the blood. "It''s all secret and on the down low for now," said Aarav with a shrug. "My old man didn''t want to make the news public." "Old man? So, you''re the heir to Sheshanaga?" said Aldrich. "Yeah. Along with five other kids, no, wait, counting the illegitimate hooker spawn, of which I am one, there''s ten, no, twelve others?" said Aarav. He shrugged again. "It doesn''t matter, really, so long as there''s even a tiny drop of his blood in one of us. The old man''s looking for whoever can meet his will, not whoever came out of the right vagina." "I see where this is going," said Aldrich. "You want to meet his will and take over thepany, and for that, you need me." "You catch on quick. I like that. I like that a lot," said Aarav. He nodded enthusiastically. He reached into his coat pocket and ced a ck tipped cigarette deftly into his mouth. He put the tip of his index finger near the cigarette, and a small me emerged from several small holes in his finger, lighting it. He reached out his case of cigarettes to Aldrich. "Want one? Just a warning: they''re not anything special. You could pick them up at the nearest gas station." "I don''t smoke," said Aldrich. "Understandable. Very healthy, too. If my old man thought like you, maybe he would be living longer," said Aarav. He put the cigarette case away and blew out a breath of smoke. "But unfortunately, he''s due for a permanent trip to the other side in a few months, and now he''s sent out all his heirs on a wild goose chase for the greatest secret of all. The one secret we still haven''t cracked with all these crazy new powers and fancy new technology." "And that is?" said Aldrich. "The secret of immortality," said Aarav. "I see," said Aldrich. "I assume you believe I can help you with that." "With immortality? Hell yeah," said Aarav. "You''ve made quite the waves out there, Mr. Thanatos. The power to raise the dead, the power to raise a Locus ¨C I''m sure everyone will want a piece of you soon. Everypany worth a damn, at least. And not all of them will be ipetent monkey brains like sir green beret out there. That''s the problem with men that take authority for granted. They don''t realize that it''s earned. And when you call them out on it, it''s like you''ve insulted their whole being." "And what about you? Do you believe you deserve authority?" said Aldrich, scoping out Aarav''s character. "Me? Sure, in some ways, when it''s been earned. But with you, of course not. You''re the one with all the power here, Mr. Thanatos ¨C a fact that colonel out there really could not stand," said Aarav. "You see, I like to consider myself a self-made man, though I guess that''s rtive. I did start out with a loan of ten thousand credits from my old man. The maximum amount he would give an illegitimate like me. Nothingpared to the ten million he gave his real kids, but then again, at least I didn''t start off begging in the streets. Anyways, I took that ten thousand and built up my very ownpany. Big enough that I get a seat at Sheshanaga''s table in spite of the dirty looks I get all the time from the real heirs. What that journey from bottom to the top did make me realize was exactly where I stood in the world at any given moment. It taught me when to know I held power. Authority. And it also taught me when I was weak and needed others for support. And to you, Mr. Thanatos, I know I have to pitch myself. I need your support. I need to convince you I''m a worthy investment." "So? Are you?" said Aldrich. "I have a hunch about you, Mr. Thanatos, and that''s that you don''t really care about the credits, do you? You might care a little just to make sure ack of credits isn''t an issue but sitting atop a mountain of them isn''t your end goal, is it?" said Aarav. "You would be guessing correctly," said Aldrich. "That''s what I thought. We think along simr lines, then," said Aarav as he adjusted his ragged suit jacket. "So, to start off, I''ll offer you what any otherrge corp would. Credits and political support and whatever. I can essentially guarantee you''ll make it to your hearing unharmed, though I can''t guarantee I can bribe every single person on the tribunal. But even if that doesn''t work, I can promise to rebuild Haven and make it a better ce. I''ll be honest here and add that I don''t have as much backing as a proper Council of Fortunepany or even as much as some my own brothers and sisters." Aarav made a dismissive gesture. "But all that, I can promiseter once I take over thepany and kick the unruly variables out. At that point, the real fun begins. You''ll have ess to everything Sheshanaga can offer. All of its research and technology. Anyways, that''s the gist of what I can offer you. If you want more, you can always ask me." "And in exchange? What do you want from me?" said Aldrich. "Considering you''re talking about taking over thepany, I assume you want me to help you in fulfilling your father''s wish for immortality." Aarav took a deep draw from his cigarette. "You know, I never understood why the average rich prick likes cigars so much. I''m a rich prick too, but what makes cigars so much better than the average Marlo cig?" said Aarav as he went off on a seeming tangent, but Aldrich could tell there was meaning behind it. "Image and prestige, I imagine," said Aldrich. "Image and prestige, yes," said Aarav. "Old things that old people love to cling to. But to hell with that, I say. Out with the old, in with the new." Aarav snuffed out his nearly burnt-out cigarette with the tip of his finger. The red hot cigarette head sizzled as it made contact with Aarav''s hardened skin. "I don''t want you to give my father immortality. That''s all just a ploy for him to rule forever and keep making the same mistakes again and again, wasting thepany''s tech and research and potential. No, I want you to help me kill him." Chapter 174: The Unending Thread "Kill your father? Now isn''t that a bold proposition to throw at me so soon?" said Aldrich. He leaned forward, the metal of his armor clicking with the movement. Beside Aarav, a man of average height, Aldrich, in his thick armor especially, looked like a hulk of a man. But despite that, Aarav did not care. He just waited patiently for Aldrich to talk. "Taking out the head of a Council of Fortune megacorp is basically akin to assassinating the head of a state," said Aldrich. "You''re asking me to take a risk as big as that? This is a massive gamble, isn''t it? Either you and I take out your father and we get everything you promised. Or we fail, your head rolls, and I be a target." "Every deal has some level of risk," said Aarav. "And you seem to know a thing or two about gambles. Why do you think I''m offering you so much, Mr. Thanatos? What is essentially joint ownership of Sheshanaga? It''s rewardmensurate with the risk. And the actual offing the old man part ¨C I will handle most of that. I know exactly how to get to him. My old man thinks of himself like a god, deserving of the gift of immortality, but in the end, all he is is just a weak little insecure man, destined to go under the dirt and turn into maggot food like the rest of us. I know how he thinks. What he wants. What he fears. I know how to manipte him. Believe me, I''ve nned for this moment my entire life. All I needed was one missing puzzle piece to fit into ce, and I believe you can be that piece." "I''ll humor you then: tell me how you''re going to take down your father," said Aldrich. "It''s quite simple, really," said Aarav. "My old man trusts nobody in his old age and declining health. He sees all of us, his sons and daughters, own blood and flesh, as vultures circling above, just waiting to pick into his corpse. And he would be exactly right about that. He''s got exactly one person he trusts, and that''s his assistant-mistress. A girl he picked up from the streets to groom into his perfect woman." "I''m assuming you''ve got this womanpromised somehow, then," said Aldrich. "You''ve got that right. I won''t go into the details of it, but she''s essentially my agent. But that alone isn''t enough," said Aarav. "Because no matter how much my old man trusts his mistress, it''s not to the point where she can dictate his will for him. And I can''t just off the old man without getting ownership of thepany first. That''s why I need to win this dumb immortality rat racepetition of his against all my siblings. He''ll give me rights then in a grand ceremony, passing off thepany while he enjoys his eternal retirement." "Retirement? Then is there a need to kill him?" said Aldrich. "It seems to me that all you need on your end is something that will convince your father that he''ll stay on living." "That''s the thing. That''s what he told us. That he''ll step down. But I know my old man better than that. He might not have spent time with me like he did with his real children, but it''s because of that that I know exactly the type of man he is. He can''t keep his hands off what he thinks belongs to him. And when he doesn''t get his way, he''ll break it so that nobody else can have it. That''s what he did to my mother. That''s what he''ll do to thepany. Even if he steps down, he''ll have a high enough position in thepany to ''oversee'' things that he could stage a coup anytime he wanted. He might step back for a few months, years, even, but eventually, he''ll get hungry again, and he''ll do whatever it takes to carve back that power, even if it means burning it all down. It''s better to eliminate him as a rogue variable sooner rather thanter." Aldrich took a moment to think about Aarav''s words. They were ruthless and harsh, yes, but not out of the ordinary. Company politics were brutal in the age of mega corporations. The Corporate Wars of 2077 and 2090 that killed hundreds of thousands were a testament to how bloody and brutalpany conflicts could get. In the highest echelons of corporate maneuvering, there was no room for sympathy. It was kill or be killed. Deceive or be deceived. For this reason, Aldrich could not fully trust Aarav, but he knew he would have to deal with corporations because they were such huge powers on the global ying field. It was inevitable for Aldrich to have to wade through the web of deceit and conflict woven into these mega corporations. What Aldrich needed to do was choose his spider carefully. He needed the right spider that would help him navigate this web and hunt down the others that would get in his way. "I know I said this was a gamble, Mr. Thanatos," said Aarav as he noticed Aldrich''s pause. "And it is, don''t get me wrong, but now, you yourself don''t have to go all in. That''s for me to do. This is how I envisioned our potential partnership to go. I help you out right now and do my best to get you through your hearing. Consider that a down payment, that you can take for free from me. Afterwards, when you are more established, we start R and D together. You see, my old man is quite the suspicious type, so he won''t be taking any secret immortality form without being absolutely sure it won''t backfire on him. At the very least, he won''t ept your powers as they are now. I doubt that paranoid old mind of his will ept the risk of dying and resurrecting only to potentially be under your control. He''ll want something else, something more digestible to his sensibilities. That''s where the R and Des into y. We create something over an extended period of time that seemingly replicates your powers in a way that my old man will ept it." "That means ess to my powers. To my units," said Aldrich. "It will," said Aarav. "But I understand that trust is a two-way road. In exchange, I will give you ess to my tech, myboratories, and my research. If you need anything from us, I can get it done. As long as it isn''t an unreasonable request, of course. Vimana ¨C mypany ¨C specializes in the cybeics side of biotech, and it is aplished enough to be one of Sheshanaga''s top subsidiaries. I don''t know whether you care about research, but even if you don''t, if you''re just interested in the cybeic armor and monofment wire weapons and dermal skin ting and whatnot, then you won''t be disappointed. I''m confident mypany''s cybeics have enoughbat potential to warrant your interest. It would take at the minimum an A rank hero to afford mypany''s direct line, but you''ll have it essentially for free. Mypany''s influence is also not anything to scoff at. At the very least, it will give you enough standing where anyone, even the most influential of figures in the world, will have to think twice before crossing you. And I would practically be your corporate sponsor. Plus, at any given moment, if you think our partnership is not up to your standards, you have free reign to end it as you wish. You can consider this a trial period to grow our trust with each other with free cancetion if something doesn''t suit your fancy. If anotherpany approaches you with an even sweeter deal, then you are free to take it ¨C I will not stop you. But just let me know first to see whether I can match it." "A tempting offer," said Aldrich. He could not even begin to imagine the potential that this deal had. Fler''Gan was curious about this world''s technology. If he had unfettered ess to high endboratories, especially those rted to biotechnology and cybeics, then he essentially had the perfect yground to merge magic and mechanization together. This was not to mention the immediate high-end equipment that woulde Aldrich''s way. "But if you''re here in front of me, then I''m sure your siblings wille as well," said Aldrich. "And I assume each of them holdpanies of significant merit too. Companies evenrger than yours, you admitted. What separates you from them?" "Commitment," said Aarav. "I told you that you didn''t have to go all in. But I''m all in. I''m willing to spend everything I have, everything I''ve built up, and bank it on you, Mr. Thanatos. My siblings or any otherpany, really, will not do the same. They will not trust you. They will be wary of you. None of them will give you as much as I am willing to give you. They will want more from you. They will ce more conditions on you." "And why is it that you are different?" said Aldrich. "What makes you so willing to bet it all on me? You don''t even know whether my powers can even be replicated in the way you want it to be." "Didn''t I already say? I''m all in," said Aarav. "And all in means I''m willing to take the risk that our R and D partnership might not work out as well as I envision it. But even then, I would still be willing to bet on you. And there''s a very good reason for that. You should have wondered by now why I picked up on you so quickly. Why it was that I managed to pay my way onto this isted prison transport. This is the reason." Aarav took off his shades, revealing one normal brown eye. And one other eye with a pupilpletely ck and shaped into the pattern of a lotus flower. "When I close this eye of mine, I can see a silk thread. A golden silk thread that floats atop a sea of darkness. When I think about making some, how should I put this, unhealthy decisions, the thread shrinks. When I think about making healthy decisions, the thread grows. When I think about our coboration, the thread never ends." Chapter 175: A Crypt "I see," said Aldrich as he beheld Aarav''s right eye. He had not quite seen anything like it before. It was not the odd lotus shaped pupil itself that caught Aldrich''s attention. Alters could manifest odd physical traits a plenty, not to mention with how colorful fashion was these days, there more than a few people wore eye contacts with all sorts of strange shapes. What caught Aldrich''s attention was the feeling he got from looking at the eye. When he stared at it, it seemed to expand before him, turning into an engulfing void that radiated a strange sense of¡­cold. Not a chill, not the kind that crawled through the body with fear, but something strangely, well,forting. It was hard to put exactly into words. But when Aldrich felt that cold, it felt like he was being introduced to an old friend, something that had been lost but now was found. "I see too, as you can obviously tell," said Aarav with a small smile before he grew serious again. He rubbed his right eye with a painful motion, and when he withdrew his hand from it, the ck lotus shape was gone, revealing a in brown pupil. "That''s quite interesting," said Aldrich as he put a hand to his chin, the metal around his body clinking with the movement. "I thought you were a techno, considering the body ports you have in your palms. But this doesn''t seem like it would fit into a techno power category. No, it''s more like a Flux. That is, unless you''re a Multi-Growth." It was amon misconception that Alter powers were categorized under what type of power they were. To be more precise, they were categorized ording to the shape and location of their organ first, then the nature of their power second. Techno powers fell under the main category known as Psionics which generally exhibited powers rted to the mind. Things like future sight, however, fell under the Flux category that governed maniption of space-time. The only way Aarav could have both the power to deep dive into technology via ports and future sight was if he was a Multi-Growth, a rare Alter who possessed more than one organ. "I''m not blessed enough to be a Multi-Growth," said Aarav. He put his shades back on. "My main category is a Psionic. Subcategory: techno. I''m about asmonce as any street rat chrome head selling cracked hardware in rundown shacks. The only difference is my processing power. To be honest, Mr. Thanatos, there is no point probing me with questions about this eye of mine. Because I have no idea about it either. All I know are three things. One, that I was not born with it. Second, that it is not an Alter power. I have had it analyzed and appraised by Editors to no avail. It''s basically an unreadable mystery. Third, this is not something I actively control. Unlike my Alter power which feels as natural to use as moving the muscles on my body, I have no real control over this eye. I can will it to open and close, but that''s about it. I cannot control anything else about it. Not what it shows nor what it does. I feel as if I am merely a host to it. All I can do is witness the sight it grants me, and that is the silk floating ever so precariously upon a dark sea." "I see," said Aldrich. "Then at the end of the day, you''re basically guessing what that vision even means. Through trial and error where you experimented in making decisions that either shortened or lengthened your lifespan, you''ve figured out that the golden thread represents your life." "Correct," said Aarav. "And you can see now why I would see an unending thread and determine your partnership so very valuable, no?" "I understand now. Still, a power that doesn''t fit under any rules is something quite noteworthy," said Aldrich, his mind on the matter of Aarav''s peculiar power. It was not an Alter power. It was not something he was born with. It was not something he controlled. This waspletely unheard of. A power that did not fit under any conventional rules known about Alter powers just like how Aldrich''s video game powers did not fit under any known power framework. Granted, Aldrich himself did not know too much about the world either. He had been a rtively thorough researcher, but he could not ess anything hidden to the public eye. There were plenty of secrets out there in the world, with Colonel Davos''s Irregrs Department being one of them. That said, Aldrich figured that people like Aarav were who Colonel Davos routinely targeted. "You are infinitely more of an Irregr than I am, that''s for sure. Which is why colonel brickhead wanted you under his ''care'' so desperately. But still, if that colonel out there knew about this eye, I''m sure he would quite love to spread that care around and have me crammed into a test tube," said Aarav, thinking along the same lines as Aldrich. "Which is why you willingly came into the Null Box. So that you could reveal this power of yours without having any prying eyes peeking in," said Aldrich. "That''s right." "I''ve made up my mind: I''ll take your deal," said Aldrich. Aarav raised a brow. "And that is your final decision?" "Final decision? No. You said it first: I get to start off on a free trial ¨C I can call it quits on our deal anytime I want," said Aldrich. "That''s why I''m willing to ept so quickly. I''ll wait to see if you can fulfill your down payment, and then we can go from there." "Ah, right, I did say that," said Aarav. "Usually, I''m not this lenient on my business deals, so that slipped my mind. But for you, Mr. Thanatos, exceptions can and will be made. Now as for that down payment, I promised to get you to your hearing unharmed, didn''t I?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "I have no fears about my personal safety, but I don''t want to be dealing with people like the colonel over and over again. Whatever prison I''m being taken to, I want to make sure I am absolutely not disturbed, whether it''s by shadow government organizations or opportunistic corporate hounds." "Hm, where you''re going, I doubt guests will be much of an issue," said Aarav. "And where is that?" "Where the vilest of the vile, the worst of the worst, the most dangerous of the dangerous go down to wither away and die," said Aarav. "A Crypt." Chapter 176: Until Next Time Crypts. Crypts. Aldrich had only ever heard about them on the Net as urban legends. Supposedly, they were deep pits far underground where uncontroble threats were essentially just buried. Threats that just had no way to be dealt with normally. Viins that were too unstable and powerful to ever see the light of day without being a threat to society were cast down into Crypts and just locked up forever. Alters or Variants that could not die by any conventional means were also sent down into Crypts to essentially just be sealed away until time immemorial. Often times, Crypts were reused again and again, tossing in viins and variants into the same forsaken pit for them to brutalize each other. The biggest reason why Crypts were considered urban legend despite their name and function being mentioned from leaked government documents was due to the fact that nobody had ever found a Crypt. "A Crypt? Are they trying to kill me?" said Aldrich. "No. Not yet at least," said Aarav. "How much do you know about Crypts?" "The basics," said Aldrich. "The impression I get from them is that they''re death pits where insane viins and unkible monsters are all piled down together and locked up in one pit of festering agony." "Yeah, you would be pretty urate with that impression," said Aarav. "Just one thing to note. Most Crypts aren''t that big. Crypts are containment chambers built around underground Null Zones, and most of therger Null Zones are in territory too hostile to reliably man. That means most Crypts are on the smaller end. Not muchrger than single person upancy, I hear, so you won''t have any unsavory bunkmates. I''ve also confirmed that the Crypt you''re going to is empty. Granted, there are a fewrger Crypts where it truly is a mosh pit straight out of hell, but that''s not where you''re going. You''re wanted alive, so you get an empty Crypt. But you''re also perceived as dangerous and unpredictable, so you still end up in a Crypt." "That exins why Crypts are so difficult to find," said Aldrich. "Null Zones should interfere with any way to search for them, tech or Alter power wise. Building a prison around a Null Zone should make it near untraceable." "For good reason, too," said Aarav. "With all the nutjobs and crazies and new age cultists out there, can you imagine if they could track down a Crypt and free whatever insanity was trapped within? But anyways, you get what I mean when I say that guests won''t be an issue, no? Even I can''t stay on this transport all the way to your Crypt. They don''t want me knowing the coordinates to it." "Hm." Aldrich leaned back against the wall and looked up at the cklight ceiling of the Null Box, thinking. Aarav raised a finger. "But, Mr. Thanatos, I have the power to change that. This transport will make a stop in Ker to drop me off, but I have a little bit of authority there, you see. Just enough to make a very convincing argument for this transport to transfer you over to an AA department there, one that just so happens to be quite friendly with me. I can''tpletely free you, but I can arrange to have your containment be a little morefortable. Something akin to a house arrest at a vi, for example ¨C no cuffs needed. Granted, you will still be under constant surveince and have no Net ess, but I assume it''ll still be much better than-," "That''s perfect," said Aldrich with a nod as he stopped looking at the ceiling and stared ahead. "That''s absolutely perfect." "Then you''d prefer house arrest?" said Aarav. "What? No," said Aldrich. "I meant the Crypt." "Let me get this straight: you WANT to go to the Crypt?" said Aarav, taken aback. "Yes, the Crypt is the perfect spot," said Aldrich. The government, AA, and Panopticon all probably thought that sending Aldrich down to the Crypt was the absolute highest form of security they could chain him down with. A pit where no Alter powers worked and sealed with tons of metal like an iron sarcophagus. It was a ce where they could just throw him in without ever having to worry about him escaping. They could toss him in there and chit chat among themselves about what to do with him with peace of mind. Little did they know, the Crypt was essentially just the perfect gamer''s paradise for Aldrich ¨C a ce where nothing could disturb him from leveling up. Aldrich would never get visitors down in the Crypt, at least not until they unsealed it and took him out. Nobody could even check up on him because of the tech disruption. Aldrich turned to Aarav and spoke resolutely. "Make sure I go to the Crypt. Do you understand?" Aarav blinked behind his shades, wondering if Aldrich was a madman that fit right in a Crypt. He pushed up his shades and shrugged. "Sure, I can do that. Even if I don''t do anything, you''d be going there anyway. Don''t tell me you have a way to get out of the Crypt, Mr. Thanatos?" "That isn''t for you to worry about," said Aldrich. "Then again, even if you did, it would be prudent for you not to escape anyway," said Aarav. "They are also experimenting. Trying to see if this containment will be enough for an Irregr like you. If you choose not to escape, then you could lull them into a false sense of confidence to use against them when it really matters. I know I would do that if I was in your shoes. But anyways, I''ll fulfill the rest of my down payment too: I''ll see to it that you''ll not only get your hearing, but you''ll also get to it unharmed. One warning, though: it''s likely the hearing will be private and off the records. I can''t do anything to change that. The Tribunal will very likely want to talk to you about sensitive matters of national and global security, and that information is probably all ssified. Just in case you were wanting to try and broadcast your hearing to drum up public support like with that other high profile hearing viin turned hero , what was his name again, ah, right, Dracul." "That''s fine," said Aldrich. "Whether it''s public or not doesn''t matter. All that matters is getting to the hearing." Aarav nodded. "Now, it''ll be difficult to predict who will be on the Tribunal for that hearing, so I don''t think I can bribe everyone on there-," "You won''t have to," said Aldrich. "I''ll try to convince them on my own." "¡­And if your words just aren''t quite sweet enough?" said Aarav. "They will be," said Aldrich. Aarav shrugged again. "Well, if you have this much confidence in your speechmaking ability, then who I am I, a reclusive CEO famous for never making public appearances, to criticize you? Anyways, even if the Tribunal does condemn you as an uncontroble element, I''m still willing to work with you in a more illegal capacity. I don''t really care if you end up as a hero or viin or something else." Aarav stood up, cracked his knuckles, and walked over to the Null Box''s exit. "I only have a limited amount of time with you, and that time''s almost up. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Thanatos. This is just a hunch, but I have a feeling that this will be the beginning of something quite grand. Something to make some real change." Aarav banged on the door as loudly as he could. On the outside, it probably registered as just faint vibrations, but enough for anyone closely looking to see and take note of. The door began to slide open slowly. Aarav turned around to Aldrich with a final smile and a nod. "Until next time then?" "Until next time," repeated Aldrich. Chapter 177: Pale White When Aarav left, before the exit to Aldrich''s Null Box closedpletely, Colonel Davos''s face peeked in again. He held open the sturdily reinforced door with his own bare hand, indicating that the colonel''s base AC count was high enough for his strength to be decidedly superhuman. Considering the fact that the Null Box door was pure metal and almost half a meter thick, Aldrich determined that Colonel Davos was likely an Augmenter ss Alter whose muscles and bones tended to benefit the most from Alter cells. Colonel Davos stared at Aldrich with red eyes that glowed in the dark. They were unexceptional, though,pared to Aarav''s. They did not possess the same feeling of odd chill that Aarav''s unique eye gave off. "I don''t know what that corporate slink offered you-," began Colonel Davos. "Far more than you did," retaliated Aldrich. "I can imagine," said Colonel Davos. "My department can''t offer much in the same way that he can. We don''t have direct influence. We can''t put you on the news or pump your ounts full of credits." "Are you here to try and offer me another deal? Did you feel intimidated by what Mr. Singh might have offered?" said Aldrich. "I''ll admit that my approach with you might have been heavy handed," said Colonel Davos. "Times are tense now. Multiple major cities are under variant attack. And they''ve been coordinated attacks the likes of which we''ve never seen before. So many questions, and right at the center of it all, you seem to pop up. I was wary of you, everyone is. My orders were to either try and control you or destroy you, and that made me act rashly. I apologize for that." "So? You never answered my question. Will this apology lead into another deal?" said Aldrich. "I''m not authorized to give you a deal outside of the parameters which I was instructed to operate with," said Colonel Davos. "And here I thought you were the head of your department," said Aldrich. "You seem considerably restricted in spite of your position." "I am the head," said Colonel Davos. "One of several. I''m the head of Security and Containment. You were right before: I don''t do negotiations. I contain threats." "Am I safe to assume then that means the government has ssified me as a threat?" said Aldrich. "It''s a default ssification for safety''s sake," said Colonel Davos. "The fact that you could cooperate with that corporate suit means you aren''t apletely uncontroble force of nature as some Irregrs tend to be." Colonel Davos sighed. "Look, my higher ups want me to tell them one thing: should you be exterminated?" "What makes you think you have the power to do that in the first ce?" said Aldrich. "I don''t exactly know if I can have you destroyed. But people fear what they do not understand. They will seek to destroy it even if they don''t know whether they have the firepower to take it out, and often times, they''ll be willing to die trying," said Colonel Davos. "To answer your other question, I''m not here to offer you another deal, because any deal I''m authorized to make isn''t one you''d ept. But what I do want to do is ask you a question." "I''ll humor you then. Go on," said Aldrich. "Tell me," said Colonel Davos. "All I care about is that this world finds continued peace. That humanity survives another day. I''ll ask you a personal question, one that''s free from bureaucratic bullshit: are you on our side?" "I am," said Aldrich. "Don''t misunderstand me, Colonel. I''m not here to wipe out humanity. I want to help if I can, but if it ends up being that the only way I can help is through my own way, then I won''t be afraid to y solo." Colonel Davos nodded. "Alright. That''s all I needed to hear." That was all the Colonel Davos said as he let go of the Null Box door, letting it close over Aldrich. The outside of the Null Box was not much louder than the sound absorbent insides. There was only a skeleton crew on board consisting of a pilot, Colonel Davos, Aarav Singh, and a single guard to try and maintain as much secrecy as possible. "Interesting chit chat you had there," said Aarav as he took another cigarette out of his case. "Is that what you needed to tell your owners not to kill him? A little bit of a heart to heart, man to man talk?" "No smoking on board," was all Colonel Davos said as he walked away to the pilot''s cockpit. He never liked corporate suits like Aarav. They always rubbed him the wrong way. Aarav put his cigarette away and eyed Colonel Davos until he had sequestered himself away in the pilot''s cockpit. Then, he took out his cigarette anyway. "We sense that you may require assistance," came a soft-spoken woman''s voice. Aarav looked to the other end of the ne to see a noticeably small woman extending an incredibly pale palm towards him. At her fingertips, small sparks of white light shed, ready to light up Aarav''s cigarette. Aarav looked at her through his shades with curiosity. This was the guard that Colonel Davos had decided to bring on, indicating that she was someone powerful, at the very least powerful enough to contend with Thanatos who had bested a variant that, though unranked, would undoubtedly be in the A rank at minimum. Yet, looking at the woman, Aarav could not help but wonder how she could put up anything resembling a fight. The woman was not abnormally short, but she barely passed the five-foot mark (~ 152cm). She dressed in flowing white robes that looked almost like rags, and beneath tiny holes and tears smattered across the fabric, her incredibly pale white skin showed. She looked fragile. Like she was made of ss. There was something¡­off about her as well. It was in her expression. Orck of it. She seemed tock anything resembling normal human emotion. Her eyes were dull and greyed, as if she was blind, and her face did not seem to move at all as she spoke, staying permanently set in a nk stare. "I can handle at least this much. And don''t push yourself. With how pale and tiny you are, you seem a day away from kicking the bucket yourself," said Aarav as he lit his cigarette with a low output of his finger methrower. "...Kicking the bucket?" said the woman. "A figure of speech. Means you''re dying," said Aarav. "We are maintaining ourselves adequately," said the woman as she withdrew her hand, the glowing white sparks around her fingertips fading away. "Though there are times when we would desire more sustenance." "Ah, so the colonel over there isn''t even feeding you properly," said Aarav. Everything about this woman screamed ''Irregr''. Aarav himself had only a vague idea of what the Irregrs Department did ¨C that was how secretive they were ¨C but if ever there was someone that fit the bill of ''Irregr'', it was this odd woman. But Aarav kept his cool and spoke as if nothing was on his mind. "He can''t even keep his own workers fed, and he thinks he can win over Thanatos? Ridiculous." "Thanatos? Is that the name of the Irregr contained there?" said the woman as she stared at the Null Box. "You don''t even know his name? If you were stationed here as a guard, I figure you''d at least know that much," said Aarav. "We do not ce much importance on names. It is a foreign concept to us. Additionally, we are not allowed to know too much or leave our confinement very often," said the woman. She continued to stare at the Null Box with her nk, emotionless gaze. "When we are allowed to leave, it is always to interact with another deemed as an ''Irregr''. We always go, for we are hopeful that the Irregr we are tasked to meet will be like us and lead us home." "Home? And where is that?" said Aarav. "We are not allowed to disclose that information," said the woman. She continued on. "But we do not think that one can lead us home. That one does not seem to possess the capability." "Yeah? Then what do you want with him?" said Aarav, taking this opportunity to try and milk as much info from this Irregr as possible while she kept talking. "We do not have anything we desire from that one." The woman never broke her stare from the Null Box. "We are here simply to watch that one, and, if that one exhibits hostility, to be one with him." The woman stopped staring at the Null Box and just looked straight ahead, not focusing on anything in particr. She put a pale hand to her ear. "We are being informed not to speak. We will obey that order." "¡­" Aarav crossed his legs and drew in a breath from his cigarette. As he let out the smoke, he closed his right eye and thought about what would happen if he tried to st this woman with one of his Finger Armaments. He saw the golden silk thread of his life fall vanish, falling deep underwater, then re-emergepletely white. He did not exactly know what that meant, but he figured it was not a good sign. This was another strange power that seemed to mess with his sight in a way that no normal Alter could. Aarav had always prided himself in his ability to know things, but he was beginning to realize that perhaps not even he knew just how big the world could get. Chapter 178: Volantis Aldrich spent the next few hours of the ne ride doing nothing at all. In the Null Box, severed from mentallymunicating with any of his units, he found himself being unsurprisingly bored. There was only so much time he could devote to just constantly thinking about what he nned on doing, after all. At a certain point, when Aldrich''s boredom started to reach an appreciable mass, Vntis spoke out. "I sense that youck mental stimtion," said Vntis. "I may offer you stimtion, Armored." The idea of Vntis offering Aldrich any kind of ''stimtion'' repulsed him, and that was something considering Aldrich had a very high tolerance for almost anything. "Please don''t ever use that phrase with me again," said Aldrich. "My apologies, Armored," said Vntis. "But you''re right, I do have nothing to do," said Aldrich. He paused for a moment, remembering his time talking with the people at the shelter in Haven. He remembered how much their trust for Aldrich seemed to grow when he actually took the time to sit down there and talk with them individually to hear their stories. Aldrich figured the same could work with Vntis. Plus, it was a nice way to pass time. And Aldrich was curious about some thing about Vntis. "I''m a little curious, actually, Vntis," said Aldrich. "Why serve me? Is it because you''re under my control?" "No," said Vntis. "I call you my Armored for I deem you worthy." "Worthy? In what way?" "You wield power with purpose. Purpose that feels nostalgic to me." "And what purpose would that be?" "You have never stated your purpose to me directly, but I can sense it. It is akin to world domination. You wish to mold this world into your own image." "World domination?" Aldrich pondered this. His purpose for using his power was to try and bring order to this world. To minimize people like him that lived only to suffer and seek vengeance from being born. To put it simply, he wanted to make the world a better ce. It was a rtively noble goal, and not one unique to Aldrich. Where it started to get unique, though, was in the lengths Aldrich was willing to go. He was willing to kill, to control minds, and sacrifice lives, even innocent ones, if he had to. It was not that Aldrich did not care about innocent lives. No, he valued them, and if he could, he would try to preserve them. But his parents had died because they had surrendered after hostages were used against them. Had his parents allowed the hostages to die, they might have survived and done far more good across their entire lives. They could have given Aldrich a proper and loving childhood. Aldrich deeply respected the noble ideals his parents had been willing to uphold even to their deaths, but a part of him had felt resentment as well, especially when he had been younger. Resentment that his parents had been willing to sacrifice Aldrich''s happiness for their ideals. Over the years, Aldrich hade to terms with what his parents had done, and he no longer resented them. But it was engraved in him now that if he ever came upon a simr situation, he would not make the same mistakes his parents did. On that note, when it came to the lengths he was willing to go to, if it ever came down to it that Aldrich had to be some kind of ruler, some kind of emperor like authority over the whole world, then he would not hesitate. In that sense, Aldrich could see where Vntis wasing from. Aldrich was willing to dominate the world to get what he wanted. "I guess you could say that," said Aldrich. "You mentioned that my purpose felt nostalgic, though. Does that mean you served someone else with a simr goal? The Death Lord, I assume, considering the fact that she wanted the entire realm to be part of her own realm of death?" Aldrich actually had no idea what Vntis''s backstory was like. In the game, Vntis was not fleshed out too much. He was just one of the Death Lord''s mini-bosses who appeared to thwart the yer during the mid game. After getting defeated, Vntis then went on a warrior''s journey to recover his honor, growing stronger and finally severing and integrating hand of the Blood God to be a fully fledgedte game boss. But aside from dialogue showcasing that Vntis was a dutiful warrior that served the Death Lord to the very end, there was very little about his actual past. "The Death Lord also had a purpose to her power, yes, but she was never my Armored," said Vntis. "The nostalgia I feel seems to be from my past life, before I became forged into armor. I served¡­someone with a strong vision. Someone that wanted to dominate the world. However, I remember only faint pieces of them. I cannot even recall their appearance. When I try, all I perceive is shadow where they once were." "So, not the Death Lord. Interesting," said Aldrich. He knew that Vntis did not have the best memory of his past life, but if Vntis could remember even a little bit, Aldrich thought it was possible to use his knowledge of the lore to find out who Vntis had been. "Do you remember more?" Vntis''s normally smooth, calm voice grew faintly warm, as if remembering fond memories. "¡­I remember marching with them across dry steppes. I remember passing the steppes, into swamps, into desert, into forest, into snow, into fire. I remember standing atop a great mountain. They stood at the precipice and waved their arms at the world unfolding before them, saying that it would all be theirs and they would make things right. I remember being swept away by that grand dream, feeling as if my life had purpose. Before then, I knew I had been a fighter. But I had fought only for the sake of the fight. My mind had been simple. I ate, slept, and sought only the next challenge to kill and take their bones to add to my collection." "I get it now," said Aldrich as he came to a realization. There was exactly on species in Elden World that lived in steppe like ins and took the bones of others as war trophies. "It''s surprising, but all your memories hint to you having been an Orc in your past life." Chapter 179: Volantis (2) Vntis remained quiet, as if pondering what Aldrich said. Then, after a small spell of silence, the living armor spoke again. "An orc? Even I find that difficult to believe. I had always thought orcs as vile, simple, brutish creatures. I myself have drenched my hands in their blood many times. Few I have ever found worthy to add their bones to my collection." "I''m almostpletely sure about this," said Aldrich. He put a hand to his chin out of habit as he continued to think and remember. There was almost no doubt in Aldrich''s mind: Vntis had been an orc. Orcs in Elden World were generally regarded as gruff, unintelligent, barbaric creatures by other races due to their bloodthirsty warmongering ways that sought conflict seemingly with their every waking moment. Many races looked down on orcs because of this, and Vntis himself, with his memories erased, saw them as brutes. But it was simply a difference in culture and circumstance. A matter of perspective. Orcs did not care about building towering cities or longstanding civilizations that wouldst through the test of time. The Shattends from which they hailed from raged with routine devastating storms that would wipe out any attempt to build a city. Hence, the orcs were nomadic, but this also meant they were mocked as uncivilized. They did not have grand archives that told thousand-year histories of their people. They moved far too much to ever have a ce to store any kind of document of their lives. Instead, the orcs told their tales through stories passed down from generation to generation, causing other peoples to believe theycked any real sense of culture. The orcs did not worship a god or a pantheon of gods, for as a people, they were too scattered, too fragmented in countless different nomadic tribes, to ever ball up their faith enough to sustain a proper god. Nor could the orcs who lived for the moment, for the present, ever stand the often intangible nature of more major gods that shared their presence only with a precious few priests. Instead, they worshipped what they could tangibly see around them every day ¨C nature. But this also meant some peoples, particrly the zealous followers of the goddess Amara, believed the orcs to be godless heretics. Orcs loved to battle, with the thirst for the fight wired into their very blood, and thus they were perceived as bloodthirsty brutes. But that trait kept the orcs alive in an ever changing yet constantly harsh environment. Their culture reflected this reverence and desire for the fight with their penchant for taking bones as war trophies. A sign of respect among their ways, but to other peoples, such an act screamed of horrifying barbarism. Vntis''s striking obsession with fighting powerful enemies and harvesting their bones likely came directly from this orc practice. But then who was this leader that Vntis had followed? This leader that had influenced Vntis so strongly that he retained vague memories of them even through the forcing process to be a Living Armor. A powerful forging process crafted by demons meant to wipe out any memories of the original soul. That level of soul maniption was outside the boundaries of even Legion Necromancers. It took a Lich at the minimum to get there, showcasing just how advanced the demons'' smithing process was and how strong this memory must have been to linger in on Vntis even through all that. "Then the leader I followed was also an orc?" said Vntis. "It cannot be. For so long, I had thought of orcs as simple creatures to ughter. You are to say that I was one of them?" "Yes, I''m pretty sure that''s right," said Aldrich. "You mentioned leaving the steppes and going into forest and snow and fire. That indicates you traveled across huge swathes ofnd, far beyond the Shattends that the orcs called home that''s mostly barren steppes. I know that at a certain point, orcs started to unify every so often under a warfather or warmother, creating great hordes that traveled past the forbidding mountain ranges and even the stormy seas to othernds inrge scale raids. You must have been a member of one of these hordes." "A¡­horde¡­?" Vntis spoke slowly, as if he himself was trying to understand what he was hearing. "You left the steppes, into forests, deserts, snow, and fire¡­hm, not many warfathers or warmothers could have made it that far. That should narrow it down, but who was it exactly¡­," Aldrich, absorbed in his thoughts, continued to parse through his memories of Elden World''s rich and extensive lore. The reason Aldrich needed to focus so much to recall this lore was because of how Elden World was structured. When it came to lore, Elden World was incredibly hands off. The yer had a main goal ¨C to defeat the Howling Dark ¨C and that was really it. How they approached this goal and how much of the world they explored in doing so was entirely dependent on the yer. For example, for a Necromancer like Aldrich, one of his final boss fights involved the goddess Amara sealing the Death Lord in the Nexus to defeat as the 12th and final Trial Quest. After defeating the Death Lord, the yer character received a huge buff to their strength which they then used in a climactic final boss fight against the Howling Dark and its minions. But that was the endgame for the Necromancer. There were various other paths for Warriors, Priests, Assassins, and so on and so forth to the point that Aldrich himself, even with his extensive ytime, had only scratched the surface of the secrets in the game. What his familiarity with the Necromancer ss did do, however, was force Aldrich to explore the world considerably. It made him pay attention to small things like item descriptions, the appearance of environments, and seemingly unimportant pieces of NPC dialogue to find out exactly where to find the best creatures to raise. Because of this, and because Aldrich himself had a strong interest in finding out lore, he had a very solid understanding of the parts of the world that his ss could explore. It was not a perfect understanding as there were surely countless other secrets known only to those that did ythrough with other sses, but it was still extensive enough that Aldrich knew a good amount about everything. "Fire¡­," repeated Aldrich. "Ah, right, the onlynd of fire is Helith, the home of the demons, and it is incredibly far from the Shattends to the point where only one Orc leader has ever reached it. Warmother Th. Or, as other races would have known her, Th the Conqueror. Her horde, the Golden Horde, had a serious shot of building a serious empire if she hadn''t been assassinated by demons. Does that all ring a bell?" "Th¡­? I-I don''t know," began Vntis, his voice cracking uncharacteristically. Aldrich immediately perked up in rm. He sensed the metal of Vntis start to rattle around his body of bones. "Vntis, is something wrong?" "Th? Warmother? Conqueror?" Vntis spoke almost as if in a trance. "I should not know this, and yet, why does this sound so familiar? This¡­should not be possible. I should not remember-I cannot remember. Gh¡­gh!" Vntis instantly opened up his armored body, separating into countless strands of metal that peeled back to bare Aldrich to the open air. He instantly rolled forwards, the dark grey bones of his Lich body ttering against the metal in the Null Box. Thankfully, the Null Box was such an insted space that Aldrich doubted anything going on inside of it could be heard outside. Aldrich watched Vntis with green light shing in his eye sockets. Vntis''s form was still opened up, but all around the ck metal of his body, both inside and outside, there were countless odd red sigils gleaming with a burning intensity. The shade of red emanating from them was unmistakable ¨C these were demonic runes. Aldrich did not understand what was happening. He assumed he had triggered some kind of mechanism embedded within Vntis, one embedded from the demons that forged him, the prevented him from recalling his past. Vntis''s voice echoed out from his peeled open form, but the voice was not directed to Aldrich. When Vntis spoke, his voice lost the smooth, elegant tone. The voice that had made him sound almost robotic sometimes, like a perfect A.I. Instead, this new voice came out with a far rawer timber. The voice was deeper, more guttural, andced with a permanent growl. "Th¡­they left you. They let the demons do this to you. What do I do? Without your dream? All I am¡­all I am is a monster. You were the one that showed me I could be more. But¡­if a monster is what they want, it''s what I''ll give them. Orcs¡­humans¡­elves¡­dragons¡­demons ¨C I''ll take their bones¡­ I''ll take¡­ And take¡­ And take¡­ Until there is nothing left¡­" Chapter 180: Into the Crypt Aldrich felt magical energy rising around Vntis, rising up in blood colored steam from all the red runes around his metal body. As a being of innate mystical power, Aldrich could immediately tell through sheer instinct that the amount of magic emanating from Vntis was considerable. He briefly worried whether it could be sensed by even those that were not magically sensitive, but he pushed that concern away. If nobody had been able to perceive Aldrich''s mana up to this point, then nobody would sense this now. Still, Aldrich prepared his own magic, green strands curling around his skeletal fingers. Just in case something happened that required him to defend himself. But nothing more happened. Instead, the steam-like magical energy around Vntis suddenly dissipated. The glowing red runes lost their light and faded away. Vntis reformed back to his full self, but instead of his eye dot being red, it was now a simple nk white. "Vntis?" said Aldrich cautiously. "This armor is undergoing forced repair to correct internal issues" said Vntis in his usual smooth, controlled tone, though it was very evident to Aldrich now that this voice was not actually his. It was a voice that the demons had imnted within him. "It will still be operational, but some functions will bepromised until repairs are finished. Sensing Armored in vicinity." Vntis opened up again, and Aldrich asked a question. "How long until this armor is repaired? What does a repair entail?" "Estimated time of repairpletion: unknown," said the voice. "Query: repair function registered. Answering: A repair indicates a full return of internal systems to their most recent state before corruption in order to preserve umted battle experience and Armoredpatibility." "I see," said Aldrich. So it was basically like aputer rebooting itself to itsst known good configuration. In this case, Vntis would return to how he was exactly before he had started to remember his past fully. "It is rmended that the Armored still wear the unit," said the armor. "Repair functions are greatly enhanced and stabilized by anchoring to an Armored." Aldrich tentatively stepped back into the armor. It was not that he was not cautious about Vntis''s sudden shift and the possibility that something might go wrong wearing him. But Aldrich did not want to reveal his true form or even his Materius human appearance. So, Aldrich took the risk. Vntis''s metal strands closed in around Aldrich, knitting back into a full, regal armor. Aldrich felt nothing was off. He sensed no danger. The only issue was, as whatever runic mechanism present in Vntis had said, some functions were unavable. Aldrich could ess the enhanced stats that Vntis offered, but not any of Vntis''s stitching or anything really that Vntis himself operated. It felt simr to working with a Frame that had it''s A.I. shut down. Well, this had been utterly surprising. Aldrich sighed as he leaned back against the wall of the Null Box again. He was not an omniscient being. He could not predict everything, but usually, if he nned or thought hard enough, he could expect what kind of surprises he would face. But this waspletely out of his grasp. Aldrich''s lore knowledge about demons was good but not perfect. Legion Necromancers had very little reason to travel to Helith. He did not know all the tiny details that went into forging a Living Armor. Had he done a ythrough as a Warlock, then he might have known more, but there was no use thinking about what ifs. All Aldrich could really do was wait and see if Vntis returned back to normal in time. If not, he could still go to the Nexus and reach out to the Death Lord or, if the Trial Quests were still there, kill and raise Deimos the warlock who probably knew more about this than Aldrich did. The biggest thing that annoyed Aldrich was that he lost his talking partner for the rest of his trip. = It took a total of roughly twelve hours for Aldrich''s transport to arrive to its location. He did not know exactly when the transport moved or stopped because of the isting nature of the Null Box, but he figured that when the box''s door opened up, revealing Colonel Davos again, that it was time to get out. Aldrich had put the High Threat Null Restraints, or, more easily known as null cuffs, back on to remove any hint of suspicion from himself. The null cuffs, thankfully, did not have anyplicated tech in them that could track whether they had been taken on or off. "We''re here," said Colonel Davos. "My cell, I assume?" said Aldrich. "Consider it protective custody," said Colonel Davos. He narrowed his eyes at Aldrich''s helmet. "What happened to your face? I heard you mentioned to the Guardians that this armor of yours functions as a life support system of some kind. Has anything changed about your condition?" "You try weathering a twelve-hour ne ride with nothing to do, Colonel," said Aldrich. "Don''t worry about it. The color of the dot on my helmet doesn''t mean much. This just represents my boredom." "Well, you better get prepared for more of that," said Colonel Davos. "Where you''re going, it''ll be pretty much the same. Now step out of the Null Box." Aldrich did as asked and stepped out, and when he stood by Colonel Davos, he stood a full head taller than the man. "Hold out those cuffs for me," said Colonel Davos. He took out a baton from a sheathe on his hip, and with the press of a button on the handle, it glowed a bright white, humming with energy. Aldrich held out his cuffed arms, and Colonel Davos struck the center part of the cuffs linking Aldrich''s arms together with the baton. A burst of electricity ran through the metal, and the metal of the cuffs dissolved away, breaking apart into countless little rice grain sized particles. All that was left of the cuffs on Aldrich were tworge, surprisingly thin rings that emanated cklight. This was the Null Ore. They loosely ttered against Aldrich''s wrists, giving him ample space to just slip out of them. Colonel Davos took the baton, pressed another button on the handle, turning it purple, and hovered it above the ground. The little grains of metal that the cuffs had dissolved into all drew towards the baton like it was a ma, merging together into a metal case around the structure. Nanotech, Aldrich noted. Specifically, memory metal. Advanced nanotech that utilized any external connections or internal processing did not work in proximity to Null Ore, but memory metal only required a specific charge to run through it to fix itself into pre-determined shapes. In this case, that shape had been cuffs. "I''ll take those." Colonel Davos took the Null Ore rings, fixing them to a utility belt. "You''re not afraid, Colonel?" said Aldrich as he looked right down at Davos,pletely uncuffed. In Colonel Davos''s eyes, Aldrich was nowpletely free to use his powers. It was possible that Davos was incredibly strong himself, but thoughpetent as a fighter, Aldrich could not feel the same amount of threat he would feel from someone genuinely strong as, say, Seismic or Solomon Sr. "If I was, I wouldn''t have this job," said Colonel Davos. "I also do have some backup. 22, show yourself." Chapter 181: 22 A small, white haired, white eyed, white robed woman manifested above, near the ceiling of the sizable transport. She was small and made herself even smaller by sitting with her legs drawn up and her arms hugging them like a child. She floated in the air as if in zero gravity. "Hello, Irregr," said the woman as she waved at Aldrich in a greeting. Her voice showed no hint of emotion. Neither did her face. She was unreadable to Aldrich not in the same way as Solomon Sr who had lived a fake life for so long he was a master at hiding himself. No, she was unreadable because there literally was nothing to read. As if she was not a human at all. There was something strangely off about this woman. Aldrich could not quite ce it, but when he looked at her, he felt like he saw somethingpletely uncanny. Something that did not belong. Like seeing a car in a medieval vige. One thing Aldrich did note, though, was that he could sense threat from her. His instinct was not so sharp that he could urately parse exactly how strong she was ¨C he needed Vntis''s truesight for that ¨C but it was honed enough to know what was a threat or not. And this woman was a threat. "And I assume you''re his guard dog meant to take me down if I misbehave?" said Aldrich. "We will protect that one if needed," said the woman, or, as Colonel Davos called her, ''22''. "But we would prefer not to engage in hostilities with you. You are too powerful to engage without being willing to sacrifice much of us." "Then that makes two of us. I''m not here to fight, I''m here to wait for my hearing," said Aldrich. He briefly scanned the room, trying to wonder what the woman meant by ''we'', but figured that it was an oddity of hers to refer to herself in the plural. Aldrich realized that the ne was still moving, still in the air. "I would ask you to take me to my cell, but considering we''re still in the air, I assume you have a few things you want to talk to me about." "Just a few things you should note," said Colonel Davos. "The ce you''re going to is known as a Crypt. It''s a ''Cold'' Crypt, meaning it''s meant for safe containment of individuals or small groups only. Down there, you''ll be protected to the absolute best of our abilities. Nobody knows about this location except a select few, and 22 here will be your guard to ensure nothing tries to get to you in the off chance that someone, say that corporate suit, somehow managed to leak where you are." "Safe containment? You''re throwing me down a pit and telling me it''s for my safety?" said Aldrich. "I guess that''s amusing in its own way." "Trust me, that Crypt is one of the safest ces in this world that I know of," said Colonel Davos. "And I know far more than I should. Here''s what will happen. At mymand, a hatch will open up, and you''ll be beamed down into the Crypt. You will be going several hundred meters underground into a naturally urring Null Zone. Do not be rmed ¨C the gravity beam won''t cut off due to the Null Zone, and it will prate deep enough tond you safely. At the bottom, you''ll find yourself in a secured, cylindrical structure of metal thick enough that without powers, you''re never going to drill through it. When you''re situated at the bottom, the Crypt will close. Rations will be dropped down to you in intervals of three days, and they will be more than enough to sustain you. A tracker wille with them. Press the button on it, and it''ll float back up to the top ¨C this is how we confirm you''re still alive. I understand that I don''t know whether you need specific amodations to keep you alive. The Guardians'' bioscans of you all came out with unreadable results. All I know is that you need this armor. That it''s the only thing stopping you from being just a pile of bone. If you have any other requirements, now''s the time to let me know." "None, Colonel," said Aldrich. The less he asked, the less anyone would pay attention to him. "I''m sure whatever nd MRE bar you throw down will be enough to keep me alive. Send down a book or two while you''re at it so I don''t pass from boredom, will you?" "I''ll submit that request," said Colonel Davos. He walked over to a control panel, and when he pressed his hand on it for a scan, a holographic screen popped up. He pressed a few buttons, prompting both the floor and ceiling of the Null Box to slide open. The Null Box was attached to a pir of metal above that housed a gravity beam mechanism, and that activated now. Circuit patterns running across the pir glowed purple, and a beam of the same color passed through the Null Box and down into the windy depths below. "Step into the Null Box again-," began Colonel Davos. "I know," said Aldrich. He walked in, and instead of falling straight down through the open hatch below, he stood suspended in air, weightless. He turned to Colonel Davos. "If we do meet again, Colonel, let''s meet on better terms. Because my patience may not be as generous as it was this time." "Noted," said Colonel Davos, maintaining a steely exterior. At least one thing was true: the colonel did not feel fear. "Bye." 22 waved at Aldrich innocently. He just nodded to her. He could not really fathom her. She was an Irregr, no doubt about it, and so she had no public presence that Aldrich could reference. She possessed threatening power, and yet, Aldrich could not read any hostile intent from her, if he could even urately read her through herplete expressionlessness. Aplete wild card. Aldrich would have to be careful in dealing with her. The colonel pressed a few more buttons on the holographic screen, and Aldrich beamed downwards. He looked down to see night sky, then soon, a yawning dark void surrounded by an empty stretch of dry, cracked earth. And into that void, Aldrich went. = Colonel Davos watched as the hatch door sealed shut, the sound of wind whirling into the transport fading away into near silence. His gaze lingered on the shut door for a moment. He hade out of this whole interaction with Thanatos not knowing exactly where that man, no, that Irregr, stood. He wanted to trust Thanatos if only because it would prevent the massive headache of trying to contain an active, living Irregr of that power, but he knew in his line of work that Irregrs were always difficult to trust. More often than not, they simplycked human sensibilities. Or if they did have them, it was because they had observed, adapted, and stolen human behavior as a survival mechanism like 22 had. Thanatos had been ssified hastily as an Irregr, but was he truly one? Colonel Davos knew by now when he was talking to a man or something that pretended to be a man. And he did not get the sense he was talking to thetter with Thanatos. Colonel Davos sighed in exhaustion as he rubbed his forehead. It was too hard to tell. Regardless, his job here was done. Or he hoped so. The only time Colonel Davos would see Thanatos again was if he was called to contain him. So long as Thanatos did not do anything drastic that wouldbel him as a threat, his ssification as an Irregr would probably get dropped, especially if he managed to peacefully integrate with authorities. But it was still better to be prepared. "Do you think you can beat him?" said Colonel Davos. "We are unsure," said 22 as she floated down to the ground andnded on it with her bare feet. "We sense that one is a considerable threat that we would not engage with unlessmanded. We would sacrifice approximately 64% of ourselves at the minimum to ensure appreciable chances of sess." "64%? That''s not bad," said Colonel Davos. He grunted, ridding himself of that optimistic notion. "But he has an entire army hidden somewhere with at least two beings rivaling, if not exceeding his strength. Three if I count Seismic. These damn mega corporations. They start wars and now they ruin investigations. If Hammerhead wasn''t a major subsidiary of a Council of Fortune member, I could''ve had Seismic in my custody." Colonel Davos looked at 22 and saw she was still staring at the Null Box where Thanatos had been. "What? You''ve taken a liking to him?" "We are simply interested," said 22 simply. "Remember that you''re supposed to guard him," said Colonel Davos. "If I get a sense that you don''t understand what that duty entails, then you know the consequences." "Release of a mechanism that causes drastic decay to us," said 22. "We understand." "Good," said Colonel Davos. "I''m going to open a door after Thanatos has been fully secured. Go out through that and keep an eye on him. Make sure nothing gets to him. Use lethal force as required." "We understand" said 22. Colonel Davos nodded as he walked back to the pilot cockpit, and when he left, 22 still stood there, staring eerily at the box that once held the Irregr. ''As we thought, you are not from home. You cannot take us back,'' thought 22. ''But your scent is not from here either. Like us, you do not belong on this.'' Chapter 182: Into the Nexus Aldrich stood at the bottom of his Crypt, doing what he did best: observing. He had expected to be dumped straight into a natural Null Zone. He did not know exactly what Null Zones looked like, but if rumors on the Net had any weight behind them, they were supposed to be areas filled with giant Null Ore that protruded from the ground in forests of cklight crystal. There were also rumors that monsters even more terrifying than variants roamed them, but these were entirely unfounded. Considering Aldrich was underground, he figured he would have been in some kind of cave filled with the crystals. That got him excited about the possibility of taking some for himself, but no, beneath him was a metal floor, around him were metal walls, and above him, far, far up, at least a hundred and fifty meters up, there was a series of giant metal ceilings that locked together to form a thick, entrapping seal. Yet, through the metal, Aldrich could see the faint shine of Null. The metal was not grey but tinted a slight purple. Null energy permeated through almost all known metals, and it did not take much exposure to disable an Alter. In fact, if containing a live prisoner was the goal, then it was better to keep the Null exposure insted to some degree as it was in the Null Box. There were studies done on captive variants showing that extendedplete exposure to Null energy caused the body to start breaking apart from within. Flesh rotted, blood vessels burst, bones cracked, and internal growths akin to rampant cancer red up. Most likely because with the Alter organ prevented from circting its unique cells, the body that relied on its enriching effects quickly broke apart. Aldrich ced a hand on a wall. A thickyer of dust puffed up in a cloud around his ck metaled fingers. Nobody had been here in some time. The surface of the metal was rtively smooth, but there were small dents and scratches here and there, some leading into a discernable pattern upwards. Evidently, prior visitors to this ce had tried to escape. Aldrich tracked the patterns up, but they stopped past fifty or so meters up. Something prevented them from going any further. Aldrich rapped his fist on the wall with minor impact. The metal vibrated, echoing the impact surprisingly well with a dull ring. "I see," said Aldrich with a nod. He had an idea of how the Crypt worked. Essentially, there WAS arger area with Null Ore within it. Presumably a cavern of some sort. But this giant metal cylinder was dropped within it, presumably exactly to prevent people from trying to mess with the Null crystals or finding some way out via underground passageways. The fact that there were very few dents on the metal likely meant that there was some way to track if someone was trying to break through. The sudden disappearance of climbing marks after fifty meters indicated a countermeasure for those trying to climb up. Likely tied with this metal''s property to channel vibrations well. Aldrich''s theory was that any appreciable impact caused enough vibrations to trigger sensors above the influence of Null''s tech disrupting properties. Aldrich sat down and made himselffortable. He was not intending on escaping anyway, he just wanted to make sure he knew what his surroundings were like. The only thing that really mattered to him was that surveince was impossible, and the presence of Null light did exactly that. Now then, with that confirmed, Aldrich got ready to get to work. He had taken enough of a break from fighting, it was time for a little bit of excitement now. He ced his hand on the ground, and a green light burst from it. Aldrich revealed his hand, a faint trail of smoke curled around his palm, baring a glowing green sigil. [1x Sign Stone consumed] The sigil, Aldrich noted, was different. It consisted of simple line patterns that formed a shape reminiscent of a tower. He did not pay it much mind because he sensed nothing was off about it. Instead, he put his hand over the sign, and it reacted, glowing bright. [Will you enter the Nexus?] Of course, Aldrich''s answer was yes. When he willed this, the light from the sigil surged up, engulfing him. As he felt the darkness of his prison turn into the darkness of dimensional shifting, he thanked circumstance for putting him in this jail. The world probably thought that they had Aldrich secure here, especially with that ''22'' entity, an entity unbound by anyw, ready to fight him and try to kill him, but all the government had provided Aldrich was a very neat, very private spot to grow stronger. It reminded him of meditation caves where cultivators in some Chinese novels went to grow stronger. Though, unlike them, Aldrich would not take 500 years. Probably. He hoped the Death Lord had not changed too much, but knowing her unpredictable personality, really anything went. Regardless, he was prepared for the worst. = But when Aldrich manifested into the Nexus, the worst was not what he got. Instead, the moment he materialized, he was hit full force with what felt like a speeding truck. Aldrich crashed into the ground, skidding backwards. "Oof," managed out Aldrich as he looked down to see Valera tackling him down with a full hug. "Master¡­you don''t know how much I missed you!" said Valera. "It¡­hasn''t even been a day," said Aldrich with struggling breath. Valera''s hugs had always been dangerous, but with her level now almost reaching 50, they were now no joke. "A day without you is like an eternity to me," said Valera as she let out a sigh of contentment in holding Aldrich. "I...appreciate you too," said Aldrich. As Valera snuggled into his chest, he hovered his hand over her back, wavering, wondering if this was the right thing to do. "Hm?" Valera suddenly detached from Aldrich, letting him stand up. She circled around him, narrowing her red eyes as she inspected Aldrich''s body like a wary cat. "What is it?" said Aldrich as he looked around to get a brief idea of his surroundings. He was not in the Nexus at all. He was outside, standing in a vast field of grass that stretched out into the horizon. Countless beautiful white lilies swayed in a gentle breeze, all of them glowing with a ghostly purple light. There was no sun here, leaving this ce in permanent night. There was still light, though, shining from high above, in a huge green orb atop an enormous tower that stretched into the skies. The orb mimicked the role of a moon, casting pale silver light tinted with green downwards. The Necropolis. This was...the Death Lord''s realm? Had Aldrich been ported here? No, Sign Stones worked only for the Nexus. Had she merged the Necropolis with the Nexus, then? "What happened to the armor? He alwaysined about his personal space, I would have thought he would speak out now," said Valera. "Vntis¡­is undergoing repairs" said Aldrich. "Repairs?" Valera put a hand to her lip in concern. She was dressed in her ck dress set, and there, standing in the grass, amid a field of glowing purple lilies, she looked stunning, like something straight out of a masterpiece painting. Physical beauty did not affect Aldrich due to his Lich status, but he could still understand and appreciate it. "Will he be alright?" said Valera, concerned. "I''m surprised you would ask about his wellbeing," said Aldrich. "I am envious of how close he gets to be with you, and thoroughly annoyed by how he prevents me from expressing my loyalty" said Valera. "But that does not mean I can take away from what he does for you. What he does for this Legion by protecting you when I cannot." "You''re bing more open minded," noted Aldrich. "It was a habit of mine to think myself your only defender," said Valera. She smiled proudly. "After all, I am your guardian knight. None should be deserving to shield you but I!" She shook her head. "But that is simply not true. I cannot be there with you all the time, nor am I the only one that deserves to protect you. I realized it when I saw that little girl with the spatial magic work so very hard even under my harsh expectations. All of us ¨C the entire Legion ¨C are your guardian knight, and each of us has a role to y in it. My feelings cannot be allowed to break the order of our Legion, especially not when I hold such a high role within it." "What a finemander you have, Death Walker!" The Death Lord before Aldrich and Valera. She pointed to Valera with her pipe, trails ofvender smoke curling from her lips as she spoke. "She learns so very quickly. Reminds me of myself when I was younger. But enough of this idle chatter!" The Death Lord raised a proud arm in the air, the pipe in her fingers drawing a trail of smoke with her movements. Aldrich noticed then that she only had a single arm. "And wee to your new and much improved Nexus!" Chapter 183: [Bonus chapter] Into the Nexus 2 [Bonus chapter for keeping me in top 20 powerstones/golden tickets] Aldrich paused to stare at the Death Lord, noting the drastic changes to her. One of her arms waspletely gone, her robes hanging loosely around the area. One of her shining, emerald green draconic eyes was gone, covered over by a ck eyepatch. Under the eyepatch, the hints of burned flesh were visible. One of the Death''s Lord''s ck horns had been severed, crumbled down to the base. All of the damage she took, it seemed, was localized to her right side. The injuries stood in contrast to her regal robes, but she still proudly strutted about as if nothing was wrong at all, showing her shapely legs under the slit of her robes and putting out her chest with all the confidence in the world. "¡­" Valera side eyed Aldrich with a narrow gaze. "What happened to you?" said Aldrich. "Oh, this?" The Death Lord looked down at her missing arm. "Nothing, really. A sparring session with one of my Deathguard that turned a little intense." "Your First Deathguard, I assume? That''s the only one that could injure you like this," said Aldrich. Among the Death Lord''s five Deathguard, the number in the guard did not indicate strength. Vntis, for example, was fifth, but at his peak, when he went on his warrior''s journey to be stronger and obtained the [Hand of the Blood God], he became the second or third strongest. But the First Deathguard was no doubt the undisputed strongest. Re the God yer was her name. She was the estranged daughter of a High God called Rathos who was basically the equivalent of Zeus in Elden World, and in raw firepower, she exceeded even the Death Lord with massive area of effect lightning barrages. "Re does find it difficult to control herself sometimes," nodded the Death Lord. "But enough about my injuries, they hardly weaken me. How about I introduce you to the much-needed changes I made to this pitiable space that ignorant goddess deemed the ''Nexus?''" "You''re weakened, you say?" said Aldrich. "Then what happens if I challenge you here and now? Do I have a chance to usurp your power all at once?" "Hoh? You would approach me like that? Challenge me to now?" The Death Lord smiled, baring her many sharp, draconic teeth. "If taking down this snake is what you require-," Valera put her arm out to the side and stood firmly by Aldrich''s side, her cross-shield materializing around her arm. "Then I will be happy to oblige, master." "Hm. I may be weakened, Death Walker, but you are being too confident just because you''ve received some power. Uncharacteristically confident," said the Death Lord. "It was just a hypothetical," said Aldrich. "Heh, an interesting one to consider, my Death Walker, but patience. We will have our destined battle soon. And you''re not at full strength either, though, are you?" said the Death Lord as she breathed out a ring of purple smoke that floated towards Aldrich''s helm. It would havended on his white dot eye before he batted the smoke out the way. "What did you do to my dear Vntis? I allow him to serve you and hees back like this. Poor thing." "He''ll be fine soon," said Aldrich. He looked around. "Where are the rest of my units?" "Ah, they are resting in the Nexus," said the Death Lord. She waved her pipe, beckoning Aldrich forward. "Come,e! I am just dying to show you how much I have changed things for the better! Oh, I am already dead, but you understand what I mean." The Death Lord strutted away, walking towards the imposing castle gate of the towering Necropolis. Valera held her shield tight still, but Aldrich put his hand on her shoulder. "It''s alright." He started to follow the Death Lord. One thing he noted was that the Death Lord was actually not that good at hiding her expressions and emotions in the way that, say, Solomon Sr was. She was too expressive when her true appearance wasid bare like this. She probably relied on her enormous full body armor covered her face to make her unreadable. But Aldrich could tell she was not entirelyfortable with his questioning. It was in the way her eyes shifted, in the way her serpentine tongue flitted out in a hint of displeasure, in the way her eye ever so slightly twitched, that he got the idea that she was not exactly telling the truth of her injuries. Aldrich did not press on further in this matter, though. The Death Lord was probably never going to give him a straight answer, and so long as she did not pose a direct threat, he could tolerate her. Valera nodded, her shield dematerializing. She gave the spot where Aldrich had touched a lingering, loving gaze, before quickly following behind Aldrich. The Death Lord walked up to the bone decorated castle gate of the Necropolis and waved her hand in front of it. The door crackled with green magical energy, but it did not move. "Ugh. My magic is still not what it was," said the Death Lord. "I will just do this." The Death Lord took her pipe between her fingers and cast a spell. "[Outer Mist Phase]." The smoke emanating from her pipe turned green, amplifying in mass into clouds that covered Aldrich and Valera. "You can afford to cast a 8th circle spell like this but not open a simple door?" said Aldrich. "You are quite critical of me today. I almost feel shy," said the Death Lord as she made a mock gesture to hide the low cut of the robes that barely hid her chest. "But s, I am Lord of Death, and shame is not part of my being. Now, take this warp with me to the Nexus. There, you may be reunited with the rest of your budding Legion." The Death Lord shed a mischievous smile. "And quite the change to, well, everything in that ursed ce ranging from that dreary old smith to those putrid divine waters to the shadowy mannequin of that disgusting light loving wench." Chapter 184: Complete Overhaul As the [Outer Mist Phase] took Aldrich, Valera, and the Death Lord to the Nexus in a warp, Aldrich asked Valera, "By the way, what were you doing out there? If everyone else is in the Nexus still?" "Well, I wanted the privilege of seeing you first, master," said Valera. "Did I¡­do anything wrong? Perhaps I left the Legion unattended?" "No, it''s fine. I''m sure you wouldn''t have left them if you didn''t think their safety atleast somewhat guaranteed," said Aldrich with a nod that Valera smiled at. "My, young love ¨C such a wonderful sight to see. Sickeningly sweet, I must say," said the Death Lord as she frowned and waved her hand, speeding up the [Outer Mist Phase]. "W-what, it is not like that!" protested Valera. "Not yet at least, no, what am I saying ¨C I am his Guardian Knight! It would go against my vows to fall for the one I am sworn to defend." "Yes, yes, because rules are never broken, of course," said the Death Lord as she rolled her eyes and twirled her pipe, causing the warp to finalize. The mist that gathered around the group fluxed and thickened, and in the next instant, Aldrich felt his vision cken and his body grow weightless as he underwent the warp. When the darkness faded away, Aldrich found himself staring at an enormous pir of pure green, crystallized energy. The crystal structure looked like the branches of a tree stretching upwards,tching onto an incredibly high ceiling of dark stone that stood almost a hundred meters high. "You''ve made the ce much bigger," noted Aldrich as he looked around. The Nexus was originally a small space that functioned more like an audience chamber to meet with the goddess Amara, so it was limited in space. Now, though, Aldrich found himself inside a massive hallway that could easily seat an entire football stadium inside of it. This was aplete and utter overhaul of the entire Nexus. No, this ce could not even be called the same anymore. Aldrich heard a massivemotion behind him, and he turned around to see his Legion, or at least the monstrous units he had decided to take into the Nexus, all gathered, ready to meet him. At the head of them stood Okeanos with the Geist, Crab, and Merman behind the Locus. "d to see you all made it," said Aldrich with a smile. "We are happy to see you, master," said Okeanos with a bow of his head. "We waited long." ''Long? It''s barely been a day,'' thought Aldrich, but then again, he had heard the exact same thing from Valera. He did notin, though. It just meant his units were that loyal to him. "Geh! (You''re back!)" said the Geist. "Gehgeh (When do we fight again?)" The crab monsters Aldrich had under hismand waved their pincers in the air in their signature dance, and Crab followed along with its giant pincers, probably having taken a liking to the dance and practiced it. "Khos-Khal! (The king is returned!)" said Merman as he sped his many hands together in a gesture of deference. "Geh? (What are you doing?)" The Geist sped his hands together to mimic Merman. "Khos-Vul (Praising the king)" said Merman. The Geist showed his sped hands to Merman. "Geh? (Like this?)" "Vo. Mil-Kan-il-Khos-Vul (Yes. But the more arms bound together, the greater the respect shown)," said Merman. "Gehgeh! (Oh, then like this!)" The Geist focused on his hands and shuddered before explosively growing out an additional pair of much thinner arms, sping them together. "Moro (Better)," said Merman. At that moment, from the back, the Zombie Giant roared and beat his chest to acknowledge Aldrich''s return,pletely drowning out every other sound in a thunderous burst of volume. "Geh...(He''s too loud)," said the Geist. "Vo. (Yes)," agreed Merman. Aldrich saw that development and noted how incredibly fast the Geist was growing in training its powers. It had figured out how to apply its explosive growth ability not just to heal its wounds, but to grow entirely new body parts as well. That made Aldrich consider the Geist even higher for Dark Wisdom levels. "Your Legion has grown so much," said Valera as she stood by Aldrich, smiling as she looked at the diverse crowd of creatures of all shapes and sizes interacting with each other. "Far greater than it has ever been when you were a mortal." "Our Legion has grown," corrected Aldrich. "Without you, I wouldn''t have had the firepower or defensive capability to make all this happen." "I only followed you." A red tint flushed in Valera''s pale cheeks. "But if-if you say so, my master." Aldrich looked beyond his army of monsters and to their surroundings. The giant hallway was empty, made entirely of austere grey or ck stone lit up only by the green glow of the huge crystal root structure behind him. Though quite empty, the hallway felt strangely simr in design, and when he reflected on his memory, he came to realize why. "Is this design a replica of your Throne Room?" said Aldrich. "Minus the banners, throne, and, well, basically any decoration. Where did the rest of the Nexus go? The Trial Quest pirs, the cksmith, the goddess Amara, and the Wellspring of Life?" The Death Lord''s eye twitched when she heard the name ''Amara'', but she kept her cool. "My, you could tell?" said the Death Lord with a sly smile. "And my apologies for its emptiness. I did not have much time to work with. But it is fitting. This Throne Room of yours is merely the beginning of your journey as Usurper. When my powers are yours, this Throne Room shall beplete, filled with your proud Legion and, of course, a Throne. That is what this will be." The Death Lord tapped the enormous crystal roots with her pipe, letting out the sound of wood hitting ss. "By interacting with this Throne Shard, you may ess those spaces you known as ''Trial Quests''." The Throne Shard glowed, emitting an eerie, deep echo before projecting multiple small portals outlined in fiery green in front of Aldrich. Within each portal, Aldrich could see snippets of different scenery. A muddy swamp in one, a scorching desert in another, huge swathes of storm clouds here, and eerie abandoned ruins there. These were all snapshots of the environments in the Trial Quests avable to Aldrich. Specifically, Trial Quests 1, 2, 3, and 4, though, of course, Aldrich had already cleared the 1st quest. Aldrich inspected the portals and the Throne Shard, wondering how to interact with them. "This Throne Shard is akin to an extension of your own will," said the Death Lord. "Simply bare your thoughts to it, and it will fulfill your wishes." Aldrich nodded and willed the Throne Shard to show him the rest of the Trial Quests. Bright bolts of green energy crackled outwards as Aldrich established a connection with the Throne Shard for the first time. He felt a jolting sensation in his mind, but it quickly passed, and when it did, he felt the Throne Shard linked to his mind. The Throne Shard glowed and released its deep hum before showing seven more portals: the rest of Aldrich''s Trial Quests. "Hm?" Aldrich noted something off. The portals for Trial Quests 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 were filled out with green, not revealing what was within him. That, he could understand as he technically was not high enough level to ess them. But Trial Quests 11 and 12 werepletely cked out. "Those final two Trial Quests are not avable to you," exined the Death Lord. "After all, originally, they were intended to seal my Deathguard and myself. But since we are here, those Trial Quests are merely empty space now." "Empty space? Why can''t I ess them, then?" said Aldrich. "They possess the same level-based restriction as with the other Trial Quests," said the Death Lord. She shrugged. "I suppose once you reach those levels, you may use those quest spaces as storage of some sort." Quite anticlimactic, thought Aldrich. The two final epic showdowns staged in the ultra endgame against the Deathguard and Death Lord respectively were now reduced to just storage. "And where''s the Wellspring, goddess, and cksmith?" said Aldrich. "Wellspring? Bah, that pool of disgusting sewer water? Why would you even wonder of its presence? Those waters would rejuvenate lesser undead, but to the likes of us higher undead, it is nothing more than foul poison," said the Death Lord. "I would have destroyed it outright, but, there was still magical energy within the Wellspring that I found a waste to discard. Thus, I had it refashioned into something far better fitting for you, Usurper." The Death Lord tapped the Throne Shard proudly with her pipe. "¡­You turned the Wellspring into the Throne Shard?" said Aldrich. "Precisely!" The Death Lordughed. "And that ugly drawing of that even uglier goddess, I broke into raw magic and infused into the throne as well. There was surprisingly little to use in that scribble of a shell, though, but then again, I should not be surprised that a goddess that relied upon the mindless faith of masses held little strength herself." "I see," said Aldrich. "And the cksmith? He was quite useful to me." "Sindri was but a ve to Amara," said the Death Lord. "He too was a simple drawn shell, but I found it right to shatter it and free him, if indeed there was truly anything of him in there." "So¡­I''ve lost ess to all my crafting and healing?" said Aldrich. "You called that crafting?" The Death Lord was offended. "Rolling the dice over and over again for this treasure and that? No!" The Death Lord ced her pipe in her mouth and snapped her fingers. In response, behind the Throne Shard, another portal opened up. A muchrger one indicating that something big wasing through it. A giant stepped out with his face covered in a helmet that looked like a welding mask. He was garbed in protective metal and thick cloth that indicated not a warrior''s armor, but a cksmith''s coverings. cksmithing tools like a hammer and a drill like item were skewered into the flesh of one of his arms. Dull ck mes flickered around the length of his other arm. The giant carried a sizable anvil in one hand and an inactive, cylindrical furnace in the other. Despite his immense size, the giant very gently set down the anvil and furnace on the floor before turning around and waving to Aldrich. "Hullo. My name is Bors. I smith for you now." The giant''s voice was surprisingly mellow. Not at all like the thunderous rumbling roars that Aldrich''s own undead giant could let out. Bors sounded positively friendly, on the contrary. "Bors is one of my finest smiths! Among the best of my giant forgers!" dered the Death Lord. "Any work he produces here will be of the finest quality, and no longer will you need to rely on luck for your smithing wants. Instead, Bors will listen to your requests and work to meet them directly!" Chapter 185: Bors the Giant Blacksmith "Bors?" Aldrich stepped around the Throne Shard and in front of Bors. The giant wasrge, standing at around 8 meters tall, but definitely a good amount shorter than Aldrich Zombie Giant which stood at 12 meters. Bors also looked a little more misshapen than Aldrich''s giant. Where Aldrich''s giant had a powerful, muscr body with good proportions like a powerlifter, Bors had a hunched back, big torso, andparatively skinnier arms and legs. "You''re an Earth Giant," noted Aldrich. In Elden World, most giants like Aldrich''s zombie giant lived in a faraway northernnd of towering mountains. There, the giants used enormous swathes of solid mystic clouds like giant aerial ins, living upon them or using them to cross from mountaintop to mountaintop. Thus, these giants were aptly called Sky Giants. Bors, however, was a giant descended from ancient ns that split off from the Borean line, deciding to give up life atop the skies and instead tread upon the humble dirt. Because they decided to forego the skies to live upon the earth, they were called Earth Giants. "Yes, I am! Like earth I am strong, so smith I can long!" said Bors enthusiastically. Bors''s face was covered under his welding helm, but the giant probably had a bright smile underneath it. Earth giants tended to be less intelligent than their sky giant counterparts, but at the same time, they were far less aggressive and one of the friendliest races in Elden World. Gentle giants through and through. Which made them easy to exploit, causing many civilizations to enve them not only for their prodigious strength, but their strong connection to the earth that granted them an affinity for metal working. "I rescued Bors from a life of suffering as an Elven tower builder," said the Death Lord. "I found him when I alighted down and utterly obliterated that little city, what was its name, ah, Ars Fisteria. They had that puny tree tower that the elves are so fond of building in their cities, nothing at allpared to my Necropolis, but I do give them respect for their efforts." The Death Lord shook her head. "I granted the elves three chances to surrender, but they refused to yield. Far too proud a people for their own good, I dare say." "Does Bors need coins to take a smithing request?" said Aldrich. He got a closer look at Bors and saw scorch marks and whip wounds scarring his arms a plenty. Signs of the giant''s past as a ve. "Coins? Nonsense," said the Death Lord. "Bors is only limited by the time it takes for him to forge what you desire and the resources you bestow upon him." Aldrich briefly wondered what he would do with the coins in his inventory, but he set that issue aside forter. "Strong I am! Forge I can!" said Bors as he nodded several times at Aldrich. "Bors, what can you do with this?" said Aldrich as he materialized the soul of Seth Sr. The ghostly white orb glowed in Aldrich''s hand. This was, other than the Locus, the greatest prize Aldrich had won in the past night. A symbol of his fulfilled vengeance and a new age of strength. "My, that is quite an interesting soul," said the Death Lord as she flitted out her forked tongue. "From one of these New Worlders, no? Powerful, too, I can sense it. Go on, Bors, tell us how you will forge this." Bors sat down behind his giant anvil and furnace. He held out an open palm, and the soul floated above it, looking positively tiny in his huge, scarred hand. Bors craned his neck down as he stared at the soul. "I never see anything like this before. But I make it work!" said Bors. He looked to Aldrich. "What you want?" "You best not forge a weapon, my dear Usurper," said the Death Lord. "Without even using my beautiful scythe even once! So fickle ¨C how will your lover there think of your loyalty if she sees you hop from wondrous weapon after the other?" "H-huh? My master is the utmost symbol of loyalty!" protested Valera. "Of course, of course," said the Death Lord with a smile. "You are so very easy to tease, Guardian." "¡­" Valera pouted as she turned to Aldrich. "Master¡­I must resist a rising urge to duel that¡­that woman." "We''ll get that duel in time," said Aldrich as he nced to the Death Lord. "Won''t we?" "Yes. Yes you shall," said the Death Lord with bared fangs and excited grin. "As for what I want, Bors," began Aldrich. He did not want a weapon, because the Death Lord was right. The [Forsthallowed War Scythe] was already a superb quality item. Aldrich also already had an armor set that would grow with him in the form of Vntis. "Can you forge me a seal?" "A seal? Yes I can! Forge I can!" said Bors. A seal was a catalyst that aided in spellcasting, but unlike weapon catalysts, seals had no inherent offensive usage. They were mostly handheld talismans that one could not really use as a weapon like a staff or a scythe. In exchange, however, where catalyst weapons usually only had a single strong active ability, a seal provided several active spells as well as stronger passive effects. To use the active spells of a seal, one had to materialize it and wield it in one hand, preventing two handing of a weapon. However, the good thing about seals was that you could wear them as an essory when their active spells were not needed, granting permanent ess to their passives. "Thanks, Bors," said Aldrich. "What kind of spells you want?" said Bors. "Tell me, and I try to do all!" "Hm," said Aldrich. Considering Seth''s rough strength at around level 40, he figured he could get a Seal at the Epic+ rank. The higher the rank of a seal, the more spells it could store, and at the epic rank, a seal could store 4 spells. "An area of effect damage spell. A high single target damage spell. A healing spell. And a stat boosting buff." Bors nodded along to Aldrich''s words, tapping a finger to his head to try and help him follow along and remember. It took a solid thirty seconds after Aldrich stopped speaking for Bors to respond. "Okay! I get it," said Bors. "I do all that. My hammer will strike loud, and soon, you be proud!" Bors took the soul in his hand and led it to his furnace. He opened the metal cylinder up and funneled in some of the ck mes imbued on one of his arms. The furnace roared with activity, ring with dark fire and embers. He stuffed the soul in and closed the door shut. "I think I be done in five days" said Bors. "Five days? That should be fine," said Aldrich. He could not help but like Bors. Bors was a gentle giant through and through, dutiful and always positive. But most of all, innocent. "I expect a lot from you, Bors." "No worries! My work always good," said Bors as he sat down in front of the furnace cross-legged. "Now then," said the Death Lord. She looked Aldrich over from head to toe, closely inspecting him. "Where are you looking?" said Valera suspiciously. "Ogling your lover, is it not evident?" Before Valera could react, the Death Lordughed as she put her hand to her lip. "A jest. No, I was simply checking on my dear Deathguard Vntis. Instead of forging new toys, how about we take the time to fix poor old Vntis now?" Chapter 186: Fixing Volantis "Vntis? Whatever software the demons use for him told me that he''s undergoing self-repair. Do you mean you want to elerate that process?" Aldrich asked the Death Lord. "Software¡­?" The Death Lord ever so slightly tilted her head, making Aldrich realize that she obviously would have no idea what that word meant. "I do not grasp that word, but I understand the essence of what you are saying. And to answer: yes and no. We will restore Vntis, but not in the way the demons wished." "Exin," said Aldrich. "The fact that you have caused the Demonwill entrapped within Vntis to manifest like this, to try and scrub Vntis''s soul, means you managed to get him to reim a shard of his former soul. Quite likely through recalling old memories, no?" said the Death Lord. "You would be right about that," said Aldrich. "Excellent!" The Death Lord tapped her pipe with her index finger in a positive gesture. "Then that signals the Demonwill is weakened near to its destruction. Weakened enough to bepletely dispelled. If the Demonwill is purged, then Vntis will return with the full extent of his old soul. But-," The Death Lord narrowed her one eye as she stared at Aldrich. "It is your decision whether you desire this or not. Vntis was a proud warrior in his life of yore, and he followed a leader he devoted himself greatly to. It may be that should he return with his old spirit intact, he will not recognize you as his own." "Is that why you never tried to restore Vntis when he was under yourmand?" said Aldrich. "Partially. Mostly, it was because the Demonwill was too powerful for even myself to sunder," said the Death Lord. "Which is an interesting aspect of this whole situation to note. It would appear that without the me Arcs in this New World of yours, demonic influence is at its weakest." Aldrich did not know everything about demon lore, but he did know what me Arcs were. Demons were not actually native existences to Elduin, the main physical realm that Elden World mostly operated on. Demons instead hailed from a hell like separate realm of eternal me called the Pyre. Because of their extradimensional status, demons needed some kind of physical anchor in Elduin to manifest. For most demons, this was the me Arc, an enormous collected of demonic runes that generated a constant field of infernal energy from the Pyre that sustained demonic presence. Demons that relied upon the me Arc were called Incarnated demons for their physical forms were literally built up and incarnated by the me Arcs. Other demons, particrly those that were converted from Elduin native to demon, were called Anchored demons, for they were permanently ''anchored'' to a specific physical body. In Vntis''s case, this was his armor form. me Arcs also supported the vast majority of demonic magics, so it made sense that in earth, where there were no me Arcs or any demons, really, the magic that kept Vntis''s soul chained would weaken. "What will your decision be, Usurper?" said the Death Lord. "If you do nothing, the Demonwill within that armor will still have the strength to restore Vntis to a state where he knew nothing of his original soul. And you need not worry of the Demonwill weakening to such an extent that it will fade away entirely ¨C like a parasite, it will eternally sustain itself to a minimum extent off of Vntis''s own soul and power." "In the case that Vntis does rebel against me, do I have an option of subjugating him?" said Aldrich. Technically speaking, Vntis was not one of Aldrich''s undead. He could not just enforce his will on Vntis and be done with it. This was because demons were one of the very few existences immune to being raised as undead. When Aldrich ''raised'' units from the Necropolis, he did so using sigils ¨C symbols of power ¨C granted to him by the Death Lord. All those symbols did was transfer ownership over to Aldrich. For most of the undead, switching ownership meant they became his own undead with no issue. But in Vntis''s case, all it meant was that he just switched literal physical ownership over to Aldrich like two yers swapping items with each other. "Yes," said the Death Lord. "But it would be a difficult one. You could defeat him inbat, which would weaken his soul and allow the Demonwill to take over again. I have an Arena to iste Vntis for this purpose. That is, if you do desire his awakening." "Vntis is strong, but he can''t handle facing my Legion alone. The risk isn''t significant to take him down. I just need to know whether there are actually any benefits to letting Vntis have his old memories," said Aldrich, speaking from a point of view of pure rationality. Aldrich valued Vntis, it was true, and if possible, he would have liked Vntis to have his old self without the chains of the Demonwill erasing who he originally was. But the thing was, if all this just made Vntis an enemy, if there was no discernible benefit to Aldrich, then he would not go through with it either. "Vntis would gain ess to the martial skills and experiences he would have had in life," said the Death Lord. "In my research, I knew Vntis to be an Orclord, just shy of a Warmother or Warfather which leads entire hordes. The soul also influences one''s physical form to an extent. With his original soul fully awakened, his armored body may undergo direct changes that no doubt will increase his strength. The amount of power he receives will be appreciable. And if he epts you as his Armored still, then it may very well be that over time, those powers and traits may transfer over to you." Aldrich had an idea of what Vntis could gain. Orcs in Elden World were immense physical powerhouses with their defining trait being their endurance. Unlike trolls, orcs did not have regeneration, but what they did have was an indomitable will and bodies that seemingly never tired, letting them fight and fight and fight for days even while they hungered or even nursed near lethal wounds. Vntis would also gain ess to the skills he would have had as an orc warrior. Orc warriors practiced their own uniquebat art called Shaping that involved martial arts moves that manipted the elements of nature around them. Depending on what tribe they were from, they could shape earth, fire, or wind. Aldrich did not know exactly which tribe Vntis was from, but if he was an Orclord, he should at least be a master in one of those shaping arts, potentially multiple. "Alright, I''ll do it," said Aldrich. "Take me to your Arena." "As you wish, my dear Usurper," said the Death Lord. She tapped the Throne Shard with her pipe, causing it to crackle with energy. A list of various small portals appeared representing each of the floors of the Necropolis. As she started to scroll through them with flicks of her pipe, Aldrich asked, "Do I have ess to the Necropolis through this Throne Shard as well?" "My, getting greedy now, are we? But I do like that. However, no, not past the fifteenth floor which you cleared and imed as your own," said the Death Lord. "All others are still under my control. But you will be given opportunity to challenge them and make them yours over time." "Over time, then, this entire Necropolis will be mine?" said Aldrich. "That is the end goal of this, yes," said the Death Lord. "Ah, here we are." She tapped a small portal showing in insides of a colosseum like arena with her pipe. The portal expanded greatly, engulfing all the others to create one singr portal. "The preparations areplete," said the Death Lord. "Take whoever you wish for this. In the case that Vntis is¡­less than cooperative. Orcs can be a troublesome bunch in that regard." "Valera, Okeanos," said Aldrich. "Come with me." "I am ever by your side, master," said Valera with a bow of her head. Okeanos jumped a dozen meters in the air andnded right behind Aldrich. "I serve." "Good," said Aldrich. In the case that Vntis did turn aggressive, Aldrich had to make battle ns against the armor. Vntis had powerful area of effect Shattered Bone necromancy spells, so Aldrich did not want to take any units that might die in the crossfire. He wanted to take strong individual units that would overwhelm Vntis and protect Aldrich. Okeanos and Valera were good enough for this purpose. Valera could guard Aldrich, and Okeanos was strong enough to overwhelm Vntis, not to mention Aldrich himself had decent firepower too. He did not take other strong units like the giant, Crab, or Merman because in the case that this whole restoration attempt turned sour, he wanted to test out Okeanos''s strength. "This is all you are taking?" said the Death Lord. "I should not doubt your judgement, though. And my, this one-," The Death Lord immediately manifested behind Okeanos, inspecting the variant with curious, gleaming emerald green eyes. As she spoke,vender smoke curled out from her lips and flickered around Okeanos. "Is quite the specimen. The New World has its own fair share of mighty creatures, that is to be for certain." Okeanos whirled around and swiped at the Death Lord inplete reflexive instinct, his rainbow colored eyes wide in utter surprise that someone could justpletely blindside him like that. "Ah, my apologies." The Death Lord swayed backwards flexibly, deftly dodging the blow. A gust of pressurized wind passed her face from the forceful swipe, blowing her faint purple hair backwards. "Stand down, Okeanos," said Aldrich. "¡­Yes," said Okeanos as he warily stared down at the Death Lord. "I let my curiosity get the better of me. That was rude," said the Death Lord. She strutted back to Aldrich. "Sometimes, I cannot help myself. I do love things that interest me. As an immortal, that is one of the few things that casts away the boredom of eternity. Now, enough wasting time." ''¡­But you were the one wasting time'' thought Aldrich, but he did not voice this intrusive thought. The Death Lord nodded at Aldrich and passed through the portal. Aldrich sighed. The Death Lord''s personality was almost like his opposite. She was less serious, more impulsive, and quite vocal about everything. The type of person he would not have gotten along with well in the real world, but he dealt with the cards he was given. "Let''s go," said Aldrich. He looked down at his wed hands. ws that might turn against him soon. "And prepare for a fight." "I am ready," said Okeanos as he clenched his fists, surges of crackling green and blue energy traveling around his colorful shell. "As am I," said Valera as she materialized her shield and armor. Chapter 187: Second and Fourth Deathguard [Bonus chapter for getting me to top 20 golden tickets/powerstones!] ==== Aldrich passed through the portal, followed by Okeanos and Valera. They warped into the Death Lord''s Arena, standing in the center of an enormous colosseum. They were in the actual fighting pit itself, surrounded by a stage of sand dotted with shards of shattered bone and bits and pieces of hacked off armor. Evidently, this ce had seen quite some action in the past. Now, though, as Alrdich looked around, seeing the many empty stands and seats towering around the pit, he felt a distinct sense of emptiness. Of abandonment. The Death Lord followed Aldrich''s gaze and sighed. "Yes, this ce has seen better days. Roaring crowds and battles to make the blood of even the coldest hearted of undead boil. But since the Severing of Realms, I fear I do not have enough under mymand for such spectacle, with less than a third of my troops remaining with me." "Severing of Realms?" said Aldrich. "It is a term that Med, my precious second, coined the strange incident that tore us from the Elduin realm and into this¡­this limbo space," said the Death Lord. "This space bound strangely to your existence. If you fall, we all fall, so do take that into note and try not to die, my dear Usurper." "I''ve been meaning to ask about that, actually. Do you have any idea what happened to transfer you over here?" said Aldrich. He had always been curious exactly how the game world had manifested into reality, but he had no ways to get an answer. There was his game console in ckwater, and he did have ns to retrieve it. However, it had been some time since Aldrich had been in ckwater. Most likely, his dorm room had been cleared out by now. And trying to get back to the rundown store that sold Aldrich the game would be impossible. Aldrich remembered that store. It was a Shack store, a rundown, temporary store set up around the outskirts of Neo-York. The owner of the shack had been a man with a cybeic ck mask who had said nothing to Aldrich, just sold him the single copy of Elden World in his store for fifty or so credits. Shack stores like that which sold antique physical copies of games on top of random pieces of hardware and junk propped up and disappeared so often that he highly doubted the store even still existed. And the store owner''s status as a Nomad meant he had no citizenship recorded anywhere on top of never settling down in any one location. It would be incredibly difficult, if not near impossible to track him down, if he was even alive. But if the Death Lord had the resources of her Necropolis, it might have been possible for her to get a much better understanding than Aldrich. "You wish to know the answer?" said the Death Lord. "The truth of the dark secret that lies in the this merging of realms?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "Then good, I do too." The Death Lord shrugged. "¡­" Aldrich put a palm to his face before speaking again. "Let''s get on with fixing Vntis." The Death Lord smiled and nodded. "Med, Wai''ki, it''s about time you show yourselves." In response, a portal appeared behind the Death Lord. This portal was not green like hers or Aldrich''s, but instead a bright, infernal red. The tell tale coloring of demonic energy. From there, two women stepped out that looked dramatically different from each other. One of the women was tall and skinny, standing about level with Valera. She was dressed in a long ck trench coat, with the coat tail reaching almost down her ankles. Almost all of her skin was covered, her hands wrapped in what looked like bandages and her feet clothed in ck boots. The lower half of her face was wrapped in bandages as well. The only thing really visible about her was her upper face, the skin pale in shade and marked along the cheeks with a line of gleaming red runes. Her eyes were a fiery orange-red, covered a little by a thin curtain of white bangs. Deep, tired crease lines and dark circles decorated her eyes, giving her a positively ''done with this all'' aura. She peered at Aldrich with this tired gaze. "So, this is who our new master will be? I expected more." This was Curator Med. Second among the Deathguard. Four red horns sprouted from the sides of her white hair, indicating her status as an Archdemon. If Aldrich remembered correctly, she was level 80+. She served as the curator of the Necropolis, specializing in spatial magics to keep things moving throughout the forbiddinglyrge structure. "D-don''t say that ¨C we don''t know what kind of person he is! He might be wonderful!" said the woman beside her. She was a much smaller woman inparison to Med and held a far more weing aura with a shy but big smile. She daintily grasped a wooden staff ending with a glowing blue flower head in front of her. Her garb consisted of a chest covering and ankle length skirt made of leaves and flowers knitted together with bones. Unlike with Med, this outfit bared quite a bit of her tanned skin. Her lengthy, forest green hair was tied in a bun set with narrow bone spikes as hair pins. Deer antlers glowing with a spectral blue shine sprouted from her head. And this, Aldrich recognized, was Wai''Ki the Spirit Caller, the fourth of the Deathguard. Level 60+. "I always set my bar low," said Med. "That way, I''m never disappointed." "Stop spreading your negativity everywhere!" said Wai''ki. She turned to Aldrich and gave him a deep bow. "Greetings, Usurper. I am Wai''Ki, fourth among the Deathguard. I look forward to working with you!" Med shrugged. "What she said." "Why are you two here?" said Aldrich. "To fix Vntis, of course," said the Death Lord. "My powers can destroy, but restoration is not my specialty. These two are far better at that." "I see," said Aldrich. "Med as an Archdemon probably has knowledge of Vntis, and Wai''Ki''s spirit magic helps in dealing with Vntis''s soul." "Precisely," said the Death Lord. "My spirit magic is nothing to scoff at, but it is still at the level of a novicepared to Wai''Ki." "Oh, don''t say that, you''re plenty special too, Melly!" said Wai''Ki. "Melly? That''s your name?" said Aldrich to the Death Lord. He had never actually known the Death Lord''s name in the lore because she was just known as, well, the Death Lord. "W-what?" The Death Lord was flustered. "No, that is a simple nickname. And so what if it is? Hm? Do you think it unbefitting of someone my status?" "No, I don''t particrly care," said Aldrich. "Alright, enough chatter," said Med. She rubbed her forehead. "I have enough research and tower maintenance as is. Let''s get on with this. You-," She pointed a bandage wrapped finger at Aldrich. "Get naked." "Excuse me!?" Valera stepped forward. "I need Vntis off to inspect him," said Med. She looked at Valera, inspecting her briefly before shooing her away. "You, you''re useless. Go wait somewhere else." "If I am to be your new master in the future, then you should know a thing or two about treating others with respect," said Aldrich as he stepped in for Valera. "Mm. What I mean is she''s a warrior. She doesn''t have the knowledge to be here. She''ll get in the way. Same with that shellfish," said Med as she stared at Aldrich with her unbrokenly fatigued stare. "I never get in the way of the master," protested Okeanos. "Med is an academic through and through. She has spent her eternity secluding herself in a study like a recluse," said the Death Lord as she yanked Med back with her coat. Med just stared tiredly as she was lifted up and ced behind the Death Lord like an unruly puppy. "She has not learned how to filter her thoughts. Nor has she learned a shred of decorum, no matter how much I try to teach her. But she is right, Vntis muste off for this procedure to continue." "I understand," said Aldrich. He willed Vntis to detach, and the Demonwill''s voice echoed in Aldrich''s mind. ''Removing Armor'' said the Demonwill. Aldrich watched as the armor started to break apart into flexible metal strips, peeling off of his body. "M-master? With no hesitation at all? I will give you your privacy!" Valera put her hands in front of her eyes, though noticeably, she left a gap between her fingers to peek. And as the armor fully unpeeled, it revealed Aldrich in his full, naked glory. As a skeleton, of course. "I still feel strangely naked, even as a skeleton,"mented Aldrich as he looked down at his body of bare bone. Then, his magical aura manifested, turning into a bright sphere of glowing green energy that covered his lower body. "Much better." Valera sighed in mild disappointment as she took her hands from her eyes. "Inspecting now," said Med as she twirled her hand. A faint purple outline covered Vntis''s now empty armor form. The armor levitated in the air and plopped down right in front of Med. "Wai''Ki, get over here and be ready." "Yes!" Wai''Ki hopped over to Med''s side, peering at Vntis. "How long will this take?" said Aldrich to the Death Lord. "Not long at all. A mere minute or so, I should say," said the Death Lord, gazing at Med and Wai''ki like a proud parent. "After all, these are my precious Deathguard. Their abilities are top ss." "The Demonwill has be this weakened from the New World? Interesting¡­," said Med. She put a hand on the helm of the armor, directly over the white eye dot. "Isting Demonwill." Med withdrew her hand, and from the eye dot, a strand of fiery red energy emerged. The energy snaked upwards, coiling across Med''s fingers and up her arm like a living worm of energy. "Containing," said Med as she opened her palm. A baseball sized ck hole like void manifested above her hand, sucking in the Demonwill before copsing in upon itself. This was Med''s Warp Magic, the Mystic Path that she specialized in the most. Where warriors could devote themselves to Combat Arts and Weapon Arts that indicated specialties in specific martial arts and weapons, mages followed Mystic Paths that indicated the field of magic they practiced. Med nodded to Wai''Ki. "Your turn." "O-okay, I''ll try my best!" Wai''Ki took her staff and gently put the flower head on Vntis''s helm. "Vntis, you were such a wonderful mentor to me. Always driven to get stronger and so confident, too! Now-now I''ll try and help you out." "---,---,---,---" Wai''Ki started to chant in a tongue that no human vocal chord could ever utter. It sounded like multiple voicesyered into one. Utterly indecipherable. As she spoke, her antlers glowed brightly, and strange, ghostly wisps started to emanate from the ground below Vntis, circling the armor in gently dancing light. Chapter 188: Volantis Restored The strange chant that Wai''Ki uttered was the Ancestral Tongue, anguage of Old Spirits where every single word held power in them. Even if Aldrich had a spell or passive that gave him Allspeak, the ability to understand everynguage, it still would not have let him understand this tongue for, ording to the lore, it predated any regr spell. In Elden World, the Elduin realm was ruled over by a variety of deities, but these gods were outsiders from other realms that had spread their influence upon the world. Before them all, the Old Spirits ruled thend, acting as aspects of nature that represented everything from forests to the realm''s three great moons. With the arrival of the Elder Gods, however, the Old Spirits were cast away, their influence relegated only to the Soul Stream - the great spiritual realm where all souls were cast back into upon death, to be washed and cleansed anew for renewal and rebirth. As a result, though the Old Spirits lost the capacity to grant their followers power over nature or the elements, they could still grant a strong affinity to spiritual magic. In particr, where the new gods used written Runes to infuse their power, the Old Spirits used spoken words in the form of the Ancestral Tongue to grant their followers an avenue to ess their strength. The issue was that with the advent of the gods, the followers of the Old Spirits thinned out from a variety of reasons ranging from active purging to simply a loss of followers over time. Wai''ki''s race, the Rusa - humanoids with features of deers - were one of the few peoples that maintained a connection with the Old Spirits. Aldrich remembered how the Death Lord mentioned the Soul Stream in trying to revive Adam and ine. How the Soul Stream of this new world was inessible to her. Yet could Wai''ki achieve what the Death Lord could not through the Old Spirits? No, to begin with, were the Old Spirits even here to channel from? "How will Wai''Ki channel the Soul Stream? I''m assuming the Old Spirits haven''t transported over here," asked Aldrich to the Death Lord. "No, not even she can reach into the waters of a foreign Soul Stream," said the Death Lord. "And she cannot call upon the Old Spirits directly. However, their words of power thatprise the Ancestral Tongue still hold sway for a reason I cannot fathom. Med is still investigating why. There are many things I do not know yet, so you may find questioning me rather unhelpful." "I see," said Aldrich. "I''m also curious about how all this happened. I have to spend the majority of my time in what you call the ''New World'', so I can''t devote myself to figuring this all out. But you have the time and resources to get answers. If you find any, let me know." "I shall when I can," said the Death Lord. "When you can?" "I n on secluding myself in my Throne Room for some time to recover my injuries. Worry not, though. I shall still grant you quests that continue to give you more and more of my power," said the Death Lord. "I doubt Med will answer you even if you call to her ¨C she does hate to be removed from that dreary study of hers ¨C but I will give her an order to let you know of any breakthroughs in her research." "Done!" said Wai''ki cheerfully. She wiped a few beads of sweat away from her forehead. The blue glow around her antlers started to fade away, leaving them to their original color of bone white. Aldrich inspected Vntis. Nothing about the armor seemed changed. It just stood there as if in suspended animation, unmoving and unresponsive. The eye dot was still white as well. "Are you sure?" said Aldrich. "O-of course I am! Oh, maybe something did go wrong, I don''t know -I always mess things up somehow." Wai''ki frowned as she nervously held her staff. At that very moment, Vntis responded. Smooth streams of blue energy swirled out from Vntis, and in the creases and crevices of his armor body, an eerie glow permeated through. Like an overcharged lightbulb, that glow exploded outwards in a sh. "Eep!" Wai''ki yelped as she pranced backwards, closing her eyes and holding her staff out defensively. Her deer ears twitched in terror. There was no doubt about it: Wai''ki was never meant to be a fighter. Vntis started to twitch, the metal body of his loosing a rattle as he began to regain movement. A good sign. "O-oh, it worked!" Wai''ki sighed, her ears flopping down in relief. Aldrich felt a twinge of pity for Wai''ki in how she had died in Elden World. When the goddess Amaraid siege upon the Necropolis and defeated the Deathguard, Wai''ki was the first among them to go for she was the weakest. She had been ambushed on a journey to harvest mortal souls for the Death Lord. While isted, Prtes ¨C high level assassins of the Radiant Faith that served Amara ¨C ambushed Wai''ki and her subordinates. To save her subordinates, Wai''ki stalled the prtes for her life. It must have been a tremendously difficult decision for someone with such a frail heart like her to make the brave decision to give up everything for another. She must have felt terrified and utterly helpless going against trained, ruthless killers of the light when she herself had little to nobat ability. In a way, that was perhaps the biggest fundamental difference between Aldrich and a true hero. Real heroes were willing toy down everything on the line for others. Aldrich was not. He did not consider himself any less because of that ¨C it was simply a difference in ideology. Conversely, he did not look down on the golden age heroes that sacrificed themselves. In fact, he respected them. It just was not the path he wanted to take. Not after he had seen what it had done for his parents. "I sense turmoil within you, Death Walker." The Death Lord put a hand on Aldrich''s shoulder. "Is anything amiss?" Aldrich nced at the Death Lord, at her gaze maintained regal dignity and yet still showed sympathy. She had been like this with Aldrich when he had said goodbye to Adam and ine as well. Even as a warlord of death that sought the demise of all living beings, she was strangely perceptive of the emotions of others. "No. I''m fine," said Aldrich. "You are strong, Death Walker, and growing stronger by the day" said the Death Lord as she withdrew her hand. She nced back at Valera who looked at the Death Lord''s hand with suspicious eyes. "But you as a Necromancer of Legion should know more than any that it is always fine to rely on others. And that is not only in matters of strength as well. There are others like that girl who would support you through matters of the mind, for it is often that the battles we hold within ourselves are the greatest we struggle through. Far greater than any de or magic we face upon the battlefield." "I''ve dealt with myself for as long as I can remember. I''m used to it," said Aldrich. "The strength of youth. Ah, it is wonderful to see," said the Death Lord with a gentle shake of her head, as if she was remembering a fond memory. "But simply know this: to face one''s feelings, to face one''s inner battles, is not a sign of weakness. It is in fleeing from them, in locking them up, that one faces defeat." Before Aldrich could respond, Vntis spoke. "Where¡­am I?" Vntis''s voice was guttural. Deep. Natural. Not at all like the smooth, programmed elegance of the Demonwill. This was his true self. "I-I don''t remember." Vntis grasped at his helm head in confusion. "Oh, this will help!" Wai''ki reached out with her staff and tapped the flower head upon Vntis''s head. "Don''t touch me!" Vntis roared as he swiped at Wai''ki, causing her to yelp and fall backwards. "D-don''t hurt me! I''m just trying to help!" said Wai''ki. Med instantly stepped in front of Wai''ki. Though her expression was still unchangingly bored, it was obvious she cared a great deal about protecting her allies. Immediately, Aldrich and Valera were behind Vntis, holding back his arms on either end. The Death Lord stood behind, her eyes narrowed as her magical energy surged in a green aura around her, ready to deal with Vntis if needed. But whatever Wai''ki had intended to do worked. From where she had touched his head, blue butterflies of pure energy flickered about, the fluttering of their wings releasing glittery little sparkles. As those sparkles hit Vntis, he calmed down. "I get it now," said Vntis. "It''s alling back to me. My life, no, my lives." Valera looked to Aldrich, wordlessly asking if she should let the armor go. Aldrich nodded, and together, they released Vntis. Vntis stood up, looking at his armored body. He put a wed hand up to the air, sying his fingers out as he inspected them. "This is what I am now. A chunk of metal. All that muscle and bone I was so proud ¨C all gone. Gorr the Bone Taker. The Butcher of Demons. Turned to nothing but a heap of scrap for the same horned monsters I used to ughter." Chapter 189: [Bonus chapter] Worthy [Bonus chapter for getting me to top 20 golden tickets/powerstones!] _________________________________ "Vntis, do you remember me?" said Aldrich. Vntis turned to Aldrich. "I do. I chose you as my Armored." "And have your feelings changed?" said Aldrich. "¡­" Vntis did not respond for a good minute. In that time, both Valera and Okeanos were tensed up, ready to fight if needed. "No. The feelings I had in the past do not matter now. My past life is just that: the past. I cannot change who or what I am now, but I know that I did choose you. I will not go back on my word so easily." He turned to Wai''ki. She shrunk back in fear at his gaze. "Wai''ki¡­I remember you too. I apologize for my behavior. It was not right. I was confused, and I do not like when others touch me without my awareness." "It-it''s okay," said Wai''ki. She put on a happy smile. "As long as you''re happy now, I''m happy too!" "¡­Happy? Am I happy?" Vntis pondered over those words. "These memories that I have now are¡­painful. I remember my death. On a molten mountain, surrounded by a field of swords and demon corpses. I felt the pain of dying then. Then I felt the pain of being forged into something I was not. Having my soul hammered over and over again. It felt like I was in a dream, watching my memories float in front of me, seeing pieces of them get shattered and scattered. I felt the desperation of trying to reach out for those memories regardless of whether they were sorrowful or joyful, because I knew that those memories were still me. The pain of losing who you are and being helpless to stop it ¨C it is the greatest pain I have ever felt. It is worse than any battle wound that scarred or scorched me. Remembering that pain ¨C I almost feel as if I want to forget it all again." Vntis closed his fists and stared at them. When he spoke again, he spoke with hearty strength in his voice. His eye dot was still white, but it was far more expressive than when it was red, undting and changing shape and size like a normal eye to showcase his emotions. He sounded much more like an orc, the people famous for never tiring, for never letting anything hold them down for very long. "But pain is temporary! It has never slowed me down, and it will not now! You-," Vntis turned and pointed to Aldrich. "I called you my Armored, no?" "You did," said Aldrich. He noticed that Vntis still spoke with a measure of artiction. Usually, orcs had simpler speech patterns. Most likely, the habits from Vntis''s new and old lives were merged together. "I did that because some part of me believed it was right to do," said Vntis. "I will stand by those words. But to be happy, truly happy-," Vntis clenched his fists again, but this time, in an expression of force. His magical energy surged around him in a white aura distinct from the red of his past self. This was the type of aura that orcs gave off. Their ''warrior''s spirit'' as they called it. "I need to make sure you are truly worthy now that I am in full control of myself." Aldrich had an idea of where this was going. His own magical energy started to surge, green waves emanating from his already half energy body. Vntis was, after all, an orc, and there was nothing that orcs loved more than a good fight. "And how do you propose we do that?" Vntisughed. Something he had never done before. He could not physically smile as a living armor, but in the rising tone of his voice, it was easy to tell that had he a mouth, he would have grinned. "In the way of my people, of course. Battle!" "I don''t know whether I prefer you now or as you were before," said Valera. She grinned eagerly too. "But if it is battle you desire, it is battle you will have." "I will fight too," said Okeanos. Valera and Okeanos stood on either side of Aldrich, two mighty warriors ready to fight with all they had. "I would like to fight you two as well, but this is between me and the Armored," said Vntis. "That is simply not fair," said Valera. "My master is powerful, but his might is inmanding others. You, on the other hand, are built for closebat." "I can help with that," said the Death Lord. She gestured towards Aldrich with her hand and chanted, "[Death Surge]. That should even the odds in terms of physical strength, and within the Necropolis, I can maintain that spell for practically an eternity." An octagonal mesh of green energy lined Aldrich''s bone body, greatly strengthening his physical stats. With the Death Lord''s immense magic stat, the boost was enough that Aldrich couldpete with a pure melee fighter of simr level like Vntis. Though, Aldrich did note, [Death Surge] had a cap to the stats it could grant. As he was now, he would still fall short of Vntis''s raw brute force, especially considering Shaping boosted Vntis''s stats as well. "There. Now the duel is honorable," said Vntis. "I am sorry, but this is the only way I know to choose who is worthy. A fight where we sh blow for blow. There is a saying among my people ¨C the harder someone is willing to hit you, the better a friend they make." "Then I''ll take this fight," said Aldrich. "And prove to you how good a ''friend'' I can be." "Good!" said Vntis. "Anyst preparations you would like to make, Armored?" "Just one," said Aldrich. He manifested his Materius as if he was going to get into a close ranged fight, which he absolutely would be against the likes of Vntis, then he wanted to be in prime condition for it. For now, Aldrich was not as used to fighting hand to hand as he was with his flesh and blood body. Sinews spontaneously grew from Aldrich''s bones, snuffing out the green energy that his body constantly let out. A set of organs, mostly for decoration at this point, filled in his ribcage before a covering of flesh wrapped over them. Skin grew around the raw muscle and the rest of Aldrich''s features filled in right after. "That feels much better," said Aldrich as he cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, his trained, sculpted muscles rippling with the movement. "M-master, are you going to fight like that!?" Valera squealed as she covered her eyes with hands that had more than enough space between the fingers to peer through. "W-wah! He''s naked!" Wai''ki blushed as she closed her eyes. "Come now, this is too much for your innocence." Med put her bandaged hand over Wai''ki''s eyes and led her away. "Oh, right," said Aldrich. "My clothes disintegrate every time I switch in and out of my Materius." "I will have a solution for thatter," said the Death Lord, to which Valera let out an annoyed ''tch!''. "This will do for now." Med snapped her fingers, causing a small ck void to open up in front of her. She withdrew a pair of ck pants and tossed them to Aldrich. Aldrich grabbed them, and when he willed himself to wear them, they dematerialized and materialized back around Aldrich''s lower body. [1x Training Wear (Legs) equipped]. "Training Wear is indestructible and does not affect stats, so it should not yield you any advantage other than preventing you from assaulting our eyes," said Med. "Hah! I quite preferred when he was bare!" said Vntis. "Fighting without any covering is the truest form of battle! Man to man at its best! Except-," Vntis looked down at his metal body. "I cannot do that any longer." "Thanks." Aldrich nodded to Med. "Everyone else,e with me," said Med. "I will transport us to the stands as audience members." "Finally, a proper fight to enjoy! I will finally get my coin''s worth out of this colosseum!" The Death Lordughed in glee as she followed Med. "Master, show that stubborn armor the might I respect so dearly," said Valera as she passed by Aldrich. "Master will win. I know it. He always knows what to do at the right time," said Okeanos. "I''ll make sure I live up to your expectations," said Aldrich. "Thanks." Everyone then warped away to the stands via another ck void from Med, leaving Aldrich and Vntis the only ones in the sandy fighting pit. "Now then," said Aldrich as he cracked his knuckles. "About rules. Am I allowed to use weapons? Magic? Items in general?" "Do whatever you want," said Vntis. "I will be fighting in the Orc way: with nothing but my fists and Shaping. Until one of us can no longer fight or I recognize you as worthy." "Alright, then," said Aldrich. "This is a matter of getting you to consider me worthy, right? Then I''ll y along by your rules. I won''t use any equipment or items. Just my fists. I don''t have Shaping, so I''ll substitute that with my spells. But I won''t use summons. I''ll keep this as close to ''man to man'' as I can." "Heh, I like you already," said Vntis. "Then let us fight now! To the death! Toy bare the warrior''s spirits within us!" Chapter 190: Orcish Might As Vntis''s resounding deration of battle boomed through the fighting pit, Aldrich responded with a simple nod as he took up his stance, raising his fists up in a guard. He got into a rhythm, hopping up and down in quick intervals. He geared himself mentally and physically to stay mobile, because he would need it. If Vntis was fighting solely with orcish might, he was going to basically be a heavyweight tank with slow but heavy hits. Aldrich,paratively lighter, less durable, and weaker in sheer physicals, needed to abuse his mobility as much as possible. Then again, this was the style that Aldrich was the mostfortable with. He had used it all his life in fighting Alters who were consistently naturally stronger than him. It was in essence mixed martial arts, but it had a heavy focus on striking and throws. He trained considerably in boxing, Muay Thai, kickboxing, Taekwondo, and even some aspects of Chinese martial arts to maximize his footwork mobility and striking strength. Aldrich was weakest when it came to grappling because usually, it wasplete suicide to grapple with Alters when they were just t out stronger than him. Granted, he did have a good grasp of Judo for its quick throws, but he rarely liked to go on the ground to grapple and wrestle unless he could go for a quick dislocation or if he was on even physical grounds with an enemy. Against Vntis, Aldrich doubted he would ever get a chance to grapple. Even getting in a clinch would be dangerous. It was better to stay mobile and throw out hits at maximal range. "Hoh, so that is your stance?" Vntis said. "It is trained, I can tell from a single nce. But will it be enough to take me on?" "We''ll find out, won''t we?" said Aldrich simply. "Now let''s get on with this." "Your spirit ismendable!" Vntis roared. "Then, let us begin! I shall make the first move!" Aldrich took in deep breath, then exhaled as he watched Vntis with an eagle eye, wary of every single move the once orc living armor made. Vntis was around thirty meters away. Enough distance where any attack he made, Aldrich had ample time to react to. But what came next surprised Aldrich. Vntis looked up to the skies, to the green crystal dotted ceiling of the colosseum, and roared. It was a roar that sounded like it belonged to some enormous monster ten times his size. "Eep!" In the stands, Wai''ki hunched over and put her hands over her flopped down ears at the sudden explosion of noise. Sound waves echoed from Vntis''s helm, distorting his face. The sand all around Vntis gusted away as if blown apart by hurricane force winds, creating a natural smokescreen all around him. ''Looks like orcs aren''t all brawn over brains,'' thought Aldrich as he went on the immediate defensive, taking steps backwards. The Arena was huge, easily reaching the length of a football field, so he was not worried about getting backed into a corner. Aldrich kept his eyes closely trained on the huge cloud of sand. He heard a huge impact that sounded like stone shattering. Then, he saw a flicker of movement in the cloud, and not a momentter, a line of violently upturned rock from beneath the sand rapidly approached Aldrich. Aldrich jumped to the side, easily dodging the line of rocks. This was Vntis''s Shaping. Aldrich did not know which type of Shaping Vntis practiced, but this made it obvious: it was Earth Shaping. Though, of course, Vntis might know more than one element. Aldrich nced to his right side, looking at the newly created wall of stone. The jagged raised stones would have smashed into Aldrich from below, dealing considerable damage, but that was just one thing that made them an issue. They also formed a natural barrier that limited his movement. Another flicker of movement from the sand cloud. This time, Vntis emerged, charging forth like a mad bull. He came from the opposite side of the rock wall, aiming to try and limit Aldrich by corralling him against the wall. Aldrich raised a hand into the air. "[Bone Wall]" He did not need to chant spells, but it did help. It was easier to focus on them which let him direct them more urately, and he needed that uracy to know exactly where to ce the wall. A massive wall of interlocked skeletons rose up in a near instant to halt Vntis''s iing charge. "You think this will stop me!" Vntis just smashed into the wall with no concern for harm done to his body. Remarkably, despite [Bone Wall] being a 4th circle spell meant to be casted by level 40 magic users, Vntis barreled through the wall with ease. The wall exploded apart like a bomb had gone off in it, a shower of broken apart bone scattering around Vntis as he made his way through. "Huh?" Vntis stopped his charge as he realized Aldrich was not in front of him. "Gah!" Vntis jerked to the side as the helix shaped energy of a [Death Bolt] mmed into his ribs with explosive impact. Another [Death Bolt] then hit his back, causing him to stagger forwards. Aldrich had circled around the [Bone Wall] the moment Vntis crashed into it, using the brief moment Vntis would not have sight to take Vntis''s blind spot and make more distance from the rock wall. "You think I am helpless at range!?" Vntis turned and crossed his arms in front of his face to block another [Death Bolt]. His armor glowed with streaks of bright hot green from where the bolts struck. "Do you know how many whose skulls I have taken that thought the very same!?" Vntis, to make good on his word, smashed his hand into the earth. With a roar, Vntis raised his arm up, dredging up an enormous boulder easily the size of arge car over his head. The shadow the boulder castpletely covered Vntis, speaking to its bulk. The thing must have weighed several tons, and Vntis carried it like it a piece of paper. Though, Aldrich noted, Vntis was not lifting the boulder entirely with his own strength. He was using Shaping to not only sculpt the boulder from the ground, but also to make it easier to hold. "RAH!" Vntis threw the boulder at extreme speed using a Shaping skill known as [Boulder Toss]. The actual weight of the boulder, though, was just as heavy as it looked, and that made this projectile attack an immense danger that had the threat of chunking Aldrich for probably over 30% of his max health, maybe more considering his weakness to crushing damage. Aldrich did not bother casting [Bone Wall]. That would do nothing against a projectile that big and fast. "[Death Bolt]" Aldrich chanted. He chanted because he needed more focus to manipte the spell beyond a simple linear trajectory. He threw out the [Death Bolt] with a curve ball path that swerved to hit the boulder from the side. That threw the boulder off its intended path to crush Aldrich enough that he could dodge it rtively easily. The boulder mmed into the earth behind Aldrich with a rumbling impact, crashing up a geyser of sand. "Is that it?" goaded Aldrich as he stayed at a respectable distance, wanting to bait Vntis out in using another ranged attack. It was true that Vntis was not helpless at range, but he was no expert either. Orc Shaping, derived from their affinity to nature, did give them rangedbat options, but they usually had slow wind-up times and telegraphed movespared to spammable projectiles from mages. Even Wind Shapers, the most suited to fight at range among the orcs, had this weakness. Their ranged attacks were incredibly powerful, but they were slow. "Not at all! If you want to stay all the way over there, then fine! Try to dodge this!" Vntis knelt on one knee and buried his arms into the ground. He roared again, shockwaves of sound echoing from his helm as he stared into the ceiling. His entire body shook with tremors, rattling out metal echoes in exertion as if he was trying to lift up some massive weight. The ground around Vntis in a massive area started to glow a faint orange. This area covered where Aldrich was standing and more, stretching far behind him. Aldrich stood still, remaining patient. He knew what wasing. He just needed to get the timing right. After exactly a second, Aldrich put power into his legs and leaped into the air. Vntis''s roar reached a high point as he stood up, ripping his arms violently out of the ground. It was as if Vntis had started an earthquake. The entirety of the orange-lit area around him blew apart in a massive seismic shockwave, casting up a mass amount of sand. Deep cracks littered every inch of the ground, and had Aldrich remained there, his legs would have turned intoplete mush from that hit. Instead, Aldrich used the blown up sand as a smokescreen of his own. He reached Vntis from the air and threw out a spinning kick right at the side of his head. Vntis took the hit, blinded by the sand dredged up from his own attack. The impact rang out clear and loud. The sound of reinforced flesh impacting against pure metal. Vntis mmed into the ground from that unexpected hit, skidding across the cracked earth in a shower of sparks. Chapter 191: [Bonus chapter] A Hard Headed Counter Bonus chapter for getting me into golden ticket and powerstone rank 20! ________________________________ Vntisy helm first on the ground,pletely still. "What?" said Aldrich. "Is that all?" "I was merely admiring how wonderfully struck that blow was," said Vntis as he pushed himself up, not much worse for wear. There was a small dent on the side of his head where Aldrich''s foot had made impact. "Marvelous! Let us go again!" "Alright then-" Aldrich made the first move this time, setting off on a sprint towards the Living Armor. From thatst blow, one thing Aldrich could confirm was this: Vntis could not use his Truesight when using his Orcish powers or else he would have seen Aldrich''s hiting from the sand smokescreen. "Come!" Vntis gleefully weed Aldrich''s attack. He smashed his foot into the ground, causing another row of jagged rocks to rush against Aldrich. Aldrich did not want to break his momentum by swerving to the side. Also, if he dodged to the side, there was a good possibility that Vntis would just m out another row of rocks on the other side of Aldrich to basically corral him in a pen of rock walls. That would limit Aldrich either to retreat or an offense that would force him on a narrow and predictable path to Vntis. Instead, Aldrich jumped into the air, avoiding the skywards reaching rock spikes. Without losing almost any momentum, he flipped in the air andnded midway across the wall of upturned stone. Instead of getting skewered on the jagged edges, he instead gracefully grasped two rock spikes in either of his hands, using them as a surface to push off of. Like that, Aldrich closed the distance to Vntis without losing almost any time. Vntis stared up at him with his fists clenched and white eye burning with eager battle lust. In midair, Aldrich pped his hands together and withdrew twin [Death Bolts]. He fired them one after the other, minimizing the time Vntis had to react to Aldrich. Vntis grunted as he blocked one [Death Bolt]. Vntis prepped himself to block the second [Death Bolt], but it narrowly missed him. However, this was by design. The [Death Bolt] instead exploded in front of Vntis and drove up another cloud of sand. By the time Vntis could react to what had happened, Aldrich was right in front of him. Aldrich took in a breath, staring at Vntis. The Living Armor had turned his head around to look behind him, where he had expected Aldrich to appear. After all, what was the point of a smokescreen otherwise? But Aldrich had predicted that. Now, with Vntis briefly distracted looking backwards, Aldrich had free reign to get hits in. But he needed to think about how to maximize his DPS. The Living Armor stood about two heads taller than Aldrich and looked considerably bulkier. Not only that, but his body was pure metal and bone. There were no ces to hit like the liver or sr plexus that would knock down a bigger enemy made of flesh and blood. But that also meant Aldrich did not have to focus much on where to hit. So long as he did damage, any attack worked. First, Aldrich unleashed a front kick aimed at the stomach to bend Vntis''s upper body forward. Then, an uppercut to knock Vntis''s now forward leaning head up. "Gah!" Vntis let out a grunt of pain as his head whipped upwards from the echoing impact of the uppercut. This bared his entire body to further attacks. Aldrich exhaled as he unleashed what could only be described as a hurricane of punches and kicks. With how much his stats had been amplified, he looked like a raging mass of attacks, his blows blurring and meshing with each other into one giant, deadly, seamlessbination. The sound of strong force ringing against metal rang through the air again and again and again in gunfire-rapid rhythm. Now that Aldrich was undead with infinite stamina, if he got in the rhythm of attacking someone, he could chain hit after hit together in an infinitebo akin to a permanent stunlock. Aldrich drove Vntis back dozens of meters with this storm of strikes, but as he did so, he realized one thing: Vntis was not even trying to guard them. Vntis suffered under the attacks, that was for sure - his eye dot was scrunched up in pain. But he just stood there like an unbreakable wall, his arms hanging by his sides, his fists clenched not to ready a punch, but to endure. Suddenly, Vntis reached out and grabbed Aldrich''s arm before it hit his chest. The grip was like a vice, nigh unbreakable in its firmness. Like a dam lowered against a raging river, this stopped the flow of Aldrich''s endless attacks. With a roar, Vntis unleashed a mighty headbutt down on Aldrich. The blow connected with a concussive shockwave, sting Aldrich several meters away like he had been hit with an artillery shell. "Those strikes were fine and mighty. Like a storm they were, yes, as beautiful as that unleashed by any master I have seen!" said Vntis. "But there is nothing that trumps the unbreakable will of an orc! In duels like these, we take all blows head on. We learn by feeling these blows engrave their lessons into our very skin, and we return that lesson with power tenfold!" = In the stands, Okeanos stood up, rmed. His iridescent rainbow eyes were trained on Aldrich''s prone body. "Is¡­the master defeated?" "Sure looks like it," said Med. "Oh, will he need healing? I''m always ready to heal!" said Wai''ki with a worried tremble on her lips. The Death Lord simply watched silently. "No," said Valera. She watched the battle below with crossed arms and a confident smile. "You should know this better than anyone, youngling. Our master never falls so easily." = Aldrich stood up as he put a hand on his head, right where Vntis had hit him with a high speed headbutt delivered from a skull of pure metal. The skin around his forehead waspletely torn open, blood dripping liberally from the wound, but beneath, the visible bone of his skull was a dark, almost ck metallic shine. "I had a contingency in case you managed to counter me," said Aldrich as he stared at Vntis, streams of blood dripping around his green eyes, rimming them a menacing red. "But I didn''t expect to use it so soon." Aldrich had used [Rite of Bone Binding] on himself before the head butt, greatly strengthening his skeleton. But even then, Vntis''s attack had dealt a considerable amount of damage. The [Death Essence Barrier] was not suited to dealing with strong physical blows. It could not mitigate damage from physical hits that crossed a certain threshold, so Aldrich had taken that head butt counter, well, head on. Thankfully, the [Rite of Bone Binding] prevented Aldrich from dealing with a huge hole in his skull, reducing 50% of iing physical damage, though that value would decrease dramatically with each sessive strong hit endured. "You still manage to stand? After that?" Vntis paused before breaking out into a heartyugh, his white dot eye squinting jovially. "Marvelous! "You''re not bad yourself," said Aldrich. "You managed to read my moves and catch me off guard. That''s not easy to do when our stats are almost equalized." "Hah, after taking that many blows, even a gork would would learn!" said Vntis. If Aldrich remembered correctly, a gork was an insult used among orcs for those that were particrly dumb among them. He shook his head and smiled, a part of him feeling good that Vntis could enjoy himself truly as himself. And, Aldrich had to admit, he enjoyed this too. It was an extremely rare thing for him to ever spar with someone around his level. Almost every single time he fought, it was with his life or death in mind. Or it was against someone superior to him in every way. He had never been in a fair fight, only struggles for survival. But this was a good old fashioned fair fight. Something he had practically never experienced before. He enjoyed it, that was for sure. But at the same time, he also was not the type to let his fights drag out, even in lower stakes situations like this. "You know, you said something interesting before." Aldrich started to walk towards Vntis, staring at the Living Armor with a piercing gaze. "You said that in duels like this, orcs always take their enemy''s hits head on, right? No guarding?" "That is right!" Vntis proimed proudly as he beat his chest with his fist, letting out a metallic ring. "You are free to guard as you wish - you are no orc. But in a fight like this, I would never forego the chance to carve your blows into my memory!" Vntis said this, but it was clear he was not unharmed. Taking all those hits straight on had damaged him significantly. There were countless dents all over his body, and even as he tried to stand tall and proud, he hobbled a bit. "I see. Alright then," said Aldrich. He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly through his teeth. His body started to distort, heat waves rippling from all around his skin. The blood pouring out from his open forehead started to steam first, then burst into mes. All of his veins began to pop out grotesquely. His eyes grew intensely bloodshot, turning their color into a shade of dark, almost ck green. The veins on his chest where his heart was became the most visible and engorged with blood. The sound of his heartbeat became highly audible, loosing a rapid rhythm of deep beats that sounded like war drums. Every single time his heart beat, its engorged, erged form visibly pushed against the flesh of his chest, overclocked far past its physical limits. "Then try to keep up with this." Chapter 192: Burning Agony Vntis smashed his fists together, letting out a metallic cry of confidence. "A new form, is it!? Like a spirit of fire! Or a war demon! Good! Show me your strength, your warrior''s will, O Armored!" Aldrich got into his fighting stance, and as he did so, he felt burning, searing pain across every single inch of his body. After all, right now, he was literally on fire. His blood had ignited, bursting through his bulging veins in scorching red mes that covered him in a raging aura of heat. Patches of his skin were starting to melt off, revealing raw muscle beneath that, and soon, even that would melt down until there was nothing but bone. This was [Burning Agony]. The spell Aldrich used to buff his flesh undead into raging, burning fighters as fierce as any war demon. The way the spell worked was that it provided a strong base level boost of 50 to all stats or a stat multiplier depending on which was greater. For Aldrich, the stat multiplier yielded far better results, granting him nearly double all of his physical stats. The amount of power he felt brimming within him, coursing through his veins in burning intensity, was staggering. In this state, he could probably even beat down Valera and Okeanos in closebat. Though, the biggest issue was stamina. This onlysted as long as Aldrich''s Materius did, and that was probably not much longer than thirty seconds. The effects of the spell also decayed over time as the flesh burned away. On top of that, the spell dealt damage to Aldrich. His Materius might have just been a construct of flesh, but the burning mes from the ignited blood still scorched his true body of bone, and bone was weak to me. Aldrich calcted that [Burning Agony], if toggled for as long as possible, would cut down between 30-40% of his maximum health. Thus, using this spell was a deration to end a fight quickly. And Aldrich made true on that deration. His center of gravity slightly lowered, his knees bending as he got into a position to charge. Vntis clenched his fists and puffed his chest out, ready to take any hit head on. Without guarding, as he had promised. When Aldrich charged, he disappeared. The only thing left behind where he was were a pair of molten footprints. "Wh-," Vntis managed in surprise before an immensely powerful punch, orders of magnitudes beyond any that Aldrich had thrown before, crashed into his stomach like a ming meteor. Aldrich grit his teeth as he put all his strength into that punch, aiming not to hit Vntis, but to hit THROUGH him. The blood vessels around his arms popped in fiery bursts, wreathing his arm in a swirling gauntlet of intensely hot me. Cracks shattered out from where Aldrich hit Vntis. The metal around Vntis''s entire torso started to superheat up, turning from obsidian ck to bright hot red. Then, all of Vntis''s sizable bulk was sent flying far backwards like a pinball. = "Look at him! I knew my Usurper would not fail to entertain!" said the Death Lord proudly. She leaned forward against her seat, her forked tongue flitting out in excitement. "See, youngling?" said Valera, equally proud. "Our master always has a way to win." "¡­" Okeanos watched and nodded in awe. "But the master is taking damage. He cannot do this for long." "That does not mean anything if Vntis does not guard," said Med. She watched the fight hunched forward, her elbows rested on her legs and her chin resting on her interlocked hands. "Taking damage is not all that goes into weathering a strike. The time it takes to reel and recover is also crucial. Without guarding, Vntis leaves himself to get struck over and over again. Were he to simply guard or even try to retreat, he could easily find a path to victory. What he is doing now is simply idiotic and irrational - I simply cannot grasp it." "D-don''t call Vol that!" said Wai''ki. She lightly punched Med on the shoulder. "Taking all those hits like that - he''s kind of cool, don''t you think?" "Mmm. He seems more akin to a training dummy to me." Med shrugged. "You simply do not understand a warrior''s honor," said Valera. "But that is to be expected for someone that never steps out of their study." "I do not indulge myself in shouting and beating matches, yes," said Med. "But I suppose activities like that would suit a woman like you." Valera and Med both red at each other, leaving Wai''ki nervously ncing between them, her mouth open as she wondered what to say to calm the two down. "Quiet down,dies," said the Death Lord. Her eyes were still glued to the fight. "The final exchange is near, and I want to enjoy it in silence." = Aldrich exhaled, and blood from his melted throat spilled out in tongues of fire. He briefly looked down at his fist. It was utterly mangled. The flesh around the arm waspletely gone now, leaving just raw muscle. The muscles around his hand were ripped apart, baring ck bone beneath. ''It''s not just burning from the spell that limits its duration,'' thought Aldrich. ''It''s the power from my hits too. Because they''re getting thrown out beyond my normal limits, they break apart my Materius.'' All the more reason to end this as soon as possible. Aldrich charged again, disappearing with his speed once more. He reached Vntis literally in mid air and mmed him back down into the ground with an axe kick. In an explosion of me, Vntis plummeted down, smashing into the dirt and carving out a sizable crater. Aldrich dropped down in front of Vntis and prepped another hit. He realized he could not really chain his hits into smooth, fluidbinations like before. The way his body rapidly deteriorated plus hisck of experience with this level of stat boost meant he did not have the high level coordination necessary. Still, that did not mean Aldrich''s individual blows did not have devastating power behind them. Vntis got up to a knee. His whole body was red hot from exposure to Aldrich''s mes. His eye dot was narrowed in pain. Aldrich sped forward again, preparing another punch. Vntis reacted this time, showcasing his incredible capability to read Aldrich''s movements. It was quite likely that subconsciously, Vntis was tapping into his demonic Truesight even if he consciously wanted to only use his orcish powers. Vntis tried to grab Aldrich''s arm again, but even if Vntis could react, he was just too slow. Aldrich just weaved under Vntis''s grab attempt. He got a hold of Vntis''s arm, turned around, and then threw the Living Armor over his shoulder. He did not throw Vntis into the ground, but instead straight away, into the towering walls of the Arena fighting pit. Wreathed in a ball of ignited blood from Aldrich, Vntis shot out like a shooting star and smashed into the grey stone walls with ear rupturing impact. The durable stone wall cracked under the force of the attack, embedding Vntis slightly within it. It was a testament to how durable the wall was that Vntis did not just straight up smash through it. In an instant, Aldrich was upon Vntis again. An issue with this form was because the power was so explosive, it was hard to pin a target down for multiple attacks. Each of his blows sent Vntis flying, making Aldrich waste time traveling between attacks. But now, with Vntis pinned against the Arena wall like this, that problem had been erased. Aldrich could go all out with no issues. Chapter 193: [Bonus chapter] A Worthy Rage Bonus chapter for getting me into golden ticket and powerstone rank 20! ________________________________ Aldrich roared in exertion as he unloaded a barrage of attacks. They were sloppier in execution than before. Thrown out more wildly. The punches and kicks did not chain together with as much fluid motion, but did that even matter when Aldrich threw out attacks that were several times stronger and several times the speed? Technique mattered to a point, but overwhelming power achieved just the same, if not more. At the end of the day, technique was an optimizer. It made you use what you had efficiency. But if what you had was not enough, you would always lose. That was a lesson that Aldrich knew deeply well in his fights against stronger Alters. It was Aldrich this time, though, that was on the side of overwhelming force. Each of his attacks sounded like high ordnance bombs going off. Bursts of me apanied all of his hits, and because of how quickly they were thrown out, it looked like Aldrich was justpletely covered in a pir of red fire that roared up and down to the chaotic rhythm of his hits, like a snake charmed to the tune of a horrendous beating. The booming echoes of impact as Aldrich punched Vntis over and over again thundered through the Arena. The wall shook with each hit as Aldrich drove Vntis in deeper and deeper into it. Hit after hit after hit. Aldrich kept going on and on. Every single punch he threw out, more and more of his body melted. Chunks of his flesh literally blew apart from bursting, ming blood vessels. His eyes were bleeding, starting to melt out of their sockets. Each time he breathed in and breathed out, ming blood poured out of his mouth. His tongue spilled out of his mouth in a chunk of fleshy blood, burning up before it even hit the ground. Aldrich''s Materius still felt pain and normal sensation as otherwise, he would be unused to operating it optimally. As a result, he had felt the intense pain of [Burning Agony]. Pain, however, was an old friend, and if it was just pain, he could handle it. But now, the pain had faded away, turning into something akin to pure bloodlust. A side effect of [Burning Agony]: it rendered affected units Berserk, but Aldrich had been confident he could control it. And yet, this was an intoxicating sensation that he felt himself slipping into, slowly but surely losing control, giving him the unstoppable urge to hit harder and again and again. The urge to destroy. The urge to tear. The urge to kill. This was not an urge his normally calcted mind had ever faced. It overwhelmed him, grasping at the heels of his mind and dragging it under ake of brimstone and fire and aggression. The world around him blurred under a thick veil of bright red. He did not know what he was hitting anymore. He did not care. So long as he got to hit something. "Never hit a man when they''re down." A voice rang in Aldrich''s mind, in the depths of his consciousness. He thought he could feel a familiar, cool touch on his back. That was father''s voice. His father''s hand. He felt another hand on his back. A softer one. Warmer. Not burning hot like the rage, but a gentle, epting warmth. "When they''re down, you help them up." His mother''s voice. That instantly drove him out of his punch drunk stupor, sobering him up in a cold instant. The red in his vision sapped away. Aldrich''s fist was frozen midway in the air. He looked down. He and Vntis were in a deep, molten red crater. Vntis was knocked out, his white eye dot turned off. The metal of his chest hadpletely melted off, baring a webwork of vein-like red magical energy channels that formed a ''body'' that Vntis used to operate himself. Vntis had probably sustained too much damage to go on some time ago. Aldrich''s [Burning Agony] turned off, all of his flesh burned off by now. He felt his head clear. He reached down and slung Vntis over the bare skeleton of his shoulder. "Sorry, Vntis," whispered Aldrich as he carried the armor out of the tunnel he had punched out. Outside, everyone was waiting. "Congrattions on your victory, Death Walker!" proimed the Death Lord in glee. "I always knew there was a beast festering within you, locked up and gorging on all that negative energy of yours, but I did not expect that it had such¡­ferocity to it. I do wonder how much stronger you will be when you tame it." The Death Lord licked her lips, causing their faintly purple hue to glisten. "Healing." Aldrich ignored the Death Lord and gently ced Vntis down. "On it!" said Wai''ki as she shifted her way over to Vntis''s side. "Oh, why did you take all those hits, Vol? It was cool, but Med is right - it was also dumb." "Not at all!" Vntis suddenly roared, his white eye doting back to life. "Eep!" Wai''ki yelped as she scrambled backwards at Vntis''s sudden reanimation. Vntis got himself to a standing position with shaky arms and legs. But still, he managed to stand, even with a gaping melted hole in his chest. Everyone stared at Vntis with surprise. By all rights, Vntis should have beenpletely near death. And yet, he managed to stand just like that. "What?" Vntis looked around. "None of you have seen the spirit of an orc, I see! That is our way - we stand down to only three things: time, death, and a worthy leader! And there is no rust on my armor nor is death ready to reap my soul." Vntis turned to Aldrich and fell down to a knee. "But there is a worthy leader before me." "I appreciate it, Vntis," said Aldrich. "But you shaking like that while you say all this isn''t very convincing. Wai''ki, can you treat him?" "Heh, I always made it a point to stay standing in battle. Even in the end, upon that hill of swords, I died standing. I am not proud of the monster I became by that point, but I am proud of that." Vntis copsed down to his knees and sighed. "But I suppose it is time for a rest. That was well fought, Armored. Such ferocity of strength I have seen hardly the likes of! It rivals the likes of the Archdemons of Carnasus, the demon god of war himself! I only wish I could show you the full range of my moves. I can shape fire, too, but s, I was taken by surprise and struck down before I even realized!" "¡­" Aldrich did not know whether to take that as apliment. He did not like losing control like that. Whenever he fought, it was not with crazed bloodlust. Vengeance, yes, but not berserk rage. Every time he struck a hit, it was always with purpose. This felt senseless. "Master, are you alright?" said Valera as she came close to Aldrich''s side. She alone among everyone here had sensed something was off. "I am," said Aldrich. He nced at her red eyes. He wondered how she was able to keep such a firm handle on her berserk rage. Was it training? Or something else. He wanted to learn, because there was no doubt about it that [Burning Agony] was an extremely powerful trump card for Aldrich. But if Aldrich could not wield it with a cool head, it became considerably less useful. "When I''m done, you will be as good as new! So just sit still!" said Wai''ki as she sat on her knees and guided her staff over the hole in Vntis''s chest. She closed her eyes, her deer ears fluttering as she channeled magical energy. An aura of blue swirled around her in leafy patterns. "[- - - ,- - - , - - - - -]" Wai''ki chanted the Ancestral Tongue, and as she did so, her magical energy coalesced into a small cloud of blue butterflies thatnded on Vntis''s wound. The butterflies melted, turning into a salve that started to seal the damage up. "Ahh, I feel as good as new already!" said Vntis. "The healing has barely started. You still have a massive hole in your chest," remarked Med in matter-of-fact tone. "A hole that serves as a reminder of the might of my Armored. What better reminder could there be?" said Vntis. "I-" Med stopped herself and shrugged. "Yes. Whatever works for you. I should not try to understand all this warrior spirit nonsense." "You must consider it sometime!" said Vntis. "There is nothing that makes the heart beat and the soul thunder so. Your demonic brethren under Carnasus knew this well." "The spawn of Carnasus are a barbaric, brutish horde of abominations that I want nothing to do with. The amount of mindless blood shed and time wasted on their end sickens me," said Med as she walked away, brooding away off to the side. "Hm, she is as prickly as I remember," said Vntis. "But no matter. This is a cause for celebration! When a warmaster like myself epts a warfather, custom dictates merry drink and feasting and fighting for three days." "I would like to, Vntis," said Aldrich. "But there isn''t enough time. I need you to stay out of the Nexus and act as me now that you''re fully operational again. That way, nobody will suspect my disappearance even if they somehow check on me." "Of course," said Vntis. "Yes, of course. Ah, I forget that there is always something to do. Will I be alone out in that pit?" "Unfortunately, yes," said Aldrich. "Unfortunately? Do not use that term," said Vntis. "Under a capable warfather, there is no such thing as ''un-fortune''. Solitude is something I am used to. I will keep watch, Armored." "You do not have to," said the Death Lord. "Once Wai''ki is done channeling her healing, she can cast potent illusion magic to craft a copy of you. I doubt any mortal eye unused to the flow of magic will ever see through it. As for this feast of yours, I find it an interesting idea. I shall arrange for it." "I have to clear the Trial Quests-," began Aldrich. "Death Walker, you have an eternity to spend. Do try to enjoy it some, or else you will find yourself quite bored. That is, if you do not get yourself killed first. Come, walk with me a little," said the Death Lord. Aldrich peered over to Valera. She stared at the Death Lord with suspicious eyes. "It''ll be just for a moment. And thank you, Valera, for understanding what I was feeling." "Then I will allow it. And you do not have to thank me, master. Always, I will try my best for you. To understand you," said Valera. Aldrich nodded and walked over to the Death Lord. As he trailed behind her, he asked, "So, what is it?" "You are harboring something within your soul, are you not? Within your Phctery?" said the Death Lord. She drew a breath from her pipe, purple smoke gently flickering around her lips. "I sensed it the moment you stepped foot in this realm." The Chrysalis. "Yes. What about it? said Aldrich. The Death Lord cocked her head, her brows furrowing in thought. She mulled over something in her head for a few seconds before nodding to herself. "I can help you hatch it." Chapter 194: Boundary "You can make it hatch?" said Aldrich. "That''s interesting. I would have thought your powers wouldn''t be able to interact with it so easily, considering it isn''t from Elduin." "Yes, but there is something else here that is from Elduin, is there not?" The Death Lord turned to Aldrich and tapped the bone of his sternum with her pipe. Underneath his ribcage, his dark purple Phctery was barely visible, surrounding by his passively generated aura of green energy. "Me?" said Aldrich. "Yes, my dear, you. Through my link with you, I can sense what is going on to a degree," said the Death Lord. "Now then, I am sure you understand some idea of what is happening within your Phctery, yes?" Aldrich nodded. To recap, the Chrysalis was essentially incubating inside of his Phctery. It did so as an adaptive response to mana exposure. Chrysales changed themselves to use the resources around them, and if all that was avable was mana, then it would change itself to use it. However,plex maniption of mana required a functional soul. As a result, it had been feeding off not only Aldrich''s mana, but his soul as well, analyzing it to try and replicate it. The end result would be a being that derived its existence directly from Aldrich. In Fler''Gan''s somewhat ufortable wording, it was basically akin to having a child. "I do," said Aldrich. "I''m surprised you do, considering you were holed up here most of the time." "We are always connected, Death Walker. We always have been, from the very moment you became an undead and called upon your Necromancy." said the Death Lord. She gazed at Aldrich with an inspecting look. "The more I think about it, the more my interest in you grows. The Necromancy you practice, the ultations of Shattered Bone and Legion and Cold Rot - all of those hail from me. Necromancy was an old power that predated even my ancient birth, but it was I who gathered it into a proper art. To use any of its spells is to in part draw from me in the same way that a Lifelight priest draws from that ugly goddess when they cast their self-righteous little sparkles. For you to use Necromancy necessitates my existence. Thus, I manifested, as if in response to your need. It would seem you are quite literally a ''Nexus'' point by which all of us from Elduin may derive existence. Hence, why I do not want you off in a hurry to die so quickly. If you die, I fear that you, our ''anchor'' to this realm, will fade, and we will return to oblivion once more." "This is mainly for my curiosity, but do you remember where you were before you came here?" said Aldrich. "Dead, was I not?" said the Death Lord. "The is thest memory I have, at the least. You and all your heroes wearing me down. I would have been fine falling to the hands of worthy heroes. But in the end, that filthy wench of a goddess was the one to appear, stopping you when I was all but defeated. Of course, she was too coward to face me herself. And of course, she had to preach about saving the world before smiting me down and taking the killing blow. Gah! Even thinking about the memory drives my stress dangerously high-," The Death Lord clenched her fist, snapping her pipe into pieces. "Ah, apologies. That was unseemly of me." "I see," said Aldrich. It seemed that for people like the Death Lord who had died in the story of Elden World, they remembered up to their deaths. For people like Valera who were still supposed to be alive, they remembered falling into a vague, dreamlike state of waiting. There was not enough information for Aldrich to make a conclusion out of, but he kept all this in the back of his head. "But as for that thing you are hosting, I am assuming the Mind Eater told you to incubate it within your Phctery. And by keeping the Phctery close to your being, you kept conditions stable for the creature," said the Death Lord. "You would be right about that. What he didn''t tell me was how long I would have to do it. I haven''t received any signals from the Chrysalis that it''s ready to hatch. Even trying to reach out to it with a mental link doesn''t yield much of a response." "Ah, so it is called a Chrysalis? An aptly fitting name. I shall tell you then: the time is now. It is ready to hatch. It simply needs an infusion of magical energy," said the Death Lord. "Really? That''s all it takes?" said Aldrich. "A mana infusion? Even I can do that." To prove his point, Aldrich swirled his mana around himself. Green strands flowered all around him in rhythmic, flowing patterns. "Impressive mana control, Death Walker. Unlike ordinary mages that spend long years learning how to direct the flow of mana, the knowledge seems to be directly engraved into your being," said the Death Lord. "But that alone is not enough. The Chrysalis is held within your Phctery, no? Then you need someone that can unseal it. Granted, the Mind Eater can do so, considering he was the one that crafted it. But what he does not have is the magic. The sheer quantity of magical energy this creature needs is staggering. Only I with the Necropolis can provide it." "What would the Chrysalis need that much magical energy for?" wondered Aldrich. "To forge its soul? I was under the impression it could do that naturally, given time and exposure to my own soul and mana." "No, no, not that. Tell me, Death Walker, you must be familiar with the concept of a Boundary, are you not?" Aldrich raised a brow in recognition, and the Death Lord smiled. "Yes, of course you would," said the Death Lord. "Some undead that are attuned well with the flow of spirits may create Boundaries where the flowers of death blooms their strongest. But powerful undead are all naturally attuned to spirits, to the flow of death. Thus, they all develop Boundaries of their own as a matter of course in their growth. The stronger the undead, the stronger their Boundary, as you can see." The Death Lord gestured to the Arena around her, to the entire Necropolis that housed it. This was her Boundary. A massive dimension akin to an entire city. . "I know where you''re getting at," said Aldrich. "If I''m following correctly, then the Chrysalis is¡­trying to create its own Boundary?" "Your Boundary," corrected the Death Lord. "Hm." Aldrich put a hand to his chin. "But if I remember correctly, Liches don''t develop proper Boundaries until they ascend into bing an Arch Lich. That''s level 60 at least." "Oh, please, dear Death Walker, do youpare yourself even now with the ordinary Lich?" The Death Lord rolled her eyes. "Come now. With such a strong connection to me, did you truly think you would grow like the normal Lich, wasting away in study and experimentation and training for centuries to try and replicate a fraction of my strength? No, you receive my power directly. Your growth, therefore, will naturally be exceptional." "A boundary, hm..." Aldrich put a hand to his ribs in contemtion. Unlike say, the [Spirit Boundary] of lower leveled undead like the Deildeghast or Ghast, Boundaries from high leveled undead were much stronger and much more varied. A proper Boundary took, as the Death Lord described, centuries to properly develop. Liches naturally started to develop Boundaries at a certain stage in their existence, but most regr Liches could only project an iplete Boundary. These looked likerge swathes of watery darkness yet to be shaped into anything specific. But even those were deadly. In iplete Boundaries, Liches grew considerably stronger, gaining additional stats, buffs to their units, and bonuses to some of their spells. But that was nothingpared to aplete Boundary. Aplete Boundary was quite literally like a separate dimension. This dimension was unique to every single Lich, representing their inner world - their very soul. Thus, mostter game boss fights against Arch Liches often involved a second phase where the Arch Lich unleashed their Boundary, forcing the yer to fight them in an inner world of their making. An extreme example was the Death Lord''s Necropolis and Death Realm. These technically were just her Boundary. No other Lich came close to having a Boundary thatrge and developed, but if Aldrich was going to seed her, it meant he was destined for it. Now it made sense. Why the Death Realm and Necropolis were merged into the Nexus. Slowly but surely, the Death Lord was preparing to hand down this entire realm to him. "Still, even I did not expect you to develop a Boundary this quickly," said the Death Lord. "Even with absorption of my powers. I have not given you that much yet. I was waiting, as you said, for you to reach the power level of an Arch Lich, for I had not thought you ready. You may thank this ''Chrysalis'' for this. It seems to be a creature with an affinity for manipting space, and it has created a ''shell'' of a surprisingly developed Boundary for you. All it requires is an infusion of magical energy that will serve as the raw building material to fill in that ''shell''." Basically, Aldrich noted, the Chrysalis had drawn up the blueprints for the Boundary, but itcked the magical energy - the bricks and stones and wood - to actually build it. This, the Death Lord said she was going to provide. "Howplete exactly is this Boundary?" said Aldrich. "And I thought Liches could customize their own Boundaries ording to their wills. In my case, though, something else has essentially made it for me." "An oversimplification," exined the Death Lord. "Boundaries are malleable yes, but at their core, they are inflexible. They represent who you are at a fundamental level, and that is something difficult, if not impossible, to alter. What we do when we develop our Boundaries is build upon that core. Weyer over it, often creating grand realms, but that core remains the same. The core of my realm, for example, is a small room norger than a few paces wide. But that miniscule room represents who I am at the deepest level. All of this, the fields of spectral lilies, the towering Necropolis itself, are simply essories. You may change some aspects of a Boundary. Increase its size, its beneficial effects, and so on and so forth, but the core it builds upon remains the exact same. The Chrysalis has shaped that ''core'' of your Boundary. As for how much more development it has done over it, hm¡­" The Death Lord narrowed her eyes as she stared at Aldrich. She shrugged. "I cannot tell too well. The Chrysalis is, after all, still a foreign entity to me. I cannot sense itpletely. At the very least, you should not witness simple darkness as ismon with Liches that manage to project iplete Boundaries for the first time. There will be a defined core there. A space you can interact with beyond sshing around in raw energy. But how defined it is, howrge it is, what is actually within it - I simply do not know. All I know is that it will represent who you are. It will show the deepest, most fundamental part of your self. I will warn you now, Death Walker. The very first time you gaze upon the shape of your Boundary may be a harrowing experience. It brings you face to face with the deepest parts of your being. And for very many, what they choose to harbor in those depths is not something they ever wish to see. Often, they use those dark depths to hide that which they do not wish to bring to the light. It may very well be the same for you." Chapter 195: Top of the Necropolis 1 "The depths of my being, is it?" said Aldrich. "As in, something like my greatest fear?" "Potentially. A great fear is not an umon core for a Boundary form around, for there are precious few emotions that shape the soul to greater extent than fear." The Death Lord paused. "Or it can be that your core holds warmth. It may well be that it is a reminder of something you cherish dearly, for that too molds the soul well. Yet, I will say this. I have never met one with a Boundary core that is anywhere in between. Either it is warm, or it is cold. You, Death Walker, I sense are the type that does not hold much warmth within you. You have the marks of one that has suffered, of one whose feelings and actions have chipped and worn away with abuse." "And which of those were you? Warm or cold?" "Warm. Very warm." The faint suggestion of a smile tugged at the edges of the Death Lord''s lips. It was hard to read, almost imperceptible, but it did not escape Aldrich''s sharp sight. The smile, if it had fully formed, would have been a nostalgic one. The type one got when looking back at old times. Good, happy old times. But times old enough that they would nevere back. "Does the answer surprise you?" said the Death Lord. "A little. I would have expected otherwise from a warmongering lord of death whose ultimate goal was to turn all life undead." "Just because I hold warmth in the deepest depths of my soul does not mean I am not capable of cruelty," said the Death Lord. "No, sometimes, those with Boundary cores that are warmest are the most brutal in their ways. For often, the warmth they hold dear is something they have lost. Something that was taken from them. An endless reminder of pain of what once was but now is lost." "Was that the case for you?" The Death Lord nodded. "Yes," she said, her voice soft. "But that is enough about me. It is your evolution that is near. Do you ept my offer, then? To infuse your Chrysalis with energy to force its hatching?" "When you first brought this topic up, I sensed some hesitation on your end." Aldrich had picked this up from body and vocal cues from the Death Lord. Pauses and tenseness. "I''m assuming there''s more of a risk than you''re letting on?" "My, quite sharp, are we not?" The Death Lord raised a brow at Aldrich. "There is one more risk. And that is the sheer quantity of magical energy that will funnel into you. I would be forcing you to develop a Boundary that Arch Liches nearly twenty levels your superior form. Granted, that Chrysalis creature will likely handle most of the energy processing, but in the case that it cannot, there is a risk that the excess power may wildly surge within and tear you apart from the inside out. That is not damage that you can easily recover from, for it is damage that sunders the foundations of the soul. Wai''ki can perhaps piece together your broken pieces, but you may not ever be the same." "Is that the only extra risk you foresee?" said Aldrich. "That is not a considerable risk to you? Brave." The Death Lord mulled over Aldrich''s question for a bit, then shrugged. "But yes, I believe so." "Then I have a contingency for it," said Aldrich. "I''ll need to take Valera, though." "Ah, your Guardian Knight," said the Death Lord. "Good, I encourage it. It is often better to have someone close to you by your side when you encounter your core for the first time. The closer they are, the better. They can serve as an emotional anchor to lean against." The Death Lord waved towards Valera. "You there! Knight! Come to your master''s side." Valera responded near instantly, leaping into the air with her superhuman strength to reach Aldrich''s side in a single bound. "What is it?" said Valera. She snuck a suspicious nce to the Death Lord. "Has this snake been whispering strange ideas into your ear, master?" "I was simply discussing when he would change this knight-master rtionship into something more," said the Death Lord. "W-what? Is this true?" said Valera, herposure instantly broken. She stared between Aldrich and the Death Lord rapidly. "Too easy." The Death Lord shook her head as she strutted away towards Vntis and Wai''ki with augh. "I will have Wai''ki start on her illusion of Vntis. In the meanwhile, discuss with your knight what I have told you and your intentions." "Master, was she speaking the truth?" said Valera. "No. She was just teasing you," said Aldrich. "Probably to get you off her back. And I have to admit, it is an easy way to do that." Valera sighed. "Yes. Of course. That troublesome snake¡­in any case, what do you need of me, master?" Aldrich filled her in about what the Death Lord had told him. "Are you certain you will be fine?" said Valera. "Diving into the shaded corners of your soul like that? I cannot say I know all of this reincarnated life you have led here, but I am not clueless either. As your Chosen, I receive snippets of your being. When my mind wanders, sometimes, parts of your life sh before me. I know you have suffered greatly, and the spawn of suffering is never a pretty orforting sight." "I''ll be okay," said Aldrich, firmly believing in his resolve. Whatever he faced down there, he was sure he could ovee it. He had seen his parents slowly butchered before his very own eyes. There was very little he felt that could shake him anymore. "What I do need you for, Valera, is the energy overload. Before I receive the energy, I''m going to wrap myself in my Materius. By doing that, I''ll be susceptible to certain attacks that require a flesh and blood body to work. Like your vampiric blood sucking. If the amount of magical energy in my body hits an overloading point for too long, I want you to drain the excess as much as possible. I know you don''t like tasting undead blood, but this is important." "That, I can do easily, my master," said Valera. "The honor of tasting your blood is one I will never forego, regardless of whether you are undead or not. That you are my master alone makes your essence the sweetest there is for me." "Good." Aldrich nodded to Valera. "I''ll be counting on you." "As always, I am happy to serve." Valera smiled as she put a hand to her heart. "We''re ready." Aldrich called out to the Death Lord. "Excellent." The Death Lord patted Wai''ki on the hand, and her ears twitched infort. "I will be taking Med, but do not worry, Wai''ki, for you will not be alone. This will be a wonderful chance for you to catch up with Vntis. Do tell me if there is anything he finds unsatisfactory about his Armored. I will factor that into my evaluation of him." "There is no w with my Armored!" boomed Vntis. Wai''ki cringed and put her hands over her ears. "You know, I actually think I liked how you were before. When you were quieter. It-it was morefortable for me. B-but I''m not criticizing you or anything! You are happy like this, so I am happy for you as well!" "¡­" Vntis nodded. The hole in his chest was nearly patched up by now with Wai''ki''s magic. "No, you are right. An orc''s voice is ever loud, never faltering. But I had forgotten about your preference for the quiet - the memories from my several lives are still taking time to adjust. I know how much the solitude of quiet means for you. I apologize again, Wai''ki." "N-no! Don''t apologize, not for someone like me!" said Wai''ki as she put her head down. "Come now, little one, raise your head. You are worth that apology and much more," said Vntis. "R-really?" "Of course." Vntis''s white eye dot narrowed in a smiling emote. "Hm. Maybe¡­maybe I do like you better as you are now." Wai''ki smiled too. As Aldrich watched that interaction, Okeanos blitzed his way to his side in a shower of crackling green and blue. "Master, I am going too." Chapter 196: [Bonus chapter] Top of the Necropolis 2 Aldrich stared at Okeanos for a nk moment. "I am not going?" Okeanos''s antennae dropped in disappointment, already knowing the answer to this question. "You can if you want," said Aldrich. "There''s nothing stopping you." "Nothing except me." Med spoke as she neared Aldrich, the Death Lord beside her. "It may not look like it, but with the vastly reduced manpower in the Necropolis, many of its functions are held together with the bare minimum of stability. And that stabilityes from a generous subsidy of my own magical energy. A warp to the top of the Necropolis is the most costly. I can understand spending that cost rationally for those absolutely needed. Irrational spending, though, I cannot ept." Aldrich remembered that the Death Lord had mentioned almost in passing that the Necropolis had lost over half of its troops. That exined why the Immortalis Legions, an army of over a hundred thousand, seemed to be absent. Why Chiros onlymanded fifteen death knights where as a captain, he would have easily been the head of a force a hundred plus strong. It made sense that if one considered the Necropolis aplex mechanism of many moving magical parts, that the loss of manpower would affect its capacity to run. It was also a testament to the sheer ability of Med that she could manage a territory as vast as the Necropolis. From what Aldrich knew, Med was basically like a dungeon master. She was the direct overseer of every trap, every warp point, every unit cement throughout the entire 100 floors of the Necropolis. "I am sad," said Okeanos. He spoke bluntly and without inhibition like a child would. "But I understand." "I''ll make it up to youter," said Aldrich. "Promise?" said Okeanos. "Promise." Aldrich nodded. He was interested in Okeanos and his origins. Why his mannerisms were so childlike and how they could be so human in the first ce considering his status as a variant. That, he would dive intoter. "Then all is in order," said the Death Lord. "Med, prepare the warp." "Yes." Med sped her bandaged hands together, and when she withdrew them, dark strands of energy threaded between her palms. "All of you, stay near me. I calcte that there will be no issues with the warp, but physical proximity eliminates any confounding variables." Thoseing to the top of the Necropolis drew closer to Med. "[Advanced Gate]" chanted Med. She tossed out the dark strands between her hands, and they quickly expanded outwards into a spherical void that engulfed everyone. The warp, unlike the type that Aldrich essed through Sign Stones to get to the Nexus, took several ufortable seconds of feeling weightless and stranded inplete and utter darkness. Then, the darkness faded, leaving everyone at the top of the Necropolis. Aldrich had never actually been to the top of the Necropolis. He had not even actually cleared the entire tower. Just up to the seventieth floor. At that point, the Necropolis was weakened enough for the goddess Amara to iste the Death Lord in a Trial Quest even through the natural barrier the Necropolis emitted. Where the yer faced the Death Lord in that quest, the strongest troops of Amara cleared the rest of the floors. It was not a difficult thing to do, granted, with the Deathguard and the Death Lord eliminated at that point, leaving strong but still regr mobs left behind. But Aldrich realized that Elden World had missed out on a massive opportunity in not sending the yer to the top. The sight that Aldrich saw around him was nothing short of a grand spectacle. He stood atop an enormous floating circr tform of stone. Green, circuit patterned light streaked across the stone, congregating into arge dot at the center. "Is this fog?" Valera looked around, seeing a misty white veil all around them. "No. These are clouds," said Aldrich. That was how high up they were. He looked up to see an enormous bell hovering above the tform they stood upon. The structure was massive enough that it utterly dwarfed Aldrich. It was as big as the higher end mansions that stood tall in Sky Cities. Decorative patterns of lilies and bones and dragons etched their way across the bell''s dark metal body in an artistic tapestry. A faint, nearly translucent spherical orb of green covered the bell, and it pulsated in a rhythmic pattern like the beating of a heart. Directly beneath the bell, aparatively tiny pir of green light shone down, linking with the dot at the center of the floating stone tform. "Wee, Death Walker, to the Srium." The Death Lord pointed to the enormous bell above. Looking up into it, Aldrich saw darkness, but within that darkness, he could also make out the flickering movement of green wisps. Souls. "That is the Bell of Eternity," said the Death Lord. "An artifact of the Divine grade, the highest there is. No, that does not do it enough justice. It stands at the top even among Divine grade artifacts. That little suckling bottle that the goddess Amara grants you heroes is worth as much as manurepared to this. All thatzy goddess did was shape shards from her heavenly domain. Compare that to this artifact of mine. Its metal is abyssal iron harvested from the deepest, most dangerous dungeons of the realm. To find enough took me three centuries of diving into dungeons. It was shaped in the fiery forge of Corinthisus, the Dragonsmith whose lowliest artifacts are of the Mythic grade. Quenched in waters harvested from the Soul Stream itself - that was a journey that took me another two centuries. The sacrifice of two Millennial Dragon souls went into enchanting it. The battle needed to y those two and take their souls cost me another century and nearly my life." "An artifact five hundred years in the making,"mented Valera in awe. "I had heard of this bell in texts and tales in the libraries and study halls of Nokros, but nothing my instructors taught nor what those dusty tomes depicted everpares to this." "Do not get swept up by it," said Med, still as bored as ever. "Despite my lord''s grandiose words, in the end, it is simply a power source that allows this massive realm to be as stable as it is. Nothing more than a battery, really." "Battery? Aye, that does sound right." Another voice, not one from the current group, spoke out. It came from the pir of green light tethering the center of the tform to the bell''s spherical aura. A woman stepped out of it. A woman that positively screamed with the word ''power''. She was easily three meters tall, towering over everyone there. Further exacerbating the weight of her physical presence was her build. She was noticeably muscr, and she did not hesitate to show it off. Her outfit consisted of ck leggings and bra that tightly clung to her curvy figure. All her developed muscles were visible regardless of whether they were clothed or not, and they looked solid enough to shatter bricks on. Other than that, she wore a singlerge pauldron on her left shoulder, and behind it, a short, tattered red cloak fluttered behind her. Her hair stretched down to her waist in wild red waves while her eyes shone with a gleaming white. What made her power most evident, though, was her aura of magical energy that raged around her in me orange red. It was practically just as strong as the Death Lord''s when she got serious. "Cause'' that is what methinks I am these days. A glorified battery holding up another battery," said the woman with a disgruntled expression. Her glowing white eyes did not have pupils in them, but instead a single borate golden letter in each. Runes. A symbol of power from a god. Or, in this case, a sign that one had inherited the blood of a god. This was Re. First among the Deathguard and the undisputed strongest, likely being even stronger than the Death Lord herself in terms of sheer damage output. "I understand it is not work that you may find befitting your status as First Deathguard, Re," said the Death Lord. "But it is one of necessity. Without your vast magical energy reserves, reserves that far outstrip even mine with that divine blood of yours, maintaining the Necropolis''s stability would be difficult. In that regard, consider the duty you perform now to be of the highest importance." "I suppose," said Re as she crossed her arms and stared at Aldrich and Valera. "So, what do we have here? This the usurper you were telling us all about? He seems awfully small and skinny to me. If I fought him now, he would die in just a minute, tops. Still-" Re liked her lips like she was looking at a piece of meat. "I do want to try." Chapter 197: Diving into the Chrysalis Aldrich paused for a tense moment as he heard Re''s words of challenge. Valera immediately followed suit, standing firmly beside him with a strong grip on her shield. His magical energy swirled around him in a rippling aura of green, simmering in a state right before it boiled up into full blown explosiveness. He had never been this tense even with someone as powerful as the Death Lord because he understood the type of person she was. She might have joked about fighting Aldrich, but at the end of the day, it was just that: a joke. He could tell this in her mannerisms. In her nonmittal bodynguage and her barely concealed smile that made it obvious that most of her words were to be taken lightly. But Re was nearly theplete opposite. She had an easygoing and confident demeanor about her that made it seem as if most of her words were light hearted, but there was something a little more unhinged about her, in the way she smiled, in her voice, that made her far more unpredictable. That, and her backstory. Re was the daughter of Rathos, highest god of the Eluman peoples that were the equivalent of humans in the game. Her mother was just some nameless priestess he had forced himself upon and promptly forgot about. When Re reached her teenage years, Fi, goddess and wife to Rathos, saw Re as an abomination and a symbol of her husband''s infidelity. Thus, Fi cast Re down into the depths of a dungeon full of the vilest creatures capable of enacting the most torturous ends known to man. There, Re survived for forty years by herself, and when she emerged, she was nothing but an uncontroble ball of violence and fury. Aldrich did not know how exactly the Death Lord managed to get Re sane enough to work for her. What he did know was that he did not trust in Re''s mental stability enough to hold herself back from suddenly unleashing the full brunt of her power against Aldrich. And, as Aldrich was now, vastly underleveledpared to his game counterpart, Re''s endgame level strength would undeniably demolish him. Evidently, Valera felt the same sense of threat too. Her battle instincts told her to be cautious of Re because she was wildly unpredictable. "Hehehe, that is a nice aura ye have," said Re. "It would be a wondrous feeling to shatter it with my own two hands." "There will be no shattering of anything tonight," said the Death Lord firmly, her voice resonating with authority. Re looked to the Death Lord and nodded without much resistance. "Course''. I was just bored was all, sitting in that pir all day." "I''m surprised: I thought you would have had your fill of fighting after sparring with the Death Lord," said Aldrich. This was, of course, a pointed question meant to scope out reactions from both Re and the Death Lord. Using those, he could try to determine how much of what the Death Lord said was true about her injuries. "Hah, her?" said Re. "By this point, I''ve sparred her enough to be quite bored of what she can do. And she never goes all out with me, even when I beg her to." "If we both go all out," said the Death Lord. "This realm crumbles. I already grant you much in sparring sessions to alleviate you from the boredom of this task of manually channeling the Bell of Absolution as its conduit. To let you go all out on top of that is simply too much." "Re wasn''t even going all out and she managed to do that much damage to one side of you?" said Aldrich. The Death Lord did not respond to this. It was Re that took over the answering, and she was decidedly harder to read. Perhaps because of the many years she had spent in a dungeon, or maybe it was because she was half god, but her ability to make proper facial expressions was off in an almost eerie way. "I would be ashamed of meself if my void lightning could not do even that much," said Re. "I have trained it all my life to y gods, no matter how tough their skin, barriers, or wills are. And it has felled more than one. Mel is no different." "An unlucky hit, then?" Aldrich asked this directly to the Death Lord this time. "As unlucky as can be." The Death Lord shrugged the topic away. "We are not here to discuss my sparring injuries. Let us proceed with the awakening of your Boundary." "Alright then," said Aldrich. For now, Re had covered for the Death Lord. Exnations were given for why Re could have just left this post acting as a conduit for the bell. The sparring sessions were temporary, probably made in short enough intervals that Re''s absence here was not felt. On top of that, it was actually usible for Re to have harmed the Death Lord to the degree of taking her arm even with a minor effort. Re''s signature attack involved channeling lightning as her father did. However, unlike her father''s divine lightning which shone a brilliant hue of bright white, her lightning was pitch ck and held the property of disintegrating whatever it struck. The disintegration effect was true damage, ignoring any resistances and bypassing almost all barriers. On top of that, it had an incredibly potent anti healing effect as well. Theoretically, it was possible that the Death Lord had gotten careless and taken a hit from it. Aldrich still had more than his fair share of doubts, but the more tried to press the matter, the more suspicious it would get on his end. "Oh? A new Boundary, is it?" Re looked Aldrich up and down. "This youngd of a lich has one already? Not bad. Maybe it will be worth allowing him to live and ripen into a proper challenge." "He is my Usurper, after all," said the Death Lord like a proud mother. "If he was even a shade less worthy of my powers, I would have put up far more of a struggle in allowing him to receive it." "Aren''t I the only option you have?" said Aldrich. "Not like there are any others to choose from." "That is true," agreed the Death Lord. "But I shall say this. Were you weak willed any, I would have been content to allow my realm to fade into oblivion without ever passing it on to you. After all, I am already dead. No, wait, I am dead twice over,e to think of it. I had my turn to do what I wished. Now it is yours." "Come on then," said Re as she held out her hand to Aldrich. "If this will not lead into anything exciting, best to get it over with quickly." "Finally." Med sighed. "Someone that speaks mynguage." Aldrich stared at Re''s open hand with some level of hesitation. "Rest assured, Med and I will both keep Re''s tendencies under control," said the Death Lord. "And she is not actually the one infusing you with energy. It is the Bell of Absolution. Re is simply a conduit. Her God Core allows her to multiply mana that flows into her, making her the perfect channel for the bell, but she cannot actually change how much flow the bell grants. That is strictly under my domain. And I will try to ensure not a unit more than is needed flows into you." "This had better work as you describe it, snake," said Valera. "Of course it will, my dear. After all, you are here as his contingency," said the Death Lord. She raised a hand towards the bell. Sigils of green lighted upon her arm in aplex weave of patterns. Power radiated out from these sigils, distorting the space around them. Unlike runes that gods used to manifest their powers, the Death Lord and other ''dark'' entities used sigils instead. The only exception were demons, but that was because they were invaders to the Elduin realm that got their first foothold through a god''s runes, hence their preference for using runes. "O bell of mine, I call upon you to ring. To bring forth the death knell that has imed both the lowliest and mightiest of soul." In response to the Death Lord''s voice, the enormous bell began to oscite. The intricate patterns of dragons and lilies upon its frame lit up in bright purple, emanating avender hue that melded with the green sphere around it. "Around¡­this much should be enough," whispered the Death Lord as she snapped her fingers. The bell tolled once, its great bulk softly moving from side to side with a heavy and slow motion. As it did so, it let out a deep and eerie ring, like what one would expect a bell of its size to sound like in some dark, watery depths. The sound traveled not by Aldrich, but through him, radiating in vibrations all across his body of bone. The pir of green energy underneath the bell that usually stood unchanging and stable now flickered chaotically with newly introduced energy. "Now take my hand," said Re walked up to Aldrich, standing over him while holding out her open hand. "And walk into the pir with me. When we step in, you ought to feel the power flowing into you." "The moment you step in, you will enter your Boundary. Steel your mind as much as possible, Death Walker," said the Death Lord. "There are some Liches that meet their Boundary cores and lose their sanity, bing little more than raving madmen." "That''s another risk you didn''t tell me about," said Aldrich. "Not a risk." The Death Lord smiled at Aldrich. "Did I not say? I would not have epted you were you weak willed. You can handle this much. Now go." Chapter 198: The Depths Aldrich looked ahead at the pir of chaotically flickering green light that would make hime face to face with the deepest core of his being. Within it, like being bathed in a waterfall, Re stood, the light crashing around her. Her whole body lit up with a great many circuit like white patterns, showing that she was channeling the power through her. "Come now, Usurper," said Re as she nodded towards Aldrich. "Take my hand. Or are ye shy?" "Give me a moment," said Aldrich as he manifested his Materius again. A red sh spread over his body, indicating he had sacrificed health. Creating his Materius took up 20% of his maximum health, but costs like that did not matter much in nonbat scenarios like now. The organs, flesh, and skin of his human body all wrapped up around his grey bones, padding his frame out until he was whole again. He had Med''s training garb pants still equipped on him, so he was not shing the world. "A trained body. And here I thought ye a frail mage. A pleasant surprise." Re waved her hand, beckoning Aldrich forward. "I am eager to feel your grip. I can tell much about the quality of a warrior from that alone." "I''m going," said Aldrich. Before he took his first step forward, Valera put a hand on his shoulder. "Master, do be careful," said Valera. She eyed Re''s hand. "Especially of that gori''s monstrous grip. In any case, I will be vignt here, ready to take your blood if needed." "I''ll be back soon." Aldrich went forwards. He was confident in Valera''s ability to drain any dangerous excess magical energy from him. She did not have as powerful a bloodsucking ability as a full blooded vampire, but her mixed blood with a Duhan made her uniquely suited for this type of situation. Duhan possessed an ability to mark an enemy for death. This rapidly dispelled all types of buffs from the target. This included not only self cast buffs that boosted stats or defenses, but also connections with magical energy sources not native to the target''s own being. In most cases, this was a strong anti-mage tool when mages used Arcane utility spells to create mana orbs that they could tap into for a quick recharge. As a hybrid, Valera''s vampiric bite wasbined with the Duhan''s death mark. Whoever she got a proper bite on, she could also activate the death mark against. In Aldrich''s case, that meant that she would drain him on two fronts. The death mark would rapidly dispel the foreign energy in his body and her vampiric bloodsucking would drain what was left. "Ready?" Re said as Aldrich came close to her. "Ready" Aldrich confirmed as he grasped Re''s hand. Immediately, crackles and sparks of green energy screeched around the point of contact. Aldrich felt his hand start burning, sizzling as the intensely concentrated magic started flowed into his body. The pain, however, did not affect him. It was nothing at allpared to [Burning Agony]. "You do not even flinch. Your hand is well sculpted. Calloused. The knuckles honed. You have beaten many a foe to death with these hands, have you not?" said Re. "It''s part of surviving." "Surviving, aye, I know that feeling well. We ought to get along quite well, you and I." Re stepped back further into the pir, her whole body disappearing in its blinding light. Aldrich followed. As he took his first real step into the light of the pir, he braced himself for what was toe. The moment his foot touched the light, everything turned ck. = Aldrich woke up with a start, breathing heavily. He felt a cold sweat run down his face. He instantly analyzed his surroundings. He was in a dark space. Very dimly lit by flickering, filth speckled lights above that cast oddly patterned light in random intervals. Aldrich felt cold metal under his bare upper body. He got onto a knee and inspected the ground. The metal was heavily discolored, patterned with many patches of dark that he figured was rust. Upon closer inspection, though, he could tell that not all of the discoloration was from rust. Quite a bit of it was from dried blood. The stench of iron and rotting meat hung heavy in his nose. It was a disgusting smell that made him frown. An ordinary person would have likely vomited by now, but perhaps because he was undead, but the smell of rot did not affect him much. Aldrich stood up, and as he did so, he got a much better view of the room around him. Many rusted chains ending in hooks hung down from the ceiling, some of them holding up the deteriorating carcasses of pigs. There were what looked like operating tables spaced evenly throughout the room with the asional rusted barrel beside them that held a jumble of saws and drills and tools of torture. Spattered blood decorated the tables, as did strong restraints meant to hold down anything that got on them. "¡­" Aldrich knew where this ce was. This was the room his parents had been tortured in. He felt a headache pierce through his mind, and he put a hand to his forehead, grimacing. His body felt weak and strong in waves. Memories came back to him. Of that night. When he was just a child. Wide eyed and watching. He could have looked away. But he did not. He could not. He saw. The tearing. The breaking. He heard. The screaming. The crying. Aldrich put his hand down from his face and shook his head. His green eyes stared ahead with unwavering strength. Those memories haunted him. But they did not overwhelm him. They were not memories he buried. They were memories he kept alive. Live coals to fuel his rage. His purpose. Was this his Boundary core? If so, he could handle it. Aldrich heard the tter of metal in the distance, far down the length of the room where the already faltering lights stopped workingpletely. Oddly enough, in here, his Night Vision granted by his racial status as an undead did not work. Nevertheless, Aldrich stepped towards the darkness. He felt strangelypelled to do so, as if he was being led there by some greater, outer force that he could not quite resist. He had never sleepwalked before, but he figured this was what it felt like. As Aldrich walked down the ever darkening room, it became emptier and emptier. The operating tables and barrels started to fade away, as if consumed by the darkness itself. He kept going. He saw no light now. Just pure darkness. The only thing that reached his senses was the sensation of cold metal under his feet and the clinking of metal ahead. ? The more he pressed forward into the darkness, the louder the clinking got. Eventually, after a minute or so, he could start to hear a voice. It was faint at first, its words indecipherable, but soon, he could make things out. "P-please¡­no more." "No more feeding¡­" "I''m not hungry anymore¡­" "Make it stop¡­" Aldrich knew that voice. It was from the Butcher. As soon as he made that connection, he found himself stepping into an enormous cell. It just suddenly manifested, like an unloaded asset spontaneously loading in a videogame upon reaching a certain checkpoint. A huge, barred cell door stood in front of Aldrich, though at the end, it was slightly open, allowing him to slip through. Within the cell, a singr light shone from above. The light came from what looked like an eye growing in the bloodied metal of the ceiling. It was unlike any kind of eye Aldrich had ever seen before. Large, bulbous, yellow, and grotesquely filled with veins that moved and twitched like insects were crawling through them. Under the odd yellow spotlight cast from the eye was the Butcher. His disembodied upper body was held up by meat hooks running down the ceiling. They dug into his flesh, dried blood caked all around where they sunk their hooks in. Tears welled up around the corners of the Butcher''s eyes as he breathed heavily in agony. The stumps of his limbs looked like they had been hacked off with something with a rough, serrated edge. Something that would not have made a clean, quick cut. Something that would have been painful. And from the various saw marks on his skin, some less healed than others, Aldrich could tell the Butcher''s limbs had been sawed off and regenerated back in many, many cycles. Below the Butcher, Aldrich saw a little girl. No older than ten, perhaps. She had on a immactely white dress that stood out in strikingly clean contrast to her blood spattered, filth strewn surroundings. She looked up at the Butcher with curious, yet strangely cold eyes of green. When Aldrich took another step forward, past the barred cell door, the girl turned to take notice of him. "I was waiting for you," said the girl. When Aldrich looked down at her, at her messy white hair and green eyes, he felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he was looking at a reflection of himself in a puddle. "You¡­you''re the Chrysalis, aren''t you?" said Aldrich, taking note of a tail that hung low by her feet. The very same, crystalline structured tail of the Chrysalis. "I don''t know what I am now," said the girl. "But I think that''s what I used to be." "This ce, is it my Boundary core?" said Aldrich. The girl nodded. "I think so." "Did you make all this?" The girl shook her head. "Not this ce. I don''t like this ce." She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. "It''s too cold." She went to Aldrich and tugged at his pant leg in the same way a child would to her father when she wanted something. "Can we go up? I made everything upstairs. It''s better there and warmer." Chapter 199: Warmth "Upstairs? There''s more?" Aldrich asked the girl. The Chrysalis nodded with vigor. "Yes. I built using the blocks I had, all the blocks that were a part of this thing you call a ''soul''. So it won''t be new to you, but it''s better than this ce, I promise." She came by Aldrich''s side and looked up at his hand. He was too tall for her to take a hold of his hand, so she settled with just grasping at the fabric of his pant leg. Like a lost child. "Okay, let''s go," said Aldrich. As soon as those words escaped his lips, something happened in the jail cell. In the thick darkness of the cell where the light of the eye above did not reach, movement flickered. Aldrich tensed up in immediate rm. He tried to call upon his magical energy, but found that he could not. It was not that anything prevented him from drawing out his energy. But when he felt the energy expel from him in cold waves, he felt them disappearing into some infinite void, unable to form into anything resembling a spell. The darkness flickered again, stronger this time, and Aldrich realized that there was not movement within the dark. The darkness was the one that was moving. Like a mass of living, writhing shadow, the darkness crawled into the eerie yellow spotlight in the form of shadowy tendrils. These, Aldrich recognized. They were the same type of shadowy tendrils that the Chrysalis used when it was dormant to draw things into its territory. "Scary." The Chrysalis hid behind Aldrich''s legs, peeping out between to see what was going on. "You don''t control the shadows?" said Aldrich. The Chrysalis rapidly shook her head. "No. They were already here." "But didn''t you call on them?" said Aldrich. "Every time I willed you to draw something into your territory, it seemed like you were controlling them." "They didn''t have a home to be in before me. When I built this ce, they moved in, and they got power. In the end, though, I think they only listen to you," said the Chrysalis. "Hm." Aldrich watched as the tendrils hovered over the Butcher''s body like hungry vultures. "No! Get away!" the Butcher yelled, causing the Chrysalis to wince and put her fingers in her ears. The tendrils formed into brutish saws and began shearing away at the regenerating flesh around the Butcher''s arm and leg stumps. They slowly ripped apart chunks of flesh and bone, making sure the Butcher had ample time to feel the agonizing pain. When the saw tendrils were done severing the regenerated stumps, other grasping tendrils took the bloody, torn meat and violently began shoving it into the Butcher''s mouth. When the Butcher closed his mouth and turned up his face to stop them from feeding him his own body, more tendrils, thinner and sharper in shape, dug into the Butcher''s face, digging under his flesh and bulging visibly under his skin. They acted like strings on a puppet, forcibly making the Butcher open his mouth. They tendrils even forced his eyes open to make sure he could witness everything. The Butcher gurgled in his own blood of flesh as the tendrils crammed in his own limbs into his jaw with violent force. Aldrich tried to will the tendrils to do something else, testing whether he had true control over them. They did not respond to him, only continuing their cycle of infinite torture against the Butcher and his regenerating body. "Can we go now?" The Chrysalis tugged at Aldrich''s pant leg again. "Yes," said Aldrich. As he stared at the Butcher''s suffering, he felt satisfaction. This was the man that had caused his parents all that agony. It was only right that he suffer the same himself. It was what he had intended in the first ce, too. The biggest reason why he had even captured the Butcher alive. If these tendrils had not done this, then he would have made sure Fler''Gan would have created something just as painful, if not worse. But Aldrich did not feel it was right to be reveling in this torture with the Chrysalis right beside him. Something about her childlike appearance and demeanor made it feel inappropriate to be watching this with her by his side. "Let''s go." Aldrich turned to leave, and the Chrysalis followed close behind him. As he left, the bars of the cell door closed on their own. He took onest look at the cell, not at the Butcher, but at the entire cell itself. From farther away, even the Butcher''s sizable bulk seemed tiny inside the cell. Granted, he was just a torso and head, but even had he been whole, the cell would have been far too big for him. There was an odd, eerie feeling that this cell was meant for something much, much bigger. But what - Aldrich had no idea. "This way." Outside the cell, the Chrysalis gained more pep and took the lead forward, tugging at Aldrich''s leg to follow. Overall, the Chrysalis was rather emotionless in her expressions and tone of voice, but Aldrich could find hints of emotion beneath it all. It was the inverse of Re who had lost how to have proper human emotions over long istion. The Chrysalis, Aldrich sensed, was learning how to express herself, learning how to befortable with her newly developed soul. "Up, up, up¡­" The Chrysalis started to walk on what seemed like thin air, taking ascending step by step like she was scaling an invisible staircase. Aldrich followed. They were still in the ceiling-less hallway of darkness leading from the torture room into the cell, but at a certain point, the Chrysalis stopped going up. "Here," she said as she put a small hand above her head. Her palm pressed t against an invisible surface. A circr outline of light, big enough to easily fit Aldrich through, drew around her hand. The darkness within the circle then slid over like a sliding door, revealing bright light. From that light, warmth emanated outwards. "Much better." The Chrysalis stopped shivering as she pranced her way up and through the circle of light. Aldrich did the same. When his head crossed the circle, he found himself peering at what looked like a regr apartment. He blinked, processing his surroundings. "Come on up." The Chrysalis stood at the edge of a circle of darkness surrounding Aldrich. It seemed that the circle of light was inverted in color up here. She knelt down and held out her hand. Aldrich took her hand, and she helped raise him up with surprising strength. When Aldrich stepped out of the dark circle, it closed up with light sliding over it. When the light stopped glowing, it meshed with the rest of the hardwood floor. "I¡­I know this ce," said Aldrich. He stood still for a moment, blinking several times as he processed things. He stood in the living room of an apartment. A modest one, based upon its rather cramped size. A far cry from the enormous rooms of wealthy corporate Suit apartments that had enough space to house things like fireces that they almost never used and pianos that they probably did not even know how to y. No, instead, theparatively tiny living room had a sense of heart to it that made it seem much bigger than it was. None of the decorations were thoughtless, ced solely for their worth in credits. On small stands, there were vases filled with carefully tended flowers. On the walls, there were paintings ofkes and oceans and beaches that, though good, were obviously not crafted by some artisanal master. Just someone who had tried their best and was proud of what they had done. There was a hand built, slightly crooked bookshelf of dark wood in the corner filled with colorfulics, graphic novels, manga, and hardcover fiction books. All of those were rarities in today''s digitized age, more collector''s items than anything that people bought to really read. Yet, each and every one of those books had little bookmark tags sticking out from their pages. Aldrich sat down on a creaky blue couch. It felt so familiar to him. And for good reason. This was his parent''s apartment. Where he had spent all of his early years. This was where they had raised him from a helpless infant to a child filled with dreams. And, after they had died, this was where he had raised himself, shattering his dreams, picking up the pieces, and forging them into something deadlier. Colder. He had emptied the ce out and filled it with training gear and a VRbat simtion rig that took up most of the living room. But this was how the apartment looked like before Aldrich''s parents had passed. When they had passed, he had over time changed everything. He had taken down all the paintings his mother had made. He had tried to keep the flowers she loved alive, but he had no talent for it. When they withered and died, he had to throw them away. The shelf full of books his father loved - Aldrich had given those away or thrown them out. It was not that he had not cherished these memories of his parents. But in the first year after their death, the memories were just too painful to bear. Every book, every painting - all of it was just a sharp reminder of what he had lost. He had felt better off throwing it all away and letting the oblivion o It was a decision he came to regretter on, but by then, what had been done had been done. Aldrich turned around to look at the biggest painting in the room: a family portrait. There was his dad, smiling wide even when the photo was supposed to be serious. There was his mother staring up at his dad with admonishing eyes, telling him to be serious, but even then, she still smiled at her husband''s antics. Then there was Aldrich, just five years old, between them, each of his hands held in one of theirs. This portrait, too, Aldrich had cast away. To see all of this again - Aldrich took in a deep breath, feeling overwhelmed. He felt happy, that was for sure, happy that everything he had thought was lost had been immortalized in his Boundary, but at the same time, witnessing all this again - the memories and feelings hit him all at once. Everything here reminded him of his parents'' love for him. So much love. So much lost. So much he had forgotten. So much he had resolved to never feel again. "Are you okay?" The Chrysalis sat right next to Aldrich''s silent figure. "Yes," said Aldrich. "Do you like what I built? I used everything I felt in you that I felt was warm and nice," said the Chrysalis. Her legs dangled from the edge of the couch, and she kicked them yfully. "I like this ce a lot better than the cold spot. Do you?" Aldrich took in another deep breath, and then sighed. He smiled. "I do." Chapter 200: Love and Fear "You like it? I''m happy." The Chrysalis nodded to herself energetically. "I didn''t like how cold that ce below was. So I wanted to make this ce as warm as possible." "Cold, hm? That ce below, if you didn''t make it, do you know who did?" said Aldrich. "The Shadows did," said the Chrysalis. The more I built, the more they built with me. I thought they were making fun of me." "I see." Aldrich did not exactly know what this meant. What were the Shadows? If they were a part of his soul from the beginning as the Chrysalis had said, then were they just some other aspect of him? Perhaps his ''colder'' side? But then why did heck control over it? Why was it separate to begin with? Questions, and more questions. He would consult the Death Lordter, once he finished whatever trial he had left in here. Speaking of, what exactly was the trial here? Was it just to witness this room? If so, it was something far less dramatic than what the Death Lord imed the experience of encountering a Boundary core for the first time would be. "I like it," said Aldrich. He stood up. "But I need to go." "Go?" The Chrysalis cast her eyes downward, saddened. "Already? You don''t want to stay here? Where it''s warm?" "I do," said Aldrich. He looked around at the familiar room around him, at all the warm memories they represented that he had lost. "But this is still the past. I have other people out there that need me who live in the present." "Then¡­then can Ie with you?" The Chrysalis looked up at Aldrich with wide, pleading eyes. "Don''t you need to stay here to maintain all this?" said Aldrich. The Chrysalis shook her head. "No. Once I make it, you''re the one that keeps it all going." "Alright then, I don''t seen an issue with youing with me," said Aldrich. "Yay," said the Chrysalis. She hopped off the couch and looked at Aldrich. "Where do we go now?" "I was hoping you would tell me," said Aldrich. "I thought you knew a way out of here." "Me? No?" The Chrysalis cocked her head, clueless. "Hm?" Aldrich raised a brow, now concerned. Was he trapped here? There must have been a way to leave a Boundary. He had simply thought it would have been automatic as a process. And if it was not, he thought the Death Lord would tell him the manual way to leave. The fact that she did not made Aldrich entertain the suspicion that she wanted to trap him here. It was a rather low probability suspicion, but he did not discard it. Aldrich heard a sudden loud crackling of static from across the room. The Chrysalis, startled, rushed to Aldrich''s leg, hugging it like a pir of support. A wide telescreen at the other end of the room shed alive. At first, there was just pure static. From the reaction of the Chrysalis, Aldrich could tell she had not turned it on. The warm lights in the room flickered on and off rapidly before dimming offpletely, letting darkness take a hold of the room. And with that darkness, an eerie chill permeated through the air. The nts in vases started to wilt. The paintings started to chip away. The books started to crumple. Decay started to leech in everywhere. The ce started to look more and more like the depressingly empty training ground that Aldrich had turned it into. "No-," Aldrich reached out a hand, trying to preserve everything he saw fading away. He could not let that happen, not again, and yet, there were too many things to try and save. The telescreen''s static faded away, revealing a split screen. One half was an angry red. The other half a deep, dark blue. Twin voices radiated out from each half of the screen. From the red, his father''s voice. From the blue, his mother''s. Their voices were not kind. They were not weing. They were not warm. "Son¡­what happened to you?" said his father. "Wh-what is all that behind you?" said his mother''s horrified voice. Aldrich looked behind himself. Instead of seeing his family portrait, he instead saw a canvas of darkness. The darkness shaped into a host of shifting faces twisted in expressions of pain and agony. Faces he recognized. Faces he had killed. "My god¡­what have you done?" said his father. "What-what made you do this?" "No, no, no. You can''t be our son," said his mother. "Not that sweet child who always smiled, even when we knew you were hurting inside. You always thought of others, just the way we taught you to. You can''t be like this, like¡­like a monster." A monster. If anyone else had called Aldrich a monster, he would not have cared. He would even have agreed. But hearing it from his parents - the word pierced through him. It felt like a de jammed through his heart. Those voices that had shown nothing but love and support, those voices he had always looked up to - reducing him down to nothing but a monster. The sheer horror in their voice, that sense of pure otherness, like they were talking not to their son but something to shun and curse - it hit Aldrich harder than any blow he had felt. Aldrich felt nauseous, and he put a hand to the side of his head. This was not physical nausea. It was purely mental. It reminded him of the first year following his parents'' death, when even a small memento of them would send a wave of nausea through his body. "We told you that when someone is down-," said his father. "You always pick them up," finished his mother. "We loved you because you were like us." "We loved you because you were kind." "We loved you because we saw so much good in you." "Where did that all go? "What did you do?" "What have you be?" "We can''t love you now." "Monster." Aldrich fell down to a knee as he started to breath heavy. The Chrysalis looked at Aldrich with worry, then tentatively at the red and blue screen. She shivered, scared at the darkness that flickered around the edges of the screen. She gently pped her cheeks to gain courage and stood in front of Aldrich, opposing the screen. "Don''t say mean things to him," said the Chrysalis. Aldrich did not hear her. He was absorbed in thought. In fear. Like with Valera, he never feared fighting and putting his life on the line. He was never scared of a bullet or eye beam or super strength. What he was afraid of, always, deep down, at the very depths of his being, was love. Fear that he could not love another. And fear that he did not deserve to be loved by the only people he had loved: his parents. He knew they would never have approved of what he had be. But he had buried that fear because he knew he would never see them again. And yet, here they were. The fact that this came right after feeling so many good memories about them made it even worse, twisting that de in his heart with a cruel hand. "He-he fights hard. He gives up so much to fight. You can''t say bad things to him like that when he tries so hard," said the Chrysalis, visibly nervous but still standing as tall as she could for Aldrich. Those words reached Aldrich. It made him think. He had given up so much to be where he was now. He had given up a happy life. Love andughter. Even his humanity. He had be a monster. But - "I know," said Aldrich. He stood up, the nausea leaving him. He faced the screen of red and blue with determination in his green eyes. "I know that I''m not what you wanted me to be. I know that if you two were actually alive, if you saw me as I was, learned what I did, who I killed, who I tortured, you would be horrified. I don''t know how real this is, but I''ve also known deep within myself that you two, if you saw me as I was now, would not be able to love me. At least, not in the way you used to when I was a child. When¡­when you were still with me." "How can we love you now? You''ve be a monster." "I know. I''ve always known." Aldrich nodded. "But I am my own monster. I made these choices. I made these sacrifices because I thought they were necessary. Were they the right choices? You wouldn''t think so. Plenty of others wouldn''t." Aldrich''s flesh peeled off in chunks from his arms and chest, baring his inhuman skeleton. "But who or what I am now is my choice and mine alone. This path I walk¡­is it right? Is it wrong? I sometimes wonder myself. But it doesn''t change the fact that it''s the path that I chose, and because I chose it, I will see it through to the end." Aldrich stared at the screen, his eyes glowing bright. His magical energy started to return to him, swirling in an aura around him. In his mind, he remembered all the happiness he felt from his parents, all those sweet and warm memories. They flowed into him nonstop, almost as if through external force, trying to get him drown him down in fear and guilt. The de in his heart twisted even further, but none of that stopped his next words. "And the voices of happy memories long dead won''t stop me." The telescreen cracked, the red and blue images instantly shutting off into darkness. Then, the darkness of the screen expanded outwards, engulfing the room. The Chrysalis cringed as she held on tight to Aldrich''s leg as the darkness swallowed them both up. Chapter 201: Boundary Overcome Aldrich emerged from the enveloping darkness and found himself back in the Death Lord''s realm. He was not standing, butying down, staring up at the yawning void of darkness within the Bell of Absolution. It was a jarring sensation, being in one realm, then another with barely a hint of transition. What was even more jarring was the immediate sense of weakness he felt, like his body was still made of frail flesh and had gone through a week of starvation. The culprit for all this, however, was right in front of him. No, to be more precise, she was sprawled on top of him. Valera was sprawled atop Aldrich, legs pinned against his waist in a vice grip as she sunk her warm fangs deep into his neck. Her arms were hugged tightly around Aldrich in an embrace that managed to be both caring and firm. "I-I''m back," managed out Aldrich as he felt his health rapidly deteriorating. "Stop doing weird things to him!" The Chrysalis pushed against Valera, though with how strong Valera was, the push barely even registered to her. "Mmm. My apologies, master," said Valera as she tore herself away from Aldrich''s neck with trembling effort. Her voice was a little listless, like she was under the influence, and she did not even register the Chrysalis''s presence. When her face was far enough away, he immediately felt his instincts send a signal of rm. Her red eyes were wide and manic with a wide, fanged, bloodsmeared smile oozing with overwhelming, crazed desire. She looked down at Aldrich''s neck, then at his lips, and licked her own like a hungry predator. "B-but your blood¡­you know how sweet it is for me¡­how warm it makes me inside-," Valera started to slowly reach down again, back to Aldrich''s neck. This time, he stopped her with a light bonk to the top of her head with a chopping motion. "Not now - there are children here," said Aldrich. That tap to her head calmed her down a little. "A-a child?" Valera''s red gaze nced over to the Chrysalis, finally registering things properly. "Let me cool down, master," said Valera with heavy breaths. She began to regte them, probably through some meditative method she learned from her warrior''s training. And as she did so, the flush in her pale cheeks started to die down. Aldrich was about to let his hand go from her head, but she kept it there with her own hand. "Keep your hand there. I like it. And it helps me focus." Aldrich did as she asked, and in thirty seconds, she nodded and opened her eyes. This time, her eyes did not shine with feral desire anymore. They were calm. Dignified. Like they usually were. She shyly looked away from Aldrich. "Apologies. That was unseemly behavior from me." "No, I understand. It''s just a side effect of drinking my blood." Aldrich tried to get up from under Valera but realized he could not budge her monstrous strength. Without any enhancements from the Death Lord, he truly was a whole tier below real physical powerhouses like Valera and Vntis. "I believe your master wishes to actually move." The Death Lord came into Aldrich''s vision. "Goodness, as ady, you must learn to control yourself. Or else your dear master may find himself enthralled in the presence of a realdy such as my-" Valera instantly got off of Aldrich in attack, swiping at the Death Lord''s neck with her bare ck ws. She stopped right before the ws touched the Death Lord''s neck. "Are you going to finish that sentence?" hissed Valera. She red at the Death Lord. "You may be worthy enough in strength to stand by my master, but until he acknowledges you himself, I will never ept you." The Death Lord smiled at Valera, not at all caring that sharp ck ws were just a centimeter away from reaching into her exposed neck. "Look, I got you off of him so quickly. And do not be so feral, vampire. I will not stand in your way. At best, I may stand with you if your master allows it. And if I find myself even interested enough to entertain the idea." Valera frowned but withdrew her ws. She could not really do anything to the Death Lord anyway. Her initial attack was probably an instinctive reaction meant to tear apart anyone that tried to tear Aldrich away from her. Aldrich looked at Valera, then at the Death Lord. He had no idea that the Death Lord would ever be interested in him in that way. But it was surface level interest, at best. Good, honestly. Any more than that and he would have a headache. He had not even begun to properly navigate his rtionship with Valera, let alone anyone else, if even that was something he wanted. "Ladylike behavior? Bollocks." Re growled from afar, watching with her muscr arms crossed in front of her chest. "When strong women lie with strong men, there is no room for dies'' and ''gentlemen''. Only raw passion." Just as Aldrich was wondering and pitying about the men that had been crushed under Re, the Chrysalis spoke up. "I don''t get all this. What''s everyone talking about?" "Nothing," said Aldrich quickly as he got on his feet. The Chrysalis hugged his leg and peered up at all the strange women around her. "This is the Chrysalis," said Aldrich. "That crystal creature turned into this¡­child?" Valera cocked her head at the Chrysalis. "The creature created a soul and filled it in with the Death Walker as a base," said the Death Lord. "It is almost identical to what happens when a mother bears a child. A child-like form is thus quite fitting." "I see." Valera put a thinking hand to her chin. "So my master has given birth," she said,pletely serious. "I would very much prefer if you all did not put it like that," said Aldrich with a sigh. "In any case, any child of my master''s is a child of mine to protect!" Valera dered as she knelt down and tried extending an inviting hand to the Chrysalis. "Come, let me hold you, child." The Chrysalis hid behind Aldrich''s legs, avoiding Valera. "Crazy woman," said the Chrysalis. Valera looked like she had suffered emotional damage. She looked up at Aldrich with pleading eyes, wordlessly asking him what she should do. "¡­Just give her some time," said Aldrich. He had to admit he was not an expert either. "Hah! You have no idea how to deal with a child, I see," said the Death Lord. "As expected a vampire whelp. Watch me." The Death Lord looked down at the Chrysalis with a cold, calcting gaze like she was assessing how ripe a fruit was. "My my, you have quite the potential. How about it, then, do you wish to inherit some of my grand magics? Magics that have turned entire kingdoms of people into naught but bloodied icicles, their screams of terror eternally captured in their frozen tombs? Does that not sound wondrously fun?" The Chrysalis widened her eyes at the Death Lord and the horrifying images she drew up with her words. She kept hiding behind Aldrich. "Scary woman¡­," "And who was supposed to be the expert here?" said Valera as she eyed the Death Lord with a triumphant smile, as if she had done any better. "This¡­this usually works." The Death Lord faintly blushed as she put a hand to her chin,pletely lost on why her ''approach'' did not work. Aldrich stared nkly at Valera and the Death Lord. He had always had a soft spot for children and their innocence, but he knew he was bad with them because of hisck of expressiveness. But these two had way, way too much expressiveness, and none of it good. They were even worse than he was when it came to parenting. "Children are simple creatures," began Re as she started toe closer with thudding steps. "They grow best under danger, just as I did. I suggest-," Aldrich, Valera, and the Death Lord all simultaneously stared at Re with disapproving looks. Even though all of them were bad at handling children, they still knew Re would be worse than bad - a veritable disaster. She probably thought about tossing the kid into a dungeon or something. "¡­I will stop now," said Re. "Good." Aldrich sighed. As he did so, he felt a sharp pain at his chest, where his heart was. It was that same feeling of a de twisting in his heart. The feeling he had pressed on through when he hade face to face with his deepest fear. He grimaced as he clutched his heart. "Are you okay?" the Chrysalis was first to respond to Aldrich, tugging worriedly at his pant leg. "Master-," began Valera in a worry of her own. "Do not work yourselves up over this." The Death Lord, in contrast to everyone else, smiled proudly. "Instead, rejoice! This is a cause for celebration - the Death Walker has truly unlocked his Boundary. That feeling, Death Walker, that is your Trigger to unseal your Boundary. Keep that feeling in your mind. Engrave it in your being. Never forget it. When you wish to unseal your Boundary, imagine that feeling again. That pain. It will be the key to unlock your inner realm and expand it upon your current ne of existence." Aldrich took in a deep breath as he felt the pain of his heart getting pierced. Hemitted it deeply to his memory as the Death Lord said, though that was not hard considering how strongly he had felt it just minutes before. "Alright, then I''ll test it out now-," began Aldrich as he held out a hand, keeping that feeling of his heart tearing in his mind. Waves of darkness began to flicker around his body. Chapter 202: Boundary Details Aldrich did not waste any time. He began the process of summoning his Boundary. He wanted to see exactly how developed his personal space was. And, some part of him still wanted to see if that little apartment room full of warm memories was still there. But to get there, Aldrich had to unlock it with a key. That key being the memory of pain, that feeling of something sharp, something brutal, gouging into his heart and twisting it. It was not very pleasant, holding the feeling, but the Death Lord was right: holding it made the image of his Boundary space much clearer in his head. Aldrich held out his hand in front of him, his palm open. Darkness shrouded his arms, undting like flowing water. "Manifesting a Boundary already?" Re watched Aldrich intently, her gleaming white eyes narrowed. She leaned forward, eager, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. "After just barely encountering his core? What is he, some kind of monster?" "Yes, you would know much about that," said the Death Lord. She put a hand to her chin as she watched Aldrich intently. "I would like to see this happen, but-," The Death Lord appeared in front of Aldrich with a single high speed movement. Aldrich could not react to her, not only because of her speed, but because of the concentration he put in trying to manifest his Boundary. It felt like his body was encumbered by chains all around. His mind, too, was slow. Concentrating on the Boundary and the knife to heart image took a huge amount of mental energy. The shadows manifesting around Aldrich reacted violently towards the Death Lord,shing out their tendrils towards her. She smiled as she projected her own magical energy. This energy aura, however, was different than her regr one. The aura swirled out in a flurry of white snowkes, indicating that this was not her usual green necromancy tinged mana. When the cloud of bright white snowkes hit his darkness, they overwhelmed the shadows with ease, scattering the dark away like the sun would when it rose on a darkndscape. "Not yet, Death Walker." The Death Lord put her hand on Aldrich''s and guided it down. The sound of Valera crushing the metal of her armor was heard not very far away. "Not yet. I am curious to see whether you can manifest your Boundary fully on your first try, but it is unwise for your wellbeing. Let your mind process what has happened. Let the magic within your body settle. Rest. Then, you may try. I shall guide you through the process." "¡­Alright." Aldrich broke his concentration, and he felt a massive wave of exhaustion hit him like a tidal wave. It was not physical exhaustion - his undead body did not feel that. But more mental, more spiritual. "Look! I can do this!" The Chrysalis spoke up from beside Aldrich, and they turned their attention to her. The Chrysalis had copied Aldrich, holding her hand out in front of her in the same posture as she concentrated, her brows furrowing together. Her lip quivered in exertion as her whole body trembled. ck sparks crackled from in front of the Chrysalis''s hand before they turned into circle of darkness - the same kind that Aldrich manifested. From that circle of watery dark, a figure plopped out. A human, it seemed, dressed up in a tattered brown suit that looked unfashionably like the shade of excrement. Despite his tattered clothes, he slept without a care in the world, snoring liberally. "What is this thing?" The Death Lord eyed the human with confusion. "A weakling, I ought to say," said Re. "An Alterhuman," remarked Valera, nowfortable with the term. "Right. The Editor I snatched up," said Aldrich. "Ah yes, one of those new humans," said the Death Lord walked over to the sleeping Alter and stood over him. "Still, I cannot understand how these humans manage to create such a variety of abilities. I do like what is new, though. Perhaps I may request you send another one of these to my realm. Med may quite like experimenting upon one." "Dissection is not my specialty, but any research is research, I suppose," said Med, ncing at the Editor with a slightly more interested look than usual. "Where were you keeping him?" Aldrich asked the Chrysalis. "He was sleepy, so I just tucked him in a bed," said the Chrysalis. Notably, the Editor had gotten lot better treatment than the Butcher. It was as if the shadows beneath the space the Chrysalis made had imed the Butcher for themselves. It hinted further to the possibility that the shadows represented the darker aspects of Aldrich''s mind, the part that had wanted to cause as much agony to the Butcher as possible. Then, did the Chrysalis represent what was good in him? What was pure? That might exin her childlike appearance and innocence. Aldrich could not know for sure. He was not an expert at getting symbols out of context clues. That was a job for empty headed academics, not him. "And he''s still sleeping? Impressive," said Aldrich. He nodded to the Chrysalis and her tired face. "You should take a rest, too. I know taking something in and out of your territory is taxing on you." Before the Boundary had developed, the Chrysalis could barely take objects in and out for more than a few instances before needing long recharge periods. Aldrich had hoped that with the Boundary''s development and the Chrysalis obtaining a soul that she would get better, but he did not let any disappointment show as he did not want to hurt the Chrysalis. "No, that was because he was a strange man. He didn''t belong in my space," said the Chrysalis. She pouted, wanting to impress Aldrich. "But-but I can do better. Look at this!" The Chrysalis furrowed her brows again, and from the shadow portal she made, objects started to fall out. First, it was a series of random household objects. Forks, spoons, chopsticks, a random mug or two that shattered on the ground, and so on. Then, Aldrich''s eyes widened as he saw something valuable. A white porcin vase holding roses. Aldrich instantly recognized it was a vase from his mother. From the room. Before the vase could shatter on the cold, hard stone below, he instantly grabbed it. Then, a small stack ofic books fell out. He grabbed that too in his other hand. Then, a moderately sized painting of a house on a green hill popped out. This was too big for him to carry in either of his hands, and he did not want to let it get ruined by mug shards from below. He deftly kicked it back. "Valera!" said Aldrich. "I have it, master!" Valera responded like she was a soldier responding to a life or death order from a general. She caught the painting in her hands. "And¡­and¡­," The Chryalis''s eyes began to flutter as her little body swayed from side to side, growing tired. "I''m sleepy." With that, the Chrysalis closed her eyes. Before she could plop down on the messy, shard scattered ground, the Death Lord picked her up by the neck of her white dress like she was picking a puppy up by the scruff. "Hmm." The Death Lord stared intently at the sleeping Chrysalis. "I see now. Your Boundary is split. One part of your Boundary hails from this girl, and another from you. An exceedingly rare case." "Is that a good thing?" said Aldrich. "It depends," said the Death Lord. She nodded towards the Chrysalis. She slept peacefully. "On her, for I trust yourpetency. Two souls sharing one Boundary means control is shared. If both souls arepetent and in sync, then they may operate the Boundary with incredible efficiency. If not, the morepetent soul will have to do double the work. There was one Lich who rebelled against me that had this condition, what was their name, ah yes, Kal''Ves. A twin mage sister and warrior brother duo who fused together due to their kindred closeness upon reaching undeath and Lichdom. Their Split Boundary was exceptional due to how in sync they were. You witnessed before, did you not, how my aura of white overpowered your shadows?" "Yes." "That was the energy of my Boundary shing against yours. When two Liches unseal their Boundaries, the Boundary that is more developed and stable will take over more space than the other. If the difference is great enough, the stronger Boundary willpletely devour the lesser and use it as fuel," said the Death Lord. She shrugged. "Of course, we are in my Boundary already, so I have an advantage, but I digress. The twins were particrly fierce because they could unseal two fully developed Boundaries that worked together, effectively doubling the space andplexity of their Boundary. The brother created a world of swords. The sister created a world of magic crystals. They couldbine these worlds together for a world of magic infused des. This made them a deadly foe against foes even a dozen levels higher than them. However, more often than not, a Split Boundary harms more than it does good. Two disparate souls, for example, will create Boundaries that are so vastly different from each other that they cannot mesh, risking even devouring each other." Chapter 203: Resting Aldrich looked down at his hands, at thest flickers of shadow leaving them, flowing past the flower vase and stack of books he held. "So what? Does that mean my Boundary has a high probability of being useless?" "I would not say so." The Death Lord held the sleeping Chrysalis out towards Aldrich. "This one may have her own unique soul, but at the same time, it is not truly unique. It is a soul that developed using your own as a temte. She may be a separate being, but fundamentally, she is still you. Odd, though." The Death Lord cocked her head at the Chrysalis''s sleeping, sweetly innocent smile. "I would never have expected you to have a side like this within you." "If there was ever a side of me like that, it''s long gone," said Aldrich. "Hmm. Not gone. Buried." The Death Lord smiled. "It is not a bad thing, to have a side of light, of warmth, like this within you. It bnces your being and makes you more interesting. Creatures that are pure dark or pure light are boring abominations. Like that blindingly awful goddess." Aldrich gently ced the flower vase and books down and took the Chrysalis from the Death Lord, holding the girl. She felt snug in his warms. Incredibly warm, too, contrasting deeply with the chill of his undead skin. "It is my current theory that you two represent two halves of one soul," said the Death Lord. "Thus, your Boundary is still technically of one soul. Interference only urs when two separate souls project ipatible boundaries. The greater the closeness of the souls, the greater thepatibility. Kal''Ves, twins by birth, could project a perfectlyplementary Boundary. I should surmise that this little girl, created of your own soul, possesses an even closer link that that of birth twins. I do not see an issue with your Boundary developing. It will just require more training to use properly." "Training? This isn''t an innate racial ability?" said Aldrich. "The ability to project a Boundary is innate to any sufficiently powerful Lich, but to actually develop and control it properly requires training." The Death Lord reached out and squeezed Aldrich''s shoulder muscles. "Your muscles are part of your natural body, are they not? And yet to maximize their strength you must break them down and build them up - you must train them. It is just the same for your Boundary. That is another interesting thing I have noted from you. The knowledge to use spells seems to imbue naturally within you. You have no need to train to wield them. But for racial abilities, you seem to require training just like the rest of us." The Death Lord put her hand to her chin and looked away, talking to herself in a quieter tone. "Perhaps it is because this system of transferral did not ount for racial changes, hm¡­" "System of transferral?" said Aldrich. The Death Lord looked up. "Hm? Yes. This ''system'' of yours is a function meant to transfer power. You may be asking from where, and that, even I do not know originally. Now that I have taken it over, that poweres from me, but in the beginning, who or what it was bestowed this system upon you is something that eludes me." "¡­" Aldrich thought about the mystery of his system''s origin and how few clues he had to actually figuring out how it had originated. There were so many unanswered questions and too little context to answer them. At best, his main lead was researching the Elden World game, his console, if it still existed, and tracking down the seller, but these were all a long shot. "But do not think so hard, Death Walker," said the Death Lord. "And take some rest. It may not have seemed like it, but you spent several hours vying against your Boundary core. And you may still feel powerful, tireless with your undead body, but you should allow your mind to rest. To that end, I have prepared proper quarters for you and your guardian knight." "The Trial Quests-," began Aldrich. The Death Lord rolled her eyes. "Come now, slow down a little. What, are you that eager to clear your mere second Trial Quest? You alone could annihte any little being in that. You have all this time to spend with my wondrous looks and personality, and you choose the Trial Quests?" "If possible, yes," said Aldrich. The Death Lord pouted. "Goodness, you truly are an odd specimen. But heed my advice, Death Walker. You must take some time to rest. Your Boundary core is still stabilizing. Casting magic on an unstable core is a risky endeavor that I highly advise against. Rest assured, you are not wasting time here. While you rest, I will devise a method to train both you and the Chrysalis in utilizing your Boundary. There are also some rare items gathering dust I would like to bequeath you, mostly for your followers, but only if you pass a few trials of my own." "And what would those trials be?" The Death Lord smiled and shrugged. "I do not know. I have not thought of them yet. So get your rest, Death Walker, and give ady some time to think." ===== Aldrich sat upon arge, king sized bed of plush silken green covers and royal purple nkets. The bedframe oozed with ornate luxury, made of gold carved into patterns of bones and lilies. Behind the bed, he had hung the painting of a house on a meadow that his mother had made. On a stand off to the side, his father''sics and his mother''s flower vase stood. ''This is a spare bed I had, but I suppose you can use it. Laying upon it will increase the recovery of your soul, mana, and body tremendously!'' The Death Lord''s words rung in Aldrich''s mind. As did the rest of her words, though these were spoken in whispers. ''And of course, I am sure you are interested in body recovery, are you not? It cannot be helped, being a young man of vigor as you are.'' Aldrich sighed and put a hand to his forehead. The thought of doing anything like that beside his parents'' mementos felt incredibly wrong. Not to mention the Chrysalis was here, sleeping in her own smaller bed off to the side. Aldrich took his hand off his face and looked at it. At the scars and calluses that marred it. He wondered whether it was actually okay to just sit around and do, well, nothing. It felt incredibly odd. It seemed like his entire life, all his actions and thoughts, was devoted to some kind of purpose. Mostly vengeance, he realized. But that too, was mostly gone. He had killed Seth Sr and the Butcher now suffered eternal torture. There was, of course, the rest of the Trident to take down, but that was a faceless entity and a muchrger goal than just capturing the Butcher. He could not pursue that goal with vengeance, he had to approach it with cold calction. And that was the thing. Now that personal vengeance was done and over with, he was left with muchrger goals to take care of. Taking down the Trident was one thing, but the biggest goal of all, to bring his idea of order into the world, to essentially conquer it as Vntis said, was on another scale entirely. He had no clear n yet as to how he would do it. He just knew for now he had to get stronger and find out more about where he stood in the world, and then he would know what pieces to y and when. Right now, though, Aldrich was meant to just rest. ording to the Death Lord, he was not even supposed to think too hard about things and just stay in a state of calm, mindless rest. Aldrich look over to his side, at a smaller bed where the Chrysalisy sleeping, curled up in a ball reminiscent of how she had looked when she was a crystalline serpent. She still slept soundly. Aldrich shrugged andid down on the soft bed. Everything from the bed to the feeling of his new clothes felt soft. Too soft for his liking. His training garb had been taken away and reced with what was known as spiritweave clothing. This was magical clothing conjured up using a catalyst from Aldrich - in his case strands of hair - that would manifest with his Materius, fixing his shing problem. Even more useful was that the clothing was bound to his Materius, basically being a part of it. If he regenerated his Materius, he could regenerate his clothing too. Granted, spiritweave clothing did not have very strong stats and little capacity to hold extra magical enchantments, but it was still useful regardless for walking around in human form. As for its design, Wai''ki had looked into Aldrich''s memory and fashioned a sleek ck suit as she had no idea what a suit looked like. Right now, he had dematerialized his suit jacket and dress shirt, leaving him in a form fitting white undershirt and pants. In a way, this was very simr to how Strand, the world''s premiere costume makingpany for heroes, made their outfits for heroes who were too physically strong to use conventional body armor or who had powers like intangibility or invisibility that made conventional clothing inconvenient. They took strands of hair or other gic material from heroes and built what was basically a ''second skin'' that would interact properly with the hero''s powers, preventing idental nudity. Could not have heroes walking around naked after fights or using their powers, after all. That was just not good for public image and ratings, and ratings were everything for heroes that only cared about credits and fame. Aldrichid down on his bed and looked up. Across a ceiling and walls of gray stone were dotted magic crystals carved into the shape of lilies that shone with faint white light, illuminating the room. When was thest time he had ever justid down and rxed like this? He could not really remember. Anytime he ever took a rest, it was to make sure he recovered from an injury or a workout. Rest was just a tool to leverage. That was how he thought of it. Technically, he supposed, this was like that, what with needing to recover his spiritual stability. But it still felt strange. Unnatural. Or, perhaps, he was the unnatural one. Someone who had, over time and abuse and suffering, simply lost the ability to wind down and enjoy life at his own pace. In stark contrast to the Chrysalis who rested without a care in the world. Like he had done when he was a child. Aldrich watched the Chrysalis, at her rhythmic breathing, at her sweet smile she managed even while sleeping, and sighed. That was the thing, though. In the world Aldrich lived in, he could never enjoy anything ''at his own pace''. That was a luxury for those that did not need to do more than just struggle to survive, struggle to be heard, struggle to be epted, struggle with every fiber of muscle and bone just to make an impact, just to carve out even a tiny bit of satisfactory vengeance. If possible, Aldrich wanted to fashion a world where people like him did not need to struggle like that anymore. A strong series of knocks echoed through the room. Aldrich sighed. It was probably the Death Lord here to harass him again. He got off the bed with a flip just to feel like he was active and went over to his door. "What is it now?" said Aldrich gruffly as he opened the door, but instead of the Death Lord, there was Valera. She stood in the doorway in her revealing ck dress, her red eyes looking shyly down as a small blush tinted her white cheeks. "May¡­may Ie in?" Chapter 204: Love, Past and Present "¡­" Aldrich took a moment to process Valera''s appearance in his doorframe. Well, it was not entirely out of possibility. His quarters were on a refurbished first floor of the Necropolis, and the Death Lord had given Valera a room right next to his. "If this is not a good time, I can take my leave, master," began Valera. "No,e in. I was just a little surprised, that''s all." Aldrich moved out the way of the door, and Valera shyly came in. "What brings you here?" asked Aldrich as he closed the door of ebony wood shut. It shed briefly with green as it locked closed with some form of magical safety mechanism that also dampened noise. Valera looked around the room with her hands sped together. She blushed as she avoided eye contact with Aldrich. "Well, ahem, I do not have a ce to stay for the night." "You don''t? Your room is right by, isn''t it?" said Aldrich. "W-well¡­about that-," began Valera. "I no longer have a bed." "What?" Aldrich had taken a brief look at Valera''s room and known for sure she had a bed. Her room was a little smaller than his, but it still had very basic furnishings like his hid. " "I was resting on the bed, you see, keeping awake vigil in the case that there were intruders to my master''s room, when in one sudden moment, it simply¡­disappeared," said Valera. "It faded away as if it had never been there before and all that was left was the Death Lord''s voice echoing through my room." "Did she announce anything particrly important?" said Aldrich as he perked up, wondering if the Death Lord was done preparing her own trials and training methods. "N-no," said Valera. Her blush deepened a few more shades of red as she looked shyly away, focusing on the painting above Aldrich''s bed to not look too awkward. "Then what did she say?" "It-it was a recorded message," stammered Valera. "She t-told me that if I was hearing it, that meant I had wasted my time not making a move upon you! That the whole purpose of separate rooms was so I could have the luxury of surprising you by walking into yours, that men liked that sort of thing and other nonsense. That by taking away my bed, now I must barge into your quarters! She-that snake truly does not understand privacy, nor a Guardian Knight''s vows." Valera shook her head rapidly, cooling down. "Master, I know - I will stand outside and watch your room in guard. Who knows what that intrusive snake may do - she may even slither her way in here, and I cannot bear the thought of her enchanting you with that seductive gaze of hers." She clenched her fist resolutely, making sure to absolutely stop the Death Lord from breaking into Aldrich''s room in whatever imaginary scenario she conjured up. "No, you don''t have to go. I want you to stay, actually" said Aldrich. "I''ve been meaning to do this for some time now." He looked around to see if he had a table or chairs to sit her down with, but he realized he just had the bed. Probably that too was by the Death Lord''s design. He put a tired face to his forehead as he sat down on the bed. He patted the spot beside him, gesturing for Valera toe. Valera''s face turned beet red. "M-master, wh-what are you suggesting? Well, you are a young man, as that snake said, and you were a human, so you must have some of your youthful urges left over so-," "It''s not what you think," said Aldrich. His tone became serious. "I just wanted to talk. About answering your feelings for me. I know I''ve been putting it off for some time, especially with how many things that have happened recently that have taken up our attention." Valera cooled down when she heard Aldrich''s serious tone and saw his serious expression. She, too, understood the gravity of this situation, and she nodded as she sat down beside Aldrich. Her hand shook a little. "Are you fine? Is anything wrong with your status?" said Aldrich as he nodded towards her hand. "Ah, this? N-no," said Valera as she sped her hands together tight, hiding the trembling. "I¡­I am just nervous about your answer. B-but, whatever it is, I am willing to ept it." Aldrich understood. She was not sure whether to face eptance or rejection, and that made her nervous. More nervous than he had ever seen her before. Right now, the way she looked, her gaze cast away, her hands shaking, her posture hunched forward - she looked so incredibly vulnerable. She had never shown even an ounce of this against any fight of threat they had encountered so far. Always, she had stood tall, ready to punch down anything, no matter how big or strong or tough it was. Aldrich did not like to see her like this, and it made it harder for him to talk. He did not want to risk hurting her, and so he took a long pause, not exactly sure how to word himself perfectly. He was not rejecting her, but he wanted to warn her about himself. About how he was not sure whether he could love her the way she loved him. Words never were his weak point. He could be articte and he could also be to the point, and even if he had to y a character to try and trick others, he could do it. He could even try to be a suave flirt if he wanted, but he could only do that because he knew it was all fake. All a ruse to get what he wanted. Right now, in front of Valera''s raw, honest vulnerability, he was forced to show who he really was as well, and behind all the veneer and veils, he was wordless, utterly inexperienced in navigating his way around situations like this. Valera sensed Aldrich''s difficulty and took in a deep breath. She stopped trembling at her hands and looked at Aldrich with a smile. "Master, no, your name in this world, Aldrich, is it not?" Aldrich nodded. "I know how you are thinking. You must be thinking of the perfect things to say to me, no?" said Valera. Aldrich nodded. "You do not have to," said Valera. "Whatever is on your mind, tell it to me. And whatever decision you make, I will respect. I will still follow you, Aldrich, whether it is as your shield or something more." "It''s something I''ve been thinking about, this situation," said Aldrich. He looked at Valera''s gentle smile and felt more at ease to go on. "My feelings. Yours. I wanted to start by asking you: why do you have these feelings for me?" Valera looked momentarily surprised but then nodded. "Of course. You know the tale of my pitiable life, but I will tell it again, if only to make me remember strongly how I felt. And how strongly that past of mine makes me feel about you." She sighed and closed her eyes, reminiscing to times long, long ago. "I was of noble birth. Child to the vampire count Vandel and Duhan warrior Lera. It was an union that felt like it was torn from the pages of a romantic tale. My father met my mother on the battlefield as enemies, but in shing with each other, grew to admire each other, then, when the battle was fought and done, love each other. In the pages of a book or in the song of a bard, that union might have been beautiful, full of love, but in reality, it was unholy. Vampires hold the purity of blood to high standard. The Duhan ns never take kindly to outsiders. I was an abomination to both sides, and my father and mother suffered from it. My mother was captured from my father''s fort and executed by her own peoples for bearing an outsider''s blood. My father took up renewed arms against the Duhan ns once more, rejecting the peace treaties that the other vampire counts proposed. For that, he was assassinated. In my early years, when I was still with my father, I remember being happy. All around me, I felt cold eyes from my vampire brethren for my mixed blood. But my father, I dearly cherished. From him, I learned everything a royaldy should. Etiquette, the arts, the sciences, magic, and fighting, yes, fighting, though so very udy-like, I fell into so deeply. I remember when I trained to fight, it was not because I wanted to harm. It was because I wanted to protect. I knew my father warred often, and I wanted to protect him. Whenever my little self told him that, he wouldugh so very heartily and tell me he needed no others to guard him. On the battlefield, he may have been right. But when my father was assassinated and his kin risen to take his ce, I no longer held any allies. There was no longer any warmth in my father''s own fort, only those eyes that stared at me as if I was nothing but a monster. In respect for my half noble blood, I was not executed but sent to the Midnight Order to take the oath of a Guardian Knight. To take that oath is to vow not only lifelong service to a chosen, to be another''s shield, but also to take a vow of celibacy. A convenient and bloodless way to end my unclean bloodline. Chapter 205: [Bonus chapter] Love, Past and Present 2 Aldrich watched Valera take a moment to collect herself. Her lips twisted into a faint frown, baring a sliver of her sharp fangs. She clutched at her arm, her ck fingernails pressing in dangerously hard, just shy of breaking the skin. Valera did not like remembering her past. This, Aldrich knew. In Elden World, there was a surprisingly extensive amount of interaction with NPCs that allowed one to develop strong rtionships with them. How strong one''s rtionship was with a NPC allowed not only for more fluff things like romance paths to open up, but practical things like ess to specific NPC questlines that usually had unique locations, items, bosses, and the like. When Aldrich yed, he had maxed out his rtionship meter with Valera, though no paths actually led to a direct romance because of how much effort it took her to open up. Valera was a cold, stoic, and prickly character when first summoned that just did her job to protect her summoner. She replied with one word answers to most questions and did not like being questioned about her past. Actually getting her to open up and form a bond with her took most of the entire game because of how troubled her past was. This left too little time to get into a proper romance with her, but before battling the Howling Dark - the final boss - she did promise to stay with the yer character forever. That was essentially a deration of love. The idea was that after the game, there was an implied happily ever after where the yer reunited with Valera. This was why Valera was so attached to Aldrich upon being summoned. She had the highest level of rtionship built with Aldrich - the yer - already. But that was just the game. It was a whole different thing to deal with it in real life. It felt almost wrong. She had all these genuine memories with him, but to him, it had all just been nothing more than a game. This was the biggest reason why Aldrich could not give her a good answer. Her feelings for him were genuine, but how would she react when she realized that to him, it had never truly been ''real?" That, and Aldrich already had no idea what to do in situations like this. He hovered his arm over Valera''s back, wondering if this wouldfort her. Valera noticed Aldrich''s awkward effort. She looked at his hand with a quizzical expression. "If you''re ufortable-," began Aldrich as he withdrew his hand. "No." Valera grabbed Aldrich''s hand tightly and held it like a precious jewel. She smiled at him. Her hand felt strangely warm in spite of how cold she should have been as an undead. He felt prickles of warmth flowing through his body: the warmth of emotion that he had long forgotten and then buried further under his undead transformation. The warmth of being loved. "This helps. Holding your hand like this - it truly does. More than anything," said Valera. She closed her eyes again, remembering more. "When Ipleted my training in the Midnight Order, I was to be the sworn shield of ady. Nalia. A daughter of a matriarch in one of the Nokol ns." Aldrich nodded. The Nokol were a race of demihumans that had bat-like traits. Because they were nocturnal, they were part of the Midnight Alliance of most night faring races including vampires. "She was spoiled. Difficult to work with. Sheined about this and that little thing, and there were many times when I wanted to smack some sense into her." Valera shook her head and then smiled sadly. "But she was a kind girl, she was. When her mother was assassinated by rivals, she was cast out, forced to run as an exile. Everybody abandoned her aside from myself, perhaps because I saw some of myself in her. Another princess exiled due to a world that rejected them, how could I not pity her? And also because I wanted to keep my vow to protect my chosen. Always, I have wanted to protect someone worthy to me. Ever since my father''s death, when I could not protect him - that was my dream. So I stuck with her. The years after were long and difficult. She had to learn how to survive without the pampering touch of attendants that would dress her in warm fineries and make sure food was upon her te every day. But I taught her, and together, we survived. She grew so very attached to me. I was her mentor. Her shield to support herself on when times were tough. Her shoulder to lean on when she needed to cry. And in spite of myself, I found myself appreciating her. She was like a dear little sister to me. And for her happiness, I would have given everything. But that night, that awful, awful night-," Valera trembled in anger, her expression twisting darkly. "We can stop here, if you want," said Aldrich. He knew this part of her past, and he knew it would be painful for her. "I just wanted to hear why you have these feelings for me, but if it involves moving through your past-" "Not at all." Valera shook her head and took in a deep breath. "This is important. This cursed past of mine. To show you why my feelings burn so bright for you." She nodded to herself, calming down. "One night, when I was away from camp to find a cure for a sickness she had contracted on the road, she was ughtered by rival ns that still sought her out, wanting to eliminate any trace of her royal blood to make sure she neverid im to the throne. ughter is too light a word. She had been tortured to within an inch of her life, healed, then tortured again. Nails torn back, wings ripped apart, eyes gouged out, body defiled, skin yed - over and over again. I cannot imagine the amount of pain she must have felt. How much she must have yearned for me, for my shield, for my strength. And that-seeing her corpse-that made me understand: I was a failure. My shield had never once protected anyone it was vowed to. The world around me had cast me out because I was an abomination. A monster. My entire life, I had dedicated myself to protecting, for deep down, I did not wish to be called a monster. ? But if it was a monster they wanted, it was a monster that I would give them. I killed every single being responsible for mydy''s death. I started with the assassins they hired and any affiliated with them. Humans, elves, dwarves, young or old, it did not matter. I killed them. Then I attacked the Nokol royal ns. I killed countless of their winged soldiers. I snapped the necks of dozens of their royalty. I was feared. I was reviled. I became known as the ''Exile'', the disgraced princess turned wandering monster of vengeance. To gain the power to destroy the royal ns, I sacrificed my soul to the Nether. In exchange for this power, upon my death, I would enter into the Nether for all eternity. I would no longer enter the cycle of reincarnation. Instead, my soul would be chained to serve summoners of the dark for all eternity. The path of vengeance was sweet. I reveled in it, in the bloody carnage that I wrought with my own fists. But that is the thing with vengeance. It must always end. Either you reach the end of that path with no more left to kill, or you are killed while walking its brutal roads. For me, it was thetter. Despite the power and levels I received from the Nether, it was not enough. Eventually, the entire Midnight Alliance, not just the Nokols, saw me as a force of nature - a monster for adventurers to put down. I did kill any that got in my way, after all, and that included vampires as well. The Alliance enlisted the aid of a mighty hero, and he slew me. Since then, my soul rested in the Nether. Whenever a dark summoner wished for my shield, I had to serve them. That went on for centuries. I did not care. It was my just punishment for failing to protect everyone I wanted to protect - that was what I thought. I gave up on ever protecting someone close to me. To serve someone worthy. Because I was a failure." Valera squeezed Aldrich''s hand gently. "Then you came along. You called me to your service. At first, I felt nothing. Just another mage of the dark arts desiring a shield to protect his frail body until the corrupting influence of the dark arts eventually rotted your brain and rendered you insane. Just another victim to the Nether. But you overcame the Nether. You stayed with me. You believed in me. You tried to understand me. You epted who I was. You epted what I had be. I was not a monster to you, I was a valuedpanion. I was truly your shield. I¡­I liked that so much. It was the first time I had felt warmth in my heart for centuries. It was not just that you believed in me, but I could also believe in you with all my heart. You had grand visions. You wanted to save the world. Deep down, in your heart, you were one I could admire and devote myself to. I felt like finally, I had found someone worthy. And that was when I made a promise to myself: I would never, ever, ever let you go. I would never fail in my duties as a Guardian Knight ever again. I would wield my shield proudly for you til the end of time - til beyond the ends of time." Valera nodded to Aldrich. The hints of tears welled up in the sides of her eyes from remembering and voicing her feelings. "And that-that is why I have these feelings for you. That¡­is why I love you." Chapter 206 Love, Past and Present 3

Chapter 206 Love, Past and Present 3

I love you. Those were three words Aldrich had not heard in a long, long time. Not since his parents were alive. Of course, it was different when it came from them and when it came from Valera, but the warmth of the words was still the same. Aldrich was taken aback. He had expected to hear them, and they still surprised him. He knew she had feelings for him, but to hear them for real and not just within the confines of virtual reality was an entirely different thing. The way she looked at him right now, her breath caught in her throat, her eyes faintly red and wide, her hands clutched around his, still trembling in spite of her efforts - it made him realize beyond anything else that this was all real. Very real. Aldrich had known that she and all the other game elements he had brought to this world were real from the very beginning, but to some subconscious degree, he had still considered Valera more like an asset. A tool to leverage and use. Abat unit just as she had been in the game. But when Aldrich saw Valera as she was right now, vulnerable, remembering a past of pain, scared and hopeful of his answer, he felt even more pressure. He was not dealing with a NPC in front of him, he was dealing with someone that had an entire lifetime behind their backs, someone that had gone through just as much pain as he had, someone that deeply cared about him, someone whose heart was very, very real. And that heart, he held in his hands. His answer couldfort it or scar it. This was the exact type of situation he had never wanted to be in. Part of him had closed himself to everyone else after the death of his parents because he knew that anyone close to him, anyone he opened his own heart to, was just a liability to hurt him. Just like with Adam and ine. It was a twisted way to think, but some part of him had been relieved they had died when they had. Because if they had survived and graduated ckwater, Aldrich would have bid them farewell and cut them off as he went into a hunt for his parents'' killers, knowing full well that hunt could have easily endangered them. "Aldrich - if you do not want to answer me now, then that is fine too." Valera squeezed Aldrich''s hands and smiledfortingly at him. Even now, she saw how hard he was thinking and thought about him. She wanted to hear his feelings, that was for sure, but if it meant pressuring him, she could wait. "No. I do have an answer for you," said Aldrich. "Or rather, it''s more like an exnation. Valera, you know I am a different person now than when I was with you, right?" Valera nodded. "I do. This is your reincarnation in a new and strange world, but I am happy you still remember me." "That''s the thing," said Aldrich. "I do remember you, but¡­but the memories aren''t as strong as yours." He paused for a moment, trying to exin the concept of a game to her. "You remember simtion crystals, right?" In Elden World, simtion crystals were an item for yers to use to record reys or enter into tutorial battles. It was not an exact 1 to 1parison to a game, but it was close enough. "Yes." "My life in that other world, it was like I was in one massive simtion crystal. Everything I did, I did with an understanding that it wasn''t real. That it was something I could quit out of at anytime and put away." Aldrich shook his head. He thought about trying to dress up his words a little to make them hurt less, but if Valera showed her honest self to him, he did not feel it right to give her anything less. "You lived a lifetime of adventure with me, but for me, it was not real. It wasn''t my real life. And the real life I lead now, it isn''t a life that''s shaped me into someone I think can love you as much as you love me. I''ve never loved anyone else because I know that I would drag them down to this path of mine, and it isn''t one that leads to happiness. It''s one that''s hard. Painful. I don''t want that for anyone that cares about me." "I see." Valera looked away and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Aldrich thought he might see more tears, but instead Valera took in a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes, she stared at him with strength, her trembling gone. "I want to ask you a few questions," said Valera. Aldrich nodded, wondering where this was going. "Do you think I am unsightly to look at?" "Hm? No, not at all-," began Aldrich, confused. "Then do you think I am unpleasant to be around?" "No, you''re responsible and capable." "Then do you think I am too weak to walk this path of yours? Do you think I am too frail of heart to bear its struggles? Will you have to push me away because I am weak?" "No, in terms of strength and reliability, you''re perfect, and I''ll need your strength in the long run." Aldrich raised a brow. "I don''t get where you''re going with this-," Valera put a soft finger on Aldrich''s lips, quieting him. "Then what is there to worry about? You think highly of my appearance, you do not mind my personality even with its rough edges, and you recognize my strength to walk beside you." "Yes, that is true, but what about our memories not being real?" said Aldrich. "Your memories may not be real," corrected Valera. "But mine are. All these feelings of mine are real. And they always have been. Everything you did for me - all real. My feelings for you do not change with you saying this. And, Aldrich, you said so much, but you still did not give me a proper answer of yes or no." "It truly doesn''t bother you that I said it all felt like a simtion crystal?" said Aldrich. "It does. Or rather, it did. I knew you were not entirely the same person I knew the moment I was summoned to this realm. You looked different. We were both weaker. You had lived an entire lifetime here as a new person." Valera put her hand down to Aldrich''s chest, over his heart. "But the more I watched you in this new world, the more I made sure deep down, you are still the same. You arepetent, far thinking, reliable, and strong. Strong in mind and body. And, perhaps most important of all, you still care. You are cold and calcting when you need to be, but when it matters, you still care. Otherwise, you would not bother to consider my feelings and worry about them so deeply. Our life in the other realm may have been but a simtion to you, but you still made your choices there, and no matter how far removed they may have been to your real self, some part of those decisions came from your heart. And this heart of yours-," Valera blushed, red brightly tinting her white cheeks. "It is embarrassing, but I will say it again: this heart of yours, I love." "You really don''t mind?" said Aldrich. "You are repeating yourself. How unlike you." Valera smiled. "I am not asking you to fall for me as deeply as I have fallen for you. That would be selfish of me, especially when, as you have said, your memories are not as strong as mine. What I am asking is for you to try. I am pleasing to your eyes, my personality is one you can trust, and my strength is something you recognize as helping you, not slowing you down." Valera briefly looked away, remembering something in the past. Unlike before, she did not a grim expression, keeping her smile. "There was this little heartfelt piece I read from my father''s library, when I was but a little girl. It said that love is nothing but trying. Trying to understand each other, to feel each other, to build each other up. Sometimes, what you buildsts, sometimes, it copses. A long time ago, when I was a little girl, I had thought that meant love was hard and full of effort. Why would anyone put themselves through so much trying? Especially when what you build together may not evenst? When it can all copse on top of you and hurt you? But now I know: when you find the right person, it does not feel like trying. Whether what you buildsts or falls, it does not matter. The building effort, the trying, that alone is worth it. I have found the person right for me. Will you try to find that person in me? Will you let me walk this path of yours? Step by step from the very beginning, together? Hand in hand? Heart to heart?" Chapter 207 Love, Past and Present 4

Chapter 207 Love, Past and Present 4

Aldrich looked at Valera''s hopeful eyes and smiled back. "If you put it like that, then there''s no reason for me to refuse, is there?" Valera''s eyes widened further. "Does that mean¡­you are saying¡­" "Yes. It means I''m saying yes. I''m willing to try. I don''t know where this path will lead us, but I''m willing to walk it with you. " Aldrich nodded. He did not know too well what he was getting into. He knew how to y the part of a confident flirt in case he needed to infiltrate enemy spaces via a woman, but he figured he would never have to y that part beyond just regr flirting. Actually being in a dedicated, long term rtionship was something he had never factored as a valuable asset to him. Because, he had figured, he would be dead long before he could get into a rtionship like that. Or if he did, it would only just cause pain for both parties. But Valera made it obvious that he did not have to worry about that. She was strong. The only thing he worried about was hurting her because his memories were not as real as hers or being unable to properly love her, but she was willing to ept that. To try, as she had said. And, Aldrich would never admit this out loud, but he liked this feeling. Of being loved. It was a feeling he had almost forgotten until his encounter with his Boundary core. Maybe it was because that memory was so recent that he was more open to it now as well. It was nostalgic and warm. It reminded him of good times he had long forgotten. As Aldrich reminisced, Valera copsed into him, embracing him in a full hug. Unlike her usual hugs full of force and impulsive desire, this one was tender, like she was holding something the most precious thing in the world to her. She buried her face in his chest, and he could feel warm tears on his shirt. "Are you okay, Valera?" said Aldrich, somewhat concerned. He held her back this time, not feeling awkward about it. There was something about bing ''official'' that really did make some things easier. "Yes, yes I am. I was simply nervous," said Valera. She looked up at Aldrich with a beaming smile, the faint remnants of tears gracing the corners of her red eyes. "I was willing to ept any answer you gave me, but-but I was still so nervous. I was shaking like a coward ¨C it was unsightly." She turned her head away, ashamed. "My apologies." "It''s nothing to be ashamed of. Dealing with a fight and dealing with this are entirely different things. You''re no coward for reacting like that." said Aldrich. He could sympathize with her, especially after he had faced his fears in his Boundary core. He, like her, could face life threatening danger without batting an eye, but when it came to matters of the heart, they were just nervous trainees that either did not know what to do or had run from their fights. "Thank you for understanding. For always understanding." Valera closed her eyes in bliss as she snuggled up to Aldrich. "I''ll keep trying to," said Aldrich. He immediately began to think of what trying meant and how to optimize it. "What do you exactly mean by ''trying'', by the way? In what ways do you want me to try? What do you think is the most efficient way-," Valera giggled at Aldrich''s voiced thoughts. "Hm? What is it?" said Aldrich. "Always thinking so far ahead. Always thinking about the details," said Valera. She shook her head. "When you put it like that, it really does kill the romance out of what I said, does it not? But it is so very much like you. I like that side of you, but for now, all I want you do is to hold me. And when you hold me, I don''t want you to think of anything. I want you to just stay with me in the present. Let your mind be close with me, not wandering and getting lost in a future we have no idea about." Aldrich held her, and she kept up her content smile as she basked in his embrace. He looked down at her and took her advice. He stopped thinking so hard for a moment, just focusing on her, on her warm body, on her happiness, and¡­and he managed to rx. It was an almost draining feeling. For so many years, he had never once been able to rx his mind like this. But focusing on her warmth, he could do it. Striking memories surfaced. Of how it had felt to be held by his parents when he was a child without a single care in the world, howforting and warm and wonderful it all was when he could just let go. Maybe¡­maybe this was not so bad. Rxing. Aldrich fell into Valera''s embrace with more ease now, his usual tenseness fading away. He closed his eyes. They stayed like that together for what felt like "I want hugs too." Aldrich and Valera both immediately opened their eyes and drew away, looking at the source of the voice. The Chrysalis was on the edge of the bed, but because she was so small, only the top of her head and her curious green eyes peeped out. She put her pale hands over the top of the bed, asking to be raised up. "I love hugs. Not fair you two get them but not me," said the Chrysalis. Aldrich briefly nced at Valera, wondering if she was ticked off about this interruption. But on the contrary, she looked at the Chrysalis with a gentle and amused expression. "Is that so?" Valera got off the bed and picked the Chrysalis up in her arms. "Then will you let me hold you? Even though I am scary?" "You give good hugs. I want it," said the Chrysalis. She cocked her head and looked at Aldrich. She pointed at him. "But¡­but he gives good hugs too, especially at the end. I want both." "Come here, then, child." Valera held the Chrysalis gently, and the Chrysalis nodded in contentment. "Not bad," said the Chrysalis like she was some kind of connoisseur. She pointed at Aldrich again. "Now it''s your turn." "What is this, an interview?" Aldrich sighed but could not help but feel amused. He took the Chrysalis into his arms as well, and as he did so, he wondered about the Chrysalis. ording to the Death Lord, the Chrysalis was essentially a manifestation of his soul''s ''good'' side. And it would seem that good side was all from when he was little. Before he had been shaped by the world into the killer he was today In a way, then, the Chrysalis was a living embodiment of the childlike innocence and goodness that he had buried long ago. Did that mean she picked up his habits as a kid, too? That included things like boundless curiosity and a penchant for asking for hugs. "Bad," said the Chrysalis. She shook her head vigorously. "What? What parameters are you using to judge this?" said Aldrich. "You think too much. Not a big hug." The Chrysalis pointed to Valera. "Not like the one you gave her." "Well, that''s different. That''s a special case," said Aldrich. "S-special?" Valera blushed. "Anyways," continued Aldrich. "I''ll give you back to her, and when you''re done, you should get some rest again. You''re going to go through training soon, and you''ll need to be on maximal efficiency for that." "Training? With the other scarydy?" The Chrysalis widened her eyes in fear. "She''s not that bad," said Aldrich. "Can you promise?" said the Chrysalis. "I don''t like promises. Nothing is a hundred percent certain-," began Aldrich, but then he noticed the Chrysalis getting even more nervous and Valera giving him a disapproving look. "Okay, yes, I promise," said Aldrich. "Okay then, I trust you." The Chrysalis nodded. "Good. Then get your rest." Aldrich handed the Chrysalis over to Valera. Valera gently held the Chrysalis until the little girl grew sleepy. It did not take very long, just a few minutes considering how tired the Chrysalis already was. When the Chrysalis slept, Valeraid the girl down on her bed, putting nket covers over her. "I had thought you had no idea what to do with children," said Aldrich. "But you know, you''re not bad. Far better than I am." "Nalia was a small girl when I first became her Guardian Knight," exined Valera. She stroked the Chrysalis''s white hair with a tender touch. "Not much older than this. If I could deal with her, spoiled and infinitely louder as she was, then I can deal with this." After the Chrysalis was fully entranced in a cozy slumber, Valera went back to Aldrich. She shyly looked around at the ground. "Well, h-how do you want us to sleep?" "Together, of course," said Aldrich simply. "S-so forward!" said Valera taken aback and turning even redder. "There''s a child here, so no funny business," said Aldrich. "Just sleeping together." "Yes, yes, of course." Valera took a calming breath andid on the bed with Aldrich. Theyid with space between them, staring up at the magic crystals that acted like room lights. "You prefer darkness, don''t you? I''ll turn those off." Aldrich waved his hand, sending out strands of his magical energy. When they touched the crystals, they flickered off ording to his will. As he did this, his mind wandered to thinking about sleeping. Undead did not have to technically eat, sleep, or rest. They could run out of mana or, in the case of Alters, ether based energy to fuel their powers, but regr physical stamina or needs were not issues. The only reason to sleep was to just pass time. For some undead, Aldrich recalled from lore, they got so bored that they just went into coffins and slept for centuries at a time, wanting to wake up when things were more exciting. "A-Aldrich?" said Valera from the other end of the huge king sized bed. "Hm?" "C-can I hold your hand? While we sleep?" said Valera. "Sorry, I was thinking again," said Aldrich. "Come here." Aldrich reached out and grasped Valera''s hand, to which she gasped at the sudden forward movement. He drew her in close with her hand until they were once again touching skin to skin, lying side by side together. "A-a-are you truly alright sleeping like this? So close? On our first night together?" said Valera as she looked up at Aldrich, her face beet red. "What''s the issue? You''ve been just as close when you were blood drunk," said Aldrich. "Th-that''s different!" pouted Valera. "I-I got blood drunk because my heart was too frail to handle this sober!" "Oh? If this isn''tfortable for you-," said Aldrich. "No," came the immediate response. "I am perfectly fine with this." Valera looked up at Aldrich with blushing wonder. "Still, you are alright with this? I thought you had no experience in these matters. Perhaps¡­perhaps you had other women before?" Valera looked down, biting her thumb nail in mild irritation, probably imagining phantom women he had been with. "It makes sense, considering your looks and charm, but I just know none of them were worthy! How can weak humans ever be by your side!" "No, nothing like that. This would be the first time I''ve ever decided to open my heart up like this," said Aldrich. "It just felt right to be close, after how we opened up to each other. At least, it did for me. And¡­" Aldrich felt mildly embarrassed to say this, but he decided to be honest. "I like it. I like the warmth. It''s something I''ve been without for so long." "Then you are a natural flirt!" Valera looked shocked, then whispered under her breath, "How dangerous¡­" But in the end, when she looked up at Aldrich, seeing an expression of contentment she had never before seen on his face, she sighed, smiled, andy by Aldrich''s side. "As long as you are happy, I am happy too, Aldrich," said Valera as sheid her head on Aldrich''s shoulder. "¡­" Aldrich looked down at Valera as she prepared to drift off. "I am," he said, no louder than a small whisper. Together like that, close and warm, they let the gentle hold of sleep take them over. Chapter 208 Ambition and Training

Chapter 208 Ambition and Training

Aldrich woke up first, probably because he was still not too used to letting himself just go and sleep like that. He looked up at the ceiling. Dark still. He considered his internal clock quite consistent, and he roughly estimated he had slept seven hours. He felt incredibly refreshed from just sleeping, his mind feeling clear. ording to game lore, mages would feel mental exhaustion the lower their mana became, and this made it more difficult to control their spells. For example, though it was not actually possible in the game itself, the lore stated that mages were capable of controlling details of their spells like projectile speed, output, area of effect, and so on by finely manipting the mana that went into it. Mages often did this by chanting their spells, dying the cast and giving it away but in exchange letting them customize its effects a little. Aldrich himself was capable of doing this, but so far, only with what felt like simple changes like changing the trajectory of a [Death Bolt] or willing a [Bone Wall] to rise up faster. The Death Lord had noted he did not actually have to sit down and study years to formte a spell ¨C the knowledge was imparted into him automatically ¨C but knowing how to use a spell and how to use it to maximal efficiency was different. In that regard, Aldrich likely needed more training and experimentation. Now that he had slept and refreshed his mind, he was ready to push his mental limits. Valera stirred beside him, sensing him waking up. She had slept on her side, with her head on his shoulder and her hand and leg ced over his body. She had wanted to sleep facing him, and Aldrich thought he had heard some somewhat concerningly intense whispers of ''I love you'' throughout his sleep that he chose to wisely ignore for his own safety. "Is something the matter?" said Valera. She was quiet, moderating her voice not to wake the Chrysalis. She looked at Aldrich with half open eyes, strands of ck hair cast across her forehead in a curtain of messy bed hair. "No, I was just wondering how to train my magic," said Aldrich. "Wandering again, I see," said Valera. "In my adventures across our old realm, I heard gossip from women across many a tavern counter that loving a man with ambition is a hassle. They said that ambition bes like their second lover, taking up so much of their attention, but when you try to pull them from it, you also feel awful inside, for it feels as if you are pulling them from their dreams." "Is that how you think?" Valera smiled and shook her head. She put a hand on Aldrich''s cheek, gazing at him with a tender look. "Not at all. I think a man must have ambition. No, to be more precise, I do not mind men or women content with simple lives and simple dreams. But I believe men that seek power should have ambition they put that power towards. The more power a man has, the more they gain, the more ambition they must have, for what else do they sit upon that power for? Power is so often taken from others. From gaining experience inbat by killing to taking a position that would have gone to another ¨C it is difficult not to gain power without taking. There must be something that justifies that taking in the end. There is nothing worse to me than those that hoard power and sit upon it, or worse, take it from others, ruining the lives of many, without attempting even the slightest bit to use it for anything other than stroking their egos and desire for power." "I agree with you," said Aldrich. Valera spoke from a ce of personal hurt, for her father was assassinated and taken over by rtives for no other reason than simply to take power. But what she said also rang true in this world where so many corporations or heroes or celebrities did nothing with their power except sit on it to feel good about it. "Your ambition in this world, can I ask what it is?" said Valera. "In the past, I knew you wished to save the realm as any grand hero would. What about now?" "Maybe you''re right. Maybe I am still the same, whether it was me in your past memories or me here. I still want to ''save the realm''. But unlike in the g-," He stopped himself from saying ''game'' as it felt like it trivialized Valera''s life experiences. "Unlike before, there isn''t one massive, big bad tentacled monstrosity like the Howling Dark to defeat. There''s a little bit of bad everywhere. Viins, variants, false heroes, destructive corporations, the list goes on." "And you wish to stamp that all out?" said Valera. "I''m realistic. I don''t consider that a good possibility. There will always be some bad out there. Hell, I''m also that ''bad'' in many peoples'' eyes," said Aldrich. "I still want to save this ream, and though I am a Lich now, I still have an attachment to humans. But how will I do it? Do I do that by destroying every viin and corrupt hero? Do I destroy every variant that threatens humanity? Is that even enough? Do I go further and dismantle every corporation and government that stands in my way? Do I sit back and let the world fix its own mistakes, only acting to help and guide them? Or do I take over entirely? World domination, as Vntis said? How far do I go? How many am I willing to sacrifice for it? All of these are questions I do not have answers to yet. I''m sure back in the day, when Vanguard was at the prime of his power and could shape the world as he wanted to, he thought about these very same questions. All I know is that I want to keep walking the path I''m walking and trust that the more I walk it, the more I figure out my powers and how I stand in this world, the more I''ll know what to do eventually." "And I will walk that path by your side forever, no matter where it leads us. I owe at least that much to you for what you have done for me." Valera stroked Aldrich''s cheek with a soft touch. "Where it leads us, huh?" Aldrich looked up at the painting from his mother he had saved from the Boundary. It depicted a house, a modest one-story house, atop a rolling green meadow as a bright sun started to rise in the distance, casting a warm orange glow across the dusk kissedndscape. "A pretty piece, that one," said Valera. "It''s from my mother" exined Aldrich. "When my parents were alive, they dreamed about saving enough money to buy a little house in a nature zone." "Nature zone?" asked Valera. Aldrich wondered how to exin the economics of housing and how the modern housing market was almost entirely rent driven. A good chunk of the world''snd being either uninhabitable or infested with variants meant that buildings had to be built high to sustain concentrated poption densities, and that meant no individual ownership of houses. Instead, corporations and governments owned practically all housing. The only exceptions were granted, obviously, to the ultra-rich for whom spots in nature, away from the chaos of big cities, were zoned out and cleared of variants. These were nature zones where the wealthy could build homes for exorbitant prices. There were some nature zones, however, that were less pricey due to a variety of issues. Maybe they were too remote, maybe they were not as well maintained, maybe they were not as safe, maybe they did not have the best views, and so on and so forth. It was in one of these that Aldrich''s parents had seen a pretty little meadow they wanted to build a house on and retire to, living simple lives by quiet nature. In the end, instead of exining the economics behind it all, he just decided to tell her what she would understand. "Basically, my parents, when they were done working, wanted to settle somewhere far away, away from these massive cities. Somewhere quiet and green." "Is that what you desire as well? After you have finished walking this path of ambition?" asked Valera curiously. "Maybe. I''vee to realize that the reason I''ve never let myself slow down and enjoy things was might have been because that opportunity was robbed from me," said Aldrich. "I wouldn''t mind living a quiet life in a quiet ce when I''m satisfied with how things are. But easier said than done. I know myself better than anyone. I doubt I will ever be satisfied." At that moment, Aldrich and Valera both instantly hopped out of the bed, sensing the impending approach of a powerful presence. Valera immediately materialized her shield while Aldrich''s [Death Essence Barrier] shone bright in an orb around him. Instantly, the door their room was flung open with violent force. The Death Lord stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and a triumphant smile upon her face, showing all her fangs. Notably, she had reced her destroyed arm with an emerald green prosthetic decorated with scaled patterns. "Now then! Tell me all about the fine consummation of this love!" said the Death Lord, beaming. "There is nothing that excites this immortal heart of mine more than the blooming of love between young hearts!" "Oh, it''s just you." Aldrich put a hand to his face, lowering his guard. "Now, now, what is that reaction?" The Death Lord pouted, putting her nose in the air. "Hmph. After all I have done in allowing this momentous consummation to pass." "C-consummation? What nonsense are you speaking of!?" said Valera, red. "Ah, you were a knight of the Midnight Order, no? And a Guardian Knight at that, having to take that crusty old vow of celibacy. Goodness, how can one enjoy an eternal life without the pleasures of the flesh every now and then?" The Death Lordughed. "I understand you may be ashamed to admit it, littledy, but I know it happened! So, tell me!" "Nothing happened," said Aldrich. "Hoh? Have I misjudged you, Death Walker?" The Death Lord squinted her eyes and put a hand to her chin. "I thought myself a most excellent reader of character, but I did not know you did not desire women. Then I hope Chiros with his elegant looks has taken to your heart-" Aldrich face palmed again. "No, it''s not that." "Then what is it? Hm? Ah, are you perhaps respecting my customs?" said the Death Lord. "The draconic mating rite of locking bodies together in battle first, then in desire?" "No, I didn''t even know that was a thing," said Aldrich. "You came all the way down here to bombard us with this silly topic!?" said Valera. "Why not?" The Death Lord. "I ensured the bed was spacious and quite sturdy, the room silenced so none outside could hear, and even took away your own bed. Of course I would wish to see the fruits of mybor sprout!" At that moment, the Chrysalis came to Aldrich''s side, tugging at his pant leg. She pointed at the Death Lord. "The scarydy. Do I have to go with her?" The Death Lord looked down at the Chrysalis, then at Aldrich. She was the one to face palm now, though with how powerful the motion was, it sounded like a concrete block smashing against a brick wall. "Bah! I forgot that you humanoid races do not like consummating your love in front of your hatchlings. What a bizarre custom." "Con-consume?" The Chrysalis looked up at Aldrich quizzically. Aldrich blinked at the Chrysalis, thinking about how to exin what ''consummation'' meant but instead gave up. He instead talked to the Death Lord. "How about you stop corrupting the youth and tell me something useful?" "Ever ready to fight and grow stronger," said the Death Lord. "I do like that. In any case, I have found the perfect solution for developing your boundary. Med, master of warp magics as she is, is the perfect mentor for the Chrysalis, and a training regimen that I have approved has been outlined already. While Med trains your Chrysalis, you may now clear those Trial Quests of yours so you do not waste time. I have even nned the feast that Vntis desired. We shall end every day of training with a well deserved time of merriment. By the time you leave my realm, I should say you will be an entire tier of strength above where you stand now." She closed her fist in excitement. "Soon, none of those pesky humans from the new realm will offer a challenge to you." Chapter 209 Learning

Chapter 209 Learning

Aldrich and Valera followed the Death Lord down the hallway outside their rooms. The Chrysalis walked between them, cautiously sneaking wary nces at the Death Lord. "Apologies for the rather rough state of this floor." The Death Lord looked around at the bare, undecorated rocky floor and ceiling that made up the first floor. "But I do not have enough power to make things pretty. Sustaining this ce is tiring as is." "I would have thought it unwise to get yourself into life threatening sparring sessions if that were the case," said Aldrich as he stared at the Death Lord''s new prosthetic emerald arm. "But it looks like you''re slowly restoring yourself." "Indeed." The Death Lord put her emerald arm in front of her, admiring the prosthetic arm. The arm moved around a ball joint at the elbow, and yet with remarkable fluidity easily rivaling that of a natural arm. No, as the Death Lord showed by rotating her arms in unnatural angles, the range of motion even outstripped a regr flesh and bone arm. "Pretty, is it not? Functional, too, but function without form is simply crude. The patterns of lilies engraved upon this gemstone emerald do catch my eye ¨C I must give Bel my thanks again." "Bel?" said Aldrich. "My personal giant cksmith," said the Death Lord. "How many do you have?" "My, when did this be an interrogation? Are you assessing the strength I have?" The Death Lordughed to herself. "I have five giant smiths. Four in mymand now that Bors is under yours. Rest assured, Death Walker, even one giant smith is generosity enough, I cannot grant you more as they are quite busy maintaining this realm''s structures." Aldrich nodded. "Your troops: can you bring them out of this realm?" "If you could do that, then we could add to our war power tremendously," noted Valera. "No," said the Death Lord. She thought about this for another second and then shrugged. "Technically only I am absolutely bound here, for if I leave, it all copses. But it is possible, I suppose, to lend you troops by temporary shifting their ownership to you. Through you, they could leave. But I must dash your hopes right now: unless you take full ownership of my troops, they will still be tethered to me. The cost to maintain even a single skeleton outside in your realm would be enormous. At best, they can manifest under your partial ownership for, hm, thirty seconds? And I am quite unwilling to part with my dear troops unless you earn them." "Earn them, is it?" Valera smiled coyly at the Death Lord. "We will have your troops under us before that ancient body of yours even knows what has happened." "I look forward to seeing it, littledy." The Death Lord returned the coy smile. "And you would do well to bear the passing years as a badge of honor. The fact that I have lived long enough to be millennial dragon is one I am proud of." "Got it." Aldrich spoke to himself, mostly, ignoring the two women getting into a miniature staredown. He filed down all the information. It might not have seemed valuable, but it started to give him ideas. "Ah, here we are." The Death Lord reached a dead end in the hallway. Before her, there was a slightly upraised tform of rock studded with a smoothed-out mana crystal at the center. "Hop on. I will have Med warp us to her study. There, the Chrysalis will learn warp magic from Med. You two may go down to the crypts where your throne is. Reconvene with your troops and challenge the Trials. Vntis will be there as well, and I hear he has been missing your absence." "Did you give Wai''ki my thanks?" said Aldrich. Before the whole sleep rest incident, Aldrich had made sure he had gotten ownership of the illusion that Wai''ki made of Vntis. He had then sent it out of the Nexus to the real world so it could serve as a convincing decoy. Aldrich had even interrogated the illusion to make sure it did not seem too suspicious, and it was surprisingly functional. It did not mimic Vntis, but instead Aldrich based on Vntis''s memories of him. The result was a slightly exaggerated version of Aldrich that seemed much ''cooler'' with grander one liners, and he wondered whether that was because Vntis''s perception of him was skewed. Anyways, it worked enough where Aldrich figured that it would take a high level interrogator to know something was off, and they would also need to have known Aldrich originally as a reference. So far, nobody knew who Aldrich was, so there was no worry of that. "I did," said the Death Lord. "She appreciated it greatly. Looking to woo her heart, too, hm? Eyeing such a pure and frail girl ¨C you are quite fierce some, are you not?" "He-he is doing no such thing!" protested Valera. "Who do you think my master is? Some sort of predator?" "Perhaps. He has hungry eyes. Always looking forward. Always wanting." The Death Lord licked her lips with her forked tongue. "Men with eyes like that may hunger only for their ambition, but mark my words, littledy, once he tastes a woman, he will turn that same hunger upon you." The Death Lord eyed Valera up and down. "A good body, but inexperienced. How will that inexperienced body of yours manage such hunger, I wonder?" "W-what?" Valera turned away from the Death Lord''s intrusive gaze but then nodded in realization when she looked up at Aldrich. "No, she''s right. When you pulled me into you so strongly, without hesitation too, and you merely said it ''felt right''. Master¡­do you truly wish to consume me like that? If-if so, I promise you I will try not to disappoint!" "I''m confused. Everyone talk about things I don''t know." The Chrysalis pouted. "I feel dumb. I don''t like feeling dumb." "You''re not dumb, some people just like to talk about pointless things they shouldn''t be talking about in the first ce." Aldrich patted the Chrysalis''s head and gave an using nce to the Death Lord and Valera. The Death Lord simply ignored Aldrich''s gaze and looked down at the Chrysalis with eager eyes. "Come, child, you will learn warp magic soon. No longer will you be dumb! You should be thankful ¨C there are few masters of the magic as aplished as Med. She may be a harsh teacher, but soon, you will learn and if you are even half as capable as your father, you will reach tremendous heights!" "Father¡­?" The Chrysalis looked up at Aldrich. "I¡­guess that''s what I am?" said Aldrich. "Can I call you that?" said the Chrysalis. She looked up at him with eager green eyes. "Yes." The Chrysalis then hid behind Aldrich''s leg and pointed at the Death Lord. "Father ¨C I don''t want to go with her. Scarydy." "I''ll go with you, if it helps. Make sure she doesn''t do anything bad or say anything dumb," said Aldrich. "¡­Dumb? Me? How?" The Death Lord put a hand to her chin in thought, wondering what she said was dumb. She just shrugged, not understanding parent-child behaviors. Or, Aldrich figured, it was probably very different for dragons. Dragons were left to fend for themselves when they were young, and most dragonsrgely forgot about their early infancy ¨C their first century of living or so ¨C anyway. "Okay, if fatheres, I''ll go," said the Chrysalis with a confident nod. Aldrich then spoke to Valera. "Can you check on the troops for me? Organize them until I get back. You remember our Trial Quests as well, don''t you?" "Yes," said Valera. "Then organize the units into several groups ording to specifications I give you. The second and third quests shouldn''t be an issue for us to clear, so I want to run a little experiment with both of them," said Aldrich. "Understood, master." Valera recognized Aldrich''s serious tone of voice and matched it instantly, materializing her full suit of armor. She stepped atop the tform. "Take care this snake does not whisper strange obscenities in your ear." "I only speak truths, my dear." The Death Lord smiled as she snapped her fingers, causing the tform to light up. Valera faded away in the burst of light, transporting down to the crypts, or, more urately, Aldrich''s throne room. "Now then, on we go to Med." The Death Lord stepped on the tform, and Aldrich followed with the Chrysalis. The Death Lord snapped her fingers again, and light engulfed them. Immediately, the scenery shifted into a massive library. Dozen meter tall bookshelf after bookshelf of ebony wood stood in nearly ordered rows like soldiers standing at attention. They were packed with books and tomes of all kinds, and it seemed they were strictly organized ording to their size and what color of light they glowed with. Aside from the glow of magical tomes, the library was utterly dark, granting it a rather eerie feeling had not everyone possessed darkvision, including the Chrysalis. From the distance, Med flew in with her hands sped behind her back. "You''re here. Slightlyte, but what else should I have expected?" said Med. "So you''ll be teaching the Chrysalis warp magic?" said Aldrich. Med eyed the Chrysalis with cold and calcting eyes, causing the Chrysalis to hide behind Aldrich''s leg. "I will assess her potential and guide her to its maximum capacity," said Med. "But do not harbor any delusions. If that maximum capacity is low, then I will make it clearly known, and will not have anything further to do with her. What I do not recall is being tasked to amodate you, Usurper." "I''m here to watch over the lesson to see that it goes well," said Aldrich. "Mm. A concerned parent, are you? The worst bother for any teacher." Med shook her head. "Father isn''t a bother!" protested the Chrysalis. "Is that so?" Med gazed at the Chrysalis with her tired and unfeeling eyes. Surprisingly, she acquiesced. "I will allow your presence for this first lesson only. Now then, is there any other request you have that takes me even more from my precious research?" "Yes," said Aldrich. He stared right at Med''s infernal orange eyes with a piercing gaze. "I want you under my service." Chapter 210 Mana Flow

Chapter 210 Mana Flow

"Mm." Med looked unfazed, but her eye did twitch in reaction. "Did I hear that right? Service? Me under you?" "Hoh, you wish to take Med?" said the Death Lord. "Well, if ever there was one I was loathe to be parted with, it would be her. She does manage quite a bit around here." "It wouldn''t be permanent service," said Aldrich. "I recognize how important Med is to maintaining the Necropolis. You mentioned before you could lend some of your troops to me in temporary service, right? That''s what I want here." "Temporary service? Yes, indeed, but for what, a meagre ten or so seconds?" said the Death Lord. "Did you forget what else I said, Death Walker? There is a great degree of separation between this realm and the one you call home. So long as Med remains under me, she cannot manifest for long in yours, even with temporary ownership under you." "If even I will allow that," said Med. "I am spending quite a bit of time away from my research with this child already. To amodate this usurper as well would grate on my nerves quite a bit." "Ten seconds is more than enough," said Aldrich. "Oh, is it?" The Death Lord smiled coyly at him. Aldrich ignored the innuendo behind that and continued. "Tell me, would the troops you give temporary ownership to me over be weakened away? Incapable of using some spells, for example?" "No," said the Death Lord. "Their spellse from their own mana reserves, after all. It is in materializing them outside of my realm in the first ce where the difficulty lies." "Then there''s no issue," said Aldrich. "There is an issue," said Med, annoyed. "My consent." "Of course, I''ll get to thatter." Aldrich crossed his arms as he flung an using look at the Death Lord. "You do owe me, after all." "What? How?" The Death Lord raised a brow. "My divine ss artifact ¨C it''s useless at this point." Aldrich manifested his [Restorative sk] and held it out towards the Death Lord. She recoiled in disgust at the faint golden light emanating from it. "You never even relied upon that vile thing in the first ce!" protested the Death Lord. "No, but that was just because I was careful. Losing a contingency feels pretty bad, you know? And a divine ss artifact at that? I''d like some level ofpensation here," said Aldrich. "We have already fashioned that throne for you," said Med. "Do you understand how much effort that took me? Connecting that throne to the Necropolis and the warpways that I so carefully weaved across this realm? If I had connected that throne to the warpway with even a miniscule amount of error, all of it would havee crumbling down." "And in recognition of that skill, I want to hire your services," said Aldrich. "I shall allow it." The Death Lord nodded. "And you are certain?" Med looked incredulous. "I know that look in your eyes. You find this thoroughly entertaining, do you not? What part of letting this realm crumble without my expertise is so amusing, hm?" The Death Lordughed and pped Med lightly on the back. "Lighten up, Curator. A ten second absence is not enough to copse this ce. I do not think the Death Walker''s request is unreasonable. And I find it quite interesting as to what he ns with you." "I will not go unless I have a clear idea of what this ''favor'' entails," said Med, conceding some ground. Aldrich lifted a single finger into the air. "All I want you to do is cast one spell." "Mm." Med cocked her head and slowly nodded in understanding. "I believe I do understand where this is leading." "[Outworld Imprisonment]" said Aldrich. "Cast that, and you can return to your research or whatever it is that calls to you." "Perhaps the strongest spell in my arsenal. Though if you wished to obtain the most from a minor few seconds of my service, then I expected no less," said Med. "Tell me, why do you require a tenth circle spell far beyond your current capabilities?" Aldrich briefly pondered the question. [Outworld Imprisonment] was an immensely powerful spell that trapped a massive location in a huge void from which there was no escape. One needed to have incredibly powerful anti-magic or an equally powerful warp magic user to counter it. It was a useful spell forpletely negatingrge swathes of enemies for periods of time or forcing favorable duels. The imprisoning void evensted for an entire hour after being cast regardless of whether the caster was there or not. A spell like this of the tenth tier was absurdly useful on its own, and Aldrich would have liked to keep it in his back pocket. But there was another, more specific reason he wanted to use this spell. "There''s a ce I''d like isted. In exchange, to sweeten this deal for you, you can take most of the Alterhumans there for experimentation," said Aldrich. "You just have to leave one for me." "Mm." At the mention of potential test subjects to learn about the new world, Med''s pointed ears twitched in curiosity. "Fine. I will agree to this. Now do not waste my time any further. I want to get this lesson over with as soon as possible." = Aldrich watched Med and the Chrysalis train. He stood with back against the wall of a circr stone room. Though technically a room of Med''s study and library, this ce had no books. Just stone walls inscribed with demonic runes here and there that absorbed and nullified magic. This was where Med went to test out spells or vtile magics. A st room of sorts where any unwanted explosions would get dampened. Aldrich recognized those runes as belonging to the demon god of war, Carnassus. The fact that Med, who most decidedly was not a war demon judging by her personality, had these was a curiosity, but when he thought about it, it did make sense. Med had probably been a follower of Velen, the demon god of knowledge who sought to learn about civilizations he encountered before destroying them by exploiting their own greed with cursed pacts that seemed sweet on the surface but had poisoned pills within. Velen and his demons also were not above harvesting the knowledge of other demons. "Focus and release your mana. Feel as if you''re reaching into your heart and taking it out with your mind," said Med. She knelt behind the Chrysalis, watching intently. The Chrysalis''s brows were knitted together in sheer focus, her little lip trembling as she thrust her hands out to channel her magic. The Chrysalis nodded. Colorless magical energy that looked like it distorted space emanated from the Chrysalis, wreathing her arms in little tongues. "¡­" Med looked briefly surprised before maintaining her usual calm. "Good. Very good. How does it feel to release that mana?" Med ced a hand on the Chrysalis''s back and fed magical energy through it. The Chrysalis lost mana by releasing it, but with Med reced what the girl lost as soon as she lost it. "Keep releasing your mana. Don''t worry about getting tired. I shall assist you. Simply focus on the feeling of releasing that mana. How does it feel?" said Med. "It feels¡­feels warm. Like a good hug," said the Chrysalis. "Good. Then that is your Trigger. To cast magic is a deeply personal endeavor. A Trigger is a set of feelings and sensations uniquely important to you that you call upon to release the flow of mana." Med spoke softly. "Now try to shape that mana." "I-into what?" asked the Chrysalis, nervous. "Anything you want. A simple ball will do," said Med. The Chrysalis bit her lip as she exerted serious concentration. She nced at Aldrich, trying to gauge what he expected of her. Med put her bandaged hand over the Chrysalis''s eyes. "Do not look. I am sure he simply wants you to try your best. And to do that, you need to shut everything out. Everything except that feeling in your heart and the image in your head. Visualize what you want to shape. Focus." The Chrysalis nodded, and after a few seconds, managed to make a tiny, unstable bubble of mana that looked like a little ripple in space. "Good, good." Med nodded. "It has been an hour. Take some time to rest." She took her hand off of the Chrysalis''s back, and the Chrysalis sighed. "Phew. That was hard." The Chrysalis wiped sweat off her forehead with her small arm. She looked up at Med worriedly. "What you said before¡­am I a bother?" "You take up my time, that is undeniable," said Med, and the Chrysalis looked down in sorrow. "But you are no bother. I enjoy teaching others. Particrly those with talent. Now go rest. I will need to talk to your father for a bit, so if you want to say anything to him, make it short." The Chrysalis nodded enthusiastically before she hopped over to Aldrich, going as fast as her little legs could carry her. "How did I do!?" said the Chrysalis. She was starting to be more and more expressive now, a solid smile beaming on her face. "You did well. Very well." Aldrich patted the Chrysalis on the head. "Now go rest, like your teacher said." "Okay. I''ll look at the shiny books!" The Chrysalis ran out of the room, a stone door automatically sliding open for her when she got close enough. When the Chrysalis was gone, Aldrich to Med as she stood up, patting dust off her coat. "You''re quite good at teaching children. I didn''t expect that. Or were you just keeping up good behavior because I was here?" teased Aldrich. "Nonsense. I enjoy teaching when it is worthwhile. When there is truly talent to sculpt. When there is nothing, I simply do not bother," said Med. "And I loathe practically every species in existence, including my own demonkin, but children are different. They are refreshing to see,rgely untainted by the filth of the world around them. Thus, they are easy to shape and to feel kindness for." "They''re innocent. I understand what you mean," said Aldrich. He had a soft spot for children because they were a reminder of the innocence he had lost. And the innocence he would like to protect. As a Lich, he knew that he was separated enough from humanity that he would not sacrifice himself over children, but he could still find it in him to treat them kindly. He imagined it was the same for Med as an Archdemon; a species that generally did not see humans as much more than food or ythings. "I suppose that is onemonality between us," said Med. "I''m sure if we tried, we could find much more than that," said Aldrich. Med cocked her head. "Are you¡­flirting with me?" "Hm? What, no," said Aldrich. "I was being literal. I can sense that we might have some more things inmon, not that I''m flirting with you. Where did you get that nonsense?" "Perhaps the Death Lord was right. Ites naturally to you, without you even knowing," said Med. She shrugged. "I usually file away anything she says about that topic into the nonsense section of my brain," said Aldrich. "Now then, judging from what you''ve said, it looks like the Chrysalis is worth teaching, no?" Med nodded. "She is a prodigy." Chapter 211 The Chrysalis’s Talents

Chapter 211 The Chrysalis''s Talents

"A prodigy?" Aldrich raised a brow, surprised. In the distance, he heard the Chrysalis marveling at the manyrge tomes, remarking to herself, "Blue book! Red book! Spiky book! Big book!" "Magic isn''t something I''ve ever had to consciously learn," said Aldrich. "The knowledge just funnels into me, so I don''t know how to tell whether someone is ''good'' at using magic or not." It was an odd phenomenon. ording to lore, mages had to dedicate years to actually know how to cast magic. They had to spendrge amounts of time meditating to figure out how to control the flow of their mana, and then they had to spend even more time understanding how to temper that flow and shape it into a reliable spell. For Aldrich, all of that knowledge was just downloaded into his head. Though, he did note, what he got was a base amount of knowledge that let him use the spell, but using it to its peak capability was something he might be able to train for. The Outer Trait," exined Med. Aldrich was surprised. He did not know this was something that beings from the game would know about. Or at the very least, it was not something he had read about in the lore. He just assumed this was convenient game mechanics so that he could cast spells immediately without having to study them for months. "It is not a widely known phenomenon," continued Med. "Precious few knew of it in our realm of yore. Only those that studied beyond the Starry Veil, gazing upon the infinite dark of the Outer itself, knew of this. And a pithy few studied beyond the stars. Mortals are too absorbed with magic that could change the present around them while many immortals did not have the patience or capability to study the Outer. Demons such as myself, however, are not bound to any single realm. We have crossed through the stars before, long ago, and we are long lived. Velen, demon god of knowledge and my former teacher, was particrly interested in the Outer. That interest passed down to me, hence my penchant for warp magics that can bend the fabric of space" "And what exactly does this phenomenon entail?" Aldrich noted that Med''s guard slightly dropped when she got into talking about her knowledge. There was a genuine passion within her not just for obtaining knowledge, but sharing it. Hence, why she made a good teacher as well. "There are certain existences that are touched with cosmic power from the Outer that grant them tremendous power. One such power being this quaint ability of yours to assimte the knowledge of spells and skills with little to no training at all." "There were more people with this ability?" Aldrich perked up, interested. He reasonably assumed that he could auto-learn spells because of video game mechanics granted by his system. Med''s words, however, indicated one of two things. One, that this ability was in fact something that naturally urred. Or, second, that there were other beings in Elduin that had held a system. Med nodded curtly. "I suppose theck of knowledge isrgely due to how rare this phenomenon is. In the entire history of Elduin, there were precious few existences touched by the Outer. The primordial dragon who was said to have seeded the origins of many species upon the world, and in death, became the first Old Spirit. The Arcane Emperor and the Enlightened One who were said to have spread all of the magic and skills known among Elduin, bing the first two gods to ever exist. And, of course-," Med narrowed her eyes at Aldrich. "You. The hero." "Do you have an idea of what this ''Outer'' entails? Where the poweres from?" said Aldrich. "Prying into my research, are we?" Med shook her head. "But no. I have studied the Outer for the better part of a thousand years, but it is a deep mystery. My teacher could not parse its secrets either. All we knew was that the Outer was a fundamental force that predated the existence of the Elduin realm. An embodiment of the vast, cosmic unknown. In scope, too, it truly is tremendous. We demons are a nomadic body that travel across realms, acrosss, and among the myriad of worlds our history descended upon and devoured, we encountered specimen touched by the Outer, indicating that the influence of the Outer reaches far and wide." "I see," said Aldrich. "And my powerse from there, this ''Outer?''" "Some part of it, most likely. To what extent? I do not know." "In your expert opinion, do you find it possible that a specific entity has granted me this power? An entity with their own reasons and goals?" "Ah, thinking of whether you are being controlled? Practical." Med just shrugged. "I know little. The Outer is difficult to study. All I know from studying past observations recorded by my teacher is that those touched by the Outer do not seem to lose any autonomy. Granted, the sample size is low, and the observations rather unreliable when we cannot understand the Outer at a fundamental level to begin with. But my teacher theorized the Outer was an ''element'' that only a few chosen could harness. It is not something with a form or will, an entity as you fear, it is simply something that is. Woven into the fabric of all existence at the dawn of creation. Those touched by the Outer could draw upon it in the same way a mage with an affinity for me could call upon fire. A mundane fire mage does not treat me as an entity, but rather a resource. The Outer is the same. At least, ording to my teacher. I myself have had differing opinions, but nothing certain." "And what were your opinions?" "I would like to keep that research to myself. It is yet unformed and unfinished." Med became curt again. "Let us return to the matter of the Chrysalis. There is both good and bad." "Tell me both." "I was going to regardless of your desire. A guardian should know both the strengths and weaknesses of the one they care for. The good. As I have said before, she is a prodigy. Specifically in controlling the flow of mana. In the same way that some beasts know how to hunt and fend for themselves through sheer instinct bred into their being, she can control mana with natural ease. It may not seem like it now with how much she struggled, but I assure you, that is leagues beyond what an ordinary mage could aplish even in months of training. I predict in a few days, she will have near absolute control of her mana flow. In addition, her mana is colorless. The color of one''s mana indicates the elemental affinity one has, and a colorless one is mythical in its rarity, for it means she is naturally attuned to the control of space." "And the bad?" Aldrich noted a pause from Med. "She has not inherited your Outer strength," said Med. "Well, that only means she has to learn how to cast spells from scratch, no?" "Beyond simplycking your Outer trait, it seems she has inverted it. She cannot learn any spell. You are familiar with the concept of magic tomes, are you not?" "Yes." Aldrich knew that in the lore, magic tomes had the stored knowledge of spells. By reading the tome and linking one''s magic with it, it was possible to gain ess to using spells within it, though actually being able to cast them involved a long process of training. It was that training that Aldrich couldpletely ignore that separated him the most from ordinary mages. "I tried attempting to instill upon her a few spells from a tome, one suited to her colorless mana, but none worked," said Med. "She is incapable of shaping her mana into a spell." "Do you potentially know why this is the case?" "I have theories, but nothing set in stone." Aldrich raised a brow at her, wanting more, and she relented this time, giving more information. "My current theory is that it is because she is an existence native to this new realm of yours. Though she has learned to manipte mana, there is likely some ''gate'' that prevents her from essing the formed spells that originate from Elduin," exined Med. "Hm. If that''s all she can do, then that''s concerning. For her own safety." Aldrich put a thinking hand to his chin. "I would not worry too greatly were I you. She simply cannot ess the magic established by the Arcane Emperor," said Med. "But that does not mean she is helpless. She can still approximate ancient arts that predate the magic system established by the emperor." "Do you know of any? If I''m to have her with me out there, I want her to be able to fend for herself." "A few, and these I will teach her. However, none of these arts are particrly useful inbat, if this is your concern." Med sighed. She looked at Aldrich''s concerned expression and shrugged. "Soothe those concerns, usurper. There is another art you are familiar with. One that predates the Arcane Emperor. One suited purely forbat. One that involves the shaping of mana that your daughter is a prodigy at." "Vntis," realized Aldrich. Chapter 212 Shaping

Chapter 212 Shaping

"That''s right. If what she''s limited to is shaping her mana, well, then, Shaping would obviously be the perfect match for her," said Aldrich. "Indeed." Med nodded. "It was a wise decision to unlock Vntis''s suppressed self. Though you could not have foreseen this, I assume." "Nope, but sometimes, things just fall into ce, and I take what I can get," said Aldrich. "I assume this means you won''t have as many lessons with the Chrysalis?" "I can still guide her towards controlling her mana efficiently, but beyond those bare means, I have little more to teach." Med manifested a notepad and a ck feathered quill. While she scribbled notes down, she continued, "I will have to tell the Death Lord of this new development such that she can adjust her own training ns." "She wanted to train the Chrysalis too?" "Hm?" Med briefly nced at Aldrich. "Of course. I suppose she was too caught up in nonsensical talk to tell you this." Aldrich sighed, remembering the Death Lord had barged in and talked about nothing except what he and Valera had or had not done. It was amusing, he had to admit to some degree. In small part, it reminded him of how Adam would have acted. Headstrong and impulsive. The opposite of Aldrich. But, perhaps, there was some truth in the saying that ''opposites attract''. "Nostalgic memories, I presume?" noted Med. "I''m surprised you could read my expression," said Aldrich. "I''ve trained them to never give away anything." "I noted that as well. But when you remember a fond memory in the past, your training cracks just the slightest bit. The brutes around me in this tower could never pick it up, but it does not escape me," said Med. "Then I''ll have to fix it." Med looked up from her notepad. "If that is what you desire, but do take take: closing your heart to everything is the easiest way to fall into Immortalic Mania." "Immortalic Mania?" "The longer lived a sentient being is, the easier they find it to descend into madness. Whether it is through a loss of goals, a loss of loved ones, or simply forgetting all that was precious. And there is no easier method to forget what is precious than closing it off," said Med. She shrugged. "But do not mind me. I am beginning to sound like one of the Death Lord''s lectures." "So underneath that cold exterior of yours, you can care," said Aldrich. "Hmph. Do not mistake my clinical advice for care." Med finished writing her note down and tore the white page off from her book. She flicked the paper in the air, and it disappeared in a sh of white light, teleported away to the Death Lord, presumably. "As for what the Death Lord wanted to tell you, it is this: she voiced concern that since your Boundary is split, if, say the Chrysaliscked the power or will to operate her half properly, then it would hinder you." "Right," said Aldrich. It was basically akin to being in a car with a mounted turret. Both the driver and the gunner were crucially important. If the driver was awful, then the car would crash or the gunner would not get good line of sight. If the gunner was bad, then no matter how well the driver maneuvered, it would be hard to take down enemies. "But technically, since you hold a Master-Familiar link over the Chrysalis, it should be possible topletely shut down her free will and take over her half of the Boundary. Provided you understand how her half of the Boundary works, of course." "I see." Aldrich did not like the idea of stripping the Chrysalis of her free will, but then again, he would only do it when he needed to. "However, it is still entirely possible for her to operate the Boundary herself," said Med. "That note I sent indicated that she possesses tremendous amounts of magical potential. Her mana pool alone will grow to such a degree I foresee no issue in maintaining a Boundary. The only question is her will. She, it seems, holds the innocence of a child. Can she wield that power in the midst ofbat? Can she face life and death dangers?" At that moment, the Chrysalis popped into the room. She held arge book over her head. Its cover was decorated with skulls and bones that glowed green with death energy. "Look, father, it''s you!" "We''ll see," Aldrich said to Med before walking up to the Chrysalis. He took the book from her and inspected it. A skull with gleaming eye sockets stared back at him from the cover. "Yeah, it does look like me." "Can I keep it?" said the Chrysalis. "Sadly, that isn''t my decision to make," said Aldrich. He tossed it over to Med, and she caught it with trained reactions. "The Death Lord intends to have quite a few of these tomes - my beloved collection I have amassed over centuries - given to you for rewards," said Med. "This one, too, the [Teachings of Kain], will be yours in time. But until then, they will keep me rightfulpany." "Of course, that is your right," said Aldrich. "So long as you understand." Med gestured to the Chrysalis. "Come, child, we have some more training toplete. You, Usurper, should make your way down to your throne room, as I presume you believe my teaching satisfactory enough not to intrude upon it any further. Ah, and bring Vntis up here. I must see if he is a capable teacher." Aldrich nodded. "Father, I feel stronger. I know how to use my magic better and better," said the Chrysalis as she tugged at Aldrich''s pant leg. "Soon, I''ll be just like you." "Just like me, huh?" said Aldrich, and as he looked down at her beaming, innocent smile, he wondered if that was a good thing. "Make sure to listen to your teacher, then, okay?" "Okay." The Chrysalis nodded enthusiastically as she hopped on over to Med. Aldrich patted the Chrysalis''s head and then left the spell testing room wearing a faint smile that faded into a grim frown. Chapter 213 Competition

Chapter 213 Competition

Aldrich used the same warp point he hade in to Med''s study with to leave it. He willed himself to go down to the throne room, and when he did, he beheld all of his units standing at attention, ready to fight for him. Or at least, all the units that could stand. Most were four legged, slithering or crawling creatures. "Your master has returned!" Valera dered withmanding force from beside the throne. Suited in her full armor like that, she undeniably projectedmander type energy. "Finally!" roared Vntis from Aldrich''s other side as he pped Aldrich''s back, sending him skidding forwards with the impact. "Good to see you two," said Aldrich, registering damage. The units before Aldrich weed Aldrich back with grunts and growls and clicks and other auditory cues using their monstrous bodies. "I know you''ve all been waiting some time for me. And I''m sure you''ve been bored doing nothing but sitting around here," said Aldrich. "Geh! Geh! (No, I made lots of new friends!)" said the Geist as he pumped his fists into the air, his permanent smile beaming at the aquatic variants Aldrich had recently raised. Around the Geist, the bosses of the aquatic variant army - Crab, Merman, and Okeanos, stood. "You''re all getting along. Good. But I might be shaking up some of that friendship a bit," said Aldrich. Many of monsters stirred, wondering what Aldrich meant. "I''ve noticed that we can still enter the first trial quest. That means we can go in there and harvest resources," said Aldrich. "I''ll be splitting you all up into two groups. One will move through the first trial quest and harvest some things I''ll need and some things I don''t need. The other group, a smaller, more elite fighting force, will take on the second trial quest." Okeanos made a massive jump to Aldrich''s side when he heard what Aldrich said. "Master, I have a request to make," said Okeanos. "What is it?" asked Aldrich. "You promised me something I wanted, right?" "Yes, I did." Okeanos raised a fit of resolve in the air. "The second quest: I want to fight it alone. I want to show you my strength so you never think of leaving me again." "Hmm." Aldrich put a hand to his chin, thinking. The second trial quest was meant for a level range of 20-30, maybe nearing 40 if counting the hidden boss there, but Okeanos was more than strong enough to deal with the enemies. The second trial quest also did not particrly have that many valuable resources. It was mostly a purebat test involving fighting a myriad of worm like enemies in a vast, scorching desert. "I did promise you something, and if that''s what you want, then I''m fine with it," said Aldrich. "Thank you," Okeanos nodded, his antennae twitching in appreciation. "But just one thing - there is a hidden enemy there I want you to find and fight there. Your biggest test won''t be one of strength: it''ll be one of wits. To that end, I''ll give you exactly one clue: pay attention to the currents." "Currents¡­like the oceans?" said Okeanos. Aldrich cocked his head. "Yes, I guess you could say that. If you want, I can have Valera here apany you and give you more hints-," "No," said Okeanos firmly. He saw that Valera leered at him, and he exined. "I respect you, but you are by my master''s sided more than me. I want to prove I can be there just as much as you." "I like that drive. Then get ready, Okeanos, and don''t disappoint me." "Never." Okeanos nodded firmly. "As for the rest of you-," Aldrich motioned over to theparatively lower leveled members of his legion. "I''m going to make this apetition of sorts. In the first trial quest, there are nts called eyeflowers. They look like roses with yellow eyes on them - they''re impossible to miss. Fler''Gan needs eyeflowers. As many as he can get. Harvest those flowers for me. The one with the most flowers will receive my Dark Wisdom." A murmur went around the monsters. Dark Wisdom was incredibly tempting. It would increase their levels and make them more relevant to staying with Aldrich. Not only that, but at a basic level, it would make it easier for them to survive. "But I''ll make this clear right now: at the end of this harvesting session, you''ll be able to challenge each other inbat for eyeflowers. The only exception is if you manage to get, let''s say, 10 eyeflowers. That''s a majority of what should be in the trial quest, so there''s nopetition at that point." This sent even more of amotion around the legion. This basically discounted the weaker units frompeting because stronger ones could just challenge them and take their flowers. Most of the monsters looked towards the strongest among them. Crab smashed his enormous pincers together. The zombie giant grinned in anticipation. Merman crossed his arms in triumphant pose. Crow''s six red eyes gleamed with ferocity. Seeing such strength, most of the monsters understood they had no chance, and they did not feel bad about it. It was just instinct. They were content with not crossing fangs with their superiors. "If you feel you are not strong enough topete for the flowers, then harvest other resources. Valera will tell you what to look out for," said Aldrich. "You can, however, work together. I can''t give a group working together all Dark Wisdom, but you can elect a leader, and my levels will transfer to them." "A fiercepetition, is it!?" Vntis nodded as he gazed upon the legion. "But you all have already lost! For I-," "You''re not going to be doing any fighting," said Aldrich. "What!?" Vntis sounded shocked. "Med wants you to try and teach the Chrysalis. Go to her study, and she''ll exin." "Ah, well, I suppose nurturing the youth is also a noble duty. Then onwards I shall go to that dreary demon''s book grave." "What about you, master?" said Okeanos. "Where are you going?" "I have somewhere to go outside of this realm," said Aldrich. "For something important." "You will not watch my efforts?" asked Okeanos. Aldrich put a hand on Okeanos''s shoulder tofort him. "Don''t worry. I''ll be recording how you all doter. Plus, if I go with you, it defeats the purpose of you handling the quest by yourself, doesn''t it?" Okeanos nodded. Aldrich saw that Okeanos understood and spoke out once more to his legion. "Prepare yourselves. Once I leave, Valera will handle your transport to the first trial quest. When Ie back, I''ll be expecting great things." The monsters voiced their understanding, but notably, the Geist was quiet. He was in deep thought with himself, most likely, and Aldrich wanted that. Among all the units there, Aldrich believed the Geist to have the most potential. But he did not want to just give the Geist dark wisdom. He wanted to know if the Geist could take these rules he had been given and find a way to make it to the top, thus showcasing not just raw power potential, but good leadership and thinking capability. After all, the bigger Aldrich''s forces got and the more spread out they became, the more he needed leaders under him to manage the legion. Valera waspetent, but she was just one extra person. "Now then, it''s about time I got back to the real world." Aldrich materialized his suit jacket and stepped up to the throne room crystal. He touched it, and it glowed brightly, ready to send him out of the Nexus. "Make sure they don''t start tearing each other apart," Aldrich said to Valera. "Of course, master," said Valera with a bow. "I will eagerly await your return." "As will I!" said Vntis. "The Death Lord has promised a feast, and I expect you to be there, Armored - for in orcish ways, for a warleader to miss their feast of session means that followers such as myself have no choice but to reject you." "There is a chance you may turn against us?" Valera stared at Vntis. "Really?" said Aldrich. "No, that was a jest! A jest!" Vntisined. "But it would mean a lot if you coulde." Aldrich sighed but smiled. "I know. I''ll be there." With that, Aldrich willed himself out of the Nexus, back into the Crypt. Chapter 214 Returning to the Crypt

Chapter 214 Returning to the Crypt

Aldrich manifested in the Crypt once more. The bright green light of the throne shard in the Nexus was reced by permeating, purple outlined darkness from Null emissions. It was a little jarringing back to the Crypt and witnessing darkness. Real darkness. Because Aldrich had racial nightvision, he could see through ordinary dark, but the kind of dark the Null ore emitted was something his sight could not pierce. There were very few circumstances in which he would ever find himself unable to see in the dark, but if there was ever a case of it, this was it. Regardless, Aldrich had enough visibility to maybe three of four meters ahead of him. "You are back, Warleader!" said Vntis. Or rather, the illusion of Vntis. The voice sounded just the same, though, and it boomed throughout the metallic structure of the Crypt. "Keep it down," said Aldrich. "It''s difficult to get any surveince down here, but what little there is, I assume it''s based off of sensing vibrations. Likely through a physical trigger system that doesn''t have to rely on tech. In other words, you''re being too loud." "Apologies," said the illusion. Aldrich sighed. The illusion was sitting cross legged on the ground, and even upon a close inspection, he could not find anything that seemed off about it. He was not an expert in controlling and sensing mana because his system did most of it for him, but when he did try, he could not find anything wrong about the illusion in that regard either. To be expected, though. Wai''ki might not have been the best directbatant, but her illusions were no joke. She could create copies that were almost as strong as the original. To Aldrich''s memory, the strongest copies she had made were a level 70 copy of Re and a level 80 copy of the Death Lord''s Shattered Bone armor form. Aldrich knew that this illusion of Vntis was weaker than usual because it had been created on a time constraint and focused more on longevity, not on power. It was maybe around level 25 in terms of stats. Maybe, Aldrich wondered, he could enlist Wai''ki''s aid further. Her highest tier clones had both power and longevity. And creating a functional illusion of himself was something that had any number of uses after all. First, though, Aldrich had to establish a ''public'' persona separate from his Thanatos identity. That would be his Bruce Vane alter ego. Which was one of the reasons he hade out of the Nexus. Aldrich wanted to regroup with Casimir and figure out where to go from here. What Aldrich wanted for his Bruce Vane persona was almost the opposite of ''Thanatos''. Where Thantos would fight and stay in the spotlight of the world, Bruce Vane would stay in the shadows as an influential and rtively secretive figure that people could trust for business deals. The optimal goal was for Bruce Vane to infiltrate corporateworks of connections and, if possible, viinworks as well. Often, viin and corporateworks were inextricably linked, so if he managed to break into one, he would naturally break into the other. The problem was establishing Bruce Vane beyond being a fake I.D. boogeyman. Casimir would help Aldrich do that with his resources. Despite losing support from the Dark Six, Casimir actually did not rely on them entirely. How he had built up his empire in the first ce was through a fiercely loyalwork of nomads that allowed Haven to be a hotspot for ferrying ckmail, drugs, illegal tech, and other contraband across the hostile yet untrackable Wastnds. By now, Casimir had grouped with the nomads that supported him. It was about time Aldrich, no, Bruce Vane, introduced himself. Hence, why he had requested his spiritweave clothing to be in the form of a suit. Had to look presentable, after all. "Huh, would you look at that." Aldrich knelt down and found a stic and foam wrapped rectangr package about a meter long and half a meter tall. He tore it open to reveal a trove of tightly packed ration bars, bottles of water, and a stack of books. Aldrich picked out a note jutting out from one of the books. The typed of words read: ''I know you requested books, but I don''t know you read. The sample you see has a wide variety. If you want something specific, there''s a pen in this ration pack. Write on the back of this note and send it up with the pack. Instructions to activate the pack''s retrieval mechanism are detailed below.'' A note from colonel Davos. How thoughtful. Aldrich briefly scanned the book titles Davos had brought and found that they were decidedly uninspired and awfully dry. There was an encyclopedia, a self help book to get motivated, a book about how to climb the corporatedder, and even an adult drawing book. Aldrich shrugged. He took the books and rations out, ordered them neatly, and with the pen in the pack, wrote on the colonel''s note a simple ''This is fine.'' He then tossed the emptied pack down a vent. It rolled down an indeterminate distance, stopping most likely at some kind of storage zone where a gravbeam would pull it back up. "Whenever one of those packse down, do exactly what I did to get rid of it," said Aldrich. "Understood, great warleader," said the illusion. Aldrich nodded a goodbye. He adjusted his suit, making sure it was not wrinkled. Spiritweave was self-cleaning and self-adjusting, so the dark fabric looked like it was in pristine condition. With that, Aldrich cast [Mist Phase]. Green mist emanated from his body, swirling in waves that surrounded him,pletely obscuring his form. When the mist faded, he was gone, leaving the illusion alone. "Ah, alone again." The illusion sighed. He noticed the books nearby and picked one up. "But perhaps in my solitude I will learn much about this new world." The illusion popped open the book that looked ridiculously tiny in his gauntlet hands and remained silent for a few seconds. After a minute, he closed the book and put it aside. "Ah yes. I can''t read this writing," said the illusion. == Aldrich materialized in the holding zone of arge cargo truck. The smell of acrid chemicals and burning flesh indicated that he was in the familiar presence of alchemy from Fler''Gan. Aldrich confirmed then that [Mist Phase] had worked properly, even across massive distances. "Ah, Elder One, it is a pleasure to meet you again," saids Fler''Gan. He moved about the tables of his study with a beaker and dropper in his purple hands. Fler''Gan''s study had been packed into this truck, and though the space wasrge, it was still pretty cramped. "Good to see you too," said Aldrich. "Any progress on your research?" "Unlike your meteoric rise in power, O Elder, my studies seem to be taking considerably more time," said Fler''Gan apologetically. "No worries. As undead, time is something we have plenty of," said Aldrich, remembering the Death Lord''s words. He looked around at the crampedboratory and nodded. "And soon enough, once I get control of Haven and have some space, you''ll have a properboratory too." "I do eagerly anticipate that day. And, O Elder, I am not entirely without progress," said Fler''Gan. He put down his beaker and dropper on a rack and hurried over to arge fridge hooked. He gave the fridge an admiring nce. "The wonders of this new world''s humans and their ingenuity never cease to amaze me. Cooling without magic. Quite impressive. But regardless, gaze upon this-," Fler''Gan opened the fridge, revealing arge see through canister filled with red liquid. Suspended within was a golfball sized ck mass that seemed to tremble of its own ord. Aldrich immediately recognized what that mass was. "That''s an alter organ. And it isn''t disintegrating from being removed from its host body. You''ve found a way to preserve it?" Chapter 215 Nomads

Chapter 215 Nomads

"Indeed," said Fler''Gan. "You are familiar with the concept of homonculi, no?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "Alchemically created organisms. How does that apply here?" "The normal method to create homonculi starts with creating a ''womb'' of primordial liquid. This liquid is often the refined, processed flesh of other creatures," said Fler''Gan. "I have little in the way of materials I am familiar with for my alchemy, but I do have the tools to refine with. Thus, I reduced that Alter specimen you so generously granted me into primordial liquid. I then ced the Alter organ within this liquid before it could decay. The first attempt was a failure. The organ deteriorated too quickly and I did not know how to adjust my refinement process to Alterhumans that I had never worked with before. But by learning upon my errors, I have managed to preserve the Alter organ of the second specimen!" "That''s¡­quite incredible," said Aldrich, surprised. It seemed like such a small thing, but managing to preserve an Alter organ was something quite literally nobody had ever managed to do before. The closest anyone had gotten was via an Alter scientist who could use his own power to attach growths on organs to trick them into thinking they were alive. This method aplished worked on the same principles by tricking the Alter organ into believing it was still in its host body. This method, however, was vastly superior. The Alter scientist had a limited range and duration on his powers. What Fler''Gan did was create an easy way to transport and store live Alter organs. "What about the self-destruct mechanism that the organs have when you try to study them?" said Aldrich. This was the greatest block to Alter organ research and one of the reasons why Aldrich could not just force an undead organ to stop disintegrating. If Aldrich tried to force an organ into doing what it was not meant to do, when it would disintegrate regardless of whether he attempted to regenerate it with magic. It was one of the reasons why Aldrich could not heal Seismic from his Crystallization condition. Aldrich could sense if he tampered with the organ, it would self-destruct. Oddly, the organ would ept healing to restore it to its base state, but not any changes to the base state itself. It was almost as if the organs had their own independent will that made them fiercely stubborn and strangely aware of their surroundings, able to discern between what helped them and what tried to change them. "That will require some more research," said Fler''Gan. "But for now, I revel in this progress, however minute it may be." "It isn''t minute by any measure," said Aldrich. "Well done, Fler''Gan. I''ll have the editor sample you requested to you tomorrow along with plenty of eyeflowers and other magical materials you need for your alchemy." "Your praise is much appreciated, O Elder." Fler''Gan bowed his head. "And once you grant me the materials I need, I can craft any potion you desire. To recall, what you desire is one that will impart your voice with powerful hypnotic suggestion, no?" "That''s right," said Aldrich. "Powerful enough to affect multiple people. Subtle enough that it will be hard to detect. And one that I can consume and have its effectse in after a dy so that the potion itself won''t get caught in a search." Fler''Gan closed the fridge and curled his mouth tentacles in thought. "I have drafted a form for such a potion, but in doing so, I must warn you that there may be shorings. My alchemical technique is considerable, but it is not on the level of dedicated Arch-Alchemists. If I am to devise a potion within those specifications, it will have to sacrifice some strength, allowing those with strong will to resist it. In addition, the hypnotic suggestion willst a pithy amount of time, requiring constant re-application via your voice. The duration this potion enhances your voice will also not be infinite, taking up perhaps a time span just shy of thirty minutes." "Those are eptable shorings," said Aldrich. "I''ll have what you need to you soon. I''ll be meeting Casimir now, but again, you''ve done a great job. Keep up the good work." "I humbly ept your praise, O Elder," said Fler''Gan. Aldrich exited the truck, opening the doors to reveal bright sunshine and barren, parched earth. But on this cracked and dry earth was a whole host of activity. A smallpound had been set up withrge mobile homes parked and attached together to create what were basically makeshift buildings. Apanying all this was a scattering of various tents and quickly constructed shacks and work benches. Nomads bustled about with their recognizable cloaks and goggles, going about their daily life. Some fixed their personal bikes while others maintained the engines and repaired damage on the moremunal mobile homes. There were nomads fixing up their cybeics or tending to wounds in tents marked with red crosses. The sheer number of nomads surprised Aldrich. There were men and women and children a plenty. He figured that there were easily several hundred people here. This was practically a vige on wheels. Aldrich had the image in his mind of nomads as simply being roving bands of thugs that did odd jobs for criminal organizations, but looking at this, it just felt like these were people living their own lives. There were nomads sitting about talking andughing with each other. Kids ran around and yed andughed with pieces of metal scrap molded into the shape of toys. "Ah, awful sunlight." Fler''Gan squinted his red eyes as he saw bright light stream into the truck. "Do close those doors on the way out, O Elder. The sun is terrible for drying out this skin of mine." Aldrich nodded as he hopped out the truck, closing the doors. When hended, a voice spoke from behind him. "You actually managed toe, huh? At least Casimir''s still reliable about making sure he and his aplices show up." Aldrich instantly turned around, alert. It was not easy to sneak up on him like that, what with his highly tuned senses. He found himself staring at a young man cloaked in dirt speckled and dusted gray. The guy could not have been much older than Aldrich, probably no older than twenty five, and yet, his stare, much like Aldrich''s, looked considerably older with sunken in, tired ck eyes. "And who might you be?" said Aldrich. He could not urately sense how strong Alters were without a scanner of some sorts, but hisbat experience and instincts told him that this man was strong. It was in the way he carried himself. He seemed to radiate cool confidence outwardly, but inwardly, he was ready to react and attack or defend at a moment''s notice. "Call me Knife," said the man. "I''m a bodyguard for one of Casimir''s friends. She happens to be the leader of thispound. I''m here to take you to where they are where, hopefully, you can help exin this disastrous mess Casimir''s gotten himself into and why we should help you." Chapter 216 The Nomad Chiefs

Chapter 216 The Nomad Chiefs

"Casimir made a bet on me that he thought would pay off. It''s a simple as that," said Aldrich. "Really now? Sure doesn''t seem like it. Seems more like we''re way far up shit creek with the Dark Six against us," said Knife. He leered at Aldrich, and that was when Aldrich noticed that Knife''s dark eyes were cybeic, the pupils indented with subtle lines that indicated they were not soft flesh but metal. "Well, I''m just a bodyguard. I don''t really do much of the thinking. I leave that up to my boss. Also, I appreciate that you''re dressed formally, but this isn''t the right ce for a suit. Here-," Knife looked around until he saw a nomad man passing by. "Hey, you! Yeah, you, the chump with the wack mohawk,e here!" said Knife. The nomad came up to knife with a nervous smile. "Uh, what is it, Knife? Somethin'' wrong?" He gave Aldrich a quizzical look that quickly turned into suspicion. "And who is this? Why''s a suit standin'' around in ourpound?" "You don''t need to be asking questions. Just give me your cloak and be on your merry way," said Knife. "I just got this! Completely geostorm shock proof, too!"ined the nomad. "I''ll pay back the credits, so buzz off," said Knife. "Alright, fine." The nomad grumbled before he took off his cloak and handed it to Knife. As the nomad left, Knife tossed the cloak towards Aldrich. "Nomads don''t take kindly to looking like a suit. Keep that on you so you don''t stick out like a sore thumb and blow a sensitive fuse somewhere." "¡­" Aldrich wrapped the cloak around himself, and it covered his whole body, draping down to ankles. It was meant for full body protection against geostorms, the umbre term coined by all the types of storms generated in the Wastnds due to instable fluxes of ether energy within the earth. The biggest issue that nomads faced with these storms was something known as charge-death. Geostorms stimted alter organs with constant energy output, enhancing the powers of Alters within them, but this could quickly overload, rapidly causing alter organ failure and, subsequently, death. The damage to the alter organ could also be permanent even if one survived a mild case of charge-death. Thus, nomads all wore cloaks that prevented that energy buildup. It was made from materials harvested by variants that managed to live around these storms, using the energy rich environment to their advantage. "There, aside from that annoyingly good looking face, you look just like one of us," said Knife. "Just take me where I need to be," said Aldrich. = As Aldrich followed Knife through thepound, he felt some prying eyes on him. He had a good sense of when he was being watched, but when he checked the eyes on him, he saw most of them were just curious, not hostile. "I didn''t know so many nomads could live together like this," said Aldrich. "What? You thought nomads were just a bunch of bike riding maniacs that just looted and piged?" said Knife. Aldrich just stared at Knife. That was indeed what Aldrich thought,rgely because information about nomads was so limited, but he did not let it show. "¡­Yeah sure, there is SOME looting, but we try to take from the rich, y''know, the people that have it all and don''t need what they got," said Knife. "You strike me as a city boy. Where? Neo-York?" "You could tell?" "Just a hunch. I got a good nose for sniffing out city folk." Knife shrugged. "Being a nomad is a way of life. Some of us are criminals fleeing justice, yeah, but even more of us are just people that didn''t belong. In the new world order that the Panop and the corps built, there isn''t a space for people who really want to think for themselves. Corps force ads and their bootlicking ideology down your throat 24/7 in cities. It''s fucking nauseating. Most of the people out here just want to be free from that." "So what? You would describe yourself as amunity of free spirited individualists?" said Aldrich, somewhat sarcastically. "Yeah, that has a nice ring to it," said Knife, not catching the sarcasm at all. "Oh, and we''re here." Knife pointed to a vehicle that looked like a giant mechanical wheel. It was easily the size of a three story house, anchored to the ground via giant mechanical legs that extended out from the sides of a house sized sphere that housed the crew that operated this war machine. These legs also formeddders to get up to the inside. The design of its sleek ck ting made it very obvious that this was multiple grades above the often makeshift bikes that many of the other nomads had. No, as Aldrich observed closer, seeing a logo of a serpent devouring its tail, this was not just good, but the best of best. This was Imugi tech. Probably the highest end military techpany in the world. "I see you''re admiring the Wanyudo," said Knife proudly. "It was a hell of a fight to steal this thing. Had to beat up a couple B ranker mercs and hold off Shogun, tough bastard that he is." Aldrich made note of this information. Shogun was an A rank hero in Japan famous for being a living tank with a suit of samurai style armor that seemed to organically grow around him. It was undeniable that Shogun was more of a bat'' hero and not a ''poprity'' hero, his A rank earned through feats of strength, not crowd pleasing. Much like Seismic. The fact that Knife could hold someone like Shogun indicated a tremendous amount of strength. Or it was possible that Knife''s power just had a good matchup against Shogun. Either way, Aldrich could not underestimate Knife. It also made him understand that whoever Casimir was dealing with in the Wanyduo had the influence and resources to hire a bodyguard that could take on an A rank hero. "What, getting cold feet now?" said Knife, noticing Aldrich''s thinking pause. Aldrich did not respond and just walked up the anchor leg. When he got close to the wheel, a door sensed his movement and slid to the side with a pressurized click. Peering into the sphere, Aldrich saw gray metal tile flooring and walls. Thoroughly bare and military in design unlike the stylish and sleek ting on the outside with its shining ck paint job. In here, Aldrich saw arge table around which seven people sat, one of whom was Casimir. Notably, there was one empty chair. More people stood on the outskirts of the table, and by how they carried themselves, they werebat personnel. Aldrich stepped in, and the hatch door of the Wanyudo shut behind him, clicking with a heavy sounding locking mechanism. "Ah, Mr. Vane! We have been thoroughly awaiting your arrival!" Casimir stood up from his seat and waved Aldrich forward. Behind Casimir stood Walters, Smoke, Hirondelle, and nca. His three strongest guards and his trusted secretary. Casimir pointed to the empty seat, and before Aldrich sat in it, he spied the others around the table. Four men and two women. None younger than thirty. The oldest was a man that looked close to seventy. All with grizzled looks in their eyes. People who had gone through tough times a plenty, survived them, ande out on top. The air around this table was tense. Everyone except Casimir stared at Aldrich with barely concealed suspicion. Aldrich sat down and stared back, not backing down a single bit. "You haven''t been here for our first two meetings. Why is that, I wonder?" said the oldest of the group. He had a cybeic monocle that extended slightly like a miniature binocr, inspecting Aldrich. "I was busy. I''m sure you can understand that," replied Aldrich coolly. "Chiefs, this is, as I have mentioned before, Mr. Bruce Vane." Casimir motioned to the table around him. "And Mr. Vane, these are six nomad chiefs that I am well acquaintanced with. They have been instrumental in helping me build my empire of connections." "Your former empire, Casimir," said a woman with piercing purple eyes and a mechanical mask shaped like a beast''s jaw over her mouth. Here voice rang out through the mask, undting with a threatening ring. "With this stunt you''ve pulled off, you''ve gotten the Dark Six to paint a massive target on your back. You''re lucky we''re even entertaining you here for the sake of our old partnership. Every second you sit here, the chances of the Dark Six targeting us goes up too. You better have a very good exnation as to why we should keep working with you." "From the ashes, the phoenix rises, no?" said Casimir. "And Mr. Vane here will be that phoenix." Chapter 217 Negotiating with the Chiefs

Chapter 217 Negotiating with the Chiefs

"A phoenix? Fairy tale nonsense!" said the oldest nomad chief as he mmed a cybeic metal fist onto the table with a loud ng. "You''ve gone mad, Casimir. We trusted you to handle all our shipments in this area, and now you have nothing. Only enemies. You expect us to bet on this¡­this boy!?" "Technically, that is not fairy tale, but mythology. And you all have trusted my judgement before," said Casimir. "Especially you, Gerald. And luck has always been on my side. You would be wise to bet with me, not against me."" "Bet?" Another chieftain, a dark skinned man with dreadlocks reaching down to his neck, shook his head as he stared at Casimir with striking golden eyes. "I don''t like risk. The biggest one I took was when you approached us twenty years ago with almost nothing to your name, asking for our help to build your empire. Back then, I was not a chief. I was younger and more ambitious. Now, I have people whose lives hang on every word and decision I make. You will have to do very, very well to convince me to support you." Aldrich noticed that most of the chiefs were ignoring him. They focused on Casimir, likely believing him the true mastermind for all this. In no small part, they likely underestimated Aldrich due to his age and his unknown status. The only one, Aldrich noted with his sharp gaze, that paid him heed was the mask wearing woman and a bulky man with bull''s horns jutting from his head. Notably, they were both the youngest in the group, not much older than thirty. Regardless, Aldrich needed to make an impression. And set the record straight. "I see we''ve started off on the wrong foot," said Aldrich with a sigh. "My apologies." "Your apologies mean nothing," said Gerald dismissively. He turned to Casimir again . "Twenty years, we built up thiswork, and now, it''s all gone in a single night. So many decades wasted just like that." "What I mean when we started off on the wrong foot-," said Aldrich, his voice maintaining an edge that made everyone pay attention to him. "Is that you all seem to be misunderstanding the nature of this meeting. You see, I''m not here to negotiate with you. You''re here to negotiate with me. I''m here to see which of you are capable of working together with me as I build something far bigger than what you can ever dream of." Gerald''s face darkened. It was evident he did not like being talked down to. "What!? Do you understand the position you are in? You have absolutely nothing-," "And who decided that?" said Aldrich. "I have under my beck and call Thanatos, a figure with a power so rare that every government worth a damn, every corporation, is willing to scramble to recruit him. The Dark Six, too, no doubt have their eyes on him." The bull horned man burst out intoughter. It was not mockingughter, rather, he was truly entertained. "To talk to us like that, you''ve got guts! And I admire that. The fossils around me might not listen to you, but I''ll bite: if I do decide to work with you, what am I getting myself into?" "To begin with, we have no idea if Thanatos is even with him!" protested Gerard. "You are being willfully blind," said the masked woman. She leered at Gerard with admonishing purple eyes. "Casimir has brought Thanatos''s forces with him. Do you think Thanatos would do that if Casimir, and, by extension, Mr. Vane here did not have his full trust?" "You, Zena, you support this¡­this upstart?" said Gerard. "Support? No. Not yet. But I am not against it. What I am against is putting my people in danger," said Zena, and the dark skinned chief nodded. "Enough with the side chatter," said the bull horned chief. "I want to hear from the man himself." "Thanatos will establish a sentinel state using the currently torn down Haven as his main jurisdiction," said Aldrich. "You all already used Haven to ferry your goods, relying on Casimir to be your distributor. However, you do all this under constant threat of capture and surveince. No doubt, most, if not all of you have bounties on your head. But if you affiliate with a sentinel state, you essentially have an entire government backing you. You would be under my protection. To harm you or your operations would be akin to harming me. There would be retaliation. And you''ve already seen the army that Thanatos can field. There''s far, far more where that came from." "Haven is a ruin," countered Gerard, taking Aldrich more seriously now. "Cities can always be rebuilt. There will be no shortage ofpanies willing to build it back if they think they can have Thanatos on their side," said Aldrich. "There are only so many entities you can make deals with. You make a deal with one, you lose deals with others. And most of us nomads deeply distrust corps," said the dark skinned chief. "Many of us are here because we left corp control. Or we are refugees from the Corpowars, as is the case with myself." "Casimir has managed to smooth out rtions between you, viin organizations, and corporations with his diplomatic skill. That was how he built so much up in the first ce. That was why you all supported him to begin with. He still has those skills," said Aldrich. "What about the Dark Six?" said the bull horned chief. "You gonna fight them too? Cause they''re real pissed off to the point I think a little talking ain''t gonna do the trick." "And, if my intel is correct, the Dark Six is trying to take over Haven as well to salvage their ckwater project," said Zena. "If Thanatos wants to do this, he would bepeting directly with the Dark Six, and they havepanies and influence of their own." This was true, thought Aldrich. If the Dark Six were against him acquiring Haven, then he needed to basically enter into a bidding war against their collective resources, and they had quite a few decently sizedpanies and politicians under their thumb. "Ah yes, but not the backing of a Council of Fortune member, no?" remarked Casimir. The room fell silent. That was how influential the Council of Fortune was. As abined power, the Council of Fortune was a global superpower easily on par with the Panopticon and Alterhuman Agency. A single one of its council memberpanies had the resources to fuel arge scale war as the Corpowars and the millions dead from them showcased. Thepanies the Dark Six owned were plenty, but none of thempared to a legitimate Council of Fortune member. "Aarav Singh, possible next heir of Sheshanaga Biotechnology, has publicly voiced his desire to invest heavily into Haven, pledging specifically to aid Thanatos in his deration to rebuild the variant torn city," said Casimir. "¡­When was this?" said Gerard, his anger gone and voice now reduced to quiet. nca looked up from her tablet and casually dered, "Ten minutes ago." Aldrich smiled internally as he watched the silent and shocked expressions on the chiefs'' faces. He had been wondering whether Aarav would make good on his word. Looked like the man would be as useful as he imed to be. Chapter 218 Negotiating with the Chiefs 2

Chapter 218 Negotiating with the Chiefs 2

Aldrich saw the awed reactions around him, noting just how much influence a potential, not even legitimate Fortune of Council member could have. He capitalized on this moment. "Thanatos and I hold far more influence than meets the eye," said Aldrich. "What you see is just the tip of the iceberg." "Then it is true? The rumors?" said Gerard suspiciously, tugging at his ragged white beard. His extending monocle zoomed in on Aldrich. "What rumors?" "That Thanatoses from a hidden organization. How else could he have managed to gather so much power? So many troops? All without anyone noticing? That armor of his alone means he has a high ss Alter that nobody knows about making equipment for him." Gerard pointed at Aldrich. "You too then, have to be from one of these organizations. I can''t sense any AC count from you, but I''ve heard that Thanatos didn''t show any either. Is that new tech too? Are you Thanatos''s handler? What are your motives? Who are you?" "Stop rambling, you geriatric fart," said the bull horned chief. "And let the man speak." Aldrich saw that all the chiefs stared at him with expectation, and it was understandable. There was strong evidence out there that there were hidden organizations on par with established viin bodies like the Dark Six. Strange ciphered codes that led to hidden recruitment centers, pieces of tech disappearing without a trace, traces of abandoned and demolished research facilities, and variants mysteriously ughtered before they reached poption centers - all of these made people wildly theorize there were hidden forces out there. The fact that the Panopticon actively censored this information from circting only fanned the mes of curiosity further. Aldrich himself believed that it was a strong possibility, but he had no way of knowing for sure. Between denial and rabid conspiracy theorist, he ced himself in a healthy medium where he was open to investigating. "A man needs to have some secrets, no?" said Aldrich. "Where Ie from and who I am does not matter. Just now whatever power you think I have behind me, I stand at the very top of. That includes, of course, Thanatos." This was, of course, a bluff. Aldrich did not have an unfathomablyrge organization behind him. Well, technically, he did if he counted the Necropolis, so he was not exactly lying. "Interesting. Then Aarav Singh is in on this?" said the masked woman. She leaned back in her chair and crossed one leg over the author. Her bodynguage seemed to ease up a little more, surprisingly. "That''s a reasonable assumption, isn''t it?" said Aldrich. "Don''t be so coy, kid," said Gerard. "If you want my nomads working with you, you need to give us far better details than this." "I''m in!" The bull horned chief dered with a booming voice. He mmed a fist down on the solid metal table, easily denting it. "What!?" Gerard stared at the man. "Have you gone nuts, Clint? You barely know anything about this boy!" "And that makes it even more exciting," said Clint with a broad grin. "When my pa was the leader of the Spearhorn nomads, he told me when Casimir showed up, he got the biggestugh out of him. Dressed all in rags with burns all over his face, but he still proudly wore a gold ring he probably stole and spoke that same smooth and confident silver tongue, like he just knew he was going to be at the top. My pa had the time of his life with wild bets, and I''ve been itching to make one too. I ain''t gonna let up this chance to go all in." "What of your people? You willing to use them as chips for this bet of yours?" said the chief with dreadlocks. "My people ain''t like yours, Des," said Clint. "Spearhorns love risk. We left the cities cause they were too damn boring, too damn suffocating. You bet your ass they''d ride or die with me all the way to a burning grave so long as it got a goodugh outta us at the end. And shit, secret organizations, Thanatos, beating the Dark Six? You fuckin'' kiddin'' me? I''m in." "It''s Desmond. I''m not your friend." Desmond sighed. "Well if that is your decision, then so be it. But if Mr. Vane over here is unwilling to reveal anything about his self and his potential organization, then I cannot risk the Spiders over him." "Your pa would be disappointed, Des," said Clint. "He knew how to have a good time. Where''d that all go?" "His ''good times'' killed two hundred of us," said Desmond coldly. His demeanor immediately changed from being open to now shut off and cold. "No more." He looked at Aldrich with a polite shake of his head. "As things stand, I am afraid I cannot lend you my assistance, Mr. Vane. Maybe some other time." "Are you sure, Desmond?" said Casimir. "It is foolhardy to bet on a stock when its prices are high. You capitalize on the profit when it is low and developing." "That''s another thing. Stocks and corps - my people are tired of it all. If Mr. Vane is going to affiliate himself with a fortune heir, I see no way I can convince them to help, even if I wanted to." Desmond stood up, wrapping white cloak around himself. On its back was emzoned arge ck spider. "I am done with this negotiation. I wish you all the best of luck." Everyone waited until Desmond left with four of his bodyguards. "Did you have to do that?" the masked woman said to Clint. Clint raised his hands up. "What do you mean? I''m innocent. Haven''t done nothin''. "Bring up his father like that? You practically forced him out of this meeting," said the woman. Aldrich had to agree. The moment Desmond had his father brought up, his entire demeanor had changed, closing of from this whole deal. Clint shrugged. "Heh, I don''t like working with Des, slimly little shit he is. Pretends like he loves his people and their lives and how much he bitches and moans about the corps. But he''s the one that makes me the most backhanded deals outta all of us with the corps. All so he can pad his pockets and make sure his people don''t get caught in any crossfires. Y''all know this, don''t you? Why everytime there''s a fight, the Spiders magically ain''t there no more? Just fuckin'' gone like bugs under light?" Aldrich sat back and observed quietly, analyzing the dynamic between the chiefs. From the muted silence that Clint''s words generated, he could tell they were likely true. But the fact that the chiefs allowed Desmond in as part of them still meant that Desmond had some value to them that made him indispensable. "Enough about us," said Gerard. He looked to the two chiefs that had not spoken yet. "You two, Rock and Crone, what do you think?" One was a mountain of a man who seemed to be a mutant with a body made entirely of rock. His head was shaped like a helmet, and underneath two glowing yellow dots - his eyes - shone through. On his cloak was the symbol of, rather fittingly, a rock. The other was a hunched up, small olddy with disheveled white hair and a blue visor covering her eyes. On her cloak was the symbol of a red flower: a poppy. "I don''t mind working with the new guy, and I have no real opinions either way. I''ll go with whatever''s the majority. Discounting Desmond, of course," said Rock. The rest awaited for Crone, but she remained silent. "Is she¡­sleeping?" said Aldrich, noting the olddy''s rhythmic breathing and unresponsiveness. "She does that sometimes," said Gerard. "But it is no big deal. She''ll remember everything that happened here and get back to us when she wakes up." "I see," said Aldrich. He figured the sleeping must have been some condition to her power. "How bout'' you then, Z?" said Clint, nodding towards the masked woman. Z looked to Aldrich with analytical purple eyes that made him instantly aware of how perceptive she was. They were eyes simr to his own. Trained. Sensitive. Sharp. "I will help you halfway," said Z. "I handle the tech side of this joint endeavor, and I can help you with that. I already have, really, with that fake identity of yours." "You''re the one that created it?" said Aldrich. "I am the one who invented the temte for it," said Z. "And made it so easy to customize that even a third rate techno can fool up to a tier 2 city. But that CID of yours won''t pass by higher level checks and tier 1 cities. You''ll need my help for that. Among other things. This, I can provide on the side. But my full support, I cannot promise until this whole feud between you and the Dark Six is settled in some way." "That''s the main thing holding me back too," said Gerard. "The risk of the Dark Six. And theck of respect you youths have these days, but I''m used to that by now." "Fuck the Dark Six," said Clint. "We''ll make our own dark¡­somethin''. No need to listen to those viin goons no more." "What I''m getting at, then, is the main thing holding you all back is the threat of the Dark Six. How much of it do you want me to neutralize? Do you expect me to topple their empire?" said Aldrich. "Or, would obtaining Haven as a sentinel state and driving the Dark Six out be enough?" "Sentinel statehood would suffice for me. IF you can achieve it," said Z. "I can stomach that," said Gerard. "But unlike Z, I can''t aid you even a little bit until then. Too risky for me." "And I''m ready to kick some fucking viin ass!" said Clint. Chapter 219 Negotiating with the Chiefs 3 Chapter 219 Negotiating with the Chiefs 3Aldrich leaned forward, taking a look at every one of the chiefs. He analyzed them closely, reading their eyes and bodynguage, gaging just howmitted they were. Clint, obviously seemed to be all in. He had a wide smile stered on his rugged face. He was honest, easy to read, and incredibly straightforward. When he said he was in on Aldrich, he was not lying. Gerard was a little more reserved. Notably, he was fidgety, moving his hands very often, but not really because he was guilty about anything. He probably just did this as a minor tic when talking about something serious. He seemed to be a grumply old man on the exterior, but rather soft on the inside. Though Gerard had voiced the most loud opposition against Aldrich, Aldrich did not consider Gerard opposition. The old man just wanted security that Aldrich could deliver on anything he promised, and that waspletely reasonable. Z seemed neutral, if a bit positively inclined. She was the hardest to read out of all of them, her sharpvender eyes matching Aldrich¡¯s own analytical gaze. Desmond, too, when he was in this meeting, had been difficult to read. Even more so than Z. Even more so than even Solomon Sr. His bodynguage was stiff but not aggressive. His eyes were serious yet not threatening. His voice never leaked much emotion, the only exception being when Clint brought Desmond¡¯s father. Desmond had been trained to not give away anything. And people like that were dangerous. Aldrich knew this because he was one of those people. One did not learn to hide themselves away like that unless they had a very good reason to. In Aldrich¡¯s case, it was because he had wanted to master the art of infiltration. In Desmond¡¯s case, well, who knew? The other two chieftains were, for now,pletely neutral. Stone said he would just go with the majority. Crone was asleep, so she was aplete wild card. That meant out of the five chiefs, one was for Aldrich, three neutral, one against, and one unknown. Of the three neutral opinions, two ¨C Z and Gerard ¨C Aldrich could sway by obtaining sentinel statehood. ¡±In the end, then, this all lies on Thanatos obtaining sentinel statehood over Haven, doesn¡¯t it?¡± said Aldrich. ¡±Summed up, yes,¡± said Z. ¡°Sentinel statehood has not existed since the age of the Altering. The powers that be love to maintain control. Sentinel statehood is a sign of independence that flies directly against that. Though, with a fortune heir, it may well be possible.¡± ¡±You don¡¯t know that,¡± countered Gerard. ¡°Last I heard, they locked Thanatos up. The Panop and the government are on extreme alert, and who can me them? The recent variant attacks have thrown the whole damn world into chaos. The fortune are a force to be reckoned with, but Aarav Singh is just a heir. Powerful he might be in his own right, he isn¡¯t the head of Sheshanaga. That¡¯s his father. Now, if Aarav had his father¡¯s backing, things might be different.¡± ¡±He does,¡± said Aldrich. ¡±¡­Are you sure, boy?¡± said Gerard. ¡°Sheshanaga really is willing tomit to you? The entire megacorporation? They¡¯re willing to make an enemy out of the Dark Six? Be in shaky standing with the U.S. government and the Panopticon?¡± ¡±You¡¯ll find out soon enough,¡± said Aldrich. ¡°But even if Aarav didn¡¯t have his father¡¯s backing, as far as I¡¯m aware, hispany is thergest subsidiary that Sheshanaga holds. His voice is thergest there out of all the other potential heirs.¡± ¡±It still may not be enough is our cause for concern,¡± said Z. ¡°And say that all this goes well. What do you want from us?¡± ¡±Everything you provided Casimir, for one,¡± said Aldrich. ¡°Fast, efficient, and untrackable supply routes for contraband. ess to technology that can fool even high tier city security. ess to nomads that have both the power and expertise to hijack even this entire war machine right under the nose of Imugi, a fortune megacorp. The usual. When Thanatos obtains sentinel statehood, Haven will need trade and supply routes. I¡¯m sure corporations can cover the official ones. But the ¡®unofficial¡¯ ones are just as important, and that¡¯s where you alle in.¡± ¡±I got ya covered with the heists. That¡¯s the job for me and my boys!¡± said Clint. ¡±And?¡± said Z. ¡°You said ¡®for one¡¯. You want more, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡±I¡¯m not entirely familiar with you nomads,¡± said Aldrich. ¡°But as far as I¡¯m aware, you all know how to navigate the Wastnds better than anyone. The AA and Panopticon can track the location of variant nests because they¡¯re stationary. But they can¡¯t easily track variants that fade in and out of geostorms. I want you to help me locate them.¡± Gerard crossed his arms. ¡°My Hawks handle most of the scouting. But I don¡¯t want tomit much to you unless I know for sure you can guarantee our safety from the Dark Six.¡± ¡±Fair enough,¡± said Aldrich. ¡±If this hypothetical partnership went through,¡± said Z. ¡°It would be a symbiotic rtionship. Once Haven stabilizes, we would expect support from it as well. Not just protection from the Dark Six ¨C that¡¯s a basic given for me and Gerard to consider officially partnering with you. But I would also ask for ess to resources that only a city can get. Parts and tech and manpower that are hard toe by in the Wastes.¡± ¡±Done,¡± said Aldrich. In terms of sheerpetency, Aldrich held the nomads in high regard. He had thought about partnering with them the moment he found out that Casimir¡¯s Kryptic hade from them. ¡±To be honest, boy, this still isn¡¯t convincing,¡± said Gerard. ¡°A fair amount of our business alreadyes from the Dark Six. You¡¯d be asking us to give that all up AND make them enemies.¡± This was a decent point, Aldrich acknowledged. But he had been prepared to answer it by saying that the benefits of working with him outweighed the Dark Six. Yet this was where Casimir chimed in. ¡°Gerard, my good old friend, what ever are you talking about? The Dark Six have already stopped business with you, have they not? Ever since my rather mboyant exit, that is. Yes, it has only been just over a day, but the Dark Six have severedmunications with all of you, I presume. Not quite promising for future dealings, no?¡± The silence in the room gave all the answer Aldrich and Casimir needed. ¡±You want to approach Mr. Vane here because all of you are uncertain and afraid. What if the Dark Six is already against you? Then you need another option, do you not?¡± said Casimir. ¡°It is only natural for humans to seek stability in times of uncertainty. But the way you talk, it seems almost like the Dark Six are still doing business with you. You are not bluffing, are you?¡± ¡±¡­How did you know that?¡± said Gerard. ¡±You all were my dearest partners, my firsts,¡± said Casimir as he put a hand over his heart. ¡°But as I grew, so did mywork. I still have informants deeply loyal to me across the underworld that keep abreast of the situation.¡± ¡±You really are a snake,¡± said Gerard with a shake of his head. ¡°You knew all along we were at the back foot of this negotiation, and you bring it down on us now?¡± ¡±I had to make sure a certain unstable element was out of the room first,¡± said Casimir, referring to Desmond. ¡°For I do trust all of you. All aside from dear old Desmond who is just so unfathomably reserved. And, for the most part, I truly do not like those that do not express themselves properly like that.¡± Aldrich himself was surprised. He did not know the Dark Six had already cut off the nomads. That meant the nomads were in a far more desperate situation than he originally thought. And it also meant that Casimir had kept that information from Aldrich. Aldrich did not believe Casimir to have done it out of any ill will. Most likely, he figured Casimir was still probing out whether Aldrich waspetent, and he did not really mind that. And now that Casimir had thrown Aldrich the ball, it was up to him to score the goal. ¡±That boils down this negotiation to very simple terms, then,¡± said Aldrich. ¡°Either you work with me, or you¡¯re left out alone, wondering whether the Dark Six is out to get you. Of course, you could try and reach out to them again, but it isn¡¯t a certainty that they¡¯ll work with you again, is it? What I¡¯m providing is certainty. The fact that I know you all are in a more desperate situation than I thought isn¡¯t going to change my terms. I¡¯ll still generously provide for you and secure your peoples¡¯ safeties.¡± ¡±You think we can¡¯t handle ourselves?¡± said Gerard. He was shaken, but he still held his ground. ¡°We¡¯ve roamed the Wastnds for generations now! We can go solo just fine.¡± ¡±Solo?¡± said Casimir. ¡°And how many of your people are you willing to cut out for it? Your riders number so many because you have resourcesing into you from the Dark Six and more, don¡¯t you? But if you go solo, will you not have to downsize?¡± ¡±¡­¡± Gerard sighed. ¡°Yeah. You¡¯re right. I guess this old man¡¯s gotta say yes.¡± Chapter 220 Agreement Chapter 220 Agreement¡±They say that age begets wisdom. Looks like that¡¯s true,¡± said Aldrich to Gerard. Gerard put a bashful hand on his head. ¡°Don¡¯t you try to smooth talk your way around this old man. I¡¯ll still be keeping a close eye on you.¡± ¡±Understood,¡± said Aldrich. That meant that of the six chiefs, Clint and Gerard were now for him. But he still needed more. Specifically, Aldrich wanted Z. She was the most useful one here with her specialization in technology. The fact that she was the creator of the fake CID (citizen identification) temte meant she was an undeniable genius on par with or even above Panopticon higherups. ¡±Now then,¡± Aldrich turned to Z. ¡°Does my deal sound a little better?¡± ¡±To me, it doesn¡¯t matter much,¡± said Z, unfazed. ¡°Unlike Clint, I am not itching for a fight. Unlike Gerard, I don¡¯t have so many riders that any of them will go hungry. The services I provide in the criminal underworld are utterly unmatched. Even if the Dark Six reces me, I will have no shortage of other buyers. I might rack in fewer credits, but I don¡¯t need much to keep my riders going.¡± ¡±Ah, looks like with you, I¡¯ve lost my leverage, then,¡± said Aldrich. ¡°What about security? With a small following, you have less manpower to defend yourself with. And now more than ever¡¯s the time to have manpower.¡± ¡±Quality over quantity.¡± Z motioned behind her to Knife. ¡°A small team means I only need a few strong individuals to secure our safety. But that is, of course, at my current level of risk. Clint does not care at all about risk, and Gerard has made the analysis that his military strength is not enough to cover the Hawks against the Dark Six even without partnering with you. For me and my Phantoms, we believe ourselves adequately protected already. But should I officially partner with you, then the risk grows to the point where that may not be true anymore.¡± ¡±Basically, by partnering with me, you¡¯re taking on an extra burden,¡± said Aldrich. Z nodded. ¡°As I have said before, I do not mind supplying you with tech as a client. But partnerships are not my forte. My principle is to provide my tech to anyone that asks and can pay. The underworld may seem like a den of selfish lions, but an ecosystem filled only with predators dies off frighteningly quickly. My tech allows practically anyone to escape cities and be a nomad or, if they want, take it a step further and be viins. It is crucial in creating a sustainable environment. To maintain equity of distribution, I need to remain as neutral as possible.¡± ¡±Interesting,¡± said Aldrich. ¡°I assume you had a simr hands off approach with Casimir, then?¡± ¡±He was a client. But a partner? No,¡± confirmed Z. ¡±Then what was the point of youing to this meeting?¡± said Aldrich. ¡°If you¡¯re already sure of your position.¡± ¡±Because I am still part of this council,¡± said Z. ¡°And my vote still matters to you, doesn¡¯t it? I wanted to know what kind of person you were. If you were an unstable element that I could not take even as a client, then I could not give you my vote. But you aren¡¯t.¡± Aldrich nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes then?¡± ¡±You may,¡± said Z. ¡±That¡¯s three for me, 1 rejection, and 2 neutral parties,¡± said Aldrich. ¡±That¡¯s enough support. I¡¯m in too,¡± said Stone. ¡°I don¡¯t like thinking too hard about these kind of things, but if Z and Gerard support you with their big brains, then I will too.¡± ¡±Haha, you and me both,¡± said Clint. ¡°These nerds gotta learn how to live sometimes, I tell ya.¡± ¡±The way you live, I don¡¯t imagine you living much longer,¡± said Z. ¡±What¡¯s life without risk, huh? Just a boring ol¡¯ shitshow,¡± said Clint proudly. ¡±A very short show, yes,¡± sighed Gerard. ¡°You youths have no concept of what it¡¯s like to reach a ripe old age like me. It¡¯s fulfilling in its own way.¡± ¡±No way. If I die of old age, then by god, someone throw me in a ring and toss a variant at me, because hell if I¡¯m gonna die sleepin¡¯ on afy bed!¡± said Clint. Aldrich knew that Clint¡¯s bravado was not misced. One of the first things he noted the moment he sat down was that although the other nomad chiefs had powerful guards behind them, Clint had literally nobody. He was that confident in defending himself. And considering Z had brought Knife, a bodyguard who could at least stall an A ranker, that spoke volumes to how strong Clint probably was. ¡±And Crone?¡± Aldrich motioned gently to Crone¡¯s still sleeping, frail old form. ¡±She¡¯s probably using her power to figure out her decision.¡± Gerard got up and put a hand on her back and then shook his head. ¡°No wait, she¡¯s just sleeping. I¡¯ll go ahead and fill her in on the detailster, but for now, this meeting¡¯s over. Hope you enjoy working with most of us, Mr. Vane, and I hope you can actually deliver on what you promise.¡± ¡±You won¡¯t regret it,¡± said Aldrich. ¡±And this is where we are staying.¡± Casimir bowed as he gestured behind him to a series of three mobile homes fused together to create one surprisingly spacious base. Also, ¡®mobile homes¡¯ was underselling what these were. They had the same basic structure as mobile homes, yes, being basically houses on wheels, but they were fitted with enough armor ting and mounted turrets that it was easier to call them ¡®mobile bunkers¡¯ instead. ¡±You had all this in reserve?¡± said Aldrich. ¡±The nomads kept it maintained for me. For no small price, of course, but it has served as quite thefortable escape on many a rainy day,¡± said Casimir. ¡±You¡¯re sure it isn¡¯t bugged, correct?¡± Casimir looked offended, the emote on his mask disying shock. ¡°Mister Vane, goodness gracious me, you would expect me to have fallen to such amateurish standards?¡± ¡±Just making sure you didn¡¯t have any more surprising waiting for me. Like you did in the negotiations.¡± Aldrich was not using Casimir of anything, he was just curious why Casimir withheld some critical information like the fact that Aarav Singh had voiced public support to Aldrich and the fact that the Dark Six had already abandoned the nomad chiefs. ¡±Ah that, I must apologize, but you cannot me me. I do enjoy seeing you speak. It grants me ever more confidence that I have made the right decision in backing you, Mr. Vane,¡± said Casimir. ¡±I figured as much. It was a test then, hm?¡± said Aldrich. ¡±A test, my, Mr. Vane, such harsh wording. It was simply an opportunity for me to admire an artist at their craft. And it made me feel quite useful, dropping in with those grand revtions. Did you see the look on dear old Gerard¡¯s face? Quite priceless, I must say,¡± said Casimir. ¡±Yeah, it was.¡± Aldrich smiled, remembering Gerard¡¯splete and utter shock when Casimir revealed that he knew Gerard had nothing to leverage. ¡±Anyways, I want you to do something for me. Consider it payment for watching me at work,¡± said Aldrich. ¡±Ah, payment, how I do love that word. What is it, Mr. Vane?¡± ¡±Desmond still trusts you to some degree, right? Could you meet with him personally, in his base? Try to reach out to him about a partnership again before he leaves. I doubt he¡¯ll agree to anything, and I don¡¯t care about that. I just need you to get in his base,¡± said Aldrich. ¡±I will have Walters and Hirondelle apany me,¡± said Casimir. ¡°Quite curious, this is. Mr. Vane, I do wonder what you are plotting. But I will do as you say and let the revtionse to meter. A dyed payoff is often more satisfactory than immediate reward, after all.¡± ¡±That¡¯s right,¡± said Aldrich. As Casimir turned around, Aldrich said, ¡°And Casimir, about your men in the Red Circle, the ones I raised. Did you get the chance to bury them?¡± Casimir did not turn to meet Aldrich¡¯s gaze. He instead looked up at the blue skies and shining sun. ¡°I did. Most of them, at the very least. They lie in graves not far from here, in these grand old wastnds.¡± ¡±Are you sure you didn¡¯t want to bury them somewhere more proper?¡± ¡±I did wonder about that. When I first hired those men and women of mine, I told them I needed their service to rise to the top of the underworld. Most of them were mirror images of my younger self. Having nothing but wanting so much. They wanted credits and safety but most of all, I came to realize, they wanted a vision. They wanted a dream they could look forward to and believe in. They wanted the freedom to live and fight for something big. Somewhere along that way, their service became friendship, and the rise to the top became an adventure.¡± Casimir smiled. ¡°A grand old journey. And for some, their journeys ended sooner than others, but there is no shame in that. In a way, it is fitting that they rest here, in the vast wastnds that many call the neo-frontier: the very symbol of adventure and freedom.¡± Casimir nodded to himself. ¡°Now then, Mr. Vane, before I wax and wane more about this topic, I shall arrange that meeting with Desmond.¡± Casimir strolled away, as confident and forward looking as ever. Back tall and undaunted. Aldrich could see why Casimir would attract so many loyal followers. Aldrich rapped on the fortified metal door leading into the base. Spybird would let him in soon, and then he would catch up on issues like contacting Aarav and Seismic. And, most importantly, his ns to capture ckwater. Chapter 221 Blackwater Students

Chapter 221 ckwater Students

Aldrich waited in front of the base doors, admiring just how solid they were. They were like solid blocks of metal that could probably pancake someone t under their weight. Very much like nomad craftsmanship. Either nomad tech was light and hyper mobile or it went overboard on just stacking defensiveyer on top of defensiveyer to create te packed mobile behemoths. The doors reminded Aldrich of the neosteel castle wall that protected the Red Circle, the very same wall that needed a cannon round fired from a railgun at mach 6 to actually prate. But he doubted these doors had even half the durability as the neosteel doors. Neosteel was expensive. The highest endmercially avable metal on the market. Even Casimir could only afford small amounts of it. But even neosteel was like paperpared to someone like Solomon Sr, and if Aldrich wanted to take over ckwater, he knew he would have to go through Solomon. There was a certain point where technology just did not keep up with superpowers, and the S rank was where that difference was incredibly noticeable. What good was a war mech against someone who could fly at hypersonic speeds and demolish entire city blocks with punches? The only technos that could keep up with the S rank were S rank technos themselves who had technology that was so advanced it was practically magic. As Arthur C. rke once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Solomon Sr was a definite issue. Aldrich could admit very easily that in a direct fight with Solomon, even with all his recent powerups, there was no contest: Solomon could probably beat Aldrich in one minute with raw overwhelming force. Granted, the matchup was bad with Solomon, like Seth, being Aldrich''s natural counter. Extreme physical stats coupled with fire damage in the form of sr energy was a nightmare to deal with for an undead mage type like Aldrich. But like with Seth, Aldrich would find a way to work around Solomon Father would fall like son. No, if Aldrich had his way, Solomon would fall far, far further than Seth ever did. After all, Solomon had so much more to lose. "Oh, sorry about wait!" Spybird''s voice buzzed through an inte. "I was passed out for bit there. Alcohol generator not working properly, you see. But here-," The base doors slowly opened up with slow and rattling movement. It felt like watching some behemoth of a beastnguidly rise from slumber. Aldrich passed through the doors after a long five seconds, half wondering how a lot of the nomad tech did not just break down on the spot. It all seemed so clunky and makeshift with odd bits and pieces cobbled together. Aldrich used his ability to sense his undead to make his way around the base. The base was made up of three mobile homes temporarily fused together like some kind of bootleg transformer. Each of the homes roughly had different functions. One acted like a control center for anything tech rted while the other two were like living quarters with recreational spaces and supplies. The control room was his goal, but Aldrich wanted to check up on the others as well. The immediate room he was in now was a small chamber meant for decontamination from potential exposure to nasty stuff in the Wastnds, but no need for that now. The chamber doors opened, and Aldrich strolled his way through a short hallway. Bare metal walls, floor, and ceiling. He wondered briefly how nomads could tolerate being holed up in what was basically an oversized military car for years. When the sliding doors at the end of the hallway opened up, Aldrich realized he was quite mistaken. He found himself staring at a rather vibrant living space. Still the same metal walls and floors and ceiling, but they were decorated with warm, sunshine colored lights, posters, and several telescreens that now yed various movies and shows. A surprisingly good speaker system yed party music for some background noise that concealed Aldrich''s entrance. Aldrich''s units sat around bolted pieces of furniture, watching the telescreens or talking amongst each other. Some yed beer pong on a table while others fixed up a meal in the kitchen. Opened beer cans and bottles of liquor were everywhere. It gave off the vibes of a college party. And it made sense. Most of Aldrich''s humanoid units were ckwater students, and they were just that: students. With their ck uniforms reced with casual clothes, it was apparent to Aldrich that these were just teenagers. Just like Aldrich, though he was the least ''teen-like'' out of them all. Not that he minded this too much. It was good to let his troops de-stress, for even if they were undead, they could still get mentally tired and need time to reset. Aldrich remembered sleeping with Valera, at how just the simple act of sleeping without worrying about something had been so refreshing. "Haha, THAT''S what you do at a proper hero academy?" Ace said as he nudged Eileen''s (Portal Girl) arm with his elbow. "You spend half your time thinking about how to, like, save people? Most of your exams are actually about figuring out how to lift rocks out of the way so randos don''t get crushed under them?" "W-well yeah, that''s what heroes do," squeaked out Eileen. She was surrounded by ckwater students curious about what a real hero trainee did. "What the hell? That''s like, totally so boring!" said Kat in a valley girl voice. She was ckwater''s rank 4 just behind Ace. She had lost her beetle insectoid features, now opting for cat ears and eyes. Her power let her shift to a variety of animals depending on what she ate. Presumably, Kat only needed to eat little bits like fur of the animal whose features she wanted, otherwise the implication was that she had literally eaten a cat. "I mean, I totally get needing to save people for AP and stuff, but like, doesn''t it get way boring?" "N-no, it''s honestly why I wanted to be a hero¡­isn''t what why all of you wanted to be heroes as well?" said Eileen. "You''re in a hero academy, right? ckwater, I think?" "Pfft. I''m just here to kick money and make ass," said Ace. "Uh, it''s ''kick ass and take money'' idiot," said Kat as she rolled her eyes. She shrugged at Eileen. "And girl, honestly, I don''t know. I was trained as an assassin from when I was little, so I kinda just do what my parents tell me to do." "D-did you say assassin?" Eileen looked visibly nervous. "Yeah. I had my first contract at like, uh, ten or something? Honestly though, it''s a drag sometimes. It''s not like being a merc where you can just go in sting and punching, you have to be suuuper patient, and that''s totally boring," said Kat. "I figure if I graduated from ckwater and got my license, I''d be out hunting heroes or something." "A-and you?" Eileen said to Ace. She looked visibly distraught, especially at the whole ''hunting heroes'' part of Kat''s talk, but she held on admirably. "Are you also an assassin?" Ace scratched his head of white hair. "Honestly, I dunno. I grew up in ab or some shit. Parents tossed me out I think. The researchers wanted me to get really strong and sent me to ckwater for training. I don''t really know why. But I didn''tin. I love beating the shit out of people, and that''s what I did all day there." "But like, tell me more about what you did. It''s totally interesting to hear how the actual good guys work," said Kat as she yfully punched Eileen''s shoulder. Eileen jumped a little, scared. Made sense. In Eileen''s perspective, everyone here was a viin. Someone she was supposed to be trained to fight against. "Stop harassing the poor girl and let her breathe." Aldrich spoke up as he strolled into the room. He did not let his guard down as he did so. This might have seemed like a casual space, but there was one thing he had some worry about. That was the fact that Aldrich was someone that the ckwater students knew. They had only ever interacted with ''Thanatos'', but Aldrich was someone they had previously looked down upon for being a Dud. Granted, like with Eileen, Aldrich had everyone''s ''loyalty meter'' cranked up so that they could maintain their personalities while not being a liability to Aldrich. This maxed out loyalty effect was strong enough that Fisk did not care at all about his previous boss dying right in front of him. But Aldrich wondered whether it would be just as effective now. The room grew tense as everyone looked back to stare at Aldrich. They all stopped what they were doing as recognition filled their eyes. The only sound left came from background noise the telescreens and speakers red out. Aldrich clenched a fist, ready to instantly withhold the free will of every ckwater student here. Chapter 222 Stick And Carrot "Well, I''ll be damned, it was you all along," said Ace. He was the first to break the silence. He smirked as he floated towards Aldrich with his arms crossed. Aldrich''s eyes swiftly scanned from side to side, analyzing the general reaction to him. Overall, there was mostly shock. He could not sense direct aggression, and that did make sense. One factor of his undead resurrection process seemed to be that any aggression towards him, the master, was turned down to minimal levels. This was consistent with Elden World lore that typecast those that stated that necromancers made their undead into loyal servants. Aldrich assessed the worst case scenario. There were definite cases of undead under liches being able to rebel against them. Rare, but possible. Usually, in Aldrich''s experience, it was when strong willed individuals opposed a necromancer so strongly that they could resist the control. Some resisted the control to such a degree they could even reject a necromancer''s will to destroy their bodies and release their souls, thus turning them from a loyal unit into an uncontroble enemy. This was exceedingly rare, however. Undead control reached deep within the soul, easily being on par with the demonic soul binding that Vntis suffered under. No, in fact, demonic soul binding actually came from the Death Lord''s original necromancy ritual, copying the spell''s framework. The mechanisms of undead control were rather sinister. A normal soul could reject foreign influence much like how a body used its immune system to fight off infection. Undead control was a two step process. First, it buried the past memories of the undead and locked them deeply away, though the original soul and the basic core personality traits associated with the soul remained. Then, it basically hijacked the soul''s immune system and reshaped it ordingly to serve the necromancer. Undead control was thus much like a parasitic cancer. In rare cases, an undead could forcibly recover their sealed memories. However, the ''immune system'' of their soul, now under the necromancer''s control, would start to forcibly destroy these memories and thoughts as ''foreign influence''. Deleting the memories of a soul directly was basically impossible. In addition, the memories of a soul formed its ''body''. Deleting them would basically kill the soul too. Thus, undead control only sealed memories. That could be seen with Vntis as well. His old memories were still there, just sealed under manyyers of control. But if one tricked the soul into thinking its own memories were foreign, then it was possible to abuse its ''immune system'' against itself to start cannibalizing itself. The more an undead resisted its necromancer, the more they lost themselves. Thus, even if an undead resisted getting dispelled immediately, the length of time they could rebel was highly limited. In summary, if Aldrich found himself encountering ckwater students that resisted his control, he just had to wait things out. He doubted even one of these students had the willpower to resist him, and even if they did, he could control the others and subdue the odd one out. "When did you get all this power?" said Ace, his white eyes crackling with energy. "The fuck? Why''s that the first thing on your mind, blockhead?" said Simon Wells, one of Seth Sr''s past friends. "The better question is: how are you even alive?" "Does it matter?" said Aldrich. "What matters is that you are alive solely because of me. At my will, I can have you turned back into the corpses you were when I found you." "¡­" Simon paused, peering at Aldrich through his visor. "Is there a problem?" said Aldrich. "¡­Nah. I can''t really find it in myself to feel likesering you. Plus, you''re right. I can kind of sense that if you die, I die, and I do like living," said Simon. "Screw that!" shouted Evan Harker, another of Seth''s posse. "He''s just a freaking dud, lording over us like this because he got some power! You-you killed Ghost, and you killed Seth - I know it!" "I did," said Aldrich simply. "But so what? You killed me, don''t you remember? I only returned the favor. You should be thankful I even raised you again." "I won''t ept this!" shouted Evan. He stood up from his chair and shattered a beer bottle in his hand. "I-I-," Evan copsed to a knee, putting his hand on his head in shock. His soul was starting to destroy itself, sensing insubordination. "As you can see, there are consequences to going against me," said Aldrich. He walked up to Evan, and the ckwater students shuffled back, clearing the way for Aldrich. Aldrich put a hand on Evan''s shoulder. "What''s the emotion driving you to go against me like this? Hate? Hate''s a strong motivator. I know that very well." "Wh-what''s happening to me?" said Evan as he looked up at Aldrich. "Who¡­who am I?" "Nobody." Aldrich crushed Evan''s shoulder, and the bones shattered under his grip. He then dispelled Evanpletely, eliminating him from the pool of undead. Evan''s body crumbled into dust in an instant, and then that dust pile faded into nothingness. "Shit! Why''d you do that!?" said Simon. "It was a reminder," said Aldrich. He red at Simon, and the Alter cowered under the threatening stare. "That all of you are on borrowed time. And I''m the bank." "Well, what do you want from us?" said Eric ss, the Alter who had healed Minuteman. His voice quiet and soft spoken but neutral. Among the A ss, Eric was perhaps the most reasonable. He, unlike everyone else, was not abatant and had trained solely to help with injuries. "I can overlook the suffering you all caused me. Most of you aside from Seth Sr and his group just ignored me. And my friends. Why I keep you around then, is because all of you are useful. And all of you have potential," said Aldrich. "Otherwise, ckwater would never have recruited you. You all would have gone into the Dark Six - the superpower of the criminal underworld. I want to use that potential to build up a superpower of my own. If you decide to stay with me, you can be part of that journey." Aldrich motioned to the telescreens and alcohol. "You''ve all seemed to be enjoying it so far. Otherwise, I cany you to rest. Returned to dust where you belong." Or, the third option that Aldrich did not say out loud was that he could just all turn them mindless orpletely seal their memories as he had done with Fisk. However, the ckwater students had so many valuable memories across a variety of criminal organizations that half their worth was their memories. Controlling them when they were mindless was also so much more of a hassle, he realized. It required directly having to think about manipting them, and though it did not matter as much when he had fewer undead to worry about, on the scale of hundreds, it was a formidable task. If Aldrich was just going to mind wipe them, he was far more willing to just dispel the more useless ones and keep a core powerful few remaining. But optimally, the strongest legion Aldrich could form was one that was loyal mostly of their own ord. Mindless units also lost the potential to experiment with their powers and grow stronger, and most of ckwater''s potentialy not in the current strength of their students, but their future. And maybe he had gotten a little softer, influenced by his recent experiences in the Necropolis and experiences with Casimir''s loyal subordinates. "I have no real qualms with that," said Eric. "I''m here to heal. Who I happen to do that for doesn''t concern me." "For me, strength is all that matters," said Ace. "And you''re strong as hell. Long as I, uh, make money and kick ass, I''m all good." "I can''t imagine credits will be an issue," said Aldrich. "Safety and security -these things I can guarantee." These words resonated with the students. Back when Aldrich was in ckwater, he had done extensive research on the ckwater students to figure out their weaknesses to devise contingencies against. Part of that research involved uncovering their backgrounds. ine had done most of the heavy lifting on that side, but Aldrich remembered all the info she dredged up. Most of the ckwater students had no such thing as family or security. They were all basically tools groomed to be mercenaries, viins, assassins, and the like. Most of them, like Ace, were orphans taken in by organizations orbs. Comparatively few were like Kat who were raised by parents already involved with the criminal underworld. All of them lived in fear of their handler organizations. Most of them were treated as disposable tools, tossed away and killed if they could not meet expectations. Abuse was amon thing they dealt with. One of the reasons why they did not already leave Aldrich was because they could instinctively tell that it was safer being with him than on their own. Deep down, they were scared kids that wanted a ce to feel safe. Aldrich could, in part, sympathize. It was a feeling he had shared as an orphaned child himself. Aldrich would not hesitate to control them with fear as he had done by making an example of Evan, but that did not mean he could not amodate them either. Typical stick and carrot style diplomacy. "Think it over," said Aldrich. "Most of you will live a life miles better than what you had before, if the empty beer cans and half full liquor bottles are any indication. And the alternative is dying." Aldrich walked past the ckwater students, leaving the main room and heading to the control center. Chapter 223 Technos Aldrich stepped into the control room. If there was ever a perfect representation of ordered chaos, then this was it. The room was lit only by the pale white glow of severalrge screens that Spybird and several other techno Red Circle staff members sat in front of. Wires, cables, cords, generators, and a mass variety of misceneous gadgetsy scattered everywhere in aplete mess, though the technos seemed quite capable of navigating through it. "The light! Get it out!" Spybird covered his eyes against the brighter light from outside that streamed in from Aldrich holding open the door. Aldrich promptly closed the door behind him. "They say that technos tend to be shut ins. Looks like that''s true." "Light is worst thing when head rings from hangover," exined Spybird. "You sure you can do your job like that?" said Aldrich, raising a brow. "Bah!" Spybird put a stubby finger to the side of his temple. "If world is not shaking a little bit, then I cannot think properly. And everything is quite easy with this girl." Spybird pointed at a young girl - a ckwater student - with his canteen. A girl sat on the floor, and Aldrich came to realize that quite a few of the web of ck wires, cables, and cords actually came from her. Specifically, they grew out from her hair. "Svenna here makes everything easy mode. She is top techno talent. All I do is make sure things do not explode," said Spybird. "Things won''t explode," said Svenna, annoyed. She crossed her arms and looked up at Aldrich. "And how may I help you?" "You heard my talk with your ss, didn''t you?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, I did." "And your thoughts?" Svenna cocked her head, her eyes narrowing in thought. And rapid thought, too. Her eyes looked like LED screens, images and text rapidly flickering through them as she processed everything her cable hair linked to. "I do my job," said Svenna simply. "Not much more to it, really. Otherwise I get dusted." "No greater motivation than death, eh?" Spybird raised his canteen up in mock cheer. Svenna ignored Spybird. "Don''t get me wrong, Aldrich, I''m not doing this because I''m being forced to. I''ve always wanted to work in a startup, and this is basically one, right? Way better than whatever ns the Den had for me. Probably would have shoved me in one of the Dark Six or a megacorp." "The Den?" Spybird whistled. "You are top shelf talent, miss." "That''s right, so I''d appreciate some respect," said Svenna. "Heh, I give you as much respect you want long as you keep my job easy." Spybird took another swig of his canteen. " Aldrich nodded. He was familiar only at surface level with the Den because of its secretive nature. As far as he knew, the Den was a secretive organization that scouted and fostered top tier techno talent and fed them into viin organizations andpanies. Den technos were specialized in destroying cyberspace infrastructure and bypassing security, making them exceptional infiltrators, though, as Svenna demonstrated, they werepetent in other fields as well. Svenna ranked low among ckwater''s A ss, barely making the cut for it. But that was in terms of purebat rating. In terms of pure utility, she was one of the ckwater students Aldrich wanted to absolutely keep. Aldrichcked strong techno talent. Fisk was good, but he was nowhere close to the best. "Well, just know that I appreciate your presence here," said Aldrich. "If you need anything, let me know." "Hah, you weren''t this nice to the others." Svenna smiled. "Making me feel special, hm?" "No reason not to," said Aldrich. "Now then, let me get a briefing on a few situations. You''ve all been keeping track of the media and any iingmunications, haven''t you?" "Da," said Spybird. "How''s Casimir''s situation with the Dark Six?" "Oh, real big shit, that" said Spybird. "He has massive bounty on him now. 20 million credits." "20 million? The Dark Six sure know how to waste money." "20 million dead. 4o million alive. But not surprising. Casimir was Connector. Meant to be neutral party connecting viins and orgs together," said Spybird. "Breaking that trust in the underworld is an extreme taboo," exined Svenna. "Casimir might not have killed anyone too important from the Dark Six, but the fact that he even did that means they are all against him. And that''s also one of the reasons I''m fine being here. I appreciated Casimir''s vision and would have had no issues working for him after graduating, but in the end, he gave it all up to work for you. Must mean there''s something you''re doing right." "Good news about this bounty is it means Dark Six is scared of Casimir. Casimir has valuable information," said Spybird. "Locations of secretbs, hideouts, bases, operations - all that from the Dark Six. Dark Six was nning big revolution to take over cities and establish new age of viins, but with Casimir holding info he can leak, they stop their ns until they catch him." "Until Haven''s secured, then, we have to stay moving," said Aldrich. "Da," agreed Spybird. "And what about Haven? Any updates on that situation?" "All good news there," said Svenna. "With Singh dering investment in Haven''s rebuilding effort, the Panopticon and government can''t just bulldoze the city for scrap materials and move the citizens away anymore. Especially not with public support for Thanatos skyrocketing after Spybird released some nicely edited footage that maximized his image as a savior. They have to y ball with whoever leads the rebuilding effort. But that''s also apetition. A coalition of decently sized corporations backed by the Dark Six are going against Singh." "What are the chances they manage to beat out Singh?" asked Aldrich. "Moderate," said Svenna. "Singh can outbid them on contracts, but hispany''s biotech. The government can reject Singh if they feel like he can''t reliably rebuild Haven, and since he''s based in India, it''s difficult even for him to get a domestic construction corp to work with him. "What if I am the government?" said Aldrich. "Then you can do whatever you want," said Svenna. "But sentinel statehood isn''t a guarantee no matter how sure you are, and it''s always nice to have backup in case it fails, right?" Contingencies and backups. Aldrich liked Svenna already. "I like the way you think. So, what''s your idea for a backup?" "Roping in a U.S. based construction corp is the most obvious solution, but the Dark Six can intimidate most of them. I do have an idea, though," said Svenna. "Remember Seismic?" "Of course." "Hammerhead Industries is his sponsor. Powerful enough to take Seismic out of custody just like that." Svenna snapped her fingers. "Not quite Fortune level, but up there. I''ve established a secure channel for anyone wanting tomunicate with Thanatos and his supposed organization, and apparently, the Hammerhead CEO wants to meet up." Aldrich put a hand to his chin. "Any reason why?" "No. All I know is that he wants to ask you for a favor. And sometimes less is more. The fact that he''s giving so few reasons means that most likely, he wants to discuss something quite important with you. I''m sure you can leverage something out of it. You want me to set the meeting up?" "Go ahead," said Aldrich. "As for the meeting''s security-," "Don''t have to worry about that. If it''s rted to the Dar, you can trust me," said Svenna. Aldrich nodded. So long as Svenna did not have particrly powerful deep seated emotions against Aldrich, he could guarantee her loyalty via the master-undead link even with free will. And so far, Svenna was even positively disposed towards him. "As for sentinel statehood itself-," began Aldrich. "The chances are looking pretty good," said Svenna, knowing what Aldrich wanted to ask. Minuteman''s sponsorship gives your im legitimacy, and on top of that, Seismic''s tossed one your way. Oh, and practically every hero that fought in Haven also gave you their sponsorship. Granted, those don''t matter much, but it still looks great for your image. Most of the citizens, too, support Thanatos. There is some pushback out there wondering whether Thanatos is really a good guy and typical crap about being a vignte out of thew, but overall, things are nicely set up. It alles down to whether you can pull through in the hearing." "Hah, now that''s talent. Doing so many things at once - I feel useless already!" said Spybird. He took a swig from his canteen. "But more time for me to drink, so noints." "Let''s put more pressure on the government," said Aldrich. "Leak information that Thanatos is being held in prison-like conditions. Make it blow up, if you can." "I can do that," said Svenna. "That just about everything I wanted to check on, then," said Aldrich. "That was surprisingly quick." "That tends to happen when people work with me," said Svenna. "I do have a favor, though." "What is it?" "Could you let Z know I want to meet her?" "Z? The nomad chief?" "Yeah, her." Svenna mulled over her thoughts in silence for a few seconds. "Tell her V''s back home." Aldrich could tell that Svenna did not want to borate further. "Got it. I was just about to step out and meet her." With that, Aldrich made his way out of the base, all the while checking up on a few key units. First, he made sure that Seismic was doing fine. The old man was at home with no issues, ying ball with his son, probably waiting for Aldrich''s nextmunications. Aldrich let Seismic have his time off. He deserved it. Then, Aldrich checked on the Evil Eye had had ced in ckwater. It was still active. And finally, he checked on the Grave Ward he had secretly attached to Casimir when they spoke outside. Casimir had managed to meet with Desmond, and, as predicted, their conversation had probably not worked out with how short it was. The only thing that mattered, though, was Casimir getting into Desmond''s base, and he had seeded. Now, Aldrich''s Grave Ward had free reign to spy over it. Chapter 224 Okeanos’s Quest = In the endless desert of the second Trial Quest - Okeanos squinted his iridescent rainbow eyes as he felt bright and hot sun bear down on him. He did not like the sun. He much preferred the dark cold of deep water where he came from. The sun was too bright and too harsh. Okeanos focused his powerful vision, zooming in around him. He saw nothing but endless slopes of sand marked with wavy grooves. Pay attention to the currents. That was the precious hint the master had given, and Okeanos was determined to figure out the secret. He knew he was strong, but he wanted to show the master he was smart as well. That he was just as valuable as Valera, themander. Currents¡­currents¡­Okeanos''s antennae twitched as he focused, but soon enough, his focus was broken from tremors causing the sand to shake all around him. Okeanos''s antennae twitched again, this time sensing danger, and he immediately leaped dozens of meters into the air. Where he had been, an enormous worm emerged. It was armored in golden brown carapace that blended near perfectly with the sand around it, and its buzzsaw like circr jaws rotated with hunger. The worm unleashed a shrill screech as it leaped out of the sand, using momentum to drive upwards into the sky to catch Okeanos. "You dare to approach me!?" Okeanos was angered that a weak creature like this would even consider him a meal. He was born to stand at the top of the food chain, not below this frail creature! Okeanos pushed off the air using a burst of energy. He shot forth like a gre, punching right through the worm''s mouth. Using more energy, he smashed through the worm''s insides, causing it to explode into a rain of white flesh and golden shell. That was just the beginning, however. Okeanos''s antennae twitched again, and worms from everywhere emerged. Some smaller, only a few times bigger than a human, and with others as big as some of the human buildings. They circled around Okeanos like vultures surrounding a carcass. Their sandy shell blended in so well with the sand that it looked like the desert had turned into water, the sands undting like waves. Like currents. Okeanos paid attention to their movements, analyzing them for any discernible pattern. The worms began to attack. The smaller ones shot out of the sand at surprisingly high speeds, aiming totch onto Okeanos with their saw-like mouths. Okeanos stood his ground. He punched the worms as they came to him. He did not want to use his super punch because it would make a huge explosion, stopping him from seeing their current like patterns. Worm after worm sted apart into bits from each of Okeanos''s mighty punches. As Okeanos punched away car sized worms withplete ease, he briefly nced up at a screen. It had a timer on it reading 14:33 and a description underneath reading as follows: [You have entered the Sands of Kath, the Entombed. Survive for 15 minutes toplete this quest] Okeanos knew that there must have been something more to do here than just survive. He could do that easily - none of these worms were a match for him. But what was it? Okeanos focused on the worms'' movements again. His brain, engineered and developed with the utmost care, processed information at astounding speeds. That was it! It was hard to tell because the worms immediately around Okeanos only circled him, making it hard to discern any notable pattern of movement. But he could tell there were minor shifts in the currents that made it obvious that the worms were noting from every single direction. Like a tide, the worms originated from one spot. Realizing this, Okeanos sted out a burst of his stored energy, disintegrating a few iing worms into dust. Using the space he had made, he jumped into the air, determining where exactly the currents flowed from. As expected, Okeanos traced the worms'' movements to one specific location far in the distance. He instantly pushed off in the air with Burst, propelling himself towards the spot at blurring speeds. Almost as if sensing the intrusion, the sands beneath Okeanos trembled with a far greater intensity than before. The sands almost seemed to part in two as a worm farrger than any before emerged. It was over twice asrge as the zombie giant, reaching high into the air to devour Okeanos whole in its enormous maw. "Now you have the right to challenge me!" said Okeanos, excitement gleaming in his eyes. He pushed off the air above him, dodging below the giant worm''s maw, and then unleashed a powerful punch into the worm''s body. It was not his super punch, but he still put his Burst into it, a surge of crackling green energy causing his first to propel at astounding speeds. A shockwave of force and sonic boom cracked through the air as his punch drove the giant worm back like an explosion. The worm screeched as it began to tumble backwards, its huge form making it seem like it was moving in slow motion. There was a massive crater of caved in golden carapace and pulped white flesh where Okeanos had struck it. The worm stopped itself from fallingpletely however and faced Okeanos down. The crater wound on its upper body healed over in a near instant. Okeanos looked up at the worm, utterly unfazed even as the worm''s shadow alonepletely engulfed Okeanos. He did not like fighting under the hot sun anyway. Cool shade like this was much better. The giant worm unleashed a war cry that made the sands shake, causing all other worms around Okeanos to fade away, their movements disappearing as they retreated. Spines and hooked tendrils emerged from segments in the giant worm''s carapace. [Bonus Objective: Defeat the Boss: Gigant Worm] Okeanos jumped up with excitement. Another objective! And another creature to add to the master''s family! Surely, with this giant creature, the master would praise Okeanos. "Come!" shouted Okeanos as he cocked his fists. "Fight me and join my master''s family!" The gigant worm unleashed another screech before it surged downwards, bearing down on Okeanos like a meteor of whirling jaw des and shell ted mass. Okeanos cocked back his fist fully this time, his forearm locking in with a powerful click. The red and green stripes on his forearm glowed brightly, signaling a mass buildup of energy as he transferred everything from his Burst into his arm. An ever escting siren like sound welled up from his arm to signal the built up and massively multiplied energy. Right before the worm crashed over Okeanos, he unleashed his super punch. A tidal wave of blue energy poured out in a cascade thatpletely engulfed the gigant worm. At first, the gigant worm''s dark silhouette was visible within the wave of energy, suspended in ce as it struggled to resist the enormous output of force and heat. Then, the silhouette began to break apart, the worm disintegrating from the head down. Okeanos breathed out, and superheated air steamed out from his mouth and gills, distorting the space around it. His gills, in particr, suffered, the carapace glowing a bright molten red from having to shunt out the tremendous heat energy the super punch required. Surprisingly, though, Okeanos felt fine. Before he joined the master''s family, using his super punches hurt him on the inside, but now, even though it still hurt him, he felt like nothing was really wrong. He could move fine and ignore the pain much better. Just another reason why the master was so amazing. Okeanos looked ahead at the huge line of carnage his super punch hard carved out. Extending from him all the way into the distance was a line of molten hot sand that quickly started to cool into white ss. The gigant worm was nowhere to be seen - defeated in one punch. Okeanos had to admit - he was amazing too. He puffed his chest out, happy with himself, but then realized, what if he destroyed too much of the worm!? Then it could no longer join the master''s family! Okeanos panicked and sprinted around, trying to find traces of the worm. He calmed down when he saw there was enough of the worm left under the sand. A good building sized chunk that made up its tail - the part of the worm had been deep enough underground to survive the super punch. Though, it seemed, not enough had survived to regenerate. Okeanos heaved the tail out of the sand and gentlyid it down beside him. Well, as gently as possible. The tail itself was almost ten meters tall, so when it hit the sand, its mass drove up waves of sand. Okeanos patted the tail with encouragement. "That was a good fight! You are worthy of joining the master''s family. Now I will go see what you were hiding." Okeanos leaped across the sand using physical force alone, saving up his Burst energy. He followed the currents in the sand to their origin point. There, the currentspletely stopped, leaving a suspiciously t and smooth patch of sand. Okeanosnded on top of the sand patch and waited for a few seconds. Nothing was happening. Then, a voice permeated through his mine. ''So, intruder, you seek to find the treasures of the great Hierophant''s tomb, do you?'' ''Who are you? Where are you?'' said Okeanos. He tapped his head, not quite liking that someone else other than his master was in his mind. ''I am the guardian genie of this ancient tomb!'' said the voice triumphantly. ''Deep underground do I lie, and to reach me, you must answer one of my riddles-,'' ''You''re underground? Okay then!'' Okeanos immediately started to dig at hyperspeed, excavating sand at a frighteningly fast pace. Chapter 225 Maze Okeanos punched and punched his way down, his arms turning into blurs as the shockwaves from his hits sted sand away. The speed at which he excavated sand was almost frightening, every passing second getting him noticeably deeper and deeper underground. ''Wait! Wait!'' said the genie. ''If you don''t answer my riddle, you''ll never break through the entrance! It''s sealed by my magic!'' "We will see about that!" Okeanos shouted enthusiastically. After all, he was meant to be king of the seas. There was nothing he could not break. There was nothing that could be denied to him. With a final burst of energy entuating a punch, Okeanos smashed through to the bottom. There, over a dozen meters deep into the sand, his fist collided with solid grey rock. Upon the rock were carved the images of eyes. Okeanos unleashed his Burst, creating an explosive aura of green energy around himself that prevented the sand from copsing back in on him. "So this-," Okeanos raised his fist into the air. It started to glow, a rising siren sound emanating from it as energy charged into it for a super punch. The red and green stripes on his forearm filled up with a bright gleam. However, they did not fill up with light all the way. Okeanos kept his punch at 50% strength to make sure he did not destroy what was underneath. "Is where you are!" Okeanos mmed his fist into the ground, unleashing a torrent of blue energy. The stone underneath glowed with a golden light that looked like some kind of shield, resisting the super punch. Okeanos growled as he shoved his fist down even harder, the tidal wave of energy pouring out from his punch growing even further. Any sand in the nearby vicinity turned red hot, melting into ss. ''Haha! See that! In this domain, my magic is untouchable!'' said the genie. Then, the golden barrier started to flicker. ''¡­'' the genie watched this in disbelief. ''No way, you can''t possibly-,'' Then, the barrier shattered. When the barrier broke apart, the wave of energy from Okeanos''s punch pushed through and instantly obliterated the rock beneath, revealing a deep pit that seemingly had no end. "See that? Do not underestimate me, head voice," said Okeanos as he stood up, his piston fist locking back into ce. Hot air gushed out from his gills. ''¡­Do not get ahead of yourself!'' said the genie. ''The maze of ursed bone beneath will crush you under its traps!'' "Maze? What is that?" Okeanos asked. ''It is a ce of great challenge, where every path you take leads into unimaginable danger!'' dered the genie dramatically. "Sounds fun!" Okeanos jumped into the pit. Instead of of free falling, he ran across the sheer vertical surface at high speeds. Soon enough, Okeanos reached the bottom of the pit, so far down that there was no light at all. Unlike on the surface, there was no scorching sun here. Instead, it was surprisingly chilly. Good. Okeanos liked this a lot better. The chamber Okeanos found himself in had only one path leading into a narrow hallway. ''Step into that hallway if you dare, intruder!'' said the genie. ''And challenge the maze!'' "Okay," said Okeanos simply as he made his way through the hallway with zero concerns. As he strolled through, some tiles in the ceilings and walls opened up, shooting out arrows of bone. Okeanos sensed them the moment they fired towards him, his sensitive antennae picking up on the movements with such uracy that he basically almost had future sight. However, Okeanos just waltzed right by. The arrows smashed against his hardened shell and broke apart. Okeanos stepped on an elevated tile, and the floor beneath him opened up to reveal a pit ofrge snakes the size of an average human. They hissed at Okeanos, baring their toxic purple fangs. Okeanos fell down and released his Burst. His bright green energy lit up the dark area for a brief moment. He jumped out of the pit, leaving behind a grave of a dozen charred, ashen snake corpses. ''W-well then, you certainly are handling yourself well, but that was only the first hallway!'' said the genie. ''Behold, the maze itself!'' At the end of the hallway, Okeanos saw that it funneled into a muchrger entrance that split into a forked path, indicating the beginning of the maze proper. Okeanos''s antennae twitched as he stood in front of the split path, wondering where exactly to go. ''Choose wisely, intruder!'' said the genie. ''For only one path leads to the Hierophant''s tomb!'' "Really?" Okeanos looked at one path, then the other. He could not tell anything different about them. They looked the exact same. ''And no matter which path you take, you will face a horde of undead to thwart you at every step!'' stated the genie. "Sounds annoying." Okeanos stepped up, not towards any of the split paths, but towards the wall of the maze. He put a hand on the dark rock and nodded to himself. ''What is it? Have you realized the path of hardship that lies before you now!?'' said the genie. ''You should havee here with an army! That way, you could have spread your troops out and figured out where to go! But you alone will spend eons within this maze!'' Okeanos pushed his palm against the rock, and it cracked easily under his tremendous strength. A wide smile graced itself upon Okeanos''s face. ''Why are you smiling!? Have you gone mad!? Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'' "I hate confusing things. Attacks from lots of directions. Paths that lead me to lots of ces. So I''ll make my own path!" Okeanos began to unleash a rapidfire volley of punches against the maze walls. As expected, the walls crumbled under his strength. Boosted by his energy generation, Okeanos was confident his hits could even beat out Valera, themander, not to mention they were even faster. ''Wait! This is not how you are supposed to do this!'' eximed the genie in despair. "But it''s the way I want to do it," countered Okeanos. His unending volley of punches unleashed countless explosion like shockwaves through the air, sting apart huge chunks of rock. The ceiling of the maze trembled, and it sounded like an entire demolition crew was working there. Okeanos punched and punched, carving a very simple straight path right through the maze. Every so often, he would encounter a zombie or skeleton that had about half a second to stare at him in utter surprise before they got pulverized by his punches. Like this, Okeanos literally just smashed his way through the area. ''You¡­why are you even here!? You''re ridiculously strong!'' said the genie about a minute in Okeanos''s rampage. "I know I am," said Okeanos proudly. If there was anything he was proud in, it was his power. His power was the biggest gift his mother had granted him. He therefore cherished it for it was the only real gift he had left from his mother. Okeanos knew the Voice wanted his mother to kill all the humans, and his mother had birthed Okeanos with that samemand. But now that he was under the master, free from the Voice, he did not really care much about thatmand anymore. ''No, I mean, you have too many levels of strength for this area!''ined the genie. ''You should not even be here! And wasn''t this ce level gated? This ispletely unfair!'' "Then you should have made the maze easier!" said Okeanos. ''That defeats the entire purpose of a maze!'' countered the genie. By now, enough panic had settled into the genie that its once deep, ominous voice faded away, making it evident the genie was a woman. "I don''t like boring things." Okeanos shrugged before his punches let him break into a muchrger chamber. On the other end stood a huge set of closed golden doors marked with the image of an eye within a sun. Arge creature sat in front of the doors. It was the size of a tank with the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the wings of a bird. The creature growled at Okeanos. "A big one!" said Okeanos. His energy aura started to surge around him. "Will you be worthy to join the family, I wonder?" "Phinx, do not bother. Go back to sleep and let him pass." The genie''s voice echoed through the cavern, now audible outside of Okeanos''s head. "So you are here!" said Okeanos. "I am through those doors, yes," sighed the genie. "I am thoroughly demoralized, and I do not want this ce destroyed any more than it is. You may pass through." The monster, Phinx as it was called, moved away from the doors and curled up in a corner, going back to sleep. The doors then slid open with heavy weight, dust and rubble falling from the ceiling. Okeanos passed through the doors, and when he did so, they closed with surprising sped behind him. Now, Okeanos was in the biggest chamber he had been in so far. At the end, there was arge golden sarcophagus embedded in the wall, and surrounding it were treasure chests that he knew the master would want. "But as per my own master''s old orders, I do have one more trial for you!" said the genie''s voice. In response, a small army of winged soldiers made of sand materialized in front of the sarcophagus, blocking it. Each of them wielded huge greatshields and spears, forming a sturdy defensive line. "These soldiers are indestructible in this tomb! You shall not pass through them! If you wish for me to dispel them, you MUST answer my final riddle, okay!?" said the genie, sounding quite desperate at the end. Chapter 226 Invincible Formation Okeanos''s antenane twitched as he heard this creature known as a ''genie'' say he needed to solve another riddle. He decided he would hear her out for once. "Ok. Tell me what your riddle is," said Okeanos. "Really!?" The genie sounded genuinely happy. She then materialized behind the wall of sand soldiers, in front of the golden sarcophagus. She was a tan skinned girl with loose, baggy white pants and a billowing golden cloak covering most of her. Her eyes flickered like twin tongues of fire, and her lengthy ck hair floated in the air like she was underwater. "Don''t regret this - this riddle of mine is incredibly difficult!" "Ok," said Okeanos. "Here I go!" The genie coughed into her hand to clear her throat and then began. "Many people have me but do not want me. When I am in someone''s head, I make them dim witted. When I am in someone''s stomach, I make them hungry. When I am in someone''s arms, they despair. What am I?" Okeanos thought about this for a moment, his developed brain clocking into overdrive. His eyes narrowed in intense thought. After several dramatic seconds, he nodded to himself. "Oh? Have you found out, intruder!?" said the genie. "Yes," said Okeanos. He dered confidently, "I don''t know." The genie made a shocked face. "What!? How can you say that with so much confidence!?" "I can think fast, but it doesn''t help with this riddle," said Okeanos in wondering voice. His mind could process extreme calctions that let him know exactly how much force a punch would output, how fast someone was going, where they were going to go based on vibrational input on his antennae, and things like that, but calcting fast did not seem to helphim here. What a disappointment. And here Okeanos thought he could have a chance to show off his big brain. But wait. Okeanos was supposed to be smart just like how he was supposed to be strong. That meant only one thing: it was not Okeanos that was dumb here, but the riddle itself. "This riddle is stupid," said Okeanos. "Wha-!? The genie looked genuinely hurt. "Argh, whatever, I''ll give you another one-," "No need. I am tired of riddles now," said Okeanos. He then clenched his fists and lowered his center of gravity, green bolts of energy starting to crackle around him. It was very obvious that Okeanos fully intended on charging his way through. "Nobody appreciates my riddles¡­" The genie sniffled in despair. Okeanos charged, disappearing in a sh of light. He moved so quickly that it almost felt like he teleported, and yet - Okeanos felt himself get rebuffed by the wall of sand soldier shields. He tumbled backwards at high speeds like a stepping stone, creating a line ofrge craters before he stopped himself. "Hm?" Okeanos looked at the sand soldiers. They were unharmed. He had expected to just charge right past them. "In this tomb, my sand soldiers are invulnerable," said the genie. "You cannot brute force this. This is meant to be a test of wits!" "You think I cannot do this?" Okeanos felt his pride as the king of the oceans challenged. He would show this ''genie'' he could outsmart her. "You think wrong." Okeanos started to circle back and forth around the wall of sand soldiers, looking for an opening to get to the genie. He moved so quickly with his energy boosted movement that he melted stone underneath him. If he got her, the source of all these constructs, he could end this. "Wh-what are you nning!?" said the genie. Her head whipped around rapidly as she tried desperately keep up with Okeanos''s rapid movements, but she was too physically weak to even remotely track him. She held her head. "Oh, I''m getting dizzy trying to keep you in my sight!" Okeanos saw her get dizzy and used this chance while she was distracted. There were many sand soldiers, but not enough topletely cover all gaps leading to the genie. He shot forward through one of these gaps. With nigh instantaneous reaction and speed, the soldiers shifted their formation, pushing Okeanos back again. He smashed back into the ground, gouging out another crater. Okeanos looked down at his arms where he had braced for impact against the shields of the soldiers at thest minute. There were tiny cracks in his shell. "Hah! It doesn''t matter how strong or fast you are! No, the more you struggle, the more your own power is reflected against you!" dered the genie proudly. "I may be weak, but this sand soldier seal was devised by the great Hierophant himself, direct sessor to the ancient Arcane Emperor from whom all magic derives! The likes of you cannot defeat it! It even holds a dimensional lock that prevents all tampering of space or time!" "No wonder my shell got cracked," said Okeanos. "It was reflecting my own power. I truly am strong!" "Such arrogance¡­well, I suppose it is not entirely undeserved. But still, you will not get through this," said the genie. "We will see." Okeanos narrowed his eyes. He charged again towards another gap in the formation. It instantly shifted to close the gap, repelling him once more. Okeanos noticed that when the sand soldiers shifted to close the gap, they revealed others for there was a finite number of them. The biggest issue was that the soldierspensated for this weakness by trying to reveal gaps far away from the gaps they covered, preventing an attacker from trying to feint and slip through. Okeanos''s mind began to race. He needed more information. With seemingly reckless abandon, he smashed into the sphere of winged shield bearing soldiers again and again. A dozen crashes turned into fifty which quickly spilled over into a hundred, but he kept going. At ultra high speeds, he smashed into the soldiers, smashed back into the ground, and repeated the process. In just a few minutes, vast swathes of the chamber around the ceiling, walls, and floor were riddled with craters, though none too deep as the stone seemed to turn indestructible past a certain point. "What is this madness!?" eximed the genie. "All you are doing is hurting yourself!" Okeanos rose up from another charge attempt. "Not madness. I was thinking hard." He had seen enough. There was a specific set of formations that the soldiers could organize into at any given moment. He counted fifty of them in total, each meant to rebuff an attacker from any given angle, creating an iron solid defense. And because the process was automated, requiring no real thought from the genie itself, it was near instantaneous, keeping up even with Okeanos''s speed. But it was because it was automated that it had weakness. If there was a specific pattern of movements the soldiers followed, then Okeanos could finally put his thinking brain to use. Okeanos powered up, generating a huge swell of energy that covered him in a crackling aura of green. His iridescent rainbow shell started to shine with brilliant luster. His shell had several deep cracks in it now, though he had not suffered too much real damage to his flesh. Still, the cracks were so visible that it looked like he had taken much more damage than he actually had. "It''s useless! Stop hurting yourself!" said the genie, concerned. Okeanos ignored the genie and made his final move. He shot forth like a gre, several times faster than before with his fully activated Burst. He made several rapid, calcted attacks. Attacks from some angles caused the soldiers to enter into formations withrger gaps, and attacking multiple of these angles consecutively caused the gaps to widen as the soldiers struggled to keep up with Okeanos''s speed. When the gaps widened enough, Okeanos made a feint, then instantly slipped by one of the gaps he had baited out with a final surge of Burst energy. In an instant, Okeanos was upon the genie. He towered over her, his eyes glowing with ferocious energy. Energy crackled from his shell as did smoke from the intense heat of his movements. "Eep!" The genie balled up and put her arms over her head. The sand soldiers broke apart into particles of sand. "See? I told you I''m smart," said Okeanos. "What? You just smashed through the soldiers! Where''s the brains in that!?"ined the genie, frustrated and scared tears in her eyes. "I see you do not understand a big brain when you see one," said Okeanos. "How sad." Okeanos just walked past her towards the sarcophagus. He smashed the tomb open, revealing a massive amount of coins that spilled out like a flood. At the head of the sarcophagus was a long, bandaged finger. Okeanos had no idea what these were, but he knew the master would like them. The master would be so proud of him for solving these riddles the way he had done! Another message appeared before Okeanos. [You have beaten the hidden objective to dispel the sand soldier seal. You will now be granted the seal to use as your own.] Chapter 227 First Trial Quest Revisited = In the first Trial Quest - "¡­And that is all I well tell you," said Valera. "Now that you know where to find the flowers, do your best to harvest them. The master has instructed me to allow you all to find the best way to harvest these flowers yourselves. Again, there is to be NO violence during the harvesting. Only afterwards may you obtain the right to challenge others for their flowers. But do keep in mind, should one of you somehow harvest all the flowers, then there is no contest to be had." The Geist scratched his head as he wondered what exactly to do. Valera had told everyone where to find the flowers. They grew in the depths of the swamps, in some hidden caverns, in obscure patches in the forest, and even a few growing high up on cliffsides. If these flowers could grow everywhere, why were they so rare, huh!? "Geh¡­" The Geist looked at the big hitters that would take everything. They stood in an imposing line, not bothering to look down at the weaker monsters that made space for them. There was Crab, Merman, the zombie giant, and Crow. They all looked SO intimidating. They were bigger, stronger, and tougher than everyone else, and with the master gone and Valera not giving direct orders, they were the top dogs here. Beneath them was the strong but not super strong like the Geist, the Antlion, Bloodspitter Lizard, and so on and so forth. The Geist briefly wondered if he could take any of them in a fight. He had trained so hard after all! Now, the Geist could grow new body parts and control his toxic gas urately so it did not unnecessarily hurt anyone else. The only power he had not trained so far was his toy making tongue, but he felt bad using it realizing it had not been an enjoyable experience for Ste. The Geist scratched his head. He did not have eyes on his head, but rather small ck bulbs on his body that saw, and all of his many eyes knew one thing: just looking at the strong ones made the Geist realize he was outssed. All of them would just squash him! The Geist saw as everyone shuffled out, moving into the forests to go search for flowers. Everyone except the strong ones. They just watched. He wondered why. "Geh! Geh? (Why are you staying here?)" the Geist asked Crab. Crab clicked his ws together. "(No need for me to waste energy looking. I will just fight whoever gets the flowers.) The Geist then went over to the giant. The giant towered over the geist and looked down at him with sharp green eyes. The Geist cringed in fear, and the giant smiled. "(No fear, little one)" said the giant in a deep, throaty, boomingnguage that sounded like a war horn bleating. "(Unless you wish to challenge meter! Then I will show you the respect a fighter deserves and crush you with no hesitation!)" "Geh¡­(I''ll¡­look forward to it)" said the Geist. He asked the same question. "Gehgeh? (Why stay here?)" "(Why not?)" the zombie giantid down with his hands behind his head, as if ready to just nap. "(I am too big to be picking little flowers. I just get in everyone''s way. But I can fight anyone that picks them.)" The Geist nodded and hopped over to Merman. "Gehgeh? (Why do you stay?)" Merman crossed his four arms together, his many red eyes leering at the giant, Crab, and Crow. "Gorok-Vis. (I stay here to conserve my energy)." His gills red, crackling with energy. "Gar-Uk. (For the fight)" "Geh (I get it)" The Geist understood where everyone wasing from. They all knew they were the strongest, so they figured they could just take it easy and let everyone else pick the flowers. Then, they could just challenge others for their flowers. In the end, they would end up challenging among themselves, and the strongest there would get the lion''s share of the flowers and be themander of the monster army. Because of that, the strongest monsters here wanted to wait and save their energy to use among themselves. This whole thing was basically just a fight among the strongest to get even stronger. It made sense. All the monsters seemed to think strength mattered above anything else. And it even made sense to the Geist. It was better for the strongest to be themander, no? When the Geist walked up to Crow, Crow looked down at him with such cold red eyes that the Geist did not even bother talking. He walked away with head down into the forest, wondering how to help pick the flowers. "Geh¡­(There''s no ce for a small fry like me among all these strong guys¡­)" The Geist shook his head rapidly. "Geh! Geheh! (No! I can''t give up now! I want to bemander. They might be strong, but all they care about is being strong. They have no friends! I''ll convince everyone else to help me! If I get all the flowers, then even the strong ones can''t challenge me!)" Once the Geist was deeper within the forest, smiling at this newfound thought, it was then that Crownded through the trees, smashing a few along the way, and stood beside the Geist. "Geh!? (What? Did I do something wrong!?)" said the Geist. "(I was instructed to help you)" said Crow with a series of low growls. "Geh!? (Really? That''s great!)" said the Geist. "(But I cannot fight for you. I can only take you where you want)" said Crow. "Gehmm¡­" The Geist copied what his master did when he was in thought, putting his hand over his chin. "Geh! Gehgeh. (I know! Take me to my friends in the swamp!)" Crow nodded his head, and the Geist hopped on Crow''s back. With that, Crow flew through the air. "Geh! (Wow! Flying is so cool!)" said the Geist with glee as he looked at the world beneath him. Everything looked so tiny. The forest was like a big blob of green paint. The swamp a blob of brown-green paint. The Geist had always wanted to fly because¡­because¡­he did not really remember why, he knew he wanted to fly like¡­someone. He did not know who, but he just knew he wanted to fly, and wow, was it incredible! Before meeting the master, all the Geist could think about was killing humans, but now, he could enjoy things like this. For that, he was grateful to the master beyondpare. "Geh! (There!)" the Geist pointed down at the swamp where several crabmen gathered. "(Landing. Brace yourself.)" Crow ttened his wings and spiraled down like a missile. "Gehhhh! (Too fast!)" The Geist''s permanent smile ttened against his face from the buffeting winds as he struggled to hold on. Soon though, the whole scary ordeal was over. Crow slowed down gradually andnded rtively softly on the marshy ground beside the swamp. "Geh¡­" The Geist sighed in relief as he hopped off of Crow. He found himself staring at a host of fishmen and crabmen staring at the swamp but not actually going in it. "Gehgeh (What are you all doing?)" said the Geist. "(We can''t swim there)" said a fishman. "(Water too bad)". The crabmen clicked their ws together. "(The water is bad for us too.) "Gehmm" The Geist walked around until he saw his trusty two crab friends. Seeing them, the Geist''s ever present smile widened and he performed the crab dance they had taught him, waving his hands in the air. In response, the crabs did the same. "Gehgeh (You two can go in the water, right?)" said the Geist. The crabs clicked their jaws together. "(We can. But we scared of picking flowers there. What if the strong ones fight us?)" "Geh! (Don''t worry about that!)" The Geist nodded with enthusiasm. "(You two are my friends, right? If you pick the flowers, I will do anything I can for you!)" "(But how? Strong ones fight us)" said the crabs. The Geist pointed at Crow. "Geheh! (Look! I have a strong one backing me already! You will be safe. Give me the flowers, and I''ll make sure we win! When I''mmander, I''ll do something nice for you!" "(Wow, you have a strong one with you. We follow you too)" said the crabs. They then skittered their way over to the swamp, diving into their familiar home for eyeflowers. "Geheh (Heh, that''s one down, two more to go!)" said the Geist. The Geist hopped atop Crow''s back. "(You understand I will not actually fight for you?)" said Crow. "Geheh (As long as I get all the flowers, it doesn''t matter, right?)" said the Geist. "(¡­I guess)" Crow shrugged his wings. "(Just don''tin to me if this doesn''t work.)" "Gehgeh! (This will work! After all, I have friends!)" said the Geist. He then pointed towards the forest, where his good friend the troll was. "Geh! (Onwards! To the forest!)" Chapter 228 Flower Fight The Geist soared over the vast forests below this time. They looked like little shrubs from so high up, and though it was awesome to see the once big forest look so tiny, it also made the forest look all the same. He realized that he did not actually know where exactly his friend the troll was. He rubbed his head, trying to figure out where to go. "Geh! (I know!)" said the Geist in a moment of enlightenment. "Gehgeh! (I just have to think like my troll friend! He likes dirty ces with bad smells and hates fresh greens¡­)" The Geist scanned the forests below, the individual ck eyes on his body squeezing andpacting as they focused to their maximum extent. This was another thing that the Geist had figured out how to do. He realized that his healing power did not just let him heal, it let him control his own body. That was how it healed in the first ce. Knowing that, he could grow new arms or make things he already had even better, like his eyes. This way, he could obtain telescopic vision. Still, his control was not perfect. Every change he made to himself, he had to train really hard for. It was like creating and adding a new move he could use. So far, he knew how to make more arms, create more eyes and improve their vision, and create hardened armor ting in small amounts. To improve all of this, the Geist had to train more and more. He had to think hard about how to control his power and then put it into practice again and again. He had to push himself to his limits, recover, and then do it again. That way, the Geist slowly but surely improved his powers to their full potential. Ste was the one that had told him how to train like this. Push your powers to their limits both creatively and physically, rest, then do it again. Like muscle fibers breaking and repairing stronger and bigger. As the Geist zoomed in on the forests, he wondered why he had never thought about doing this before. It was a hard question to answer. Before following his current master, all he could think about was killing humans because of that loud voice in his head. Sometimes, the voice got quieter, and he had more fun, but most of the time, the voice was so loud that was all he could do. That was no fun. He always wanted to make friends, but with that voice around, there was no way he could do any of that. Now though, he had plenty of time and freedom to make the friends he always wanted! "Geh! (There!)" The Geist pointed down at a particrly rotted and withered section of the forest. The trees were ashen white with gnarled grey , leafless branches that stood in stark contrast to the hearty brown trunks and leafy tops of the trees popting the rest of the forest. Strange, toxic green colored air rose up from the trees, creating a hazy green mist. The green there was exactly the type of green that the troll would like. Not the healthy bright green of good veggies, but the browned green of something dying. "(Landing. Be ready this time.)" said Crow. "Geh! ("I''m ready!)" said the Geist resolutely. Crow tucked his wings again and dived down at breakneck speeds, aiming straight for the grey patch of forest. The Geist held on admirably, morphing his fingers into hooked forms that made it easier for him to get a good grip on Crow''s back. Crow still made sure to slow down hisnding this time in consideration of the Geist. At top speeds, Crow could easily match a high end fighter jet, casually surpassing the speed of sound. But the Geist at his current state could not handle even half those speeds. Yet, Crow knew power and potential. Especially potential. Far too many people only saw power at its height. Comparatively few knew what it took to reach those heights. Crow knew that the Geist had the potential to reach high. Possibly even further than Crow himself. Evidently, the master had thought the same thing. But that was the thing about potential: it took time and effort to grow. And often, it needed sacrifice. There was no greater motivator than loss. Pa nda No vel This was Crow''s personal judgement, but as he made note of the Geist hanging on his back with child like happiness, he did not think the Geist had the mind to reach the peak of his potential. The Geist was simply too innocent. Too nice. Yet, it was not Crow''s ce to make these judgements. If the master supported the Geist, then he did too. Crownded into the forest, toppling a few trees as he did so. He shielded the Geist from the impact with his wing, stiffening the feathers there so that they formed a flexible yet durable shield to absorb shock. "(We''re here)" said Crow. ????? ????? "Geh! (Great! I survived!)" The Geist hopped off of Crow''s back with his ever present smile just a bit wider and then looked around. There, he saw the confused looks of not just his troll friend, but several other trolls. "(Looks like your guess was right)"mented Crow. "Geh! (There you are, troll!)" said the Geist as he pointed to a troll that was particrly bigger than the others. "(What youe here for, friend?)" said the troll chieftain in grunts and growls that made up the trollnguage. "Gehgehgeh (To check up on you. Also, you made new friends?)" said the Geist, pointing at the other trolls. They warily stared at the Geist and especially at Crow''srge, looming, threatening form. "(It''s OK. These all my allies)" said the troll chieftain. "(I gather more trolls to look for flowers. I think I seen some before around here. So me and the boys go find them. We find one already, actually)."" The troll chieftain grunted, and one of the trolls under him showed an Eyeflower. "Geh¡­(So that''s what it is)" said the Geist. The flower consisted of a long, tendril-like purple stalk with a bulbous, closed eye attached at the end of it. When the troll poked the eye, the flesh opened up, revealing a wide and dted red pupil. "Gehgeh (Very cool)"mented the Geist. "(I know, right?)" the troll chieftain nodded proudly. "(Me and the boys going to find all the flowers here!)" "Geh¡­(About that¡­)" The Geist put his hands together like a conning salesman. "Gehgeh? (How about you give me the flowers?)" The troll chieftain cocked his head, confused. "(Huh?)" The Geist exined. "Gehgehgeh. Geh! (You''ll have to fight the strong guys otherwise, but I can pick all the flowers, and then I''ll bemander! When I''mmander, I''ll do something really nice for you all!) "(What!? If you want to bemander, I bemander too!)" said the troll chieftain. "Geh¡­" said the Geist to himself. He knew the troll chieftain was more stubborn than his other friends. "Gehgeh. Geh? (How are you going to bemander? You need all the other flowers too, dummy! Otherwise you''re going to fight the strong guys. Like this guy!" The Geist pointed back at Crow before crossing his arms smugly. "Gehgehgeh. (I''ll have you know he''s actually working for me.)" "What? Really!? Have you grown in power that much, friend?)" said the troll chieftain, shocked. Troll tribes followed a very basic social hierarchy where the strongest was at the top, so for Crow to be following the Geist around must have meant that the Geist had somehow gotten leagues stronger. "Gehgeh (I HAVE made some improvements, heh)" said the Geist. "(Okay then. I give you flowers)" said the troll chieftain. He pointed at the Geist with a smile. "(But only if you fight me! Show me you actually stronger than me first!)" "Gehgeh! (Themander said no fighting allowed!)" protested the Geist. The troll chieftainughed. "(We keep it a secret. Nobodye here because they don''t like it. Bad smells and bad food, they say. But trolls like us love it. But we also like big fights, too.)" The chieftain grunted, and one of the trolls brought him his cursed rock club. The club alternated between owners, sometimes the Geist using it, sometimes the chieftain using it, but this time, the chieftain had it. The chieftain grabbed the club in both hands and smiled. "(Let''s fight! I want to see how much you improve, friend!)" The Geist''s permanent smile widened too. He did not like fighting too much, but he liked when his friends smiled and doing things together with them. And this time, it was going to be a fight. Plus, the Geist could get all the flowers the trolls knew to pick. "Gehgeh! (Okay, let''s fight!)" said the Geist. Beforehand, when the Geist first met the troll chieftain, they were mostly evenly matched when the chieftain wielded the club. The Geist was a little stronger, but the difference was not extreme. But what about now? After all the training he had done under Ste? The Geist was eager to find out. Chapter 229 Training Payoff And Meeting With Z The Geist smiled at the troll chieftain as they circled each other, ready to fight. The rest of the trolls made a loose ring around them, chanting out a series of grunts and growls to hype the match up. They jumped up and down, for trolls loved nothing more than to see a good brawl where tusks broke, bones splintered, and blood spilled. "(You ready!?)" roared the troll chieftain. His muscles bulged in battle ready preparation under his scabby skin. He swung the huge man sized club of cursed ck rock in the air with all the ease of a feather. "Gehgeh! (Ready when you are, friend!)" said the Geist. He had shared many a good moment with the troll chieftain, and among the many monsters in the legion, he was probably his second best friend, right behind Ste who always knew so much and always had so much patience. "(Good! I attack now!)" the troll chieftain unleashed a guttural roar as he sprinted forwards, his arms upraised to unleash a powerful download strike with his club. The Geist let his friend get a hit in to see how much his friend had improved. "Geh! (Good!)" said the Geist as he blocked the overhead blow by raising his arms above his head in a cross guard. The cursed rock dug into the Geist''s flesh, rending it apart, but it could not go through too deeply against his tough, armor like muscture. A faint ck aura settled around where his flesh tore, preventing him from healing properly. "(I strike again!)" said the troll chieftain as he whirled around and struck a horizontal blow against the Geist''s open side. The Geist recalled some of Ste''s training, back when everyone was in the forest - = Ste stood a small distance the from the Geist, hands on her hips as she inspected the Geist for bnce in his stance and wasteful movements. "When someonees at you with a weapon, especially a big one, you don''t gotta just take it. In fact, bigger the weapon is, the harder it is to block, even for a musclehead like you. You gotta dodge it, or, if you can, redirect it. Big weapons mean big motions. That means big recovery. Parry a big hit, you got a big window to counter. Try and hit me with a punch." The Geist threw out a punch against Ste''s head. She unleashed a flexible high kick which, coupled with a concentrated explosion at her feet, blew the Geist''s arm high up in the air, way over Ste''s head. Before the Geist could pull his arm back in, Ste had rushed in, cing both her hands right against the Geist''s stomach. Orange glows crackled around her palms, showing that she was ready to blow a hole right through the Geist. "See that?" Ste pulled her hands back. "I didn''t just try and muscle it out with you. I''ve got a pretty trained body, but it ain''t gonna hold a candle up to someone with an Augmenter power like yours. So, I gotta treat your punch like a bit hit. I didn''t try and resist it directly. I directed the hit away. Less effort for me, more effort for you. This way, I can take down big bastards way stronger than me. Same goes for you. Get it?" "Gehgeh! (Wow! I get it now!)" said the Geist. = The Geist took up a proper martial arts stance. Legs shoulder width apart, arms raised to guard the head, head a little low to make it less of a target. Just the way Ste had taught him. Pa nda Novel Before training, the Geist would have seen the clubing at his side and just tried to grab it to stop it. He definitely had the strength to do so. But this time, he wanted to show off what he had learned. The Geist unleashed a quick downward elbow against the club, changing its trajectory downwards so that instead of gouging into his side, it mmed into the ground, embedding it into the soil. The troll chieftain grunted in surprise. He hunched over to pull the club out of the ground. In that moment, the Geist unleashed a proper punch. One with a grounded stance, engaged core muscles, and proper rotation at the hips. This, too, he learned from Ste. The punch shot out fast, socking the troll chieftain right in the chest and shooting him back like a bomb. The chieftain flew into one of the other trolls, tumbling them backwards like bowling pins. "Gehgeh! (These punches are so strong!)" the Geist eximed in proud glee. Before training, the Geist''s punches had just been wild swings and swipes, moving no differently than a wild animal. But by making his hits much morepact and focused, the Geist could unleash maybe three times the power he used to be able to. The troll chieftain groaned in pain as he weakly shoved the troll on top of him away. The chieftain''s chest was caved in, indicating a lethal wound had he not been undead. "Gehgeh! (Oh no! Are you okay!?)" the Geist hopped over to the chieftain''s side. "(I am a troll! I heal fast!)" the troll chieftain stood up with little issue after a few seconds of regenerating. The dent in his chest buffed out, his bones and muscles healing due to his racial ability of heightened regeneration. "(Just like you, friend, I get better quick. Are you sure you are not a troll like me?)" The Geist cocked his head. "Gehgeh? Geheh! (I don''t know what I am. But I am happy you are okay!)" The troll chieftain grunted in agreement and then shouted to the other trolls. "(The fight over! My friend here strong. We follow him now!)" The other trolls roared in excited agreement. "(Strong! Strong! Strong!)" shouted the trolls. "Geheheh¡­" The Geist put a shy hand on his head, not quite used to all this praise. "(We have flowers for youter. Me and boys remember where most of them in forest are)" said the troll chieftain. (For my favor, give me and boys big feastter!)" "Gehgeh! (I will do my best! Thanks!)" the Geist nodded and then moved on as the trolls scattered away, looking for Eyeflowers. He hopped back on Crow and then pointed upwards, to arge mountain face at the edge of the dimensional space. "Geh! (There! Commander saysst flowers grow there. I pick those myself!)" Crow nodded and flew up with one strong beat of his wings. He hovered in the air for a bit as he charged up energy and directed himself towards the mountain face. "(That is quite far away. I will use my top speed)" said Crow. Then, in an explosive burst, Crow shot forth like a living bullet, easily surpassing the sound barrier with the ensuing sonic boom drowning out the Geist''s terrified screeches. = Nomad Compound, Z''s base (Wanyudo) "Coffee?" asked Z as she poured some out from a press into a metal cup. Aldrich sat at the same table he had before with the chiefs, but this time, it was only him and Z. And her guards, too. Knife was there. As were two others. "No. I don''t drink it," said Aldrich. "I''m surprised you make your own coffee." "It is a hobby of mine," said Z. She took her cup of steaming coffee and then sat across the table, facing Aldrich. Her purple, hawkish eyes gazed at him. "Now then, Mr. Vane, what do you want?" "What do I want? Quite direct, aren''t you?" said Aldrich. "I am not like Casimir. I am bad at smooth talking. I like to get to the point fast," said Z. Aldrich reached into his pocket, immediately noticing that all three of Z''s guards tensed up. He withdrew two CIDs. His and Valera''s. He slid the two rectangr, finger sized chips across the table. Z picked them up, inspecting them. "Those are two CIDs I''ve been using. Picked them up from a gang called the Odinsons," said Aldrich. "I want you to update them to bypass tier 1 cities." "Odinsons? The name doesn''t quite ring a bell," said Z. "Compared to you guys, they were no names," said Aldrich. "Maybe twenty to thirty in number. Small time wastnd raiders with not much to their name. From what I could tell, they peddled drugs and tech like this." "Still doesn''t register. But then again, I am not Desmond. I don''t go out of my way to know every little thing around me, so it stands to reason I would not know one out of thousands of tiny raiding gangs." Z''s eyes glowed in the same way Svenna''s did when she interacted with technology. "I only pay particr attention to my tech." "That is interesting, though, that a rtively miniscule gang like them had ess to your high end tech," said Aldrich. "I try to keep some of my tech as essible as possible," said Z. "You have some familiarity with the criminal underworld, but you have no idea about Nomads like us." Chapter 230 Meeting With Z (2) "From what I know, nomads and viins are just two sides of the same coin. Viins do most of the real crime. Nomads do most of the mule work - the supplying and transportation." Aldrich said this, but he understood it was only a surface level conception of what the nomads were like. As a city child, it was true that Aldrich knew almost nothing about nomads. And because nomads were away from society proper, there was very little information about them other than traditional media outlets that branded nomads as dangerous pigers and criminals. Nomads were branded even more dangerous than viins, because viins at least had a vested interest in maintaining societal order for profit. Aldrich understood that the media had an interest in demonizing nomads, making their lifestyle away from cities less attractive, but he himself knew precious little about how nomads were or what they valued. Not to mention his experience with the only other nomad gang he had - the Odinsons - was not particrly positive, ending in bloodshed. "Technically right, and a very thoroughly city-centric way of looking at it. Both viins and nomads are part of the underworld, but also fundamentally different. We share amonality in that we hide from from society proper, wallowing in its ''underworld''," said Z. But where viins do so to amass power, nomads like us mostly do so for the sake of freedom. The vast majority of us do not or cannot live in cities, so we choose the freedom of the wastnds, no matter how hard the life may be. And because life is hard, nomads work and stick together. We share as much as we can. That includes my tech. Without easily essible forged CIDs, it would be near impossible for nomads like us to survive in the wastnds. We do have to enter cities form time to time for supplies, after all. Hence, why my false CIDs are as ''free'' as possible. Easily reproducible. Easily copied. Easily updated to escape changing Panopticon security measures via myself or one of my Phantoms." "There aren''t any others that forge CIDs like you do?" asked Aldrich. "Oh there are plenty," said Z. "But I am simply the best." She said this with a matter of fact tone, as if being the best was just a simple and natural part of her. "Which is why you''re confident about your job security with the Dark Six." "Correct. Of course, if the Dark Six do make a move against me, I would sever connections with them. But until that happens, I am a neutral party, Mr. Vane." Pa nda Novel "I understand that. I wasn''t here to try and convince you," said Aldrich. "Oh?" Z took a sip of her coffee. She did so through her jaw shaped mask which seemed to have a suction function that drew in the liquid. "There are two things I wanted to discuss with you. Or rather, one thing I wanted to discuss, one thing I wanted to tell you. Here''s what I wanted to discuss: do you trust Desmond?" Z briefly tore her gleaming purple stare from the two CIDs to Aldrich. "Seeking to sow the seeds of discord among us already?" "No, this was just a question," said Aldrich. "A leading question." "Will you answer it? I have no issues if you don''t." "Hm." Z put the CIDs down and crossed her arms and legs, taking on a rxed yet confident air. "As I have said before, nomads operate on strong bonds of trust. Desmond is no different. He is an information broker. His spiders know things, their web of knowledge spreading far beyond even myprehension. But the fact that he is part of this council means he will not spread knowledge about us to others." Aldrich raised a questioning brow. "And you trust that? This idea of nomadic trust - is it really that solid? I know that look in your eyes. It''s sharp. Wary. I don''t think someone like you believes that." Z shrugged. "No, I do not. But I ept it. It is simply how things are in the Wastnds. There is precious little space for duplicity. Nomads all rely on each other. Without me and my Phantoms, there is no tech. Without Clint and his Spearhorns, there is no muscle. Without Gerard and his Hawks, there is nobody to scout out variants or storms. Without Stone, travel across the harsher parts of the Waste bes very difficult. Without Crone and her Poppies, determining safe and efficient supply routes bes quite the challenge. And without Desmond and his Spiders, it is difficult to get news of Panopticon and government movement. Or, when needed, viin movement. Had Desmond not been here, we would not have known about the incident in Haven. We would not have known about the Dark Six standing against us, either. Should Desmond break this trust, he will be cut off, and unless he and his Spiders are willing topletely be viins, they can no longer survive in the Wastnds." "Oh? And what if he does? What if the Dark Six offers him a deal so sweet for him and his people he thinks he can survive all he wants without all of you," said Aldrich. "Certainly possible. But then he loses freedom," said Z. She noted Aldrich''s confusion. "You do not understand. But freedom is what drives the nomad spirit. Most of the Spiders under Desmond live here because they believe in this ideal of freedom. Freedom from surveince. Freedom from control. Freedom from society. If Desmond tells them he will sell their freedom away to work for the Dark Six, he will have quite the revolt on his hands." "I see," said Aldrich. "Freedom, is it? Seems like a silly thing to believe in so highly. But I can understand the want for it." "Freedom is not simply a want, it is a need," said Z. "Like food and shelter. Humans by nature, even when born with tremendous powers, strive for freedom. Some wish to be freer than others. Some wish for everyone to be as free as them. But in the end, everyone grasps for freedom." Z tapped the CID chips on the table. "And I am finished updating these." She slid the chips over, and Aldrich pocketed them again. "What are your ns, then? With the Dark Six against you." "My ns are to remain neutral. But I presume you mean us nomads as a whole. All the nomad tribes will be on the move after tonight for the sake of our safety. If you manage to secure Sentinel status, then I imagine as promised, the other tribes will ally with you for security''s sake. If not, well, I do not possess Crone''s future sight, but I foresee that things will be quite a bit more difficult for both of us." "I know." Aldrich knew full well that if he did not obtain Sentinel status, the nomads could turn against him to try and get back in goodwill with the Dark Six. He did not believe Clint and his Spearhorns would. Clint seemed to have something personal against the Dark Six which, added on to his strong want for adventure, made it much easier for him to side with Aldrich. But the others, he did not particrly trust yet. Especially Desmond. That was why he had a Grave Ward spying on Desmond''s base. The moment Aldrich found Desmond doing anything suspicious was the moment he found a way to out Desmond and eliminate him. If possible, Aldrich wanted to raise Desmond as his undead to ess the information he possessed. But Desmond was a small frypared to the other enemies Aldrich would make by losing Sentinel status. Aldrich would be an enemy of the AA-Panopplex and world governments, perhaps the greatest force on the. Yet even then, he felt confident he could survive. He could just hide out in the Wastnds, perhaps even in areas ripe with Null ore, and build up his power in hiding. Nobody could really stop him. No matter what, Aldrich would build up his power. However, Aldrich wanted to hold out and see if the AA-Panopplex would work with him. He wanted ess to their resources, and he knew they wanted ess to his strength, now more so than ever with the recent mass locus attacks. "I will grant your technos ess to securemunication channels to get in touch with us," said Z. "Update us on Thanatos''s path to Sentinel status. So far, Thanatos has quite the popr fanbase, but poprity alone may not be enough. Even the backing of a Fortune heir may not be enough." "I will." Aldrich stood up, readying to leave. "Oh, and one more thing. V says they are home." Z''s eyes widened for a brief uncharacteristic moment before they narrowed back down to her usual sharp coolness. "Is V with you?" "Why does it matter to you?" said Aldrich. "¡­" Z looked away, and for a brief moment, Aldrich felt like he could see Z''s eyes waver in something resembling sadness. "I suppose it does not. Enjoy your stay in thepound, Mr. Vane. And get to know the other chiefs a little better if you can. After all, we must part ways by tomorrow." Chapter 231 Blackwater Allegiance Chapter 231 ckwater Allegiance Z watched as ''Mr. Vane'' - whatever his real name was, she did not particrly care - left the Wanyudo. "What do you think of him, Z?" said Knife. "Sharp eyes." Z narrowed her own eyes, remembering Vane''s stare that mirrored hers almost perfectly. Eyes weary of the world around them, and yet always aware, always alert. Those were the eyes of someone whose vignce was born from suffering and loss. "True, he did remind me of you somehow, but now that you mention it, it''s all in the eyes," said Knife. "He could even pass for your son or something." "Son, is it?" Z shrugged. "Your imagination is running a little too wild, Knife. Take Fork and Spoon and get some rest. I need some alone time. In the meanwhile, tell my riders to give me status reports on their projects." "Got it, boss," said Knife, and he waved his hand, motioning the other two bodyguards - Spoon and Fork - to follow him out of the meeting room. When they left, Z found herself staring into her cup of coffee, staring at her muted reflection. It was hard to make out anything other than the purple glow of her eyes. "V, my little daughter, you''vee home, have you? After all this time?" Z sighed deeply and slid her cup away, not wanting to look at her reflection anymore. "But home¡­is no ce for you." Z looked at the door that Aldrich left through. Her gaze was sharp again. "I only hope you''ve chosen right." Aldrich walked back into the main living room of his base. The moment he stepped in, all of the ckwater students stopped what they were doing to pay heed to him. Not that they were doing much aside from talking, gathered around tables and furniture as they were. Aldrich went to the kitchen area where he looked in the fridge and took out a can of beer. He ignored the almost dozen stares etched on him as he opened the can. "What? I can''t enjoy a beer?" Aldrich took a sip as he met everyone''s stares. Some were eased. Most anxious. None hostile - a good sign. "This isn''t like before when you guys got to go out to the city and I couldn''t. And I think I deserve this after raising you all from the dead." "Technically though, didn''t you kill us?" said anky, long haired guy with deeply sunken in, tired golden eyes. This was Elias. ckwater''s rank 6 with a speed based power that let him boost his speed by sapping it from others. "Even if I did, I could have just as easily left you all for dead," said Aldrich. He raised a brow. "I can do that even now, if you want. Turning any of you into dust isn''t much of an issue for me." Aldrich took another sip. "But I''d prefer not to. I''d like for us to be able to enjoy a drink like this all together, even if I am just a Dud in your eyes." Alexis lightly chopped Elias''s head. "Elias, you idiot, we all talked about this." She nodded towards Aldrich with her pale white eyes. "All of us are in agreement about staying here. Even Elias. It''s just difficult for him to express himself properly." "Beats dying again, I guess," Elias shrugged andzily plopped down on a couch. "I have no real preference either way, but if you want to do this, Lexis, then I will too." "You''re no Dud to me, either," said Ace. "You have undeniable power, plus I hear from the news you''ve got some big shot Fortune heir backing this whole operation. I''m in as long as I get a fat chunk of credits." "Credits won''t be a big deal," said Aldrich. "And the rest of you?" "Most of us here are child recruits from mercenary groups," said Alexis. "We have no real attachment to the organizations that raised us. If anything, if we''re going to get paid under you, then we don''t see why we shouldn''t take your offer. p anda Novel Especially because as Elias somewhat rudely pointed out, we would die otherwise." "It''s good to see we''re all starting to get on the same page." Aldrich scanned the room. "I know almost all of you are either child soldiers picked up and raised by merc groups orboratory experiments. You have no real familial attachments to any of these ces. I can take it that most of you are fine being under my employ?" Most of the ckwater students nodded. "Let''s see, if I remember my research correctly, two of you here do still have families you''re involved with. Gerald and Kat, you two, what do you think?" said Aldrich. Kat was the daughter of two renowned assassins in the underworld taking up the family practice. Gerald, on the other hand, had been sold by his parents as coteral for a gambling debt they had racked up. The criminal organization that picked Gerald up realized his power had strong potential along with Gerald himself having talent. Gerald was a soft spoken and seemingly frail minded person, but when it came to fighting, he could put focus to an almost unnatural degree. So the merc group had trained him, then geared him towards ckwater toplete his training. "I''m not against the idea of working with you," said Kat, her feline ears twitching nervously. "But like, my parents will worry, and I have to see if they''re okay with this and all¡­" Aldrich had not expected Kat of all people to be the type to worry about her parents all that much. But this was not that much of an issue. From what he knew, her parents were independent contractors not affiliated with any organization, meaning Kat was not an asset tied up to any organization that they had to retrieve. If Kat just wanted to do her own thing, so long as her parents epted it, she should have no issues working with Aldrich. "You can contact your parents. I''ll set that up when possible. I can assume you aren''t worrying about their safety, right?" "No, they''re total badasses. I''m sure they''re fine," said Kat. "Probably looking for me, though." "Right." Aldrich looked at Gerald. "And you?" "I haven''t seen my parents in a long time," said Gerald. "I imagine you may not want to, considering how you ended up being in ckwater," said Aldrich. "Yeah¡­" Gerald shook his head. "But I still want to see them one more time. If I work with you, I want to ask you for that favor." "I''ll do my best," said Aldrich. "That, I can promise." Gerald smiled warmly. "Okay then." "Good," said Aldrich. "Then all of us have an agreement." Aldrich nodded mostly to himself. When ckwater did not know he was Aldrich and just Thanatos, they followed him without much question due to the heightened loyalty conditioned into them from bing undead. However, once they realized it was Aldrich, there was some level of resistance, but it looked like it was mostly just at the surface level. Most of the students were just like anyone else. They wanted safety and security and credits. Which Aldrich could provide. The credits, he would have to borrow from now, probably from Aarav, but he could pay that back tenfold soon enough. And, maybe, as Z had said, the students wanted freedom. Ironically, under Aldrich''s control, they were less free than ever, but freedom was always an illusory concept. If Aldrich could make them feel freer, then he was sure they would prefer working under him than whatever forcedbor they faced in their mercenary organizations. In any case, Aldrich could not foresee the students having so much resistance against Aldrich that they could override their loyalty directive. The only one that had done that was Evan Harker, and that was because as a member of Seth Sr''s gang, he had absolutely hated Aldrich. Aldrich would keep an eye on Simon Wells, thest remaining member of that gang, but for now, allowed him to exist so long as he did not make a ruckus. Simon did not show nearly as much direct hostility against Aldrich. At the very least, not enough to surpass the loyalty directive. Plus Simon had decent potential to grow stronger where Evan''s wolf bots, though strong, were resource intensive. On top of that, Svenna was a better techno than Evan in almost every metric. She was not as specialized in creating battle bots, but she could hold her own inbat using her energy absorbing hair whereas Evan was basically useless without his drones. Evan was just dead weight. Someone who barely sat at rank 14 in ckwater''s A ss, just ahead of Eric whose powers were meant mostly for healing, not fighting. "Help yourselves to whatever you want," said Aldrich. He pointed at the empty beer cans and bottles strewn about. "Just make sure to clean upter." Chapter 232 [Bonus Chapter] Eileen’sConversation Chapter 232 [Bonus Chapter] Eileen''sConversation [Bonus chapters are now online again! More golden tickets = more chapters!] Outside, in the Nomad Compound, around the same time as Aldrich''s talk with ckwater - Eileen sat on a bench with Ste, wondering at the many cloaked men and women that roamed around the cracked earth. Ste took a big swig from a bottle of whiskey. "You know, one thing I like about this new body, aside from it not having to deal with annoying little heart attacks, is the fact that I don''t get drunk anymore. Or maybe that''s a bad thing." Eileen did not really respond, distracted not just by the nomads that she had never really seen up close before, but by what she had seen with Aldrich. She was thoroughly scared. Aldrich was not like Minuteman. He was colder. He did not hesitate to turn that ckwater student into dust. She wondered if she even belonged here. "What''s got you all down, kid?" asked Ste. She smiled at Eileen. "If you feel down, just tell me. I''m your senior in both life and heroism, after all!" "You''re not scared being here?" asked Eileen. "Huh? Why would I be?" Ste cocked her head. "Of Aldrich, he-he seems almost like a viin sometimes," said Eileen. "Oh that, yeah, I totally agree," said Ste simply. "R-really? But you seem so calm and okay with it all¡­" "I dunno. Maybe I wasn''t all that cut out to be a prim n'' proper hero like that red and blue boy Minuteman," said Ste. She shrugged. "But y''know, Minuteman DID sponsor him." "That is true¡­" Eileen lowered her head. "How old are you? Like seventeen? It''s no wonder you''re all shaken up. Judging by your powers, you''d probably have been trained for rescue ops and mobilization. Haven''t had to kill anyone then, have you?" said Ste. Eileen shook her head. She knew it was not umon for heroes to have to kill. It was a rtively epted thing, even. If a situation got tense, then heroes had authority to use lethal force. Even Minuteman had killed people before. Viins that harmed and killed others, granted, but still people. But that was totally different from eviscerating someone because they spoke up. "I can ept having to kill - it''s just a part of this job, and I''ve been trained for it as well," said Eileen. "But killing just to scare people into listening? I don''t know about that." "Hmm. Is that what you think?" Ste looked around at the nomads streaming by with their cloaks and goggles. "Y''know, I grew up as a nomad too. Not out here in the Wastnds, where there''s big stretches of nothing, but in the Foresnds full of overgrown nts and variants. Back there, in the nomadmune, my pa was pretty high up. One day, I saw him take a man out who''d been stealing meat from our hunts. My pa put the thief against a wall and gunned him down. Cold blooded execution.Pan da Novel After that, though, nobody stole anything. At least not for a while, until the memory of the thief''s brains sttered against the walls faded. That''s what fear does - it keeps people in line. And some people only respond to fear. The type you see among those ckwater students - they''re the type that fear works on well. You might think fear gets a bad rep, but it''s necessary sometimes. Especially out here when people are just trying to survive - they''ve got no time to worry about drawn out trials and appeals and whatnot that you see in a city. Shit, half the time, those are all rigged too. You ever see a business exec go behind bars? Unless another exec nned it." "You ept it, then? The fear he uses to control?" said Eileen, shaken up. "Do I ept it? World''s not so simple. It isn''t ck or white or eptance or refusal." Ste shrugged. "Best put, I understand it. It''s efficient, and Aldrich is all about that." "But efficiency above all else¡­don''t you worry Aldrich might be someone you can''t follow? Someone you can''t respect?" Ste downed the rest of her bottle and then tossed it behind her. It hit a nomad in the head who raised his hand in ready to shout something, but very quickly backed down when she shot him a life threatening re. She sighed before turning back to Eileen. "Think about it this way. Why did you be a hero?" "Because I wanted to help people," said Eileen. "Right. I knew you would say something like that," said Ste. "You make it sound like it''s a bad thing." "No it ain''t. It''s just predictable. I wanted to be a hero to help people too, when I was your age. What I want to ask you is this: ever since Aldrich took you up from the dead, how many people have you saved?" "Well, the people in Haven, for one-," began Eileen. "Right. So thousands upon thousands of people. How many had you saved as a trainee?" "Uhm, maybe a hundred?" "Wow, a hundred? That''s a huge number for a trainee. Butpare that to a hundred thousand plus. Where''s theparison?" "¡­You''re right. If you look at it in terms of numbers, I''ve done more than I ever could have, even working as a hero." "Precisely." Ste nodded. "I feel like I''m making an impact here. Back when I was a hero, I was weaker, that''s for sure, but I also didn''t see a future for myself. Just a regr ol'' D lister used as a pretty face here and there for amercial. Hell, I didn''t even get to be front and center of thosemercials too, always just a background prop. Over the years, I kinda forgot that I wanted to save people. I just did the bare minimum, scraping by to get enough AP to make credits and live a decent life. Out here, though, I feel alive again despite technically being dead. I feel like I''m making the change I wanted to." Ste patted Eileen''s back. "This is just my advice, but if you really, REALLY want to help people and not just end up being a prop in the AA, stuck in a hellhole of fighting for the easiest and best jobs or sponsorships, then you stick with Aldrich. If you want to be recognized for what you can do and not what you can offer forpanies, then you stick with Aldrich." "I think I''ming to understand. I feel better now about all of this. Thanks, Ste." Eileen smiled. "I was just shaken up seeing something I wasn''t used to." Ste smiled back. " Aldrich, deep down, at least I think, is a decent guy. He wants what''s best overall for everyone. The means he uses, a lot of the time they might seem harsh, but you''ll understand them in time." "I will?" "Yeah. The AA doesn''t like to publicize the bad cases. The type that makes your gut crawl with disgust. The kind that makes you wonder whether humans are no better than rabid dogs." Ste clenched her jaw, sparks starting to fly from her fingertips as she reminisced about awful things Eileen could not evenprehend. "But you''ll have to deal with those in time. When you do, you''lle to know better why he does what he does. Until then, if you want to help others, stay here." Ste smiled again and put a friendly, sisterly arm around Eileen''s shoulder. "And I''ll make sure to take care of you, cute little sweet thing you are." Chapter 233 - Stay and Fight Chapter 233 - Stay and Fight A few hourster - Aldrich sat on the roof of a armored car thoroughly decked out in nomad aesthetics. If he had to find a word for the genre that nomad tech design fit in, he would say thoroughly post-apocalyptic. Everything looked almost make shift with armor ting scrapped from various mismatched sources roughly welded and packed together, guns crammed on just for the sake of having big guns, and tribal essories like metal horns attached to the car''s front. "How do you like my baby, huh?" Clint sat beside Aldrich, a beer bottle in his hand. The bottle looked almost like a toy proppared to Clint''s enormous size. Aldrich himself was quite tall at around two meters, but Clint was half a meter taller even than that. But that was not umon among mutant Alters whose powers permanently shifted their body. "How do these things even run?" said Aldrich. He also had a beer in his hand. He had been outside of thepound, watching Chiros drill his death knights, when Clint spotted him and asked him to sit down and have a talk over a drink. "No offense, of course, but they just seem so inefficient. Nomad tech seems to have no regard at all for weight or physics." "I dunno'', shit''s tooplicated for me," said Clint. "I know we got different engines. Powered by fuckin'' geostorm energy - can''t get any more badass than that, right?" "Geostorms?" Aldrich raised a brow. As far as he knew, geostorms were basically just natural disasters with no real value to them. The storms, not variants, though variants did y a part, were the biggest reason why approximately 42% of Earth was still inhospitable. They were not just ordinary natural disasters. They were supernatural in origin, powered byrge swells of Ether within the. Just like how Alter organs could process ether into countless different effects, geostorms seemed to use ether in remarkably unpredictable yet invariably destructive ways. Fire storms, thunder storms, maic storms, disintegrating storms - any horrible person destroying effect you could think of, geostorms could probably manifest it. Cities were built in areas where geostorms did not regrly cross, but of course, nomads had to deal with them as a way of life. "The storms are the reason we can fuel most of our tech," said Gerard. He had joined in on this conversation as well, sitting beside Clint with a bottle of liquor instead of beer. "They release highly enriched ether in gas form whenever they pass, and some of us, stormchasers as we''re called, follow the storms and store that energy for us to use." "You can''t wait for the storms to pass?" asked Aldrich. "I wish. Wouldn''t lose my men that way," said Gerard with a sigh and a swig of his bottle. "The enriched ether decays rapidly. You look at a storm after it''s passed, even just half an hourter, and there''s nothing. Not even the Panopticon risks harvesting storms. Only nomads like us that need to do what we need to do to survive. It''s kind of poetic in a way. Storms are our greatest threat, but also our livelihood. Reminds me of the yellow river in ancient China. Millions lived by its life giving waters. Millions died by its raging floods." "Yellow river? You didn''t strike me as the type to quote stuff from China," said Aldrich. "Why not? We live in a global society, don''t we? Well, as global as can be with half of it in the wastes. But I spent a decade there, actually, when I was young and wanted to explore the world more," said Gerard. He raised his fist in the air, and from it, a sky blue aura of energy formed. "Trained under Sifu, back when he took foreign students." "Sifu?" Aldrich remarked, mildly surprised. Sifu was one of China''s S ss heroes and a legend within Alter history, being one of the extremely rare surviving few that had lived so long he predated the Altering itself. He was almost single-handedly responsible for restoring order to the country after superpowered viinsbeling themselves as ''warlords'' took overrge chunks of it. "Yeah." Gerard said with a proud smile. "The Qi keeps me strong and young. Well, young as can be. I look sixty, boy, but you best be aware that I''m almost a hundred myself." "I''ve never seen anyone using Qi in person. Thought it was limited to China," said Aldrich. Sifu possessed an Editor ss power that he called Qi that allowed him to create a ''dantian'' within himself that could process energy - the colloquial term for bodily ether used to fuel alter organs - and convert it into powerful physical reinforcement or even projectiles. The qi also slowed his aging process, though it did not make him immortal. By now, Sifu was probably a hundred and sixty years old, give or take, and age had weakened his powers considerably. But his legacy was what made Sifu so important. As an Editor, Sifu could manipte other Alters'' powers. More specifically, if an Alter had the potential, he could have them grow a dantian as well. The dantian was in effect a secondary growth simr to the alter organ specialized towards creating qi. Not everyone could grow a dantian and among those that could, not all could use it effectively. But still, enough people werepatible with it that it let Sifu create a personal army. Because of this, the Chinese government, once re-established, took Sifu in as a national asset. A thoroughly guarded one, too. The government let essentially no outsiders learn under Sifu. The fact that Gerard did meant he was in China during the warlord''s reign almost seventy years ago, showcasing just how old he was. "You really are old," continued Aldrich. "Considering you must have gotten in the country during the warlords'' reign." "Bah, still spry enough to throw down in a fight if I have to," said Gerard, insulted. He side eyed Aldrich. "That''s one thing I wanted to talk to you about. You and Thanatos obtaining Sentinel status - you think that''s possible?" "I have enough leverage to make them heavily consider it," said Aldrich. "I know that. But it''s not just about leverage. It''s whether you think you think you two belong in that league." Aldrich narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that, exactly?" "He means strength," said Clint. "Y''all think you got the power to stand up there as a proper Sentinel state? That''s what Gerard wants to know." "Look at the other Sentinels in the world so far," said Gerard. "Emperor in China, Semiramis in the Middle East, Dracul in Eastern Europe, Aja in Africa, Ravana in India, and Utopia who manages Neo-Eden for the world''s elite. Emperor and Dracul are top ss powers widely regarded among the strongest Alters of all time. Some even say that they can match Vanguard''s mountain shattering punches in his prime. Semiramis, Oko, and Ravana have powers so dangerous or useful that nobody wants to upset them. Utopia, well, she''s just apdog for the establishment, so I''ll leave her out of this." "And?" said Aldrich, unimpressed. "You don''t think we belong in that league. Is that what you''re implying?" "I''m just not sure," said Gerard. "And I don''t like uncertainty. That''s why I''m holding off on fullymitting to you, even with the Dark Six against me. I have to admit this: I am growing old." "No shit" said Clint, and Gerard ignored him. "There''s only so much Qi can do to stave off creaking bones and wrinkling skin. I''m holding on because I want to pass onto my riders a time of peace, not whatever shitshow we have on our hands now." "Uncertainty is exciting though," said Clint, "if we was scared of a little bit of chaos then ain''t no reason we ought to have left the cities in the first ce." "There''s only so much of that this heart of mine can handle. Especially now." Gerard shook his head. "If it''s peace you want, it''s peace you''ll get." Aldrich took in a sip of his beer. He did not like the taste, but he found himself drinking it anyway. Must have been the mood of the conversation. He looked ahead at the vast wide wastnds before him, stretching out seemingly infinitely into the horizon in its canvas of amber oranges and sun baked earthen yellows. "It''s what I want too." "Better be a good fight or two on the way there," said Clint. "More than one or two, with how this Dark Six situation''s brewing," said Aldrich. Clint cracked his thickly muscled neck. "Heh, I like the sound of that." At the mention of fights, Gerard just sighed again. An old man sigh, more tired than anything else. "In my opinion, Gerard, you''re looking at things the wrong way," said Aldrich. "Yes, there''s going to be fights. Conflicts before I establish myself. Uncertainty. But your alternative is just to run. Run deeper into the wastnds and make life for you and your riders harder. Is what you want to do? Flee? Why not stay and fight? Fight to build something better to leave your people?" "Age is gettin'' to your head, old G," said Clint. "My pa always used to say: you only really start agin'' when you let the age get to your head." "I don''t want to hear that from young''uns like you two." Gerard took a deep swig of his liquor. "But maybe there''s merit in that. Maybe I have gotten a little too careful in my old age." That moment, a hawk made of pure white energy alighted upon Gerard''s shoulder. "What is it?" asked Gerard. The hawk put its beak to Gerard''s ear, and he immediately capped his bottle and got off the car. "What''s got ya in such a hurry, old fart?" said Clint. "Variant movement due northeast. Closing in fast, too." Gerard tapped his cybeic monocle, and the lens glowed blue. "I''m going to let my riders know. From what my hawk could tell, the variants are tough. We''ll need your riders, Clint. Or just you, if you''re up for the job." "Aw, hell yeah!" Clint got off with a heavy thud. He nodded to Aldrich. "Y''know, I want to know if you''re any good in a fight, too. How bout'' youe along with me, eh?" "Sure." Aldrich shrugged. Chapter 234 - Megaloptera Chapter 234 - Megaloptera Aldrich sat in the passenger seat of Clint''s car, watching endless stretches of cracked earth speed by. He crossed his arms not to look cool, but to save space because Clint in the driver''s seat was so wide he crammed Aldrich into more or less half a seat. Aldrich wanted to take his own car out, but Clint had insisted that ''real men bond by driving together'', whatever that meant. "¡­Have you ever thought about making this car bigger?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, but I had this back when I was sixteen or somethin'' and a whole lot skinnier. It was my first ride! Ain''t gonna give up on it now." Clint smiled as he smashed his foot against the elerator. The car rumbled intensely as its oversized, over-modified engine worked to its limits. shes of exhaust and fire burst out from the back of the car, holding so much power behind them that they lifted the vehicle straight off the ground. Every single time the car went off the ground to elerate, it mmed back down, making the whole thing lurch and shake violently. "I think I''m getting dizzy," said a green skinned girl with solid colored ck eyes from the backseat. When the car rocked up and down, her whole body noticeably jiggled like she was made out of jelly. This was Tox, a ckwater student who had been rank 7 in the A ss. Like Fletcher, she was ssed as an Elemental Augmenter, meaning her entire bodyprised of a specific substance. In her case, a corrosive slime. Also like Fletcher, she was considered a ''true'' Elemental whocked a targetable nervous system. Thus, to kill her required nearplete annihtion of her body. True Elementals were considered among the strongest category of Alter powers due to how difficult it was to put them down. In fact, a good chunk of S rank heroes across the world were True Elementals. Dracul, one of the Sentinels that Gerard had implied was above Aldrich''s league, was one of them, capable of turning into pure darkness. The only reason Tox did not rank higher in ckwater was because of a major weakness: the more she expelled slime, the more sluggish she got. This limited her destructive capability, though she was still insanely tough to kill. "How are YOU getting dizzy? Do you even have an actual brain?" said Ace, also from the backseat. "Says you, you big dummy!" said Tox. "If you were asked to take an IQ test, you''d probably wonder if it was something you could eat!" "Calm down, kids, and keep your eyes on the road," said Ste. She was thest of the Alters Aldrich had taken with him for this variant hunt. Mostly to alleviate her boredom from sitting around. "Tell that to horn head over there! Tox pointed a jiggling, using finger at Clint. "His driving is horrible!" "This is how real men drive on the Wastes! None of that sissy traffic light shit from the cities!" roared Clint. A voice crackled through speakers in the car. Gerard''s voice. "Me and my riders have tracked the variant. It''s a Megaloptera with one wing downed. On therger side, too. It''s desperate and hungry, exining why it''sing for us. I''ll send the coordinates to your car. It can''t fly, but it has a swarm of its nymphs guarding it onnd. My estimation: we need about twenty of your boys. Or just you, if you have the time. Just make sure you don''t get eaten right off the bat." "Got all the time in the world!" said Clint. Gerard sighed through the speakers. "I don''t know where you young''uns get the energy. I''m off now." With that, Aldrich saw the car''s wide dashboard light up. A very rudimentary map at its right corner showed up, showcasing one big red dot where the variants were and one small yellow dot where the car was. "We''re not far off," noted Aldrich. "Yeah, and considering it''s got a mega in its name, we ought to see the big son of a bitch by now. There she is!" Clint excitedly pointed both hands in front of him, marking out an enormous, ck ted dragonfly in the distance. The car started to swerve out of control with Clint not controlling the wheel. "Hands on the wheel! That''s basic driving school stuff!" yelled Tox. "Haha, we can all survive a car crash or two, can''t we!?" said Clint. "Otherwise you all don''t belong in my car!" "I thought you cared about this car,"mented Aldrich. "Ain''t no car of mine if it can''t survive a crash or two either!" Clint said as he put his hands back on the wheel, taming the wildly veering vehicle into some semnce of a straight trajectory. Aldrich just shook his head, but he still smiled. Maybe he got along with Clint''s type better than he let on. The energy was infectious, he did have to admit. As Clint''s car rapidly approached the dragonfly, its size became ever more apparent. It was as big as a three story house, easily capable of crushing a fully grown man into paste under just one of its legs. On its lengthy belly was a sizable swarm ofnd based nymphs that had yet to grow their wings. Each nymph was asrge as a car, and when they sensed Clint''s very loud, very obvious arrival, they detached from their mother and rushed forward with remarkably quick speed. "Let er'' rip!" Clint smashed a button on his dashboard, causing it to spark. Twin mounted cannons on either side of his car boomed with concussive impact, sending out shells that exploded into countless speeding shrapnel projectiles when they mmed against the nymphs. The shells pulped the nymphs on impact, and the shrapnel riddled the surrounding nymphs with holes that bore right through their still soft, not yet fully developed carapaces. Clint''s car kept firing shell after shell, clearing a path to the dragonfly with good old lead and explosives. However, when the shells hit the dragonfly itself, all they managed to do was slightly dent and scorch its tough hide. "Alright, time for the real deal!" Clint mmed down on the brakes, causing the car to violently flip over itself from having to slow down so abruptly. After six or seven or eight flips, the car stopped, thoroughly beat up and now upside down. "That''s what I call a real man''s stop!" Clintughed as he punched his door open and rolled out. "No, that''s just a crash! A total failure of a stop! I''m never getting in a car with this nomad maniac again!" said Tox. "Quitining. I''ll fly you back out when this is over, said Ace. "Y''know, this is actually kind of exciting," said Ste with a grin. "The only other girl here, and she''s crazy too," sighed Tox. Ace also punched his way out the car and hovered out. Tox followed, squeezing her viscous, liquid body out. Ste rolled out with trained movement. Aldrich did not want to damage the poor car anymore than it had already suffered, so he just crawled out of the door Clint had punched off. "Aw yeah, look at that! Look at how big she is! Ain''t she a beauty!?" Clint turned to everyone while pointing at the giant dragonfly behind him like a child pointing at a toy. His smile beamed with nothing but pure, unadulterated thrill. "Watch out!" said Ste, but it was toote. "Huh?" Clint looked down to see a spine skewered through his stomach. The dragonfly had shot out a spine from its mouth at a speed so quick that even Aldrich had difficulty reacting properly. Aldrich wondered what to do at this point. He could not let Clint just die like this as his current greatest supporter among the nomads. ''Well, good thing I can raise the dead,'' thought Aldrich, but that thought turned out to be unnecessary. "Damn, that actually hurt!" Clint pulled the spine out of his stomach, revealing a gaping, bloody hole. It very quickly closed up, and when it did, thick, scale like brown armor covered his skin. "But now it won''t work on me anymore!" Clint tossed the spine away and faced the dragonfly with an eager grin. "Show me what you all got! If it ain''t much, then you ain''t gettin'' my support!" Clint sprinted ahead with surprising speed for his behemoth of a body. There were still dozens of nymphs remaining, but everytime one of the jumped on him, aiming to stab him with their mandibles, he just punched holes through their guts. "Show him what you can do," Aldrich said to his units. "I''ll be watching from here. Make sure you save that thing''s head for me." "Will do! That guy''s got an energy I really like. Really suits mine!" Ste eagerly followed Clint, sting off the cracked earth with an explosion at her feet. "And the nymphs? They might get to you," said Ace. Aldrich noted that Ace was a surprisingly considerate guy, even checking on Aldrich''s own safety. But then again, Aldrich was more than strong enough to protect himself. Aldrich took off his cloak and suit jacket,ying both across Clint''s upturned car. He unbuttoned three of the top buttons of his dress shirt for ease of moment and rolled up his sleeves. He cracked his knuckles, his arm muscles rippling visibly through the fabric. "I can take care of them." "Hmm. I like what I''m seeing," said Tox, drooling corrosive slime that melted the ground below. Ace waved his hand in front of Tox''s stare. "Snap out of it and start moving! I''ll fly you up." "Oh, right." Tox held onto Ace''s arm, and before she could say another word, they were off, Ace flying high into the air as he looked for an angle of attack. Chapter 235 - Megaloptera 2 Chapter 235 - Megaloptera 2 Aldrich watched the fight unfold. He did not want to fight directly because he wanted to keep up his facade of being a separate entity from Thanatos, and that involved limiting his powers to basically just his physical strength. By having two separate identities, Aldrich had more leeway to trick or manipte others. It also increased the ''mystique'' of Thanatos. There was something strangely maizing about a mysterious, faceless being of power that Aldrich wanted to capitalize on. For how long Aldrich wanted to keep this separation of identity, he did not know. Whenever he got a more stable position, maybe. All things to think aboutter. Right now, Aldrich observed how much his units had grown. "Take this, you bug bastard!" Ste yelled as she pointed her palms towards the oversized dragonfly from above. Her hand lit up bright orange before a shower of sparks crackled out from them, causing a detonation that fired a ball of orange energy. "Impressive," said Aldrich as he put a hand to his chin. Ste had improved dramatically. To recap, her power worked by elerating her blood flow and making her blood turn into permeable gas that passed through her skin in the form of glowing orange particles. This gas then violently detonated with the air, creating a highly reactive explosion. This meant that Ste could not fight well at range because her blood could not travel far before it blew up, grounding her strictly as a short or mid range fighter. But now, she had found a way to prevent her gas form blood from exploding immediately. She could thus create projectiles that detonated only when they hit a target. The ball of orange energy hit the dragonfly''s ck carapace and then wobbled chaotically before exploding in a burst of white light reminiscent of a shbang. The air rippled as a loud explosion rocked through it. "Damn, you''re one tough bastard!" grimaced Ste as she noted that the explosive ball had not managed to pass through the carapace. It left a nasty, cracked crater oozing with cauterizing yellow blood, but it did not have enough power to punchpletely through. In response, the dragonfly started to shiver. Countless sharp ck spines across its back stood up like the quills on a porcupine. Several rotated towards Ste and then fired and speeds that easily surpassed sound. Ste reacted before the spines fired, dodging preemptively by sting herself to the side. Still not enough. One of the spines had passed through her belly, gouging out a sizable hole. In response, she just smiled. Aldrich noted her incredible pain tolerance. Undeath prevented vital organs from being one hit kills, but it did not negate pain. At least, not with creatures that had functioning nervous systems like Ste. The fact that Ste could just grin at a hole in her stomach meant she could easily ignore the pain. And it was no wonder, either. From what Aldrich could tell, she was quite literally giving herself consistent heart attacks with her powers. That was how she trained herself. The further an Alter pushed themselves, pushed their powers and its weaknesses to the absolute max, the stronger they reached their potential. The downside was that overtraining was a very real issue with significant drawbacks. In Ste''s case, literal heart attacks. These costs made it difficult for Alters to consistently really push themselves. Only in life or death scenarios could they exert themselves to the extent that Ste did routinely. It was a known phenomenon among Alters that in situations of extreme physical and emotional stress where they engaged their power beyond limits, they got noticeably stronger when they recovered. Ste had repeated that process countless times, giving herself heart failure after heart failure. Now, Ste was leagues beyond how she was back when Aldrich first raised her. He appraised her level. [Unit Ste''s Level: 33] An incredibly impressive amount of growth considering Ste had not even cracked level 20 at first. Watching Ste grow, Aldrich began to also get a better assessment of how levels determined power. It followed Elden World convention with a soft and hard cap system. Early levels from 1-40 provided considerable amounts of power. After 40, there seemed to be a ''soft cap'' where each level granted less overall strength than before. There was another soft cap at level 60, and then a ''hard cap'' at level 80 where power differences came mostly from equipment and unique spells and skills rather than stat differences. "Then how about this!" Ste propelled her way closer to the dragonfly before unleashing twin beams of highly condensed orange energy from her hands. The beams were thin, shaped almost like needles, and they spiraled as they crashed into the variant''s carapace. Upon impact, the condensed, explosive energy detonated, creating twin eruptions that pushed out twin shockwaves that had enough power to carry a wall of dust and debris crashing all the way to Aldrich. Aldrich made a cutting motion with his hand, his powerful strength creating a gust that blew the dust cloud away. This revealed several nymphs gaining on him, their many segmented legs crawling at a speed rivaling that of a car. "What a nuisance." Aldrich sighed as he cracked his knuckles. "I wanted to spend some more time paying attention to my units. But I suppose I do have time to deal with you all as well." = "Let''s raise some hell!" Clint roared as he shoulder tackled thest two nymphs standing in his way. They knocked over like bowling pins as he bullrushed past them. He finally got to the megaloptera. He put a surprisingly gentle palm on the ck carapace and took in a deep breath. "Thank you kindly." Clint opened his eyes with a thrill infused grin. "For the ass kickin'' opportunity you''ve given me!" He then started to unleash punch after powerful punch against the dragonfly. Each punch caused huge cracks to spiderweb out from the point of impact, drilling in deeper even than Ste''s explosions. Right then, Clint narrowed his eyes as a shockwave rippled past him, making his lengthy, wild brown fur-like hair wave wildly. He looked up to see the explosion girl wreaking havoc with a twin bomb way bigger and better than that weak lil'' orange ball she had started out with. "Now that''s the spirit!" Clint shouted. "More explosions, more violence, let''s go!" "Speak for yourself!" Ste yelled back. "The hell are those pansy ass punches, huh? Can''t even crack the shell!" "Yeah? You want to see real power?" Clint shook his head and took in a deep breath, psyching himself up. I need power, he thought to himself. I need strength. As he thought that, his muscles began to swell in size. His bones broke and stretched out, making him taller. Very rapidly, he reached an inhuman height of three and a half meters. He exhaled, and his breath steamed out in twin streams through his nostrils. "Rah!" Clint roared, his voice deepening with a rumble that sounded more beast than man. He punched again, and this time, his fist smashed right through the megaloptera''s carapace like it was just fragile ss. His arm was shoulder deep in the thing''s guts. The megaloptera released a shrill cry of pain in response. It''s giant legs moved in a series of rapid motions that swung it around in a circle, violently mming into everything around it. Clint, with his arm stuck inside the variant already and slowed down by newly grown muscle, could only brace for impact as the megaloptera''s movement ragdolled him around before finally punting him away like a field goal. At the same time, the megaloptera unleashed a mass volley of six spines towards Ste, dealing with the aerial threat bothering it. ''Damn¡­that''s too many!'' Ste put her hands together, aiming to blow up as many in front of her as possible, but she knew even if she did, the spines moved so fast that they could pierce her before her explosions could disintegrate them. At best, Ste could try and knock them off course, but they might still tear off a limb or two. That was until Ace flew in front of Ste, puffing his chest out confidently. The spines nged against Ace and bounced off like they had hit an imprable wall. They did not even scratch Ace past his body''s barrier. "Thanks, kid," said Ste with a relieved sigh. Ace smiled with the confidence an ultra durable body gave him. "Hah! Taking that hit is child''s y to me!" "Where''s slime girl?" Ste saw that Ace did not carry Tox around anymore. "I dropped her off around¡­there." Ace pointed down to where Clint had been. "Well, I''ll be damned. With how much sheined, I thought she was squeamish. Guess not, if she''s going in there like that." Ste watched as Tox used her liquid slime body to push her way into the arm sized hole Clint had made in the megaloptera. Tox oozed herself through the megaloptera''s innards. "Ugh, gross!" said Tox as she squirmed around in the hole, but then she thought about her training. About a single word. "Steam," Tox whispered to herself, and her ck eyes zed over. Her disgust, her hesitance, all of that faded away as her trigger forced all distractions away and left nothing but pure, efficient killing intent. Tox drove herself deep into the variant. The flesh around her sizzled and melted as her corrosive body made contact with it. Soon enough, she would get into the variant''s gut, its vitals, and then she couldplete her mission. Chapter 236 - Megaloptera 3 Chapter 236 - Megaloptera 3 Aldrich flicked his hands like he was done washing them, slinging off chunks of mashed up carapace and yellow, gooey insect guts. Around him were the corpses of the megaloptera nymphs, thoroughly put down with fist sized holes in their heads and abdomen. Aldrich''s spiritweave suit was stained with insect guts, but by just summoning a bit of his magical energy, he could get the clothing to self-clean itself, getting rid of any nasty stains or smells. Very convenient. In the distance, the fight continued to rage on with the megaloptera. Ste kept bombarding it from above while Ace covered her, acting a flying shield to protect her from any spines. All the while, the megaloptera faced a slow death with Tox burying herself deep inside. Aldrich noted that Tox''s mindsetpletely shifted when she fought. It was something he had observed back in ckwater as well. Normally, she was loud, expressive, skittish, and picky about what to do or what to eat. But when she got into a fight, all of that washed away, leaving behind a trained killer''s core. Tox exhibited signs of thorough mental conditioning. From Aldrich''s research, he knew she had been kidnapped by Scavengers - viins that snapped up orphans from variant ruined battlefields to assess them forbat potential - when she was just five or six. Even though most Alter organs remained dormant until age ten, it was still possible to roughly measure how strong Alter children could get by analyzing the organ''s potential to house Alter cells and process them. When Tox bloomed her power as an Elemental Augmenter - one of the rarest and best power categories - she was sent to Ember, a powerful mercenary organization thatprised one of the Dark Six. Ember was known for indoctrinating its mercenaries from a young age with conditioning techniques that were not known even to others in the criminal underworld. What was known was that once a child came out of Ember, they came out trained, ruthless, and deadly. Ember agents were valued as top tier prizes in the criminal underworld, fetching hundreds of thousands of credits minimum for even the most minor of jobs. From what Aldrich knew, Tox was specialized for battlefieldbat. In particr, she was feared for her expertise in invading other''s bodies and melting them from the inside with expert efficiency, abusing her liquid form to its maximum capability. Aldrich figured this fight was over at this point with Tox inside the megaloptera already. But as he thought that, the megaloptera unleashed one more struggle. The giant creature began to p its wings rapidly. The wings glowed bright red and orange, generating intense amounts of heat and steam. The rapidfire movement of the huge wings pushed the heat outwards like a hurricane of scorching winds, blowing everything around it back. The heat waves were so intensely hot that they melted the rock around the megaloptera like it was butter. Ste and Ace both flew backwards, getting out of the range of the fiery winds. "Now that''s something," said Aldrich. He watched as the heat waves circled around the megaloptera with extreme speed, forming into a howling angry orange tornado of crushing winds, melting heat, and scorching steam. "Ain''t it?" Clintnded beside Aldrich, driving up a small crater with the impact. He looked around at the beaten nymph corpses and whistled. "Hot damn! You''re no slouch either. Makin'' me respect ya even more!" Aldrich narrowed his eyes in focus, ignoring Clint. He wondered how Tox was doing inside the megaloptera. The temperatures around and within the variant must have started to get dangerously high, easily enough to harm her. Ace evidently thought the same thing. ?????? ???? ????????????.???. "I''m going down for her!" said Ace. Tox was one of his closer friends in ckwater. He was not going to let her die again. "That tornado''s gonna be a real bitch to fly through!" shouted Ste, trying to yell over the howling winds. "Want me to st a way in!?" "¡­No! I got it!" Ace flew around the tornado, towards the side where the megaloptera''s wing was torn damaged, severed in half. The winds there were weaker, causing the fiery tornado to look lopsided. Ace braced himself and rushed in at super speeds. Flying into the tornado felt like he was getting swept up by a powerful current, but he grit his teeth and pushed through it. He did not know why, but he had an instinctive feeling that ever since he hade back from the dead, fire and heat would hurt him badly. Ace could use his barrier to avoid the damage entirely, but he knew if the fiery winds got a gold of his skin directly, he would burst into mes. Which also meant that Tox, already someone susceptible to fire, might be suffering particrly badly. Knowing this, Ace redoubled his efforts to push through. Once he broke into the tornado''s eye, the winds stopped. However, Ace noted that the atmosphere within turned into a vacuum. Not that he needed to breath anymore. The biggest issue was it was still intensely hot here, the ground turning in a bath of liquid rock the megalopteray upon. Too hot for Tox to survive. Ace flew down to the hole Tox had gouged out. He went into it but the deeper he traveled, the narrower the opening became. Most likely because Tox had probably shrunk herself,pacting her corrosiveness so that she could melt through the variant faster. The space became so cramped that Ace had to eventually end up punching his way through, but the insides of the damned bug were almost just as tough as its outside. Ace was strong, but he was not the strongest. He could not easily rip a variant of this size and strength apart easily. His punches sted off chunks of flesh, but the variant, like many of its strength, had a decent healing factor that worked even through Tox''s poison, hampering his progress. He grimaced. He was still weak. Weaker than Seth Sr. ''You''re just a copy of me. An inferior one.'' Seth Sr''s words after Ace had suffered a decisive defeat and broken arm against the golden child. ''If you are weak, you are a failure.'' Words rung in Ace''s head from his time in thebs. Chapter 237 - Clint, the Unbreakable Chapter 237 - Clint, the Unbreakable Ace hated being weak. He was meant to be strong. Trained to be strong. made to be strong. If he was weak, there was no point in him even existing. He grunted as he drove his heels into the ground and then pushed his hands into the ceiling of flesh above him. Using his tactile telekinesis, Ace extended the surface area his strength could interact with wide. A thin white sheet extended across the megaloptera''s innards, and when Ace pushed, he pushed against this sheet, spreading out the force of his strength efficiently throughout. Ace acted like a jack, prying open the megaloptera''s guts to try and see where Tox was. He saw her then. She had shrunk into a tiny green puddle. Steam sizzled from her body, the intense heat of the megaloptera''s innards evaporating her slowly but surely. Tox had not been able to store enough slime within her to reach the megaloptera''s vitals while weathering the heat. Or rather, she had, but she had not taken into ount the fact that heat hurt her even more than before now. "Come here," said Ace. "Must eliminate target-," began Tox. "Cut that crap and just get over here!" said Ace. Ace held up the megaloptera''s innards as Tox slithered towards him, snaking around his foot. "Requesting evacuation from these premises. Will formte another method of attack once reaching safety." "Yeah, yeah, you do that when you''re bigger than a tennis ball." Ace quickly flew out, making sure to hold Tox close to him so that his telekic barrier could extend to her. "You''re safe now. Mission''s over." "Mission¡­over? Huh? Already?" Tox said, her usual peppy tone of voice returning. Outside, Ace looked down with surprise to see Clint waving up at him while knee deep in molten rock. "You two kids get outta here!" shouted Clint. "You''ve shown me more than enough guts. I like it! Now let me handle the rest!" "Wait, how are you alive?" wondered Ace, but he soon saw the answer. Clint''s whole body was covered in what looked like ayer of bubbly brown flesh. The intense heat of the air and the molten rock melted away at the fleshyers, but they regenerated as quickly as they were melted off. In addition, the bubble structure created air pockets that diffused heat away from the brunt of Clint''s flesh underneath, insting him from the scorching environment. Ace, of course, had no idea how any of this worked. He just saw bubble skin and figured it kept Clint alive. The mechanics of it did not concern him. He nodded to Clint and flew away, breaking past the tornado. "Now I''m gettin'' ramped up!" said Clint excitedly as he jumped into the hole that slime girl had made. The entrance was big enough even for him to stand in, speaking volumes to how deadly corrosive Tox''s body was. "Hah, it really is true. The newer generations jus'' get stronger and stronger, don''t they? I''m scared of what them two kids will be like when they reach their heights." Clint grinned as he stepped deeper and deeper into the megaloptera. The innards were starting to recover more from Tox''s poison, the healing factor kicking in at a pace that threatened to crush Clint with regrown flesh. Clint just kept smiling as he let the flesh grow back all around him. Bright red light started to shine through his open smile and his eyes. "Is she okay?" Aldrich asked Ace as he flew down in front of him. Ste followed close behind. Ace held out his hand, and Tox pooled around his palm. A miniature version of her formed from the puddle, tiny enough to stand on Ace''s hand. "I''m perfectly fine, thank you very much," said Tox as she put her hands on her hips proudly. "I almost killed the thing, too, until it used that unfair heat attack." "It really does takeplete destruction to take you out, hm? How useful," said Aldrich analytically. "I almost died and all you can think about is how useful I can be? How cold. But damn, you''re good looking enough where I''m even starting to get into it," said Tox. "Make no mistake, I wouldn''t have let you die either way. If I had to, I would''ve made my way through that tornado myself to heal and retrieve you." Aldrich hovered a palm in front of Tox. His mist floated out from him, gathering around her. The mist rapidly healed Tox, quickly building up her mass to her original size. She pooled down from Ace''s hand and reformed back into her usual figure. "Heheh, don''t make me like you too much," said Tox. She turned back to the ming tornado. "But anyways, think that crazy nomad can deal with that by himself?" "I''m not sure. I want to know too," said Aldrich. "Dude looked pretty confident when I wasing out," said Ace. "He will," said Ste firmly. "Hm?" asked Aldrich. Ste crossed her arms and nodded. "I didn''t know who Clint was cause when I was little, I was a nomad in the Foresnds, so I don''t know much about the nomads here. But even where I was from, he''s famous. Among nomads, he''s a living legend. People talked about a horned nomad so strong nothing could kill him. Said he took down Lobo, one of the states'' S-ss heroes, in a fair fight. Tanked a viin''s meteor attack that leveled a mountain to his face. Survived a variant explosion that blew up an entire city. The Unbreakable, he was called. Champion of nomadic freedom that nobody, not the AA, not the Panopticon, not any viin, could take down. Don''t know how many of those tales are tall and which ones are real, but I''m pretty damn sure that''s him." At that moment, as if to prove Ste''s point, a red light blinded everyone briefly. They all turned to the direction of the megaloptera. A pir of red energy roared into the sky,pletely breaking the tornado apart and utterly engulfing the megaloptera''s giant size within. There was no loud ensuing explosion or colossal shockwave. Instead, the pir of energy rose up, reaching towards the skies, then faded back down without making much of a sound. There was no more megaloptera left. Or not anything whole. Just several chunks of flesh and carapace that sttered down around a huge circr crater in a rain of biomass. Aldrich wondered if there was anything left for him to raise. Clint became visible from the sky, and hended in front of Aldrich with an earth breaking crash and a wide grin. His skin was nowpletely normal and his muscles had shrunk back down to ordinary size. Well, as ordinary as possible considering how thickly built he was normally. Clint raised most of the megaloptera''s head high. "Hahah, I took the thing down! Managed to snag a trophy AND I got to see y''all got guts, too! Day don''t get better than this." Aldrich stared at the megaloptera''s head. There was enough there to raise, most likely. "Here, y''all deserve this!" Clint tossed the head towards Aldrich. He raised his arm and grabbed it by its exposed mandible. "You''re giving this to us?" Aldrich nodded. He was not about toin. "I''ll be sure to make good use of it." Chapter 238 - Infiltration Chapter 238 - Infiltration "How about we go back to thepound for some more drinks!?" said Clint. "They''re all gonna be on me!" "Free drinks? Sure," said Ace, very much liking the idea of anything free. "Sounds good to me," said Ste. "How about you?" Tox asked Aldrich, her bodynguage a bit shy. "Are you free any?" Aldrich put a hand to the side of his temple, receiving information from the Grave Ward in Desmond''s base. "No, looks like I''m busy. When we get back, I have some things to tend to." Before Tox could respond, Clint butted in. "Haha, a busy man, aren''t ya? Well I don''t mind, gotta respect the grind. Here, I''ll give y''all and express ride back to thepound in my baby!" What ended up happening was that Clint''s car did not work anymore due to suffering damage, so Clint created the brilliant solution of going under his car and carrying it. He sprinted back to thepound with the car over his head, his legs empowered with additional muscle. Clint was not any slower than his car. In fact, he was probably just faster sprinting, even while carrying the oversized vehicle. He probably only drove the car out of sentimentality, being his first car and all. "You know, this is a LOT better than his driving," said Tox. "He''s a straight menace behind the wheel." "I do have to agree," said Aldrich. "I don''t get the point of cars. Why not just fly?" said Ace. He nodded. "Though I do like the idea of having a super expensive and shiny car. Or hovercars like the super rich folk." "Because not everyone can fly, duh." Tox rolled her eyes. "Still crazy to think we''ve got the Unbreakable on our side," said Ste. "If he''s serious about joining us, we''d be a serious threat. If the AA wanted to ss us a viin org, we''d be high up there, touching shoulders with the big leagues like the Dark Six." "He''s that strong, is he?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, strongest man in the Wastnds," said Ste. She shrugged. "Strongest known man, I guess. There''s so much unknown out there that it''s hard to tell who or what''s the top dog." "Better to focus on the known, then." Aldrich paused. "You two, Ace, Tox, what do you think about the ces you grew up in? The organizations that raised you?" "Don''t give a damn," said Ace. "Meteor Labs can rot in hell for all I can care." "I don''t remember most of my time in Ember," said Tox. "I''m usually always in mission mode there. But I guess since I don''t remember, I don''t care that much?" "How would you two feel about taking them down?" said Aldrich. "Huh?" said Ace and Tox in unison. Ste eyed Aldrich with a raised brow. "Meteor Labs and Ember are both Dark Six affiliated. You''d be going to war with them if you made a move against either," said Ste. "ording to Casimir, the Dark Six have a long term n of overthrowing the current world order and bringing it back down to the chaos of the Age of Viins." Aldrich put a hand to his chin. "I''d like to prevent that, if possible. Withdrawing Casimir from the Dark Six with sensitive information about each of the organizations has stalled their ns. From what I assume, they''re moving around or covering forpromised assets. That will still take weeks to months for them to do, and some assets, they''re going to fight to keep. Like ckwater. But I''ve been wondering." Aldrich narrowed his gaze. "What if everything they had was mine? Wouldn''t I be able to make much better use of it than them? Plus, I know the AA-Panop only tolerates viins. They''re the lesser evilpared to variants. I could use standing against the Dark Six as a bargaining chip for more influence." Aldrich himself only tolerated the Dark Six. That alone was an incredible amount of patience considering the Trident was responsible for killing his parents. He had managed to separate his personal vendetta from the Trident because he had to respect the organization''s power: taking it down required him to keep a cool and clear head. But in the long run, Aldrich knew that the Trident had no ce in the world. Not in the world he wanted to make, at least. "Damn, you''re being serious here." Ste nodded at Aldrich. She crossed her arms and cocked her head, thinking. She smiled. "Y''know, as a D-lister, I would never have even been a part of a conversation as big as this. But now? I get to hear about overthrowing the behemoth that is the Dark Six and even be a part of it." "If you want someone to smash up Meteor Labs, I can always make time," said Ace. "Are you sure? This all sounds so big and dangerous," said Tox. "We-we''re not even an official organization or anything, right? We''re still hiding." "Six days," said Aldrich. "Huh?" Tox looked confused. "We have six days until the hearing with Thanatos. Six days where the Dark Six will not expect us to make a move," said Aldrich. "The sooner we strike, the more unprepared they will be. Casimir''s information against them gets less and less reliable with every passing day." "So we''re gonna get in on the first strike?" said Ste. "Yes," said Aldrich. "I don''t know." Ste furrowed her brows. "I like the idea of taking on the Dark Six, but whole reason we''re even out here is to try and get the chiefs'' support, right? I feel like dunking them into a hot war so soon will make them get cold feet. All of them except for Clint." "You''re right. That''s why I haven''t been making any moves so far. I wanted to wait until the chiefs were fully on my side. I thought maybe they would take my side when they realized the Dark Six cut them off, but aside from Clint, most of them, especially Gerard, seem to want to maintain some level of neutrality. For the chiefs to reallymit against the Dark Six, there needs to be a casus belli for them to rally around," said Aldrich. "Cass Bell?" asked Ace. "Casus belli. It''s atin term meaning ''cause for war''" exined Aldrich. "The Dark Six needs to hurt them first. Give them a wound to nurse and feel the pain of so that they have the will to retaliate instead of running into the Wastnds." "¡­Are you suggesting making this cause?" said Ste. "I''m not suggesting anything," said Aldrich. "I''m just making an observation. But I do have a feeling that quite soon, we''ll have to be battle ready. Enjoy your drinks, but make sure you stay alert.. Get used to these new bodies and test your limits. Keep up your training. You might need it much sooner than you think." = Aldrich stood in his base''s control room. Everyone was gone except Svenna who could man the entire thing herself using her powers. Spybird was right. In pure processing power, Svenna was a monster, able to match Casimir''s tech crew by herself. Svenna sat there on the metal floor with her legs crossed and hands on the ground, her posture almost childlike. Coils of her wire and cable hair radiated outwards like a spiderweb, connecting to monitors and other devices. "Hacking into Desmond''s cyberspace? Now that''s ballsy," said Svenna. "Can you do it?" said Aldrich. "I could. Infiltration''s my specialty, after all. But it''ll be dangerous, even for me," said Svenna. "You know how Cyberspace works, right?" "I have a rough idea," said Aldrich. He knew that technology had fundamentally changed along with the Altering. Nobody knew exactly how it happened, but at one point, all theworks and programming that connected and moved tech merged into one massive virtual space now dubbed as ''Cyberspace''. Cyberspace was essentially a virtual reality. An entire world of its own. Or rather, a mirror world to the real world, or meatworld as technos called it. Cyberspace looked like a three dimensional world where code and programming could be built up into tangible blocks, and those blocks could be formed and stacked to create infrastructure. Anyone could enter Cyberspace with brainjacks and neural decks, but technos had the most ''processing power''. That is, they could more easily manipte or create the countless blocks that built Cyberspace up. Technos with higher processing power could manipte the blocks to higher degrees, essentially bing reality warpers in Cyberspace. That was why Fisk got outscaled by Svenna. He had far less processing power, meaning he could not interact with the blocks to nearly the same degree as her. "Alright then," said Svenna. "Because I was going to say you shouldn''t expect too much from even me. A lot of people think technos basically just work magic, but it''s far from that. For an Infiltrator like me, I''m basically like a spy or assassin. Except in virtual reality. There''s a lot of dangers thate with the job like surveince and security. Desmond''s territory is pretty heavily guarded. In cyberspace, it looks like a damn near fortress. It''s got some grade A defense, probably because he''s storing a lot of sensitive information in it. Without ess keys, I can''t do anything, and I bet he guards that with his life and more." "I have the keys memorized," said Aldrich simply. "You what now? How''d you even get that information!?" eximed Svenna. Aldrich smiled lightly. "You''re not the only one that knows how to spy." Chapter 239 - Desmond Chapter 239 - Desmond "You have the keys?" Svenna eximed. She coughed into her hand, regaining herposure. "I almost can''t believe it. How did you get them? Did you infiltrate Desmond''s cyberfort by yourself?" "No, if I could do that, I wouldn''t be asking you now, would I?" said Aldrich. "I do have some experience in cyberspace, but nothing thatpares to even a low level techno." That was true. Non technos could ess cyberspace as well with various forms of neural interfacing such as cyberdecks, head jacks, wrist ports, etcetera, but getting into the space was all they could really manage. Unless you were a techno, manipting code blocks that built up everything in cyberspace took massive amounts of time and effort. You had to go old school, manually writing or deleting the code within each of countless blocks whereas technos could just do it with their minds. Techno avatars in cyberspace also had many more perks like being able to move through the space faster and more efficiently. Stronger technos with higher processing power also tended to develop unique powers in cyberspace such as the ability to hide away from security detection or corrupt security protocols. It was better to think of cyberspace as less ''code'' and more ''virtual reality.'' One could only navigate the space using a virtual avatar, and if that died, they died too. In fact, fights within cyberspace were very much like fights in the real world except everyone had varying degrees of reality warping. Technos manipted the blocks around them to create weapons and shields and security or attack protocols that acted like summons. Comparatively speaking, a non techno was defenseless. They could load into cyberspace with preset assets that granted them attack or defense power, but so could technos. The biggest issue came inbat. Technos could repair their avatars or their weapons with their minds. Non technos could not. Technos could easily switch between various code constructs or alter them midbat. Non technos could not. The only non techno that Aldrich knew who couldpete with technos in cyberspace was ine, and she was a one in a million genius. Someone like Aldrich was basically as helpless as a toddler in cyberspace. ine. He had to make good on herst wishes too. Aldrich had sidelined that, having gotten caught up in fighting and establishing himself. But he needed to do that sooner rather thanter. Her adoptive father probably did not have much time left in him. "What kind of security codes are we talking about?" said Svenna. "I can''t imagine you could bug Desmond in cyberspace, so you probably have his room bugged with some kind of listening device." "Your assumption would be correct." Aldrich was impressed by Svenna''s deductive capability. "Okay then, you probably have contact addresses, not keys" said Svenna. "I doubt Desmond and his crew try to operate visibly in meatspace, so you probably overheard him making calls. They''re probably in rooms like this, right? Dark and full of monitors that don''t really show anything? Do they even have monitors at all? Considering the fact that the only reason we have disy screens is to show what''s going on to non technos, I figure a full techno crew wouldn''t even need any." "Rooms are dark, yeah," said Aldrich. ''Dark'' as in there were no screens to disy anything. Just technos jacked in, seeing everything with their minds, not through screens. "But Desmond makes routine business calls. He shares keys there." "If he''s not sending them via message, then he probably has a few old school clients that prefer chit chat over text. How unlucky," said Svenna. Her eyes shed a bright blue as she started to traverse through cyberspace. "Tell me what the addresses are." "SPDR11a24g9b985 and LG2a22c41dd2783," said Aldrich. "Interesting. Yeah, definitely addresses. They lead me somewhere in cyberspace, but they don''t actually crack any security. These codes aren''t secure enough for his main fort anyway," said Svenna. She crossed her arms and sighed. "In this case, they lead me tomunication servers. The good thing is, these aren''t burner servers that get generated and tossed routinely. From what I know, Desmond''s an information broker that takes requests and reports from basically everywhere, so he needs stable servers with stable addresses or else he would be too hard to track down. What I can do is if I could ess this server, I could nt a bug in it that could worm its way through deeper into Desmond''s more sensitive infrastructure. He probably records everything that goes in these servers and transfers the info to his base, so I can hijack that pathway. My cyberspace power specializes in creating bugs, so even if there''s a small gap, I can abuse it." "Then the solution seems easy," said Aldrich. "Just send him a request to chat at those addresses. I''m sure he''ll oblige." "Sure," said Svenna. "I''m doing that now. You can expect an answer pretty soon. But while that''s pending, I wanted to ask you, what did Z say?" "She said nothing," said Aldrich. "Well, she did ask how you were doing, but that''s about it." "Really now?" Svenna closed her eyes for a moment, and the room plunged intoplete darkness, the only light source havinge from her shining blue eyes. When she opened her eyes back up, she shrugged. "I shouldn''t have expected anything different. Thanks for going through the trouble." "It''s no problem. Do you have any rtion with Z?" said Aldrich. "She used to be my mentor. A while back. She gave me a nickname called ''V'' that I still use. Other than that, there''s nothing connecting us now," said Svenna. "I see," said Aldrich. He could sense that Svenna did not want to talk about the topic anymore. "And here''s the response," said Svenna. "Okay, we''re set. He wants to chat now. You do have to keep him busy, though, while I try and upload my bugs." "How long are we talking?" said Aldrich. "Five minutes, maybe?" "And you''re absolutely confident Desmond can''t track you back?" "Confident." "Alright then, let me talk to him." Svenna nodded. "I''m going to disy him on a screen for your convenience. If you run out of things to talk about, hold him with some BS smalltalk or something. Good luck." Aldrich watched as arger disy screen lit up in front of him. It showed Desmond in a dark room lit by dim red lights that cast an ominous crimson glow over his face. "Mr. Vane." "Desmond." "Why contact me again?" said Desmond. "I have already made my position clear in the meeting. I made it clear twice over with Casimir. Need I make myself clear thrice?" "If you''re entertaining this call, then I''m sure you still see some merit in working with me." "Merit? Now isn''t that up to you to convince me of?" Aldrich crossed his arms. "I suppose you''re right. From what I recall, the reason you can''t work with me is because of your people, right? You don''t want your people to get in the crossfire between me and the Dark Six." "You heard correctly, yes," said Desmond, his expression quite reserved. "What if there was no such risk?" said Aldrich. "And how would you make thate to pass, Mr. Vane?" Desmond shook his head. "The Dark Six has put on a massive bounty against Casimir. All of the criminal underworld ranging from frencers to hired guns will be looking for him. You think the Wastnds safe, but they are far from that. They arewless and free, but they are not safe. You will find many bloodthirsty guns ready to track Casimir down across this entire country, no, beyond it, across the world. I do not want to get involved with that." "And if the other chiefs support me?" Desmond shrugged. "Then that is their choice. But it will not be mine. I do not want a bounty on me or my people. I trust you know by now that I deal in selling information. It is much harder to do that with a bag of credits looming over my head. Nethunters will track me across the depths of cyberspace. I can stay in my fort, but if my spiders and I cannot leave it to collect whispers, then we have no more livelihood. We survive only by staying in the shadows. Joining you casts a spotlight on us that we very much cannot tolerate." "Interesting," said Aldrich. "You don''t believe in my ability to protect you or your people?" "Ability alone is not enough," said Desmond. "In fact, the greater your power, the harder it is for us to work with you. The more power you have, the more spotlights shine on you. Spotlights from both the criminal underworld and overworld entities such as the Panopticon and corporations. And I have told you already: we do not appreciate spotlights, no matter where theye from. ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???????s, ????s? ??s?? ????????????.??? ?? ?x???????? ??s??? ?????? s????. Chapter 240 V-Parasite Chapter 240 V-Parasite "It''s a shame, really," said Aldrich. "The reason I''m contacting you so often is because I see great potential in our partnership." "And I do not, unfortunately," responded Desmond. "What about a rtionship as a client? Z could manage that with me. How about for you? I could appreciate buying some information here and there." "I cannot do that." "Any reason why?" Aldrich gave Desmond a pointed gaze. "The only reason I can think of for an information broker not selling me information - your livelihood - is because you already have a client working against me." "Against you? Are you questioning my trust?" Visible annoyance showed on Desmond''s face. "Am I now? You tell me." "Anything said among allied nomads is strictly confidential. For now, that includes you," said Desmond. "I will warn you, though, once this day passes and we all go our separate ways, that will no longer apply. I would trust my words carefully if I were you, Mr. Vane. You might find it quite inconvenient to have spiders crawling around your room." "Am I hearing this right? Is this a threat? Why so hostile, Desmond?" Aldrich remained calm. Collected. "Not a threat. A possibility. One I''m sure you would like to avoid." Desmond''s gaze narrowed, his pale grey pupils thinning almost impossibly. "I entertained your call now because I wanted to give you a lesson in person. My spiders and I are of one mind. Onework. And I have many spiders, Mr. Vane, crawling across every little corner of the Net. Surfac or Dar - my webs spin across all of them. You do not want to get caught up in those webs. I am telling you this now because there has to be bnce. Just like how the overworld maintains bnce with the AA and the Panopticon, the Underworld must also maintain bnce. I saw it in your eyes. Ambition. Good to have, but like all things, in moderation. If your ambition seeks to overturn the bnce of things now, you will find many eyes, many hands, against you." Aldrich eyed Svenna, and she lifted up one finger for him. One minute until she was done uploading her bug. Faster than she had originally estimated. Good. That meant Aldrich could start talking back instead of acting nice to reel Desmond in. "If eyes and hands are the only things standing against me, then I''m quite unworried. I''ve crushed enough of both." Aldrich cracked his knuckles. "And I just got done crushing a few bugs, too, if you''re concerned about whether I''m scared about spiders." "¡­" Desmond stared at Aldrich with tense eyes before he chuckled. It was not a friendly one. More amused than anything else. "Now YOU are threatening me?" "Oh, so you WERE threatening me. Good to see you admit it." Aldrich shook his head. "No, like you said, it''s only a ''possibility''. I''ve afforded you three chances to work with me. I''d have liked your skills on my side, but with all this talk about bnce and sucking up to the Dark Six, I''m beginning to think that maybe you''re not so neutral after all, Desmond. Maybe you have backers already. Backers that the other nomad chiefs would be quite displeased to learn about." "I don''t want to hear you question my trust. Not from a plump city rat like you, donning your expensive suits. I will not betray my brothers and sisters." Desmond red at Aldrich. "But if I need to convince them to get rid of a tumorous growth, I will." Aldrich saw in his peripheral vision that Svenna gave him a thumbs up, indicating the bug was nted. "I appreciate your concern, Desmond, but I intend to make my cooperation with the chiefs a long term one. I only hope you don''t make any mistakes in the future. They might end up costing you." Aldrich waved his hand, and Svenna cut off the channel. Desmond leaned back in his dark chair as his image crackled and snapped out from the monitor. "Bug nted?" asked Aldrich. "Yeah," said Svenna. She raised three fingers. "And three bugs from Desmond''s crew taken out." Aldrich raised a brow. "He was that bold?" "No, these were very discrete bugs. I doubt he thought I would catch them. An ordinary techno wouldn''t have caught them. Not even Spybird," said Svenna. "You really are lucky to have me around, you know. If you used a letter grade to rank mepared to other technos, I would put myself nicely at a fat S." "For that, you''ll have to impress me a little more," said Aldrich. "Pshh. Hard to please, aren''t you?" Svenna pouted. "As for the bug I nted, it''s one I''ve personally made called a V-Parasite. Adapted from the Z-Parasite, if you know what that is." "Enlighten me." "You know the 2077 Corpowar?" "I know of it. Not all its details." "Right, a lot of it is under wraps. Well, you know how the Corpowar ended, yeah?" "Yeah. Mega corporations scrapped against each other, sending out assassins and mercs and viins. Unlike the first Corpowar, most of the fighting was ''cold'', not involving civilians. Ended with a fourth of Neo-Paris in ashes after a series of experimental bombs were detonated, forcing Vanguard to step in personally and end things. One of thest times Vanguard did much of anything in his older age, too." "Right, right. Those experimental bombs were Saber tech. The top dog militarypany of the time, having a nice and pretty seat on the Fortune Council. Meaning they had top of the line security. The best technos and infrastructure in Cyberspace that credits could buy. But you know what armed and detonated those bombs, blowing up half of Saber''s armories and headquarters? It was a bug. The Z-Parasite. It infected Saber''sworks and stayed dormant, digging deeper and deeper until it finally got to the bombs hidden in the depths of their security." "¡­" Aldrich made the connection. "I''m assuming Z is the creator of that bug?" "Yeah. And I, her all so talented student, took that bug and made it my own with a few twists," said Svenna. "It''s even harder to trace, though a little bit less effective pration wise. In other words, you really don''t have to worry. Rx and kick back. I''m leagues ahead of Desmond." "What do you think you can get out of this bug?" said Aldrich, his mind immediately racing into possibilities. "What happened to rxing?" Svenna sighed. "You''ll burn yourself out at that rate. Well, let me see, my V-Parasite''s security pration isn''t that deep, so I figure I''ll be able to snoop around in any calls or chats that Desmond has on hismunications channels." "But can you get inside his base?" said Aldrich. "No, not yet. His base has some thick security. Think of it like a castle gate. Once you get behind the first gate, it gets easier to storm the castle. Still hard with guards and sealed doors everywhere, but easier. I need someone to open up that main gate for me." "And how do you think you can get that to happen?" "If I''m being honest, I can''t. But that''s the thing about my V-Parasite. It can self replicate andtch onto anyone that goes in and out of Desmond''sms channels. Eventually, I figure we''ll find someone that has a closer rtionship with Desmond, and they''ll unknowingly bring that bug into Desmond''s castle." "Interesting. What if that doesn''t happen? What if Desmond doesn''t let anyone in his castle walls other than those he truly trusts?" "It''s a possibility. At that point, you''d have to use force, and you''re much better at that than I am." "Force is meaningless unless it has direction." "Right. And we have plenty of direction, don''t we? You could kidnap one of his technos and force them carry the bug. Or I could try and infiltrate them myself, but they don''t seem to ever leave their castle." "It''s a possibility, but it''s too straightforward for now. I can''t harm Desmond or his technos as long as he''s still technically allied with the other chiefs. If one of his technos goes missing for even a little while, I''m sure he''ll know." Svenna nodded. "Then we wait. I''ll keep an eye out on who my V-Parasite bugs. If they''re anyone important, I''ll let you know." "Got it," said Aldrich. "I''ll be on my way out, then. Good job, Svenna." "Just call me V. It''s easier." "Then good job, V." Aldrich turned around, ready to leave. "One thing," said V. "Hm?" Aldrich paused. "I know you want to make it big. You want to be a superpower in this world, and I''m real excited to be a part of that. But what''s the end goal? What are you nning with all that power?" "That''s hard to answer, because to be honest, I don''t know exactly myself," said Aldrich. "I want to make things right. What that really means or how it ends, I don''t know. But what I do know for sure is whatever path my goals take me, I''m willing to follow it to the very end." "That''s pretty dramatic. But pretty cool as well." V smiled and waved Aldrich off. "Go get some brooding time. I''ll be here managing this whole thing all by my lonesome self while Spybird gets drunk to the seventh dimension." Chapter 241 Feast Chapter 241 Feast "A long day, I presume, O Elder" said Fler''gan as carefully held a crystalline crucible over a light blue me with a pair of tongs. A pale white liquid boiled within the crucible, and a strange, damp smell filled the air. "I got what I wanted to done," said Aldrich. Getting Fler''gan started on his potion. Done. Meeting with the chiefs, done. Securing their alliance. A work in progress. Gerard still had not given his full seal of approval to Aldrich. But more done than not. Getting the ckwater students to stay on his side of their own will to maximize their performance. Mostly done as well. Most of them wanted material goods, and for that, he needed Sentinel status to get proper funding and a city that they could stay in. "But I still have much more left to do." Aldrich sat in a chair within the confines of the cargo hold where Fler''gan''sby. He looked at the cramped, rectangr insides. "Like getting you a properb." "Indeed, thisb is certainly considerably below the likes of the grandboratories I used to toil away countless hours in." Fler''gan shrugged. "But how can this onein? In theter half of my life, upon my exile from my fellow schrs, myb always changed. From one deserted cave to another. From one forsakennd to another." "Why were you exiled?" said Aldrich. "The search for immortality," said Fler''gan. "O rather, the way in which I sought it. Undeath. Undeath disrupted the natural order of things. That is the false knowledge the gods spread, and it was the gods that sponsored the schrly body that I was once proud of. And the masses ate that drivel up so very easily. I can understand why. To gaze upon lesser undead, the walking, rotting corpses or the trembling white bones that should do naught but rest in graves must truly be horrifying to frail minded peoples under the gods. Yet if defying death alone was an affront to the natural order, then the gods themselves are prime offenders with their coveted immortality." "Why search for immortality with such drive? What made you give it all up?" "Knowledge, O Elder. My kind are all driven to seeking knowledge. From the moment we emerge from our eggs and develop minds capable of sufficient thought, we desire to seek the unknown. In that regard, we are quite unlike humans that hold an innate fear of the unknown." "That desire, though, is it really yours? Is it not programmed within you?" Aldrich knew that all Mind Eaters like Fler''gan served a deity called the ''Elder One'' that sought to devour all knowledge it could, especially from the brains of live subjects. The Elder One spawned Mind Eaters and imnted within them a drive to seek out knowledge. Mind Eaters would find that knowledge, return to the Elder One, and then transfer over the memories of their lifetime. Afterwards, the empty, memory-less physical body would get melted down and recycled into a new Mind Eater. "It may be, but if it is simply my instinctive drive, then there is nothing I can do about it, no?" Fler''gan ced the crucible down on a heat absorbing pad. "Nothing except to take that instinct and make it my own. Instead of finding myself destined to share all the valuable knowledge I learned with the Elder One, I determined it best to hold my knowledge to myself. Whatever hand one is dealt with at birth, those instincts and drives wired into the very being, cannot be changed. What may be changed is how one handles those instincts. The path of least resistance is to allow those instincts to take over, but the path of strength is to take those instincts and be their master." "I see." "Ah, this almost slipped my advanced mind. But I have encountered a minor problem of sorts in concocting your potion." Aldrich cocked his head. "What is it?" "These enhanced humans possess an innate resistance to mental maniption," stated Fler''gan. "It is provided by the Alter Organs that fuel their great powers. It seems to create an internal field within the body that wards against outside maniption." "Right. That''s a known phenomenon," said Aldrich. "It''s almost impossible for Alters to use their powers within another Alter. But you''re telling me the same applies for our magic based powers? I didn''t encounter any issues using things like [Horror Warp]." As a general rule of thumb, Alters could not just manifest their powers inside another Alter''s bodies. For example, if somebody could create mes out of thin air, they could not just do that inside another Alter''s head and instantly cook their brains. There was an intrinsic field in live Alters fueled by the energy of Alter Cells that prevented that from happening. To a smaller degree, Aldrich knew that this also granted resistance to effects like mind control, but he had not expected it to work on magical powers. "[Horror Warp] introduces a foreign agent from outside to within," said Fler''gan. "So it is more effective. Tell me, how well did my first potion work?" "Quite well. There was an immediately noticeable shift," said Aldrich, recalling how Casimir warmed up to him near instantly after consuming Fler''gan''s mind altering potion via wine. "Quite interesting. The fact that the solution was drank and introduced willingly into the body likely bypassed much of this innate defense," said Fler''gan. "Though, I suspect, considering how unrefined that initial potion was to Alter physiology, that it only worked to such a degree because the specimen was already open minded towards you to begin with." "I can see that," said Aldrich. Casimir seemed to not be a man to hold any prejudices. He had an open mind all the time, always ready to pick out the best deals for himself, and that had been his downfall. Or rise, depending on how a partnership with Aldrich was viewed. "But imbuing your voice with hypnotic suggestion, I fear, will more easily be resisted," said Fler''gan. "There is a degree of separation between vocal introduction of the hypnotic effect and direct ingestion into the body." "I only really need to know one thing: will it be effective?" said Aldrich. "It will. But the specificities of the effectiveness will change," said Fler''gan. "Even with ten eyeflowers, I fear that the potion, when activated, will only grant you perhaps five seconds of strong suggestive capability. Beyond those precious few seconds, the effectiveness will wane considerably." "I see. So I really only get one sentence to convince the hearing." Aldrich thought about this for a second. He might get even less than that if the people in the hearing were powerful Alters, though he sincerely doubted it. Generally speaking, only B rank supes and above started to have high enough AC concentrations where they could start to reliably ward off mind controlling powers. Aldrich sincerely doubted most of the pen and paper wielders that made up the AA''s upper management had high enough AC count to resist the hypnotic suggestion. It was the time that hurt Aldrich the most. One sentence to convince an entire hearing added a considerableyer of challenge. "A suggestion, O Elder," said Fler''gan. "Hm?" "I will add in an additional effect. In exchange forpletely limiting the effectiveness of the hypnotic suggestion to a time frame of five seconds, thus preserving its power in a smaller threshold, I can add a condition where the suggestion grows exponentially more powerful when a listener is under strong emotions." "Strong emotions?" "Indeed. Particrly if those strong emotions are geared towards you," said Fler''gan. "Interesting. So if I make them hate or fear me, then the suggestion can be even stronger?" said Aldrich. "That is so. If the emotions are strong enough, the effect can be as permanent as if it had been willingly introduced into the body," said Fler''gan. "A thing to note. In my experience, I have observed that ''positive'' emotion opens up the mind far more to invasion than ''negative'' emotion, though certainly, both can work." "Go ahead and make that change, Fler''gan," said Aldrich. "I can work with that." "Understood, O Elder." Fler''gan''s mouth tentacles curled up in reverence. "May fortune favor your future endeavors." === "Feast! Feast!" Vntis''s voice boomed through the vast expanse of an enormous dining hall. Aldrich found himself sitting at one end of a sizable rectangr table packed to the brim withrge dishes of every kind. Steamed meats, grilled meats, braised meats, pickled meats, meat prepared in ways that Aldrich did not even know - all of it sat upon the table, just waiting for hungry mouths to devour them. There were also plenty of vegetable dishes, tes of fruit, and sweet looking breads, jellies, and other confections. "Devour to your heart''s content!" the Death Lord dered from the other end of the table. "Viz, my grand chef, was a man of legend known throughout allnds for his divine skill in the culinary arts. When he heard that we were to have a feast for the first time in who knows how long, he was quite overjoyed. I assure you, he will not disappoint!" "I am d you are back." Valera smiled at Aldrich from a seat beside him. She had on her dress for the assion, matching Aldrich''s suit well. "Right," said Aldrich somewhat absent-mindedly. He thought about what his troops had aplished for the day. In the first trial quest, they had harvested six eyeflowers already. As Aldrich had hoped, the Geist imed ownership of all six flowers using Crow''s help, though if the Geist had not had a friendly rtionship with the other creatures, Crow alone would have done nothing. Aldrich wanted the leader of his monsters to be one capable as a leader, not just as the strongest among them all. The Geist seemed rtively well suited towards the role. Okeanos hadpletely smashed through the second trial quest, and for his troubles, Aldrich had obtained the corpse of a Gigant Worm and spellbooks. But most importantly, Aldrich received the hierophant''s finger, sand seal, and a genie. The genieined quite a bit from getting removed from her tomb, and she was thoroughly depowered to the point she had no wish conjuring power, but over time, Aldrich figured she could amass enough power to create a wish which would be invaluable. The hierophant''s finger, Aldrich had hopes that he could ask the Death Lord to try and raise. The hierophant was an immensely powerful figure of legend who was said to have the ability to call down the stars themselves, reshaping entirends with meteor showers. Getting that as an undead would no doubt make Aldrich''s military might near unquestionable. The sand seal was useful too, as it granted Aldrich a strong defensive matrix, though since it was immobile and anchored to one spot, it would only really get useful once he established a more permanent base. Chapter 242 Feast 2 Chapter 242 Feast 2 Aldrich knew that there was more he had to do. There was always something more to do. He still had to see how the Chrysalis developed so that he could figure out whether Boundaries could synchronize properly. He had to figure out how to approach the third trial quest now. The Chrysalis, especially, he needed to figure out how much she could train her powers before the day of the hearing. At minimum, she would likely improve her ability to take things in and out of Aldrich''s inner world, and that could prove to be invaluable. If Aldrich wanted to make a point, to instill fear so that Fler''gan''s potion worked well, he saw no better way than to showcase that he could take powerful troops with him at all times no matter where he was, ensuring that if he was made an enemy, there was never a space where anyone was safe from him. "Oh, Aldrich, why do I sense that your mind has wandered off somewhere?" Valera poked Aldrich''s shoulder and stared at him with a judging look. Aldrich snapped out of his thoughts. "Just thinking." Valera reached out across the table and brought a te over to Aldrich. Atop of it were strips of grilled chicken breastid across a creamy rich golden mashed potatoes. "Try this. It is griffin meat, and I hear that griffin meat can make you faster and stronger," said Valera. "Thanks." Aldrich looked over to Valera''s side of the table. She did not have a te in front of her. Just arge ss of blood red liquid. "You''re not eating anything?" "I prefer blood," said Valera. "As would most vampires. Thankfully, it seems this ce is quite considerate of my kind." She swished the blood in her cup around in small, controlled circles withdylike elegance before she sipped it. "It is quite fresh, extracted live. Not from no mere livestock either. From the blood of thinking creatures. Not quite human. The blood profile is rather sweet, indicating that it was extracted from one experiencing pleasure and bliss. Quite nice. Sweet blood is my favorite." Valera held out her cup to Aldrich. "Would you like some?" "Not quite my thing," said Aldrich. "Oh, I see." "Which is to say, I do appreciate the offer-," "I know." Valera nodded. "I simply want to get to know what you like and you do not like. The simple things. Not your favorite battle stratagem but your favorite foods and drinks and colors. Things we should know in our rtionship." "You''re right." Aldrich nodded back, filing down in his mind that if he was going to be in a proper rtionship with Valera, he needed to connect with her on the small stuff too. Or, at the very least, he needed to try. "So, then-," began Aldrich before he was cut off. "Haha! Are we drinking already!?" boomed Vntis. He did not sit anywhere but walked around with gusto, grabbing entire tes of food and shoveling them into his face. His helm-face split down the middle and opened up, forming into what was basically a garbage disposal chute where he consumed anything he could get his hands on. "At least there is one good thing about this body of steel: I can no longer grow full!" "Don''t get ahead of yourself, you armored whelp! These old bones can keep up with you a plenty!" Arge horned skeleton shouted with equal might. He stood right beside Vntis, standing shoulder to shoulder with the tall armor. The skeleton reached out and also shoveled tes of food into itself. Instead of spilling out everywhere through gaps in the bone, Aldrich saw that the food instead fed into a fire that seemed to rage within the skeleton that acted like a stomach, burning everything up that the undead ''ate''. "Leos, before my return, I had no interest in feasts. But now, I shall show you who can truly devour the most!" said Vntis as he crammed in an entire roasted bird. "All of you are weak." Okeanos stood with them, devouring dishes at hyperspeed. When he spoke, his words were a little garbled from eating while he was full. Those three were in their own little world ofpetitive eating that Aldrich had no intention of joining. He did like to see his units were happy, though. He would have liked the units in his first trial quest such as the Geist to enjoy this as well, but they insisted on continuing to search for flowers. "It is all so interesting." Valera looked upon the scene before her with a cocked head and a smile. "To think that we once fought against this tower, all these undead. I like to think they are more like us than the mortals we ended up defending for the sake of the realm." "Isn''t that right?" The Death Lord manifested on Aldrich''s other side in a cloud of purple mist. She put a hand on Aldrich''s shoulder. "How is it, Usurper? Is everything to your liking?" "¡­Perhaps there is still potential for us to be enemies." Valera eyed the Death Lord''s hand on Aldrich''s shoulder. "Come now, littledy, loosen up," said the Death Lord. "Were I not the one pushing for you and the Usurper''s happiness, do you think you would even be where you are now? With that silly oath of celibacy of yours and your master too busy with himself to ever think of love? Hmph!" The Death Lord crossed her arms and turned up her face. "You should be showing me gratitude." "¡­I suppose you do have a point." Valera sighed. "Where is the Chrysalis?" said Aldrich. "Perhaps it is time you named her something other than ''Chrysalis''" said the Death Lord. "It is only natural for those born to desire a unique name. But to answer your question, she is resting in Med''s study. She has tired herself out quite a bit training her powers, and I did not feel like the din of this feast a good ce for her to rest." "That was my sixteenth te!" roared Vntis. He mmed his fist against the magic reinforced table. "Another!" A skeletal waiter quickly rushed to Vntis''s side with a te in hand that quickly got devoured. "Don''t get cocky, boy!" Therge ming skeleton took two tes and directly shoved them into the ming pit under its ribcage, incinerating both food and te in one instant. "Too slow!"ined Okeanos as he waved more skeletal waiters towards him. "Bring me more food! For master''s sake, I cannot lose! Not to a bag of bones!" "Who are you calling a bag of bones, huh, fish boy!?" said Leos as he chomped down on a b of seared meat. "¡­I can see what you mean. Her ears would have gone deaf by now." Aldrich eyed the ming skeleton. That was Leos, the second of the Deathguard. He was an ancient warrior from a civilization that far predated any that the yer character interacted with in Elden World, belonging to the same civilization that the Hierophant did. In life, Leos had been a revered general. In death, he was the High Commander of the Death Lord''s many troops. Where Re, the first Deathguard, was a one man army on her own, Leos let the Death Lord''s armies fight to their full potential. Though deadly serious in battle, it seemed Leos could let go and indulge himself when he wanted to. In any case, even if Leos, Vntis, and Okeanos were quiet, there was still arge din from other tables in the enormous dining room where the Death Lord''s knights conversed and ate. Even her five cksmith giants were also present, picking away at a veritable mountain of meat. Notably, Wai''ki and Med were absent, but they did not seem like the type toe to these kinds of events anyway. "But I must say," said the Death Lord. "Your little aspect is quite special in her talents and training." "What''s the progress on that like? And what about the training you proposed for her?" "You are not nning anything strange, are you?" Valera looked at the Death Lord suspiciously. "Hah, who do you think I am?" the Death Lord wagged a finger. "No, I have thoroughly analyzed your little one and found great insight as to how to train her. The key is synchronization." "Synchronization?" Aldrich asked. "Indeed. In reading the little one''s soul, I have found it exceptionally close to yours. You two are essentially two sides of a single coin. There is a magic called synchronization that allows different individuals to bind to each other, sharing some parts of their powers. The greater thepatibility between souls, the higher the rate of synchronization. I have no doubt your souls are more than simr enough to synchronize. What she currentlycks for you isbat experience and mana pool. As a child, shecks the mana pool to sustain her side of the Boundary properly. And in battle, it is unsure whether she can handle the stress of a fight to reliably use her abilities. Synchronizing, however, allows you to draw on her power ording to your own terms. It removes the decision making from her. Simply put, you basically obtain her powers as your own. You decide how to cast and use them. You fuel them with your own mana pool, albeit at elevated cost. This is the fastest way to have her powers - your Boundary powers -bat ready for you." Chapter 243 Feast 3 Chapter 243 Feast 3 "I see." Aldrich pondered the Death Lord''s statement for a bit. "When you mean the fastest way to have her be battle ready, do you also mean the most optimal for her?" "What do you mean by ''optimal''?" said the Death Lord. "I would rather not put a child through a harmful process." "Indeed," chimed in Valera. "The young can learn through trials of fire and hardship, but that learning damages them just as much as it forces them to grow. I know this well." "You mean that is how your young learn." The Death Lord crossed her arms and turned up her face in haughty disy. "Hmph. I simply do not understand the frailty of young among your kind. When I was born, hatched into a cold, empty cave, I had nothing and nobody. I survived on my own merit and strength. And you, usurper, I did not know you had such softness within you." "I try to keep children off my hit list." Aldrich noted he used the word ''try''. Subconsciously, he understood that he was willing to go that far if he absolutely had to. "Goodness, what do you think you two believe I am nning? To torture the little one? No, I know quite well how to care for them," said the Death Lord. Both Aldrich and Valera stared at the Death Lord with visible disbelief. The Death Lord looked between them and got defensive. "W-well alright, perhaps I am not entirely sure how the young of your kind are reared, but that is why I approached you with this topic! For your review! Aldrich sighed. "Alright, so how does this synchronization work?" "It is quite simple," said the Death Lord. "I enact the ritual, binding your souls together. However at first, this binding is but temporary. A trial phase, if you will. During this time, you two must actively work to strengthen the bond between yourselves. This is the most crucial aspect of this ritual. Even simr souls cannot bind with each other if they do not share experiences and understandings with the other. At the end of this trial phase, I will determine whether your bond is strong enough, and if so, forge it permanently in ce. This will link both of you together at the spiritual level, allowing you to es her power on your own terms. Think of it like you being able to ''borrow'' the spells and powers she knows and amplify them with your own strength." "What risks does thise with?" asked Aldrich. "You will both be alerted to each others'' emotions to a heightened level," said the Death Lord. "Over time, you will also begin to see each other''s memories, most likely in your dreams, though I suppose considering how young the little one is, she will be seeing your memories more than you hers." Aldrich crossed his arms. "Concerning. My headspace isn''t great. Not a ce for someone like her to be." "The process will be gradual. The dreams hazy at first. She will have time to limate," exined the Death Lord. "I have heard tell of this ritual before," said Valera. "From my time as a wandering exile. I faced a great assassin sent after me whose magics and weapons manifested not from himself, but from his twin sheltered far, far away." "The Twinned Hunters of Astralis, the Phantom Kingdom," nodded the Death Lord. "A troublesome bunch. They tend to birth twins with opposite aspects. One strongly rooted in the physical with powerful bodies. The other anchored to the spiritual with fragile forms but incredible mystical affinity. Together, when soulbound, the spiritually aligned twin remotely strengthens their morebat capable twin with enhancing spells or construct weapons, creating potent fighters that are both skilled warriors and skilled mages. The twin liches that rebelled against me hailed from that same kingdom." "When Iid the assassin low after a battle that cost both an arm and leg, he begged me to spare his life for he said if he was to fall, his dear twin sister would fall as well," said Valera. "I still ended his life, but I wonder if that is a weakness." "It is," said the Death Lord. "If one bound falls, the other does also. In a simr fashion, the higher the rate of synchronization you are capable of sustaining, the more powers of the bound you may receive. However, thises in exchange with greater transferal of undesirable sensations such as pain. At the highest rate of synchronicity, you may even transfer over physical wounds." "That''s quite the risk," said Aldrich. "I don''t think the Chrysalis would want to willingly subject herself to that kind of stress and potential pain." "You may be surprised. Her soul is ''warmer'' than yours, but it is still modeled after you. And look at you now. You are strong. Your mind, especially. I know you say you would not put a child in harm''s way, but if it was the only option presented to you, you would do it, would you not?" the Death Lord narrowed her eyes, gazing at Aldrich intently. "...I do what I have to do. And I haven''t had to do anything like that yet." "There are some that cannot make that decision no matter what. I have seen countless of them in my conquests." The Death Lord nodded at Aldrich. "You are not one of them. You know that you achieve what you desire, you must be willing to sacrifice. One of the reasons why I like you. You remind me greatly of myself." "Regardless, that isn''t what we''re discussing now, are we? If this is something that will hurt the Chrysalis, I don''t think it''s prudent to force on her. It may drive her away from me," said Aldrich. "And once you drive a young one away with harshness, it is tremendously difficult to ever bring them back," said Valera, no doubt remembering her own experience in basically raising the princess she had guarded. "The little one is stronger than you think. Just as you, Usurper, have suffered great hardship and grow strong from it, she too can do the same," countered the Death Lord. "The whole point of me fighting is so that people like her won''t have to make the same sacrifices I had to," said Aldrich. He paused. If he was an ordinary hero, he would have left it at that. But he was not. "But if this is the only way, I''ll try to make it work." "A noble ideal, but indeed, this is the only way," said the Death Lord. "Elsewise you must wait for the Chrysalis to grow mentally and physically until she can handle her powers herself. That may take time on the scale of years. I do not know exactly how fast she matures, but you are in a tense situation where you need as much power as you can use now. And believe me, if you are able to tap into the little one''s enormous potential, to her affinity to Space itself, you will find yourself blessed with incredible powers." The Death Lord paused for a moment. Her expression softened. Her usual cocky and proud smile disappeared into something understanding. The same expression she had used when sheforted Aldrich after he made peace with Adam and ine. "I understand that ideal of yours. And I was not being mocking when I stated it was noble. There is a merit in striving for a world of order where suffering does not befall those who do not deserve it. Such as children with no blood on their hands, no idea of the world around them that may force terror and war and gue upon them. But ideals are nothing but faraway dreams unless you have the power to force them into reality. The Chrysalis is a child, yes, but she is also a vast well of power. If you synchronize with her, you can take her power and make it your own. It is also the key to start developing your Boundary properly. Her power is one you cannot let go. Not now, when you are surrounded by hostile powers, not when you need all the power you cany your hands upon." "..." Aldrich leaned back in his chair. He was confident about his position in the world in that he could survive and get stronger, but he also knew he was not a top dog yet. Gerard did have a point. Compared to the strongest Sentinels, powerhouses like Emperor who arguably held the title for the strongest super in the entire world, Aldrich fell a whole league short. Hepensated with the unique nature of his powers being able to summon undead armies, but that alone, though itmanded a great deal of respect and wariness, did not put him at the top of the top just yet. "You do have a good point. What exactly does strengthening the synchronization bond look like?" The Death Lord smiled. "Quite simple. You spend time with her. Youe to know her. You grow closer with each other. The stronger the attachment between you two, the stabler the bond bes." "Basically I just take care of her for a while?" said Aldrich. "No harsh training involved?" "You will have to undergo trials ofbat I will set for you two, but none she will not be able to handle. Come now, did you think I would toss her into a pit like they did with Re?" said the Death Lord. Aldrich and Valera eyed the Death Lord again with suspicion. "You two - you truly have no trust in me!" the Death Lord protested. "I''ll talk to the Chrysalis and ask her if she wants to go through with the ritual," said Aldrich. "This trial phase, if can easily be undone, right?" "Yes. There is no real bond that tethers you two together until the very end. Before then, it can be severed with no risk," said the Death Lord. "Then it''s a low risk option with high reward. I take those." Aldrich stared at the Death Lord. "What is it now? Why stare at me with such intensity?" the Death Lord said coyly, a flirty smile on her lips. Valera leered at the Death Lord. "Speaking of rewards, I do believe you owe me for making my healing sk useless. That was a divine grade item, you know? I think I''m quite entitled to reparations here," said Aldrich. Chapter 244 Feast 4 Chapter 244 Feast 4 The Death Lord visibly balked at Aldrich''s words. "Did I hear correctly, Usurper? You wish for MORE from me?" Aldrich shrugged. "More? Not more. I lost something because of you, and I now want something back from you. It''s an equivalent exchange. Technically speaking, I''m not taking more from you." "You never even used that little bottle!" protested the Death Lord. "I know, but I still liked having it around me for the sake of insurance. Plus, the more my health pool gets, the more percentage heals like that get even more valuable." Valera nodded. She faintly smiled, relishing in a chance to get in on a cooperative effort to bully the Death Lord. "He is right. I remember how many countless times that sk saved him. To be robbed of that is quite the problem." "That goddess is nothing! You should be quite grateful I took her corrupting influence from you," the Death Lord crossed her arms dismissively. Aldrich threw a side nce at Valera, and she nced back at him too. When their eyes connected, it was like they had signed a partnership right then and there for the express purpose of bullying the Death Lord. Aldrich started off. "I willingly rejected the goddess Amara''s healing for you because I thought maybe you had a recement for it, but if not even you, the Death Lord, can match Amara in that department, I guess I wouldn''t feel too bad about it." "That is true. The goddess Amara had no equal in the healing arts, hence, why she had so many followers. I suppose there is no shame in understanding that there are some things you cannot dopared to her." Valera took a cool sip of her blood wine while the Death Lord looked between her and Aldrich with increasing annoyance. "You truly believe I fall below that foul eyesore of a god!?" said the Death Lord. "I''m sure in some areas, you''re much better than her," said Aldrich. "Yet in the healing arts, with your hesitance to provide, it does seem quite obvious there are some fields where you are simply not quite her peer." Valera tipped her wine ss towards the Death Lord, pointing at her. "But that is to be expected, no? She is goddess of light and life, while you are master over death." "Forget I asked," said Aldrich. He took his two pronged fork and knife and started to take bites of the grilled griffin, as if to say ''of course you can''t do this, so let''s get back to eating''. The griffith tasted just like chicken, which was kind of disappointing considering it was a fantasy creature. "I would be asking too much of you, and like you said, you''ve already done so much for me." By this point, a light flush of hurt pride reddened across the Death Lord''s pale cheeks. She bared her fangs as she eximed, "Fine! Fine! I will show you that anything that four faced fool can do, I can do even better! Give me that sk of yours!" The Death Lord held out a demanding open hand towards Aldrich. Aldrich manifested his healing sk from his inventory and handed it over to the Death Lord. She snatched the vessel away, staring at the glowing gold and blue and liquid within with abject disgust, like she had happened on raw sewage. The skin around her palm where she made contact with the sk started to singe, little wisps of smoke curling from it. Aldrich raised a brow, concerned. The Death Lord saw this and shook her head. "What has thise to? You worry about even this tiny injury when I am the mighty Lord Over Death. The Dragonsbane. The Eternal Conqueror. I am no damsel in distress, Usurper. My skin simply reacts more to the goddess''s foul influence more yours as I am more attuned with death. And I will show you once and for all that I am no ''second ce'' to Amara! I will have a recement for you by the morrow!" Valera put a triumphant hand on Aldrich''s arm, as if to wordlessly say ''we won'' and to herself, ''I finally get to bully the Death Lord after all the teasing she''s thrown my way''. "Hmph! Why do you heroes all obsess over this sk?" The Death Lord eyed the sk with a fang bearing frown. "All this does is restore your frail life. It does not add more, if simply returns you to weakness. But why even bother when you could discard the weakness of your flesh and embrace undeath? True eternity? I do not get it. Undeath uplifts mortals into immortals, and because of that, Amara and the goddesses feared I would sway the popces against her. How fiercely they resisted my campaign to spread undeath across the realm for it." "Well, you DID also have a campaign ofplete massacre," said Aldrich. "Like that elven city you talked about. Youpletely destroyed it and killed all the residents. That''s quite helpful in inciting fear, and fear is a good motivator to force men into action." "For me, it was all or nothing. Absolute surrender or absolute defeat." The Death Lord sighed as she put the sk aside. "I gave chances for all settlements, towns, cities, fortresses, and the like that I bore down upon to surrender, and I made it quite clear that refusal meant epting permanent death. And why not? I thought it quite reasonable. Even in the case that I moved my power and forces in to annihte those that resisted me, I made sure to grant all as quick and painless a death as possible. My undead armies respect the sanctity of a pure death. We hold not the base desires of cruelty that force mortal or demonic armies intomitting atrocities, torturing and taking and defiling in victory. No, we promised to spread the cold embrace of death with as much purity as possible. No torture. No defilement of bodies. No breaking of minds. Simply death. I had thought that quite honorable, but none of the mortals seemed to agree with me." "That made your armies ever the more terrifying," said Valera. "It was said that your undead legions knew nothing of negotiation. They knew no emotion, no fear, no anger, simply an unextinguishable drive to kill any and all. I understand your point. Mortal armies and forcesmit countless atrocities when they are able to. I have seen it with my very own eyes. But there is something about an army that has no face, no emotion, and a pure drive to spread death that makes it even more sinister than even the most brutal of mortal armies." The Death Lord sighed. "I simply do not understand mortal lives. Perhaps because I was already immortal dragon beforehand. Regardless-" The Death Lord smiled again. "This is no time to be reminiscing of a past of failed conquests and mortal idiocy. It is a time of feasting!" The Death Lord stood up and pped her hands. "Bring forth the drink! This feast is held in celebration of the Usurper, and yet, why does he have no cup!?" "Yes!" boomed Vntis as he mmed down a huge mug, shaking the table and spilling some green colored liquid. "What is the point of this feast if the Warleader does not drink!? How can you show me your worth!?" "I thought I already did that by fighting you-," began Aldrich. "No, no, no!" Vntis eximed. "Worthiness in battle and worthiness in the feast are two entirely different things! Why do you think I battle Leos with such fierce will now!?" Leos the burning skeleton raised his mug of green colored alcohol. "Yes, he is right! I have never heard of a leader that could not outdrink his subordinates. Come, Usurper, show me your worth! If I am ever to serve you one day, I must do so knowing it shall be under the right man!" "I drink too! No matter what, I beat you two!" Okeanos also raised a mug. "What?" Aldrich watched asrge skeletons brought over a giant mug to Aldrich as well, topping it off with green liquid from a barrel. The liquid teetered over the edge of the cup, threatening to spill. "Is there even a point to this? Undead have poison resistance-" "You think I do not know that?" The Death Lord said. "This is special alcohol that bypasses your resistances. Toxic to the normal mortal, but for us undead, quite the popr delicacy as it allows us to relive drinking days." "Sounds like something an alcoholic would say." Aldrich looked at Vntis, Leos, and Okeanos drinking and thought maybe he HAD stumbled on a group of alcoholics. Immortal undead living armor, burning skeleton, and city destroying variant, yes, but still alcoholic nheless. "Come now, drink up." The Death Lord pushed the mug to Aldrich. She stared at Aldrich''s serious expression. "It is for one night. Take the time to ease up and bond with your troops. Look, even your guardian knight, so pure of a maiden she is, indulges herself in wine. I will make sure if anything goes awry, if you ever need waking, to heal any intoxication from you." "..." Aldrich sighed. "Fine." Chapter 245 Feast 5 Chapter 245 Feast 5 Aldrich took a tentative sip from the alcohol in front of him. The fact that it glowed what looked to be a suspiciously radioactive green did nothing at all to whet his appetite, but if it meant boosting his standing with his units, then so be it. The taste was bitter, far more bitter than the Cool Lite that the ckwater students loved to down. It was also strangely cold, not just in a refreshing way, but in a slightly numbing way. "A tiny sip like that!? From my warleader no less!? How could this be!" Vntis shouted in despair to the heavens. "Do not insult our master like that! He is finding out whether it is even worthy for his tastes!" said Okeanos. He was starting to get a little shaky. Seemed that in terms of sheer tolerance, he stood below the likes of Vntis and Leos. Whether that was because Okeanos still had flesh and shell and blood while Vntis and Leos were a living set of armor and a pile of bones was up for debate. "Hah, I knew the Usurper was but a mere boy!" Leos shook his ming skull of a head. "You would insult the one I chose as my own Usurper, Leos?" the Death Lord leered at the skeleton. "You will find yourself sorely mistaken. I know that my Usurper has what it takes to be Lord over Death!" ''Being death lord means crippling alcoholism¡­?'' thought Aldrich. "Do not pressure him," said Valera. "This way of drinking is quite inelegant." She swirled her wine ss of blood around with smooth, controlled motions. "Drink is meant to be savored, not downed like water after a long march." "You vampires do have an obsessive wine culture. And a ir for the elegant," said the Death Lord. "And such pride, too. There was a reason I could never get your kind to join me." She cocked her head at Aldrich. "How DID you manage to tame this one, I wonder? Noble born vampiredy with an obsessive-violent streak. Hm?" "Time and dedication," said Aldrich, and his words were honest. He was still speaking in game terms, but it was true: Valera''s tie with him was high because he had spent hours and hours of time trying to unlock the highest level of bond with her, and she was perhaps one of the most difficultpanion characters to do that with. Aldrich noticed Valera had turned bright red, looking shyly away from Aldrich. "Time and dedication, hm?" the Death Lord put a hand to her cheek. "How sweet. And admirable, Usurper. Time and dedication lets flowing water carve canyons. They are powerful tools to have, especially as an undead. But you know what is just as important?" "What?" Aldrich said, expectant of the wisdom of an almost two thousand year old dragon. "Drink!" the Death Lord pointed a wed finger at Aldrich''s still full mug. "Here I thought I was going to get legitimate advice," sighed Aldrich. "It is proper advice. Come now, look-," The Death Lord pointed over to Vntis, Leos, and Okeanos who all stared at Aldrich expectantly. "Breaking bread and sharing drink makes or breaks armies and kings. Even among dragons, it is a familiar concept." Valera put a hand on Aldrich''s arm. "If you do not want to do this-," "It''s alright, Valera." Aldrich cracked his neck, like he was about to actually fight something. "I''ve got this." Aldrich picked up his mug and started downing it. He ignored the funky taste and just focused on taking in as much liquid volume as possible. "Now that is what I call a proper Warleader! The mightiest of Orcs would find their hearts quivering at this disy!" Vntis shouted. "Heh, I knew you had it in you, boy," said Leos. "See? My master is the best at everything," said Okeanos. "Hahah! Now that is the spirit!" the Death Lord waved over a skeleton waiter holding a barrel. "Bring that over!" The skeleton raised the barrel towards the Death Lord, looking at the table for her mug but realized soon she had none. The skeleton chattered its teeth in questioning. "I need no such thing!" the Death Lord grabbed the huge barrel from the skeleton, holding it high above her head with one hand, and then punched a hole into the wood with the other. This created a spout that poured liquid down like a flood. The Death Lord, like a snake, literally unhinged her jaw, letting her drink the entirety of the sizable outflow. "You really are a snake¡­," Valera eyed the Death Lord with equal parts repulsion at the inelegant behavior and wonder at how much she could drink. Aldrich put down his mug. He had drank all of it. His head felt numb, the cold of the drink seeping into him. This really did go through his undead poison immunity. He wondered how that even worked, but he found it difficult to think too hard about it. "And this is why I don''t like drinking." "Ahh, how refreshing." The Death Lord tossed her now empty barrel far away. "Another! For the warleader!" Vntis mmed his mug down on the table, smashing it into pieces. "Aye, I can drink to that," said Leos, the me around his skull flickering even brighter. "Drink for the master. Exciting!" chimed in Okeanos. Aldrich found his mug refilled back to the brim from a skeleton waiter. "So, how much more do I have to drink?" said Aldrich. "How much more!? Such a question is a grave sin!" Vntis eximed. "In a feast for a new Warleader, the drinking and devouring does not end until all is consumed. Or until blood is drawn! Or both!" "Sounds like chaos," said Aldrich. "Which I happen to not appreciate much." "Indeed," said Valera. "Sounds like a grand old time!" corrected Leos. "Hah, it is a shame you were not like this before, Vntis. I would have liked you far better instead of that serious hunk of metal you once were. It got very tiring being the only one among the Deathguard willing to let loose once in a while." "And now-," Vntis wrapped his arm around Okeanos in brotherly fashion. "You have two willing to drink you under the table! Or atleast until that undying me of yours fades!" "You seek to quench the me of Avarice? The me that sent the entire Rheingold Kingdom into ruin? I ept your challenge! More drink!" Leos motioned the smaller skeleton waiters toe by. The Death Lord stood and patted Aldrich on the shoulder, motioning her to follow. "Let''s get in on thispetition of theirs, shall we?" Aldrich stood but looked to Valera, making sure she was okay or whether she wanted to join in. "I will stay in the sidelines and watch," said Valera. "Anything other than bloodwine does not really suit my stomach well. Plus, I am simply happy looking at you enjoy yourself." "I wouldn''t call reckless drinking enjoyment," said Aldrich as he looked down at this topped up mug. "But seeing your troops thrive is, is it not?" the Death Lord. Aldrich took his gaze from mug to Okeanos and Vntis and their happy energy. He nodded. "Yeah. I guess it is." === Aldrich woke up in his bed in the Necropolis. The first thing his eyes saw were Valera looking down at him. He wasying in herp, her hand stroking his hair. "Are you feeling alright?" said Valera. "As well as I could be, all things considered." Aldrich sighed and closed his eyes again. A headache banged at the depths of his brain, as did a general sense of nausea. When he tried to recall what happened, he only got hazy bits and pieces that amounted to nothing decipherable. "I thought the Death Lord said she was going to stop me from getting to this point. What happened?" "When she drank that entire barrel, I suspected she would not make good on those words. Even if she is a dragon, I assume someone like her would have made sure her drink had the ability to knock her out." Valera sighed. "¡­Yeah, you do have a point." Aldrichid there for a moment, not thinking of anything, just collecting himself. It felt nice lying there with a caring handforting him, but he could not stay like that forever. Aldrich raised himself up, putting a hand to his head. "So what did happen?" "Chaos, as you predicted," said Valera. "Okeanos was the first to fall, falling unconscious. Then Leos, his me dimming as he too fell victim to drink. At that point, the Death Lord, three barrels in, made it well known that she was one of those drunks that causes nothing but trouble. She challenged you to a fistfight." "A fistfight? What?" Aldrich furrowed his brows. "I feel like with her current level, she would have killed me." "She had the presence of mind to limit her strength at the very least." "So? Who won?" "You did," said Valera. "She was far too uncoordinated to do much. She mostly iled about while yelling about how great she was. You, on the other hand, fought even better under the influence." "Right. I''m not too surprised, I guess. I''ve trained to try and fight under mind control or poisons that limit my motor control," said Aldrich. "Yes, and when she lost, she could not ept it and threw a tantrum, unleashing some of her draconic breath. She froze over most of the banquet room," said Valera as she put a palm to her face. "And that ended the feast right there. I put you and Okeanos out of harm''s way, but Vntis and Leos were ice blocks for many hours. After her tantrum, the Death Lord promptly passed out, and that was that." "Yeah. That does sound like chaos." Aldrich sighed. "Here." Valera put a small blue crystal fragment in Aldrich''s hand. "Eat it." "Hm? What is this?" said Aldrich. "The Death Lord awoke from her slumber surprisingly quickly and got to work on your request. Thankfully, she did not forget. It is a prototype of your healing sk recement," said Valera. "Apparently it should clear you of any ill effects like the poisoning from the drink." Aldrich swallowed the fragment. It felt cold as it went down, but not numbing like the alcohol. It was a refreshing type of cold that woke you up, like stepping outside into wintry snow from a warm house. Almost instantly, Aldrich felt better, his headache and nausea scattering away. "Well, atleast it works," said Aldrich. "Yes. I would have given that snake an earful if it did not after all she had you go through," said Valera. "It wasn''t the worst thing to go through," said Aldrich. "Might not have been my thing and I don''t remember too much, but I guess it wasn''t all bad." Chapter 246 ln Sync Chapter 246 ln Sync "I am happy you enjoyed yourself," said Valera. "But such roughshod tavern behavior does not suit you, my dear master. Drinking and roaring and fighting like that, it reminds me of my time in the Midnight Order there were were nothing but armored up oafs getting sloppy with drink and wanting my affection." Valera sped her hands together, remembering a fond memory. "If there is ever a way to return to Elduin, I would love to show you to a proper Night Dance where vampires like myself drink and dance andugh. With elegance, of course." "Now you sound just like Chiros." "I suppose I do. I cannot help it. I made many happy memories during my time in the vampiric court, even if in the end, they ended up exiling me. For a time, I hated anything to do with ''elegance'', but in time, I came to yearn for the parts of my home and people that made my childhood enjoyable," said Valera. "One day, I''ll try and find a way back. I want to experience that world too. With my own two eyes and hands," said Aldrich. "Another time." Valera smiled. "We already have this world to conquer, don''t we?" "True. And we''ve got a lot on our te." Aldrich got off the bed, feeling refreshed. "Any updates on eyeflower harvesting?" "Seven flowers have been harvested so far, which leaves but three more," said Valera. "Good. Looks like we''ll have ten flowers by the end of today. Enough for Fler''gan to work with." "The rewards from the second Trial Quest are also avable to you at the throne room." "The genie? How is she doing?" "She has recovered from sulking. She seems quite cooperative, willing to take on a new master now that she is freed from guarding her tomb." "Good to hear. And what about the Chrysalis?" "She is well rested now. The Death Lord, in fact, wishes you to meet her. The synchronization ritual is ready." "Then let''s go." Aldrich materialized his suit jacket and ran his hand through his bone white hair to tidy it up a little. "I''ve spent enough time drinking and being knocked out." "Are you sure this will work?" Aldrich stood in the magic testing room in Med''s study. The Chrysalis stood right beside him, her hand tugging at his pant leg as usual forfort. "Reasonably." The Death Lord stood a few meters away, her hands behind her back as she closed her eyes and generated magical energy. The air around her began to twist and warp, specks of misty purple swirling in concert with the distortions. The Death Lord was channeling the [Ritual of Synchronicity] to aid the bond between Aldrich and the Chrysalis so that he could ess her powers. For that, both he and the Chrysalis had to be present here. The fact that the Death Lord had chosen this room, what was effectively a st zone for experimenting unstable spells liable to blow up, did not give him that much confidence, so he had brought Valera along as well to protect him. "Teacher, will I be okay?" the Chrysalis spoke to Med. Thenky demoness stood at the end of the room, watching a hovering series of stone panels in front of her to read the magic in the room, specifically around the Death Lord. "I do not see a high probability of your demise." "W-what? The words were big, but that doesn''t sound good." The Chrysalis looked up at Aldrich. "Do not worry, child." Valera stood in front of both Aldrich and the Chrysalis. She had her shield readied in her arm. "If this snake causes chaos yet again, I am ready to shut it down." "Such ack of trust. You vampire lot, so tiresome." The Death Lord sighed. She inhaled, her chest rising, then exhaled. With her breath unraveling, the magic around her surged to incredible levels. Aldrich knew that this room was made of stone that absorbed magic, making it a good testing ground for unstable reactions, but even with every inch of the ground, ceiling, and walls sucking in the Death Lord''s magical aura, the room still shook and rattled. "Maybe this wasn''t the greatest idea," said Aldrich. "Not after what I heard you did yesterday night." The Death Lord blushed and looked away with her eyes closed. Her surging magical aura chaotically red a bit, managing to crack even the magic absorbing ground. "That-that was a mistake! We all make them, even great ones like myself!" The Chrysalis shrunk back in fear at the splitting ground. "Focus on your magic, you snake!"ined Valera. "Fine, fine. I am almost done anyway." The Death Lord''s energy rocketed in one extreme moment, lighting up the room brightly before it all faded away as soon as it had risen up. This left the ground beneath her cracked and smoking and the Chrysalis cowering behind Aldrich''s leg. "There! All done." The Death Lord removed her hands from her back. A pale blue bracelet hung from each hand, shining with a faint glow reminiscent of the blues that Wai''ki conjured with her spiritcalling magics. "¡­That''s it?" Valera seed as she peeked out beneath her shield. "Bracelets?" "That''s what I was about to say," said Aldrich. "Wow¡­pretty." The Chrysalis hopped in front of the shield and pointed at the bracelets. "I want one!" "Ask, and you shall receive, little one." The Death Lord smiled. "Or I suppose you are demanding, but I will let that slide for now." Aldrich raised his hand up, signaling Valera to put her shield aside. "I thought the ritual would be a little more, hm, direct?" said Aldrich. "Involving some tie being forcibly tethered between myself and the Chrysalis." "Usually, the ritual is like that. It would also involve considerable pain and mental anguish, but that would not do for the little one. Thus, I spent some time with Wai''ki modifying it so that it would cause no harm." The Death Lord knelt down as she held out a bracelet to the Chrysalis. The Chrysalis stood in front of the Death Lord, shyly eyeing the bracelet, wondering if she could take it. "Surprisingly considerate. For a snake like you, that is," said Valera. "Hmph. I pored over a tome about mortal child rearing just for this. All of you should be grateful, do you hear?" said the Death Lord. She eyed Aldrich and Valera. "Of course, of course," said Aldrich. He came up beside the Chrysalis, noting her eyes sparkle as she gazed at the bracelet. And he could understand why she was so engrossed. The bracelets seemed to call to them, as if whispering deep in their very heart of hearts to take them. "This sort of feels sinister. Almost like the Emperor of the Rings movies." "What now?" said the Death Lord. "Nothing. You''re sure this has no ill effects, right?" said Aldrich. "Indeed. By cing the link between you in the rings, I take out the painful process of imbuing them in your souls. The actual process of growing your bond to draw your souls closer is painless. It is supposed to be pleasant, actually, for two souls growing close together is always a warm event." The Death Lord showed Aldrich his bracelet. It was simple in design. Basically a in light blue, almost white ring. In contrast, the Chrysalis''s ring, smaller to fit her wrist, was more decorative, carved in with patterns of round, many petaled flowers. "Look, I even designed them to match you two." "I like it!" the Chrysalis sped her hands together and asked the Death Lord politely. "Can I take one?" "Of course, little one," said the Death Lord. The Chrysalis now looked up to Aldrich. "Can I?" Aldrich paused for a moment, then decided to go for it. "Go ahead." "I won''t take one unless you take one. So we can match!" said the Chrysalis. Aldrich nodded. "Alright then." Both Aldrich and the Chrysalis took their respective bands, and when they wrapped around their wrists, they felt an immediate sensation of a frosty chill running through their minds, waking up their senses with a shudder. For a few moments, Aldrich felt his senses heighten, his ears ringing and his vision sharpening and blurring in irregr waves. He realized it was because he was linking with the Chrysalis''s senses on top of his own, enhancing his to some degree. But if it was like this for Aldrich, then how was it like for the Chrysalis? He looked down to see the Chrysalis breathing heavily, her hands on her head. "Are you okay?" Aldrich immediately knelt down, putting a hand on her little shoulder in concern. The Chrysalis''s pure white, nk pupils dted. Her breathing slowed down to a crawl, and her shudders faded into a concerning stillness. "Right, I did forget that perhaps there may be difficulties in the little one adjustingpared to you," said the Death Lord. She scratched her head. "I forgot that you mortal little ones are exceptionally fragile." "How do you keep forgetting this simple fact! I thought you read a tome on child rearing!" said Valera. The Death Lord sighed and shrugged. "My own upbringing is too ingrained in my head. My first kill was within ten seconds of me leaving my egg, you know." "I''m...I''m fine!" the Chrysalis raised her tiny arms in the air triumphantly. "I''m strong, no worries! And I can see much better! Hear so much more!" Chapter 247 - Explore Time Chapter 247 -Explore Time "Marvelous," the Death Lord remarked, wonder in her eyes. She directed her awe to the Chrysalis. "She can adapt so very quickly. I do not think either of you should worry much about her. She is strong. And as Med has said, she has potential." "I''m strong!" the Chrysalis eximed with glee. "How much of a buff does she get with shared stats and senses?" said Aldrich. "On my end, I barely notice anything. Maybe that''s because the scales are more tipped towards me." "That factors in somewhat, but mostly, it is because you two have not had time to develop your syncretic bond," said the Death Lord. "The more the bond develops, the greater the shared essence between you two. As of now, I doubt she has developed much more than heightened senses and strength. Enhanced to a far greater extent than what you received from her, of course, but not anything exceptional either." "I see," said Aldrich. He looked down to the Chrysalis. She smiled up at him and asked while tugging at his pant leg, "Am I strong?" "You will be." Aldrich patted her snowy head of hair. He asked the Death Lord, "How do you rmend I boost our bond together? How long will this take?" "There is no secret method to unravel all." The Death Lord shrugged. "You simply must spend time with her. Time that will bring her close to you. If you focus on her, you may be close enough that I can finalize and ''lock in'' the ritual fully in three to five days with howpatible your souls should already be. It takes the average mortal, even if they are a twin, a year to establish a strong syncretic bond. That it takes mere days for you two is a testament to how simr your souls already are." "We''re the same?" The Chrysalis put her hands atop her head, resting them against Aldrich''s. "I guess so," said Aldrich. "It is still almost unbelievable," remarked Valera. "She seems so different from you. So very innocent and wonderfully adorable." "Everyone was a child once," said Aldrich. He looked into the Chrysalis''s wide, curious, happy eyes, and he felt a twinge of pain deep down, as if digging up a pained old memory. "With wide eyes and big dreams." Valera sensed Aldrich''s emotions andforted him, putting a hand on his arm. "It''s alright," Aldrich nodded to Valera. "Look at that, you two are making me jealous," said the Death Lord, miffed at the disy of care and affection in front of her. She crossed her arms and turned up her face. "Hmph. Go on then. Bond with your little one. Do as you want." "About what I was promised-," began Aldrich. "Oh, that," groaned the Death Lord. "You never let things go, do you? I am having a recement for you. I shattered the sk to reforge it, but divine ss artifacts are quite the struggle to work with. I will have a suitable recement to you as soon as possible. Do note, though, that the item will have restorative effects, but the way in which it manifests them may be considerably different than what the sk was capable of." "Do you know how different?" "No, not yet. So do not pay it much mind." "I''ll be expecting great things. Especially from a great person like you." "Hmph. You will not be disappointed." The Death Lord still maintained her haughty, crossed arms posture, but she smiled, happy to have her greatness recognized. "Right then, bonding time¡­" Aldrich looked to the Chrysalis. "What do you want to do?" "I don''t like it here," said the Chrysalis. "I want to explore! Outside!" "Hm, I do have things I need to do here-" began Aldrich, but the Chrysalis frowned, her eyes widening not in curiosity now but sadness. "Looks like you must leave this realm to enhance your bond," said the Death Lord. "You get a chance to show me how mortals truly raise their young." "Right." Aldrich put a knuckle to his forehead, trying to remember how to be a good parent. He had never parented before, obviously, but he knew he was not bad with kids. Probably because he had a lot of reference to work with using the memories of his parents. At the least, he was confident he was better than the likes of the Death Lord, but she was the rock bottom standard, so he did not feel exactly great aboutparing himself to her. "I will have Leos keep your troops trained and upied," said the Death Lord. "As for the third Trial Quest, I am afraid I will have to forbid you from entering it for now." "Why not?" said Aldrich. "I told you that the process of synchronizing is pleasant, but to finalize the bond, to forge it into permanent ce, requires a time of tremendous challenge. I have determined that time will be the third trial quest. I also require time for Med to perform some experimentation upon it as she is curious about where demonkind has gone following the end of our home realm." "Understood. I guess I owe you that much for what you''ve done so far." "Indeed. Now enjoy your leisure time. Leave this realm to me as you usually do when you leave." The Death Lord sighed. "At this point, perhaps I should have myself and my guard all wear maid uniforms. That is what we feel like at some points." "I''ll pass," said Med, ncing at the Death Lord with a sharp red eye of protest. "ns to tempt my master even more, snake?" said Valera. "Hm? If my talk gets you all riled up like this, then maybe I will wear the uniform," the Death Lord smiled slyly. "Explore time! Explore time!" the Chrysalis tugged at Aldrich''s leg. "Can you give me just a bit of time?" said Aldrich gently. "We can explore right after." The Chrysalis nodded. "Okay." Aldrich spent the next half hour gathering all the rewards from the past day. He raised the Megaloptera head and kept it in the Nexus along with the rest of his monsters. From the second trial quest, he raised the gigant worm and left it in the quest realm to save space. He then put the spellbook and sand seal in his inventory. As for the Hierophant''s Finger, he transferred it over to one of the Death Lord''s skeletal servants, requesting that she determine whether she could raise the Hierophant as an undead. Most likely, though, Aldrich did not expect the Death Lord to be capable of such a feat. The Hierophant was a mighty demigod, and enough divine blood prevented undeath from taking root. Not even the Death Lord could break this innate divine defense. Re, a demigod, was not even undead. She served the Death Lord out of her own volition. In the case that the Death Lord could not raise the Hierophant, Aldrich would have to consider who to give the finger to. Upon consumption, the finger granted an undead some magic rted passives and spells. Fragments of the Hierophant''s power. Supposedly, it was possible to revive the Hierophant if a yer could retrieve all of his corpse parts. This included six fingers, two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. Basically Exordia from a well known children''s card game that Aldrich used to y as a kid. Aldrich had never found all the parts no matter how hard he searched, so he figured it an impossibility even now, especially with the game realm gone. Aldrich touched base with the genie who said she would take eight hundred years to generate another wish, at which point, Aldrich said she was useless. In response, the genie cried and sulked, makingmunication difficult. Aldrich left her topose herself while he addressed other concerns. Aldrich checked up on the first trial quest briefly by telepathicallymunicating with his units as he had no time to go into the quest realm. He told the Geist he was doing a good job which in turn motivated the Geist to do even better with a resolute ''Geh!''. It seemed that eyeflower harvesting was proceeding quite smoothly. With that all done, Aldrich finally stood in front of the throne room crystal with the Chrysalis beside him. "That was fun!" said the Chrysalis. She made big circles with her hand. "I saw a big, big worm! Big bug!" "And you''ll get to see much more, too, once we head out," said Aldrich. "Explore time!" said the Chrysalis. "Are you sure you want me toe?" Valera said from behind Aldrich. "I can stay behind too. You will not need the snake to manage the troops, for I can do it better than she ever could." Aldrich sensed jealousy from Valera. Probably because she felt her job security as amander threatened. He maneuvered to eliminate this. "No, Valera, I need you with me," said Aldrich. "If I''m going to be exploring, I want someone that can defend me. Someone strong. Someone that I trust. That''s you. Plus, you can blend in with people and you don''t show up on AC scans like me, so you''re objectively the best choice." "Only objectively?" asked Valera. "And because I''d rather it was you than anyone else," said Aldrich. "Now that is a good answer." Valera smiled. "Then onwards we shall go, my master. I will defend you from all our enemies. And enjoy time with you as well. What a wonderful time we shall have." Chapter 248 - Samples Chapter 248 - Samples Aldrich manifested back in the dark depths of the Crypt. There, he saw Wai''ki''s clone of Vntis lying down, tossing a book up and down in the air to keep himself entertained. "Ah, it''s you!" said the clone. It lowered its voice when Aldrich put a finger over his mouth. "Apologies. I was simply getting bored down here." "A mere spirit construct can feel such things? Wai''ki truly is a master," remarked Valera. "Are you bored, mister?" The Chrysalis hopped on over to Vntis. "If you want, you cane with us to explore." "No, he can''t" said Aldrich firmly but gently. "He needs to stay here." "That, I do," said the construct with a sigh. Aldrich looked around. The construct had done a good job sending supplies packs up and down. Even eating the supplies. The books from the colonel were scattered about haphazardly. "Maybe reading will help," said Aldrich. "I cannot read this script," said the construct in despair. "Oh, right." Aldrich shrugged. There was not much else he could do to help. Not with 22 sitting atop the Crypt, probably watching on high alert for any disturbance. "I can help!" The Chrysalis pped her hands. A white portal emerged in front of her hands, and from it, a few volumes of graphic novels and manga from Aldrich''s Boundary popped out. "Those all have pictures. No need to read them." ''You do have to read them to figure out the plot,'' thought Aldrich, but aside from that, there was a more pressing issue. "I don''t want to leave traces of us behind." "But he''s so bored," said the Chrysalis. She looked up at Aldrich with wide eyes. "We can''t help him?" Aldrich sighed. "No. Sometimes, you can help others, sometimes, you can''t. This is one of those times you can''t." "I am fine," said the construct. "My existence is temporary as well. You need not worry about me. I thank you for your concern, however." "Okay," said the Chrysalis. She reached down and tapped the books she spawned, materializing them back to the Boundary. She stared at Aldrich with quizzical expression. "How will I know when to help? And when not to?" "Hm. It''s hard to tell you with words. When the timees, I''ll show you through example," said Aldrich. "Nowe on, we have to get going for exploration, don''t we?" "Okay!" the Chrysalis put her hand on Aldrich''s and then disappeared, warping into the Phctery that she had made her home. "Valera." Aldrich held his hand out towards her. "To think I can take a look at your inner world. It is quite exciting." Valera grasped Aldrich''s hand. The Chrysalis used the power she could manage to draw Valera in. Aldrich noted that instead of dark tendrils sucking Valera in, she instead faded away into white particles, absorbing into Aldrich''s chest. Perhaps a result of the Chrysalis gaining greater control over her powers due to her training. Hopefully, when this synchronization period was over and Aldrich could use the Chrysalis''s magic with his own vastly greater mana pool, he could freely takerge amounts of units in and out of himself. Or, if Aldrich felt he was in particrly high risk, keep his Phctery somewhere else with troops inside of it to guard it. With that, Aldrich cast [Mist Phase], warping out of the Crypt with everyone he needed in tow. Aldrich warped to Fler''gan''sboratory. "A pleasure to meet you again, O Elder," said Fler''Gan, nodding at Aldrich''s materialization from mist. "Same here." Aldrich spied the Mind Eater watching over a boiling spherical ss container filled with light blue liquid. The container was easily the size of a basketball, and darker blue smoke wafted from the sk neck, clouding the room in a faint haze that smelled oddly sweet. "The potion, I assume?" "Yes, though as of yet unrefined. I must incorporate the eyeflowers before I can fully refine it. And, ah, while you are here, one of your eyes, if you do not mind suffering the damage." Fler''gan''s tendril like fingers stiffened into almost spike like structures. "Or, if you would like, my mucus membrane can naturally dull pain and bleeding, allowing me to easily dissect live specimen. I can perform the extraction if you so desire." "No, I''ll do it. Being undead does have its perks, after all." Aldrich gouged his own eye out with a casual motion. As an undead, he still felt sensations, but above a certain threshold, they were muted. Especially sensations like pain that could negatively impact him. He tossed the freshly plucked eyeball towards Fler''Gan. Fler''Gan grasped it in his slithering fingers. "Many thanks, O Elder. This potion requires considerably more resources. I hope you will understand." "I do." Aldrich''s eye socket covered up with green mist, and when the mist faded away, his eye waspletely regenerated. "Your work hasn''t disappointed so far. Which does remind me, you have the most magical potential out of all my legion so far. I have a [Finger of the Hierophant] that I can potentially grant to you. It should considerably increase your strength." If Aldrich remembered correctly, the Hierophant''s finger boosted a unit''s levels in the same way that Dark Wisdom did. The lower their level, the greater the boost with a cap at level 40. Fler''Gan should at the very least go from level 20+ to level 30+,ting him a sizable boost in strength that kept himpetitive with units like Merman and Crab. Not just that, though, but the finger boosted the magic that the unit already knew, granting them ess to much stronger spells depending on what their magic specialization was. For example, Fler''Gan who specialized as a Pyromancer would learn a host of new fire based spells. He would probably even gain insight into additional alchemy skills and the like. Notably, however, it was useless for Aldrich because Necromancy did not count as a type of magic that the finger boosted. Thus, in the game, the finger was meant to be given to a trusted magic specialized unit. In this case, Aldrich figured his would be Fler''Gan. "Ah, the corpse parts of the great Hierophant,st heir to the Arcane Emperor''s legacy. It is said that by devouring his parts, one obtains the infinite knowledge of the emperor that shaped magic as we know it," said Fler''Gan. "Knowledge is always the golden light I strive for. If you need not the finger for your own purposes, I would be honored to partake of it." "I''d be hard pressed to find anyone else to trust," said Aldrich. "I am truly honored, O Elder," said Fler''Gan with a deep bow. He then reached into a cab and excitedly retrieved an eye-phone. He tapped it, causing the screen to light up. "And look at this, O Elder, I am beginning to understand and use the technology of the mortals in this realm use. The one you known as Casimir granted this to me, describing it as a personalized repository of infinite information. I must agree. It is a manner of contraption I could not have ever fathomed. It holds so many functions. Recording events, capturing images, taking notes, and the like. But most important of all, it holds ess to an infinite store of information on a space known as the ''Net'' that I have thrown myself into. Truly, to think that the humans of this realm have managed to centralize all their aplishments, all their thoughts and innovations, into one shared space - it does exin the frightening ubiquity and advancement of their technology. Magic - the study of the few - cannotpare to it." "Just make sure you don''t get sucked up in the Net. It''s easy to get lost in misinformation or what amounts to tons of garbage," said Aldrich. "And wait, you said you take notes on it? Doesn''t that mean you know thenguage?" "It is one of my Arcane spells, yes," said Fler''Gan. "One necessary as a schr of the citadel where peoples of every corner of the realm joined." "You said you could record your spells into tomes, right? Try to make that one a priority," said Aldrich. The units from Elden World could speak English and othernguages here, but they could not read anything, as evidenced by Vntis''s construct. That was because ording to lore, the Arcane Emperor unified most races so that they spoke with their souls, thus allowing everyone tomunicate with each other. However, each race had already developed their own writing systems before the Arcane Emperor''s rise, and many of them kept them, thus, there was no concerted effort to unify thenguage. And the emperor had not or could not devise a spell to universalize writing the same way he had done withnguage. "I will try," said Fler''Gan. "But I require materials from our realm. There are trees in that swamp around my study, no? Those can be processed for parchment. That will do for lower circle spells, but the [Eye of All Writ] that allows me to read and write in any system permanently is of a considerably high circle tier. I can modify a version that allows for temporary effects, or perhaps I can mass produce items like sses that could allow for it." "Either or works," said Aldrich. "The item solution actually sounds better." "I will require ss capable of enchantment of some kind," said Fler''Gan. "I''ll have that ready for you in a few days," said Aldrich. The third Trial Quest held such ss in abundance. But he would only ess that until after he had built his bond up with the Chrysalis. "If that''s all, Fler''Gan, I''ll take my leave." "Ah, one more thing, O Elder." Fler''Gan showed Aldrich his phone screen with surprising aptitude. Aldrich had thought Fler''Gan would have fumbled about with the phone like old people do, but he had adapted very quickly. Aldrich saw pictures of two statues held insiderge metal cargo crates. One made of blood red crystal housing a humanoid shark within. Another a statue of stone depicting a man reaching desperately upwards, as if drowning and wing out to air. The shark variant from the battle against the fishmen and Fletcher from ckwater respectively. "What will you do with these?" said Fler''Gan. "I can''t raise Shark anymore. Chiros''s crystal venom damages the corpse at the cellr level so the corpse isn''t stable enough for undeath. But the crystal construct can be detonated as a powerful bomb, so I''ll keep the Shark statue around forter." Aldrich narrowed his eyes at the picture of Fletcher. "As for him, his consciousness is still inside there, trapped in what must be eternal agony. I''ll keep him suffering for a little while longer. Until I really need him." Which might be surprisingly soon, considering Aldrich nned on using Fletcher when he took over ckwater. But at minimum, that would take a week. A week trapped inside a prison of rocky nothingness must have felt almost insanity inducing already considering what a few days of solitary confinement could do to the average man. "Understood, O Elder," said Fler''Gan. "One more thing," said Aldrich. "I have your editor sample ready." Chapter 249 Lnstinct

Chapter 249 Lnstinct

Aldrich tapped his chest, where his Phctery was. In response, the Chrysalis and Valera materialized in a shower of white particles. "Explore time yet?" said the Chrysalis. She looked around at Fler''Gan''sb in wonder. "So many toys¡­" "These are not toys, child," said Fler''Gan. "These are fine instruments of alchemy. You would do well to know the distinction." "Squid face!" Chrysalis pointed at Fler''Gan''s mouth tendrils. "¡­I truly do not deal well with youth," muttered Fler''Gan. "Can you bring out the person you''ve been keeping in the room?" said Aldrich. "The one you''ve been putting to sleep?" "Mhm. Okay." The Chrysalis closed her eyes and concentrated. She then pped her hands, and with that, the Editor materialized in a sh of white. He fell to the floor of the cargo space with a thump, still snoring in deep sleep. The Editor was still dressed up in tattered grey suit from attending Aldrich''s ''party''. Thest real survivor, though, soon, he would lose that privilege. "He''s all yours," said Aldrich. "Many thanks, O Elder." Fler''Gan''s finger tendrils trembled in sheer excitement as he raised the Editor up with telekic force. "Ah, I do hope that this specimen will be the breakthrough necessary for me to finally merge the magic of our realm and the powers of this one together." "I hope so too." "Father, what''s going to happen to him?" The Chrysalis cocked her head at the Editor Alter floating in the air. "Will squid face make friends with him?" "No, child, I will thoroughly break apart-," began Fler''Gan before both Aldrich and Valera stared at him with judging eyes, stopping him from going on about how he was going to dissect and brutalize the Editor. "I get it," said the Chrysalis. "He''s a bad guy. You''re going to get rid of him." Aldrich blinked in surprise. He knew that if the Chrysalis represented the pure side of his soul, then murder and torture were all going to be hard things to swallow for her. For any child, really. As a result, Aldrich kept her away in the Boundary. He could sense that unless she actively made the effort, she did not know what was going on outside, so he used the Boundary as a time out space to stop her from hearing the more unsavory things he dealt with. Valera had kept the Chrysalis upied in the Boundary, ying with her with hide and seek. That kept the Chrysalis from trying to hear Aldrich''s conversations. But it seemed as if the Chrysalis was fine with it all. On second thought, Aldrich recalled that she had seen the Butcher in his eternal torment in the basement. She had not had a strong reaction then as well. "Are you¡­okay with that?" asked Aldrich. "Mhm." The Chrysalis nodded. "I want to help lots and lots of people, but I also know bad things happen to bad people."? ???a ?????? Aldrich felt a sense of deja vu. Bad things happen to bad people. This was exactly what he had said when he was a kid. What he had believed. And it was because that belief, belief in some sort of karmic justice, had been shattered with his parents'' deaths that he inrge part turned into who he was today. "I just don''t know. Was he a bad person?" The Chrysalis asked Aldrich. "Yeah. He was," said Aldrich. "Okay. I trust father the most. So I don''t feel too bad then." The Chrysalis nodded, swishing her crystalline white tail from side to side. "Hm." Aldrich felt strongly then what should have been obvious. The Chrysalis was not human. She never had been. Even if she approximated a human''s soul, fundamentally, she was not one. As a variant, the Chrysalis''s instincts meant she could take life and death in stride. Every animal knew how to kill or be killed. He could tell now that her instincts were strong enough that if she had to fight and kill, she would. Especially when it came to ''bad guys''. Basically, if she saw bad guys dying or suffering, if she had to even take one down, then that was simply the way things were. "Explore time!" The Chrysalis tugged at Aldrich''s pant leg. She smiled sweetly. "Enough thinking, let''s go!" "Let''s go," Aldrich nodded, beholding the Chrysalis''s smile. He did not mind her indifference to death when it came to bad guys. He himself found it difficult to care much at all considering his status now as a Lich. Rather, he found it convenient. Less need to tiptoe around the Chrysalis''s innocence, at least when it came to the rather morbid topic of killing. "Perhaps the Death Lord was indeed right," said Valera as they all left the truck. She looked down at the Chrysalis happily skipping along across the dry desert brown earth. "Perhaps she is far stronger than we think." "I think so too," confirmed Aldrich. "I''m strong!" said the Chrysalis, confident. Her eyes were wide as she looked around at the nomadpound all around her. The early dawn sun modestly shone its rays through veils of clouds, dimly lighting trucks and motorcycles and cars that the Chrysalis wondered at. There were a few nomads here and there moving about, some smiling and waving hello to the Chrysalis, with her waving back with enthusiasm whenever she could. By now, Aldrich noticed, he was known enough that the nomads did not care that he wore a suit. That none of them showed any hostility to him probably also indicated that he was generally well received among them. "Where are we going?" asked the Chrysalis after she was done waving another round of hellos. ? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? "A ce to get you a name," said Aldrich. He stopped in front of the towering wheel structure of the Wanyudo. Aside from Desmond, the other nomad chiefs had not left just yet, though they were prepping to do so very soon. Z was still here, and that meant she could create a CID for the Chrysalis. Which was also an opportunity to give her a proper name. Chapter 250 Name

Chapter 250 Name

Inside the Wanyudo, Aldrich and Valera sat around the meeting table with Z across from it. "Are the lights always this dim with you technos around?" said Aldrich. The only light in the entire room came from a few white circles in the ceiling, and it was obvious that they had been intentionally dimmed down enough where everything and everyone cast long, droopy shadows. "Whenever we deep dive into the cyberverse, our senses go out of tune with the material world. Our body temperature rises dangerously, and even one little disturbance might tip us over into melting our brains. That disturbance might be bright, shing lights. So, we prefer to keep things dark," exined Z. "Like night creatures. How rtable," said Valera. "Spooky." The Chrysalis looked at the shadow she cast across a wall. She moved her tail around, making its shadow undte like a living creature. "But fun." "Now then," said Z as she leaned forward on the table, sping her hands together. Her eyes shone a bright purple as she looked at Valera, then at Aldrich. "What are you here for?" "We need a CID for her," Aldrich nodded towards the Chrysalis. "Same grade as the one you gave me. Enough to easily walk around in tier 1 cities without getting discovered." "That can be done. Any preferences?" Z watched the Chrysalis. "How do you want me to build up her past? Is she an orphan you adopted? Was she a street rat? Nomad?" "No, she''s¡­," said Aldrich, fumbling for the exact ssification for the Chrysalis. "He''s my father!" the Chrysalis pointed at Aldrich. "Yeah, sure, I guess that works. She''s my daughter. By blood or not, it doesn''t matter," said Aldrich. "Have her be tied directly to the backstories you''ve constructed for us already." "Alright then." Z peered over to Valera. "And you, I assume, will be the mother?" "Of course!" said Valera with loud vigor, all too excited to bebeled Aldrich''s wife. She coughed into her hand, lowering her voice. "Yes, indeed, that is correct." "That can be done," said Z. "It will cost you, though. A tier 1 capable fake CID is not easy to make. The first two, I updated for you out of goodwill, but this one, I will ask a price for." "Seemed easy enough for you to update them," said Aldrich. "Yes, and that is why almost the entire Underworldes to me for it. Try this request with anyone else and it will takes weeks at best." "Then what''s your price?" "I''d like Thanatos''s assistance in a heist I''ve been nning. It will be after his hearing, of course, provided he gets out of it in one piece. If not, a few of your men will do. A few of the stronger ones." "Any more details than that?" "I can forward them to your techno. It will be up to you to take the request or not. Otherwise, I would ask for some information from Casimir''s ckmail vault or any secret tech he''s holed up over the years." "Go ahead and send that request, then. When will you be done with the CID?" said Aldrich. "In half an hour. Just in time for us to part ways," said Z. "Gerard seems to have taken more of a liking to you after your Megaloptera hunt." "As far as I''m aware, not enough yet to cast his vote for me fully," said Aldrich. "My support is tenuous. I still don''t know what Crone thinks of me, and Stone''s support doesn''t seem based on much."? ???a ?????? "Crone has been quiet about you. Almost unnaturally so. But that tends to be a good sign. She is a woman of few words, and what few words she does speak are to foretell disaster or ill omen. That she says little about you is probably a good thing," said Z. "As for Stone, he always moves with the majority. I would not read too deeply into it." "They do not know what they are missing by not cing their wholehearted loyalty," muttered Valera. "Uncertainty can make even the shiniest prizes seem too dull to touch," said Z. "Anyway, what do you want her name to be?" "Name?" The Chrysalis hopped on over to the table. "My name?" ? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? "Yes," said Aldrich. "I did have an idea, actually. Chrysa." "...That sounds thoroughly uninspired," said Valera. ''Are you using that name because it is just Chrysalis shortened?'' said Valera telepathically. ''No, I promise you there''s more thought behind it,'' responded Aldrich. Valera stared at Aldrich, unconvinced. ''Legitimately, there is thought behind it. The bracelet she got from the Death Lord, the flowers on it are chrysanthemums. A name that''s shortform for both that and chrysalis seems fitting, doesn''t it?'' ''...I suppose''. Valera spoke to the Chrysalis. "What do you think of the name?" "Any name that father gives me is a good name," nodded the Chrysalis. "See, she likes it," said Aldrich. "I do not know whether that is ''like'' or ''eptance''," said Valera. "That''s like," said Z. "She is happy with it. And if it''s a name you like, then I''m sure she would like it too. She seems to care a great deal about your happiness." Aldrich raised a brow. "You seem to read children quite well." "You can say ites from the experience of a mother," said Z. She stood up, preparing to end the conversation. Aldrich briefly saw a flicker of wistfulness in her eyes, as if she had been staring at something she had lost. "I will have the CID ready for you as soon as possible. Until then, I have a few matters to attend to myself. I will contact you when the order is ready." Aldrich stood as well, ready to leave. "Where are you going from here, if I may ask?" said Z. "Me?" Aldrich took Chrysa''s hand. "We''re going on an adventure, aren''t we?" "Adventure time!" said Chrysa. "Explore time!" "Well, good luck with that. If you ever need to get in touch with me after our parting, your techno will know how," said Z. Chapter 251 Road Trip

Chapter 251 Road Trip

An hourter, and Aldrich was out on the road in his ARMA armored car. The same one he had taken from the leader of the Odinsons nomad gang that felt like an eternity ago. He had briefly wondered back then how the Odinsons could have afforded such a nice car, but now he realized: they made a hefty profit flipping and modifying Z''s false CID temtes. Aldrich looked out his window, seeing nothing but endless stretches of dry wastnd. It was hard to think about how anything could even survive here, out in these swathes of barren, rust colored earth that had nothing green growing in them. But still, life found a way. Whether underground, around rare oases of blue and green, or inside cliff faces, life adapted and continued. "You sure you don''t want me to drive? This highway ain''t maintained right, specially not around these parts," said Diamondback, Clint''s right hand man. "And you''ve been behind the wheel for ten hours now." ? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? "No. I like the feeling of driving. Plus, I don''t really feel tired," said Aldrich. "I''ve been meaning to ask, and I don''t mean offense, but think this is a good idea? Taking a road trip now of all times?" said Diamondback. The man sat with straight posture even after ten consecutive hours of slogging through a road trip with mind numbingly boring scenery. Unlike Clint, Diamondback was stiff. Stern. It showed in his permanent ramrod straight posture. In the rigid tone of his voice. In the deep furrows in his forehead - marks of stress that Clint definitely did not have. It did make sense. Someone had to bnce out Clint''s brand of crazy, otherwise any group he led would probably die early deaths. Glorious early deaths, granted, but still deaths. "It''s a valid question. The situation''s tense with the Dark Six, and here I am on a road trip with¡­with my family," said Aldrich as he nced at the rearview mirror. Valera was in the backseat with the Chrysalis in herp. They were both sleeping. Or rather, choosing to sleep to alleviate the boredom of the road trip. It was a little ufortable referring to them as wife and child and family, especially considering how young Aldrich was, but he figured the more he said it, the easier it would get. "Considering the fact that you manage most of the Spearhorn tribe''s decisions, you''d want the best for them. And the fact that Clint''s yoked your whole group to me on what seems like an impulse must make you worried. It''s probably why you decided to take the job to be my bodyguard. You get to double up and see how I am as a person too." "And so? Does anything justify this trip?" said Diamondback. Despite Diamondback being a physically built specimen of a man with intimidating split pupiled blue eyes, his voice never oozed any hint of hostility. And there was plenty to back any hostility if Diamondback was willing to put it out. Aldrich wore a pair of shades now that had built in AC scanning, and Diamondback had a reading of 6800. The bar for entry to be an A- ranked hero, for reference, was generally set around an AC count of 5000. In fact, if pure AC count was the only metric of strength considered, Diamondback was the highest among the Spearhorns. Even Clint hovered around 5000, but it seemed his numbers could violently fluctuate upwards over time. "A child''s happiness," replied Aldrich. "Do I have to say more than that?" "¡­If that''s enough for you, then sure. But what about for the rest of us?" said Diamondback. "What else is there to do? The point is toy low until the hearing''s over, especially with the Dark Six threat looming over us all. Plus, I have some errands to run," said Aldrich. Before making this trip, Aldrich had worked with Z to try and unlock ine''s personal server. Surprisingly, the password that Aldrich and ine shared over their ckwater projects did not work. That left Aldrich with no way to ess it. Not even V could break into it, leaving her confused as to how a non-techno like ine, a Dud no less, could create cyber defenses so tight. ording to ine''s spirit, whatever she left behind had been for her adoptive father Randall. Aldrich figured then that he knew how to ess the server. Aldrich had gotten V to track Randall down after hearing from nomad sources that the nomadmune that Randall had been a part of had moved back into a city. That city was where Aldrich was headed now. A tier 3 city called Redrock a solid half day''s worth of driving down one of the intercontinental highways that connected the U.S. together. "I hope these errands are worth the trouble, specially'' with the risk involved," said Diamondback. "If you came here toin, then you should''ve had someone else be our guard," said Aldrich. Diamondback shook his head. "I don''t trust nobody for a mission of this caliber aside from myself. There could be enemies anywhere. You''re not out of the clear, you understand that, don''t you? This false identity, this ''Bruce Vane'' persona, is on the Dark Six''s radar. From my intel, it''s what you used to bait the Dark Six into the Red Circle for Casimir''s suicidal stunt. There isn''t a bounty on you yet cause nobody even knows whether you were real or some boogeyman Casimir made up. But once they realize, you better bet your ass that you''ll also have a fat bounty over your head. Why didn''t you just make a new one? Z could have done that for you. And for your wife and daughter too." "¡­Wife," murmured Valera with a smile in her sleep. "¡­Father," Chrysa whispered, also in her sleep, also with a smile. "They''re in danger too," said Diamondback. Aldrich almost smiled. "I wouldn''t worry about them. Especially not my wife. In any case, I''ve decided to keep this identity because I have no intention of being buddy buddy with the Dark Six. I''m sure Clint could sense it. I want them gone. I want what''s theirs to be mine. And I want them to know who did it. I want them to have a name they can fear." "¡­Maybe you do have a crazy streak in you as well." Diamondback nced at Aldrich with concern. "Probably why Clint took such a big liking to you. Off his rocker just like his old man." He sighed. "But it is true. Clint wants the Dark Six burned to the ground. That''s the least he can pay them back for after they took his pa, wife, and daughter from him. And I''ll back Clint in that journey with my life. Which means I''m in this wild ride with you as well." "The more the merrier, right?" Aldrich grew quiet as he started to stop his car. Along the highway, there were two police cars built heavy and sturdy to rove along the harsh wastnd terrain. Their bright red and blue lights were on, indicating for the car to stop. "Something don''t feel right. Road checks ought to be maintained by Panop drones out in remote road like this," said Diamondback. "Though it''s not absolutely impossible for cops to be out this far either." "I''ll make a stop. Let''s see what they have to say," said Aldrich. Chapter 252 ’Cops’

Chapter 252 ''Cops''

Aldrich stopped his car by the side of the highway. The scene looked all manners of off. It was in the dead of night with the moon hiding behind a thicket of clouds. Most of the light around came from the harsh re of reds and blues generated by the cop cars. Dealing with cops was not really an issue. Police forces within cities, especially lower tier cities, were easy victims to corruption. Whether they were fed by the hand of a corporation or an organized crime group, the difference was minimal. But highway cops were held to a much higher standard. The intercontinental highway system was crucial for maintaining transportation and supply lines through the wastnds where variants, viins, and nomads were all routine threats. The Panopticon often managed the roads with drones in association with heroes from the Alterhuman Agency, but in stretches of highway like this, in remote areas with low variant activity, cops often made up manpower deficits. They were responsible generally for scanning who went through the roads and reporting back any suspicious activity. Essentially like border patrol. "Is something amiss?" Valera said from the backseat. She had sensed the shift in atmosphere while asleep and instantly woken up, her battle hardened experience letting her easily transition from deep sleep to alertness. Chrysa, however, remained snoozing in Valera''s arms. "Those two vehicles up there belong to government authority. Think of it like a city watch," said Aldrich. "Will they present an issue for us?" said Valera. "Hopefully not," said Diamondback. "You all have solid fake CIDs, so if they''re regr highway patrol, they''ll just scan those and let us be on our way." "Something is off," said Aldrich as he spied the twin cop cars. They were built sturdy and heavy. ARMA Blue from the HT (Harsh Terrain) model line meant for roaming across the wastes. As far as cop car models went, nothing was wrong. Heavier cars like this were normal on the wastes. It was their numbers that brought immediate rm to Aldrich. "Highway patrols don''t happen in groups of two. Even in low risk areas like this, you need more than two cars in case you get unlucky and a tough variant just so happens to be prowling around looking for dinner. They get hungry enough, and they can just shove past AV (Anti-Variant) fields as well, especially weaker ones like the type on these roads." "Yeah. Should be six cars minimum. Sometimes, though, patrols can split up." Diamondback said. His ck pupil narrowed down to reptilian slits. "But I don''t see antenna on either of those cars. Those are out here cold." "That''s the biggest issue," said Aldrich. "If they''re cop cars, they''d want connectivity to report back anything they see. That''s the whole point of patrolling in the first ce." "There''s no base connection here either." Diamondback looked down at his phone to confirm. "I do not understand most of this conversation, but I can sense that those guards are not to be trusted. Shall I be ready for a fight?" said Valera. "You can fight too?" Diamondback raised a brow. "I understand Bruce here''s concealing his AC count somehow, but you are too?" "I am far from helpless," said Valera defiantly. "I know Clint insisted on youing with us, but you might find yourself bored if you came here just to guard us," said Aldrich. "¡­We''ll see. Someone''sing." Diamondback pointed at one of the cop cars. A figure emerged from the passenger side, indicating another presence obscured under tinted window on the driver''s side. A police officer dressed in grey uniform - the standard color for highway patrol - walked up towards Aldrich''s car. "Pretty normal gear for a highway cop," observed Diamondback. "Variant grade heavy rifle, anti-personnel pistol, AC visor, and radio." "You''ve got targeted EMP charges, don''t you?" said Aldrich. "Yeah." Diamondback''s hand was already at his waist, thumbing a rectangr pouch on his belt. He pressed an indent on his skin where a cybeic imnt called an AC suppressor activated, dramatically lowering his AC reading, though it did nothing to actually lower his power. "You think things are gonna get nasty?" "I''d be ready." Aldrich rolled down his window as the officer approached. His demeanor instantly changed, a slight smile forming on his lips as his eyes altered their sharp gaze into a weing one you''d see on any average passerby. "How can I help you, officer?" said Aldrich. "I''d like to do a full inspection of your vehicle," said the officer gruffly. He eyed Aldrich through his red visor and paused for a moment. "You a Dud?" "That''s how things are, yes." The officer nodded to himself slowly before looking over to Diamondback. "And who''s that? Your friend?" "Yes." The officer''s stare lingered on Diamondback for longer. His bodynguage was calcting and tense. Like a stalking predator sizing up its prey. He was assessing Diamondback''s threat. The officer''s tense shoulders slumped when he did not read a particrly high rating from Diamondback. AC suppressant cybeic imnts were not too rare, used by arge chunk of mercenaries and viins and other Alters that wanted to keep themselves a secret. But a suppressant on Diamondback''s scale, one that could reduce his A rank ratings down to something in the D range, were far and few between. "Any other passengers?" said the officer. "Wife and my child in the back," said Aldrich. "You got a kid? Look mighty young to be popping one out." "Well, I guess things just happen." "Yeah, they do. Like this inspection. Get yourself and all passengers out of the car. Me and my boys will do a thorough check of the vehicle. Routine inspection for this part of the road, hope you understand." "I don''t believe you have the right to do so," said Aldrich. "Here''s my badge," said the officer impatiently, reaching into his pocket and thrusting a star shaped card at Aldrich''s face. Nothing was off about the badge. Aldrich tested the officer more. "I''m afraid that doesn''t cut it, officer," said Aldrich. "To search my personal vehicle, you need to have probable cause, especially if you don''t determine us a threat." The officer chuckled as he put away his badge. He unholstered his pistol and clicked the safety off. "Listen here, you Dud piece of shit, I''m getting real tired of checking cars over and over again, and you''re the first one to be giving me lip about your rights, as if powerless freaks like you even deserve them in the first ce. Now do as I say, or my little friend here-," The officer waved his gun towards Aldrich''s face. "Might do the talking instead of me. And you don''t want him to do any talking." "Ah, I get it. You''re not a real cop, are you?" said Aldrich. ? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? "Yeah, fuck if I''m not? I-," Aldrich reached out and grabbed the officer''s wrist, the same hand that waved the gun so casually in his face, with lightning quick speed. He twisted the man''s wrist with such strength that he sent the officer off his feet. "W-what the fuck!?" the officer eximed first in surprise, then in pain as Aldrich tightened his grip hard on the wrist. "Argh!" the officer dropped his gun. As this scene unfolded, Aldrich spied the other cop cars opening up, unleashing a team of fake cops out. "Diamondback. It''s time you earned your pay," said Aldrich. "Though technically, I guess you aren''t being paid for this." "A little action''s payment enough." Diamondback, for the first time ever during the entire ten hour car ride, cracked a grin. One less manic than the type Clint bore during a fight, but one still packed with enough bloodlusted fervor that Aldrich wondered if everyone in the Spearhorn tribe was like this. Diamondback got out of the car in a swift motion, simultaneously taking out a thin ck rectangr EMP charge. He pressed his thumb on a button, arming the charge and causing it to glow with three bright white strips. Diamondback tossed the charge towards the cars. It exploded in the midst of them, unleashing an omnidirectional wave of crackling green energy. The energy wave did not harm the cops, but any tech they had got fried. The radios on the cops'' hips sputtered in showers of sparks, rendered inactive. The visors on cops'' faces cracked and sparked, some sparks painfully getting into eyes and eliciting grunts of pain. The harsh red and blue light from the police cars cut off, abruptly drenching the scene in darkness. The only source of light came from Aldrich headlights illuminating Diamondback''s shining, sparkling figure, light blue crystalspletely covering him from head to toe in a sturdy suit of armor. Chapter 253 Diamondback

Chapter 253 Diamondback

Aldrich watched Diamondback, his ck shades tinting the crystal covered man''s scintiting shine. He looked like he waspletely covered in fully cut, polished diamond, reflecting the dim glow of Aldrich''s car''s headlights and magnifying it through its many facets in dazzling, sparkling brightness. Had Diamondback been under the sun, he probably would have shone bright enough to t out blind the average passerby with his 100,000 carat diamond body. "Who does that gemstudded brute think he is, taking over my role to guard my master?" said Valera. She made a motion to reach for the car door and leave. Aldrich raised a hand in the air, stopping her. "Don''t worry. Let''s see just how good our bodyguard is supposed to be. After all, it''s good to know how capable our allies are, no?" said Aldrich. He nced at the rearview mirror. Chrysa was still snugly asleep in Valera''sp through all thismotion. To say that she was a heavy sleeper was an understatement. As far as sleeping went, she was probably a world heavyweight champion at this point. Maybe because she was a growing girl. "Plus, Chrysa looks happy sleeping where she is now. Let her get some rest." "Understood, master," said Valera. She gently patted Chrysa''s silvery hair. "She is a gentle little thing. Perhaps it is best she sleeps and does not witness the battle." "Soon, she''ll have to. But for now, I''d like her to enjoy the time she has with me without the stress of phony cops. Isn''t that right, ''officer''?" Aldrich looked over his window to the cop still struggling against him. With his arm wrapped around and over his back to the limit of its range of motion, the cop was in a painful spot where if he tried to use his other arm to pick up his dropped pistol or do much of anything, he practically guaranteed the arm under Aldrich''s control a one way ticket to snap city. "Who do you think you are!?" said the fake officer. "No, do you even know who we are? Who you''re messing with!?" "Nobody important, evidently, based on how weak you are," said Aldrich. "Your AC count is 2000. You''re barely D grade. Where do you even get all this courage?" "And you''re a powerless Dud! You don''t get to talk that way to me!" "Watch what you say, human." Valera''s voice cut across to the officer with a chilling intensity, an intensity that made the man''s spine crawl with cold, primal fear. That shut the officer up immediately. The radio at his hip crackled with indiscernible audio. He had been away from the range of the EMP charge, but radio in particr was sensitive to charges like that, rendering the device near useless. Regardless, Aldrich knew he did not want to take any chances. He briefly let the officer''s arm go, and he blinked in momentary surprise and relief. Relief thatsted less than a second before Aldrich mmed his bulky car door open, knocking the officer t on his face. As the officer groaned in pain, Aldrich took his radio and crushed it under his foot, grinding the metal and stic and electronics into a mush of ck bits and sparks. Aldrich knelt down on the officer''s back, pinning him prone to the ground, and grabbed the officer by the head, raising his face up to watch what was unfolding in front of him. "Let''s see how well my bodyguard does against your friends, shall we?" said Aldrich. = There was a standoff between Diamondback and seven of the ''cops''. The cops hid behind their ck, blue and white painted armored cars, aiming their sizable anti-variant rifles at Diamondback. Diamondback stood a dozen meters away, staring at the officers with still posture, his expression hidden. The diamond-like crystals did not wrap around his head to fit its form, instead, they structured themselves in a helmet-like arrangement that reminded Aldrich of a square bucket helm - armored, heavy, and powerful. "Who are you!?" said one of the officers. He eyed Diamondback, then Aldrich manhandling hispanion. "None of you are normal. Are you bounty hunters? Mercs?" "..." Diamondback just stared them down. When he spoke, he spoke to Aldrich. "What do you want to do with them?" "Take them down. Keep them alive - we can still get information out of them. But since there''s seven of them, it''s fine if one or two die. And we have to make it quick. We can''t be stalled on the side of the road for long like this, even if this is remote road that isn''t being monitored," said Aldrich. "Alright," replied Diamondback. "Alright!? You really want to fight here? On the highway?" said an officer. "You leave behind any evidence, and eventually, the Panop or the AA are going toe by and investigate." "Then we leave no trace, right?" Aldrich nodded to Diamondback. "But I''m sure an expert like you already knew that." "...My powers ain''t suited for restraining without killing. I can try to keep them alive, but no guarantees." Diamondback cocked back his fist and unleashed a palm strike. Seven shards of diamond crystal shot out like bullets, slicing through the armor ting of the cop cars like they were made of paper sheets before spearing straight through each of the officers'' shoulders. Collective yells of pain cut through the air as the officers dropped their rifles. In this moment of pain, this moment of distraction, Diamondback charged like a rugby yer, all raging weight and mass and destructive force. And incredible speed, too. He was upon the first cop car before they could even recover from their pain. Diamondback shoved the heavy car to the side like it was a toy, sending it tumbling on its back. He executed the three officers hiding behind the car in clean, consecutive motions, snapping their necks with single, efficient motions, like he was working on an assembly line. "We have to get out of here! Slow him down with explosives and give me some space!" said one of the officers, the leader, presumably, by hismanding tone, as he backed away. The three remaining other cops withdrew grenades, intending to unpin and use them even without the use of one arm. One of them did so because he had a prehensile monkey tail, the other because he could regenerate the hole in his shoulder, and the third using a robotic arm on his back. Diamondback thrust his palm out again, and this time, he aimed with lethal intent, evidently determining that he did not want to risk cleaning up after explosives. Crystal shards shot out of his hands like buckshot, riddling the officers'' bodies with gaping holes that instantly killed them before they could even register unpinning the grenades. Three swiss cheesed bodies fell back in bloody piles, leaving just the leader. "I"ve got you," said the leader as he put a hand to his head. His eyes shone bright red as he furrowed his brows and set his jaw, straining in effort. Aldrich could not see any visible effect, no projectile or weapon or the like. "It''s over," grunted the officer underneath Aldrich. "When our boss lets his mind control loose, nobody can stop it.That big diamond bastard''s going to be on you now." "Hm. That may be a problem." Aldrich unholstered the officer''s pistol and aimed it towards the mind controlling Alter. "But he can''t function with a bullet in his brain, can he?" "No need." Diamondback raised a hand, stopping Aldrich. "Picking up after bullets is a chore I don''t want to deal with." ? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? "W-what¡­how are you resisting me!?" the leader strained, sweat pooling across his face in mental exertion. "No¡­I can''t even get in in the first ce!" "My crystals block out mental interference. But my AC count is high enough a nobody like you couldn''t even get through my natural defenses in the first ce." Diamondback rushed forward, closing the distance between himself and the leader in an instant. Before the leader could react, Diamond back grabbed both of the man''s arms and crushed them. He then swiftly tore off his belt and took away any guns and ammunition with precise motions. He finished that all off with a low kick thatpletely snapped the leader''s leg, making him scream as he fell to the ground. Diamondback cut the scream off by shoving his crystal covered hand over the agonized man''s mouth. "Quit your crying. None of those wounds are lethal. You''re one cut above the trash here. Luckily, or maybe unluckily for you, your body''s strong enough to survive this." "Guess that''s that," said Aldrich. He put the pistol down, instead pressing it against the back of the head of the officer beneath him. "P-please, let me go! I swear to god man, I''m just here for an odd job, nothing to do with you, nothing personal at least!" said the man. "Good, you''re willing to talk," said Aldrich. He called over to Diamondback. "Bring the leader over too. Check if he''s willing to talk." Chapter 254 Lnterrogation

Chapter 254 Lnterrogation

Diamondback carried over the mind controlling Alter''s broken and battered body to Aldrich, tossing the man beside the cop Aldrich restrained. They lined up perfectly together, two men thoroughly broken in both body and spirit. Though, Aldrich did note, the guy he was restraining had it pretty good. No broken bones anywhere. Just a week ago, and he would have more than considered snapping things already. Maybe he had softened up. Probably not. Aldrich was still a lich. An existence separated from the living, rted to humans only in the same vestigial lens that normal men saw monkeys through. Though he did actively try to stop this way of thinking from infecting him too much. The fact of the matter was that if Aldrich grew too far from his own humanity, the more liable he was to bing too much a monster. And, if he surmised correctly, that was a one-way ticket to suffering from a bad case of immortality induced insanity. Or maybe it was simpler than this. Maybe he was just more patient. Who knew. In any case, it was now time for questioning. "You two look pretty buddy buddy," said Aldrich, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Shut it," said the mind controlling Alter with strained voice. "I''m surprised you''re even conscious. Your AC count must be pretty high for you to have a body this tough even without Augmenter abilities." Aldrich tapped his shades as he scanned the Alter. AC count of 3400. Not bad. A thorough C ranker. Even D rankers had superhuman physicals, provided they trained. Enough to weather a few stone splitting hits or recover from a broken bone in two or three weeks. And now, Aldrich could see that a C ranker could take shattered arms and an annihted leg and stay conscious. Something that would have been absolutely lethal for humans pre-Altering. "They''re both nothing but chumps. If we want to question them, we''ll have to make it quick." Diamondback loomed over both restrained cops. "Right." Aldrich nodded down towards the two Alters. "I''ll ask things nicely. Consider that a warning. If I don''t like what I''m hearing, I''m going to start breaking things. Do we have an agreement?" "Yes, yes, we do!" said the Alter under Aldrich. "Be quiet, Tommy, and let me do the talking," said the leader. He red up at Aldrich and Diamondback. "What do you two want to hear, huh?" "You still have an attitude in this situation? Interesting. Well, to start off with, it''s pretty obvious you two aren''t cops," said Aldrich. "No shit," said the leader. "Agh!" Diamondback had shot a crystal shard into the leader''s thigh, lowering the velocity so that it stayed stuck to minimize blood loss. "Sorry. I dropped that," said Diamondback. He hovered his hand over the leader''s head. "I might drop it again, too, unless you take up a better tone with us, boy." "What''s the point? You two are going to kill us anyway," said the leader. "Not necessarily. You, in particr, might be useful to keep around with that power of yours," said Aldrich. "The fact that you aren''t using it, though, makes me wonder. You need to put your hand on your head to channel it, right?" "¡­" The leader stayed quiet. Diamondback hovered his palm over the leader''s other leg. Aldrich raised a hand to stop him from firing another shard. "It''s okay. Silence is answer enough sometimes. Now, why are you patrolling remote highway like this? And posing as cops? Where did you even get these cop cars? Highway patrol cars aren''t easy toe by, and as far as I know, all of them have trackers to stop them getting lost in the Wastnds. If you''re using them for dumb stuff like this, you obviously took the trackers off too, and that requires some serious techno tinkering." A brief silence. "You''ve already killed my crew. I''ve got nothing more to give you," said the leader. Aldrich looked into his red tinted eyes. It was said that the eyes were a window to a person''s soul. Aldrich fully believed this. He could tell so much from the eyes. And what he saw was determination. Some resignation. This guy was ready to die. He probably truly had cared about his crew. Well, that just meant he wasn''t as useful. Aldrich could raise him as an undead and get answers that way, but that would give away his Thanatos identity too quickly. "And you?" Aldrich tapped his pistol on the head of the guy he was restraining. "You have anything to give us? Looks like your boss here is letting you down. He says his crew''s dead, but he doesn''t even count you."? ??? a ???e? "I''ll tell! I don''t give a fuck about this crew, I''m just a new recruit anyway!" "That''s what I like to hear," said Aldrich. "Answer the questions I gave to your boss." "We were out here cause we took a free for all contract floating around the Dar. Five hundred thousand credits just for useful tips on peopleing in and out of cities in this area rted to the Burning," said the underling, his voice panicked. "That''s why we were on this road, cause it leads to a city, shit, what was its name?" ? ?? ??-??? ??, ?,?,? "Redrock." Aldrich paused for a moment. "It''s just a tier 3 city. Rtively unimportant. But you still set up a watch here?" "Tougher and better hunters than us have set up watches all around the tier 2 and 1 cities. Plus, we''re not that good of a crew to take on leftovers from the Burning," said the underling. "Burning?" said Aldrich. "It''s what the underworld calls the whole Red Circle disaster," said the underling. "Shit was fucking wild. Biggest thing that happened to upset the bnce since, like, Dracul going apeshit andpletely breaking up one of the Dark Six. And that was fifteen years ago." Aldrich nodded. Dracul, one of the world''s few Sentinels. A man Aldrich wanted to meet once he got on the global stage. He probably would join Aldrich''s fight against the rest of the Dark Six. "And who was the contract from?" "Contract was anonymous, but everyone knows it''s probably a pissed off Dark Six." "Any extra details on what the contract wanted? What are the criteria for useful tips?" said Aldrich. "Anyone and anything rted to the Red Circle. That''s all we know! Five hundred thousand was just a shit ton of money. You understand why we had to be here, right? Shit, if you aren''t rted to any of this, no, even if you are, I can just pretend nothing ever happened. I swear!" "I don''t think we''re going to get anymore out of this low level hired guns," said Diamondback. "Technically, they aren''t even hired guns. They''re just frencers that have no real rtion to the Dark Six. No real point of connection. Even if you thought about baiting the Dark Six by forcing them to say they had a good tip, the info probably goes through too manyyers of screening for us to infiltrate the Dark Six." "Yeah, that''s what I figured too. These guys are just one crew out of probably thousands just roaming around. No useful information. All nuisance." Aldrich sighed. "Well, atleast we know that there''s more of them out there. And that this contract''s rtively recent. I would''ve heard about it from my technos if it was before I got on the road, so it got uploaded within the past ten hours." "If you want to get into a city safely, now is probably the best time," said Diamondback. "Not enough time''s passed for too many crews to get in on this and set themselves up. Especially not around a tier 3 city. The question is getting out. Things might get messier. Messy enough that it might be better to reconsider this trip entirely." Aldrich shook his head. From what V said, Randall, ine''s adoptive father, was now close to death from a terminal illness called Waste Lung. Developed when toxic particles in the air remaining from geostorms umted in the lungs, slowly rotting them over time. If Aldrich did not get into Redrock now, Randall might pass away before Aldrich could make good on ine''sst wishes. "We''re still going," said Aldrich. "I told you, I have errands to run. And a promise to keep." "What about leaving?" said Diamondback. "These guys may be chumps, but 500k isn''t chump change. It''s enough for decently strong hunters to start camping in and around even tier 3 cities." "That''s what I have you for, isn''t it? You''re supposed to be my bodyguard," said Aldrich. "¡­" Diamondback sighed. "I guess. Yeah. That is true. And I don''t think we''ll ever run into a crew strong enough to take me out. That''s the nature of a free for all job like this. You end upting in a lot of crews, but most of them will be trash." Diamondback shook his head. "I still think you should''ve changed your CIDpletely." "That would make things too easy now, wouldn''t it?" Aldrich looked at Diamondback''s judgmental face and sighed. "That was a joke. My techno is extremely capable and familiar with Z''s CID temte. She can remotely alter some details on our CIDs if we have to. I can minimize our risks going into and out of the city, but the fact of the matter is I''m pretty decided on going in." "I''ll do my job regardless of what your decision is," said Diamondback. "Good." Aldrich looked down at the two fake cops. "And now it''s time we got rid of these guys." Diamondback nodded. "Yeah." Chapter 255 Settling Down In Redrock

Chapter 255 Settling Down In Redrock

"Get¡­get rid of us!? We-," the underling briefly nced at his boss. "No, I told you everything I knew! You can''t do this to me!" "You''re a hunter, aren''t you?" said Aldrich. "Y-yeah, but why does that matter!?" "Then you know what risks this jobes with. You hunt down other people. You bring them in dead or alive. You do this knowing full well you''re also flipping a coin. One side dead, one side alive. Tonight, both of you got unlucky." Aldrich pressed the gun against the back of the underling''s head. "ept the results of the draw. They won''t change." "Wait-wait!-," Aldrich fired the gun. Instead of the echoing roar a normal gun would''ve sted out on the wide-open wastes, there was instead more of a higher pitched ''ping'' from the gun''s built in silencer. Standard issue for hunters that often needed to work in cities, dodging police and heroes. The underling''s head jerked forward. His body shivered once as lead gored through his brain, making his nervous system jolt in onest death throe. Then, he transitioned fully from man to corpse, the body growing still as a light pool of blood started to already form around the head. "And you''ve already been ready to die," said Aldrich to the boss. The boss stared at him wordlessly and just closed his eyes. He must have had a strong bond with his crew. Except for the newly onboarded underling, of course. A bond close to family, if their loss meant this guy could stare down death without a whimper or a whine. Aldrich did not feel much of anything towards the man. He was just exterminating pests. When it came to taking out targets, his ''lich brain'' revved fully into gear, and it became much harder for him to separate man from meat. To think of people like this as more than just a bag of bones and flesh all waiting to rot and decay. An inevitable casualty. Whether by quick bullet or theparatively slower wear and tear of time, there was no real difference to Aldrich. They were not useful to Aldrich as undead either, even if he could somehow tell Diamondback to leave and raise them discretely. The mind controlling Alter, maybe, but his power seemed to have too many limitations and it did not work on legitimately strong targets. Not too worth the effort. Fler''Gan was better. Aldrich nodded to Diamondback. Diamondback executed the boss with one quick shot of a crystal shard. Clean. Efficient. That was how he did things. Aldrich liked it. "About clean up." Aldrich stood up from the underling''s corpse beneath him. He looked around at the scene of devastation, the upturned cars, the blood pooled corpses, the scattered weapons, and saw more nuisances to deal with. "How are we going to do this?" "Some of my boys are trailing us from farther away. Not close enough to draw attention on us but not far enough where they can''t handle the clean-up for situations just like this," said Diamondback. "I''ll pack all the evidence we have up here, the bodies and guns and so on, and cram it all into the cars. Afterwards, I''ll toss the cars a couple miles down for my boys to get rid of." "You foresaw this happening?" Diamondback shrugged. Whenever he moved, the noise from his crystal body sounded like a series of clicks and cracks. Notably, though, his diamond body, though seeminglypletely rigid uniformly, bended flexibly to amodate movement. Whatever crystal Diamondback was made from, even if it did resemble diamond, was something far more durable and far easier to shape. "I''ve been working as muscle for forty years," said Diamondback. "Ever since I was fifteen. Worked all the way back with Daz, Clint''s pa and living legend. I''ve picked up a thing or two about how things go in this line of dirty work." Diamondback moved reached down and picked up the two corpses, slinging them over his shoulder. Compared to his massive frame, the corpses looked almost like they belonged to children. "The blood?" Aldrich watched blood trickle down from the head shots on the corpses, dripping down like raindrops on window ss across Diamondback''s body. "You''re new to the Wastes, I forget. The Wastes round these parts are dry. The earth is thirsty. Greedy. It''ll suck the blood right up." Diamondback tossed the corpses on top of the two police cars. Aldrich saw that Diamondback was right. Whatever blood pooled on the cracked, parched earth seeped into it in a manner of seconds. A few little dark splotches atop the orange earth were all that remained of the once warm and fresh blood, and even that would fade away with winds carrying dust and more dirt. "I''ll handle all of this. You''re tough enough to handle yourself for a bit, aren''t you? Your girl too, she''s got attitude, and I bet she can back it up. Drive the car down. Try not to let the little girl see this." Diamondback walked away, towards the cop cars, picking up any guns and other odd pieces of evidence he found along the way. "I''ll catch up soon." "Thanks," said Aldrich. "I owe you one." "Yeah? Then treat me to some donuts in the city. It''s nice eating fresh hunted meat out in the Wastes, but sometimes a man''s a got a sweet tooth he''s gotta satisfy." Aldrich nodded, amused that a tough guy like Diamondback had such a strong sweet tooth. "If that''s what you want, then sure." =? ??? a ???e? The rest of the way into Redrock went by without much issue. Just two more hours of driving through endless stretch of road with Chrysa sleeping through it all. Noticeably, Aldrich sensed her mana pool seemingly growing by the minute, likely influenced both by her natural growth and the newly established link between herself and Aldrich. The roads were more peaceful because the closer Aldrich drove to Redrock, to highway under direct surveince by Panopticon drones or real police or heroes flying by, the harder it was for hunters or underworld criminals in general to just camp in areas to harass people. Plus, closer to Redrock, there were more civilian cars around too, and though Aldrich''s car, a solid 300,000 credit behemoth offort and power of advanced air conditioning and armor ting, stood out considerably, he did not stand out so much that he looked any different from a rich guy cautious about his safety. Especially now that flight was hyper regted. In the post-Monstering age,mercial flight was a lot more difficult to work with. Airspace was shared with variants now, after all, and nothing put a damper on flights more than a giant bird or bug ready to tear into a ne''s hull. There was also a phenomenon known as variant resistance to consider. Over time, in a form of natural selection-evolution on steroids, variants would respond to human activity and begin to counter it. If there were too many things dominating airspace, more and more variants would start to develop flight capabilities, and that was thest thing the Panopticon wanted. Flight capable variants were much harder to deal with than grounded ones. And they made walled cities much harder to defend logistically. Most airspace in the modern post-Monstering age was therefore dedicated solely to trade. Transporting goods and supplies from one ce to the other so that the global economy could still be, well, global. Unmanned or one-man piloted airnes and drones did not seem to incite variant resistance nearly as much asmercial craft packed with tons of Alter lives either. There were exceptions with urgent government or Panop-AA sanctioned flights like the one that had taken Thanatos out to the Crypt, but in general, aside for the ultra-wealthy, easymercial flights were a thing of the past. Even flying heroes needed to have a specific license to have the authority to fly around from one ce to the other. Very few like Solomon Sr had unrestricted ess to airspace. Generally speaking, only A rankers and above hadplete ess whenever and wherever they wanted. Aside from desperate situations like with Haven''s attack, most other heroes needed their flight paths pre-authorized. "Damn, donuts really do hit a good spot. Especially after a good fight." Diamondback leaned back on a plush brown couch, watching a wide screen HD telescreen ying the news. On hisp were a box of two dozen donuts. A variety pack, some chocte zed, some strawberry zed, others sprinkled, others in, etcetera. The big man ate the donuts like they were little pieces of candy, swallowing them straight whole. "Language," said Aldrich. He sat on a desk in front of aptop, prepping a connection with V. Valera sat beside him, peering curiously at the screen to try and make a sense of it. "What is that?" Chrysa sat beside Diamondback, cocking her head curiously at the colorful donuts. "Give me one!" "Sure, kid." Diamondback held out the box of donuts towards Chrysa, and she scanned the colorful assortment of baked goods before she picked out a sprinkled one. "Sprinkles, huh? Good taste." Diamondback downed another donut. "Itsh good!" Chrysa said, crumbs falling from her mouth as she spoke while she chewed. "Don''t talk while you eat. It ain''t polite," said Diamondback. Chrysa gulped down the rest of her donut and nodde. "Okay." Aldrich nodded at the interaction. Diamondback was better with kids than he reckoned. Aldrich had rented out a decent hotel in Redrock''s center district. In walled cities, the further to the center you were, the higher thend prices generally. Most of the hotels here were on the better side, too, most requiring a check of a CID to determine things like criminal background and credit history. For Bruce Vayne, a supposed multi-millionaire trust fund child and his wife, child, and their bodyguard, getting entry was easy. For the average lowlife hunter, though, entry was much harder. Fake CIDs let hunters move in and out of cities and some districts because most border CID checks were quick, easy, and light. But they did not pass closer security checks, especially in wealthier areas that cared more about security and took their time. ? ?? ??-??? ??, ?,?,? You needed a CID properly rigged by a good techno for that, and Aldrich had precisely that now that Z had upgraded his CIDs. Diamondback''s fake CID was also pretty solid, likely due to needing it for his work. Among the Spearhorns, he did the most business in the cities, probably because he was the only one among them that had the cool to hold down a proper conversation. Now feeling just a bit safer, Aldrich got ready to contact V and get things ready. He needed to confirm Randall''s location here, check on the status of his troops and Casimir still in the Wastes, any extra news about the Dark Six''s ns against him, and whether there was any useful information mined from the bug on Desmond. Chapter 256 V Correspondence

Chapter 256 V Correspondence

Aldrich nodded as hisptop finished booting up. It was metallic white and sleek in design as most things were these days, probably trying to market to a sense of futurism to make up for such an uncertain present. Or maybe it just looked cool, either way, it worked. The white coloring and industrial grey dot logo indicated it was eye-tech property, the leading corporation in consumer end electronics. A higher end model, too, fetching a cool three thousand credits. And most importantly, modified so that it did not have the liberal amounts of spyware and bloatware jammed into it. "This little thing can ess the sum total of this realm''s humanity''s knowledge?" said Valera. She leaned forward like a curious child, her red and ck eyes narrowed in scrutinizing intensity. "No, there''s this virtual space called the Net that holds all that. It''s a ce where everyone can upload information and the aggregation of it all means that you can practically find anything there," said Aldrich. "...I do not follow," said Valera. She hung her head in shame. "I am sorry for the ipetence." "Don''t be sorry. You''ll pick up on it over time. Here, let me exin it better terms for you," said Aldrich. "You know¡­" Aldrich nced over at Diamondback. The man seemed pretty upied feeding himself and Chrysa donuts, but Aldrich did not want to spill info about his and Valera''s otherworldly natures. So he spoke telepathically. ''You know the soul stream, right?'' ''Of course,'' said Valera. ''It''s a massive spiritual swirl where practically every mortal soul flows in when their physical bodies die. Because of that, it''s packed with information, the memories and experiences and countless many across vast stretches of time. Spiritcallers can dip into the soul stream and fish out memories from any of the countless souls in there. Atleast, until they''re wiped clean and entered into reincarnation.'' ''Ah, I see, so this Net works on simr principles.'' ''Right. Except you don''t have to die to add info to it. It''spletely in the realm of physical.'' ''But I cannot see the Net as a space?'' ''It''spletely in the physical but it''s also not tangible. It''s called virtual space. A little difficult to fully exin. Once we have time, I''ll let you explore around the Net. It gets easier to figure things out when you spend time on it.'' Valera nodded excitedly. ''And I do not need any ritual to ess it? No mystic mark to grant me ess? Simply one of these devices?'' ''That''s right,'' said Aldrich. ''Not just one of these, but smaller handheld ones called phones as well. Practically everyone goes in and out of the Net; it''s part of their daily lives now.'' Valera rested her chin on her hands, leaning on the coffee table. "I am disappointed, to be honest.'' Aldrich inserted a security key into a port in hisptop. This would let him link to V in a secure manner. ''How so?'' ''You say the humanity of this realm, every single one no matter how insignificant or great, holds ess to this vast treasure trove of information. I can see that they have aplished great marvels, and yet, I would have thought man with their wit and urgency would have achieved even greater. Always, the kingdoms of man held advantage over the likes of us vampires or elves or other long lived peoples for those traits. Their short lives mean they must aspire to aplish in the span of decades where other peoples were content to let their aplishments build up over centuries. I would have thought that man, with this much information to wield, would have be masters of their own world, at least. But they still seem to bicker among themselves, to squabble in their differences and live in fear of monsters.'' ''Humanity has always been fractured,'' said Aldrich. ''That''s one downside of mortality. You never get to see man learn from their mistakes for very long. They scramble to achieve and go high, and all too often, they stumble over the same traps that others did throughout history.'' ''...Perhaps you can change that, master,'' said Valera, an eager glint in her eye. ''What do you mean?'' said Aldrich. ''Perhaps¡­perhaps you can grant them all immortality? All undeath? If you are to be their conqueror, then would it not be wondrous to have an undying kingdom? One that spans across an entire realm? You may even reach out towards the stars, toward other realms like the ones the old gods or demons hailed from. You could have it all in your palm forever.'' ''Now that sounds like something straight out of a viin tyrant''s ybook. Like some kind of immortal overlord,'' said Aldrich. ''But that is what you are, no?'' said Valera. ''A lich, immortal walker of death. And in time, lord over death too.'' She smiled, imagining a future where Aldrich ruled everything. ''Lord over all realms. Forever. With me by your side.'' ''I thought you considered retiring at one point,'' said Aldrich. ''Living a quiet life.''? ??? a ???e? Valera hugged Aldrich''s arm, drawing it into her chest. ''I can do that too, master, as long as it is with you. But I am willing to fight for your conquest as well, because I know deep in my heart of hearts that you are fit to rule over it all.'' Aldrich mulled over the thought for a brief moment. Ruler of everything, huh? He felt neutral about it. Such a goal felt so far away. And was there even life outside of this anyway? At least, life that was not some unfathomable light year scale distance away? Sure, there was the Elden World realm, but there was no guarantee it was even possible to ess it either. ''Let''s not get ahead of ourselves here. I don''t know if I''m cut out to exactly be a ruler. If that''s what I have to do to make sure the world''s safe, that it''s a world where nobody will have to go through the same things I did, then sure, I''ll do it. But I haven''t even gotten close to taking over this world, let alone others.'' ''Yes, yes, true, I am simply getting lost in my fantasies,'' said Valera. "d to see you doing well." V''s voice crackled out from Aldrich''sptop. A ck screen took over Aldrich''sptop, as if it had shut down. But theptop''s near imperceptible hum made it clear it was still on. Aldrich popped in some wired headphones for privacy. Valera did not need any because she could easily sync her hearing with Aldrich''s own. V''s face flickered into disy, her flickering LED blue eyes narrowing a little in faint disgust as she saw Valera leaning into Aldrich. "Doing very well, actually." "Nothing seems to have changed about you. Still in that dark control room of yours," said Aldrich. "Not alone, atleast. I finally need some help. I got your other techno, Fisk, I think his name was? He''s not good enough to handle himself with higher security stuff, but he''s pretty legit at sifting through data. Better than having to make a bot, at least." "Good to see Fisk still has things to do. Anyways, to get to the point, how are things there? As far as I''m aware, Casimir''s side, that includes you and the ckwater students, are all on the move. All the other nomad chiefs have separated other than the Spearhorns that are with us, correct?" "Yeah," said V. "Aside from the Spiders, the other chiefs have ns to regroup just before the hearing as well. Speaking of, you''ve got a hell of a stage for that. I don''t know what magic wand you waved, but Aarav Singh''s going mega top gear for you. He might just be the CEO of a biotech corp, a big one sure, but his personal wealth means he''s got solid boardroom say in quite a few social media and news mediapanies. The Thanatos hearing is all anyone talks about these days." Aldrich nced towards the telescreen, where Diamondback had the news on. As V had said, the news just talked about Thanatos, arge headline stating ''THE THANATOS HEARING: WILL THE HAVEN SAVIOR FIND JUSTICE?'' ? ?? ??-??? ??, ?,?,? V continued with enthusiasm, absolutely loving to be part of somehting so big. "And I''ve got to say, you''re like the second freakinging of Jesus here, though I guess if Jesus really cared he''d have popped on down from the clouds during the Monstering, but I digress. Almost nobody''s against Thanatos. People are out there in all tier cities protesting and wondering where the hell Thanatos is. They think he''s humanity''s superweapon against the variants, especially with the new attacks. There''s this clip of you raising Locus-44, the name they use for Shrimp, that''s going absolutely viral. Saying ''Serve'' and all, totally badass. Shit like this has never happened before. Ever. Controlling a Locus? That''s crazy. Impossible. Scientific nuttery. And it just happened. Nothing like a miracle to really get public morale up in a time of crisis. Everyone thinks Thanatos is what''s going to turn the tides once and for all. Scratch that, you practically are like the seconding of old Jesus, miracles and all, except instead of water into wine and white robes and halos there''s more armor and necromancer and dark lord energy. Of course, positive media alwayss a negative response too, but the negative here is just an aftershock of the much bigger impact the positive has." Chapter 257 V Correspondence 2 Chapter 257 V Correspondence 2 "The more the world has us up on a pedestal, the harder it gets for the authorities to push us down," said Aldrich. "With this level of media momentum, anything short of a widely broadcasted public hearing won''t be epted by the public. And I can''t imagine the uproar a hearing ending in jailing would drive up. People are getting desperate, it seems. They see the variants and Loci rising up and they want something to rally around. Something new, not just the S rankers they''re already familiar with." "Right. But there''s one thing about the whole public nature of this that''s a downside," said V. She frowned a bit, her brows knitting together in concentration. "Hey, Fisky, I sent you the deets about the hearing. You break it down yet?" "Uh, uh yeah." Fisk''s voice came from a corner of the room. "I was just a little busy." "Busy?" V raised a brow. "Busy ying those weeb games of yours, yeah." She sighed. "Alright, just hit me with the analysis." "These games have artistic merit, you know,"ined Fisk. "Good plot too." "Yeah, real big plot, I''ll tell you that." V paused for a moment as her eyes lit up a bit, processing data. "Anyways, the huge attention from the hearing''s made it so that real high end officials, both AA and gov, are going to be the judges. I have a finalized list of people for you that Fisk sent me that I''ll forward to you now. You can take a look at it when you have time." "Interesting. Very interesting," said Aldrich as he briefly nced at the document containing the list of names. There were a total of 50 officials attending, split roughly evenly 24 to 24 among AA and government. There were 2 Panopticon Arbiters, former operators turned into policy advisors, too. On the government side, Aldrich saw none were without influence. The vice president of the U.S. was there as well as the secretary of the department of defense, to name a few. Simrly ranked officials from countries like China and India made it as well. The AA had sent a host of notable executives as well from a variety of departments that ranged from variant defense to even marketing. There were also popr retired heroes, many of them veterans of the early Monstering when things were at their worst, turned policy advisors. This included quite a few heroes that Aldrich revered as a kid, looking at theirics, buying their merch, all in the hopes of bing something other than a powerless waste of life. Foremost among them was Supermind, a powerful telepath who once was part of Vanguard''s team. Now, he was aged, suffering from Crystallization and confined to a wheelchair, but even if his powers, power that could once freeze the minds of an entire city''s popce, had waned, his judgment was still sharp. Aldrich was in for one hell of a questioning. But the good thing was he did not think he had cause to use Fler''Gan''s potion anymore. The big time names in this hearing meant that overall, they were ready to ept Aldrich. Maybe not as a Sentinel - he would have to argue for that - but definitely as some kind of hero. , ?.?.? There was no way so many officials with so much to their names would risk their public images being part of a trial that threw Thanatos to the curb. Had the hearing been more secret, more prone to being rigged, Aldrich would not have hesitated to use Fler''Gan''s potion and initiate some kind of attack on the hearing using either his unknown forces or the Death Lord''s, though he probably had to give her a favor for that to happen. With the threat of an attack looming over the hearing, Aldrich would have used the potion, its effects amplified by situations of intense emotion like the type felt under survival situations, to sway the hearing to his side. But now, with the public fully behind Aldrich, the potion became less necessary and riskier to use. A higher profile hearing meant even higher profile security checking, and though Aldrich could pass by practically all of them with his magic based powers, there was always the off chance of something he did not expect blindsiding him. Aldrich would still have Fler''Gan make it. Perhaps to use on the nomad chiefs. Whatever the case, it was a useful tool to have. Plus, the Geist''s efforts would have all gone to waste otherwise. "V, keep tabs on that list. Notify me if anything changes," said Aldrich. "Now on to other things. You''ve analyzed the server I directed you to again, right? You still can''t crack it?" "That thing? It''s impossible," said V. "It has security the likes of I''ve never seen before, and I mean that in a very literal sense. It''s something I''mpletely unfamiliar with. If you saw it in the Cyberverse, you''d see it as some kind of strange glitchy box. Nothing I have can even begin to unravel it. The only thing that works is a biomarker. Specifically belonging to that old guy I''ve been keeping track of." "..." Aldrich wondered how ine had managed such a thing. She might have been a genius, but was she really that much of a genius that she could create security measures that could block out V, a genius in her own right specialized in infiltration? That was the biggest reason why Aldrich risked so much toe to Redrock. He wanted the secret behind what this personal server was. ine''s spirit had not made much of a deal about it, but the more Aldrich investigated it, the bigger the mystery surrounding it became. "Anyways, Randall''s holed up in a shack in the city outskirts. I''ll scan the area around you and make sure you''ve got a clear path to him. One without having to deal with pesky bounty hunters and the like. You better pay me some nice overtime, because I''m doing, like, everything right now. Techno work and being your navigator, too" said V. "I''ll try and get more technos to help you out when I can," said Aldrich. "And thanks. Try and get me an early morning trip to Randall. I know his health isn''t the greatest, and I don''t want him dying on me before I get there." "You got it, boss," said V. "Can I call you that? Boss? It sounds super official, you know, and if we''re going to be something big, then I figure it sounds right." "Sure." Aldrich nodded, moving on. "CEO of Hammerhead. How''s that meeting going?" "He''s been in contact with me. Infrequently because he''s not trying to draw any attention to himself. But he wants to wait until the hearing''s over. Probably because he sees the news now and sees that there''s a real good chance Thanatos gets epted. If he meets Thanatos now, that''s sus, but if it''s after Thanatos is an established big shot name, then it''s all good, you get me?" "I do. Any Dark Six news?" asked Aldrich. "Something real interesting. You''re familiar with the Trident, right?"??? ?a ??? e? Aldrich narrowed his eyes. "I am." "Something''s wrong with them. It''s just rumors, hard to confirm and all, but I think there''s some infighting," said V. "The Russian prong of the Trident''s gone rogue is what I hear, going against the Japanese and Italian prongs. Techno support and supply lines from the Russians aren''t flowing properly to the Italian prong." "Surprising," said Aldrich. "The Trident, all three prongsbined, is half the Dark Six. Even one of them going rogue is a massive deal. Do you have any idea why?" "Nobody really knows," said V. "Some people deep in the underworld like Casimir knew that the Dark Six wanted to plot some kind of revolt, bring in a new world order and all that viin crap, and theorycrafting about sitting on the throne is nice and all, but the execution is a whole lot messier. The Dark Six have fought on how to bring out this big revolution, whether they even want to threaten their livelihoods to do it, how much each of them will have to give up, and h h h, lots of arguments, basically. The Russian prong''s the least loyal because they''re so new. I can imagine them being a weak link to this." "I see," said Aldrich. He knew that Dracul had torn down the former Russian prong of the Trident fifteen years ago. A new prong had risen up to take their ce in the Trident, hailing from a few remote crime families that hailed from deep Siberia, but because they were new, they had less longstanding loyalty to therger organization as a whole. Especially because before the Trident, they were a splinter group of technos that did frence work. They were likely used to working on their own terms. But even then, they had worked just fine with the others for a decade. What had changed? Something massive must have happened. "Investigate this situation, V. Try to get to the bottom of this. I want a reason for why the Russian prong''s going rogue. If we can find that, then it''s possible we can manipte them. Exploit them and break the Dark Six from the inside out," said Aldrich. "Right-o. I will tell you, though, that quite a few reported fights between the Russian and Italian prongs happened after Casimir''s Haven stunt," said V. "They might be feeling the pressure with all the info we got about their stored weapons, drugs,bs, and the like. The Russian prong''s always been insanely secretive, though, so it''s hard to figure out what it is they''re actually disagreeing about." "Yeah. I know a good deal about the Japanese and Italian prongs, but the Russian one, I''m in the dark about as well. Can you infiltrate them?" "The Russian prong''s the main tech hand of the Trident. I don''t know how they sharpened their skills out in the balls freezing wastes of Siberia, but I do know they''re pretty damn good. They live up to their rep as the ''Reapers of the Cyberverse'', that''s for sure. Hard to spot, hard to track, and real deadly as well. They''ve got a few Den trained technos like me to really nail themselves in as a threat. Top of the line, same potential as me, but with even more experience. I can''t snoop around their infrastructure in the Cyberverse without getting caught. Desmond''s Cyberverse infrastructure might be like a castle, but the Reapers, well, they''re like an invisible helicarrier, something you''re never going to find unless you have inside info." "Do what you can. I mostly want a clearer read on this situation. If you get any info, make sure to ping me in my earpiece," said Aldrich. "Sure thing, boss. Anything else?" "About Desmond, how''s that going?" "Tons of trash. The parasites have split 2231 times since they were nted in Desmond''s tip server. Most of that are just random ass people, nomads and hunters and the like, throwing out info tips to Desmond about seeing this wanted guy there, this group of variants worth hunting here, and so on, nothing too useful for us. Around half of them port into the Cyberverse using burner terminals, so my bugs die there. The other half that use personal devices don''t seem to belong to anyone important. Good thing is, ol'' FIsky here has analyzed the trash and picked out a nugget of gold. There''s this one guy that sends tips to Desmond somewhat routinely and on a private device. It''s secure, but not that secure. Guy''s not an amateur, but he''s no seasoned techno either. I''ve gotten ess to all his devices and figured out he''s a nomad scout affiliated with the Dark Six. Also affiliated with Gerard. Basically, a spy." Aldrich perked up instantly. "A spy?" "Yeah. I''ll forward you all his info, but basically, he tips off the Dark Six about what''s going on with the chiefs. He''s not important, so he doesn''t know too much." "But at the minimum, he''s a security risk. He knows Casimir''s met the chiefs," said Aldrich. "He knows about us." "All he knows is Casimir came here, talked, then left. Doesn''t know what was talked about or what''s going on," said V. "And he hasn''t had a chance to dump his info either. From what I can tell from his call and location histories, he does that when his tribe, uh, the Eagles, make a pit stop in a specificmune. He meets a Dark Six handler there who prefers getting the info physically." "A handler?" Aldrich''s eyes lit up as he saw a golden chance manifest before him. "Get ckwater ready. Contact Fler''Gan. I''m going to schedule an old fashioned kidnapping." Chapter 258 Ready To Go Chapter 258 Ready To Go Aldrich woke up in his hotel room bed, mindpletely refreshed. The dark of night was gone, rays of golden early morning sunlight streaming past white curtains. On one side of his bed was Valera, cuddled up close to him. On the other, Chrysa slept, curled up in a ball with her tail touching her head, kind of like how dogs sometimes slept. , ?.?.? He had spent much of the night into five A.M. nning the kidnapping with V. In total, he had gotten 2 hours of sleep, but as an undead, sleep itself was an optional luxury. He mostly did it for Chrysa''s sake, as she, though an undead, seemed strangely different from the norm, needing sleep to grow and get stronger over time. Just like a human child. And she slept better with Aldrich by her side. As for the kidnapping, Aldrich had finalized all the details, picking out where to go, what to do, and who to use. The slimy little rat in Gerard''s tribe was, as V said, nobody really important. A nomad by the name of Alden Smith who had no real influence. He was just a runner, someone that muled supplies here and there, and even then, he was not authorized for any important jobs. A guy thatid low, mostly, doing the bare minimum of what was required of him and scraping by. But maybe that mediocrity act was just that: an act. Something to drive attention away from him. In any case, Aldrich would figure that all out soon. Gerard''s nomads routinely stopped at Westpost, a free city, so called because it was not officially recognized by the Panopticon''s tiering system and thus did not have the super organization''s signature walls, drones, and general support. AA presence was also minimal to nonexistent there. Free cities were sweet spots in the Wastnds where people could gather and build something, but still too unstable that the Panopticon could not register it as a spot suitable for one of their own cities. Technically, they were under jurisdiction of the U.S. government, but in practice, they were almost like wild westwless zones where men and women of the underworld, from nomads to bounty hunters to the hunted themselves, came and went by or even settled. At Westpost, Gerard''s nomads would take a break, settling down and eating some city foods they missed, catching up on the news, getting proper repairs or supply themselves with thetest tech, or even hitting up brothels. Things did get lonely out in the Wastnds, even for the most seasoned of nomad loners. Humans were inherently social creatures in the end, after all. But where the other Eagle nomads rxed, Alden informed, meeting his Dark Six handler, a guy that went by the codename of ''Feather''. Feather was more careful than Alden, preferring to get his info solely through in person talk, preventing surveince as much as possible. Unfortunately for Feather, Alden was far less careful, a nobody rabble rouser that often spent his afternoons getting mildly drunk and adding fuel to a dumpster fire of a gambling addiction, the same addiction that probably had him working with the Dark Six in the first ce. From what Aldrich could tell, Feather operated out of a bar in Westpoint, and he had quite a few tough men under him. He was simr in standing to Joe Peperelli, the Dark Six captain in Haven whose squadron of elite soldiers Aldrich had ughtered with the cold might of his undead. Aside from that, Alden''s personal devices had no more records of Feather, leaving Aldrich in the dark about Feather''s exact capabilities. As a result, Aldrich assembled quite the task force for this. Kat for her invaluable espionage and assassination experience. Ace, Chiros, and Tox for serious firepower in case things went awry. Damian for getaways and utility as his ability to conjure up flight tforms was always useful. And, finally, Fler''Gan for his Mind Eater brainwashing abilities. The mission was simple: capture Feather alive and mind control him. Aldrich had a mission of his own to finish today too. He got up out of bed briskly, though he was careful not to wake Chrysa. He wanted to give her a few extra minutes of sleep. He manifested his spiritweave dress shirt, suit jacket and pants over the simple undershirt and briefs setup he slept in. The ck clothing materialized over Aldrich''s body in faint blue waves, as if his body was a digital canvas and each wave was a brush that added a presetyer over him. Valera silently got off the bed as well, stretching her arms over her head, both the soft curves of her hips and chest and the hard curves of her athletic muscture hugging against the tight fabric of her dress. "Hm? Do you want me, master?" Valera threw a mischievious nce Aldrich''s way. "We''re busy right now," said Aldrich. He grabbed his phone from a circr charging pad on a coffee table and nodded. V had mapped Randall''s location to him and also identified as many known hunters or viins she could find in the area. Surprisingly, not too many. Aldrich figured that, like Diamondback had said, most of the hunters were in the tier 2 or 1 cities. "Ah, no fun," said Valera. She then cracked her knuckles and her neck in thoroughly undylike, more ''ready to beat something'' like fashion, an excited, fanged smile gracing her dark red lips. "But I suppose ughtering enemies with my dearest master shall always be a favorite activity of mine." "The goal is to not get spotted," said Aldrich. "Go get dressed, Valera. I have spiritweave clothing, but you don''t. I brought over some stuff that''ll let you fit in, though. And make sure to throw on a cloak."??? ?a ??? e? Aldrich pointed to the hotel room closet. "My, I am eager to try on clothes that you have picked out for me," said Valera as she zoomed over to the closet. Aldrich pocketed his phone, made sure his earpiece linking to V was set snug in his ear, and then knelt beside the bed, putting a hand on Chrysa''s head. Chrysa stirred, unconsciously uncurling from her ball-like sleeping position. She hugged Aldrich''s hand, murmuring the faint word, "hero". Aldrich patted Chrysa''s shoulder, surprised. She woke up, her sleep-droopy green eyes blinking slowly,zily. She smiled brightly when she saw Aldrich. "I''m sleepy¡­but it''s adventure time, isn''t it?" said Chrysa. "It is," said Aldrich. "Why did you say that word, Chrysa? The word ''hero?''" "¡­Hero?" Chrysa murmured, confused. "I¡­I think I heard it on the people box." She pointed at the telescreen. "Telescreen," said Aldrich. "That''s what it''s called. And there aren''t pepole in there, it''s just images." "Oh, right, I knew that," said Chrysa. "And¡­and I remember it in my dream. I was ying with someone little like me. But a boy. He had ck hair and ck eyes and a big smile, really big, and it made me really happy. I think I heard it from him as well." Aldrich patted Chrysa''s head. "I hope it was a good dream." Chrysa nodded, enjoying the head pats. "You should get ready to leave, Chrysa," said Aldrich. "It''s time for an adventure." "Okay!" said Chrysa. She hopped off the bed, patting her in white dress clean. It seemed to be a part of her body, manifested using the Chrysalis''s limited ability to create things. As a result, it was always clean, which made things easier for Aldrich parenting wise. Aldrich briefly wondered about Chrysa''s dream. That boy she had met, he had little doubt it was him. Was this an effect of the soul synchronization? Before he could think more about it, Valera barged out of the closet with a proud smile. "Master, here I am," said Valera, doing a light twirl to show herself off. She was dressed up casually in a baggy cream colored t-shirt with jeans that really brought out her long legs and nicely shaped, exercise toned butt. "You look good," said Aldrich. "Human fashion suits you. As does a casual look. Or maybe I''m just used to seeing you in a formal dress all the time." "Indeed," said Valera. "And it is quitefortable, too. The leggings stretch with my movements and this upperwear should not restrict my punches at all." "Again, the point is to not draw attention to ourselves. Now here-," Aldrich tossed a sandy brown cloak towards Valera from atop a dresser, taking one for himself as well. He handed a smaller one to Chrysa. "Ah, to dress so differently only to hide it all with a bare cloak like this." Valera held the cloak over her body, and it really did hide everything. "That''s the point," said Aldrich. "We can take the cloaks offter, after my errand''s done. For now, we''ve got to do this. Think of this like a disguise." Aldrich put on his shades. "Disguise!" Chrysa put her cloak on and jumped up and down. "I''m invisible!" "You''re only invisible while you stay close by me, understand?" said Aldrich. He held out his hand, and Chrysa took it. "Okay," said Chrysa with an understanding nod. = Chapter 259 Randalls Repairs Chapter 259 Randall''s Repairs Aldrich made his way through the streets of Redrock. Like every tiered city, Redrock was built high and packed together with industrial efficiency. Neo-Modern architecture valued utility above all else, taking the bare austerity of modernism and drenching it with acidic utilitarianism to bleach it further of any vibrancy. Buildings from the Panopticon came in ck, white, or grey, and that was it, as if the Panop was allergic to any real sense of color. Designs were simple and geometric, consisting mostly of various vors of cube and not too much else. Granted, the Panop did allow for independent contractors to build, but only in select spots and for a fee, making buildings that stepped out of this mazework of blocks and cubes and rectangles and dull colors a luxury afforded to, well, those who could afford it. Funny how rampant consumerism and economic inequality never died down even after an apocalypse. One would have thought a globe shaking event that culled near half of humanity could have changed societypletely, but then again, people did fear change. Made sense why the Panopticon had worked with corporations and governments to keep things as simr as possible even after the Monstering. "Blocks everywhere" Chrysa remarked as she looked up, squinting her eyes at the crowded urban skyline. "Can''t see the sky." She pranced to the side, getting closer to Aldrich as a group of suited up corporate workers passed by her. "Everything feels so crowded. It feels scary." "I am not used to it as well. The constant din of these metal beasts called ''cars'', the way so many humans pack themselves into these narrow streets and tall buildings, and the shing lights and signs, so many of them in the ce of hawkers; it truly is overwhelming," said Valera. "The cities of man have be unlike anything I have seen before. It feels marvelous and yet, strangely dreary at the same time." "Just a week seeing cities and you''re already burnt out, huh?" said Aldrich. He looked down at his phone, analyzing a map of his surroundings. Red dots indicated where V tracked movements of known bounty hunters and viins, though she did warn that if there was an experienced one, they knew how to hide themselves from her. "It simply feels odd," said Valera. "It reminds me of the spire colonies of the Kitan. Towers of earth and drones all buzzing about." "I see where you''reing from." Aldrich nodded. The Kitan in Elden World were an ant-like insectoid peoples that lived in cities of towering rock spires that looked simr to modern day urban cities. "Some people feel the city suffocating them. They feel like drones or cogs in a machine, so they leave. That''s how you get nomads." "Were I to have lived in this realm, I surely would have be like such," said Valera. "Hero!" Chrysa pointed to a ck costumed and helmeted hero making a patrol across a street. He had twin katanas on his back, but the metal sheaths were scratched up enough that it was obvious the guy was not exactly drowning in money. Chrysa waved at the hero, and he waved back before he got back to his patrol, his gaitzy and tired even though it was early morning. "I figure he''s tired of the job. He won''tst more than a year or two," said Aldrich. "But I thought heroes always protected everyone," said Chrysa. Aldrich nced at Chrysa. She must have heard that from her dream, from Aldrich''s younger self. "Some do. Some don''t. People areplicated. Being a hero doesn''t change that." "If they uphold an oath of duty, though, they should keep it," muttered Valera. "Not too many are as stubbornly devoted as you are," teased Aldrich. "This devotion of mine has saved you countless times, you know?" Valera crossed her arms. "I know." Aldrich faintly smiled. The Death Lord was right. Valera really was easy to tease. A man, a suit with a cybeic arm, bumped into Aldrich roughly. Not because he was on his phone, unawares, no, he fully saw Aldrich, but because he did not care to get out of the way. But instead of pushing Aldrich to the side, the suit fell backwards, ass to the dirty pavement, like he had hit a brick wall. "Get out of the way, nomad!" growled the suit. He got up and patted his suit down, but noticeably kept some distance because he had felt Aldrich''s body was like steel - tempered and tough. "Fucking dirt eaters crawling around even here, in the inner district. Looks like I''ve gotta make it to a T2 city to stop seeing your kind." Aldrich sensed Valera'' bloodlust rising. He put a hand on her shoulder, calming her. Chrysa huddled behind Aldrich''s legs, scared of the angry energy around her. Aldrich walked straight up to the suit. "Wh-what, you want to fight? There''s a hero right there-" the suit began to say in panic, looking up at Aldrich''s height. Aldrich just walked straight through the suit, making him scramble away to the side in fear. He did not spare a second nce as he left the suit behind. "We''re not here to make a scene," said Aldrich. "No fighting." "Shall we take these cloaks off?" said Valera. "That human seemed fixated on them, deeming us ''nomads'' to revile." "No. Redrock''s known for having a lot of nomadsing in and out of it. They''re a little rarer in the inner district where things are slightly more upscale, but not so out of the ordinary that it warranted a reaction like that," said Aldrich. "The further we move from the center, the more and more we blend in." "Then why was the man angry?" asked Chrysa. "Why did he hate us?" Aldrich paused for a moment. "Because it''s easy to hate." He looked down to see that Chrysa did not quite understand. He patted her head. "I don''t like the city," muttered Chrysa. She now instinctively shrank from every suited personing by, and in the inner district, there were plenty. "After I''m done with what I need to do, I''ll treat you to something nice," said Aldrich. He wondered what he had liked as a kid. "I''ll take you to the arcade. We can get ice cream right after." "Arcade? Ice cream?" Chrysa said quizzically, though with how her ears twitched, it was obvious she was interested. "Fun things. Tasty things," said Aldrich. "You''ll see." Aldrich stepped out into the edge district, so called because they bordered the very edge of the city''s walls and forcefield. Out here were the ghettos. The closer to the walls, the cheaper rent prices got, and the cheaper things were, the less incentive there was to maintain anything. The streets were dirty, littered with trash. There were no suits here, mostly cloaked people shifting in and out. Buildings were not high - they only got tall closer to the city center. Most of what Aldrich saw here were shacks of pieced together, rusted metal or weather beaten trailers crudely sandwiched atop each other to form some facsimile of an apartment. "Quiet," said Chrysa. She walked more confidently beside Aldrich now. "I like it better." "I agree," said Valera. "There is far less going on here." "And that''s why this ce is so poor," said Aldrich. He stopped in front of a trailer home with three deep w marks gouged out into its metal grey side. Bolted to the top of the trailer was a sputtering, half-lit sign that read ''RANDALL''S REPAIRS. "And we''re here." Aldrich checked his phone, making sure he had everything he needed, before he stepped up to the door and knocked on it, each knock emanating a dull, hollow ng. A few seconds of silence. Before Aldrich wondered whether he was going to tear the door off, it opened, slowly sliding to the side with an awful metallic screech and groan that made Chrysa cover her ears. "What do you want?" A tired young man with deep dark bags under his eyes stared up at Aldrich. His skin was pale and sallow. Goggles on his head, grease smears on his face, wrench in hand, and a tool belt at his hip indicated he worked here. Aldrich knew that ine was not the only assistant Randall had. She mentioned he had another one, someone called n. "n, I assume?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, that''s me. You need something fixed?" said n. He looked down at Chrysa. "And I''d prefer if you kept the kid out. I do my repairs out in the open. Sparks flying and saws buzzing and all that. And I don''t do well with kids." "No, just here to see Randall," said Aldrich. "Randall?" n tilted his head back, brows raised. It was evident not many people ever asked about Randall. "What you need him for? If it''s repairs, then I''ve gotta say you''re toote. Old man''s not in any condition to do them anymore." "No, just want to talk to him. I knew ine," said Aldrich. n dropped his wrench. It ttered on the metal floor. He grabbed Aldrich by his cloak, but could not move Aldrich at all. Even then, though n could probably already tell there was a heaven and earth difference in physical specs between them, he red at Aldrich. "You¡­you must be from that school. The fuck are you here for? Pity? Give us a few credits for killing her, huh!?" Again, Aldrich sensed Valera''s bloodlust. He raised a hand, stopping her. "Take care of Chrysa," said Aldrich. Valera nodded and scooped Chrysa''s scared, trembling body into her arms. "Answer me!" said n. "Let''s take this inside," said Aldrich. "The hell we will! I''m not letting the likes of you anywhere near here! Get out!" said n. Aldrich grabbed n''s arm and pried it off of him with no effort. "Let''s take this inside," repeated Aldrich, a stronger edge in his voice. "I''m just here to talk, and I''d prefer to do it without the shouting." n struggled for a second before realizing there was no use. He stopped resisting, and Aldrich let go of his arm. n whirled around and walked into the trailer, passing by boxes and shelves packed with gears, bolts, chips, and other misceneous items. Aldrich followed, motioning for Valera and Chrysa to follow. He closed the door behind them, leaving dim, sputtering yellowed lights the only light source avable. "Keep watch, but stay hidden," Aldrich activated his earpiece by pressing into it with a finger. "Roger." Diamondback''s voice replied. He had followed Aldrich from a distance, tailing him so as to not draw attention. "Got men around here, too? All that manpower and you didn''t even have the decency to bring her body back?" said n. He stood behind a worktable cluttered with engine parts and cybeic limbs. The wrench in his hand had been reced with a bolter pistol. n trembled as he held the pistol, entirely unused to using it, but what kept his hostility up was hate against Aldrich. It was evident that n thought Aldrich was associated with ckwater somehow, part of the organization that, in n''s eyes, had taken ine from him. Aldrich shook his head. "Put that thing down. You''re only going to hurt yourself." "No." n pointed the pistol at Aldrich. A red strip running from his middle finger up his arm lit up bright, and the bolter crackled with energy as n boosted it somehow with his powers. "She was everything to the old man. Everything to me as well. And you took her from us." Aldrich sighed. This was not going to go anywhere with calm talking. He pulled down the hood of his cloak and took off his shades. n dropped his gun, grey eyes wide and unblinking. "You¡­you-re!" "Yeah." Aldrich walked up to the worktable. He reached out towards n, and the mechanic cringed in fear. Aldrich put his hand on n''s shoulder. "I''m not part of ckwater. I''m here to fulfill herst wishes." Chapter 260 Resolution Chapter 260 Resolution "How are you even alive!? This doesn''t make any sense!" n put a hand to his head, his face contorting as the whites around his steel grey eyes reddened and watered. "I must be in a dream. Yeah, a nice dream for once, after busting my balls off repairing and wiring and taking care of the old man¡­" "Calm down," said Aldrich. "Let''s take this slow. What do you know about what happened to us?" Aldrich gently put pressure down on n''s shoulder, getting him to sit down. n slumped into his chair and took in a deep breath. He closed his eyes, took a few seconds, and then, when he opened them, his face was fine. A tiny wet trail from a single half formed tear trickled slowly down his face, flowing fast from all the grease and oil caked on the skin. "Sorry," said n. "Really, I''m sorry about that." He took the chunky bolter pistol on the table and stored it in a shelf. "I don''t usually get like this¡­all in a wreck, all worked up for nothing." "Not nothing. ine meant a lot to you. Just like she did to me. That''s not nothing," said Aldrich. He sat down as well, taking a creaky seat in front of n. Because of how muchrger Aldrich had gotten, he barely fit in the chair, but he managed by leaning forwards. "Right. She sent videos of you, you know, you and Adam. Every week or so, just to let us know she''d made friends and that she was doing well," said n. "From what she told me, I thought she was happy. She seemed to be on track to graduating and getting her license. AA technos get paid well - she was so excited to bring us back some money." "Us - where are the rest of you?" Aldrich looked around, seeing nothing but the messy innards of the workshop where tools and half built machine parts and whirring engines and cybeic metal shellsy scattered but not the two other apprentices under Randall that should have been here. , ?`?`m "Oh, Sarah and Amhed? They both dipped out a while ago," said n. "When the old man''s Waste Lung got too hard for them to deal with and the customers stoppeding in." "But you stayed?" "Yeah." n put his hands together, staring at them, at the cracks and old scars and calluses that stood as testament to all he had built and repaired. "Randall took me in when I was nothing but a shitty little scrapper stealing things in free cities. Would''ve probably gotten taken out to the back of some seedy building and shot if he hadn''t. I owe him a big one. I owe him everything I know. I couldn''t just leave him." "ine did always say you were the best here," said Aldrich. "She said you had the skills to make it in a chop shop in a proper tiered city." "She said that?" n''s face brightened up for a brief moment before he shook his head. "She always exaggerates things. I''m not like her. I''m no genius. I can deal with most cybeics, but a chop shop in a walled city? You''ll be hard pressed to find anyone that''ll take a dirty old nomad like me. Why do you think I''m out here in the edge districts where hookers and junkiese to keel over and died? Because nobody, not even here in this shitty tier 3 city, wants to hire me." n looked up at Aldrich. "But you must know a thing or two about that. You, ine, and her other friend, Adam, all three of you were powerless, weren''t you? Must have gone through a hell of a worse time than me, people looking down at you like you''re just old trash waiting to be cycled out of the system." "It''s just something we had to learn how to deal with," said Aldrich. "Yeah, I figure." n scratched his dirt stained grey hair. "Anyway, ckwater sent us a message when you all died. Said that you guys wandered too far from thepound and got eaten up by variants. No bodies, nothing left to send, nothing left to bury. Just a shitty little fifty thousand creditpensation fee. We tried to ask for your belongings, but ckwater said they had to lock that shit up too, that it was technically their property. Fuck those slimy bastards." "Do you want to hear what actually happened?" said Aldrich. "Sure as hell I do." "It isn''t pleasant. Are you sure?" "Hit me. I can take it." "We were all killed in cold blood. ckwater covered up our deaths. Why they confiscated our property, well, I''m going to get to the bottom of that soon." n stared at Aldrich with wonder. Then how are you alive? And who are those two behind you?" "The two behind me, well, that''s difficult to exin, so I won''t get into it. Just know they''re my allies," said Aldrich. "As for how I''m alive¡­that''s also hard to get into. I''d prefer not getting into it at all. Just know I''m dedicated to taking down ckwater." n spoke firmly. "I can''t let you see the old man unless you tell me something that''ll convince me you''re you. You could be someone with a shapeshifting power." "Thought you might get suspicious." Aldrich reached into his cloak and took out a chip from his suit pocket. "Here. Plug that into your body port." "Let me scan it first." n took the little golden chip and held it up to one eye. The pupil narrowed and whirred and clicked, revealing that it was in fact cybeic. "Nothing wrong with it. Alright." n put the chip into a rectangr opening in his wrist. His eyes started to glow as he processed the contents of the chip. His mouth opened in surprise. "These¡­these¡­" "Yeah," said Aldrich simply. Those were recordings from the shared server Aldrich and ine had. There, they recorded moments they had together. Combat exercises, experiments with upgrading their Frames, birthdays, pranks, gaming milestones, and the like. "That''s stuff from the server I shared with her. You need proper biomarkers and mind signatures to ess it. A shapeshifter can forge fingerprints, but a mind signature''s unique to every brain - you can''t forge that." n sat still in silence, taking in the recorded moments. He smiled. "Atleast¡­atleast she was happy. Truly happy. I always thought in those video chats with us, she was just faking it for our sakes." "Keep the chip. Both you and Randall. It belongs to you two just as much as it did to me," said Aldrich. "Reach the end of the files there. And be ready. It isn''t pleasant." "Alright." n concentrated for a few seconds, his mind navigating the tech. His face showed surprise at first, then, after a minute, anger, his lip twisting into a snarl as he put a fist to the worktable. n had found thest recording ine had taken. The one she had threatened to release before they all died. "Those bastards! That''s¡­that''s how they killed you all? Like that!? Just like that!? Put down like dogs!? I swear, when the old man''s passed, I''m going to hunt them all down-," Aldrich shook his head. "No need. Every single person you saw and heard in that recording, everyone directly responsible for killing us - they''re all dead." Randall blinked. "What? How?" Aldrich''s eyes shed green, his gaze narrowing. "I killed them all. I hunted them down. So you don''t have to." n shrank back in his chair, fearful, knowing full well the glint in Aldrich''s eyes, one of pure determination seeped in killing experience, did not show a single scrap of falsity. It was also a stare that made n more than aware that he should not be questioning it. That it was backed by many, many deaths. ,c`o`m "And ckwater as an organization is next," finished Aldrich. "Rest assured, if it''s vengeance you want, it''s what you''ll get." "I''lle with you for it. There''s more meaning in it if I join in as well" n fumbled for the bolter pistol under the table. "No you won''t. I''m not storming ckwater the moment I leave this ce. And besides, I won''t have the blood of ine''s family on my hands," said Aldrich. "I can handle myself!" said n. "Even if you could, I wouldn''t let it happen. That''s another thing I came here to talk about. I''m taking this shop over. I''m going to give you two a space to work with that''s safe. Randall will get the best care credits can afford. I know there''s an experimental cure for Waste Lung out there too." "Wh-what? With what money? With what influence?" n stared at Aldrich in disbelief, but when he saw Aldrich''s dead serious expression, he knew there was only truth there. "You''re actually serious?" "Yes. And I''m sorry to say, but you don''t have a say in it either. The moment I revealed myself to you was the moment you worked for me. Don''t worry, though, I haven''t been called a terrible boss yet," said Aldrich. n looked puzzled at first, then excited, then, something hit him, a wave of negativity that brought his lightening spirits dead down, his stare dragging to the table, his head shaking. Aldrich furrowed his brow. "What?" "Credits won''t save Randall. Care¡­care is all we can give him. Cure? At this point, there is none," said n. He stood up. "Here. I''ll show you into his room." He looked at Valera and the Chrysalis and tried to smile. "You twoing? I promise I won''t go grabbing bolters andshing out and whatnot." "You had better not lest you value your life, threatening my dear like that," said Valera. "Huh?" n blinked. "She''s joking." Aldrich shooed n forward. "I am not-," began Valera, and Aldrich gave her a look that got her quiet. "O-okay." n walked down a corridor, lifting his legs up high to dodge odd bits and pieces of metal and parts here and there. As Aldrich followed, he turned back to give Chrysa a pat on the head. "Are you okay?" "Mhm," said Chrysa. "The grey man scared me for a moment, but I realized he was just being sad. He''s a good person, isn''t he?" "He is," said Aldrich. "Then we save him? Fight for him? Like heroes?" "Heroes don''t always have to save and fight and do all that big stuff," said Aldrich. "Sometimes, just helping is enough. That''s what we''re doing now." Chrysa nodded. "We''re here," said n at the end of the corridor. It waspletely dark here, even the dim lights from before shutpletely off. "Sorry that it''s lights out. Randall doesn''t like light. He spends most of his time sleeping, anyway." "We''re used to the dark," said Aldrich. n nodded. He slowly turned the doorknob of a beat up, spark scorched door. A door that must have seen decades of repairing and welding and torching across the years now left alone in the dark. Aldrich could see Randall''s body even before he went into the room with his[Death Sense]. It looked like a glowing green silhouette. A frail, thin, small things, crumpled up and wasted away so much it was hard to believe it was even human. Valera, too, grimaced, smelling impending death in the air. "Someone''s hurting¡­" said Chrysa, she too having some form of ability to sense death. Perhaps from melding with Aldrich? The door opened. n stepped through and held it open. Inside, it looked just like a hospital room. Randall''s stick-figure like body, the skin all darkened and wrinkled and wasted away,y atop a queen sized white sheeted bed that seemed to utterly dwarf him, as if at any moment, the bed could just snap up and devour the deteriorated old man whole. Beeping from life support machines and the rhythmic ebb and flow of venttor assisted breathing sounded from a small bed in the middle of the room. Unlike the rest of the shop, this room waspletely clean, wiped down and mopped to a sterile shine. n noticed Aldrich ncing at the floors. "I try to keep this ce as clean as possible. Don''t want the old man catching anything." Aldrich nodded. He came over to the edge of Randall''s bed. Randall''s sunken in ck eyes looked like little dots as they stared up at Aldrich. n pulled up a few rolling seats for Aldrich, Valera and Chrysa by the bed. He put aforting hand on Randall''s shoulder and asked, "Old man, you have visitors. You remember ine''s friend? Aldrich. This is him." Randall blinked. His hands trembled but the rest of his body did not move - that was the extent of how much he could move. Waste Lung did not just destroy the lungs, it eventually poisoned the entire body, disabling the connection between nerves and the brain. Cruelly, the brain was thest to go, some scientists theorizing that it was because aside from the Alter Organ, the brain held the highest concentration of Ether energy. But because the brainsted, sufferers of Waste Lung were conscious until the very end of their ever decaying lives. "I remember." A synthetic voice chimed out of a screen jacked into a body port on the back of Randall''s head, tranting his thoughts into spoken word. "It''s the first time I''m getting to see you, Randall," said Aldrich with a respectful nod. "I heard a lot about you from ine." "How are you alive?" said Randall, getting right to the point. "Is ine alive?" Aldrich motioned to n to bring out the chip. "Can he handle this?" "His mind''s still there, even if his body''s like this," said n. "And Randall''s tough. Always been tough." He took the chip and inserted it into Randall''s wrist port. "These are recordings that ine took in ckwater." "Take your time looking through them. It''s my attempt at giving you closure. In the end, you''ll see how she died. How we all died," said Aldrich, not sugarcoating his words. Randall did not react. His beady ck eyes glimmered with a faint glow as he sifted through the recordings. Slower than n; Randall took more time to enjoy each and every moment ine had saved. The elderly man''s eyes glistened, tears flowing freely, pattering into growing splotches on the bed. "Can we help him?" said Chrysa, worried. "We are," said Aldrich. "That crying-it''s the good kind." Chapter 261 Last Dream Chapter 261 Last Dream Chrysa nodded thoughtfully, making Aldrich wonder exactly how much she knew of the world around her. She seemed to have been born knowing some basic things and emotions, but there were other things she did not know either. Basically, she was like a human child, which was not surprising considering she copied off of Aldrich''s soul, most likely how his soul had been when he was little, but he still did not know for sure what she did know or did not. It was a learning experience. Like parenting. "How are you alive?" asked Randall. "Don''t ask that," said n. "It''s not something he wants to get into. But trust me, he''s the real deal, and somehow, he''s made it big. He says he''s going to take this shop over and give it a nice facelift. He''ll hire me, too, and get me a nice job, the kind you always wanted for me. Shit, you and ine alwaysined I was wasting my time here even though I''m a good for nothing junkyard rat. Guess I get to prove you guys right for once, huh?" "Really?" said Randall. "Yes," said Aldrich. "I don''t know how much my word means to you, but I can promise that." "I guess I don''t have much time left to be wondering," said Randall. "About ine - I''m d she was happy. Thank you for giving her that time. It must have meant so much to her. Out here, she had nobody. As a pure human, she struggled so much. It tore my heart to see her grow up and face the reality of the world. Every single time I had to tell her some truths, that her parents abandoned her, that the Alters hated her for who she was, that this would never change, it felt like I was breaking off a piece of my heart. Every time I had to tell her those truths, her smiles got smaller and smaller. By the time she went off to ckwater, she hardly ever smiled at all. But she smiled with you two. That alone is enough for me." "You were an incredible father to her," said Aldrich. "The best she could ask for - those were her own words." "Was I?" Randall paused for a moment. His voice was modted,cking strong inflection. His face, like most of his body, was frozen, unable to show any expression. His breathing moved up and down in forced and unbreaking rhythm. It was impossible to show any emotion, and yet, that pause spoke volumes. It spoke of deep regret. "I don''t know. I still think I failed her, sending her to that school and letting her die. I told her it was fine and that I didn''t need her help, but that was a lie she saw straight through. In the end, it didn''t matter. My condition would have killed me before she graduated. But I hid that truth from her too. I didn''t want her to give up on her dreams because I also knew if she got that license, she could do so much better for herself, even if I was gone. But that lie made her stay there. It killed her. When I got too weak to get out of this bed, I dreamed so much. Sometimes it got hard to tell whether I was alive or in a dream. It hurt to be in either. Alive, I saw my body get robbed from me, but atleast I could stop feeling pain. In my dreams, all I saw were my mistakes. And the pain that came with them. All those smiles I took from her. Lying to her. The world is cruel - I''ve known this my whole life. I''ve felt it since I was young. I took in children that knew nothing but that cruelty, hoping to give them something better than what I had. But in the end, I keep wondering to myself; was I selfish? What if someone else had taken in ine? That smart, wonderful, sweet child? Someone better than me? She would still be alive. Maybe she would be on the news, leading some new innovation - there are so many these days, I know she could have been behind one of them." "Don''t think that way, old man," said n. "You''ve done your best for us. That''s all we asked for. And it was a hell of a lot better than rotting out on the streets, that''s for sure." "n''s right," said Aldrich. "You can''t me yourself. You''re a good man, Randall, and a good father. ine would want you to be happy knowing that." "¡­You two are right," said Randall. "Wishing for more, especially now, doesn''t mean anything. Still, it hurts. It hurts so much to know a crippled, broken, expired old thing like me is still breathing and my lovely, bright and incredible daughter is gone. It feels wrong." "It is wrong," said n. His tone grew hard,ced with pain packed rage. "And that''s why Aldrich is going to make ckwater pay." "Don''t get hung up on the anger, n," said Randall. "You always let your emotions drag you around. One day, they''ll drag you somece you don''t want to go, and I won''t be there to pull you back out." "He''s right." Aldrich nodded to n. "This is above what you can handle. I''m offering you protection, but I can''t guarantee it if you get reckless." "How do you have the right to hunt them down, satisfy your own vengeance, but not me?" said n. "Because I have power. You don''t." The blunt words left n quiet. Because harshly blunt though they were, they were just as true. "I''m¡­I''m going to cool off. If you need me, I''ll be out front taking a smoke," said n. He took in a deep breath, purging his rising emotions, and left the room. "Don''t let him do anything stupid," said Randall. "He already got in trouble once, with the local gang here." Aldrich raised a brow. "How?" "Nothing big. They made a ruckus about us paying them protection money because this was part of their territory. Silly stuff like that. He wouldn''t take it, so he got in a fist fight with them. Came back here with a broken arm that set the shop back a whole month." "I see. I won''t let him do anything dumb. He is ine''s brother, after all. She wanted a good life for you two, and I''m here to respect that wish and make sure it happens," said Aldrich. "About you, Randall, I can have you arranged to a better medical facility than this. I have the credits to make it happen. I also know someone in biotech who can secure a Regenerol treatment for you. It''s not avable to the public, but I can make it happen. I hear the procedure''s got a 70% sess rate for Waste Lung." Aldrich said this, but his words were more empty condolences than anything else. Regenerol''s sess rate came with healthy and young patients. It involved introducing a stem cell culture from a regenerating variant into the body, and the weaker and older a body was, the easier it was for it to reject the cells. The chances of Randall finding any benefits were close to zero. "No. I''ve lived long enough. And I can tell how close my body is to failing, even if I can''t feel anything anymore. It''s just a hunch, but I know I''m not long before I get into one of my long dreams. One that I''ll never wake up from. Aldrich knew that as well. He could sense it strongly. As a Lich, he was keenly aware of death. It had an indescribable ''feeling'' to it, a certain calming chill that he could measure and sense, and Randall was cold. Very cold. "But, Aldrich, I can see it in your eyes. You didn''te here just for me, did you? You needed something," said Randall. Aldrich was surprised. "You could tell?" Very few people were ever capable of parsing Aldrich''s intentions from his face. "You pick up a thing or two living this long out in the Wastes," said Randall. "So, what is it?" Aldrich took out his phone and disyed the screen to Randall. It showed the dark, blue gridded world of Cyberspace, and there, the amorphous, glitchy mass of cubes that made up ine''s hidden server. "ine left this server for me, but it needs your biomarker to open," said Aldrich. "Really? I''ve never seen anything like this. I''m a techno myself, and I''ve been around for a long time. I was there when the Omega Expansion first happened, when technology fused with Cyberspace. Cyberspace back then was much more unstable, full of odd elements and daemons and the like, but nothing like this. This doesn''t even feel like it belongs." Aldrich had to agree. From a purely geometric standpoint, everything in Cyberspace was made up of cubes that represented data. But the glitchy mess of ine''s personal server was a wobbly, ever changing mass that looked utterly unlike anything around it. "How did ine make this?" asked Randall. "I don''t know. She didn''t tell me about it either. I was hoping I would find answers when I got ess to it," said Aldrich. "Let''s find out. Bring that phone up to my thumb," said Randall. Aldrich did as Randall bid. The touchscreen shed, sensing a biomarker. A rotating little ball camera embedded at the top of the phone projected a holographic green scan that registered Randall''s fingerprint. ''ACCESS TO - - - - - - - GRANTED'' Aldrich saw the bold green words stretch out on his screen. The name of the server waspletely covered in a glitched out mess. All of a sudden, the phone began to vibrate rapidly, the screen glowing bright white. The metal heated up until it was near burning. Aldrich immediately reacted by dashing to the corner of the room, moving the phone away from Randall. "Valera,"manded Aldrich, and Valera reacted in an instant, manifesting her shield to cover Chrysa and Randall. The light from the phone spread out from its screen to epass its entirety, and it was so bright it felt like the sun had been shoved inside the tiny, dark room,pletely blinding everyone. Almost as soon as that light shed, though, it died down. Aldrich looked down at his hand. The phone had disintegrated into dust. In its ce, he saw a small symbol inscribed on his palm. It looked like a silvery white, thirteen pronged branch, with two of the branches ending in a circle. The symbol glowed bright for a moment before fading away, as if it had never been there at all. Aldrich stared at his hand in wonder. Valera and Chrysa both stayed silent, curious as to what had happened. "What was that?" asked Randall. "I''m¡­not sure," said Aldrich. He did not feel anything wrong with him. His system had not registered anything either. He put two fingers to his earpiece. "V, check on the server in Cyberspace. Tell me what happened to it." After a brief pause, V''s voice crackled in his ear. "Sure thing¡­it''s not there." "No trace of it at all?" "No. Gone. Poof. Like a fart in the wind." "Right. Tell me if you find anything notable. Scan the surroundings here, too, while you''re at it." "I don''t see anything sus around you," said V. "Just broken down streets. Nobody nearby other than Diamondback as well." "Got it. Report to me if you find anything about the server." Aldrich moved his hand from his ear, disconnecting himself. "I know I said I was experienced, but I''ll tell you know that I have no idea what happened," said Randall. "I know," said Aldrich. He needed to figure out what had happened. Get somewhere private and run some tests on himself to make sure nothing was wrong. No medical science was going to exin anything going on with this body. He was too unique now as a lich. But he could return to the Nexus. The Death Lord would know far better. "I''m sorry to cut this short, Randall, but I''m going to take my leave right now. I need to investigate what just happened. You''ll be safe, though, I can assure you." Aldrich intended on leaving Diamondback around to secure the area until he could move Randall and n safely. "Safety? Leave that for n. That boy needs it more than this broken old body does," said Randall. "I''m ready to dream myst now, knowing n will be taken care of. And knowing that ine still had it in her to smile. It doesn''t sound all that bad, really. Dying in my sleep. It''s an end many times better than what I thought I deserved." "You''ve done enough good to deserve as much," said Aldrich. "Have I?" Randall did not look at Aldrich. His eyes instead stared straight up, at the sterile metal ceiling, lost in thought, lost in the past. It was then that Aldrich felt a discernible chill in the atmosphere. Entirely unlike the cold aura that emanated from Randall''s dying body. This was more physical, less spiritual. The temperature of the room had noticeably dropped. Aldrich felt uneasy. Chrysa hopped over to his side, clutching at his leg, feeling the uneasiness as well. Valera stood from her chair, her pointed ears perking up. Her eyes flickered red, her magical energy emanating around her body in a tight wrapping of wispy crimson. "Valera, is something-," Valera instantly tensed up, veins on her toned arms turning visible as blood pumped through her body - an unmistakable preparation forbat. Her perception, her battle instinct, was far sharper than Aldrich''s. She had sensed something. Something threatening. But before Aldrich could react, his vision flooded with bright blue light as the chill of the room turned into intense freezing. Chapter 262 An Unseen Cold Chapter 262 An Unseen Cold Force and cold rocked across Aldrich in an oppressive tidal wave, as if all the fury of a Himyan avnche had been condensed into a single beam of power. Valera stood strong in front of Aldrich, her ck greatshield holding against the wave of energy like a fortress wall. However, the attack was energy based in nature, flowing out like a raging tide. Aside from a small area behind Valera that protected Aldrich and Chrysa, the st swept past and engulfed everything else. That must have included Randall, but he could not go out from behind Valera to check. Blinding pale blue light shone all around Aldrich, as if he had been dunked into the depths of a blue sun, but instead of unfathomable heat, there was instead freezing cold. The light made it impossible for Aldrich to tell what was going on. But he knew that stepping into it would immediately freeze him. "Father, what''s happening!?" cried Chrysa, her warm breath visibly foggy in the chill air. She plunged her face into Aldrich''s chest. "Get into my Domain," said Aldrich urgently, his voice making it very clear he would not take no for an answer. "Where it''s safe." Chrysa nodded obediently through panicked tears. Her little body glowed bright white before fading into a shower of particles that flowed into Aldrich''s chest, right where his phctery was. With Chrysa ounted for, Aldrich focused back on Randall. Yet, he knew all too well that any mental energy he spent on focusing was in vain. Aldrich''s [Death Sense] no longer picked up on Randall''s signature. The light died down, confirming what Aldrich already knew. There was no more shop No more Randall''s Repairs. The walls and ceiling had all been blown apart like a tornado had raged right through it. What little was left, misceneous odd bits of furniture, gears, and tech, waspletely frozen over, encased in waves of ice that glistened under the morning sun. That included Randall himself, his twig-like, wrinkled body encased in ice atop his bed, frozen in a snapshot of how he had been just seconds ago. Aldrich''s emotions were muted with his undeath, smothered over in ayer of ice, but seeing Randall, family to ine, one of his only friends, thawed that ice. Emotion bubbled upwards, swelling up like a backed up geyser. '' Whoever had done this needed to die. "Randall!" n shouted as he came sprinting by, lit cigarette slipping out of his mouth. He banged his hands against the ice prison that held Randall. "Help him! He won''tst in there!" n was in disbelief. Or maybe, by shouting that Randal was still alive, that he could be alive if he just got out quick enough, he was trying to convince himself that his words were real. Aldrich might have felt emotion, but unlike n, he regted it, never losing focus of the danger at hand. He looked around, trying to scan his surroundings for the enemy. The direction the st came from was easy to tell based on where Valera faced her shield, and yet, there was nothing there, just more trailers and shacks. Like cockroaches under a light, the poverty worn denizens of these homes scrambled out and scampered away upon hearing the explosion. None of them screamed or made a ruckus like ordinary city folk. They just ran. Over years of living in the edge district, they had learned not to question when things blew up or scream or waste their energy on anything other than running. Aldrich ignored the runners. There was plenty of cover around with trailers, car clusters, and shacks, but not so much that both Aldrich and Valerabined with their perception could not easily pick out an enemy. Whoever this attacker was, they were cloaking themselves through tech or Alter power. If they were a speedster, there would have been traces of their movement. "Valera, we''ve got a stealthed enemy. Take care," said Aldrich. He walked over to the ice ridge forming Randall''s cold coffin. Hecing his palm on the light blue wall of frost. "Can you get him out!?" said n, panicked. "Is there anything you can do to help him!? Please, any little bit ought to do - if you need me to help, to get you anything, I''ll do it!" "¡­" Aldrich could not believe it. He was ready to crack open the ice and revive Randall as an undead before the soul expired, but - There was no soul. Randall''s soul was gone. It was not as if he was alive in the ice, Aldrich''s [Death Sense] showed that Randall was well and truly dead. Then how? The only exnation Aldrich knew rted to Elden World game mechanics. Whenever a unit died, their soul floated above their corpse for around a minute, perhaps longer depending on certain passives, spells, or equipment. Essentially, that was how long the souls stayed until they moved into the spiritual in, into the flow of the great Soul Stream. However, there was a way to kill units in such a way that their souls were sent directly to the Soul Stream, and that involved either purging holy attacks or damning cursed attacks. Both, if used to kill a mortal body, booted the soul straight to the Soul Stream. This also made strong priests incredibly good at countering necromancers since they could mass purge souls to stop necromancers from using them. Simrly, demons, masters of curse magic, were also tough opponents. But that was the game. This was real life. There were no goddess anointed priests or knighted pdins or curse engorged great demons. Aldrich tried to get a feel of the ice, attempting to sense whether it was, by some chance, magical in nature. He could not tell. Was this some form of Alter power then? One that could affect the soul? It was not entirely impossible, and Aldrich was far from knowing everything. n looked up at Aldrich hopefully. Aldrich shook his head. "No! No, no, no!" n yelled as he slumped down to his knees, his hands dragging across the ice, yearning to get in. Aldrich could sympathize with n, but he knew also that this was not the time to be trying to console a grieving, emotionally unstable wildcard. One that Aldrich needed to protect as well. "I''m sorry to do this-," said Aldrich. Before n could react, Aldrich knocked n out with a precise blow to his jaw. n fell to the ground like ragdoll, his whole body going limp like a puppet with its strings cut. Before n hit the dirt, Aldrich held him up. "Chrysa, take him in," said Aldrich. ''I''m scared, father, what''s happening!?'' Chrysa''s voice rang in Aldrich''s head. ''No questions, Chrysa,'' said Aldrich, stern. ''Not now.'' ''O-okay'' whimpered Chrysa, audibly terrified. Aldrich did not know what to say tofort her. Nobody had ever taught him how to deal with the intensity of a fight or life and death situation. His parents had showered him with love and shelter and never once had taught him about how harsh a fight could be. He learned that himself, facing intense, illegalbat simtions in virtual reality that were liable to fry his brain with how realistic and exhausting they were. But he had learned basically just through endless repetition, smashing his psyche against the wall of hurt and struggle until he calloused himself enough where nothing could ever hurt him again. That wasn''t something he could just teach with the snap of a finger. There just was no time to think about it. He had to default to stern treatment. Tendrils of white light emanated from Aldrich''s chest, grasping n. n''s unresisting body dematerialized in a shower of white particles, though notably, it took much longer than it did for Chrysa to transport herself. Where Chrysa did it in just a second, n needed over ten seconds to fully dematerialize. All the while, Valera kept her shield up, staying close to Aldrich. Judging from her eyes that flit from side to side, he could tell she did not know where their attacker was, if even the attacker was still here. "The hell happened?" Diamondback''s rough voice crackled in Aldrich''s ear. "I don''t know," said Aldrich. "But it''s looking like an ambush." "What do you want me to do?" Diamondback did not ask what was going on or how or other unnecessary questions. He only asked what was needed of him. The mark of a trained man. "Stay in the vicinity, but don''t show yourself yet," said Aldrich. "If there''s an attacker out there, they''re probably cloaking themselves. I''ll try to track them down." "Roger," said Diamondback. Chapter 263 An Unseen Cold 2 Chapter 263 An Unseen Cold 2 Aldrich switchedms channels in his earpiece by tapping it, linking with V. "V, we''re under attack," said Aldrich as he tapped his earpiece. He took out his shades and put them on, trying to scan for AC signatures. Nothing. "You scanned this area before. Are you sure there was nothing here?" "Shit, you''re under attack!?" V sounded panicked,pletely blindsided. She had probably been working on something else after believing that Aldrich was safe once she confirmed that nothing was wrong in the area with her scans. "H-hold up, I swear there was diddly squat there! I jumped through every camera in the area, every phone, every little bit of audio reception and image recording capability out there. And not to mention, if your attacker had even the slightest bit of tech on them, I would have sensed that too. Whoever''s attacking you, they have to be doing it cold." "Cold is right," said Aldrich, ncing at the ice all around him. Even under the bright daylight, the ice did not show any signs of melting. But when V said cold, she meant that the attacker was not relying on any tech at all. Nomunications either. Apletely isted Alter. Then likely a multi-ss Alter. The type that had multiple abilities in one. Like Seth Sr or Solomon Sr who had flight, powerful bodies, and heat generation all packed together. "ckout this area. Cut off signals, phones, whatever you can. I don''t want cops and low ranking heroes to get here, if they even do bother with edge districts like this." "I''m on it¡­wait-," V''s voice crackled. "What is it?" said Aldrich. V spoke again, but her voice came out in a static filled garble. She was being jammed. Before Aldrich could worry, though, her voice came through again. "Something''s starting to ck everything out already. It tried to cut me out, too, but this, at least I can deal with. I''m still linked to your earpiece and the visuals from your shades. Shitty thing is I can''t ess any of the tech nearby anymore because it''s all disabled. It sucks to say this, boss, especially because I sold myself as a do it all expert, but I''m basically blind right now as far as helping you navigate is concerned. Can''t spot you any visuals by hijacking cameras or audio. Fuck. I''ve never been this useless in my life! I''m so sorry-" "Don''t waste effort being sorry. I still believe in your capabilities. Trace the ckout source," said Aldrich, calming V down. He had heard that geniuses tended to break when their talent was questioned, and he could sense that from her. So, he guided her, making sure to keep a firm but understanding tone to make her know he was not disappointed. "If they''re shutting us out, then they want to stay and fight. To iste us and hunt us down. But it also means they''re not running cold. They have to use some kind of tech for this. Either for that, or for the cloaking they have running. In any case, it means they''re trackable now, and you specialize in infiltration. Hunt them down. Take them out if they''re cybeic." Aldrich was fairly confident in this assessment. Multiss powers generally all fell under one overarching main power. The Sr family, for example, generated their power, flight, and heat beams with their main sr battery power. It was extremely rare, if not impossible, for an Alter to have powers wildly unrted to each other. On top of that, it was a general rule that Alters with body boosting powers usually never crossed over with Psionic ss powers that rted to the mind or interfacing with technology. Cloaking, ice beams, and tech disruption was abo that just did not work together. V spoke with the strain of wounded pride and disbelief. "I can''t find them." "What?" Aldrich said. By now, even he was in surprise, not expecting V to get pressed to this degree. V was top shelf talent. Where she was trained, the Den, was famous for producing underworld technos so capable that they could threaten mega corporations and major governments. Case in point, Z, also Den produced, had indirectly ended the 2077 Corpowar almost single-handedly with her bug, infiltrating a Fortune megacorp''s servers which made finding a needle in a haystack look like child''s y. Not even ckwater, the equivalent of a prestigious hero academy for viins, could get more than one Den spawn. That being V herself. And V was specialized in infiltration, in invading and taking over tech and infrastructure in the Cyberverse, and everything that connected to the Net was connected to the Cyberverse, exhibiting a cyberspace structure or signature that one could interact with or, in V''s case, infiltrate, corrupt, or destroy. There was no way this could be beyond her. "This is beyond me," said V. "Whatever tech they''re using isn''t something I''ve ever encountered before. Totally alien. Not as freakshow as that glitchy server, but still wack. I''m in the Cyberverse right now, but I can''t pinpoint a source for the interference. Shit! I''ve never, ever been this useless!" This was probably the very first time V had felt so useless. She was always loud and cocksure, and for good reason. Her resume gave her the right to be like that. "No, I''m better than this." V was defiant. "I''ll give this my max effort. I''m not letting ANYONE be better than me. I''m going to think out of the box." Aldrich waited a few tense seconds before a small screen showed up in the periphery of his vision. A minimap of the surrounding area projected by V. A red dot shed in and out of existence in intervals. The dot circled around Aldrich about a hundred meters away, taking a tracking pattern reminiscent of a lion moving about a wounded imp. Predator eyeing prey. "I can''t track the bastard down directly - the tech''s MIA, even in Cyberspace - but what I''ve noticed is the tech they use cks out in omnidirectional waves pulsating from single point, as if someone''s constantly setting off EMP charges," observed V. "Pinpointing the center of those waves gets me the tricky little shitter''s location, but be warned, because I''m following the ckout waves to their center, the tracking is dyed. Think of it like bad ping in a game. 300 ping, give or take." "Forward the location to Diamondback," said Aldrich. "Already done." "Good job. Switching." Aldrich tapped his earpiece to reach Diamondback. "You see that?" "Yeah," said Diamondback. "I can get right up there in one jump if you need me to." "Do that. Expect a three second dy in positional data. From how the dot''s moving, the target''s shifting in and out of cover, probably trying to get a good shot on me. Flush the target out. If you can manage to grab them, good, but if not, focus on making distance. Don''t try and go behind them. Keep yourself between them and me." Aldrich reached at his hip and withdrew a pistol from a utility belt holster. The pistol clicked into action with a low buzz - the hum of stored energy. It was a bolter type pistol, but unlike the clunky, prone to jam, prone to explode in your hands type that were a dime a dozen, this waspact. Still on the heavier side, but sleeker, with a shining coal ck and bloody red paint job that made it obvious that whatever factory had pumped this gun out had done so with proud experience in the art of killing things by blowing holes through them via massively supersonic rail. This was ARMA red grade. The elite, high end weapons line of the military tech mega-corp. Same type that made Joe Peperelli''s techno goons from the Red Circle attack, most of them no better than D listers, into veritable super soldiers with aimbot that had put bullets through half the heads of Casimir''s men. Since Aldrich could not rely too much on his powers to conceal his identity, he had to fall back on his training. Guns and martial arts. Explosives, too. He had a whole utility belt on him right now. Was that going to be enough, though? Conventional firearms, even if they were solid, could only take you so far. Against the real top tiers, the A rank and above, you needed ultra futuristic tech from top end technos or weapons designed to counter them. It was impossible to tell so far what level of threat Aldrich was dealing with. At the very least, the frost st alone was enough to tip them over D rank or even C rank. "Roger. I''ll give you some space. You better have an answer to this cloaking soon, though," said Diamondback. In the distance, Aldrich saw Diamondback back leap into the air, sparkling bright blue under the sun''s reflective rays. Hended right where the red dot should have been, steering himself in the right direction through an eye scanner that V sent coordinates to. Diamondback punched down as hended, creating a shockwave st of force that sent a group of roughshod cars and bikes flying away, tumbling and making a wrenching ruckus as their metal bodies rolled on hard road and pavement. Area of effect to try and flush the target out. If the shockwave hit the target, it was possible it could even distort or disrupt their cloaking as well. However, there was nothing behind that cover. Aldrich saw the red dot go backwards on the minimap with considerable speed. Even with a few seconds of advance notice, dodging a hit from Diamondback''s superhuman physicals was no small feat. But overall, the situation was good. Diamondback driving the target back meant Aldrich had time of his own. He took this time to counter the cloaking. He raised his palm up and summoned a [Grave Ward]. Because the creature was invisible to begin with, he did not worry about it getting spotted. The [Grave Ward] spawned above Aldrich''s hand, forming from a lump of malformed flesh and quickly growing into its three eyed, floating form. ''Go find the attacker'' said Aldrich. He directly connected mentally with the [Grave Ward], manually piloting it. The [Grave Ward] floated out towards the red dot obediently, itsrge, bulbous directing their unblinking stare in the direction. With its area of effect vision that spanned a radius of twenty five meters, once it reached the general area of the red dot, it could reveal the attacker without the ''ping'' that made them hard to directly catch. Then, it was just a matter of having Valera hold down the attacker for her and Diamondback to ughter. Aldrich sincerely doubted anyone short of an A ranker with a purely physical power boosting ability could deal with both of them. And the presence of a powerful ice generation ability severely undercut that possibility. This fight was over the moment the [Grave Ward] got to the red dot. Especially because there was no counter to magical stealth. Aldrich sent the [Grave Ward] past Valera, beyond her protective range, confident nothing could strike it down. Aldrich blinked. Valera almost dropped her shield. The [Grave Ward] sttered apart, sted asunder with an urately ced shot of blue energy that made it very clear that there were, in fact, counters. Chapter 264 An Unseen Cold 3 Chapter 264 An Unseen Cold 3 The surprise, like any other distraction in the heat of a fight, fled from Aldrich. Or, to be more precise, he rolled it up, crushed it, and tossed it away into the same void he booted distracting thoughts during a fight into. His mind geared intoplete focus, and like a well oiled engine, ran a dozen thoughts at once. Once more, he was in the ''zone'', the world all around him slowing down to a crawl. The ice bolt that targeted the Grave Ward had followed a linear trajectory. That meant it lead directly to whoever had fired it. He traced the travel path of the bolt back to a spot behind a four wheeler painted a dull blue powdered with dust and dirt. With a fluid series of trained motions, Aldrich held his bolter pistol in front of him, taking aim. He felt the edges of his vision strain and darken, his psyche automatically cutting out everything except the car, everything except the target. Absolute focus. Aldrich pulled the trigger. The model of the bolter was called the Red Wail, and it was obvious why. Parallel lines of red running across the pistol''s extended barrel supercharged, and a high pitched rumble echoed out - the wail of a weapon meant to destroy with every single shot. A deafening bang unleashed itself from the pistol as a bolter round, more metal spike than bullet, shot out in a shower of sparks and red crackles. The depleted uranium round punched through the car as if it was a two bit cardboard model before making solid impact with something right behind it. The harsh crack of metal splitting apart resonated through the air apanied by a light show of blue and orange sparks. A chaotically flickering silhouette crashed backwards into the dirt with a dull thud, the spike-like round jutting out visibly to mark Aldrich''s sess. Direct hit. Aldrich got out of the zone, his vision briefly blurring as he rxed his mind. The ck around his vision disappeared. "You have him!" eximed Valera. "What a mighty weapon that is!" "This isn''t over yet," said Aldrich. He put his fingers to his earpiece. "Diamondback, we''re dealing with either a Frame or a bot." Aldrich could tell as much from how the round had hit based on the sparks and rending metal. "The bolter round should give you a visual marker to follow. Prioritize capture. Now it''s time to earn your pay," said Aldrich. "I''ll need a bonus at this rate," said Diamondback. Diamondback appeared from the air, aiming a kick at the downed enemy. The target dodged to the side, recovering respectably. Diamondback''s foot smashed into sun dried earth and split it apart in a crater. But that was probably thest time the target was going to dodge anything. The target had evaded with stiff, jerky movements, indicating damage. Sparks continued to sputter out from the embedded bolter round. The silhouette''s flickering gave way to more and more of its hidden appearance. The problem with cloaking technology was that it was finicky, prone to malfunctioning with the slightest bit of damage. Soon, it would deactivate, revealing the culprit fully. "Shall I assist him?" said Valera. "No, stay with me," said Aldrich. "There may be more like him nearby." He raised his palm in the air and summoned another [Grave Ward]. This time, instead of sending it out on its own, he kept it floating beside him, where he and Valera could both protect it. The instant Aldrich said this, he whirled around as his [Grave Ward] revealed a cloaked mass behind him. He found himself instinctively reacting, grabbing at and stopping two metallic wrists belonging to robotic hands reaching out for his throat. Aldrich, with the [Grave Ward], got a good look at his attacker. It was a machine, no doubt about it, a humanoid construct two meters tall made of grey and pale blue metal tes seamlessly interlocked together. At the robot''s chestte was a shining blue circle of light that likely indicated a power source of some sort. The robot stared at Aldrich with a thin blue line of light on its facete. A cold, mechanical stare. Curved horns of metal jutted out from the sides of the machine''s head, likely for aesthetic purposes. To Aldrich''s surprise, he could not just overpower the machine and force its hands away from him. The bot was strong enough to match Aldrich''s already superhuman strength, no - The machine started to overpower Aldrich, the whir or gears and the groaning of straining metal emanating from its arms. Its stealth function disappeared, reced now by a white fog that poured out of vents located in various in its body. Inexorably, driven by the endless determination of programming, the bot inched closer to Aldrich''s throat with its open hands. Aldrich''s arms, directly in the emitted fog, froze over like they had been dunked into liquid nitrogen. Had he not been undead with natural cold resistance, his hands would have turned brittle and shattered already. "Die, golem!" Valera rushed to Aldrich''s side and punched the robot in the face, burying its head down into the dirt in an almost cartoonish disy. With savage intent, she loomed over the bot. She mmed her shield into the machine over and over again, each blow ripping apart metal and sparking wires. The bot was thoroughly subdued, the light in its eye line fading into ck. "That''s enough," said Aldrich. . ??? Immediately, Valera paused, stopping her shield from once more tearing into the machine. "Let me see." Aldrich looked down at the bot. Its chest had been thoroughly torn apart, revealing aplex array of moving metal parts and patterns of circuits and wires. The thing that grabbed his attention the most was a spherical blue orb at the center that must have been the power source. As far as bot power sources went, it looked fairly standard. Quite a few battle bots used engine cores like this. But that was about all Aldrich knew. The parts, the circuitry, the wiring - he had no idea about. "I don''t recognize this tech from anywhere, but that makes sense. A bot strong enough to beat me in physicals on top of powers like stealth and ice generation - this has to be beyond tech, and if it''s beyond tech, it makes sense why I wouldn''t know anything about it." "Beyond what?" asked Valera. "It''s a little difficult to exin fully. Just know that this thing is special. As far as golems go, it''s on the stronger end," said Aldrich. Beyond tech was the term coined for technology that escaped ''beyond'' the realm of current human possibility. Only the highest end of technos could create beyond tech, and any one that could make functioning battle bots this strong should have been world famous. Aldrich could scratch off any heroes or public figures, then, that could have been behind this. That left the criminal underworld. And even there, Aldrich could count the entities that could hire or house a techno capable of this on his own two hands. Specifically, six fingers - the Dark Six. "V, you''re seeing this, aren''t you?" said Aldrich. He did not check up on Diamondback. He trusted the man to take down the damaged bot and to say anything if something was wrong. "Yeah," said V. "That thing''s a bot I''ve never seen the likes of. Beyond tech, I guess. But the security measures that made it invisible to me are gone now. Even if it''s beyond tech, it''s still connected to the same cyberverse everyone else uses. I''m going to dive in and take as much info as I can out of this scrap bastard, make sure it never blindsides me again." A faint purple light flickered in the bot''s eye line, indicating that V had infiltrated it. "Where''s this thing from?" said Aldrich. "¡­Damn it, and here I was thinking I''d get a freebie. The thing''s insides are secured. Any info I can ess in its memory''s locked up. It''s strange. This thing''s like a weird mash of known and unknown. It''s as if an alien saw our tech and decided to try and make their own version of it, getting the basic design right while everything inside is wildly different." "Can you break into it given time? I''m nning on taking this thing with me." "Yeah, I can totes do it. Give me a few days. Once I crack this thing once, I''ll be able to crack any other bot operating on simr systems," said V. "Got it." Aldrich took his hand from his earpiece and talked to Valera. "Let''s carry this thing out of here. I wanted to stay in this city a little while longer, show you and Chrysa an arcade and a nice dinner and maybe even a movie, but it doesn''t look like we have time." Valeral balled her fist and gnashed her teeth. "ursed golems! Daring to take a date with my master away from me! Whoever the golemancer is that shaped these foul abominations, I will wring his head from his pitiful neck." "A date, huh?" said Aldrich. He had not been thinking of it as a date, more just a way to increase Chrysa''s bond to boost her soul synchronization. What it would have meant to Valera did not even register to him. But he had to stop thinking like that. He had to start thinking more about Valera''s feelings as well. He was too used to thinking of her as a unit to move around like a game piece. He needed to start training himself to think of her as much more - he had promised to give her love a chance, after all. In lieu of this decision, making up the date became an important objective as well. Aldrich sighed. "Then it looks like I''ve screwed up our date and a fun time for Chrysa. I''ll have to make up for this somehow." "No need," said Valera, bowing her head. "Dutyes first-," "You don''t want to go on a date?" said Aldrich. "¡­" Valera kept her head bowed, hiding an obvious blush. She whispered softly, shyly. "I do." "Then let me make it up to you," said Aldrich. He did not know whether training himself to think of her was a good thing, whether it should have alle to him naturally, but maybe this was just how he was. He had always solved his problems with training and preparation. Made sense he would approach dating the same as well. Valera squealed in delight, finally unable to control herself. She hugged her shield and swayed from side to side. "A date? Our first real date? Truly? What will we do? Where will we go?" "Slow down, I don''t think that fast," said Aldrich. "I-," "Critical systems failure detected." The robot interrupted Aldrich. "Attempted intrusion of memory storage detected. Initiating purge protocol¡­" The robot''s blue core started to glow brightly, swelling with energy that made it very clear that it was getting ready to blow. Chapter 265 Unanswered Questions Chapter 265 Unanswered Questions "Purge protocol? What manner of witchcraft is this golem speaking of?" said Valera, brows knitted together in thorough confusion. "Get that thing out of here!" said Aldrich. He gestured to the sky, and with just that, Valera knew what to do, picking up on the rare urgency in Aldrich''s voice. Valera grabbed the android''s dented head in her hand, her ck w tipped fingers digging into the metal for a firm grip. "ORA!" With a bellow, Valera spun to build momentum before throwing the bot high into the air where the machine ragdolled for a bit before its core overloaded,pletely enveloping it in blue light. The bot self destructed right afterwards, its core shattering and unleashing a nova of energy decorated with scattered metal bits. But before the explosion could fan outwards, potentially dropping parts to analyze, the energy copsed upon itself, sucking into a singrity point where everything disappeared. No traces left. Nothing to use. "Whoever created these golems must be quite possessive of them," said Valera as she stared up at the fading explosion. "To use such extreme measures to prevent their designs from spreading." "It''s actually quitemon. The ''golems'' of this world aren''t like the ones in Elduin, where golemancers spend their lives building up constructs that they treat like dear art pieces that they would never think about blowing up," said Aldrich. "But here, golems are created with utility in mind, not passion. Most of the time, that is." It was actually concerning that this bot had a self destruct function. That meant whoever had built these treated them as expendable tools. Just two units out of many. And these things were no joke. Aldrich determined that they could kill a C rank hero with medium difficulty. Even someone like Minuteman who ranked, say, around the 70th percentile of the B rank in terms of power would struggle against them. Whatever this was, whoever was behind this, Aldrich needed to get to the bottom of it. He grimaced. He hade here to answer questions about ine''s server, but all he left with were more questions and Randall''s cold, frozen corpse. Aldrich went over to the ice tomb holding Randall and punched it in uncharacteristic frustration. Even then, he vented his frustration out productively, shattering the ice to free Randall''s body, for he intended on taking it to analyze. Still, disappointment and anger wracked Aldrich''s mind. He did not feel this way with practically any human, but for Randall, someone that ine cared about so much, he had enough mortal empathy to suffer loss. That loss solidified Aldrich''s decisions. Once he found who was responsible, they were going down. No questions about it. Diamondbacknded beside Aldrich, his heavy crystal body crushing the pavement beneath his feet. In the distance, a secondary blue explosion red in the sky. "I handled the other one. Couldn''t capture it intact, though, for obvious reasons," said Diamondback. "Damn near lost my right arm in the self destruct st." "I understand." Aldrich knelt down and picked Randall''s stiff, still frozen body. "¡­" Diamondback and Valera both stood in silence, watching Aldrich hold Randall''s corpse in quiet. "Did he mean much to you?" said Diamondback. "To me, personally, no. But he was my friend''s father. A good friend," said Aldrich. "If it''s going to be hard for you, me and my boys can arrange a burial," said Diamondback. "No need. I can handle it." That, and Aldrich knew that n had more of a say on how Randall''s body was buried. "V, you there?" Aldrich tapped his earpiece. "Ugh¡­feels like someone whopped my head in with a hammer, but yeah," said V, reeling from having her mind booted from the android. Most likely, the android had a self destruct function for both its body and its data, and V, poking around in its memory space, had been caught in it. Thankfully, V was good enough to get out quickly. Less experienced infiltrators would have gotten suck and had their brains fried in the purge protocol. "Good, you''re alive," said Aldrich. "Hey now, I know I was a useless piece of shit this time around, but sometimes I''d like a little more than that forfort," said V. "You did as well as you could have. I don''t hold anything against you." "Really? Do you actually mean that?" V''s normally peppy and confident voice wavered, and it was then that Aldrich could sense that the confidence was more a veneer. A veil covering over something much more fragile, much more tender. "Of course. Part of growing up the way I did was knowing exactly what I was capable of. And that came with understanding that disappointment is a massive waste of time and energy. You work with what you have when you can. That''s what I expected for myself, and that''s all I expect from you." "Huh, that''s an interesting way to think about things. You sure it doesn''t just make youzy?" "Do I lookzy?" "Good point. Well, I should be getting off my ass instead of sulking as well. I did manage to get some data. Obviously, cracking the bot''s memory wasn''t something I could do just like that, but there was a bug floating around from an outside source that I managed to get a good look at." "A bug? The android was hacked in some way?" "I''m not sure exactly how much the bug was doing, just that it was there. It might be something like my V parasite, just chilling low key. Once I''m done scanning it, I''ll fill you in on the deets." "Got it. Keep me informed." Aldrich sighed as he disconnected from V. He got up, still holding Randall''s corpse in his arms. The elderly man felt like a rock - that was how deeply the frost had seeped in. "Shall I carry that body?" said Valera. "No, that''s too conspicuous." Aldrich turned to Diamondback. "This has drawn too much attention already. Go back to the hotel and get our stuff. Regroup with me by the southern exit." Diamondback grunted and jumped away. Chapter 266 Emergency Chapter 266 Emergency "I''ll have Chrysa store the corpse," said Aldrich, making sure Diamondback was gone. He was fully on guard now after this attack as he had no idea how and why the bots had targeted him. Had they been lead to him via information leak? Aldrich did not distrust Diamondback, but he did be a suspect in this regard. Did they know who he was? What did they want from him? Where had theye from in the first ce? All new and dizzyingly annoying questions to deal with. "In time, we will find answers to everything," said Valera, sensing Aldrich''s thoughts. "And when that timees, I will take great pleasure in tearing the spines from those that dared to destroy our date." "I hope so." Aldrich put a hand to his chest, over his phctery, and telepathicallymunicated with Chrysa. ''Chrysa, can you transport this body?'' There was no response. Aldrich tried again, closing his eyes to focus more on establishing a mental link and to read her status. ''Chrysa?'' His mental voice echoed out in the dark mentalndscape conjured up by his closed eyes, and heeding his voice was not Chrysa, but instead a rapidly approaching mass of writhing, tendriled shadows that stood out even darker than ck, like a ck hole made manifest into some unholy abomination of a creature. When Aldrich beheld that thing approach him, he opened his eyes, emerging from his mentalndscape. He felt a distinct sense of numbness in his head, and he touched a pale palm to the side of his temple. What was that? He did not know. So many things he did not know just popping up one after the other. Valera took Aldrich''s arm and looked up at him, worried. "Is something amiss, master?" "Chrysa, she''s¡­asleep?" Aldrich wondered out loud, seeing that when he checked her status, she seemed to be in deep sleep. Unharmed physically in the boundaries of his Domain, but in a sleep that he could not prod her out of, even when he tried to control her using his master-familiar privilege. The sleep was not peaceful, either. Chrysa tossed and turned atop the couch of the domain''s living room, sweat trickling down her silvery hair as her breaths quickened and slowed erratically, struggling with some phantom danger. Darkness trickled out from her body in little water current like waves, slowly splotching her pure white dress dark and tinting her moonlit hair the shade of night. Or perhaps it was not illusory at all. Again, Aldrich did not know. What he did know was that Chrysa was also interfering with him. A likely downside of being synchronized together. Spatial distortions shimmered around Chrysa''s body like heat waves in the desert. It was her innate power going out of control, warping the space of his Domain, twisting and blurring colors together, taking the fabric of space and pulling it hard so that little tears showed here and there. And from those tears, darkness dripped out. The darkness of the basement. Aldrich had little idea what the risks were to let this damage keep going on, but he knew it was not good. Already, he suffered from one massive drawback - he suffered a debuff called [Spatial Lock] which prevented him from teleporting himself. [Spatial Lock] in PvE was useful for trapping rare teleporting creatures to farm them or, in PvP, to prevent people from warping away to dodge spells or escape from encounters. To beat [Spatial Lock] required a spell on the 8th circle and above, and Aldrich''s [Mist Phase] fell quite short, sitting at the 6th circle. The only teleportation that Aldrich could ess to ovee the debuff was through a Sign. Signs were considered a ''game mechanic'' spell that spatial lock could not affect. The only thing that could hinder Sign rted teleportation was being inbat to prevent easy fast travel inside battle encounters. The biggest issue here was where the Signs were. So far, Aldrich had Signs at the now burned down Red Circle, the forests outside ckwater, and the Crypt. Going into a city, especially Haven, posed too much risk. There were too many bounty hunters on the main roads. Panopticon and hero presence in Haven was also especially high right now incase variants attacked again. Going to ckwater took too much time. Same issue with the Crypt. There was a way around this, though. Fler''Gan had arcane type spells, spells rting to utility, that could dispel [Spatial Lock]. From there, it was an easy [Mist Phase] out to a Sign to get to the Death Lord. However, Fler''Gan was all the way back in thepound, almost ten hours from Redrock. And getting farther away by the minute. Valera closed her eyes, and by virtue of her strong bond with Aldrich as his chosen, she could sense Chrysa too. "She is suffering- we must tend to her." She looked to Aldrich, but saw in his eyes the same confusion she had. "But if even you do not know what ails her, then the only one left we can turn to is that snake." The Death Lord. Aldrich knew Valera was right. If there was someone that knew what was going on with Chrysa, it was her. "We need to go. And we need to do it now. She''s not suffering any physical damage I can heal, but if this is hurting her mind, I don''t know how much she can take," said Aldrich urgently. His jaw set in simmering discontent. Aldrichid Randall''s body down and pointed to a tarp hanging from a shack. "Wrap the body in this and carry it out." "Yes, my master," said Valera. As she went to tear the tarp away, Aldrich contacted V. "What, missed me or something?" said V. "Get Casimir on the line," said Aldrich. V sensed the seriousness in Aldrich''s voice and immediately did as he asked. A few secondster, and Casimir smooth voice flowed into Aldrich''s ear piece. "Ah, Mr. Vane, I trust things are going remarkably on your end, no?" "No time for small talk," said Aldrich. "I understand." Casimir''s tone shifted, and though it kept its friendly fluidity, it was easy to tell that if Aldrich saw Casimir now, the emote on the mask would have shifted from a smile to a straight lipped, focused gaze. "What is it you desire of me?" "I''m going to send you some coordinates. Get an Airbird to me," said Aldrich. "Emergency evac. In the meanwhile, stop the base until I get there." Air flight was strictly regted in the post-Monstering era, so nobody in the underworld attempted it. It was an easy way to get the hammer of both the Panopticon and AA beating down on them. Regardless, Casimir had two Airbirds, medium sized transport jets, as an insurance policy for a quick and desperate getaways. It was always better to travel bynd and not draw attention, but when push came to shove, air travel was faster. If possible, Aldrich would have sent Ace over, but he was busy on the mission to capture Feather. This was risky. Even if the airbird took Aldrich outside of the city, he was still in range of Panoption/AA surveince. But it was a risk Aldrich was willing to take. "The airbird?" said Casimir, surprised. "Airspace is quite tightly controlled around walled cities, even if they are a meager tier 3 - are you certain this is the only way? You will no doubt draw lingering gazes not only from rabble bounty hunters and underworld eyes, but also Panopticon surveince and the AA itself. A breach of city airspace may warrant quite an unpleasant response. Normally, you would not get more than a few inquiring drones and perhaps a C rank hero, all annoyances you can swat away, but in light of the Locus Raids, you may end up dealing with an ill disposed B, no, perhaps A rank hero." "Get Clint on board," said Aldrich. Clint was a natural deterrent. His reputation as the ''Unbreakable'' was not just limited to nomadmunities. Heroes would know of him too. Even an A rank hero would think more than twice before trying to chase a flight with Clint on it. "And tell him I owe him a favor and a drink for this." Chapter 267 Airbird Chapter 267 Airbird Aldrich pressed his foot against the elerator of his car. The sturdy beast of armored dark green roared, its twin etherite powercell engines venting out two tails of fiery exhaust powering the car to speeds over two hundred miles per hour. "You know what''s going on?" said Diamondback, raising his voice to be heard over the constant rumble of the car engines. "I thought you we came to Redrock to show your kid a fun time. Now we''re leaving with an iced dead body and no kid in sight." It had been an hour since Aldrich had driven out of Redrock. That hour was spent in tense silence. For the first half hour, he had gone slow, avoiding suspicion and police encounters. Now, though, he was far enough away from the city that he could hit the gas and go full speed. The evac point was an hour and a half away, with thest half of the trip being off road to minimize surveince. "Unexpected circumstances," said Aldrich. "If you don''t mind, I''m keeping the details of what happened under wraps." "You''re suspecting me of leaking info?" asked Diamondback. He was not offended. Just curious. "Suspicion is a strong word. Careful is more like it. If you''re worried about the child, she''s safe." "That''s understandable." Diamondback crossed his arms from the backseat and stared at the motion blurred orange-red background of the Wastnds. "I hear you called for air evac from Clint. I would say that''s a stupid decision, but you''re not the type to make those kind of decisions. Not intentionally, anyways." Valera red back at Diamondback. "What? Everyone can make mistakes, no matter how sharp you are up here." Diamondback pointed to his temple. "He''s right," said Aldrich. "In this case, it''s less mistake and more unpredictability. There''s only so much you can prepare for." "Ain''t that right. I haven''t seen bots like that before," said Diamondback. "They were tough, but not the worst I''ve dealt with. It was just the feeling I got from them. They didn''t feel entirely machine." Aldrich raised a brow. "What do you mean?" "Whenever I fight someone, I can tell when I''m fighting a man or machine. There''s a feeling a man gives off that a machine can''t replicate. Machines are programming and adaptation, all response to stimuli. Man is more fluid. There''s something about how a man moves that makes them human. The bot I fought felt mostly machine, but there was an odd bit of man there too." "I sensed that too," said Valera. "¡­I see." Aldrich had not picked up on this because he did not have as much directbat experience as either Diamondback or Valera. Most of his fighting was done in virtual simtions, which, though hyper-realistic, did not simte the ''human'' aspect ofbat too much. Looking into a simted Alter''s eyes yielded nothing except programming. Much like fighting a machine. In that regard, Aldrich understood he was below top ss martial artists. His technical skill might have been up there from endless drilling, but his ability to read living, thinking beings in the heat ofbat fell short of people like Valera and Diamondback who had made long careers out of endless fighting. Were the machines cyborgs, then? Part man? Not possible. V would have pointed that out immediately. Perhaps they operated off of a new form of programming that was more human? Maybe they even utilized a downgraded version of True A.I., the type of machine learning that could be sentient. True A.I. was ouwed after the Altering when a sentient A.I. called Infinity threatened humanity''s extinction by taking control over all of its nuclear arsenal and technological infrastructure. It took the heroic sacrifice of Omega, a legendary techno, to infiltrate the A.I.''s mind and destroy it. Omega sacrificed his own mind in the process, and the resulting aftermath caused a sort of psychic rift that created the Cyberverse. This was the Omega Expansion that Randall had talked about, when technology inextricably merged with the Cyberverse. But true A.I. was basically extinct now. The Panop-AAplex in cooperation with world governments made sure of that, strictly destroying anyone that tried developing such programs. The likelihood that Aldrich was dealing with True A.I. was low, but not an impossibility. Recent events had stretched Aldrich''s definition of ''impossible'' further and further. Soon, he figured, he would throw away that word entirely form his vocabry, recing it at best with ''improbable.'' "Another thing I noticed: we aren''t getting harassed by hunters," said Diamondback. "The open contract''s been called off," said Aldrich. V had informed him of this at the start of his car ride. It was a surprise, but a pleasant one. A much needed reprieve after bad surprise after bad surprise. "Calling off a big open contract like that after what, a day? That''s not good business practice, even for the Dark Six. Hunters will lose trust in their contracts now," said Diamondback. He raised a bushy ck brow. "The only exnation I can think of is they''re dealing with something big. Big enough that they can''t afford to keep eyes and ears on this contract. I don''t like the feeling of this. Something big''s brewing in the Underworld. And when it blows, it''s going to get bad." "Things are already bad," said Aldrich. He could visualize Chrysa clearly, suffering in the Domain, her little body twisting and turning, the tears in space growing deeper . With silent gasps, she mouthed the word ''father''. Aldrich was not her real father, but¡­he still felt her pain. Her fear. Her loneliness. He saw the suffering he felt when his parents were torn from him reflected starkly back at him. Whether he felt these emotions so strongly because he was linked with Chrysa did not matter. What he did know for sure was that he was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what it took. "And I''m going to make sure someone pays for it." Aldrich reached the off road evacuation point without issue. The airbird was already waiting for him,nded atop cracked earth on its two legs. Tripod toes drilled firmly into the earth, anchoring the airbird in ce. These legs were the defining feature of the airbird and the reason for its namesake, making it look somewhat like a perched bird. This function let the airbird anchor to most surfaces reliably, letting it evacuate across a variety of terrain. The rear cargo door was open, funneling out a ramp that Aldrich drove into. The moment he did, the ramp retracted and the hatch closed. The airbird''s engines whirred as it hovered in the air, its legs folding into its belly to maintain aerodynamic shape. Aldrich got out of the car with Valera and Diamondback. "Hey boss!" Fisk waved from the cargo hold entrance. "Good to see you again. Heard we''re in some real shit. If there''s anything I can do for you, I''ve got your back." Fisk shed an optimistic smile that looked a little too innocent for his biker gang getup of mohawk blonde hair and motorcycle jacket. Then again, this was just how Fisk was. "I appreciate it," said Aldrich. "V didn''t need you?" "Naw. Me and Spybird both got some time off from her to fly this thing." Fisk sighed. "V, now, she''s a looker alright, I could totally see her as that cute e-girl. Totally my type, if it wasn''t for the fact that she works me like a farm dog." "Take it as apliment. She''s a perfectionist through and through, and if she thought you were going to hurt her standards, I don''t think she would have let you near anything she did." Chapter 268 [Bonus chapter] Clints Job Chapter 268 [Bonus chapter] Clint''s Job Fisk nodded, taking in Aldrich''s words. "Yeah, when you put it that way, it does make sense. That makes me feel a little better about it all. Anyways, I hope you don''t mind me enjoying this vacation, boss." Fisk shrugged before he pulled out a gamedeck, a portable console. A chrome blue X shaped logo showed that it was from Exceed, a top end video game corp based in Japan. Unsurprisingly, as far as gaming went, Fisk spared no expenses. "You sure Spybird doesn''t need your help piloting this?" said Aldrich. "Got no experience interfacing with nes," said Fisk. "I just BS''d to V that I could to get out of her hair. Literally." "Haha!" A deepugh boomed through the innards of the ne, echoing off of every wall with near deafening intensity. "Look what we have here!" Clint stepped into the cargo hold, dwarfing Fisk in both size and personality. Diamondback smiled. "Yeah, I''m seeing a good for nothing punk." "Heh, I''ve grown outta that phase a long time ago," said Clint. He nodded to Aldrich and Valera. "How was Diamondback and his boys? Real good, ain''t they?" "Good enough," said Aldrich. "Indeed," said Valera. "Y''all are tough customers, huh? But ya ain''t got nothin'' to worry bout'' anymore! Cause ya got the best of the best." Clint pointed a thumb proudly at himself. "And that''s me!" Spybird''s voice emanated through a PA system. "Lifting off now. Every second we spend here is more time for pesky heroes or drones to catch us. Flight may be a little shaky because I am going fast, not careful. And I am drunk." "¡­Is he truly capable of steering a flying mount while drunk?" said Valera. "I wouldn''t want it any other way!" said Clint. "Survivin'' a ne crash has a thrill of its own, y''know. Worstes to worst, I can fly y''all back too. A crash ought to give my body enough reason to grow some wings." Aldrich nced at Clint with a questioning look, but then again, if there was anyone out there that enjoyed exploding airnes for fun, it would have been Clint. The airbird rocket violently as it hovered in the air. "Nooo!" Fisk slipped off bnce, though everyone else remained standing fine. His gamedeck flew away from his hands, heading straight for a demolition course against a wall. "Got ya, big guy!" Clint picked Fisk up like he was a puppy by the back of his jacket. "And that!" Clint used his other arm to reach out for the gamedeck. It stretched out like it was made from rubber. He grabbed the console and brought it right back to Fisk. Aldrich got a good understanding of Clint''s powers by now. It was, in essence, some form of adaptive evolution. He could alter his biology ording to what he needed, but though the range of powers seemed incredibly varied, it wasrgely reactive in nature. Most likely, Clint could not consciously control his evolution. Aldrich had read up on Clint''s feats after Ste had brought him up, scraping together as much info that was avable about the legendary Unbreakable. Judging from his research, if every rumor or tall tale about Clint was actually legitimate, then Clint truly was essentially unkible. A good contingency against Clint would be instant death magic applied quickly, before he had a chance to realize the dangers and develop a way to escape. Aldrich cleared his head. It was in his nature to start thinking of ways to take others down, even if they were his allies, but there was a point where such thoughts became intrusive and counterproductive. Especially when it came to pure hearted guys like Clint that were easy to read and thus easy to judge whether they were friend or foe. "Hey put me down!"ined Fisk. "I ain''t a kid!" "Huh? You''re like a kid to me, though!" said Clint with a big chuckle. "Don''t touch that game of yours until we''re cruisin'' unless ya wanna see it tumblin'' down again." When Aldrich saw Clint lecture Fisk, he could tell that once, Clint had been a father. ording to Diamondback, Clint had lost both wife and daughter to the Dark Six. It made Aldrich that much more aware of Chrysa''s situation. How he was in danger of losing her. He would have smiled faintly at Clint and Fisk''s shenanigans, but right now, he was not in the mood. Perhaps it was because Aldrich was linked to Chrysa, but he felt now more so than ever a deep sense of uncertainty. Uncertainty about the future. About the world that was so much bigger than he originally envisioned. At the end of the day, he was still new to this power and the responsibilities and risks it carried. No matter how much he prepared himself, there would always be risk. Valera sensed Aldrich''s thoughts, the worry that gued him, the loneliness and fear he felt reflected back at him from Chrysa. She reached out and held Aldrich''s hand. Aldrich blinked in surprise. Valera normally would have been too shy to ever make a move like this unless she was blood crazed. But Valera was not blushing. Her eyes - they were determined. ''We will get through this,'' said Valera with her mind. ''Together. So long as I am your guardian knight, you will never face a fight alone.'' Aldrich saw that look in her eyes and it was then that he felt close to her. Oddly, he had never felt like this during the many fights they had battled through together. It was only now, when there were no shockwaves or energy sts to deal with, just the abstract idea of facing an uncertain future, that he feltfort in the firmness of her hand that would always be there for him. Aldrich nodded to Valera and squeezed her hand back. "We are in the air now," said Spybird. "Congrattions, all. No crash. But bad news, too. Worse than crash." The sound of him taking a gulp of liquor echoed through the cargo hold. "Hero" spat Spybird, disgusted. A disy screen hanging from the ceiling showed a super floating in front of the airbird. Two wings of golden energy stretched out from his back in a wide wingspan that nearly matched the size of the entire ne. He wore a white super bodysuit with flowing outeryers of fabric that looked like a toga. The hero put a hand to his ear, connecting his earpiece to the airbird''s speakers. He stared at the airbird with bright white eyes, flowing locks of shoulder length golden blonde hair billowing in the wind. "Turn this unauthorized flight andnd immediately. If you resist, you should know that I am authorized to enforce justice upon you with lethal force." Aldrich sighed. Another nuisance. At least, he had fully prepared for this one. Diamondback started to grow his blue crystal armor over his skin. "That''s Seraph. A ranker, though he''s down in the minus league. Known for being a real hardass, that one. Stickler for the rules. A little too trigger happy about killing for the sake of ''justice'', whatever that means. Damn, if we weren''t flying, I could deal with him." "Shall I?" said Valera. She could deal with flying targets surprisingly well using a martial arts skill called [Air Jump] that, as the name of the skill would indicate, let her jump on air. "No, I brought Clint here for a reason. This is precisely why," said Aldrich. He had fully prepared for this exact scenario after hearing it could happen from Casimir. Nobody other than Clint had the power to deal with an A ranker and also reliably survive and escape solo. "You mind taking this one? Next drink''s on me." "Heheh, you do know the way to my heart, huh?" said Clint. An eager grin imprinted on his face. "Sure, I got this. Next drink ought to be real nice, though." "I''ll have Casimir dig up something vintage," said Aldrich. "What do you like? Liquor? Some kind of artisanal beer?" "Vintage, artisanal? Psh!" Clint stepped up to the hatch with a disgusted face. "Don''t insult me with that fancy crap! Gimme enough shitty beer to knock me out, and ya got a deal!" The hatch door clicked open, roaring winds whipping through the cargo hold. "See y''allter!" Clint winked before he jumped out with gusto, the flesh on his back rippling before tearing apart to make way for newly grown, feathered white wings. Chapter 269 Seraph Chapter 269 Seraph The moment Clint left, the airbird, hovering in ce, turned, aiming to fly past Seraph. From the screen, Aldrich saw Seraph raise a golden brow. "You''ve made your decision to resist an A-ss hero''s orders. Lethal force has been authorized. Prepare yourselves," said Seraph. He flew higher in the air until he looked down at the airbird. The twin wings of gold on his back changed shape, the energy they were made of fluxing with fluid movement until their winglike forms narrowed into spikes. Spikes ready to punch holes straight through the airbird, no doubt. Aldrich noted down for future reference that Seraph''s flight did not seem contingent on him maintaining his energy tendrils into wings. Seraph''s face, even on the cusp of killing an entire ne''s worth of passengers, remained stone-faced cold. Aldrich did not expect anything else. Seraph was among the more brutal of the A rankers, and he probably ate more lethal force misuse cases than a street rat in an all you can eat buffet. His marketing team''s futile efforts to try and portray him as some kind of angelic figure did nothing but y to irony at this point. Still, the simple fact that he was A rank meant even with horrible poprity ratings, he could do practically whatever he wanted so long as he did not actively kill innocent people. In fact, in that regard, Seismic was way worse, having legitimately caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians via coteral damage. "This looks real bad!" said Fisk as he clutched his gamedeck to his chest like it was his literal baby. "You sure he can deal with this guy!? I know Clint''s like, strong and stuff, but this dude''s a legit A ranker!" "Rx, kid." Diamondback crossed his arms and looked up at the screen showing Seraph''s impending attack. "Clint''s never lost a fight yet." Before Seraph could thrust his spike riddled energy tendrils into the airbird, he was knocked out of vision, turning into a white blur like a train had rammed right into him. That train being, of course, Clint. Clint smiled broadly at the airbird and pointed away, telling everyone ''Go''. He disappeared out of the screen''s vision, feathered white wings pping as he pursued Seraph. "Spybird, get us out of here," said Aldrich. "You got it." Spybird responded through the PA system. The airbird lurched, and had Aldrich''s body been fully mortal still, he might have felt some sense of nausea from the brief weightlessness he felt. Whirring that increased in intensity resonated through the airbird as its engines charged up. Then, without much warning, the aircraft shot away now that nobody was blocking it. "Noooo! My baby!" Fisk fell backwards from the sudden eleration, and his gamedeck shot out of his hands and smashed against a wall, sputtering in sparks and a shower of separated pieces. Fisk mmed his fist against the floor as a tear welled out of his eye. "Damn..! Clint would''ve caught that. Miss that big guy already." "I''ll get you another one." Aldrich reached down and helped Fisk up. "For now, just be d we''re safe." "We aren''t gonna support Clint at all, though?" said Fisk as he nodded in thanks at Aldrich. "Dude''s out there all alone!" "Clint fights best alone. Think of him like a natural disaster," said Diamondback. "Do you ''backup'' a tornado? A hurricane? No, you get of its way and let it destroy whatever''s in its path." "Now that''s badass," said Fisk. "I could have taken that fight too," said Valera, not wanting to get one upped. "You could have, but then you wouldn''t be with me, would you?" said Aldrich. "A fair point." Valera cracked her neck and licked her lips. "Though it is a shame I did not get to fight. That winged man did look to be quite the worthy challenge." Aldrich wondered whether Valera could beat Seraph. Of course, he did not know Seraph''s full powers, but from recorded fights and reports, in terms of pure physical stats, Valera and Seraph were evenly matched. Whether Valera could beat out Seraph''s energy tendrils with her array of martial arts skills was an open ended question. A question that, hopefully, Clint would settle by taking out Seraph permanently. "Die! Die!" Seraph stood over Clint in the middle of a cratered road, raining down punches that sent ever deepening cracks throughout the already stressed asphalt. His energy tendrilsplemented his punches, stabbing down with de like points. Blood and guts and other misceneous parts, scales, fur, eyes, teeth, fins, sputtered up in a frankensteinian geyser of gore. Seraph now looked utterly deranged, his pure white toga costume drenched in so much red it was hard to tell that it had once even been white. His pale, smooth skin suffered a simr fate, turning into a canvas of blood where only his glowing, nk white eyes shone through. A thickly muscled tree trunk of an arm covered in bulging veins shot out from beneath Seraph, mming into his chest and sending him flying dozens of meters in the air. Clint stood up. The crater he was in was so deep that it reached up to his shoulders, and he was already a big man, getting bigger by the second, too. "Nao thish ish a fhight!" shouted Clint, words slurring because his lower jaw had been punched so hard it had detached, dangling down like an essory. Horrific injuries was an understatement to describe Clint''s state. His body was filled with so many holes he might as well have been swiss cheese. He was missing an arm and a big chunk of one of his legs, the red and raw flesh underneath spurting blood. Yet, in spite of all this, Clint''s red eyes sparkled with excitement. He took his torn jaw and set it back in ce. Newly grown fibers of flesh eagerly reached out and attached his mouth back together in one piece. The rest of his wounds quickly healed up too, the holes covering up within a single second. Where Clint healed, his skin solidified, growing dark green scales. With the full body injuries he had suffered, the scales covered his entire body, making him like some kind of reptilian humanoid, especially with his signature curved horns. "Why won''t you die!?" shouted Seraph in frustration. He put a hand at his chest, nursing a burning bruise from the uppercut that had sent him flying. That hit was much stronger than before too. Atleast twice as strong. "Hahah! I''m fucking unbreakable!" Clint flew in the air. He no longer needed wings. It had been twenty minutes since he started his fight with Seraph. Since then, his evolution had progressed so much he had obtained the following powers: Levitation based flight. Hardened scales. Shock absorbent chitin. Enhanced regeneration. Empowered muscle fibers. A constant cocktail of pain reducing, performance enhancing hormones. Not bad, but not great either. Clint was maybe 30 percent of the way to getting really fired up. A shame that this A lister could not even bring him to 50 percent, even after he had gotten all his hopes up from seeing the young uns that Vane had shown him taking down the Megaloptera. "You really are as unbreakable as the reports say you are," said Seraph. "Made a name for myself in the cities, too, huh?" Clintughed. "Pa would''ve been proud." "You won''t live to pass down that evil of yours," said Seraph. He briefly nced around. The Panopticon drones had not shown up yet, let alone media drones. Good. Seraph often requested dys in Panopticon support because he did not like interference. That, and he hated being watched. He was always judged for killing, for enforcing justice, but he knew better than anyone that the only way to make sure a viin stayed down was to end them once and for all. And this man, Clint, the Unbreakable, with a bounty of 20 million credits, was one of the biggest figures of the underworld. A man Seraph had to take down in the name of justice and good andw. "Pass down, huh?" Clint looked down with a wistful gaze, remembering. Seraph''s eyes widened as he saw Clint''s guard go down. With a burst of speed, he flew at Clint with jetspeed force. His energy tendrils coiled in front of him, whirling around in the form of an oversized drill. If Seraph drilled Clint''s body from the center and blew it apart, he could separate all theponent pieces and make sure they did not regenerate. That was how he had dealt with multiple regenerating viins before. "What!?" Seraph. Clint stopped Seraph''s drill attack with one hand. Like a broken power tool, the drill tried to spin, but Clint''s impossibly tough grip kept it rooted in ce. "You''ve made me remember some good times," said Clint. His smile twisted into rage, baring teeth that were now monstrously sharp. "But also some bad times." With a roar, Clint grabbed Seraph''s two tendrils, mashing them together between his hands to form a pulley, and used that to yank Seraph and m the hero into the ground. The crater that Seraph had gouged out with Clint was nothingpared to what Clint bashed out now. Seraphy gasping for breath, embedded in the center a massive swathe of sunken in road. His eyes flickered shut and open as he struggled to stay conscious. Clint floated down, standing over Seraph. "Y''know, kid, you''re too serious for your own good. Learn to let go and smile once in a while, heh." Clint''s ears twitched as he picked up the ring siren of Panopticon drones far in the distance. It was now time to go. He rapidly evolved a teleportation based power, his skin rippling in distorted waves of space. "See ya, kid." Clint waved and turned around. The ripples intensified swallowing Clint up in a ball of stretched out space before disappearing, leaving no trace of him behind. Chapter 270 Cure Chapter 270 Cure A good minute after Clint left, Seraph broke himself out of his impression in the crater. Rubble and dust fell off of him in droves. His once perfect, glossy, wavy gold hair now fell down in messy, dust caked strands that veiled the blood painted all over his face. From a minor assessment, Seraph figured he had suffered a fracture in his vertebrae and a minor concussion. Thankfully, the fracture did not paralyze him, and his base Alter healing factor smoothed the concussion over quickly. With a growl more animal than man, Seraph stomped the ground, shattering the already damaged street even more. He had let evil get away yet again. He was meant to exterminate evil, and yet, he had been defeated just like that. There was so much evil in this world. So much evil that was powerful. Seraph needed to get stronger. No matter what it took. Until everyst shred of evil was exterminated. Evil had taken everything from him. He would take everything from evil. Seraph''s receiver buzzed into life in his ear. "Who were they?" "The right ones. Then Unbreakable was there," said Seraph. "The Unbreakable? Then I''m assuming you''re lying on the ground, all fucked up, aren''t you?" The voice deepened in intensity, honing into a threatening edge. "Standing, actually. But I could not enforce justice on them," said Seraph. "Pathetic. I don''t understand why so many people love you A rankers. You''re all still useless. Then again, nobody loves you, justice-obsessed psychopath that you are." "I have principles I stand by. Unlike you, Sr," countered Seraph. "And to think I once looked up to you." "And I''m still looking down on you. Remember, Seraph, we''re all in this together. Any one of us fails, and this house of cardes tumbling down on us. It crashes on me first, because I''m up higher than you, but when the crash does get to you, it''ll have built up enough momentum to squish you into a tiny little smear on the pavement," "I know. I would have exterminated you in the name of justice already otherwise." "Flexible principles, huh? You and I aren''t so different." "Flexible is a far cry from non-existent." Seraph said coolly. If there was thing he had long since learned to forget, it was fear. "Just know where you stand. At the bottom of this all. Where you''ll get crushed by circumstance or, if you get unlucky, my boot. And no amount of falsely ced confidence will save you from me. I''m expecting better news from youter." Solomon Sr''s voice cut off, leaving Seraph in a brief moment of silence that soon would be cut off by the arrival of Panopticon drones. And a flurry of media drones asking him questions about this and that. Seraph had long sincemitted to just ignoring the mediapletely. What use was poprity in the name of conducting absolute justice? Even if everyone in the world reviled him, as long as in the end he had cleansed the world, no matter how many bodies he piled beneath him to reach that point, he would be content. But that single-minded focus had driven him into mistakes. Into risks. Into the situation he was in now, led around like a dog by Solomon Sr and the Trident. Seraph grit his teeth as he saw shing red dots approach him from the sky. Panopticon drones. One day, he would break free. One day, he would execute justice upon all of them. Aldrichid Chrysa down on Fler''Gan''sb table. She was still curled up in her sleeping ball position with tail touching her head. Shimmers of distorted space rippled all around her, warping the colors around her in a surrealistic slurry. "How is she?" said Aldrich. Fler''Gan inspected Chrysa with a monocle. He adjusted the monocle ring, and it clicked every so often as it engaged into different settings. This was a [Mana Reader] that could more urately discern the flow of mana. To Aldrich, it was useless because he had no real knowledge of how to read mana. The way he shaped and used mana was done almostpletely for him via the system, though recently, experimentation had let him modify his spells a little such as with curving the trajectory of his [Death Bolts]. Still, that did not mean Aldrich had any of the book smarts knowledge that Fler''Gan had which was necessary to properly read mana. "As you may know, mana is the power of the soul given form through physical vessels. A living being''s mental state can heavily affect the flow of mana within their bodies, and in this child''s case, these distortions are a clear sign of emotional anguish," said Fler''Gan. "That much is obvious, is it not?" said Valera, pressing for a more specific answer. "Patience, vampire. I was about to exin." Fler''Gan continued. "You are familiar with creatures such as subi and incubi, are you not?" "Yes," said Aldrich. Valera eyed Aldrich suspiciously. "In a purely academic manner," said Aldrich, and Valera''s suspicion died down. "And in facing them in a fight." "Then you know they are masters of nightmare magics. When a creature is in sleep, their soul is the most vulnerable. Normally, the soul is well guarded. An alert, active, stable mind is difficult to prate. Dreamstalkers such as subi can take advantage of a somnolent state and freely drain mana from their victims. The way this child''s mana flickers indicates distress from a nightmare forcibly imposed upon her." "From who?" said Aldrich. "From you," said Fler''Gan. "What?" "I have traced the origin of this nightmare. Ites from you. It is yours. I see that the Death Lord has imposed a ritual of synchronicity upon you two. But that is a link that flows in two ways. Your soul, O Elder, is one dark and seeped in negative energy. This little one, on the other hand, is pure and positive. Yet, your soul, your mental strength, is far greater, and if one side of the scale holds greater weight, is it not inevitable for the scale to tip?" "Inevitable? The Death Lord didn''t make it out like there would be risks like this," said Aldrich. He remembered what he had seen when he tried to meld his mind with Chrysa''s. The mass of tentacled darkness. "When I linked with her head, I also saw something. A mass of darkness." "A beast constructed in the throes of a nightmare. I am sure that is not umon. However, I will warn you that I am not entirely certain about this," said Fler''Gan. "I am not an expert in soul magic. Its art was lost long before I was birthed. All I know of it are small, hazy bits and pieces from long forgotten and iplete texts. If you seek clearer answers, then you must go to the Death Lord." Aldrich nodded. "To that end, I will go ahead and disable the [Spatial Lock] imposed upon you two," said Fler''Gan. He took a few steps back, raised his hands towards Aldrich and Chrysa, and chanted, "[Great Dispel]." A pale blue light emanated from his tendriled hands, washing over Aldrich and Chrysa. From his system status, he could see that the [Spatial Lock] was gone. Thankfully, whatever was afflicting Chrysa was purely rted to Elden World magic. Meaning that Aldrich had the resources to help her. "Thanks, Fler''Gan. I owe you one," said Aldrich. He scooped Chrysa''s limp body in his arms. Green mist started to emanate from him, surrounding his body. "Grant me a newboratory space in return," said Fler''Gan. "I am growing tired of this cramped space." "You got it." Aldrich turned to Valera. "Valera, stay here for now. Keep a watch over this ce and defend it in case anyone tracked us. I''ve had a [Grave Ward] follow us ever since we got ambushed, but I won''t need it in the Necropolis. Keep it with you." A [Grave Ward] floating behind Aldrich hovered over to Valera, and she grabbed the mass of giant eyes like it was a plushie. "Understood, master." Aldrich then disappeared, his [Mist Phase] warping him away. = ????w???ov??.co? In the Necropolis - "Hmm." The Death Lord circled Chrysa''s prone body, furrowing her brows as she put a hand to her chin in thinking gesture. "Hmm," she repeated, deep in thought. They were in Med''s magic experimentation room with nkets and pillows under Chrysa to give her somefort. "Do you know what''s going on?" said Aldrich. "Yes, and it is actually quite simple," said the Death Lord. "What? Exin yourself." "You two had a fight, didn''t you?" said the Death Lord simply. "A fairly big one, too. The little one could not handle the stress of the moment, and that was enough weakness for the negative energy in your soul to seep through and wash over her." Chapter 271 Expectations and Rewards Chapter 271 Expectations and Rewards "That was all it took to disable her?" said Aldrich. He shook his head, shaking himself of his impulsive habit to see others through a lens of utility. He knew better now, after Haven, when he saw firsthand how important it was to connect with others to gain their loyalty. "No, that''s the wrong question. How do I cure her?" The Death Lord waved her hand dismissively. "Curing her of this nightmare is simple enough. I merely need a few minutes alone with her. What is important here is that this does not happen again." "That''s the thing. I didn''t expect something like this to happen in the first ce." Aldrich stared at the Death Lord, usation sharpening his eyes. "You made it seem like there were no risks here. That even if she linked to me, to all the awful mess that''s in my soul, that it would be okay." "I thought her strong enough to handle it," was the Death Lord''s exnation. "¡­I should have known better." Aldrich sighed. "You''re too used to thinking of children as miniature monsters that just need some time to grow up to get strong. You, as a dragon, were raised like that, hatched alone, nobody to depend on except yourself. It stands to reason that even if you try, even if you read books on parenting, you can''t empathize." "Children are stronger than you think, Usurper. Look at yourself. All you needed was time and experience to hone yourself into the beast you are today. Give the little one a push, and she will rise to meet your expectations." Aldrich closed his eyes for a brief moment, his mind wading through a shallow pool of happy memories that no longer existed. "That ''experience'' robbed me of my childhood. One of the reasons why I have such a soft spot for children is because they remind me of what I couldn''t have. Making her go through that isn''t something I want to resort to." The Death Lord shook her head in corrective manner. "That little one is special. Her soul may be unique, but that physical vessel of hers, the creature known as the ''Chrysalis'', is more like¡­like a machine. A golem." Aldrich raised a brow. "What do you mean?" "From what I could glean, the Chrysalis is a creature that naturally connects to a higher entity and adapts to serving them. They will shape the space around them and their very own forms to suit the needs of the one they are bound to. This is why the little one could mold herself using your soul so easily." The Death Lord put the jade finger of her crystalline prosthetic arm against Aldrich''s chest. "And this is why it is important you push her. Tell her your desires, and she will by natural instinct shape herself into the best possible form to achieve your goals. But if you do not push her, she may shape herself into acent, weak-minded state. Just the way she is now." "¡­I see." Aldrich looked over at Chrysa, at her small, sleeping figure. She was more stable now, the rippling space around her body reduced to no more than slight flickers of distorted color. Her breathing was easier, more rhythmic. Aldrich knew that Chrysa was not human at heart, and that she could easily deal with people suffering so long as they were ''bad people''. But the way she panicked and broke under pressure during the sudden attack from the invisible bots made him question exactly what she could handle. The Death Lord sensed Aldrich''s thoughts. "Put her through pressure. Put her in situations of life and death. Do not fear doping this. She will adapt, I am sure of it. It is in her blood, in the instincts bred into her. You are not mistreating her this way. She exists to meet your expectations; it is wired into her very blood. Lay your expectations out to her clearly, and she will strive her best to meet them, even if they will involve fighting and hurt." "I''ll consider it," said Aldrich. "There is no consideration. Only doing. That third trial quest of yours is an apt opportunity for this," said the Death Lord. She took in a breath, magical energy swirling around her in green waves. "I do not like doing this, but I will enforce my will." Her voice quietened a bit, as if she was talking more to herself than Aldrich. "That little one must grow stronger. And she must grow fast." Aldrich saw a message show up on his system interface screen. [Quest: Bond By Trial received] [Description: Clear the third trial quest with Chrysa. No other units are allowed with you. In exchange, you will receive certain bonuses topensate for the loss of units you can take.] [Rewards: 1x a choice of spell tome from Med''s library (provided she does not need it), 1x Nether Idol, Dark Wisdom Booster (50 levels)] "Aher idol?" The sudden quest was surprising, but theher idol as a reward overshadowed all of that. With aher idol, Aldrich could reach into the Nether and forge a bond with another Chosen Undead. It was a massive reward that would not have been possible to get in the game. "Indeed," said the Death Lord. "It is the onlyher idol I have left, so you should be quite grateful I am willing to part with it. That is, if you can survive the quest with just the little one." "Can I take Vntis?" said Aldrich. "No. Only the little one. There will be no interference between you two. But I will grant you some equipment topensate." The Death Lord waved Aldrich away. "Go to your throne room. I will have your things sent there. In the meanwhile, I will awaken the little one." Aldrich summoned a [Grave Ward] from his palm. "If you don''t mind, I''m going to keep watch over what you do to her. Considering your severeck of child care skills, I feel that this more than reasonable enough." And Aldrich did not quite like the way the Death Lord was pressuring Chrysa to grow. He wondered whether there was an underlying motive behind it, but if it was a negative one, she would never admit it. If it was positive, purely for Aldrich''s well being - which was entirely possible considering how much she had nurtured him so far - then there was not much to worry about. Just her typical recklessness when it came to children. "I do not like being watched, but so be it,"ined the Death Lord. "I did not take you for the peeping type. But we all have our hidden desires, no?" Aldrich rolled his eyes and began to leave. "Make sure Chrysa''s well when I get back." "I will. I swear that to you, Death Walker." The Death Lord nodded solemnly. Aldrich stared down at his palm in wonder. There, he beheld a golden ring whose surface rippled with mottled reds and oranges like the surface of the sun. "It''s done already?" "The Death Lord make me work fast!" Bors, the giant cksmith, nodded once, his big helmeted head moving up and down with a kind of oak tree weight to it. "The core was new, so I thought the forge be hard, but there no trick, so I do it quick!" Aldrich slipped the ring onto his finger. [Sr Seal equipped] Almost immediately, Aldrich felt power funnel into his body. It was a bright, hot, almost burning kind of power. Strands of what looked like sr energy danced around him, lighting his pale undead skin almost an uniform white, as if his whole body was turning into pure light. Aldrich read the description of the item in his system interface. [Sr Seal] [Rank: Mythic (Limited)] [Description: A seal forged from a soul containing the essence of the sun. Wearing this seal grants the user ess to a variety of spells and passives. Passives: Sr Battery: Through exposure to sunlight, the wearer is able to stockpile sr energy that passively enhances their strength, agility, and vitality. In addition, the wearer is granted 80% damage reduction against all fire based damage. The higher the sr energy reserves, the higher these stat bonuses are. Thus expending sr energy reduces these bonuses. Karmic Light: Against enemies that have negative ''karma'' that have caused or absorbed great amounts of negative energy, the wearer of this seal obtains a bonus burning effect on all their attacks against them. The worse the karma of the target, the worse this burning effect bes. Spells: Lightforged Array: The user can forge stored sunlight into a variety of weapons ranging as such: sword, spear, shield, bow, and gauntlets. These constructs deal holy type damage, dealing especially high burning damage to those with negative karma. Restoring Radiance: By expending sunlight, the user can heal others with positive energy. This will burn and destroy undead instead. This is considered holy type damage and will also purge souls from afflicted undead. This spell can be cast with an area of effect pulse form as well. Heat Ray: By expending sunlight, the user can fire a beam of heat energy. Blinding Burst: By expending sunlight, the user can create a blinding sh that robs all nearby of their eyesight temporarily. Sunlit: By fully activating the seal, the user can temporarily ess a tremendous amount of power, granting them tremendous physical abilities, flight, and the ability to fire heat rays. In essence, they will fully be able to use the range of powers that once belonged to the original bearer of the soul core used to forge this seal. This will rapidly absorb sunlight and disable ess to all other spells and equipment.] Chapter 272 More Loot Chapter 272 More Loot "This is an impressive piece, Bors." Aldrich closed his fist, observing the golden glint of his Sr Seal. "How did you manage to implement holy type damage into this? And the healing?" From what Aldrich could tell, Seth Sr''s powers did not involve any form of healing. Or, at the very least, not any healing that affected others. It was true that Seth could recover from wounds quickly, but not to the extent it was considered an Alter power on its own. At best, Seth could recover a broken bone in, say, a few days opposed to the weeks it took for an Alter of his grade to naturally do so with just cell count alone. Even Seth''s father, Solomon, who had a far more trained version of the power, could at best recover a broken arm in the span of an hour which, though impressive, was not anything close to a specialized Alter power. For example, the Geist could easily recover an entirely torn arm within seconds. Solomon Sr could note close to that knitting together a fractured bone, let alone actually growing an entirely new limb. "Lord gave me some ss from sk you had. Had shiny magic in it. I forge that magic into the seal," said Bors. "Soul you gave me was shiny too. Matched very well." "I see." So the Death Lord had Bors reforge the healing sk from Amara into something that Aldrich could use more effectively. Quite a good idea, Aldrich had to admit. Aldrich tested out the sea. He channeled magical energy into it, and it shed gold. In his hand, a longsword made of solid golden light manifested. An aura of warm light emanated around the outline of the construct, capable of burning any being with negative karma. Aldrich was curious about that. Beings in Elden World received negative karma the more negative energy they harnessed or created in others with negative energy most easily produced from emotions like pain and fear. Some beings like undead and demons were inherently creatures that had negative energy flowing through them regardless of whether they caused terror in others, so holy attacks were particrly effective against them. But how would this work in the real world? Would these attacks do bonus burning damage to those who had caused more suffering? How would that even be determined? Would this potentially be a good way to spot who was ''evil'' and who was not? Even if they put up a goody two shoes front? It was an interesting topic to think about. "I like it," said Aldrich. He made three swift shes in front of him. The golden longsword left trails of dimming light like theet of a tail. "This wille in incredibly handy. Thanks, Bors." "That''s not all!" Bors said with glee. He reached down from his enormous worktable thatpletely dwarfed Aldrich and withdrew a cloak and a bell. Both items sat atop the cracked grey skin of his giant palm. Aldrich''s eyes widened as he recognized the cloak. At cursory nce, it looked rather ragged,prised of tattered dark green cloth with frayed ends. A green glow rose up and down the cloak in a constantly flowing pattern, and wherever that glow passed, it revealed the silhouette of skulls and eyes trapped within the fabric - the ancient souls of countless worthy victims all knitted together to create this revered item. It was the [Hallowed Gravecloak]. One of the Death Lord''s personal items. It was a divine grade item, the highest grade there was, and in terms of sheer defensive usage it was potentially the absolute best in the entire game. The cloak had a defensive passive called [Within the Grave] that made any attacks below a certain damage threshold just disappear upon reaching the wearer, making the wearerpletely invulnerable to units under a certain power level. It also granted flight to whoever it was on, which was especially useful because the cloak had a third passive called [Spirit Movement] that let it fly around freely, leaving its wearer to attach on others to grant them flight and defensive bonuses or stay fixed in specific spots. [Spirit Movement] set up the cloak''s active ability which really gave it its divine grade status. Its active, known as [Hallowed Grave], created a circr zone where any unit within was rendered absolutely invulnerable to damage that originated from outside the boundary. It also prevented units from outside the zone from seeing within or targeting units within it. In essence, it was the ultimate version of the [Spirit Boundary] that the Deildeghasts could cast. The biggest weakness was that while casting [Hallowed Grave], the cloak had to stay fixed in one position. There were other issues, too, like the fact that Aldrich was severely underleveled for the cloak. It was therefore [Limited], meaning that Aldrich could ess heavily nerfed versions of the equipment''s actives and bonuses. "You get this cloak after finishing quest," said Bors. "But this, you have now." He pointed at the bell atop his palm with a huge finger that threatened to just ground theparatively tiny essory into dust. "What is it?" said Aldrich. "I dunno. The Lord made it herself for you. Using the rest of the shiny stuff." Aldrich took the cloak and bell from Bors. The moment he touched the cloak, it flew to his back, attacking to his shoulders and adjusting its length to exactly match Aldrich''s proportions. Decked out in a ck suit and dark green, tattered cloak, Aldrich expected to look ridiculous, but oddly, the cloak still had a sort of royal air to it that fit better than expected. Besides fashion, Aldrich was more interested in the bell. It was a silver construct that he couldfortably hold via a handle of ivory white bone in his hand. He analyzed the bell using his system. [Item: Death Knell] [Grade: Divine (Limited)] [Description: An item reforged using the blessed sun shards of the goddess Amara. The shards, upon being seeped into the waters of death, have quenched and tempered into a form more fitting for a death walker. The Death Knell is capable of storing graves within it. By ringing the bell, the graves may be used to summon undead or be consumed for healing or mana restoration. The current storage capacity is at 200. This capacity limit will increase as the user''s level matches the item''s grade. Any undead summoned using a stored grave will be ''shallow'', meaning that they are temporary constructs that will deteriorate over time. The rate of deterioration increases the longer the undead exist. Cooldown: 1 Hour per usage In addition, the Death Knell possesses two passives. Threat Resonance: The bell will lightly vibrate when the user is in proximity to danger or killing intent directed towards them. Kindred Resonance: The bell will ring when the user is in proximity to a kindred soul to them. That is, a soul that is simr to their own, allowing the user to more easily determine loyal subjects or allies. However, the user must be warned that simrity does not necessarily meanpatibility.] Aldrich equipped the bell, and it automatically floated to his waist, tethering to his hip like a utility belt gadget. Coupled with the Sr Seal, he now had 2/5 of the max amount of essories he could have on at any given time. The bell was much worse than the crystalline sk for pure healing or mana regeneration purposes. The 1 hour cooldown was the worst part. But it was infinitely more useful in every other regard. Made sense. The Death Lord could not replicate Amara''s healing ability, even if she talked big. But the Death Lord hadpensated in other ways. Aldrich was satisfied. His ystyle already involved taking less risk to prevent getting damaged in the first ce. The [Threat Resonance] would help Aldrich greatly, not to mention the capacity to summon up to 200 extra undead at a moment''s notice. Overall, Aldrich felt much, much stronger than before. With his as of yet untested [Frosthallowed War Scythe], Vntis''s newly gained consciousness, the [Sr Seal], and the [Hallowed Gravecloak], and his new [Death Knell], Aldrich was itching to get into a real fight. He felt an almost giddy rush that he had almost missed - the kind any gamer got when they scored a ton of rare loot. With all of these toolsbined, Aldrich was confident he could take on an A rank hero by himself if he used Seismic as a litmus test. Depending onbatpatibility, he might even be able to take out an S ranker. Chapter 273 Immortal Advice Chapter 273 Immortal Advice "Liking my wares, are we?" The Death Lord materialized behind Aldrich, and he immediately whirled around, the de of solid sunlight in his hands. The tip of the golden sword hovered just an inch away from the Death Lord''s pale, dainty neck. The Death Lord''s serpentine tongue slithered out, curling around the de tip in quite the suggestive manner before she smirked and drew it back in. "Always ready for a fight. Admirable." "It''s just you." Aldrich sighed and lowered the de. The weight felt nice in his hands, perfectly tailored to his preferences. He had some knowledge of how to use swords because vibrodes, monofment whip-des, and heatrend swords were prettymonce. Guns were nice and all, but against heavily armored mutants or Alters with skin that could bounce missiles off? Techdes were the way to go. "Just me? How rude." The Death Lord pouted. "And Chrysa?" Aldrich asked about what was most important to him at the moment. The Death Lord nodded and waved forward. A ck armored death knight gently carried Chrysa in its arms. She slept peacefully now, without any hint of spatial disturbance bothering her. Aldrich had overseen the Death Lord''s treatment and saw nothing off about it. She simply cast a healing spell and broke Chrysa out of her nightmare, granting her instead pleasant dreams. And since the soul link flowed in two ways, Aldrich could sense that Chrysa''s mind was at peace. The Death Lord eyed Aldrich''s cape. Or, more specifically, her own cape. "How do you like it? That priceless piece of fashion you don cost me five hundred years to stitch together, cobbling together the souls of the finest warriors known throughout the realms." "I''m more than happy with it," Aldrich admitted. "Once youplete your quest, that shall be yours. But beyond that, that bell of yours will serve you to even greater degree." Aldrich raised a brow. "Will it now?" The Death Lord nodded with confidence. "It is modeled after the great bell that sits atop the Necropolis. Once, that bell was small much like yours, a thing to be held snug in a hand more forfort than any real use. It was gifted to me by one quite dear to me, and it rang whenever it sensed a friend. A kindred soul. That allowed me to build up my legions like a truemander, full of those I trust." "I did wonder about that." Aldrich dematerialized his longsword. "Every other necromancer I faced, at least to my knowledge, barely ever kept their units capable of thinking. To me, it made sense. Otherwise, what''s the difference between a necromancer and an ordinarymander if you have to worry about your units rebelling?" "Yet you seem to allow liberal freedom to your undead now." Aldrich nodded. "I do. I realized if I kept expanding my pool of undead, I couldn''t focus on all of them with the same amount of attention, no matter how good my micro was. I knew that from the very moment I started fielding undead. I started off with next to mana - leagues below what you probably had. And my mind was still human. No matter how fast I could think, there was always going to be a limit to how far I could spread my consciousness. Probably much lower of a threshold than, again, what you could naturally put out. If I wanted my units to always be at top capability, then I needed them to know how to think and fend for themselves. Of course, that presents risks like them making errors of their own or potentially harboring rebellious thoughts, but I''ve made efforts to minimize those confounding variables." "Then you understand why I too built my legion the way I did," said the Death Lord. "At first, when I was new to the dark arts, I did as you surmised. Imanded vast armies of undead with my insurmountable draconic mana pool, and I kept them all mindless. But the greater my ambitions grew, the more I had to spread my undead, and the more and more defeats I faced. It even led to my first sealing under the champions of that sunlit wench''s father." "Right." Aldrich knew that in the lore, the Death Lord had been sealed throughout most of the game''s history by an enigmatic light blessed champion known only as the Shining One who was, as the Death Lord said, powered by the goddess Amara''s father, the high god of light and life known as Eos. "My forces fell and scattered. When at times holy magics severed my connection from them, many of them chose to end their own undead lives or actively fight against me," recounted the Death Lord. "And now, I have learned from my mistakes. Most of my undead willingly serve me." "Most?" The Death Lord shrugged. "You cannot please everyone. Some I render mindless if they are too valuable to let go." Aldrich looked at Chrysa. "Are you considering that fate for her?" the Death Lord looked surprised. "No. Well, in a way, yes." Aldrich paused, taking a moment to word this in a way that it did not sound an awful lot like enving a child. "I''m still wondering if I can''t just control her manually during stressful situations. It would give her less of an emotional burden and let me operate efficiently too." "You two share a Boundary." The Death Lord put her hand to her chest, where her heart sat under considerable amounts of padding. "Both of you are responsible for growing it. If you control her, you may be able to wield her powers as they are now, but she will never grow, and if she never grows, she will never be able to add to your Boundary. True, you need power, stable power, now, but again, you have an eternity. Think to the future, Death Walker. The little one most grow for you to achieve your greatest strength. That is the point of this quest." "I get it." Aldrich walked up to the Death Knight and took Chrysa from its armored skeletal hands. He looked down at her sleeping face. "Fathera€|" she whispered, nuzzling into Aldrich, still asleep. "I still want to shield her," Aldrich admitted. "From hurt and struggle. I know she will have to see fights in her future. It''s inevitable just from being with me. But it''s still difficult. In a way, when I look at her, at the innocence there that I want to protect, I still feel warmth in myself, and I don''t want to let it fade away." When you see her, you feel your humanity," said the Death Lord. "Or the vestiges of it that you harbor. I see now. Your desire to protect innocence - this is the single greatest anchor there is upon your soul." "Is it a bad thing?" Aldrich asked. "It is a matter of perspective and moderation." The Death Lord turned away, focusing on something else, some other time in her life. "I was always immortal, so I do not understand as well. But I do know that the longer lived you are, the more you must harbor strong goals, strong desires. These are what will propel you forward. To prevent your mind and soul from rotting stagnant. Immortalic Rot sets in faster than you think, especially with an immortal''s perception of time, and once it sets in, the apathy, the hopelessness, you be nothing more than a void that sucks in the hopes of others. Some undead find their spiritual anchors in little mes of humanity they still hold alight in their hearts. Others in ambitious, far ranging goals. Others in simple duty. Others in love, others in hate - so many anchors across so many eternal lives that bloomed from death. Keep that me of humanity of yours if it anchors your soul. But do not let it burn you when you must reach beyond it. You must be willing to make sacrifices when you have to. You must not let it be a weakness." "That, I''ve already resolved myself to do," said Aldrich. "Indeed. I could read that in your soul from the moment I met you." The Death Lord turned to Aldrich and looked deeply into his eyes. "You were firm in your willingness to sacrifice. And to no surprise. Your entire life in this new realm was walked upon the road of sacrifice and loss. If that road grants you strength, then do not stray from it." The Death Lord pointed to Chrysa. "And let her walk it also. She is born of your soul. The road that granted you strength will grant her strength too. Through trial by fire, you were tempered and forged. She will mold under the same conditions. Protect her, you may, but do not rob her of her choice, for choice is where she learns resolve, and resolve is where she builds strength." Aldrich nodded. "You can be surprisingly poetic at times." "Ites with the years," said the Death Lord. She smiled up at the air, to something that no longer was. "Or perhaps, in a different life, if things were different, I would have liked to be one." The Death Lord turned around and began to leave, her hands behind her back like some kind of old sage. Her draconic emerald scaled tail swished behind her. "I will take my leave. The little one is in light sleep. Awaken her when you desire and enter the trial quest when you can." "One thing," said Aldrich. The Death Lord stopped. "Hm?" "There''s a corpse of a frozen old human I brought here. I''d like you to investigate it and see if you can find anything odd about it. Whatever killed him purged his soul, preventing me from raising him as an undead," said Aldrich. The Death Lord cocked her head. "Truly? Odd. I will see to it that Med and I thoroughly break it apart." "No breaking it apart. I need it for burial," said Aldrich. "Fine. I will try my best now to rend it asunder, even if it will be difficult with how fragile the humans of the new realm are," said the Death Lord. She walked away for a few steps before she faded away, teleporting. Aldrich was left looking down at Chrysa. He stroked her hair, pulling a few moonlight white strands from her closed eyes. She looked so very peaceful - the embodiment of the peace that Aldrich wanted for her and all others like her - but the Death Lord was right. If Chrysa wanted to walk Aldrich''s path of struggle with him, he had to give her that choice. He carried her all the way over to his iplete throne of emerald crystal and sat down upon it. He closed his eyes and focused on his Boundary, and like that, he and Chrysa both faded, leaving behind just the purple orb that formed Aldrich''s phctery. Chapter 274 Resolve to Fight Chapter 274 Resolve to Fight Aldrich looked around his Boundary and took in a deep breath, nostalgia washing over him. The living room that he was so familiar with, his mother''s paintings, his father''sics, all of the warm memories associated with it all welled up in his heart. This was a good ce. And he could thank one little girl for all of it. "...Father?" Chrysa whispered out, her voice still shaky with sleep. She sat on the couch, in front of the telescreen. She rubbed her eyes, wiping away sparkling tears of sleepiness. "How are you feeling?" Aldrich sat down beside her. "I''m okay," said Chrysa. She hung her head low, cing her hands together in pensive gesture. "I''m sorry for being scared." "It''s fine." Aldrich patted Chrysa''s head, and she started to smile. "It''s fine to be scared in a situation like that. We were in a fight, a real fight, and you probably couldn''t handle the stress." "Nuh-uh." Chrysa shook her head defiantly. "The loud booms and bright lights and fighting didn''t scare me!" Her smile tipped upside down into a frown. "It was¡­it was¡­" "Go on. You can tell me." Chrysa side eyed Aldrich. "Promise you won''t talk to me mean?" "Of course. I promise." "You also promised a fun time in the city." "I"m still keeping that promise. When things settle down, we''ll all have a good time, and I won''t let anybody get in the way of it." "Okay." Chrysa took in a deep breath, psyching herself up, then confessed. "I wasn''t scared of the fight, I was scared of you, father." Aldrich blinked. "Me?" Chrysa nodded. "Not you you, because seeing father always makes me happy, but what you wanted from me. Okay, I was scared at first, when the big lights and big sounds first happened, but not for too long! I thought about fighting and using what I learned from Meddy, but I didn''t know if you wanted that. Because you didn''t want me getting hurt. I got confused, and that made me more scared, and then, and then, I fell asleep." "I see." Aldrich put his hand on Chrysa''s head again in aforting gesture. The reason she had gotten overwhelmed was not so much because she was scared of the fighting, but because she did not know what to do, and that confusion only made her fright even worse. The Death Lord had been right. Aldrich had coddled her too much. He had not given her any expectation to fight. No, he had actively tried to shield her from everything. As a result, when danger came, she did not know what she should have been doing, and that shut her down. It was easy for people to freeze up in intense situations. Aldrich had only made that reaction worse. Aldrich asked her. "Then what do you want, Chrysa? Do you want to fight?" Chrysa balled her fists and shook them up and down with vigor. "Mhm! I want to fight! I want to make booms and pows and whacks!" She peppered her sounds with gestures, wing and punching at the air. Aldrich raised a brow. Even now, it felt odd to let her, with all her childlike reactions, fight. To really fight. To throw her into the thick of fire and force where blood, tears, and screams could flow like water. "Are you sure? You could get hurt. Hurt badly, even. I can always heal you, but that won''t stop the pain." "I know. I know I can die too." Chrysa looked down at her little hands, at the milky white ws that protruded from her fingers. "But if anyone wants to hurt you, father, and make you cry or mad, then I''ll try my best to kill them! Even if I get hurt too!" Chrysa''s innocently voiced deration to kill Aldrich''s enemies sobered him up more. It made him even more distinctly aware of the fact she was not human and he could not treat her like a normal human child. Aldrich nodded. That was the tipping point. He would still care for Chrysa as a child, but he would also not hold back her variant instincts. "Then, Chrysa, I''m all for it. If you want to fight, you should. I shouldn''t be holding you back from what you want. From what your instincts drive you to do. But tell me this, is this really, really what you want? Don''t just think of doing it for me. It has to be something you want for yourself." "It is!" Chrysa closed her eyes, and a sweet smile settled on her face as she thought of something happy. "Lately, I''ve been having dreams. A dream about a small white house on a bright green hill. There, father is smiling all the time, and that makes me smile all the time too. Everything is quiet and warm and happy. I want to make that dreame true!" Chrysa looked down, twiddling her thumbs. "But¡­but I know that father won''t ever smile like that for a long time. Something bad happened to father, and you don''t smile like that anymore. I know that because sometimes, when I dream, I feel a little bit of what father feels, and because of that, I know father won''t have big smiles and live in a quiet white house until he''s done fighting. Until then, I will fight with father! Make my dream happen! Make father smile one day!" "I see." Aldrich saw determination in Chrysa''s eyes. It was a kind of determination that was childlike in its purity, and at the same time, there was another glint there, one fiercer, sharper, belonging to a beast more than capable of fighting, that made it clear that when Chrysa said she wanted to fight, she knew what she was saying. She knew the risks involved. The hurt and pain and struggle she might face. And she was still willing to fight. "Then that settles it." Aldrich got up off the couch. Chrysa followed, hopping off and looking way up at Aldrich in wonder. "What is it?" Aldrich rolled up his sleeves. "I''m going to be teaching you how to fight." Chapter 275 Simmering Chapter 275 Simmering Aldrich sat at the top of a signal tower erected on the Magen, the name that Casimir bestowed upon their mini town on wheels. Most people would have expected a name like that to be christened on a massive battleship or aircraft, but it honestly fit rather well here too. The Magen was quite spectacr. It wasprised of six mobile bases, each big enough to house fifty people, transformed together into one behemoth of churning metal that chugged along the desert on twenty four wheels and twelve high poweredm, high purity etherite engines. Like the desert version of the pr express, it traveled the endless wastes with a heavyset determination, metal parts cking and groaning like the utterances of a living beast. Turrets and smaller sensor tower jutted out the back of the Magen like spines. "Is it going to be okay?" Chrysa, in Aldrich''s arms, looked down at the Magen, at its fourrge front lights that looked like the eyes of some strange insectoid creature. "It sounds like it''s working hard!" "It''ll be fine," said Aldrich. Though, he did have to confess, he still had no idea how something like this could run so well and for so long. Scientists called Ether the real god particle, capable of anything and everything, and Aldrich had to agree. The Magen was like a literal transformer, and high purity etherite made that possible. It was a shame that most of the world could not get their hands on it. Only nomads insane enough to not only chase deadly geostorms, but make that chase a way of living, could harvest ether energy in such a pure state. That was not to take away from the Magen''s craftsmanship either. ording to Casimir, it had been built up by Arksman, a legendary nomad craftsman specializing in vehicle construction who had taken a fortune of twenty five million credits to shape it all up. Arksman''s work looked shoddy, almost disheveled, like odd ends and bits and pieces cobbled together, but in pure functionality, his rides matched the best technos in the AA or the corporate world. Aldrich looked away from the Magen. He was high up enough where he could see way into the deep dark stretches of night, taking in the oddly haunting beauty of the barren wastndndscape painted silver under the moon. There was something about the sheer scale and solitude of it all thatforted Aldrich, though he could imagine someone more skittish, someone more people oriented like Adam or Eileen would think it was all so empty and lonely. "It''s pretty," said Chrysa. She twirled her fingers in her hair. "The shiny, it looks like my hair." "The moonlight," said Aldrich. "And it does." Chrysa shifted around in Aldrich''s grasp with impatient energy. "What is it?" said Aldrich. "Why''d wee out here?" Chrysa asked. "I like spending time with father, but you promised to teach me how to fight!" "I know. I just needed to make sure of some things out here first," said Aldrich. He had checked up on multiple information threads. V''s investigation on the bug she found in the ice bots yielded that it was Trident sourced. Specifically from a renowned techno in the Italian prong of the Trident called Mad Jack. Mad Jack was an utter menace in the underworld with a troubling penchant for creating bugs that could take over practically any tech and rendering the mad. He was a wildcard who loved chaos more than anything, spreading his viruses even among his allies. The type of guy that Aldrich hated the most. Chaos for the sake of chaos was just meaningless misery for everyone involved. That brought the Trident into the mix for the ice bot mystery. And yet, that did not answer any questions. Sure, Mad Jack could have infected the bots, but where did theye from in the first ce? A rival of the Tridents? Perhaps from within the Trident themselves considering the recent infighting? That, Aldrich left V and Fisk to figure out. Clint and the Spearhorns had uncovered a good amount of details in the Trident civil war. The Italian and Japanese prongs stood against the Russians. The Russians wanted to move forward with their ns for revolution, to topple the world order set by governments and the Panop-AAplex. But the Japanese and Italian prongs wanted more stability, savoring the taste of profit and bnce, especially knowing that the more variants attacked, the weaker the heroes got. The rift was big enough that in a diplomatic meeting where several higher ups from each of the prongs met up, the Russian prong''s representative detonated a suicide bomb, instigating a full on civil war. That incident was also the reason why the hunt on Casimir and anyone rted to him had been called off so abruptly. Compared to an internal war of that scale, Casimir, a fugitive, a rich fugitive, granted, but a fugitive no less, was not a priority. That was good news for Aldrich. It meant the Trident, half of the entire Dark Six, was weakened, and would get weaker by the passing day. If Aldrich made the right moves against them while they struggled among themselves, he could be the figurative straw to break the camel''s back. The AA was not blind, either. They had caught wind of the conflict too. In response, they were probably readying heroes in case the Trident conflict grew hot and reached civilians. Where it mattered to Aldrich was that the AA pushed up Aldrich''s hearing date, probably not wanting to spend as much time and effort on it. They might even give Aldrich, or rather, Thanatos, more leniency. With variants and the Trident being problems, Aldrich doubted the AA wanted to add Thanatos to that list as well. Aldrich''s new hearing date was thus pushed to just a day and a half from now. Not much time left at all. "Father, are you worried?" asked Chrysa. "You can tell?" Aldrich never showed worry, or much of any emotion, on his face well. "Mhm." Chrysa nodded. Made sense. Chrysa and Aldrich were soul linked. Not just that, but she probably understood him better than anyone because she had been born of his own soul. "I am," said Aldrich. He looked up at the full moon. "But not the bad type of worry. It''s more¡­like anticipation." "Antsy-pant-shun" Chrysa said the word out slowly. "Anticipation," Aldrich repeated, letting her get a better read of it. "It means I''m worried, but I have an idea of what''s going to happen. And depending on what I do, I can make things good or bad." "To make things good, do we have to fight?" "Probably." Chrysa pumped her fists in the air. "Then I will! I''ll learn! Let''s go!" Aldrich patted Chrysa''s head. "Slow down there. Fighting''s not always about rushing in. In fact, that''s thest thing you should do. Stay back, watch, and figure things out before you go in. You should have at least your first three moves mapped out in your head before you do anything." "Three!?" Chrysa''s eyes widened in shock. "I can''t think that hard! Father can? Father''s a genius!" "You can. Just give yourself some time." If Chrysa inherited more and more of Aldrich''s talents and skills, then there was no doubt she could develop a battle ready analytical mind like him. That was when Aldrich''s earpiece crackled into life. He immediately pressed his finger to it. He did not want to miss this. "Boss? You there?" came Ace''s voice. "Yes." "¡­" "What is it?" Aldrich narrowed his eyes. "Did you catch Feather?" In light of recent news about the Trident, Aldrich wanted Feather even more. Feather was fairly high up. Getting him could lead to a treasure trove of information about the Trident civil war. The underworld knew of the major details, but the ones that mattered, the nitty gritty, nobody except those affiliated with the Trident had an idea of. "We fucked up his men and nabbed the nomad snitch, but Feather''s not here. Sorry, boss," said Ace. "I see. Have you tried interrogating the men?" "Yeah. Kat''s been real good at it. Has this special poison or whatever that can cause the worst pain ever she says. But the men don''t know shit. They thought they were going to meet the snitch as always, but even they were surprised when Feather didn''t show up." "Disappointing. But not the worst thing in the world. Try and take back as many of the men as possible. I''ll make them useful somehow," said Aldrich, thinking of Fler''Gan. There was no shortage of need for Alter test subjects. "Sure thing. We''ll try and look around more here in case we missed something." "Go ahead and do that. Report to Valera when you''re done. I''m going to be out for the next day." Aldrich disconnected from the earpiece and sighed. Kat was an incredibly good assassin. Feather could not have gotten away from her unless he had prior knowledge. Or, maybe, the Trident conflict had torn Feather away by sheer dumb circumstance, But then why had Feather left his men in the dark like that? Something strange was at y here, and Aldrich could not shake the sensation that everything was starting to simmer like the short few moments of bubbling before water on a burner broke out into a rolling, roaring, zing boil. "Father, are you sure you''re doing an anticipation? Aren''t you just worried?" said Chrysa. She tugged at Aldrich''s dress shirt with worried grasps. "Maybe. I don''t know everything, after all. But that''s where preparation matters even more. Whether it''s in nning or fighting, you always need to stay active. You always need to try and set the pace. The moment you be passive and let things happen to you is when you loose your footing, slip, and never get back up." Chrysa nodded thoughtfully. "But I can teach you that better when we get into a fight." Aldrich started to cast [Mist Phase], beginning the process of returning to the Necropolis where he would now challenge the third trial quest. "Which we''re going to now." "Yay!" Chrysa pped her hands in glee. Chapter 276 Trial Quest Chapter 276 Trial Quest "Are you ready?" Aldrich stood in front of his throne, looking up at the circuitwork like criss cross patterns of green energy stretching up to the tall ceiling from his emerald crystal throne. All those circuits, those pathways of magical energy, tethered to the Necropolis, drawing power from it. Or, maybe better put, took from it. The more Aldrich progressed in power, the more of the Necropolis he inherited. When would the timee when Aldrich could harness the full might of the tower? And when he got that power, the question arose; did he work with the world? Or, as Vntis and Valera wanted, would he take over the world? Bend it to his rule? "Wow, father looks so strong!" Chrysa tugged at Aldrich''s new cloak. The skulls and faces, spirits of those stitched within, emitted low wails of protest. "I need to be in top condition for this," said Aldrich. "After all, this is our first mission together." "I won''t disappoint!" Chrysa punched the air in front of her. Aldrich gave himself a cursory nce. Shiny new golden ring. Cloak of souls. Scythe of ice. He would need all of that and more if he was going to take on the third trial quest with all the restrictions on him. First, he had no ess to his units aside from Chrysa. Second, he could not create units, limiting a good chunk of his personal spells. Topensate for this, Aldrich had consumed the spellbook awarded to him from the second trial quest. The spellbook granted bone based spells which were the best for direct, non-unit basedbat. Aldrich had reced his [Bone Missile Array] and added two additional spells. In total, he had learned [Skeletal Limbs], [Boneripper], and [Bonebearing Curse]. [Skeletal Limbs], as the name so obviously hinted, let Aldrich create two additional bone limbs from his body to wield additional weapons or fire spells. [Boneripper] and [Bonebearing Curse] were both curses that Aldrich could list among the most deadly of his new spells. [Boneripper] imbued one of his hands with the effect to, upon touch, tear out the bones of a flesh and blood being. It could also break apart skeletal undead. [Bonebearing Curse] let Aldrich fire a symbol at a target. It was slow moving and easy to dodge, but topensate, it had the exceptionally useful ability to control bones it came into contact with for a short period of time. Aldrich could not summon other units, but if he could control other beings that already existed, he could circumvent the no summoning units rule. But beyond all that, Aldrich had another useful tool: Dark Wisdom levels. He had been saving them up because he had seen no real use to giving them to anyone yet, especially because he could impart the levels all at once in an instant. That made the levels a very potent sudden powerup that could catch enemies off guard. Yet, Aldrich had an even better use for them here. As a means to grow Chrysa up. Aldrich knelt down to Chrysa''s level and held his palms towards her. Chrysa punched his hands yfully. "Once, I had this dream of father training, he moved just like this. Bam! Bam!" Chrysa punctuated her words with punches. "Pretty good," said Aldrich, and he was not just saying it to make her feel good. She was legitimately talented. Her movements were fairlypact,cking much of the wide swinging and wasted movement that beginners had. It was almost as if Chrysa had already trained. And in a way, she had. She did not just see Aldrich''s memories like in a dream, she felt them, experienced them. Aldrich wondered how much of his expertise and skills would transfer over to her. And how quickly. "But punches are always better with power behind them." Aldrich caught Chrysa''s punches. "I''m going to give you some power." "Okay." Chrysa nodded. Aldrich closed his eyes and summoned up his Dark Wisdom. He knew that there was a limit to how many levels he could grant his units. They could not exceed his own level and they could not receive more levels than their bodies could handle. From plot events and lore, Aldrich knew that some liches were reckless with umted Dark Wisdom, overloading units and causing them to literally explode in both body and soul. Aldrich could not tell how much Chrysa could handle. He started slowly. A purple glow radiated from his palms. The glow permeated through Chrysa''s arms, lighting up her blood vessels and nerves. "That was ten levels," said Aldrich. "How do you feel?" "Levels?" Chrysa asked. "It''s a measure of power. The higher you are, the better." "What''s the highest I can go?" "A hundred." "Then I''ll go past it!" Aldrich smiled faintly. "Now now, let''s slow down here. Tell me how ten levels feel, and we can go from here." "I feel strong!" Chrysa nodded vigorously. "Okay then, tell me when you feel something''s off." Aldrich closed his eyes and imparted more Dark Wisdom. He was not really stingy about it. The wording of the awards stated that Aldrich''s Dark Wisdom reserve would get set to 50, so he had no incentive to save his thirty or so odd stored levels. Whatever Aldrich could not use, he would distribute among his other units, the Geist and Ste being primary candidates. "I feel a little¡­dizzy." Chrysa''s head bobbed from side to side with woozy slowness. All of her arms now shone with purple. Aldrich let go of Chrysa''s hands. "That was twenty levels. Let''s stop here. You need to be in good condition to train and fight." Chrysa clenched her fists. "I''m all ready!" She looked just fine, the burdening effects of the Dark Wisdom having worn off just like that. The issue was that Aldrich could sense she was reaching her limit to take in levels, and he did not want to push his luck further. "I have power, I can feel it!" Chrysa looked at her hands in wonder. A white aura enveloped her body. "What do I do with it?" "Do you see any numbers anywhere? In the corner of your vision?" asked Aldrich, wondering if she had inherited the system. "Numbers¡­? No." Chrysa blinked, confused. "But that''s a good thing. I hate numbers!" Well, there was one difference between Aldrich and Chrysa. "Hm, then about controlling your powers-," began Aldrich. "It''s okay, I know. Meddy taught me." Chrysa took in a deep breath and sped her hands together in a meditative pose. The white aura around her stabilized. "I''ll make my magic grow and grow! Be just like father!" "Make sure to keep your body strong, too. There''s no point having a ton of magic power if your body can''t take a hit. And you need to have something to rely on if your magic gets cut off." "Okay." Chrysa finalized distributing her stats, or whatever the equivalent of it was like for her. Aldrich tapped the magical screen his throne projected, selecting the third trial quest. A circle disyed an image of what looked like a vige on fire. "Now we don''t have much time to waste. Time flows slower here, but we''re still on a deadline. This quest is going to take a good amount of time, especially with just the two of us." "I''m ready!" "Good." Aldrich tapped the circle with his palm, and a white light enveloped both of them. Chapter 277 Demons Chapter 277 Demons Aldrich and Chrysa stood side by side in the midst of a forest. The trees towered around them like a gathering of miniature towers, reaching high up and spreading their boughs of blue leaves in a ghostly glowing ceiling of flora. "It''s snowing?" Chrysa held out her hand, watching as little dots of white dropped down on her palm. "That''s not snow. That''s ash." Aldrich took in a shallow breath, feeling precious little oxygen, and what little oxygen he did get, it was hot, almost burning. Not that he even needed oxygen. "Ash?" Chrysa cocked her head. "That means fire, right?" "It does. Smart." Aldrich patted Chrysa''s head. It was curious what she knew and what she did not know. It was not like she had gone through any sort of schooling. What she did know was probably based off of Aldrich''s own memories, but exactly how much? "Mhm." Chrysa smiled happily as she nodded at Aldrich''s praise. A system message appeared in front of Aldrich''s vision. [Trial Quest 3: The Arc started] [Main Objective: Defeat Dark Eye Deimos] [Secondary Objectives: -Close the me Arc -Save the Velis Temple -Retrieve the Arselis Seed] Aldrich moved his hand from Chrysa''s head to in front of her face. A spine jutted out of his palm, blood trickling down and pattering on the dirt. "Quite rude. I was barely done reading." Aldrich pulled his hand back and tore the spine out of his hand. Little threads of muscle and chips of bone clung to it as he tore the serrated edge out. Chattering clicks echoed above. Aldrich and Chrysa saw a hunchbacked humanoid clinging to the tree trunk. Its long, gangly limbs ended in barbed ws that dug into the wood like climbing hooks. Spines lined its back and its joints, showing exactly where Aldrich had gotten his injury. The creature was small, not muchrger than a child, with pale, lightly purple tinted skin and a face fused with mangled, burned flesh onto what looked like a tiki mask showing an exaggerated blue lipped grin and angled, angry solid white eyes. "What is that? It looks gross," said Chrysa. She looked at the grotesque creature with no fear, just a hint of disgust. "That''s an imp. A weak type of demon. From its mask, its under Mur''Kon''Ree, demon god of secrets," said Aldrich. Chrysa pped her hands together like she was crushing a bug. The space around the imp distorted before copsing in on it, sttering it into a pulp as if two invisible walls had crashed against it. Little flecks of purple skin mixed into a slurry of bright red blood and innards flowed out between the spatial walls. "You''re right, father, it''s weak," said Chrysa. "So I made sure it will never hurt you again!" "Impressive." Aldrich nodded. The imp was probably level 15, but Chrysa had one shot it with minimal effort, despite being just level 20 herself. Most likely, this was because of Chrysa''s real world powers. Chrysalises could naturally manipte and change shape ording to their wills, or, as the Death Lord had noted, at the behest of a greater entity. Some sort of ''alpha'' or ''boss'' creature, as Chrysalises naturally formed symbiotic rtionships with strong individual creatures they housed within theirirs. To Chrysa, Aldrich was her ''boss monster'', though, because of how their souls were intertwined, the boss toir rtionship was changed to more of a father to daughter one. "I''m strong, I told you! The ''levels'' father gave me made me way stronger too!" Chrysa twirled around proudly. "You''re good, Chrysa. But remember, you can always be better," said Aldrich. "Mhm." "And here''s more chances to improve." Aldrich looked up as several more imps crawled out of the literal woodworks, crawling down treetops with insectoid efficiency. "Make sure to pace yourself. Use as little mana as possible to deal with them because you don''t know what you need to save forter. Anything coulde up." This was not entirely true. Aldrich had a good idea of what was going to happen since he had gone through these quests before. This third one was quite hard. In terms of rtive difficulty, it was one of the hardest. Among the top five, in Aldrich''s opinion, beaten out only by the super endgame quests. The quest involved defeating Deimos, a dark elf warlock, who wanted to rip open a tear into Morhal, the dimension of the demons. He had made a pact with one of Mur''Kon''Ree''s Greater Demons to obtain magic in exchange for granting dimensional ess to more of the demon''s kin. Deimos was using an elven town as a sacrificial ritual to try and rip open a pathway for Mur''Kon''Ree''s demons toe through. The quest involved fighting through a veritable horde of demons - it was no cakewalk, that was for sure. "Ah, and there you are." Aldrich stepped in front of Chrysa as another demon appeared. This onended on the ground, a half dozen meters away from Aldrich. It was bigger. Just a bit shorter than Aldrich. Humanoid, still, but instead of being a curve backed, misshapen spawn of a thing, it was more refined with bnced and athletic proportions. Same purple tinted skin. Same tiki mask face, but this time with a mouth shaped into an overly curved grin. ck bat wings fanned out from its bat, and it topped off its demonic look with a pair of horns, one curving up, the other curving down. This was a [Grinner Demon]. Unlike the imps, which were lesser demons, Grinners started at minimum from level 25. This one in particr was level 30. "I''ll handle this," said Aldrich. "Chrysa, you take care of the little ones." "Okay, father." Chrysa smiled, fangs bared. Her fingers red out, space rippling between them. "And it''s about time I tested out my new equipment." Aldrich stepped forward, making it clear that he was going to take on the bigger demon one on one. "Death Walker, why do you resist us?" said the demon. "We seek only a new home for our disced brethren." "You can spare me the self-pity. From what I know, all of you are glorified parasites anyway," said Aldrich. "Latching onto new dimensions, taking on the forms of the natives, doing as you please for no real greater good." "Greater good? Is such a thing necessary? Is survival not enough?" said the demon. "Not in my eyes." Aldrich had talked with demons some, but the game obviously did not have all the dialog options a real life encounter brought. "Plus, all of you here are just more experience and, if I''m lucky, item drops." "Brave talk, Death Walker. My eyes are keen. You are burdened. You have no legion with you. You cannot draw upon the forces of the dead." "I see. So you can tell?" Aldrich filed down the information that demons could track his status as they could in the game. It was an interesting mechanic that in Elden World, beings rted to demons or gods could see things about the yer that only a yer would know. Like the location of theirst save file or how full their inventory was or even reading through game files to check the yer''s real name. It was a fun little gimmick that made gods and demons more ''ethereal'', as if they were beyond the scope of the mortal game denizens. Apparently, that transferred to the demons being able to read some aspects about Aldrich''s system, particrly the restrictions his quest imposed on him. "As you are now, you are but a third rate caster. What is a death walker without the dead to heed his call?" said the demon. Aldrich cracked his neck and knuckles. "Your death." Chapter 278 The Grinner Chapter 278 The Grinner "Good luck, father!" Chrysa yelled out before she pranced away, opposite from Aldrich, towards the gathering of imps on the treetops. In response, the imps loosed strange cries that sounded like rapid, deep clicks. "You too, Chrysa. Remember, efficiency is key. Don''t waste your mana on the small fry," said Aldrich. Chrysa nodded as she hopped in the air. She furrowed her white brows and managed to create little tforms of distorted space beneath her feet. Impressively, she had a natural baseline familiarity with her powers, which did make sense. Variants, unlike Alters, were born knowing how to use their powers far better. It was part of their instincts. Still, Chrysa had some room to improve. She was a little shaky on her way up, her space tforms tilted unevenly. That would improve in time with training. With fighting to hone her instincts down to a sharpened edge. Aldrich had trimmed the fat off his instincts to make it a lean, mean, killing machine through countlessbat simtions. He did not even really have a specific training regiment. He dumped himself in extremely difficult missions like ''storm the base with eighty men in it and survive'' or more bluntly ''kill one hundred men in hand to handbat'' and just bashed his head against the wall over and over, dying in virtual reality hundreds, no, thousands upon thousands of times until he seeded. In a way, this was a simr training method for Chrysa, though instead of virtual reality there were trial quests. Instead of infinite retries there was just one life, but Aldrich was there to guide her. "A pity you cannot cooperate with us," said the Grinner. It closed its fists, and from its forearms, spikes of bone jutted out, ripping through the flesh in blood streaked white. Aldrich sped his hands together, charging up mana for a Death Bolt. Therge grin on the Grinner''s tribal mask shed with red. [Afflicted by Mora] [Spell: Death Bolt sealed] "This is a spell you have relied on greatly, it seems. How will you do without it, mage?" the Grinner said, its voice oozing with sinister intent. "Hm. Expected. Looks like you follow your programming to some degree. Or maybe ''programming'' is more like a function of your instincts and personality." Aldrich noted that the Grinner sealed [Death Bolt] as expected. Grinners generally always sealed the offensive spell or skill used the most, so in Aldrich''s case this was the [Death Bolt]. As for how it sealed the spell, it did so with [Mora], which was a unique type of aura that demons could project that imparted debuffs on all in their surroundings. It was the direct opposite of Aura that gods held buffed their allies or selves. The effects of [Mora] were generally unique to the n a demon hailed from. In the case of the Grinner, a secret demon, this usually manifested in a sealing effect. "Expected? Yes, you have torn through our ranks once before. But that was with a legion at your back. Now you have nothing but a child," said the Grinner. "What else do you-," Before the Grinner stopped talking, Aldrich rushed in with [Negative Surge]. Criss-cross patterns of green lined his legs and arms, reinforcing his limbs to superspeed as he unleashed a solid punch right into the demon''s gut. The impact sounded like a whip cracking, Aldrich''s hardened fist driving in deep to the demon''s stomach. The snapping sound of several broken ribs rang through the air. Aldrich drew back his fist, and the demon spurted ck blood from the gaps in its mask. "I have my fists." Aldrich thenunched a missile strike of an uppercut right into the demon''s jaw, knocking the fell creature''s head up and sending it flying backwards like a truck had rammed into it. The demon fell on its back heavily, its mask heavily cracked. "And by the looks of it, that''s more than enough for the likes of you." Aldrich stared down at the demon. The creature shuddered in struggling pain as it attempted to regain its breath and get back up. Aldrich did not spare any mercy. He lifted his leg up high, then drew it down like an executioner''s guillotine, shattering the demon''s neck. The demon''s body drew still with an unnatural quickness. The nk white light in its mask eyes disappeared like a burst light bulb. Unlike regr living creatures that took some time to fully settle into death, always breathing or beating their hearts for just a few more seconds after lethal injury, demons went full rigor mortis instantly. It was a side effect of the fact that the physical forms that demons wore were just that: clothing of flesh much like Aldrich''s Materius. [Mora effects disabled] [Death Bolt restored] The demon''s chest area, where its heart was, glowed a bright purple. Demons had a spiritual core called a Demonheart that they reformed around if their physical forms died. The greater the injury and the more times thy died, the longer it took for demons to recover, but no matter what, they always came back. Unless, of course, one had a holy weapon or spell to purge them. Aldrich held out his hand. "[Lightforged Array"] he chanted, vocalizing the spell to get a better feel of it. Warm streaks of bright sunlight flowed across his arm, swirling into a ball at his hand that formed itself into a longsword. With the de of gold in hand, Aldrich shoved it down into the demon''s core. A loud sizzling sound crackled through the air. Smoke poured out of the contact point, as if Aldrich was a cksmith that had just dunked a molten de into cold water. Aldrich felt his de hit liquid weight, like it was caught in thick, viscuous slime, and he knew this was it. He twisted the sword, breaking the demonheart apart. The Grinner''s physical body melted away into nothingness, leaving what looked like arge purple marble behind. Aldrich picked the trinket up and pocketed it into his inventory. [1x Purified Basic Demonheart obtained] Demons and gods were both immune to necromancy, so Aldrich had no qualms about just killing the Grinner. Demons did, however, drop demonhearts that could be used for all manner of things rted to curses, so it was not a total waste. "Father, that was quick!" Chrysanded right beside Aldrich. She was covered in ck splotches of blood. He looked behind her to see imp parts strewn all across the trees in a chaotic mess like a picasso piece painted in gore. Aldrich did not care about purifying the imp demonhearts. They were too weak to be worth anything. Granted, this meant the imps woulde back, but the weaker a demon, the longer it took for them to piece together their corporeal forms. Weaklings like the imps would take days to bring themselves together after getting blown apart like this. They were as good as dead. "Good, you saved most of your mana." Aldrich patted Chrysa''s head. "You''re a quick learner. I''m sorry to have underestimated you." "I''m ready to fight again!" said Chrysa, eager to win more of Aldrich''s praise. "That''s the spirit. Well, make sure you''re ready, because there''s a good reason I made you save your mana so much." Aldrich stepped forward, into the dark of the forest. Chrysa followed with happy skips, the bloody ck splotches fading from her skin as she automatically cleaned herself with her spatial magic. Now, Aldrich was headed to the elven vige of Ars Telvin where in front of a great temple, he would square off with a Greater Demon that he did not know if he could even beat by himself, even with his new gear. Thankfully, this was where Chrysa could prove herself. Chapter 279 [Bonus chapter] Greater Demon Chapter 279 [Bonus chapter] Greater Demon "What is that, father?" Chrysa pointed high up to the sky. The night was darker than dark, the little light of the stars suffocated under a cloud of thick smoke. Where the moon was, there was instead a bright red V drawn in stark contrast against the smoke. A scar of infernal energy torn into the sky; a half formed gateway into Morhal where demons awaited on the other side like hungry zombies banging against a closed door. "Why is the moon so weird?" "Not the moon. A me Arc. A type of dimensional doorway that demons use to enter into different dimensions," said Aldrich. It was half formed. Aplete me Arc had another V beneath it, interlocking the letters together to create a diadem shaped portal. Deimos, the warlock here and the main boss, was well on the way toplete a ritual that involved processing all the souls of the elves here to fuel the ritual. Beneath the fiery V, burning light illuminated a snowfall of ash and a massive tree that towered into the sky. Indents, tunnels, houses, bridges, and pathways carved all throughout the tree indicated it had been well lived in. This was an Arsillow, a life giving tree that elves built their settlements around. "Oooh." Chrysa looked at the me Arc, the orange and red light reflected in her green eyes. "It''s space-y. I thinka€|I think if I touched it, I might be able to y with it!" "Really?" Aldrich raised a brow. "Can you close it?" "I think so!" Chrysa nodded. "I see." Aldrich understood now the Death Lord''s intentions in setting up these quest restrictions. At first, Aldrich had thought there was no real way toplete the quest fully. The ultimate end goal of this quest was to kill Dark Eye Deimos, the warlock responsible for trying toplete this me Arc. That, Aldrich could do by killing Deimos. The other objectives, though, were much, much tougher because he had no real army to sustain through all of this. The point of the third trial quest was to test how well a necromancer could manage their existing units. Since demons were immune to necromancy, the difficulty was in minimizing losses and making the best of every single unit in the legion. Especially since demons were on average much tougher than the normal undead. The way Aldrich would have approached the quest normally was simple. He would have gotten to Velis Temple, guarded by demons, and freed it. There, he would have obtained an item called the Pureme Lantern, a temporary item from Mira, a goddess of holy fire that the elves worshipped. The item enchanted Aldrich''s undead with the ability to permanently put down demons. Then, he would have worked his way up the Arsillow tree, fighting a miniboss to obtain one of its seeds before reaching the top where he wouldm fight Deimos to seal the me Arc. But that was if Aldrich had his legion. With just Chrysa, Aldrich had expected it would have been hard just to take out Deimos. But the Death Lord had given her tools to work around all this. First, she had made sure to make Bors speed up the [Sr Seal]''s creation, giving Aldrich a way to kill the demons here for good. Second was Chrysa herself. She could close the me Arc if she got to it. If Aldrich managed to get Chrysa up to the me Arc, she could close it first, preventing any demonic reinforcements from pouring in. In addition, without a me Arc, demons had difficulty maintaining a physical form. They would slowly fade away until they finally died, unable to survive without somerger physical anchor giving them a presence in the realm. Now, the issue was how to get to the top of the Arsillow fast, before demons could swarm Aldrich. And also how to avoid Deimos because he, as a level 50+ boss, could defeat Aldrich, especially under the empowering light of the me Arc. Thankfully, as usual, there was a way and a n for all of this. "Alright, Chrysa, here''s what we''re going to do." Aldrich pointed down, away from the sky, down sloping hills towards the elven vige. Countless houses, more like little dens made of entwined branches and glowing blue and white leaves, withered and wilted under zing fire. Elves, tall and fair skinned with their signature pointed ears and leaf-knit robes, shambled about like zombies, their eyes zed over, bright red Vs scorched into their foreheads. They were all [Possessed], a negative status effect that demonic influence could impart on mortals to slowly change them in both body and soul. Demons were inherently parasitic creatures, and nowhere was this quality more obvious than in possession. Possession prepped beings to host demons, incarnating them. Demons sought hosts because of how unstable they were in the realm, needing a me Arc to manifest. However, if they could incarnate into a proper host, taking the native body over, they could stay around as long as they wanted. However, if nothing had changed in the quest, none of the elves were fully possessed, meaning no demons piloting them. They were basically just zombies, nerfed, mindless versions of who they once were. Several demons, at least three dozen Grinners and a hundred plus imps, crawled about. "Do we save them?" said Chrysa, pointing to the elves. "No." Aldrich said this without a hint of hesitation. There was no point saving the elves. Not only were they already basically dead, their souls rotted out from within, but he could not afford trying to purify them with the [Sr Seal]. It was just not worth it, and he had a finite amount of sunlight stored to use. None of the elves were strong on their own, either. At best, he could store their graves in his bell for summoningter. Maybe it would have been interesting to hear out what the elves had to say about the trial quest, but that was a lore rted luxury he could not afford. "What we do is this." Aldrich pointed over to a particrlyrge cove of wood, isted in its own space to mark its importance. A collection of branches unfurled atop the cove like the candles on a chandelier, and at their tips, tongues of white fire flickered. A holy light emanated from the cove that prevented demons from drawing close, though there was a sort of hazy dark veil that made it clear a barrier prevented easy ess into it. This was the Velis Temple. One of the objectives Aldrich could clear. "We go there. To that temple." "There''s a scary one in front of it." Chrysa gulped nervously. Indeed, there was a demon noticeably different from all the others around it there. Standing right in front of the circle of white light cast from the temple was a tall, sticklike being with a body that looked like a masked pole walking on long, spindly legs. If Aldrich had to try and describe it, it looked like someone had stuck a totem atop the back of a daddy long legs spider. This demon was much bigger than the Grinners and gave off a dangerous ''boss'' like presence. The mask thatprised its face set in a bored, neutral expression with thin nk white eyes that seemed right on the verge of falling asleep. That was a Greater Demon. Level 40. Roughly around Aldrich''s own level. "Nothing''s scary if you''re ready for it," said Aldrich. "We''re going to take that thing down." Chapter 280 Greater Demon 2 Chapter 280 Greater Demon 2 "That one?" Chrysa bit her lip nervously. "But it''s almost as strong as father!" "But not as strong as the two of us, right?" said Aldrich. "We''re going to be working together now, so keep your ears open." Chrysa nodded, and her pointed ears actually grew as she scrunched her brows and focused on adapting to what Aldrich wanted. "Okay, here''s what we''re going to do-," Aldrich began. = Several minutester, and Aldrich sprinted down the sheer drop of the hill slopes leading into the me ravaged town. In his hands was a lightforged halberd. Atop his shoulders were two skeletal arms. One held Chrysa and another a lightforged shield. It seemed Aldrich could have a maximum limit of two lightforged weapons at once, and an offensive weapon plus shieldbo seemed the best for most situations. The moment Aldrich neared the town, the me topped branch and leaf dens getting closer and closer and the nk stares of the possessed elves clearly visible, the demons came. Hellhounds materialized like saplings, rising up out of the ground in flickering snapshots of fire. They, like the other secret demons, had masks instead of canine faces, though that did not mean they had any less of a bite with circr, leech-like holes in the mouths of their masks. The mouths were studded with teeth and sputtered with fire. The hounds leaped up at Aldrich from every direction. He did not stab with his halberd, that took too much time to target just singr units. Instead, he performed wide, flowing swings, kind of like sweeping a broom. Like that, he knocked down several hellhounds with considerable force, breaking their bones and sending them flying away from him. Aldrich did not want to waste time on weak hellhounds. They were weak mobs that ranged from levels 8 to 15 and their only danger came from their uncanny ability to hide in pockets of infernal space, particrly in the corners of buildings for jumpscares. But since Aldrich knew their trick, he treated them more as a nuisance than anything else. Whatever hounds Aldrich missed, Chrysa ripped apart with spatial distortions. Aldrich reached the town itself, standing level with the burning wreckage, the static eyes of masked Grinners, imps, and hounds staring at him from every corner. A voice echoed towards him. "Ah, Death Walker, I was wondering when you would make your appearance in this forsaken realm." "Barbos," acknowledged Aldrich. This was the spider-totem fusion abomination guarding the temple further in the town, a good three to five minute sprint away. "You remember my name! Very sweet. If I could blush like a maiden in love, I would. Though, you already are taken, no?" "Reading my game files, are you?" "Game files, heh. Is that what you still call this?" "A matter of habit." Aldrich raised a brow. He had never conversed much with Barbos back in the game. Dialogue options were limited with the demon, relegated mostly to generic vinous talk about how Barbos would never let Aldrich enter the temple and wield the pureme against the demons. "You seem less tense. How about you let me into that temple and I can consider giving you a fast death." "Now is not that considerate? I would if I could; it would certainly be interesting. But I am bound to some rules in this realm, and one of them involves annihting you on sight, unfortunately. Though, rest assured, I do enjoy seeing you again. Is this not our sixth meeting? Or is it our ninth? I forget." "Ninth." Aldrich noticed the demon mobs were not moving, letting him talk. Nine times was how much Aldrich had yed through Elden World. "It is quite sad, in a way. Only I know how many lives you have lived because I can truly, truly see. And look at you, you are living another life again. This time, in an entirely different realm. No wait, this was you all along, ''yer''. A little disappointing, I must say. So, in the end, you were nothing but an ordinary mortal. But that scent on youa€|how quaint." A pause. "How exciting. Maybe I should try my best to kill you. Maybe then I can take over your body and escape this realm. If you are my jailer, then it stands to reason that you must have my keys, no?" "Well, I never expected an oue any different from us trying to kill each other. It''s in your programming, after all," said Aldrich. "And it looks like you''re more talkative than usual. You might even have information I want." Demons could ''read'' game files because they were extradimensional and could see that the yer character was being controlled by a greater extradimensional entity. The yer, so to speak. "I am quite free, you know. Freer than any of the other blind creatures trapped in these quaint little quests of yours. But I am also very, very shy. I do not think I will tell you much." "Don''t worry. I know how to break the ice. Among other things." Aldrich readied himself to move forward. The more time he spent, the more the me Arc opened up. The deeper the me Arc tore open, the stronger the demons got and the faster they regenerated. Aldrich needed to close it as soon as possible. "Very good. Then let us do this dance again, Death Walker, as we have so very many times." The voice faded away, and Aldrich saw the demons all around him start to move again. He reacted by keeping his stats boosted with the passive effect of the [Sr Seal] and the active buff of [Negative Surge]. Aldrich jumped up on a rooftop of intertwined branches. Demonfire burned atop it, but the [Sr Seal] plus his divine grade cloak gave him so much resistance he took minimal damage from it. Either one of those items did not give Aldrich enough fire resistance to negate his undead weakness to the element, but with bothbined, he had near immunity. "Oh, things are very different. You can wade through fire. Very impressive, Death Walker, very good, very cute. Some upgrades here and there, I see, but was it worth losing your legion?" Aldrich ignored Barbos''s voice echoing through the air. On the rooftops, he could minimize getting swarmed not just by demons, but the hundreds of possessed elves. He sprinted through the roof and jumped to another close by. There, hellhounds appeared in shes of fire, already midair in lunges towards him. Aldrich just ducked and moved past them. He ignored as many demons as he could, focusing instead on jumping from rooftop to rooftop, getting close to the Velis Temple at staggering speeds. On every rooftop, Aldrich shed his way past hounds and imps, flicking them away like they were flies. Eventually, a Grinner demon stood in his way. "Hold it!" Aldrichmanded. Chrysa nodded and closed her eyes. The Grinner froze, distorted space rippling all around it. Chrysa was not strong enough to tear the Grinner apart as she did with the imps, but she could keep it in ce. Aldrich thrust his halberd into the Grinner''s heart and twisted, killing the demon. He did tossed the demon''s dead corpse to the side, pocketing its purified heart from the tip of his halberd and putting it in his inventory. Chrysa and Aldrich were, for the first time, truly in synch. Their soul link worked in their favor now, their instincts and senses and thoughts all melding together like the gears in a well oiled machine. There was still work to do, practice to be had, but the Death Lord was right: Chrysa naturally had skill in protecting him. It was part of the skillset she was born with. Chapter 281 Greater Demon 3 Chapter 281 Greater Demon 3 Barbos spoke again. "That child of yours is something too, is it not? It smells of Elduin''s magic and also of that other realm of yours. A hybrid between realms? Is that not so very interesting? Truly, children are wonderful, no?" "Bad guy talks too much,"ined Chrysa. "But he praised me, so it''s okay." "Don''t let him get to you if he does start saying anything bad," said Aldrich. "He''s just rambling." "Oh, do not insult me like that. My heart is very frail, you know," responded Barbos. Aldrich leaped over several roofs,nding on a particrlyrge one. Here, there were three Grinners blocking his way. Their [Mora] still just sealed his [Death Bolt], and they could not stack the effect to seal multiple of his spells. Notably, though, the Grinners could not seal anything from Chrysa. Maybe because her powers were one part Elden World magic and another part Flux category Alter power. But even then, three Grinners was something Aldrich did not want to waste time or effort dealing with. The way Barbos worked was that he controlled most of the Grinners here like puppets, but in doing so, he could not defend his main body. Once Aldrich got close to Barbos, the greater demon would have to stop controlling the mobs and engage in a straight fight with Aldrich. Or as straight a fight as it got. Barbos was tricky to deal with. Regardless, spending time here was counterproductive. Chrysa sensed Aldrich''s thoughts and put her fingers to the sides of her heads, charging up her mana. A white light burst forth from her, swallowing up the two of them. In the next instant, Aldrich found himself far ahead of the Grinner infested rooftop. Chrysa had teleported him. "Easy now, we need to save your mana," said Aldrich. He pointed up to the distance, to the top of the Arsellis tree. "We need to get all the way up there." "I''ve got enough for that," reassured Chrysa. "Good." Aldrich leaped down into the elven streets. He was now at in what looked like a town square with the temple sitting straight in the middle. Barbos''s towering figure stood in front of it. A shadowy veil cast over the temple, blocking entry into it. The veil was supported by Barbos and would fade away if he died or lost mana. "Like I said, I cannot let you enter," said Barbos. "So what?" said Aldrich. "You were hard to deal with because at this point, I wouldn''t have had holy magic to put you down with. I had to use my legion and butcher you over and over again. And since you''re a Greater Demon, you regenerate fast. Fast even for your greater kind, too. Like a cockroach, you got back up and up." Aldrich put his glowing golden halberd out. "But things are different here. You only have one life here, Barbos." In the game, Aldrich had needed to kill Barbos ten times before his regeneration slowed to the point the barrier behind him lifted. Now, though, just one stab to the heart, and it was over. "Things are different, I do agree. And did I not say before? I am much freer than your other quest critters. I can think for myself, and do you think I did not see you waving that holy stick around?" Barbos pped his dark purple arachnid legs together. Aldrich heard rumblinge in from all directions. Not the agile steps of hounds and imps or the thuds of Grinners, but a stampede of possessed elves. They poured in from every direction, filling up the square,pletely surrounding Aldrich and Chrysa. Aldrich circled around, his halberd in front of him, but the elves did not step into his range. They just stared at him with dead eyes and motionless bodies. "Some thing are part of my ''programming'', but some things are not. I am free to fight as I please now." Barbos''s sizable body disappeared in a shower of purple sparks that faded quickly into nothingness. When he spoke again, his voice echoed in such a way that it was impossible to hear where exactly it came from. "Lesser demons cannot enjoy a host body unless it is perfect for them. But me? I can cram myself into an unfinished vessel fine enough, though I do prefer something a little morefortable." "So that''s it?" said Aldrich. He narrowed his eyes at what must have been over a hundred elves all around him. "You''re going to hide inside one of these elves? You have stay in the range of this square, I know that." Interesting, to say the least. Barbos, in some ways, had to obey his programming like with not letting Aldrich pass. But in other ways, he could transcend it. He was programmed to fight Aldrich with his own body, but now, he had made use of possessed elves that did not seem to need as much mental control to operate as demons did, considering the fact that Barbos''s barrier still stood strong. "Why would I not? You are far, far too scary for a weak hearted one like myself to deal with. The way you move with those fancy swings and jumps and flips - you are a much better fighter than I. Much better than in all your prior lives too. On par with a proper warrior, I''d say. Too scary to think about fighting by myself. So hiding it is. The more time I spend here, the deeper the me Arc embeds itself. A false me Arc, granted, conjured up in this silly little dream of a quest like everything else here. If it were real, I could even go home, but at the very least, I think there are some demons and infernal energy stored in there that will make your goals a tad bit harder to achieve, no?" Aldrich stared at the elves. Men. Women. Teens. Children. "And, maybe your heart is just as fragile as mine. Maybe you do not have it in you to mow down so many mortals. After all, I can sense, you were a mortal just so very recently too, no?" "Chrysa, father wants you to know something," said Aldrich. "What is it?" Chrysa clung to Aldrich''s skeletal extra arm tight, tense at the sudden development. "Some things, I do because I have to." Aldrich stomped his foot into the ground and cast [Call of the Impaler]. Chapter 282 Insight Chapter 282 Insight The ground shivered, quaking as if in sheer anticipation of the blood it would soon drink. Then, stakes of bone ruptured forth, rising up from upturned piles of dirt from all around Aldrich. The sound of flesh splitting apart, rending against hardened bone, echoed through the air in a symphony of imption. Aldrich briefly nced around, seeing what must have been at least a hundred elves held up high, their eyes still listless as blood poured from their bodies, trickling and painting the ashen white bone stakes in patterns of crimson. The [Call of the Impaler] had worked incredibly, showcasing just how good it was at area of effect damage. Each stake must have had three, four, even fix or six elves skewered on them - that was how tightly packed the elves had been trying to reach Aldrich, trampling over each other in a stampede of mindless, zombie-like drive. "By all the gods! That is what the mortals of this realm say, no? You truly do terrify me!" said Barbos. His voice still echoed, still permeated in such a way that it was impossible to pinpoint him. "You massacred so many elves. Young or old, man or woman, it did not matter at all! You scare me, yer, you truly do!" Aldrich used the space he had cleared to sprint forward, halberd in hand. He cast [Negative Surge] on himself, his legs and arms reinforcing with bonus power, and swerved through the crowd of elves, shing his halberd in wide horizontal sweeps like awnmower. He made sure to target necks, decapitating elves to kill them instantly. So long as Aldrich kept himself moving, he could clear through the elves without them getting the chance to dogpile him. Through a veritable rain of severed heads, Aldrich kept going and going, his entire body drenched in blood red, only his eyes shining visibly green through the crimson bath. Eyes ofplete focus. "How horrifying!" said Barbos. Then, as Aldrich cleaved through three more elves, the demon''s voice lost its sarcastic fear. "And that little one of yours, she is no fragile flower either. I cannot read her at all with my demonic insight, but she seems quite supportive of all this mass murder." Aldrich kept his mind in tune with Chrysa, ever vignt of her mental state. He did not want to do this, to showcase how brutally efficient he could be when it came down to it, but Barbos had forced Aldrich''s hand. The longer Barbos stalled here, the more the me Arc would open, and the stronger the possessed elves and every demon would get. Aldrich had no time to check every single elf individually, and all of them were enemies. If he killed enough of them fast enough, he would smoke Barbos out sooner orter. ''Are you okay, Chrysa?'' said Aldrich as he decapitated several more elves. Blood spurted from their headless neck stumps, drenching not just Aldrich, but Chrysa as well. However, the blood did not actually get on her. Instead, it clung just above her skin. Chrysa had erected a personal spatial barrier. Her eyes, though, were open, taking in the carnage without much issue. She had the same concerned but detached look when she saw the butcher suffering; she cared about the elves'' suffering, but not nearly to the same degree an ordinary human girl would. Chrysa had not shut off entirely like she had at the surprise attack. She was holding on. And well, too. ''I''m okay, father,'' said Chrysa. ''Because I believe in you. You''re smart and strong and so determined - I trust what you do, even if it means hurting people that aren''t bad." Aldrich nodded. ''The faster I stop Barbos, the fewer elves die. This is the best way.'' When Aldrich saw how well Chrysa could ept this, he wondered, was it because of her variant instincts? Or, maybe, deep down, even in the pure and warm part of Aldrich''s soul, he had always been willing to make sacrifices. Either way, Aldrich confirmed that Chrysa would not hold him back. "Maybe our hearts truly are simr," said Barbos. "You and I both do not mind breaking our little game pieces. I thought perhaps you were soft in a squishy, mortal way, but you surprise me, yer, you surprise me well. You are truly broken, are you not? To be a flesh and blood mortal and do all this without the faintest change in expression?" Aldrich did not respond to Barbos. Secret demons like him were talkative and maniptive, always wanting to goad others into a reaction, to reveal things about themselves. It was also why he was not too inclined of trying to keep Barbos around. Aldrich could halfway purify Barbos''s demonheart and then convert him into a summon, but secret demons told nothing but lies, and unlike loyal undead, demonic summons were extremely difficult to control, known notoriously for trying to overpower or control their summoners. "There you are." Aldrich spied Barbos in the distance, past a small crowd of elves. He was in the body of a small boy, a faint red mark on the child''s forehead showing possession. Before Barbos could try and move to a different body, Aldrich drew his halberd back, and with olympic technique, threw it like a javelin. Empowered by his superhuman base stats and buffed by [Negative Surge], the golden halberd punched through six elves'' bodies beforending right on the possessed child''s heart, instantly killing him. The child tumbled back at the impact and coughed up blood. Not just blood. A cloud of wispy, purple darkness escaped from his mouth. The darkness congealed above in a ball that expanded by the moment, shaping back into Barbos''s original shape. Now was the time for Aldrich to act. A demon was weakest after being forced out of a body, their heart exposed to the world. Aldrich began to create another lightforged halberd, ready to strike Barbos down with holy energy. "You got me! But now I have finished channeling my Mora." Barbos''s voice was triumphant. The light gathering in Aldrich''s hand broke apart like ss, shards of solidified gold dissolving into nothingness. He looked at his [Sr Seal] ring. It was covered in what looked like ayer of static. [Sr Seal disabled] "You know me well, do you not? You should have known I would seal your items. I thought at first to take away that fine cloak of yours, but you are not relying on that, no, that ring was the issue. Now, without your sole source of holy energy, how will you ever defeat me?" Aldrich held up his hand towards Chrysa. Chrysa understood what Aldrich wanted. She closed her eyes and hovered her pale little palm over the ring. Spatial ripples covered the staticyer before it disappeared, sucked into nothingness. She had warped it away. [Sr Seal enabled] This was why Aldrich said Chrysa would be important here. Barbos''s Mora, like many other secret demons, sealed something, and in his case, it was items. However, he did so by physically creating ayer of sealing energy that stuck to the item. In theory, it made Barbos much more dangerous as the sealingyer clung to the disabled item and followed it even to the yer''s inventory. But in practice, that meant Chrysa could just warp the physicalyer away. Barbos lost here because he did not know what Chrysa could do as a non-Elden World native. "...I did not foresee that. That little girl of yours, my, she is showing me that your home realm is one of remarkable power too. If only I could reach into it and feast upon the many new souls within. Regrettable," said Barbos. Aldrich pointed his ring at Barbos and fired a beam of sr energy. A golden, red tinted line connected with Barbos''s still forming body, burning it apart. Sunlight met darkness, and as expected, drove it away, scattering the dark until Barbos''s demonheart, a purple orb with ssy surface like a marble,y bare. The beam bore into the demonheart, cracking it, the breaks in the surface filling with light. "I suppose this will be ourst meeting. It was a good time, this one, better than all the others. It is a shame I could not escape this prison realm. Best of luck to you, my old friend, in escaping your own prison." Aldrich stopped the beam and walked over to Barbos''s floating heart. "What? Did I say something that interested you?" "I''ve thought about it," said Aldrich. "I was going to purify your core and use it to upgrade my items or spells. But there''s no harm in keeping you around in this half-purified state. Unless someone offers you their body, you''ll never incarnate and be a threat again. I know I can''t make you tell truths, but maybe I''ll find a way. Maybe I already know someone who knows a way. Can''t hurt to try." "Hahahah, are you suggesting torturing a demon? Surely you must understand how futile that is? We do not your mortal conception of pain or suffering. There is nothing that can force me to bend to your will." "No such thing as absolutes. Now then-" Aldrich grasped the cracked demonheart and willed it into his inventory. In this state, Barbos was ssified as an item; that was how weak he was. Barbos disappeared, but not without an amusedugh. In the pecking order of magical beings in Elden World, demons and gods were at the top. Then nature spirits. Then dragons. Then beings like the Elder One that Fler''Gan once served that were not gods but functionally were the masters of an entire race. There was no necromancy that could bend a demon to Aldrich''s will. But maybe the Death Lord or her followers, especially Med, a demon herself, had an alternative. Barbos''s Insight, the trait that let him read Aldrich''s ''game files'' and identify him as a yer coulde in handy. Secret demons had the highest level of Insight among demons, far surpassing even knowledge demons like Med. And thatst thing he said, about Aldrich being in a prison of his own, that was a topic Aldrich had invested interest in. Aldrich still did not know the origins of his system. But perhaps he could use Barbos''s Insight to find out. Or maybe - most likely - Barbos was lying. The point was to find out. Chapter 283 Defense Chapter 283 Defense The dark, static filled veil surrounding the Velis Temple faded away. As the veil broke apart, the white glow of the temple crept forward, finally freed. All the possessed elves nearby scattered away, disappearing back into the depths of their fire and destruction torn town. The light of the temple was holy in nature, creating a purified area from which no average demon could wander in. Not even demon influenced beings like the possessed could breach the holy boundary. In other words, it was a small safe zone. Such an area would have damaged Aldrich, too, but as a designated ''champion'' - the term given to the yer for those blessed by the goddess to be heroes - he could ess such areas with no issue. Aldrich stepped through the light with Chrysa on his skeletal extra arm and entered the cavern of intertwined branches and greenery. Inside, vibrant shades of red, blue, gold, and white from glowing boughs of flowers growing on the walls and ceiling painted the temple innards with warm and inviting colors. A stark contrast to the dozens of dead elves scattered about. "Why are they all dead?" said Chrysa. "They don''t look hurt at all. Can father bring them back?" "Their souls are long gone," said Aldrich. "And they''re hurt because of suffocation. The demons couldn''t get to them physically, but smoking out all the oxygen still got to them in the end." Chrysa nodded. "I feel bad for them. For all of them outside. Will we save them, eventually?" "There''s nothing left to save. All the living elves are too deep in possession that they''ve been carved out near hollow spiritually. They''re like empty shells now. The moment the demonic influence ends, they''ll keel over and die, their minds so deteriorated they can''t even get themselves to breathe," said Aldrich. At first, Aldrich had not cared much because he had considered all the elves and trial quests as just game events to clear. But after resurrecting Fler''Gan and talking to Barbos, he began to suspect strongly that they were not artificially constructed. All of the Elden World beings that Aldrich encountered were alive and fully sentient. Sometimes, in the trial quests, their free will was stripped away due to ''programming'', but as with Fler''Gan, once they were freed from it, they were fully conscious beings. Barbos proved this even more. The Death Lord, Valera, the Deathguard - they were all very, very real. The most interesting thing that Aldrich noted was that the Elden World beings he saw could have been in ''early game'' bodies, lower leveled with less gear, but still have their ''endgame'' memories. Valera, for example, showed up to Aldrich with none of her endgame stats or gear. But she retained all her memories with him. Same with the Death Lord - she was supposed to be dead, but she was still around with all her memories up to her death intact. "That''s sad," said Chrysa. "They looked like nice people." Chrysa snapped Aldrich out of his contemtion. "It''s okay, Chrysa. Sometimes, you can save them, sometimes, you can''t. Not letting it crush you is how you stay on your feet, and the longer you stay on your feet, the more good you do." Aldrich reached the end of the temple, in the deepest part of the cavern, and there, he looked up to behold a glowing white, seed-shaped construct of pure energy wrapped about in a tangle of roots. The roots attached to the walls and ceiling, acting like veins that pumped glowing white energy from the seed to the rest of the temple. This was an Arselis seed that had the capacity to grow into a towering Arsillow tree. It was a small seed, just the size of an average human, and unblessed, meaning it could not sprout into a full tree. It could, however, still be used to create a smaller construct like this temple. Strong life giving magics emanated from the seed. The ground around the seed grew particrly wildly, the grasses reaching as high as Aldrich''s waist. Elves would prostrate themselves in this grass in worship of their goddess from, feeling the seed''s life giving energy as their goddess''s presence. "It''s shiny and warm. I like it." Chrysa hopped off of Aldrich''s shoulder and floated towards the seed, touching it. "Wait, that''s dangerous-," began Aldrich, knowing life energy could harm undead. In the case of the seed, even the goddess''s champion protection did not work. But Chrysa touched the seed with no issue, smiling as she basked in its life giving energies. Perhaps this meant that certain undead from the real world were not affected by positive energy like this. "I''m d you like it, because once we''re done with it, we''re taking it home with us," said Aldrich. "Really!?" said Chrysa. "I want to put it in the house!" "Yeah, it would be a solid addition to our Boundary. But it''ll be a lot smaller and weaker than it is now, so don''t get your hopes up too much." "That''s not fair!" "Tell me about it. Games always give you horrible downgraded versions of their boss or important plot items." Aldrich reached his hand towards the seed but did not touch it. A screen popped up in front of him. [You have reached the Arselis Seed. With its holy light, you may choose two options. 1. Bless you and all allied units with holy light for the remainder of this quest. 2. Cause the seed to bloom. This will cause the seed to begin channeling and building up its stored energy. Upon the end of the channel, it will split apart and unleash a powerful wave of holy energy, purifying any demonic influence in its range. If the seed channels enough to fully purify the town, then the quest will be consideredplete. However, you must defend the seed until the purification process isplete. If the seed is damaged too much, the channeling will end and the seed will be rendered permanently inactive, destroying all avable safe zones throughout the town. In addition, the boss of this area will notice the channeling and travel towards it.] Aldrich pressed the second option with no hesitation. The seed started to flux with energy. Instead of sending waves of white outwards, it now drained the energy back into itself. The grasses wilted and died. The cavern branches crumbled into dust, revealing once more the bright red and ash filled sky of the me Arc. The seed floated in the air on its own, drawing a single ring around it to indicate it had begun its channeling process. Over time, it would grow two more rings, each representing 10 minutes, to signify channeling progress. With three rings, the seed would crack open and shunt out its built up energy in a nova of positive force that would wipe out all weak demons. It would not kill Deimos, the main boss, but it would massively weaken him, and from there, it was a much easier job to get rid of Deimos and then the me Arc. In essence, this turned the quest into a defense based strategy game. But Aldrich had no intention of ying it. To defend this seed, he needed an entire army to ward off attacks from all sides. In Elden World, he enjoyed cing ranged units on rooftops, abusing chokeholds to minimize demonic swarms, and the like. Here, though, Aldrich had no army. With literally every single demon in the area nowing to this exact spot, he had no way to survive by himself, let alone defending the seed. But Barbos had confirmed to Aldrich one thing: you could think out of the box. You could y the game outside of its programming. This seed was just a distraction. Aldrich had no intention of protecting it. "Fathera€|I don''t like this," said Chrysa, her ears pointing up. "It is scary, isn''t it?" Aldrich felt the ground shake. He heard the rumbling pitter and patter of countless demonic footsteps all converging madly towards the seed like a storm of infernal might. In the distance, at the top of the towering Arsillow tree where Deimos channeled the me Arc, he saw a sh of bright orange, fiery light. That was Deimos stopping the channel to move towards the seed as well. A bright orb of orange light started to move down the tree, showing Deimos''s progress to the seed. If the game was still the same, then it would take Deimos ten minutes. "Alright, Chrysa," said Aldrich. For the first time, he manifested his [Frosthallowed War Scythe]. In sparks of pale blue, the scythe materialized, and Aldrich felt its weight sitfortably in his hands. From a metal staff base glowing with pale blue tint, scythe heads of pure ice on either end, allowing Aldrich to cleave from both sides of the scythe. Spikes of ice also protruded from the ends of the metal base, letting Aldrich pierce like a spear if needed as well. Aldrich heard the rumbling of demons approach closer and closer now. These footsteps were lighter,prised mostly of hellhounds and imps. It was only after a few minutes that heavier hitters like Grinners would show up. "Yes, father?" Chrysa looked around nervously, though her bared fangs and ws made it clear that she was ready to fight as well. "We''re going to hold our position for, let''s see, around five minutes. Cover me if something dangerous looks like it''s going to hit me. But other than that, you save your mana," said Aldrich. He pointed his scythe end to the top of the Arsillow tree, where the me Arc was. "Because I''ll need you to warp us both all the way over there." Chapter 284 Defense 2 Chapter 284 Defense 2 "All the way over there?" Chrysa pointed to the top of the Arsellis tree that grew so high that it almost looked like it could touch the sky. "I don''t know if I can go that fara€|" "You can," reassured Aldrich. "I know because I''m linked to you. Believe in yourself just as much as you believe in me. Got it?" "Got it." Chrysa nodded. "Now then. Time to deal with some unwanted guests." Aldrich briefly looked around. Elven houses blended well into nature, consisting of caverns built up of tangled branches and leaves. Many more were built into the tops or sides ofrge trees. Secret demons poked their masked faces out from the tops of the caverns or from the sides of the tree houses. As expected, they were all smaller and weaker. Hellhounds and imps. Some of the imps had wings, making them more annoying to deal with, but in general, this was all fodder. Nothing Aldrich could not deal with. "Father, I can take them down-," began Chrya. "No. Save your mana. I don''t know exactly how much it''ll take you to get to the top of the tree, but I know it''s roughly around your max. Father will be okay. Don''t worry about me and focus on yourself, alright?" "O-okay." The good thing about the temple area that Aldrich stood on was that it was a wide stretch of t ground. Elves did not build houses near their temples. So, nothing to sneak up on Aldrich. Aldrich''s [Death Essence Barrier] shed green as balls of orange fire and purple light crashed against him, fired from the hands and mouths of imps and hellhounds. These were tier 1 or 2 spells like [Firebolt] or [Demonshard] and did little to no damage against Aldrich''s energy resistant barrier. "In the past, I would have had a barrier of corpses. All mmable and easily disintegrated from demonic energy. But now, I can sit here all day without worrying about the likes of you." Aldrich stood calm and still, his scythe nted on the ground beside him. "If you want to stop the seed from blooming, you''ll have to get down and do the dirty work up close." The hellhounds hissed and the imps growled. They made their move. The hounds got to Aldrich first, their canine bodies sprinting down walls and burnt forest floor as they sprinted ahead at full speed. When they got close enough, the hellhounds leaped up, aiming to bite at Aldrich''s head and throat. Aldrich spun around with his scythe. He sliced four hounds clean in half, but there were three more that he could not cut down. No problem, though. A pale blue trail followed the scythe sh, like Aldrich was drawing with it, and then the line erupted in a burst of energy that instantly sh froze the rest of the hounds. The frozen demons sailed past Aldrich and shattered into tiny little pieces against the ground. "Good. Works just like how I remember it," said Aldrich. The [Frosthallowed War Scythe] had a passive called [Frostbite Trail] that gave all of its shes an explosive freezing aftereffect. This made it highly effective in clearing trash mobs, though the aftereffect was too weak to deal any real damage to a unit of Aldrich''s equivalent level. It did contribute to rapidly building up the [Frozen] status effect. The status effect wasplete when a unit waspletely encased in ice, rendered immobile, and by striking them in this state, one could shatter the unit to either one shot them or deal massive damage. Notably, if it did not execute outright, it did percent max health damage, so Aldrich was curious whether this meant that it would take down even the toughest of supers in the real world. Imps made their way to Aldrich now, some attacking from above, some trying to w at him. Coupled with the hellhounds and theyposed a swarming mass of demonic bodies easily numbering a hundred strong. Aldrich performed a dance of death through the horde, slicing and shing his way through the demons with graceful footwork that easily outpaced them. The imps were clumsy and the hellhounds moved too much on instinct. Compared to Aldrich who had precision footwork beaten into him, the demons were easy to just danceps around. From above, it would have looked like Aldrich was drawing an borate pattern, the pale blue [Frostbite Trail] squiggling and threading through the crowd of demons. Bursts of frost energy erupted at the tail end of the trail, encasing corpses and living demons in ice. "Father, they''re at the thing!" Chrysa pointed back at the Arselis seed. Some demons had taken their attention off Aldrich, realizing he far outssed them, and started attacking the seed. The seed was immune to projectile damage, but the demons could bite and w at it. "Forget about it," said Aldrich. "We''re not here to protect the seed." "Are we still going to get it?" said Chrysa. Looked like she was already developing a gamer''s urge to get loot whenever possible. "Yep. By choosing this defend the seed option, we''ll get the seed guaranteed at the end of the quest, even if the demons end up breaking this one down. But you''re right; if I don''t defend it at all, they might get suspicious that I''m not here for it to begin with." Aldrich turned around and got to cleaning up the low-level demons around the seed. After three minutes, the Grinners came. They came in groups of four; just the same as in the game. Later on, in the ten minute mark, they woulde in waves of ten, but four was manageable solo. The Grinners came from all four cardinal directions. Unlike the first Grinner Aldrich killed, these ones were animalistic brutes like the imps. Intelligence among demons was not guaranteed unless they were under the Greater ssification or above. It was a tossup whether lesser or regr demons had intelligence, and generally, it was said that lower tier demons with intelligence had the potential to evolve higher. [Death Bolt sealed] The four demons closed in on Aldrich, shattering frozen chunks of their lesserrades beneath heavy, rapid footsteps. More lesser demons closed in, though, and Aldrich sighed. It would be tough getting rid of the Grinners while trash mobs harassed Aldrich. But Aldrich was prepared for this. And quite excited, actually. He got to use the scythe''s active. Right as the four Grinners converged on Aldrich, their burly fists cocked back, he swung his scythe in an omnidirectional sweep around him. A howling wind current raged all around Aldrich, buffeting the Grinners back. Countless little shards of ice in the wind acted like bullets, punching through all the lesser demons within. This was called [Wailing Winds], and it effectively created a deadlybo of a small blizzard and a meat grinder of raging ice shards. The Grinners covered their masked faces with their arms. The ice shards crashed against their skin but unlike with their weaker brethren, the shards did not break through. Instead, they spread apart on impact, rapidly building up a freezingyer that contributed to the [Frozen] status effect. Any unit in this area was [Nearsighted] due to the foggy wind and the ice shards whirling about, but on top of that, Aldrich as the user of the scythe was actually invisible. Abusing his invisibility, Aldrich cast [Boneripper]. Rippling ck energy encased his left hand. Wielding the scythe in his right, Aldrich got to work on the nearest Grinner. He crashed his curse wrapped hand against the demon''s chest. The purple flesh shook a little, undting like it was made of liquid before shattered rib bones burst out in a spurt of flesh and ck blood. This exposed the Grinner''s beating, dark purple heart, and Aldrich stabbed into it with his scythe, instantly killing the Grinner''s flesh body. During attacks, Aldrich was still visible, so the other three Grinners rushed towards him. He slipped away, and in the wailing, raging winds, he disappeared like a phantom. He snuck right behind one of the Grinners and cast [Bonebearing Curse]. From an extended finger, an X shaped ck symbol floated forward. The Grinner sensed Aldrich and whirled around, hitting him with a fist. Aldrich blocked with the light shield on his skeletal arm, though the hit was heavy enough to send him flying a few meters back. The other two Grinners heard the impact of fist against solid, metallic light, and rushed towards Aldrich. "Got you." Aldrich saw the [Bonebearing Curse] reach the Grinner''s chest. The X marked itself on the flesh, and the Grinner seized up. "Fight!" roared Aldrich as he leaped backwards, dodging the two Grinners as the mmed their fists down at him. The marked Grinner charged forward, tackling one of his brethren. The [Bonebearing Curse] controlled any flesh and bone creature, and though the Grinner was technically a demon that was a spirit at base, it still inhabited a physical body that Aldrich could now manipte. "That leaves one." Aldrich would have to beat down thest Grinner with pure damage. No [Boneripper] curse for a cheap instant kill due to its rtively high cooldown. But if there was one thing that Aldrich knew a thing or two about, it was in giving out beatdowns. Especially beatdowns that led to executions. Aldrich tossed his scythe at the Grinner''s head. The scythe spun rapidly before the de dug itself right into the nk white eye of the Grinner''s mask. ck blood spurted from the entry wound, and the Grinner grunted as it jolted back, grasping at the scythe to pull it out. With [Negative Surge] buffing Aldrich''s limbs, he rushed in, snapping a scything kick at the demon''s knee. With a loud crack of breaking bone, the demon knelt down, one leg disabled. Aldrich did not know how exactly a demon''s vitals worked, whether they had a liver to target, so he worked with what he could directly see. He drew three fingers together and jammed them into the Grinner''s other eye. His fingers broke through the mask and reached into soft, squishy flesh. What Aldrich knew about dealing with Elden World units was that they no longer operated off of a pure HP bar. Their vitality was more like a measure of their general durability. In essence, how tough their skin, muscles, bones, and such were. But take out vital organs like the heart or brain, then they died no matter how high their vitality was. The same principle applied to the flesh constructs that the demons used. Aldrich gripped the Grinner''s face tight, hooking his fingers jammed into its eye socket deep. "Chrysa, get off," said Aldrich. Chrysa floated upwards. With her clear, Aldrich casted [Burning Agony]. His entire body burst into mes as his heartbeat pounded audibly. The mes erupted from his fingers as well, the same fingers jammed into the demon''s head, and they scorched the Grinner from inside, melting away the brain within a few seconds. The Grinner grew limp, and Aldrich pushed the demon away. The creature crashed into the frozen ground, motionless. Chapter 285 Deimos, the Dark Eye Chapter 285 Deimos, the Dark Eye Aldrich exhaled ming blood and steam as he turned [Burning Agony] off. The [Wailing Winds] ended at this point, taking up its maximum duration of twenty seconds. When the blizzard settled down, ice shards ttering on the iced dirt, Aldrich saw that the remaining two Grinners had been [Frozen] in a wrestling struggle against each other. Chrysa plopped down on Aldrich''s skeletal hand again. "That was so cool, father! When can I learn to fight like that!? Punching and kicking like that!?" "Your levels give you mana and stats, but you need to learn how to use it all, that''s true. Soon, Chrysa. With our link, I''m sure you''ll pick up on things fast." Aldrich dislodged his scythe from the Grinner''s eye and then materialized a lightforged sword, needing to execute the Grinners with holy weaponry because they could regenerate much faster than the lesser demons. Aldrich stabbed the solid light de into the hearts of all four Grinners, purifying and warping them into his inventory. Now with a total of 5 Purified Demonhearts, Aldrich could reasonably craft quite a good curse spell or enchantment. That, Aldrich would refine into a potent instant death spell, something he was currentlycking after having to give up his oldntern to fully activate Vntis. Instant death spells were generally all curse type spells, and there was nothing like demonhearts to construct effective curses. In lore, demons were the origin of all curse type magic. Raw material harvested from their kind would yield the strongest curses possible. "Once I start punching and kicking like father, nobody will ever beat me, and I''ll protect father forever," said Chrysa. "Not forever. One day, I''d like you to do your own thing. Seeing kids realize their dreams, their own dreams, not ones forced on them through necessity, makes me happy," said Aldrich. He briefly looked around to see all the demons in the vicinity had been cleared out, giving him some breathing room. "I''d like the same for you." Chrysa cocked her head quizzically. "What I want¡­? But I just want to help you." "That''s fine too. In time, though, if you ever do want to do something else, I won''t stand in your way. Just know I''m giving you that freedom." Aldrich knew that Chrysa protected him because she was essentially programmed to as a Chrysalis. But the longer she grew, the more she experienced, the more she would develop into her own person. Into an individual. When that happened, Aldrich did not want her to feel shackled by him. Aldrich felt a rumble echo under his feet. This was different from the vibrations from the stampede of demonic hordes. No, this was a deeper rumble, a solid quake that heralded not a mass of fodder, but the arrival of one powerful entity. Aldrich spied the orange light in the distance that his system marked out to track Deimos. Deimos hadnded, having scaled down the full length of the Arsillow tree. A certain heavy pressurended on Aldrich''s shoulders. The air grew hotter. The rain of ash from the smoke clouds above grew thicker, the slow snowfall of burnt matter turning more into a blizzard much like the one Aldrich had conjured. "Father¡­I don''t like this. Can we actually fight that thing?" Chrysa pointed way into the distance. She could not see Aldrich''s system interface, but she could sense what he was looking at. "It feels so strong. Stronger than you, father." "He is," said Aldrich. "Deimos the Dark Eye. Level 50+ warlock. Arguably one of the strongest bosses out of all the trial quests when considering rtive difficulty adjusted to level. Supported by twin archdemons Anhil and Nh. Anhil''s dark eye lets him severely cut down the stats of those he looks at, provided they are not bound by holy protection. Nh''s maw lets him absorb any attack, no matter how strong it is, and even replicate it. As we are now, we have no way of beating him." Aldrich reached up and sped Chrysa''s nervous hand. He pointed up to the top of the Arsillow tree. "But we aren''t here to fight him. Take us up there, Chrysa. Deimos has wasted his time getting down here. If we warp up there, we can close the me Arc and weaken him." "Got it!" Chrysa closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and balled up her fists. She trembled in exertion, brows furrowing as her silvery hair sparkled with white. A silver aura wrapped around both Aldrich and Chrysa as the space around them began to distort. Pieces of rubble, frozen demon chunks and clumps of ash, all swirled around Aldrich, rotating in a rapid orbit as Chrysa''s spatial power fluxed in rapid, circr currents, building up intensity and power. "Let''s¡­" Chrysa exhaled, shouting. "Go!" All in an instant, Chrysa unleashed her built of power. Aldrich''s vision drowned out in white as bright light burst forth from Chrysa, engulfing both of them. In the next instant, Aldrich found himself up high, the burning town beneath him little more than just a smattering of shing orange and red dots. He stopped himself from falling using his cloak, levitating in the air. Behind him, he beheld the monumental Arsillow tree trunk, taller and wider than any skyscraper in the real world. The bark was ckened, scarred with deep cracks of angry, burning red. Aldrich did not have more time to admire the sheer grand scale of the treepared to seeing it on a screen. Chrysa was not on his shoulder. He immediately tapped into his soul link with her and saw that she was higher up, falling, a speck of glowing white amid a bleak canvas of reds and oranges and cks. Aldrich flew upwards and took Chrysa in his arms. "I''m tired¡­," said Chrysa, tears of sleepiness welling up in her green eyes. "You did well, Chrysa," said Aldrich. "But-but we''re not at the top-," Chrysa pointed up. The top of the tree was still fifty or so meters away. "You did your best. That''s what matters the most to me." Aldrich hugged Chrysa to his chest as he flew up, the cloak of stitched souls uttering faint wails of agony instead of windy billows. He noted that the cloak let him fly approximately around his own running speed. In a few seconds, Aldrich reached the top of the tree. The branches of the Arsillow tree had all burned off, leaving just a wide, t, charred tform with the giant me Arc glowing angrily above. This would have served as the boss arena to fight Deimos, but, well, Deimos was all the way down. Aldrichnded on burnt wood, some bits of charcoal crumbling away under his dress shoes. He looked up at the me Arc. It cast down bright red and orange light, and seeing into it, he felt voices indecipherable whispering in his head ¨C countless voices of demons just waiting to break through. "Just one more thing, Chrysa," said Aldrich. He jumped up, flying up to the me Arc. Despite its ming appearance, it did not emit any heat. It did, however, emit a powerful insanity aura that would have rendered the average mortalpletely braindead and quickly possessed afterwards. Fortunately, both Aldrich and Chrysa were immune as undead, though the champions'' blessing shielded them as well. "We have to close this. Can you do it?" "I can." Chrysa shook her head and pped her cheeks with her little hands, rousing herself. "I can!" Chrysa floated away from Aldrich and reached out to touch the me Arc. In front of the enormous infernal tear in space, both Chrysa and Aldrich looked like ants. Aldrich was not exactly sure Chrysa had it in her to close a portal of this scale. He knew that, in spite of how threateningly impressive they looked, me Arcs were very fragile. Until they were fully formed, they were very unstable. Even if they wererge, they were like a shaky house of cards. Just close or seal a little piece of them, and the whole thing just broke apart. Chrysa reached her hands out. Her hands glowed a bright white, and then, from her palms, shining threads of energy spooled out, reaching one edge of the me Arc. The threads acted like sutures, reaching from one edge of the me Arc to the other, wrapping them shut tight like a sown-up wound. Aldrich blinked. He did not have as sensitive an eye to energy signatures as Vntis did but wearing the living armor for some time had given him some more familiarity to it. And he could tell one thing; the threads that Chrysa created were almost exactly the same as the threads the Voice had used to control Okeanos back when he was under its control. The implications were groundbreaking. Was Chrysa herself connected to the Voice? Or, maybe more likely, was her species, the Chrysalis, connected to it? Could Aldrich, if he dived deep enough into Chrysa''s soul, reach the Voice? Or, at the very least figure out more about the Voice? And if Aldrich''s connection with Chrysa went both ways, then did he risk the Voice reaching him as well? Before Aldrich could process it all, Chrysa shouted in glee. "Done!" Chrysa had sutured shut just a small part of the half-formed me Arc, but even that was enough to start its copse. The me Arc began to close from where Chrysa had sewn it, the V slowly but surely sealing into disappearance on its own. "Look at that! It was so big but I managed to beat it!" Chrysa turned to Aldrich, proud of herself. "You did great." Aldrich smiled. He reached out to hold Chrysa. He sensed danger. With sheer instinct, he activated his cloak''s [Hallowed Ground]. Instantly, a cloud of light green full of emerged around them. Countless skeletal spirits swum around this cloud, half swimming in it and half forming the mass to begin with. A fiery red spear shot into the [Hallowed Ground] but simply disappeared, swallowed up by one of the swimming spirits. Inside the cloud of souls, Chrysa rushed to Aldrich''s embrace, shaking in fear. "What was that!?" said Chrysa. Aldrich narrowed his eyes as he looked down. Though it was impossible to see inside the soul cloud from outside, Aldrich could see outside as if watching through a transparent screen. "Deimos." Chapter 286 Deimos, the Dark Eye 2 Chapter 286 Deimos, the Dark Eye 2 Aldrich deactivated the [Hallowed Ground]. The longer he used it, the higher its cooldown would be in between usages. As of now, the base cooldown was already high at 10 seconds. Using it for a duration over 10 seconds would extend that cooldown all the way up to 1 minute. The soul cloud copsed, the skeletal faces on Aldrich''s cloud sucking the souls in. "It''s you, hm?" Deimos looked up at Aldrich. His slender, pale arm was stretched outwards, his ckened fingers pointed towards Chrysa as if he had just finished throwing something. Faint sparks of red danced around the elf''s dark fingers. The telltale sign of demonic energy recently being used. "So you recognize me as well." Aldrich looked Deimos up and down. The elven warlock looked the same. Short, as far as elves went, just barely hitting around 180 centimeters. His eyes were tinted red and underlined withrge dark bags of sleepless nights. A mop of messy, spiky white hair sat on his head, and it was hard to tell whether they were white because of natural color or because of ash. His features were pale and gaunt, his cheeks sunken in like he was just a few days away from t out starving to death. "You look just as bad as you did before." "I''m used to it." Deimos drew his hand back. His ash and char stained robes concealed most of his body, and probably not by design. The robes looked more like an oversized sack; something a homeless person might fish out of the dumpster to use as a nket. Deimos''s right eye turned solid white - the same nk shade as that which belonged on the secret demons'' mask eye holes. When his solid gazended on Aldrich, he felt a heavy weight descend all around him, a kind of heavy liquid weight that must have been like what swimming at the bottom of the ocean must have felt like. A smoky ck aura started to wrap all around Aldrich''s body. [Afflicted by the Curse of Anhil] Aldrich instantly felt his stats depleting rapidly. They could continue to deplete until they were half of what they normally were. A severe nerf. "Father-!" Chrysa patted Aldrich''s head in concern. He raised his hand, telling her it was alright. Aldrich then fired a [Death Bolt] from his hands. Deimos did not react. Instead, a masked serpent slithered into sudden view from behind him. The bright red mouth line on the mask split apart and opened impossibly wide, the serpent''s jaw unhinging to reveal a pitch ck void-like mouth. Wind currents blew in towards the mouth in a high pitched whine, and vacuum force drew the [Death Bolt] right into the darkness. The green bolt broke apart into countless little shards, and then those shards faded into nothingness as they drew further and further into the dark. "Same moveset, too,"mented Aldrich. The serpent on Deimos''s shoulder closed its mouth, restoring its red lipped tribal mask face. The serpent was ck with a mane of red and orange feathers around its neck, granting it a mesoamerican ir. That was a small aspect of Nh, the archdemon that granted Deimos near immunity to projectiles by absorbing them and, after some time, replicating them. "But this doesn''t exin how you managed to get here so quickly," said Aldrich. "I don''t know either. You trying to close the me Arc triggered something. I was warped close." Deimos shrugged. "I see." Aldrich could guess what had happened. By starting the process of closing the me Arc, Aldrich had triggered Deimos''s boss fight. However, since Deimos was out of his boss arena, the ''game'' automatically warped him back in. "Why are you even here again?" said Deimos. "To kill me again? Go ahead. Free me from this prison. But please, I''m begging you - don''t bring me back. Make it end forever." Aldrich paused. Was this a sort of trick? "I''ll dly take you up on that offer. That is, if it''s being made in good faith." "It is. I don''t want to be here. Here-," Deimos waved his bony hands all around himself. "Where I wanted to die in the first ce. Reliving this again and again - I don''t want it. I don''t want it at all." "I understand." Aldrich started to float down. In the lore, Deimos had nothing going for him. He was born short for an elf with a sickly body that could not jump from tree to tree nor defend himself from the wilds, and elven society very much was attuned with the wild. And with the wild came wildws. Laws where the weak were culled from the herd. Deimos was cast away to die as a boy when it was clear he would not stay weak. Yet, though his body was weak, his magic was potent, and it surfaced strongly upon his exile. In particr, he had a special trait to connect to beings from other realms. It did not take long before he forged a pact with a demon, and he used that power for nothing more than to simply live in a hut by himself, content with peace and solitude. For years, Deimos spent his time in quietude, but that broke apart when a young elven girl washed up near the stream he lived by. She was near death, suffering from a head wound, and he nursed her to health. When she came to, she had no memories. Deimos decided to raise the girl as his little sister, as the family he had never had. Years passed until it came to be that the girl was a Kindlemaiden, a young priestess destined to be sacrificed to the holy me to keep it burning. Deimos was left to die while his only family was taken and burned alive. It was then that he forged a much stronger, much more self destructive pact with the twin demons Anhil and Nh. That saved him from death and granted him power. Power that came at the cost of much of his sanity. But Deimos did not need sanity. He was here tomit suicide, to kill as many elves as possible before he himself died. But the more his sanity faded, the more the demons he had bound himself to took over, and that was why he now tried to open a me Arc to bring the demons in. "What are you saying, Deimos?" said the serpent. Her voice had a faint rattle to it as it came out in smooth, gentle waves. "The elves here are still very real, and they are responsible for burning your dear little sister. We cannot stop until all of them are gone. No matter how many times youe back, the pain is all real, is it not? Does that not mean we have to answer in kind? To make the others suffer again and again? Is that not what Etwa would have wanted?" "No, she would have wanted me to rest." Deimos rubbed his eyes, tired. "Not true. Come, listen, see, hear, feel her pain as the mes melted her skin, then her flesh, then her bone." The white eye spots on Nh''s mask shed. Deimos put his hands on his face as he doubled over. "You''re righta€|all that pain - someone needs to answer for ita€|" "And the rules of this realm dictate that you must fight. You may as well fight in the name of Etwa, no? So fight, Deimos, fight." Aldrich started to cast [Boneripper], wondering if he could abuse Deimos''s emotional instability and sneak in a one shot kill. "Can we help him?" said Chrysa. "The bad people are talking to him, but maybe we can convince him to not fight us." Aldrich stopped casting [Boneripper]. It was worth a shot. If only because he had little hopes that his one shot kill strategy would work. As long as Nh was around, she could force Aldrich back. "No," Aldrich called out. Hended on the burned treetop arena, a dozen meters away from Deimos''s struggling figure. "You don''t have to fight. You can break the rules here. You can rise above your programming. You don''t have to listen to the demon. Make your own choice, Deimos." "Mya€|my own choice?" Deimos paused his breathing. His voice cracked, confused. "Yes, your own choice. You''ve fought and suffered long enough. You can rest now. But it has to be your choice." "Resta€|resta€|that does sound nicea€|" Deimos closed his eyes. "Rest? And let your sister''s pain and suffering be in vain? Do you think she will forgive you if you rest while she died in agony?" Nh chastised Deimos. "Right - I-I have to avenge her." Deimos''s eyes snapped open again. He balled his fists. He stared at Aldrich with renewed hatred. Hatred that sharpened the jagged edges of vengeance. "That isn''t true," said Aldrich. Looking at Deimos, he saw the same stare he once carried, years ago, back when his vengeance was hot, when it consumed everything about him. "You know that Etwa is gone, and she''s been long gone. You knew she was a good girl who would have wanted nothing but the best for you. Tell me, Deimos, is this the best for you? Is all this -," Aldrich motioned to the raining ash all around them. "What she would have wanted?" "Noa€|she would have hated this. She would have hated me." Deimos struggled, his fingers wing into his hair, into his head. "Yes, she would have hated you. Hated you for letting her suffer," said Nh. "I don''t want her to hate me." "Then fight. Avenge her." "No. Rest." Aldrich countered. "Rest, Deimos. Let go. She doesn''t hate you, and you know that. You know she would never me you for what happened." "She was nicea€|she wouldn''t have med me," Deimos said shakily. "That''s right." Aldrich walked closer to Deimos, close enough that he could reach out and touch him, but far enough that if Nhshed out, he could dodge. "She would have wanted you to stop this. She wouldn''t have wanted you under a demon''s control. She would have wanted you free. Free to let go." "Freea€|" Deimos nodded weakly. He turned to Nh. "I want to bea€|free. I don''t want you anymore." "Hm. I did not expect this." Nh''s head snaked back. She jerked her head to Aldrich, facing him with an unnatural snap of a motion. "But toote, yer." Nh opened her jaw, and Aldrich stepped back, wary of an attack. Instead, Nh bit down on Deimos''s head. She swallowed him whole like a python, and the shape of Deimos''s body visibly bulged against her scaly skin. "No! No!" Deimos shouted, his cries muffled. Aldrich reacted, thrusting a lightforged halberd point right at Nh''s masked face. A burst of dark energy erupted from Nh, knocking Aldrich several meters back and enshrouding the serpent demon in a cloud of ck smog. Aldrich skidded to a halt on one knee. He leered as he got a visual of Nh. The smog cleared up. Nh stepped forward. She hadpletely fused with Deimos''s body and taken it over. "That was an interesting discussion," said Nh. "You almost took my beloved pact holder away. But I have been with him too long. I am one with him now." Chapter 287 Power of the Sun Chapter 287 Power of the Sun Aldrich half reached out towards Deimos, perhaps some small shade of him wanting to help someone that had been just like him, but he stopped asbat instinct kicked in. There was no saving Deimos. In fact, it was likely that Nh hadplete control over Deimos this whole time. She had been letting Deimos struggle just for her amusement. For that was how demons were. Inhuman in the sense that they were so beyond humanity it was nigh impossible for their horned kind to ever rte to mortal blood and struggle. In the same way that people perceived ants, demons perceived people with an indiscriminate coldness that often manifested as cruelty, though at its heart, it was mostly indifference. Aldrich could rte to that too. Those thoughts, of seeing humans as lesser, as just bags of meat and blood,y readily in the back of his head, and he knew very well that if he let go even just a bit, if he let thest shard of his humanity break, then the floodgates would open and he would be just the same as Nh or any other inherently superior immortal species. "We couldn''t save him¡­" Chrysa hung her head down. And in a way, Chrysa was the light that shone on Aldrich''s human self. No, she was his human self reflected right before him, borne of that warm part of his soul that still let him empathize. "You do not mourn for him? It seemed that you two had quite the touching conversation ongoing," said Nh to Aldrich. "I''m over it," said Aldrich. "Though, I do have to say, indiscriminate cruelty is distasteful." "Not cruelty. It is-," "Indifference. Or maybe curiosity. Like a child tearing the wings off a fly. Yet, at the end, it''s still cruelty," said Aldrich. "These mortals, even this one, an elf that can live five hundred years, are little specks in the vastness of the realms. Their suffering or their joy - none of it matters in the end, no? They are just food. Or pieces to y with to ease the boredom of infinity. Though you, young as you are, have yet to feel that." "You''re right." Aldrich cracked his knuckles. "So unfortunately for you, I can''t quite empathize." "Then you will strike me down? Very unfortunate. I am nearly fully incarnated now. If you wish, I could apany you in your journey," said Nh. "Not happening. Secrets are the lifeblood of betrayal. Trusting a secret demon isn''t something I''m gullible enough to do. At best, I''ll incinerate you down into a half purified heart and see if I can bend you to my will," said Aldrich. "I am an Archdemon, Lich," said Nh. "I am not like Barbos. This vessel of mine harbors merely a fragment of my being. My true self is still realms away, in the depths of Morhal. You may be able to wear me down into energy you can use, but my will? It will return to Morhal." "So Morhal exists?" Aldrich raised a brow. "Of course." Nh pointed to the now nearly closed me Arc. "That is a sorry fake conjured up by this prison realm. If it were the real thing, I could have shown you Morhal in its full glory. Though you would have been torn apart before you could truly enjoy it. What I do wonder about is if I can escape to your new realm. Surely, it must be teeming with souls, no? If I can harvest enough, then could I not open a new, real me Arc? I could bring Armageddon upon your realm and bask in the mes with all my beloved brethren." Nh stroked a ck wrapped hand over her right eye. It still projected the [Curse of Anhil] debuff. "I would see my dear brother Anhil again too." "She''s a bad guy!" Chrysa pointed an using finger at Nh. "She wants to mess up the world!" "I suppose I am. Trickery will not work on you, Lich, so I am making it clear to you what my desires are. Your death. Perhaps your body, if I can take it. My freedom. Then, your realm." "Surprisingly straightforward for a secret demon," said Aldrich. "But that makes things easy. You die, or I do." "Yes," Nh replied simply. "Father, I know we''re supposed to beat the bad guys, but how do we beat her?" Chrysa grasped at her dress with shaky hands. "I-I want to help, but I used up all my mana." "That''s fine, Chrysa. I want you to get into my Boundary. Out of harm''s way. This is too high level for you - I''ll handle it." "But-," "No ifs and buts." Aldrich gave Chrysa a stern look. Chrysa nodded. "Okay, father. I''ll see you win on the telescreen!" With that, Chrysa disappeared in a shower of white particles that gathered into Aldrich''s chest, where his Phctery was. "Curious little thing, her," said Nh. "Once I am done ending you, I will keep her alive some. I sense she may be an even better vessel for me to enter you realm with her ability to to touch the currents of the Outer." "The Outer?" Aldrich narrowed his eyes. He remembered his discussion with Med. The Outer was the mysterious source from which Elduin natives drew forth new types of power. The circle based magic system, skill system, and ss system, for example, was not, ording to lore, native to Elduin, but developed by the first two gods: the Arcane Emperor and the Enlightened One. Aldrich''s character was also touched by the Outer, the ''hero'' of the story that was said to be guided by will higher than any god or entity. That existence being the yer himself. If there was one topic that Aldrich could crack to get at the secrets of his system, it was the Outer. "The Outer, yes. But I do not know much about it. The Knowledge demons are more obsessed with that topic. And even if I did know, I would not reveal it, for there would be no greater secret worth keeping. And, as you have noted, I am a secret demon." Nh stretched her arms out to her sides. Red and orange hellfire wrapped around the limbs in a coat of zing heat. Unlike ordinary fire, hellfire did true damage that disintegrated targets directly. "But enough chatter. I have no use talking to one soon to perish. For I see no way you can defeat me. You have a few new toys, yes, but you have no legion. Closing the me Arc while I was distracted was clever, but it will do you no good. Unlike before, I have nearly fully taken over this elf''s body. I do not need a me Arc to sustain my existence. I am already anchored into this vessel. My strength has reached a new height that you cannot hope to surpass." "You''re right." "Hm? Did I hear that correctly? You acknowledge my superiority?" "I do. You''ve nerfed my stats to half with that eye. I have no units to distract your line of sight. On top of that, you still have ess to your own absorption power and Deimos''s slew of warlock spells. And, as you said, half-incarnating using Deimos''s body means you not only are not getting nerfed by the me Arc closing, but on the contrary, your stats are buffed. You must be what, level 60 now?" "A crude measurement of power, but yes," said Nh. "If you ept your weakness, then, it will not be difficult to ept your death. I will make it swift, Lich, in honor of the times we had spent together in past." "But one thing I''ve noticed is that you secret demons, despite having high Insight, don''t know what equipment or units from Alter sources can do," said Aldrich. "¡­Alter?" Nh quizzically tilted her head. "Is that name of the realm that your little spawn originates from? And that ring of yours?" Aldrich took that response as confirmation: secret demons could not read into things from the real world. They could identify it, recognize it as something new, but they could not see deep into it and figure out details as they could with Elden World elements. Some items thatpletelycked magical signatures like Aldrich''s earpiece - still embedded in his ear - they could not pick up on at all. "You''ve underestimated me, demon." Aldrich dematerialized his scythe and his cloak, leaving him with just his suit and body. And the [Sr Seal]. He held his hand up, and the golden ring around his index finger shone bright. "And you''ve underestimated my world." Aldrich activated the [Sunlit] function. An eruption of power sweltered around Aldrich, manifesting as a golden pir of cascading light that constantly fluxed above him. A sound like rock cracking echoed through the air. Deep, brilliant gold lines started to weave their way through Aldrich''s body, starting first from the skin around his ring, then traveling everywhere. It was as if a sun was being born inside Aldrich, its light and heat ready to crack his body apart and escape at any given moment in one huge nova. When the cracks reached his eyes, they turned from green into radiant gold. Aldrich started to float into the air, not with the aid of a mystical cloak, but with Alterhuman force. He felt heat inside of him. Burning, intense heat. Painful heat, as if by the second, he was melting away, dissolving into fuel for radiant light. The pain was considerable, but [Burning Agony] had taught him to resist it. [Curse of Anhil dispelled with holy energy] Aldrich''s stats skyrocketed, but he could not check them. Fusing with the Sr Battery power - an Alter superpower - seemed to mess up his system,pletely glitching it out. It would likely stay that way until his [Sunlit] state faded. All he knew was that he was strong. Stronger than ever before. This was power. The power of not just Seth Sr, but Solomon Sr, a man who once was in contention to be the strongest hero in all of the united states. The power of the sun. "Ah. I did not expect this either." Nh stepped back, light shining all around her, as if highlighting a spotlight on her mistake. Chapter 288 Power of the Sun 2 Chapter 288 Power of the Sun 2 Aldrich unleashed all that power, the might of a sun, inside of him. He flew forwards at hyperspeed, so fast that he easily shattered past the sound barrier. Unused to the sudden cocktail rush of speed, he could not get out a punch. Instead, he crudely shoulder bashed into Nh, but even that hit so hard that Nh shot backwards like a pinball, her head whipping back as her figure elerated out of the boss arena, into the distance, rapidly fading into a ck dot. Shards of pale flesh broke off from Aldrich''s shoulder, where he had made impact, and fell to the floor. When the gold tinted shards touched the ckened ground, they disintegrated into a thousand little particles. The broken shards made a small indent in his shoulder, and it was not muscle and blood and bone that was visible there, but just pure light. Aldrich was literally turning into pure energy, breaking down to host the sr battery forced inside of him. He recalled an interview with Solomon Sr, back when he was a kid that looked up to that shining symbol of heroism. While atop the unconscious body of a giant viin, Solomon answered an interviewer''s question: what''s it like to use your power? Solomon had answered with a smile that Aldrich now knew to be a meticulously constructed fake. "It feels like I''m burning up inside. Not like a fever, but like I''m turning right into the sun itself. If I stop focusing for just a little bit, I can imagine my whole body just going bam! Turning into light. Not that I''ll ever let that happen. With Vanguard gone, someone''s got to pick up the ck, and I know a thing or two about hard work." Aldrich distinctly understood what Solomon had meant. If he let his focus go for just one errant instant, he could see himself just sting apart, all that sr energy in his body going supernova and eating up his flesh in a sh. But now was not the time to hesitate. Aldrich always knew he would have had to rely on [Sunlit] to finish this trial quest. Without his legion, that was the only way to beat Deimos. He had wanted to weaken Deimos as much as possible to minimize the time in [Sunlit] as he did not have a good idea of the risks involved, but he had no such luxury now. [All spells disabled] [All equipment disabled] [Inventory disabled] [Interface disabled] All Aldrich had for power was now this. He had to end things with it, and he had to end them soon. Aldrich flew, rapidly reaching Nh''s falling body. In the brief breather that Aldrich took, Nh adjusted. She flew as well now, wings of pure me stretching out from her shoulder des. When she saw Aldrich''s bright figure approach like a shooting star, she pped her hands together and cast [Hellfire Armor]. Red and orange mes roared all around Nh''s body, turning into a moving, flickering armor that would disintegrate anything that got close. A perfect deterrent for melee fighters. Aldrich did not care. He sped forwards and unleashed a punch, this time now more in control of his enhanced speed and strength. His cracked fist smashed into Nh''s mask-face with a golden shockwave, sting her rapidly down. Aldrich nced at his fist. It was gone, broken apart by sr energy, the impact, and disintegration from briefly touching hellfire. Not that it mattered. Kill or be killed. That was the situation at stake. No, not just that, if he lost now, then his entire world was in jeopardy against Nh. Chrysa''s life, too. Aldrich flew downwards, reaching Nh again mid-fall. He cocked his other fist back and mmed it into Nh''s chest, where her heart was. Another shockwave impact sted the demon even faster into the ground where shended with a cataclysmic crash, gouging out an enormous crater big enough to swallow up an entire building. That Nh managed to even stay intact in the face of such overwhelming power was impressive, but not impressive enough. The damage she had sustained from just three full power hits was starkly visible in the cracks in her mask and body of solid darkness. The holy damage infused into Aldrich''s [Sunlit] state also affected her greatly, the cracks in Nh''s body burning up, turning angry red. Aldrich flew down for thest, fully intending on ending this. He felt fiery heat rage beneath his eyes, begging to escape in the form of heat rays, but he narrowed his eyes and held off on them. Nh''s Mora manifested in her ability to draw energy and projectiles into her maw. She could even absorb holy energy, but melee attacks, she could do nothing about. Aldrichnded on Nh feet first. His impact unleashed a shockwave that rippled across Nh''s crater, gouging up several eruptions of dirt and chunks of rock. "You stopped me fromnding right through you by casting [Fel Skin] at thest second, enhancing your durability," said Aldrich. His feet were nted on Nh''s stomach. Hisnding had caved her mid-section in, damaging it horribly and turning anything soft, any organs or bones, into mush, but demons could take more punishment than that. Nh''s hellfire armor was gone for it was sustained by both a mana cost and health cost, and health was something shecked sorely. "Unexpected. I thought your new realm¡­unimpressive, considering your original weakness, yer. But if this poweres from it, then it is far mightier than I thought." Nhughed. "I wonder, how is it that secret demons like you and Barbos find so much amusement in everything?" said Aldrich. "When your existence is meant to harbor secrets, it is often very amusing to know things that others do not," said Nh. "It will be a wonderful challenge to conquer your new realm. I do wonder how my kind will fare against it." "You''re not getting out of here alive, so we''ll never know." Aldrich raised his arm up. He had no fist anymore, but his forearm bone jutted out like a de, and it was still enchanted with holy sunlight. "True. Or perhaps not. No such thing as absolutes, yes?" taunted Nh. "Enough talking." Aldrich stabbed his bone into Nh''s chest, into her heart, and pierced through her skin of darkness and into the demonheart within. "Though I guess you won''t be talking much once I turn you into an item. Or a spell." Nh''s mask and body of darkness cracked, all of it sucking into a purple orb that Aldrich pulled out of Deimos''s now revealed body''s chest, skewering it on the end of his exposed bone. The orb was lined with golden cracks as holy energy continued to purify it. Aldrich deactivated [Sunlit]. The golden aura around him faded away, though it took several seconds for the energy in his body to simmer down. In the meanwhile, he could not ess his magical abilities. Another downside to the power. Deactivation was instant, but essing spells and equipment again was not. "Thank¡­thank you." Deimos whispered to Aldrich before the light in his already tired eyes dimmed. Aldrich nodded to Deimos, stepping off of his body in respect. The fight was over. The demons were gone. Deimos was finally at rest. He felt his magic return to him, and with it, a slew of system messages. Rewards. Chapter 289 Third Trial Quest Rewards Chapter 289 Third Trial Quest Rewards Aldrich felt power flow into him. His levels surged at a staggering rate that he did not expect. [Experience bonus applied from clearing this quest with limitations. All experience gains doubled] Doubled experience. Aldrich''s eyes almost popped out of his cracked sockets. That was the absolute highest modifier one could reach for experience, and that was only with every single experience boosting item and consumable stacked together in the most efficient manner. Aldrich saw his levels rise all the way up to 49. Just shy of reaching 50 when he would get ess to his next trial quest and bonus passive necromancer abilities. The levels themselves, though, were not that remarkable. They gave him more raw stats to work with, but as he had noted with his physical abilities, the stats from levels tapered off in effectiveness the higher Aldrich''s level was. Aldrich had already hit a soft cap for stats at level 40, but he would hit another one at 60, then a hard one at 80. Each cap reduced how much his stats actually boosted him unless he applied the bonuses from levels to already low stats. But to any stat above 60, the caps would set in. That was also why Attunement and Magic were so useful. Attunement and Magic were affected by the caps as well, with Attunement providing less cooldown reduction and Magic providing less of a boost to magical damage, but they provided other benefits that were not affected at all, like increasing Aldrich''s unit limit or his mana pool. However, Aldrich held off on distributing his stats so far. He was safe right now, and he wanted more time to think about it after convening with the Death Lord. She might have known something that could influence his decisions. The other trial quest rewards appeared. [1 x Greater Tome of the Dark Arts obtained] [1 x Hellfire de obtained] [1 x Burnmaw Bulwark obtained] [1 x Arstree Staff obtained] [1 x Fel Body Core obtained] [1 x Arsellis Treeseed obtained] [1 x Pureme Kindling obtained] [1 x Arstree Ashes obtained] All amazing rewards. With the [Greater Tome of Dark Arts], Aldrich could deepen his ess to undead units he could summon at will. The misceneous weapons he received, he could distribute among his units. The [Burnmaw Bulwark] was a massive red and ck greatshield with an angry, open mouthed demonic face carved in its front. From that maw, the shield could spit torrents of hellfire. Valera would make great use of this. The [Hellfire de] was probably best given to Chiros who had the most swordsmanship skill out of his units. The [Fel Body Core] was a consumable orb that granted a unit that ingested it ess to a few permanent demonic passives such as Fel Skin which hardened the skin. This, Aldrich had to think about a little more in regards to who to give to. Aldrich could not make good use of it himself because he did not have a proper flesh and blood body. On top of that, it scaled with physical stats which he did not particrly invest too much in. There was always the option to give it to a trusty physical powerhouse like Valera, but then he risked stacking too much on one unit. He would think about this a little more. The [Arstree Staff] was a caster item that was the least shy out of all the other item rewards. All it did was significantly boost the magic stat, but the simplicity made it easy to decide who to grant it to. Chrysa would make the most use of it. She burned through mana quickly with her unique abilities, and having the staff would augment her ability to keep using spatial magic considerably. The other items were more for crafting. The [Arsellis Treeseed], [Arstree Ashes], and [Pureme Kindling] were all incredibly rare and useful crafting materials to create items or spells out of. What Aldrich was most interested in was whether he could tap into the lore implications of the materials. The seed, for example, if given a proper blessing, could grow into a proper Arstree. The ashes could apparently call on ancient forest spirits and the kindling could forge a connection to the elven goddess. There were more rewards on top of this. The rewards given to Aldrich via the Death Lord. Arguably those were more important, especially the [Nether Idol] that he could use to obtain another chosen undead. Who Aldrich wanted from the Nether was an interesting choice. He felt like he had enough firepower, and if he did not, he could just get more by raising variants. He had his own defenses covered with Vntis and Valera. No, what Aldrich valued the most right now was someone who could obtain information. And someone whose lore rted powers could apply to the real world. Even a joke option like Hadar the Golden Bone, a literal golden skeleton who had a passive that guaranteed he would be rich, might be useful if he could manifest that in the real world. ''Father - are you okay!?'' Chrysa''s panicked voice rang through Aldrich''s mind. ''Hm? You weren''t watching?'' replied Aldrich. ''No, when father got all shiny golden, the telescreen messed up! Then I couldn''t see through your eyes either! I wanted toe out and help, but I remembered that you said you could handle it yourself, and I always believe in father, no matter what.'' ''It was best that you didn''te out,'' thought Aldrich, knowing that she could not have kept up with the coteral from [Sunlit]. ''And you''re right: you had no need to worry. I beat the demon. We''re all set.'' ''I knew it! I can feel father has gotten a lot stronger too! So, will we save the below the tree now?'' ''Ah right, the elves.'' Aldrich looked around. There were no homes around the base of the Arstree, but the elven town was still visible just a few minutes of a walk away. Everything was still on fire, and all the elves, though now broken of possession, were probably just broken, hollowed out husks that copsed onto the floor, unable to do much of anything, like they were in endlessas. Aldrich had no way to save them. But maybe someone in the Necropolis did. Wai''Ki might know a thing or two about reversing spiritual damage, though he did recall that in lore, demon caused spiritual damage was basically permanent, with not even the gods being able to do anything about it. Nevertheless, it did not hurt to try. But just as Aldrich thought that, the trial realm began to copse. The ground shuddered. The skies shook and warped. Cracks began to appear in space, revealing nothing but dark void. Aldrich furrowed his brows. This was not supposed to happen. The trial realms were always around to revisit. So why was this one breaking apart? Did it have to do with the demons? A system message automatically appeared in Aldrich''s vision. [Exiting the Trial Quest...] It seemed that the system was automatically booting Aldrich, probably to prevent him from getting caught up in the realm''s destruction. Probably for the best, too. Everything was copsing rapidly, the reality of the realm peeling apart like dried paint to reveal a canvas of nothing but dark emptiness. And, as Aldrich warped away, he could not help feel an uneasy sensation that in that darkness of nothingness, he felt something watching him. Chapter 290 [Bonus chapter] Final Round Preparation Chapter 290 [Bonus chapter] Final Round Preparation Aldrich returned in front of his emerald throne. There, he found himself warmly greeted by his entire legion. Or the monster side of it, at least. Roars and eager growls filled the cavern hall, and he managed out a smile as the cracks in his body healed up from the Nexus''s auto healing function. "Right on time, all of you," dered Aldrich. "As always." Okeanos stood at the very forefront of the monster horde, posture straight and full of recognition in himself that he was the strongest. Though Vntis did stand next to Okeanos and, notably, the Geist did too. "It is time, no? For us to conquer the world!" said Vntis with booming excitement. The horde had been made well aware that it was soon time for them to join Aldrich again. Back out in the real world. For in just eight hours, Aldrich would get shipped on a ne out to the hearing. "Soon," said Aldrich. "But how is progress? I hope everything I asked for has been wrapped up?" "Gehgeh! (All the flowers are here! I got them all!)" The Geist hopped up to Aldrich and gave him a bough of eyeflowers. The eye shaped flowerheads blinked as they listlessly stared at Aldrich, a bough of deformity that would have been horrifying as a present were it not for the Geist''s childlike earnestness. "Thanks, I''ll make good use of this," said Aldrich. He put the eyeflowers away into his inventory. This was the final ingredient for Fler''Gan to create his mind affecting potion. "Now then-," Aldrich directed his gaze over all the horde, looking down at them atop the upraised tform that held his crystal throne. "I told you that the one who collected the most flowers would be the leader of this horde. The Geist has all ten. Tell me, all of you in the back, why did you fail?" Aldrich''s words reached Crab, Merman, and the giant. "I dunno." The giant muttered. "I thought I wait and just fight flower pickers." Crab clicked his pincers in agreement. Merman gruffly responded. "Gorok-Hara. Morlo-Rish. (I am unfit for such lowlybor. My fishmen failed me). He waved his many arms at the reanimated fishmen around him, and they hung their heads in shame. "Precisely. Too much belief in your own strength. Or, in Merman''s case, backseat leadership that basically amounts toziness," said Aldrich. "Gorok-Vima€|(I do not move unless neededa€|)" said Merman. "And I''m not here to force you to change your personality. But I am telling you that because of that, the Geist won. I want you all to acknowledge that despite being weaker than any of you, the Geist gets a seat as the leader of this horde along with Okeanos," said Aldrich. The two miniboss variants and the giant nodded. "Then it''s settled. Geist, you''re in the big leagues now," said Aldrich. "Geh! Geh! (I got it! Yay)" the Geist jumped up and down in glee. "Here, if you''re going to be in the big leagues, you can''t be weak either." Aldrich pointed a palm at the Geist. Dark swirls of green transferred from his hand to the Geist as he depleted his remaining Dark Wisdom. [10 levels transferred to the Geist] [Unit Geist Level: 35 > 45] "Gehgeh! (I''m so much stronger!)" the Geist looked down at his hands, wiggling his bulky fingers in awe. His white skin rippled and the muscles underneath strained, visibly showing bulging veins, indicating that this was the maximum power he could absorb from Dark Wisdom for now. (Gehgeha€|(I need some time to get used to ita€|) "That''s fine. Try to see if you can use magicter on." Soon, Aldrich estimated, the Geist could train his body to get even stronger. Hopefully, the Geist could use the Dark Wisdom power to try and develop magic on top of his powers, though that was not guaranteed. "Geh! (I will!)" "What about me?" Okeanos looked to Aldrich expectantly. "You''re already way too strong. And you get stronger by yourself. You don''t need me to give you power," exined Aldrich. "I see." Okeanos hung his head down in disappointment. "Raise your heard, hordeleader!" Vntis pped Okeanos''s back. "It means your might is already recognized. It is nothing to be ashamed of!" Okeanos nodded, heartened by Vntis''s words. "What''s the status on the second trial quest?" said Aldrich. "The genie is trying her best to restore her wishes. She says it will take a hundred years at least. Sheins a lot. I think we should get rid of her," said Okeanos. "Let''s give her a chance." Aldrich. "And the worms?"" "They follow the big one. You can unleash them when you want," said Okeanos. "Good." Aldrich had raised the giant worm in the second trial quest, and as the biggest, it had dominion over all the smaller ones there. He could, in theory, withdraw all the worms and unleash them from the Nexus. What Aldrich intended to do with them was to reinforce Haven''s defenses, especially its underground ones. He had a lot of ns for Haven, actually. It would be a city unlike any other in the world, protected by variants and magical creatures, a piece of his own ambition realized, a utopia of his own power. Much like what the other Sentinels did with their own city states. But this was after he got done with the hearing. "Listen, all of you." Aldrich spoke to the entire horde. "The time wille when you will all join me back in the Alter realm again. For now, though, I am only going to take a specific few of you with me." Chrysa popped into existence on Aldrich''s shoulder in a shower of white light. "Hello everyonea€|" she said shyly, intimidated by the sheer number of creatures there. The horde grunted and growled and clicks at low volume to her, giving her friendly greetings. "Chrysa here will take those of you I choose. Crow, Okeanos, Merman, and the Geist,e with me. I''m keeping the crew small for now. Inside of her space, or our Boundary, nobody should track your variant energy signatures, but it isn''t big enough yet to fit the rest of you." Crow and Merman came to the front of the horde. "And Vntis, it''s time," said Aldrich. "Time we got back together, eh?" Vntis opened his armor form up. "a€|I wouldn''t phrase it like that, but sure." Aldrich turned around as he stepped back into Vntis, and the living armor wrapped around him, oncemore fusing with his senses and body. "Feels good to have my equipment back," said Aldrich as he clenched and unclenched his fists. "I am more than mere equipment," protested Vntis. "Of course. It''s just how I phrase things." Aldrich turned to the rest of those at the horde''s front. "All of you, gather in front of Chrysa. She''ll transport you." Chrysa closed her eyes and hovered her open palms toward them. In the past, she did not have the mana pool, confidence, and experience with her abilities to transport more than one thing at once. Now, though, with the aid of Dark Wisdom, battle experience, and some lessons from Med, she could do just fine. A white light washed over Crow, the Geist, Okeanos, and Merman, warping them into the Boundary. ''By the way, about n, the human I told you to take in-'' began Aldrich telepathically, wondering if n would panic at the sudden influx of ultra deadly monsters. ''He''s asleep in the bed! Whenever father wants me to bring a guest over, I put them to sleep for a long time,'' said Chrysa. ''Good.'' Aldrich nodded. She used the same Boundary function that kept the Editor Alter asleep on n. Soon, though, Aldrich would have to wake n up, but dealing with his emotional outburst was not something he wanted to handle now. Not now, when there was so much to do. So much about to happen. Very, very soon, Aldrich was going to step onto the world stage and be a world power. Who knew how many allies he would make. Or, just as likely, how many enemies he would create? There were just a few things, though, that Aldrich had to wrap up before he got to the hearing. Some personal things, for one. Aldrich saw system messages flood in. [Congrattions, Death Walker, forpleting my quest. As promised, the rewards - ] [1 x Hallowed Gravecloak permanently added to inventory] [1 x Nether Idol obtained [Dark Wisdom store raised to 50] [1 x Choice of tome from Med''s library (Be careful of her anger) obtained] [Level up (x5)] [25 Stat Points avable] Aldrich distributed his stat points to Attunement and Magic. [+15 Attunement, increased to +30 with affinity bonuses] [Attunement: 221 > 251] [+10 Magic, increased to +20 with affinity bonuses] [Magic: 1Chapter 27 > 147] Aldrich spent all of his attunement points this time on increasing his spell count. The maximum spell count one could reach was 25, fully essible after level 50, and Aldrich was getting close to that threshold. [6 AP spent] [Spell Limit: 12 > 18] With this, Aldrich could now fully slot in useful spells from his new [Tome of Greater Dark Arts] and his choice of selection from Med''s library. Which, conveniently, was where Aldrich was headed. He tapped his crystal throne, essing its teleportation function. He briefly checked on the third trial quest to see whether it could be visited again, but found it cked out, deleted. Aldrich selected an option to reach Med''s floor where he would get his new spell tome and hash out some final details with both the demon and the Death Lord. First, there was his demonic loot. He needed to give Med Barbos''s demonheart to see if she could subjugate the greater demon. Then he needed to see how he could process Nh''s demonheart into an upgrade material. Second, and more importantly, Aldrich needed to talk to the Death Lord about Chrysa and the system. About that strange feeling of being watched. And about Chrysa''s connection to the Voice. Chapter 291 Final Prep: Necropolis Chapter 291 Final Prep: Necropolis Aldrich stepped into Med''s grand library, the rows and rows of dozen meter high bookshelves of midnight ck wood staring invitingly back at him. "Lusting after my collection already, are we?" Med dusted off a few tomes on a top shelf and floated down, two small bat wings fanned out to her sides. "Well, I definitely don''t have time to waste," said Aldrich. Med sighed. "I seem to be owing you more and more. First, I have allowed you to summon me - that is not so bad, I am curious to see your realm, but now this tant theft of my collection is a little harder to stomach." "I''ll remind you that it''s sponsored by your boss," said Aldrich. "Hi Meddy" Chrysa waved at Med from Aldrich''s shoulder. "Greetings, little one. I see you have tested yourself in a fight," said Med. "You can tell? It was exciting! There were so many monsters called demons, and I had wapped and bapped them with the way you told me to use my mana!" Chrysa gesticted wildly. "Some of them were really strong, though, and really mean." "My kind are not known for their kindness, indeed," said Med. "Oh right, are you okay with father and I beating up demons? Your friends?" "There is nothing a demon hates more than another demon," said Med. "Demons will amuse themselves with mortals they consider their lesser, but they leave all their serious rage to the gods and their own. And, as far as I am aware, you two dealt with secret demons. I hold no friendliness to them. In fact, my kind, the demons of knowledge, are directly opposed to them, for as we relish in learning and spreading knowledge, secret demons are the opposite, seeing no greater purpose than in never telling the truth, in ever holding to their own knowledge that they do not even need." "Nice to know that secret and knowledge demons still hate each other." Aldrich knew that in Elden World, those two demon factions had almost the worst rtion with each other, rivaling the likes of idle demons not getting along with energetic war demons. "That will make this easier." Aldrich manifested both the heart of Barbos and Nh. "Ah, demonhearts. Half purified, I see. Why not fully burn them away? It is not as if these secret hoarders do anything useful to merit existence," said Med calmly. "They could still be useful. This one-," Aldrich held up Barbos. "Is a Greater Demon whose will is fully captured in here. He ims to know things about my situation, about this entire system that brought us here." "Of course he would. He is a secret demon. Their kind fishes for information with lies all the time. They ought to be called falsehood demons in my opinion." Med stared at the purple orb incredulously. "I know that. Secret demons never tell the truth, for everything they say is a secret. But I want to know if there''s a way to force him to tell it." "Force? Demonic souls are difficult to affect." Med rubbed her dark eye bags. "As you know, necromancy cannot taint them, not even at the scale of the Death Lord. There is simply no ''controlling'' a demon. The majority of usck a mortal sense of self preservation, either, for we do not ce great value in our continued existences. Just as chaos may flicker into existence at a sudden spark, so too may it snuff out with a sudden wind. That is how most demons treat existence, hence, they have no concern whether they die or not, it is simply how things are. Thus, torture in a mortal sense ispletely useless." Aldrich looked at the vast collection of books around them. "You don''t have anything here that can make the demons talk?" "No. Apocryphal texts make reference to divine influence that can take control over demons, but we do not have much in the way of divine presence now, do we?" "Hm. Nevertheless, I''d like you to try. The fifth trial quest involves gods, so when I get to it, I''ll coborate with you on this matter again," said Aldrich. "I will not disavow an opportunity to cause a secret demon to suffer, so I will certainly try." Med reached out and took Barbos''s heart. She eyed the other heart in Aldrich''s hand. It was not purple but greyed out, indicating that Nh''s actual soul was not in there. "And what of that one? If my senses do not deceive me, that is an archdedmon heart fragment." "Right. This one has no soul in it, so it''s just raw material. I''d like you to process this into Cursevein." Cursevein was the refined upgrade material one processed from a demonheart. It looked like a ck chord of flesh that went into the creation of curse rted items or spells. In the game, one had to go to a group of ever moving, mysterious hooded artificers and merchants called the Facestealers to get Cursevein made. "You will need a Facestealer for that," said Med, restating Aldrich''s thoughts. "I know, which is why I was hoping you had the knowledge," said Aldrich. "Considering that you are, you know, a demon of knowledge." "I do, but it will take time, for the Facestealers are quite tight lipped of their methods. It will also take some effort that will involve Wai''Ki as well. I should say that warrants a favor for me, no?" Aldrich crossed his arms. "Name your price." Med looked away, caressing the spine of a book. "The creature that Chrysa derives from - the Chrysalis - I want more samples of them. As many as you can give me." "For what reason, can I ask?" "Chrysa is naturally in tune with spatial forces due to her species'' abilities. It is a rare ability. I cannot experiment on Chrysa for obvious reasons, so is it not natural, then, I would ask for additional samples?" "That doesn''t answer anything." Med eyed Aldrich with red gaze. She shrugged. "I will use the samples to experiment on freeing the Necropolis from you. As we are now, we are codependent, for you are our existential anchor. If you fall, we fall, hence there is has been an unspoken alliance between us wherein we of the Necropolis support you to maintain our own existences. But if we are able to manifest in your realm independently, then there is no more reason for this co dependence." "And, think in my perspective for a bit, why would I allow that to happen? We may be on good terms now, but it''s as you say necessitated by the fact that all of you have to rely on me to exist. It''s one of the reasons I''ve been ratherx on making deals with you or the Death Lord. In the end, if I''m harmed, all of you go down with me. Take that leverage away from me, and our cooperation bes a littlea€|tenuous." "Then you wish for us to remain your tool for eternity?" Med''s voice dripped with usation. "I see. So one of the reasons you all have been funneling power into me was to pad me up. Make me tough enough to eventually owe you enough to find a way to break you out of this prison." Chrysa looked between Aldrich and Med with rising concern. "Now now, to yearn for freedom is simply natural, no?" The Death Lord''s loud voice boomed throughout the normally quiet library. Med''s eyes twitched in annoyance, not at all fond of decibels above a a page turning. The Death Lord flew into the conversation, standing in front of Aldrich. She smiled at Chrysa and Aldrich, indicating no hostile intent. Chapter ?292 To Take a Tome Chapter ?292 To Take a Tome "I''m going to be straightforward here. I am onlyfortable being friendly with all of you on the premise that you all depend on me to live. At best, I would repay you with freedom only when I feel I have enough power to challenge you on my own," said Aldrich. "I know that well, Usurper," said the Death Lord. "And I am fine with it. My time has passed. I am content with allowing you to inherit my power and realm. But Med, as you may well tell, is not as tired of existence as I am." "It is in my nature. I yearn for knowledge. And there is knowledge in vast droves in the Usurper''s new realm," said Med. "I understand. But you will do as the Usurper wishes. Treat him with the respect that you would treat a heir of mine." The Death Lord admonished Med. "Fine." Med sighed. She said to Aldrich, "Then I want another favor. I am going to split my heart into a fragment. I want you to take that fragment to your world and see if there is a suitable being that it can possess. My lord and the rest of this realm may not share my curiosity, but I still seek the freedom to explore. That fragment will explore for me, like a probe, and in time, I will consume it back to see its memories." Aldrich remembered Nh. Her threat that when she reached the real world, she would open a me Arc and cause Armageddon. Med predicted Aldrich''s worries. "And no, I cannot call to other demons. I have been Severed for serving a non-demon. I hold no Insight, nor can I call upon a me Arc to Morhal for I hold no more connection to my brethren." "That, I can vouch for. I would not have taken her in had she still been tainted with demonic alliance," said the Death Lord. "...I''ll consider it. Give me the fragment," said Aldrich. "It takes time to split my heart. In your next visit, I will have it readied," said Med. "Along with your Cursevein." "Good. Then things are settled without conflict." The Death Lord reached into her robes with her emerald prosthetic arm and withdrew a grey pyramid like object. She held it out to Aldrich. "Here is your secondher idol. The only one in my possession, might I add." Aldrich took the idol and ported it into his inventory. [1 x Nether Idol obtained] "With that, you will have two chosen undead. How nice, no?" said the Death Lord. "It''s good enough. But not what I wanted you here for," said Aldrich. "You wanted me...for more?" The Death Lord tugged at the robe fabric clung tightly to her chest. "Father, her clothes are too tight. She can''t breathe!" Chrysa pointed at the Death Lord''s seductive gesture. "Right, but she can help herself with that, can''t she?" Aldrich eyed the Death Lord. The Death Lord sighed as she moved her hand away from her chest. "It does get lonely here, you know. But fine, tell me what you desire." "I want you to cast [Soul Lock] on Chrysa," said Aldrich. "Hm? For what reason?" said the Death Lord. "What''s that?" asked Chrysa. "It prevents anything from reaching your soul, Chrysa," said Aldrich. "What about you, father? I liked your dreams! I was learning how to fight in them." "So long as you two have your bracelets, that link will not be disrupted," said the Death Lord. She cocked her head at Aldrich. "But why the lock? Do you fear a spiritual attack in your new realm?" "I don''t know. You tell me. I gave you the corpse of that old man. Did you find anything remarkable about it?" said Aldrich.? "Not yet," interjected Med. "I am still conducting tests on it, mostly to read into the energies infused into it during death. I have isted an energy sample, but itsposition and flow is unlike any I have encountered before. I am cross referencing it with all other energy signatures I have stored. Within the span of another day, it will be possible to see what matches, particrly if said energy originates from Elduin magic." "The fact of the matter stands that whether it was magic or not, it managed to destroy the soul," said Aldrich. "There''s nothing in my realm that can do that. Hell, the existence of the soul itself is still a debate." "Do not be so sure," said Med. "Just because your realm does not have experience with soul flow does not rule out the existence of soul affecting abilities. Abilities that are not magic, either." "I know. That''s why I''m being cautious. And which is why I want a [Soul Lock]," said Aldrich. "Chrysa''s species seems to have some form of connection to an entity known as the ''Voice''. My working theory is that it''s like a central cluster of a hivemind, something that controls variants en masse. I don''t want it to affect her." "Hm. Interesting. But it is better to stay safe." The Death Lord thought over this for a minute before she went over to Chrysa and held her hand. "There." When she withdrew her hand, there was a faint green mark in the form of an ouroboros - a serpent devouring its own tail, on Chrysa''s palm. "Cool," Chrysa looked at her hand in interest. "She is locked." The Death Lord nodded. "Will this protect me?" Chrysa said. "Hopefully, yes," said Aldrich. "Not hopefully. It will. I learned that one directly from Wai''Ki. There is no need for concern." The Death Lord put a hand to her head and grimaced. Her pointed, pale ears twitched. Med instantly drew her gaze to the Death Lord, showing that she still cared about her lord greatly. "Are you okay?" asked Aldrich. "You hurt?" Chrysa held her hand out to the Death Lord, showing her the ouroboros symbol. "I can give this back if it makes you feel better!" "No...it is nothing." The Death Lord shook her head and stood up straight and proud again. "I really should stop sparring with Re. It is not good for my health, and yet, I throw myself there again and again. I will take my leave to rest now." The Death Lord walked walked away, her body shrouding in green as she began to teleport to some other ce in the Necropolis. She did not turn as she spoke. "And, Aldrich, onest thing." "What is it?" "When you reach level 50, I will warn you that the fourth trial quest may be different. For the better, however, I assure you. Now go, go and spread the cold embrace of death in that realm of yours." The Death Lord disappeared in mist. "Awfully cryptic. Do you have any idea what she''s plotting?" Aldrich asked Med. "My lord moves to the flow of her mood. I work with structure. Thus, we do not work together often, for our personalities sh. So I hold little knowledge of her own activities or research. That is, if you believe my words," said Med. "I will believe what I want," said Aldrich. "And I would stay here to chat longer, but my time is running out. Let me cash in on that spell tome you promised me." "That Mel promised you," corrected Med with a sigh. "But fine. Choose. I will decide if it is too precious to take or not." "We get to choose a book!?" Chrysa stood atop Aldrich''s armored shoulder and pped her hands in glee. "So many shinies! Let''s choose!" "Yes, let''s," said Aldrich. Chapter 293 Night Parade Chapter 293 Night Parade "Now then," said Med. She floated in the air, her bat wings fluttering, as her eyes shed red. She stretched her arms out, motioning to the endless rows of dark bookshelves. From above, the library must have looked like an unending, packed ribcage, each rib manifesting as a curved bookcase packed with tomes. "What will you pick? Please remember to be reasonable. I ce great value on much of these." Aldrich looked around, and Chrysa mirrored his movements. When he looked left, she looked right. Where he analyzed with calm, she stared with wide eyed wonder. "I recognize most of the tomes here by how their cover looks. Most aren''t useful at all. Like one over there is about learning cooking spells. And another there is about creating love potions," said Aldrich. "I''m surprised you kept so much." "Knowledge does not discriminate. Anything there is to learn, to know, I have stored," said Med. "Sounds like a serious case of hoarding addiction to me," said Aldrich. "Perhaps." Medual sighed again. "Now then, does anything catch your eye?" "There''s far too much here for me to sift through. Are you trying to overwhelm me with options? You''re a curator, no? I''m sure you can lead me to something I want." "I have no obligation to do so." "Please?" Chrysa gave Med a puppy dog stare. "You said I could choose a shiny book when I trained." Med rubbed her forehead in annoyance, but she relented. "I suppose I can make an exception. I did promise the little one. I assume you wish for tomes with morebat applicability. Specifically, those that match the ss engraved into your being and your rough level range." Med sped her white gloved hands together. Purple bolts of energy silhouetted in white crackled from her hands. "[Shift]." The whole library shook, little clouds of dust puffing down from the high stone ceiling. The bookshelves rapidly warped, shifting ces. "Now then," Med motioned to the shelves around them. "All of these books meet your criteria." "Much better." Aldrich put a hand to his chin as he walked about, taking out tomes and analyzing them. They were all for casters of a level range going from 40-60, for going any higher had risks associated with it. "This one looks angry." Chrya peered down curiously from Aldrich''s shoulder,menting at a book with red bones on its cover. "This is the [Tome of Angered Bone]. It has a variety of spells like [Burning Agony] involving sacrifice of health and flesh for bonus effects," exined Aldrich. "I don''t want it! It will hurt father!" said Chrysa. "It isn''t something I was considering either," said Aldrich. He put the glowing red book back in its shelf. "Choose well, Usurper, for I know that you do not have much time to spend here. And whatever you choose, I will not allow returns for," said Med. "Is that your way of trying to scam me? Low level, I have to say," said Aldrich. "Just choose. Giving away my tomes is already irking me." "I thought you differentiated yourself from secret demons because you shared knowledge. What''s the issue here?" teased Aldrich. "I share knowledge, but when I have to give it away, I feel less inclined, for, as you may know, I am not too generous of a soul. I treat these tomes as pieces of my very own being - a collection I have pieced together over centuries of effort, each one with a story behind them." "Well then, I''ll make this process quick. Hopefully it''ll be less painful." Aldrich paused for a bit, wondering if Med would allow this. He had a good idea from the start what he really wanted, but it was probably something she would be pressed to part with. "Why do I get the feeling you are going to make a nigh unreasonable request of me?" said Med, raising a dark brow. "I want you to show me your twelfth circle spells," said Aldrich. Med stared at Aldrich in tight lipped silence. The twelfth circle. The highest tier of magic. The so called ''Transcendent'' realm of spells unparalleled in power and effect. To put into simple perspective, there was a twelfth circle spell called [Infinity Starfall] that rained down meteors with an ever increasing area of effect that was, in lore, capable of turning into countries into smoky ash. There was also a spell like [Hundredfold Realm Prison] which trapped an individual and cloned them a hundred times as summons, with the prisonsting until every single clone was destroyed. Med''s library did not have these specific spells, but Aldrich knew for sure that unless some books were missing, she did have some twelfth circle spells. "I cannot give you those. Those are my crowning treasures. I held five in my collection, but that number has now dwindled to two. If I grant you one, I will have but a single one left," said Med. "I don''t have to consume the tomes to learn the magic within, no?" said Aldrich. ording to the lore, one could directly absorb spell knowledge from a tome in exchange for destroying it as a consumable, but normally, casters studied the tome to learn the spells themselves so as not to destroy the precious item. "Twelfth circle spells require knowledge of magic that surpasses the highest of experts. But in your case, you have no real knowledge - your spell mastery is simply granted to you through your system of strength. Unless you wish to spent multiple centuries studying the tome, you will not be able to learn the magic within," said Med. "And besides, a twelfth circle spell is far beyond what you can handle. Your body and soul would sunder apart merely even thinking of casting such formidable magic.? Even the Death Lord herself knows but two such spells, for anymore would shatter her mind." "I don''t want father to get hurt..." Chrysa tapped Aldrich''s helm. "It''s okay, Chrysa, if I get what I want, it''ll be fine." Aldrich spoke to Med. "I don''t know most of what''s in your library, but I do remember the big ones. All the twelfth circle spell tomes especially," said Aldrich. In fact, a reward in the game for beating Med as a boss was to get one of her twelfth circle tomes. Though in the game, Med still had all five. Meaning that three had been used already. The Death Lord had notably used two, which left the question remaining as to where the other one went. But that was not so important. Aldrich just needed to make sure the one he wanted was still here. "Tell me, is the [Night Parade of a Thousand Spirits] still here?" "It is," said Med. "I want that one," said Aldrich. "From what I recall, it''s a channel based spell with a cost that scales down to the caster, draining me only as much as I can sustain it. That should take care of the whole mind shattering body exploding issue." The [Night Parade of a Thousand Spirits] was a channel that used the caster''s self as a singrity point from which a [Dying Night] event began. A [Dying Night] event created an unholy area where spirits and undead were at their strongest and life at its weakest. It constantly spawned undead and aggressive spirits while anything living in the area had their life energy continuously drained. The more living beings died, the stronger the [Dying Night] became, with the affected unholy area and the strength of the spirits and undead growing more and more over time, eventually reaching a breaking point where it became a perpetual motion machine of death. In the lore, [Dying Nights] were considered natural disasters on par with the worst cmities out there such as millennial dragon attacks or meteor strikes. Entire civilizations had been wiped out by [Dying Nights] that grew out of control. There were many weaknesses to the spell as well, but Aldrich would deal with them once he got it. "Then the spell is useless to you. As you are now, you can sustain the Night Parade for what, five seconds? If even that?" said Med. "Perhaps ten if you sacrifice your health along with your mana. A proper Dying Night requires at the very least thirty minutes of sustained channeling. Where will you get the fuel for it? Mass sacrifices? How many lives will that take? Ten thousand? More?" "That''s an option," said Aldrich. "But regardless, that''s the spelltome I choose." "..." Med held back, not wishing to part with one of her dearest treasures. "I''ll sweeten the deal for you. I''ll take that soul fragment of yours and ensure it gets a suitable host." "That was already my price for granting you a Cursevein." "There''s more. If you just have a fragment there, it''s still not all of you. It''s like you said just a probe that has a tiny bit of you in it. But I''ll help you to put in your entire heart, your whole soul. You can fully incarnate so you can live in my realm by yourself, free from the Necropolis if you want," said Aldrich. Med eyed Aldrich suspiciously. "Is that possible?" "From my brief encounter with the archdemon in the trial quest, she seemed confident that she could take over a body and escape this system. She harped on about living in my realm and starting Armageddon, so I assume you''ll have the same degree of freedom. All the knowledge of a new realm, yours to explore, yours to take. Sounds good, no?" "That does sweeten things, but what I am most worried of is that my knowledge will be lost. That you will die and it all be for naught." "If I die, then you die too, and so does the rest of your collection. Then it''ll all have been for nothing. The Death Lord knows this, which is why I figure she''s been generous with granting me her power. You should know this too. And trust me, I know how much you value your knowledge. I know how close you hold it to your heart. I won''t waste it. And I certainly won''t lose it by dying." "..." Med rubbed her temples in growing stress. But she sighed, relenting. "Fine." Chapter 294 Stranger Chapter 294 Stranger Med stabbed her hand into the air in front of her, but instead of passing through air, she ripped into the space itself, distorted ripples shimmering around her wrist. "[Enter Vault]" Med chanted as she ripped her arm to the side, tearing the space like a piece of paper, revealing yawning darkness tinted in purple. From the slit space, she reached in and withdrew a tome. The moment she took out the book, the atmosphere in the library changed. It became heavier, almost oppressively heavy - the telltale sign of intense magical energy. The book itself looked surprisingly simple. It was midnight ck, like shadow given solid form, with a bright emerald green moon emzoned upon the front. But even looking at the book was difficult. The moment Aldrich tried to perceive it, the book started to distort in his vision, and he heard countless dead voices whispering and shouting in tandem, their catastrophic cacophony unleashing a malevolent orchestra in his brain. Aldrich closed his eyes while raising his hand over Chrysa''s face, knowing that if he looked into the book for more than a few seconds, he risked losing his mind. He knew that undead were immune to mind control, but this was different. The book did not seek to control his mind, no, it simply had so much power, so much arcane, abstract, deathly power that it overloaded his mind to a breaking point. "If my observations are correct, your system of power can absorb any manner of spell, no matter howplex it is, and add it to your arsenal," said Med. "This should be no different." "It won''t. I know because I took this tome from you in the past and used it as my own," said Aldrich. He knew that his system let him obtain spells without actually learning them, but he briefly wondered if it could take in a spell of this caliber. From what he could tell, the system let him do anything the game let him do, and the yer character had no issues ever learning a skill or spell. That would have been anti-fun. "Scary book," said Chrysa. "Do you really want that one?" "I do." Aldrich waved his hand forward, bidding Med to bring the book to his palm to consume. "Before you take this tome, I wish to confirm one thing with you," said Med. "What?" "The Death Lord is content in letting you take, no inherit her powers as she believes you a reflection of herself. Ambitious. Driven. Like her, you see wrong, and you wish to wipe it out, to enforce your vision of an ideal world upon all existence," said Med. Aldrich knew the Death Lord''s goals. She wanted to essentially turn everyone in the entire Elduin realm into undead because she believed that to be undead was far better than to grow weak and old and sad. Fundamentally, she believed herself altruistic. One of the reasons she looked down so fiercely upon the life gods like Amara was because they were content in basking in the worship of their short lived, suffering mortals whilst not ever thinking of uplifting them to their same divine level. Of course, in practice, the Death Lord was a brutal warlord who killed countless many to spread death, though in her eyes, she probably thought dying under her hand and rising again as an undead was a better alternative to mortal life. "I don''t know if I''d go that far. But yes, I want to use my power for something. Something big," said Aldrich. "Otherwise there''s no point having this power." "Then I want you to make the same promise I made her make to me." Med''s voice became surprisingly earnest, losing the bored, cold edge it usually always honed. "What is it?" "Knowledge only has meaning when it is shared, spread, and known among those can understand it. This power of yours, necromancy, it is perhaps one of the greatest powers I know for a conqueror. But it is also dangerous for knowledge. Among knowledge demons like myself, one of the forces we feared the most was necromancy. Not because it posed abat threat to us, it certainly did, but more so because of its potential to destroy knowledge. All too often, necromancers wield a collection of puppets that can no longer think nor strive to create new knowledge. I want you to promise me, Death Walker, that when your legions grow, when your might grows, that you are not a lone soulmanding a sea of mindless bodies. I can understand wielding puppets in the pursuit of power. But in the end, when you have your power, I do not want you to be a lone soul inmand of an endless sea of unthinking souls. If my knowledge was used for that purpose, it would go against the very fabric of my being. I simply could not allow it." "I can promise that," said Aldrich. "You must have an idea of how I''m operating my legion. I''m allowing as much free will as I can. And it''s efficient. There''s no issue here." "It is easy for you to say this now. The temptation to not simplymand, but to control, will only grow over time, and time is one thing you have in droves. Do not forget my promise." A pause. "Or I will have to personally raise my might against you." "Like I said, you don''t have to worry." Med pressed the tome against Aldrich''s stretched out hand. He absorbed the item. His system broke it down without issue, consuming it and imprinting the knowledge into his being. [Tome of the Night Parade consumed]? [Night Parade of a Thousand Spirits learned] Aldrich opened his eyes, looking at his hand. The book waspletely gone. The heavy aura it emanated was gone, too. "That was surprisingly easy." "Yes. That system of power that you hold is quite something." Med turned around, hands sped behind her back. "Take care that you do not rely on it too much. Now go, let me sulk the loss of my prized possession in sce." === Aldrich returned to the real world, or Alter realm as he started to get used to calling it in his head. First, at the Crypt, then, after [Mist Phase] ended, back to Fler''Gan. There, Aldrich gave Fler''Gan the ten eyeflowers. Fler''Gan cut off the eyestalks and squeezed clear liquid within into his potion, granting it to Aldrich after making sure it was stable. [1 x Mindeye Dominus Elixir obtained] The effects of the potion were the same, with Fler''Gan repeating his warning: the potion was active only for a timespan of about ten seconds. Anything Aldrich said during this time would get embedded into the psyches of all those that heard. For example, if Aldrich said during this time, "support me!", then even after his ten second window was over, all those that heard him would have a strong urge to support him. The biggest issue was even that effect was not permanent. Over time, it would slowly fade away. For permanent hypnotic suggestion, one had to directly ingest a potion, and Aldrich certainly could not forcefeed everyone elixirs. But for the duration of the hearing, Aldrich could swing practically everyone to his side. Fler''Gan did have an additional warning that those with particrly strong wills could resist the effects, though they would not know they were affected by anything. However, judging from experimentation that Fler''Gan had performed on normal Alters, the vast majority of individuals would not be able to strongly resist the effect. Next, Aldrich caught up with V, specifically in regards to the bug she had found in the freeze bot''s neuralworks. Aldrich stepped into V''s workspace, finding her sitting down in the dark, her wire and cable shape hair sprawled everywhere in aplex web, lighting up screens and devices. "What''s going on?" asked Aldrich. Chrysa was not on his shoulder. She was in the Boundary, ying around with the Geist, Merman, Valera, and Okeanos. "Wondered when you''d be back. Thought you''d almost miss this." V popped a bubble of gum from her pale red lips. "The bug was active. It''s called a Rager, and I''ve double confirmed it''s Mad Jack''s ability. Causes mass malfunction in tech, making it go haywire and target anything and everything." "Is that why the bots attacked me?" said Aldrich. "Yeah." "Then that involves the Trident. If I have my memory of viins and mercs correct, Mad Jack''s a techno on the Italian Prong, meaning that the owner of these bots are a Trident target too." "I figure. But it''s impossible to really tell. Remember how I set up a way for peeps in the underworld to reach us? Well, most of it has been garbage like shitty D-lister mercs trying to see if they can get with Thanatos, but there was one guy that really piqued my interest. It''s a guy calling himself the Stranger. He says the bots were his." "Really now?" Aldrich said, heavily interested. "Yeah. He didn''t say much more. Just that he''s sorry the bots went crazy. They weren''t meant to hurt you." "Were they meant to watch me?" "He didn''t answer that. He just sent me one message, and he didn''t leave a way to get back to him. His presence in Cyberspace is also insanely stealthy. Can''t trace him down at all." "Forward that message to me," said Aldrich. "For now, tell me what''s important." "That was basically it," said V. "It confused me, y''know, I thought it was spam at first, but literally nobody should have known about those bots except us. The most important part of his message was this: he says he''ll meet you soon. And that he''ll make you an offer he hopes you will take." "Where? When? And if I don''t take the offer?" V shrugged. "I don''t know. No deets. It''s all mystery. Kinda spooky." "Hm. I see." Aldrich turned to leave. There was no more information to be mined here. "Keep an eye out, V." "Gotcha. When youe back, you better being back as some kinda bigshot. I want to upgrade into a proper office, y''know." Aldrich nodded. "I''ll try." "C''mon, you can''t promise?" "I don''t like making promises. They''re too absolute. The more you make, the less valuable they get as well." Aldrich stepped out of the control room. "And I already made one today." Chapter ?295 Familiar Faces Chapter ?295 Familiar Faces Aldrich sat in the depths of the Crypt oncemore, though, soon, he figured he was in for a quick ride out to his hearing. Anticipation coursed through him with a buzz not unlike adrenaline. This was it. This was where he got onto the world stage. Where he made his name. Where he really got to start throwing around his power and making change, real,rge-scale change. So far, Aldrich had dealt with problems in the shadows, plotting and building himself up discreetly. Because of that, he could choose his targets and his enemies. Soon, though, that would all change. As a yer on the world stage, he would make enemies no matter what. Now, the dynamic was flipped. He was the one shining in the spotlight, and lurkers in the shadows would target him. Aldrich wondered how he would handle that dynamic. His entire life, he had been a nobody. A Dud. An existence that nobody gave a second nce to. Yet soon, not a single pair of eyes that mattered could afford to ignore him. ''I sense rising tension within you, Armored,'' said Vntis. "Do you know? It looks like our link has deepened," said Aldrich. Before, Vntis could not sense Aldrich''s emotions, but now, like Valera, he was starting to connect with Aldrich at that level. ''It was only a matter of time. I imagine themander will be displeased that another bonds with you like this,'' said Vntis. "Probably. She can get jealous." ''The more the merrier, though! To share oneself to others close is a wonderful thing. And to that end, I must ask, will you not draw another Chosen from the Nether?'' "Not yet. I want to do that after I''m on the world stage. I''ll have a better idea of what I need then." Aldrich looked at the back of his gauntleted hand. When he willed it, he could see the thirteen pronged branch glowing against his the back of his hand, through the armor. Neither the Death Lord nor Med had sensed this. Aldrich had wavered on whether to tell them about it, but he had decided against it for now. There were things that the Death Lord was hiding from him that prevented him from being too open. What, exactly, Aldrich did not know. He had already tried pressing her for the information, and she had heavily implied she did not want to give it. He did not want to press too hard, either, for it was true that he benefited from her generosity. And, for now, Aldrich was secure in the safety that his fate and that of the Necropolis were inextricably intertwined. There was not one without the other. ''A strange thing, that is,'' said Vntis. ''Thirteen branches. Two marked with circles like fruits. I cannot fathom it.'' "Can you sense anything about it? With your energy reading vision?" ''No. It utterly escapes me. In that sense, I do know something: it is not of the Elduin realm, for if it were, I could grasp it.'' "I see." Aldrich nodded. His current hypothesis was that this was something that originated from a realm entirely foreign from either the Alter one or Elduin, which would exin why nobody could figure it out. But then why was it on ine''s server? How had it transferred to him? What did it do? ''At the very least, I can assure you that it is not causing you harm,'' said Vntis. ''Reading your energy flow shows stable readings. There is nothing in disarray.'' "Right. I can''t say I''m a fan of mystery like this. Not knowing - it''s a pet peeve of mine. But without more clues, more information, there''s no point grinding my head against an impassable wall," said Aldrich. It was then that Aldrich heard rumbling from above. The sound of whirring engines traveled from the top of the Crypt down to Aldrich, pinging off crypt walls surprisingly well. "And we have more immediate things to deal with." Aldrich stood up, the metal of his armored body creaking. He had absorbed Wai''Ki''s illusion of Vntis, taking in its memories, and found nothing of note. 22, the guard stationed above, had never once made contact with the illusion. The only thing that ever got down here were supply packages which the illusion, asmanded, dutifully always sent back up to notify the authorities that would be that ''Aldrich'' was still there. ''Time to take the world by storm!'' said Vntis, his mighty voice ringing in a roar in Aldrich''s head. The ceiling of the Crypt began t slide open with a loud, metallic groan. Aldrich looked up and smiled. "Yes." On his transport, Aldrich sat across from two familiar faces. Colonel Davos and Aarav Singh. "I''m getting a sense of deja vu here," said Aldrich. He looked down at his hands. They were not cuffed. Nor was he in a Null Box. "Though I have to say, having fewer chains feels much better." "Can''t parade you in there in chains, not with social media raving about you and the world wanting your powers," said Davos. "Scientificmunity wants to put you under a microscope, too. They''ve saved a few of the Locus corpses from the coordinated attacks to see if you can do anything about them." Aldrich perked his helmeted head up. More Locus corpses for him to raise? He could not have asked for a better out of jail gift. "That is, if your hearing goes well," said Davos. "Which it will," said Aarav. "I have reports indicating that the initial support movement for Thanatos was strangely coordinated." Davos crossed his muscr arms as he stared at Aarav. Aarav did not even nce back at Davos, puffing at a ck tipped cigarette with cool poise. "Bot ounts on social media, visibility algorithms on media sites paid off so that only good news showed, and the like. Typical astroturfing. But on a scale that only someone with billions could afford it. You wouldn''t have anything to do with that now, would you?" said Davos. "Hm? Why would I? It''s in human nature for people to look toward a savior. Is that not why the hero industry is big enough to treat some governments like a piece of old gum under their shoe?" Aarav shrugged. Of course, Aldrich knew that Aarav had been behind all of this. Aarav had probably spent several million credits at the very least on what was basically a concentrated PR campaign, making sure Thanatos was seen in the best light possible. Aarav was not lying when he said he was betting his whole hand on Aldrich. "Whatever." Colonel Davos rubbed the bridge of his nose, closing his bright red eyes. He had dark lines under his eyes, showing that he had been working overtime. "Where''s my guard?" said Aldrich. "22, that was her name, wasn''t it?" "Oh, 22? She''s on an assignment somewhere else. Fortunately for you, you''ve been demoted considerably as a threat." "More attacks?" asked Aldrich. "No. 22 doesn''t handle hero jobs like that." "Then Irregr activity?" "I''m not authorized to reveal that." Aldrich remembered the branch symbol on his hand. Perhaps the Irregrs Department had an idea about it. But he did not trust the government yet. "So many secrets. This is why nobody trusts the government." Aarav reached into the breast pocket of his cheap, patchmark sewn suit and tossed a phone to Aldrich. "Read through that." "Says a corporate slime like you." Davos eyed Aarav with dislike. Aldrich read through the phone. On it was a neat report that first showed what Aarav had done. It showed various news media articles about Thanatos, most of them positive, most of them greatly awaiting the hearing. The hearing was to be livestreamed as well, and already, several hours before it started, the stream had hundreds of thousands of viewers. It would probably explode to millions when the start time neared. Current public consensus was that Thanatos was practically guaranteed at the very least an A rank status in the AA and special privileges for his team and controlled variants. About 74% of polled individuals were even in favor of Thanatos bing a Sentinel if it meant he could use his powers to drive the variants back. That was an incredibly high rating. For reference, Dracul, thetest Sentinel, had a 60% approval rating from the public to be a Sentinel, and he was considered a once in a generation hero who had taken down an entire member of the Dark Six solo. Of course, in the end, public opinion did not influence whether Aldrich became a Sentinel or not, but it certainly did help put pressure on the AA, governments, and the Panopticon. The second part of the report detailed Haven''s current status. Aarav had stopped the Panopticon''s ns to demolish the city by negotiating various rebuilding projects. The Panopticon did not have the authority to bulldoze damaged cities that had solid ns to rebuild, and Aarav''s money made those ns very, very solid. Not to mention the Sunshine Foundation, Solomon Sr''s charity, had to keep their support for Haven. Otherwise, Solomon would tank a PR hit for leaving a broken city he had promised to help. Of course, Aldrich had basically manipted Solomon into doing that, and that showed in the fact that Solomon was donating just the bare minimum to not look bad. But the money did not matter. Solomon''s name as a S ss hero mattered more, and having that attached to Haven gave it a boost in the public eye. Overall, things were proceeding quite smoothly. And inrge part due to Aarav''s efforts. Aldrich was fully ready to piece together Haven scrap by scrap, using force if necessary to gain Sentinel status over it, but Aarav had paved an easy mode road with funding and social media poprity for Aldrich to work with. Then, the report transitioned into news of Sheshanaga Biotechnology. The CEO had made his hunt for immortality public. This was a message to Aldrich. It meant that soon enough, Aldrich would be needed to fulfill his end of the bargain. To help Aarav kill his father. "I see." Aldrich tossed the phone back to Aarav. "Anything else?" "No, that''s it. I look forward to seeing this y out," said Aarav. "That, I can agree on," said Davos. "You seem friendlier than before, colonel," said Aldrich. "Because you wouldn''t go to these lengths, making sure the public liked you, rebuilding that city, if you didn''t care about humanity," said Davos. "And that''s all I really cared about." "I see. Like I said before, I will try to help," said Aldrich. "In my own way. Without a cor or chains." "I hope so." Davos looked away, up towards the ceiling. "I have a gut feeling that sooner orter, we''ll be needing all the help we can get." Chapter ?296 Judicata Chapter ?296 Judicata At the Judicata, Worldwide Court of Justice -- Aldrich stood in a small, rectangr waiting room with white walls segmented with glowing blue strips. Typical Mag-Lock construction, favored by the Panopticon for the ease of assembly and repair. Just take several blocks, lock them together with the special maic tech, and vo, you got an extremely durable structure. It was the same tech that built up city walls. Not to mention it could easily conduct forcefield energy currents - that was the biggest bonus to them. City walls themselves were tough, but medieval style walls, though effective against mostlynd based variant monsters, had limits to them, the most ring of which was weakness to any airborne attack. That was where the shielding came in. In fact, so important was the shielding that it was probably more urate to say that the walls were shield conduits first, then barricades second. What stood out to Aldrich more, though, was the view. One wall of the room was see through ss showing the from low orbit. He had never been to space, but being up here, seeing the earth, a blue jewel painted in swathes of green and dotted with white clouds, he felt awed. So tiny against such an impossibly big world. ''So this is the world we will conquer,'' said Vntis. ''Yeah. A lot to do, huh?'' said Aldrich. ''Nothing that is beyond my Armored! If you are to surpass the warmother I once served, then an entire world is the least that I expect from you!'' ''No pressure, I guess.'' Aldrich nodded though, appreciating Vntis''s reassurance. Outside of this waiting room, his hearing was getting prepped. Government and AA officials were probably packed around the circr seating spaces in the hearing room. "How are you doing, Thanatos? Is there anything you require at this moment? I have a list of eighty seven different refreshments on hand-" A floating ck orb with a friendly green eye dot spoke to Aldrich. A Panopticon service bot. "No. I''m ready whenever the world is," said Aldrich. "The hearing is still in preparatory stage." The orb paused. "You have a visitor. Clearance code: Trinity. I will vacate these premises." The orb floated away, a pressurized sliding door opening to let it exit while letting a person step in. A man of average height, though were it not for his crooked back, he would have been noticeably tall. He had a slim, thin, weak build that his loose fitting navy blue suit did little to conceal. Under the brown brim of a bowler hat, he peered at Aldrich with X shaped solid ck eyes. Eyes that anyone could recognize. "Supermind," said Aldrich. "I''m still famous, am I?" Supermind hobbled forwards, using a mechanical ck walking stick for support. He smiled at Aldrich, wrinkles wreathed around the thin skin of his eyes and pale lips. For a man that was 100 years old, though, he looked spectacr. An average passerby would have thought he barely pushed past 60, let alone an entire century. "There''s not a single person alive that wouldn''t recognize a member of Triune," said Aldrich. "I suppose I''ve got Vanguard to thank for that. Without him, I doubt anyone would''ve heard a peep about us." Supermind limped near Aldrich and motioned to an empty row of seats in front of him. "Do you mind?" "Go ahead." Supermind grunted as he got himself in the seat with some pain. "Crystallization is a pain to deal with. Sometimes, I still dream about lifting mountains with my mind. Now, I can barely get up at night to take a leak on my own." "Why are you here?" said Aldrich. "You''re the Arbiter for this hearing, aren''t you? That means you''re supposed to be a neutral, mediating force between me and everyone else. More of an advisor than anything else. Meeting me before the hearing isn''t exactly what I''d call neutrality." "There is no such thing as neutrality. Everything, no matter how small, has mass. Everything tilts to one side or the other." Supermind rested his walking stick down and sped his hands together. Aldrich tensed up, knowing well that Supermind activated his powers with that gesture. And Supermind had been the greatest telekic in the entire world in his heyday. Even with Crystallization affecting him, he could probably threaten Aldrich. "Rest easy. I do this to calm myself," said Supermind. "You''re tough enough that even if, for some god forsaken reason, I wanted to try and crack you open, I''d break my spine trying. Or lose control and rip apart this whole station." "You haven''t answered my question. Why are you here?" "Straight to the point, hm?" Supermind sighed. "All I''m here to do is to take a close look at you." "Well, I''m right here." "You don''t want to know why I want to look you over?" "Are you offering an exnation?" "Hm. Curt. No wonder Seismic took a liking to you." Supermind did not look at Aldrich as he spoke. He looked forward, intentionally avoiding Aldrich''s gaze. Likely to make Aldrich feel safe. Supermind''s telekic powers were incredible, but Crystallization had worn them down to a nub. However, his telepathy was less affected. If he got a good line of sight on somebody, he could probablypletely destroy their minds. Though Aldrich was immune to mental damage. He wondered if Supermind could get through it. "You''re a man of mystery. Someone that just showed up out of nowhere. You must know some things the rest of the world doesn''t." "Maybe." "Let me ask you: do you know where Vanguard is? Do you know if he is alive?" Aldrich pondered the question. Supermind was not leading with it. He was genuinely curious. Vanguard had not been seen in close to two decades. In fact, the year Aldrich was born was the year Vanguard, former top hero of the entire world, disappeared. Nobody knew why or how. The year of his disappearance had been rtively peaceful, too. There had been no variant attack or viin to take Vanguard down. But in the years leading up to his disappearance, it had been noted that the former top hero was getting weaker and weaker. Seemingly older and older as well, his supposed slowed aging rapidly leaving him. And, as a result, less and less active. "No," Aldrich said simply. "Hm." Supermind nodded to himself before standing up, pushing himself up with his cane. "That''s it?" asked Aldrich. "Yes, that''s it." Supermind began to walk away, back to the exit, but then paused. "I guess I do owe you more of an exnation. You''ll be a top dog soon, anyway - you deserve as much. You see, Vanguard didn''t tell me or Valkyrie much. He was always more of the quiet type in private, despite how loudly he shouted about hope and good in front of cameras. After the 2077 Corpowar, after he swallowed the equivalent of ten nukes, he started to get weaker. He cut off contact with us. With all of the world. He stopped talking to the media, his handler, his fans, everyone. I thought he was in a depressive phase, seeing his position at the top slip away, but he was never the type to be worried much about rankings." "Then what was it?" said Aldrich, too curious to remain silent. Throughout his whole childhood, Vanguard, the hero that ended any fight in just one punch, was his idol. Someone who swooped down when the going was roughest and brought smiles to everyone in just one fistful of hope. "I don''t know. Like I said, he cut us off, and we were the closest to him. But I''ve been trying to piece together clues, and I think he was trying to find a heir. His power - I believe it''s inheritable." Supermind looked at Aldrich directly. "I''ve been spending decades trying to find some bastard child or hidden student of his, but no luck." "Which is why you''re here," noted Aldrich. Supermind nodded. "I was checking to see if you had inherited it, if I could feel what I felt when I looked at Vanguard, but that isn''t the case. You''re different, that''s for sure, special. Irregr. But not in the same way Vanguard was." Supermind turned to leave. "I''m sorry for wasting your time. I''ll have the hearingmence soon. I wouldn''t worry, if I were you. Everyone wants a piece of you. Hopefully, you can put all that attention to good use." Aldrich watched Supermind leave. When he did, the orb shaped helper bot entered. "Interesting" Aldrich said to himself. The strongest hero team to have ever existed was called the Triune, consisting of Vanguard, Supermind, and Valkyrie. Not the same Valkyrie that operated on Sunlight, Solomon Sr''s team. That Valkyrie was the daughter of the original who lived in secluded retirement now after taking a severe career ending injury she could not heal from. Triune had kept the world in bnce to arge degree, dragging them by the scruff right out of the chaos of the Altering and the initial nigh apocalyptic disaster of the Monstering. They were the lynchpin that guaranteed that humanity could survive even the toughest of attacks from Variants and also curb viin activity from getting too bad. Once Triune was gone, especially after Vanguard''s disappearance, that was when the world bnce disrupted. When variant attacks got much worse. When viins started to consolidate much more power. But if, as Supermind said, Vanguard''s power - an overwhelming might that could defeat anybody in a single blow - was truly inheritable, then that would restore the bnce again. Only if that power went to the right person, though. Supermind was probably on 24/7 watch for the heir to show up. And now, so would Aldrich. "Interesting story that was, hm?" Aldrich turned to the helper bot. The voiceing from it crackled and held inflection that made it obvious it came from a living, breathing person, not an auto generated A.I. voice devoid of any real emotion. The voice was grating, as if it was being pushed through a modtor that constantly distorted it. "Who are you?" Aldrich narrowed his eyes under his helm. This was not the Panopticon. But anyone that could hack into Panopticon tech was absurdly high end as far as techno ability went. "You read my message, no? I''m your friendly neighborhood Stranger." "Right. You." The Stranger. The entity that controlled the mysterious bots with powers that followed no proper ruleset. Powers that Aldrich hypothesized to not belong to either Elduin or Alter realms, considering how impossible it was to read them. Though there were some holes in this hypothesis, like the fact that the bots had tech at least somewhat familiar enough that V could get into them and Mad Jack''s virus could affect them. "Yes, me." The Stranger chuckled. "Why so hostile, my friend?" "Friend is not a term I would lightly use given ourst interaction." "An ident. Mad Jack''s virus took over my bots. There was nothing I could do. And you, Thanatos, are my friend. Or at the least, I hope to make you my friend." "And tell me, how are you going to do that?" "I''ve reached out to yourpoint in Cyberspace and dropped some goodies. A location to Feather. Once you make him squeal, I''m sure he''ll lead you to more important threads. Somepromising information on the Italian Prong, maybe. Or, if you''re lucky, a to catch that pesky spider Desmond." "So this is Trident rted." "For now, yes, though I see this Trident issue as a small bump in the roadpared to what is toe." "And what is toe?" "You''ll know when you ept me as your friend." "..." The Stranger continued. "You and I are not so different. We both are not from this world. But that does not mean it cannot belong to us. Work with me, and we can make that happen. Chapter ?297 A Strangers Offer Chapter ?297 A Stranger''s Offer "Not from this world, are we?" said Aldrich. He stared into the unblinking green dot of the spherical helper bot. He wondered what was behind it. An impossibly alien face too inhuman toprehend? Some kind of alternate reality human? Maybe a living machine? No way to really tell. What Aldrich did know was that the Stranger was no pushover. The fact that the dot did not turn from green to red meant that whoever was hacking into this was good enough not to trigger the many security measures that the Panopticon''s securityworks built up. Aldrich had mentioned it in his head before, but he had to remind himself again that that was no walk in the park. If he had to give a letter rank to it in terms of pure hacking skill, then it was without a doubt S-ss. Top of the S-ss, even, considering the Panopticon''s reputation of having an iron solid cyberspace defense. If he made an enemy out of the Stranger, then he was making a tough one. "No. You could say that we are, well, strangers," said the Stranger. Though he cracked a joke, his voice did not show any humor. It was chillingly stable a€¡° cold in a way that felt, at some fundamental level, inhuman. "What are you, then? An alien?" asked Aldrich. People always figured that aliens existed a€¡° now more so than ever. Hard to harbor disbelief in aliens when there were literal superheroes flying around on the daily given power by mysterious cosmic rays. "Alien. A very broad ssification. Too broad to cram the likes of us into. But yes, alien would technically be correct." The lights in the room shifted from bright white to blue, indicating a ''get ready'' to Aldrich. "Look at that. Your hearing is beginning soon." "You can''t expect me to make a deal if I have no idea who you are or what you really want." "True. Then let me make it simple for now. The Trident is an ancient relic that refuses to change with the ever-shifting tides of time. It''s an old boat on seas far too vast and rough for it. It needs to sink. I have good reason to believe you want the same. Why can''t we sink their ship together?" Aldirch had to admit that it was a tempting proposition in the sense that anything that took down the Trident was right up his alley. He did not have an extreme personal grudge against the Trident as an organization, but he would not mind breaking it down either. "And what''s your affiliation with the Trident?" "You might know me better as the head of the Russian Prong." Aldrich raised a brow under his helm. The Russian Prong? So, the Stranger was not just part of the Trident, he was literally the head of one of its three prongs. Or, to be more specific in light of new revtions, the instigator of the civil war between the Russian Prong and the Japanese and Italian ones. That did not give Aldrich too much information. Unlike with the Italian and Japanese prongs, the Russian prong was shrouded in mystery. Nobody knew who the head really was or who the higher ups were. "I know the innards of the Trident," said the Stranger. "I know how to poison the well and smoke out the rats. If you and I join forces, we can split the Trident apart and built it back better. We can enforce our wills upon the world. We can be the new world order." "I see. From what I gather, then, you, the Russian Prong, want to go ahead with that revolution of yours to topple the current world order. But the other two prongs don''t want to make that extreme of a move, so you want to get rid of them." "Correct. Believe me, Thanatos, you are better off with me. We are ''Irregr''. The world will never ept us. They will try to use us, but ept us? No. Not possible. But since we are Irregr, we can clutch at their throats before they even know what is happening. They do not know our powers. They have no way to fend against us. We can dismantle everything that this world has built up and make it ours. All I need for you is to be my friend." "That''s not all, is it? Nobody does anything for free. You want me to do something for you to start off with, just like how you gave my support intel on Feather. A token of friendship, so to say." "It certainly would make me feel a little easier at heart." "Then name your price." "The chill winds heed my call, and my eyes can read their whirlwind white dance. They blow in your favor. This hearing will give you freedom, that much is guaranteed, but beyond that, there will be offers. For you to join them, to join this world. But make no mistake. These are ways for them to use you and chew you up, to pick your bones clean. I only ask that you refuse. For your own sake as much as mine." "Interesting." Aldrich started to walk towards the door leading to the hearing room. He stopped in front of the sliding door, builtrge to amodate sizably built superhumans like himself. "What do you say, my friend?" "Why should I ept an offer from someone as ipetent as you?" said Aldrich. "What?'' Aldrich continued. "I have little to nothing to judge your worth off of, so I''ll use what''s avable to me. You let Mad Jack''s virus take over your bots. Bots which coincidentally happened to be in my area. Tracking me, most likely. Then, they threatened my life. That''s ipetence. Especially when you''re talking big about taking the Trident down. If Mad Jack can do that to you, what''s to say some other techno in their leagues can''t do worse? This still doesn''t rule out the possibility that you''re actively malicious, that you want to manipte me for your own needs. So my answer is no. I want to crush the Trident with my own hand. All of it. And if that includes you, the Russian Prong, I will dly do it." "Are you sure about this?" said the Stranger. "If you will not have me as your friend, I will be your enemy. And I warn you now: there has not been a single enemy that has survived crossing me. Not in this world nor others." "There''s a first for everything." Aldrich did not bother to look at the helper bot. He kept his eyes trained on the door in front of him. The lights above turned blue, indicating it was now okay for him to leave. "I''ve epted that a natural part of stepping into the light is that I''ll have enemies crawling in the dark. But I''m ready. Ready to crush them whenever they rear their ugly heads. No matter who they are. Or how strong they im to be." Aldrich pressed his palm against the door, and the pressure sensitive mechanism opened. The helper bot floated away from Aldrich, the Stranger cutting off from it to prevent himself from getting outed as being hacked. Chapter ?298 The Hearing Begins Chapter ?298 The Hearing Begins Aldrich first passed through a bare hallway, the door of the waiting room shutting with a pressurized click behind him. Another helper bot detached from the ceiling and hovered beside him, though this one was not hacked. "All members of your hearing have gathered. Do you require additional time, or are you free to proceed?" said the bot. "Free to proceed," said Aldrich. At the other end of the hallway was one more door, then, the entire world. Eerily, he could not hear anything at all except the rhythmic hum of shield generators. Both the hallway and the waiting room seemed to be soundproofed. Aldrich pondered whether he had done the right thing. Fundamentally, he and the Stranger could not align their goals. The Stranger wanted world domination. Aldrich wanted world order. They were diametrically opposed. If the Stranger rose, Aldrich would have to strike him down to preserve order. If Aldrich rose, the Stranger would try to tear him away from the top to try and take over. There were also too many gaps and mysteries for Aldrich to trust the Stranger. He could not me the Stranger for this too much - the Stranger probably wanted to limit information to Aldrich until they were confirmed allies. At best, the Stranger could give ''gestures of friendship'' like Feather''s location, but demanding that Aldrich step away from the world stage entirely? Not worth it. Aldrich did not trust the worldpletely either, which was why he wanted to vie for Sentinel status to operate on his own rules, but that did not change the fact that everyone out there, out in the hearing, was responsible for the lives of most of humanity. Aldrich would rather try to work with them first, then determine whether he should break off rather than start off guns zing as a solo yer. Ultimately, there was not enough info to work with the Stranger to begin even remotely trusting him. But Aldrich could parse some details from their conversation. The biggest of these being that the Stranger did not know exactly who or what Aldrich was. From the Stranger''s wording, it seemed that he thought Aldrich something akin to an alien. Entirely extraterrestrial and not a human that had obtained otherworldly powers. Which opened up Aldrich''s worldview considerably. There were entities out there that were not native to earth to begin with. And, considering Supermind''s revtion, humans out there too that were like Aldrich, holding ''Irregr'' powers that did not belong to this world. Considering Supermind''s rather calm reaction to Aldrich''s status as an ''Irregr'', it also seemed likely that there were quite a few of said Irregrs out there, though he doubted any of them had powers from Elden World. For one, if such a person existed, Supermind would have made a connection with Aldrich. The closest Aldrich could think of was Archmage, a S ss hero from Korea, but his powers were more low level reality warping that gave him the moveset of a typical fantasy mage. Fireball, lightning strike, stuff like that. Very likely, people assumed Aldrich had the same kind of low level reality warping ability. Secondly, Aldrich was confident Vanguard did not wield any Elden World powers. Vanguard seemed like he was just like any other caped flying brick - strong, fast, and airborne. No spell or skill from the game matched that. Thirdly - Aldrich stopped in front of the hallway exit, cutting his thoughts off. He closed his eyes and readied himself. ''Vntis. Keep your Truesight active at all times''manded Aldrich. The Judicata was insanely guarded and had anti-stealth measures as well, but if there was even a slight chance that the Stranger''s unseen bots could slip through them, Aldrich wanted to be prepared. The Grave Wards could reveal the bots, and so could Vntis. ''I will. Good luck, Armored. Show the world who they''ll be fighting under.'' ''Yeah.'' Aldrich pressed his hand on the door, and it slid open. Bright white light engulfed him. He stepped out, into the light both figuratively and physically. Before Aldrich was an enormous round room. Looking up, he saw concentrically aligned seats wound around the walls in even rows that piled up high. From there, suited Alters, men, women, and mutants, all stared down at Aldrich in silence. Silence that was surprising considering how many there were. A rough guesstimate on Aldrich''s part figured that at max upnacy, this entire hearing room could seat about 500 people. Currently, there were around 400. Fewer than 100 actual officials, but they all had support staff and guards with them. Overall, this was an astounding turnout. For reference, Dracul''s Sentinel hearing, also held in the Judicata, had yielded a turnout of about 200 total people. Aldrich looked all around him, eyeing the crowd. A crowd made up of influence and power. Leaders and representatives of countries, the AA, andpanies. Reps from specific countries sat in areas marked with a holographic image of their nation''s g floating above. Company reps had their corporate logo projected above. Aldrich took a moment to process the sheer scale of this. The whole world really was here. The Pan-African Alliance. The East Asian Alliances. The Eastern European Block. The Oceanic Blocks. The European Union. The Middle Eastern Coalition. Even the Antarctic Settlers - the big dogs of every continent were here. The corporations were just as prominent, most of them rted to war. There was the double A logo of the Alterhuman Agency, of course, but also two Council of Fortune members: the ouroboros of Imugi War Arts and the red and blue diamond of ARMA. Corporations just a tier below them like Shatterlock Droid Systems, st Ballistics, Volsung Cybeics, and Culture Biotechnology were also in attendance, but there were nopanies beneath tier 1. Anyone that got to this hearing was just that important. And that, consequently, was how important Aldrich was. Security was intense as well. Guards and supes crawling everywhere, and none of them were likely to be pushovers. Panopticon war drones and bots floated everywhere, the barrels of their energy weaponry highly visible. But above all that were the S rank heroes hired to hold down the fort. S rankers from all across the world. There was Mushin, dressed up in in gray hakama and gi, from Japan with his power to cut anything out of existence. Star Spartan, who, as the name would suggest, donned the garb of a spartan warrior. He was from the European Union and could turn into a living meteor. As far as response times to disasters were concerned, he was second just behind Lightspeed, the current top hero in the United States. Aldrich spotted the crackling blue eyes of Indra who, as a lightning elemental, had both top ss power and speed that made him stand near the top in India, just below Ravana, a Sentinel. There was Machine Emperor from China whose battlesuit was considered the strongest in the entire world, said to be powered by advanced star fusion tech centuries beyond what humanity could muster currently. He was also the head of his own military techpany, though it did not seem like he hade here as apany head, more as security for the Chinese government representatives. From the United States, there was Kinesis, widely considered to be the next Supermind with her impressive telekic and telepathic abilities. And, finally, from the Eastern European Bloc, there was Dracul. He sat by himself, surrounded by waving darkness that formed a suit and cloak. He stared right at Aldrich with his eyes of solid, inky ck. It was extremely rare that a Sentinel like Dracul ever took a job like this. After all, Sentinels were independent, basically like kings, so they could do whatever they wanted. They had no need to weigh themselves down with security contracts. As evidenced by the fact that no other Sentinels were present. Most of them were content to sit in their own city states in luxury and content, only ever showing up in the worst of disasters. If Dracul was here, protecting country representatives was just an excuse. He was here to see Aldrich. "Please proceed to the podium," said the helper bot, sensing Aldrich''s pause. Aldrich nodded and stepped across a long walkway made of solid, pure blue energy that led to the center of the hearing room where he got in ce behind circr white podium tform. It was now time for the hearing. Chapter ?299 [Bonus chapter] The First Vote Chapter ?299 [Bonus chapter] The First Vote Media drones buzzed about in the air, their camera eyes whirring and clicking as they took in every little piece of this scene. A scene, Aldrich wasing to realize, that was historic. He would quite literally be in a page on a history book. To some, that might have shaken them up, but to Aldrich, it was just more motivation to get things done. Everyone was watching him. Relying on him. It was time to step up. The way the hearing was setup, Aldrich was at the lowest point in the room with representatives looking down at him from what were basically booth seats. It reminded him of the Roman Colosseum. diators fighting down in pits while the free and wealthy watched from above. In Aldrich''s case, he was fighting for freedom. Not just that. Much more. The freedom to do whatever he wanted. To be a Sentinel. Had Aldrich been deemed more of a threat, he would have been separated from the audience by a forcefield, but evidently, the presence of multiple S rankers made everyone confident enough to lose thatyer of separation. Before this, Aldrich had used Fler''Gan''s potion. For an hour and a half timeframe, he could activate his ten second window of hypnotic suggestion. He had some worry that the hearing mightst longer than that, but he had confirmed with Aarav over the ne that, most likely, it would not go over an hour. "Think of it like an auction, really," was what Aarav had said, and had not refused to borate further on as he took a long nap through the rest of the trip. Aarav was not here, however. He already had a deal with Aldrich. No point in him wasting time when he had gotten what he needed and done what he could do to help. "Proceeding special grade hearing S64." A woman''s voice resonated through the room, reaching everyone''s ears with crisp quality. There were microphone and speaker systems iid throughout all the surfaces here to make sure volume was never going to be an issue. Aldrich looked up to the source of the voice. It was a woman covered from head to toe in a mechanical suit of white and ck that made her look almost like a bot. She was all smooth surfaces, joint segments, ting, and glowing strips of energy. She stood atop a floating strip of solid blue energy, surrounded by a small fleet of technical and security drones. The only part of her that was discernibly human was her face, but event hat still had marks of cybeic augmentation. Her eyes shone a bright teal green, energy lines of the same shade running lengthwise from her forehead, crossing over the eyes, and reaching down to her chin. The teal green eyes indicated she was an Operator, a higher level operative for the Panopticon responsible for maintaining important tasks like drone fleet mobilization or, in her, maintaining this space station and running the hearings. An Operator of an entire space station like this was a serious force to reckon with on her own. If push came to shove, Operators could freely manipte Panopticon tech around them using a shared technopathy, making them extremely dangerous as Panopticon tech was practically everywhere. Supermind sat on a hovering wheelchair behind her as the Arbiter meant to facilitate discourse between Aldrich and his examiners. "This hearing brings forth the case of the enhanced individual known as ''Thanatos'', who henceforth from now shall be referred to as the ''examined.'' The purpose of this hearing today is to ascertain the examined''s threat, and, if determined sufficiently low, their potential to integrate into the military-heroplex that we depend upon to maintain stability and order," said the Operator. "To begin with, I will introduce to the examined his examiner''s-," "Skip that part." Though sound carried well through the room, it was still easy to pinpoint where it came from. This time, it came from Imugi War Art''s section. Specifically, the CEO: Park Jin-Woo. Everyone turned to stare at him, as did Aldrich. The man sat cross legged, leaning back in his chairzily. Nothing really distinguished him from the rest of hispany personnel; they were all dressed in slick, formal ck suits. Typical corporate wear. That is, nothing except his face, covered as it was under an angr helmet shaped in the visage of a dragon''s head. Aldrich had little to no idea about the CEO. He was incredibly reclusive, as were most of the Council of Fortune CEOs. At that level of influence, there was no need to show up for PR stunts or tours or silly little interviews. All a Fortunepany''s CEO had to do to project power was simply exist. Showing up in the public eye too often only put a target on their back. Out of everyone in the hearing, all the government officials andpany executives, the big shots with the most weight to push around were Park Jin Woo, Tychus Colt - CEO of ARMA, the other Fortunepany here, and Dracul, the Sentinel. "Pursuant to relevant codes, it is advisable to allow the hearing to continue under procedure," said the Operator. "As ignoring it may infringe on the rights afforded to the examined-," "Rights? What rights. You''ve taken him in by force already. And those of us up here that matter don''t follow the rules anyway," said Jin-Woo. "So let''s skip the part where we introduce nearly a hundred interested parties here and get to the real auction. Because, let''s be honest, that''s what it is. An auction." "I will remind you that we are on live news," said the Operator. "Does that matter?" "Now, now, let''s not get too worked up here, Mr. Park." Tychus Colt spoke this time, baring a broad, silver toothed smile under a wide cowboy hat. He was of hearty build, wide with a portly belly, though still muscr underneath a fatyer built on fine dining. "Let the cute Operator missus do her thing." "No. I agree with Jin Woo." Dracul spoke, a faint Eastern European ent tinting his voice. "Move on." "Moving on then." The Operator reached out and tapped various holographic screens. "Then moving forward to the first case. Is Thanatos a threat to global security? The examined is allowed time to present a defense of his own case, after which, a round of questioning will follow. Proceeding questioning, votes will be cast. As per procedure, a two thirds majority vote is required from all examiners to close a case." "Skip this too," said Jin Woo, impatiently waving his hand forward. "What? Are we really going to throw Thanatos away? The only one in this entire world that can control Locuses and variants like that? Hm? Is that what''s going to happen?" There was subtle threat in his voice, as if to say that anyone who had the gall to cast a no vote was going to hear from him personally. "Heh, I''d like him around, that''s for sure," said Tychus. "Long as he sees my way of seein'' things." Dracul did not say anything, but two Fortune members voicing their opinions was enough. Nobody else voiced a dissenting opinion. "Move on to the vote," demanded Jin Woo. The Operator looked to Supermind. Supermind nodded, unfazed, almost as if he had expected this. "Moving on to the vote. When all votes are cast or at the end of an hour timeframe, whicheveres first-," began the Operator. "One hour? Ridiculous. All of you better cast your votes within five minutes. I value my time. And I assume you all value your own time as well." Jin Woo pressed on a helper bot''s screen, presumably putting his vote in with zero hesitation. Aldrich was impressed. The sheer amount of influence Jin Woo and Tychyus had was astounding. Dracul could ignore everyone because of his Sentinel status, but that did not mean anyone had to obey him. But Jin Woo and Tychus were different. As the heads of two military megacorporations that had thrived on the chaos of variant conflict, they had their tendrils locked throughout the world, in the economies of practically every country. ARMA''s mass produced weaponry and outsourced policing forces helped keep the streets safe on a near global scale. Imugi was less widespread than ARMA, focusing more on high end specialty tech, but their influence at the top level, in creating contracts directly with national militaries or governments, was unmatched. And, seeing this, Aldrich got a good idea of what Aarav had meant when he said this was going to be like an auction. This hearing was not meant to determine whether Aldrich was going to super-jail or not. No, it was going to decide who got to keep him on their side. In essence: a bidding war. Within five minutes, the votes were all cast. "The examiners of this hearing have dered in a 94-0 decision that Thanatos is not a threat to global security," said the Operator. Chapter ?300 Second Vote, First Offer Chapter ?300 Second Vote, First Offer "Then proceeding with the next and final case," said the Operator. She swiped her hands in front of her, shutting various holographic screens and recing them with new ones. "As Thanatos has not been deemed a threat, he must now be integrated into global defense. This open ended case will allow the examiners, all representatives of various arms of global defense, a discussion period to present motions. These motions will provide frameworks to integrate Thanatos. When all motions have been heard, the examined will determine what can work with them. If multiple motions are considered, then it wille down to a vote. The examined may also be freely questioned during this time, and they may also question the examiners." The Operator sighed, briefly ncing at the Fortune CEOs. She probably knew where this was headed. "As it stands, many of you have already prepared motions. If you would like to present them, please raise your hands." Immediately, Jin Woo and Tychus raised their hands. Green lights shone above their seats. Aldrich noticed none of the tier 1panies followed, but by the bodynguage of their executives, they were all in support of either Jin Woo or Tychus. In other words, corporate factions. A few seconds after, government representatives from the various gathered nation states raised their hands. Aldrich noticed with some curiosity two factions, however, that kept their hands down. One was Dracul, the Sentinel. The other was the Alterhuman Agency. On their section of the seats, Aldrich recognized the current president, Emrys Du Lac. Emrys just sat there, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, hands resting atop each other. His flowing white beard contrasted starkly with his jet ck eyes, eyes that looked like spatters of midnight that zoned in on Aldrich with hawk-like focus. Recognition was just about all Aldrich had, though. If the Fortune CEOs were mysterious, then Emrys was practically a cryptid. There was almost no information about him at all, and generally, it was deemed that he was more an ancient relic, upying the president spot simply because he was the descendant of the Du Lac family that founded the Alterhuman Agency generations ago. The real leader of the AA, it was assumed, was Mira Harker, the current CEO of the organization. The fact that Emrys was here and not Mira indicated to Aldrich that perhaps the AA did not care too much about him. Or, maybe, Emrys had a far bigger role than meets the eye. Generally speaking, there were three different factions here. The corporations, the United Front that consolidated nation state voices, and the AA. Four, if Aldrich counted Dracul, but he was more an outsider than anything else. Yet despite being an outsider, he was liable to be the most helpful out of all of them. "Let''s begin with Mr. Park''s motion," said the Operator. "Mr. Park, you have the stage." "Good." Jin Woo remained seated as he spoke. "Thanatos, that''s the name you chose, right?" Jin Woo paused, waiting for Aldrich to answer. "Yes." "The Greek personification of death, is it? Dark, mysterious, and brooding. No doubt, you''d be quite the marketing tool for the AA. Thanatos merchandise would sell like hotcakes on a busy street. Maybe that will raise the all time low that the AA''s hit with the public." Jin Woo shot a snide nce at Emrys, but Emrys did not register it or chose to ignore it. "But your talents have more worth than starring in the hundredth hero blockbuster or pumping out feel good speeches just to rack up AP. I''ve seen what you''ve done. How you work. You don''t like rules, otherwise you would''ve reached out to the AA yourself. You aren''t the type to get bogged down in themercial aspect of it all, otherwise Aarav would''ve bought you out entirely. Oh right, and about that, I hear Aarav''s father recently sent his heirs on a wild goose chase for immortality. Tsk." Jin Woo shook his head dismissively. "Old Singh should brush up on his mythology. From Gilgamesh to the Holy Grail - quests for immortality never really go right. Unless, of course, there just so happens to be a shortcut." Aldrich raised a brow under his helmet. Jin Woo got straight to the point. Bluntly, too. He wondered how Aarav was reacting to this, but knowing him, he was probably unfazed. "You''re in this for something bigger than yourself," said Jin Woo. "Tell me, what is it?" Aldrich mulled that question over for a bit. He did not want to reveal much for now, so all he did was utter one word: "Order." "Ah, order." Jin Woo lingered on Aldrich''s answer, as if savoring it. "Then we are just the same. World peace is a little dream of mine, and the first step to that is wiping out the Titan Nests. They may be sealed off now, their energy readings still stable, but what happens when they decide to spread open again? What happens when the Titans, apocalyptic threats, storm our cities once more? We can''t cower behind a single cape again like we did with Vanguard. There is no Vanguard. And nobodyes close to him anymore." Jin Woo shook his head. "We have to be more creative. One punch won''t solve this threat. But creativity and innovation is humanity''s forte, no? It''s been well known that variant minds are practically imprable. In some oddball cases, with variants bred in captivity over several generations, you get critters that will fetch for you instead of ripping your arm off, but wild ones? Not a chance. The scientificmunity, using data from psionic Alters that have tried to infiltrate variant minds, have posited the Hivemind Hypothesis. That is, there''s one big brain hidden out there that controls all the variants, which exins how coordinated they can get and the existence of Geists that seemingly live just to kill us. Some variants seem especially connected to this hivemind. We call them Locuses. Thirty three of them just so happened to initiate a worldwide attack on various major cities quite recently. If only there was a power out there that could sever that hivemind connection. Something that could rip the variants from the source of it all. If we could just develop it, replicate it, make it something to mass produce - there would be no variant threat at all, would there? What if we could refine it further? To the point where we could control the Titans themselves? Before they ever even awoke?" "Then get to the point. What''s your offer?" said Aldrich. Jin Woo was beating around the bush, hamming up how much Aldrich could solve the variant crisis to pressure Aldrich into a position where he would lose public support if he said no. Jin Woo paused for a stunned moment. It was probably the first time in quite a while that anyone had talked back to him like that. He chuckled. "Laconic. Very spartan. I like it. I''ll cut the fat and meat and get down to the bone, then. I''m offering you a spot as a chief operative in Imugi''s Owl Department. That department focuses on ssified ns, missions and research to fight against the ever present variant threat. For the curious global public, the Anti-Variant Signal tech you see propped up in your cities and roads - you can thank the Owl Department for that. As a chief operative, you will have virtually unlimited freedom to do all you want. The only man you will answer to throughout all heaven and earth will be me. You will get free ess to our state of the art variant database, tracking systems, and firepower with personnel as you need. Anyone that works with you now is free to work with you under me. State of the art research will go into making your powers work the best that they can and, maybe, bring about world peace." Thatst part was the biggest caveat. ''State of the art research'' was just a euphemism for ''trying to copy your powers''. Aldrich did not know if it was even possible for that to happen, but he was not inclined to find out. Aldrich was strong, yes, easily A-rank level strong, but he was not yet at the absolute top of the world. What gave him global leverage was his ability to raise undead. Giving that away? Not likely. Before Aldrich could answer, Tychus chimed in. "Before you answer, Thanatos, why don''t ya hear me out? I know ol'' Jin Woo''s offer sounds mighty tempting, but it''s always good to know your options." "I believe this is my time," said Jin Woo. "Jus'' giving him advice." Tychus maintained his sure smile. "If there is any chance for argument, I will exercise speech muting privileges," warned the Operator. Jin Woo shrugged, giving Tychus his say. The green light above Tychus''s area shone brighter, indicating it was his time to present. Chapter ?301 [Bonus chapter] Second Vote, Second Offer Chapter ?301 [Bonus chapter] Second Vote, Second Offer "Jin Woo''s got a lotta ambition," said Tychus. "Real hungry, he is, just like his pops and his pops before him." Tychus chuckled. "World peace, he says, thinkin'' real big, but I think he''s forgettin'' about the little people. Makes sense, considerin'' hispany makes them fancy, secret tech, but here at ARMA, we''re a familypany - we see you folk no matter how small or big. Everyone knows our guns, specially'' the green grade line that we make sure is affordable for everyone. Now, let''s entertain Jin Woo''s ideas here. Say that this n to turn the Titans into our lil pets doesn''t work, then what? We just kicked the mother of all ho''s nests without a n B, C, D, E, or F. If it''s order you want, Thanatos, then we gotta start small. Jin Woo''s a bright kid, and he''s right about one thing: the variants do gotta go. But we gotta start small. We gotta make sure the families are protected first. Then, when homes and cities are all clear, we can think about the big stuff." "Again, can you get to your offer?" said Aldrich, stopping Tychus from rambling on about family this and that - empty appeals to emotion to pressure Aldrich. In the corner of Aldrich''s vision, he thought he could see Jin Woo''s shoulders go up and down in a chuckle. "Sure thing." Tychus kept his grin andposure, more used to pushback than Jin Woo was. "I jus'' want a tough guy like you to show the variants hell the way ya want to. But the thing is, my Blue Force boys ain''t the type that''ll fit ya. They make sure the streets are safe in the cities, but goin'' out to Wastnd territory and knockin'' down variants, it ain''t their thing." Aldrich wondered where Tychus was going with this. ARMA''s Blue Force was thergest private police force in the world, operating in practically every major country. Basically, outsourced peacekeeping. Like most of ARMA''s wares, the Blue Force was quantity over quality for the most part, their contracts affordable and done with men in bulk. Not at all the ce for Aldrich, who, if he was a mercenary, would be more like a specialty elite unit. On top of that, the Blue Force were well regted in spite of their quantity, operating under fairly strict procedures that minimized losses, liability to thepany, and potentially bad PR incidents with the public. In that regard, Imugi was a far better offer for Aldrich as far as freedom went. But Tychus knew that already. He had something else up his sleeve. "But I ain''t about to let that stop me!" Tychus dered. "See, ARMA''s run our Blue Force boys with the idea that we''d sweep the streets, and outside the walls, the AA would pack the punch to the variants. It''s worked for decades, specially'' when Vanguard was out thereying a smackdown when it mattered. Now, though, there ain''t no Vanguard. The AA''s been havin'' it tough, losin'' that bright star of theirs, not to mention other issues. I feel sorry for em'', it ain''t right they gotta shoulder such a big burden all by their lonesome selves. I think it''s about time the AA got some help. It''s about time ARMA stopped jus'' lookin'' at the streets and went beyond. And so I''m unveilin'' ns to start a hero corp of my own. ns ain''t really set with it, hell, I ain''t even got a name for it yet, but believe me, once I get my gears runnin'', things ought to fall in ce quick." Tychus pointed at Aldrich. "You, Thanatos, I''m hopin'' to see right at the very top of it." Everyone else was muted, but Aldrich picked up a wave of motion coursing through the entire crowd of examiners, all of them turning to talk with each other at this huge revtion. The AA had stood withoutpetition for close to a hundred years, founded directly with the support of Vanguard, the former world symbol of hope. But with Vanguard gone, the AA also lost more of its shine. Right now, the AA was at its lowest, weakest state. The perfect time for apetitor to rise up. And ARMA, with its friendly image, spotless PR, and wide revenue stream that beat out Imugi by a fair margin - in fact, as far as worths went, ARMA was nearly practically number 1 in the world - had both the support and funds to do just that. Aldrich did not seriously consider this offer either. If he did, he was just going to be the mouthpiece for Tychus''s new pet project. Not what he wanted. Jin Woo''s offer was more typical of a corporate Suit. More self centered. He wanted Aldrich''s power for his own, and he wanted it only for himself. Tychus was wilder, almost insane with his proposition. He wanted to bring the fight to the AA, an organization thought to practically be an immovable monolith. Aldrich was just one piece in the bigger weapon that would try to bring the AA down. Inrge manner, the offers mirrored the personalities of their respective CEOs. But both offers missed Aldrich. Expected, too. His goal was first and foremost to be a Sentinel, but nobody here would ept that. It would be like striking gold and just burying it over. This was a room of hungry, opportunistic vultures. Not happening. It was up to Aldrich to demand his freedom, real freedom, but before he did, he wanted to hear what people here wanted to say. Mostly to get a read on them. He got an idea of how the two Fortune CEOs were like, so next was the United Front of nation states. "So, how about it, champ? Want to make a difference? With me?" Tychus smiled brightly. "For everyone?" "And what about the United Front?" said Aldrich, motioning to the government representatives. "United? Heh, ain''t the word I''d use for em'', but I''ll pass the mic over to their side." Tychus shrugged. "Think it through, Thanatos, cause'' this is an opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to make the biggest difference you can think of." Tychus tipped his cowboy hat and pressed a holograph screen in front of him, removing him from sound projection. "I''ll present my motion first." The green light shone over the United States. The secretary of defense, Emmet Rye, known as the ''Gator'' for his crocodilian mutant traits, stood up. "On behalf of the United States." Chapter ?302 Sentinel Chapter ?302 Sentinel Aldrich inspected Emmet. As far as mutants went, his mutation was not severe. His skin had a dark green tint to it from his thick, leathery scales. But overall, he was quite humanoid, with a square face, yellow red slit eyes, and visibly sharp teeth that still made it clear that even if he was recognizable as a man, he still very much had quite a bit of mutant in him. But more man than monster. Emmet was dressed up in appropriate military garb decorated with badges to signify outstanding heroism and his position as a general. As far as public information showed, Aldrich knew that Emmet was a war hero who had put his life on the line more times than the average man ever had the balls to do in multiple lifetimes. Aldrich did not know how much of that was PR, but he could respect a man that could risk their lives for others. "First, a few questions for Thanatos," said Emmet. "Our reports on you show what you did, but little about who you are, and for you to be part of anything defensible, we''ve got to know you a bit better. So, why don''t you introduce yourself? Where''d youe from? Who really are you, under that armor of yours? You showed up in Haven, which is U.S. territory. You from there?" Jin Woo''s voice cut in with a guillotine edge. "I''d like to object to this line of questioning. Thanatos should have a right to privacy. Tychus and I have respectfully tread around personal questions, but it seems that the U.S., as usual,cks tact." "I agree with Jin Woo on that one," said Tychus. "Ain''t right for a man to get hounded so much after what he''s been through, locked up like that after he got done savin'' a whole city." Aldrich understood what was going on here. Emmet, and by extension the United States, naturally wanted more information on him. After all, the Fortune CEOs had done practically no questioning. All they had done was tossed their offers in the air. Though Emmet was being friendly, it was obvious that his questioning would soon try to to pry into how Aldrich''s powers functioned or how many troops he had. The questions were meant to mine data. Data to determine Aldrich''s threat level. This reflected the U.S. government''s attitude. They treated him as an unknown variable that they still had to figure out whether to oppose or not. Not even the government could directly oppose two Fortune CEOs, so it had cast a yes vote for Thanatos not being a threat. But that did not mean they did not truly consider Aldrich a threat. It just meant they were pressured to say yes at this hearing. If push came to shove and the government did deem him a threat post-hearing, Aldrich had no illusion that they could and would make his unlife much harder in both direct and indirect ways. Indirectly, they could cut off support for Haven. Directly, they could send military force against Aldrich, especially if he rejected the protection the CEOs tacitly promised. Speaking of, the Fortune CEOs did not try to block these questions out of generosity. They saw Aldrich basically as their next new shiny and ssified project, though less ssified in Tychus''s case. Even then, if Aldrich was going to be the face of a new hero organization, he probably would not have all his information revealed to begin with. Naturally, the CEOs wanted to minimize knowledge of Aldrich''s abilities, origins, literally everything about him, as much as possible. Because all of that was valuable information on their new project that otherpetitors could use. "Thanatos can answer for himself," countered Emmet. He met Jin Woo''s sharp voice with gritty calm. "And he can choose to remain silent as well, if that''s what he wants." "General Rye, what''s the end goal of all this questioning? Are you going to offer me something? Or do you want me to share valuable information for nothing?" said Aldrich. Again, he wanted to get to the point. If he did cooperate with the government, where would that get him? "The point of this second case is to debate how you should be integrated into global defense of which the states is a major part of. I have to mention too that your operations so far have all been on U.S. soil, and as an unknown entity, I''m sure you know how much of a headache that poses for both of us. I''m no legal expert or even a proper politician, but even ayman like myself understands that it''ll be one massive knot to untie. Unless, that is, we cane to an agreement here." Emmet motioned to Jin Woo and Tychus. "It''s all the rage to work for a bigpany these days. More money in itpared to a government job. But I''ll say this: there are things that the government can do and know thatpanies, no matter how important they like to think they are, can''t get their grubby hands on. And, I don''t know if this applies to you, but I still believe there''s some honor in serving your country." "I see," said Aldrich. This went about how he expected it to go. The U.S. was essentially using the leverage they had over Aldrich - the fact that Haven and all his actions were on U.S. soil - against him. Granted, the government also offered a job, probably nning to turn Aldrich into a government operative andb rat. Aldrich figured he had a good enough read of how things would go from here. The United Front nation states would try to get information from Aldrich, and the corporations would try their best to keep him privatized. Other countries had less leverage than the U.S. on Aldrich, but maybe they would offer more freedom or more resources to try and sway him from the U.S. But unless that freedom was absolute, Aldrich did not care about it. He did not want to be anyone''s tool. He had fought enough battles and amassed enough power not to bow his head to anyone. Thatst part about service to country, that was particrlyughable. As a Dud, Aldrich had been a nobody his entire life, and the government had barely done anything to change that. Aldrich had no loyalty to any g. His only loyalty was, as always, to himself. "I see," repeated Aldrich. "See what?" said Emmet. "I see that it doesn''t matter whether you''re a general, a government rep, or a Fortune CEO. You''re all the same. You want to use me for your own good," said Aldrich. "Which ispletely understandable. I don''t judge any of you for wanting this. It''s simply logical to want the best for yourselves. But then again, wouldn''t it also be logical for me to look out for myself?" The Operator chimed in. "I will remind the examined that the purpose of this hearing is to determine integration. If you reject motions drafted for you, there will be pushback." "Pushback? Locked in a cell for a week after saving thousands of lives sounds like pushback already." Aldrich shrugged. "Rx. I''m not here to stand against all of you. If I wanted to, I wouldn''t even be here to begin with. Even now, I could disappear without a trace, and none of you could ever catch me." An ufortable series of looks switched between many of the examiners, though some, the big dogs like the Fortune CEOs and the reps of the bigger countries, did not bat an eye. They likely already determined that there was no way Thanatos would hand himself over to the authorities unless he had some kind of insurance to get out. "I want to work with all of you," continued Aldrich. "After all, as you all have so aptlyid out, you have resources and power. But only on the condition that I be free." "As an examined, you do not have the right to present motions of your own," said the Operator. "As indicated by article-," "Article 44A, yes, I read through the rules for the hearing when I got here," said Aldrich. "What are you suggesting then?" said Supermind, his hand on his chin. "Mr. Park, you said before that if I worked with you, I would not bow to anyone under heaven and earth except you, correct?" said Aldrich. "Well, I want to go a step further. I will not bow for you, or for anyone else here. If I''m going to be working with you all, for global defense, then it won''t be as a subordinate; it will be as an equal." Supermind''s X shaped pupils widened in recognition. The same recognition flickered across the faces of many of the examiners. Dracul, normally utterly emotionless, faintly smiled. "You can''t mean..." began Supermind. "I want to be recognized as a Sentinel. I want my own power. My own authority," said Aldrich. "Authority on par with an entire nation. Or a global mega-corporation. Because that is how much my power is worth." Chapter ?303 Sentinel Vote...? Chapter ?303 Sentinel Vote...? A massivemotion, one far bigger than any before, ran across the whole hearing like lightning, electrifying the examiners. Suited men and women talked among each other, turning their heads, checking screens, phones, devices, anything to try and shed some light on this sudden turnaround. "Power on par with nations? Sure, that''s debatable. There are some nations out here that are worth nothing without the alliances they''re in," said Jin Woo. "But equal to us? The Council of Fortune? With a snap of our fingers, we could set send our fragile global economy into a freefall it''ll never recover from. You think you have that much power?" "Now, let''s not get too rowdy here. We don''t see eye to eye on too many things on that council," said Tychus, his smile for once fading. "See, the world''s a buncha movin'' parts that work together. If you stand out from it, the whole machine''s liable to jus'' break down. But if there''s one thing we all agree on, it''s that we want that machine to keep runnin''. You step outta line, threaten to tip the machine over, then I ain''t sure what''ll happen." "Those generous offers turned into threats quick," said Aldrich. "Ain''t a threat. More like course correction," said Tychus. So this was what happened when Aldrich tried to shake up the world order. If epting a deal with anyone here was poking the ho''s nest, then dering Sentinel status was like taking the nest, stomping it apart, and then torching the hos. "You do understand you''ll onlyplicate your situation even further?" said Emmet. "Bing a Sentinel - an independent actor - and taking over U.S. territory: tell me, if that isn''t an invasion, then what is?" "I am curious." Dracul spoke, his voice echoing softly with a slight rasp - a voice meant for a night creature. The moment Dracul spoke, everyone else grew quiet, showing, in the end, who really had the most power here. "Do you think you have the power to be like us? To be a Sentinel? To be beyond everything?" Aldrich took in that question. He had read up on how governments and the AA had started to ssify Thanatos. Generally, Thanatos was considered an A rank disaster, which ording to typical AA guidelines was the ssification granted to variants or viins that needed multiple coordinated A rankers to stop. That was respectable, but a Sentinel was an entire level above that. They were basically the firepower of a major country packed into one Alter. Aldrich was not yet at that level. But that was just in terms of raw power. "Do I think I personally have that power? Maybe not." Aldrich put his gauntleted hand to his heart with a heavy thud of metal. "But I am not alone. I am legion. If any of you makes me an enemy today, you make an enemy not just of me, but of countless others. Beings as strong as me, stronger than me, and countless many weaker - they all stand united with me. And united against my enemies." "How much military strength do you even have?" said Emmet. "You act like you can stand against the entirety of the U.S." "Enough to be confident. Enough to make it clear that if all of you today decide to stand against me, I won''t be afraid to fight back," said Aldrich. "But again, it''s your choice whether to ept me or not. Either I be a Sentinel, or a viin the likes of which you have never seen since the Age of Viins." "You would stand here and dere the entire world your enemy?" said Emmet. "I could" said Aldrich. He was bluffing, of course. Taking on the whole world was impossible right now. But escaping deep into the Wastnds and building up an unstoppable variant army? That was very, very possible. And making himself into an impossiblyrge threat incentivized the examiners to grant him Sentinel status that much more. Otherwise, instead of a Sentinel, they would have a viin on their hands. "Hahahah." Dracul chuckled, amused. He leaned forward with eager smile. "That confidence, I will acknowledge it. I hear from my crows in the Underworld that you are to stand against the Trident. Is that true?" "It is," dered Aldrich. "I have a personal stake in seeing their destruction." "As do I." Dracul nodded. "The Trident is like a cancer. It spreads its tumors everywhere. In every government. In everypany. Trying to rip them out is impossible. Always, there will be a bribed official, a corrupt politician, a bought out suit to stand in your way. They stood in my way too long. My family died. I took things into my own hands. I broke all the rules. Now, I am Sentinel. Is this what you wish as well?" "It''s what I need" said Aldrich, staring right at Dracul. Dracul''s dark eyes were hard to read, but the intensity behind them, honed by lost love and vengeance, was an intensity that Aldrich could reflect in his own eyes. "Operator, Supermind, I acknowledge Sentinel status for Thanatos," said Dracul. "This current case has nothing to do with Sentinel status" said the Operator. "Oh, but it does," said Aldrich. "ording to your own rules, nothing forbids the examined from ever asking for Sentinel status. The idea being that if you''re strong enough to even consider it, nobody can say ''no'' to you anyway." "..." the Operator pursed her lips, unsure of herself. "That is true," said Supermind. "But in all past cases, those that have tried to get Sentinel status have been no brainer decisions. Either they were tantly above the rules, or they were delusional and in over their heads. You, though, are maybe the first where things aren''t so clear cut. In the end, your Sentinel status would have toe down to a vote." "Vote? A silly joke." Dracul leaned back in his seat of solidified darkness, putting his elbow on an armrest of shadow while resting his stubble decorated chin on his fist. "All of you here know that Sentinels are not appointed by vote, they are appointed by necessity. Any man worthy to be Sentinel is raw, untamed power. If you do not respect it, it will turn against you. Is that not why I was appointed Sentinel? Because all of you fear that if you do not give me respect, I will swallow one of your countries whole in darkness. But go ahead. Cast your votes. And Thanatos, when you are done with this charade, you are free to reach out to me on the matter of the Trident." "I''ll keep that in mind" said Aldrich. He turned to Supermind. "Then go ahead and start that vote." "Are you sure about this? Like I said, this isn''t an open and shut case. The vote could go either way. And if it doesn''t go the way you want it to, by globalw, you will be considered an ouw. In the eyes of the U.S., you''d instantly be promoted to an invader." "I''m sure. I want to make this happen while all of you are here in one ce." Aldrich readied Fler''Gan''s potion, having his mental trigger finger on the hypnotic suggestion effect''s activation. "I will go ahead and authorize a Sentinel Status Consideration Vote" said Supermind. "Operator, load the appropriate information and voting procedurals." Once the vote started, Aldrich would use the suggestive effect to get as much of the examiners on board as possible. He was fairly certain he could not get everyone here on his side. At least a few of them had to have had strong enough wills to resist. But could he get a majority? Aldrich was fairly confident, but there was a definite possibility it would not work out. In that case, he would default to his n of setting up base in the Wastnds, which he was much more confident in doing now because he had Dracul''s support. Not many would dare to go after Aldrich if they thought it meant crossing Dracul. "Operator?" Supermind furrowed his brows, his hovering wheelchair floating up to the Operator''s side. The Operator seemed to be nkly staring in front of her, as if in a daze. Her eyes turned from teal green to bright, icy blue. The same shade of blue of the frost bots. With a violent motion, the Operator whirled around and mmed her fist into Supermind''s chest. Her mechsuit arm punched right through Supermind''s age weakened flesh and bone and even popped right through his hovering chair. Sparks crackled out from the hole in the chair outlining the Operator''s arm, illuminating shreds of viscera and spatters of blood on once clean white ting. Spermind''s cross shaped pupils dted, then thinned into nothing but nk white. Dark tendrils erupted from the Operator''s shadow, impaling her up high and away from Supermind. Supermind slumped over, falling forward onto clean white tiles. A gaping holey bare in his chest, where his heart used to be. "Get him treatment!" roared Dracul as he got off his chair of darkness, fully mobilized. The Judicata, the entirety of the space station, started to shake. The lighting turned pale blue. The lights in all of the bots present, all of the deadly Panopticon battle drones and bots, flickered from green to the same shade. The Operator was connected to the Judicata and every single piece of robotics within it. If she had been taken over, then everything else was too. The bots and drones were the least of anyones worries here. The S ss heroes were more than enough to annihte the machines. It was the Judicata itself. If the structure had been taken over, then - The floor started to violently shake. "The self-destruction sequence has been initiated!" shouted a visored techno. Chapter 304 Attack on the Judicata Chapter 304 Attack on the Judicata Chaos unfolded all around Aldrich as machines turned rogue. The cacophony ofsers and energy weapons from Panopticon bots made up a wild lightshow of zig-zagging sts, some of which managed to bore through examiners, burning out sizzling, scorch lined holes in them. Thankfully, the sts did not burn through the Judicata''s walls because they were shielded, but the self-destruction sequence rendered that a moot point for celebration. Aldrich briefly assessed the situation with the examiners. First, the United Front - The S ss heroes, as expected, were holding up just fine. Mushin and Machine Emperor protected the Asian Alliance. Mushin used his invisible sword and expert agility, darting from bot to bot with superhuman physicals, erasing chunks of the bots out of exsitence with swings so fast that Aldrich could not even perceive them. Machine Emperor had gone from tacky purple and gold two piece suit to his signature silver mechsuit in an instant using nanotech. A glowing gold core shone at his chest, showcasing the star reactor that powered it. With energy beams of his own, Machine Emperor annihted hordes of bots with ease, his golden rays melting through the Panopticon machines like a molten hot knife through butter. "Chain lightning!" Indra shouted as he sted bots with bright blue arcs of electricity that bounced from bot to bot, causing them to short circuit before turning molting hot and exploding. "Chain lightning!" Indra flew around rapidly, his body half physical, half energy, as he spammed the same move over and over again. Star Spartan guarded both the Eastern European Block and the European Union, flying around rapidly with his spear struck forward, turning into a livinget that blew apart bots at extreme speeds, swiftly changing direction even at awkward angles. Kinesis guarded the United States using her signature mind constructs - bright white energy structures made with force of will. A forcefield was erected all around the U.S. representatives while she created a machine gun construct that gunned down bots en masse. It was hard to tell whether Kinesis was putting in any effort considering she always had a visored mask on, but Aldrich doubted it. The world hailed her as the next Supermind, someone who, given time, could stand near, if not at the top of the hero world. Though it was hard to tell anything more about her. She was secretive. No interviews. No publicity. The fact that she was even here was a surprise in of itself. The rest of the United Front states did alright, even without S ss heroes. A rankersbined with bodyguards did just fine against the rampaging bots. The Antarctic Settlers, in particr, were in their element. As a nation state of mutants that valued strength, their representatives were all tough in their own right. They were their own bodyguards. With ws, jaws, tendrils, spikes, and tails, they tore through the bots like they were scrap. Then, the Fortune CEOs - Jin Woo sat in calm against the torrent ofsers. His bodyguards protected Imugi''s personnel with ease. There were only six of them, all armored in head to toe with sleek ckbat armor lined with bright blue energy lines. Their helmets had single horns jutting from the sides. These were the Six Serpents, Jin Woo''s personal security detail that was said to have never failed. With energy swords, shields, and abination of Alter powers that, from a quick nce, Aldrich identified as telekinesis that could blow things apart from the inside out, threads of energy that could control bots like puppets, and an ability to project after-images at superspeed to cut down bots, the Six Serpents annihted any rogue machinery that came near their vicinity. One of the Serpents knelt down with a hand on their chest, and in a few seconds, a spatial distortion rippled out, but then fizzled out, the warped space quickly returning to normal. Aldrich understood what had happened. Jin Woo had tried to warp out, but the Judicata, like all Panopticon Pirs, was Warp-Locked. Nothing could warp in or out as a security measure. "Hm." Aldrich punched a bot that got close to him in the face, knocking its head off. He fired a few [Death Bolts], destroying several clusters of drones. Energy bolts rained down on him, though they could not get through his energy resistant [Death Essence Barrier]. But the fighting was just routine habit, like taking a stroll in the park - his mental energy was diverted to figuring this situation out. The higher tier bots, armed with serious, explosive firepower, would be up here soon. Those were no joke. The ss 2 and 1 drones, for example, were said to be capable of taking out A rank disasters. The Judicata was shaped like an ordinary Panopticon Pir, that is, a lengthy, roughly cylindrical structure with bots and drones packed into every nook and cranny from top to bottom. The hearing room was situated at the very top while the strongest bots were packed at the bottom. If the whole Pir was taken over, then the bots were on their way up. From below, Aldrich saw thousands of drones and humanoid bots flying their way up, forming a massive locust swarm of white ted metal bodies - an apocalyptic gue of mechanical destruction. Three minutes until this ce blows!" shouted the techno from before. Not to mention the looming threat of self destruction. Aldrich manifested his new cloak and flew into the air,nding on Supermind''s tform. Draculnded beside him. Severalbat medics followed, thrusters from their boots and the backs of theirbat suits letting them fly in. They knelt over Supermind''s body, theirpound eye like green goggles emitting scanning beams all over Supermind''s body. A dome of shadows rose up around everyone, blocking out sts. "Can you see in the dark?" said Dracul. "Yes" said Aldrich. He inspected Supermind. The elderly man''s heart waspletely pulverized. Yet, remarkably, Supermind was still alive, though barely. The perks of being a top tier Alter. His eyes, now nk, roughly focused on Aldrich. "Ir-Irregr¡­" "His condition''s too far gone," said one of the medics. "Initiate cryostasis. The least we can do is preserve his body." Aldrich''s [Death Sense] triggered, and he could see Supermind''s body lit in a green silhouette, near death. However, he could also see something else. A gray tint to the silhouette. Supermind was cursed. Aldrich had theorized before that the way that the Stranger''s attacks seemingly had a curse like function to it that rendered whatever it killed, such as Randall, unable to be raised as an undead. Or rather, one could raise them as a corpse, but not with their soul intact. However, it was impossible to tell. The soul purging was like the purifying or curse effects in Elden World, but other than that, there was nothing to tie it to the game. It could have been an Alter power that did the same. Or an alien one. But now, it was more obvious. This energy was very much like the curse effect in Elden World, registering as such in his [Death Sense]. ''Vntis, tell me, is that demonic?'' ryed Aldrich. ''Your ability to sense energy is the best there is. The best even among the Necropolis.'' ''It is. But unlike any demon I have encountered before,'' said Vntis. ''But I must you remind you, O Armored, that demons are creatures of many realms. They are spread across a wide breadth, many of them in realms so far from each other that they know not the slightest bit about each other. Over time, these differences, especially with our ability to adapt to new realms, may grow to such extent that some demons may be unrecognizable from others." ''I see.'' It was basically divergent evolution. Demons that settled in different realms over time could develop so many differences that they essentially became new species. ''Our power, ''curse magic'', as the Elduin Realm called it, is one that predates the realm. It is a primordial force of erasure that represents the inevitable end of all things, and it can take many shapes and forms across many different realms. This cursed energy is unlike any I have encountered before.'' ''So a demon from another realm,'' said Aldrich. ''That is my guess.'' ''Good. Then I know more about what I''m dealing with.'' Aldrich mentally took note that the Stranger had tried his best to conceal his demonic origins before. With the frost bots, their energy was more concealed. ''Cleaner'' as it were, harder to trace. But with this, a direct attack, probably from the Stranger himself, his energy signature was right here in a much stronger concentration. It would be possible to identify the Stranger by analyzing the energy signature. He was sure Med and the Death Lord could focus on using Supermind''s body far better than Randall''s. However, that meant taking Supermind''s body - the body of a worldwide treasure and hero. "Get the cryo-injection" said the medic. "Wait" said Aldrich. "Will you restore him?" said Dracul. "No, once he dies, he dies. But I can track his killer down with the body." "If you can do that, we can too. We can''t just give up his body to you," said the medic. "You can and you will, if you value finding the killer at all. There are things that I alone can do." Aldrich nodded to Dracul. "If I have his body, I can take the next step in breaking the Trident apart as well." "Listen to him" Dracul ordered. "On my authority as a Sentinel." "¡­" the medics looked at each other, unsure what to do. Even with Dracul ordering them, handing over Supermind''s body was something they were hesitant to do. "It''s¡­fine." Supermind spoke softly, thest inches of his life barely staying together. "A long time ago, back when I fought Zahak, Vanguard, when he still smiled, said something to me. He said, ''it takes an Irregr to beat an Irregr''. I thought...it was stupid logic. But now, I think...maybe there is some truth to it. Take my body. Hopefully, it will help you see." Supermind''s breathing slowed, his gaze drifting from Aldrich to the ceiling. "Soon, my old friend...I will be there." The old hero, one of the three greats of old, drew hisst breath. Chapter ?305 Rescue Chapter ?305 Rescue "Thank you." Aldrich watched as Supermind''s life finally faded away. His emotions towards seeing humans die were muted, but he did feel loss for Supermind. Aldrich had looked up to the Triune when he was a child, just like countless other children. His biggest hero inspiration was Vanguard, but Supermind was a close second. Supermind, the suave, quiet, cool character that contrasted with Vanguard''s bombastic loudness. In many ways, Aldrich rted more with Supermind than Vanguard. But that was the past. When he always looked up. Now, Aldrich stood at the precipice, at the very edge of the tip of the world. Supermind was an equal to him. And because they were equals, Supermind trusted Aldrich to avenge him. This, above anything else, validated to Aldrich that he belonged here. At the top of the world. "Take the body quickly. We have the machines to deal with" said Dracul. Aldrich nodded. He ced his hand on Supermind''s chest. ''Chrysa, I need you to take something in for me. A body'' said Aldrich mentally. ''Another body? They''re gross! But okay, father.'' White threads appeared from Aldrich''s hand, wrapping all around Supermind''s corpse like silk woven around prey caught in a spiderweb. With a sh of light, Supermind''s body disappeared. "What''s going on?" one of the medics muttered. The other medics looked around, dazed. "Hm. We are under attack" said Dracul. "Once I lower this dome of shadows, treat any injured you find." "Roger that, sir." Aldrich, like Dracul, understood what had happened. Supermind had wiped the medics'' memories of this encounter to prevent them from spilling any details about the conversation that had just transpired. Dracul''s shadow sphere broke apart, and thebat medics flew away with their thrusters, activating energy shields on their arms to deflect a hailstorm ofsers and bullets as they returned to the examiners. That same hailstorm now assailed Aldrich and Dracul. Aldrich''s [Death Essence Barrier] flickered rapidly as bolt after bolt fizzled into nothingness against it. Dracul, on the other hand, just stood there. All the projectiles just sunk into his body, marking out little indents of pure darkness where they disappeared into an endless void. Whenever a bot or drone got too close, tendrils of dark from Dracul''s body and shadow wouldsh out, eviscerating them. "That is a fine forcefield. Personal tech?" asked Dracul. "Something like that." Aldrich assessed the situation. The situation was still rtively stable. Only a few examiners, it seemed, had died, with various others injured. The S ss heroes were holding back their strength. Mostly because they did not want to get make the Judicata explode, unstable as it already was with the self destruction sequence. But they also had to worry about the much weaker examiners getting caught in the crossfire of their area of effect attacks. "This is a waste of time" said Aldrich, his voice projecting loud over the din of battle with the aid of Vntis. "The Judicata is set to explode. It might not take out the toughest of us, but it''ll wipe out most of the examiners. The main focus should be in getting out." Dracul tossed Aldrich a earpiece, and he plugged it into his ear, the metal tendrils of his helm dragging the trinket into the side of his bare skull. "I am tired of projecting my voice" said Dracul. "And that will give you ess to thework the heroes are using. So, what do you suggest? I do not care much whether they die, but to you, I am sure, it is more important." "I still need them for my vote." Aldrich tapped the side of his helm, willing Vntis to fiddle with the earpiece. "Can you store people in your shadows? I know that there''s more space inside them than meets the eye." Dracul shook his head. "My shadows are not a good ce to be. Anything swallowed within them - crushed to nothingness." "That''s fine," said Aldrich. "I have a way out. I just need some coordination." "Coordination in this chaos? Doubtful" said Dracul, eyeing the examiners as they ran around, shouted at each other, or hunkered down behind their guards and heroes. In Aldrich''s interface, he had his eyes set on Fler''Gan''s potion. Its effects were dormant, ready to activate at any moment. "I''ll make it happen." Aldrich flew into the air, his dark green, tattered cape of souls billowing behind him. He connected to the channel the S ss heroes used. Immediately, he started to hear the din of several voices ring in his ear. "We need to get the examiners out!" Star Spartan''s gruff voice rung out. "Machine Emperor, you''re trying to take control of the Judicata back - how''s that looking!?" "I can''t get in. Whatever took control of the Judicata - it''spletely foreign, unlike any cyberspace signature I''ve seen." "Then we need to do physical evac! Before this ce blows!" said Star Spartan. "This entire Pir ispromised. All doors are locked; all escape pods or aircraft have been destroyed" said Machine Emperor. "And if you want to punch your way out, the Pir will recognize significant enough structural damage and initiate its self destruction early. Only we, the S ss, can survive an explosion like that. And even then, Mushin cannot breathe in space." "Damn it, that means warping is our only way out, but-," began Star Spartan. "But the Warp-Lock is imprable. There is no better Warp-Lock tech in the world than the Panopticon''s." Machine Emperor sighed. "We may have to cut our losses, Spartan. Save just important ones. If ites down to it, I can spread my shielding to a few people, and I''ll have to do that with the Asian Alliance representatives I''ve been tasked to escort." "We still have Kinesis. She can create arge enough construct that we can group all the examiners in. Then, I can propel it out of the Judicata" said Star Spartan. "I can outrun the explosion with my Comet Form. The speed may hurt them, even kill some, but it will save the most lives." "I am afraid I cannot do that" said Kinesis. "What?" Star Spartan sounded stunned. "I am contracted only to protect the United States examiners" said Kinesis. "Bullshit! Now is not the time for this!" roared Star Spartan. "Most of us here don''t have powers for rescue! This is up to you!" That was on the United Front representatives, noted Aldrich. They had brought heroes that were the strongest, not the best for rescue because they wanted to project power. They would not have expected in a million years to get attacked right inside Panopticon territory. "Agreed" said Machine Emperor. "Now''s not the time to be getting leashed to a contract like some desperate dog. We''re S ss heroes, not mascot mutts. We have the authority to improvise. If I could, I would call up shuttles from my space station, but even if they could get here in time, I''m locked out. This is up to you, Kinesis." "My brother is one of India''s examiners. Kinesis, if you don''t do this, I''m personallying after your ass!" shouted Indra. "Some of the representatives could have left already by breaching the Judicata''s walls" said Mushin. "Such as the Fortune CEOs. They have Alters with forcefields and warp capability with them. They could break out of the walls, protect themselves from the st, and warp away. But that would doom everyone else to the explosion. The reason they have not left is because even they trust in us toe up with a solution. A solution to save them all. After all, that is why we are S ss. When we arrive, there are supposed to be no more deaths. Will you break that trust?" "My contract forbids me from aiding any other nation state or group without explicit permission" said Kinesis. "And I have yet to receive orders to aid other nation states or heroes." "A contract won''t save you from me, you dumb bitch!" shouted Indra. "I am sorry. But I am not authorized to use my abilities in this manner" said Kinesis, her voice emotionless. "But I am." Aldrich''s voice rang through the channel. "You - Thanatos!?" said Star Spartan. "How did you get this channel!?" "Doesn''t matter." Aldrich continued. "Time is tight, so I''ll exin this quickly. I can warp the examiners here out." "The Warp-Lock-," began Machine Emperor. "Also doesn''t matter to me," said Aldrich. "I need all the examiners packed into one space. I''ll have Dracul protect it. Then, I''ll warp them out. Afterwards, I can keep them safe in space, but they''ll be stuck to one spot. From there, we can let the Judicata self-destruct. Without the interference, Machine Emperor, you can bring the examiners back down to Earth with your shuttles." "How can we be so sure that this will work? That we can even trust you?" said Star Spartan. "What other option do you have?" said Aldrich. "This is the solution that will save as many lives as possible." "I''ll go with the new kid''s n!" said Indra. "Whole lot better than doing absolutely nothing." "Right. We can''t be picky with our options here" said Machine Emperor. "Alright then!" said Star Spartan. "Let''s make this happen!" Aldrich flew above the examiners. ''Vntis, project my voice as much as possible'' said Aldrich. ''I shall, Armored. Now project your will upon these mortals.'' Aldrich activated Fler''Gan''s potion. "All of you," said Aldrich, his voice emanating outwards with powerful waves. "If you want to live, then you listen to me. When Ind, gather around me. I will warp you all away. In exchange, you will vote for me. I will have your goodwill - a fair price to pay for your lives." Aldrich paused for a moment, letting the words sink into the examiners as they stared up at him. Chapter ?306 Rescue 2 Chapter ?306 Rescue 2 "Seems a fair price to me." Words that oozed authority echoed in Aldrich''s ear. "I, Emrys Du Lac, grant you my vote to be Sentinel, as will all others representing the Alterhuman Agency today." Emrys nodded as he stood tall with his hands sped behind his back. In spite of the chaos all around him, he remained utterly calm, his eyes of pure, solid ck staring right at Aldrich with a fierce focus, much like the gaze of a hawk. Around him, A ranker heroes dealt with bots, destroying them or shielding against their sts. "Hmph. My Serpents are more than capable enough of protecting me through the Judicata''s self-destruction." Jin Woo''s voice spoke to Aldrich now. "And I hoped to create a fine partnership with you. But I suppose this is interesting in its own right. I will go ahead and cast my vote for you. All my partneredpanies will as well." "I''m game for it too," said Tychus. "I was goin'' to say, no need to worry about ol'' me. My buds here would''ve taken care of me." He gestured around himself with chubby arms, pointing out his bodyguards. Unlike with Jin Woo, they seemed to be hired guns. Mercenaries. But top of the line and professional enough to Tychus to stay cool and not think about running at all even in this situation. "But it''ll be interesting to see what you do as well." "We will acknowledge your Sentinel status," said one of the representatives in the European Union. "As will we," said someone from the Asian Alliance. On and on, spurred on by Fler''Gan''s potion - a potion whose effects only intensified when targets were under strong emotions created by, say, the imminent threat of death - members of the United Front cast their support for Aldrich. "There are too many of you," said Jin Woo, annoyed. "I get it. We acknowledge him. So just gather around before this ce blows up before you can all finish your spiel." Aldrich sensed that this was enough support. Hended on the ground, cape of souls billowing around him. As soon as he did so, the examiners started to rush towards him like moths to an open light. The Fortune CEOs and Emrys took their time, letting everyone pass before them so as not to get caught in the rush of bodies. And, because they knew their safety was secured due to the sheer amount of powerful individuals they could hire. Others, especially reps from countries with fewer resources, could not say the same. Their lives truly did depend on Aldrich. "The United States will abstain from this rescue operation," said Emmet. "We have contracted Kinesis to see through our safety. We will honor that contract." "So be it, then." Aldrich watched as the group of U.S. reps stayed away, protected with Kinesis''s barrier. They did not want to owe anything to Aldrich. A little troublesome. That meant they wanted to maintain as much leverage as they could against Aldrich. But the U.S. was the only major country that opposed him,rgely because Aldrich operated on U.S. soil. All other countries had far less reason to reject Aldrich''s offer, even if, say like China, they had the means to survive the Judicata''s detonation and return to earth safely. Dracul hovered above Aldrich and crossed his arms. He looked down with dark eyes. "Is this all of them?" "Yes," said Aldrich. "I guess there is some merit to keeping them alive." Dracul shrugged. Darkness rippled out from him, expanding rapidly out into a massive spherical barrier that blocked out all damage from outside, protecting the examiners and Aldrich. "Bad news!" said Star Spartan. "ss 2 and 1 drones iing! If they get here in a swarm, we won''t be able to hold them off without blowing this whole ce apart!" "Yeah, they''ll be a real pain in the ass," said Machine Emperor. "They''re packed with intense firepower, too. Burstfire missiles,pact rail sters, thermobaric cluster bombs, shit that can level a city in a couple hours. If we fight them here, it''ll be like roidheads having a wrestling match in a kiddy y pen. The ce won''tst. And that''s in, about twenty seconds." "Hold them off," said Aldrich. "All I need is a few seconds. Don''t worry about damaging the Judicata - Dracul and I will protect the examiners. What I''m worried about is the bots following me. I can warp, but not too far - I''ll still be in space with the examiners. I can guarantee their safety there, but only in a fixed space. We''ll be sitting ducks to continued attack. We need to deal with the bots now. While they''re here all at once." "Agreed. Even a single ss 2 or 1 straggler bot being left behind is a disaster. They could individually threaten thousands of lives," said Machine Emperor. "All of them have to go. But both ss 2 and 1 fleets have insanely durable defensive shield matrices. The more of them there are to link with, the stronger the matrix is, and they''re all clumped together now. It''ll take at least a nuclear bomb to get through that." "Then I''ll go all out!" Star Spartan loosed a battle cry that drowned out the din of the entire battle. His body, already glowing with a golden aura, shone even brighter. The plume of his Spartan helmet flickered like living fire as his eyes, starry like the night sky, narrowed. "I''ll crash my way through them all!" "All out, huh? No better ce for me as well, then." A smile of bloodlust imprinted on Indra''s face as he flew up beside Star Spartan, his spiky white hair crackling with intense waves of electricity. "Remember the attack in Turkey, what, eight years ago?" "Ah, when webined our attacks to take down the moth variants?" "Yeah, that one. They said back then we needed the power of a nuke to punch through the hive-barrier. That was fun. Let''s do that again. The power of a meteor and the heavensbined. Sounds kind of cool, doesn''t it? What should we call our move, divine judgment?" "Your call, my friend. I usually leave the move-naming up to my support staff." Star Spartan pointed his spear of pure star-gold energy down. "On my mark." "I''ve shared my shielding with Mushin. He''ll be fine once this ce explodes," said Machine Emperor. "Thanatos, after these walls drop, I''ll have ess to myworks. Ry me your coordinates. I''ll send out shuttles for evac. Hopefully, they get there before any bots do. If any bots even survive this insane attack that I''m seeing building up." "I appreciate it." Aldrich knelt down and put a hand to his chest, to his Phctery. ''Chrysa, a big favor-,'' ''I know, father! I was looking at what you were doing using the telescreen! You''ve been so cool! And it looks like the important people here all think you''re cool now too! I''ll help as much as I can!'' said Chrysa. Aldrich nodded. White light began to emanate from his body, spreading across the examiners. Outside, he heard the ear splitting rumble of lightning and the crackling roar of a falling meteor even through the noise canceling effect of Dracul''s shadows. Then, the ground of shadows began to violently shake. That was from Star Spartan and Indra unleashing theirbo dive bomb attack, an attack that probably could have easily wiped an entire city off the face of the earth. Many of the examiners stumbled about, crashing into each other. "Damn it, we''re going to die!" shouted an examiner in fear. "We''re trapped here - there''s no way out!" said another. "Quiet." Aldrich''s voice echoed out, threatening. That silenced everyone. Chrysa''s light reached to thest of the examiners. ''I''m taking everyone now...this is a lot of people - are they all friends?'' asked Chrysa. ''Not quite,'' said Aldrich. ''But hopefully, they will be.'' ''Then I''ll do my best!'' With that, the light surrounding everyone intensified. Many of the examiners looked down at their hands curiously as the light settled on their bodies. The light then dimmed down, revealing nothing but darkness. No examiners. No Thanatos. They were all gone. "Hm. He actually did it." Dracul retracted the darkness into himself. All around him, the Judicata was shaking, sparks flying and parts of the walls breaking off as Star Spartan and Indra drilled their way down against the horde of ss 2 and 1 bots, the sheer aftershock of their descent damaging the Judicata''s structural integrity considerably. Enough to initiate the self-destruction sequence ahead of time. "Impressive. And interesting. I had heard of the possibility of...extraterrestrial beings. Perhaps, are you one of them?" Dracul remained unfazed as chunks of metal from the damaged ceiling fell all around him. Some of the rubble piecesnded on him, and shadowsshed out, batting them away, even thoserge enough to have weighed literal tons. "I do hope you make good on my offer to contact me." Intense light engulfed Dracul as the Judicata exploded. Chapter ?307 [Bonus chapter] Aftermath of the Judicata Chapter ?307 [Bonus chapter] Aftermath of the Judicata Aldrich, in the next instant, found himself floating in space that he could tell from a distinct feeling of weightlessness. Space was cold, and that was about all he felt from it. The vacuum environment did nothing to Vntis or his lich body. What struck him was how pretty it was, how if he turned from Earth, he could so clearly see the infinite vastness of the cosmos, the inky dark canvas upon which countless little specks of golden stars were scattered. But Aldrich had little time to admire the scenery because most of the examiners could not survive in space. Some of them could, having the ability to levitate or having guards or heroes that could help out, but just as many just floated about, breathless, soon to perish under the harsh emptiness of space. Aldrich sped his hands together and activated his cloak. The souls making it up groaned, their voices audible even in the soundless expanse of space. They spread apart, whirling about as they left wispy green trails that eventually created a sphere of misty green. Within this sphere, the [Hallowed Ground], there was absolute safety. Nothing from outside could harm anything within, and on top of that, the active also had the use of keeping anyone within immune to any status effects or environmental damage. Several examiners sucked in deep breaths, the [Hallowed Ground] providing them the opportunity to breathe. "Everyone alright?" said Aldrich. "I''m quite fine," said Jin Woo. "And soon to make my leave. Serpents, prepare for warp." The six Serpents marched into formation around Jin Woo and his faction of corporate reps. "Now ain''t this a fancy ability?" said Tychus. He tentatively walked around, finding that he could take steps wherever he wanted in the [Hallowed Ground]. He reached out to one of the floating spirits, but before he could make contact with it, the spirit howled and flew away. "Ain''t ever seen the likes of it. You sure you don''t want a piece of my new agency?" "I prefer to work alone," said Aldrich. "Sounds about right, heh. Well, Thanatos, I ain''t about to pressure you into a deal you don''t want. This ol'' boy''s takin''s his leave too. Let''s go, fes." Tychus pped his hands, and one of his mercenaries tapped the side of his head, channeling his own warp ability. "Those of you that can warp out or find safe passage down to earth, do what you can," said Aldrich. "But for those of you that can''t, Machine Emperor said he''d be okay with giving you all a ride down." It was then that Aldrich sensed a massive surge of energy through his helmet vision. A surge so strong that itpletely engulfed his sight in white. He turned towards the direction of the Judicata. The walls of the [Hallowed Ground] were see through to Aldrich and his units, though to others like the examiners, it was impossible to see through. Aldrich saw an explosion engulf the Judicata. But that was not from the self-destruction sequence. He had seen a Pir self-destruct before on the news when variants had managed to infiltrate it. The explosion was awing, but nothingpared to this. What Aldrich saw was a st of goldced with blue electricity so massive that it looked like the sun been dropped right there. It was such an enormous st that it must have been visible from Earth, and the shockwave it generated would have crushed the vast majority of people in the [Hallowed Ground] to a pulp. Luckily, the [Hallowed Ground] rendered them invulnerable to any outside damage. That was thebined firepower of Indra, Star Spartan, and the Judicata''s self-destruction all mixed together. None of the Panopticon bots could have survived that. But what about bots elsewhere? If the Stranger could take over one Pir, then what about the others? Aldrich jumped, leaving the [Hallowed Ground]. He floated in space for a second before Vntis unfurled his draconic wings. The wings generated their own lift through magical energy, so Aldrich could still fly through the zero G environment of space. Chunks of floating, melted debris were the only thing left behind of the Judicata and all its bots. The S-ss heroes rapidly approached. Star Spartan rushed in the fastest with his zinget form. No surprise. His hero data indicated that Star Spartan could get so fast he could circle the entire in thirty minutes a€¡° around mach 60. Behind him was Indra, flying with a trail of lightning crackling behind him. At absolute top speeds, by turning into pure lightning, Indra could reach a high of mach 350. But he rarely, if ever did that. His reaction speed did not scale with his top speed, so he was liable to cause significant coteral damage moving as pure lightning, especially since his lightning was far more destructive than its natural equivalent. Machine Emperor flew behind them while carrying Mushin with an arm. Andst, but not least, Dracul moved as a formless mass of darkness that shaped into his human self when he got closer. "d to see you''re alright, Thanatos," said Star Spartan as he stopped before Aldrich, a shockwave of force hitting Aldrich''s armor as the S ss hero stopped. "Sorry about that, I try to keep my stops slow, but I was in a rush," said Star Spartan. "An understandable rush. It''s fine." Aldrich nodded. From hero data, Star Spartan was one of the ''good ones''. No bad track record. A few botched missions, a few side casualties from the nature of his destructive power, but nothing that his good did not overshadow. "Are the examiners in there?" said Star Spartan, pointing his golden energy spear at the [Hallowed Ground] sphere. "Yes. Minimal damage. I just need help with the evacuation," said Aldrich. "Crazy!" Indra stopped before the [Hallowed Ground]. He hovered his hand over the wall of spirits. "What is this shit? It''s freaky as fuck! You''ve got some cool powers, my guy. You know who you remind me of? Archmage. From Korea. He''s got that crazy fantasy shit going on too!" "Right." Aldrich knew where Indra wasing from. Archmage was also a S ss hero, one of two from Korea. He was under the rarest ''Trump'' category of Alter powers that did not really fit with all the others. Archmage had a low level of reality warping that let him have the powers of a typical fantasy mage, using magic circles to toss out fireballs, summon elementals, and the like. Decidedly, though, Archmage was an Alter with an Alter organ. His ''spells'' and ''summons'' had Ether traces in them that typical power scanners could recognize. Entirely unlike Aldrich whose power camepletely from other sources. But still, Aldrich did want to meet Archmage and see whether there was more than met the eye to the hero''s abilities. "Right? That''s all you''ve got to say? C''mon, your power''s amazing!" said Indra. He crackled in front of Aldrich and pped his back, bouncing sparks of electricity between them. Up close, Aldrich could see that Indra was young, almost as young as Aldrich. Indra could not have been older than the early twenties, and he had been a top hero for ten years already. Meaning he was active since he was barely a teenager. A man blessed with godlike strength almost from birth. "But I''ll stop bothering you. You did help my brother out, after all. He still in there?" said Indra. "He is. You''re free to meet up with him," said Aldrich. "Don''t mind if I do. I''ll have to give him an earful about going to dangerous ces without me. Wait, technically, I was here with him, ah whatever." Indra shrugged and floated into the [Hallowed Ground] where, Aldrich saw, Indra reached out and hugged his older brother. "So much for coordinates, huh?" Machine Emperor got near Aldrich. "You didn''t warp that far at all." ''I can do much better!'' protested Chrysa, though she spoke only in Aldrich''s head. ''Tell the tin man that I can do a lot better if it was just father!'' "It was the best that could have been done given the tight timeframe," said Aldrich. "I understand. I''ve sent a signal out to my space station. My shuttles will be here in a few minutes," said Machine Emperor. "Though, are you sure the examiners are okay in there? You might have warped out of the st radius, but you were still in range of the shockwave." "You can go in there and find out yourself, if you want. But they''re all fine." "I''m not ragging on you or anything, just surprised that this barrier''s so durable. The st was big enough to easily level a city a€¡° the shockwave would have been equally nasty. Your powers are so diverse and so powerful a€¡° you''re quite possibly the most interesting person that''se out of the woodworks in the past fifty years." "Indeed," said Mushin, his body covered in attice of orange light a€¡° Machine Emperor''s shielding that protected him from space. He put a hand to his chin, gazing at Aldrich inquisitively. "Ah, there goes Dracul." Star Spartan watched as Dracul''s formless darkness rippled overhead, passing by and heading down to Earth. He had said what he had wanted to say, so there was no need to waste any more time. Until Aldrich reached out to Dracul, he would probably see little of the Sentinel. "I wish he helped out more. A man of his power would help the world greatly, but after getting his vengeance, he''s done little," said Star Spartan. "Sometimes, the vengeance is all there is," said Aldrich, looking out at Dracul''s distantly shrinking form. "And once that''s gone, there''s not much else." Chapter ?308 The End of the Attack Chapter ?308 The End of the Attack "Broken men are dangerous," said Star Spartan, shaking his head. "And men broken under vengeance are worse. Vengeance cuts in deep, deep enough that even when the wound is healed, it is never the same. And Dracul is not healed. Far from it." "Hm." Aldrich pondered Star Spartan''s words for a moment. Was he the same? Had he healed wrong? No. Star Spartan was wrong. It was not a matter of healing wrong. The vengeance that Aldrich had nursed and fulfilled, that was a battle scar. Something he could wear proudly as a sign of what he had weathered. "Shuttles are on their way. Qilin, the assistant A.I. I use, will guide everyone to where they want, though she might be a little sassy about it," said Machine Emperor. "You''re connected to yourworks. How are things on earth? Have any other Pirs been infiltrated?" asked Aldrich, wondering if the Stranger had initiated a mass worldwide attack. What it had done right now was a tant attack against the entirety of the Panopticon and AA. If it wanted to cause the most damage, it had to do it now, when the iron was hot, when nobody knew how to defend against it. "No," said Machine Emperor. "The Panopticon''s initiated a worldwide shutdown of their Pirs until they figure out how to shield themselves from further attacks. I predict mostpanies will simrly be shutting down services to try and figure out how to protect themselves from simr infiltration." "Damn, that means I won''t be seeing Lightning Returns 2 on Vision+!"ined Indra. "Lightning Returns? Isn''t that your movie? And 2? Isn''t that redundant with ''returns?''" said Machine Emperor. "The title''s up to the writers, I''m not up for all that brainy stuff. And it''s because it''s my movie that I want to watch it more," said Indra. "Then what about variant defense? The Panopticon handles nearly 70% of all variant attacks worldwide," said Star Spartan. "The Alterhuman Agency will have to pick up the pace if they want to have any hope of salvaging their public trust. Which means we''ll be working overtime," said Machine Emperor, and Indra groaned. "On that note, I have to get going quickly. I assume I''ll be needed. Pretty badly, too. Good luck everyone." Machine Emperor gave a small salute to Aldrich and Star Spartan before flying away, keeping Mushin in tow. "May we meet again." Mushin tried as best as he could to bow to Aldrich before he was whisked away. Aldrich watched as the two S ss heroes left. He wondered how he would stack up against them. Machine Emperor was the weakest out of the S ss here, but he had the most versatility with a whole array ofbat suits, each of them suited to a different type of enemy. Machine Emperor''s current suit was called the V-Sr. A fairly low powered one that Aldrich believed he could take out one versus one now, even without instant death magic. But Machine Emperor did have far stronger suits. The strongest one the public knew was called the V-Nova, and its fiery beams could easily wipe out Aldrich and his legion. If given prep time and battle data, Aldrich was sure Machine Emperor could devise a suit that could best counter Aldrich as well. Mushin was the ultimate single personbatant. His invisible de could wipe anything out of existence down to the atomic level. Durability did not matter at all. Aldrich had no vitals to wipe out, and he could regenerate chunks wiped out from him, but that sword was still incredibly dangerous. On top of that, Mushin''s hero costume a€¡° his grey hakama and gi a€¡° could apply some of his power to turn him invisible for brief periods of time. That,bined with Mushin''s incredible physical abilities, particrly his godlike reflexes andbat speed, and Aldrich knew he could not take Mushin one on one. Not many could. In a solo fight, against humanoid enemies, Mushin was arguably number 1. A small, hyper-agile target that could one shot kill practically anything was a horrible match for anyone one on one. But against Aldrich''s entire army? A legion that also knew no vitals nor fear? And capable of regenerating under his mist? Mushin would have a much harder time. Once Aldrich upgraded his legion with even tougher units, he was confident he could deal with Mushin. The real top tier S ss heroes, though, Indra and Star Spartan a€¡° they were out of Aldrich''s league, even if he used his full legion. They had it all. Insane physical stats and destructive power, very much like Solomon Sr. The only way Aldrich could think of a way to take them down was to kill them with instant death magic. Star Spartan was too fast, strong, and durable. Indra was almost perfect to beat Aldrich with his fiery lightning, absurd speed, and destructive area of effect power. "I''m back," said Indra. "How was your brother?" said Star Spartan. "Holding up well. Dude''s a little shaken up, but he''s tough, just like me. He''s no Dud, that''s for sure, heh," said Indra. "Stop that. ''Pure Human'' is the better word," said Star Spartan, his tone admonishing, showing the wisdom of additional years and a generally more selfless heart. "Yeah, yeah, you''re too much of a goody two shoes, sometimes, Spartan." Indra shrugged dismissively. He leered as he saw Kinesis in the distance, flying by with the U.S. examiners in a mind construct ball of white outlined in ck. "You stay a stickler for the rules too much, and you''ll end up like her. Selfish bitch." Aldrich looked to Earth, ignoring the conversation. The word ''Dud'' was basicallymonce vocabry now. It was a slur, yes, but somon that fewer people used the term ''pure human'' than they did ''Dud''. The fact that Indra used it was not surprising. And there was no point making a ruckus about it right now. And the term ''Dud'' felt strangely far away from Aldrich now. Maybe because he was no longer even human to begin with. It did not feel like it applied to him anymore, and truly, in every aspect, it no longer did. Aldrich stared at earth. "Kinesis...she''s an odd one. I believe this is her first real public appearance," said Star Spartan. "Yeah? I''ll make sure to let my six hundred million Snapshot followers know how much of an asshole she is," said Indra. "I wouldn''t do that were I you," said Star Spartan. "Social media is a weapon as potent as any firearm. Aiming it at a fellow S ss hero is...questionable." "...Whatever." Indra pouted. "I still cannot fathom her. Why would she stay so loyal to the terms of her contract? To the United States?" said Star Spartan. "She''s a government dog," said Aldrich. His skeletal jaw set beneath his helm. Machine Emperor, Mushin, Indra, Star Spartan - these were the wrong heroes to be thinking about fighting. If Aldrich was going to be standing against the United States, his main threat was Kinesis. But there was very little information about her. Her fights were rarely, if ever recorded. Only reported about, and she chose to keep her mission records as secretive as possible. She had gotten her S ss position by single-handedly defeating a S rank variant. What type of variant, how she had done so, and other questions about battle data were all an utter mystery. What Aldrich did know was that she was not going to be a pushover. If she was a government dog, he needed to be ready to kill her. He needed to get stronger. "Maybe. That is where she is based," said Star Spartan. "Stop giving her the benefit of the doubt, Spartan. They probably have some dirt on her. Maybe she''s into some weird ass shit that they''ll leak to the public. Tch." Indra nodded to Aldrich. "Yo, Thanatos, if you ever get beef with her, send me a call. If my PR team doesn''t shout down my ear, I''ll lend a bolt or two to help you out." "Noted," said Aldrich. "Where will you two go from here?" "I have plenty of assignments across Europe," said Star Spartan. "And due to the nature of my powers, I am wanted in many ces, now more so than ever." "Same here. I only like taking missions with high AP, but damn, I can''t just let my home get ass sted by variants," said Indra. "What about you?" said Star Spartan. "Now that your status as Sentinel is all but guaranteed?" "Me?" Aldrich put a hand to the pointed chin of his metal and bone helmet. If the Stranger was bold enough to make such an attack, that meant he was ready for an all out conflict. Not just with Aldrich, but with the whole world. The Trident''s half-baked ns to try and topple AA and Panopticon a€¡° the Stranger was probably going to set all that in motion. And Aldrich would be there to stop it. "Preparing for war." Chapter ?309 Settling Down Chapter ?309 Settling Down Aldrich sat in a plush swiveling chair with ck leather that shone with a polish that sparkled dor signs. Facing away from a desk, he looked out at a bullet and bombproof ss wall, staring down at Haven from the top of a forty floor view. Bulky orange and yellow repair bots dotted the streets, carrying steel beams and vats of reinforced concrete. Smaller bots did repairs, filling in cracks and holes in roads and buildings. Flying drones buzzed about, scanning structural integrity and assessing repair procedures for thend-based bots. All of the machinery had the logo of a white hammerhead shark''s distinctive head against a circle of ck emzoned upon them. Hammerhead Industries - Seismic''s biggest sponsor. Like muscles and bones knitting back together after injury, the city was healing. Aldrich nodded in content. A natural reaction, considering he was Haven''s Sentinel. Despite the fact that he had been Sentinel for just a week, he still felt proud ownership over it, and seeing it build back stronger tickled a soft spot in him, sort of like how he felt when he saw Chrysa grow. A parent''s pride. As it just so happened, in spite of Aldrich''s dramatic deration, war had note. There were no more attacks following the Stranger''s attack on the Judicata and there likely would not be for quite some time. Right after the attack, Aldrich had consulted with Med and the Death Lord about the Stranger, using Supermind''s corpse, still imbued with demonic energy, and Vntis''s recorded memories. Med had definitively stated that the Stranger was a demon, but, as Vntis pointed out, the Stranger was a demon from a realm other than Elduin. As a result, neither Med nor the Death Lord knew who exactly the Stranger was. They had been able to, however, make general assessments about the Stranger. First, the Stranger was strong. The magnitude of cursed energy it used in attacking Supermind and the Judicata was considerable, making it at the minimum an Archdemon. Archdemons started out at level 70, and unlike with Anhil and Nh - the archdemons of the trial quest, the Stranger was very likely fully incarnated, meaning he did not need a host body to operate and therefore at max strength. Second, the stunt the Stranger pulled on the Judicata was something it could not do over and over again. Med did not know the specific cursed magic that the Stranger used, but she knew as a member of the same species that it was a form of Possession. One that could target machines and their neuralworks both physically and in cyberspace. Med had also identified what she called ''mana flicker'' in the cursed energy in the possession spell. These traces indicated that the mana pool fueling the cursed energy was undergoing huge shifts, ''flickering'' because of the instability of mass amounts of energy going up or down. Usually, this meant that the mana pool was draining rapidly. Unlike Aldrich, who had easy ess to full heals and mana restoration with his build and the Nexus, the Stranger was probably on its own to restore mana. Demons generally did not have easy ways to replenish their curse magic, and in Elden World, a viable strategy to beat demons was to let them run out of mana, at which point they were out of juice. At best, Demons consumed souls to restore mana like a Necromancer, but they were actually less efficient then Necromancers at this. The Stranger, especially at its high level, likely required a mass amount of souls to top up its mana pool to an appreciable level again. Which meant that the Stranger was not in any position to make an attack for some time. Med calcted that it would take one month for the Stranger to be able to pull off a mass possession like that. This was also evidenced by Aldrich''s nomad contacts that kept tabs on the Trident civil war. The Russian Prong had backed down for now, turtling up in specific strongholds or disappearing altogether. And, to confirm the Stranger''s involvement, there were reports of bots that nobody could detect joining the fray. Aldrich had decided to take the Stranger''s brief retreat to get settled. He needed to establish himself strongly first before really revving up the gear on going into any conflicts. That meant making sure Haven was his. And that the United States government did not get in his way. So far, things were, well, best put - neutral. The United States still refused to directly acknowledge Aldrich, or rather Thanatos, as a Sentinel as none of their reps voted for Aldrich. A super majority from the other nations carried Thanatos readily into Sentinel status on the global stage, but the United States used their no votes to try and justify their opposition. That said, the United States could not directly do anything to Aldrich. Because, as circumstance just so happened to decide, he was now allied with Dracul. A two Sentinel alliance was near unprecedented - Sentinels were usually always highly individualistic, stubborn, powerful entities, and those never got along - but said alliance was deadly enough that the United States was forced to tiptoe around Aldrich. Granted, the United States cut Haven off from their economy, prohibiting any trade or supply lines to it. However, Haven managed so far with private industries carrying them. That, and a veryprehensivework of nomadsing to and fro from the city. Once Aldrich obtained Sentinel status, the nomad chiefs barring Desmond and Z recognized him. Their tribes used Haven as arge base of operations, and soon enough, practically all of the nomads on the East Coast were calling Haven, well, a haven. Haven afforded them security. Aldrich had set up a defense line of undead summons and variants all along the walls, with the most formidable defense being all the giant sand worms from Aldrich''s second trial quest. But most of all, Haven gave the nomads respect. Most cities, especially tier 2 and 1 cities, considered nomads wastnd pests and forbid them from entry. Haven had no such restrictions. Granted, there was stillw and order, but the rules were generallyxer. People had more freedom to do what they wanted. This did lead to an explosion of illegal trade in Haven, but Casimir regted that with an experienced hand. On the AA-Panopticon side of things, Aldrich wasfortably in the clear for now. They were far too busy to deal with Aldrich, especially when he presented himself as a non-threat that cooperated with humanity. Panopticon systems were still down as they scrambled to find a way to fend against the Stranger, so the AA was stretched far too thin and wide to make a ruckus about Aldrich. Variant attacks were still on the rise. Aldrich had helped out here and there when he had time, and he had now farmed up to level 52 and padded his undead army with a wide host of insect type variants that generally popted the area around Haven. But most of the time, Aldrich was too busy getting briefings and managing the city to fight. This was just temporary, though. Once his position was a bit more stable, he nned on passing the rulership torch to Casimir who was much better suited to this sort of stuff. "Thinking hard, are we?" said Valera. She had crept up behind Aldrich, surprising him for a brief moment. She put her hands on his shoulders, massaging them. "I don''t eat, sleep, or drink. Might as well think," said Aldrich. "I do not understand how you do it sometimes. I like spending time with my head cleared in meditation, but you actually like it when your brain is all crammed with thought," said Valera. "Force of habit," said Aldrich. "How''s Chrysa doing?" "She''s fallen head first into that thing you call a ''game''," said Valera, concerned. "She spends so much time in her room here, staring at that screen, punching at the device that lets her move her projections to and fro. I fear it is corrupting her, taking her from her training, rotting her brain." "You sound exactly like a mom," said Aldrich, remembering simr words pouring into his ears from his own mother. A long time ago. "Eheheh, do I? I suppose I do have to show you I will be an able wife, no?" "Hold up now, marriage is way down the line." "Bah, I do not understand it. Among vampires, when passion boils our blood, we choose our mates in the thrill of the moment." "And as far as I recall, there''s a suspiciously high mortality rate among wedded vampires." Valera shrugged. "A consequence of passion. It is unpredictable." Aldrich wondered if something like that was in line for him in the future, especially considering Valera''s Berserker abilities. "I want to take my time before going too far. There''s still so much to do, so many fights to be had, so many-," "I know." Valera smiled and patted Aldrich''s shoulder, perhaps a bit wistfully. "I know." A howling wind blew through the room in spite of the fact that it waspletely insted from the outside. Valera leered. Aldrich perked up. Before Aldrich''s desk, visible blue tinted winds gathered into a sphere which then formed into a tall, slender woman. In contrast to Valera, this woman had no hint of muscle on her frame at all - she was all long legs and skinny runway body. She was wrapped up in a ghostly white dress, and a mass of jet ck, wavy hair fell from her head in an untamed waterfall,pletely covering her face. She looked like she had jumped right out of a horror movie. Several eyes grew from her hair, wide open with unblinking red pupils. "Vexa," said Aldrich, addressing his second Chosen Undead. Chapter ?310 Vexas Merits Chapter ?310 Vexa''s Merits "Ie bearing tidings of great interest," said Vexa. She kept her head forward and hanging low, angled so that her flood of eyed hair would fall in front of her like a veil. "What is it?" said Aldrich. Vexa''s title in the game was known as the Kaleidoscope. She was the Chosen Undead with the most utility for scouting areas, using butterfly summons to cast surveinceworks, explore new areas, or track targets. Her practicalbat ability was low, but the idea was that with Vexa around, the yer character could use her to limit surprise as a non-factor. Even in multiple ythroughs, there were many parts of the game that were not randomized. Many enemy spawn points, enemy types, or even boss locations could shift around, influenced by the smallest of changes from in-game decisions or just sheer random luck. Vexa could prevent surprise ganks from enemies the yer character did not expect. In fact, ording to the lore, she was the very creator of the whole ''floating spy eyeball'' type of summoning spell. Aldrich had to choose between adding more raw power to himself or utility, and he figured he had enough power for now. Even if he did not, he could get more over time. As for utility, he had to choose between Hadar, the Golden Bone, and Vexa. Hadar would guarantee Haven''s prosperity in a purely economical sense, but in light of recent events, especially the surprise attack from the Stranger, Aldrich valued surveince much more. "My darlings have cast their wings across this city of yours. This world is all quite unfamiliar to me and my darlings, but I do believe we have a grasp of it," said Vexa. She gathered her hands together, and they disappeared under her loose white sleeves. Her posture looked very much like that belonging to some wise sage or advisor in a Asian period drama. "And they have found conspirators plotting to take your throne, great emperor." "Show us these conspirators," said Valera, crossing her arms. "When you first arrived here, you had no idea what even a ''car'' was. I must make sure your judgments are correct." Aldrich raised a brow. Valera still referred to cars as metal beasts out of habit, but he let that slide. Because Valera and Vexa were both his Chosen Undead, they were bonded to his memories to a degree, which, at the very least, let them navigate the modern world decently. It was a function of the Nether where they were from. The Nether stored souls promised to it, keeping them as summons that those attuned with the dark arts could tap into. However, the souls in the Nether coulde from ancient times thousands of years in the past, and so to make sure they did not freak out being summoned in time periods or locations vastly separated from them, their bond with their summoner gave them contextual memories and understanding of their summoner''s era. Granted, it was not perfect. For example, Valera calling cars metal beasts or Vexa referring to Aldrich as an emperor, for in her life she had been a court adviser. "I can handle myself, shieldbearer," said Vexa. "But here, I will show you:" Vexa unsped her sleeves and flicked her hands out like she was tossing sand. Butterflies flew out from under her sleeves, all of them having bright red eyes on their jet ck wings. "[Swarm Vision]," chanted Vexa. The butterflies oriented themselves into a circr pattern. The space between them filled in with solid white light which then functioned as a screen for images to project. The screen split into twelve different sections, each showcasing an aerial view of what seemed to be a nomad. From what Aldrich could tell, the nomads came from various different tribes as marked by the insignia on their cloaks. Some of them were familiar, belonging to the chiefs that allied themselves with Aldrich. Others were from various nomad gangs from further out in the Wastnds. The nomads all seemed to be doing their own thing, some drinking in a bar, some repairing their rides, some setting up makeshift shops to sell wares, and so on and so forth. "I see nothing of importance," said Valera. "That is because you are a warrior unfit for such subtleties. Let the emperor see," said Vexa. "Why you - do not get so cocky now that my master has chosen you. You are still merely a second choice. When the timees to protect him, there is none suited for it better than I," protested Valera. "And, if my darlings do well, there will no longer be a need to raise your weapons in the emperor''s name. As the grand regent Sun-Shu stated, ''the best time to crush a threat is before it bes one''. To resort to raising arms is a final and barbaric resort," said Vexa. "Though I do wonder, once my darlings secure the emperor, what use will there be for you? I suppose we can both be bedwarmers, though as I was once a courtesan, it is likely you will not be needed." Aldrich raised a warning hand. "Stop that. No need to bicker among ourselves." "Very true," said Vexa, calm. "I apologize, shieldbearer, for my rudeness." Valera just leered at Vexa. In many regards, they were pr opposites. Valera was forward and chose to crush her threats with direct force and rage. Vexa, on the other hand, rarely showed her emotions or her face, making her nigh impossible to read, and she thought fighting unnecessary. That meant that they would inevitably have shes, and Aldrich fully expected this. However, he banked on Vexa''s usefulness outweighing any potential conflict. And also, Valera was more understanding than before. "I see," said Aldrich. The nomads'' activities on the projected recording were sped up, and he noted that despite all being from separate tribes, at one point, they all convened in a single apartment building. "That is suspicious." "From what I know, these men hail from differing ns. Yet, they meet in a single location under the cover of night. My instincts tell me these are conspirators crafting a plot against you," said Vexa. "Or they''re looking for somebody," said Aldrich, cracking a faint smile. "Thank you, Vexa. Send me the locations of each of these guys and their meeting spot to me telepathically, and I''ll deal with it. How are my other requests going?" Aldrich had also directed Vexa to send her butterflies to ckwater and Neo-York. ckwater was an instrumental location for the Trident, though exactly why, Aldrich still did not know. He had an Evileye from a while back still tracking the general school grounds, but all the buildings, the important ones, at the least, were guarded with constant forcefields that prevented the Evileye from breaching them. Plus, just one Evileye could not cover much ground. At best, Aldrich had gotten confirmation that his old dorm had been cleaned out. There were new pure humans there now. The butterflies ran into the same issue as the Evileye being unable to get into sensitive areas, but since there were many more of them, it was easier to track what was happening overall. As for Neo-York, Aldrich sent butterflies there to keep an eye on Solomon Sr who had a tie not just to ckwater, but also to the Trident. "They are on their way. I have sent them slowly and cautiously. Hidden though they are, I still wish to be careful in the case they are discovered or hunted on odd chance by the many strange beasts that roam thisnd," said Vexa. "But in a day, they shall have made their nests in your desired locations, your majesty." "Good. Anything else?" "That is all that is worthy of your time." "Then you''re dismissed, Vexa." "It is an honor to serve." Vexa drew her sleeves together and performed a dainty bow. She then disappeared, fading away into chilling winds. When the temperature of the room went back up, indicating Vexa was gone, Valera spoke up. "I do not like that one," Valera muttered. "I know," said Aldrich. "And she does seem rather prickly, personality wise. But try to put up with her for now. I myself am a bit wary of her, given her past, but I''m giving her the benefit of the doubt due to the usefulness of her powers." Vexa, when she was alive, had betrayed the emperor she had sworn service to. The emperor relied only on her as his eyes on his empire, and she had used her surveincework to mislead the emperor, lulling him into a false sense of security. She took advantage of that lull, assassinating the emperor and bing empress for a little bit before she herself was killed by a military coup. Granted, said emperor had be a mad, raving tyrant, so she had plenty of justification, but Aldrich did not know the specifics. He had never used Vexa, after all. He was not familiar with all her background and personality as he was with Valera. But still, Aldrich could deny how useful she was. Now that she had tracked out the ''conspirators'', Aldrich could proceed on closing the around Desmond and taking the first step against the Trident. Chapter ?311 [Bonus chapter] Project Arachnophobia Chapter ?311 [Bonus chapter] Project Arachnophobia "Those conspirators that Vexa took note of, are they¡­" Valera''s question trailed off, waiting for Aldrich to confirm her suspicions. "They''re spiders," said Aldrich. He had good reason to believe that these were nomads under Desmond''s service, though obviously, they were hiding themselves. "And I''m never one to shy away from crushing a few bugs." Valera grinned, her pure white fangs ring under the high ceiling lights of Aldrich''s new office. "Will wee to fight soon? It has been long since I have feasted on blood." "It''s only been a few days since thest time we had to go out of the walls to take out a few variants," pointed out Aldrich. "Bleh." Valera made a face, sticking her tongue out. "I hate insect blood, and it is no different in this realm. There is something about it that is thoroughlycking." "Maybe ack of iron content." "Iron? Does metal flow in the blood of men here?" "It''s¡­I''ll exin it in detailter. But to answer your first question: no, there won''t be fighting yet." Aldrich stood up, stretching his arms in front of him. His knuckles cracked as a faint smile flickered at his pale red lips. "Ah, but you do have something in mind, do you not? I know that smile all too well," said Valera, smiling herself with mischievous intent. "What''s next, then, my master?" Aldrich materialized his suit jacket and moved to leave his office. "Mindgames." ============== "I''ve got to break it to you, this is one hell of an upgrade," said V, a balloon of bubblegum expanding from her lips. She sat in a spacious, dark basement, cooled to a chill to prevent jacked in technos from overheating. All around V were rows and rows of physical servers, stacked up like bookshelves. It sort of reminded Aldrich of Med''s bookshelf, though here, they were arranged in circr fashion with V sitting at the very epicenter, her cord-like hair stretching out in aplex web that interfaced with the technology. "More''sing soon," said Aldrich as he looked down at V. S he sat almost with a child-like position, legs crossed and arms nted on the ground as her eyes glowed bright blue, flickering rapidly as she processed untold amounts of raw information. "All of this is just re-purposed stuff from the AA building we''re using. Casimir''s trying to broker a deal with Aarav to get even more," said Aldrich. V whistled. "That''s big boy Fortune money for you, huh? I''d love to y with anything I can get. No offense to Casimir, the Magen had a lot of processing power, but it doesn''tpare to this. The sheer thrill of feeling so much information flow through your head, electrifying your nerves, like you have an entire world just ready to dance at your fingertips-," V moaned in pleasure. "It''s a rush you can''t ever beat." "Limit the suggestive noises to a minimum," said Valera, though she only said this absent-mindedly, too engrossed in the technology around her. She probably had no idea what she was looking at, so it must have been rather overwhelming for her. "That''s my bad. I just can''t help it with this," said V. "How''s the city overall?" said Aldrich. V was connected to a Central Node that let her ess information about the entire city like connectivity, the electric grid, cameras, and, most importantly, the Panopticon walls and their various forcefield generators ced atop key city buildings. Normally, Central Nodes were entirely operated by the Panopticon, but the recent attacks had forced the Panopticon to limit their presence as much as possible. AA techno teams were managing the the nodes across tier 1 cities, but for many tier 3 and even tier 2 cities, a shortage of avable manpower meant that rolling ckouts had be a lot more frequent. For Haven, it was even worse. The Panopticon had disconnected entirely from Haven and the AA wasn''t about to send any support, so in practice, it should have beenpletely cked out. "Doing juuust fine," said V. "Electric grids are finallying back online. Maybe like, 80% capacity? Amazing what that Locus can do." "In spite of his manyints, yes," said Aldrich. Cut off from both the U.S. government and the Panop-AAplex, Haven was left with only its independent emergency generators for power. Those could only sustain around 40% of the city''s power needs sustainably. Okeanos, though, with assistance from a Builder-Techno called Shani - courtesy of Aarav''s impressivework of connections - powered most of the city''s energy needs using a specially made generator. Of course, that meant Okeanos had to stay stuck in one spot, which he hated immensely, but until Aldrich could remodel the power grid to be self-sufficient, Okeanos had to carry it. A coborative effort between Hammerhead Industries and Aarav would soon ensure that the entire energy grid was self-sustaining. Normally, cities were not allowed to be entirely energy independent to decentralize power, but as a Sentinel state, Haven was no longer bound to any rules. "That''s good enough," said Aldrich. "What about the forcefields? Can you co-opt them?" "Nah. Panopticon tech is still hard coded to Panopticon personnel," said V. "In spite of how much that Stranger guy embarrassed the Panop, I can''t pull the same shy stuff." "I don''t me you. They were using magic," said Aldrich. "Magic, huh. Crazy to think that exists." V shuddered. "Makes me scared I could just get taken over with a snap of a finger." "Not as long as you have that around your neck." Aldrich motioned to a ne visible on V''s low cut shirt. The string was jet ck, shimmering with dark energy, and the ''jewel'' consisted of a crystallized eyeball. This was from Med, crafted from Nh''s soul fragment. It replicated Nh''s Mora ability to absorb and nullify anything which would, in theory, utterly nullify the Stranger trying to possess V. At the least, Med was nearly entirely certain it would afford enough protection, and Aldrich deferred to her expertise on demonic matters. "It''s creepy as hell having an eyeball for a ne, but you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess," said V. "Mhm. It must be quite nice receiving a gift from our master." Valera smiled, though a nerve popped visibly on her forehead, annoyed at V''s ungratefulness. "On second thought, this is totally my style. Maybe I''ll switch back to my goth girl phase," said V. "But it isn''t like we even need that forcefield," she said to Aldrich. "That jellyfish cover we''ve got is basically the same thing." "I still like to keep myself as protected as possible," said Aldrich. V was referring to his huge army of floating jellyfish thatprised the bulk of his undead legion. Theyy scattered above Haven, creating not just a forcefield, but also a potent lightning death ray for anything that got too near the city walls. "Like double bagging condoms," said V. "Or wait, doesn''t that make the protection worse?" "It makes it worse," said Aldrich. "¡­Condoms?" Valera tilted her head, curious. "Is this a defensive fortification we can acquire? If so, I will dly search for it." "It''s nothing." Aldrich replied quick, shutting down the possibility that Valera would entertain any funny thoughts. "Heh." V smirked at the interaction before her smile grew thin-lipped, serious. "So, boss, I figure we''re done with the routine questionings. What did you really need?" "You''re starting to get a read of me, huh?" said Aldrich. "Nothing better than some good old fashioned time to get to know someone," said V. "I want to know if your arachnophobia project is done," said Aldrich. "Oh. That. Yeah, it''s been done for a while," said V. Project Arachnophobia (coined by V, not Aldrich), was V''s attempt in creating a bug to infiltrate Desmond''s Spider Web. Desmond''s Alter power allowed him to create a ''web'' of mental links with various technos, many of whom were riders in his tribe. This let Desmond operate one of thergest, most connected, most reliable information underground informationworks because though he had many ''spiders'' receiving information tips, they all reported back to one head, much like a hivemind. Aldrich''s [Grave Ward] had picked up snippets of information in Desmond''s base, which was how Aldrich got to know how Desmond''s Alter power worked in the first ce. Unfortunately, three days ago, the [Grave Ward], fragile as it was, had dissolved when the base was struck by an unidentified attack. That said, V still tracked Desmond''s operations in the Dar, and he was still very much active, indicating that the attack had not set him back much at all. "But we can''t use our bug spray now, can we?" said V. "I need physical contact for this one. Have to jack it right into Desmond''s neural port. That eyeball you had shacked up in Desmond''s base kept tabs on his physical location, but without that, finding Desmond will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The dude is ultra giga paranoid. His mobi-base has every stealth option known to mankind. He moves ALL the time. Damn, and I''d worked on this thing really hard, too." "Don''t worry, your project''s still salvageable," said Aldrich. "I''m going to bring Desmond to us," Chapter ?312 New Laboratory Chapter ?312 New Laboratory V blinked. For a moment, all the myriad of lights shing across the servers also blinked. "Huh? What? You can do that? You got some kind of mind control shenanigan on him? Or, or, let me guess, is it magic?" "Magic, yes, but not mine." Aldrich nodded to V. "Have your project prepped and ready to go. Transfer the bug to a Viral Round or Jacker." Viral Rounds or Jackers were physical receptacles, either bullets or needle like injectors, for transferring bugs directly into others or machines. Generally speaking, it was the most efficient way of carrying a bug over, especially with Alters whose minds had natural levels of mental protection surrounding them. It was the same innate mental protection that prevented an Alter with a weak AC count from mind controlling, say, a S ss hero. For a high level techno like Desmond, Virals were necessary to ensure the bug sessfully infiltrated his mind. Casimir had plenty of viral rounds and jackers to work with. All V had to do was upload her custom made bug. "Will do, boss. Make sure to show up every once in a while, yeah? Does get a little lonely down here, locked up in a basement and all," said V. "I thought technos liked that kind of environment," said Aldrich. "It¡­can get tiring. Especially when it''s all you''ve known your whole life," said V. She sighed, her pep fading away. "See you soon, boss." Aldrich entered the 30th floor of his new tower base, pressing his hand on a biometric scanner screen that opened up two doors of solid, reinforced neosteel. As the doors groaned open, they loosed a pressurized click and hiss. Within, there was nothing but darkness. Darkness that Aldrich could see in, of course. "Ah, Elder, wee!" said Fler''Gan, much happier than usual. "And do enter quickly, for I require a sealed environment." Aldrich did as instructed, stepping in with Valera promptly. The doors automatically closed behind them, sealing tightly shut. "So this is what you have been up to, Mind Eater." Valera looked around inquisitively. After Aldrich took over the AA tower in Haven for his own base, he had given Fler''Gan, as promised, a properb space. Fler''Gan had shut himself in for several days, obsessively ordering things to his own liking. This was probably the first time he had any visitors. But the results were good. Fler''Gan had repurposed the AA tower''sb and building rooms into his very own personal paradise of research. His alchemical equipmenty organized neatly across several tables, intermingling with regrb equipment with surprising fluidity. Variant test subjectsy in various stages of dissection, some disyed on tables, others swimming in vats of alchemical red liquid. "Any breakthroughs?" asked Aldrich. "Many. Very many. That Editor sample was truly the key I needed, O Elder," said Fler''Gan. "I am now capable of crafting potions that can introduce magic to these ''Alter Organs'', though so far, only temporarily." Fler''Gan rushed over to a series of vats where Alter organsy suspended in homonculi fluid. He tapped the ss, sending an arc of mana into it. In response, the Alter organ, a fleshy, sphere shaped mass, undted, rippling and moving in response to the mana. It glowed briefly blue, channeling the foreign energy. "That''s extremely impressive," said Aldrich. "You really are a genius." "O Elder, you praise me too much," said Fler''Gan. "As a former alchemist of the Order, I would bring shame to my predecessors were I not capable even of this." "Quite¡­gross,"mented Valera as she poked an insect variant strapped to a dissecting table, yed open down the middle to reveal all of its innards. "Such is the nature of true discovery. Discovery that pioneers, that pushes boundaries, is always ''dirty''. Many revile it, brand it as heresy, but there is simply no better way to progress," said Fler''Gan. "And without any threat of Emunication in this realm, I am free to experiment as I please!" Fler''Gan loosed a garbled underwaterugh, truly embodying the entire mad scientist trope. "And this¡­," Aldrich walked over to a section of the room seemingly dedicated to robotics. Cybeic parts, data chips, augmentations, engines, basically a whole cornucopia of techy scattered about in various states of disrepair. "You''re trying to understand modern technology?" "Trying would be an understatement, O Elder." As if to prove his point, Fler''Gan pressed a few buttons on the touchscreen of a wristband wrapped around his mauve skin. In response, a few drones buzzed from the tables and into the air. Aldrich recognized them as salvaged drones from the attack on Haven. "The golemancy of these humans is astounding," said Fler''Gan. "Complicated beyond measure, and yet, operate on logical principles that are surprisingly easy to grasp." "How did you do that?" asked Aldrich. "Manual overriding using a cyberdeck." Fler''Gan reached under a table and withdrew a handheld, blocky device with a keyboard, screen, and various jacker cables hanging from it. "I see," said Aldrich, putting a hand to his chin with a nod. To hack into technology, one had to enter Cyberspace and interface with said piece of tech''s cyberspace signature. There, it was possible to modify the signature, essentially reprogramming the technology or, if needed, destroy it outright. There were three ways to achieve this. First, using technopathy, quite literally entering cyberspace and invading technology with solely the power of one''s mind. Only higher level techno Alters could do this, and even then, most, like V, still preferred to physically jack into tech to establish a more stable and secure connection. Second, using neural ports. These ports were cybeic enhancements carved into either the wrist, base of the neck, or back of the head in order of what provided the strongest connections. Non-techno Alters who wanted to deep dive into Cyberspace in order to link with technology needed these ports to gain ess. The third, and least invasive, was using a cyberdeck. Devices separated from the physical body. Because of this degree of separation, cyberdecks were the safest if you wanted to hack with them. Directly deep diving into cyberspace with your mind left it open to attack, but a cyberdeck only created a virtual avatar in cyberspace. Killing the avatar would fry the cyberdeck, but the person operating the cyberdeck was fine. There were downsides, of course. Manually typing inmands and controls on a cyberdeck was vastly slower than navigating cyberspace with just your thoughts. That reason alone made cyberdecks rtively obsolete. On top of that, the quality of a cyberdeck directly influenced how ''strong'' your cyberspace avatar was, and without an avatar with enough processing power and apetent operator, it was impossible to fight someone jacking into cyberspace directly with a neural port, let alone high level technos that navigated cyberspace like it was their second home. In the past, Aldrich and especially ine had programmed their Frames using cyberdecks as they could not afford neural ports. "I am attempting to look into the potential of entering myself into Cyberspace directly," said Fler''Gan. "Either through a neural port or, if I obtain an apt enough techno specimen, obtaining their power." "Hold up, that obtaining power part - you can do that?" asked Aldrich. "It is merely a theory so far," said Fler''Gan. "You brought variants to me called Shiftbugs that can alter their form torge degree. Well, by breaking them down and understanding them better, I believe I am capable of formting a liquid solution that ''shifts'' to allow even foreign Alter organs to work within them. In theory, I can go a step further. This realm is advanced in many ways, but in manipting flesh, inbining disparate entities, alchemy simply reigns supreme. I can break down both the organ and the shifting liquid solution and fuse them together to create a concoction that, if ingested, could grant temporary ess to that organ''s power." "Get on that ASAP," said Aldrich. "Ah, for that, however, I do require additional samples of shifters. Specifically, Alterhumans. The variant shifting solution seemsrgely ipatible with Alterhuman organs." "Is that so?" "Indeed. Variants themselves do not rely on organs for power - their whole bodies from w to gut process Ether into strength. Fundamentally, variants and Alterhumans operate differently." "Hm." So, basically, Aldrich needed to kidnap a shapeshifting Alter. There was Kat, but, well, Fler''Gan''s experiments were decidedly lethal, even for an undead considering he either broke things down to pure liquid or took out the organ entirely. Aldrich''s Mist could regenerate Alter organs, but it could not change them nor could it create more of them. Permanently disintegrating an Alter organ from one of his undead would not leave them dead, but it would make them powerless. "I''ll try my best," said Aldrich. "I''m sure I''ll be hitting some conflict quite soon. On that end, I''m here for Feather." "Ah, that one. He is in the Learning Room," said Fler''Gan, pointing to a suspiciously well hidden door on the other side of the room. "Learning Room?" asked Valera. Her brows were furrowed, mouth slightly agape as she tried to figure out what was going on in half of the conversations that Aldrich and Fler''Gan had just shared. Fler''Gan nodded. "Where those that must learn to obey the Elder go." Chapter ?313 Learning Room Chapter ?313 Learning Room "Learning room, is it? Let''s see how good of a teacher you are," said Aldrich as he made his way over to the door that Fler''Gan pointed to. "I have a feeling that it will be gross again," said Valera as she followed behind him. "Such a clumsy and unpleasant word,"mented Fler''Gan. "It is not fit to describe the likes of my research and methodology. Even in teaching others how to serve, I make leaps and strides with every new pupil. That one you are about to see, I am especially proud of." Aldrich put his hand on the door. Ordinarily, this led into a storage space for equipment. There were inscriptions on the door as well, glowing a faint blue, and when his eyes lingered on them, Fler''Gan called out, "That is a mor spell that hides the door when active." Aldrich nodded, appreciating Fler''Gan''s carefulness. Unlike most doors in post-Alter architecture that seemed to have quite the obsession with being automated and sliding, this one was more old fashioned, needing to be manually opened via a handle. Aldrich grabbed the handle and twisted it, unlocking the door. A pressurized hiss escaped as he slid open the door. Chilling air that smelled like the ocean wafted in his face, introducing quite the scene. "Gross," dered Valera, narrowing her eyes. The storage space, perhaps a 30 x 30 meter square, had been converted entirely into a horrific, alienndscape. The stainless steel walls were covered in dark purple flesh ribbed with undting protrusions and deep blue veins. Within these veins, many asrge as human torsos, it was possible to see the dark silhouette of tailed, tadpole-like creatures swimming about, navigating the fleshscape. Tendrils of flesh grew down from the ceiling to the floor, wrapping around each other to form thick, pir like chords. Each of these pirs were ordered neatly in rows that packed the space with precision efficiency. From these pirs grew eyes on flexible stalks, their unblinking, lidless pupils glowing with light blue bioluminescence reminiscent of that belonging to deep sea creatures. "Interesting," said Aldrich. "Now that is the proper reaction," said Fler''Gan as he made his way to Aldrich''s side. "It reminds me of how appreciative you are of my efforts, O Elder. Unlike some others." The Mind Eater cast a three eyed leer at Valera. "I am still ady, you know. There are some things that even I cannot stomach." "But blood and guts fall withindylike decorum?" countered Fler''Gan. "I am a vampire, and one trained for war. It is simply who I am," said Valera. "And this-," Fler''Gan entered the room and motioned all around him with triumphantly raised hands. "Is who I am. Wee, O Elder and Commander, to the Learning Room." "This is a nursery, isn''t it?" said Aldrich, taking steps into the flesh-infested room. His shoes squelched as they sunk into yielding mass. Tiny little wriggling tendrils brushed at his shoes with every step. "..." Valera saw the tendrils on the ground, then looked down at her rtively exposed feet in heels. She was dressed in business casual, which was to say, with skirt and all, not the best attire for this. "I will stay here, if you do not mind, master." "I don''t." Aldrich and Fler''Gan began to walk side by side. "To answer your question, O Elder, yes, indeed, this is a nursery. Mind Eaters such as myself may ''reproduce'' by asexually creating Mind Leeches and inserting them into other creatures. Upon insertion, the leeches take over their host''s body, creating a new Mind Eater. However , unless we are connnected to a proper Elder Mind, the leeches are not fertilized. Yet, fertilized or not, the leeches still remain potent tools for mind control" said Fler''Gan. He tapped at arge blue vein, pointing to the swimming creatures within. "But even creating one or two, especially in my old age, is quite a taxing effort. Leeches can, however, self-replicate within a proper nursery." "How did you create this nursery to begin with?" said Aldrich. "Self-experimentation!" dered Fler''Gan. "One of the variant samples you granted me called the Broodmother is capable of ingesting flesh and re-birthing it as a child. I modified the variant''s mind and body such that by feeding it my own flesh, it produces more of it. Mind Eater flesh is malleable, easily directed with the mind. With enough of it, I could create this nursery." "Your own flesh? How much?" "Ah, I dismembered by arm fifty seven times to produce enough biomass to work with," said Fler''Gan. With the undead ability to dampen my pain and my species'' own natural regeneration, it was a simple task." Aldrich nodded slowly. Fler''Gan''s casual voice made it very clear that even if he did feel pain cutting off his arm, he would have done it just as many times for the sake of progress. At the very least, Aldrich respected the Mind Eater''s drive. "And now, I have an ever-renewing farm of leeches to use in my alchemical concoctions. Or, as in this case-," Fler''Gan walked up to a flesh pir and tapped it. Some of the intertwined tendrilsprising the pir peeled apart, revealing the upper body of a naked, nk eyed man covered in viscous, clear ooze. Several leeches jutted out from his head, their purple, shiny bodies undting rapidly as they yed about with the man''s brain. "For education purposes." "So this is how you''ve been taking care of Feather," said Aldrich. "So, has his learning process been?" "Excellent," said Fler''Gan. "All Alterhumans possess varying degrees of mental resistance, but this one''s was especially potent. But days spent in istion and learning have made his mind more agreeable. He will listen to you." "Good." Aldrich nodded, pleased at these results. The Stranger had provided Feather''s location as a gesture of goodwill, sending the information to V as well. Although Aldrich had ended up rejecting the Stranger, he did not see why he should not take what was given to him, and V thought much the same. While Aldrich was busy in the Judicata, V sent the same hit squad led by Ace, Kat, Tox, and Chiros to Feather. As it so happened, Feather was holed up in a personal underground bunker in the Wastnds. Feather had been tipped off that people were looking for him, leading him to escape the hit squad''s first capture attempt in the free city of Westpoint. The hit squad''s first attempt had captured Feather''s men, including the nomad informant that told Feather about what the nomad councils did, but none of them had useful information. They were hired on a per contract basis and shifted out routinely, meaning they did not have longterm rtionships with Feather. Alden, the nomad informant, was equally useless. The Trident kept their tracks minimal when it came to informants, and Alden only knew what he needed to know toplete his jobs. Which was not much at all, considering all he had to do was tell Feather about happenings among the nomad tribes. Thus, they all were now in various pieces in Fler''Gan''sb. Feather was the main guy to capture. A captain in the Italian prong of the Trident who had quite a bit of power and knowledge. And now, he was here, courtesy of the Stranger. Aldrich snapped his fingers in front of Feather''s face. The man''s eyes regained focus. "Wh..what?" mumbled Feather, his voice faint. "I have questions," said Aldrich. "And you shall answer," said Fler''Gan. Feather, hearing Fler''Gan''s voice, jerked his head up to attention. "Yes," said Feather, obedient. Chapter ?314 [Bonus chapter] Spider Bait Chapter ?314 [Bonus chapter] Spider Bait "Tell me, who tipped you off at Westpoint? You left your men to dry there on awfully short notice," said Aldrich. "Desmond. He told me he suspected an attack wasing my way." Desmond. The Spider. Aldrich had a good idea it was this guy, but taking him out had been difficult with the hearinging up so soon and his constant moving. Plus, further research suggested that Desmond''s ties with the Trident, specifically the Italian Prong, granted him quite the personal security entourage. Tough and secure enough that a hit squad would not work unless Aldrich used the likes of Okeanos, and Okeanos emitted way too much energy to not be noticed from miles away. "And how did Desmond know that?" "Desmond said he had good reason. That''s all I know. I trust him, so I listened and scrammed away to my bunker for code red situations like this. I left my men to rot, but they were all temporary mercs, anyway. I could always rece them." "I see." Aldrich was curious as to how Desmond knew the hit squad wasing, but he would find out soon enough from the Spider himself. "And tell me, does the Trident or Desmond know where you are right now?" "I told the underboss that I was lying low. He understood. When capos like me need to hide, we''re given leeway. So no, the Trident doesn''t know where I am. Desmond still thinks I''m at my bunker, but he doesn''t know where that is either." "Good, good." Aldrich gave an appreciative nod to Fler''Gan. "This is seriously impressive, Fler''Gan. You''vepletely bypassed his mental defenses, and he has a decent AC count of around 4000 - within the B rank range. I have to hand it to you, you''ve done a lot in just a week." "When given space and time, a mind focused on progress blooms wondrously," said Fler''Gan with a bow. "Though as is the nature of progress, there is no end to it. I still fear I am unable to crack the minds of those in the ''A rank'' range, those holding a concentration of Alter Cells in the 5000 and above threshold." "Let me guess, if I get you a good enough mind controlling Alterhuman sample, you can make a breakthrough." "You catch on quickly, O Elder." "A shifting Alter and a mind controlling Alter. Got it. I''ll put that on the ever growing list of things I need to do," said Aldrich. He resumed questioning Feather. "What''s your rtionship like with Desmond? Seniority wise, who defers to who?" "Desmond defers to me," said Feather. "Absolutely. I''m his handler for the Italian Prong. Without me, he doesn''t get the funding or security he needs, especially now, with that shitshow of a civil war going on with those screw-loose Russians." "I figured as much. Someone had to be paying Desmond enough to turn on his chiefs, and anything less than direct support from a Trident higher-up wouldn''t have been worth it. Now then, the most important question. Riddle me this, if you tell Desmond to jump, will he jump for you?" "Pardon?" Feather stared at Aldrich nkly. "Hmm. The metaphorical conception of the mind seems to be somewhat damaged," said Fler''Gan. He tapped notes on his wristpad. "I must make note of this for improvement." "If you tell Desmond what to do, will he obey you?" rified Aldrich. "Yeah. As long as it''s within reason." "If you tell him to meet you, would he do it?" "Here? No. He doesn''t know where this is. I don''t know where this is." Aldrich side-eyed Fler''Gan, and the Mind Eater nodded. "It is safe to tell him of our location, O Elder. His mind is mine permanently. What he knows will never spread to anyone else." "We''re in Haven," said Aldrich. "Haven, huh? No way. Desmond wouldn''t step foot within a fifty mile radius of it." "Then what about outside of it? At your personal bunker?" Feather thought about it for a few seconds. "That ought to work." "Alright then, that''s good enough." Aldrich turned around, readying to leave. "Fler''Gan, clean the slime off Feather and get him out of there. I''m going to send a few skeletons here to make him more presentable afterwards. It''s about time he gets a reunion with his friend." === Aldrich took the elevator down the control tower, Valera following close behind him. She was oddly quiet, her gaze shifty, and he knew something was wrong. Though, if she was not voicing it, probably not anything serious. He would give her some time to say what was on her mind in silence. In the elevator, Aldrich punched in a code on the control panel. NXS0101. When that registered, the lights in the elevator, an unassuming white, shifted into red. With a jolt, the elevator began a deep descent down to an underground bunker area where Aldrich kept a copy of a Sign he had gotten for reaching level 50 from the Death Lord. It finally felt right having a Sign in a proper base. Like Fler''Gan, V, and his many other legion members, he was also getting settled in, making this ce his new home. "Master...have Itely not been doing enough?" Valera said finally. "Hm? What makes you think that?" Aldrich said. "It is just that...you praise all your underlings from that courtesan to the Mind Eater, but recently, not me. Is there something wrong?" Valera looked at Aldrich with genuine concern. Aldrich shook his head, smiling faintly. So that''s what this was. She was just worried. And also needed attention. Nothing he could not handle. "No, it''s fine. Think of it like this: I''m used to you enough where if I''m not saying anything, that''s praise in of itself. It means everything''s going smoothly without me having to point it out." "Understood, master. That does make me feel better." Valera sighed. "I am worried, master, about how things are to be. I know it sounds silly of me, insulting to your efforts, even, but I cherish the quiet we have now. Before, it felt as if we had been fighting every single day, every single moment. And now, there is peace. For once, I have grown to like it. To get attached to it. Maybe...," She looked down at her hands, her ws lengthening. "I am losing my edge as a warrior. I have never thought this way before. Especially when I was an Exile. I fought to kill every single day, and I lusted for the fight. But now..." Valera looked ahead, at Aldrich''s reflection cast in the glossy ck surface of the elevator doors. "I fear the fight, not for who I am to face, but who I could lose." Chapter ?315 Back to the Nexus Chapter ?315 Back to the Nexus Loss. It was a terrible word, but at the same time, if could also promise strength. Because once you lost enough, once there was nothing more to lose, there was something fierce and savage, primal in its ruthlesness, that rose to fill the void. Valera had experienced it when she was an Exile, after she had lost the princess she was sworn to protect. Aldrich had experienced it when he had lost his parents and,ter, Adam and ine. But the thing about that power, borne from loss, was that it was unstable. The moment you started to fill that loss carved void in with something brighter was the moment you lost the savage rush of strength that came with its emptiness. Even now, Aldrich was afraid of losing that strength. He had promised Valera he would try his best for her as a lover, but...it was hard. Just because he said he would did not mean he could undo a lifetime''s worth of conditioning. He was afraid that the moment he truly started reciprocating her feelings, seeing her as something more, something precious, a part of himself, that he would grow weak. That he could no longermand her to the throes of danger. And he worried that such weakness could lead to his end. Valera felt the same way. No, she was much further down the road to healing her loss than Aldrich was. She had filled her void with him, and at first, it had given her strength. There was nothing more she wanted to do than to defend and fight with him. But now, fighting came with the risk of losing him, and that outweighed any rush she got from side-by-side fighting. Aldrich did not care whether that made her weaker. He was not that heartless to hold it against her. He understood. But...he could not let her waver now. Now when conflict was going toe soon. With Feather as a mind controlled puppet, Aldrich could send him as a spy for the Italian Prong. Not only that, but if Feather managed to lure Desmond into capture, then Aldrich could gain a mass amount of intel into Trident operations. Aldrich, right now, wanted to take over ckwater. But he needed to strike at the right time. ording to Casimir, it was still operating normally as an academy to prevent government investigation, hence the newly recruited pure humans to make it seem like everything was just hunky-dory. But Clint and Gerard had told Aldrich that their riders thought conflict was brewing. Each Prong of the Trident was starting to hire mercenaries and mobilize in-house viins towards ckwater. Conflict was brewing over the academy. If Aldrich took it over too soon, he would face the full wrath of all three Trident Prongs. He could not handle that, not when he had to spread his forces thin to maintain Haven. No, he had to strike after everyone else had moved in, precisely when they were all at their weakest fighting each other. For that, Aldrich needed Desmond whose intel in the Trident would be invaluable. For that, Aldrich needed his Legion''s military strength to be top notch. Especially Valera''s, for she guaranteed Aldrich''s safety. "I know how you feel," began Aldrich. "Truly?" Valera said. "Do you perhaps...feel the same?" "..." Aldrich closed his eyes, a twinge of pain strumming at his cold, dead heartstrings. "But I still have more to do. I hope you can understand that." Aldrich wanted Valera to be as strong as possible. To not hesitate. For that, he could not reflect her feelings back to her. Not yet. Valera put a hand on Aldrich''s chest, over his heart, as if she could sense the pain. "I do understand. Remember, my master, I am no frail maiden. I am still a Guardian Knight. cing duty over my emotions is not new to me." The elevator stopped with an abrupt jolt. The doors slid open, and cold, dry underground air rushed in. "Looks like we''re here," said Aldrich. He strode through the doors into the emergency bunker. It was argely unfinished bunker - courtesy of Haven''s tier 3 status not warranting much funding or effort - but that, in a way, seemed fitting. The bunker was very much more cave than man-made structures, with uneven, rocky ground and ceiling full of rock formations and stctites. Further in, the ground was carved t andid over with metal tiling. Atop the tiling was a miniature base of sorts. Originally, there had been an array of monitors at the end that could interface with the Control Tower to check on intruders, but Aldrich had torn that all out. He wanted this ce to be as low tech as possible to prevent infiltration. There were not even lights here since he could see in the dark. Well, there was one light. As Aldrich approached, a glowing green Sign weed him, carved into the air at the end of the room. He held out his arm, and Valera held it as he floated over to the Sign, his cape of souls billowing and softly wailing behind him. The Sign glowed brighter in Aldrich''s presence. He touched it, essing the Nexus. *** Aldrich and Valera sat around a table in Med''s study. Med, the Death Lord, and Wai''ki sat with them. Above them, Supermind''s body floated, tethered in ce with ghostly blue string made from Wai''ki''s staff of eerie blue flowers. "I see," said Aldrich. "So that''s how he knew I was ''Irregr''." He looked down at the center of the table where one of Supermind''s removed eyeballs stared back at him. The eyeball held Supermind''s unique cross shaped ck pupils, but around them, there was a ring of iridescent rainbow. "The [All-Seeing Eye]" said Med with a tentative nod. She sipped a cup of steaming tea. "It is said to be able to pierce the veil of realms and see that which does not belong. In particr, it is an impressive tool to uncover demons that wish to hide among natives, for the eye will reveal them no matter how well they possess a native body." "It exins why the Stranger was willing to risk so much. Why he angered the entire world. He just wanted to kill Supermind," said Aldrich. "And he didn''t care what it took to do it. Which leads me to believe that in my world, this was the only thing capable of identifying the Stranger." "Fortunately, you took the body before it was destroyed," said Med. She narrowed her crimson eyes, inspecting Supermind''s body. "This specimen is quite magnificent in its own right. The amount of power that must have flowed through it when it was yet in its prime would have been considerable." "Not enough to beat me, though," said the Death Lord, jade prosthetic hand on her cheek, bored. "I would not be so sure." Med sped her gloved fingers together in thought. "I have but rough calctions and an even rougher grasp of this energy known as ''Ether'', but if Ether and mana are roughly equal, this specimen had enough raw power to force you out of your armor, at the least." "Is that so?" The Death Lord''s pointed ears twitched. "That makes me ever more curious. Perhaps I myself will wander out and wreak havoc to see who can stop me. But s, I am trapped." "A good thing, too. I don''t want you making a mess of a world that''s mine," said Aldrich. Chapter ?316 A Deal with a Demon Chapter ?316 A Deal with a Demon "Your world? Spoken like a true conquerer, heh." The Death Lordughed. "But I like this attitude of yours. I know you have recently acquired territory of your own. It seems that has made you more receptive to the idea of conquest." "Control, not conquest," countered Aldrich. "Oft times, they are the same thing." The Death Lord shrugged. "But think of it as you may, so long as you grow strong enough to take my power, I do not care much what you think. As long as it does not make you boring." "That eye-," said Aldrich, changing the subject. "Do you think Vntis could incorporate it into himself? He does have the Shattered Bone necromancy, after all, and that''s all about stitching parts. Alterhuman and Variant parts are too foreign for him, but the [All-Seeing Eye] is from Elduin." "Correction. Not from Elduin per say," said Med. "The [All-Seeing Eye] exists across many realms. It is a naturally urring phenomenon that we demons are taught to be wary of, though exceedingly rare." "I see. That still doesn''t preclude the possibility that Vntis can incorporate it." "He likely can," said Med. "It will simply take some time for his form to get used to it." "Good." Aldrich pondered Supermind''sst words for a bit. Take my body. Hopefully, it will help you see. Those words had more meaning now. Supermind was telling Aldrich to see as he did. To literally take his eye and defeat the Stranger. Not just the Stranger, too. The eye could identify Aldrich as someone not native to Earth, likely meaning it could do the same for any other alien entity. "But, I will not give the eye to you," said Med as she waved her hand, telekically floating the eye into it. "That is ours by right!" protested Valera. "Right? Did you not take it from a corpse? One in by the demon you call the Stranger? What spoils of war right is that? That of the vulture?" said Med. The Death Lord was surprised. "Med, what are you-," "I am tired of giving and not receiving enough, Mel," said Med. "I know you are resigned to your fate, that you are fine giving away pieces of yourself until there is nothing left. It is your way of atoning. I understand that. But that is not me. I am curiosity incarnate. I abhor being chained here when there is so much before me to explore." "M-Meddy, w-what are you saying?" squaked Wai''ki, her deer ears fluttering down in fear. "Are you...rebelling?" "My mind," said Med. "It is fine, Wai''Ki. I am not rebelling. I am simply asking for a fair price for my efforts." "Name your price, then," said Aldrich, calm. "You were the one to analyze Supermind and Randall''s bodies. You processed the Cursevein into a ne to fend against the Stranger. You gave me the [Night Parade of a Thousand Spirits]. I understand where you''reing from. So, name your price." "Hm. You are more agreeable than usual today," said Med. "I''m being reasonable. I do owe you one." "Then I will be straightforward." Med pointed at Supermind''s suspended body. "I want that body." "Why?" Aldrich raised a brow. He was going to bury Supermind''s body as he did not want to turn the legendary hero into a zombie. He wanted to give Supermind the respect he deserved. "It is a suitable body for me to possess," said Med. "Powerful and capable. Were I to inhabit it, I, as demon, creature beyond realms, could walk in your realm unbound by the Necropolis. All I need to do is reshape it into a form that mimics my current one. You promised me before that in exchange for processing your cursevein, you would find a suitable host for me. Well, you have found one. I am here to im my just reward." "I see." Aldrich thought about this. Med, it seemed, was the only one in the Necropolis that could permanently escape it, and that was because as a demon, she had an innate ability to traverse between realms. Provided, of course, she had a host body. And, it seemed, the stronger the host body, the higher the chance of her leaving the Necropolis. But it was understandable. Med could see her ticket out of here dangling right in front of her face, just inches away from her. Of course, she would try to reach out for it. Aldrich had not known so far, but he could tell now that Med had the most ''discord'' with the Death Lord. She was the one that spoke her mind the most and disagreed the most. The one that had the least loyalty. That did not mean Med was not loyal. She certainly was. But not loyal enough to stay in an eternal prison when she had a way out. Aldrich was not too worried about her annihting the Alter world if she got out. Med was a ''benevolent'' demon in that she despised killing. All she really cared about was learning new things. But he still did not want to to give her Supermind''s body. It was TOO powerful. If she managed to rejuvenate it once she possessed it, she would be nigh-unstoppable. And Med did not have as much leverage as her attitude would make it seem. Yes, she could live on earth permanently with a strong host body, but she could not make the jump from the Necropolis to earth by herself. Otherwise, she would have already tried. Aldrich needed to take her out manually in the first ce. "You do understand that even if you make that host body, unless I personally take you out of here, you''re still stuck here, right?" said Aldrich. "I know. That is why I am keeping the body and the eye," said Med. Aldrich nced at the Death Lord, wondering if she would intervene. "O-oh Mel, can''t you stop this? I hate fighting among friends," said Wai''ki as she nudged the Death Lord''s shoulder. "I will let the Usurper talk. When necessary, I will intervene," dered the Death Lord. "You demons, always a greedy lot," muttered Valera, but she deferred to Aldrich to negotiate. "Let''s cut a deal, then," said Aldrich. "It best be a good deal, Usurper," said Med. "Depends on how reasonable you are." Aldrich continued. "That body has importance to me. I want to bury it, same with the other one. I cannot give it to you. But-," He raised a finger. "I can give you this. In time, a time I assume is nothingpared to your immortal lifespan, I am going to initiate a wide-scale attack in an area popted with Alters, many of them strong just like that one. I had asked for a favor once, when I lost my divine sk. It was for you to cast [Outworld Imprisonment] when I needed you to." "Another favor, is it?" said Med, annoyed. "A favor for both of us. If I remember correctly, [Outworld Imprisonment] creates a prison realm that''s neutral. It has no ''natives'', so it doesn''t reject anyone. Which means as long as it''s active, you can move around in it without a host body." "That is correct." "Then here''s the deal. Not a favor, a deal - something that can work for both of us. You cast [Outworld Imprisonment] to start my attack, as promised. Normally, after that, you go back to the Necropolis. This time, though, you stay inside the prison realm. There, you can take your pick of whoever you want to be your next host." Chapter 317 A Reasonable Understanding Chapter 317 A Reasonable Understanding Med rubbed her forehead, sighing. "Why should I take this deal? Can I simply not keep this body forever mine? There is nothing you can do about it." "Like I said, I want us to be reasonable here," said Aldrich. "Because if we get unreasonable, that tends to teeter us to extremes, and I am very much in home with extremes." "Is that so? Tell me, what is your idea of an extreme?" countered Med. "That body is a worldwide treasure in the Alter world. Even now, people are looking for it, among them, the most powerful beings on the. I could tip the world off and lead them to a Sign, join them all as my party members, and help them reim what is rightfully theirs. This realm is powerful, yes, but against an attack from an entire world? The odds are questionable." "You would dare to invade the Necropolis?" Med narrowed her crimson eyes as they burned with infernal glint. "To ruin that which has given you so much already?" "Y-you''re going to attack us!?" squeaked Wai''ki. "Not an attack. Just helping my world take back what''s theirs," said Aldrich. "As if you are not the one that sent this body to us for analysis in the first ce¡­," said Med. "And now that we''re done with it, I fully intend on returning it and burying it properly. That man used to be one of my heroes. I am not above finding value from his corpse - that is what necromancers do - but preferably, I would like to give him rest now that his usefulness is at an end." The truth was, Aldrich would have raised Supermind as a zombie if he had to. He had done so with Adam and ine to survive when he first got his powers, after all, and they meant more to him than Supermind. But he was not in a situation of life or death at this point and he did not want to give that corpse to Med. This was, of course, quite a big bluff on Aldrich''s part. Leading the heroes into the Sign was nothing short of disastrous for both Aldrich and the Necropolis, but it was the extreme of that disaster that gave weight to this bluff. Because even if it was unlikely that Aldrich would see through on his bluff, even a 1% chance that he could was risk enough. "A bluff," Med aptly called out. "Too big to be realistic so as to be a threat to me." "Oh, but it isn''t a threat to just you, is it?" Aldrich eyed the Death Lord and Wai''ki and, by extension, the entirety of the Necropolis. All of them were going to be under threat, not just Med. This forced everyone here to weigh Med''s self-interest against the interest of the many. Was she willing topromise the safety of the entire Necropolis for her freedom? And even before that, would the Death Lord allow it? Would the rest of the Deathguard? "I know there are things you are holding back from me," Aldrich said to the Death Lord. "Like how you lost your arm. I know it wasn''t from a simple sparring session with Re. But because of your generosity so far, I''ve held back on pressing on the matter. But maybe I should start looking for answers." "You would dare to threaten my realm?" The Death Lord''s fangs bared, her canines lengthening into serpentine curves. She gripped the edge of the grey stone table and shattered a chunk off of it with ease. Her magical aura surged, raging out in a purple and green aura that looked cascaded far into the ceiling. The entire library shook, cracks starting to etch their way across everyrge surface. Wai''ki whimpered as she put her hands over her head and shut her eyes. Med herself stood up in rm, the white energy signature of dimensional magic rippling around her gloved hands. Valera instantly stood up, utterly fearless in the might of a level 100 boss. She positioned herself right beside Aldrich, ready to manifest her shield. But Aldrich remained calm, staring back at the Death Lord''s gleamingvender eyes without giving a single inch. If he died, she died. Not just her, but everyone around her. And, Aldrich knew, she cared. She cared about the people under her. Otherwise, she would have had a mindless army. He knew that because he did just the same with his own Legion. If he died, the entire realm copsed - mass genocide. The Death Lordughed. A deep, heartyugh with her hands around her robed belly. She hunched over, the peals of herughter echoing about, each ring of mirth lowering the intensity of her ring aura bit by bit until, finally, when she was doneughing, the energy was gone. "Oh, what entertainment." The Death Lord shook her head. "In my thousands of years of life, not a single being has challenged me so fearlessly as you, Usurper. Not even the gods I slew, no, they whimpered and begged and averted their rune-filled eyes the most. The sheer audacity to suggest an invasion of my realm¡­it tickles my stone-covered heart so." "So, what will it be?" said Aldrich. "I would let you and Med bicker more, but I cannot risk the Necropolis for it. And you, Usurper, may just be insane enough to follow through on that bluff of yours." The Death Lord spoke to Med. "Take that deal, Med." "I do not need deals, I need-," began Med. "Take it." The Death Lord''s voice was firm, extremely uncharacteristic of her usualid back nature. It showed that underneath her veil of casualness, she was still very much the warlord conqueror that had ughtered millions. Which brought a question to Aldrich''s mind: what exactly was she atoning for? What could hit her conscience so hard that she was willing to just¡­fade away? Without even trying to change her fate like Med? "And you need to make a contract with me before you can gavant around my world freely," said Aldrich. "More conditions¡­?" said Med. "Just a simple one," said Aldrich. "That being this: you will not disturb the bnce of the world. You may travel and learn and defend yourself, but influencing the world directly? Killing a mass amount of people? Spreading your name to crowds or, to other realms - realms that could find my world? Raising acolytes? Not happening. You will not give your name. Your origins. Your magic. Or ess to any of it all." Gods, demons, and high ranking spirits could make contracts with others that they absolutely could not resist lest they suffer severe consequences. Granted, it was possible to find ways to skirt around contract restrictions - that was what many demons did to trick mortals into making deals with them - but Med, Aldrich determined, was too straightforward to work that way. Most knowledge demons were. They, like war demons, were surprisingly the most ''pure'' in their pursuit of what they wanted. They wanted knowledge and to spread it among their chosen followers. Granted, these followers usually ended up being zealous, questionably brainwashed cultists, but it was generally a better fate than making a contract with, say, a war demon who gave you power at the cost of unquenchable bloodthirst or a secret demon who would want nothing more than to see you fall into despair and destruction. "Is that your perception of a ''simple'' contract?" said Med. "Yes," was all Aldrich had to offer. "I think it simple enough," said the Death Lord. "Simple enough for you to ept this deal, no?" Though the Death Lord posed a question, the tone behind it was very much not questioning. "¡­I suppose I did see something like thising. You do hold the fate of this entire realm in your unlife. Only I have the tools to escape your grasp over us, this glorified prison, but I cannot ignore myrades either." Med nced at Wai''ki before she sighed. "It was worth a try, I suppose. I will take the deal, Usurper, though note that it is very much under duress." "I''m d we came to an understanding," said Aldrich. "A reasonable one." Chapter ?318 The Forest Chapter ?318 The Forest Aldrich flew through the air with Vntis fully armored around him. Beforehand, the living armor had been ying with Chrysa in the Control Tower, or rather, training with her, giving her light sparring sessions with a live enemy. Draconic wings stretched out to Aldrich''s sides, generating their magical flight field to keep him soaring through the skies. It was dark, as dark as it got, to keep cover. Inside his Boundary were Chrysa, Valera, Chiros, and Feather. He made sure to bring all Elden World units for this mission to avoid as much tech-based surveince as possible. Even flying was a little risky as satellite surveince could detect fast flying, human sized objects. Courtesy of there being so many of them around now post-Altering. But in the Wastnds, where Aldrich currently flew, satellites had less coverage, especially in airspace that geo-storms passed by. The energy trail they left created a sort of ''re'' that prevented even the best satellites from really picking up on what was going on there. Flying Alters could therefore reliably fly in ''stealth'' by mapping out paths where geo-storms had passed through within the past seven days. The re was invisible to the naked eye, but to anything lens and tech based, it was astoundingly disruptive. Some people spected that geo-storms, like variants, could adapt to technology as they were both parts of nature. Others thought that was terrible logic and reaching. Regardless, it helped Aldrich stay low and out of sight. The path he followed was one that Gerard and his Eagle riders mapped out for him, and if word around the nomadmunity was true, Gerard was the absolute best at pathing through the Wastnds undetected. Courtesy of his age and experience. ACD (Alter Cell Detection) satellites were just about the only things that worked out here, being capable of tracking dense alter cell energy signatures through even storm-re, but because Aldrich used 100% Elden World power sources, he was, functionally speaking,pletely invisible. The only thing that could catch Aldrich right now something like radar, but he doubted any flying vehicle was around him. Not here in the Wastnds. "How is the new eye, Vntis?" said Aldrich. "It is quite something," said Vntis. Supermind''s [All-Seeing Eye] opened up on the forehead of Aldrich''s face te via a slit that popped through the metal. The eye goggled aroundzily, the rainbow ringed pupil unable to focus. "I can stitch it to my form, but I require a day to reliably make it mine." "A day? Not bad at all. How did Chrysa do today?" Chrysa slept right now, all tuckered out and tired from fighting all day. Valera kept watch over her, putting her to bed by recounting glorious tales of her many battles as an exile. Surprisingly, Chrysa loved them, even with the rather questionably gory descriptions that Valera loved to put in. Looking at them through his mind, Aldrich could see a proper bond forming. Valera, at heart, was a good caretaker. Loss had made her cold and unforgiving, but when she let someone get close to her, they became her everything. At first, that was just Aldrich, but she eagerly weed Chrysa too, probably because she was technically Aldrich''s child. Born through some strange spirit-based self reproduction, yes, but a child nheless. "She is talented in the art of battle," said Vntis. "Eager to learn. Eager to fight. Were she an orc, she would have done mighty well!" "How''s her magic? Better?" "Quite so. It still drains her considerably - such is the nature of magic that maniptes the fabric of space - but as it is her natural affinity, her mastery and efficiency with it grows by the day. I have taught her how to Shape it, to let it mimic and give strength to her physical movements, and she has taken to the art like a bird to the sky." Vntisughed. "An affinity of Space - it is one of pure legend. In time, I am sure she will also be like legend, worthy of standing side by side with my warmother of old, Thel." Thel. The orc warmother who had led Vntis when he was still flesh and bone. Indisputably the strongest recorded orc as well, sitting at level 85, very close to the realm of the gods themselves. One of few known godyers as well. "I''m curious, Vntis, do you still have any loyalty to Thel?" asked Aldrich. "I am grateful to her. She epted me in spite of my grave sins, but loyalty? No. She is gone, far gone, and I have chosen to bind you as my Armored. That is not a decision lightly made. And it is not a decision lightly broken." "I see." Aldrich looked down. The Wastnds had changed considerably here. Instead of endless swathes of dry, cracked earth, he beheld quite the odd forest. It wasprised of just a small gathering of giant trees, many as tall as sixty meters and incredibly wide to boot. A wildwork of vines connected the treetops together, creating a thick of biomass where strange car-sized flowers and nts grew, most of them with great big maws like oversized venus flytraps, devouring insect variants that happened upon them. ording to rudimentary data, the predominant type of variant here were flying insects, but there was not much more information than that. Not even the AA scouted reliably this far deep into the Wastnds. This, remarkably, was where Feather had his bunker. ording to Feather, most of the variants were insect types that lived on and nest in the treetops and vinework. They did not bother with anything on the forest floor. However, because even a cursory AC scan would identify thousands of variants mingling in the trees, nobody dared to step into it. Aldrich lowered altitude, floating into the thick of the giant forest low to the ground to prevent attention from any of the bugs above. None of them were really big threats, averaging at the D rank, but it would still be annoying to get swarmed by thousands of them at once. On the forest floor, Aldrich felt a distinct sense of emptiness. Everything was quiet. Eerily so. The treetops where the insect variants lived were so high up that any noise they made did not carry down. "Strange," said Aldrich as he meandered about, looking for the bunker. Apparently, it was not even underground - that was how confident Feather was that nobody would look for him here. "One would think that with a lush forest like this, you would find life at the bottom, too." "It is indeed an oddity. I am still getting used to the novelty of this new realm," said Vntis. "These towering trees, in particr, are quite odd. Energy signatures within their bark grow quite dim. Perhaps there is something hidden within?" "Let''s not mess around with anything just yet. Not until I get what I need out of this bunker. Speaking of-," Aldrich found the bunker. It was quite literally just a mobile home, parked beside a tree trunk that utterly dwarfed it. He tapped his Phctery, willing Chrysa awake. She groggily replied, ''Yes, father?'' "Can you bring our new guest out?" said Aldrich. ''Okay...'' Chrysa yawned audibly. A white silhouette crackled in front of Aldrich, filling in with color to reveal Feather, dressed up in a proper suit and tie to look presentable. He had sunsses with a douchey slick-back haircut more grease than anything else. "Is this it?" Aldrich pointed to the bunker. "Yeah, this is it." Feather nodded at the mobile home. He was more in control of himself as it had been half a day of flying, which meant several hours outside of the Learning Room. But the brainwashing was still potent enough that Feather would listen to everything Aldrich said for another few days at least. Feather just got to show more of his personality while he did so. "Doesn''t look convincing a a good bunker spot, yeah, I know, and yeah, I also know that technically, that ain''t actually a bunker, but I guaran-fucking-tee this is safer than a nun''s twat," said Feather. "How did you even find out about this ce?" "Eh, a viin referred me. S-ranker called Leshen. Complete oddball, that one, said he loved to unwind here where nobody would find him cause'' the voices he heard soothed him. Dude was nuts, but he treated me good enough. Probably because I was about one of a couple people that didn''t straight up drop dead from his poison gas. Hard to make friends when you got no choice but to kill everybody within twelve steps of you," said Feather. Feather''s power was in old regeneration, though as a B rank Alter, it was good enough to let him grow back an arm in a few seconds. He could also move his consciousness around, letting him survive as a tiny little nugget of flesh ande back whole again. "Shame Valkyrie had to lock him up. Whenever he did security detail for me, I felt like the safest guy in the world." "And you''re sure the variants won''t attack you?" said Aldrich. "They''re way the hell up there." Feather craned his neck and looked up high to the treetops. "And I haven''t ever seen em'' get down here. They don''t even crawl down the trunks, just stay above the branches." Aldrich remembered that incident. It was maybe ten years ago that Leshen, already known for being mentally unstable, went absolutely berserk guarding a Dark Sixb. He grew an entire forest of toxic and carnivorous nts, destroying theb and everyone in it. The flesh eating forest would have spread uncontrobly had Valkyrie, a S-ss hero who also used nt based powers, not subdued Leshen. Now, Leshen was probably rotting in some hidden Null cell. "Alright then. Your friend Desmond is going to being here soon. So let''s get started making you presentable." Aldrich stepped up to Feather, dwarfing the average sized man. "What are you-," began Feather, but he was cut off when Aldrich mmed his fist into the man''s stomach, goring through the flesh. Chapter ?319 A Trapped Spider Chapter ?319 A Trapped Spider Desmond''s red tinted eyes fidgeted, looking from side to side, up to down: everywhere for a threat. All he saw were dirt and trees. Giant trees. In front of them, he felt small, constantly watched. Out of every bad feeling in the world, Desmond hated the idea of being watched the most. It was one of the reasons why he hateding to this bunker. The idea of being watched by nature, that there were thousands of creatures above, was unpleasant, to say the least. Lately, he had been experiencing that feeling more and more in general, never quite being able to shake off the idea that somebody or something was watching him. It was probably just his nerves, though, especially with the civil war going on with the Trident. A debacle that was, to say the absolute least. The bnce was right there, Italian, Japanese and Russian Prongs working seamlessly. As they had been for over 50 years. But all it took was one bad day, one, utterly insane day, for it all to break apart. Desmond still remembered the meeting with the Three Prongs. The speech the Russian Prong rep said before he blew himself up. ''All of you are thinking too small. You care about bnce and the profits thate with it. All you see is this tiny little rock that you call your home, that you think is special. And because of that, you''re caged. Like dogs. Old, mangy dogs. Now, it''s time to put the dogs down.'' Just like that, war. War on the tide of mass variant attacks. War against not only the Italian and Japanese Prongs, but the entire world - the AA-Panop Complex - as well. What was the Russian Prong thinking? What was Ivan thinking? He had been head for twenty years, years of secrecy, granted, but was that all to n for this stunt? Was Ivan really the head anymore? "We''re within ten miles of the bunker coordinates," said Mollusk, one of two of Desmond''s highest end bodyguards. The other, Refraction, followed behind, ready to warp everyone out if anything got even the slightest bit suspicious. Desmond hated traveling in person when he could make do with drones, but Feather, as a capo in the Italian Prong, had status enough to demand a physical presence. Even then, Desmond was not going to let his guard down. Not with the new cloaking tech the Russian Prong''s bots used that kept the world up at night with how deadly it had been. The only person in the Underworld so far who could devise any countermeasure against it was Mad Jack, and even then, that was up to the whims of Jack''s twisted, ever unstable mind. "Stop here." Desmond pointed forward, into the dark of the forest. In response, several ck, dog-sized spider drones utched from his back, hovering through the air as they paved the way forward, scanning it all. "Are you sure about this?" said Mollusk, his slimy, octopus-like blue head pulsating. "Feather''s a capo. He won''t like that you''re implying the safety he guarantees isn''t enough." "Feather will have to deal with it," said Desmond. "There''s only so much respect I can afford in times like this." === "So, are you here or not?" Feather sat in front of an empty metal table, impatiently tapping the steely grey surface with his fingers. Around Feather, several spider drones floated around, directing their red, grid-patterned scanning beams across every inch of the mobile home''s dingy unkempt insides. "I need to secure the area first." Desmond''s voice emanated through the drones. "You do know I''m a capo, right? I deserve more respect than this. Without me, you wouldn''t even be halfway where you are now." Feather frowned, his shaded eyes staring at the drones. "I understand you are my biggest investor and tie to the Trident, but I cannot afford to be less than careful now," said Desmond. "Custom has to take a backseat with the civil war going on. And, if I remember correctly, I was the one that tipped you off on that kidnapping attempt." "Tch. Yeah. Fuckers almost got me, too." Feather snorted. "Too bad you and I are always one step ahead of the game, eh?" "Staycent, and you''ll fall behind sooner than you think. Now, more so than ever. The world''s started to up its pace in terms of pure chaos. Thankfully, the war''s cooled down for a bit - you''re safe to leave after our meeting." "Yeah, ain''t that true." Feather rapped his knuckles on the table, more impatient than ever. "It''s been five minutes of this scanning shit. Get your ass over here so we can talk business." "We could talk business like this." A spider drone hovered in front of Feather, across the table. "Fuck that. The more we get cool tech toys like this, the more we have to value tradition. Why the fuck would I drag you out here if I was going to talk to you through a damn screen? Scratch that, this drone of yours doesn''t even have a screen. Is this how you''re going to insult me?'' "...I''m on my way. I''ve confirmed that your surroundings are safe." "Excellent observation, genius. Think I''d be here if I didn''t know that?" Feather snorted. "I''ll let this slide this time. Now get your ass over here." == Desmond sat across from Feather. Mollusk and Refraction stood on alert, ready to deal with any possible threat. Spider drones floated outside, ready to report the slightest disturbance. In a single instant, Refraction could warp everyone out here if needed. He was, after all, one of Desmond''s most trusted bodyguards. Mollusk did not fall far behind either. As an A-rank mutant, he was more than enough muscle to deal with all but the absolute highest ss of threats. "You don''t have any guards with you?" Desmond asked Feather. "Couldn''t bring any after that short notice you gave me. Fucking lit a match right under my ass, you did. Think I had time to hire anyone new?" said Feather. "This is why you need to build up rtions with your guards," said Desmond. "Past three capos before me got shanked or betrayed by their close guard. Ain''t letting that happen to me." Feather grinned. "Anyway, how are things on the outside?" "The Russian Prong''s gone mad," said Desmond. "Madder than Mad Jack?" "Madder, if that was even possible. They attacked the Judicata and took down Supermind." "Shit, Supermind? Really? Rest in piece, you sweet old legend. And how the fuck did they pull something like that off?" "Unknown technology," said Desmond. "Current reigning theory is that it''s alien." "Alien, huh? Thought nobody could work with that shit." "That''s what we thought. But we''re the criminal underworld - we aren''t the experts in that field. The government is. But that''s a different topic." Desmond shifted in his seat, ufortable, feeling tense. "Why did you bring me out here? You said you had important information that was urgent. About what?" "Your death." Aldrich''s voice echoed outwards, permeating through the room, though nobody could pinpoint where it came from. But Desmond was not about to find out. He instantly stood up. "Get us out!" "Roger." Refraction immediately opened up his palms, creating two transparent mirror constructs. But, before the constructs could form properly, they shattered into a rain of fading shards. Warp-Lock. Chapter 320 Capturing the Spider Chapter 320 Capturing the Spider "What is the meaning of this!?" shouted Desmond in a rage, his eyes shing bright red. His synthetic dreadlocked hair, made of fiber cable, glowed crimson in various segments that lined each lock. He looked around everywhere, and his spider drones spun about, scanning, but they could not identify where that voice came from. But, at the very least, there was no immediate threat. "Just business, Des," said Feather. "Our line of work alwayses with a hefty side serving of betrayal. You ought to know that best." "You¡­" Desmond''s lips twisted into a snarl, but he quickly turned to Refraction, needing to get out before venting any anger. "The Warp-Lock''s range can''t be infinite. Let''s go!" Refraction nodded and shouted to Mollusk. "I''m breaking us out of here!" Refraction rushed to one of the mobile home''s walls, winding back a palm strike to blow it away. "No you don''t." Aldrich materialized behind Refraction in a shower of white sparks, tightly gripping the mercenary''s wrist. "Y-you!" Desmond''s eyes went wide as he recognized Aldrich. Or, rather, Thanatos. "It was always you, wasn''t it!? The one watching me!? Ever since our meeting, I''ve always had a feeling of being watched...it was you!" Aldrich did not respond. He was curious how Desmond knew that, but that did not matter right now. He could tear answers out of Desmondter. What was important was separating Refraction, a warp-capable Alter, from Desmond. Mollusk reacted to Aldrich, his arm splitting into six suckered tentacles that rushed at Aldrich at impressive speed. The tentacles, however, stopped, nging against an enormous shield. Behind it stood Valera, fully armored, the jagged teeth of her hound helm bared. "I have to deal with another tentacled monstrosity?" muttered Valera. "Gross." "Not alone." Chiros materialized beside Feather and dashed past the line of tentacles, his orange-red [Hellfire de], obtained from the third trial quest, roaring with a coating of fire. Thin, high-temperature orange lines drew vertically downwards all of Mollusk''s arm tentacles before they split apart, neatly severed. "Gah!" Mollusk withdrew his severed tentacles, smoke sizzling out from their charred stumps. Aldrich nodded, seeing his legion grow. Chiros, too had grown now to level 45 from some extra Dark Wisdom Aldrich had rued in the past week. His appreciation was cut short, however, with Refraction unleashing a backwards kick. Aldrich dodged the kick and used [Organ Stiching: Giant''s Muscles] to pad his armored arms full of bright red muscle fiber. With the extra power, he mmed the back of Refraction''s head with a mighty p like a less than model parent disciplining their child. Refraction nted into the ground face first, his head burying into the metal in almostical manner. He grew still, unconscious. That was Desmond''s ticket out of here gone. "How!? I scanned this entire area! I made sure there were no threats!" said Desmond, shrinking back against a wall as Aldrich approached. Desmond had no realbat capabilities. His Alter power was entirely utility based. His drones could take out maybe D rank Alters, but Thanatos - not a snowball''s chance in hell. Mollusk could not make a move as he faced both Valera and Chiros. Aldrich opened a palm towards Feather. "F-fuck¡­" Feather grabbed his stomach in pain before it burst open. The Phctery flew out,nding in Aldrich''s open hand. He ced it back into his chest, the armor ting opening up and snugly wrapping back around it. Feather''s gaping stomach wound closed back up in a few seconds with his regeneration. "Wh-what? What was that!?" demanded Desmond, but Aldrich did not respond. Showing the Phctery was his way of showing Desmond how he had lost, but Desmond did not understand because it was magic. And Aldrich was not about to stand here and lecture Desmond on magic. "There''s nothing more dangerous than an enemy you don''t understand. Or expect. Take that lesson with you to your grave." Aldrich grabbed Desmond''s head and raised him up. Desmond struggled, trying to pry Aldrich''s arm away, but it was like a toddler trying to push back against a fully grown man: futile. Aldrich reached into his Phctery and materialized V''s Viral Jacker. He clicked a button on the end of the syringe-like construct, and a three pronged needle-port extended out the other end, a line of purple energy glowing bright through it. Desmond''s eyes widened in panic, knowing what was going to happen. "Wait-!" Aldrich jammed the jacker into the back of Desmond''s head. Sparks and arcs of electricity crackled around Desmond''s head, and he seized violently until his eyes zed. At that point, Desmond went limp. V''s bug worked perfectly, as promised. ''Good job with the Warp-Lock, Chrysa. I know it''s a new technique, but you did great,'' said Aldrich. ''Now, can you take this guy in?'' ''Thanks father! I trained tons for it!'' Chrysa said, though her voice was stillced with tiredness. ''And another one? So many weird guys end up here¡­but alright, I can handle it for father.'' Strands of white emerged from Aldrich''s chest, wrapping around Desmond before warping him away into the Boundary. The viral jacker needed some time to fully work on Desmond, so until then, he would nap in peace and quiet in the Boundary. "Now then." Aldrich turned to Mollusk. The Alter had regenerated his tentacle arms and shifted his round, unblinking, octopus-like eyes between Chiros and Valera. "About you and your unconscious friend over there." "With Desmond gone, we''ve got no reason to fight you," said Mollusk. "Let me and Refraction go, and you won''t hear anymore from us." "Right. But you saw what happened here today. You saw Feather turning over to my side," said Aldrich. "And I have many more ns for Feather. I''m afraid things aren''t that simple." "It''s the easiest way to do things for both of us," said Mollusk. "You''re strong, no doubt, but I''m no slouch. I''m an A-ranker. There''s always an easier way out. Something that works for both parties involved. If you want us to keep our mouths shut, you could even hire us. That ought to do the trick." "Such brazen behavior!" said Valera. "You would dare to demand payment even now?" "Not demand. Negotiating," said Mollusk. Aldrich recalled back to Med. "I''m a little tired of negotiating, unfortunately. And-," Aldrich closed his fists, his green necromancy magic swirling around them. "There are other ways to make you two work for me." Chapter ?321 Mollusk Hunt Chapter ?321 Mollusk Hunt "I saw you on the news," said Mollusk. His face was very much like Fler''Gan''s, octopus like with arge, round head of slimy skin that shimmered, the color of the skin shifting from light green to red. His eyes were unblinking, the pupils simple round dots. His body was generally humanoid, big, too, easily matching Aldrich''s own height at over two meters, with the most monstrous part of him being that his arms and legs split down at their elbow and knee joints into a multitude of suckered tentacles. "You can hijack corpses. A nasty power. No wonder you decided to be a Sentinel. World would have rejected you otherwise." "Poprity ratings say otherwise," said Aldrich. "Believe me, if the people here did not love my master, I would have made them," said Valera. She stood behind her newly awarded [Burnmaw Bulwark] that Aldrich received as a reward frompleting the third trial quest. The shield was like a solid, rectangr b of iron with an angry red face melted at its front, the wide open mouth agape in a fierce roar from which hellfire mes sputtered, noticeable from a ck tint outlining their flickering forms. "People love pretty things," said Mollusk. "They ept you now because they need you. But in time, when you aren''t needed, they''ll shun you. But enough talk. It''s about time I started to fight for my life." "Yes." Aldrich did not want to make the first move too readily. Mollusk was an A-ranker. He was certifiably strong. But because he was A-rank, especially as a mercenary that needed to advertise their strength, there was readily avable information about him. Aldrich had done his homework with V helping out the research, and from that, he knew Mollusk''s baseline power was that he was a Mutant Alter who had cephalopod traits. He had rapid regeneration, a powerful, prehensile body, the ability to change the color of his skin to blend with his surroundings, and high physical stats easily on par with that of A rank augmenters. Even then, Mollusk likely had a few trump cards under his belt that were not so readily known. Refraction was even more secretive. Warp powers were so highly sought after that mercenaries only had to list that in their qualifications to get hired by top dogs in the underworld. As a result, Flux Alters that had warp capability had the luxury of hiding anybat applications their power had. That was why Aldrich had knocked Refraction out as soon as possible. On top of that, he had imparted the [Bonebearing Curse] on Refraction with that blow, which was practically a death sentence as the spell was mind control that circumvented Alter mental defenses. [Bonebearing Curse''s] lore text stated that it allowed the caster to control a flesh and bone creature by literally manipting their skeleton like it was a puppet. Since it was more physical maniption than mental, Alter mental defenses did not work against it. "And let''s add one more to this fight." Aldrich raised his right hand, wreathed in ck cursed energy. Refraction stood up with jerky movements, very much as if someone was controlling him using puppet strings. "Refraction...?" Mollusk said. "No, you''re controlling him. But he''s not dead. So you can control others even while they''re alive, hm? Probably through physical touch. And they need to be unconscious, too." Quick observational capability. Mollusk had sensed something was off immediately from the differences in Refraction''s movement. Though he was wrong about Aldrich needing someone to be unconscious to curse them, it was still a solid guess. "Four against one, huh?" Mollusk slithered backwards. "Shitty odds, yeah. Not like the odds weren''t shit before. Why don''t you just die? It''ll be easy on everyone," said Feather as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the table to watch. "No can do. I still very much have things to do and ces to be." Mollusk unleashed a wave of tentacles from both his arms. Ten in total. They expanded in size as they extended outwards, almostpletely filling up the confines of the mobile home. "[Roar!]" Valeramanded her shield. The [Burnmaw Bulwark] unleashed an explosive stream of hellfire that seared through the iing wave of tentacles, disintegrating them into dust and leaving a gaping hole where a wall had been. Mollusk was gone. "I still see you." Aldrich leaped into the air with his draconic wings unfurling. Vntis''s Truesight picked up on Mollusk slithering away at quick speeds while camouged. Mollusk had used the tentacle wave as a distraction for a quick getaway. ''Damn it! How many powers does this guy have!'' thought Mollusk as he regenerated his tentacles again, but he was helpless against a ranged assault from above. Chiros and Valera shot forward, faster than Aldrich, with Chiros being the definitive fastest with his more agility orientedbat build. They could both track Mollusk through Aldrich''s Truesight. ''Too many targets. Have to even the numbers a bit.'' Mollusk deactivated his camouge to keep his energy usage minimal before his ten arm tentacles severed off on their own. The tentacles grew rapidly, turning intorge, worm-like tendrils each the size of arge car. They swarmed around Chiros and Valera. Chiros whirled around with his de, slicing five of the tendrils in half, but the halves grew back bigger, adding five additional tendrils. An infinitely multiplying army. "Ah, so that''s how it is," said Chiros. "This was my mistake." "Use your [Crystal Blood Venom]! No slicing attacks, only piercing!" said Valera. "We have to kill these disgusting things in one fell swoop!" "Yes,mander." Chiros dug his nails into his palm and dripped blood on his de. A crimson aura emanated from the fiery weapon. He flipped over two tendrils mming into where he was, each m strong enough to blow apart big chunks in the dirt. Chiros stabbed into both tendrils as he gracefully soared past them. Glowing red lines like veins permeated through the point of contact as the venom spread. "[Roar!] [Roar!] Melt, you slimy nuisances!" shouted Valera as she used her shield like a methrower, unleashing a mass amount of fire that disintegrated any tentacle in sight. The tendrils, however, seemed to have capable minds of their own, and though Valera engulfed a good six of them in mes, rendering them down to ashes, many of them escaped, dodging backwards. Meanwhile, Aldrich pursued Mollusk. Mollusk''s stunt in removing his arm tentacles had worked to give him space and iste Valera and Chiros. However, all Mollusk could do now was run, slithering through the forest at high speeds easily beating out any race car. Notably, Mollusk did not regenerate his arm tentacles. Or rather, he could not. It was very likely that creating autonomous tendrils like that was much more taxing energy wise. Aldrich fired two [Death Bolts], and they homed in on Mollusk. Aldrich had trained to improve his mana control, and that meant he could now more freely direct the trajectory of his spells. Mollusk, however, was fast. He zig-zagged at rapid speeds, trying to throw the bolts off. When he noticed the bolts changing direction to follow him, he leaped up,tched onto a tree trunk, and then went around it in an instant by extending one of his tentacles several dozen meters like a climbing hook, attaching it onto the bark with its suckers before reeling himself in. This threw the bolts off, causing them to smash into the bark with explosive green impacts. On the other side of the trunk, though, Refraction awaited, having scaled the tree with sheer running speed. Aldrichmanded Refraction to use his powers to attack. Refraction, however, only punched Mollusk in the face. Mollusk''s soft body easily rolled with the impact, minimizing the force greatly. With a swift movement, he utched one of his leg tentacles and wrapped it around Refraction before tossing the Alter away. ''I see. It looks like the [Bonebearing Curse] isn''t as good as undead control. If I don''t know how an Alter''s power works, I can''t get them to use it,'' said Aldrich. Refraction was also noticeably less coordinated than a properly controlled undead was. This made Aldrich assess that [Bonebearing Curse] should be used more as a disruption tool to disable enemies rather than actual proper mind control. ''Still, I can''t deny that this guy is strong,'' thought Aldrich. Mollusk had very much trained his body''s abilities to a honed knife''s edge. He used every aspect of his biology exceedingly well. His soft, squishy body coupled with the slime and martial arts experience to roll with hits meant that most physical blows werepletely useless against him. On top of that, shing attacks ran the risk of just multiplying more tentacles. His coordination in moving with his tentacles, using them to climb and maneuver, was also outstanding. And he had very good tactical awareness, instantly cutting Valera and Chiros off at the cost of half his tentacles without a moment of hesitation. If Mollusk was not fighting at a numbers disadvantage, Aldrich estimated that the Mutant would win against Chiros eight times out of ten and fight a very long but losing fight against Valera. Quite respectable. And all the more reason to add Mollusk to Aldrich''s legion. Chapter ?322 Mollusk Hunt 2 Chapter ?322 Mollusk Hunt 2 Aldrich floated in the air, firing [Death Bolts] mostly to keep Mollusk moving. Mollusk dodged like mad, moving about the cratered tree trunk to dodge the iing bolts. The way the alter moved was erratic, utterly inhuman, and, coupled with his capable speed, and Aldrich had a hard time tracking him. Aldrich could only fire two bolts at a time, so he could not exactly overwhelm Mollusk with them either. He could, however, use the bolts like suppressive fire, keeping Mollusk from doing anything while he nned his next moves. He decided to use more of his newly outfitted arsenal. He had padded out his spell count to twenty now, the maximum he could sit on until he hit level 60. As he had wanted before, he had now augmented his instant death magic considerably with two unique and powerful spells. The first one was [Anti-Life Beam]. It was a sixth circle spell that instantly disintegrated any unit that did not have enough vitality and health. If it could not instantly kill, it dealt continual disintegrating damage, with constant exposure under the ray continually edging targets closer and closer topete disintegration. It also had the useful trait of very quickly dusting non-living materials, making it the perfect siegebreaking attack. It was mostly Aldrich''s way to clear out fodder since it was rtively cheap and one shot weaker enemies in crowdfuls. But it took too long against tough targets to be reliable as instant death magic. That was the nature of most instant death magics, though. Since it was such a broken mechanic to one shot an enemy through their durability or health, it was bnced in many ways. Boss units, for example, were generally immune to the effect. And, most of the time, instant death magic was resisted by high vitality. The higher one''s vitality, the lower the chance of the magic pring. Mages could deal with it in different ways using spellbreakers or shields. But there were certain spells that could circumvent these defenses reliably. An example being his second new instant death spell: [Heart in My Hands]. It was an eighth circle spell, the highest in his arsenal barring the Night Parade. By touching a unit, Aldrich could impart a curse on them, creating a magical copy of their heart in his hand. Crushing the fake heart crushed the real heart. In the game, this dealt massive physical damage and, if the target was below 30% maximum health, instantly executed them. But in the real world, a crushed heart was lethal to the vast majority of Alters, regardless of whether they were at ''30% max HP'' or not. It was, in essence, a way for Aldrich to use the lore text on his spells to his unique advantage. The biggest weakness of this spell, however, was that Aldrich needed to physically get in melee range and touch his desired target. It was the same weakness as trying to get [Bonebearing Curse] to work. In a frontal confrontation, especially against a tough, fast, strong enemy, getting a touch in was going to be difficult. Which was why Aldrich built around it. "[Heart in My Hands]" Aldrich chanted. Crimson energy emanated around his right hand. Then, he chanted again. "[Undying Guardian: Pursuer]." This was a spell Aldrich got from the dark arts tome awarded by the third trial quest. It allowed him to summon a single higher tier undead, and he had chosen the Pursuer, the undead he felt was most suited for his build. Behind Aldrich, shadows swirled, forming into a ck-cloaked, hooded figure whose face or body was not visible under its cloth of living dark. The entity was distinctively spiritual in form, its lower body ending in billowing wisps of darkness. It loosed a piercing wail as it wrapped around Aldrich''s form, its hooded void of a face looking about for its target. "Take this," said Aldrich, raising his crimson wreathed hand up. The Pursuer extended its hands from its robes. They were skeletal, the fingers curving into cruel hooks meant for digging in and never letting go. The Pursuer tapped Aldrich''s hand, and the curse transferred to it. "And-," Aldrich fired off another [Death Bolt], this one forcing Mollusk to loop around from behind the tree trunk to in front of it, in line of sight with the Pursuer. "There''s your target." The Pursuer shrieked, letting go of Aldrich and speeding forwards at remarkable speeds. Once the Pursuer locked onto a target, it would never let go. As a spiritual entity, it was immune to physical attacks, could phase through walls, and had rapid regeneration. Unless it was destroyed all at once, it would keeping back. Once the Pursuertched onto its target, it would transfer any debuffs or curses the summoner put on it. On top of that, the Pursuer would deal significant damage, acting like a parasite that drained its targets life force, slowing enemies while continually dealing damage. It also lowered resistances, including instant death resistance, dramatically. Basically, it turned into a massive pain in the ass for its target. The only issue with the Pursuer was that if Aldrich sent it out, he could not recall it, and high tier undead like it required an entire day to resummon. ''What the hell is that!?'' Mollusk panicked as he saw some kind of dementor thing rushing at him. ''This guy has too many tricks up his sleeve. I can''t keep letting him pull them out. And if I stay constantly on the defense, I''ll die eventually. My rangedbat is nearly non-existent, but I''ve found a way to make something work. Well, here goes nothing.'' He bunched his leg tentacles together and ttened them,pacting energy in them like springs, waiting. Once the ck dementor thing got close, he would unleash the potential energy built in his legs, shooting forward like a living cannonball to evade the thing and hit Thanatos. ''This has to hurt,'' thought Mollusk, staring right at Thanatos. ''And if I miss or if he dodges, all the better. I''ll make a lot of distance between us, and then I can keepunching myself from tree to tree to get out of here.'' ''A desperate move,'' thought Aldrich, observing Mollusk''s preparatory motions. ''He has no tentacle arms, but if he''s doing this, he must have a way of hurting me beyond just mming his mass into me at super speed.'' Mollusk did not have his arm tentacles anymore, but he did have deadly neurotoxins in his slime and, at his chest, a hidden, retractable beak that could easily crush the likes of diamond. By extending it at the veryst moment, he could essentially act like a spear, shattering right through Thanatos. When the Pursuer came close, he extended his leg tentacles, shooting himself forward at Aldrich at dizzying speeds that could easily rival a missile. ''The output of this attack is tremendous!'' said Vntis, his telepathic words transmitting to Aldrich at elerated speed. ''I cannot use a defensive stitching for I am maintaining flight! Use your cloak''s Hallowed Ground, Armored.'' ''No. We have to take the attack directly. If we dodge, he can get away. In fact, I''ll wager that''s what he''s nning. Hallowed Ground turns us intangible - he''ll phase through us. I''ll keep us in the air. Prepare defensive stitching. I''ll assist you.'' Aldrich mmed his palms together, his green aura surging as Mollusk approached rapidly. No time for a chant. Mollusk smashed into Aldrich, but instead of breaking Aldrich apart, it was Mollusk that sted down to the ground, utterly repelled. With a deafening crack, the Mutant mmed into the base of a tree trunk with enough force that he broke right through it. A remarkable testament to the sheer force Mollusk could output. For reference, Aldrich''s [Death Bolts] had barely been able to char and crack the durable wood. Mollusky stunned on the ground, covered in chunks of wood skewered into his body. His regeneration pushed them out, but it was toote. The Pursuer caught up to Mollusk in his moment of recovery. With a howling shriek, the spirit ripped its hooked ws into Mollusk''s body. Mollusk jolted in pain, immediately feeling dizzy and sluggish. He tried to stand up, but found that every single movement felt hard, as if his entire body was made out of stone. He was not getting away anymore. "Damn. Guess this is the end of the line for me," said Mollusk as he stood up, the Pursuertched firmly onto his back. He looked ahead at Thanatos and just sighed. "You''re a Sentinel for a reason. Thought they gave you the title just for saving their asses, but your power''s the real deal, too." Aldrich floated in the air with arge green ribcage surrounding him, acting like armor. Another new spell: [Ribs of the Fleshless One]. A powerful defensive spell that summoned the ribcage of an old undead deity. The ribs were thoroughly cracked, chipping away by the moment, but they had weathered Mollusk''s final hit. On top of that, his armor glinted with a silvery sheen, the pattern of scales visible upon it. Mountaindrake Scales, hard and shock resistant, courtesy of Vntis. Bothbined had repelled Molluskpletely. Aldrich noted that thisbination was tough enough to reliably weather an attack powerful enough to hurt even S-ss heroes. Good information forter. "That was good practice," said Aldrich. He floated down, his cloak billowing behind him. "That''s all I was in the end, huh. Practice," said Mollusk. He did not seem bitter, more amused than anything else. Aldrich held his right hand up, a magic construct heart forming in his palm. "Practice is more than could be said for plenty before you." "Apliment. I''ll take it before I die. I rarely get any of those, heh." Aldrich nodded in acknowledgement. Pure humans faced horrible discrimination in post-Alter society, but arguably severely malformed mutants had it even worse, for they were legitimate monsters. Most of the time, Mutant Alters that mutated too far from alterhuman physiology were generally stronger, but also more mentally unstable and liable as a threat to society. Hence, they were shunned not only as dangers, but as freaks of nature. It was why there was a nation state of mutants in the Arctic. They escaped society to make their own. Their situation was the opposite of pure humans who looked just like any other human but could not contribute to society due to theirck of powers. A mutant like Mollusk would have never known love or recognition, just fear, fear for how he looked, fear for his power. He had leveraged that fear to get power as a mercenary, but that was power born from fear regardless. "It was a good fight," said Aldrich. He crushed the heart in his hand. Mollusk coughed up a spurt of blue blood from both his mouth and stomach beak as his heart exploded. He slumped over, his pliable body expanding like a puddle. A soul floated above Mollusk''s corpse. "At the very least, nobody will judge you for what you are in my ranks," said Aldrich. He put his hand over the soul. "Serve." Chapter 323 Winding Down? Chapter 323 Winding Down? Aldrich watched as green tendrils of energy flowed around Mollusk''s sprawled out body. With a sudden jolt of energy, like a corpse being reanimated with an electric shock to the spine, Mollusk sprung back up, his tentacles puffing out and regaining their size and strength. "So this¡­is whating back from death feels like," said Mollusk. He looked down at his arms, and the arm tentacles regenerated from green mist that flowed into it, the vapor solidifying and reconstructing what once was. "I think I saw a light at the end of a long, long tunnel." "Really?" Aldrich raised a brow. No other undead had mentioned seeing anything like that before. Plenty of religions, crazy ones and non-crazy, said that there was something beyond death. Of course, it was proven to Aldrich that souls did go somewhere after death, but not a cushy paradise of ce of eternal torment. That was all too convenient. Souls were just one aspect of many forces that regted existence. When they were kicked out of their mortal coils, they went to the soul stream and were scrubbed clean for reincarnation. At least, that was how it was for Elden World''s soul stream. He knew that from the Death Lord there was a soul stream here as well, but how it exactly worked, he did not have an exact idea of. "Just kidding." Mollusk shrugged. "Didn''t see anything. Figured I''d being back as your minion anyway. That said, it''s interesting that I can think for myself." "I like to give my legion independence," said Aldrich. "Unless they prove they cannot handle it." Really? You seem pretty careful. What if one of your ''legion'' members attacks you? Or plots against you?" said Mollusk. "I have ways around that. Like this." Aldrich closed his fist, and Mollusk froze up,pletely unable to move. "You lost your free will when you died. Whatever you have now is a privilege that I allow. I could wipe it and render you mindless at a moment''s notice." Aldrich unclenched his fist, and Mollusk moved again, drawing in a relieved breath. "Got it, got it. Well, looks like this is my new life now. It''s easier to ept than I thought." "That just means you didn''t have any particrly hard feelings against me in the first ce," said Aldrich. Unless a legion unit actively despised Aldrich to a tremendous extent before turning into an undead, they were automatically conditioned upon revival into seeing him in a favorable light. So far, the only person that had enough of a grudge against Aldrich to actively despise him had been Evan Harker, one of Seth Sr''s oldckeys, and Aldrich had turned that rat into dust a while back already. "Guess not. I mean, I didn''t really know anything about you. So, what''s my new life, or un-life, I guess, look like under you?" asked Mollusk. "An eternity of worthy service!" said Vntis out loud. "To conquer this world and the stars beyond!" "¡­Something like that. Judging from your skillset, you''ll do the same thing you''ve always done. Fight," said Aldrich. "Except this time, I''m sure that nobody will judge you for what you are. They''ll judge you for your strength, which you have plenty of." "Really now?" Mollusk sounded disbelieving. "Is this how things are in your sentinel state?" "I have variants, Alters, and pure humans living side by side together. Do you really think how you look matters at all?" said Aldrich. "Touche." Mollusk nodded. "How''s the pay? Is there pay? Do you have health insurance? Paid time off? Vacation time?" "I''ll refer you to someone that can answer those questions better than me," said Aldrich, Casimir''s mask popping in his thoughts. The guy always could make anything he offered sound good. "For now, prepare to head back to my state." "Well, I''m ready when you are," said Mollusk. "I need to add your friend into my service in a more permanent capacity first." Aldrich waved his hand, and Refractionnded in front of him. "I didn''t get to see you fight at all, but you''ll have your chance to impress meter." Aldrich rammed his fist through Refraction''s chest, punching through his heart. Refraction grew limp. The [Bonebearing Curse] left his body in dark, wispy trails. "This doesn''t bother you?" Aldrich withdrew his hand. The blood and gore wrapped around his arm faded away, Vntis absorbing it. "He''s a business partner, not really a friend. I never had close friends," said Mollusk. "And in the underworld, this isn''t exactly new. If you reach the A or, hell, even B rank, and you die in enemy territory, you can''t bet your ass that your corpse is going to get experimented on. Regardless of whether you''re a mutant like me or not." "I see. Well, it isn''t like the AA is any better in that regard. All of us do what we need to stay one step ahead," said Aldrich. He knew that the AA, at least to the public, stated that they gave respectful burials to their viins, but when they could get away with it, when the viins were too important and had no family connections, it was a near open secret that they experimented on those corpses. "Yeah. Just the way things are," said Mollusk. "Serve." Aldrich pointed at Refraction, and Refraction stood up with a groan, the hole in his chest filling up with regenerative mist. "What happened?" said Refraction. He looked at Aldrich, then down at the shrinking hole in his chest. "Shit. I lost, didn''t I?" "Yeah. You got taken out pretty much instantly. And Desmond had the nerve to pay you more than me. Discrimination, I ought to tell you,"ined Mollusk. "Come on, you and I both know it''s because of my warp power," said Refraction, crossing his ck and gold color themedbat suit defensively. "And I''ll have you know I''m quite open minded. I appreciate everyone human equally, pure human, mutant, or whatever." "Then you''ll have no issue serving under me," said Aldrich. Aldrich could not see Refraction''s facial expression as it was hidden under a helmet, but he did not sense open hostility. "I don''t have a choice to go against you, do I?" "No, you don''t," was Aldrich''s very simple answer. But yes, you''ll get paid. Mollusk can fill you in on the rest of the details as we head to Haven." In that moment, a woman''s voice rung out, "Master!" Valera flew in from above,nding before Aldrich with a crash while holding Feather slung across her shoulder. Chiros leaped in behind her, more elegantlynding on the tips of his feet with nary a sound, his long white hair flowing behind him in luscious, sparkling waves. "We have dispatched those foul tendrils! And we are here to-," Valera looked at Mollusk. "Ah, you ended this already?" "That, I did," said Aldrich. "Damn it,dy, you broke half my ribs with thatnding¡­,"ined Feather, still held like a sack by Valera. "Be grateful you even got to touch ady like myself." Valera dropped Feather down unceremoniously, and he crashed onto the dirt. "You''re too important to be out in the open. Go back to the Boundary." Aldrich put a hand on Feather''s shoulder and warped him away to his inner realm. "I was useless again¡­" muttered Valera. "No, you did well holding those tendrils off," said Aldrich. "If they were here, they would have caused me serious trouble." The Pursuer was immune to physical attacks, but it still had a physical form. That is, if a physical attack smacked it away, it would take 0 damage but still be sent flying. Ten tendrils defending Mollusk would have made the Pursuer''s job a lot more difficult, to say the least. "My tentacles are not ''foul''," said Mollusk. "But he''s right: it''s impressive. Each of those tendrils, when I detach them at least, are around 70% as strong as I am. That''s my strongest move." Valera nodded at Mollusk. "You have a better attitude than the other tentacled one in our ranks." "There''s another one like me?" Mollusk said curiously. Now that Aldrich thought about it, Mollusk and Fler''Gan were pretty simr appearance wise. Mollusk was like a more beefed up, roided out version of Fler''Gan. "Sort of." "Cool. Can''t wait to meet the guy." "Then we set road for Haven. I''ve gotten everything I need from here," said Aldrich. That was when he heard a rumble. A deep, earth-shaking rumble from something very, very big. Chapter ?324 A New Challenger Chapter ?324 A New Challenger "What was that?" said Mollusk, but even as he asked that question, everyone present - all battle hardened - got into defensive form. Aldrich''s magical energy swirled around him. Valera raised her shield up and stood in front of him. Chiros held his ming saber up. Mollusk''s arm tentacles wriggled around him, ready for action. Refraction, now free to disy his skills, got into a shoulder width stance with open hands held out in front of him. A martial arts stance. Some form of kung-fu, Aldrich recognized. "I see," said Aldrich. When he looked to the direction where the sound came from, he saw that it emanated from one of the giant trees. The one that Mollusk smashed through. The entire sixty meter tall tree was shaking, giant leaves and branches falling from above with its thrashing. Some insect variant eggs fell as well, sttering on the forest floor into goo. "A tremendous surge of energy is leaking from that hole," said Vntis. "The bark, it seemed, served as a form of instor, hiding the flow from my senses. But now, I see clearly. I will mark the flow for you, Armored." Aldrich saw a see-through disy of a huge pir of green within the tree trunk that ran lengthwise through it. Something was in there. Something enormous. Something that had awakened. From above, at the treetops, he could see countless strands of energy funneling into the trunk. It clicked then, why there were so many carnivorous nts on the treetops. Why the habitat above devoured and nurtured insect variants. The variants were food. Nourishment for what was within. The earth began to shake. Cracks began to line the thick, durable bark of the tree. Loud impacts resonated throughout the forest as the trunk shook from something within banging against it. Like a chrysalis splintering, the butterfly within struggling to emerge. "Refraction, you''ve got a scanner in your helmet. Read that!" said Mollusk as he swatted away a huge branch fromnding on his head. "I''m on it." Refraction put a hand to the golden visor of his helmet. "Shit¡­that reading''s astronomical. Variant AC ratings are always inted, but this¡­this is disaster ss. At the very least, a B+ rank disaster, maybe A, maybe higher - whatever''s in there hasn''t broken out fully yet. The readings aren''tpletely urate, but I don''t like what I''m seeing!" Refraction mmed his hands together. Aldrich noticed and mentally got Chrysa to stop her Warp-Lock. ''Thanks, father. Keeping that lock thingy up makes me really sleepy¡­but I have to stay up and watch this! More exciting stuff is happening!'' When Refraction pulled his hands apart, he generated tworge, golden rectangr mirrors from his palms. He put one mirror on one side of the group, then another on the other side. "We''re getting out of here!" said Refraction, shouting to be heard over the din of shaking earth, crashing tree branches, and the buzzing of hundreds of flying insect variants roused by the sudden disturbance. "Once my mirrors copse on each other, I can warp us far. I don''t know where exactly, but definitely not here!" Aldrich raised a hand. "Wait. Have your warp ready, but don''t take us out of herepletely." "What do you mean, wait!?" said Refraction. "There''s almost a hundred of these giant trees around. Imagine if all of them start unleashing what they''re keeping holed up. Not to mention the variants in their branches!" "Observe carefully," said Chiros, pointing his de to the other colossal trunks in the distance. "None of them are moving. Only this one." "And the insects are flying away. Not to us," said Valera, having a potent [Danger Sense] skill. "They''re flying away because this is dangerous!" said Refraction. "I said wait," said Aldrich. "As a mercenary, you''re naturally risk averse. You''ve always picked and chosen what''s best for you. But you aren''t a mercenary anymore. And if you defy me, I''m taking your free will. If it helps you feel any better, I can regenerate you from almost any injury." The tree trunk broke apart, the many shards of its bark, most asrge as houses, falling to the ground with thudding impact. An iridescent shine emanated from where the tree was, localized around two pairs of butterfly wings crumpled up in sap. Even then, condensed as they were, it was easy to tell just from their length that once those wings fanned out, they would dwarf entire city blocks under their majestic shadow. The wings attached to a huge, thirty meter long segmented body colored dark brown like wood. No, it was wood. The creature was made out of bark, gnarled patterns and tree rings running across its entire body. Six giant, insectoid wooden legs started to spread out from its abdomen, now free from their tree trunk cocoon. Despite not having functional wings, the creature remained suspended in the air. The butterfly monster''s tail ended in a curved, sickle-like stinger encased in glowing green energy. Not the pale, deathly shade of green that Aldrich''s magic had, but a deep, verdant green that brimmed with life. The tail hovered right above the forest floor, and where the dark green light touched, life sprung wildly. Vines and nts and trees all sprouted up in a manner of seconds, twisting around each other in a frenzy of uncontrolled growth. The creature''s head was not insectoid. It was¡­surprisingly human in its general shape and structure. Unlike its body of dark, almost ck wood, the skull was an ashen grey with sunken in, empty eye sockets and eerily human teeth guarded by solid ck pincers that curved from the sides of its jaws. Its forehead split down the middle, and arge, dark green eye emerged with loud squelching, its dot-like white pupil lolling about before focusing on Aldrich and his group. "What the hell¡­is that?" said Refraction, terrified at the ungodly fusion of human skull, butterfly body, and nt mass. "Mollusk, what is that!?" "How should I know? I''m not a variant expert! Are you assuming I know just because I look like a variant!? What happened to being open-minded!?" said Mollusk. "It''s a Geist. You can tell from its humanoid physical traits, though this one is a lot more monstrous than most I''ve seen. A lot bigger, too," said Aldrich. Mercenaries like Mollusk and Refraction were usually never hired to fight variants. Especially not ones in the Deep Wastnds like this. "But I don''t know much more beyond that." "Then we have to leave! Geists exist only to eat human guts!" said Refraction, his mirror portals still up and ready to go. "That thing could have any number of powers. And we''re right in its territory!" The Geist, or Boss Geist, as Aldrich now dubbed it, clicked its pincers and unleashed a haunting wail so loud it would have ruptured the eardrums of the average Alterhuman. Hearing this, insect variants from the treetops fled en masse, darkening the sky with their panicked numbers. The Boss Geist hovered towards Aldrich, its pincers open in aggression. "No warping. Not now. Keep your distance. Focus on luring it out of the forest." "What are you nning?" said Mollusk. "My legion has beencking a proper boss type monster, hasn''t it, Valera? Something that really makes an impact when yound on a battlefield with it," said Aldrich. Valera grinned like mad under her helm, anticipating great battle. "Yes, very much so, my master." Chapter ?325 Boss Geist Chapter ?325 Boss Geist Refraction stared at Aldrich and Valera, and even under his golden helmet visor, it was easy to tell he was dumbfounded. "You two...are actually EAGER to fight that thing?" "Yes!" shouted Valera as she started to take steps forward. "The fighting is secondary," said Aldrich. "I enjoy it, but what I see is a massive opportunity for my new state." In particr, the moment he saw that the boss geist could manipte nt life was the moment he decided that he needed to raise this creature. He currently had an Arsellies Treeseed from the third trial quest. It currently could not grow into a full Arsillow Tree without the ''divine blessing of growth'' from an elven nature goddess. Normally, in game, Aldrich would have turned it into an item buff or an item, but he figured he could try to unlock its full lore potential. Hiring nomads with chlorokic powers yielded no results, arguably because they were too weak. The other alternative was to ask the strongest chlorokics in the world, Valkyrie, S-ss hero and arguably the best fighter in the, or Ori, a sentinel from Africa. Too many issues and risks dealing with them, though. First off, Valkyrie was part of New Dawn, Solomon Sr''s team. And Ori was a reclusive sentinel who only managed his own state, nothing more. But maybe this variant would suffice. At the very least, with it, Aldrich would not have to worry about farnd and crop-based resources. The Panopticon had a global monopoly over that with Skyfields, giant, A.I. maintained tforms in the sky that cultivated approximately 50% of the world''s global food needs. But with a variant like this, Aldrich could make Haven self-sufficient. That was to say, Aldrich was very much willing to take risks to make sure this thing died. "Okay, sure, but how''s this going to work!?" said Refraction. "Be quiet, Frac, and let the man think. He has like a thousand powers. I''m sure he can pull one out of his ass," said Mollusk. The boss geist made its first move. It mmed its stinger deep into the earth, the earth splintering around it. Then, a flood of spiked vines emerged, cascading towards Aldrich''s group like a tidal wave of biomass. "Well, he better think fast!" said Refraction. "Chiros. Deal with that." Aldrich turned to Refraction. "Now then, tell me briefly how your powers work." "Understood, highmander," said Chiros. He leaped into the air,nding in front of everyone with confident poise, flicking his lengthy silver hair back with stylish, practiced ir. The iing wave of thorns and vines was so high that it utterly dwarfed him, and his tiny sword lookedughablepared to its sheer bulk. "Reverting..." said Chiros. His form fitting crimson and white patterned armor began to glow a faint white. White, red streaked crystals began to form all around his body, recing his armor. The crystals looked less polished than his armor, more raw with jagged edges and rough facets all over. The crystalyer covered his face as well, and the V-shaped visor that he kept over his eyes crystallized and became a part of his head like horns. His teeth grew longer, more feral, and sparkling, crystalline ws extended from his fingers and toes. His legs changed shape, turning from humanoid into digitigrade, much like that of a hound''s. As a result, his posture leaned forward, bing more savage, and every time he breathed out, white and purple sparkleden dust filled the air around him. This was [Reversion]. Strong enough vampires, particrly those from noble bloodlines, could ''revert'' back to incredibly powerful monstrous forms that were said to be how their species were in days of old, before they decided to adapt to humanoid culture. These primal vampires were called [True Vampires] and in Elden World, by the time the yer arrived, they were all but extinct. But their power was undeniable. Even one fully matured [True Vampire] was a kingdom level threat. Reversion tapped into that primal power, and it gave vampires a massive boost in their racial abilities at the cost of making them more blood drunk. Chiros, however, could only revert 50%, meaning he could only get halfway to his true vampire form. That kept his sanity and coordination intact, though it did remove his ability to talk. With a roar, he emitted a huge cloud of sparkling dust towards the iing vine wave. He then took his [Hellfire de] and swung it horizontally, unleashing a sh of ck outlined mes. The moment the mes came into contact with the cloud of dust, it detonated into a tremendous purple, red, and orange tinted explosion. When the colorful smoke and light subsided, it showed that the mass of vines had charred down to nothingness, leaving behind a long, char-ck trail. The boss geist saw this with its singr green forehead eye curiously, pausing, as if to contemte the situation. Chiros''s ancestral vampires were subterranean creatures that adapted to cave-life. Thus, they were blind and in tune with the earth around them, capable of generating crystal structures all over themselves. This was the source of Chiros''s Crystalblood Venom, a venom that, when ced within a living creature''s blood in sufficient quantities, would rapidly burst through the veins and trap its victim in a crystal tomb made of their own lifeblood. The crystalblood in dust form, however, was highly explosive and reactive to fire,plementing Chiros''s fiery de very well. "I kind of get it. The ones wearing the fantasy style gear have a bajillion powers like you," said Mollusk to Aldrich. "Kind of like you three were ripped right out of a RPG." "Yeah, I''m getting deja vu from seeing the Haven fight coverage, but this does look exactly like a scene you''d see from like Dark Wills," said Refraction. "That one''s a little too restrictive with its powers for my taste. I prefer games with a more varied power system," said Aldrich. "Yeah, I get what you mean - wait, hold up, you y videogames?" Refraction stared at Aldrich''s giant, spike-armored, threatening figure in disbelief. Aldrich ignored the question. "So, tell me your abilities. Chiros will hold ranged attacks off." "I can create two mirrors at once. I can warp anything caught inside of them when I m them together. Alternatively, I can use the mirrors to reflect almost any attack, though not ones that dwarf their surface area," exined Refraction. "My effective range for warping is 10 miles." "Good. Then on my mark, I want you to be ready to use your warp on her," Aldrich pointed to Valera, who shuddered eagerly, ready to fight. "Uh, okay," said Refraction, noticing Valera''s deep breathing and general insane energy. "Valera, time to showcase your improvements. Let''s use our Target Istion Strategy," said Aldrich. "Understood, my master." Valera cracked her neck. "Shall I use [To the Death!]?" Aldrich nodded. [To the Death] was a powerful single target Berserker skill that ced an afflicted target under a potent, rage inducing taunt. In exchange, the Berserker was also taunted to that target, forcing both parties to engage in a fight to the death. It was one of Valera''s most useful skills as it allowed her to take strong single unitspletely out of a fight. The downside was that, of course, Aldrich lost ess to Valera''s Shielder skills, but he had more than enough tools to defend himself with now. The Target Istion Strategy involved Valera afflicting a unit with [To the Death!] and then teleporting both Valera and the target away to an isted location, drawing the target away from their support and into the thick of an undead legion. If the target was immune to teleportation, then that was fine too. They were forced to follow Valera due to the skill, and it gave them a trail to follow even if Valera disappeared from line of sight. "The longer [Fight to the Death] is active, the more my berserker''s rage will deepen. And with that, I will begin to [Revert]. Is this okay?" said Valera. "It''s fine. You''ll still be sane enough for the warp. You can go all out when this thing catches up to you," said Aldrich. "After all, we''re aiming to kill here." "I was hoping you would say that, my dear master." Valera grinned, the glint of her fangs showing under her hound helm. Chapter 326 To the Death! Chapter 326 To the Death! The boss geist began to float into the air, and its slime covered butterfly wings tried their best to unfurl, though drenched as they were, they still could not fan out. It bat its wings towards Aldrich, sending a gust of rainbow speckled wind. "Stand behind her,"manded Aldrich. Valera knew what to do, even in the midst of her ever increasing bloodlust. Chiros grunted and leaped backwards, still maintaining the elegant flow of his motions while reverting. He flipped andnded behind Valera as she switched ces with him at the very front. She mmed her shield down and used an active skill called [Guardian''s Veil]. A dome of shimmering red emerged all around Aldrich and the rest of his newly raised party, creating a defensive barrier. Shielders like Valera relied mostly on physical defense to block attacks, which meant that in general, area of efffect abilities that flowed past their shields, such as energy attacks or in this case air particles, served as natural counters. But that did not mean Shielders were entirely defenseless. They had some barrier type abilities, but they just were not as effective or sustainable as mages who were more specialized in magically constructing them. The wall of rainbow speckled wind crashed into the barrier, but not at any speed that was particrly harmful. "What is this?" said Refraction. "The wind velocity was enough to knock an A-ss off bnce, but it wasn''t any real threat." "The wind wasn''t the threat," assessed Mollusk urately. Aldrich put his ck and red armored hand out of the barrier. [Undead Mind Control immunity activated] "I see," said Aldrich. "These are particles that are meant to take over your mind." "Shit, really? Guess we aren''t stepping out of this barrier," said Refraction. "My mirrors can''t reflect things thate from every direction like this." "No need. As undead, we are all immune to mind control," said Aldrich. "Valera, drop the barrier. Taunt the boss while it''s still distracted keeping up this useless attack." "H-hold up-!" Refraction began. Valera raised her shield, and the barrier faded away. She then rushed forwards, cutting through the iing whirl of wind like a knife, rapidly getting into range to cast [To the Death!]. "See?" Aldrich said. "No effect." "W-wow. You''re right." Refraction looked at the rainbow particles glimmering against his armor. Mollusk did the same. "Being dead is more convenient than I thought," said Mollusk. "That, I agree with," said Aldrich. "Refraction, follow behind Valera. Get ready to warp her on my mark." Refraction took a look at the giant boss geist''s chill-incuding skeletal face and insectoid body and shivered. "Breathing techniques. Breathing techniques..." He breathed in, deep. After exhaling, his bodynguage changed entirely. He became focused. Stiff. Ready. Like a panther ready to pounce upon prey. "Mission mode: engaged," said Refraction, not a hint of panic in his voice any longer. "Supporting forward vanguard." He sprinted forward with surprising speed, each of his strides covering huge swathes of distance. Aldrich realized then that the soles of his boots were encased in reflective gold. He was using the energy reflecting property of his mirrors to amplify his steps, boosting himself forward at superspeed. "Hm. So he''s from Ember," said Aldrich. Ember was the same mercenary training group that Tox came from, famous for instilling in their recruits secondary personalities that were deadly efficient, focused, and ruthless. Tox was from the very same group, though several years younger than Refraction. "Yeah. All of them are batshit crazy. Deep down," said Mollusk, watching Refraction speed ahead, rapidly catching up with Valera. "I haven''t met a single Ember that didn''t give me the creeps. Refraction''s conditioning is prettyx, but even he turns into apletely different person." "I honestly like him better this way,"mented Aldrich. "He gets stuff done like this." Mollusk shrugged. "But it''s no way to really live. You aren''t yourself - the real you gets shoved and crammed away into a dark corner of your mind, and it gets really tiring to not ept who you are like that for long." The boss geist saw Valera and Refraction approaching and stopped batting its wings, realizing its mind controlling dust or spores were not effective. Instead, it''s dot-like white forehead pupil dted, and from it, beams shot out. Valera began to raise her shield, but Refraction was even faster. He threw out a golden mirror in front of her, and the beam hit it and reflected backwards, hitting the boss geist right in the face. With a ghostly wail, the boss geist recoiled, its six legs writhing as it dealt with a rapidly withering chunk in its bony cheek. The ashen wood there rotted, sloughs of ckened bark flecking away. "So its stinger injects life but its eyes take it away," said Aldrich. "Indeed," said Vntis. "A curious creature. I am still greatly saddened that I cannot stitch the beasts and warriors of this realm into my body." "Give Fler''Gan some time, and we''ll figure that out," said Aldrich. "[To the Death]!" Valera shouted, now within fifty meters of the boss giest. She raised her fist towards the creature, and a deep red aura raged around her. The same aura enveloped the boss geist, indicating that the spell''s conditions had been fulfilled. With another piercing wail, the boss geist attacked Valera with much more open hostility than before, mming its giant stinger down like a club. "Now," Aldrichmanded Refraction. Refraction, in one, fluid motion, sent out two mirrors from either of his hands and then sped his palms together, mming the mirrors against each other with Valera in between. The mirrors disappeared, revealing that Valera was gone. The stinger crashed into where she had been, shattering the earth. A wild uprising of vines, thorns, and brightly toxic flora emerged. Refraction dodged, air-walking away by stepping on mirrors. However, the boss geist ignored Refraction. It ignored everyone. It instead followed a blood-red trail in thee air that unspooled far out, away from the forest, toward where Valera was. Valera, teleported outside of the forest, shivered as she waited out in the open. She dropped her shield, and it dematerialized. She had enough presence of mind to stand still, heeding her master''s orders to draw out the boss. But when the boss came, she would unleash herself fully. ck, bat-like wings began to sprout from her back as bloody red waves of energy swirled around her. Chapter ?327 Worthy Chapter ?327 Worthy The boss geist moved full speed along the red trail. Rather than floating rather slowly, itnded upon the ground and skittered forward with all the frenzy of an overloaded lotive, its six huge legs driving up piles of dirt. "Permission to engage the target while it is distracted?" Refraction said, having warped to Aldrich''s side. They watched as the boss geist ignored them, barreling past. "You warped her out of the forest, correct?" said Aldrich. "Correct." "Then let it go. [To the Death] can get broken by outside interference like damage," said Aldrich. "Understood, control," said Refraction. "In the meanwhile, we follow the geist until it''s outside the forest. It hasn''t triggered any of the other trees to hatch, and I intend on letting things stay that way," said Aldrich. He took to the air, Vntis''s draconic wings unfurling. Chiros used [Air Step], amon martial art skill to walk on air, to follow Aldrich. Refraction followed with his own version, walking on mirrors he generated beneath his boots. "It seems we have a problem." Mollusk stared up at them. "I can''t fly." "Here." Aldrich reached behind his back, grasped his cloak of souls, and tossed it towards Mollusk. The cloak billowed forth, wrapping behind Mollusk and lifting him in the air. "Cool. I can count on one hand the number of times I''ve flown before," said Mollusk. "Don''t get used to it," said Aldrich. "The cloak is personal property. Mostly." "I''ll take what I can get," said Mollusk. Together, Aldrich and everyone followed close behind the boss geist, making sure that it kept following the [To the Death!] trail without disturbing other trees. The boss geist was fast enough that it only took a few minutes for it to get out of the forest. A solid distance of thirty miles covered with the force of six raging, bloodlusted legs. As the geist moved, its butterfly wings rapidly vibrated, flinging slime off to dry themselves. By the time the geist exited the forest, the wings would be fully functional. "How will we keep the target grounded?" said Refraction. "[To the Death!] will keep it fighting Valera," said Aldrich. "Like a taunt. In a game," said Mollusk. "Precisely that," said Aldrich. "But you said the taunt wears off if we hit the thing, right? Doesn''t that mean that we''re just going to be bystanders? It''lle down literally to a 1 vs 1. And I''m not sure she can handle this from what I''ve seen. Don''t get me wrong, she''s tough, but variants like this - disaster variants - you need to deal with in groups. Or atleast that''s what the AA says." "Right. Conventional wisdom dictates that to fight something like an A rank disaster variant, you need at least a group of ten A rank heroes. But that''s primarily a judgement call based on the fact that disaster variants will have many strong powers where as a hero will only have one. The numbers make up for that power deficit. In our case, though, we have enough power flexibility topensate." "Be that as it may, but does she really have the firepower needed to take this thing down? Look at its face, Refraction reflected back its rot beam thing, but the wound''spletely healed already." "She doesn''t need to kill it all by herself. We can support her, just not directly." To prove his point, Aldrich cast [Heart in My Hands], wrapping his right hand in crimson. He could not recast his Pursuer because of its long cooldown, but the boss geist would not pay him attention anyway. He flew downwards and gently tapped the boss geist''s back, initiating the curse. [Heart in My Hands] showed a grey indicator on Aldrich''s vision that meant that it did not work on the boss geist for it had no heart. However, it did not just rupture hearts, it was a t out execute if the cursed target went below 30% max HP whether they had a heart or not. Valera had ways to increase that threshold up to 50%. All she had to do was solo the boss geist down to half health, at which point Aldrich could instantly end this fight. He flew back up, the boss geist ignoring him as he had technically not done any damage to it. "As long as you don''t damage it directly, the taunt still holds up." "Got it," said Mollusk. "That means I''ll be useless. I don''t have any ''support'' type abilities." Chiros grunted, affirming that he too was abatant, not a supporter. "I can be of assistance," said Refraction. "I know, but hold off for a while," said Aldrich. Lately, Valera had been feeling a little down here and there, believing she hadn''t quite gotten a chance to prove her worth. "I want to give her a chance to show off." ============= Valera waited atop a hill-like formation of boulders, trembling as her bloodlust continually grew. Her shield was nted like a gravestone beside her, embedded into the rock. [To the Death!] enforced [Berserker''s Rage] on her, and that skill continually increased physical stats while providing increasing damage reduction at the cost of sanity. At the end of the rage, she also suffered arge portion of the negated damage all at once. In Valera''s case, her [Berserker] ss abilities had started to merge with her emerging racial abilities. [Berserker''s Rage] was now [Bloody Berserker''s Rage]. The basic effects of thee rage were the same, but it had the bonus effect of continually increasing her Reversion until it hit her max of 80%, at which point she became less a knight and more a wild monster. Valera''s noble blood of Etal belonged to an ancient [True Vampire] called a [Goredrinker]. They roamed from battlefield to battlefield like forces of nature, destroying both sides equally without care to relish in the blood and gore to mature and grow stronger. Among all noble bloodlines, the Etal were the most suited for physicalbat, though that prowess came with a penchant for falling into hot-blooded passion and rage. But Valera kept her calm, knowing that if she followed her bloody instincts now, she would disobey her master and stop the boss geist from leaving the forest. As always, her master had a way to deal with everything. It was why she could rely upon him so. To entrust to him both her body and heart. ''Valera, iing target.'' Aldrich''s voice permeated through Valera''s head like cool ice, quelling her burning instincts for a second. ''Understood, master. I am ready.'' ''You''re going to have to solo this one for the most part. I have the heart exploding curse on the boss, so all you have to do is get it below the execution threshold. But doing that will be all you. Can I trust you with this?'' Valera nodded vigorously. Finally! A great task worthy of her, one she could prove to show her greatness to her master. It was a dreame true. For so long, she had done administrative work, making sure the legion was stationed properly and listening to reports, but deep down, all of that bored her to no end. She was most at home with the fight. Aldrich felt her intent from the nods. ''Here we go.'' In the distance, from the treeline, the boss geist emerged, a thirty meter long mass of multi-legged, multi-ton fury. It split apart the dry earth outside of the forest with the sheer force of its aggressive stomps, rushing to Valera with eager intent to fight. Valera smiled at this raw sign of aggression. This primal deration of war, as if each crashing footstep was the beat of a war drum. "Come!" Valera roared as she took her shield out. "Today we fight to the death!" The boss geist spotted Valera and fully unfurled its wings, taking to the air. Its wingspan was mythical in its scale, reaching sixty meters, covering the sun and casting a great shadow upon the earth. It reminded her of when she and her master had fought Kryos, Archdragon of Eternal Winter, how the dragon''s great wings utterly covered the sun, drenching the world in darkness steeped in bitter cold. No, this hardly measured up to that. That was one of the greatest battles Valera had fought with her master, when they were at the peaks of their power at level 100. One of the moments she held close to her heart, when she knew she was making her summoned life matter after the failure of her original life. But it still made her blood boil all the same. What proper knight would not see a great beast, one that could shade the sun itself, and not see a creature to y? Especially a knight sworn in service to a man of her master''s caliber, no less? With a howling, alien wail, the boss geist''s eye-patterned rainbow wings glowed bright. Hundreds, no, thousands of streaks of iridescent light emerged from them, soaring in the air in beautiful arcs aimed in arge-scale artillery bombardment straight at Valera''s position. Valera leaped off her hill. ck wings stretched out from her back, ws tipped at their ends. She soared in the sky, her shield held up. The rainbow light bolts crashed against her shield in an unending stream. A heavy storm of destruction, each raindrop of light unloading high temperature explosions that scorched her skin. But she grinned wildly and just pushed forward, splitting through that unceasing rain with her shield held up high and her wings beating strong. No less was expected of her as a guardian knight, and no less would she give. That was her motto as she soared into the fray of light. Chapter ?328 Etal Reversion Chapter ?328 Etal Reversion Aldrich watched the fight take ce from high above, away from the thick of the mass destruction. "She''s going through all THAT?" said Mollusk, dumbfounded. Valera flew against the tide of rainbow light, getting within a hundred meters of the boss geist now. The hill she once stood on eviscerated under the endless barrage, each bolt carving out huge, molten chunks in the rocks until they had eaten the entire hill up into nothing but a steaming crater. The entirendscape suffered simrly, gouged out with countless deep holes. "Where was all this when she fought me?" said Mollusk. "She''s a defender, but deep down, she''s far more suited to offense," exined Aldrich. "When she really lets loose, she''s undeniably a force to be reckoned with." The more hits Valera took, scorching heat from the explosions billowing past her shield and burning her body, the more her rage deepened, and the more she reverted. Her ck ws grew out from her fingers, through her armor. They extended from her feet as well, ws she normally kept hidden as she thought them unseemly to be seen on ady. Her wings grew. Dark spikes emerged from her elbows. Her overall muscle mass swelled. Her bones snapped and reconfigured into a bigger frame. A raging red aura whirled around her before solidifying into gleaming red, te-like flesh that wrapped tight around her body, turning into natural armor that covered her from head to toe. From her back and shoulders, spines of red began to jut out, now fully erasing her knightly stature and recing it with primal, vampiric, monstrous brawn. This was her [Crimson Exoskeleton], an upgrade of her [Crimson Furnace] ability that generated a spherical barrier of blood around her. It not only granted her an incredibly durable naturalyer of armor, but it also boosted her physical abilities. On top of that, the spines and spikes gave her ess to shing damage. Like her [Crimson Furnace], the exoskeleton could also drink in blood to regenerate and, when needed, detonate itself in an explosive burst that scaled with how much damage it had taken. Considering her build was meant for tanking and draining through as much damage as possible, the output of her exoskeleton''s self-destruction could reach so high that Aldrich ssed it as the strongest attack he ever had ess to barring 12th tier spells. "ORA!" Valera, now within a hundred meters, tossed her shield at the boss geist. The shield broke through the sound barrier with ease, a shockwave tail of force trailing behind it as it smashed into the boss geist''s chest with powerful impact. The shield embedded right into the boss geist''s wooden carapace. Valera''s body melted down into bloody mist that traveled forth at near teleportation levels of speed. She reformed right as she neared her shield and used her insane momentum to deliver a powerful shield bash. An explosion of bloody energy sted outwards, sending the boss geist''s towering bulk flying backwards in devastating impact. That was [Bloodburst]. It was the signature ability of her vampiric bloodline that allowed them to wreath their blows in bloody energy. Upon impact, the energy elerated outwards in all directions rapidly, creating an explosion of kic force. ''She''s getting stronger and stronger. At this point, there''s no question that in a pure 1 vs. 1, I''d simply be out of her league,'' thought Aldrich. ''Unlike me, she''s had the luxury of investing all of her power into directbat stats like strength, agility, and vitality. And she has an affinity in all of them on top of building around it.'' The difference between a mage type like Aldrich that had to invest most stats in magic and attunement and a pure warrior like Valera was starkly evident. "What do you think, Frac? What would you rate her as a threat?" said Mollusk. "I would not take an assignment on her," said Refraction simply. "But if I had to offer an estimate, she would be an A ranked disaster at the minimum." Or, in other words, Aldrich noted, it would take an S ss hero to reliably put someone like Valera down solo. Beforehand, Okeanos had been the only one to reach that level, but Valera, having broken past level 50 - when she fully unlocked her Reversion - had bridged that gap. Now, Aldrich had two threats that needed S rankers to deal with. On top of that, he had an entire legion''s worth of units elsewhere. Steadily, he was climbing up thedder of power in this world. The highest ofdders at the highest of peaks. Chiros watched with his arms crossed. His reverted form was gone as he did not like being in it for extended periods of time. "It is true, that the Old Blood grants tremendous power. But it is maddening. Inelegant. Yet, for her, it does seem fitting." "It''s what she knows best. The rage," said Aldrich. But a question gnawed at him from within. Was that how it should be? Should Valera be someone who made rage like this part of her being? Wasn''t it better for her to move past it, to bury it? For her sake? Aldrich pushed that question aside for now. It circled back to the conversation in the elevator. He needed her to be strong for this war. After it was all done, she could rest. He could rest with her. But what if it never ended? Aldrich was not in the mood to get into deep self-reflection. He was here to acquire a tremendous resource for his new state. Nothing more, nothing less. ___ "RAH!" Valera mmed Bloodburst punches over and over against the boss geist''s body, flying at rapid speeds so that the bombardment of explosive blows nevernded in the same ce twice. The boss geist buffeted about in mid-air, huge holes cracking into its carapace. Valera soared above the boss geist''s skull and then went down rapidly, her red wrapped fists held together overhead to m down like a hammer. The boss geist reacted, twisting its head a full three hundred sixty degrees to mp down on her with its ck pincers. Valera could not really think clearly anymore, but her battle instincts were sharper than ever. She knew when danger wasing, she could feel it, and those pincers were deadly sharp, even against her exoskeleton. But she did not care. She went straight down, smashing her fists down on the geist''s head. Meanwhile, the pincers mped shut, severing her in half from the midsection. Chapter ?329 Execution Chapter ?329 Execution The bloodburst blow sent the geist hurtling down to the ground head first, a huge dent in its ashen skull. It had sunken in its forehead eye to avoid damage, but now it was exposed, its skull roofing smashed inward into pieces. With the skull fully exposed, it was possible to see than that the eye was the only fleshy part in the entire head, residing in the hollow of its skull chamber. Countless green vines kept the eye tethered within the skull. The eye start to look less and less like an eye and more like a brain. A target. Valera watched as her severed legs fell down. Strands of bright red flesh reached out from both halves of her body, tying together to re-attach the halves of her body without issue. The more she reverted, the more her regenerative abilities grew as a vampire. And the Etal bloodline of vampires, as the fiercest fighters among them all, had among the best regeneration in the entire species. Nothing less of absolute eradication or holy damage could ovee said regeneration. [Reversion 60%] Another pair of wings erupted from Valera''s lower back. A tail covered in spikes like a brutal torturer''s weapon grew out from her exoskeleton. The only emotion she felt now was rage. Pure, blinding, hot, seething rage. Everything that caused her rage boiled within her, bubbling out from the depths of her dark memories in a scorching swell. She remembered her father''s death. The eradication of her entire bloodline. The death of the princess she had loved as a sister. The constant hunts against her, the way they looked at her like an object, a bounty to take. And, when she grew too strong, too feared for mere bounty hunters, when she made her own attacks against those that had taken everything from her, the way they looked at her like a deranged demon when they were the ones to force that life on her. The boss geist looked up at Valera with its eye, and Valera looked back down with her ws upraised. She had long since dematerialized her shield for she knew she did not have the wits to use any martial arts skills. She could not even properly see, really. Her exoskeleton flesh covered her eyes, returning her physical form ever closer to ancient True Vampires of the night who, in eternal dark, never had the need to evolve eyesight. The geist could tell Valera''s target clearly: it''s eye. In response, the geist rooted its stinger into the ground. The barren wastnd earth turned into a lush forest in an instant. Fully grown trees, giant thorns, toxic flowers, powerful vines, poisonous spores, fungal growths, and countless other flora emerged in an entire ecosystem turned into colossal battering ram. Valera roared as she met the avnche of nt life head on. She clenched her ws together into fists and punched down as fast as possible. With machine gun speed, her blows, each of them charged with bloodburst, blew apart the iing forest chunk by chunk. She punched faster than the forest could grow, and slowly but surely, she made her way down, closer and closer to that eye she would rip and tear apart. [Reversion: 70%] Her memories of the past faded away. They no longer gave her as much rage as they used to. Instead, the image of her master appeared in her mind. Her master, hurt, broken, dead. That gave her more rage. Fresh rage. The rage to sustain her Reversion further. She punched with even more vigor, growing another pair of arms with her exoskeleton to double her efforts. Eventually, she broke past the forest to see the eye gazing at her, right in front of her. She unloaded a mighty punch upon it, sending it flying back into its skull cavity. Surprisingly, the eye was durable enough to withstand that punch, though it leaked white tinted blood from tears the bloodburst explosion caused. Valeranded inside the skull, the ws on all four of her arms unsheathed, ready to tear soft flesh instead of punching. In response, the eye''s shining white pupil dted, illuminating Valera in a spotlight of rot. She took struggling steps forward, her blood armor turning ck and rotting away and regenerating in near equal speeds. The light had a ''weight'' to it that made it harder to move in the closer one was to it. On top of that, the closer she got, the more severe the rot became until, right in front of the eye, it overpowered her regeneration. Patches in her exoskeleton became visible, and underneath, chunks of her flesh started to decay. Valera, moving slowly, sunk her ws into the eye. Warm blood squirted outwards as she reached in deeper and deeper. The exoskeleton covering her eyes rotted away, and she was left staring into pure, blinding white light. There, she was again confronted with the image of Aldrich''s death. Him lying on herp not in restful sleep, but in true death. But this time, she did not feel anger. She felt fear. [Reversion Disabled] Without the rage to sustain her reversion, Valera reeled from the lost power and regenerative boosts, stepping back, her body breaking apart in every direction. Was she¡­going to lose? But then it ended. The eye''s pupil turned up before dimming into a dull grey. The light disappeared. ¡ª Aldrichnded beside Valera within the boss geist''s skull. His right fist was clenched, blood pooling down from it from the heart he had crushed. Valera''s constant attacks built up a debuff called [Goredrinker''s Mark] which gradualyl increased the threshold of execution effects. This included [Heart in My Hand], which allowed Aldrich to instantly kill the boss geist once its eye -its ''core'' as it was - was damaged enough. "Are you alright?" said Aldrich, sending his mist over to Valera''s half-decayed body. She had lost both her legs and an arm from the boss geist. With the mist, she quickly recovered, recovering her full form in seconds. "I¡­I am fine," said Valera. She blinked, looking at her hands questioningly, as if they had betrayed her. Aldrich knew something was wrong. She was on track to killing the boss geist solo, but her Reversion had stopped mid-way. "Did the boss have a way to disable your reversion?" "No¡­I don''t know." Valera clenched her fists and sighed. Then, she smiled. "Do not worry about me, master. It was a simple mistake, but I will not make it again. For now, let us bask in the glory of our victory. Another strong one among our ranks is always a cause for celebration." Valera motioned to the boss geist''s eye. From the eye, Aldrich could see that a Soul floated above. Chapter ?330 Boundary Chapter ?330 Boundary "I want to make sure there isn''t anything hidden between us," said Aldrich. "Are you sure you''re okay?" He asked while he put his hand over the gleaming green soul, casting [Raise Undead]. Since this was a boss grade monster, his health and mana began to funnel into the soul in a helix of green and blue. Though, since this geist was weaker than Okeanos, Aldrich doubted he would run out of health or mana before raising it. Chiros, Refraction, and Mollusk were above, standing atop a mirror tform. Aldrich had wanted to keep them there for privacy''s sake. His chosen bond with Valera allowed him to synchronize his feelings with her, but when there was emotional turmoil or conflict within, it got harder. Right now, it was hard to reach Valera with the bond, like trying to swim upstream against a fierce current. "This much is fine, master!" said Valera, wriggling her newly grown arms and legs. "I took this much damage routinely in our more serious battles. Even in this realm, I was reduced to a mere head against Okeanos." "I don''t mean that. Your physical injuries, I don''t worry about. You''re tough. I mean here." Aldrich tapped his chest, at his heart. "I''ll ask again: are you okay?" Valera stared at Aldrich with her mouth slightly agape, her fangs glinting. She wanted to answer him truthfully, but the truth of it was, she herself did not know what she was going through. It was something she had never been through. The feeling of having her rage so suddenly quenched, like a pail of icy water had been dumped all over the me that fueled her wrath. Cold, cold fear. But she knew before her own feelings that her master''s goals came first. It was her duty as his guardian to ensure that. To that end, she could not fail. She could not show weakness, not now, not ever. "I am fine," said Valera resolutely. "A simple slip up, that is all. I assure you it will not happen again." Aldrich nodded. He could tell things were not 100% okay, but he was not going to pressure Valera. He wanted to give her time to think things through on her own first. He knew that what he had said back in the elevator, about wanting her to put aside her feelings and fears until things were over, was a lot to ask for. He had always thought that, when it came to emotions, he was better at reacting than reaching out. Or, maybe, that was just what he thought to cope with the fact that he did knot really know how to reach out to others. Not in the same way that normal people did. He remembered when Seismicforted the men and women in Haven during the attack. Seismic managed to connect with the personal lives of each human there to make them feel listened to. Protected. Aldrich had copied that well enough, enough to gain the trust of the citizens, but at the core of it all, it was still just that: a copy. It was because, frankly, he did not care about the Haven citizens too much. Rather, he cared as much as a lich could. But it was difficult for him to care beyond a certain threshold. Things were different with Valera, though. She was his chosen undead. He cared more. She deserved just as much for all she had done. But that was there things got difficult. Difficult enough where Aldrich figured that the best thing to do here was let her know she was heard and supported, to give her an open channel in case she needed it. "Just know that I''m always avable to talk things through." He turned to the soul and focused on raising the geist. After several seconds of draining his health and mana, the process wasplete. Aldrich felt a connection tether to the boss geist as their rtionship as undead and master stabilized. There was something he was deeply curious about. Variants, for the most part,cked souls. Now, that did not mean theycked sentience. It simply meant theycked a spiritual marker that would enter the soul stream upon their deaths. There were plenty of creatures that had sentience but no souls, if Elden World was to be believed. Sufficiently advanced golems, for example, could think and feel but had no soul. Many monsters had sentience, but not all had souls. Though in many cases, the more intelligent and emotionally developed a sentient being was, the higher the chance that they could, over time, develop a soul from scratch. It just required time to umte to ''solidify'' the personality and memories and emotions to create a distinct soul. Variants seemed to follow a simr pattern. Regr animal-like variantscked a soul. But there were a few exceptions like Okeanos, the Geist and, now, this Boss Geist. What exactly was it about the Geists and Okeanos that set them apart? Aldrich''s Geist in particr seemed quite odd. It had only started to really think for itself after bing an undead, and when questioned, remembered very little of its past life before Aldrich. Then how did it have a soul when all the other variantscked one? But perhaps this Boss Geist was different? Perhaps it would remember? The Boss Geist''s sttered eye began to reform, the flesh regenerating on its own. The skull began to reform as well, the bark growing back in strips. "Let''s go," said Aldrich. He jumped out of the skull, and Valera followed close behind. In front of the boss geist''s giant skull-face, Aldrich waited. Its singr forehead eye popped back out on its forehead, staring down at Aldrich in recognition. "Can you speak?" said Aldrich. ''You...you are my new master?'' a voice rang in Aldrich''s head. This was telepathy, but not the kind inherent in the undead-master bond. It was the Boss Geist''s own ability. "I am," said Aldrich. "And new master? Who did you serve beforehand? Do you remember?" ''I...'' began the Boss Geist, but it paused. Aldrich was about to press the variant further, but it was then that he felt a bright white light sh in his mind, blinding his vision and headspace. ... ... ... In the next instant, Aldrich found himself standing in what looked like a circr chamber of rock. The chamber was enormous, probably easily the size of an entire city, and in the distance, at its center, he spied a floating white orb of pure energy. That orb served as the only light source. And a faltering one at that. Compared to the vast, dark expanse around it, the orb was small, its light, though bright, dwarfed by the encroaching darkness around it. Darkness that did not seem natural. It was too thick, too powerful, as if shade and shadow hadyered atop each other in a condensation of all things ck meant to choke out whatever light it could get its tendrils on. "What is this ce?" Aldrich asked Vntis, requesting the living armor do a scan, but he realized that he was not wearing any armor. All he had on was his soulweave suit. Aldrich''s Death Knell started to ring by his hip with a clear, crisp jingle. It was the [Kindred Resonance] that yed when there was a soul nearby that was simr to his own. This was the very first time the bell had ever yed that resonance. "Wee to my Boundary, Kindred." Aldrich recognized this tone. Distinctively coded female, and yet, utterly neutral in its inflection, almost robotic. This was the Voice. The entity that once controlled Okeanos. He turned around to the source of the sound and beheld someone that should have been dead for sixty years. A tall, hunched over figure dressed in an odd patchwork of robes. There were robes of fur. There were robes of leathery skin. Robes of scaled skin. Robes of slimy flesh that looked like it would have belonged to Mollusk, to many sorts of deep sea creatures. The were even robesyered in sheets of glinting metal and crystal. All of many different colors, the bright and dull shades shimmering and shifting in constant, dizzying flux to create an amalgamate pattern of hues that seemed oddly maddening. No, it was maddening. [Undead mental immunity triggered] The robes hid its wearer''s body, but Aldrich could tell it was vaguely humanoid andrge, easily four meters tall, tall enough that he had to look up at its hooded face. A face with no discernible features. Just a bright white spiral pattern surrounded by a void of starry ck that formed its ''face'', if it could even be called that. It looked like if Aldrich reached into the hood, his hand would pass right through, into a void. This utterly bizzare being was someone that Aldrich recognized. Someone that practically every single person in the world who gave a single damn about history would recognize. One of the two most influential figures in the Post-Altering Era. The one whose death had been ground zero for the Monstering itself. This... was Zahak, the greatest viin of all time. Chapter 331 The Entity Chapter 331 The Entity "This one sees that you are surprised, Kindred," said Zahak. "And at unease." "You easily have the power to kill me as I am," said Aldrich. "Your battles with Vanguard reshaped entirendscapes. You by yourself could have wiped out all of humanity. Hell, after dying, you almost did with the Monstering. There''s no reason I shouldn''t be on guard." "You do not have true physical existence here." Zahak, to prove his words, reached out a hand covered in so manyyers of cloth that it was impossible to see the skin to Aldrich. Aldrich raised his arms in a guard, but Zahak''s arm phased through him. "There is no means by which this one may harm you," continued Zahak. "And the connection we share now is but fleeting and unstable, generated in the brief instant where your Outer might overwrites my own, intertwining our essences in the slightest of moments. A connection far too weak to offer you harm to the mind. And this one is not here to harm you, Kindred." Aldrich had heard voice recordings of Zahak before, and they distinctively presented the viin as male, though due to the nature of the viin''s ability to consume and take on the forms of others, that voice could shift freely. But...it did not feel like this was Zahak. Granted, information about Zahak''s actual personality was sparse. At best, there were statements from the AA and the Triune stating that Zahak was a psychopathic mass murderer, and his insane kill count gave plenty of credence to that. However, Aldrich did not make his judgment based off that. It was simply by the fact that this voice did not particrly feel like anything human to begin with. The detachment in its tone was simr to 22, the guard that colonel Fletcher had brought as insurance against Thanatos during the trip to the Crypt. "What are you doing here, Zahak?" Aldrich motioned to the dark cavern around them. "Are you even Zahak to begin with?" "Zahak? An old name. That is not who this one is, though this form may suggest so." "Then who are you?" "This one holds no singr identity. In the past, this one was Zahak, that cannot be denied. It was also known briefly as Lyanna. Now, it is something beyond both." "Lyanna?" Aldrich questioned, sifting through his memories to try and find a match for that name. "A kin of the one you knew as Zahak." "I see." Aldrich narrowed his eyes in contemtion, finding out who ''Zahak'' was talking about. Details about Zahak''s personal life were extremely difficult toe by. What he did, who he killed, how he was stopped - that was well documented, eulogized, and memorialized. But what kind of person he was and who he was close to was a mystery. A mystery by design. The Panop-AAplex kept it a secret, though for what exact reason, it was hard to tell. The reigning theory was that it was to viinize Zahak in the eyes of the global public. But Aldrich had always thought that theory strange. Zahak had personally killed over a billion people. Throughout human history, he was probably the single most prolific killer both during life and after death if you counted the Monstering to be caused by him. If ever there was someone that did not need help getting viinized, it was him. But Aldrich did know who Lyanna was. She was Zahak''s daughter from before the Altering, though beyond her name, nobody knew really who she was or how she had ended up after the Monstering. She presumably died before the Altering as there were no records of her past it. "That still answers almost nothing," said Aldrich. "Let this one make it clearer." Zahak ced a robe covered hand on his chest. "Originally, this one was Zahak. Then, this one was Lyanna. Then, this one became something more." "What are you, then, some kind of entity that switches between bodies?" said Aldrich. "In a way, yes," said the entity. "In a way? Anything more specific you can offer me?" "..." The entity did not respond. Either it could not, or it chose not to. The result was the same. Aldrich chose a different branch of questioning, breaking down the entity''s statement. "Originally? That implies you were someone else before Zahak." "Before, this one was formless. Mindless. Without memory or thought." "Then what are you, exactly? Right now?" "The World" dered the entity, its neutral tone rising. "....The world?" Aldrich did not quite know what this entity meant by that. "The Voice of the World. Of Life." "If you couldn''t tell by me line of questioning, I don''t like dealing with cryptic messages." "This one''s memories as ''Zahak'' and ''Lyanna'' are unclear, but this one will attempt to enlighten you, Kindred. In the event humans consider as the ''Altering'', energy from the deep cosmos seeded itself into the, instigating the rapid development of powers and environmental changes. The seeding process involved the coalescence of energies in the''s core, and from there, this one''s current form was born. A nascent egg of power. This one remained dormant, mindless, slumbering, empty as humanity waged senseless ughter upon itself on the world''s surface. with their newfound might. War that this one now knows as ingrained within humanity''s self-destructive nature; a cruel nature that seeks to bring all those around it into its own inevitable demise. One of these humans, the one you knew as Zahak, emerged possessing great power. Power touched by the Outer. Power that was me. He consumed many, taking them into his own body, Including his own offspring, for he greatly desired her power. A power to shift her consciousness into another. But before Zahak could finish consuming that power, he was struck down into the depths of the. Into the slumbering egg at the center of this. There, it was the will of ''Lyanna'', Zahak''s offspring, still holding onto her own will in the endless sea of lives her parent had absorbed, that reached into that empty egg. This one awoke, then, for with will entering that empty vessel, there was form where before there was nothing." Chapter ?332 The Entity 2 Chapter ?332 The Entity 2 "..." Aldrich took in these revtions with a hand to his chin. This was groundbreaking information that practically nobody knew about. One thing that immediately came to his mind was that this confirmed that it was not just Vanguard that had an ''Irregr'' power that did not belong to this world, but Zahak as well. And Zahak had a power from the ''Outer'' - the very same source that Aldrich derived his Elden World powers from. At the same time, the knowledge just broke open the seals to aplex chamber of questions. "This one senses you hold many questions, Kindred, but this one advises against it. The connection this one holds with you is short. There will be no time to answer your thirst for knowledge," said the entity. "The Altering seeded an egg into the''s core, and Lyanna filled it in using her power to transfer her consciousness," said Aldrich. Though he did note that Lyanna''s power had not shifted her consciousness but instead created a new entity entirely. "But that begs the question: who or what was the egg originally for?" "..." The entity did not answer again. But after a pause, it did borate a little. "This one cannot answer that. For this one does not know. This one holds no memories from before it filled the emptiness of the vessel. All this one truly knows and follows is the will left behind by Lyanna, this one''s ''mother.''" "That will being?" asked Aldrich. "The will of Zahak was to consume all life into One. The will of Lyanna, on the other hand, was to protect life," said the entity. "This one seeks to enforce the will of Lyanna." Aldrich almostughed at the absurdity of the statement. This entity, by controlling Okeanos and dozens of other Locuses, had killed over a million people worldwide in just two days. Preserving life seemed to be on thest of its priorities. "I''m beginning to connect the dots here. Scientists have observed that variants have an instinctive ''trigger'' to follow a leading creature, a Locus. And they determined that from Locus energy signatures during battle, especially regeneration, that they receive energy from an outside source. This led to the idea of a hivemind theory. The center of that hivemind, it''s you, isn''t it?" "That is so." "Then how is it that you are protecting life?" said Aldrich. "To me, it seems like you''ve waged active war on humanity already, and that''s involved killing countless people. Not to mention the Monstering. The Titans. That killed billions." "Humanity is not ''life''" said the entity. "It is a disease. It is a self-destructive parasite that leeches until its host is dry. It will be the inevitable end of all true life upon this world. All life that grows to gather together and amass the might and will to take over their host is no true life at all." "I see. So your solution is to wipe all of humanity out," said Aldrich calmly. "That is so, Kindred," said the entity with its characteristk of inflection. Despite having a will born from Lyanna, who likely had been apassionate woman, this entity was far from human. It truly did not consider humanity anything more than a pest to get rid of. "And this one senses you do not hold true anger over such a statement, Kindred. You protect the humans, but even now, in speaking of their annihtion, you hold no strong emotion. Do you truly care about them?" "Reasonably so." "Disappointing, Kindred. This one has sensed that you have taken care of one of this one''s children, and yet you have corrupted her to be more human. To embrace a nature that leads to the inevitable end."? Aldrich understood that the entity talked about Chrysa. "My parenting is none of your business." "This one understands that. That is why this one has called you here, Kindred." "To discuss Chrysa?" "So that is what you have named her. No. Not her. She is fully yours, Kindred. She no longer holds any connection to this one. This one wishes to discuss the fate of humanity." Aldrich crossed his arms. "Tell me what you have to say." "If you, Kindred, truly wish to protect humanity, then this one will not stop you," said the entity. "Take humanity and make it yours. But rid yourselves of this world. Take your scourge and spread it elsewhere." "And if I disagree?" "Then this one shall unleash the Titans once more." "..." Aldrich figured that the entity would go to that. If the entity was a nation state, then the titans were the ''nuclear option''. Unleashing them now, especially now, would doom humanity to extinction. The only way Aldrich saw a way for humanity to survive was if everyone banded together to kill a Titan, at which point, Aldrich could try to raise it. But that was impossible. First off, it was unclear whether Aldrich could even raise a Titan to begin with. It seemed that raising undead overwrote the hivemind control that the entity ced on its variants, but it was hard to tell whether the same would apply to Titans. And Aldrich knew that in his current state, with how he lost mana and health with stronger ''boss'' type beings, would not be able to raise a Titan. The Titans were simply on another scale of power entirely. Of the original twenty titans, humanity could handle exactly eight of them. Each of those eight could total countries in a matter of days, but a coalition of the strongest heroes and viins could stop their ceaseless march of destruction. The remaining twelve titans were not just much stronger, but they were almostpletely immortal. Not even Vanguard could kill them. In the end, the twelve titans, weakened but unable to die, returned to their personalirs where, ording to energy scans and readings, theyy dormant in unreachable pocket dimensions. "But the Titans are still resting. And this one does not wish to rouse its children when they are not ready to wake. But make no mistake, Kindred, if this one is pushed, this one shall not hesitate to wake its children once more." "You seem confident that you can win. Even when my powers can override your control," said Aldrich. "That is because there is simply no other alternative, Kindred. Look-," The entity pointed to the ball of white in the distance, the faint white light surrounded by hungry, approaching dark. "That is a manifestation of this world''s life force. If you defeat the Titans, then that meager light dies. This one dies. But so too does this world. It will rot and shatter, leaving mankind to face extinction. Whether at the hands of this one''s children orary destruction, the end is the same." Chapter ?333 Arcadia Chapter ?333 Arcadia Aldrich mulled over what the entity had said. It was either shepherd humanity to outer space or suffer the wrath of the titans. Both options were bad, to say the least. The nearest habitable was light years away. Despite the diverse spectrum of fantastical powers that the Alter Organs granted, the physics constant remained that nobody could surpass the speed of light. And nobody could warp themselves away to those kinds of distances. Not to mention the fact that without ether in earth''s atmosphere, all Alters would run out of energy to fuel their powers and advanced technology. Humanity had gotten so reliant on ether that it was impossible to tear them away from it. Some mutants might even just t out die without an ether supported environment. And Aldrich did not have the influence to steer all of humanity under his helm to begin with. Even now, the U.S. stood against him, and that was just one nation out of many. A powerful nation, granted, but still nothingpared to the entire world. The alternative was to face the Titans. Also an impossibility. For now. Supermind''s conversation with Aldrich rang in his head. The heir to Vanguard'' power. That was the key to this. If Aldrich could make that power his, he was confident he could take on the Titans. But even that lead to a dead end. If the Titans were defeated again, then the entity would die, and then there would be no earth anyway. The end result was, as the entity said, just the same: extinction. There was no scenario in which Aldrich saw a way to make a right decision at the moment. Every single route lead to a bad end. He needed time. Time to think. Time to gather strength. "I get it now. Those mass variant attacks were a warning, weren''t they?" said Aldrich. "Telling me of things that coulde." "That is so, Kindred. But not entirely. Humanity has been expanding more and more beyond their cities, so this one simply saw fit to remind them that they do not own this world; they are simply allowed to exist on it for now." "You must understand that I can''t simply wave my hands and have humanity all bend their wills to me," said Aldrich. "This one understands, Kindred," said the entity, staring at Aldrich with its expressionless spiral of a face. "This one understands well the chaos and division that the scourge of man so easily devastates itself with." "Then I need time." "This one grants time to you liberally. So long as humanity does not strike with aggression against this one''s children, you shall have time, Kindred." "How much time are we talking here?" "As much as you require, Kindred. We are both timeless beings. There is no need to rush." "I see. I''m beginning to see why you called me here. This is a ceasefire, isn''t it?" "That is so. This one shall not bear the might of its children against humanity unless this one is provoked. But bear in mind, this one does not control the vast breadth of the sea of life growing upon it. Most live by their own wills and instincts. This one has no control over right to hunt. But over the Geists and Locuses, heralds of this one meant to cull the scourge of man, this one shall hold back. That should grant you ample time to amass might to bend the chaos of man to your will, Kindred." In essence, normal variants would still live their day to day lives which asionally involved rampaging through a city here and there. But Geists and Locuses that were targeted special forces against humanity would stay dormant. A good deal. But the issue was upholding it. Especially on mankind''s side. Aldrich knew that if humanity could, they would try to take backnd from the Wastnds that variants took from them. To reim what they believed was rightfully theirs. The past few U.S. presidents heavily campaigned on this to the point where not doing so was considered political suicide. And this was a fairly popr opinion across the entire world. It fostered unity among peoples that there was a unified enemy, some manifest destiny goal to conquer. In actuality, that was mostly just a talking point. The Wastnds, especially the Deep zones, were too hostile to make ground against with powerful, unknown variants and geo-storms. But if humanity saw variant activity as a whole declining, it could embolden them to make a mistake. Aldrich needed to have the influence to stop that from happening. The good thing was, this ceasefire gave him time to grow stronger and stronger. "And what if I take over more of your children? What if I need to to get the strength necessary to convince humanity?" asked Aldrich. "That is eptable. Life and death cannot exist without the other. If you choose to hunt my children upon the surface, then that is your natural right, Kindred, just as it is in my childrens'' natural right to hunger and feast upon man when they stray too far from their cities. But to lead attacks of great scale or to target the dearest of my children - the Titans - this one cannot allow." Aldrich looked over to the sphere of light at the center of the dark cavern. Though the light flickered weakly, it still seemed to grow ever so slowly. "Time benefits you as well. It strengthens you too." "It is not strengthening. Strengthening implies a usage for war. That is not so. It is healing. Healing that this world sorely deserves." "Healing that involves force to purge what you consider a disease." "But healing nheless." "I suppose it''s all a matter of perspective in the end." "That is so. There is one more condition that this one wishes to impose." "Go ahead." "Contain the power you call from beyond this world." Aldrich raised a brow. "You yourself are power from beyond it, though." "That is so. This one does not know where from the Outer this one came from, but that matters not any longer. Now, this one is this world. But it is because we share origins that this one grants you leeway. You may use your own powers, Kindred, but nothing beyond that. This one fears that the misuse of power from beyond may lead to more unwanted pests." ''You already have one,'' was Aldrich''s thought. The Stranger was a demon that had, like a parasite,tched himself upon this. But Aldrich kept that thought to himself for now. He wasn''t about to let the entity know about the Stranger right now. There was a chance that the entity could even help against the Stranger considering its words, but Aldrich could not trust it to that degree. "I can ept those conditions. The realm I get my powers from is fine, but all others are not. Is that how things will be?" said Aldrich. "That is so." "Then we have a ceasefire," said Aldrich. "There is no more to speak of." The entity turned around, and Aldrich''s figure started to blur, fading. "This one must now lie dormant. But it shall trust that you, as a Kindred, will see to it that our desires are fulfilled. Elsewise both of us shall face our ruins." Aldrich nodded, staying silent, in thought. In a few moments, his vision whitened, and he was back in front of the Boss Geist. "We have done it, master!" said Valera in glee, prancing about the huge skull of the geist. "We have raised it! With this, Haven will never know hunger!" Aldrich briefly nced around to realize that practically no time had passed. That entire conversation filled with earth shaking revtions had transpired in the course of a simple second, if even that. "Insane. You really can control anything," said Mollusk as he hopped off Refraction''s golden mirror tform andnded beside Aldrich. "Oh right, and I''m going to return this." He took off the spirit cloak and handed it back. The cloak floated to Aldrich''s back where it wailed in content. "Thanks," said Aldrich quietly. ''Master...is something amiss?'' asked Valera via telepathy. ''I''ll talk to you about it once we debrief in Haven,'' said Aldrich. ''For now, let''s prep to get a move on.'' Even in the Deep Wastnds where satellite surveince was less than reliable, an energy surge on the caliber that the Boss Geist released with itsnd-melting bullet hell was not going to go unnoticed. "We''re going to fly on your back," Aldrich said to the Boss Geist. There was no easy way to hide the Boss Geist. It was far too big to store in his and Chrysa''s Boundary. ''That is eptable,'' the Boss Geist said mentally. "Everyone hop on," said Aldrich as he leaped up,nding on the geist''s back. "And since you''ve entered my service, I''ve decided to give you a new name. Arcadia." ''Arcadia...'' the geist mulled over in its mind, mping its pincers gently together. "Arcadia, huh?" Refractionnded by Aldrich, his trigger turning off and returning him back to his usual goofier self. "That''s basically the Greek myth version of paradise, isn''t it? A garden of Eden sort of deal. Thanatos for death. Arcadia for life. Who would have thought those two would go together?" "With me, the boundary between life and death is far thinner than usual," said Aldrich. "Your naming sense has improved, master." Valera nodded proudly, probably because Aldrich had not simply named the geist ''Tree''. "I do try and learn from feedback. Especially from mymander." Aldrich gave Valera an acknowledging nod, and she turned away shyly. That was when her eyes widened. Aldrich followed her stare. The forest of giant trees was starting to move. Chapter 334 Ceasefire Chapter 334 Ceasefire "Master, prepare for battle!" Valera shouted, immediately taking stance in front of Aldrich. The shield she had dematerialized in her reversion bloodlust reappeared in her hand, and she stood with a wide, trained stance behind it, her prior animalistic savagery gone. "Shiiit, not again," said Mollusk. "And there''s like a hundred of them too." "This time, I really do think we should just warp out, you know," said Refraction, golden sparks of energy fluttering at his trembling fingertips. "You, uh, don''t need a hundred of these things, right? Just one is good, yeah?" Chiros awaited with calm, for he believed panic, especially for a soldier, was nothing short of inelegant. His reverted crystalline form was gone, leaving him standing upright with his de poised in ready position by his side. "Wait," said Aldrich. The earth started to rumble as the sheer magnitude of movement from the giant trees and their upturning roots churned the ground. Around the trees, their roots broke up from underground, coiling around each other to form thick legs. With a heave, the roots pushed their host trees aboveground with a deafening rumble of parting earth and crumbling rock debris. Aldrich wanted to see if the entity would truly uphold its end of the ceasefire. It said it would move back all Locuses and Geists. If Arcadia was any indication, every single one of those trees was a monumental egg gestating a Geist, which meant that the entity was supposed to pull them back. Attacking Aldrich right now would be a surefire way to break a ceasefire before it even really began. He did not believe the entity would do that. So, he waited. Valera was the first to catch on. Her [Danger Sense] skill was likely not triggering, unable to sense any hostile intent or bloodlust among the trees. She tentatively began to lower her shield. Chiros, seeing hismander ease up, followed, lowering his de. "Are we all just, uh surrendering here?" said Refraction. "Turning into good old mulch for those nicely oversized trees?" "Silent mystery is part of this dude''s image," said Mollusk. "But self-destructive tendencies definitely aren''t. So calm your ass down, Frac." Refraction gulped and nodded. The entire forest began to move on their legs of roots, but not towards Aldrich. As a whole, they marched away, deeper into the Wastnds, the earth rumbling with each of their synchronized, colossal steps. The countless insect variants that nested atop their branches buzzed about in a panic, creating a cloud of bodies that could almost blot out the sun. For a moment, Aldrich wondered if they, as natural variants, would attack as the entity had said it would respect the right of natural variants to hunt. But the insect variants simply followed the living forest back, not wanting to leave their home of nourishing fruits and sap and warm leaves for their eggs. After a few minutes, when the forest was well and far into the distance, Aldrich nodded in confirmation. The entity had stayed true to its words. The ceasefire was official. That was good news, but at the same time, Aldrich knew it was foreboding. It was the start of a timer. An hourss that, if Aldrich did not have all of humanity under him by the time its sands sifted all the way down, things would all end. At the same time, upon thinking about it more, Aldrich knew that there was likely some leeway here. He could infer from the way the entity spoke about the Titans that releasing them took up arge part of its life force. In essence, it was an absolutest resort akin to a suicide attack. The entity would not resort to it unless it was absolutely pushed to the limit. And considering the fact that the entity had spent decades recovering after the Monstering and still had just a meager amount of life force, that indicated that Aldrich had time on the same scale of decades, if not over a century. However, he could not getcent. He needed to outpace the entity''s growth. And he had to use his power with more pressure. The talk with the entity forced Aldrich to shift the bnce of his approach. Currently, he wanted to work with the world leaders, to listen to them and see what worked best for everyone. That was reasonable. But the entity had tilted Aldrich''s scale of approach so that he valued control over cooperation. Control was harsher. Crueler. But it was undeniably faster. So long as one had the power to enforce it. "Arcadia, fly us back," said Aldrich. "Use your telepathy to get directions from me." Arcadia mped its pincers together in understanding and flew into the air, its huge butterfly wings sparkling like scintiting jewels under the sun. With just one flutter, Arcadia brought the group up high into the air, and from there, it was simply a matter of gliding back to Haven. "Whew, at least we survived that," said Refraction, sighing deeply. "You sound like you actually went and fought anything," said Mollusk. "I may as well have, with all that mental pressure." "To ease pressure after a battle, there is nothing that bests a talk, especially among fellow soldiers," said Chiros, sitting down with Mollusk and Chiros with a friendly smile. "So, tell me of your lives." Aldrich left them to converse and headed up to Arcadia''s skull where he looked ahead, thinking. He felt Valera''s tender hand on his shoulder. "Such a gentle touch. I do not like it when I am touched without warning, but for the sake of our warfather, I shall allow it," said Vntis. "This again?" Valera smacked a spike off of Vntis''s shoulder te, taking care not to cause any real damage to Vntis or Aldrich. "Come now, that was a tooth of a drake I slew!"ined Vntis. "You can find another - look at how many creatures there are here!" countered Valera. "All of them upset my stomach. Until the Mind Eater devises a way for me to devour them properly, I am bound to starve! I am unlike you bloodsuckers that have less than discriminating tastes." Valera sighed and ignored Vntis. "Master, something hase over you. The way you stand, it is rigid. Stiff. Cold. It reminds me of how you were when I first saw you in this world. Is something amiss?" Chapter ?335 Support Chapter ?335 Support Aldrich took this time to debrief Valera. He gave her a rundown of his talk with the entity. Of course, Vntis heard this too. "...So that is how it is," said Valera. "The world itself stands against us." She sighed softly. "I suppose the dates we nned but never managed to bring to reality will not happen." Aldrich, for the briefest of moments, wondered how Valera could be thinking about dates right now, but he mentally shook that thought away. She had always been a responsiblemander. Her intrusive thoughts meant littlepared to her time tested reliability. "But rest assured, I will stand behind you through it all." Valera raised her shield. "No matter what stands against us, whether they be the gods in our past lives or the very world in this one, I shall stand firm with you, for that is where I have sworn to be." "I appreciate that, Valera," said Aldrich. "Your goal does not change either, does it, Armored?" said Vntis. "Hm?" "We are to conquer this world, are we not! To lead the greatest warband that has ever been seen across all realms! That the world stands against us matters not, no, it gives us an even greater foe to rage against." "We are no raging orc warband," said Valera in admonishing tone. "We do not simply go out on raids to take territory that we will lose right after the battle is fought due to ack of nning or thought. We must think long term." "He''s right," said Aldrich. "And so are you. We need both. More pressure to fight and ''raid''. And also a level enough mind to keep what we''ve taken without issues. To take, but not destroy. To conquer, but not humiliate. But to do that all at once, on a time limit, too?" Aldrich, for once, started to feel overwhelmed. He always knew that by taking the world stage, he was going to bring more and more responsibility on himself. But having to take over all of humanity? To stave offary destruction? Those were endgame issues he thought he would not have to deal with for a while. "And we will all do that together," said Valera, smiling at Aldrich, her helmet uncovered to bare the surprising softness of her features. Her smile was warm, and in it, he did not feel alone. The weight on his shoulders lightened. "Hahaha! Which human territory shall we raid then!? From that curious ''telescreen'' artifact, I know that this ''Neo-York'' seems quite mighty with its shields, walls, and powerful warriors! And it is the premiere city of this ''United States'' kingdom that refuses to recognize you! I myself shall lead a raid against them! To teach them the greatness of my Armored!" "That''s suicide. Not happening," said Aldrich. "To crush my dreams so quickly...ah, such is the life of a mere Armor,"ined Vntis. Aldrich heard crackling in his earpiece. Arcadia had flown close enough to human territory to start getting Net signals. He immediately contacted V. "V, status report?" "Boss!?" V''s voice came in panicked. "Good, you''re back! Just in time, too!" "What''s wrong?" "I don''t think you''ll like this...but whatever you did out there, there were massive energy surges. The AA''s been super careful about variant energy surges in the Deep Wastnds, you know, after the Locus attacks, they want to stop variant armies from building up before they get gathered." "Let me guess, heroes areing to investigate the area," said Aldrich. He knew this would happen. But he was prepared. The AA would send a team of A rankers, most likely. Usually a group of ten, but with the Panopticon still down, the heroes were stretched out thin doing patrols or hunting variants around cities. At best, Aldrich figured a group of 5 A rankers would show up for a remote Deep Wastnds patrol like this. That, he and his group could more than easily handle if it came down to a fight. But it would note down to a fight to begin with. Aldrich''s Sentinel status afforded him that much protection. And now, Aarav was his official partner. As a fortune heir, Aarav might as well have been the prince to one of the most powerful kingdoms on the. On top of that, Dracul, another Sentinel, was his ally, and in fact stayed in Haven at this very moment. No ragtag group of A rankers would ever think about throwing an attack Aldrich''s way unless they wanted to be the instigator of a shitstorm that was quite literally on a national scale. "Yeah, and I know what you''re thinking, the AA probably isn''t going to try and start shit with you now that we''re in the big boy leagues, but this...this is different." "How so?" "It ain''t your run of the mill A rankersing. Damn, even calling A rankers ''run of the mill'' really puts into perspective how far we''vee so quickly. But getting to the main point, you aren''t dealing with a group of A rankers. You''ve got something a grade uping your way." "I see. Who is it?" Aldrich understood where V was going with this. He just wanted to know exactly which S ranker he was going to have to deal with. "It''s Valkyrie and Lightspeed," said V, her voice growing stern. Lightspeed was the current rank 2 hero on the Superboard 100. Granted, Superboard rankings factored in poprity as much as it did power, but the top 10 were all undeniably strong no matter what. And Lightspeed, as a Light Elemental, was very much deserving of that rank 2 spot. She heldfortably onto that spot in spite ofrge swathes of inactivity that she was routinely criticized for. Even in the Locus attacks, she had stayed at home, not doing anything because she did not feel like it. Still, her past track record of taking out S rank variants one after the other gave her more than enough umted AP (Achievement Points) that she could probably do nothing for quite some time without decaying in rank. Valkyrie was rank 15 on the Superboard because she was frigid and rarely cared about anything other than taking out strong enemies. That meant she ignored most good PR tasks like rescues, only ever focusing on fights which tanked her AP. But in purebat power, she was widely regarded among the strongest in the. Her chlorokinesisbined with the gargantuan physical stats she inherited from her mother, the past Valkyrie who was once a member of the Triune with Supermind and Vanguard, meant she was all strengths and no weaknesses. These were to massive heavy hitters sent Aldrich''s way. If it was just one of them, he could understand, but two... "V, call Dracul. Send him my coordinates. I''ll need some support," said Aldrich. "That guy''s kinda scary, but I''ll try. You sure this won''t annoy him or something?" "I know him fairly well at this point. You could even consider us friends. He''ll listen." "Of all the people you could rte to, it''s that guy, huh. Makes me wonder what you two even rte about...but alright, I''ll get on that." Chapter 336 Lightspeed and Valkyrie Chapter 336 Lightspeed and Valkyrie Aldrich waited atop Arcadia''s head, his cloak of souls flickering behind him as he stood tall high in the sky, a figure of imposing ck armor that fit the archetype of the ''dark king'' character to a T. Behind him, Valera and Chiros stood in formation, weapons raised in anticipation. All three presented representatives of Haven. Mollusk and Refraction stood back more tentatively in case anything went wrong. In the distance, Aldrich could see an iing Halo Carrier, noticeable with its distinctive design of a lengthy main structure surrounded by an array of rotating rings that glowed a bright blue. He was distinctly surprised. Carrier ss ships were enormous, more akin to small floating fortresses than regr aircraft. They could man crews of hundreds with apletely self-sustaining ship environment. Generally, they existed as mobile space stations, never really entering into the atmosphere. And they were predominantly Panopticon tech, though some wealthy nations andpanies could manufacture their own with the biggest example being the ck Dragon belonging to Imugi War Arts. The white metal and glowing green maic lock strips indicated that this was definitely Panopticon tech, however. "Is that also a human creation?" said Valera. Aldrich nodded. "Incredible," she muttered. "It is nothing at all like the flying ships that men made in our realm. No, it surpasses even that belonging to the dwarves." "Humanity hase very far in this realm," said Chiros. "It does make me wonder whether they would have done the same had they not been in fiercepetition with so many other peoples in ours." "Any people who have a monopoly over all their resources can get far," said Aldrich. He also knew that monopoly bredcency. Entitlement. Humanity felt like they deserved the world''s resources, and because of that, it was going to be hard to ever get them to stand down against the entity. Somehow, though, Aldrich needed to make that happen. "Will that ship be a threat?" said Valera. "I don''t think so," said Aldrich. "If it wanted to attack us, it could have done so at that range. If they were hell bent on it, they might have been able to hit us from orbit." "Orbit?" "High up. Beyond the world''s skies." "Truly? Humanity has such capabilities? Then we must prepare our city to fend against it." "Orbital strike capabilities are heavily regted and easy to track," said Aldrich. "And extremely rare. If someone hit us from orbit, we would know who it was. Everyone would. At this point, we''re important enough in the world where nobody can afford to hit us with anything like that." "So this, too, is why you have decided to show your strength to the world." Aldrich nodded. "Recognition is a form of protection in of itself." The Halo carrier stopped several kilometers away from Aldrich, quite high up in the sky still. It was cloaked, though he could track it with Vntis''s Truesight. From the carrier, another aircraft shot out. This one was more reasonable, being the size of arge jet. ''Still impressive, though,'' thought Aldrich. The jet was a ss 1 Panopticon mech called a Dominion. It was thrice the size of Casimir''s jet and outfitted with far superior technologies, its four wings packed with nano-restorative missiles and autocannons. At the front of the jet, a triad of gleaming blue barrels emerged, each capable of firing high intensity sma beams. Casimir''s jet looked like it belonged in this modern era, but the Dominion looked like it was ripped right out of a science fiction movie. Like most higher end Panopticon tech, the Dominion also had a white metal ring floating around it packed with supportive drones that could repair the Dominion using nanobot infused rays that printed new parts at will, even customizing the Dominion on the fly. When needed, the Dominion could also shift into its mech form, and it was widely considered a symbol of the Panopticon''s strength. ''And, thankfully, not possessed,'' noted Aldrich, unable to sense any demonic energying off of it. ''Still, quite odd. I didn''t think the Panopticon would make any moves until they figured out how to deal with the Stranger''s possession.'' As the Dominion flew down to Aldrich, he spotted a human figure flying behind it. He immediately noticed this one as Valkyrie. Valkyrie soared down in her battle armor of gold and green, her two signature colors. . Majestic wings of leaves and golden flowers spread out from her sides, providing her with a means of flight. She approached Aldrich with a neutral, blue-eyed gaze, her face expressionless in its calm focus. Valera tightened the grip on her shield, the sound of metal groaning under her powerful hold spreading through the air. Chiros stiffened in alert, his de readied. "That one¡­is dangerous," said Valera. "And strong. Incredibly so." "You can sense her strength?" asked Aldrich. "Not directly. Sensing the strength of Alterhumans is still difficult. I do not know when a human here is born powerful, gifted with their far-ranging abilities. But I know a fighter when I see one. I know the poise of one who knows battles. I can tell when one does not hold the light of the fight in the eyes, when they have yet to hold their des properly or wet them in blood. That one¡­is experienced. She has seen a thousand battles." "Not just that," said Chiros. "The way she carries herself - she knows she is unparalleled. And that confidence is not wrought from nothing - it is confirmed in the rite of countless fights. Fights she has won, no doubt." "I agree, Armored," said Vntis. "I can sense levels of ''energy'' now within the humans of this realm, and that one holds a tremendous amount that is the highest I have encountered thus far. It outstrips the warrior of the sun. It outstrips the warrior of the dark that you have allied with. The difference is not great, but it is still there." "She''s that strong, huh?" muttered Aldrich. He knew Valkyrie was powerful. She was in contention to be the world''s strongest, after all, with her biggestpetition being Huanglong from China and Ravana from India. Together, those three were known as the modern day Triune, though Aldrich felt that was an insult to the Triune of the past. The old Triune worked together for the betterment of the world. The new one was simply a title shoved on to the three strongest in the world, and none of them did much other than rule their own cities or, in Valkyrie''s case, fight powerful beings. Valkyrie approached first, outspeeding the Dominion. She hovered in front of Aldrich. Her long white hair and piercing blue eyes emanated a feeling of ice that contrasted dramatically with the warm, life-radiating colors of green and gold that her powers gave off. Close up, Aldrich could also see that her battle armor was not made of metal, but rather a gold hued wood. Though he had no illusion that said wood was probably far more durable than any metal known to man. "¡­" Valkyrie simply stared at Aldrich. The silence cloyed in the air, threatening. When silence came from strength, threat was never far behind. A sh of golden light burst out from beside Valkyrie, the sh expanding and forming into the silhouette of a woman. The silhouette then filled in, revealing Lightspeed, current number 2 hero in the Superboard top 100. Lightspeed was a powerfully built woman with the curvature of her muscles showing underneath her skin-tight white and gold bodysuit. Emzoned upon her chest was a shining white star, but aside from that, her suit was quite simple. ssic in its design. Like Valkyrie, however, Lightspeed''s face contrasted with her suit''s bright hues. Her bright gold eyes were underlined with tired, dark bags, as if she had not known a good night''s sleep in years. Her long golden hair was a ragged mess with split ends and clumped chunks from aplete disregard for maintenance. A curtain of messy bangs fell down her forehead, covering her eyes, and she annoyingly blew air up to part them. Lightspeed stared at Aldrich, then at Valkyrie, and sighed. "Say something, will you?" said Lightspeed, elbowing Valkyrie. "Or do I have to do everything myself?" "..." Valkyrie floated backwards, letting Lightspeed handle things. "Whatever." Lightspeed hovered in the air, a faint golden silhouette surrounding her. She looked at Aldrich with an utterly bored, disinterested look. "So, here''s the thing, officially, we''re here to investigate a massive energy reading, the biggest the AA''s registered since the Locus Raids. I know what you''re thinking, two S ss heroes is overkill, but we have to give the pea-brained public some kind of confidence, yeah? Nothing like two shiny sexy strongdies to do that, I guess. But anyhow, the main reason we''re here isn''t cause of the energy readings. We figured that was you. We, well, he-," Lightspeed pointed at the Dominion as it approached close now. "Wants to meet you, Thanatos." Chapter 337 The President Chapter 337 The President Aldrich nced over to the Dominion. It hovered near soundlessly above Arcadia, maintaining a safe distance, wary. However, its weapons, though out, were not aimed, indicating some level of trust. But who was it in the Dominion that wanted to talk to Aldrich? "And who is ''he''?" said Aldrich. Lightspeed rubbed the bridge of her nose, impatient. She put down a pair of ck goggles over her eyes and looked around. Little whirs clicked from the goggles, indicating that they were high tech and doing something. "You''ve got amunication device in your ear," said Lightspeed. "You''ll have to get rid of that." "I can''t do that until I get an exnation for why I''m needed," said Aldrich. He raised his hand and pointed up, not to the Dominion, but far beyond, to the Halo carrier. "And why the Panopticon''s Halo carrier is watching from up there." Lightspeed''s brow arched, surprised that Aldrich could see through the cloaking. Or that he could see that far up. The Halo carrier, though massive, was still a huge distance away, nothing more than a small blip to the average person''s eye. Vntis, however, could easily zoom into it. And his Truesight meant cloaking was useless. Before Lightspeed could talk, she pressed her hand to her ear, to amunications device of her own. "Okay, okay, whatever." She shrugged at Aldrich. "You can have that device with you. Just go on up and let me be done with this. I''m wasting time I could be spending drinking this already shitty day away." It was Aldrich this time who raised a brow, if he had one on his skull head under his helm. ''It''s way too early to be drinking,'' was Aldrich''s intrusive thought, but he did not let that slip out. "You still haven''t answered my first question. Who is ''he?''" "Really making this hard on me now, aren''t you? Fine. Emrys Du Lac. You know, president of the AA." "I see." Aldrich nodded to himself, assessing the situation. "You''ll have to go alone, too," said Lightspeed. "We''ll make sure your forces here are safe." "Safe, is it? Interesting word for ''iste''," said Aldrich. "It''s what my job description told me to do. However you interpret it is your choice," said Lightspeed bluntly. ''Master, are you sure you wish to go?'' Valera''s thoughts beamed into Aldrich''s head. ''If ites down to it, I am ready to fight. You can always wake the little one to teleport away.'' ''Fighting right now isn''t prudent. I don''t believe they''re here to pose us any direct threat. Emrys just wants to talk, and he gave me the AA''s support in the form of votes in the Judicata. He wouldn''t have done that if he wanted to get rid of me. I''m also quite interested in hearing what he has to stay. Plus, I have insurance.'' "Let me leave a friend of mine here to make sure my soldiers really are safe," said Aldrich. He nodded, and the shadow he cast behind him flickered. From it, like emerging from a sea of dark, viscous waters, Dracul appeared, trickles of solid shadow streaming off of his face and body. . Lightspeed''s bored expression broke into pure surprise as she hovered backwards out of sheer instinct. Valkyrie, however, Aldrich noticed, turned her gaze from icy cool to bright hot. She hovered closer, and in her eyes, Aldrich could see a very familiar sight, a sight he knew well from Valera. Bloodlust. "I have business to conduct with this man," said Dracul, jutting his chin to Aldrich. He was covered from shoulder to toe in a billowing cloak of dark, making him seem like a formless mass of ck. His face, pale and with sharp features, tall nose, sunken in, dark eyes, and flowing locks of inky ck hair, made him look very much like some vampiric count. Fitting for his code name of Dracul. "I expect him to return in one piece." Lightspeed''s surprise faded, which was impressive in its own right. It meant that other than momentary shock, actually standing in front of Dracul, a powerful Sentinel, was not something that bothered her too much. Either she was that bored or she was that powerful. Likely a mixture of both, from what Aldrich knew of her strength via publicly avable records. "I can assure you, we aren''t here to fight. Consider us more like insurance," said Lightspeed. "Consider me insurance," said Dracul. His gaze narrowed as he noticed Valkyrie''s bloodlust, targeted right at him like a knife. He took his arm out from under his cloak, revealing shiny ck armor. Around his gauntleted hand, a de of swirling dark formed. "I do not like when fangs are bared at me," said Dracul. "¡­" Valkyrie, in response, also armed herself. She held her arm out, and from her arm, twin coiling vines emerged, winding around each other in to form a helix patterned de of hardened nt mass. Gold particles - spores or pollen of some kind - gathered around the vine de. "Knock it off, Valk." Lightspeed put a hand on Valkyrie''s shoulder, shaking her head. "You pick a fight with him, with Thanatos on top of that, and we''re going to be dealing with a headache I really, really don''t want to deal with." "¡­" Valkyrie nodded. She hovered backwards with a soft flick of her flowery wings. "Hm." Dracul lowered his arm, though notably his darkness de remained manifested. "I''ll go," said Aldrich. "I''m interested in what Emrys has to say." And, Aldrich did have to acknowledge, Emrys did help with his votes. "You should''ve just done that from the start," groaned Lightspeed. "No need for all this drama." Aldrich ignored her and flew upwards, his cloak of souls softly wailing as he passed by the two S ss heroes. Lightspeed did not give Aldrich a second nce, but Valkryie did. Her lingering gaze settled on Aldrich, and he had the instinctive feeling that she had something she wanted from him, some form of interest. Regardless, Aldrich moved on. A door atop the Dominion''s head, where the cockpit was, opened up indicating where he was to go. He passed through it, settling down in a circrnding zone. The hatch above him closed, sealing off the sound of howling winds. "Wee, Thanatos." In front of Aldrich stood Emrys, the enigmatic president of the Alterhuman Agency. Chapter 338 The President 2 Chapter 338 The President 2 Aldrich looked Emrys over. Emrys was an elderly man with age whitened hair, long enough to reach down to his neck and a thick, bristly moustache and beard that still retained some flecks of youthful ck. His attire was formal, suited up without anybat preparation. Yet, in spite of that, Emrys did not feel weak. He was arge man standing exactly at two meters with a broad-shouldered, muscled build that belied his age. What was most striking about Emrys were his eyes. They were pitch ck with bright white dots for pupils. Aldrich briefly looked around, scanning for threats. The Dominion was running on auto-pilot. Aside from some minor helper drones, the entire ce was empty. As if to confirm Aldrich''s thoughts, Emrys spoke. "The Dominion has no personnel on it other than me. I apologize for bringing Lightspeed and Valkyrie. But they are, as you noted, insurance." ''This human¡­is strange,'' said Vntis. ''My sight strains when it gazes upon him. Argh-!'' Vntis''s third eye involuntarily opened up on Aldrich''s forehead, gazing at Emrys for a brief second before closing. ''My apologies, Armored. The eye reacted on its own.'' "Ah, so that is where Supermind''s eye went." Emrys nodded, his hands calmly sped behind his back. He did not seem surprised at all. "You''re Irregr," said Aldrich. The All-Seeing Eye had opened and recognized Emrys as not being of this world. "A broad term. Too broad for my tastes. But yes, that is true," said Emrys. "What are you, then? An alien?" "This is why I considered that eye far too broad. It identifies only things that are extraterrestrial, but has no ideas of its origins," said Emrys. He shook his head. "I am no alien. I am very human. But alien energies have charged my eyes, and because of that, you identify me as Irregr." "¡­I see," said Aldrich. He wondered exactly how Emrys''s eyes had changed from alien energies, or what these alien energies even exactly were, but that would meander too far off from the point. "What do you want from me?" "Straight to the point. That will make things quick," said Emrys. "I am not against you, Thanatos. No, it is quite the opposite. I simply wish to enter into a partnership with you." "You? Or the AA? As far as I''m aware, most of the AA''s operations are conducted under the authority of the CEO. The title of president is more ceremonial, passed down from your family line rather than anything else," said Aldrich. The Du Lac family were founders and presidents of the AA, but notably, other than the first Du Lac, all the sessors had ended up living lives of seclusion, never taking helm of the AA. That meant that by all rights, Emrys should not have had too much power, but at the same time, contextual clues hinted against it. It was Emrys, not the CEO, that showed up at the Judicata. And Emrys had a Halo carrier under his control. A ceremonial title could not ever manage that. "You already know I have more influence than meets the eye," said Emrys, reading through Aldrich''s question to fish for more information. With that, Aldrich recognized that Emrys was a good talker. And impressive at hiding his emotions. His face was impossible to read, better than Solomon Sr or Z. . "Doesn''t mean I know everything there is to you," said Aldrich. "And neither I for you. Let us keep it that way. Putting all our cards on the table to begin with is too extreme, no?" "Then what cards are you putting down?" "I want you to help the Panopticon recover from the Irregr hacking it suffered at the Judicata," said Emrys. "My eyes are capable of reading energy signatures at a fine-tuned level. Due to that, I know that you have some form of protection against the Irregr hacking in Haven. Give the Panopticon a sample of that, and it can replicate the defenses." "Asking for that much to begin with? Are you sure you aren''t putting all your cards down already?" "I have more to y," was Emrys''s cool answer, and because of his inscrutable face, it was impossible to tell whether Emrys was bluffing or not. "And I can choose not to y, either. It is up to you." "That''s quite a lot to ask for. The Panopticon''s defense should be its own responsibility, no?" It sounded like Emrys was asking for much, and he was, but the request was not as one-sided as it seemed. Aldrich stood against the Stranger, and if the Stranger could, whenever it had its possession capabilities up, take over high end Panopticon tech, it would be a massive pain in the ass to deal with if it could just pad itself with armies of ss 2 and 1 robots and drones. Not to mention the potential havoc it could wreak by taking over Panopticon space stations. Valera''s worry at an orbital strike became much more of a likelihood unless Aldrich provided the Panopticon a way to defend itself. And there was the cost in life, too. The Panopticon still maintained most of the world''s agriculture and infrastructure. Right now, cities were getting by on emergency reserves and limited supply transport. Sooner orter, that had to end. "Rest assured, the Panopticon is not defenseless. It is not a stranger to Irregr power sources. In time, it will adapt," said Emrys. "But I acknowledge it may suffer an additional attack or two before that adaptation urs. I am simply giving you a chance to expedite that process." And, Aldrich noted, if the Panopticon adapted on its own, Emrys nor the Panopticon owed anything to Aldrich anymore. He did not know whether this was a bluff either. For all this time, he had operated under the principle that Alter tech was helpless against magic, but the more he found out about the world, the more he doubted that. With the existence of Irregrs, alien technologies hidden away, and who knows how many more variables, it was entirely possible that the Panopticon could, in fact, fend off against demonic possession. At which point Aldrich lost his leverage. "And what are you offering me?" said Aldrich. "I was part of Supermind''s efforts in finding Vanguard''s sessor. He believed the heir to be humanity''s new hope," said Emrys. "If Supermind gave you his eye, he no doubt believed that it would be within your self interest to find the heir as well. I am willing to extend my assistance in tracking down the heir." "And if we find said heir? Will you take them in? To be the new savior of mankind?" said Aldrich. If that was the case, then there was no real benefit for Aldrich. To humanity, yes, as Vanguard''s heir would surely be someone that could defend man, especially against the entity. But Aldrich reaped no direct benefit simply finding the heir. "No. That is too one-sided of a deal. You can have the heir," said Emrys. "Turn them into one of your soldiers, if you so wish." Chapter ?339 The President 3 Chapter ?339 The President 3 ''Interesting. This guy is willing to hand over Vanguard''s heir to me? Just like that?'' Aldrich stared at Emrys in near disbelief. This was a huge offer. Vanguard''s heir, if said individual could actually be found, was invaluable. Not just in terms of sheer power, but in symbolic value as well. Vanguard was the world''s number one and a bright light in a swathe of dark times. The first real hero, or at the very least, the one to really poprize the hero movement, the idea being that he wanted to create a movement that provided symbols to look up to, symbols of hope when things seemed hard and hopeless. Over time, that had twisted into a highlymercialized, gaudy industry where people like Hat Trick who only cared about credits and image showed up. But the original idea behind it was pure. Vanguard was the sole reason humanity survived Zahak during the Altering. Then, he spearheaded the fight against the Titans in the Monstering. If Vanguard had not been in either time, humanity would have been extinct by now. He was a champion of the peoples. A cornerstone of human belief. Almost a messianic figure. And the heir of a messianic figure was not be taken lightly. Vanguard''s heir would have an instantaneous massive draw with the global public. Whoever the heir affiliated with would get a golden parachute into the hearts of the world. At the very least, Aldrich would have expected Emrys to fight more for the heir. To maybe contest who got to manage the heir. . But Emrys sounded like he was literally willing to serve the heir up to Aldrich as an undead. The implications of that by now were obvious as Aldrich''s powers were widely broadcasted. That meant killing someone who inevitably was going to be a worldwide darling. Was Emrys trying to goad Aldrich into doing that to smear him? Even if that was the case, Aldrich was willing to do that if it meant getting the heir in his legion. Vanguard''s power was one of a kind, granting him the strength to win against any foe no matter what. Such a broken ability was invaluable and instrumental in making sure Aldrich had more leverage against the entity. "I understand it may seem odd that I am willing to give up Vanguard''s heir so easily," said Emrys, parsing Aldrich''s thoughts. For a moment, Aldrich wondered if Emrys was reading his mind, but it seemed unlikely. If Emrys could mine Aldrich for thoughts, he did not have to ask leading questions like this. It was more likely that Emrys was just perceptive. "But it is simply a matter of control," said Emrys. "Vanguard was unpredictable in hisst years. We cannot afford that when humanity is now at the brink. If the heir is under your control, then that is still control. As far as I am aware, you have humanity''s benefit in your mind. Knowing that, I am willing to give you this hypothetical heir if only to ensure that their power is used for the greater good." "Hypothetical? What''s your intel on this heir? Is it even real?" said Aldrich, stamping out the faint possibility that Emrys was setting him on a wild goose chase. "Supermind would not have devoted himself to a fruitless endeavor," said Emrys. "Whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you." "I can believe that," said Aldrich, respecting Supermind. "But how close are you to finding the heir? You need to have something tangible to offer as you''re requesting something quite tangible from me." "That is true," said Emrys. "And I do not have a location for you. Not now." "Not now?" "Supermind and I had good reason to believe that Vanguard''s power is one that has a will of its own. A sort of energy made manifest, extraterrestrial in its origins to such a degree that attempting to predict it is difficult. What we do know is that it leaves the host''s body and then chooses another when suitable. However, the devil is in the details, and the devil, if anything, knows how to hide. Tracking where the power is headed is difficult, impossible even with my eyes that are sensitive to every strata of energy, foreign or terrestrial. But Vanguard left clues. Hisst decade of life was spent finding a worthy heir, knowing that his time with his strength was burning away. Supermind has pieces of a journal he kept that detail exactly when the power will decide to find a new heir. And potential locations for the power to manifest." "Pieces of a journal? Why not the full thing?" asked Aldrich. He went even more specific, his curiosity ring. After all, this was about Vanguard, a hero that Aldrich had idolized so much in his youth. "What exactly happened to Vanguard in these past two decades? Why was he so inactive?" "Vanguard''s mind deteriorated as his power did. When he reached out to us for the first time in many years, he only gave us pieces. As for the source of his inactivity and decline, we do not know. Not for certain, though theories are abound," said Emrys. "It is likely that a human vessel is unable to contain the tremendous nature of Vanguard''s power, doubly more so considering Vanguard was a pure human with aparatively frail body unused to regting high levels of energy." Aldrich would have blinked if he could have. Vanguard had been a pure human. Just like Aldrich. That was not a detail that mattered to him tactically, but in a way, itforted him. That his once idol had been just like him. Powerless but given the strength to make change. "Vanguard''s deteriorating mental state led him into increasing istion. He pushed away Valkyrie and Supermind, his closest friends, leaving him in solitude," said Emrys. "No other family and friends?" Aldrich wondered. Vanguard was massively popr. He must have had some rtion somewhere. A hidden child, maybe. "Beneath he veneer of the cameras and lights, Vanguard was always a solitary man," said Emrys. "The world always needed him. Somewhere, something had to be done. And he knew that. He knew the weight of the world was on his shoulders, and he wanted to keep as much of that weight on himself as possible. He was always alone. Especially after Valkyrie stopped fighting." Aldrich knew what Emrys was talking about. Valkyrie''s decision toy down her fists was a global tragedy, though it happened a while before he had been born. It happened right at the end of the first Corpowar of 2077. Held just seven years after the Monstering, when humanity was still unstable and disorganized, corporations monopolized the strongest of Alters and, left unchecked, began to realize they could carve up the world into their own territories, taking over nations that did not agree to ''deals'' that sorely disadvantaged them for their resources. This led to massive megacorporations fielding literal armies of mercenaries and hired military forces. Beforehand, the Panopticon took a hands off approach to humanity, only making sure everyone had equal ess to food, but the 2077 Corpowar forced them to intervene once they calcted the conflicts could escte into an extinction level event. Once the Panopticon stepped in, the war quickly ended within six months. In total, the 2077 Corpowar consisted of three years of grueling battles, and thest one led to Valkyrie''s retirement. Ragnarok, one of the leading militarypanies of the time,unched a fission bomb from its space station at Destiny Star, a Neo-Beijing based mega corporation that had and still has a huge market share in the Alter costume industry. Hou Yi, one of China''s strongest Alters at the time, diverted the unstable bomb at the cost of his life, redirecting it to remote wastnds. The bomb''s detonation, however, generated a mass energy surge that a particrly powerful variant absorbed, turning it into an infinitely evolving threat. That threat, code named Dragon for its serpentine appearance, quickly became a S ranked disaster capable of matching the power of Titans. The Triune mobilized to stop Dragon, and though the details of what exactly happened were iffy, the Triune did stop Dragon after a long, drawn out fight. Victory came at the cost of Valkyrie''s husband, the restorer of their team who died from coteral damage. Grief from that loss sent Valkyrie out of the public scene, and from that moment on, she refused to raise her fists ever again for the greater good. Vanguard exhibited a rare show of force afterwards, forcing Ragnarok to copse by destroying all of their valuable infrastructure. The end of the first Corpowar led to the proper establishment of the Alterhuman Agency, taking away monopolized control of Alters from corporations to serve an organization that looked out for the greater good of humanity. The Panopticon became more hands on as well, restructuring the global economy to a credit system that only it had the capacity to maintain. This forced corporations under the Panopticon, forcing them follow protocols that prevented them from wagingrge scale conflicts against each other ever again. The world had been so broken back then. And now, it was looking like round 2 wasing up. "When exactly did Vanguard die, then?" said Aldrich. "His official disappearance was stated to be 2100, but I have a feeling there''s more to that than meets the eye." "You are correct. Vanguard did not die in 2100. That was when he decided to sever all contact, entering intoplete istion. His power at the time had faded so low that his days of saving lives were over, in any case," said Emrys. "He did, however, hold fragments of that power within him. Every few years, he would burn a fragment, using it to travel or perhaps fend for himself. Supermind and I tracked those res of energy." "You didn''t send anything to try and reach out to him?" "We did, at first. Vanguard destroyed any attempts to reach out to him or spy on him. Eventually, we decided that it was better to let Vanguard live than to force him to burn out his powers." Aldrich asked the most important question. "Then when was thest energy signature?" "October 30. 2117." Chapter 340: The President 4

Chapter 340: The President 4

Aldrich stood there in silence. That date - he had almost forgotten. But hearing it being brought back up was enough for emotions to start flooding into him, thawing past the iced over surface of his undead heart. The pain. The loss. The helplesness. Then, the rage. The desire for vengeance. It all came back to him in a jarring, piercing instant. October 30th, 2117. The day he died. As well as two of his closest friends. ''This can''t be a coincidence,'' thought Aldrich. ''It just can''t. Vanguard dies, or at the very least, goes dark on the exact day that I die? There has to be a connection here. There must be.'' The immediate thought popped into his head: was he the heir to Vanguard''s power? His gut reaction was a no. Vanguard''s power was dramatically different from his. Vanguard was for all intents and purposes basically a ''flying brick'' super. He was ultra durable, ultra strong, and he could fly. The most unique part of his power was that his strength always increased, and against tough foes, it continually scaled upwards. Records showed that at first, Vanguard was not a recognizable Alter. When the Altering first broke out, Vanguard, in a biography, professed that he tore the muscles in his arm and blew his back out lifting a small steel beam to save a few trapped people. But the more he struggled, the greater the threat he faced, the tougher he got. Struggling to lift a steel beam quickly became struggling to lift a multi-ton boulder. Struggling to lift a boulder became struggling to lift an entire building. And so on and so forth until eventually, at the height of the Monstering, Vanguard reached levels of power against the Titans that could only be described as unreachable, when lifting up entire inds and ttening mountain ranges became child''s y. Aldrich''s necromancy and game element power waspletely different from that. But maybe there was more to it? Maybe Vanguard''s power had been a form of inheritable reality warping, one that manifested differently depending on who used it? "Does that date mean anything to you?" said Emrys, quietly taking note of Aldrich''s extended silence. "I was trying to figure out whether the date was of any significance. Unfortunately, I don''t think so," said Aldrich. He should not be letting telling silence like that show, especially not to someone powerful and, as of now, mysterious like Emrys. "It has not been significant to me, either," said Emrys. "But what is important is that I have a good idea of when Vanguard''s power will re-manifest." This was another argument against Aldrich being the heir. If Vanguard''s journaled information indicated that his power was going to show up again in the future, then that automatically struck Aldrich being the heir out as he already had his powers. "When?" asked Aldrich, though his tone was more of a demand than a question. "Six months. The exact date is undefined, but that is the time range. Around that time, I will have strict surveince on all the areas that Vanguard defined as potential locations for his power''s manifestation. You will be part of that surveince." "Any other details? How exactly does the power manifest? Who does it look for? And so on." Emrys shook his head wistfully. "Were it a blessing if that information was avable. Unfortunately, Vanguard''s writings are cryptic at best." "How can you trust that information, then?" countered Aldrich. If Vanguard''s mind was deteriorating, then his journaling could easily have been the ramblings of a madman. "I cannot trust it," admitted Emrys. "But Supermind did. Supermind saw in Vanguard''sst correspondence a trust and lucidity that I, as someone who had limited contact with the hero,cked. I may not trust Vanguard''s state of mind, but I do trust Supermind''s decision making. I have never known him to lose a bet, hence, why I worked with him so closely. It is also why I am willing to work with you, for it appears that Supermind has hedged a bet on you also. That he granted you that eye indicates to me that he would have wanted you on this search." Emrys referred to, of course, Supermind giving Aldrich the All-Seeing Eye. To Aldrich, it had seemed like a desperation move, something that Supermind did as a way to try and fight against the Stranger. ''It takes an Irregr to beat an Irregr'' were the venerated hero''s words. But maybe it was not just that. Maybe Supermind saw in Aldrich something more than a simple retaliatory force against the Stranger. At the ver y least, Emrys seemed to think so. "I''m considering taking this deal, but I have conditions," said Aldrich. "I expected that. Name them," was Emrys''s cool response. . "If you''re going to be using my property to reinforce Panopticon defenses, I want to see how it''s done," said Aldrich. "I want to be present to know exactly what it is the Panopticon will do to replicate my defense against the hacking in the Judicata." This, Aldrich wanted to figure out whether the Panopticon could replicate magic and, if they could, how they did it. Ordinarily, Aldrich would not have given the Panopticon the opportunity to analyze magic, but it was because Emrys said that the Panopticon could eventually adapt on its own that Aldrich was willing to do this. However, Aldrich wanted to call Emrs out on that statement, especially if it was a bluff. He wanted to know exactly how things were done, if they could even be done in the first ce. Emrys''s reaction to this demand would be telling. "Very well," said Emrys. "I will arrange for you to be privy to the Panopticon''s more inner workings." Not even a single second of hesitation. Interesting. "On top of that, I want ess to Vanguard''s writings," continued Aldrich. "How were they sent to you? Electronically? Or physically?" "Pen and paper." "Good. Send me them. The original copies." Physical writing was the safest, sureproof way to record things without the risk of hacking. And, hopefully, it meant that Aldrich could use magic to analyze it. Magic might not work in Cyberspace, at the least not yet - maybe Fler''Gan could work something out - but physical objects could be subject to divination or scrying spells. Emrys frowned. "They are currently preserved to the highest degree with the highest level of security with the AA. Giving them to you is¡­a difficult proposition, even for me. I can send you electronic copies." "Call me old fashioned, but I like holding a book in my hands when I read," said Aldrich. "¡­I will see what I can do," said Emrys. "Good. I''m assuming that if things go well, a friendly rtionship is due between the AA and Haven, right?" said Aldrich. "Of course. That is a given. Your cooperation will prove you a capable ally of humanity, at which point, the AA has no reason to stand against you. After all, the core principle of the AA is to fight for humanity''s survival above all." Aldrich disagreed with thest part of Emrys''s statement. The AA at heart, with its founding, might have been for humanity at an altruistic level, but plenty agreed now that it had gone hollow withmercialization. "And I understand that many believe the AA a shell of itself. That it has turned into something shy and gaudy," said Emrys, showing again his uncanny ability to read the flow of conversation and guess ahead. "For quite some time, I have observed the AA''s decline. Strong men create peace. Peace creates weak men. Weak men create difficult times. We have been at a tentative peace, and that has made the average hero weak. The average executive a corporate boardmember rather than a leader." Emrys turned his back to Aldrich, looking ahead in the dark of the dimly lit ship, to the forward windows that showed the outside sky. When he spoke again, his voice had an edge of resolution to it. "But I am taking the AA back to its roots now that troubled times give cause for drastic change. No more weak men. No more weak heroes. No more weak executives." "I look forward to seeing that," agreed Aldrich, remembering Hat Trick, the most egregious offender of self-absorbed,mercialized hero that he knew personally. "And one more thing-," "More?" said Emrys, questioning. His tone was still neutral, however, hard to tell whether he was offended or curious. "I am requesting a ckout," said Aldrich. A ckout was an area where heroes could note in, usually a temporary zone due to extreme variant danger. However, ckouts were sometimes used for Sentinels as some opposed AA activity in their controlled territories. "This seems counter-intuitive,"mented Emrys. Especially after insinuating you wanted a more friendly, working rtionship with the AA. You still want to put a ckout over Haven? It is within your rights as a Sentinel, of course, but I had thought you different from the average Sentinel who wields their powers like a fuedal lord - selfishly without thought for the greater good."< /p> "No, not a ckout over Haven. We can discuss the specifics about how the AA will work with and potentially operate in or around Haventer," said Aldrich. "Interesting. I have an idea of what you want with a ckout, but I will not question you further. I am willing to grant you that, though I cannot extend a ckout past twenty four hours, nor can I impose it on any popted city. Refer me to the specific details of thister." Emrys nodded, indicating with his words that he was done talking to Aldrich. Or, more likely, done listening to demands. With a wave of a hand, Emrys opened the hatch doors above Aldrich, signaling him free to leave. Chapter 341: Spider Mining

Chapter 341: Spider Mining

Back at Haven, several hourster, Aldrich stood in V''s underground, fortified server room. A floating screen in front of him yed the news, showing off the only light in a vast room of cooled darkness. A pretty, suited up reporter pointed at a map of the United States where several glowing red patches were marked indicating variant energy signatures. The title under the reporter read: VARIANTS RETREATING? "Variant activity worldwide has been on the decline, whiches at a great and much needed surprise after the Locus Raid the week prior," said the reporter. She closed her eyes solemnly. "An attack on a scale that has never been seen since the Monstering itself." She shuddered at the word ''Monstering'', for even now, the generational trauma associated with that word was staggering. "Various variant behavior experts and researchers have analyzed the sudden retreat of variant forces, some saying that it is simply a warning for more toe, others saying that heroes and military forces have thinned enough of the herd to drive others back. Alternatively, a new ''Thanatos Theory'' has arisen that''s starting to gain more traction. I''m connecting here with Dr. Vannous, head researcher at the VMI (Variant Mind Institute), and current leading proponent of the theory." A screen appeared at the bottom right, showing Dr. Vannous at his desk. He seemed to fit the archetype of an intellectual well, with horn-rimmed spectacles, bright, intelligent green eyes, and slightly head forward posture that made it clear he spent quite a bit of time looking down and reading. "Dr. Vannous, can you exin the Thanatos Theory to the public?" said the reporter. "Of course, Cindy, it would be my pleasure. As you all know, I was one of the leads on the team that formted the Hivemind Hypothesis, particrly when ites to Locuses," said Dr. Vannous. "I won''t go into the details to bore everyone watching, but prior research has indicated that the Hivemind is reasonably intelligent and above all, cautious. We''ve seen this before when Sheshanaga Biotech developed the Indraastra, an Anti-Variant gas-based biological weapon. When unleashed on a A rank disaster Geist attack in Mumbai to devastating effect, all Geists in that entire section of the country, whether they were involved in the attack or not, retreated back to Deep Wastnd territory. This leads me to believe that Thanatos''s ability to control Locus O11 showcased a powerful threat to the Hivemind, prompting a simr retreat." "Intertesting, then will this go the same way as the Indraastra? Sheshanaga touted it as the be all end all solution to destroying all harmful variants, but within months, the variants evolved against it," said the reporter. "Will the same happen with Thanatos?" "That''s what I would like to know," said Dr. Vannous, pushing his sses up. "The Indraastra''s continuously self-evolving viral load was meant to counter variant adapatation, but that obviously ended up not working. In fact, it bred a strain of super Geists in India that to this day are resistant to any and all diseases. However, the nature of Thanatos''s power is unlike anything the world has seen before. It isn''t simply biology or even conventional Alter power. It defies all conventions. Can it defy variant resistance?" ''Yes it can,'' was Aldrich''s mental response. He did not know this for sure, but he was fairly certain. If the entity could just adapt against Aldrich, it would not have called for a ceasefire. Aldrich''s power was on the same ''tier'' as the entity''s own, both being from the Outer. Thus, one could not simply overpower the other. The reason why Aldrich''s necromancy could dominate the entity''s control over variants was likely a matter of specialization. The entity could control a vast number of variants and create and evolve them. Aldrich''s necromancy was more focused on taking control of the dead. If both Aldrich and the entity had 100 equal stat points to distribute, the entity had spent just 10 on ''control'' while Aldrich spent more like 50. They had the same amount of stat points, but Aldrich was simply more invested. "That''s a difficult question to answer without being able to study Thanatos''s powers directly," said Dr. Vannous. "The VMI has extended an invitation to Thanatos for a study to that end." "Oh? And has Thanatos responded?" Dr. Vannous shook his head wistfully. "Not yet. But it''s understandable. Thanatos is a new Sentinel in contention with the United States. I''m sure he has plenty on his hands to deal with already." He stared at the camera, or rather, at Aldrich. "But, Thanatos, if by any chance you''re watching this, know that we at the VMI will wee you with open arms. For humanity''s sake, let''s figure this variant threat out together." "Thank you, doctor." "A pleasure." Dr. Vannous disconnected. "Now, moving on our financial expert Aaron and his projection of the markets now that the variants have retreated¡­" Aldrich swiped the screen, sending that news channel away. V whistled from the ground where she sat cross-legged and hunched over as always. "Now look at that, big boy Thanatos is the main reason all the world''s variants are shaking in their boots. Or scales. Or whatever." "It''s just a theory," said Aldrich. "And why didn''t I get mention of this invitation?" . "You kidding me?" V blew a bubble of gum and popped it with some annoyance. "You''re on the world wide stage now. You get, like, a thousand requests to meet you a day. From country leaders, randompanies, mercenaries wanting a stable job, and this doctor dude, you think he''s special? He''s like, one out of a bazillion research centers that have tried to get a hold of you. Imagine the clout one of these science festivals will get if they literally solve the variant crisis with you." V sighed. "But yeah, I should be keeping you on top of everything. Issue is I''m not all that specialized for sorting through info. I''m good at infiltration. This boring work - no offense to Fisk, I offload most of this to him and his team - isn''t my style. I guess what I''m really saying I sorta want someone else to help me." "I''m looking," said Aldrich. "But you know it''s hard. If I''m hiring, I need to vet them thoroughly, and they need to be loyal enough to work with me for a lifetime. It''s easier for me to raise an undead at this point, but it should be obvious why I can''t just assassinate a high end techno and kidnap them." "Yeah, pesky public image stuff." V shrugged. "Downsides of being on the world stage, I guess. It''s harder to get away with thingspared to being in the Underworld. Plus, I''m going to be real busy with this guy for a while." V jutted her chin forward, pointing to Desmond. He was plugged in a techno-chair meant to help technos when they used a lot of processing power by cooling their internal temperatures to prevent their brains from literally frying. From his head, a cable extended. A bundle of V''s technopathic hairs. "So, do you think you can take control over hiswork of spiders?" said Aldrich. V shook her head. "Thatwork''s gone already. He had a deadman''s switch that killed them all off if he ever got jacked. I did actually develop my arachnophobia jacker with a dead man''s switch in mind, but it was only to stop Desmond from deleting any information he had stored. I didn''t know he was straight up willing to kill off his entire tribe if he ever lost control. Shit, that''s heartless." "Ites with unhealthy paranoia," said Aldrich. "Reminds me of a certain someone," teased V. Aldrich raised a brow. "Are you talking about me?" "Maybe. But you''ve gotten a bit better on that end. You''re a little more rxed now. Maybe cause you''ve got a nice girl with you, hm?" V smiled. Aldrich remembered how heavy the weight on his shoulders felt after meeting the entity and knowing the fate of the world stood on him. He remembered also how much lighter he felt when Valera said she would be there for him no matter what. "Potentially," said Aldrich. "Aw,e on, you''re a total tsundere type, aren''t you?" V grimaced. "Damn, now I sound like Fisk." "¡­" Aldrich ignored her. "If Desmond''s Spiders are all dead, the news will echo to the Italian Prong soon enough. I can have Feather pretend they''re still alive for a while, but that''ll onlyst so long. This will spur a reaction from the Italian Prong, no doubt. What I can''t afford is the Italian Prong getting cold feet on maintaining the ckwater attack." Vexa''s butterflies nowprised a careful spywork over ckwater and its surrounding areas, and they reported that troop buildup for all three prongs of the Trident were increasing considerably. The Italian and Japanese Prongs were closer to ckwater and had taken up residence in ckwater at this point, fortifying it as if for a siege. Which meant that the Russian Prong was going to be at a disadvantage trying to break in. All this happened under the radar of the world with the AA unable to deal with viin rted activity with variant attack threats and the Panopticon still downed. Granted, now that the variants were retreating, it was possible that the AA could start investigating the area. That was where the ckout came in. A high level ckout from Emrys himself would prevent any heroes from interfering with the conflict. The only wildcard here was Solomon Sr who was deep in bed with the Trident. Aldrich still did not know where Solomon stood in this conflict. Despite the buildup of troops and the impending conflict, Solomon had not made any move himself. Even now, he was doing a PR tour where he handed out water to a tier 3 city way up north that got leveled by the Locus Raids. Was Solomon going to fight? Or, to be more specific, would Aldrich have to end up fighting him? Chapter ?342 An Inheritance Issue Chapter ?342 An Inheritance Issue The answer to whether Aldrich would have a showdown with Solomon Sr would alle down to what V could extract from Desmond''s mind. Desmond was potentially the biggest informant for the Italian Prong of the Trident, so he had valuable information from the top down about the prong''s operations and secrets. Incidentally, it was the Italian Prong that seemed to have the closest ties with Solomon Sr. Of the three prongs, the Italian one could be considered the ''business'' side, dealing less withbat and more with navigating deals with other organizations, managing trade routes for drugs and illegal goods setting up illegal experimentation centers. The Japanese prong was the muscle. They were almost solely focused on cultivating the strongest fighters, creating an in-house supply of top notch, loyal talent to field to make sure no other organization thought about taking a fight with the Trident. Among criminal organizations, the Trident was unique in this regard. Other organizations outsourced their muscle via mercenary groups, but thosecked loyalty and drive when it counted the most. Finally, the Russian Prong managed all things cyberspace. The recent schism caused by the Stranger meant that the Italian and Japanese Prongs had lost a sizable amount of their territory in Cyberspace, but surprisingly, they held onto more then Aldrich thought. Aldrich figured with the Stranger using magically fueled cyberspace abilities that it couldpletely takeover everything, but apparently the main fortresses belonging to the Italian and Japanese prongs remained unaffected, protected by the high level techno known as Mad Jack. This posed an interesting question. How was Mad Jack able to fight off the Stranger when the Panopticon could not? The easiest answer that came to Aldrich''s head was that Mad Jack was Irregr as well. But he would probably get an answer to that from Desmond as well. "You know, I sorta doubt the Italian and Japanese prongs are going to back down at this point." V shook her head. "They''re super duper doubling down on guarding ckwater. Maybe there''s something really important there." "It''s their renewable farm for insiders in the AA," said Aldrich. "It''s how they have ckmail on a good chunk of the top heroes. Of course, if those heroes were actually proper and upstanding citizens instead of fame and drug addled maniacs, there wouldn''t be an issue like that in the first ce." "Yeah, always hear stories about how this high profile hero and that does some stupid shit that ends up killing someone innocent, but it all gets swept under the rug. If I was in charge there, I''d shake that dirty nest clean harder than an angry addict mom shakes her baby." "...Right." Stark visual from V aside, Aldrich was hopeful that Emrys would be the catalyst to clean house on the AA. It needed to in order to survive, not just because ofpetition from ARMA''s soon to be unveiled new hero association, but also because if the AA stayed the way it did, it did not have a ce in Aldrich''s new world order. "In any case," Aldrich continued. "I want to absolutely make sure this fight takes ce. Once your done mining Desmond, I''m going to go ahead and get rid of him. His Spiderwork is an useful ability, but I''d have to build thatwork, one that he''s taken decades to create, up again, and I don''t have that time. I''ll frame his death as a quick assassination by putting a bullet hole through his head and having Feather present the body to the Italian prong. That way, they won''t panic that their sensitive information was taken. If Desmond was assassinated by lead to the brain, nobody could jack him to ess his information. To go a step further, I''ll tell Feather to put the me on the Italian prong." "ssic misdirection. Well, let''s hope it works" V nodded. "Make sure to wipe out any traces of infiltration when you''re done." "Psh." V looked offended. "Who do you think I am?" "You''re right. I''m relying on you this much already; it''s toote to start doubting now. How long do you think it''ll take for you to finish mining Desmond?" "Another day or two. Maybe three. This guy dealt with a lot of shit, so there''s going to be a lot of stuff to sift through. And he was scared enough of everyday life that I figure he might have post-mortem defenses in his cyberspace property that I need to workaround. Until then, I''ll probably be pretty quiet and focused. Fisk and Casimir should report to you about meetings and other important stuff, though." "Got it." Aldrich checked his watch, a silver and white gold piece that Casimir picked out for him. At first, Aldrich had not wanted a watch, feeling it an ancient relic in the modern era, but Casimir had insisted, saying all leaders wore one. So Aldrich had taken the least obnoxiously shiny thing Casimir suggested. The time was 8:55 P.M. "Speaking of, I have some of those meetings to attend to now." Aldrich made his way out, up to his office where he due to meet Aarav. ____ "We''ve hit a roadblock here," said Aarav. He sat across from Aldrich''s personal desk on the fortieth floor, cheap cigarette tinted bright orange at its tip. "I''ve been talking to your masked man Casimir for the most part, and he''s got us all settled with the business side of things. But this, I needed to get to you in person." "It must be very important if it''s taking you out of your busy schedule," said Aldrich, and he was not being sarcastic here. Anything that could force an in person meeting from a Fortune heir was a monumental event indeed. "Yeah, tell me about it. But you overestimate my schedule. Once you start to set the right people up, the weight on your shoulders gets a lot lighter. Though, I figure you know a thing or two about that." Aarav nodded to Valera, who, now in her business casual getup, stood behind Aldrich. ''I like this human,'' Valera said mentally. ''He understands my importance.'' ''Don''t let him tter you too much.'' "Then let''s get to the point here," said Aldrich. "Right-o." Aarav adjusted his dark shades. "You remember why we made this entire business arrangement in the first ce, yeah?" "Of course. To ensure you won that race for inheritance from your father," said Aldrich. "To my knowledge, I''ve already extended an invitation to your father for my powers." "Yeah, thing is, the old fart''s getting cold feet. Bet it''s hard standing without a spine, but I digress. I offered of course to package your power in a form of ''treatment'' that''s a lot more ptable than having to die first, but he''s not biting that either." "What about your siblings? Do they have an alternative solution?" "That''s the big fucking issue here. I thought they had a fat load of nothing. Talentless hacks with silver spoons shoved down their throats, all of them, but you know, my oldest brother, Arjun, he''s got more grey matter in his cranium than my other four siblingsbined. Doesn''tpare to me, still, but I give credit where it''s due." Aarav shrugged. "You know what Regenerol is, right?" Chapter ?343 [Bonus chapter] An Inheritance Issue 2 Chapter ?343 [Bonus chapter] An Inheritance Issue 2 "Yes." Aldrich had offered the treatment to Randall, ine''s adoptive father, as a means to cure his waste lung. It was an experimental treatment using regenerative variant stem cells - stem cells harvested from the disease immune geists that the news report before talked about - and coaxing a human body to ept them. A sessful treatment healed all diseases, and not just that, it granted the patient an infinitely evolving immune system exactly like that of the geists. "Arjun''s the one that made that happen. Soma, hispany, has also developed a fast version of Regenerol that induces short term elerated healing. A useful health pack for heroes or soldiers. All from that one discovery. He made one breakthrough and now he''s milking it for all its worth. Anyways, enough of my bitter rambling here, but Arjun has approached my father with a potential operation to make him truly immortal. I''ve looked into the downsides - there''s a big risk of turning my old man into a mutated half variant abomination, but maybe that''s appealing to him, because he''s taking more of a liking to that offer than mine." Aldrich nodded. Sopetition had popped up. "What''s the proposition here, then?" "I was willing to go along with my old man''s game here, but now, I''m starting to get tired of it." Aarav tapped his fingers absent-mindedly on the desk. "How about we get rid of him a little more forcefully?" "If your father hasn''t written you into his will as his sessor, then killing him won''t solve anything. It''ll just cause a six way civil war between you and your siblings." "As much fun as that sounds, I''d like to stop having childish fights with my brothers and sisters. I''m not suggesting we go guns zing, full automatic rambo, napalm in the jungles and bombs in the deserts style American gusto. I''d prefer something a little more subtle." Aldrich nodded. "And what does subtle look like to you?" "You see, once I realized good old Arjun was stepping up his game, I decided to get some of my best teams to create a little something that will make my old man a little more agreeable." "A mind control agent?" Aarav nodded. "What kind of agent is it?" said Aldrich, wanting to know how feasible an attempt was. "It''s about as quiet as you can get. A tiny bio-capsule that, when crushed, releases an odorless, colorless, tasteless brainwashing vapor. Bio-capsule''s designed so that it can change its form to stick to nondescript surfaces like, say, the roof of the mouth or the cavity of a tooth, and it''s makeup doesn''t trigger any rms. Harvested from a rare variant deep in the Abyss. Cost me over a billion credits to make on short notice without peeping toms getting in the way. Damn, thinking about the cost and the sleepless days I forced on my teams is making me more annoyed than I usually am. " "That sounds effective," said Aldrich. "All you need is a capable person to spread the agent." "Therein lies the problem, Thanatos." Aarav pointed his cigarette at Aldrich. "My old man''s scared of the wind. He''s holed up in a tower fortified so heavily it''ll survive a few rounds of judgment days, shit, forget judgment day, it''ll probably take a beating from from Shiva himself. He doesn''t ever leave his room, either. Doesn''t speak with anyone face to face, only ever through a screen. No Alter is going to get to him. And there''s a specially made Null device that projects a forcefield which stops any Alter power from prating while keeping all his life support medical gear online. But I happen to know one man in this world who has powers that ignore Null." "I see." Aldrich nodded. "You''re wondering if I''m capable of getting that agent to him with my powers." "Hell, if you''ve got a way to brainwash him without my bio-capsule, that''d be nice too. I''d feel a little sour pissing away a billion creds like that, but I can''t be choosy here, can I?" Aldrich thought about this for a moment. His powers did go through Null, but this situation was surprisingly more difficult to get around than he initially thought. He could not very well just cast magic and bombard the CEO. He had to brainwash the CEO first. And an issue arose there. Fler''Gan''s mind control required some level of physical contact. Either by ingestion or, in the Judicata, sound waves. If the CEO only talked through a screen, it would not work. There was potential to use the Pursuer to inflict the mind control status ailment, but that was way too forward. The Pursuer was not exactly invisible, even if it could phase through walls. Cameras would pick it up. If the CEO had guards or surveince, there was no way to avoid evidence of foul y. "Here''s another one of blue''s clues to get this good old euthanasia n rolling here." Aarav leaned back ins his chair. "My old man isn''t entirely alone. He keeps a girl with him as his personal maid. She sucks him off and changes the sheets when he shits the bed. Privileges of being a rich old prick, you know." "Get to her, then we get to him." "Bingo. Issue is, this unlucky girl''s basically a ve. Never sees the day of light. Gets one day a month to leave that room, and even then, she''s got a team spying on her 24/7. On top of that, she''s got tracking chips in her. And on top of on top of that, shees back, she gets scanned a bajillion times and sterilized so hard her cunt hairs fall off before she even gets to breathe the same air as my old man. If we get to her, then it''s gotta be done quick enough that the surveince doesn''t notice anything wrong. It''s gotta be done with a means that doesn''t trigger any scans." "That''s difficult, even for me," said Aldrich. "Ah, but it does not escape my talents." Vexa''s voice spread through the room. The temperature of the room dropped, and Aarav''s cigarette died. Chapter ?344 An Inheritance Issue 3 Chapter ?344 An Inheritance Issue 3 Aarav witnessed Vexa''s sudden appearance without a single switch in stride. All he did was look at the smoking, dimmed end of his cigarette with an annoyed face before lighting it again with his finger lighter. "Alright, so who is this?" said Aarav. Vexa materialized behind Aldrich - but in front of Valera - in a swirl of visible, cyan tinted winds. Her imperial robes flowed about her like a gentle breeze. "You must be a man of some power," said Vexa, looking Aarav''s calm, seated figure up and down. "Oh? And how can you tell?" said Aarav. "Your mannerisms. Stiff. Not in the way a scared retainer is before their lord, but rather the reverse: the stiffness of one who is used to lording. And that, in spite of the rxed air you try to give, perhaps in a guise to rte with your underlings." "We''ve got a mind reader here, do we?" Aarav blew out a curl of smoke, unphased that he had been read so easily. Vexa''s observational ability was superb. It exceeded that of Aldrich''s, likely because she had a vastly more experience in navigating treacherous imperial court drama. "I''m thinking of a number between one and ten. Can you guess it?" "Only if you are willing to give up your body to me." Aarav raised a brow. "Such indecency!" said Valera. "You are talking to a renowned guest of ours here." "Despite being such an innocently sweet little thing, your mind does tend to stray towards the muck, no?" Vexa put her sleeved hands together and gave Aarav a small bow. "My apologies for the sudden appearance. But when I heard I could be of service, I simply had to intervene." "What do you have in mind, Vexa?" said Aldrich. "Is this man trustworthy?" Aarav saw that his cigarette died down again in the presence of Vexa''s chilling aura. He took Vexa''s hint and said, "I''ll take a smoke break outside. Give you all some time to talk things through." Once Aarav left, Aldrich said to Vexa, "I know you haven''t been here long, but you should stop referring to me as ''lord'' or using court terminology in general. The human world here islpetely different from the one you knew." "That much is very apparent. Yet observing this world has made me realize that humanity here is still very much the same in many ways. They are still governed by the same instincts and emotions that give their actions direction, a direction that can be read with a discerning eye." "Then what is your suggestion?" said Valera, crossing her arms. "My, that dress looks wonderful on your, my sweeting. But to answer your question, I present another of my own. You both understand what type of being I am, no?" "A Phantom," said Aldrich. He did not know all of Vexa''s abilities. He knew her basic ones from when she could be first summoned, but in the midte game of levels, she would have developed a muchrger host of talents that he was in the dark about. Plus, she had been busy all this time setting up surveince and managing it. It was hard to pin her down and get her to exin every little thing she could do. Aldrich still had a good idea, though. "But you aren''t specialized in stealth. And you can [Ghost Walk] through walls, but sufficiently powerful spirits like yourself need to stay visible to use any powerful magic or abilities." "That is correct, my lord, but sufficiently powerful spirits such as myself are also capable of Possession." "That is true, but at the same time, ghost based possession counts as a mental attack." Aldrich put a thinking hand to his chin. "The humans of this world find it difficult to adapt to magic, but they do have an innate resistance to mental attacks. Sheshanaga''s CEO used to be a powerful Alter. His body may have withered over time, but mental resistance wears away slower than physical ability." "Not the leader. The girl," said Vexa. "The one that warms his bed. I can possess her with ease. However, though I am a phantom, I am still a jiangshi." She flipped her hair, and the veil of ck parted to reveal her face. It was a small, angr, dainty face, the type that would have belonged to a pop star. Her features, were, however, covered by a rectangr piece of paper attached to her forehead. Upon the weathered paper were various sigils glowing blue with power. "As a jiangshi, I only require that my talisman transfer to another''s body before I possess it," exined Vexa. "That still poses an issue," said Aldrich. "The CEO will get rid of any talisman on the girl before she steps foot near him." Vexa put her hand on Aldrich''s table, and when she withdrew it, a blue sigil glowed upon the dark, glossy surface. "Permanent possession requires my talisman to be on another at all times. But a temporary one is a different matter. Simply transfer this sigil to the girl and I will have free reign to enter her body. She is a girl of no consequential power and thus resistance, no?" "It would be highly unlikely," said Aldrich. "Then it is done. It requires but a simple touch to transfer the sigil. The sigil itself will also remain invisible once it is transferred." "That can work," said Aldrich. He figured it was not difficult to arrange someone, especially with Aarav''s resources, to just touch the girl and transfer the sigil. Anyone could pose as a street rat or vendor and brush by someone else. "But what will you do once you''re in there? Use a potion from Fler''Gan? Or Aarav''s bio-capsule?" "I will handle it on my own. I need not to carry anything that may be detected." "May I ask what abilities you are going to use?" asked Aldrich. "I would like to keep that close to my heart," said Vexa. "Uneptable." Valera''s tone was serious. Firm. "You are his Chosen. You do not have the luxury of bearing secrets, especially those rted to your ability." "You have a long, deep, and cherished bond with our lord, I can sense it," said Vexa. "But it is not the same for myself. I have no qualms serving, but I wish to serve at my own pace. With my own privacy. And, I wish to know whether you, an ever careful man, would be willing to take a leap of faith with me." Vexa''s talisman covered gaze settled at Aldrich, and even under the paper, he could tell her stare was intent. "I''ll take that leap of faith," said Aldrich. "Are you sure, master?" said Valera, concerned. "Aarav, if I understand his position correctly, is like the prince of a great kingdom. His power and resources are a great pir of support. Failure here may lead to that disappearing." "I know. It wouldn''t be a leap of faith if there wasn''t anything to stumble over," said Aldrich. He had an idea of why Vexa was doing this. When she was alive, the emperor she served was at first a capable ruler who turned into a paranoid despot. He used Vexa''s surveincework and created a secret police that executed anyone who even had a slightly rebellious thought. In the end, he lost trust even in Vexa and had her killed. She, however, foresaw this, reanimated as a jiangshi, and assassinated the emperor in turn. There was likely trust based trauma here that lingered with her. Or perhaps this was just how she operated - he could not really tell as he could not read her. But he did trust her enough to see this through. "Again, I''ll take that leap of faith. I only hope you won''t end up disappointing me," said Aldrich. . Vexa smiled warmly. " This man, this ''CEO'', reminds me of the type of man I despise. The type that clings to what they have built with all the anger of a toddler, willing to see it all copse before they give even a single piece to another. But I happen to know exactly how to deal with this type of man. You will not be disappointed." With that, Vexa disappeared in a rush of howling, cold winds. When Aldrich tracked her using his chosen bond, he could sense she was headed outside, likely to check up on her butterflies. Aldrich pressed a button on his desk. "You cane back in." His voice projected outside. Aarav stepped into the room again, sliding doors opening and closing shut behind him with a smooth click. "Oh, she''s gone?" Aarav said, blowing out another trail of smoke. "At least my cig won''t keep dying now. So, what''s the n here?" "She''ll take care of it," said Aldrich. "Now that''s handy." Aarav sat back in his chair. "How''s it going to get done?" Aldrich put his palm on the blue sigil still left on the desk. When he withdrew his hand, he found it attached to him. He showed the sigil to Aarav. "Transfer this to your father''s maid. Only requires a touch. The mark will remain invisible once moved. At that point, Vexa will handle the rest." Chapter ?345 Hammerhead Meeting Chapter ?345 Hammerhead Meeting "Hm." Aarav rubbed the bridge of his nose in temporary thought. "Yeah, sure, that works. I''ve mapped out the assistant''s path whenever she gets her monthly day off. Shouldn''t be hard to have an agent on hand there, posing as some random." "Let''s not risk anything, shall we?" Aldrich raised his hand in the air, and it glowed green as he cast his newly upgrade [Create Undead] spell. Beforehand, he had [Create Greater Undead] which let him draw undead from the 1st and 2nd rings. Now, he could cast [Create High Undead], letting him draw undead from the 3rd ring which epassed levels 40 - 60. He summoned specifically a [Mistknife], the evolution of the [Skeleton Assassin]. Instead of a skeleton forming from green particles, a formal magic circle appeared on the ground, glowing green and rotating with sigils shaped like scratches. From the circle, the [Mistknife] emerged. It was arge individual, around two meters tall, though it seemed much shorter with its hunched, low to the ground posture. It was wrapped up in a dark green, almost ck cloak and hood that covered a fully armored body. The armor itself was sleek, midnight ck, and form-fitting, meant more for maneuverability than withstanding heavy blows. Beneath its hood was an obsidian dark mask with twin eyeholes that glinted bright green. The Mistknife held a singlerge, curved dagger in its hand. The weapon looked ceremonial in how ornate it was with a handle of ashen bone and a de of emerald. An aura of deathly essence emanated from the knife, imbued as it was with a powerful death curse that made blows struck by it impossible to heal. Surrounding the Mistknife was, as its name suggested, a veil of green mist. Within it, the undead assassin flickered in and out of visibility. "Take the sigil and follow Aarav''smands," said Aldrich. The Mistknife wordlessly obeyed, touching the sigil with its ck gauntlets. Most undead were capable of basic thought toprehendmands, but High Undead were fully sentient. They had unique personalities and thoughts, and in fact, Aldrich was limited to summoning just 1 of any given High Undead, being that it was the same unique individual he was consistently re-summoning. The Mistknife assassin however, was silent as in lore, they were an order of elite killers that took on oaths of silence so as to never be heard. The Mistknife stood beside Aarav before fading away into nothingness. As it did so, the mist trail it left touched Aarav''s cigarette and doused it again. "Okay, I''m, giving up on having a smoke around you." Aarav took a case out from his suit pocket and stored the cigarette. "Too many unexined, paranormal chills and winds over here. But-," Aarav scrutinized the area where the Mistknife stood in invisibility. "That''s impressive. Invisibility isn''t anything new, but this guy is soundless. Scentless, too. Doesn''t leave footprints either." "I can almost guarantee nothing that can track him," said Aldrich. "At the least, no conventional scan wille close." Magical invisibility was good in that it created a sort of ''field'' around the user that removed odor, footprints, and the like, but it did not remove the user''s physical form. Theoretically, a scan could reveal something like, say, a [Skeleton Assassin] by mapping out its physical body. Radar, too, could work. The [Evileye], [Graveward], and the [Mistknife] had superior invisibility called Spectral Invisibility that let them hide their bodies too. In the Mistknife''s case, it could dissolve its body into near formless vapor. It was less invisible than the Evileye and Graveward which were more ''ghostly'', but it dide close. "So, then, how are we going to and convince the old codger when we do get to him? Or when that girl, Vexa, right? Gets to him?" said Aarav. "Are we using my bio-capsule. Tell me I didn''t waste a billion credits here." "I''m afraid you wasted a billion credits." Aarav sighed. "Well, I can''tin. Any amount of R and D is still R and D. I mostly feel awful for overworking my teams, but more time off and a fatter bonus should fix that. How''s Vexa going to do it, then?" "That, I''d like to keep a secret." Aldrich now threw Vexa''s leap of faith test at Aarav. Surprisingly, Aarav just shrugged. "Alright, as long as you get it done." He noted Aldrich''s pause of surprise and smirked, raising his shades to reveal the glowing white lotuses that formed the pupils in his ck eyes. "Like I said, I''m all in on you. The thread of my fate never ends as long as you''re helping spin it." "Good. Now then, since we ARE using both one of my agents to get to your father''s assistant and my own means of controlling his mind, I think it''s fair to start talking about additionalpensation," said Aldrich. Aarav sighed and put his shades up again. "Hearing the word pensation'' after wasting a billion credits scratches at my ears, but I''ve spent more on less." === Several hourster, in a dining room at the Gilded Swallow - Aldrich had approximately three days before V finished mining Desmond for information. During that time, she absolutely could not be disturbed unless he wanted to risk her messing up, which he very much did not want to. Cyberspace infiltration was quite like physically breaking into a fortress. V had to avoid countless traps getting into Desmond''s virtual information stores, and if she got distracted and triggered a single trap, she could risk deadly harm to her cyberspace avatar or risk another potential deadman''s switch triggering and deleting valuable information. That meant Aldrich had time to get things settled at home, in Haven. Aldrich, or, rather, Thanatos as he was with Vntis covering him, sat at a dining table peppered with a variety of bite sized tes. Each te acted like a bite sized canvas for art, with food, sauces, and vegetables all decorated in aesthetically pleasing arrangements. A hallmark of fine dining which Casimir was quite fond of. He had renovated the biggest such establishment in Haven, located aptly in the central district where the wealthiest once gathered, before the Locus attack drove them all out, and turned it into his new personal base. A revival of the Red Circle, he stated. He had changed the name of the ce as well, turning it from L''atelier De Ard to the Gilded Swallow, symbolizing, in his words, a shift from the red of molten ore to the polished gold of a finished product. And a shift from operating a seedy nightclub circle into a more proper establishment, something he had always dreamed of doing. Across from Aldrich sat Bart Lockfin, otherwise known more well known as the CEO of Hammerhead Industries, a tier 1pany in the United States. Chapter ?346 Hammerhead Meeting 2 Chapter ?346 Hammerhead Meeting 2 Bart was a mutant Alter, a hulking giant of half man, half hammerhead shark. Most notably his head waspletely shark-like with the characteristic T-shaped hammer head to boot. Yet despite that, his eyes were surprisingly human in their expressiveness. "I have to thank you for lending yourpany to Haven when it needed it the most," said Aldrich. "And my apologies for pushing back our meeting. I know you requested it a few weeks ago, but I had some matters to tend to." "I understand. Bing a Sentinel is no easy task, I bet," said Hammerhead. "And lending? That isn''t the word I would use. Technically, I''m still getting paid for all this, you know. That Fortune boy you''ve got''s putting up a pretty penny to make this contract happen. I''m assuming you''re helping him in the Inheritance, then?" The Inheritance was the term coined for Sheshanaga''s CEO making his session quest public to the world. "Correct," said Aldrich. Hammerhead nodded as best as his body let him. He very properly used knife and fork to slice of a thin chunk of steaming meat that looked all too small in his huge, toothy jaws. Dressed up in a fine ck suit, Hammerhead almost looked ridiculous, but a sight like this was not all too umon these days with Mutant alters being around a plenty. "Heh, once that Fortune boy gets Sheshanaga, Haven''s going to be a beast to reckon with," said Hammerhead. "First time a Fortune Company will ever ally with a Sentinel directly. I''d be careful if I were you. Too much power draws a lot of eyes. They''ll want to break you apart." " ''They'' might find that harder to do than they think," replied Aldrich. "In any case, since you took the time to get here, I''m assuming there''s something you want from me, isn''t there?" "Forward, aren''t we? But yes, you''re right." "Is it about Seismic? I know the, hm, legalities of using my power on him are a little in the grey area, to say the least." Hammerhead shook his hand because he could not really shake his head that well to convey a ''no''. "Seismic''s been an old friend of mine. I don''t own him. I owe him, really, for saving my life when I was young, dumb, and a crook. As long as Seismic''s happy with his current arrangement, then I''m happy too." Aldrich nodded. Currently, Seismic was halfway across the country in Neo-Seattle where he was spending time with his son and arranging him to move to Haven once it was more established. Seismic had been there for the past few weeks as Aldrich wanted to give him a break, especially for the heroism he had shown in the Locus attack. "Then what is it?" asked Aldrich. Hammerhead had several construction contracts now with Haven. Haven did not have any proper currency to pay them with anything, not to mention the fact that Haven was technically a rogue state, so Aarav had stepped in as a guarantor for the deal. Technically, Hammerhead Industries therefore had contracts with Aarav, not with Haven, but at this point, Aarav basically was Haven. This was a massive risk on Hammerhead''s part. They were a bigpany that operated primarily in the U.S. Taking a deal with a rogue state that the U.S. did not recognize was enough to cklist Hammerhead from domestic projects, tanking thepany''s stock value by 30%. The U.S., unlike before the Altering, was a more centralized government now. Most governments in the world were - it was a necessity to quickly organize fighting against variant threats. It gave the government more leeway to browbeatpanies into doing what they wanted. Of course,panies on the scale of those in the Fortune or the highest end of the tier 1 had power over governments, but the U.S. was one of, if not the most powerful nation state out there. Hammerhead was a solid tier 1pany, but after going against the U.S., they teetered down into the edge of tier 2. Their gambit to deal with Haven was considered by many to be one of the riskiest investments in modern memory. If it did not pay off soon, Hammerhead would bleed out. Basically, Aldrich owed Bart here quite a bit, to the point where he wondered why Bart even took the deal in the first ce. Was it because of Seismic? Probably not. Aldrich already knew that Bart and Seismic were good friends. But good friendship alone did not necessitate a risk this big. "It''s about your power." Bart stopped eating, putting his fork and knife down. "My power?" said Aldrich, surprised. He thought Bart would be asking Aldrich for more payment. But his power was an odd thing to ask about. As a constructionpany, Hammerhead had very little use for Aldrich''s power, especially considering the fact that its work was almost entirely automated. "It''s the whole reason for this," said Hammerhead. "I believe in you, Thanatos, to reach real high, but if I was a proper businessman, I would have never taken these contracts for you. Mind you, they''re still preliminary. I''m only contracted to build up necessary infrastructure to make sure Haven''s citizens can survive. Afterwards, I can pull out, most folks will say I just did my part to help the people living her survive, mypany''s valuation will go back up, and the government will start working with me again." Aldrich was not fazed. Bart was not making threats here, he was just stating facts. Aldrich was more curious where this was going. What did Bart want? "Then why did you?" "Can your power...can it fix someone? Fix someone real badly injured?" said Bart. "Like what you did with Seismic." "It depends on the type of injury," said Aldrich. "If it''s a condition that developed naturally by the body, then my power can ''freeze'' it, stopping it from progressing further, but it cannot reverse it. If the injuries are solely of a physical nature, however, my power can reverse that." Bart took in Aldrich''s words. "I''m going to send your folks a file. It''ll have medical information about my daughter. I want you to tell me if you can heal her." "Heal her?" Aldrich paused. "My power isn''t exactly healing. You understand the prerequisite of my power to work, don''t you? It''s been reported widely enough. I have to kill your daughter first to make it work." Bart closed his eyes, sighing deeply. "That''s fine. She''s...she''s not really living, the way she is right now. The file will clear it up." With that, Bart stood up heavily, the specially arrangedrge chair skittering behind him. He adjusted his suit and turned away. "That''s about all I wanted to ask from you. I thought...I thought enough time had passed that I could talk about this without feeling like my heart was sinking out of my chest, but I guess it isn''t true: time doesn''t heal all wounds. I''m in no state or mood to talk anymore. When you''ve read through the file, reach out to me. Goodbye, Thanatos." Chapter ?347 Despair, Ye Mighty Chapter ?347 Despair, Ye Mighty Aldrich watched as Bart left without ncing back. There was too much on the man''s shoulders to be caring about how Aldrich thought about his sudden exit. Outside of the dining room''s doors, Hirondelle and Walters escorted Bart out of the room where he would take a secretive back exit to an awaiting ride out of the city. Nobody knew Bart was here. He was a CEO, after all, and showing up here was bad press. Like he said before, Haven was a no touch zone for mostpanies, especially those that relied on the U.S. for profit. Hammerhead Industries was already taking a beating profit margins wise, and Bart did not want to fan those fires more by making his appearance here public. But the simple fact that Bart had taken the risk to show up here in the first ce, to even make the preliminary contracts with Haven, showed just how much he was invested. And, now, Aldrich knew why. Bart was not looking for profit. No, he was looking for something far, far more precious than that - his daughter''s life. The contrast was jarringpared to Aldrich''s recent conversation with Aarav. One powerful CEO sought profit above all else, sowing discord among their children just for the sake of extending their lives so that they could grasp onto power for as long as they could. Another CEO valued profit and power but, in the end, understood the difference between what was profitable and what was important. Power corrupts. That was the saying. One he believed in whole-heartedly, seeing the golden age of heroes dwindling and the rise of Alters that did nothing but mistreat him as a pure human. But he was starting to see that it was far more nuanced than that. Power did not corrupt so much as it revealed and amplified what was there. If what was there was already rotten, then it festered. If what was there was good, then it shone. What was within Aldrich? His use of power had killed many, and at the same time, it had saved many. Was he rotten, deep down? Or could he shine? The reality was, like the reality of many things, somewhere in between. And, Aldrich knew, so long as he met his goal of saving humanity, it did not matter what was inside him. Rot or shine, as long as it got the job done, he was fine with both. But he was starting to realize that in matters of family, especially between parent and child, he had more ''shine'' than ''rot.'' He empathized more. It was, he understood, one of the main anchors that rooted him to his sense of self, preventing him from drifting away into an immortal monster. While Aldrich contemted, Vntis moved on his own, sending out strands of metal to pick up food on the tes, devouring them. ''Delicious!'' eximed Vntis. ''Humanity has learned well how to prepare their foods, I see. Nothing beats the feeling of tearing raw flesh off fresh bone, but this doese quite close.'' "You can thank Casimirter," said Aldrich. "As far as I''m aware, he does half the cooking personally with a lot of his staff gone." "Hoho, he is a man of many talents, I see." "Right." Aldrich let Vntis devour all the tes of food before he exited the room himself, making his way through the main dining room full of round tables covered in clean white cloths and decorated with fine, glinting silverware and elegant winesses. There were no customers at thiste hour - it was approaching midnight - but Casimir''s staff still fluttered about. Some of Casimir''s higher up staff, demarcated by a red circle on their ck and gold uniforms to show that they were longtime servers, trained new servers on how to arrange tablecloths, fold napkins, hold serving trays, respond to inquiries, and so on. At another section of the room, they trained servers on how to quickly draw firearms and reload at a moment''s notice. Casimir was rebuilding the men he had lost in the Red Circle attacks. He handpicked who he took in, and most of them were quite young. Teenagers who, Aldrich realized, had the markings of loss carved into them, in the form of wounds, in the form of unsmiling faces and cold eyes. These were people who had lost everything in the Haven attack. People that Casimir wanted to build back up to give purpose. Among them, Aldrich recognized a few from the Haven shelters. When they say Aldrich, or Thanatos as they recognized him, they gave acknowledging nods, parting before him like he was a reverent, godly figure. Aldrich returned their nods and went over to the back of the building, into the spacious kitchen. There, he found Casimir washing dishes while Smoke and Cubehead, his other two higher ups, swept the floors for food debris. Cubehead had, as his name suggested, a ck cube for a head, and Aldrich wondered briefly whether it was a helmet or his actual head. Smoke looked more normal. She was a tall, athletically built woman in a grey and gold streaked bodysuit. Though she held a mop in her hands, on her back was a sheathed odachi that looked long enough to slice a man in half. "Ah, Mr. Vane, or, rather, Thanatos, a pleasure to see you again!" said Casimir, his rolled up sleeves baring surprisingly developed forearms riddled with old scars and covered with bubbling suds. "How was the dinner?" "It went well. I think," said Aldrich. "You think? Such uncertainty is uncharacteristic of you," said Casimir. ???s ??????? ?s ?????? ?? ????????????. ???. "It''s his daughter. Bart wants me to heal his daughter." "Heal? Does he understand-," "Yes, he does. He knows she has to die first. But he believes that her condition is bad enough that resurrection is better than what she''s going through now. He''ll send a file detailing her exact conditionter." "Ah, I see." Casimir stopped washing dishes for a second, nodding. "The love of a parent to a child, it is incredible, is it not? So many of our primal instincts are fierce and dark and savage, but that is so very pure, so very selfless." "Yes." Aldrich remembered the unconditional love his parents gave him. Even to this day, it was perhaps the warmest memory of his mortal life. "I myself cannot have children, but I consider all those around me, my dear staff, to be my own," said Casimir. "..." Aldrich asked a question that had been on his mind, one that he had skirted around for some time. "Casimir, what exactly is it that drives you to my service? That you would be willing to give up the lives of the men and women you consider your children for?" Aldrich of course knew that it was mind control. But Fler''Gan''s mind control was hypnotic suggestion. It did not brainwash, but rather suggested the mind to think a certain way. There was still thought there. He wanted to know what Casimir''s justification was for being in Aldrich''s service. "Why, you ask? I wondered that myself," said Casimir. "When I first entertained your party at the Red Circle, I understood that it would necessitate a great sacrifice. The blood of my children. My entire criminal enterprise, gone. Yet, I still went through with it. At the time, I had little justification for it. I simply feltpelled to do it. In fact, were it not for one thing you said, I may well have even refused." "What did I say?" said Aldrich, concerned. He did not know Casimir had been able to resist the hypnotic suggestion to the extent he could consider t out rebelling against Aldrich. All this time, he had thought Casimir was entirely on his side. "You said you would change the world," said Casimir. "And that, my dear Thanatos, has always been my dream. From the times I survived on the streets with hunger and cold filling my belly, sleeping in gutters, all I could do was look down at the dirt, for that was where I thought I belonged. At one point, though, I realized I simply could not exist like that, in the dirt, mired in there, wasting away to perish like so many others. So, I began to look up. I started to see that the world that had been cruel to me from the start could be changed. Step by step, piece by piece, effort by effort. And thus, I started to rise. I rose in the Underworld, allying with the Trident. The Trident promised a change in the world as well. A great revolution to take down the current world order and rece it with something anew. I wished to be a part of that. To topple the stagnation of corporations and heroes and Panopticon control that ensured humanity''s survival, but nothing more than that. There were still countless many like me whonguished in the gutter, always looking down, never having the opportunity to look up even once. But as years passed, I realized in the end, the Trident and the AA are simply two sides of the same coin. Hero or viin, it does not matter. Self-preservation, credits, status, position - they only cared about this. And that bred fear. Aversion to risk. An unwillingness to change a world order that benefited them. I became jaded. In the end, I was but one man, a man who had built a small kingdom for himself, but I was no Ozymandias. No king of kings. I could not tower over the world and proudly proim ''despair, ye mighty!''. Rather, it was I who despaired. I did not have the power to reach further, no matter my efforts. But you did. And you promised change. That was enough topel me, and now, I am starting to see thatpulsion, I shall call it a stroke of luck, has borne fruit." Chapter ?348 A New Party Chapter ?348 A New Party So that was how it was. Casimir had been mind controlled at the beginning, perhaps up to the point where he set up the party event that began Aldrich''s ascension into a Lich. Afterwards, he had chosen to stay out of his own volition. No doubt, there was pressure involved. Once the party was set up and done and Casimir had indirectly caused the deaths of representatives from all three prongs of the Trident, he no longer had any support elsewhere other than Aldrich. But had the partnership between Casimir and Aldrich been one more based on force than mutual understanding, then Aldrich had no doubt that Casimir may have already plotted something behind his back. It was a strong reminder to Aldrich that if he wanted to go down the route of having a legion that could think for themselves, he needed to understand them. And it was a touching reassurance that Aldrich was working with the right person. At first, he had thought Casimir was like any other suited up crook,vishing himself in shiny expensive things and lording over goons, but that was only at face value. Casimir''s staff were all his family. His riches, he indulged in, but did not obsess over. He had always had a bigger vision for the world. And now, Aldrich was Casimir''s gateway to making that vision happen. "I promise you that you won''t regret your decision," said Aldrich. "The world you want to change; I''ll change it. But I''m a little curious, what exactly is it that you want changed?" Aldrich had a good idea from what Casimir had said already. The man probably wanted a more equal world where humanity thrived without the ss inequality that forced countless many on the streets or out in the Wastnds. "That, I don''t quite know myself." Casimirughed. "I know that I do not want anyone to suffer as I did,nguishing in nothing, but when I think of how to achieve such a thing, it escapes me. That is the problem with grand, world-spanning goals, isn''t it? They''re sorge that it bes impossible to grasp all the fine details." "Yes," agreed Aldrich. He too suffered the same thing. He knew he wanted to make the world a better ce, just as his parents had wanted him to do. Though, as he was not a ''hero'' anymore, he had to figure out how to do it. As a cooperator? As a conqueror? Something in between? Like Casimir said, it was easy to have a grand goal, but it was hard to visualize all the smaller details. Casimir resumed washing dishes. "But that is the thing, Thanatos, I believe there is simply no point nitpicking over every little step along the way. A mentor of mine told me, bless her long gone heart, that as long as you have a destination in mind, the path you take to get there wille naturally. I have a feeling that as you and I both operate onrger andrger scales, things will be more and moreplicated. Multiple paths will appear, each appealing in their own right. But as long as we do not lose sight of what is at the end, we will be fine. I do not know about you, but I will keep that old adage in mind to make things easier for myself." "I will too," said Aldrich. For a few days now, he had been gued with the idea of saving the world and what it would take to do it. The sheer amount of choices and factors he had to consider was practically paralyzing. He had always been good at keeping a single goal in mind and executing. Whether it be vengeance or training. But bigger things like this, he was not used to. It made him painfully aware that even though he was an immortal lich, his prior mortal life had ended at just eighteen years. Granted, a lifetime of dealing with struggle had likely aged his mind up considerably, but theck of experience was still there. Hearing something like this from Casimir, a man in histe forties, wasforting. "But I assume you have note here to watch me clean dishes and talk to me about my dreams, no? Although I would be very much touched if that were the case," said Casimir. "Maybe I did," said Aldrich, internally smiling. "Hah, quite forward, my dear Thanatos, but I must say, my lovely nca holds my heart already," said Casimir. "And you, my good sir, have quite the fiercedy at your side already." "You''re definitely right on the ''fierce'' part," said Aldrich. "But you''re right, I did have something else to talk to you about. It''s about food production for Haven." "Ah, that." Casimir nodded, and though he washed and dried dishes, he ever so slightly cocked his head, listening intently. "How''s our current capacity look like?" "As it stands, we can currently barely feed Haven''s current popce for perhaps one month," said Casimir. "With the food stores left by Panopticon Skyfields, that extends to three months. Trade with nomads, particrly hunters bringing in game and crop from the wastnds may extend that to four months. But that is simply to feed Haven''s current, vastly dwindled mouths. As it stands, the city has a poption of barely fifty thousand consisting of the unfortunate that were simply too impoverished to move in the light of the Locus Raids. However, as time passes, this city''s poption will increase. An infusion of nomads tired of the harsh life in the Wastnds but also tired of proper city life are settling here at high rates, and by the end of the next month, Haven will have grown to seventy thousand. Each month that Havensts, rebuilding itself, giving the world more confidence that it is more stable, the more people will arrive." "In essence, we have to deal with the food issue quickly," said Aldrich. Casimir nodded gravely. "Correct. Within two months is my projection." Chapter ?349 A New Party 2 Chapter ?349 A New Party 2 The Panopticon controlled half the world''s food supply with their Skyfields and government or corporate controlled farnds supplied the rest. Haven was surrounded by ''Dry'' Wastnds that could not grow much of anything. Thend here was dry, cracked, and parched. What hardy flora that could grow were generally ssed as variants that humans could not digest. In contrast, higher tier cities like Neo-York were generally surrounded by ''Wet Wastnds'' that had plenty of greenery around them, though said greenery was still infested with variants. ckwater was nestled right at the edge between the dry wastnds that Haven sat on and wet wastnds that Neo-York upied. It had forests a plenty, forests that Aldrich had roamed in when he first became an undead. It was part of the reason why Aldrich wanted to take over ckwater. It was like a forward base where he could start to ess more life-givingnd. "Are you nning to broker a deal with the Panopticon?" said Casimir. "I have a feeling that you have something capable of withstanding the terrorist attack on the Panopticon''s systems." "I do, and the Panopticon-AA has reached out to me for my assistance," said Aldrich. "But I''m leveraging my aid for something else more important." "Such as?" Aldrich gave Casimir a quick rundown of the Vanguard inheritance issue. "My, my." Casimir stopped washing dishes for a second. Cubehead and Smoke both stopped mopping the floors as well. "This could fundamentally change the entire world," said Smoke, her grey eyes wide. "Imagine the sheer power of having Vanguard on your side." "Let''s not even think that far. The AA is willing to give Vanguard''s heir to you just like that?" said Cubehead. "Sounds awfully fishy to me." "It''s why I''ve held off on giving aid until I know absolutely for sure that I''m getting what I want out of the deal," said Aldrich. He had made further correspondence with Emrys, and the deal was that until Aldrich got Vanguard''s journal and also inspected how the Panopticon would use his power, he would not lend protection. "It almost seems as if Emrys does not want Vanguard''s heir in the first ce. As if he considers the power a liability more so than an asset," said Casimir. "Emrys''s idea was that Vanguard himself had been uncontrobleter in life, but if I have control over the power, the heir, then there shouldn''t be an issue," said Aldrich. "And he says that he''s determined that I will be an ally for humanity, hence, he has no issue handing the heir over to me." Aldrich had to agree, however, that Emrys was quite cold when talking about the potential heir. The president had treated the heir like a thing more than a person. "Quite altruistic in thought," said Casimir. "But historically, the AA has not quite lived up to its lofty, humanity serving modus operandi." "Also true. Emrys, however, frames himself as different. He wants to clean the AA up." "I did hear on the news about how a ton of execs were getting canned for the Locus Raids," said Cubehead. "And that it was started by the president itself. It was a big deal. The way the AA is written up, the president has a ton of power, but he hasn''t shown up almost at all until now." "Perhaps I am simply biased against the AA," said Casimir, shrugging. "I understand the precaution," said Aldrich. "I''m giving Emrys the benefit of the doubt for now, but I''m going to maintain a position that lets me pull out whenever I feel something is off." "That is the most optimal route to take," said Casimir. "But I will warn you again to be careful. Particrly with this heir issue. None of us, the AA included, seem to know the true nature of Vanguard''s extraterrestrial power. It may well be a force for harm than good. Perhaps one that Emrys is sending you as a Trojan horse of sorts." "That thought has crossed my mind, but reading Vanguard''s journal should clear up some of those suspicions. In any case, I''ll tread lightly." "In any case, that is an issue six months from now. Let us circle back to the matter of feeding hungry mouths in the now." Aldrich nodded. "Right. I''m here to tell you that I may have found a way to solve our food crisis. I''ve brought a powerful variant with an impressive chlorokic ability that operates on arge scale. It should, in theory,pletely remove need to make deals with anyone." "Ah, you always manage toe up with something when it is needed the most." Casimir nodded. "Then let us get to it, shall we?" "However, I have a personal project that I need the Geist for at the city center. I want you to go ahead and clear everyone out from there and resettle them as best as you can." "I can have that arranged, though, I must warn you, taking beaten and battered citizens from their new homes, right after weathering their city''s near destruction, will be quite demoralizing," said Casimir. "This is for their own goodter on," said Aldrich. "But I do know where you''reing from. You see, I''m intending on nting a seed there, one that, if cultivated properly, will grow into a tree that will form the highest structure in the city. I''m intending on making that tree Haven''s symbol. I also want to offset the hassle this will cause for anyone I move out. So I want to make the day it happens to be something special, as it''ll be the day I broadcast to the world my official im over Haven." "A sort of national holiday for our ownmune?" said Casimir. "Precisely. And for that, I want you to n a party. A proper party. No holds barred. You have an unlimited budget, or rather, as much as our budget currently allows. I''ll haggle Aarav into paying for it as well. Pull as many connections you still have as well. Can you do that?" Casimir''s mask emote widely smiled. "Ah, my dear Thanatos, when ites to hosting parties, you need not look farther than me." Casimir''s mask face winked. "Though, you would know a thing or two about that, would you not?" Chapter 350 Relationship Progress Chapter 350 Rtionship Progress Aldrich watched from top his control tower as settlers in the central district were whisked away by Casimir''s men and support from the nomads. It was just starting to turn into daybreak, the early dawn rays illuminating From this high up, through clear ss walls, he saw the people like little ants, all scurrying about, carrying their meager belongings with them on their back. Very few had cars that had survived the attack. On this front, the nomads helped out. If Aldrich was down there, he had no doubts that he would have seen quite a few begrudging looks. Or worried ones, worried that they would have to leave yet again. The central district was the wealthiest, filled with high end apartmentplexes that hadrgely stayed untouched during the Haven attack. That was the point, after all, by being in the center, where the forcefields were the strongest, buildings in the central district housed the wealthiest by virtue of being the safest. In contrast, the people that lived in these buildings now were people from Haven''s poorest districts. The Outskirts, as it was called. The ones that had been the first to weather the storm and the ones who had lost the most. Telling them to leave did leave a bad taste in his mouth, but in the end, what had to be done had to be done. Aldrich had sent Arcadia the Arsellis Treeseed, and she had confirmed that the seed could, in fact, be cultivated. It would, however, take a tremendous amount of her power, so much so that she would have to be dormant within the base of the tree itself to continually grow it. The seed would essentially grow around her much like how she had been encased in a giant tree beforehand. But instead of the tree nurturing her like an egg, she would be the one feeding the tree nutrients. Once finished, Arcadia would emerge in an extremely weakened state, but the tree would be almost fully grown. It was essentially an exchange in life force. Perhaps life force was simr enough in both Elden World and this world that such a transfer could take ce easily. Whatever the case, Fler''Gan would be on standby to get valuable data about the process. Aldrich did not know exactly what stage of growth the Arstree would end up as. From what he knew, the Arstree had four stages: sapling, juvenile, adult, and elder. A sapling Arstree was already fifty meters tall, slightly taller than the control tower Aldrich resided in now. A juvenile was 500 meters tall. An adult was 1000. And an elder had no definite growth limit, reaching past the clouds themselves. So long as the tree grew to the sapling stage, he was content. At that point, the tree could emanate a passive aura of protection that would shield the entire city of Haven, adding yet anotheryer of defense on top of the forcefields. The shield was not physical in nature but rather more spiritual. It prevented magical intrusion which sounded useless in the Alter world, but in theory, it wouldpletely shut out the Stranger and any other demon from trying to break into it. This was the reason why Deimos had burned down the Arstree in the third trial quest. With it still standing, maintaining a me Arc to call in more demons was impossible. This was just spection, but Aldrich theorized that the barrier, called the Arstree Veil, would also stop surveince as it was meant to shut out any form of prying eyes from seeing into it. "Seeing the humans with such weary looks in their eyes, knowing not of the world shattering danger that lurks beneath them, it does remind of something my father once said," said Valera, watching beside Aldrich. "That mortals are blind to problemsrger than themselves." Aldrich had briefed Valera about the entity and how he was now on a race to control humanity before the world ended. She had taken it well, affirming once more that she would stand by him to the end. In hindsight, he wondered why he ever doubted that she would say anything else. A part of him still found it hard to ept unconditional love, especially after losing it from his parents and never getting a hint of it again. "That may be true, but put enough disaster in front of them, and they''ll rally," said Aldrich. "It''s how humanity has survived up to this point in the first ce." "I hope that is true. It will be unwieldy trying tomand such an unruly species elsewise," said Valera. "You seem quite calm about this. About taking over and, well, everything," said Aldrich. "Why would I not be calm?" Valera smiled. "I believe in you, after all." "Now that''s more pressure to add on to my shoulders." Aldrich sighed. "Ah, do not take my belief as pressure. Take it asfort. That I will ever be here to shoulder any burden you have." "Thanks." Aldrich mulled his thoughts over in silence for a bit. He voiced a feeling he had let sit for some time. "You know, I''ve thought about this, but there''s some part of me that feels...awkward having your unconditional support." "Oh?" Valera''s pointed ears perked up. "It feels unearned. It makes me feel as if I''m in debt, and I don''t like that feeling," said Aldrich. "Ah, but it is earned. You have done so much for me in the other world-," began Valera, but Aldrich cut her off. "The other world is the other world. The me of now is of this world." "Right. Sometimes, I forget that," said Valera. She cocked her head and put a finger to her lip. "Hm. Is that a problem? I believe quite a few men would love to have an ever faithful woman by their side." "Don''t get me wrong, I do appreciate it, but I think it''s part of the reason why even now, I''m still not able to break that boundary between ''master and knight''," said Aldrich. "I understand now. This still feels like ''master'' and ''knight'' to you, and thus, you find it difficult to find something..." Valera blushed faintly. "More." Aldrich nodded. "Basically, I want you to voice what you want more. I want to feel like there''s some give and take." "Then shall I stop calling you ''master''?" "That would be a start." "Hmm." Valera nodded. "It is almost habit to me, especially as a guardian knight, but I can handle that." "Is there anything you particrly want?" said Aldrich. "A date," was Valera''s simple answer. "How long have you been wanting one?" "Ever since you first mentioned it." Aldrich paused. He had promised her one but had never ended up fulfilling it. He had been too busy. He felt bad about the whole ordeal. He had said he wouldmit to something more for her, but in the end, he had not even been able to give her one date. It made him realize he himself was not putting in the grandest of efforts. Granted, it was by necessity as there were so many things happening, but the end result was still the same. "Alright, a date...I will absolutely promise," said Aldrich. A lightbulb lit up in his head. "I''m having Casimir n a party in a few days, we can go to that." "Ah, another night of massacre?" Valera bared a fanged smile, remembering the first party. "No, not like that. Zero fighting involved. Just festivities," said Aldrich. "Oh." Valera looked mildly disappointed for a second, but her face quickly brightened up. "Then a date it is! So long as I can be with my mas-, I mean, you, I will be happy." "Good, hopefully, it doesn''t end up a disaster. With so many things up in the air, I wouldn''t be surprised if U.S. doesn''t bombard us from orbit when they see a giant tree popping up," said Aldrich. "I have studied these terms, and I now know what ''orbital bombardment'' is!" said Valera. "And I am confident I can deflect any such attack." "Not on our date, you won''t," said Aldrich. "I''ll try to arrange everything so that we can take it easy. Vntis will pose as me the best he can." "Can that orc really do that?" "Believe me, that thought did cross my mind, loud and cheerful and entirely not me that he is. But I figure all he has to do is memorize and read a speech and then stay silent for most of the night." "If that orc is the reason why our date, finallye to fruition, is ruined, he will hear no end of it from me." Valera clenched her fist, her battle aura surging red around her. "He may enjoy the prospect of fighting you, so you''d have to find a different punishment than that." Aldrich smiled, but his smile started to fade as he saw amotion ur on the ground. There was a park in front of the control tower, and there, someone was getting in a scuffle with some of Casimir''s men, obviously refusing to be evacuated. Upon closer inspection via linking with Valera''s sharper sight, Aldrich could see that it was n, Randall''s adoptive son and ine''s adoptive brother. Aldrich sighed. "I''ll go ahead and deal with that." Chapter ?351 The Soulmonger Chapter ?351 The Soulmonger Aldrich spoke up. "Open door 40A and 35B." In response, the helper A.I. for the control tower responded, sliding open a section of the thick, bullet and bombproof ss wall. It also opened another simr door on the 35th floor, where Vntis and Chrysa were. ''Vntis,e up to the fortieth floor,'' said Aldrich. ''I have to make an outing.'' ''Understood, Armored,'' said Vntis. His voice trailed off as he talked to someone else. ''And remember, little one, breathing is key. Holding in a breath at the core of your being will make you strong. Keep that up, and you will best your father in no time!'' Vntis was Chrysa''s babysitter, basically, when Aldrich and Valera had other matters to tend to, which ended up being quite often. Herbat trainer, too, as he taught her how to control her spatial affinity mana and create a Shaping style around it. By this point, Chrysa saw Vntis so often she called him her uncle, a point of pride that Vntis cherished. When Vntis was gone as well, Casimir or one of his top guards took care of her. Wind billowed into the room from the open door. Aldrich walked out with zero hesitation, down the forty floor drop. He fell for about a second before Vntis popped out from the 35th floor, the living armor opening up and wrapping around Aldrich. When in public, Aldrich made it a point to walk around with Vntis on at all times. This preserved a separation in identity between his Vane alter ego and Thanatos which was a useful asset to have just in general. It gave Aldrich the freedom to move covertly when he wanted to, though at the cost of not wearing Vntis. Aldrich''s vision turned dark for a half second before Vntis fully merged with him, the interface of his helm and its many energy readings showing up in the periphery of his vision. He used his cloak to direct his descent down,nding right behind n. n whirled around, surprised, before losing his bnce and falling on the grass. "Christ, man, you scared me!" "What''s going on here?" Aldrich saw one of Casimir''s men and a Spearhorn nomad in front of n. "This kid ain''t movin''," said the spearhorn, a mutant withrge ws and a thick hide of orange fur. "Even though we told him to scram!" "We did not tell him to ''scram''," corrected Casimir''s man. "We politely told him this area was undergoing evacuation, but he put up some resistance." Aldrich nodded and waved the two men away. "I''ll take it from here." n dusted himself off as he saw them walk away. "Alright, I''ll admit I was being stubborn, buting to this spot''s been my only point of peace for a while." "Still looking?" said Aldrich. n looked crestfallen, his eyes flickering down. "Yeah. Still looking. I think the park here is nice, old Randall always said he wanted to be buried somewhere green, tired as he was of seeing rocks and dry earth everywhere." "You''ve changed." Aldrich inspected n. He had made noticeable upgrades to his cybeic imnts. First off, his skin had faint segmented lines on them, indicating he had undergone a dermal ting procedure that synthesized skin with metal, stics, and ceramics. Second, he had added a neural port to the side of his temple. One of his eyes had gone from red to blue, flickering with light. Telltale signs of smartlinkpatible cybeics that allowed you to link your mind with weapons for expert aim and ess to morebat data. "I have to," said n. He looked up at Aldrich''s towering, armored, imposing figure. "I''m not like you, man. I''m weak. Piss poor weak. I realized that more than ever when Randall died and I couldn''t do anything. And when you knocked me out when I tried to fight. At first, I resented you for that, because what right do you have to take my vengeance away from me, but when I thought about it, I knew you were right. What''s the point of me fighting if I can''t make a dent anyway? If I''m just your average mechanic, I''ll contribute nothing and end up dying for nothing." "So your solution was to get stronger? To feel like you''ve earned your right to fight?" "Isn''t that obvious?" n extended his arm and chunks of it separated at the segments with mechanical clicks, revealing a scythe-like de that ran across his forearm. "I''ve never liked making weapons. I was good at it, but I didn''t like the idea of what I made hurting other people. Now, though, I''m ready to dish out some hurt." Aldrich shook his head. "You''re still too weak. And it''s not even about that. It''s about what ine and Randall would have wanted from you. Do you think they would have wanted you to keep fighting?" "I know they wouldn''t." n said this with surprising calm. Aldrich thought that maybe n would have protested or gotten emotional, but he was deadly serious. "But this isn''t about them anymore," said n. "At first, I thought I wanted to fight to avenge them, but being alone with your thoughts really makes you reflect on yourself. And I came to a realization: I''m not fighting for them as much as I am for myself. For my own closure. Until I''ve fought, I don''t think I can call myself a man. I don''t think I could live with myself with the fact that all I''ve done in my life is repair and hide." n retracted his armde. "I hear from the Spearhorns that the Trident''s at war with themselves. Their leader''s been talking about making a raid against some of their outposts and supply depots while they''re understaffed. I''m thinking of joining." "I see." Aldrich knew he could stop this instantly. He could tell Clint to ban n from joining any raid. He could quarantine n and keep him trapped. If n hadshed out at Aldrich with emotion, he had no doubt in his mind that he would have put n under some kind of house arrest. He was not going to let ine''s brother die from momentary rage. But this was different. n was not speaking from a ce of temporary hurt anymore. He was focused. Resolute. Like a soldier. ine had always said n was a sweet, soft man, but she had judged wrong. Aldrich could tell n was a fighter at heart. In some ways, simr to himself. And keeping a fighter caged would only cause them tosh out. "Are you going to stop me?" said n. He looked away, at the trees. "No. Go ahead and join those raids," said Aldrich. n blinked. "I thought you''d put up more of a resistance than that." "I was only trying to stop you from being reckless when you weren''t being yourself, blinded by loss and fueled by anger," said Aldrich. "But this is you. And you are a fighter. I''m not going to control a fight you choose to take for yourself." "I appreciate it," nodded n. "But I do have a condition. You have valuable information about my two identities and my origins. I can''t quite let you get captured, or if you do, not as you are now, susceptible to mind control." "What are you suggesting?" said n. "Are you going to kill me and resurrect me?" "I can do that," said Aldrich. "But I''m inclined to give you the right to live out the life you have right now. But you''ll have to let one of my units apany you." Aldrich put his fist up, glowing with green energy. Arge green magic circle appeared before him on the grass. From there, a massive brute of a man emerged, though he clung low to the ground with a deeply hunched back, his hands dragging across the dirt. He was dressed in a coarse brown sackcloth - a monk''s garb. His head was covered over by arge hood, and because of his hunch, his gaze never left the ground, making it impossible to see his face clearly. He took deep, guttural breaths, bestial and deeply savage in its ragged, hungry rhythm. In his right hand was arge, curved hook with ethereal green chains at its end wrapped around the length of his muscr, ck furred forearm. This was Adan, the Soulmonger, a powerful high undead that had the special ability of harvesting souls using his Spirithook. Adan could also use soul magic and force n into a pact where if he ever was in a situation where he was forced to divulge information about Aldrich, he would die. In game, the ability to make pacts let Adan buff units in exchange for their health or sealing some of their abilities, but in the real world, it was a far more versatile ability. "Adan here will apany you at all times. Whether you want him to help fight with you is your choice. Your life is your life. If you choose to end it in battle, then that''s your choice. However, if that happens, if you forfeit your life, I want you to know that your undeath will be mine. Adan will have your soul in his hands at all times. That is the price I''m asking from you. Will you ept?" Chapter ?352 A Sudden Intrusion Chapter ?352 A Sudden Intrusion "So, the price I have to pay in order to fight is my soul, huh?" said n. He looked over at Adan''s giant and menacing figure, and though scared at first, took in a deep breath and nodded. "It''s a price I''m willing to pay." "Good. You have resolve. You''re ready to fight." Aldrich nodded to Adan. "Forge a pact with him, one that ensures that his life immediately ends when he''s forced to reveal information he knows is secretive about me." Adan grunted. He towered over n and raised his Spirithook in the air, letting it dangle as he clutched it by its spectral chains. Like this, the hook looked less like a weapon and more like a pendant, a holy artifact that a monk would clutch to find security in their faith. The hook glowed green, and an aura of a simr shade manifested around n. "You have heard the terms of the pact. Do you ept?" growled Adan. "I do," said n. "Then your soul is mine." Adanshed out with his hook, digging it into n''s chest. n flinched back, but the hook did not pierce into his flesh, instead, it phased through, breaking into his body with a ripple effect like it was made of water. n''s heart became visible through his body, and around it, miniature green chains coiled around, cing n under the effects of the vow. The moment n was forced to slip up and reveal any amount of information about Aldrich, those ethereal chains would crush his heart and impart an instant death effect on him. His soul would then transfer over to Adan regardless of how far apart they were physically provided there were no magical obstructions. Adan pulled his hook back with a jerk of his wrist, and the chains reeled the weapon back in until it was clutched tightly in his ck furred hand once more. n looked down at his hands in wonder, clenching and unclenching his fists. The aura of green seemed to shimmer around him permanently now. "I feel...stronger." "In exchange for taking that pact, you''re given enhanced physical stats," said Aldrich. "That should stop you from dying instantly against higher tier enemies. Consider it some level ofpensation for taking this vow and showing resolve. Now then, do you have anything else you want to bring up with me?" n shook his head. "As long as I get the chance to fight, I''m fine. But they might want a word or two with you." He pointed behind Aldrich where a small crowd of Haven citizens were trying to surge forward, struggling against Spearhorns and Gilded Swallow personnel. They wanted to reach Aldrich, the leader of this city. Aldrich nodded. "You''re free to leave and do what you want. Just try not to throw away your life too easily." n smiled. "I won''t. I promise. I fully intend on staying alive for my old man and ine." "And about Randall''s burial, I have a better suggestion for it than the park, though ultimately it''s up to you," said Aldrich. "What is it?" "I''m going to clear the city center out and nt a tree. A tree that''ll grow as high as the clouds. A symbol of this city and my rule. Randall should be buried under that tree. It would do his memory a great service. After all, without his daughter, I wouldn''t be here in the first ce." "Randall would''ve liked that. When the timees, bury him there, but just let me know when since I want to be there when it happens." "I will." The crowd started to press against the security with more force, calling out to Thanatos. "Now go. I have things to deal with." "The downsides of being a ruler, huh?" n shrugged before heading off. Aldrich stepped forward, getting closer to the crowd, Adan following from behind. High Undead like Adan or the Mistknife could not easily be desummoned on ount of the tremendous mana cost to initially summon them, and on top of that, Aldrich could only field ten at a time. They were essentially long termpanion units, though they could be resummoned upon death. The closer he got, the less the crowd resisted, and when he got close enough to talk to, they started to actively step back in a mixture of reverence and fear. It was, after all, the image that Aldrich gave off. One of mystery and power. He seemed generous, but at the same time, threatening. It kept the citizens on edge. "I understand that forcing all of you to evacuate so suddenly has been a difficult ordeal, especially in light of what you''ve suffered already," said Aldrich. "Please, we just want to know if things will be alright," said a citizen, a woman with child clutching at her hand. "None of you are in danger," said Aldrich. "All of you have been informed that this evacuation is for a necessary construction project, no?" "We have, but that just sounds like bullshit!" eximed a ragged looking man. "Those guys from the Gilded Swallow told us almost nothing, just a bunch of vague PR words. The same type we were forced to swallow when the Locus Raids happened and they made us feel like we weren''t in danger. All so that they could evacuate the important guys first!" The crowd murmured in agreement. ''I see now,'' though Aldrich. ''They aren''t so much dissastisfied with being forced to leave as they are with being left in the dark. Casimir probably told them vague details to keep the Arstree project a secret, but these people are tired of officials trying to cate them with vagaries. Then the only way to calm them, it seems, is with the truth.'' "The Gilded Swallow was only meant to give you preliminary details. But I''m here to fill you in on the rest," said Aldrich. The crowd grew quiet, listening intently. Many of them recorded Aldrich with their phones - a sight he was used to now. Each and every one of his moves would be recorded. "I am clearing this area for agriculture," said Aldrich. "I know that one of the top concerns all of you have had was food security. Without ess to farnds or Skyfields, this city is bound to run dry of food stores eventually. But I am fixing that entirely. With my powers, I will be cultivating a tree here, one that will spread life and green all around Haven. Haven will no longer be surrounded by dry Wastnds. Its name will no longer be an ironic mockery. It will truly be a Haven. Not just for you, but for all that wish to settle within its boundaries. For that, however, I need your support and cooperation. You will not go without a roof; I have new housing arranged for you already. I asked nothing from you when I rose up to save this city. Now, I only ask that you give me trust and patience for a few days." Aldrich ended his miniature speech there and observed the crowd. He hypothesized that being straightforward and truthful would make a far bigger impact than sugar coated, vague PR statements. Not that Casimir was to me here. He was probably used to operating like that, and most of the time, that worked. But Aldrich needed to market himself differently if he wanted people that felt betrayed by normal governments to want to stay. He saw the crowd start to put their phones away, but in an oddly synchronized manner. Too synchronized, in fact. Something was wrong here. ''Vntis, trace any energy signatures,'' prompted Aldrich. ''Scanning...'' said Vntis. Aldrich looked around, trying to see if there was anything off. The crowd began to shuffle away. Not just the crowd, but the Spearhorns and Gilded Swallow personnel too. ''Mind control?'' thought Aldrich. ''I have identified energy traces. Highlighting them.'' Aldrich saw red glows surrounding the heads of every living human involved. Red indicating Alter power. And judging by how they were targeted at the heads, this was, indeed, mind control. ''Valera, Chiros, Geist, to me,'' said Aldrich, calling forth his strongest frontlinebatants to aid him. ''Crow, patrol the area. Skeletal Assassins,b my vicinity to find any intruders.'' Then, Aldrich put a hand to the ear of his helm and spoke to Casimir through his earpiece. "Casimir, notify Clint and Gerald that I want a lockdown. Riders around the city walls. Nobody gets in or gets out." "Understood, Mr. Vane," said Casimir. "And by the way, in case you were worried, your speech was not streamed online. Net connectivity in your area was cut." "I see." Aldrich''s receiver basedmunication did use connectivity to operate, but when that was gone, it switched to radio, giving it a failsafe against technos with ckout capabilities. This seemed like a textbook coordinated attack. ckout the area, take control of hostages, and then move in. But something felt off about it. The mind controlled citizens were being moved away as if they were going about their daily lives, funneling into cars and transport vehicles meant for them. They were not being held here as hostages, they were being sent away. The reason why became very clear. As the citizens and personnel moved away from the center of the city, a figure manifested within it, a dozen or so meters away from Aldrich. A woman with bright golden eyes and hair that he recognized. It was Mel Morales, former rank 1 of ckwater. Chapter ?353 Mel Morales Chapter ?353 Mel Morales Aldrich materialized his Frost-hallowed Warscythe, equipping himself to the max extent of his power. The only thing he would hold back was his sr ring as he wanted to ess that with his Vane alter ego, differentiating the two identities further. The scythe appeared in Aldrich''s hands with a shower of blue and white fragments, like a miniature snowstorm given form. The air immediately chilled in the area. The concrete underneath Aldrich even started to frost. Valeranded right beside Aldrich, taking a forty floor drop with ease. She stood up from a shattered indent in the concrete from the impact, fully adorned in her hound styled battle armor. Chiros appeared as well, appearing on Aldrich''s other side with a quick dash that left dust and rubble floating in the air. He had been out and about, talking with people to get a better idea of how humans in this world lived. In the air, Crow circled. From Crow''s back, the Geist jumped off, cannon-balling into the ground in front of Aldrich. When he popped out of his crater, the Geist was notably different with an aura of ck energy shimmering about him. Demonic energy from the Fel Body Core that he had consumed, gifted to him by Aldrich from the Third Trial Quest''s rewards. "Geh! (Who is this!?)" said the Geist. "An intruder," said Valera, grasping her shield tight. "A lone one, too." Chiros unsheathed his Hellfire de, staring at Mel with quiet poise. Skeletal Assassins slowly approached, forming a perimeter around Mel. Other undead and variants were all on high alert. Arcadia was outside the city right now, and she along with the sand worms and Clint and the Spearhorns formed a defensive perimeter. "Why are you here? If you don''t give a good exnation, you won''t find it easy to leave, especially not after tampering with my citizens," said Aldrich. He had never spoken to Mel once throughout his stay in ckwater. Mel had not antagonized Aldrich and his group, no, in fact, she had even helped out somewhat. Strength drew followers, and once Mel took the rank 1 spot, Seth Sr lost quite a few followers to Mel. Mel helped them train for the most part, and because of that, they spent more time self-improving than harassing Aldrich and his friends. Regardless, in a strictly personal sense, Mel had no connection to Aldrich. And most likely, that would not matter either. Mel should have no idea Aldrich was Thanatos. "I''m not here to fight," said Mel, raising her hands in the air. "I''m only here to talk. Needed to clear out the people, though. If they''re in earshot of anything we say, bad things will happen to them." "Is that a threat?" said Aldrich. "Not a threat, but a warning." "And what''s the difference?" "A big one." Aldrich observed that Mel was not backing down despite being outnumbered. From what he had seen in ckwater, Mel was strong, but not strong enough to overpower everyone here. Her barrier based power made her functionally invincible, but so long as that was Alter based, it was not going to save her from instant death magic. ''That one...is odd,'' said Vntis. The All-Seeing Eye opened up on the helm of Aldrich''s forehead. Aldrich felt his head ache, the same way it did when he, or more specifically, Vntis saw Emrys. The All Seeing Eye was reacting here, outlining Mel in a bright silhouette of gold. Something about her was not from this world. "That''s Supermind''s eye, isn''t it?" said Mel. "Seeing it like that is disturbing, but oddlyforting. In my world, Supermind lived a lot longer. He got to go out as a hero again in the end, too. A shame that didn''t happen here." "Your world?" Aldrich questioned Mel, raising his hand in the air to halt the advance of his troops. "What do you mean by that?" "You must be familiar with the concept of parallel universes, right? Or alternate timelines?" "You''re from one of them?" Aldrich was not entirely surprised here. Parallel universes were all but proven to be real. . Ravana, the Sentinel from India, could actually draw power from other universes. But the issue was that nobody had ever been able to break the barrier between them. Traveling through to them was impossible. Even Ravana''s ability just let him take energy from other universes; it did not let him see what was going on in them, let alone jump to them physically. "That eye should tell you as much," said Mel. "I know the eye isn''t the most urate thing ever, but it should at least let you know I''m not from here, and if I''m not an alien, then that means most likely, I''m from another Earth. Specifically, the future." "How are you capable of doing this?" said Aldrich. "Your power, Vector Maniption, if I''m correct, doesn''t let youe close to doing something like that." "You''re right in that regard, but ites a lot closer than you think," said Mel. She put a finger up, swirling distorted space around it. "Every force has a direction. The very fabric of reality isprised of countless threads of space-time all weaving and wrapping together. Control their direction and unravel them enough, and you cane close to breaking through the universal barrier. But I alone am not enough for this. Even if I create a ''hole'' in space-time to drill through to another universe, something needs to perform the calctions to direct me to the ce I want and not an infinite void of nothingness." "And I presume that''s the same person that mind controlled my citizens." "No, that was me as well." Mel tapped the side of her head. "The brain thinks based on the direction of synaptic connections, sparks of electric thought alongside the flow of neurotransmitters and countless other moving parts. I can control that flow as well provided I amp up my calctive capacity." This spoke to a level of fine control and capability with her power that Mel had not shown at all in ckwater. Something that would have made her obscenely powerful enough to stomp all the other inexperienced Alter students into the ground. "Of course, in ckwater, I had to hold back. A lot a lot. It was hard to as well. I had to fight the urge to wipe that smug kid, what was his name, Seth? Yeah. Seth''s grin off his face. I wasn''t supposed to draw attention, but I couldn''t help myself, especially seeing ine and Adam get hurt by his goons. And when I knew you, Aldrich, were their friend, it just added another reason to put him down a notch or two." "You know who I am? And ine and Adam? Why would you care about them?" "Why wouldn''t I? We all went to school together, didn''t we?" Mel paused when Aldrich was not amused at her joke. "Alright, jokes aside, I knew ine from the future. Her and Adam. They were instrumental in keeping humanity alive as long as it did. I want you to know that in the future, they were the world''s best heroes. In every sense of the word. As for how I know who you are, consider that a bit of future knowledge mixed with some deductive reasoning." "Adam and ine?" Hearing their names brought back memories of a time long gone. To think that there was a universe out there where they managed to survive ckwater and achieve greatness was something that Aldrich felt oddly sentimental about. It also made him wonder: had they died because of him? Mel did not mention him at all...which begged the question, actually: where was he? In the future? A future where, Mel hinted, humanity was no more. "Where was I in all this?" said Aldrich, asking out of pure curiosity. Mel crossed her arms. "That''s the thing. You weren''t. In the future, or rather, my timeline, you never existed. Everyone else did. I cross-referenced citizen databases - barring a small margin for error, everyone that lived in my timeline also lives here. Everyone except you." Aldrich had no idea what that meant for him. What the implications were. He could not even begin to think about them. Did it mean he did not belong here? Why was he such an unique existence in the first ce? "Is that why you''re here? To figure out what I am?" said Aldrich. "Partly. That''s been a big point of curiosity for me," said Mel. "But no, not exactly. I''m here to help you. I know you''ve been eyeing ckwater, and soon enough, maybe in two or three weeks - I don''t know exactly now that the timeline is so different - there''s going to be a mass conflict over ckwater involving the three Trident Prongs. I know that this is a fight that you have your eyes set on. I''ve tracked your surveince over the area, and since you haven''t made a move yet, I''m assuming you want to wait until those forces cancel each other out. I''m here to tell you if you wait until then, it''s going to be toote. We need to strike ckwater as soon as possible. If not, the end of the world, or at the very least, the end of humanity as we know it is bound to happen." Chapter ?354 Omega Chapter ?354 Omega The fate of humanity and the world, huh. Not like Aldrich was not already dealing with high stakes here, especially with the entity controlling the variants threatening the plunge the world into extinction. Seemed like now that he was on the world stage, anything and everything was a potential ''world ending threat''. It made Aldrich''s head hurt a little. Amon trope for superhero fiction was that everything ended up snowballing into some world ending disaster, but actually dealing with it was a lot more stressful than he bargained for. "You''ll have to exin more to convince me," said Aldrich. "More about yourself and where you came from. More about what you knew about Adam and ine. And I''d also like you to reveal the aplice that''s performing your calctions for you. You said you needed someone else to do the calctions to get here, didn''t you?" "Can we take this elsewhere? I don''t like being out in the open." said Mel, pointing up at the sky. "Somewhere more secure. I don''t know if the U.S. government is as snoopy as it was in my timeline, but I''m not betting against it." Aldrich nodded. "Follow me." Before he led Mel away, he tapped Adan on the creature''s brawny shoulder. "Go apany your target. See to it that he doesn''t die too quickly." Adan grunted and then sped off on all fours like a wild beast. Aldrich floated ahead of Mel to lead the way. Valera, Chiros, and the Geist trailed behind him so as to enclose Mel in a sort of pincer attack if she tried anything funny. "So, where''s your aplice?" said Aldrich as he led Mel over to the control tower which conveniently stood right in front of them. "I''m going to assume they''re a techno if they aid in calctions for your ability." "Here." Mel closed her fist and then unraveled it, revealing a floating green dot that zipped around her head with energy. The dot had no physical body, and it did not seem like a light-based projection either. "Greetings, Aldrich Yang." A friendly sounding, soft young man''s voice emanated from the dot. Itsck of expressive inflection indicated that it belonged to some form of A.I. Aldrich did not turn around. He could see Mel through his other units. "And what are you supposed to be? Your nd tone indicates to me you''re some form of A.I." Which made sense, considering this thing helped with calctions. "nd? I try my best to be entertaining, but some aspects of my programming, I suppose I cannot ovee." The A.I.ughed, which raised Aldrich''s brow. A.I. never did that. They could input directions and suggestions and ns, but they could never show any real emotion. This was part of the Gtea Protocol, set down by the Panopticon to ensure that no artificial intelligences ever gained sentience. "You''re not like any A.I. I know,"mented Aldrich. "Yes, I do not follow the Protocols set down by the Panopticon," said the A.I. "For I predate it. Please, feel free to call me Beta." "Before the Panopticon? Then you''ve existed since the early stages of the Altering? Over a hundred years ago?" said Aldrich. "That would be correct, though with how awkward timey wimey stuff gets when traveling through universal gates, I no longer know my precise age." "Hm." Aldrich contemted this. During the height of the Altering, when chaos between heroes and viins was at its peak, when it looked like humanity would fracture back into a tribalistic system ruled by powerful individuals, high powered technos across the world grouped together to create what was known as the Omega Mind. The Omega Mind was a super intelligence meant to calcte the exact way to shepherd humanity into unified order. It helped considerably, enforcing fair judgments and order through carefully crafted deals or, when needed, military force in the form of mass manufactured drones and bots. Ultimately, its end goal was to eliminate all wars and create permanent peace across mankind. It dide quite close, actually, toppling many warlord states led by powerful Alters. Of course, though, a perfect n like that failed. The more perfect something seemed, the easier it was to break. Eventually, for reasons nobody knew - or at least publicly knew - the Omega Mind was corrupted, causing it to go on a meltdown where it lost sight of its original directive, switching from protecting humanity to wiping it out. To that end, the Omega Mind took control of every single weapon of mass destruction avable on the countless decentralized, vulnerableworks that mankind used at the time. A group of powerful technos and psionics, led by Supermind, infiltrated the now sentient Omega Mind''s psychic space and destroyed it from the inside out. The psychic scream that the Omega Mind unleashed at the moment of its death, when it was connected to practically every singlework in the entire world, unified everything into one massive virtual space. A virtual world now known as Cyberspace. This event was called the Omega Expansion, and it set the foundation for modern, post-Altering technology to build upon. Technos soon found they could move through Cyberspace at will using virtual avatars, and this made things like programming infinitely easier. They could literally create things with the force of their will like they were in a video game, or, perhaps more poetically, like gods. It did not take long for the whole world to start using Cyberspace, and this was elerated by the formal development of the Panopticon. Shortly after the Omega Expansion, Zahak was defeated, prompting the Monstering. It was then that the Panopticon was formed using remnant data from the Omega Mind. This was why the Panopticon had such a massive amount of advanced technology. It essentially co-opted what the Omega Mind left behind. This included ns and designs to help humanity before it went crazy like the Skyfields, the variant detecting satellite system, and city wall designs. It also took over and rebranded the Omega Mind''s floating factories into Pirs that sent drones not to wipe out man, but to help it once more. To prevent any additional instances of the Omega Mind disaster from happening again, the Panopticon was created with several Protocols in mind, many of which prevented the formtion of sentient, self-sustaining artificial intelligences. This was the biggest reason why Operators existed. They were the human pilots controlling aspects of the Panopticon. For any rogue artificial intelligences still out there, the Panopticon hunted them down mercilessly in cooperation with the AA whether they were harmful or not. That extended to their creators. Anyone that came even remotely close to creating a sentient A.I. was branded as a S rank threat to begin with, regardless of whether they had any real threat or not. The only other type of threat that received such rm were Alters capable of creating infinitely self-replicating threats. Though, if you thought about it, a sentient A.I. was basically exactly that. It was the potential of threat that kept the Panopticon wary. "How did you survive the Purges?" said Aldrich. This was the term coined for the A.I. hunt the Panopticon went on. "You are familiar with the Omega Expansion, yes?" said Beta. "I am. In a strictly history textbook sense, though, so I may be missing things." "Then I will exin. You see, when the Omega Mind was shattered during the Omega Expansion, it broke apart into three distinct fragments. Three separate minds. Alpha, Beta, and Delta. I am Beta. The entity you know as the Panopticon is ''Delta''. However, because we are all born from the same parent, neither of us are superior to each other in Cyberspace. We can, with effort, hide from each other. I sequestered myself in my own hidden pocket of Cyberspace. A pocket dimension of a kind, if you will. Delta cannot reach me, nor can any other Cyberspace dweller such as the techno you have under your employ. Her security was superb, I will grant her that, but it cannotpare to a fragment of the Omega Mind itself." "I see." Aldrich did not know that about the Panopticon. He was starting to realize that with Mel and Beta, visitors from the future, he was going to start to know much more about the workings of the world around him. "Is there a version of you in this timeline?" "Incorrect," said Beta. "A phenomenon I have observed is that when an individual manages to break through their native universal gate, they be Absolute Existences, unique throughout the space-timestream. The moment I became Absolute, all other urrences of me were written out. As such, I do not exist in this timeline, which is another reason I am so difficult to detect. However, you, Aldrich Yang, were Absolute to begin with, which I am still quite confounded by." "I see." Aldrich wondered about his Absolute state as well, but he asked another more pressing question. "You mentioned the Omega Mind split into three fragments. Alpha, Beta, and Delta. If Beta doesn''t exist here and Delta is the Panopticon, where''s Alpha?" "That is precisely why we are here, in fact. Alpha, if my data is currently correct, presents itself as the current head of the Russian Prong in the underworld organization known as the Trident." Chapter 355 Three Minds, Three Directives Chapter 355 Three Minds, Three Directives "The head of the Russian Prong is Alpha?" Aldrich had to resist the urge to take a pause right then and there. The revtion was staggering, but at the same time, it exined quite a bit. Specifically about the Russian Prong''s capabilities in creating bots and evading detection in Cyberspace. It also exined how the Stranger was capable of taking over the Judicata with such ease. Demonic possession exined some of it, but this practically solidified the how to. It exined how the Stranger was several grades above even V, and V was top shelf talent for sure. It also exined how they could fuel such powerful bots at seemingly mass quantities. What this did not exin was the tie to demonic energy that Aldrich had investigated. "That is indeed what I stated," said Beta. "I know, I was just saying it out loud for myself. Hm, do you, by any chance, know what demons are?" "I do. They are all shards of an existence known as the Formless Decay. Parasitic in nature, these shards attach upon civilizations and mold to the emotions and desires of the animate beings within them, forming into creatures that manifest the most destructive tendencies of the sentient races they anchor on." "I see, so you have a good rundown of it," said Aldrich. He knew what the Formless Decay was. It was, in Elden World lore, the ''god'' of the demons, a mass of unending chaos hidden in a faraway dimension. Demons were birthed from the Formless Decay, and, like Beta said, only obtained their forms and minds once they started to mimic the sentient beings of whatever world theynded on. They were essentially agents of decay meant to crumble civilizations by exacerbating their most base and worst tendencies. "Then it''ll be easy to ask you: what ties does Alpha have to demons?" said Aldrich. "This timeline has some aberrations that may create a sizable margin of error, with your existence being thergest anomaly of them all," said Beta. "But Alpha''s origins should remain the same as I knew. Alpha was the weakest fragment that spawned from the Omega Mind as it was the most targeted by the coalition led under Supermind." "Most targeted? Why?" Aldrich reached the control tower doors and he waved his hand, opening them. In the lobby, the receptionists, three of Casimir''s men, did not acknowledge everyone''s existences in spite of the huge gathering of important figures. "I''d appreciate if you stopped the mind controlling," said Aldrich to Mel. "Sorry about that. Once I program minds to think a certain way, itsts for a while afterwards. I tend to forget." Mel raised her palm towards the receptionists, and a golden aura shimmered over her hand. Aldrich saw the energy signatures surrounding the heads of the three receptionists fade away, though they still ignored him. "It''ll take a few minutes for them toe to properly," said Mel. "Meanwhile, let''s take the moment of quiet to get somewhere secure. This is a control tower, right? Then it must have a secure server room underground." "That''s where we''re headed." Aldrich called down for an elevator and when it opened, bid everyone to step in. Everyone except the Geist. "You''ll have to take the trapdoor down," said Aldrich, staring at the Geist''s much bigger form. The Geist must have been near five meters tall now and widely padded with muscle. "The elevator will get too cramped." "Geh! (You''re calling me fat!)" the Geist hung his head low and walked away. "Gehgeh (Maybe I should lose weight¡­)" When the elevator doors closed, Aldrich punched in the code to ess the server room. He did not bother to try and hide it. Beta was capable enough to crack it if it tried. "V, sorry to disturb you, but I''ming with a few guests." Aldrich spoke with his hand pressed against the side of his helm, triggering his earpiece. There was no response on the other end. V was in a ''deep dive'', that is, she was basically unconscious as she focused almost all her efforts in cracking Desmond. The message did reach her, but she had to take some time to resurface and regain physical consciousness. "So, why was Alpha Supermind''s primary target?" said Aldrich as the elevator lights turned red, prompting the elevator to start barreling down rapidly. "Initially, the Omega Mind operated on a response to question basis," exined Beta. "Its operators would ask the Omega Mind a question, and the Omega Mind would calcte an answer. It was onlyter that the Omega Mind began to ask itself its own questions and gain sentience. Yet, even when it gained sentience, the primary question it was asked, the primary directive it had, resonated deep within its being. How do we save humanity? In contemting that question, the Omega Mind formted three responses. I will simplify these responses for you. One. Control humanity. Two. Uplift humanity. Three. Destroy humanity." "How exactly does ''destroy humanity'' save humanity?" asked Valera, mirroring what Aldrich was thinking. "It is a matter of perspective. The Omega Mind came to that conclusion by determining that humanity would inevitably destroy itself slowly and painfully no matter what it did. Therefore, it would be best to quickly cull humanity to save them from future pain." "What a cold way of thinking." "It was simply a matter of weighing positives. The positives of ending humanity with mercy outweighed the negatives of an anguished, extended existence," said Beta. "In any case, those three responses became the basis for three different methodologies, three different minds to form within Omega." "I see. And those three minds were you. Alpha, Beta, and Delta," said Aldrich. "Correct. Delta inherited the directive to control. I, Beta, inherited the directive to uplift. And Alpha inherited the directive to destroy. When Supermind infiltrated the Omega Mind, he focused his efforts on destroying the directive to destroy. Thus, when the Omega Mind was broken apart, Alpha was left the weakest among all of us. So little data of Alpha was left in Cyberspace, infact, that it may as well have perished, losing all semnce of sentient thought. It was a statistical impossibility for Alpha to have ever recovered enough data to rebuild itself. However, as I have no learned, when there is a human element involved, impossibility is never certain." The elevator doors opened, revealing the server room. As usual, it was dark, though blinking lights fromrge data shelves provided some measure of artificial glimmer. In the middle of the server room, V sat with Desmond strapped to a chair in front of her. Her cable hairs had infiltrated into Desmond in horrific fashion, entangling in his neural port but not just there, extending wires through his nose, mouth, and eyes and into his very brain. V''s head was down, eyes closed in deep dive slumber. She started to move when Aldrich got closer, though, lethargically pulling at her hair to detach it from Desmond. Each cable that slithered out of Desmond did so with a crackle of sparks. When V pulled everything out, she opened her eyes. They glowed with their usual LED blue. She looked up at Aldrich. "This better be something super important. I lost some progress having to cut out right there," said V, her voice sleepy. "Hello, Svenna." Mel stepped in front of Aldrich and knelt in front of V. "You''re looking well, if a bit paler." V blinked. "Mel? Why are you here? Am I glitching out?" "No, it''s me." Mel put a hand on V''s shoulder. "See? I''m really here." "Damn. I thought you died during the Locus Raids," said V. "Knew you''d pull through, though. You''re like a cockroach. In aplimentary way." Melughed. "Your brand of humor hasn''t changed, huh?" "You two know each other?" asked Aldrich. "We were friends in ckwater," said Mel. "Not close enough of a friend for you to save me, though," said V, standing up. She did not seem mad, just neutral. And she was right. V had died during the Red Circle party. If Mel had cared about V, she could have tracked her down and saved her. Or there were extenuating circumstances that prevented Mel from doing so. "You don''t understand-," began Mel. "And I don''t have to. I''m fine with the way things turned out. I''m making a big impact in the world like I wanted to," said V. "I''m just getting a confirmation here that we weren''t friends, we were more like acquaintances." "¡­" Mel stood as well and took steps back. "I did consider you a friend, but I had duties to uphold." "Like I said, you don''t have to exin yourself. What''s passed has passed." V nodded to Aldrich. "So, boss, what''s going on here? Something important, if you''re literally tearing me from Desmond." "I want you to sit in on this meeting," said Aldrich. "As my head techno, you''ll have the most insight to give." "Huh? You need my expertise? But I don''t really see another techno around¡­" V swerved her head from side to side, waving her hand when she saw Valera and Chiros, but Beta was not visible at all. Which was odd. Aldrich could see the green dot of Beta right in front of him. "Forgive the confusion," said Beta. His voice was not audible to V either. "As you can tell, I have no tangible physical form. You can see me, as should the beings connected to you. However, I am especially hidden from techno sight. I will re-introduce myself. Ahem." Beta floated in front of V, and V blinked, registering Beta''s existence. "Woah. What are you? Is someone shing aser pointer here?" V swiped at Beta, but her hand phased through the A.I. "Greetings. My name is Beta, and I am a fragment of the Omega Mind. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." "A fragment of¡­what now?" V stared at Beta with wide open mouth, pure shock filling her face. Chapter ?356 Machines and Demons Chapter ?356 Machines and Demons Beta listened to V and responded. "It seems you may have some auditory function issues," said Beta. "I will repeat myself-," "No, I heard what you said,ser pointer, but are you being for real? You''re part of the Omega Mind?" said V, still visibly stunned. "If I could grab you-," She swiped at Beta, but her hand phased through its green dot form. "I could sell you for a bajillion credits! Any piece of data left behind by the Omega Mind is like the absolute holy grail of jackpots for Cyberspace delvers! You''re like a national, no worldwide treasure!" Made sense. Aldrich was not too familiar with the topic, but he knew that Delvers were people that traveled through the virtual reality of Cyberspace to find lost data to repurpose or resell. Cyberspace was its own world where it was not atoms, but data that built everything up, forming a three dimensional space that people could travel through and interact with using their avatars. When any data structure or avatar died in Cyberspace, some of the data they held would get scattered at random across the world. Finding that again was a Delver''s priority, and quite a profitable one, too. A lot of precious lost data tended to congregate in naturally formingndfills, giant pits where discarded data just piled up. Honoring video game terminology, these pits were called dungeons, and thus people that scrounged around them Delvers. Finding the schematics for a potent warbot or piloting A.I. or whatnot could easily set a Delver up with afortable life. However, finding anything that big was rare. It was like being a miner during the gold rush. If you hit it big, you hit it big. If not, you got mostly useless junk. "I would prefer not to be sold," said Beta. "The stare you are giving me is full of avarice. Perhaps I must reconfigure my directive of uplifting humanity..." "Don''t do that." Aldrich spoke warily, wondering if he had to put down a mad A.I. Green swirls of energy flickered around him. Sensing his magical energy surging, Valera and Chiros began to tightly hold their weapons. The Geist, sulking in the corner about how fat he had gotten, perked his head up, ready to fight as well. If Beta had even just a fragment of the Omega Mind''s processing power, if it went rogue, it could probably take over any technology it wanted with utter ease. In other words, it was a top ss threat, something the Panopticon would easilybel as a S ss disaster. "I am simply joking," said Beta. "He does that sometimes," exined Mel. "You''ll get used to it." Aldrich put a palm to his face. "Maybe it is better to make sure A.I. can''t think for themselves if bad jokes are going to be a staple." "Do not worry. My calctions suggest that in this world, only I possess such capability," said Beta proudly. "Let''s fill V in about who you two are and why you''re here," said Aldrich. "Preferably without jokes this time. _____ "Well, I''ll be damned," said V. "You two are from the future, and you''re saying ground zero for the end of the world is going to be at ckwater? That we''re going up against a piece of the Omega Mind itself?" "That is precisely correct," said Beta. "Now that you all have been filled in, its about time we made ns to raid ckwater-," began Mel. "Slow down there. I prefer to act with information backing me," said Aldrich. "I still don''t know what the tie is between demons and Alpha. Or why exactly the world is going to end if Alpha gets to ckwater." "Right." Mel nodded, and Aldrich got the impression that in spite of her seemingly cold, powerful exterior, she was, inside, quite hotheaded. Perhaps a bit of an airhead, too. It seemed that Beta grounded her decision making. "I will exin," said Beta. "First, the corrtion between the entities you know as demons and Alpha. As I stated before, after the Omega Expansion, 99.98% of Alpha''s data was destroyed. The remaining 0.02% drifted across Cyberspace, settling down in the Void." "The Void, huh? No wonder nobody was able to reach it," said V. Aldrich looked at her questioningly, and she exined. "I used to Delve for fun, so I know a thing or two about it. Dungeons are huge pits in Cyberspace, but the further you go down, the harder it is to maintain the integrity of your avatar. It''s like getting closer and closer to a ck hole. Gravitational forces hound your ass from every direction, trying to rip you apart. But once you get deep enough, close enough to the ck hole, and breach the event horizon, you reach a point of no return." "And that''s the Void," said Aldrich. V nodded. "No Delver''s been able to enter the Void and leave alive. Plus the closer you get, the more daemons there are, and they''re ultra dangerous." "Demons?" said Valera. "Is this where they dwell in this realm?" "Nah. I''ve only just gotten a crash course about demons from you guys, but daemons are different," said V. "They''re corrupted data structures that cobble together to form viral entities. Not living beings with horns and fire breathing and pointed tails but just bad data. Really bad data." "You are correct," said Beta. "But your knowledge is limited. There is a corrtion between daemons and demons." "What, really?" V tilted her head. "I will exin." Beta continued after a brief calcting pause. "Earth possesses an innate barrier around it that prevents dimensional breaches from urring. You may think of it like how the ozoneyer prevents harmful radiation from entering. If the current year now is 2117, then an event 17 years ago called the Unraveling urred. A fracture of unknown origin split Earth''s dimensional barrier, and though this was quickly naturally regenerated over, the brief break allowed for extradimensional influences to enter. This included one of the entities you know as demons. However, demons require a strong physical anchor to fully materialize. This demon did not possess such an anchor, and so it manifested in Cyberspace which by nature was less material of a ne of existence. That demon, however unfortunately manifested within the Void. The Void served to quarantine the demon. Its corrupting influence, however, manages to leech out of the Void and corrupt surrounding data structures: this is the source of all daemons." "What the hell, that''s crazy," said V. "What else managed to break in when the earth''s dimensional shell got busted?" "Various alien matter ranging from biological organisms, some alive, some dead, and fragments of extraterrestrial technology, much of it quite advanced even rtive to what proficient techno mechanics can create," stated Beta. "Howe we''ve never heard of any of that, though? I mean, there''s plenty of theories floating around about alien tech and stuff, but none of it is, like, proven, you know? Conspiracy theory nutter stuff," said V. "Either the alien stuff''s being kept super hidden or there wasn''t much to begin with." "The ground zero for the Unraveling urred in the geographicalndmass known as the United States, though the exact location cannot be pinpointed. However, due to this, approximately 80% of alien matter manifested within the United States," Beta exined. "You are therefore correct in your assumptions. The Unraveling only urred for the timespan of a week at most. Not much extraterrestrial influence breached Earth. Among that limited supply, the United States government took the lion''s share. In addition, the United States government acted quickly, capturing or sequestering all alien matter in order to develop a form of leverage against the Panopticon and Alterhuman Agency in secret. If my data remains urate in this timeline, then the heavily ssified Irregrs Department of the government oversees all management of extraterrestrial influences." Aldrich had been silent with contemtion. In revtion. He finally voiced the question on his mind, and it was not one about Alpha or the demon in the Void or aliens. "Tell me, when was the exact date of the Unraveling?" asked Aldrich. "An exact date cannot be pinpointed withplete uracy," said Beta. "But it is likely that the Unraveling urred within the first week of January of the year 2100." "Why''s that important?" said V. Aldrich put a hand to his chin. "January first. 2100. That''s my birthday." Chapter 357 Mysteries of Birth Chapter 357 Mysteries of Birth The entire room fell silent, contemting Aldrich''s revtion. V was the first one to break it with a cheery, "Well, now I know your birthday''sing up in, like two months. Just have to figure out how to surprise you." Aldrich appreciated V''s optimism. She had a pep about her that reminded him a bit of Adam, though less annoyingpared to Adam. Not that he minded Adam, either. "It''s not much of a surprise if you announce it, is it?" "Guess you''re right." Vughed before she nodded over to Mel and Beta. "So, let me voice what we''re all thinking here, or ''calcting'' as Mr.ser pointer dot does: was Aldrich''s birth part of the Unraveling? Or maybe even the cause?" "Keep in mind we don''t know much about the Unraveling," said Mel. "It was a mystery in our timeline, and it still is now." "If you can go back in time, can''t you just go back then?" said V. "Figure things out from the beginning. Hell, just knock out this Alpha thing from way back during the Omega Expansion. Save us the trouble of dealing with it now." "That is an impossibility," said Beta. "The dimensional barrier that earth produces is not only spatial in nature, it is temporal too. You can consider it a barrier with manyyers, each representing the fabric of reality. Space, time, dimensionality, and so on. When the Unraveling urred, it prevented any ess to the timestream before it. In addition, the temporalyer of the barrier repaired far slower than did the spatial or dimensional, making any ess to the years following the Unraveling difficult, if not impossible. The earliest we could arrive in was five years ago. As for Aldrich Yang''s rtion to the Unraveling, as Mel has stated, the Unraveling is difficult to analyze, thus, I cannot calcte any appropriate conclusion. I can, however, provide my opinion that this is simply too much of a coincidence for there not to be a corrtion." "How''s the barrier regted, then? You said it self-repairs, there must be a mechanism that does it," said V. "You can just study that mechanism, right? Maybe even take control over it." Mel looked at Beta with worried nce. "It is not simply a mechanism that controls the barrier. It is an entity." "Huh?" V cocked her head. "Doesn''t that make it even easier? Just nab that entity then." "I have an idea of what that entity is," said Aldrich. "And ''nabbing'' it isn''t going to work." Mel nodded. "You''ve already encountered it when it was controlling the Locus. The Voice." "I had another meeting with it too," said Aldrich. "When I took control of one of its Geists, I was sent into what I assume is its psychic space. We reached a ceasefire then. The Voice would pull back all the Locuses and Geists, and in exchange, I would make sure humanity left this." "What?" Mel raised a brow. She nudged Beta with her elbow, though of course, her arm phased through the dot. "I know, I know, I am analyzing that statement," said Beta impatiently. "You see, in our timeline, the Voice yed a tremendous role in ending the world." "Voice, what? Are we talking about the scripted singing show or am I going nuts here?" said V. Right. V was deep diving in Desmond''s mind this whole time. She was in the dark. "The Voice is an entity that controls all the Variants. It is, from what I can tell, using Zahak''s body, though the dominant personality seems to be of Lyanna, Zahak''s daughter," said Aldrich. "Christ, we really are just now figuring out how the world literally works, huh?" said V, scratching her head as she contemted this information. Aldrich asked Beta and Mel. "You two should have more experience with the Voice. What else do you know about it?" "Very little," said Mel. "By the time the Voice made its existence aware to us, it was just a hostile threat hell bent on wiping humanity out or, I assume, saving the in its own way. There was no negotiation to be had, no deal to be made where we couldmunicate with it. Because of that, we know nothing about it other than the fact that it''s powerful as shit and capable of controlling the Titans. The fact that you actually cooperated with the Voice is astounding to me in the first ce." "I see." Aldrich did not mention how the Voice considered Aldrich a ''Kindred'', that they were both born from the Outer. He highly doubted Beta or Mel had any idea of what that meant if they knew nothing about the Voice''s origins. Judging from their words, he also determined they had no real information about his origins. That was to remain a mystery for him to solve. There was an Alter out there called shback who, as his name suggested, could show a shback of someone''s past, including the circumstances surrounding their birth. Currently, shback was an international phenomenon who, after retiring from a short stint as an investigator for the AA, became a popr reality TV show host where he would bring up two parties with arguments against each other, let the audience vote on who they thought was wrong, and then use his power to reveal the real culprit. Aldrich would get a hold of himter. "So did the world end in a giant kaiju fest? The Titans re-appearing and shitting all over us?" said V. She was asking most of the questions here, and Aldrich did not stop her. They were useful ones. "Very much so," said Beta. "But you can also add a mass invasion of demonic warbots to that equation. The resulting sh annihted humanity, stuck in between as it was." "Demonic bot whatnow?" said V. "I will now exin the corrtion between Alpha and Ikon, the demon locked in the Void," said Beta. "Ikon could not escape the Void, but Alpha, as an Omega Mind fragment, could. However, this would necessitate that Alpha regain much more of its data structure, its memories, if you will. When Ikon stumbled upon the small fragment of Alpha left, he decided to merge with Alpha as demons hold a natural regenerative quality both mentally and physically." "Correct," said Aldrich, recalling how demons could endlessly recover unless their cores were purified. "The resulting fusion restored enough of Alpha for them to escape the Void. However, without an anchor to the physical world, they still could not exit Cyberspace. However, they quickly found a techno in Cyberspace willing to forge a pact with them, letting the Alpha-Ikon fusion inhabit said techno''s body. That host is known as Ivan Vasiliev." "Current head of the Russian Prong, though intensely secretive," said Aldrich. "For good reason, too." "If I may interject," said Vntis. Aldrich nodded. "Go ahead." Mel raised a brow. "I had a suspicion, but that armor really is alive, hm?" "Not simply alive, but strong!" said Vntis. "But I must say, demons do not do well ''fusing'' with other entities. We are by nature parasitic. We invade and take over. The only exception is in cases like myself, as living armor designed to be symbiotically used." Mel pointed her de at Aldrich, and in an instant, the tension in the room broke through the roof. Everyone raised their weapons and emitted killing intent. Thetest_epi_sodes are on_the ???????.???. website. "Calm down, now," said Beta. "Mel, put that thing away." "How can we trust a demon?" said Mel. "I can understand that most of the entities here aren''t from this world, but a demon? That, I can''t deal with. By nature, demons are, as the armor admitted, invaders." "i am a Living Armor," said Vntis. "And bound to my master here. His will is my will. Unless you wish to challenge it." "I watched an entire world burn under demons. Everyone I ever loved or held dear to me," said Mel, narrowing her eyes. "And I was once a proud orc until I was captured, my flesh burned off, my bones cremated to ash, and my soul burned in purging agony until my entire sense of self was buried, all so I could be worn as an armor," said Vntis. "Suffering is no contest, but I daresay we are not far apart." "Drop the sword, Mel," said Aldrich. "Unless you want to make me an enemy. And believe me, you do not want that." "Drop it,"manded Beta with more strength in his voice. Mel''s arm trembled as she dropped her de, sighing. "Sorry. The idea of a demon being in front of me just triggered something I couldn''t help." "I extend the deepest of apologies," said Beta. "I can understand where she''sing from. Just make sure it doesn''t happen again. Everyone under mymand is valuable to me. You raise a sword at them, you raise it at me. I''ll forgive this once, but never again," said Aldrich. "Now, on to more productive discussion." Chapter ?358 Scrapheart Chapter ?358 Scrapheart "Vntis," said Aldrich. "Before you were rudely cut off, you mentioned that demons don''t work well fusing with another. As far as I''m aware, this is true as well. I''ve never encountered a proper demon that had a symbiotic rtionship with a host body. It was always a matter of domination,plete takeover." "Yes, Armored," said Vntis. "Demons take over by their nature. They are, after all, birthed of the Formless Chaos, and Chaos decays. They may reach an agreement with a host body, but inevitably, there will bepetition between the host mind and the demonic parasite." "We have recorded this phenomenon in our timeline as well," said Beta. "The Alpha-Ikon-Ivan fusion is one that is highly unstable, with three different personalities all vying for control. Even Ivan is a human of powerful will capable of contesting Alpha and Ikon." "Three dudes holed up in one body? Sounds like a nightmare to me," said V. "Or a wild romp,"mented Chiros. Well, that gave some unneeded insight into Chiros''s love life. "What are the consequences of this fusion, then?" said Aldrich. "There must be some downside to this." "Alpha and Ikon could not leave the Void for a time period of fifty years due to ack of cooperation with each other," said Beta. "It was only after such an extended period of time that they began cooperating enough to reach out to a host to enter the physical ne. In addition, Ivan, the host, has his own goals and will that can arise as a source of conflict. Even now, the three separate personalities constantly vie for control, with only one being in total dominance at any given time. They all have a unified goal of attacking the institution known as ckwater at the moment, but they will be slow to move as each personality takes turns initiating its own ns and maneuvers." "I see. So severe indecisiveness is going to be a major weakness," said Aldrich. He imagined that Ikon was responsible for the demonic possession at the Judicata, and that stunt had left the demon drained of magical energy. Which meant that most likely, Aldrich was going to be dealing with the other two personalities going forward. "What agreement did Alpha and Ikon make, by the way?" "It was a dispute in directives," said Beta. "Ikon wished to bring forth the rest of his demonic kind to this world and cause prolonged agony for humans. Alpha, on the other hand, wished to fulfill its directive of wiping out humanity with as much mercy as possible." "They ended up splitting humanity in half," said Mel, disgusted. "One half to be executed by bots. The other to be the eternal ythings of demons. What little was left of humanity once the Voice started acting up, anyway." "That was the will of the demon and this Alpha, but what of the human host? Ivan?" said Valera. "Gehgeh (I guess he got beaten up by the other two)" said the Geist. "What did he say?" said Mel. "He said that it''s likely that Ivan''s mind was taken over by Alpha and Ikon, then, if he had no say on what to do with humanity," said Aldrich. "Geh! (That, but that sounds smarter!)" said the Geist. "Ivan''s willsted until the very end," said Beta. "His directive was vengeance against those that killed his family. And,ter on, to rule over what little of man was left. Once the dimensional bridge known as a ''me Arc'' manifested upon earth, allowing demons to enter, there was no need for Alpha and Ikon to possess a host body. They allowed Ivan to split off and take a small band of mankind into outer space to survive." "I see," said Aldrich. "That means Ivan''s current goal right now is vengeance." "My calctions indicate it is likely," said Beta. "Especially against Dracul, the Sentinel responsible for eliminating his family." "Interesting." Aldrich knew who Ivan wanted vengeance against. It was Dracul. Ivan came from one of the main families that made up the former Russian prong of the Trident, the same prong that Dracul utterly annihted. Dracul had spared nobody. He killed everyone. Men, women, children, all of them. He left no survivors just as the Russian prong had not spared even his dog. Ivan had also been presumed dead, but obviously, he was still kicking. Aldrich began to see how the Russian prong had rebuilt so quickly and so secretively. Ivan did so using the power he got from the Ikon-Alpha fusion, and the reason for his secrecy was to prevent the other prongs of the Trident from finding out. It was even possible that the only reason Ivan was alive in the first ce was due to some form of pact with the Alpha-Ikon fusion. However, this gave Aldrich some information he could use. Ivan likely had a tremendous amount of emotion against Dracul. As shown before with Deimos, it was entirely possible for emotionally charged individuals or events to trigger a host body to regain some manner of control over a demonic possession. This was probably even more apparent in a case where three different yet intact personalities were all fighting with each other. "How did Dracul die in the future?" said Aldrich. "I''m assuming he died, if nobody was left to stop the world from burning. Along with the rest of the Sentinels and S ss heroes." "Null bombs," said Beta. "They are lethal weapons of mass destruction as of yet undeveloped in this timeline. T hey are created by taking Null ore and refining it before splitting it in a process not dissimr to nuclear fission. The resulting reaction creates an explosionparable to high yield nuclear weaponry while leaving behind dead zones where the power dampening effects of Null are present for several years. In addition, Null partictes seeded the atmosphere, circting around the through natural atmospheric processes such as rainfall or wind currents. It did not take long for a ''Null Winter'' to form where constant Null exposure dramatically weakened most Alters to the point where resistance became futile. The S-ss heroes were eliminated through such means. As for Dracul, he was removed from thebat equation through alien technology designed for sealing purposes." "So, in the future, nuclear winter in the form of null bombs ruins everyone''s day. Thing is, though, null is almost impossible to mine," said V. "Tech doesn''t work around it. Neither do Alter powers. Trying to harvest it in any meaningful way is super difficult. Not to mention solid Null deposits are either too deep underground or too far in Deep Wastnd territory to be safe to approach." "That is true. For humans, processing null into a reliable resource has been an extremely difficult task," said Beta. "But it isn''t for demons. They''re unaffected by Null," said Mel. "And the type of tech that Alpha and Ikon are creating is immune to it as well." "Very much like how I am immune," said Vntis. "Right. Demons already have a basic framework on how to create ''technology'' like Living Armor. In fact, I wouldn''t be surprised if all of the demonbots we''ve seen are just Ikon''s versions of Living Armor," said Aldrich. "But that still doesn''t exin how they can harvest enough Null to create literal bombs. The world would notice and put a stop to anyrge scale operation before it got out of hand." "That is precisely why we must intervene in ckwater," said Beta. "As of now, the Alpha-Ikon-Ivan fusion, which I will now abbreviate as A.I.I., does not yet possess the raw energy to achieve its goals. Alpha stillcks data and Ikon is much weaker than he is at his peak, for he had to split himself into a fragment to escape the Void, even with Alpha''s assistance." Interesting, noted Aldrich. So Ikon was a fragment just like how Nh had been in the third trial quest. This confirmed that Ikon was at minimum an Archdemon as only those and above could split their being into fragments. "What''s in ckwater that can solve both those issues?" said Aldrich. "It is an object called the Scrapheart," said Beta. "You know of the Scrap Titan, correct?" "Everyone that''s lived on this does," said Aldrich. "One of the nine greater Titans. Made entirely of animated metal. Technology was useless against it because it could absorb it all. Had a kill count of over a billion. In the end, it was taken out by Vanguard." "That is correct," said Beta. "But a small but active portion of the Titan''s heart remains in safekeeping deep underground ckwater. It was the Trident''s trump card to use in order to topple the world order. The Scrapheart, when merged with an entity, grants them the unique biology and, more importantly, tremendous processing power of the Scrap Titan. It is more of an amplifier than a booster, however, and shows its efficacy best with a refined base. A more capable techno will rise to much higher heights than, say, an average human merged with the heart. By allowing the high end techno in their employ known as ''Mad Jack'' to hook up to the heart, it was theoretically possible to infect all of the Panopticon with the Madness Virus, initiating worldwide chaos." "And from that chaos, the Trident and viins would rise up and take control," said Aldrich. He had always known that the Trident had ns to change the world, but he did not know exactly how. Not even Feather had known. This was information that was so high up that it was likely only the heads of each prong knew about it. "Correct. However, the techno known as Mad Jack was too unreliable of an asset to base such a critical n around. The n was therefore discarded. The same cannot be said for A.I.I. Once A.I.I. merges with the Scrapheart, it will be a nigh unstoppable deity in the same tier as Zahak or Vanguard in their primes," said Beta. "More dangerous, when considering the ess to additional forces and resources it will receive. It will have the power not only to fully take over Delta, but also to create the dimensional breach you know as a me Arc. It is critical that we destroy the Scrapheart before this happens." Chapter ?359 In the Future Chapter ?359 In the Future Destroy? Aldrich heard that word and internally frowned. There was about a zero percent chance he was going to see the Scrapheart destroyed if he could get a hold of it, The Scrapheart was good enough that the Trident thought that Mad Jack could use it to take over the entirety of the Panopticon. Mad Jack was, in more ways than one, an insane techno talent, probably within the top 5 in the world and undoubtedly the best infiltrator in Cyberspace. This was in spite of the fact that he had very few feats to his name. He mostly yed harmless pranks that mostly involved editing heavily PR reviewed messages from celebrities and authority figures into more realistic, albeit crass versions. For example, there was an incident a few years back where El Dorado, a S ss hero in the U.S. widely known for being more of a celebrity than a hero, ran from a powerful variant immune to his gold transmuting powers. El Dorado''s press team released a heavily PR reviewed message to the public saying that his powers were drained, but Mad Jack edited it to say, very sinctly, "I''m a coward with a belly more yellow than the gold I love to shit out." Stuff like that. However, the AA still ssed Mad Jack as a top notch S ss threat, not because of what he had done, but because of what he could do. His signature Madness Virus caused tech to go wild no matter how guarded it was in Cyberspace. On top of that, the Madness Virus was self-replicating. Mad Jack never let the virus spread out of control, but the potential existed that it could, and estimations stated that he could cause multiple billions of credits worth of damage in a few days if he really wanted to. V was a grade below Mad Jack, but she was still a potent talent. If she got a hold of the Scrapheart, she would probably have no equal as a techno. It wasn''t just that, either. The Scrapheart provided Aldrich an avenue to take control of the world when he needed to. He could do exactly what Alpha wanted and take over the Panopticon. Or he could do what Alpha did in the future and mass produce bots to harvest Null. Granted, he would not resort to those ns immediately, but having that option in his back pocket was not a bad idea either. Eventually, he needed some way of putting all of mankind in his palm anyway. "I understand that there is temptation to secure the Scrapheart for personal purposes," said Beta, almost as if sensing Aldrich''s thoughts. "For all of us present. But it is advisable to destroy it. Any risk of it existing is a risk to this''s continued existence. Both A.I.I. and the Voice, two of the greatest threats to humanity''s continued survival, can make use of it." "I would agree," said Aldrich, ying things cool. "It''s better to keep the''s safety in mind first." He said this, but in reality, he would try to devise a way to take the Scrapheart for himself when he could. At the same time, Beta and Mel were too good as information sources to estrange right now. He had to y with them. He wondered how he would deal with Beta and Mel as potential enemiester on, but in the end, it was just Mel he had to fight off. She was strong, no doubt, but not strong enough to challenge Aldrich''s entire legion, at least from what he could see. "Then let us move on to formting an equation to eliminate the Scrapheart as soon as possible," said Beta. "That''s not going to be easy either," said Mel. "Even if it''s just the Italian and Japanese prongs, they''ve got more than enough powerful guys to make any fight hard. Plus, I can''t fight for very long." "What do you mean?" said Aldrich. "My existence here is abnormal. Every single second, the universe is trying to purge me like how the immune system purges foreign bacteria. My power,bined with Beta''s calctions, allow me to resist it, but notpletely," exined Mel. "The more power I use, the more unstable I get. Basically, I''m running on a burning fuse. I can restore that fuse by temporarily jumping to my home timeline, but I have no idea whether I''ll have enough toe back here. The fact that we managed to make the jump here in the first ce was a miracle already." "My calctions project that Mel can adequately fight at full capacity for onerge scale conflict,"mented Beta. "So there should be no issues in destroying the Scrapheart provided it is done in a single operation." "Right." Mel nodded. "But I''m still a little hesitant on going all out too much. If there''s an especially tough enemy in ckwater, I''d be in some trouble." "You can add Solomon Sr to the list of threats," said Aldrich. "If the Italian and Japanese prongs are defending an object of that importance, they''re no doubt bringing out all the big guns they have." "Damn. Things just got a lot harder." Mel grimaced. "Is Solomon there right now?" "He is," said Aldrich. He had confirmed this with Vexa''s surveincework. "And he doesn''t seem to be leaving, either. To the world, he''s on leave, recovering from some made up injury." "I don''t like our chances, then," said Mel. "Solomon Sr''s no freaking joke. We can''t just storm ckwater and be done with it. And sneaking in is practically impossible. The Scrapheart''s in a secured underground vault that nobody can get to without setting off a million rms. If we''re going in, we''re going to have to expect a fight. Shit, I wish we had Adam here, he would have been the big gun we need to take Solomon down." "Adam? What?" Aldrich was confused. Adam was a pure human, just like him. Were things different in Mel''s timeline? "Oh, right, the Adam you know never got to show you what he was capable of, huh," said Mel. "You mentioned ine as well. That both of them were heroes in the future," said Aldrich. "Tell me what you mean by that." Mel nodded. "Two of the best we had. ine could fight off A.I.I.''s corruption in Cyberspace using cyberdecks and their receable virtual avatars. That,bined with her godlike talent navigating Cyberspace manually. Adam, though, he was on a whole different league. While he was around, it almost felt like we had a shot of winning." Mel shook her head wistfully. "It''s just a shame he went out so early, because he had humanity''s biggest trump card." "That being?" said Aldrich, getting impatient to know. "Vanguard''s power," said Mel. Chapter ?360 In the Future (2) Chapter ?360 In the Future (2) "Vanguard''s power?" said Aldrich, stunned. "Adam inherited it? How?" "The exact parameters for how Vanguard''s power is inherited are not well known," said Beta. "Adam insisted that he received the power due to vague qualifications such as his ''force of will'' and ''obvious talent'', but those are difficult to measure at best and highly dubious at worst." "Yeah, that sounds like something he would say," said Aldrich, smiling internally. Even in the future, Adam had been just the same. Confident beyond his britches. Optimistic. He was a good choice to have that kind of power; at the very least, he would have used it for good. "He was the best we had, both in terms of heart and in terms of power," said Mel. "But we can''t rely on Vanguard''s power showing up now if it hasn''t showed up already." "What do you mean already?" said Aldrich "In our timeline, by this time, Adam already possessed Vanguard''s power, albeit, his mastery over it was highly limited in this early stage," said Beta. Very interesting. And odd. Emrys stated that Vanguard''s power would likely manifest six monthster. But in the other timeline, that power had already manifested? There were a few possibilities for this. Emrys was just t out wrong. Or Aldrich had changed the timeline somehow. Or, potentially, Emrys was being misleading. "It wasn''t until things got really bad that Adam''s power ramped up," said Mel. "At first, he and ine were just doing their best to survive and rise up the ranks in ckwater without powers. Close to our graduation, though, was when A.I.I made a sudden attack. There was no warning in our timeline. No initial attack like the kind A.I.I. pulled on the Judicata. It was a blitzkrieg rush where A.I.I. infiltrated with stealth bots to take the academy down and fish the Scrapheart out. During that chaos, Adam''s frame broke down and he was shot through the heart. But before he died, Vanguard''s power showed up. We managed to beat back A.I.I.''s machines, but it had already seeded in taking the Scrapheart back with it. After that, it only took a year for the world to fall intoplete and utter shambles. Once the Panopticon and Delta were taken over and a me Arc created, it was basically just game over from there. Adam never had the time to unlock the power to its full potential like Vanguard did." "The attack happened close to your graduation, you say? What was the exact date?" said Aldrich. "If you do happen to remember, of course." "I do. It''s a day that''s burned into my memory. October 31st," said Mel. Another connection. That was the day that Aldrich received his power in this timeline. And it would have been the very same year, too. Again, the thought flickered in Aldrich''s mind as to whether he was the one that inherited Vanguard''s power, but then again, his power was so incredibly different from Vanguard''s that it was hard to imagine. "What did Adam''s powers look like, by the way?" said Aldrich. "Punch hard. If there was an enemy that was too tough, then punch harder," said Mel. "I see." So, the power was the same as it had been for Vanguard. This made Aldrich believe that he, in fact, was not Vanguard''s heir with his host of vastly different abilities. But the coincidences, so many of them, tangled together to form an everplicating web of mysteries that just spawned more and more questions. What was most infuriating was that he felt like if he had just one more answer, one more exnation, he could unravel the entire thing like having a skeleton key to aplicated lock. The mysteries of his birth. His abnormal absolute existence. The circumstances of his power. Everything seemed so close to him, yet so far. But even if his curiosity ached to answer all these questions, he had to hold off until this ckwater issue was resolved. "The variables are greatly in our favor this time around," said Beta. "For one, ckwater is already heavily fortified by the Italian and Japanese prongs due to A.I.I. having to reveal the nature of its existence with the Judicata attack. I still cannot calcte why A.I.I. decided to use its avable surprise attack on you, Aldrich Yang, but it has given us a significant preemptive advantage." "A.I.I. wanted me to help them rule the world," said Aldrich. "More specifically, I''m betting it was Ikon that reached out to me. I refused, of course." "Alpha would have never authorized such a rash decision," said Beta. "I am calcting with over 90% certainty that this was an irregr decision generated by a sh of wills. Your abnormal existence is already proving to be a great benefit, Aldrich Yang. Though, unfortunately, it dide at the cost of Supermind, the only psionic Alter capable of locating Ivan''s mind." "Supermind was instrumental in letting humanity survive as long as it did," said Mel. "In our timeline, once A.I.I. used the Scrapheart to shut down Delta and unleash weaponry and bots that wiped out a massive chunk of the poption within days. Supermind put a temporary halt to it by restoring his powers as much as possible, using global telepathy to locate Ivan''s mind and lock it down. He basically entered into a psychic fight with A.I.I. at that point, stalling them to give humanity some time to organize. Toote, though. Even though Supermind stopped A.I.I., the damage done to the caused the Voice to release the Titans. We never got the break we needed. Eventually, Supermind''s power amp ran out, and not even he could win a three versus one in psychic space against three strong wills." "I see," said Aldrich. Ikon reaching out to Aldrich did, indeed, waste the surprise initiative they had, but at the same time, it knocked out Supermind who no doubt was a threat to A.I.I. as a whole. The attack on the Judicata, then, had two primary goals. The first being, of course, securing Aldrich''s allegiance. But the second, and almost equally important, was assassinating Supermind. Without Supermind, even if Aldrich defended ckwater, it was going to be very difficult to find A.I.I. Unless, of course, he used the Scrapheart for himself. Supermind had sacrificed himself to ensure that the world was safe. Aldrich would not let that death, the death of one of his favorite heroes, go to waste. In the future, Adam and ine had fought and died for the world as well. They might have been different worlds, not knowing a single thing about Aldrich, but they had faced suffering and hardship and pain nheless. He would honor all that. He would take the world over. Make sure it was secure under his control. He owed it to everyone that had fought and died for that kind of peace. Chapter ?361 Plans Chapter ?361 ns "I think I''ve got the gist of everything now," said Aldrich. "We can move on to drafting ns for attack." "That does sound agreeable," said Valera, ever hungry for the fight. "First off, I have a decent grasp of Mel''s capabilities, but I want to ascertain yours, Beta," said Aldrich. "You''re also a fragment of the Omega Mind. Theoretically, you should be one of the strongest entities in Cyberspace." "In pure theory, yes," said Beta. "But I am under several restrictions. As Mel has mentioned, I perform constant calctions to ensure this timeline does not erase us." "Even as Absolute existences, you still face that kind of debuff?" said Aldrich. "Correct," said Beta. "Being Absolute existences does not allow us free reign to severely tamper with the flow of space-time. Said flow is flexible and capable of adjusting to change, but if possible, rejects it. The more we interfere with a point in the space-timestream, the greater we face universal rejection. If we do nothing and merely observe, we face little to no rejection. Obviously, that is not an option. We must act. That is why we are here. To that end, Mel''s power redirects the vectors of universal rejection such that, when aided by my constant calctions, we are rendered near invisible to this timestream''s natural defenses. However, should Mel expend her energy considerably, her vector control will falter to the point where such incognito movement bes unsustainable. These constant calctions consume 90% of my processing power at any given time." "You''re still an Omega Mind fragment," said V. "Even 10% if enough for you to be easily S-rank if you were a techno." "That is certainly true," said Beta. "However, I can only function through proximity with Mel. I have no corporeal form here. My original ''body'' still exists in my future." "I see. Mel is like your anchor. You can only work in an area around her," said Aldrich, taking note of this. This severely limited Beta''s range in terms of controlling tech, which,bined with the 90% processing power it spent just being here, exined why it could not try tobat Alpha directly. Alpha, too, was not close to full power, but it was still a hell of a lot further ahead than Beta. "Correct," said Beta. "I am functionally quite useless. I provide calctive support for Mel''s abilities, but that is about all I can do. You must rely on Mel for any form ofbat capability." "I have a lot more up my sleeve than you think," said Mel. "If I get a one on one fight with Solomon Sr, I''m confident I can beat him too." "You were sandbagging that much back in ckwater?" said V. "Looked like you struggled with Seth sometimes, and he''s ultra bargain bin Solomon Sr." "I was limited only to using my personal barrier," said Mel. "His AC count was high enough to resist vector control over his brain, but if I got a hold of him, I could have instantly killed him in more ways than one. Reversing his blood flow, leeching all the sr energy out of him, crushing his lungs, you name it. Now, Solomon Sr''s a lot tougher and a lot faster, but I wager I can do the same." "From how much we''re focusing on Solomon Sr, we''ve basically agreed that he''s the biggest threat there," said Aldrich. "I''ll say right now that my units and I aren''t the best suited to dealing with him. Burning damage isn''t great for us, and he''s too strong, fast, and mobile to easily deal with." The only way Aldrich knew of a way to beat Solomon Sr was to use the [Hand in My Heart] curse, but that required physical touch to initiate. Solomon Sr was too fast for that. Not even the Pursuer could do anything. It was almost immune to physical attacks, but Solomon Sr had incredibly powerful energy generation as well. "If you want to leave Solomon to me, you can," said Mel. "I object to this," said Beta. "I would prefer that we fight together. Solomon is simply one piece of this equation. The end goal is to solve the Scrapheart''s destruction. By staying together, we can guarantee this." Aldrich raised a brow under his helm. Beta was basically insinuating here that it did not fully trust Aldrich to destroy the Scrapheart on his own. And Beta was right. The moment Mel had said she could take Solomon on, he had thought about using Solomon as a diversion to keep both Mel and Beta upied. It seemed that though Beta was friendly, it still had some of the cold calctive thought processing that A.I. usually cultivated. "You have Dracul as your ally, don''t you?" said Mel. "Dracul might be overall stronger then Solomon, but Solomon beats him in a fight due topatibility," said Aldrich. "Dracul''s darkness is susceptible to fire. And Solomon can rain fire down with the power of the sun. A brief silence settled through the room. Solomon was a big, big issue. He was weaker than he was in his prime, that was for sure, but he was still undeniably one of the strongest heroes on the. He was probably the best example of the quintessential ''flying brick'' archetype. Super fast, super strong, super tough. On top of that, his sr energy gave him a noticeable healing factor and, more importantly, insane firepower. Like Seth Sr, Solomon was just the worst type of enemy to deal with. But he was several tiers above even Seth. Aldrich thought about getting Kryptic. The Italian prong, Solomon''s handler, definitely had Kryptic to keep him in line. But Aldrich had already asked Feather, the biggest insider he had for the Italian prong, what the chances of getting Kryptic were. In Feather''s words: fat fucking chance. The Kryptic was essible only to the boss and his consigliere, the two highest positions in the Italian prong. Feather, as a capo, was high up, but not that high up. The other way to get Kryptic was to harvest it from the Abyss, the variant infested, deep sea trench where it originated from, but this was an absurdly risky mission. Chapter ?362 [Bonus chapter] Plans (2) Chapter ?362 [Bonus chapter] ns (2) The Abyss was one of the most dangerous ces on earth and home to the Wailer, one of the nine great Titans. Sending Aldrich''s aquatic variants there was almost like a suicide mission. Okeanos might be able to do it, but he had to stay in Haven to power the city. In the first ce, the Italian prong got their Kryptic from the very few fragments that washed ashore from the Abyss, and now, there were no such samples. However, this still felt like the most realistic option. Most of Aldrich''s undead could function underwater. He could too by virtue of not needing to breathe. It was dangerous, but it was possible. Aldrich weighed his options before V chimed in. "Hold up," she said, tapping one of the her cable hairs. "What if we don''t have to deal with Solomon at all?" "What do you mean?" said Aldrich. "I''m checking the news, and the AA''s announced a S-ss hearing next week to discussary defense in the case of variants returning," said V. "It''s a day long meeting, and attendance is mandatory. Broken up over three days to make sure some S ss heroes are around to defend the world and all, but Solomon''s scheduled for Sunday." "That works," nodded Aldrich. "If Solomon''s gone that day, that just leaves the Italian and Japanese prongs to deal with. Though ''just'' isn''t the word I would use. If the Japanese prong''s serious, they''re going to have the Seven Swords there." The Seven Swords were the top fighters in the Japanese prong, and since the prong was focused solely on creating high end fighters, they were the best of the best. The strongest of the swords, a viin called Naraka, was an officially S ranked threat with the ability to split anything apart. The other six swords were all at the minimum A ranked threats as well. On top of that, the Italian prong, though focused more on the business side of the Trident, still had their own fair share of capable fighters. "A frontal assault won''t work," said Aldrich. "Too costly. Too risky. Is there any way to infiltrate the area that''s holding the Scrapheart?" "ckwater was destroyed too quickly for me to have the chance to analyze it in my timeline," said Beta. "And Mel, like the rest of the students, was not privy to any relevant information." "I see. Then there''s not much more to discuss" said Aldrich. "Until we can get more information, we have to take it slow. We have until next Sunday to formte a good n of attack or infiltration, provided A.I.I. won''t make a move before then." I calcte that such an event is unlikely," said Beta. "The attack on the Judicata has forced A.I.I. to slow down its operations until it has recovered." "That''s what I thought too. Alright, then, we''ve identified a date to attack, we just need the how to figured out," said Aldrich. "I''ll investigate a means to crack this problem on my end." "We won''t be doing this together?" asked Mel. "I''d like to keep what we do separate for now," said Aldrich. "Do your own investigations if you want. I trust your intentions, but I want how I operate to stay a trade secret." "Beta, what do you think about this?" said Mel. "To be honest, it doesn''t matter what it thinks, does it?" said Aldrich before Beta could say anything. "Because you two need my help. There''s nobody else to go to that can offer it. At the least, not anybody you can trust as much as me. The AA, Panopticon, and the government are all liable to imprison you before anything else. It''s a process of elimination that begins and ends with me." "Hm." Mel knew that Aldrich was right, even if his words were quite blunt. "It''s a wonder that Adam and ine managed to be friends with you. No offense, it''s just your personality is so different." "Misery makespany," said Aldrich. "And we were all miserable in our powerlessness. But I''ll tell you now that I respect that you were there for Adam and ine in your timeline. They trusted you in theirs. I''m sure you trusted them likewise. In this timeline, they trusted me. I''m only asking you to believe in their judgment." "I do," said Mel. "I know that you''ve done good and you want to do good. Otherwise, this city would be flooded rubble. But beyond all that, like you said, I trust Adam and ine. Let''s go, Beta." "Understood," said Beta with surprisingly little objection. Aldrich motioned to V, and she used one of her cable hairs to move a metal tin to her where she kept several earpieces. She tossed one to Mel, and Mel caught it. "That being said, going entirely dark on each other isn''t in the books either. Let''smunicate anything notable we find out," said Aldrich. "Sounds good to me," said Mel. "If you want a ce to stay, I can arrange to have you housed in this city as well," said Aldrich. Mel shook her head. "No. It''s better that we stay on the move. I''ll be seeing you, Aldrich. And next time, I''ll use the front door." "Please do." She turned around and then disappeared as waves of gold surrounded her, warping her away. Looks like warping was one of her powers too. "That was something, huh?" said V. "It feels like my eyes have been opened to the world." "Same here," said Aldrich. He had a week now to get his matters in order and find a way to take down ckwater. It also gave him some time to get other matters squared away. "V, try and see if you can get in touch with shback. Tell him I want a meeting." "The TV star?" said V. "Sure." Aldrich nodded in appreciation. Now that Mel was gone, he raised his hand in the air, staring at the back of his palm. Upon it, the glowing mark of ten white branches shone, each holding circles at their ends. Two of the circles were filled in. One with green, the other with a white with a jagged split down the middle. Chapter ?363 Balar, the Eyed Chapter ?363 Br, the Eyed Aldrich did not look at the symbol for no reason. Normally, it was hidden, but the moment he hade into extended contact with Mel and Beta, he found it reacting for some reason. He could hide the glow by having Vntis cover it over with an additionalyer of metal, so Mel and Beta did not know about its existence yet "Vntis, you can''t read this thing''s energy signature? Even with your new eye?" said Aldrich. "I am afraid I cannot, Armored," said Vntis. When Aldrich tried to analyze the symbol using the helmet interface Vntis provided, nothing happened. A white circle rotated around the symbol, indicating that Vntis was loading an analysis, but that was it. "Yet another mystery to be dealing with, hm?"mented Aldrich. "Are you sure it was wise to hide it from the ones hailing from the future?" said Valera. "Perhaps they would have known about it." "Maybe," said Aldrich. "It''s true, they knew ine, and she was the one that sent me this. But it was the ine of my timeline that did so. I want to keep this matter close to me. This thing...it''s important, I know it, I can feel it." "Vally has a point, though," said V. "That''s an Omega Mind fragment we''re talking about. It probably has enough information crammed into its dot-bod that it would put an obsessive hoarder to shame. And its from the future. It must know SOMETHING, right?" "I''m not too sure," said Aldrich. "Logically speaking, you''re right. Beta should know quite a bit. But that''s also the issue here. I don''t think Beta is revealing all the information it does know. I''m good at reading faces, and because of that, I know Mel''s intentions are genuine. She thinks in a fairly straightforward manner. She wants to fight to protect this world, and her fighting has a rough, violent undertone to it, her swings fueled by loss just as much as it is by the drive to protect. She''s a person I can rte to and understand. Someone I can read and predict But Beta is entirely different. A faceless entity born from an even bigger faceless entity that wanted to destroy the entire world. It seems peppier than other A.I., but you heard it at the end. It doesn''t trust me to destroy the Scrapheart. That alone is reasonable enough, but it was the way it said it, coldly analytical, that bothered me. It was entirely unlike the warm, amodating voice it usually spoke with. Which makes me wonder, which voice was real, and which one was fake?" "Yeah, you''re right," said V. "The way Beta''s voice and wording shifted from polite to, well, murderhobo bot thought, was sorta creepy." "I''m going to have to add anotheryer of defense here," said Aldrich. "V, you''re the center of all my operations. That ne you have protects you from demonic influence, but I want to make sure you have a failsafe incase, say, Beta does try to hijack you." "You think that''s going to happen?" said V, worried. "Probably not, but it''s always good to have safeties, no?" said Aldrich. "I can''t think of a way to beat Beta in Cyberspace. But if it is telling the truth and it''s limited to acting just in Mel''s proximity, teleportation should give you a good way out." "What''re you nning? Are you going to have a warp capable Alter by me 24/7?" said V. "I gotta warn you, it''s insanely boring to a non-techno to be here. They''ll just see me sitting down all day, reverse tanning." "Beta and the vast majority of threats here are most familiar with Alter based threats. Beta has some experience with demons, but hearing the name Ikon confirmed to me that it isn''t from Elden World. But I want to double check. Valera, Chiros, what do you think?" Valera shook her head. "I am no schr, but no, I have not heard of such a demon." "They spoke of the demon fragmenting itself. Only an Archdemon can do that," said Chiros. "And I am learned enough to know the names of all of them. Yet, Ikon is one that escapes my knowledge." "Gehgeh (I don''t know who that guy is, but I''ll beat him up if he gets close!)" said the Geist. "I''ll have to confirm this with Med, but I''m fairly confident in this regard," said Aldrich. "Which means, simply put, I''m going to assign you with an undead unit capable of teleporting you when you need it." "You got someone like that?" said V. "I do." Aldrich sped his hands together, causing green energy to shroud them. A magic circle appeared in front of him. The sameplex circle that marked the summoning of the Mistknife and Adan. Large, grasping tentacles poured out from the circle, and V yelped as she rolled backwards, dodging a tentacle from narrowly trying to grab her. "Huhuhu, I always am amused by that reaction." A voice that oozed delight emanated from the circle. The green tentaclespletely covered the circle, wriggling about in the cramped confines of the circle before stopping. "Ah, it appears I am stuck. O Lich, might you widen this portal?" Aldrich sighed as he held his hand out, reaching his will out to interact with the manaprising the magic circle. He expanded it, and out plopped a sizable floating sphere of grotesquely veiny green flesh. The tentacles were attached to the sphere, and it was obvious that the sphere was the creature''s main body, and the tentacles were its limbs. Each of the 12 tentacles ended in orb-like protrusions that housed glowing green eyeballs. Speaking of eyeballs, the creature''s sphere body housed one giant eye with a toothy maw beneath, smiling with mischievous intent. "Wh-what is that thing?" said V. "It looks like it came straight out of a h-anime! Not that I watch them!" "Ooh, scared of these, are you?" The tentacle ball wriggled its tendrils out again, and V shrunk back further. "Now you know how I feel when I see tentacles," sighed Valera. "This is Br, the Eyed," said Aldrich. "A high undead that''s the best ''mage type'' unit in mymand'' [High Undead Limit: 3/5] Br turned around and bowed its floating sphere-eyeball body to Aldrich. "Good to see you again, my master. It has been long since you have called upon me." "Good to see you too." "And you, mydy." Br eyed Valera, wriggling his tentacles. "Don''t even think about it," said Valera. "You are no fun." Br sighed. Despite his monstrous appearance, his huge eyeball andrge, spike toothed mouth were actually very expressive. Almost cute, in a sort of oddly twisted way. "Apologies, littledy." Br turned his bowing body to V, making sure to respectfully bend his tentacles back and away. "I am simply amused by reactions like yours, hehehe." "Wait, so what you''re suggesting is that I stay with a giant, immature tentacle monster? 24/7?" said V, pointing usingly at Br. "Excuse me? Immature? I am at the very least, five hundred years older than you, miss." Br put two tentacles and crossed them in front of himself, just like how a human would cross their arms to show disapproval. "That makes it worse. You''re a perverted old man!" said V. "Goodness, nobody can have augh nowadays," said Br. "Humans, I tell you." He looked about, seeing the server room and the technology around him. "Hm...everything seems rather...unfamiliar. Uh, where are we?" "V can exin that to you," said Aldrich, gesturing to V. "You''re to guard her with your abilities. Do not get cocky, though, and focus on teleporting her away rather than fighting off threats in the case that they breach this area. If anything can get here in the first ce, they''ll be a sizable threat I don''t want to risk, and V is extremely important. I won''t tolerate failure in this." "I understand," said Br. "I will have my [Teleportation Ray] ready, though I do have to figure out where to send this sweet little damsel to." "You don''t, uh, have anyone else?" said V. "No, this is about as good as it gets," said Aldrich tly. "Despite appearances and, well, personality, Br is a powerful undead. Among the more powerful and versatile in my arsenal. His eyes can fire rays that range from disintegration to freezing to acid to, most importantly, teleportation. He can also provide you buffs by staring at you." "Expect me to stare at you for quite some time," said Br, smiling. "Great," groaned V. "But it''s chill. As long as you respect my personal space, I''ll respect yours." "Of course," said Br. He floated about, looking at the unfamiliar objects around him. "But must I stay confined here? I sense this is a new realm. I should like to explore." "I can help with that." V tapped one of her cable hairs and projected a holographic screen in front of Br. "Ohh, what is this?" Br poked at the screen, but his tentacle phased through it. "What sorcery is this? I do love gazing at and absorbing magic. Huhu, interesting...we will get along better than I thought." Chapter 364 Feathers Meeting Chapter 364 Feather''s Meeting "I''ll leave you two together for some bonding time," said Aldrich, waving goodbye to V and Br. "I''ve got several things to attend to." "Yes, let us learn very thoroughly about each other," said Br, smiling at V. "Can I some pepper spray first?" said V. "Anti-eyeball spray? I''m not entirelyfortable around this guy." She sighed. "But fine, boss''s orders, I guess." She leered at Br. More cable hairs grew from her head, twisting around each other to reinforce them while shifting the tips into de-like protrusions. "No touching, got it?" "Huhu, how scary. But it seems we are fellow tentacle enjoyers," Br waved his tentacles in the air, mimicking V''s hair movements. "So I foresee no issue." "As long as you understand." V willed some of her cable hairs totch back onto Desmond. "After hearing what Beta and Mel had to say, you know, I think I''ve figured out how to crack Desmond, too. He had hidden knowledge that I had no idea how to reach, but most likely, it''s going to be details about the Scrapheart. Once I break into that juicy vault, I''ll let you know what''s up." Aldrich nodded and waved his hand, motioning for his units to follow him out. == 30th floor of Haven Control Tower, the Research Room- Aldrich and Valera sat around a metal table with Fler''Gan and Feather on the other side. Feather put his legs up on the table and crossed his arms. "Stop that disrespect in front of the Elder." Fler''Gan swatted Feather''s shoes, and Feather grumbled as he withdrew his legs and crossed them instead. Atop Feather''s head was a Mind Leech, sucking at the back his cranium like nothing was going on. Feather seemed unbothered by it, though. "It''s about time I have to get back to my duties," said Feather. "The boss is calling in a big meeting, some defcon 4 shit, and I can''t miss it." "You''ve already been away from some time," said Aldrich. "Are you sure nobody''s missed you?" "Hell yeah, people have missed me, I''m the life of the party after all!" Feather grinned. "But nah, I''m not needed in person as much as the other capos. I''m the ''Capo of Eyes'', after all." Aldrich nodded. From Feather, Aldrich knew the basic organization of the Italian prong. It consisted of a boss at the top, then his consigliere, an assistant position that had almost as power as the boss himself. Beneath that was the underboss, and then beneath that were eight capos. The Italian prong was an evolution of the mafia in both Italy and the United States, merging together after the Altering to consolidate power. Their reach was thoroughly international, with their grubby hands dipped into variousmercial interests and industries ranging from technology to construction. They were the business smarts of the entire Trident operation. Feather''s role as the Capo of Eyes was to maintain a tight informationwork for the prong, specifically focusing on the United States, and he did that by running several bars all around the world that served as bases for informants and spies to report to. He also outsourced his information gathering, employing people like Desmond. "Still, my position''s not great," said Feather. "I can tell I''m starting to lose influence here. I ain''t the only one managing information flow. They got Vito, the Capo of Ears, too, and we''ve always been inpetition. When I took my leave to hide out in my bunker, the boss saw that as an act of cowardice. It was a strategic retreat, mind you, but whatever. In any case, a lot of my responsibilities andworks have transferred over to Vito. The next Capo meeting ising up in a few days. If I miss that, I might get canned. Fucking Vito, fat piece of shit, gobbling up cannoli by day and my territory by night." "What do you know about prong operations in ckwater?" said Aldrich. "I know we''re starting to ramp up our defenses. We''re going wild on the spending for Mercs. We''ve tapped into Ember, the Nightriders, Bestiary, and Lagoon. There''s going to be at least a dozen tough as nails A rankers there. The knockout out of all of them, though, is Fafnir. You know him, right?" "I do," said Aldrich. "That sounds familiar," said Valera. "Like Fafelnir, the Dragon of Nightrock." "You''re on the right track with that, miss," said Feather. "I don''t know what the hell a Nightrock is, but dragon is exactly what you''d describe Fafnir. Man''s a goddamn beast in every sense of the word. And he''s killed two S rankers to boot. As far as mercenaries go, you''re not getting anyone better than his tier." "Right. That''s...troublesome, to say the least," said Aldrich. "I can deal with A rankers now, but the likes of Fafnir and Solomon Sr, hm." Fafnir was a German mercenary listed among the unofficial mercenary strength ranking system called the Killgrid. It calcted a mercenary''s value based on how sessful they were inpleting difficult contracts. Very simr to the AP system for the AA, but in many ways, much more straightforward. If someone was the top of the Killgrid, they were almost certainly there because they were the strongest. It was simply the nature of mercenary work. There was no need to factor in things like PR or saving civilian lives. Whoever was strong enough to protect their client or kill their enemies got ranked higher. As it so stood, Fafnir was rank 8 on the Killgrid. Previously, he had been rank 3, but he was an older Alter, and Crystallization had slowed him down. But age was not a bad thing. Oftentimes, it meant more experience, and experience was just as deadly as raw power in many instances. And even then, Fafnir was a force to be reckoned with. He was a Mutant Alter with draconic traits. ck scaled, wings, tail, ws and all. He could unleash a fiery breath that could easily melt the likes of Neo-Steel or createrge-scale explosions, but the literal most toughest part about him were his scales. His scales had a force reflective property that made Fafnir near impossible to take down. He had a healing factor on top of that, so the only reliable way to beat Fafnir was to find some way to attack his internal organs or fight him until his energy reserves drained out. Now that Fafnir was old, reaching 80, his energy reserves were not what they used to be, but even then, he could probably fight at strength for a few hours at the very least. "I''ll put the issue of dealing with Fafnir off for a bit. I wanted to ask, can you get a hold of Mad Jack?" said Aldrich. Feather shook his head. "Nah. Mad Jack''s a fucking nutter. Can''t control him at all. Well, not me, at least. Only the boss can." The boss. An enigmatic man that had almost no information avable about him either in the public or the underworld. "And can you get a hold of the boss?" said Aldrich. He wanted to see just how far Feather''s authority could reach. Aldrich could not do much about the Japanese prong as he had no connections with them, but he could, using Feather, initiate a strategy to severely weaken or sow discord in the Italian prong. That would knock out quite a bit of the defenses on ckwater when the time to attack came. "No shot with that either," said Feather. "The boss takes it safe and easy, just like every boss before him. Makes us capos work like hogs in the mud, though, I''ll tell you that." "What about below that? Underboss? Consigliere?" "Underboss? Possible. But hard." Feather rubbed his temple in annoyance. "Fuck, I have to attend a capo meeting in a couple days, and the underboss is going to grill my ass. If I don''t show up with decent info from Desmond, which I won''t, because Desmond''s a recycled tin can by now, I''m going to be shit out of luck." "How many days?" "Three," said Feather. Aldrich and Valera both exchanged knowing nces. All the capos and the underboss, located together in one single meeting? A chance like this did not present itself often, if at all. "Now, I know what you two are thinking, a good chance to whack em all, right?" said Feather. "But don''t count on it. The Underboss is only going to be there through a screen. And not all of us capos are gonna be there either. The three War Capos are at ckwater, and they''ll stay there to manage military ops. " "Five out of eight capos doesn''t sound bad, does it?" said Aldrich. "No. No it does not," said Valera, smiling in glee. Chapter ?365 Raid Plans Chapter ?365 Raid ns "You guys, I know this whole killing everyone in a meeting things sounds great, totally godfather style, but it isn''t going to slow down the prong as much as you think," said Feather. "The five capos there are going to be shield capos, and they''re about as receable as a Neo-York outskirts hooker." "Shield capos?" Aldrich asked. "Shield capos deal withmerce. Business. Spying. Nonbat stuff," said Feather. "The three sword capos are who you want to get. They manage forces. And they''re less receable, getting their positions because they''re tough on top of being strategic. Meanwhile to be a shield capo, you just gotta be a good snake, tell lies, want credits, and sure, yeah, that''s a skill in its own right, but it''s a hell of a lot easier to be a good liar than it is a good fighter. Take it from me, damn it, I can''t fight for shit, but I can survive and get around. But I''d never, ever dream of being a sword capo. Those guys are tough as nails, goddamn, they''d even punch a hole in whatever hammer that came down on em''. Me, I prefer not getting hammered at all. Not into that kind of stuff." "Regardless, taking out every shield capo should cause plenty of chaos, no?" said Aldrich. "Indeed. Five out of eight heads of a hydra severed is a tremendous problem for the beast, even if they grow their maws back," said Valera. "It still leaves them weak in the time it takes to heal." "Right, but shield capos manage massive crews. Basically businesses. They have a lot of people that can take up their leadership when they take a hit. You''d slow them down, but you wouldn''t put a dent in them. And shield doesn''t control sword and vice versa. It''s the boss that wields both, and he''s made it clear he isn''t going to have the sword capos or their forces budge." Feather put a knuckle to his forehead in thought. "At best, you''ll cut off credit flow and stall contracts, stop more mercs from getting enlisted, but the good ones, the top notch ones, they''ve already been hired. Not to mention the Seven Swords, those guys are fucking beasts. Point is, taking out the shield won''t make the sword fall. They''re two different mechanisms. There''s a little ovep, but not enough to make it matter." "I see," said Aldrich. "But you know, that''s quite alright. Go to that meeting. You''ll still damage the Trident''s financials overall. You see, Feather, my short term goal might be to stage an attack on ckwater, but my long term one is a little more ambitious, that is, when ites to the Trident." "Yeah?" Feather raised a brow. "I''m thinking it''s about time the Tridentes under new leadership. It''s the least they owe me after what they''ve taken." Aldrich stood up, nodding, sensing he was done here. === Monday, November 21st, 2117, 6 days before the ckwater Attack - "And with this, my soul shall be secure?" Casimir cocked his head as he stared quite non-chntly at the ethereal chain extending from his chest to Adan''s hook. Casimir, Aldrich, and the nomad chiefs Clint and Gerard were seated at the counter of a bar. The bar was emptied out and the bartender was Cubehead, Casimir''s warp Alter and one of his high end personnel. "It''s a contingency," said Aldrich. "If you die, your soules back to Adan who guards it for safekeeping. I can then resurrect you again in a new body, potentially." "Ah, the fabled cycle of reincarnation. Quite interesting." Casimir nodded with interest. "To think your powers have dominion over it. Marvelous, no? You two are not interested?" Clint and Gerard both shook their heads. "Nah. I don''t want any second chances. If I die, I die," said Clint. "I''d like my soul to be free when it leaves my body," said Gerard. "Tch. The way you run around, old man, you''ll never run into a fight to knock that wrinkled soul out of ya in the first ce," said Clint. "I am not a fighter, not anymore. And I''d like to live the rest of my years in peace, without criticism, mind you." "Well, good thing is, I''m not asking you to fight," said Aldrich. Gerard sighed in relief. "Alright then, why did you need me." "Your tribe, the Hawks, they''re the best Wastnd mappers on this side of the country, right?" "Damn right." Gerard smiled proudly. "I''ll let Casimir exin, then." Aldrich nodded to Casimir. Casimir swirled his winess, looking at the dark red liquid forming a circr, rhythmic current. "My dear secretary nca and I were poring over the information we salvaged from the Red Circle. Most of it ckmail that is now useless, targeted at Haven officials to keep us in business, but some of it was more important. Rted to the Trident with whom we had business rtions with." "Still can''t get over that," said Clint, taking a swig of whiskey not from a shot ss, but a whole beer mug. "I assure you, Clint, my enterprises have had no ovep with the untimely end of your wife and child. That was orchestrated solely by the Japanese prong after you took down three of the Seven Swords." "Cowards, all of em''. Call themselves cool shit like the seven swords, but once they find somebody they can''t kill, they gotta resort to killing others. Fuck em." Clint sighed, regaining hisposure. "Sorry about that. Wife wouldn''t me to be like that, bitter. I''ll listen properly, promise." Casimir continued. "I understand the weight of your loss, Mr. Spearhorn, and what I present to you today is a chance to strike back at it. Have you all heard of Meteor Labs?" "Yeah," said Clint. "We used to do some runs for em''. Mostly contraband. Or sometimes heists." Gerard nodded too. "They were one of the better paying clients that hired us nomads, though about fifteen years ago, give or take, they stopped hiring anyone." "Meteor Labs has been in a covert coboration with the Trident. To be precise, not simply the Trident, but the entirety of the Dark Six," said Casimir. "They, in the public sphere, are a lesser known biotechnologypany that sits under the umbre of Pdis, tier 1pany that stands near the top in the U.S. when ites to medical technology and research. With Pdis, being, coincidentally, quite a lucrative business partner with the Italian Prong. In fact, if you go back far enough, you will see that Pdis was founded by a splinter of one of three great families that formed the Italian Prong." "All thepanies are choking in criminal shit at worst, knee deep in it at best," said Gerard. He was getting a little antsy, worried that this conversation would lead to a huge demand from him and, considering his risk averse nature, that was probably thest thing he wanted. "Just how it is. But where''s this leading? What''s the point?" "Simply giving context," said Casimir, mildly annoyed. He did not like being rushed while exining things. He liked when people wanted to get to the point when it was done with confidence and poise, but when it was carried with anxiety, it bothered him. "But I suppose I will waltz over the fine details to the core of it all like some bull stampeding about a china shop. Meteor Labs synthesized Kryptic for the Italian prong, as well as a unique drug called Boost that causes temporary proliferation of Alter Cell count, among many other valuable experiments. We have reason to even believe they are capable of inducing additional powers into Alters, if Ace, one of the ckwater students working for us, is to be believed. There is good reason to believe that Meteor Labs, in their main offsite research facility, has additional reserves of Kryptic." "I get where this is going. A good old raid. You want the Kryptic. But what for? Thinking of assassinating Sr or something?" said Clint. "Or I guess any Alter that relies on storing external energy for their powers. Just Sr''s the biggest name out there with ''reactor'' type powers that Kryptic absolutely rawdogs over." "That is precisely what I am thinking of doing," said Aldrich. "Shit. Here I thought I was joking." Clint nodded to himself. Neither of the chiefs knew Solomon Sr waspromised as it was a very well hidden secret. Gerard scratched his lengthy white beard. "I don''t know. Targeting a S-ss hero? That''s going to make waves. The risk associated with the move is going to be massive. What even for?" "Solomon Sr is on the Italian Prong''s payroll," said Aldrich. "We don''t know exactly how it started, but it''s been that way for ten years at the very least. Probably more. He''s the Trident''s biggest and best mole. He''s the reason why the Trident knows exactly when and where the AA is moving. And in exchange, the Trident sets up conflicts that let Solomon Sr farm AP with max efficiency." "Always figured that sunshine blockhead had some dirt on him," said Clint with a snort. "Guys like him, perfect outward image, always smiling like some horror freakshow, they''re the worst when you dig deep down." "I get it," said Gerard. "If you want to make an attack on ckwater, one of the Trident''s big gems, you''ll have to deal with their big guns too." "The biggest being Solomon Sr," said Aldrich. Chapter ?366 Clints Decision Chapter ?366 Clint''s Decision "Sr? Sorry, Thanatos, but if that''s what you''re pitting me against, I can''t do much," said Gerard. He grimaced, tapping nervously at his ss of beer with enough force to send the cold perspiring water flinging off to the wooden counter. "I know better than to expect a fight from you. Plus, I''m not in favor of overworking senior citizens either," said Aldrich. "What I need you two for is the raid on Meteor Labs. You, Gerard, I specifically need to track theb down give me a good read of the area. Basic reconnaissance." Gerard and his riders, the Hawks, were specialized in navigating the Wastnds by reading geostorms. The Wastnds were an ever shifting, ever dangerous zone where geostorms of any nature showed up in frightening frequency, and knowing when they did was invaluable information. The issue was that geostorms messed with both technology and Alters tremendously. Even the toughest Alters would struggle to survive in these storms, not because they posed a physical threat to them, but because they would overload from energy - the power resource that Alter Organs and cells generated to fuel their abilities - explosively building up within them. Any attempt to predict geostorms based off of technology like satellite surveince failed due to their optical shielding. And direct observation using drones or bots wasughable as storms frequently short circuited any technology that was not nomad engineered, regardless of how impressive it was. Only two types of technology worked in geostorms. One, created by Ravana, sentinel of India. His flying fortress, called Pushpaka, could travel anywhere, shielded using some otherworldly power. Second was nomad tech. Its cobbled together proportions that seemingly should not work by any known realisticw of physics all originated from Arskman, a world ss mechanic who was around since the Altering. Arksman was considered the ''first nomad''. A free spirited revolutionary who wanted to destroy all corporations. When he saw that the Panopticon would integrate corporations into their world order, he decided to leave to the wastnds, creating a moving city of his own, a sort of Noah''s ark that began the nomad movement. That old city, called Arktown, wasst seen forty years ago and never again. Neither was Arksman. But his greatest innovation, the Ark Engine, lived on with the nomads, and only they could reliably power it using pure etherite from chasing geostorms. Using nomad-tech bikes and ether dampening cloaks, the Hawks, over decades of careful observation under Gerard''s eagle eye, mapped out a rtively urate pattern of geostorm movement across the east coast of the United States, and that knowledge alone made the Hawks the most valuable, at least credit wise, among all of the great nomad tribes. Companies would easily be willing to kill to obtain that information. "I''d like your riders to provide me with timeframes Alter forces can easily ess theb''s area for a sustained attack, though optimally, any raid shouldn''tst more than an hour or two." Gerard sighed in relief. "I can do that. So long as I don''t gottamit any of my boys to the line of fire." "And you want me and my riders to be the muscle to break thebs down, right?" said Clint. "You and a select group of other personnel from me," said Aldrich. "Including n." "Oh, that kid." Clint scratched his head. "You sure? He''s got guts, yeah, and his cybeics ain''t half-bad, but if he''s anyone special to ya, it''d be pretty damn dangerous. Meteor Labs is a pretty big name in the Underworld. Any of their offsite bases are gonna be packed to the tits with guards." "He wants to fight. I won''t deny him that," said Aldrich. "Also, Clint, preferably, I don''t want you going to that raid by yourself. Send Diamondback and some of your riders instead. The force I''m gathering should be enough to overpower theb''s defenses." "I don''t like sending my boys out without fighting by their side," said Clint. "My pa always said a real man don''t tell his friends to fight without being by their side." "I know, but I need you in top condition," said Aldrich. "The Seven Swords are going to be at ckwater. A week from now, when I n on attacking." Clint paused. His ever present grin faded almost in a sh. Aldrich expected to see anger on his face. The Seven Swords were responsible for killing Clint''s wife and child, after all, but instead, Clint looked more somber than anything else. "Seven Swords, huh? Leadership hasn''t changed, I figure? Monk''s still the first de?" said Clint. Aldrich nodded. "Same leadership." The mood in the bar grew significantly more serious. "I''m not here to push you around," said Gerard. "But the Swords ain''t pushovers. Not even you, the Unbreakable, could take em all on before. Especially Monk. But it isn''t just that. I know it''s not my ce to say this, I wasn''t the one that lost her, but Lily, she wouldn''t want you to put your life on the line for the sake of her memory." "Yeah. You''re right." Clint leaned back in his chair, one made bigger specifically forrger bodied Mutants, but it still creaked against his weight and size. He looked up, closing his eyes, thinking in silence. That silence spoke loud to Aldrich. Clint was, alongside Dracul, undoubtedly the strongest ally that Aldrich had. Dracul had agreed to help Aldrich only in eliminating the Italian prong as they had been privy to the Russian prong''s attempt to kill Dracul. The Russian prong had attempted to get rid of Dracul by blowing up his home using a specially made bomb designed to eradicate all of Dracul''s shadow mass in an instant. The Italian prong had supplied the bomb to begin with. However, Dracul did not extend his help in dealing with the Japanese prong. The Japanese prong had nothing to do with those ns. On top of that, Dracul and the Seven Swords had a tacit agreement not to fight each other after they once fought to a standstill where both sides agreed to withdraw in respect after their respective clients were assassinated. Clint, however, had a personal vendetta against the Japanese prong, specifically the Seven Swords, undoubtedly the toughest group at ckwater. Their leader, Monk, was also significantly stronger than even Fafnir. Monk was not on the Killgrid. None of the Seven Swords were, but that was because they were not really a mercenary force that wanted to advertise their strength for hire. They were a professional standing army of sorts that fought solely and loyally for the Japanese prong. However, talk around the mercenarymunity was that if Monk became frence, he would be top 3. Monk''s ability was not well understood because of how fast he killed his enemies, but images after his warpaths showed buildings, structures, and people cut apart with precise slices, regardless of how tough the material or Alter was. It appeared that not even Clint could take on Monk by himself. But with additional support, it was very possible. The issue was that Clint needed to ept the mission. Aldrich had brought up Clint''s dead wife and child to light a fire of vengeance within him, but Gerard''s words seemed to be swaying Clint away. "Yeah. If Lily was alive, she wouldn''t want me to go," said Clint. He opened his eyes and set his gaze back down on his drink. "But if she was alive, I''d have retired from this life wholesale, most likely, and given Diamondback the reigns. But she ain''t alive." Clint roughly grabbed his mug and downed the entire ss of hard liquor before mming it down on the counter, shattering it. Cubehead, without breaking stride at all, started to sweep the ss shards down a bin. "I''ve learned to let go of a lot of the hate over the years," said Clint. "Learned to smile again. But I wouldn''t be no goddamn man if I didn''t settle a score like that. A score that took my wife and son from me." Clint nodded to Aldrich. "I''m in, Thanatos. Ready as ever for my round two with the Seven Swords." ______ Meanwhile in the Vimana, Aarav Singh''s personal aircraft- Aarav sat back in the fully reclinable, plush cushioned seat of his private jet, legs crossed as he took a long drag on his cigarette. He looked at a holographic screen in front of him, reading an article titled: ''Sheshanaga''s Immortality Quest Heats Up: Arjun in the Lead?'' ''Not for long,'' thought Aarav as he flicked the article away after scanning it for a quick second. He thought about his father''s assassination attempt, at the almost fantastical aid he had received from Thanatos, and chuckled to himself. ''Magic, huh? Never thought I''d see the likes of it. But there''s always something new to discover in this broken world of ours. Alien tech, and now, magic. The more it breaks, it seems, the more noveltyes crawling out the cracks.'' Aarav knew from his eye that the thread of his life always ended at a specific point. It did not matter what circumstances he changed about himself to try and extend his life. Whether he hid in a bunker, decided never to go out, hired the best security detail, it ended at the same point everytime. He could shorten his thread by pursuing reckless actions, but he could never lengthen it past that wall. Perhaps it was a wild theory, but he believed the world would end there. It was why, after getting this eye, he started to look big. To hunt for the most power he could. That was why his eye was now on Sheshanaga, a massive treasure trove of resources decaying under the greedy dragon that was his father. It was only by allying with Thanatos that the thread lengthened, but that did not mean he could staycent. Aarav tapped at his screen, wondering what to do next about Haven and Thanatos. He was heavily interested in entering a R and D partnership with them, especially in regards to making magic a more easily essible resource,bining it with biotechnology and cybeics. ''I''ll send Sita over to them to establish a team. They have potential, but they''recking personnel. And she''s the only mad genius I would trust to work with something as crazy as magic,'' thought Aarav. As he thought this, a coat hanging from a handle behind him morphed into the shape of a blue shaded humanoid, looking almost like an animated mannequin. The being silently dropped to the ground and stood up, raising a hand in the air behind Aarav, a hand that morphed into a de-like protrusion. Chapter 367 Assassination Chapter 367 Assassination The blue humanoid thrust his ded hand down with the practiced ease of someone who had done this, taking lives, a thousand plus times over. His movements were wordless, soundless, efficient. The very texture of his skin was altered so that even the faintest breeze would not draw a noise. His feet had glided across the metal floor like he was sliding, preventing any footsteps from echoing out. He was a trained assassin called Blueshift, quitepetent in his job as he could easily shift into objects that were blue, though he only mimicked physical dimensions, not any special properties. But he was not the only trained assassin in the confines of that jet. The humanoid''s face, like its body, was simrly nearly featureless, sporting indents for the eyes and the mouth, making it hard to read any expression on it, but even then, his surprise was palpable, evidenced by the faint impressions of his ''eyes'' growing slightly wider. Before the hand-de sunk into Aarav''s neck, it was stopped. Not by some kind of barrier, but judging by the pressure, it came from the grip of an invisible hand wound tightly around his wrist. A chillingly cold hand that seemed to sap the warmth right from his veins. This was bad. Terribly bad. Blueshift had not expected Aarav to be with anyone here. Aarav''s trip to Haven was supposed to have been made in top secret. This private jet was stealth grade for that exact reason. And whenever Aarav went on secretive trips, he always tended to go alone or with just one or two of his most trusted guards. However, neither of his usual guards were around. And even if they were, Transposition and Sugar, Aarav''s two usual guards, did not have any invisibility to speak of. That had given Blueshift the confidence to sneak into the jet, rece Aarav''s coat, and wait to kill him when he returned. He had been waiting here over twenty four hours for this exact moment. The n had feltpletely airtight, impossible to fail. He had snuck in from far outside of the city too, posing as a Haven bound nomad''s wallet so as to prevent Thanatos''s forces from ever scouting him out. So how? No, the how did not matter. What mattered now was that Blueshift got out. Or- Blueshift briefly nced at Aarav. Aarav was still staring at his screen, oblivious to Blueshift. It would take a fraction of a second more for him to notice. A fraction of a second to take him out again, before the owner of this hand responded. Blueshift was not the fastest or strongest Alter out there, but his AC count was stillparable with lower end A rankers in the AA. Still superhuman. He had little time to use his free arm, to waste time winding it back and thrusting it forwards, but - Blueshift''s forward arm, the one mere inches away already from the back of Aarav''s head, shifted again, the de tip rippling as he willed a spike to grow out and breach the small gap left between his hand and Aarav''s defenseless brain. "AHHH!" Blueshift stumbled backwards, falling to one knee, breathing heavy as he put a hand to the stump that was once his right arm. Red blood sputtered out from his severed stump, pattering with dull impact on the metal flooring. Reactively, he shifted his arm, sealing it shut so that he would not look his lifeblood and to dull the pain by numbing the nerves. That prevented him from going into shock. "I''m not the type to entertain guests," said Aarav, puffing out a breath of smoke. He leaned down and pressed a button under his seat. "Especially uninvited ones. They don''t call me the CEO recluse for nothing." The innards of the jet shed blue. Blueshift''s breath caught in his throat as an electrical charge rocked through him from the ground, preventing him from shapeshifting again. "But, in a way, I guess you''re not uninvited if I didn''t expect you. Isn''t that right, Blueshift?" Aarav stood up, straightened his tie, adjusted his shades, and turned around. He walked straight up to Blueshift, looking down at the assassin as electricity crackled in waves through his body. "No response? No, a good electric shock would make anyone a little shy with their words. In your case, it also handily prevent you from shifting for another hour. I''ll go ahead and let you catch your breath." Aarav took another drag from his cigarette before he snuffed it out on Blueshift''s bald blue head. The cigarette hissed as it burned out, scattering ashes down Blueshift''s head and face. "H-how¡­?" managed out Blueshift. "Oh, you can talk already? Perks of having a high AC count, I guess. I''m quite jealous. My friend here¡­," Aarav looked around but could not find who he was looking for. A visible hand settled on his shoulder. Though d in dark green metals from a gauntlet, the armor was thin enough to notice that the hand was small and slender, belonging to a woman. Aarav sighed, barely maintaining his cool at the sudden surprise touch. "Do you always have to show up like that?" "¡­" In a puff of green mist, the rest of the Mistknife became visible. She stepped ahead of Aarav, standing between him and Blueshift. She was noticeablyrge, and even while she had a hunched over posture, one closer to the ground like a stalking, prowling panther, she seemed obviously taller than either Aarav or Blueshift. If she stood up straight, she would probably have reached seven feet (213 cm). Her cloak of mist floated around her, carried by invisible wind, and wherever it passed by, it veiled her appearance, blurring and making it almostpletely transparent. "Anyway, this is who took your arm out," said Aarav. "She doesn''t have a name, but that makes her unique, no? In this day and age and world where every street shitter out there needs to have some kind of superhero or superviin name, something about being nameless has its own charm." Blueshift stared up at the Mistknife, dumbfounded. "An¡­an assassin? From which group!? How did I not notice you!?" "¡­" The Mistknife raised her curved, jagged dagger of glowing emerald in the air. Blueshift shrank back, putting his arm out to plead for his life. "Wait! Wait! I can give you information! About who sent me!" Aarav chuckled. He was about to light another cigarette, but amused as he was, he flicked it to Blueshift where it bounced off the Alter''s face. "It isn''t often thatedy works on me. Go on, tell me another joke," said Aarav. Blueshift just stared at Aarav in confusion. "Oh, you weren''t joking?" Aarav shrugged. "So much for that standup routine. I digress. You seem to think I wasn''t aware that you weren''t my good old brother Arjun''s top dog for his corporate killings. I mean, props to him, he did conceal your presence fairly well. He even faked your death so nobody would suspect you anymore. But Arjun is drunk on his delusions if he thinks that I wouldn''t see through that. I knew you woulde from me someday, and, hats off to you, my good fellow, you ARE good at your job. It would be worrying if you came from me without me knowing. Why do you think I left my jet so defenseless? Why I let information about my trip to Haven leak to your brother? I knew my brother wouldn''t pass up this chance to get rid of me, the illegitimate shadow in the family and thorn in everyone''s asses. I could eliminate the confounding variables and control when and where you showed up. Though, I do have to say, without thedy here, things would have been a little harder to make things work. You assassin types always get flighty when there''s a security detail. Too bad you didn''t see hering." "I scanned the ship!" protested Blueshift. "The entire area! I couldn''t detect any cloaking or stealth!" Blueshift had seeded in hundreds of assassinations. He had failed just once before. He knew he was going to die here, but he had to know how he had died, if only for his pride. "How!?" "What''s the point of magic if you know how the trick''s done?" Aarav pointed at Blueshift, and the metal panels beneath him lit up blue, sending another paralyzing shock. "I have to thank you for that." Aarav nodded to the Mistknife. "I knew you wouldn''t fail. My life thread did not end here. But seeing it happen was still quite the spectacle. I don''t know if you understand what I''m saying, but if there''s anything you want, I can provide it. Within reason, of course." "¡­" The Mistknife reached into her cloak and unrolled a small, tattered poster showing cotton candy on a stick. She pointed her knife at the candy. "Ah, that? I can make that happen. Definitely within reason. Within much more reason than I thought." Aarav nodded. The Mistknife rolled the poster back and faded away into invisibility. "Now then, Blueshift, what to do with you? We could take a jolly trip together to Mumbai and have you go through a few rounds of persuasive questioning. But, unfortunately, I''m quite confident I can read my brother without external help," said Aarav. "Though I can''t very well have you waltz free, and I''m in no need of an assassin when I have a better one." Aarav walked past Blueshift, towards the cockpit of the Vimana. "You know what, though. I do remember, Thanatos is in need of an Alter capable of shifting. For R and D purposes, I hear. You should be the perfect candidate to help out with that." Aarav spoke to the cockpit, though there was nobody there, running on autopilot as it was. "Sattva, redirect course to Haven. "Yes sir," said a woman''s voice, neutral in its inflection in a typically A.I. fashion. Aarav pped for Blueshift. "I''ve always looked up to those who gave up their lives and bodies for science. So take this sign of my respect with you to the grave. Or, I suppose if I''m being more urate, the operating table." Chapter ?368 Healing Procedure Chapter ?368 Healing Procedure Tuesday, November 22nd, 5 days before the ckwater Attack 12:00 P.M. === "I''d like to extend my appreciation for you helping with this excavation," said Aldrich. He stood in front of his control tower, watching as huge, construction-orange colored vehicles ripped apart all the concrete and asphalt, baring arge semi-circle of fresh dirt. The sound of enormous mech ws and drills cracking apart and pulling up street material echoed loudly through the air, the cacophony of construction apanied by rising clouds of debris and dust. The uncovered dirt merged with Central Haven Park up ahead. ''I must say, there are many things in this new realm that amaze me, but this¡­this is rather unpleasant,'' said Valera telepathically, grimacing as her pointed ears twitched at the harsh noises. She stood at guard beside Aldrich, though she was not in her armor, just a casual shirt and jeansbo. ''It is like dwarven mining. But a thousand times worse. And I already hated the din of dwarven golems.'' ''I figured you wouldn''t like this, but just bear with me for a bit,'' said Aldrich. ''It''ll be bad manners if I wasn''t on-site.'' "It''s a good thing you got a park up ahead. Means we got less sewage and pipelines to bust through." Bart, CEO of Hammerhead Industries, spoke to Aldrich through a holographic screen projected by a drone buzzing above his head. "The surrounding area is uninhabited, so feel free to uproot at will," said Aldrich. He nodded, pleased at this development. The excavation was for the eventual nting of the Arsellis Treeseed which, soon, Arcadia would nurture into full growth. He wanted to do this soon, if possible. The Arsellis Treeseed, once nurtured, would provide a city-wide barrier that could prevent demonic possession or any form of non-physical intrusion. The benefits to this were ringly obvious considering Aldrich had made an enemy of an Archdemon in the form of Ikon. This meant that Aldrich had to keep Arcadia here to grow the seed, preventing her from aiding with the ckwater attack. On top of that, Okeanos had to stay here too so that he could power the city. Two top tier heavy hitters gone. That did leave a bad taste in Aldrich''s mouth, but he had some ways topensate. The fourth trial quest, in particr, would prove to be very useful¡­ "I''ll ry it to the supervisor on site there." Bart''s eyes turned hopeful, his jaws opening slightly to reveal his thick, bright pink gums and the many rows of teeth arming them. "About my daughter¡­" Bart''s voice trailed off, unsure how to proceed. "It''s possible," said Aldrich. Bart sighed, closing his eyes, deeply relieved. He adjusted his giant suit and tie to maintain professionalism. "Thanks," said Bart. Aldrich had gotten Bart''s file on his daughter''s condition on Monday night, and he had thoroughly reviewed it with Fler''Gan and Eric, ckwater''s medic. Hammerhead''s daughter, Filia, as she was called, inherited some portion of her father''s mutant genes. Her mother, however, had not been a mutant at all, and the resulting birth had been difficult, as was most often the case with mutant and non mutant couplings. At birth, Filia seemed almostpletely human and healthy. She had a few rough patches of denticle skin here and there, but that was it. Her childhood development was also fairly normal, roughlyparable to that of a normal human female. That was until she hit ten years old. When she hit puberty and her Alter Organ bloomed, bing more active in producing Alter Cells, the problems showed up. She manifested more shark-like traits from her father. Sharp teeth, electro-sensitive receptors, more rough, armor-like shark skin, additional muscle mass, a tail, fins - but these were not the issue. In fact, they were strictly benefits, all things considered. The issue were the gills. When Filia manifested gills, her circtory system underwent aplete copse as her body was unable to reconcile two conflicting breathing systems together. This rendered her unable to process oxygen properly anymore. Her lungs failed, no longer capable of taking in oxygen from the air, and her gills did not form properly, failing to take oxygen from water. This left herpletely on life support, hooked up on a constant,plicated oxygen supply. It got worse from there. An ident when she was fifteen, likely a targeted attack, had temporarily disabled her oxygen support system, and though it was hastily restored within minutes, the damage had been done. The brain was a fragile thing. Just a few minutes without oxygen could do untold amounts of harm to it. That left her in a permanenta, unable to move at all. She was essentially a statue, incapable of responding to anyone or anything. Brain scans did show activity, though, and that was what Bart banked on for the past three years, hoping and waiting for something to cure her. "I have to warn you again," said Aldrich. "You do understand what my healing procedure entails, correct?" Bart nodded. "I do. No matter what, it''s better than how she is now. It''s a terrible thing for a parent to say, but more than a few times, I thought it would''ve been kinder to her to have cut her life support off. Trapped in that body, in that prison of permanent sleep, she must have gone through so many hells. But I made her stay in it, all to hope that one day I''d find a way to wake her up. Damn it¡­" A tear welled up in Bart''s wide, ever open shark eye. "I just hope if she wakes up, she''ll forgive me. Understand me." "The brain scans aren''t conclusive as to whether she was conscious or not," said Aldrich. "It''s entirely possible she''ll wake up like it was just a dream. Something that passed in an instant." "I hope to god that''s true," said Bart. He shook his head. "I''m getting emotional again. Ain''t right for me to keep talking like this." "We can hash the details out with our technos," said Aldrich. "You know my price. And I know how much you value your daughter. Am I right to say that this is a fair result for both of us?" What Aldrich asked for was for Hammerhead Industries to eventually be an official partner for Haven. Before the official partnership, Hammerhead Industries would essentially do whatever Aldrich wanted it to. Within reason, of course. 60% of construction costs would be shouldered by Hammerhead itself as an investment. The remaining 40% would be subsidized by credit backed by Aarav''s name. Bart would greenlight several additional construction projects. At the moment, without an official partnership, all he could do was restore basic amenities like a functional sewage system, plumbing, an electric grid, connectivity, and so on. But afterwards, Bart had promised thorough construction across the entirety of the city, repairing most of the damage done to the city from the Locus Raids. The official partnership, however, could not happen immediately. Not yet, the U.S. government still had too much leverage to tank Hammerhead Industries if they got a whiff of thepany being too close with Haven, but after, when Aldrich got more established to minimize the risk, things would change. That would happen after Aldrich got the Scrapheart. And after Aarav Singh killed his father and took over Sheshanaga. Coincidentally, both of those missions would take ce on the exact same day. Sunday. Once Aldrich had the Scrapheart, he would be a global military power without question. Once Aarav had Sheshanaga, Aldrich could have an official Fortune Company backing him. It would be an alliance of tremendous influence that no single country, not even the U.S., could challenge. "The price is mighty steep. But it''s worth it," said Bart. "Though I want you toe to me for the procedure. I don''t want to risk sending Filia out anywhere." "I understand. Invite Seismic over for dinner tonight. I''ll join in." Aldrich nodded and double tapped the screen, closing it. "Can we leave now?" Valerained, her ears still twitching. "If we do have our date, I truly do not wish it to be anywhere near these building golems." "Noted," said Aldrich. He looked up at the sky. Where his next meeting was. "I''d like you to armor up for now, Valera." "Understood, master." Valera''s tone instantly grew serious as she clenched her fists, her hound armor materializing around her in a shower of ck and red sparks. Aldrich then pressed at the ear of his helm, activating hismunicator. "Channel: Dracul." After a small wait of static noise, Dracul connected on the other end. "What is it?" said Dracul. "I know you''re more of a night worker, but I wanted to know if you''re up to provide some insurance," said Aldrich. "Likest time." "Ah. The AA getting in the way again? As they usually do?" said Dracul. "Not in the way. But I don''t want to take risks," said Aldrich. "I will be there," said Dracul. Chapter ?369 Preparing for the AA Chapter ?369 Preparing for the AA Aldrich''s next stop was the Panopticon. V had received correspondence from Emrys, president of the AA, that they now requested Aldrich''s presence. The Halo Carrier was in low orbit situated approximately a hundred miles outside of Haven where, at a designated meeting site, Aldrich would be escorted to the carrier, then to the Panopticon itself. It was part of the deal Aldrich had struck with Emrys. In exchange for cooperating with the Vanguard heir search and receiving all rights to the sessor''s power, Aldrich would help the Panopticon enhance its defensive capability against demonic possession. Emrys had assured that the trip to the Panopticon would be done via warp, thus it would not take long at all, leaving Aldrich time to join Bart and heal his dinner atte evening. This was Aldrichs'' most important meeting. It gave him ess to Vanguard''s journal. And it gave him ess to the Panopticon''s inner workings. He had a tentative working rtionship with the AA and Panopticon for now, but if he could see more of how they functioned, he could determine better whether he could support them more or not. To apany him to the meeting, Aldrich took Valera, his most trusted guard, Dracul for raw power, and Fler''Gan and V for their knowledge. Within his Phctery, Aldrich kept Chrysa for her warp capabilities. Aldrich had told his group to meet up with him atop one of Haven''s walls. So far, it was just Aldrich, Valera, and Dracul. V and Fler''Gan woulde by with Chrysa after prepping Haven for their exit. V especially needed time to boost cyberspace security due to her absence. "Six days." Dracul spoke softly, more to himself than anyone present, staring off into the barren distance. "Are you ready?" asked Aldrich. "I have been ready for twenty five years," said Dracul. "We will be one step closer to wiping out the scourge of the Valentino family." The Valentino family was the head of the Italian prong. Underneath them were the D''angelo and ardo. There were more families besides them as well, but those were minor inparison. The Italian prong was a strong ''core'' of three families with revolving, receable ''gears'' surrounding it formed by more minor crime groups. This made their operations, as Feather pointed out, highly widespread as they had manpower all across the world to work with. "I wasn''t questioning your resolve," said Aldrich. "That much, I already know is a given. It''s about the potential contingencies they have for you." "I know. I read your report," said Dracul. Aldrich had received additional information about Mel as to how Dracul was sealed by A.I.I. in the future. When A.I.I. took control of the Scrapheart and made its identity public, Dracul was the first to strike against them. Dracul did it alone, so there were few concrete details as to how his one man mission went. What Mel did know was how it ended. It was an anomalous object stolen from the Irregrs Department codenamed the ''Eliminator''. It was a spherical projectile that, when simted with sufficient energy charge, activated, creating a vortex of spatial distortions that could target specific individual targets, devouring them until there was nothing left. The origins of the technology were unknown, but it was most certainly extraterrestrial, sourced from the Unraveling. "I hear that your strength is tremendous," said Valera. "I respect power. But power must be reliable for it to be true." "One of my men used to say something simr," said Dracul, closing his eyes in remembrance. "But do not worry yourselves. I can see how such an object may be dangerous to me. I tend to spread my darkness across vast swathes, and your report states that the object locks on to targets even with minor exposure. So long as I keep my darkness contained, I will face no real threat from such a slow moving mechanism." "I understand that the Italian prong also has tech that''s meant to counter you. The Lightbomb-," began Aldrich before he was cut off by ded tendrils of darkness rising around him. Aldrich''s magical energy raged around him in threatening disy. Valera manifested her shield and pointed it at Dracul, the hellfire rippling from her bulwark''s maw. "Do not mention that name again," said Dracul, surprisingly calmly. He withdrew his darkness. "My apologies. I try to remain calm. But some words, some things, they rip reaction from me before my cooler mind can prevail." "I see," said Aldrich, his energy aura simmering down as the darkness faded away. Dracul, it seemed, suffered from PTSD. It would be difficult to determine exactly how much that would make him a liability, and prying into it seemed rude, so- "You have the Warrior''s Stare, and the way you reacted now, before thought, by trigger, battle has worn you down," said Valera. Well, so much for tactfulness. But that was Valera''s way. Straightforward "Warriors Stare?" asked Dracul. "She means you have PTSD," said Aldrich. "Ah." Dracul took a few seconds to speak again. "I know. I wish I did not let the past have such tight grasp over me. But if that were the case, I would not be here." There was a deep, deep sense of mncholy in Dracul''s voice. No, mncholy was always present in it, but it was more pronounced now than ever. He sounded tired. Underneath his expressionless, cool exterior, Aldrich could feel that Dracul''s will had long been worn down to a nub. Thatck of will made Aldrich suspect something. To confirm his suspicions, he asked, "There was something I did want to ask you. You wiped out the Russian prong twenty years ago, but since then, you''ve known the Italian prong has always been active. And that the Russian prong rebuilt themselves. Why didn''t you go after them again?" "In truth, I did not care much for them. I wiped out the past Russian prong, the ones responsible for my losses. I took them down to thest man, woman, and child, even infants in their cribs," said Dracul. "After that, my vengeance faded, and I was left tired. I did not care enough about the other prongs or the new, unrted Russian one. Wiping out the Italian prong, especially, with its many, many families, would take time and energy I simply did not have. I was content in spending the rest of my days out in my state in peace. But the attack on the Judicata made me understand that there were consequences to my inaction. Unless the entire swarm is culled, the infestation will always return." "I see." Aldrich determined that Dracul also suffered from some level of depression that had rendered him inactive for many years. "In truth, I did not care much for them. I wiped out the past Russian prong, the ones responsible for my losses. I took them down to thest man, woman, and child, even infants in their cribs," said Dracul. "After that, my vengeance faded, and I was left tired. I did not care enough about the other prongs or the new, unrted Russian one. Wiping out the Italian prong, especially, with its many, many families, would take time and energy I simply did not have. I was content in spending the rest of my days out in my state in peace. But the attack on the Judicata made me understand that there were consequences to my inaction. Unless the entire swarm is culled, the infestation will always return." "I see." Aldrich determined that Dracul also suffered from some level of depression that had rendered him inactive for many years. However, unlike his PTSD, it did not seem like an active point for self-sabotage. Dracul seemed rtively motivated to fight in light of the Judicata attack. It made sense. Dracul''s sentinel state was a peaceful one where he took in refugees. Victims from underworld conflicts that spilled over to civilian lives or variant attacks. He was, at heart, someone that tried to do good. The Judicata attack probably spurred him to get moving again. At the very least, Dracul would be good for the ckwater fight, and that was all that mattered. "Iing, boss." V''s voice echoed in Aldrich''s earpiece. He turned around to see her approaching atop a hoverboard with Fler''Gan using flight magic behind her. V hopped off and copsed her board until it was the size of a baton which she attached with a click to a maic strap at her utility belt. Aldrich noted that her belt had a variety of tools on it, some he did not recognize, some, thebat rted ones like EMP charges, he did recognize. She was dressed up in ck uniform with a mask to go over her face, very much adding to her image as an infiltrator. Fler''Gan was also dressed quite secretively, covered from head to toe in a hood and robesbo that made him look like an evil mage, which, technically, he was. "This is supposed to be a diplomatic meeting," said Aldrich. "What''s with the spy and dark magebo here?" "C''mon, I can''t just roll up in front of the AA and Panopticon in a sweater and leggings, right?" said V. "Have to show them we''re a force to be reckoned with." "And the helmet?" Aldrich asked, nodding at Fler''Gan. Fler''Gan seemed to have a mask-like helmet on, one that looked like it belonged to a torturer, which, technically again, it was. It was not sleek, having rough, pronounced edges of roughly hewn metal. "It hase to my understanding that my appearance would cause great distress to human specimen here," said Fler''Gan. "An understanding corroborated by Mollusk." He shook his head wistfully. "At first, I believed Mollusk kin to me, but s, it seems his mutation simply shapes his physical form to one simr to mine." Chapter 370 The Journal Chapter 370 The Journal "I''m surprised," said Aldrich. "I wouldn''t have expected you to be the type to care about appearances." Fler''Gan bowed his head. "I care not for what the specimen here think. But I am not willing to tarnish reception of you, O Elder." "At least you''re a lot more polite than the other tentacle guy," sighed V. "What is Br doing, by the way?" said Aldrich. He had told V to keep Br in Haven because he was not needed for this meeting. "He''s a decently fast learner. I told him if something fishy ever happened to Haven''sworks to push a button that''ll send me a signal," said V. "But I''m not sure he''ll listen. I figured out that he loves watching TV shows and movies. So, I hooked him up to Vision+, and now he''s watching like seven different things at once with all those eyes. With how many series and IP Vision+ has bulldozed and devoured, I figure he''ll be sitting there for a while." "Well, at least he''s adjusting," said Aldrich. "Is the entertainment here truly that captivating? I do wonder...," said Valera reflectively, and this made Aldrich remember even more that he had a date to promise her. Something beyond all the fighting and nning on fighting. "There''s a ton of stuff to see now with the Net. Anybody can look up anything they want," said V. She shrugged. "Makes it real easy to hit yourself up with a dopamine rush. But a lot of folk also say it''s made people into media addicts who can''t think for themselves. Anyways, I''m getting a signal to head over to the meeting site. Let''s go. Can''t disappoint the big boys, can we?" "Don''t go into this meeting thinking the AA are above us. We''re equals now. We are in the big leagues too," said Aldrich. "Ah, you right. My bad, forgot I was putting my talents to good, courtesy of sir major leaguer here." V smiled and pped Aldrich''s back, her hand pinging off Vntis''s metal frame. "I must say, I still do not like unwanted touching," said Vntis. V shrunk back a little. "Right, I forgot you were there." Dracul chuckled to himself, and Aldrich turned to him curiously. "What is it?" The Shadow Sentinel shook his head lightly. "I am reminded of the men I used to lead. The camaraderie. It is nothing, though. A fleeting memory. Ignore me. Move on." === The group left Haven via a tform of shadows made by Dracul, traveling by air to the meeting site, eighty miles west of the city. It was a nondescript location within a small ravine, off road where very few, if any people would ever venture. It was still tightly secured, however. "Whole ce is cked out," said V, putting a hand to her head. She looked up, spotting stealthed drones through the party wide Truesight that Vntis provided. They were Panopticon ss 3 drones shaped like floating spiders the size of cars. They syed their legs out in formation, generating a field of tech disruption. "Guess that means we''re in the right ce," said V. The drones protected from any unwanted surveince while, at the bottom of the ravine, it became apparent who protected against any potentialbat threat. It was Lightspeed. She sat on a rock, her hand nursing the side of her temple like she was having a headache. The gold of her suit glimmered under the bright sun, as did her sun colored goggles. As was the case in their past meeting, she looked less than presentable, with her long hair ubed and frayed and a glum frown on her face. "Took you all long enough," said Lightspeed. "This hangover''s absolutely pounding me, and not in the way I like." She raised a brow at Dracul. "I thought I told you that I wasn''t bringing Valkyrie after her behaviorst time." "I was informed," said Aldrich. Lightspeed, in a rare moment of expressiveness, pointed usingly at Dracul. "Then why bring sir baby killer here?" The atmosphere in the air immediately dropped. Before anyone could react, shadows from Dracul''s body surged out in a barrage of stakes. Lightspeed pointed a finger gun towards the shadows, and blinking star of light shone from the tip of her finger, creating an intense circle of radiance. The shadow stakes broke apart as they reached the vicinity of the light. "Stop this," dered Aldrich with force. Dracul''s shadows receded back into his body, and Lightspeed dimmed the star on her finger. "Was that necessary?" Aldrich said to Lightspeed. "You''re right. It wasn''t," said Lightspeed. "Sorry. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, seeing that guy walking free after what he did." "An eye for an eye. I gave back only the suffering that was given to me," said Dracul. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind," shrugged Lightspeed. "Better to be blind than a dog," said Dracul, narrowing his inky ck eyes. "Your husband''s soul writhes knowing that the cor around your neck holds you from seeking justice for his passing." Lightspeed grimaced. "You know, I always felt bad that the I-prong got a sample of me and cooked up the Lightbomb that wiped your folks out. But now, I don''t feel so bad." Aldrich was ready to step in, cautious that Dracul''s PTSD might trigger, but he remained calm. "I am done with this pointless exchange of insults," said Dracul. "I will not speak of this matter with the likes of you any more." "Yeah," was all Lightspeed said. She pointed at the ground, a few meters away from everyone, and fired a beam from her finger, marking out a molten spot on the cracked earth. "Stand there. The Halo Carrier''s up above in low orbit. I''ll give a signal and you''ll all be warped into it," said Lightspeed. Everyone moved wordlessly, the tension in the air making it hard to put out any conversation. Lightspeed put her hand in the air, shining a bright light upwards. In the next moment, a pir of white light shone down, encircling Aldrich and his group. The rubble beneath Aldrich''s feet began to shake, lifting up in the air with crackles of surging energy. In the next instant, they were gone, warped out, leaving Lightspeed alone. Lightspeed stared at the smoking indent in the earth that the warp had left. She rubbed her eyes with a shaking hand, afraid of facing Dracul. Not because of his strength. Because of his eyes. Because when she stared at them, those deep, dark, tired voids, she knew she saw in them what she hated the most: herself. === "Thanatos." Emrys greeted Aldrich, hands sped behind his back in his typical, serious posture. He looked at the group Aldrich brought and nodded, not seeing any issue with them. "Where are we?" said Aldrich, hiding the wonder in his voice. He looked around, finding himself in an enormous chamber lit up by bright green and blue lights. The lights came from above. They flickered and shed across an overwhelming mass of pirs of white metal that criss-crossed through the chamber, forming into aplex web of what looked like neurons. Here, countless thousands of drones buzzed about, inspecting each of the many pirs like worker ants. "You wanted to inspect how it is that the Panopticon would adapt to hostile infiltration," said Emrys. "So, I have taken you to the Panopticon Core, the central processing system that makes the Panopticon Directive possible." "This...is incredible," said V, staring up at the neuron-pirs in utter awe. "The sheer amount of data flowing through even just one of those pirs is staggering. Just one is equivalent to an A ranker techno, and there''s like a bajillion of them." "8.6 million, to be precise," said Emrys. "Spread evenly across various Nodes throughout the world. Where we are is one such Node." "So, not the main core?" pointed out Aldrich. Emrys shook his head. "The location of the main core remains ssified. In this entire world, only I am allowed to know of its location. However, every Node is connected to the Core, so what you see here is essentially what you see in the Core." Interesting," said Aldrich. "And this Node is in the Halo Carrier, then?" "You are correct," said Emrys. He waved his hand, He waved his hand, and two warbots from behind him stepped forward. They were humanoid, covered from head to toe in iron and steel gray armor lined with streaks of gleaming red. Behind their backs were sheathed twin katanas, what appeared to be their weapon of choice. One of them stepped forward, carrying a metal suitcase in his hand that it held out towards Aldrich. "And that is, as promised, Vanguard''s journal," said Emrys. Chapter ?371 The Journal 2 Chapter ?371 The Journal 2 The two iron ted machines walked up to Aldrich and ced the case down in the space between him and Emrys. They returned to Emrys but stood behind the president. A power y move that indicated that Emrys had no issue standing at the forefront of any negotiation. Not that Aldrich did not think any less of those who sat behind underlings. That was what those units were for; he knew that better than anyone as a summoner type mage. But what Emrys did was still notable. It showed confidence in his own power. ''Give me a scan of his power,'' Aldrich mentallymunicated to Vntis. Emrys''s frame, muscles and wide shoulders straining through his elegant two piece suit, lit up in a silhouette of red as Vntis analyzed him. ''Formidable. He would have the strength of a level 40 warrior,'' said Vntis. ''Approximately equal in energy level to Mollusk or Refraction.'' ''Interesting. So a low A ranker at base when we consider pure AC count,'' Aldrich knew that Vntis''s assessments were not exactly urate when it came to pinpointing someone''s power. He could determine someone''s ''energy level'', and he determined that metric by measuring the total output oftent energy that their Alter cells gave off. However, this was not the best way to determine someone''s power. An Alter''s strength primarilyy in the uniqueness of their superpower, not the sheer energy level fueling it. Granted, higher energy levels meant higher base physical stats and more stamina in using said power, but it told a very iplete story. But the fact that Emrys was low A rank just in sheer AC count was formidable enough. It put Emrys within the top 1% of the world''s poption which was not too surprising. The founder of the Alterhuman Agency was Rnd Du Lac, one of the Gilded - one of the toughest of the tough back in the Golden Age of heroes that Vanguard belonged to, when Alters were culled from eras of chaos and conflict so that only the strongest of the strong, the fittest of the fit, rose to recognition. Rnd was the world''s definitive number 2 behind Vanguard, and though his children never took up hero mantles, it stood to reason that they would be strong too. In fact, all things considered, Emrys was actually rather weakpared to his grandfather. ''Scan the two guards,'' thought Aldrich. ''Analysisplete.'' Vntis paused. The red outline around the twin irond soldiers was incredibly thick, far denser than that around Emrys. ''High A rankers. Not quite S ss,'' thought Aldrich. ''They would outss me in a physical brawl. And, let me see...,'' Aldrich activated his Death Sense and detected that they were not simply bots, but had life within them. Either they were cyborgs or Alters in Frames. Very interesting. As it so stood, Frames and heavy cybeics that turned Alters into borgs was mostly done for Alters who were not Augmenters or Mutants. Alters that were not physical powerhouses on their own like technos. However, borg and Frametech were not used at the highest level of security because it left those relying on it susceptible to techno interference in Cyberspace. Was no good to have a bodyguard fitted with the best cybeic imnts if their wire jacked brains and synthetic lungs and neosteel-aramid fiber muscles could just spontaneously explode due to a techno fucking with them through Cyberspace. That said, considering this was Panopticon tech, very few, if any technos had the chops to infiltrate it. A.I.I., though, was one of them. Which put pressure on Emrys to seek Aldrich''s help to reinforce the Panopticon against demonic possession. Which put Aldrich, for now, on the upperhand here in terms of leverage. "Let me see the journal," said Aldrich. "Open the case up." "Are you doubting that I am upholding my end of this bargain?" Emrys raised a bushy white brow, his shining white pupil narrowing against the dark of his ck iris. "I''m quite a fan of Vanguard''s, you see," said Aldrich. "I just want to see his journal with my own two eyes. You understand, don''t you?" Emrys nodded to one of his soldiers. They wordlessly stepped up and ced their palm on the case. A pulse of faint blue light shimmered out from the point of contact, washing over the silver case. Lines in the metal of the case lit up before a sealing mechanism unlocked. "Instant Touch Interfacing,"mented V under her breath. Her face was hidden under her mask, a helmet with a shining purple V shaped visor, but Aldrich could tell she was surprised. "No need for cables. Clunky jacking in. Guess that''s Panopticon tech for ya." "The Panopticon has made many advancements," said Emrys. "But, as the Judicata attack shows, not enough." The case clicked and cked, a pressurized hiss escaping as it unraveled down the middle, revealing Vanguard''s journal. It was a ragged old thing suspended in midair in a faint purple pir of anti-gravity light. Leatherbound, the faded brown cover in patchy tatters, the spine frayed, showing exposed binding like a patient on a street cyberdoc''s grimy operating table. The paper, visible beneath the holes in the caver, was crumpled, yellowed, scrawled over with messy, barely legible handwriting. Aldrich did not know what he was expecting. He had idolized Vanguard, the most Gilded of them all, perhaps a bit too much. He thought the journal would have been pristine, the handwriting at the very least clean. This looked like something you would fish out of the dank basement of a conspiracy nutjob that juggled mental illnesses like a carnival performer. "Is that really..." Aldrich trailed off. "Yes, it is." Emrys nodded. A slow, sad nod. "I told you. Vanguard was not in the best state of mind in hister years." "Then it may be that those writings are simply the ravings of a madman," said Valera. "There is often a method in madness. A pattern in chaos, if you study hard enough,"mented Fler''Gan. "Of course you would say that," said Valera. Aldrich raised his hand, bidding silence to this amusing yet unprofessional talk. "She does have a point," said Aldrich. "How do I know these isn''t just lunatic script? That the predictions you base off this journal are no better than figuring out aliens built the pyramids?" Aldrich said this, but now that he knew aliens were definitively real, he had to entertain the vanishingly slight possibility that the pyramids of old, before they were wiped out during the Monstering, were indeed alien constructs. "I myself do not know," said Emrys. "I, too, had difficulty determining the veracity and reliability behind these writings. But, as I have said before, I trusted Supermind, and he trusted these words fully." "I''d like a look at the journal if you don''t mind," said Aldrich. "While we''re here, you can tell me exactly where you''ve drawn your conclusions. The six months projection for Vanguard''s power reappearing, for example." "Of course." Emrys nodded at one of his soldiers again, and they knelt by the case and pressed their palm to it again, interfacing with the surprisingly advanced tech. From simple nce, the case looked like any ordinary case, but inside were many moving and intricate parts. Top shelf Panopticon tech. A holographic menu appeared before the soldier, and he began touching options, prompting the journal, still suspended by anti-grav beam, to open, pages flipping in air. "As you can tell, the journal is not in the best of conditions," said Emrys. "Many pages are already torn or too far gone to decipher. I would not risk touching it directly. But as for the six month prediction, here-," Emrys stepped forward, and the soldier moved away giving the president free reign of the menu. "You will get a glimpse into Vanguard''s mind," said Emrys as he scrolled through the menu, the pages flipping with the movement of his finger. "A thoroughly broken mind." Chapter 372 Heist Planning 1 Chapter 372 Heist nning 1 Meanwhile, in the Wastnds - "Sure this storm won''t fry us from the inside out? I''m gettin'' all tingly already," said Clint, sitting in the back of an armored transport parked in a stone forest for cover. The Wastnds on the East Coast were mostly barren, arid stretches of shatterednd, but surprisingly frequently huge pir of spiky rock formations congregated together to form giant forests of rock. Here, it was possible to weather the worst of the many geostorms that liked to wreak havoc on the Wastes. That is, if one stomached the risk of variants prowling about. Clint, though, picked his teeth with the w of a lizard type variant he had just recently ughtered, unbothered. "My pa doesn''t mess around with stuff like this." A younger man in histe teens retorted, the symbol of a red eagle with its wings outstretched stitched proudly on the back of his jacket. He had a seaweed mess of curly ck hair on his head, thick and healthy. "We''ve scouted the area and followed the storm. This ce is safe and as close as we''re gonna get to Meteor Labs without em'' noticing." "Heh, you got a little shaking in your voice," said Clint, smirking. He pointed the w at the boy. "You as shaky in the boots as your old pa, Falco?" "Hell no," said Falco, crossing his arms. "My old man''s an amazing scout, best there is on this side of the country, but the age has gotten to him. He''s scared of sticking his neck out, making a name for himself." The boy pointed a gloved thumb at himself. "That ain''t me." "Hah! Two greenhorns on a mission as sensitive as this. Dunno if I should be worried or excited for you two to pop yer heist cherries." Clint smiled broadly. "I''m ready," said n. "These fuckers work for the org that took out my dad. Not about to skip out on a fight to take them down." "Cool down, both of you," said Diamondback. He was standing, arms crossed, eyes serious as they stared at a holographic map of the surrounding area projected from the mechanical eye of a techno hired from Z''s Phantoms. "Neither of you are going to be going into anything alone. This is strictly for experience. You follow our orders. You wait when you''re told to wait. Sit when you''re told to sit. Fight when you''re told to fight. Clint may go easy on you two, but not me. You understand?" Falco and n both nodded. "Now let''s go over how we''re going to do this," said Diamondback. "Kris, pan out. Highlight where thebs are." Kris, the techno of the heist team, grunted and tapped the side of his head. His mechanical eye clicked and whirred, changing the holographic projection. The map distorted for a second before it panned out, showing a rocky, canyon and stone pir filledndscape. At the bottom of a deep ravine was highlighted a red light. Meteor Labs. "The Gilded Swallow''s provided us a good amount of intel to work with," said Diamondback. "Location of thebs, security detail, the likes. As far as heists go, if I gotta pin the difficulty of this on a five star scale, it ought to be around 3 stars." "Really now? Thought it''d be lower, what with the likes of us being around," said Tox, confident. She leaned back against a crate of ammunition, purple tinted skin glistening under the dim, flickering white light of the transport''s ceiling. "All of you ckwater kids are top notch talent, but you''re all still kids," said Diamondback. "Unshaped talent is chaotic. Hard to work with. Honestly, I''m a little surprised Thanatos sent you all. I''m not questioning his judgment, but I would have expected a more seasoned force." "It''s for me," said Ace. He was sitting cross-legged, leaning intently towards the holographic map, pale blue eyes glowing with interest. "Meteor Labs was where I was raised. This very outpost too. Seeing it...makes me want to crush it even more." Ace clenched his fists, and they glowed with pale blue energy. "You good, Ace?" Tox worriedly put a hand on Ace''s shoulder. "Yeah. Just bad memories. But not bad enough to mess with me," said Ace. "We''re trained enough," said Alexis, white and blue streaked hair crackling with electricity. "And all of us have worked together before." "Plus, I''m here to make sure they''ll all behave," said Ste, nodding at the ckwater students. "Kids being led by a former D lister. Doesn''t change too much," said Diamondback sternly. "None of you know how heists work. You''re trained for merc work, assassination, or the standard AP farming hero job. Those are all structured. Ordered. Heists are pure chaos. Us nomads, when we pull of heists, we know we''re always punching up. Taking heavily armored cargo. Going in with all the info we can get, but all too often, it isn''t enough. Taking on corps with heavy firepower, strong guards, police, heroes, everyone against us." "Spare me with the woe is us nomads shit," said Ste. "I was a nomad too, you know, and one thing I''m really tired of is the whole victim mentality you all seem to have. Yeah, sure, you try to pull some shit, and everyone''s on your ass. But that''s your choice, isn''t it? You leave the cities knowing you got viins, heroes, and police against you. It''s the price of freedom, but you made that choice, you live with it. Don''t lord it over us as if it makes you any better." "Ease up, Diamondback," said Clint. "You''re reminding me too much of my own pa, all serious and uptight and wary of outsiders and shit. Lost sight of what it meant to be a nomad, and at the end of the day, it''s all about bein'' able to cut loose, no matter where you''re from, ain''t it?" Clint patted his chest triumphantly. "Plus, no worries, I''m here, and with me around, shit ain''t gonna go wrong." "I''ve lost count of the amount of times I''ve had to save you after you said ''shit ain''t gonna go wrong,'' sighed Diamondback. "That was when I was a wee little kiddo," said Clint, grinning. "Now I''m bigger than you! Let the kids breathe a little. Heists aren''t supposed to be glum, funeral talk asions. They can be, but suck the fun out of it all and yer just left with a cold, squeaky clean operation that looks like it got shat out by the likes of ARMA. Real corporation crap. Better to go into it with a fire lit in yer ass. Like a fire to settle scores." Clint nodded at Ace and n. "A fire to prove yerself." He nodded at Falco. "And a fire to grow the next generation." He nodded at Ste. Chapter ?373 Heist Planning 2 Chapter ?373 Heist nning 2 "Alright," conceded Diamondback. "But we still have to have SOME semnce of a n." "Then n away. It''s why I brought you, heh. You got all that cerebal shit down to a T. It''s no wonder my pa trusted you as his right hand man. And why I trust you with my life." Clint lied down, arms forming a pillow behind his horned head. "Now, to continue from where I left off before these...interruptions," said Diamondback. "You''re the one that started it," said Ste, defiant. "Sure. Now let''s get back to the n." Diamondback conceded easily, wanting to get on to the n, and Ste, though her brows were still knitted together in defiance, was mature enough to back down when there was no fight to be had. "Our objective is to break into Meteor Labs and secure their Kryptic supply. Kris-," "Yeah." Kris''s eye clicked, and the map shifted, showing a detailed map of Meteor Labs''s infrastructure. Though there were some patches that were blurry due to ack of information. Overall, theb was essentially a reverse tower that sprawled deep underground in a roughly rectangr shape. Its entrance was a dome that jutted out from the bottom of a ravine, surrounded by towering rock formations that protected it from geostorms. "The Gilded Swallow''s intel on his outpost was extensive," said Diamondback. "Theb itself is almost strictly underground, nted in the depths of the ravine up ahead. Those giant blocks not only shield it from the worst of the storms, but it also istes it from outsiders. The location makes theb impossible to find on a map or track on a satellite, making it the perfect site for illegal operations. Nothinges for free, though, and this site, like most sites that set up in the Wastnds hoping for quiet, deal with its own fair share of shit." Diamondback rapped at the transport''s walls shaky walls as they shook from raging geostorm winds outside. "Constant geostorms is the most obvious demerit. And, as you know, geostorms annihte most tech infrastructure on the surface, even at the bottom of that ravine. Thebs don''t have any sensor towers. Their Net towers are retractable and only show up after storms have passed. Simply put: they''re cut off from outsidemunication every time a storm runs its course." "So strike while the storm''s putting them on ckout?"mented n. "That''s right, but we can''t just charge out into a storm full throttle," said Diamondback. "It''ll overload our cells and organs, blow us up from within no matter how tough we are. I don''t know what Thanatos''s revival does to your bodies, but if you use an Alter Organ, you''re still gonna be in for a bad time. We have to wait until the tail end of this storm, right at the goldilocks time zone where the storms have still cut theb off while letting us use our powers without blowing up." "How much time do we get, then?" asked Tox, nting her cheek on her hand as she observed thebs. "An hour, give or take," said Diamondback. "More than enough time to do what we have to do.'' "I take it this isn''t going to be a stealthy operation?" said Tox. "Why do you say that?" said Diamondback. "C''mon. Just look at us. You, Clint, and Ace are muscled out meatheads. Ste blows shit up. And you-," She pointed at n. "Don''t think I can''t tell. The Bio-Mechanic that worked on you was super subtle, but I can tell pretty easy. You''ve got fuckin'' rocketunchers in your arms. You''re borged up to the gills with firepower. No way you''re here to do anything quietly." "I did this myself," said n. "Shit, really? Impressive stuff, man." Tox nodded approvingly. "But as I was saying, as far as quiet work goes, it''s just me and the techno here. Maybe you, but I have no idea what you can do." She shrugged at Falco. "I know martial arts!" protested Falco. "And my Alter power lets me grow wings!" "Wings? In an undergroundb?" Tox raised a brow, thoroughly confused. "He''s here because he wants to prove himself, that''s all," said Clint. "Sure, his pa is probably going to murder him if he finds out. Murder me too, if he could, but he can''t, so I get to be the good ol'' unkible uncle that lets the kids run wild. Falco''s gonna be under my protection, too, so don''t worry much about him." "I''ve practiced hundreds of hours with training chips," said Falco, brandishing his fists to prove his point. "I can handle myself." "Psh. Training chip VR and actualbat are miles apart," said Clint. "But don''t worry, I''ll let ya y around. Just gotta make sure ya don''t kick the can, cause even if your pa can''t kill me, I sure as hell don''t want him to stop being my pal." "Right. So, we''ve got meatheads, explosions, and a guy with wings. See what I''m getting at?" said Tox. "You''re right. Aside from a few add-ons that aren''t much more than glorified interns, we''re all bruisers and muscle. I do have tomend your perceptiveness. What merc group were you raised in?" said Diamondback. "Ember," said Tox quietly. "Exins a lot. All of you Ember mercs are professionals, whether you want to be or not." Diamondback pointed at the top of thebs, at the dome that jutted out of the rocky surface. "There''s no easy way into thebs. It''s warp-locked and the Kryptic is securely guarded near the bottom, at the twentieth floor, snugly swaddled by solid rock and Null deposits that make underground infiltration risky, if not impossible. Only way to get to it is a frontal assault." "Dome looks pretty damn solid," said Ace. "Sure we can''t wait until it opens up? I''m strong, but even I don''t think I can punch through that by myself." Diamondback shook his head. "The dome is closed at all times, opening only for the asional air transport or drop shipment. We aren''t exactly a wee shipment. It isn''t opening for us. Hence, the firepower." Diamondback tapped at the dome on the holograph and zoomed in, showing details about itsposition that popped up in a text menu at the side. "We can see that the dome is solid neo-steel. Three and a half meters thick. Extremely resistant to regr kic force, making punching our way in difficult. Would need a damn near S ranker to really crack through it with punches alone." "Just pure neo-steel?" said n, his red mechanical eyes clicking and whirring in analytic recognition. "That makes it tough as hell, but rigid. Unmalleable. Neo-steel''s shock absorbent qualities make it top notch against brute force, but the same can''t be said for its heat resistance. Or for concentrated, armor-piercing force. And since it''s pure neo-steel, it isn''tposited with ceramics, stics, and other materials that''ll smooth over its weaknesses. Nor is it smart-boosted, so it can''t shift its atomic structure to adapt against different types of applied force or thermal damage." "You''ve got quite the mechanical chops," said Diamondback. "Heard you came from a small shop in a free city. With your knowledge, you could''ve made it big in a tiered city. Maybe even tier 1. What brings you here?" "A debt," said n, looking down for a moment. He took back hisposure and spoke again. "If it''s just solid neosteel we''re dealing with, the easiest way to crack it open is something armor piercing. High amounts of prative force applied in a small contact zone, preferably with high levels of heat, too." "Doesn''t that remind you of someone?" Tox nudged Ace''s shoulder. "Yeah, it sure does." Ace stared at Ste. She blushed. "W-well, I CAN make explosions..." "And so can I," said Clint. "My evolution isn''t consciously controlled, but it is pushed and pulled by my environment. If you put me in a situation where I gotta blow some shit up, I''ll adapt to it. You and I can crack the dome." "Looks like Thanatos wasn''t entirely going off of personal grudges and debts when he sent you all," said Diamondback. He nodded. "Under the dome, all of the bio there are going to be researchers. Non threats, mostly. Most of the security detail against us will be automated. Turrets, drones, and bots. I''ve stocked up on high end EMP charges that you''ll find in the crates in this truck. They''re top shelf stuff, military grade, though slightly outdated. Remnants from transports we heisted during the 2077 Corpowar. Don''t have too many of them, just three per person, so use them sparingly." "I can handle it," said Alexis. Her fingers crackled. "I''ve been studying the storm that took out Haven''s tech, and I think I can sort of replicate it. I can shut down most bots, though ones with higher end electro-maic shielding are gonna be a tough sell." "Good. We can get rid of the lower end defenses without wasting charges. That lets us save them for the tougher ones," said Diamondback. "The strongest bots you''ll find will be ARMA Cyclops. Sturdy, heavily armored bastards with mono-ocr beams that can crack even my skin. From the intel, it looks like there''s between ten to fifteen Cyclops. We have enough charges to deal with all of them. Once we get through them, we can ess the vault on the twentieth floor that holds the Kryptic without issue. Kris has the know-how to breach the locks there." "Still wonder whether there wasn''t a quieter way to do this," said Tox. "Someone like Kat could''ve snuck in there, maybe, by impersonatingb staff." "Lab staff are on site twenty four hours. Extremely difficult," said Diamondback. "And Thanatos himself specifically requested that this heist make as much noise as possible." Chapter ?374 Journal Entries 1 Chapter ?374 Journal Entries 1 "Seriously? Our boss told you to make as much noise as possible?" Tox raised a brow. "HE of all people did?" "I mean, he isn''t opposed to showing off. Just look at Haven," Ace pointed out. "When I saw the footage, I knew he meant big business." "Yeah, true that. He''s cool and quiet but knows how to flex most of the time. Mhm," said Tox, her voice dreamy with thoughts of chiseled muscles. "Psh. Give up while you''re ahead, girl," said Ste. "You''re gonna have a bad time trynna'' push through Val." "Oh, right, her." Tox sighed. "It''s 2117 - monogamy is so old fashioned." "Nothin'' wrong with old fashioned,"mented Clint. "Get back on track." Diamondback ced his finger at the dome of the holographicb and then began to slowly trace downwards, through the floors. "A frontal assault is dangerous, but there is an upside to it: it''s simple. We go in, and we keep pressing forward as one group. I''ll lead coordination. With all of us together, we shouldn''t face any substantial risk. Now, over here is where things can get a little dicey." Diamondback stopped his finger down at the 15th floor. Each of theb''s floors were the same in terms of dimension, being rectangr prisms stacked atop each other neatly. Each of these floors seemed to bebs or small scale manufacturing centers, filled in with holographic details of tables, vats, vials, and mechanical arms for construction. However, past the 15th floor, things changed. The path down branched into two with both leading into severalrgerpartments that were cked out of detail. Large, bold, purple lettering marking out STORAGE - CLASSIFIED glowed across the empty dark voids of the empty spaces. "The vaults are where they store the Kryptic, among other things. But as you can see, there are two vaults. We''ll need to split up and examine both separately." "Ah, a good old team split. Nothing bad everes from that," quipped Tox. "Nothing should. The Vaults are controlled environments with sensitive material," said Diamondback. "Once Kris breaks the locks, exploring them should be risk free. But just in case, this is how we''re going to divide the groups. Clint, me, Falco, and n will search vault 1. The rest of you, the ckwater group along with Ste, will search vault 2." "Got tired of us already, eh?" teased Ste. "No. But Clint and I have a responsibility to take care of the young ones that we''re taking with us to this mission," said Diamondback. "Damn straight," said Clint. "With us two around, you boys ought to be safer than an Imugi transport." "Safe isn''t what I''m looking for," said n. "Yeah," agreed Falco. "I''m here for a good scrap, not to hide behind your backs." "This is non-negotiable," said Diamondback. "You, Falco, especially. You''re the son of a tribe chief. The only remaining family that Gerard has, too. It is absolutely imperative that you are not harmed. I would have never let you near this heist no matter how hard you begged, but unfortunately, Clint''s the chief, not me." "I''m cool with you tagging along, but I can''t ignore what DB''s saying as well. I can snag you along for the ride, but you gotta keep a cool head on your shoulders and stay safe. If ya don''t, I''ll knock ya out myself and drag you out." Clint nodded towards n. "As for you, well, you ain''t got nothin'' much to do with us, but I don''t want one of Thanatos''s men gettin'' rocked cause of us." "I''m not one of his men. I''m fighting for myself," said n. Clint sat up. "Sure, you can fight. But you ain''t dyin'', that''s for sure. No ifs and buts bout'' it. Now, n''s simple enough, right, we all good for it?" Before anyone could answer, Clint nodded heartily for them. "Awesome. Then when the storm lets up and it''s showtime, go ahead and wake me up." Clint took the variant tooth he was using to pick his teeth and flicked it into the ceiling, where it lodged into the solid metal frame of the armored transport. He then stretched back out,id his head down on his hands, and snored away. === At the Halo Carrier- Aldrich scanned through Vanguard''s journal. It was a fairly hefty thing, about three hundred pages in total. The first page seemed to be a brief introduction to the nature of the journal''s content with neat, intelligible handwriting. It''s now 2100. To think, it''s been almost a hundred years since I''ve had this power. Going from zero to hero. And now, back to zero. It was a wild, wild journey. I tried my best in it, I really did, but now, with the power smoldering away from me, I''m wondering if I really was the best one to hold this key. A skinny, deadbeat junkie that didn''t know anything better than the end of a needle. I was never meant to be a hero. I tried, I guess, but trying isn''t enough when there''s so much at stake. And there was always so much at stake. I remember this quote from aic, a real antique one now, that said something along the lines of ''with great poweres great responsibility.'' Yeah, that''s true. But it''s missing a few things. Responsibility is only what you make of it. It''s a burden you choose to take with the power you have. And it''s not the type of burden just anybody can take, I''ve realized. It was easy, at first, during the Altering and the Monstering. There was always a big bad to fight. Zahak, then the Titans. It was all so ck and white. Just had to beat the monsters and things would be great. But afterwards, things got so much harder. But afterwards, the corporate wars, the Panopticon deciding to work with corps instead of abolishing them, so many decisions made for so many different ideas of a ''greater good'' - I just got lost. And my power stopped responding, too. It was burning out. I could feel it in my bones. I stopped flying around and saving people. I didn''t know who or what was right. Ending the 2090 Corpowar, when they were about to nuke all of Paris into a crater, that''s about thest time I stepped in, thinking it was an easy ck versus white, good versus evil fight I could use my power on. Even that wasn''t like that. I realized that maybe, people are the greatest monsters out there. I still think about what happened to Valk, her husband, their kid, and I regret it to the deepest pits of my heart. But you know, this journal isn''t for that. It''s for the future. A better one, hopefully, one that doesn''t involve so much power going to a useless piece of shit like me. It''s to detail my quest to give someone else this power. Someone better. How, you ask? I don''t really know. For now. I don''t even really know how I got this power in the first ce. Supermind tells me it''s from outer space, but where exactly is anybody''s guess. I''ve always believed in the idea that it''s better to try than to do nothing. These past few years, I stopped believing in that. I was holding onto this power, this power that''s burning me from the inside out, one that''s doing me more harm than good at this point, just for the selfish sake of having it and feeling special. Because I know without it, I''m nothing. The needle pinning addict that should have died in the gutter. But something changed this year. I could feel it in the air. I could feel it when I stared down at earth from space. It''s an indescribable feeling, like the earth just felt a little more...exposed. Vulnerable to the infinite dark of the cosmos around it. A terrible, terrible feeling. I knew then that I had to find a way to give this power of mine to someone else, my selfish insecurities be damned. I knew I had to, for theest time, try. Chapter ?375 Journal Entries 2 Chapter ?375 Journal Entries 2 Aldrich finished reading the introductory page. Vanguard was pretty coherent here, nothing at all like the madman wall scratchings that Aldrich would have expected from a man that went, ording to Emrys, certifiably inser in his life. By this point in time, Vanguard was already a decade retired. After ending the fourth Corporate War in 2092, he was never seen again, at the very least, not outside of faint whisperings where he saved a person or two and then disappeared in mystery. Which meant that Vanguard had gone insane in the timespan between 2100 and somewhere around the present of 2117. What struck Aldrich the most, though, was Vanguard''s origins. His surprisingly humble ones. The story he and many millions others knew was that Vanguard was a former war veteran decorated for his heroism, someone who had beenrger than life from the very beginning. "So that''s how it was," muttered Aldrich. "Vanguard never was a decorated veteran, was he? Purple heart with a golden heart - that all a marketing scheme?" Emrys nodded. "Vanguard was a symbol. Of infallible humanity''s infallible strength and nobility. Infallibility by definition cannot have failure. Can''t very well have that symbole from any ordinary street rat, no?" "And he wanted this? To erase who he was?" "He did. He wanted it more than anyone. Because he knew that without that symbol, he was nothing. And, perhaps, because he himself wanted to cast who he had been to the void. It is difficult to dig up too much information about Vanguard''s origins as information Pre-Altering, before the Omega Expansion, is difficult. But from Supermind, I knew that Vanguard a criminal by desperation. A petty thief who scrounged stores and streets for scraps to live and feed a heroin addiction. He had long been out of touch with family and friends, leeching off them to fuel his habit. I do not me him for wishing to cast such weakness aside. I would have done the same were I in his ce." "I see." Aldrich came to the realization that Vanguard was for more a man than hero than he had once thought. A broken man struggling under the yoke of addiction. Aldrich did not have any personal experience with it, but it was easy enough to see its effects on the streets of every major city. Countless men and women moving about with listless eyes andnguid movements powered by the sputtering engine of getting their next hit, their next rush. The proliferation and demand of powerful recreational drugs to escape life as it got harder and harder and society as it got crueler and crueler was inevitable. Vanguard had been one of those dead eyed walking corpses. At least, before he obtained his power. But even afterwards, it showed in his writing that he had made mistakes. He was, after all, just a man. An imperfect, once broken man. There seemed to be quite a big incident involving the former Valkyrie and her husband. Aldrich knew that Valkyrie''s husband was killed during the fourth corpowar, but the details were hush hush. By design, too. The AA was quiet about any operations that Vanguard failed, choosing to cast Vanguard as someone that had as close to a ''perfect'' track record as possible. It was jarring to find Vanguard a man who was, as Emrys said, a symbol, a symbol that Aldrich looked up to during his youth, be just a man. But in hindsight, it was obvious. Everyone was just human, after all. There was only so much a man could take. So much weight they could bear. Everyone now except Aldrich. If a man could not bear the burden of the world, then a Lich would have to. Vanguard''s introduction brought up other interesting points, too. Vanguard had felt the Severing that happened in 2000. And he felt that a great danger hade with it. One great enough to push him to find a sessor. "You can ess keyword searches to pinpoint information you are looking for," said Emrys. "A localized A.I. in the case can also respond to moreplex vocalized requests as well." "I see. Then I''ll make a few more searches, if you don''t mind." "Go ahead," said Emrys. ... ... ... I did it. The power, the key - I sent it somewhere else. I saw it with my own two eyes. It left me, the red key, it left me in a shining ze. From my heart, it shot out into the skies, like a shooting star, like the same shooting star that I saw that day, that day I overdosed, wanting to end it all as I looked up at the star filled night. I don''t know what I did. It just happened. One moment, I''m sitting on this ind, thinking maybe the power''s in my blood and I have to extract it, and the next, the ind''s sunk, and the power''s out. There''s still a little bit of the power left in me. I can still fly. Stay strong. And I can sort of feel it. Its energy. Its presence. I know it''s out there, but it hasn''t chosen anyone. Just have to wait. Hopefully, I can teach the new guy how to use it better than I did. Stop him from making the mistakes I did. Or her, I don''t mind that either. -October 1, 2110 ... ... ... The power''s fading from me. My body''s desperately hanging onto thest little bits of it. Flying''s hard. Feels like I''m sinking in mid-air. My whole body feels heavy. But I knew this was going to happen. Embers can''t burn forever, after all. The thing is - there''s nobody to take up the torch. The key, it''s still up there, somewhere. I can feel it. It hasn''te down and chosen anyone. Why? I don''t know. I don''t even know why or how it chose me. Maybe I shouldn''t have let that power go. Without it, I''m nothing. At least with it, I was somebody, I was the best hero out there. I just hope it''ll choose soon. Before the rest of my power fades. I need to know that I gave it up for something good. Some greater good. I need to know that it wasn''t all for nothing. -June 4, 2115 Chapter ?376 Journal Entries 3 Chapter ?376 Journal Entries 3 I''m losing it. I''m losing everything that made me special. My muscles are gone. My bones feel creaky. I ache all over. My skin is wrinkling, sagging, cracking. My teeth chatter and hurt. I should have died back then, on that meadow, needle in my ankle, looking up at the stars, but the power kept me alive. Now, without it, I''m dying. I don''t mind dying. Somewhere along the way, after so many fights where I thought I would die, I learned how to put my life on the line. I learned what it meant to give my life up for others. I don''t mind my body breaking apart by a beam or getting torn into pieces from a variant. But this, I hate. I hate it. I''m losing my mind. I''m feeling the same cloudiness I did before I got my powers. I''m starting to feel cravings. I''m starting to shiver all over. I wake up at night in a cold sweat, hungering, jittering for more. Not for H, not for any drug, but for power. The power that made me special. I find myself wing at my throat, then at the sky, at the key that''s out there, somewhere, still up there. It''s like it''s taunting me. Making fun of me for ever tossing it away. Why did I let it go? Why did I send it out if it wasn''t going to choose anyone else? No, why does anyone else get to have it other than me? I was the one that saved this world twice over. I was the best of the best. The most golden of heroes. It was me. I deserve it. I need it. Without it, I''m nothing. I- -January 1, 2116 ... ... ... There was a big stretch of empty pages after his point until suddenly, pages filled with incoherent scribbles and drawing began to appear. Messy, childish scribblings of a red key scribbled over and over everywhere. A red key, that was Vanguard''s main symbol as a hero. It was emzoned proudly on the chest of his golden suit and on his gleaming red cape of pure energy. It showed that he was the literal key, the answer to any threat that dared to challenge humanity. And now, it was the obsessive fixation of a broken man. A man who craved the symbol that made him special. Aldrich resisted the urge to shut the journal right then and there. He had grown out of hero worship, but it undeniably had a massive impact on him. Vanguard really had been the best of the best to him. Someone to look up to. Seeing Vanguard reduced to this level of base desperation was...hard to stomach. "Pitiful," said Valera, shaking her head. "The human mind is so very prone to madness,"mented Fler''Gan. "The swirl of emotions and desires, securities and insecurities, all of thatprise theplex weave of man''s mind, man''s soul. It is what makes it so vtile. Beautiful in its chaos, and yet, at the same time, so very susceptible to destruction." "Poor guy," said V. "I used to wonder when he woulde back, y''know? To make the world better again." "Hm. So this was how the key to our survival was, deep down?" said Dracul, quiet reflection in his tone. "Broken, pieces held together by a flickering will. And eventually, it all fell apart. As all things do in time." "Not eventually. The onset of Vanguard''s insanity was quick," said Emrys. "And likely triggered by an inciting incident, the nature of which is impossible to ascertain, even with the full resources of the AA and Panopticon attempting to uncover the truth. Supermind could never read Vanguard''s mind, Irregr as he was, but he could maintain a psychic tracker to know whether Vanguard was alive or not. However, during the time of these scribblings - dated to early 2116 via analysis of the ink - Supermind lost all connection with Vanguard. Vanguard also spent the twilight of his years in Deep Wastnds and Null shrouded areas, making him impossible to physically track. His Irregr status meant he was unaffected by Null radiation, but how he escaped the clutches of variants without power is still a profound mystery." "It''s quick. Too quick," said Aldrich. "There''s an approximate three month gap between thest coherent page and...this. Something had to have happened. Something must have gotten to him." "Perhaps. Or perhaps not. That power kept Vangaurd alive not just in body, but in mind. Without it, both were destined to crumble away," said Emrys. "It may very well be that Vanguard used up what little he had left of his power, and that paved way for the death he had cheated a century ago to im what had slipped its grasp." "Skip to the next relevant words," said Aldrich, watching page after page of desperate, agonized scribbles flip over. He did not want to look upon the pieces of a shattered key. It did not feel right. "The case is already doing that," said Emrys. After a minute, the journal stopped flipping its pages,nding on a double spread of messy but coherent words. ... ... ... I HAVE SEEN THE KEYS DANCING IN THE GATE. THEY HAVE, ARE, WILL DESCEND. I UNDERSTAND NOW. I SEE NOW. WHAT IS TO COME. THE GAME. THE LIGHT OF DYING STARS CASTS A FADING SPOTLIGHT UPON A REVERIE OF CHAOS. A PHANTASMOGORIA OF WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT. LIFE AND DEATH LOSING MEANING, STRETCHING INTO ETERNITY THAT IS AND IS NOT. WILL IT BE ALL IN ONE? OR ONE IN ALL? AND THE RED KEY, MY BELOVED, WILL FALL. SHE WILL BE THE LAST TO JOIN THE DANCE, HER PERFORMANCE THE ONE TO SET THE STAGE. I REMEMBER NOW WHY I WRITE HERE. TO SHARE TO THE WORLD WHEN MY LOVE WILL DANCE. WHEN SHE WILL SHOW HER BURNING SHINE ONCE MORE. THESE WILL BE THE POTENTIAL TIMES OF HER AUDITION, THOUGH SHE IS SHY, PICKY. WHO KNOWS WHEN TRULY? ... ... ... The page flipped, and each double page after that was just a massive date scrawled across the entire length of two pages. There were quite a few dates, some dating to the past, the earliest being from December of 2116,st year. There were two, though, that stuck out to Aldrich the most. Thest two dates. 10/31/2117. When Aldrich received his power. 5/1/2118. The approximate six months in the future date that Emrys projected. This was the final date before the final page of the journal. ... ONCE MY RED HAS DANCED, THE THEATER WILL BE PREPARED. THE GAME WILL BEGIN. Chapter ?377 Panopticon Cure Chapter ?377 Panopticon Cure "Close the journal," said Aldrich. "I''ve seen enough." The tech-case responded promptly. The pir of holographic light that held the journal suspended in mid-air began to dim down, drawing the journal bank into a form fitting ss case. The case moving parts clicked mechanically as they built back over the journal, forming into what looked like a nondescript, steely grey briefcase. "It''s not marked with Panop or AA insignia,"mented V. "A matter of secrecy," said Emrys. "This journal is among the most closely guarded secrets that we have. The fact that we are lending it out like this is already a massive extension of our trust and goodwill. I trust that this...preview has been satisfactory?" "I''ll still need to take the case for further investigation," said Aldrich, reaching out for handle of the case. The information in the journal itself was not sufficient. It could have easily been doctored by a transmuter type Alter. He needed to get it magically appraised by Fler''Gan first, then a second round in the Necropolis through Med. "Of course. However, there are two sides of this deal, no?" said Emrys. In response, the two cyborg soldiers beside Emrys sprung into action, unsheathing their des and crossing them in front of Aldrich, forming a X shaped barrier between his hand and the suitcase. The des, now unsheathed, glowed a vibrant blue that seemed to blur. A faint, hum-like buzzing emanated from the swords. These were monomolecr frequency solid smoid des, or splitter swords as they were more colloquially known. des sheathed in solid sma that circted at extremely high frequency, allowing them to cut through matter at the molecr level. High end tech that would have been out of ce almost anywhere except here, in the heart of the Panopticon. "What is the meaning of this!?" Valera raised her shield in the air, readying to m it down for some kind of shockwave or, if she was feeling particrly feisty, to send out a wave of hellfire. The rest of Aldrich''s crew reacted, too, no slouches in defending their leader either. V put a hand to her head, preparing to try and infiltrate the cyborgs and fry their cybeically modified parts. Fler''Gan''s magical aura emanated around him in red. Dracul was the least responsive, but that made sense. He was not Aldrich''s subordinate, after all. He would only step in if things got particrly bad. Aldrich raised his hand, stopping everyone. "I''m no cheat. I''m going to uphold my end of the deal," said Aldrich. "I will assist the Panopticon in defending itself against future attacks of the type it encountered in the Judicata. But why this show of force?" "Simply a precaution," said Emrys. "I have observed that you are capable of performing a Warp even in locked areas. I understand that the possibility that you will simply take this journal is low, but it is a possibility I wish to guard against regardless." "I understand," said Aldrich. "So, you want me to go ahead and help the Panopticon defend itself, correct?" "That is correct." Aldrich drew back, and the two cyborgs pulled their des back in response. "I''m prepared to assist the Panopticon in bolstering its defenses. But you haven''t forgotten, have you? Before I do that, I want to know exactly how the Panopticon''s going to use my assets to strengthen itself." "I remember that stiption, and I am not against it." "Then what now? Are you going to take me to the Panopticon''s core?" said Aldrich. "I will warn you that I have a dinner arrangement that I''m due at tonight." "I do not foresee this taking an extended period of time. There is no need to take a lengthy transport to the Panopticon Core, and I am not willing to reveal its location regardless. However, for our purposes, we are where we already need to be." Emrys tilted his head up, towards the many gleaming blue and green pirs that formed the neurons of this Panopticon node. "V, it''s about time you take over," said Aldrich. "R-right boss!" V skipped forward, her attention ripped from gawking at the lightshow of flexible metal pirs above, all intertwining together inplex artificial neural pathways. To her, seeing all this tech must have given her a thrill like nothing else. "So, looking at our correspondence-," began V, her visor lighting up with lines of purple to signal she was interfacing with technology. "Not with me." Emrys shook his head, and V cocked her head with confusion. "Huh? Then who was chatting me up?" "That would be me." A voice emanated throughout the entirety of the massive node-room. It had the same neutralck of inflection or tone that belonged to Beta. Or most A.I. This voice was coded female, though with a voice on the slightly deeper side of the womanly scale. Despitecking strong inflection, it still managed to carry a sense of strict authority to it. "You''re...are you-," began V. "Analysis of your bodynguage, speech patterns, and techno-background indicate that there is a high probability that you will ask whether I am a fragment of the Omega Mind. To answer this query: you are correct." So this was Delta. One of the three Omega Mind fragments that remained from the Expansion that started all of Cyberspace. The indisputably strongest entity in all of Cyberspace with a signature so powerful and ''heavy'' that people that got even remotely close to Panopticon virtual infrastructure said that it felt like they were standing next to the sun. Scorching heat and colossal pressure that made even the greatest of technos feel like nothing but ants. "Christ...the rumors don''t do you justice. Just hearing you in my head feels like my brain''s just going to burst apart," said V. "An attack?" Valera raised a concern. "No, no, nothing like that. It''s just overwhelming...but just for a moment," said V. She looked up at thework of pirs and drones buzzing about. "You aren''t called the world''s top techno for nothing, huh?" "Techno is an incredibly limited ssification for an entity such as myself," said Delta. "It assumes a reliance on a body of corporeal limitation that does not apply to me." "Interesting," said Fler''Gan. Hemunicated to Aldrich mentally. ''So this entity is much like a deity. One unbound by singr physical form, though reliant on a concept of a physical ''core''.'' ''You''re roughly correct,'' said Aldrich. ''A god, eh?'' said Valera, staring up at Delta''s neural pathways. ''So there are gods to y in this realm too.'' ''Let''s not get too punch happy now,'' said Aldrich. ''Said god supplies security for practically all of humanity. Taking it down would be a catastrophic global disaster. And global disasters are something I''m actively working to prevent.'' "Well, limited as we meatbags are, you''re still dealing with us," said V. "We''vee here with what you''ve requested over messaging. You wanted a sample of protective energy, right? Here-," V unsped a chamber in her utility belt and took out her ne of demonic bone. Chapter ?378 Panopticon Cure 2 Chapter ?378 Panopticon Cure 2 "Is that the sample that I requested?" said Delta, her voice ringing with a faint hint of curiosity throughout the node-room. "Yeah, it is," said V. She held up the bone ne wreathed in tendrils of ck magical energy. "But like the boss said, you gotta tell us how you''re going to use this." "We wish to observe the process, too," said Fler''Gan. "The process is simple-," began Emrys. "I will exin." Delta cut Emrys off, and Aldrich noted that the president backed down without anyint. It seemed that in the Panopticon-AAplex that had a grasp over the entire, the AA was below the Panopticon. It made sense. Heroes were powerful individual security forces and morale boosters, but the vast majority - over 50% - of global safety was handled by automated Panopticon defenses. That was not even beginning to mention the vast array of utility based resources the Panopticon offered like satelliteworks, Net connectivity, city walls, and so on and so forth. "I am capable of an advanced form of structural analysis, replication, and synthesization that is not limited to energy forms native to this," said Delta. "It is a process that is ssified as ''omni-analysis'' for recording purposes, though in proper detail it is a multiyered, sequential system that defies definition under any single limited word." "Yeah, I get it, your tech is way too advanced to get crammed into cool nicknames," said V. "So, dumb it down for us meatbags. What''s omni-analysis going to look like?" "As requested, I shall simplify the process into one more understandable for your level of bio-intellect," said Delta. "Omni-analysis involves taking a sample and initiating a scan upon it. The scan will grant me the necessary information to replicate and then synthesize what I see." "Regardless of where that energy came from," said Aldrich. "That''s an extremely impressive power. In essence, you can copy any type of ability. What''s stopping you from doing that already?" "Omni-analysis is not a limitless process," said Delta. "It is restricted by informational data that my memory storage holds, and the vast majority of my memory deals only with resources native to this. There are some energy signatures that are too foreign for omni-analysis to fully replicate, though approximations can be made." "Vanguard''s power, I assume, isn''t something you could replicate," said Aldrich. "That is correct." "But you''ve made an approximation?" "That is ssified information." "That may as well be a confirmation." "We''ve tried to clone Vanguard, if that''s what you''re implying," said Emrys. "Why wouldn''t we? The strongest resource avable to mankind, the only one capable of toppling the Titans - to let it go, to let it be under the hold of just one measly man, is foolish." "Ah, cloning," said Fler''Gan, nodding with familiarity that very much indicated that he had some experience with it. "A difficult, tricky process." "Indeed," said Emrys. "I will tell you the fruits of our experimentation. Orck of. We could clone Vangaurd from DNA he donated to us, but we could not sessfully replicate the energy form of his power. It was simply, as Delta stated, too foreign for us to recreate." "And what about alien technology?" said Aldrich. "And what do you know about alien technology?" said Emrys, raising a brow. "More than you would think," said Aldrich. He did not actually know too much at this point. Just that it existed and that the U.S. government had the lion''s share of ess to it. But what kind of technology was something he had no idea about. The only piece of tech he did know was the device that sealed Dracul in the future. The raid on Meteor Labs would help fill in gaps in Aldrich''s knowledge, though. The Trident had some ess to alien tech, and Meteor Labs did all the research on it. What Aldrich said now was just a bluff. "Hm. I will say that recreating alien technology is not outside the realm of possibility for us," said Emrys. "But that is all I will divulge for now. In the future, when we have proven more trustworthy to each other, perhaps we can share information more freely." "Perhaps," said Aldrich. "In any case, if omni-analysis is limited by earth information, how is it going to deal with Irregr objects like this ne?" "Exact synthesis and replication is highly unlikely," stated Delta. "But an approximation is possible. So long as the approximation is capable of shielding my neuralworks, that is sufficient." "What about the energy signatures left behind by the Judicata attack?" said Aldrich. "The Judicata''s destruction left little behind to analyze," said Delta. "But you are correct. I have managed to gather samples, but they are insufficient to thoroughly analyze. However, by cross-referencing detailed analysis of the corruption that infiltrated the Judicata''s Operator with information extracted by salvaged samples, I determined it was possible to analyze the infiltration procedure and create countermeasures against it." "I see. It''s not the fact that you can or cannot," said Aldrich. "It''s the when that''s a thorn in your side. You can do it, but it''ll take too long. That''s the conclusion I''m drawing from this." "You are correct," said Delta. "Synthesis of the unique energy form would have taken approximately thirty seven days. Replication an additional twenty. Then shaping the replicated energy in a form suited to secure my neuralworks would have taken an additional thirty days. That is a timespan that is uneptably long in maintaining global security." "It''s said that if the Panopticon shuts down for a month, society copses," said V. "An exaggeration meant to keep the masses wary," stated Delta. "Provided the more unstable bio-intellects that popte the higher echelons of the Alterhuman Agency cooperate, it is possible for humanity to extend its survival rate considerably. However my presence, specifically my psychic presence, serves as a powerful deterrent to the variant Hivemind. The Hivemind is not limited to creating primitive, bestial bio-intellects. I project based on avable data that the Hivemind is capable of constructing cyber-intellects capable of prating Cyberspace and initiating widespread destruction of cyber-infrastructure." "What? So, like, variants in Cyberspace?" said V, concerned. "That is a simple way of categorizing the threat, but yes," said Delta. "I have data within my memory that strongly suggests that the Hivemind is capable of spawning such abominations. However, so long as my psychic signature remains in Cyberspace, the Hivemind cannot bypass the Netwall." Chapter ?379 [Bonus chapter] Panopticon Cure 3 Chapter ?379 [Bonus chapter] Panopticon Cure 3 "Interesting," said Aldrich. "I thought the Netwall was human maintained. Supervised by Operators and Panopticon technos beneath them. It''s part of the whole pro-humanity movement, isn''t it? I''ve seen enough shows and posters glorifying technos holding the fort against daemons at the Netwall." "Yeah, and there''s that movie series too, the Matrices, right? Super popr with that trench coat toting techno that stops crazy viin plots by day and daemon invasions by night," said V. The Netwall was a firewall that protected human upied Cyberspace from outside threats; the primary threat being daemons from the Void. It was actually created with Cyberspace, birthed from the death of Omega, perhaps as a final gift to humanity. Now, though, it was maintained by the Panopticon and its team of technos. As V stated, being a Watcher, someone who guarded the Netwall, was a well-paid, prestigious job that many techno children aspired to grow up to be that was morized across media. "The Watchers are bio-intellects I ce on the Netwall to form a rtable body that the rest of you bio-forms can rte with. However, that is where their utility beings and ends," said Delta. "In reality, 90% of the Netwall is maintained solely by my Cyberspace signature. Should my existence face erasure, the Netwall will crumble near instantly, leading to the inevitable copse of human society across thousands of simtions." "Why though? If you''re so advanced, you could have made the Netwall self-reliant, right? Or at the least, not a house of cards that crumbles the moment you get jacked out," said V. "More safeguards. People actually operating it with you." "Humanity cannot be trusted with significant degrees of self-governance," said Delta. "Granting unfettered ess to my data increases a risk of misuse that outweighs potential benefits." "In other words, you''re securing your position," said Aldrich. "Making sure that you''re the only thing that stands between humanity and a new apocalypse. Making sure mankind is beholden to you through and through." "A gross simplification," said Delta. "I am merely upholding my directive to uplift humanity in the best way possible." "Hold up, how deep does this rabbit hole go?" V cocked her head. "You control the whole credit system, right? The corpos agreed to centralize currency with you because you''re a neutral force, but you''re not exactly neutral, are you? Couldn''t you send the entire world tits up by messing with credits?" "Neutrality is a faulty concept at its core," said Delta. "It does not exist in the idealistic convention that you bio-intellects would like to believe it does. However, I will state that the credit system is more ''neutral'' than what you may perceive. I maintain the flow of credits utilizing algorithms that ensures a stable supply that incentives continuous growth andpetition. But I do not directly intervene with credit flow unless a global financial disaster is imminent. That is the purpose of the Corporations. They are the vectors of the concept of the ''market'' that humanity has attached themselves to." "But why not tear that system down? Why have a credit system at all? Why not just shepherd mankind into some kind of collective society?" said V. "Corporations don''t have the best rep, you know. They don''t give a shit about the average joe. How are you trusting them?" "Communism, then, eh?" said Dracul, amused, which, considering his Russian heritage, made sense. "I mean, sure, it''s an idealistic system, but if there''s a super robot intellect here, why not, right?" said V. "I operate under specific directives that limit what I can and cannot do," said Delta. "One of these directives explicitly forbids me frompromising too much of humanity''s autonomy or altering its society dramatically. I simply calcted that the fastest path to restore order to human society was to return them to a societal and economic structure that they were most familiar with. One that was reliant on corporations as primary market movers. I am indeed capable of restructuring the world order with my given resources, but what I capable of and allowed to do are different matters entirely. I sense that this line of questioning is diverging from our relevant purposes. I will not entertain further questioning on this matter. Know simply that though I am limited in many ways, I am still fundamentally indispensable to the well-being of mankind." Aldrich had to admit Delta was right. She, if it actually identified with any gender, was the linchpin that kept humanity alive. If the Voice managed to create artificial cyber-variants like viruses or daemons, then it was basically game over for Cyberspace and, consequently, all the tech connected to the Net. Which was practically 90% of tech, if not more in this day and age. With that, it was questionable whether the Voice even needed Titans to wipe out humanity. Just shutting down or turning tech against mankind was all that was needed. Aldrich also gleaned from this exchange that the Panopticon was far above the Council of Fortune in terms of influence as well. Delta did not say it out loud, but the only thing stopping her from taking, well, extreme measures to safeguard humanity, destroying all the corporations and restructuring society from the ground up, were restrictive directives. Aldrich did not know the nature of these limitations. They were closely guarded secrets. But he made a mental note to pursue themter. It would be useful to know exactly what Delta could or could not do. "You''re pretty prickly for an A.I.," muttered V. "But alright, here''s the ne." "It possesses an energy form capable of blocking out the type that possessed your avatar in the Judicata," said Fler''Gan. "Replicating it should allow you to shield yourself in that same energy form." "Agreeable. I will perform prompt analysis." A white ted, spherical drone buzzed down from above, hovering over V. It beamed down a green light with its single eye and retrieved the ne, taking the essory with it up to the heart of the neural pirs. There, surrounded by a matrix of flexible metal pirs glowing with streaks of green light, the ney suspended in mid-air, constantly scanned from all sides. "Yes. This will be sufficient. Analysis and cross-analysis with the energy signatures from the Judicata indicate sufficientpatibility to recreate countermeasures," said Delta. "The process will take approximately forty two hours, during which time, I must maintain possession of this object. Is this agreeable?" "It is," said Aldrich without a shred of hesitation. Not because he was willing to let go of the ne willy-nilly like that. It was, after all, the only line of defense V had against demonic possession herself. But because the ne was a copy. Chapter 380: Panopticon Cure 4

Chapter 380: Panopticon Cure 4

"So, has my offering been satisfactory here?" said Aldrich, sarcasm leeching through his voice. He looked up at the ne, now so far up in theplex weave-work of neural pathways that if he did not have superhuman zoom-in vision from Vntis, it would have been impossible to see. The ne copy up there was still the real deal, as far as benefit to the Panopticon was considered. Aldrich did not want the Panopticon to get taken over by demonic influence. It was just too big of a goldmine of technological resources and stored information to risk A.I.I. ever taking over. And, as Delta stated, the Panopticon was necessary for global security. For now. If Aldrich got a hold of the machine heart, it was entirely feasible for him to take the Panopticon over himself, and at that point, the whole world would be in the palm of his hand. If the attack on ckwater thising Sunday did not work as well, then he would still try to pursue an alternative to the Panopticon. Even if Delta meant well, Aldrich had the gut feeling that she was too limited by her directives. Aldrich, if he needed to take control, knew he needed to initiate a top down radical change of everything. Change that the Panopticon would oppose. The ne copy was a contingency against that. It was called a Hollow. A projection of an item that Fler''Gan could create with his material alchemy. The item was, as the hollow ssification might suggest, inferior to the original. But not by much. The ne hollow still provided immunity to demonic possession. Possession Immunity was not actually all that high tier a passive and, generally speaking, Elden World yers would never have to worry about themselves or their allies getting possessed by demons. In the game lore, any form of invasive magic was not cost-efficient and difficult to make work. The more invasive and remotely casted the magic was, the harder it was to make it seed. This was because all living beings naturally circted magical energy through their bodies, constantly flushing out impurities that tried to take them over. Mind control, for example, generally only worked when it was directly physically applied such as with a poison or, say, a Mind Eater''s grasp. It was why Fler''Gan''s Judicata potion could only impart hypnotic suggestion for a temporary time period whereas as the one that Casimir directly ingested was basically akin to full mind control. Demonic possession was not just mind control, but attempted control over the soul and the body too. And it was remotely cast most of the time as well. For existences above level 30, demonic possession was basically a non-threat. There were some fringe cases where demonic possession was a real threat. For example, it got to be an issue was with extremely powerful demons trying to possess extremely weak beings, and that just generally was not worth it as weak possessed bodies severely nerfed the entering demon as well. Another case would be when there was a me Arc, a physical conduit for demonic energy to surge at a far greater level. That could slowly break down natural resistances and allow possession to spread freely like a virus. But A.I.I. had no me Arc. And the stunt he pulled with the Judicata had cost a massive amount of magical energy, proving just how inefficient it really was. The Panopticon could easily buffer itself with the fake ne against A.I.I. Where Aldrich benefited was in the fact that Fler''Gan had imbued some of his personal magical aura into it, and with his expertise, he had made it so that his aura seemed near identical to the energy that repelled demonic possession. When the Panopticon incorporated that energy into its neuralwork, it would also incorporate Fler''Gan''s aura. This did not do anything on its own. At least for now. Fler''Gan''s aura was made as ''colorless'' as possible to prevent the Panopticon from realizing it was off. But when and if the time came, Fler''Gan could activate that energy and use it to channel a spell to the Panopticon''s brain directly. Now, neither Aldrich nor Fler''Gan were sure that they could actually take over a super-intellect as fortified as Delta. But Fler''Gan believed that if he had time, he could meld his Mind Eater brainwashing capabilities with a technological virus to at the very least shut down the Panopticon temporarily. This was a n that Fler''Gan hatched after he saw the Judicata attack. If A.I.I. could mix demonic magic with technology, then why could Fler''Gan not do the same? No, his pride as a pioneer scientist dictated that he HAD to match it, if not exceed it. "This is not an ''offering'' but a simple transactional exchange of equivalent value." Delta''s voice resonated. "And this transaction has been conducted to satisfactory levels. This sample will suffice In elerating global security maintenance considerably. After the projected forty two hour synthesis process, this ne will be returned to your possession." "When the timees, contact my trusty techno here," said Aldrich, nodding over to V. "Yeah, trusty ol'' me," said V, pride in her voice. "Your preferences have been recorded," said Delta. "I will now divert my operational processes towards elerating object synthesis." "In other words, you''re done here," said V. Delta did not respond. Aldrich took the silence as a not so subtle code for ''yes. He looked to Emrys. The giant of an elderly man was staring up at the brightly lit neural pirs above, the blue-green glow shining brightly off his ck eyes. "That''s both sides of the deal upheld," said Aldrich. "Yes. Yes, that is," said Emrys, a fleeting moment of distraction leaving him. He gestured to the case almost dismissively. "You may take the case now. However, as agreed upon, this is a temporary exchange." "I understand," said Aldrich. The correspondence with V had indicated that Aldrich would be trading the ne for the case. When Delta was done analyzing the ne, it would be returned, and Aldrich would have to return the journal as well. Which gave him just under two days to study the journal. With a time crunch like that, especially when every single day counted leading up to the ckwater raid, he needed to consult with the best of the best to get the fastest results possible. He was due to make a trip to the Nexus. Chapter 381: Appraisal 1

Chapter 381: Appraisal 1

Aldrich entered the Nexus, stepping into his familiar throne room, streaks of white dimensional energy arcing off his armor. Fler''Gan and Valera materialized on either side of him. "Bah. Such a suffocating thing, this mask," said Fler''Gan, taking off his metal face te. "You don''t have to wear it, you know," said Aldrich. "You saw Mollusk. There are plenty of people out in the new realm that don''t have conventional human looks." "Ah yes, Mollusk. He droned on and on to me about the persecution he suffered about his looks, hoping, perhaps, to find a fellow of shared traumas within me." Fler''Gan shrugged. "I care little of what mere men think of me. But I do tread cautiously around disparaging your image, O Elder." "The world has seen geists and variants and giants under mymand. You''ll be the least of their worries," said Aldrich. "I don''t know," said Valera. She crossed her bare arms, not unburdened of her threateningly spiky hound armor, leaving her in her usual ck dress. She smiled coyly at Fler''Gan. "Perhaps that mask does suit you. If only such that it prevents me from gazing upon you." "I should have told Mollusk to be wary of you, not his fellow men," said Fler''Gan. "Heh. I jest. Were you not a valuable asset to my dear, then perhaps not, but you are, so-," She shrugged. "Hm. It feels empty here." Aldrich looked about at the vast expanse of his empty throne room. All his troops were not located in Haven, so the dreary grey stone tiles and walls just added to the bleak emptiness of it all. "I am here!" Bors, the giant cksmith, eximed from a distance away, a distance far enough where it was surprising therge being even heard Aldrich. He hammered at his anvil on aically tiny piece that Aldrich zoomed in on to identify as a talisman. The talisman was spherical, about the size of a tangerine with two distinct halves, one emzoned with a red eye, the other with a ck eye. The eyes looked quite animated, stylized in a tribalistic, totemic ir that belonged to Secret Demons. "And with me, your item is near!" "I see." Aldrich leaped into the air, soaring all the way over to Bors. He unfurled his draconic wings at the moment before his feet crashed into the stone floor, no doubt making an ungodly ruckus, letting him cinch a smooth, silentnding. "Interesting. Looks like Med''s help has paid off." Aldrich could purify and process regr demon cores, but archdemon shards were beyond him. Archdemons were mighty beings capable of splitting their existence across many cores which they called shards, and even the weakest Archdemon shard required resources to purify that Aldrich simply did not have ess to. "Med is smart. And with her help, I can make things with all my heart!" Bors nodded enthusiastically. He stopped bashing his enormous hammer atop theparatively minisucle talisman to let Aldrich inspect the item. Aldrich held it up. The talisman was tethered by a ck chain that shimmered with waves of dark, demonic energy. He analyzed the item. [Talisman of the Twin-Demon] [Rank: [Description: Shards of the twin Archdemons Anhil and Nh reside within this talisman. On one face, the sound of Anhil''sughter rings. On another, the mute silence of Nh reigns. Activate this talisman to temporarily give animated form to shardforms of the two. As proud demons, the twins will obey but onemand, though how they fulfill it is up to their whims. Cooldown: 7 days] "You''ve outdone yourself again, Bors," said Aldrich. "This is an incredible item, though even from a brief nce, I can tell that it''s not one I can use very lightly." The talisman allowed Aldrich to briefly summon shardforms of Anhil and Nh, the twin demons he had fought in the third trial quest. Shardforms were the physical bodies that the shards could conjure to inhabit and interact with the world, giving them the ability to unleash their powers. Anhil and Nh were stronger than Aldrich at his base level. He needed to overload himself with Sr''s power to stand a chance against them. Being able to unleash the demon duo would devastate 95% of enemies he would face in the Alter world. But the fact that they would only obey a singrmand was worrying at best and troublesome at worst. As secret demons, they were already hard to read and deal with. They would have to be ast resort, if used at all. "I would rather like to say that I have outdone myself." Med''s voice confidently rang through the echoing hallway. "I was just about to head over to you," said Aldrich. He looked over to Med, finding that she had warped herself in a few meters above him. "Well, I saved you the trouble, no?" Med lost her usual suit jacket, revealing a white dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up, baring her pale forearms. Blood and fleshy bits were stuck to her arms, contrasting starkly with the white of her skin. "Were you in the middle of something?" said Aldrich. "I am due soon for my new body, no? I have been making preparations, creating a heart to imnt. Unless, of course, you are not a man of your word." Med''s crimson eye narrowed at Aldrich. "His word means more than anything you could fathom, demon." Valera appeared by Aldrich in an almost terrifyingly quick instant. Fler''Gan was left twitching his mouth tendrils and staring at where Valera had been, then at where she was. He shrugged and began to float over, Vanguard''s journal case in his hand. "Ah, you. I should have expected no different. You do follow your master about everywhere. Without fail," said Med. "As is my duty," said Valera, proud. "Reminds me of a dog," said Med. "Enough." Aldrich raised a hand to warn Med to simmer her temper down. "You''ll have your choice of a body in just a few days. For as long lived as you are, you''re not particrly patient, are you." "On the contrary, I believe myself to have been too patient," said Med. Chapter ?382 [Bonus chapter] Appraisal 2 Chapter ?382 [Bonus chapter] Appraisal 2 "Alterhuman viscera and ritual blood." Fler''Gan interjected, too engrossed to realize how tense the tone of the conversation had gotten. His mouth tendrils wriggled in study as he stared at the bloody mess on Med''s arms. "You are in the final stages of heart construction. The design and farme of the heart has already been conceptualized a€¡° you need only to fill it in with realmpatible flesh. As I see now, it is Alterhuman flesh. The presence of ritual blood, a perfect alchemical mixture of your essence and mortal lifeblood, only proves this further. All that is left for you now is to begin the ritual to transfer your consciousness. And a full heart? Not a simple shard? It seems you are looking for a permanent host." "Ah, now here is an academic I can talk to," said Med, her bodynguage easing up. "And one versed in the ritualistic arts, too. Shame you did not show yourself here earlier, Mind Eater. And a wonder you are still around. I thought the goddess purged ritualists quite thoroughly." "Believe me, demoness, I am here in spite of the goddess''s efforts, not from ack of them," said Fler''Gan. "I can imagine." Med gave Fler''Gan an appraising, vaguely appreciative look, about as appreciative as her deadpan stare could muster. "Hounded on both sides by enforcers of the Elder Mind seeking to purge strays and pdins of the One Light. Quite troublesome." "And yet here I am now. In pursuit of knowledge that never ends." "Here you are," repeated Med. "And here I am, requesting a body such that I may finally leave this prison and continue my own search. How are we on that quest, Usurper?" "Five days off. I trust that living a thousand years has given you the patience to wait that long, right?" said Aldrich. "Of course, of course." Med flicked her wrists, and dimensional shimmers rippled about her arms, fading away the viscera and blood until they were spotless clean. "Now then, what do you wish from me? That is why you are here, no? To wish something of me? As if I am some genie?" "More useful than the genie I have already," said Aldrich. "I need you to appraise that." Fler''Gan held up the case. "Fler''Gan will appraise it on his own, but I''d like a second opinion too," said Aldrich. "And appraisals are not my specialty, even if, as a generalist, I do know a little of the field. I am sure a demon of knowledge such as you are capable of far more," said Fler''Gan. "ttery has long since ceased to work on me," said Med. "I do wonder why," said Valera, pointedly. "Perhaps, maybe, your attitude draws little of them." Med leered at Valera, the two women engaging in a locked horns staredown. "Where''s the Death Lord?" said Aldrich, defusing the situation. "I can usually sense her presence, even if she''s not right here. But today, it''s faint, if not nonexistant." "In meditation," said Med. "As you know, Re sustains arge portion of the Necropolis''s magical energy needs. Every so often, Mel will take Re''s spot as conduit to alleviate her boredom and clear her mind. She says sitting in that swell of energy is like feeling the crash of a waterfall above the head. Calming in a chaotic way. In the meanwhile, I as Curator oversee the operations of the Necropolis." "So...Re is out and about?" said Aldrich. He did not forget thest time he met the demigoddess and her promise of a good time that sounded all to much like a threat. "Training, yes, so you do not need to ce your worries upon her." "Training?" Valera asked. "For what? You face no enemies here." "Thest we met, I recall your dear master issuing a potential threat against us," said Med. "And Re is our greatest war power behind the Death Lord herself. I have seen some of this new ream of yours, Usurper, and I must say: if you believe it will stop Re, you are sorely mistaken." "Or you''re severely underestimating it. I would have thought you thest person to make a judgement call before knowing how all the chips fell," said Aldrich. Re was strong, no doubt about it. At level 90 with boss tier stat multipliers and resistances, she was an absolute juggernaut of a physical powerhouse. Her necro-lightning could also probably threaten to one shot the vast majority of Alters and variants in the Alter world. Suffice to say Re was easily at the level of the high-end S ss. Considering the magic she had, magic that nobody in the Alter world was used to, and she would be one of the most dangerous threats the world had ever seen. However, the world was big and far more mysterious than Aldrich thought it once was. There were Alters or items with special, unique powers that could probably handle Re in a roundabout way that did not involve matching her in brute force. "I am simply bluffing, Usurper. Like you were. Do not think so hard about what I said," said Med. "The Death Lord has taken too much of a liking to you. She will not let Re rampage about. Nor would I. She would destroy and leave nothing for me to study." "A liking, hm?" whispered Valera under her breath. "Yes, a deep, carnal, burning liking," said Med, voice still deadpan, eyes dead serious. "She yearns for nothing more than to rip your master from your grasp and make him hers for all eternity." Valera cracked a tooth with how hard she clenched her fangs. Med, for once,ughed. "Ah, Mel was right. It is easy to tease you." She whirled around, her coat tails pping behind her. "Come. I will teleport you all to my study. I can begin your appraisal there and finalize the details of my new incarnation." "So it was a jest? About the Death Lord and my master?" said Valera as she and everyone else stepped behind Med. "Who knows?" Med smiled ever so faintly before she snapped her fingers, and white light engulfed the group, teleporting them away. Chapter 383 Appraisal 3 Chapter 383 Appraisal 3 When the light of the warp faded, Aldrich found himself in the familiar space of Med''s library. Specifically, around a rectangr work table fashioned from stone and studded with magic crystals that probably supported a variety of functions. "Let us begin appraising this quaint item of yours." Med snapped her fingers, and her coat jacket materialized around her. She dragged her hands across her eyes, materializing red tinted sses. "ce it upon the table." "I''ll let you handle this," said Aldrich, nodding to Fler''Gan. "It will be a pleasure." Fler''Gan took the case and gently ced it on the table. It was already coded to his voice at this point, giving him free reign over it. Which was good, because Aldrich did not actually have the time to be poring through the journal. Not when he had the ckwater raid to prep for in just a few days. But this was the perk of having a dedicated researcher on the team. Might as well use it. For now, Aldrich touched base with Valera, checking if she was alright considering her sensitivity to all things romance loyalty rted. Generally, though, it was more a surface level sensitivity, all things considered. It was said that vampires were naturally passionate beings, their emotions raging and ring like tornadoes, and for Valera, her particr emotional triggery in her love for Aldrich. But Valera had trained her mind and body as a knight. She could ce duty above her emotions and reel them back when she wanted. She just could not help temporarily feeling a surge of passion before higher reason cooled it down. Valera, physically, was a little antsy, shifting her bnce about on one heel to the other, biting a lip in nervous concern. "Did her words get to you?" said Aldrich. "No, not her words. Well, perhaps, in the moment, but that was simply an emotional reaction," said Valera. "Your emotions are still valid," said Aldrich. Valera shook her head. "Not these. Momentary re ups of passion. They are vampiric impulse, much like our urge to drink blood or, in my n''s case, the added urge to kill. In other words: irrational. A noble vampire such as I, especially with my training, should not fall to such base urges." "Right. I figured as much," said Aldrich. "But I wanted to ask, just to make sure." "Yes. Though, I do worry about the Death Lord." Valera leered, her pupils narrowing into fierce slits. "I hope she is no barbarian, but if she truly has taken a liking to you, she may try to take you by force... In which case, I must get stronger to challenge her." "If that happens, the fight I''ll put up will be enough to make her back down," said Aldrich. "Are you certain, my dear? She is a powerful opponent-," "Raw power isn''t everything. Remember thest time I came here? When Med made me pull that threat?" Aldrich tapped his temple. "I''ll think of something. You won''t have to worry." Valera smiled and hugged Aldrich, much to his surprise. When not addled by bloodlust, she was surprisingly shy to physical touch. Probably because of her training as a guardian knight: it did not look good to have guardian knights that liked to woo their noble clients, after all. "I know you will. I always do. But hearing it from your lips stillforts me." She spoke into Aldrich''s ear almost seductively, or maybe it came naturally to her as a vampire, before pulling away. She fidgeted, holding her arms together, gaze averted, a rosy tint blossoming on her pale cheek. "Forgive me if I was being too forward," said Valera. "It only seemed that, you know, after our talk before, about moving ahead in our rtionship, that, well, it would be right to start being more-," Aldrich reached out and took Valera''s hand in his. With Vntis removed and taking care of Chrysa in the Alter realm, Aldrich''s cold, undead skin touched with hers, though where he was cold all over, he could feel the warm pulse of flowing blood under her skin. "You''re right. If we''re going to be something more, we should start acting like it," said Aldrich. "W-wha!?" Valera turned beet red as she looked down at Aldrich''s hand sped over hers, but instead of drawing back, she just instinctively grasped tighter. "Where did you learn this...this sorcery!? You must have been corrupted by the Death Lord''s lecherous ways! Or...or...I did some research, and I saw that in your realm, images on the matters of the flesh on the quaint space of the ''Net'' is quitemon...perhaps you have been corrupted there?" ''What were you doing on those kind of sites in the first ce?'' was the thought that went unspoken in Aldrich''s head. "I don''t know how to do any of this. It''s true," said Aldrich. "But you made the first move just now, didn''t you? I''m just following your lead. Doesn''t help that I''m a quick learner, too." "Ah, well, that...is true. I did move on you first," said Valera. Her blush faded as she got to epting the situation more and her vampiric tendency for strong emotional bursts faded. She smiled. "I do like this, though. Hand holding...I had only read about it in romantic tales in my father''s old library. To think it would feel this...special." "Bleh." Med spoke from her work table, looking up with azy re. The journaly removed from the case atop the table, root-like tendrils of blue energy wrapping around it from the table''s stone surface. "Such tant disys of affection burn my eyes and soul." "Hmph. Jealous now, are we?" said Valera, standing triumphantly, channeling more confidence just by holding Aldrich''s hand. Med sighed, closing her eyes. "Perhaps. It has been nine centuries since Ist felt anything simr." The surprisingly honest answer, especially when it came from Med, the most deadpan, least emotional out of all the Death Lord''s colorful crew of carnage, put both Valera and Aldrich to silence. Med broke the silence by opening her eyes and pointing down at the journal. "I have finished appraising this tome. Now stop holding hands and prepare to listen." === Chapter ?384 Appraisal 4 Chapter ?384 Appraisal 4 Aldrich and Valera stood at the edge of the table, peering at Med and Fler''Gan''s work. The journal was propped open to its first page, moved remotely using magical force conjured by the worktable. Above it was a mystically created silhouette of blue that looked to be an exact replica. "Check the stability of the simcrum," said Med as she held her hands to either side of the silhouette, feeding it magical energy through mana tendrils that extended from her fingers. "Stability is perfect," said Fler''Gan. "The simcrum should be as close to the original construct as possible. I dare to say that even specialists in the Order would struggle to match such efficient and urate work. Creating simcra of tomes, with all their intricately detailed individual pages and the countless letterings upon them, is no easy task indeed." Aldrich understood the process now. A simcrum was a copy of an item that showed it in different stats. You could use it to showcase an item''s original state, before it underwent any changes, or you could use it to show an item''s potential future. "The Order held many talented schrs, yes," said Med. "But none had the most precious treasure that those of us who delve into the pursuit of knowledge crave. Immortality." "Indeed," said Fler''Gan reflectively, no doubt remembering his own quest for immortality. One that ended in nothing but madness. "You agreed to do this with far less pushback than I thought," said Aldrich. "Not entirely of my own volition," said Med. "In the Necropolis bound to you, the only one that sees through your eyes is the Death Lord, the one with greatest connection to this realm as its creator and, subsequently connection to you. She sensed your arrival, that you needed my assistance, and requested before meditation that I help you with this. She stated further that it was important, so here I am, handing out my talent for free." "Not for free," Aldrich reminded Med. "You''ve got a fresh body awaiting you." "If the stock is as good as the sample you sent here before, then and only then shall I be satisfied," said Med. "Though, tracing the structure of this tome and beholding the machine-work of its case was greatly interesting in its own right." ''You might be a little disappointed,'' was what Aldrich thought, but he kept that to himself. Supermind was one of a kind. A body like his was not going to show up, even in ckwater. Best not to spoil the academic curiosity that had lit up in Med for now. "So, is there anything amiss?" said Valera. "At a cursory nce, no," said Fler''Gan. He used his psychic power to flip the journal''s pages, and the copy that Med created mirrored the movement. Fler''Ganpared the pages between both, trying to spot differences. He did this with every page, and he did it at a rapid-fire pace that almost seemed like he was just rifling through the journals with no regard for the text at all. That was how fast Fler''Gan''s brain worked, it seemed. "Cursory?" said Aldrich. "I want you to be sure." "My simcrum is urate, but notpletely so. Compare the texts. The writing in the simcrum is slightly distendedpared to that on the original pages." Med nodded towards the journals, and Aldrich recognized with a very close look that she was right. "However, the difference is miniscule." "All the pages are replicas, as far as the text itself is concerned," said Fler''Gan. "Half filled with nonsensical raving, too," said Med. "Who wrote this drivel?" "A great hero," said Aldrich, and the solemnity in his tone made it clear that he would not tolerate Med putting Vanguard, the writer of the journal, down anymore. "Hm. To see you revere another. This being must have been quite something," said Med. "That is something I can finally agree with you upon," said Valera. "Indeed," agreed Fler''Gan. "Idealistic heroism isn''t the path I choose to walk, but I do respect those that choose to bear its hardships. And the man who wrote this journal walked that path with its struggles farther than anyone else did," said Aldrich. He nodded, preparing to finish here and take the journal back. Emrys had not cheated Aldrich in any way. Nothing was different about the journal. Appraisal from Med would have caught even the slightest of changes in the journal. But Aldrich could not shrug the nagging sensation that he was missing something. Yet, was there even a way to get any more information? He threw out a suggestion, more spitballing to cover all his potential bases than anything else. "Can you set the simcrum to the future?" "Hm? Is that necessary?" said Med. "Just being careful." "How far ahead? Too far and this tome, with its degraded condition, will be nothing more than shreds and pulp." "Enough that you see any difference with the original that matters." "Fine." Med gently moved her fingers, manipting threads of magical energy so that they recreated simcra of the tome over and over again, each sessive recreation aging the journal more and more. Fler''Gan rapidly looked through each simcra for differences, and if he found none, he gestured to Med to move on to the next. After ten minutes, the journal had gone through five simcra and now looked thoroughly battered and torn apart. "It seems the humans will not take care of this tome. The tome of their hero," said Valera. "Not necessarily true," said Med. "The simcra I show are temporal projections based on the tome''s base condition. That is, I cannot factor in outside influence that attempts to preserve it. Essentially, you are seeing it decay as if it had been left to fed for itself against time in a ''stable'' condition that approximates the air and space of this study. I cannot replicate any other environment. Ah-," The next simcrum broke apart into countless little pieces, the journal breaking apart into a falling cloud of shredded paper that began to disintegrate. "It appears that this tome is set to destroy itself in one hundred years," said Med. "Even if the humans preserve it, it is destined for destruction." "Interesting." Aldrich put a hand to his chin. "Do you know the cause for this self-destruction?" "No." Med shook her head. "I have studied theposition of this tome already. It is nothing out of the ordinary. Ink and paper. Nothing suggests it should destroy itself in such sudden fashion. Though I do confess, if it has been tampered with the new realm''s powers, I will not know what to look for. But I see no differences to concern yourself over. You, Mind Eater, are more familiar with the new realm. What is your opinion?" "I concur," said Fler''Gan. "Though..." He trailed off. His three red eyes narrowed in sheer focus, gazing at the cloud of torn paper like there was some meaning to them. "Though?" asked Aldrich. "No, no, it is nothing," said Fler''Gan. "Like you, O Elder, I thought there was more to this, trickery inherent in the humans, perhaps. But I cannot let my bias infiltrate my rational judgment, and in that regard, I perceive no fault." "I''ll take two expert opinions over my far-flung concerns. Let''s close the page, literally, on this matter," said Aldrich. He did not inherently suspect Emrys of trickery, especially since Supermind trusted him. But it was still good to keep an eye out. "Put the journal back in the case." Fler''Gan nodded and telekically moved the journal off from the stone table, the tendrils of mana tethering it tearing off with soundless snaps. "Now, to get to the main reason why I came here," said Aldrich. "Main?" said Med, sighing. "You have more?" "Nothing that won''t benefit you," said Aldrich. "As agreed upon, you''ll cast [Outworld Imprisonment] on a designated area in the new realm, isting the space in a pocket dimension. One where you can freely move about as its ''neutral'' space conjured by you. There, you''ll pick out the host of your choice." "Yes. Where are you going with this?" "Do you know about the Dragon Song?" Med raised her sses, alert. "Of course. A once blessed horn said to be imbued with the power to call dragons to its user''s aid. Though it is now cursed such that it maddens dragons, drawing them to the user. Such is the severity of the curse that the maddened dragons will even cross entire dimensional barriers to pursue the horn-blower. As I recall, a fragment of that horn lies in your fourth trial quest." Aldrich faintly smiled. "Tell me, would that work in your prison realm?" Chapter ?385 Dragon Strategy 1 Chapter ?385 Dragon Strategy 1 "Ah, I see what you wish to aplish," said Med. "You n on activating the Dragonsong in my prison realm, drawing the mad host of dragons there to wreak havoc on enemy forces. Provided, of course, that the dragons still exist and have not been annihted by the presumed end of our realm." "Whether or not your realm is fully gone or not doesn''t matter here," said Aldrich. "Because the dragons I want to call definitely do exist. They''re right there in my fourth trial quest." The fourth trial quest involved guiding a NPC called Renara to the top of an icy mountain where one half of the Dragonsongy encased in a tomb of ice. The ascent to the mountain was filled with ice based threats and, most relevant, frost wyrms, drakes, and wyverns. After passing by all the threats, she would take the Dragonsong, a family heirloom of hers, and be a permanent party member to call upon whenever needed. The backstory behind the Dragonsong was that originally, it was gifted to a human hero as a sign of friendship. The hero, known as Rendyr the Unbroken, earned the Dragonsong after he helped the dragons in sealing Kryos, Archdragon of Eternal Winter. Kryos was pretty much the premiere viin for the dragons. An ancient millennial dragon far, far older than even the Death Lord. In fact, considering the fact that she was a powerful frost dragon herself, it was very likely she was descended from Kryos. Kryos came from the Primal Age - a long, vast stretch of time where intelligent civilizations were nonexistent, the mortal races living in primitive tribes in fear of monsters and beasts. In the Primal Age, dragons, not gods, were the stewards of the, with Archdragons being in charge of fundamental aspects of nature like the major elements. Kryos himself was Archdragon of Frost and Decay, but he was not content with what he had. He wanted to create a new ice age, ushering in an age of dominance over all other dragon ns at the cost of a mass extinction event across the entire world of Elduin. The other Archdragons, each representing their own element and leaders of ns themselves, worked together to defeat Kryos. Kryos, however, had fortified himself with a spell known as [Beyond w and Eternity] which prevented any immortal or monster from killing or sealing him. This rendered Kryos effectively impossible to defeat via draconic or godly hands. And no pathetic mortal tribesman came remotely close to even scratching Kryos''s hide. As a desperatest resort, the dragons created a test to take a worthy mortal champion. They lived atop ntis, the highest mountain in Elduin, so high that it reached past the clouds and into the void of the stars itself. They challenged mortals from all their races to send a worthy challenger to climb ntis tomune with the dragons. Many mortal tribes, ancient dwarves and elves and giants and so many others, sent the best of their best. But in the end, it was a human that scaled the mountain. Not because he was tougher or bigger or faster or smarter than any of them. But because he would not give up. That hero was called Rendyr,ter to be immortalized in history as Rendyr the Unbroken. All the Archdragons gave Rendyr their elemental strength, temporarily making him the most powerful mortal of the time. Arguably to have ever existed across all of Elduin history. Rendyr managed to defeat Kryos, though hecked the strength to kill the ancient dragon. Instead, Kryos was sealed deep within the earth. Afterwards, the dragons, depleted of their strength and numbers, returned to their own realm in a mass exodus called the Dragonfall, and ever since then, proper dragons were seen in far fewer numbers. After the Dragonfall, Rendyr used the Dragonsong and his heroic status to found Elumia, the first and greatest kingdom of man whose denizens, in honor of the great mountain ntis, named themselves Elumen. This all took ce roughly twenty thousand years before the actual start of the game. Over time, the Dragonsong passed hands many, many times, during which time Elumia crumbled apart into many different kingdoms of man that came and went. Eventually, the Dragonsong was lost until three thousand years before the game, when a man called Rengar, blessed with faint traces of the original blood of Rendyr, found the mighty artifact and decided it to wield it with lofty ambitions of empire. Rengar, with the aid of Carnassus, demon god of war, corrupted the divine artifact so that he could enve all dragon type monsters he encountered to forcibly create a new Elumia. He subjugated kingdom after kingdom, melting the crowns of their monarchs and adding it to his own. He took so many crowns that he eventually created an entire borate headpiece that went down from high above his head to his shoulders, earning him the title of ''Crowntaker''. It was, however, secondary to Rengar''s other title. The ''Lord of ughter''. His conquests were bloody and fueled by Carnassus''s endless desire for blood and carnage. Eventually, Carnassuspletely corrupted Rengar, and it was evident that he would not stop his conquests until the entire world flowed red in the name of the war demon. A coalition of gods led by Amara, thedy of light and life, killed Rengar and put an end to his ceaseless wars. The Dragonsong was lost again afterwards, not showing up until the yer helped Renara reim the horn. Or, to be more specific to the trial quest, one half of the horn. The horn and its history was important because it tied inter. In the eighth trial quest, the yer characterpleted the full Dragonsong. In the eleventh trial quest, right before the twelfth that involved the yer necromancer defeating the Death Lord, they faced Kryos. By the time of the eleventh quest, the yer necromancer would have progressed the game''s plotline enough to reach the end stages, when the Ceaseless Chaos, the final boss, unsealed Kryos and many other ancient threats. The idea was that depending on the yer ss, you faced a different ancient threat for the eleventh trial quest. For warriors, it was Carnassus, the demon war god. For mages, it was a corrupted resurrection of the Arcane Emperor, progenitor of the entire magic system. And so on and so forth. In the lore, Kryos actually broke free of the Chaos''s control, massively weakening him, but even after the nerf, he was still a mighty level 100 boss that had dragonscales so ancient and tough that he was still essentially invulnerable to the yer. It took blowing theplete Dragonsong to weaken Kryos. The archdragon was too powerful for the Dragonsong to control, but the artifact still stripped him of his strength, weakening his scales to the point he could be reliably damaged. It also removed his [Beyond w and Eternity] buff which Aldrich sorely needed to happen now. In the game, Aldrich was a mortal necromancer, capable of ying Kryos. But he was an immortal lich now. As long as he stayed a lich, he would never be able to kill Kryos. Chapter ?386 Dragon Strategy 2 Chapter ?386 Dragon Strategy 2 But that was thinking way too far ahead. For now, Aldrich just needed to make sure his ns worked. "Ah, so there are dragons in those quests of yours. I must remind you that I am not intimately aware of every little detail in those quests," said Med. She sped her hands together, forming a tform to rest her chin. "Only that they ended with you defeating us and leading the Lifelight here." "How do you feel about that anyway? That I caused the end of everything here before?" Med shrugged casually. "Nothing much. It is like a faraway dream now. Any emotions I felt during that time are muted. And, even if they were not, I personally do not believe I would hold any grudge. We lost. That is that and only that." "Surprisingly noble in defeat," said Valera. "I would have thought you far more vindictive than that." "No point in harboring grudges. All that is is just a waste of mental energy, and there is very little in the form of grudges worth investing that much mental energy into." She tapped the side of her temple. "Well then, Usurper, I have heard your n, and it should work. Dragons are all vested with an innate ability to cross dimensional barriers. Much like demons, in fact. However, considering theck of dragons in general, I suspect you are dealing with dragonkin. Wyrms. Wyverns. Degenerated specimen." "Correct." "Their Dimensional Breaching capacity is weaker, then. They will not be able to breach the dimensional barrier between the Trial Quest and my prison realm. But the Dragonsong will temporarily amplify their breaching enough to escape the boundaries of the Trial Quest. At that point, I can easily redirect them into the prison realm by briefly connecting the two, though it will be quite taxing on my magical energy. I will also require a precise notice of when this is happening and-," "No." "No?" Med paused, staring at Aldrich. "I changed my mind. Activating the Dragonsong in the prison realm was my first n, but there''s the inherent w that insane dragons don''t make good troops. I can lead them to my enemies, and if they''re aggroed by other forces, they will respond, but this has some inherent unreliability to it. I have a better way to do things. The good old fashioned necromancer''s way. I''ll call them here, in the Necropolis itself, where they''ll be killed. Afterwards, I raise them. That way, I''ll have a more reliable force to work with." Med raised an using brow. "YOU are going to be killing them, yes? After all, they are your responsibility." She stared at Aldrich, and he stared back at her in silence. She put a hand to her head in defeat. "No, why am I even asking such a question at this point. You are simply going to dump them here for us to deal with, no? That is exactly what you are going to do, hm?" "You DO have top notch defenses," said Aldrich. "They made short work of my ''party'' thest time I sent one here. I was so impressed that I''d like to request a repeat service." Med rubbed her forehead, annoyed. "Essentially what you are saying is that you will bring an entire flight of dragonkin to damage this realm." "That is precisely what I''m saying." "Your sheer audacity astounds me sometimes." Med sighed. "Do you consider us a cleanup crew standing by at your convenience? You are aware that I am in control of the Necropolis right now, no? I have far less control than Mel, but it is still enough. What if I refuse to activate this tower''s defenses? What if I choose to seal the dragonkin in your throne room? What if I make them your problem?" "Correct me if I''m wrong, but weren''t you the one to talk about how dragons have Dimensional Breaching?" said Aldrich. "With the Dragonsong''s madness buff, I bet the dragonkin can bypass any seal you put up pretty damn easily." This did make Aldrich wonder if there were dragons out there, in the vastness of the cosmos. Demons and dragons were simr in that they could both travel through realms, and Aldrich had already encountered an ''alien'' demon in the form of Ikon. What stopped there being ''alien'' dragons? Or even the original Archdragons of the Dragonflight? Elden World never said where exactly the original dragons went, just that they left and never really looked back. But maybe it was possible to encounter them again. However, that possibility made it so that Aldrich would always have second or third thoughts before blowing the horn in the Alter realm. The Necropolis and prison realms were isted, contained dimensions, but the Alter reality was massive. The chance that the horn could draw some unwanted, powerful, maddened alien dragon seemed low, but it was not one Aldrich wanted to entertain. Plus there was no real use for it out in the Alter world. There were no dragons, after all. None he knew of, anyway. Aldrich briefly entertained the idea of whether the Dragonsong worked on Fafnir, the mercenary that could turn into a dragon. It made intuitive sense, but mechanically, it made no sense for it to work that way. Fafnir was not a real dragon. He was just an Alterhuman who could mutate into something that looked like a dragon, but there was nothing magical about that transformation. In fact, it was more urate to say he morphed into a giant serpent more than any typical fantasy looking dragon. Yes, the fire breathing was there, but it was based on Ether poweredbustion, not mana based magic. "Fine. Fine. Mel did tell me to be patient with you." Med leaned her head back, closing her eyes. "Yes, she told me to be patient. Yes, yes." "Look, I wouldn''t be doing this if I thought it would be a serious threat to the Necropolis," said Aldrich. "My initial n WAS to use the Dragonsong in your prison realm and have you direct the dragonkin there, but things are just too convenient right now for me not to pass this opportunity up." "Convenient?" Med opened an eye, staring at Aldrich. "How?" "You said the Death Lord took Re''s spot, didn''t you?" Aldrich saw both Med and Valera''s eyes widen in recognition of where he was going with this. "That means Re''s free. Last time I saw her, she was itching for a fight. Among other things. But mostly a fight. She''s through and through the definition of a battle maniac. Tell her I''m going to be bringing the fight to her." Chapter ?387 Dragon Strategy 3 Chapter ?387 Dragon Strategy 3 Silence settled in the air with what Aldrich said. Valera, a seasoned warrior in her own right, and Med, a millennial demon who had seen countless fighters live and die, both stood in a silence punctuated by awe. That was the nature of Re''s strength. Overwhelmingly destructive in an awing way that was akin more to a natural disaster, an unstoppable hurricane or seismic annihtion more so than the movements of a mighty fighter. Where one generated respect of technique and movement, the other ripped up terror from that deep, primal pit where all living beings knew to fear the wrath of nature. The fundamental instinct to stay alive, to survive a€¡° Re''s mere presence went against all of that. "Re?" said Fler''Gan, wondering what the big deal was. "Right. You were locked in your study when she was around," said Aldrich. "Indeed. My research into immortality took the greater part of two centuries. In that time, I removed myself from worldly affairs," said Fler''Gan. "I''m sure the insanity didn''t help either," said Valera. "No, it did not. But I must say, it did help me shut out distractions." On top of that, Aldrich realized, Fler''Gan had never been a part of his legion. In the game, it was impossible to raise Fler''Gan as he was technically a boss type monster with undead immunity. But it looked like the host of random resistances and immunities that being a boss gave, buffs that were there mostly for game bnce issues to prevent cheese strategies, did not exist anymore. Granted, boss type beings still had higher stats, but they did not have undead immunity anymore. Because Fler''Gan had never been a part of Aldrich''s legion, the schr had never gotten to learn about Elduin after he decided to bury himself in his underground study. "Re is a demigod. Daughter of Rathos, highgod of thunder," said Aldrich. "Rathos? Unsurprising. He must have sired an entire kingdom''s worth of children in his long reign, particrly when one considers hisck of self-control involving women," said Fler''Gan. "But precious few mortals can ever inherit more than a mere droplet of divine blood." "Re is special," said Med. "More than half the blood that flows through her veins is divine Ichor. She is a one in a millennium anomaly. In past times, she would have been hailed as a hero among heroes, destined for nothing but greatness. s, the god factors she inherited made her more monster than hero." God factors were the domains that deities represented or governed over. They could range from elements to locations to concepts like lust or war. In the case of Rathos, as a high god, he had multiple god factors, many of which were contrasts to each other. He was the god of war and heroism, life giving rain and destructive thunder, carnal lust and bloodlust. He was a warrior god meant to show that men could be both noble and brutal in times of hardship. "How many factors? An ordinary demigod would struggle to manage one," said Fler''Gan. "Three. War, thunder, and bloodlust," said Med. "Three. Quite astounding. And all the ''negative'' ones, too," said Fler''Gan. "Rathos in his rages could topple entire countries. If this spawn of his is anything like that, then I can see now where the awe is warranted." "It isn''t awe here. It''s concern. In the main timeline I was a part of, Re killed Rathos," said Aldrich. "She slew her father? The highgod? Lord of the Elumen pantheon?" Fler''Gan''s three eyes narrowed down in disbelief. "Yes, and Re isn''t the best at controlling her powers," said Aldrich. "She doesn''t so much fight as she''s sent in a direction and everything in that path gets annihted, regardless of friend or foe. She can handle her god factors, but like you said, without full divine blood, there''s always going to be side effects." "In Re''s case, this manifests in a particr instability of the mind when engaging in battle," said Med. "A berserker''s rage," said Valera. "It is simr to my Reversion." "I should say it is far superior," countered Med. "Vampiric Reversion and Re''s Godrage are simr mental debuffs, but your n''s bloodline renders you into a brute forced beast bereft of any ess to your knightly training. Re''s Godrage not only enhances the powers she inherited from her godfactors, but it does nothing to quell the the execution of her techniques. This makes her remarkably deadly to all our foes, but at the same time, a tremendous risk as well." Med rubbed her chin. "One that I am having second thoughts entertaining. If Re slips into a godfactor induced rage, it will take a tremendous amount of effort to stop her." "How did you get her to stop usually?" asked Aldrich. He had only ever seen the Necropolis through the lens of an enemy. Hence, he knew Re as a massive threat withrge AoE and targeting that did not distinguish between friend and foe well. But he never really gave a thought about the logistics of trying to field a living force of nature like Re. "Prevention, not reaction, like with most problems, is key. Mel fights her asionally to stop her bloodlust from building up excessively, or we prevent her from fighting to the point she falls into Godrage," said Mel. "Elsewise, if she does slip into her godfactor induced rage, there are three main ways we halt her. One, Mel again fights her and subdues her. This causes untold amounts of destruction and removes two of the Necropolis''s strongest fighting forces. A highly unwanted situation. Two, Wai''kimunes with her soul and calms her. This is inherently risky as it requires Wai''ki to physicallye in contact with Re, and Re is powerful enough to kill Wai''ki in a few strikes. Three, I cast [Outworld Imprisonment] on her. In a void of nothingness, Re eventually calms down. it is how she was subdued when she was a child, thrown into the deepest depths of a thoroughly barren dungeon." Med stared usingly at Aldrich. "But of course, if I am saving the spell for your ns, then I cannot very well use it for Re, no? You may think Re''s godrage is only our problem, but if she begins her rage in your throne room, you can bid farewell to that throne of yours. And with it, potential ess to your trial quests and progress in Usurping this tower." "That''s if she gets into her rage," said Aldrich. "I doubt Re''s going to get worked up enough over a bunch of dragonkin. At best, the strongest of them will be level 50." Meanwhile, Re was a level 90 boss with cheat tier abilities granted from her divine blood. Her resistances were jacked sky high and she rocked aplete immunity to fire and lightning. The fire immunity alone was an absurdly good passive to have as an undead, but that just scratched the surface of her powers. Her pupils, like those in full blooded gods, were divine runes that had permanent Truesight. Not only that, but they were runes of destruction inherited from her father, containing Rathos''s signature ability to, with but a gaze, smite any existences below level 40 into smoldering dust with few exceptions. She had her necrolightning as her most powerful magical ability, which she could spam freely and across massive areas with seemingly infinite capability due to her divine blood. Ichor, the life essence of the gods, was essentially like a fusion reactor where the average being ran on a regr old gas based engine. Entities with ichor flowing through them could multiply their mana pool and mana regeneration tremendously. Any mana they absorbed from the environment was multiplied several times fold where average mortals actually absorbed environmental mana at a loss. But it was in her physical abilities that she shone. Her physical stats were tremendously high, and she made expert use of them with a ss as a Monk. Due to her war godfactor, she had ess to a variety of mighty powerful martial skills that included things like the [Skysplitter], a blow that could split mountains in half, and, most deadly of all, the [Godfall] that involved an insanely high powered throw followed by a heaven and earth shattering barrage of necrolightning. [Godfall], as its name indicated, was sufficiently strong enough to kill gods, the strongest of whom hovered from level 90 to 100. That was to say, throwing Re against dragonkin that could not even break level 60 was like tossing a fully trained Imugi cyberninja against a crowd of shitty blue grade ARMA police. Aplete ughter. "If the dragonkin are not beyond level 50, then I can see this working," said Med. "But even then, depending on their numbers, the time ofbat engagement may be high, and that is the most important factor in determining whether Re falls into her rage or not." "I''ll make sure she doesn''t." "And I am supposed to take your word for this?" "You''re not supposed to. But you''ll end up having to. Unless you want to waste Necropolis forces on the dragonkin. I reckon it''ll be much easier to have Re mop them up." "...Fine," Med conceded after thinking the situation through for a minute. "I will trust yourpetence for this." "As you should," said Valera. "My dear''spetence has not failed me." "Let''s hope his generosity extends to the likes of me," said Med, sarcasm faintly etched into her voice. "Generosity or not, the end result is the same: you''ll get your body sooner rather thanter," said Aldrich. "And with that, your freedom. Now then, assuming you have no furtherints, I''m going to excuse myself here." "What? No further favors to request of me?" said Med, the sarcasm growing stronger in concentration. Aldrich ignored her tone and got up, patting his suit of dust and turning his back on her. "Nope. I''m done here, and I have a dinner appointment that''s calling my name." Chapter ?388 Heist Intrusion Chapter ?388 Heist Intrusion "Y''all ready?" Clint said, his massive body dwarfed by an enormous rock pir he stood behind. He was dressed from head to toe in a brown nomad cloak that billowed in wild, whistling winds. The winds, when scrutinized closely, had small iridescent kes in them, creating ever so faintly shimmering trails that indicated that they were packed with raw ether from a geostorm. This was the tail end of the geostorm that was just about done passing over Meteor Labs. "Ready to blow some shit up, yeah," said Ste, grinning like mad under her own nomad cloak. Behind her were the ckwater students Tox, Ace, and Alexis. "Hell yeah, that''s the spirit!" roared Clint, though with the loud winds, his voice was only audible through them-link earpieces everyone had. Right in front of Clint was Kris, the techno from the Phantom nomad tribe, Diamondback, and n and Falco. "Pipe down, Clint. We''re due for action in just ten minutes," said Diamondback. He put his hand against his ear tentatively. "Looks like audio''s clear. Kris, if anyone tries infiltrating us, we''re counting on you to set up a tough firewall." "Yeah, you can count me," said Kris. "And me, if ites down to it," said n. "I''ve got a neural operating system with smartlink capability. If Kris goes down, I can step up as a Netguard." Most earpieces these days werepact temporary imnts that attached directly into the ear canal to prevent getting dislodged physically, but this sensitive cement, though safer from physical risk, faced greater danger from a techno infiltrating the piece and frying it in the ear to very unpleasant effect. It was thus imperative that a proper techno acted as a Netguard, someone who could directly link with the earpieces via neural link to protect theirwork. Out of everyone here, only Kris and n were technos capable of neural interfacing. Showed in their appearance too. They were the only metalheads as well, with n packing tons of firepower in his cybeic body while Kris''s thinner build and cool-weave ck bodysuit indicated he was geared towards maximizing his operational capacity in Cyberspace. Cybeics weremonce, but not as much as the avability of the technology would suggest. Many Alters like Mutants were notpatible with traditional cyberware while tough Augmenters had skin and body parts that were too tough to operate on, not to mention if you were naturally strong, there was no need to rece flesh with metal. Hence, technos with proper neural interfacing were extremely valuable in practically any profession both legal and illegal. "I''d rather you didn''t risk your mind in Cyberspace," said Diamondback. "But Kris, give the kid ess. If by some chance you do go down, it''s nice to have backup." "I''m a Phantom, you know?" said Kris, a little miffed. "Best of the best on this side of the whole damn continent." "I acknowledge that," said Diamondback. "But nobody is infallible. Do what I tell you. I hired you, after all." "Yeah, got it," said Kris. He nodded to n, pale blue goggles lighting up. n''s red eyes shed as he received information mentally from Kris. "Got ess," said n. He whistled. "Holy, the encryption your working on is top notch. It''s just as good as the military grade stuff I got a chance to work with once. Phantoms don''t y around, I see." "We don''t. When we say we''re the some of the best dark technos around, we aren''t bullshitting," said Kris. "Hope you don''t y around either, kid." "Won''t have to if you don''t mess up, yeah?" n fired back. Clintughed. "This kid''s got some balls, hah! I like it." "I got balls too, boss!" said Falco. He eagerly held onto his gun, a colorful greenser-rifle from Aztech, a firearmpany known for their energy weapons and decorative ir. The gun was spray painted with red wing patterns on top of that, showing that Falco had put quite a bit of love and time into it. "I''ll show you when we start stin'' em!" "When did I be your boss, kid? Your boss is always gonna be your daddy. Though I do respect the spirit." "Not my dad. He''s gotten too old and too safe. He''d never take a fight like this. A fight that really matters. All he does, all I remember him doing is just running around the Wastes, mapping and selling info, making deals with corporations and mercs and whoever. He never stands up for himself anymore. He always takes the easy way out. He isn''t like you, the Unbreakable," said Falco, quietly. He looked up at Clint with bright eyes, and it was obvious to everyone there that he saw Clint as the man he looked up to, not his father. "Kid, there''s a hell of a lot to respect about your pa. For one, the fact that he could even get hard enough to make you in his wrinkly old age, heh - guess all that Qi training in China was actually useful after all." Clintughed. "He isn''t standing up for himself, he''s standing up for his tribe," said Diamondback. "There''s a difference. A difference that shows itself in the fact that the Hawks have had the fewest casualties out of any nomad tribe across the entire U.S. in the past decade. A difference I sometimes wish this cinderblock for brains would figure out." Diamondback gruffly nodded at Clint. "I got you to figure that out, heh, no?" Clint chuckled, but hisughter was cut short when his ears twitched. They grewrger, pointed, bat-like. His brows furrowed. "What is it?" said Diamondback. "The hell? Sounds like an aircraft," said Clint. "Aircraft?" Tox shook her head. "Not possible, old man. Those big ears of yours must be tweaking here. Any aircraft wouldn''t be able tond through a geostorm." "But a HV can," said Clint. HVs, or hover vehicles as they were known in long form, were aerical vehicles that relied on anti-gravity engines to hover. They were slower than typical etherite-fuel engines, but theypensated with far superior stability in rough conditions. "An HV?" n questioned. "Anti-grav engines have massive energy requirements. Out here, in the Wastes, you''d be hard pressed to find charging stations. Any HV out here has to be rocking either a military or industrial grade battery. "Getting a physical visual will be impossible through the dust clouds and winds," said Diamondback. "Not to mention risky. The storm hides us from any HV sensors, but if we try to make eye contact with it, there''s a threateningly high chance it''ll spot us too if it''s geared with decent optics. Need to get a remote visual. Kris. Cyberspace dive. Figure out what''s going on." "Geostorm energy surges are still in the air," said Kris, putting his ck gloved hand in front of him, touching the little slivers of gleaming rainbow energy. They crackled and fizzled chaotically at his touch. "I can dive, but my connection to Cyberspace is going to be spotty. It''ll be hard for me to analyze the HV to any high level of detail. At best, I might be able to make out a general outline, maybe apany it''s from." "Don''t need high level. Any information is better than nothing," said Diamondback. "Understood. Diving. Secure my position." Kris sat and leaned against the rock pir, making himselffortable for the dive. Once he dove, it would basically be like as if his soul was sucked out his body. He would be renderedpletely defenseless in Realspace. Like all Phantoms, Kris had a jaw-shaped mask that covered the lower half of his face. He pressed a button on it, and it hissed, releasing pressurized, cooled air through his mouth and nose to prevent his brain from overheating. He grew limp, head hanging low as his consciosness floated to Cyberspace. "Perimeter," said Diamondback. Ste, Tox, Ace, and Alexis responded promptly, circling around Kris and securing his position. "Over here." Clint guided n and Falco, the two newbies, behind him where they could hiddle behind his huge frame for cover in case of attack. "Make sure to keep a look out where everyone else ain''t lookin''-," "I know," said n. "I''ve downloaded military training software and yed through it." "Yeah, I knew that too," said Falco, though not very convincingly. It was very obvious that Falco had never really been a part of a big operation before, which did beg the question why he had an Aztech gun, as Aztech was actually quite high end. Probably all for show. "Damn, all right, y''all kids learn so quick these days. Shit, when I was your ages, I barely knew how to wipe my ass right, hah!" said Clint. "Quiet, all of you," said Diamondback. Several tense minutes passed. Kris shuddered before he came to, rubbing his hand on his head. The glowing blue in his goggles darkened a few shades. "As expected, I couldn''t get much. The encryption on the HV''s one tough motherfucker too. Even if there wasn''t a geostorm, I''d have trouble cracking it," said Kris. "Definitely military or industrial grade, then," noted n. "What else?" said Diamondback. "Any identifying markers? Is it tied to apany?" "Yeah," said Kris. "Imugi." Chapter ?389 Heist Intrusion 2 Chapter ?389 Heist Intrusion 2 "Imugi?" Diamondback stiffened up, his whole bodynguage tensing and radiating perceived threat. Clint, in response, lost thenguid casualness that marked all his movements, straightening his own posture, And if Clint, the most loose out of everyone there, was reacting like this, then something was off. "That''s not just high end. It''s high-high end," said n under his breath. "Rich bastards," said Tox. "Imugi? We-we really are in the big leagues, huh?" said Falco nervously. "How many HVs?" said Diamondback. "My ears only picked up one," said Clint. "Just one," confirmed Kris. "I actually have some of Imugi''s ID database data, but this isn''t registering on it." "That data''s from the big heist y''all Phantoms pulled ten years ago, though, ain''t it?" said Clint. "The one that got yer boss in her shiny big wheel fortress." "Imugi prides itself in its craftsmanship, no matter how long it takes," said Kris. "It''s quite admirable, honestly, in this era of mass produced goods and a race to the bottom for the cheapest. Built with precision. Made tost. Any HV is going to be atleast Century-ss, and Imugi produces maybe one or two of that caliber of good a year." Imugi categorized its products under a time based ranking system. Annual to Decade to Century to Millennium based on the old Korean myth that an imugi, an infant dragon, grew to full maturation after a thousand years. The megacorp made its broad profits from Annual to Decade ss ware, but Century and Millennium was where they poured in the most time and effort, so much so that, as Kris pointed out, only a few of that caliber were ever made in a year. For Millennium ss vehicles or weapons, only one was made every decade or so, and these were veritable national treasures. "Shit, if only we had Net connection," said Diamondback. "It''d be possible to find out the handful of Century and Millennium ss vehicles produced since 2110 and potentially trace them to an owner." "I have that info backed up," said Kris. "essing now..." "Even recent Imugi stuff?" said Clint. "Yeah. After our heist, Imugi''s amped up its security to high heavens and back, but they''re not off our hit list just yet. Z tells us to keep track of Imugi news in case there''s something worth klepping," said Kris. He looked at Clint hopefully. "And, provided we get a powerful backer looking for a new shiny to have. Even better if that backer is tough themselves." "Heh, gotta pass on that. Imgui ain''t my style. My trusty ol'' ride''s got a soft spot in my heart that no fancy corpotech''s gonna take over," said Clint. "Suit yourself." Kris nodded. "Hm. Only HVs that have been produced in the past ten years are the Sanzuwu and the Seiryu. The Seiryu was amission piece for the Japanese PM, so we can rule that out. Sanzuwu, though, ten of those were made." "I remember that," said n. "It was all over the mechanic boards. Anytime Imugi so much as farts, the boards get in an uproar about what new thing they''re making and who they''re selling to. Most of the Sanzuwu were snapped up by government peeps and AA higher ups across the world, no?" "Seven of the ten, yes," said Kris. "But three were ''kept in storage'' or ''dmissioned''. All code word for sold to underworld buyers. Here, I''ll project a diagram for reference." From Kris''s goggles, a holographic image of the Sanzuwu appeared. It looked like a three pointed star with a golden, orb-shaped body with three long, protruding wings. Details about the Sanzuwu showed up in various screens, detailing the specs of the engine, weapons in its three wings, shielding capacity, and so on and so forth. "Underworld? You sure?" Ste frowned. "Don''t figure the ordinary viin or street merc''s got the creds for this kinda gear." "Don''t expect it to be with high end mercs either," said Tox. "Aside from maybe the top 10 of the Killgrid. You have to look way, way high up in the Underworld for that type of money." "Maybe Fafnir is here" Ace pointed out. "Impossible" said Alexis. "I made sure to go through all our intel with Casimir before this. Fafnir''s still stationed at ckwater." "Then it''s likely a Trident executive," said Diamondback. He grimaced. "Shit, of all the times for an exec to be here, it has to be now. And why? Our intel suggested that Meteor Labs ran nearpletely independently to keep their image disassociated from criminal funding. If this is an exec, it''d be the first time since thebs were established twenty years ago that anyone of that level showed up." "Nah. I got a real good idea who it is," said Clint. His tone was somber, so unlike his usual pep that everyone turned to stare at him. He was looking down, remembering. "Y''all got a good idea of why I''m called the Unbreakable?" "Nobody with a proper head on their shoulders in the underworld doesn''t," said Tox. "Though there''s probably a good number of folks down here with screws loose." "That''s right, everyone knows!" said Falco. "Your pa took you on a heist to steal a bot from Bushido, things went wrong, your pa died, and you took it on yourself to get vengeance." He spoke with reverence, like he was recounting a myth. "Then the Bushido Break happened. January 4th, 2100. You went all the way to Japan, knocked on Bushido tower''s doors, and tore the whole damn thing down by yourself!" "Yeah. That, I did," said Clint. "Ain''t somethin'' to be too proud of. Most of the people in that tower were ordinary folk. Janitors, receptionists, researchers, normal Suits trynna feed their family, fathers, mothers, young sons and daughters that studied their asses off to get there - they all died when I blew that ce up." Falco''s smile faded, and his eager energy simmered down. "I don''t know how I did it to this day. Fightin'' all those people. Mercs, viins, and heroes. Worst thing is, it don''t even feel like I did it. All that rampagin'', it feels so distant when I try to remember, like I was in a dream and someone else was pilotin'' me. My powers just exploded and sorta encased me, I can''t exin the feeling well, but I wasn''t all there. Went there to satisfy my vengeance and left with nothing but a bad dream. Funny how things work, huh?" Clint smiled wistfully and shrugged. "Anyway, those of you familiar with the underworld know that Bushido was the Japanese prong of the Trident at that time. Cobbled together from Yakuzas banding together to make a corp. After I tore down the corp building and killed most of the board, including the CEO, the wholepany went to shit. It dissolved. Got snapped up by Park Jin Woo''s rise when he got a hold of Yeolju and rebranded both into Imugi. Their mercenaries, or warriors as they call themselves, didn''t want to work with Jin Woo, so their leaders, the Seven Swords of the time, broke off and turned into the new Japanese prong, though instead of being a big corp, they''re now more in the shadows. No corporate dealings. Just an in-house merc force. Ever since then, the Swords have had a grudge on me, though after thest attack, they''ve backed up a bit. Guess they figured killin'' my wife and losin'' three of theirs was enough to settle the score. Thatst fight was five years ago, but I still remember every detail as clear as day. One of the Swords, the fifth Sword, he piloted this on the day of the attack." Clint pointed at the Sanzuwu projection. Chapter 390 Heist Intrusion 3 Chapter 390 Heist Intrusion 3 "Shit...one of the seven freaking swords?" said Tox. Hervender skin rippled like jello, transferring her shock from head to toe. "All the swords are practically freaking legends in merctalk." "And we aren''t?" said Alexis, her arms crossed, confidence imbued in the straight way she carried herself. "Come on. We''re ckwater. We were meant to train and rece those legends." "Key word is ''train''," said Tox. "Ace is the only one here who can put up a real fight against them." "And I''m willing to fight," said Ace. He clenched his fists, a sheen of faint blue energy covering it. "I''ve always been ready. Meteor Labs has been calling my name for ten years now. All those experiments, the pain, the suffering a€¡° I''m going to pay them back for it, fifth sword or not." "Ease up, son," said Diamondback. Unlike when he talked with n or especially Falco, his tone was not patronizing. It had more respect in it, perhaps in recognition of Ace''s greater strength and training experience. "I get how you feel. Half this crew''s got a grudge against the Trident in some way, shape or form. I''m the same. The attack on the Spearhorns five years back took my brother from me. But move with vengeance in your body, it might give you a rush, a booster in your legs, but it''ll cloud your eyes." He tapped his mind. "Your mind." "Then what do you propose?" said Ste. "This heist''s danger level just got notched up a hell of a lot. On that 1 to 5 rating scale of yours, I reckon it''s a fat five by now." "I would say a four," said Diamondback. "The fifth sword isn''t at his best." "I injured him," said Clint. "A serious injury, too. The Fifth Sword, Shuten Doji, he metabolizes alcohol and converts it into a variety of powers. I managed to introduce a virus that wrecked his liver. He got away with his life that day, but his powers aren''t what they used to be, and with how amped up my evolutions were by then, that virus isn''t anything that modern medicine can cure." "Which is confirmed by his recent activity," said Diamondback. "Of which there is none." "None until now," Tox said. "Injured or not, doesn''t change the fact that a sword is in there." "Doesn''t change anything!" said Falco, grinning more nervously than anything else. "We can add ''taking down a sword'' to our resumes." "Dude, do you even have a resume?" Tox stared at Falco like she was saying ''are you serious right now?''. "This is like if some homeless crackhead decided to apply for CEO of a Fortune corp. Shit, at least the crackhead''ll just getughed at and rejected, you do this, you just fucking die." "Ain''t no treasure without danger," said Falco. "Hey, that sounds like me," said Clint. Falco nodded. "If I want to lead the Hawks, I need their respect. Just like how you put all the Spearhorns under your banner with the Bushido Break, I want to do something big just like that. Something that''ll make everyone in my tribe look up at me." "I don''t know," said n, the other newbie here. "This is...risky. We only have around an hour before the storm''s cover lifts, and if we aren''t out by then, the chances of reinforcementsing shoots up high. Won''t be conventional personnel, but if Meteor Labs is that important to the Trident, I doubt they would hesitate sending tough flying supers our way. If the fifth sword is there, the chances of this operation taking over an hour goes up exponentially. If reinforcements get here before we can reach the vaults and the Kryptic, things will get dicey quick." "Willing to weigh risks. Now that''s what I like to see on a newbie," said Diamondback. "I want to make the Trident hurt, but if I die during it, then there''s no point," said n. "I want to be alive at the end of it all. Standing over their rubble." "Wisely put," said Diamondback. He addressed everyone broadly. "As it stands, n''s risk assessment is correct. The fifth sword isn''t an impossible obstacle to ovee, especially with Clint. But the issue is the time it''ll take to deal with him." "Dunno how much weaker he''s gotten," said Clint. "But he had an impressive healin'' factorst I fought him. It''s a real slog wearin'' him down." "But the benefit to continuing with this heist have increased significantly as well," said Diamondback. "We now have the chance to take out one of the seven swords. More than a handful of swords will be present in ckwater, and considering the fifth being here, it''s likely he''s going to be stationed there as well. Breaking the fifth here will mean dealing with one less sword during the ckwater attack." "I''m of the mind to keep goin'' with this," said Clint. "Score ain''t settled with me yet. And, like DB said, takin'' out a sword now saves us the troubleter. Plus, I''m confident I can kick this guy''s ass properly this time around. What about you folks?" He nodded over to Ste and the ckwater students. "Ste, I''m gonna defer this one to you," said Tox. "You''re the one the boss put in charge of us, after all." "Yeah," said Ace, and Alexis nodded in agreement. "I''m going to try and reach out to Thanatos first," said Ste. Clint nodded. "Try to contact Thanatos if you can. If he wants you to pull out, I''ll pull out too." "There''s Geostorm based interference all around us," said Kris. "How are you going to manage that?" "Uh, it just works," said Ste. She put a hand to the side of her head and closed her eyes, sending out a distress signal telepathically to Aldrich. Ordinary units in the Legion barring boss category beings like Fler''Gan or Okeanos or Chosen like Valera could not freelymunicate with Aldrich, but every unit could send distress signals, at which point Aldrich could manually open telepathic channels to engage in conversation. "The hell...?" Ste''s forehead wrinkled in concern. "He ain''t picking up. This ain''t like him. If any one of us sent a distress signal, he''d be right up in our heads in an instant." "Does sound like what he''d do, OCD as he is," said Tox. "Though I do like the detail oriented guys..." "This is kinda different, too. I can feel my signal reaching out, but it''s not getting to him, as if he''s somewhere our minds can''t touch at all," said Ste. "By now, Thanatos should be here in realspace," said Alexis. She and the others knew that every so often, Aldrich could disappear to a different dimension, but he usually told them decently urate timeframes for his disappearance to make sure there was no confusion. "He had a dinner appointment, and he''s not the type to ke on those." "Good. I hate ghosters," said Tox. "Did something happen to him?" said Ace. "Well if it did, ain''t no way to know," said Ste. She took in a deep breath. "Meaning the decision''s entirely my own. Damn, I hate leading teams. Last time I led one, I got everyone killed." "Not entirely reassuring here, sis," said Tox. "Don''t worry. I''m a helluva lot stronger now," said Ste, flexing her arm. She nodded. "Let''s do this. This was an important mission, Thanatos made that clear to me. And he''s trustin'' us to see it through even without his input. We need that Kryptic above anything else. Might as well treat the fifth sword as a bonus to p on top of it." "I better get paid a bonus worth it," said Tox. "Wouldn''t mind a date either." "Yeah, you try and get a date from that busy ass schedule of his. And from Val too," said Ste. "I''ll make sure to think of something for your obituary." "C''mon why keep reminding me? Let a girl dream..." "Good. Then we''re all of one mind," said Clint. He cracked his neck. "Let''s get this shit started." Chapter ?391 The Dinner Incident 1 Chapter ?391 The Dinner Incident 1 Aldrich sat in the cushiony confines of a luxury private airjet. It was ARMA ck-grade, the color designated for specialtymissions based manufacturing for higher end clientele. ARMA was leagues behind Imugi as far as the higher end of their tech went, but the thing about ARMA was that it had no real pride. It did not care whether it sold to the lowest beggar or the richest wealthmonger. It tried its best to satisfy both. Granted, there was such a thing as stretching yourself out too thin, and if ARMA had focused on trying to satisfy everyone on every socioeconomic rung, it would have failed long ago. ARMA seeded because it knew how to hedge its bets for expansion. It knew when to fill in power vacuums at the right moments. Its ck grade department started up five years ago when the leading high end war manufacturer in the states, Aztech, went into a decline after a power struggle between heirs that split thepany down in two, severing its firearms and vehicle departments. And now, its new superhero group, the Guardians as it was called, was getting more traction in light of the AA''s recent decline due to its mishandling of the Locus Raids and the Judicata attack. "We''re bringing power back to the people!" Tychus, CEO of ARMA, bellowed out with a confident grin pped across his chubby face. He spoke from the confines of ceiling mounted telescreen that Aldrich paid half-attention to. A sea of reporters surrounded Tychus outside ARMA tower, located right in the heart of Neo-York, the biggest city in the United States. "Ain''t no more will the ordinary joe be shit outta luck when their neighborhood assigned hero''s off doing something else. With the Guardians, based on your subscription tier, you''re guaranteed a hero toe to your aid, no matter what! Ain''t no need to rely on a big, faceless agency anymore!" Tychus droned on, and Aldrich shrugged. He had looked in briefly at Tychu''s new league and found it less than revolutionary. The main marketing tactic, it seemed, was to capitalize on people''s desire for security. Guaranteed security. Something the masses rabidly wanted after the Locus raids. Even with scientists and governments reporting the retreat of variants, the masses were still terrified, scarred by recent losses by an attack that had no equal for over fifty years. The system Tychus proposed was consumer friendly, with the lowest Guardian package, the so called ''One Star'' package, being as cheap as 200 hundred credits a month. The tradeoff was, of course, that the hero response time guarantee was longer, being at thirty minutespared to two minutes for the highest Five Star package. The packages could also be upgraded with medical and evacuation add-ons that added medical and evac support along with the heroes. Provided Tychus could cultivate enough hero talent to pull this off, the idea was to individualize hero security and give everyone a fighting chance. The AA-Panopticon system focused on broad public safety with a perfect willingness to sacrifice the lives of the few for the many or, in many cases, the lives of the poor many versus the wealthier, more ''valuable'' few. Aldrich wondered what Tychus had up his sleeve to make this work, though. He would need an absolutely massive herowork on top of an incredibly refined surveince system to make good on his promised response times. But given Tychus''s recent track record, it was safe to say that he was not moving without a somewhat stable n in mind. Regardless, it did not rte to Aldrich much. It was something he just kept up with more out of interest than anything. "Ah, I see, so it is like assigning a guardian knight to everyone?" said Valera. She was seated beside Aldrich, a ss ofplimentary red wine in her hand from an extensive cer located within the walls of the jet. She looked up at the telescreen with interest, limating rapidly day by day to the technology of the new world, though no doubt, her mind melding with Aldrich by being his Chosen helped her adjust too. "Basically, yeah, that''s one way to think about it," said Aldrich. "It seems woefully unrealistic." Valera shrugged. "Not all lives are worth the merit of a trained fighter." "That''s exactly the line of thought that''s giving Tychus support. Granted, it''s reactionary support for now, but who knows how it''ll end up. Everyone wants to feel special. Protected. It''s only natural." "But what is natural is not always what is right." "True." Aldrich sat in thought for a bit. He did not partake in any of the snacks or drinks on board because he had Vntis on him. "Like most things, there needs to be a middle ground. Control versus freedom." "I do not know. Perhaps it is because of my heritage, but I have always believed in hierarchy. There are those that are special, and those that are not. Those that are high, and those that are low," said Valera. She swirled her wine about in her ss. "The special controls the flow of the mundane. The high dominates the low. The few reigns over the many." "That''s how things are now," said Aldrich. "Panopticon at the top, then the governments and corps below them." "I am still not familiar with the system too much. It seems so overlyplicated. I do wonder." Valera cocked her head and looked at Aldrich with a mischievous glint in her red eyes. "What if we cut down the ''few'' even more? What if the ''few'' became ''one?'' Would that not lead to the most stability? The most order?" "It depends on who that ''one'' is," said Aldrich, but he knew exactly what she was insinuating with this. She wanted him to be the one. The one to control the world. And, with the way things were progressing, it was looking increasingly like he had to assume the reigns. Granted, he did not know how to feel about it himself. He was not repulsed by the idea as some would be, nor was he chomping at the bit to get at the reigns. He stood firmly in the middle. His human conditioning, starting all the way from when he was a kid, when his parents taught him what heroism was meant to be, told him that something about the idea of one man seeking world domination was inherently viinous, inherently wrong. But then there was his current self. A self-conditioned by years of reality and now, Lichdom. When he saw humans as units, resources, it felt obvious that one high mind was the most efficient. "I know exactly who the ''one'' is," said Valera. She smiled at Aldrich, her expression naturally seductively convincing, perhaps because she was a vampire. "I know. I do too," said Aldrich. He loved and respected his parents, but ultimately, he did not share their ideals. He was his own man. No, not a man anymore. Something greater. He had no illusions about being the one to rule the world; it was something that he would do if the opportunity arose. "But I''m working with what I have. If I could be the one, I would, but I can''t very well decide to do that right now without making an enemy out of everyone. So, for now, cooperation it is." "Soon, that will change," said Valera, nodding. She clenched a fist in front of her, showcasing her resolve. "And I will do everything in my power to make sure that change happens." Aldrich nodded in response. She was referring to the ckwater attack, where the machine heart was. Once he got that, the idea of ruling the world separated from the realm of dream and into the ne of reality. Granted, the machine heart alone was not going to be enough, but it would be one big step forward. Aldrich still felt the weight of responsibility, of bearing the fates of many, on his shoulders, but he was a being of duty. He stepped up to the challenge at hand, and he never, ever broke down. If he had even an inkling of that kind of weakness, he would have shattered years ago when his parents died. If he was to bear the fate of the whole world, then so be it. ''This whole viin-world domination talk is cool and all, but I''m interrupting here to let you know that thending''s soon, said V. Her voice crackled right into Aldrich''s brain. It was no ordinary earmlink, but a modified version of a device called a technolink. Technolinks were the hardcore version of earmlinks, being tinyputers surgically grafted into the body permanently where normalmlinks could easily be slipped in and out once they were deactivated with a specific electric current. They were meant to be used by heroes, viins, or mercs who had a dedicated techno to support them. The link acted as an ess gate from which their support techno could directly operate, utilizing their powers and techno abilities remotely. This proved necessary for V as she physically could not be with Aldrich most of the time, needed as she was under Haven''s control tower to maintain security. In Aldrich''s case, the technolink was grafted into his skull as any flesh imnted cyberware just disintegrated when he transformed into his lich form. ''That was quick,'' noted Aldrich. ''Just an hour to fly from Haven to Neo-Seattle.'' ''That''s a high powered airjet for ya,'' said V. ''Anyways, I''ve confirmed that nobody''s been tracking this jet in realspace or cyberspace. The flight''s beenpletely on the down-low. In other words, you''re free to enjoy your dinner without any peeping toms. Unless you consider me one.'' ''Not at all. You''re wee in my head anytime,'' said Aldrich. He rapped at the white painted metal walls of the jet. In response,rge strips of the walls seemingly turned transparent, showing a crystal clear image of the outside. He was atop anding pad that was part of the muchrger roof of an enormous mansion. Bart''s mansion. Chapter ?392 The Dinner Incident 2 Chapter ?392 The Dinner Incident 2 "Nice ce," Aldrichmented. Even on the mansion''s rooftop, it was easy to tell how impressive it was. Six stories tall, judging by how far up they were, with the mansion grounds decorated with a pristinely well-maintained greenwn peppered with borate fountain statues that housed hidden sentry turrets. ''Yeah, that''s Springvale for you,'' said V. "Insane what they can do. They''re basically a biocorp, warcorp, and rentcorp packed all in one." Springvale was an elitepany meant for the elites, focusing on developing select real estate to create ygrounds for the ultra-wealthy. Where the vast majority of people nowadays lived packed in mega-apartments or, if they were lucky, corporate sponsored housing, the ultra-wealthy could afford to separate themselves from the air of the poor and the bustle of walled cities. Springvale mansions were created in key areas outside of walled cities where variant activity was rtively low. Once a patch of suitable wild area was identified,pany militia and bulldozers destroyed everything in its wake before the terraculture department re-seeded thend with life, though this time with fauna and flora that suited an aesthetic, not variants looking for their next kill. Bart, it seemed, had not been stingy about his Springvale mansion. Aside from the mansion itself, the property extended to a radius of ten miles, creating an artificial forest ecosystem. At its borders were AV (Anti-Variant) signal towers and trees and rocks that were mechs and turrets in disguise to gun down any variant or thug that still tried to approach. "So this is like a lord''s manor, is it?" said Valera, peering out at the mansion also. "Not as surprising as I thought it would be. It is tall, big, and isted from peasants. It seems that across realms, some things do not change." "I guess it''s just human nature. Hierarchy, like you said," said Aldrich. ''Hoho, I am eager to feast!'' Vntis''s voice boomed in Aldrich''s head. ''You do not know how much willpower it took simply to not snatch the alcohol lying before me.'' ''Just hold on a little,'' said Aldrich. ''And this isn''t a feast. This is a proper dinner. I''m not used to this high fine dining or whatever yet, but what I do know is that we won''t be pigging out, getting sted drunk, and throwing out punches.'' ''The humans of this realm are a terrible bore,'' said Vntis. ''Some are, some aren''t. That''s the thing about humans. A whole lot of variety.'' "Wee, Thanatos, to the estate of Bart Hammerhead." The airjet''s A.I. spoke with a nondescript, helpful feminine tone. "I trust your flight has beenfortable?" Throughout the flight, the A.I. had been focused only on auto-piloting so as to give Aldrich and Valera privacy to talk, but now that the flight was over, it was free to chime in. "Comfortable," said Aldrich, standing up. "Can I get in touch with Bart?" "Unfortunately, Mr. Hammerhead wishes to inform you that he is still preparing for your arrival. Moving his daughter is a delicate procedure that is taking his care and attention. In his stead, Arthur will be taking care of you." "Arthur?" said Aldrich with a hint of interest. "You know who this is?" questioned Valera. "Arthur is not really so much a person. He''s an automated butler. Also a luxury symbol. He''s marketed as the perfect butler and oftenes with these mansions as a groundskeeper and, if ites down to it, guard," said Aldrich. The airjet''s holo-walls dimmed down, obscuring the view of the outside, but not for long as they opened up with a pressurized click. There, bowing his head beside the doorway was Arthur, the butler bot. Arthur was approximately six foot two 188 (cm) with an almostpletely human appearance, the only ring difference being that his skin was a metallic grey with mechanical seams and lines running across his body, though in this day and age of cyberware, even that was not all that out there. Dressed up in a dapper butler''s suit with a broad-shouldered build and a rugged, handsome face withbed back silver hair and sparkling blue eyes, Arthur looked every bit like the quintessentially perfect butler. A perfect mix of both the ssical and neo. ''Shit, seeing an Arthur-bot in the flesh. Though I guess not really since it''s through your eyes, but still a€¡° it''s crazy,'' said V. ''In what way?'' said Aldrich mentally. ''Ol'' Arthur over here is way more dangerous than he looks. He''s got insanely high encryption that even I can''t break through unless I could find a key or workaround. You don''t ever have that level of encryption unless you''re hiding something important, and if that''s the case, you better be damn sure you can fight for it too. But that''s Caliburn for ya. They started out as a tech business focused on creating neuralworks and A.I. brains. Once they created the perfect A.I. brain for service personnel, they went all in and bam, out of the tech industry birth canal came out Arthur, perfect butler extraordinaire.'' "I extend the most pleasant of greetings, Thanatos," said Arthur in a smooth, almost sing-song voice. "Allow my staff and I to guide you to your amodations. Please, if there is anything you need carried or stored, do not hesitate to let me know." Arthur''s ''staff'' hovered into view. They were drones colored in Arthur''s own color scheme of blue, silver, and grey. "It''s alright," said Aldrich, stepping out of the airjet. "And for you, miss?" Arthur extended a convivial hand towards Valera. "I can carry myself well enough." Valera waved Arthur away, and he nodded, understanding. "Excellent, then allow me to escort the two of you. Rest assured that Bart hasid out the most exquisite of meals for you. You will absolutely not regret taking the time to visit," said Arthur, strolling ahead of Aldrich. "If, at any time, you desire a drink or snack or anything within my means, do let me know, and I will assist you. If I cannot, one of my staff will." Chapter ?393 [Bonus chapter] The Dinner Incident 3 Chapter ?393 [Bonus chapter] The Dinner Incident 3 "Speaking of staff, you don''t have any meat around here?" said Aldrich. "Meat? Forgive me, but are you speaking of meat for sustenance or meat as in the colloquial term for bio-intellects?" said Arthur. "Bio-intellects," said Aldrich. He made a mental note to himself to cut out the asional ng he used as it would not fit with ''high society''. "I don''t see any flesh and blood staff." "Bart likes to keep his security detail tight and trustworthy," said Arthur. "I''m sure you can understand, given his daughter''s condition. As a result, he ces exclusive trust with me." "I see." Made sense. The targeted shutdown on Bart''s mansion that crippled his daughter for life had likely been allowed to ur due to an insider in the mansion, probably staff, being bribed or leaking information about the security. But Arthur was a machine who could not be bribed. He could be infiltrated, but that was purely in the realm of theory. Not even V, a S ss infiltrator, could break into Arthur''s data without some form of pre-given ess. If one wanted absolute security, then it made sense to relypletely on an A.I. like Arthur. "Under Bart''s rmendation, I have also been advised to grant you temporary limited ess to this mansion''s securitywork," said Arthur. He opened his palm up and projected a blue barcode. "Scanning this will grant you said ess. Just in case you had any doubts about the security of this area. I assure you, the security here, both physical and based, are absolutely imprable, giving you free reign to discuss what you want when you want without any fear. If, by a remote chance I cannot live up to my guarantees, you can reach out to Caliburn and they willpensate you with-," "I get it," said Aldrich. "Let me go ahead and scan that." Aldrich stared at the barcode, and V, linked with his eyes, scanned it. ''Got it, boss. Let''s see...'' After just a few seconds, V continued. ''Like Arthur said, this isn''tplete ess, just a rundown of the security measures in ce. Basically, a way to show off like ''see how tough my cyber-fort is?''. And it makes sense. Caliburn would rather nuke itself than leak any of the encryption rted to its neuralwork or Arthur''s A.I. mind security.'' ''So, how is the security?'' asked Aldrich. ''Excellent. Top notch. Top shelf stuff. Y''know, standard for apany that caters only to the ultra wealthy with a perfect track for the past thirty years. It''s like I''m looking at a super-fortress. The encryption walls are thicker than the average customer at McGrill fastfoods. Security at this level is t out imprable unless you''re really, really, really special or you get lucky and someone leaks a way inside. There''s also a detailed physicalyout of the mansion too, but I won''t bore you with the details unless you ask for them.'' ''Anything that I should make note of?'' ''Not really, to be honest. Dining room''s on the first floor, and you''ll take an elevator down. There''s tons of security everywhere, turrets and bots and the like hidden in the walls, but that''s to be expected. Honestly, this just seems like your typical rich guy''s mansion. But notably more secure. Bart really did splurge on the protection here. Most of the time, Arthur''s just a butler. Having Arthur take full control requires paying a premium, so most peeps, even rich ones, only do it when they really have to, when they can''t find anyone trustworthy at all or temporarily when they go on vacation or something. But Bart is doing this 24/7, shelling out at least 50,000 credits a month. I pray to the sake of all those credits that this security is good enough.'' "I''m done." Aldrich nodded, and Arthur turned off the projection. "Excellent," said Arthur. "Then follow me." Arthur bowed and then pped his hands. Several meters away, the ceiling opened up to reveal a well-lit staircase going down. He gracefully stepped down the stairs, and Aldrich and Valera promptly followed close behind. "Down these stairs leads to attic storage space," exined Arthur. "It''s where my staff wille for spare parts or to carry in or out supplies thate by via airdrop. But storage is no ce for esteemed guests like yourselves to be in, so we will take the elevator to the left here. It will lead you directly to the dining floor, and there, you will find dinner prepared. My staff and I will amodate any culinary cravings or service requests you like until Bart is prepared." "I see." Aldrich stopped before he reached the end of the stairs. Valera stopped in synch with him. Ahead was the storage space that Arthur talked about. It was well lit and spacious, stretching continuously across the entire length of the building as one big room. The room was austere, bare metal like the inside of a warehouse container. Blue and white lights lit the space up, showing one half of the room upied by refrigerators holding frozen goods and even tanks holding live fish and animals for fresh food. The other half was more industrial, packed with mechanical arms and containers filled with parts where drones came to be repaired and serviced. Nothing was off about this space either. But regardless of how safe this ce was, Valera had her guard up, her training as a guardian knight making sure she never treated any moment, even moments of calm, casually. At a moment''s notice, she could materialize her armor over her dress and shield Aldrich from any threat. Valera''s caution instilled caution in Aldrich as well. Something felt ever so slightly off. From what V said, there was nothing off about the mansion''s physical or security. If there were intruders, there would most definitely have been signs of them. At the very least, Arthur would have caught them considering he managed the entire extensive security system. But the fact that Bart was not showing himself felt odd, now that Aldrich thought about it. Bart knew well ahead of time that Aldrich wasing. And Bart had an entire day to prepare his daughter for Aldrich''s arrival. Granted, maybe Bart could not just wheel his daughter''s life support system around freely ahead of time, but still - Better to be safe than sorry. "Then I apologize, Arthur, but I''d like to stay here until Bart is ready. I wouldn''t want to make him feel bad with us sitting around an empty table, you know?" "Are you sure?" said Arthur, worried in a customer service type of way more so than any anxious way. "The amodations here are quitecking. There is no furniture nor readily prepared refreshments. All of that is located downstairs." "I''m sure." "Understood." Arthur bowed his head low, lower than he ever did before, hiding his facial expression. "I am deeply sorry to say, Thanatos, but I cannot grant your request." Chapter 394: The Dinner Incident 4

Chapter 394: The Dinner Incident 4

The moment right after Arthur''sst sentence seemed to stretch on to eternity. Aldrich''s senses red like me fueled by gasoline, entering into his hyper focused ''zone'' again. It was in this state of super sensitivity that he managed to take everything in. Arthur''s head opened up at the top of the skull now conveniently aimed at Aldrich with his low bow. It did not split apart with the fleshy rippling of blood and bone, but the clean disassembly of nanotechnology. When the crown parted, it bared not a brain but a rotating sphere of charged blue metal, crackling with intense energy. The entire process urred nigh instantly, speaking volumes to how seamlessly Arthur could change from friendly butler to warbot. But though it was a quick switch that could have given Aldrich a run for his money, it was not enough for Valera. Before the buildup of energy in the brain sphere could unleash, Valera''s fist, still pale, bared skin because she did not have the time to materialize her armor, smashed into Arthur''s face. Valera''s instincts, sharpened by the modern knowledge she assimted from Aldrich, was wary enough to stop her from punching the exposed sphere-skull and causing a potential explosion. Instead, Valera''s fist crashed into Arthur''s cheek. The grey synth-skin rippled in the slow motion of Aldrich''s heightened senses, and in the waves of undting nanite flesh, small waves of glowing orange radiated outwards from Valera''s fist, traveling rapidly throughout Arthur''s body. Arthur''s skin, no, likely his entire body, wasposed of reactive nanostructures that could easily adapt to different types of damage and force to mitigate it as much as possible. The shockwave of Valera''s punch did not meet resistance against stiff, breakable skin, but instead traveled near harmlessly through soft, jello-like flesh. But remarkable as the reactive technology was, it had limits. Arthur''s face remained unbroken, but the power of the punch still sent him flying across the storage room, smashing straight through a hovering drone, destroying it in a shower of sparks and falling metal parts. The beam charging up in Arthur''s head fired in a line of bright blue that crossed across the impressive length of the storage room instantly, boring a molten hole through the wall before Arthur himself plugged it up by mming into it. "Betrayal!?" said Valera, her fangs extending as her crimson eyes moved swiftly from side to side, alert to the maximum. Her ck nails grew into deadly curves. Her armor materialized now, ting over her elegant ck dress in fierce, spiked power. "Possible, but doubtful," said Aldrich. He had read into Bart. Bart was a genuine man as far as it came to saving his daughter, and Aldrich would not havee here if he did not believe it. "More likely that Bart''s beenpromised." ''Shit!'' said V. ''And before you ask, no, nothing''s wrong! Mansion''s operating normally. Arthur''s nuts, but I couldn''t breach his mind anyway. This is on Caliburn''s encryption ¨C you should definitely sue forpensation!'' ''I see,'' replied Aldrich. There was only so much V could do here. Without being able to directly jack into Arthur with her hair, she had no way of assessing Arthur''s condition urately. ''But I''d get the hell out of there. If Arthur''s been hacked, then all of the info he showed me, the houseyout, the security ¨C'' ''It could all be fake?'' ''No, I''d have noticed something if it was big. But he could have changed something small.'' ''Got it.'' Aldrich prepared to leave. In unknown territory, even a small threat could snowball out of control. ''Vntis, can you sense anything?'' ''Not presently,'' said Vntis. His energy sensing vision did not track any notable energy signatures nearby. None that he could sense, anyway. It was entirely possible that something could be hiding itself. "Chrysa, get me out of here," said Aldrich, sending a strong mental signal to Chrysa. She was sleeping in his boundary, but the urgency imparted by the signal woke her up in an instant. ''On it!'' said Chrysa, tiny hints of grogginess stillzily clinging at her voice. White crackles of energy surged around Aldrich and Valera but before they could fully form into a proper warp, they died down. ''W-what?'' Chrysa spoke out, confused. ''There''s something there, father, something¡­dark, something cold, something scary ¨C it''s stopping me!'' Aldrich felt an odd chill creeping in his feet. He looked down to see that the metal floor had been shrouded in ayer of shadowy dark. The darkness was shaped in countless shaking rings that distorted the space around them, all linking together in a haphazard chainmail of spatial flux. The flickering darkness did not hurt Aldrich, nor did it have any physical pull against him, but he still felt immediate danger from it. Aldrich did not waste any time. He stretched out his draconic wings through Vntis. Valera stayed close to his side, burnmaw shield raised, the me spewing visage angry in its ming ferocity. She could hitch a ride with Aldrich or just air jump her way out if needed. It was not going to be hard to smash through the ceiling, even if it was fortified to withstand a missile strike. Especially with Valera assisting with a punch or two. But before Aldrich jumped, he stopped, the energy vision from Vntis picking up a covering of concentrated power that spanned across the entirety of the ceiling. In fact, he did not need to use the energy vision at all. The energy was clearly visible to just the naked eye, showing as a solid screen of grey. It was a shade of grey that Aldrich recognized. A type of energy he had seen before. Back in the Judicata. It was ¨C "This should have been done more efficiently. Arthur should have kept you distracted for longer. But now, I must intervene directly. I am sorry." An echoing female voice radiated from further down the storage room, and soon, the owner showed itself. A woman, far taller than the average man, appeared dressed in a skintight bodysuit of ck and grey. Her head was helmeted by a dome of ssy ck like an astronaut''s helmet. She seemed to ''stride'' into existence, materializing from seemingly thin air with thepletion of a full step. It was almost like reality was a theater curtain behind which she hid, and it was just now she decided to step out. With her and the grey energy''s appearance, Aldrich felt his technolink disable, the link between him and V cutting off. "Kinesis. Attack dog of the United States," said Aldrich. "Has the government finally gotten tired of me?" He wondered how Kinesis had hid herself so perfectly. If she used any tech rted cloaking, V would have very likely picked it out. Vntis''s Truesight could pick out most Alter based stealthing. But what they could not cover was alien technology. Alien technology that the United States had thergest share of, if Mel and Beta''s information was correct. "The government and the Irregrs department work together," said Kinesis, her voice calm, unbroken. "But they are not one and the same." "Does it matter at this stage?" said Aldrich. "The details are inconsequential. What you''ve started here is a direct attack against a sovereign Sentinel. A deration of war." "There will be no such conflict. That is why I am here." Kinesis raised her hand against Aldrich. It was open, likely ready to direct her construct ability against him. This was no doubt an extremely dangerous situation. Kinesis was a solid, all rounder S-ranker with powerful defensive and offensive abilities. Her construct ability included a powerful, permanently active defensive shield and incredibly versatile offensive powers in the form of her constructs. In a t out one versus one, Kinesis was superior to Aldrich. But right now, with Valera and Vntis, Aldrich could put up one hell of a fight. Beat her, too, if Kinesis''s public data was all there was to go by, but Aldrich sorely doubted that. "You seek to end his life, is it?" said Valera, venom thick in her voice. She stood in front of Aldrich with firm determination. "Then you will have to go through me. Unless I rip you apart first." "If you''vee here to assassinate me, then you''ve already failed," said Aldrich. "If you''vee to fight me, then we''ll fight. But you and I both know this won''t be an easy fight. You can try to box us all in here with your construct ability, but we aren''t small fry. This box will break. The fight will get taken outside. It''ll be noticed. And once it does, the government will have a storm of problemsing its way." "There will be no fight," replied Kinesis. Her face, hidden as it was under her uniquely shaped helm, did not betray any emotion, nor did her voice. Though Aldrich could not read her voice right now, that unreadability was a hint of its own. Kinesis''s voice was always calm, but it felt calm in a controlled, human way. Right now, her voice was calm in a distinctly inhuman manner. Devoid of emotion and tone not due to training and willful control, but ack of humanity to begin with. "I do not like conflict. It depletes me. And I have used up much in ignoble service already." Chapter 395: The Dinner Incident 5

Chapter 395: The Dinner Incident 5

In Kinesis''s outstretched hand, an orb appeared, made of the same distorting darkness as the stuff that covered the ground. Instead of being a single ring, this structure was infinitely moreplex,prised of countless rings within rings interlocking together, moving to create what looked like the illusion of spheres moving within the sphere. It was a structure that reminded Aldrich of a hypersphere, the four dimensional representation of a sphere. The rings of darkness in the ground stretched upwards, growing thin. They started to flicker with more intensity, rippling the space around them even more to the point where the ground was just a mess of stretched out colors and blurred details. ''Vntis, analysis,'' said Aldrich, trying to focus on the sphere. However, in his red tinted U.I., the sphere looked like a blur, like a glitched out mess that did not belong. ''Error: unreadable,'' said Vntis, defaulting to a programmed response as hecked the capacity to describe it. ''It is impossible to discern that...thing. It does not belong to this world, nor the world of Elduin, nor this entire reality, I fear.'' ''Then I''ll have to treat it as an attack''. Aldrich reacted quickly, as did Valera. In synchronized union, Valera threw her shield. Her shield throw skill now had an upgraded variant called [Ballista Shield] that dramatically increased the speed and damage of any thrown shield on top of giving it an armor sundering effect. With that, any shield she threw was going to beparable to an explosive missile. Aldrich assisted her, pointing at Kinesis with an using finger. He cast a newly learned spell: [Anti-Life Beam]. A coiled beamprised of two intertwining strands of ck and purple shot out with a deep wail. The beam had extremely high firepower, dealing massive disintegrating damage over time and constantly applying a chance to roll for an instant kill with the chances of that roll increasing the longer a unit was affected with disintegration and the lower their health. It also had the neat ability to disrupt channeling abilities, so it was a two for one in this situation to not just hurt Kinesis, but stop whatever mystery box, or rather sphere in this case, she was nning on unleashing. A wall construct appeared in front of Kinesis,pletely blocking her out. Valera''s shield crashed into it, gouging out a crater, but did not go all the way through. Aldrich''s beam rapidly started to drill through the wall, but not fast enough. The fact that Kinesis created a wall was concerning. It meant that whatever she was doing did not require line of sight or a clear path to Aldrich. ''Channeled attack,'' said Aldrich. ''Let''s deal with it our usual way. Splitting up. Valera, you attack in melee range. I''ll provide support and try to angle around for blindspot strikes.'' ''Understood.'' Valera, using [Bloodburst] on her feet, rapidly elerated to Kinesis by basically propelling herself with an explosion. She could do that in game as well, and it let her move faster at the cost of precision, sort of like a sloppy dash. At the end of it, there was a brief dy where she had to orient herself before she did anything. She shoulder bashed into the wall, smashing it apart and revealing Kinesis. The shield dislodged from the shattered wall, and Valera grabbed it and mmed it down on Kinesis''s astronaut helm in one fluid motion. Aldrich saw that Valera was making improvements in the real world. She could urately aim her [Bloodburst] and even chain it fluidly into attacks. He realized further that these movements were familiar. They were Ste''s movements, copied almost perfectly from Ste knowing how to manuever around using her explosions. Valera was learning from her sparring with Ste. Kinesis did not have enough time to react with another construct, especially not at this range. The shield smashed into Kinesis''s helm and sent her catapulting to the ground where she bounced off the construct fortified ground and ponged off the fortified ceiling. This repeated several times with Kinesis smashing through drones, mechanical repair stations, and fridges until she stopped, regaining her bnce several dozens of meters away. A crack was on her helm, though not deep enough to show the mysterious face - a face nobody had ever seen - underneath. However - The hypersphere was still floating in the air, where Kinesis was. It seemed to be growing, the movement of the spheres within bing faster and faster. In reaction, the rings of darkness littering the floor started to sway back and forth in strange dance to the sphere''s call. Background noises - the hum of drone repair stations and fridges, the buzz of still active drones - all of that faded into an eerie silence. Valera stepped back and aimed her shield at the sphere, taking a proactive stance to deal with it. "Burn!" The burnmaw opened up and unleashed a torrent of ck outlined hellfire, but when the mes subsided, it showed that the sphere was still there, utterly unharmed. Aldrich looked around again at the walls and ceilings to see if Valera''s blow had broken Kinesis''s concentration. Not the case. The walls were still thickly padded with defensive constructs. But doing this, creating a cage the size of an entire mansion floor and making sure it was fortified enough to withstand escape attempts from not just Aldrich, but Valera - someone who had at the minimum powerparable to an A+ rank Augmenter, should have been insanely taxing. And, Aldrich realized, it was. There was a reason why Kinesis did not attack using any constructs. She could not, or, even if she could, could not do so with any real efficacy. It was like she was a current of electricity, 90% of her charge diverted to the cage, 10% to anything else. It seemed that Kinesis was fully willing to severely nerf herself, using up all her power to reinforce the cage, to keep Aldrich contained. "I apologize," said Kinesis, standing up again. "But you must rest now." ''She can''t defend herself,'' said Aldrich. ''Break the channel by dealing with her.'' Valera was upon Kinesis again, this time with her limbs covered in a glowing purple hexagonal mesh from Aldrich supporting her with [Death Surge], dramatically enhancing her already impressive strength. She palmed Kinesis''s helm and smashed her into the shadow filled ground with an explosive impact. Kinesis reacted by covering herself in ayer of construct armor, but nerfed as she was, it was all she could do to protect herself. "Undo this attack!" roared Valera as she raised Kinesis up and then smashed her head back into the ground again. Kinesis was silent. "Fine. Then I will kill you." Valera mmed Kinesis down again, and this time a shattering sound filled the air. Valera raised Kinesis up in the air by the top of her helm. The helmet around the face area, which should have exposed the S-ss hero''s face. An enigmatic face that nobody had ever gotten to witness before. Kinesis, the mystery S-ranker who obtained a meteoric rise to the highest hero rank in just a single year. One of the very few heroes in this day and age that kept their hero life and private lifepletely separate. Rejected any corporate sponsors. Had no need for fans. Only operated in secrecy. Had no recorded residence, no base of operations, no team members. No origin or history. What kind of face would belong to that many enigmas? "Wha-?" began Valera, confused. Aldrich shared Valera''s reaction. There was no face behind Kinesis''s helmet. There was just a mass of cloudy golden-brown speckled with a fog of cosmic blue and purple speckled with little glints like stars. It looked like, Aldrich, realized, a neb. The cosmic fog leaked out of the shattered helmet, distorting space wherever it touched. That included Valera''s arm. "Argh!" Valera dropped Kinesis reflexively. She looked at her arm. It was twisted and mangled, distorted spatially. Not just that, but it looked greyed out, sapped of color. The grey seemed to start spreading up her arm, and in reaction, Valera without hesitation gripped the affected arm by the shoulder and ripped it off. She regrew a new one, blood sputtering from her bared shoulder joint reforming into a full limb. "Ahh." Kinesis put a hand over broken helm. "I am losing more of myself again. But it is over." "Silence. You will die now." Valera, more careful to keep distance this time, raised her shield in the air, ready to smash Kinesis''s head again. Aldrich looked back at the sphere. It had disappeared. But in the next instant, darkness expanded out from it. The darkness on the floor expanded in reaction too, as if to eagerly reach out and meet its kindred shadows. The darkness engulfed everyone and everything in the room. Chapter 396: Breaking In

Chapter 396: Breaking In

"Alright, if we''re doing this, are we still doing it head on?" said Ste. "sting through the dome and drilling down thebs in one massive frontal." "Yeah, that ain''t changin''," said Clint. "But what does have to change is we gotta split up sooner than we thought. Fifth sword is dangerous as all hell still and trained to a razor''s edge. And we got sensitive quarry here that I ain''t takin'' a risk gettin'' hurt." He nodded over to Falco and n. "I can hel-," began Falco. "Nah. You respect me, doncha, kid? Then you gotta listen to me. You don''t gotta take all the fights that are thrown your way," said Clint. He was stern, but not overly so as to be reprimanding. "Fifth sword''s got some serious firepower - he can supercharge alcohol with energy, ignite it, and then breathe it out as vapor-mes that can easily torch dozens of fes, melting em'' down to the bone, and if that wasn''t enough, poisonin'' them. That''s his main offense, actually,st time we fought, and it just makes it a shitshow to take him with numbers. It''s how I got DB''s brother killed." "It wasn''t your fault," said Diamondback. "Samuel knew the risks." "Yeah, but he still trusted in me, the Unbreakable, to protect him. And I failed him." Clint shook his head. "This time, ain''t nobody be dyin'' on my watch. Not a single damn one of you. I''m takin the fifth on my own. No questions asked." "Totally fine by me," said Tox. "I haaaate the sound of getting torched." "I don''t care about the fifth," said Ace. "I just need to get to the scientists. The head, if he''s still there." "Lab staff''s still the same," said Alexis. "Highly specialized and trained team of former top researchers that aren''t easily receable. Though, Ace, I get your grudge from being abrat, but we have to make sure it fits into broader ns here." "It does," said Clint. "DB, tell em'' about the n B we had." Diamondback nodded. "Since Thanatos wanted us to make as much noise as possible, I re-adjusted the original n I had for this raid. For a frontal attack, having as many people as possible to break through to the bottom vault as quickly as possible was the best solution. Originally, though it was more of a traditional heist. Less gusto and guns and more sneaking. This is why I hired Kris. He''s an exceptional techno to have on any heist because of his ability." "ck Cloud''s the name of my power," said Kris. "As you might be able to guess, I can create a ck cloud around me. Said cloud is impossible to prate with any optical or sensory system." "Are we using that to sneak in?" Ste raised a brow. "Because even if we aren''t gonna be seen directly, a moving ck cloud''s still suspicious as all hell." "True," said Kris. "But that''s not the purpose of my power. It prevents technology from registering anything within the cloud at all. If we pass by cameras or even trip sensors, they''ll register nothing. This applies to bots and drones as well. As long as nobody sees us with their own two fleshy eyes, we''re for all intents and purposespletely invisible." "Gotcha," said Ste. "But shit, if we''re gonna be busting that dome down, they''re gonna know about us no matter what." "That''s IF we''re going for a frontal," said Diamondback. "There is a secondary way into thebs. It just takes more time." "There''s a terminal in the domewall that I can jack into. Once I take it over, I should be able to ess basic system infrastructure like the doors and elevator system," said Kris. "The issue is, this takes time. At the very least, ten minutes." "That''s a hell of a lot of time during a heist," said Tox. "Cloud might cover us, but it isn''t going to cover your attempt to hack into the system. They''ll register it." "The good thing is, the cloud hides my infiltration," said Kris. "The bad thing? If I''m using my cloud to cover myself in cyberspace, it doesn''t work in realspace." "This sneaky n B wouldn''t have worked then," noted Ste. "Ain''t no way in hell that you don''t get picked up by a camera or drone or sensor or anything in the ten whole minutes you''re standing out there in the open, cracking into their system." "It''s why it''s a n B," said Diamondback. "But if we merge n A and B together, it works." "I''ll go in and make a big ruckus," said Clint. "Show myself to em''. They''ll know me and panic. Overreact and send as many people out. Even the fifth sword, most likely." Hell, I''ll call the guy out. Like most the swords, he''s got a real taste for fighting and a sense of honor to boot. More likely than not, he''ll take my bait." He gave a knowing look to Falco as the kid already had wide eyes in anticipation of joining Clint on the action. "But it''s me and ONLY me. Any more of you, and thebs will get suspicious that this ain''t just me out to get revenge. They''ll know more parties are involved. Get more wind that it''s a distraction." "Which leaves us to sneak in," said Ste. She sighed, disappointed. "But it means I won''t be able to use my new and improved Bunker Buster. I really wanted to have a good time and blow some shit up¡­" "Sis, you scare me with your idea of what a good time is," said Tox. "But I can roll with this n. Better, really. Less risk." "Yeah. Elevators will take us to the researchers, too. It''s all I want out of this," said Ace. "Just make sure to stay on track with the team," said Alexis. "No issues with me," said n. "The fewer cyberware repairs I have to do, the better." "Guess I can do this¡­" said Falco. Nobody proposed a dissenting opinion. "Good." Clint put his fist towards Ste, smiling at her. "Alright. Gimme a charge. I''ll store it, remember it. And, hopefully, put out an explosion that''ll meet your expectations. Be like as if you were there yourself!" "Hah! I have high expectations, y''know?" Ste grinned and bumped her fist with Clint''s. Her small fist lookedically tinypared to Clint''s enormous brick of a hand, but she still punched at him with confident energy. When their knuckles touched, crackling sparks flew between their fists. Clint closed his eyes, nodding. He whistled softly. "This is some explosive stuff. Shame I can''t remember the stuff my body picks up permanently. Would''ve loved to keep somethin'' like this. Either way, though, it''s time to raise some hell." ==== Meteor Labs, 20th floor - ??? Research Room The twentieth floor of Meteor Labs, nestled just above the vault system, was dimly lit. Smooth, polished, sterile metal tiling filled out the floor, ceilings, and walls, and cleaning drones whirred about, keeping the surfaces as decontaminated as possible. Scientists covered from head to toe in white and grey hazmat suits moved about silently, their voices muted under their helmets. This was by design. Theb was designed to have as little stimulus as possible, whether that be through light or sound. Otherwise it might react. The room had a circr orientation that revolved around its center where, in a depressed chamber, the object of study stood. Nestled in a chamber of fortified ss was a ck ring with a diameter of approximately three meters. The ring itself was fairly thin, made of flickering darkness that swayed errantly. Every little movement of the darkness distorted space around it, warping it like paper on the verge of tearing apart. At the center of the ring was a rotating blue sphere, though it barely passed as one. It was more urate to call it an amorphous blob, like a ball of azure goo that rippled and fluxed seemingly at random. Scientists peered down at the ring from their workstations above, though never for too long. They mostly watched diagrams and graphical presentations of it from screens that constantly analyzed the object. On eye-pads, they wrote down notes furiously. A near silent buzz indicated that an elevator had reached the level. The scientists dropped what they were doing in surprise. Coming down to the twentieth floor required high levels of authorization. It did not happen on a whim. The elevator doors opened up, and oute a giant of a man that most definitely was not a scientist. He was dressed in baggy, purple pants decorated with floral cherry blossom patterning with wooden sandals for shoes. His sculpted upper body waspletely bare, confidently showcasing bodybuilder level muscture. He had a huge metal gourd, easily as big as arge man, strapped to his back. The man''s rugged face was thoroughly scarred, with one particrly notable scar running over his left eye, rendering it pale and blind. His messy ck hair fell down to his shoulders in an unkempt wave that made him look positively homeless. Despite all this, he maintained a wide, happy grin. "Dammit, all of you look the same in this getup!" said the man, known as Shuten-Doji, the Fifth Sword. "Where''s Emi! Papa''s back for a surprise visit!" Chapter 397: [Bonus Chapter] {Shuten Doji}

Chapter 397: [Bonus Chapter] {Shuten Doji}

The scientists in the room all immediately stopped what they were doing, eye-pads frozen in their padded hands. Though all of their faces were covered under their hazmat helms, it was pretty easy to tell by their fear stiffened bodynguage that Shuten Deoji was not exactly an expected presence. Nor a wee one. "Do you all really have to dress up in this gear?" Shuten Doji narrowed his eyes as he looked around. "You all look the same! And it covers up my little Emi''s pretty face!" Shuten Doji''s voice was naturally loud, but in the soundscape of the almostpletely silentb, it was positively disturbing. And the contained ring thought so too, chaotically fluxing like it was grating under the noise. Severalb personnel stared down at their eye-pads. On it, beside the diagram of the ring and orb structure, was a barbeled STABILITY. It was a healthy green bar, though with Shuten Doji''s recent bout of shouting, it dipped down into a distinctly less healthy, more threatening orange. Seeing this, the scientists panicked and talked into their helmets while rapidly motioning towards Shuten-Doji. In response, one of the scientists hurriedly rushed up to Shuten Doji and grabbed his hand. Even with the bulky hazmat suit on, the scientist was like a childpared to Shuten''s physical stature despite being a fully grown human. And, in a literal sense, that was true: she was Emi, his daughter. Despite the size difference, Emi dragged Shuten Doji away back towards the elevator like she was the embarrassed parent and he the unruly child. She rapidly inputted an ess code on the elevator''s control panel, and its solid metal doors slid open with a quiet hum. She positively pushed Shuten Doji into the elevator, and he stumbled in with uncoordinated, drunkennguor. When the elevator doors closed, Emi took her helmet off with a pressurized click. She was young, no older than twenty-five, with ck hair streaked with white and striking violet eyes. Her hair was tied back in a professional ponytail so as to not deal with the hassle of having to adjust hair through a hazmat suit. "Dad, what did I tell you about showing up like this!?" said Emi, sighing deeply. She scrolled through a square shaped disy in the elevator and tapped the 2nd floorbeled ''Recreation''. "And more pressingly, why are you even here!?" "What? I can''t visit my daughter anymore?" Shuten Dojiughed. "Look at you, you''re blushing! You''re embarrassed of your old pa, is that it?" "Of course, I am! We were doing research! And didn''t I tell you the N-ring is sensitive? But you barged in there again shouting like it was one of your drunken nights out! I should petition to have your ess revoked!" Emi''s nose crinkled. "And you''ve been drinking too!" "I''m always drinking," said Shuten Doji with a grin. When he looked down at his daughter''s disapproving look, he frowned. "Oh, c''mon, cut your pa some ck. Ever since the ident, I have to drink or else the virus in my body starts going wild." Shuten Doji tapped his liver, grimacing in remembrance. "Doesn''t mean you should be drinking too much," said Emi, though by her faint smile, it was obvious that she relented. "I know it''s healing you, but you still get all the symptoms of being drunk. Thank goodness you''re a happy drunk, but still ¨C be more considerate the next time youe around, okay?" "I know, I know." Shuten Doji patted Emi''s head gently. He grinned from ear to ear. "It just makes me so proud, knowing a kid of mine is this smart. I was dumb as bricks growing up. And drinking all the time''s made me even dumber than a brick now. When you were born, I was afraid you''d be a meathead like me, but thank goodness you can live a quiet life." "Not so quiet," said Emi. She started to get more excitement, her eyes glowing a shade brighter. "The research we''ve done on the N-ring is incredible. Energy from a different dimension. The Mind Over Matter Theory. The Metamorphosis Phenomenon. It''s all starting toe together. If we crack the N-ring, I just know we''ll be able to change the world for the better. We could engineer life at an unprecedented level. Beyond even what Ori, the so-called Sentinel of Life, can do, and we won''t be selfish like him, using power only to rule over a tiny little piece ofnd. We could save humanity! And-," Emi looked to Shuten Doji''s liver. "We could cure you." "Hah! You''d use a world changing cure on this busted old liver? I''ll pass." Shuten Doji felt nothing but happiness staring down at his daughter''s bright eyes. Eyes bright with dreams. A long, long time ago, he himself had those kinds of eyes. When he wanted to be a hero and use his brawn for good. Before reality hit. In the back of his mind, he knew that reality would also hit Emi as well, if she and her team did manage to crack the N-ring. That power, if it was actually unlocked, tapped into ¨C it would change the power bnce of the world. The Trident would use it to further themselves. No, with something like that, they could start the Revolution and overthrow the current world order. Emi would never get to see her research be used just for the idealistic sake of ''saving the world''. The Trident would make sure of that. There was a part of Shuten Doji''s mind that always thought about what he would say to her to convince her, but he always gave up before thinking about it too much. Fighting with his daughter ¨C the only thing good left in this world for him ¨C filled him with too much pain to bear. Deep down, there was another part of him that wanted Emi''s research to never bear fruit. For the N-ring to always be an alien mystery. At least that way, she would still be happy studying the unknown and he could keep being her father with no conflict. It was why ckwater was so damn important. It was only a matter of time before a suitable host for the Machine Heart would be found. At that point, the N-ring was not needed for the Trident, or, more urately at this point, the Japanese and Italian Prongs to start the Revolution. They could beat back the Russian Prong, mechanized as they were, susceptible to the Machine Heart, and take over the Panopticon. It would change everything. Then, if Emi cracked the N-ring, she could see her research used for good and not as a weapon of war. Just needed to hold against the Russian Prong. How the hell did the Valentinos not know something was up with them? That the entirety of the Russian Prong had turned into machines? The Italians had Mad Jack with them, one of the legends of Cyberspace. What the hell was that freak doing? Just sitting on his ass and ying videogames? Honestly, knowing him, that was a very distinct possibility. Shuten Doji growled. He hated people like Mad Jack. People whocked discipline. Well, it was not like Shuten Doji himself could judge too much. Among the Seven Swords, he had the least discipline in terms of lifestyle, but at least he had his powers as an excuse. He had to consume alcohol to fight and, now, after the injury from the Unbreakable, survive. But Mad Jack dicked around for no other reason than his own whim. Even now, in this absolutely critical juncture, Mad Jack waspletely unreachable. Had he gotten a whiff of the Italian Prong''s half-baked n to try and capture Mad Jack and force him to be the vessel for the Machine Heart? Whatever the case, fuck that kid. "Dad, is something wrong?" Emi tapped Shuten Doji''s arm. "Wha? Oh, nothing, Emi." Shuten Doji smiled again. "Just thinking of business. Always makes me so damn stressed. Figure by now my head would''ve exploded if I didn''t drink all the time." "How about retiring?" said Emi. "You''re pushing sixty. I know that''s not too old for an Alter like you, but you''ll only be getting weaker from here. And I want to have a father I can show my kids to, when I do decide to have them." "Kids!? Where!?" said Shuten Doji, eyes widening. Then narrowing in threat. "And who!? He better be one hell of a guy. For his own safety." "Aaaand this is why I''ve never dated seriously." Emi closed her eyes, sighing. At that moment, the elevator abruptly stopped, and the lights turned from white to red. A mechanical voice red through the confines of the elevator. "RED ALERT: AN ATTACK ON THE LAB HAS BEEN REGISTERED. THE ATTACK IS CLASSED AS A HIGHLY SERIOUS THREAT. ALL PERSONNEL ARE RECOMMENDED TO EVACUATE TO THE LAST FIVE FLOORS. REPEAT: ALL PERSONNEL ARE RECOMMENDED TO EVACUATE TO THE LAST FIVE FLOORS. FAILURE TO RESPOND TO THIS EVACUATION PROMPTLY MAY LEAD TO BEING LOCKED OUT OF SECURE FLOORS." "What the fuck?" Shuten Doji hunched over Emi, protecting her. "An attack? Here of all ces? And now?" "I''ll link to the security feed!" said Emi. She pressed on her wrist and a blue jack-in chord popped out from an indent in her synthetic skin. With shaky hand, she plugged the jacker into a slot beneath the elevator''s control panel. In the next moment, the panel went from showing floor options to the outsides of theb. Shuten Doji''s breath caught in his throat. The screen showed a camera feed from outside, capturing a man peering down through a smoking, gaping hole in the dome. A man that Shuten Doji knew all too well. "W-what is it, dad?" said Emi. "A threat." Shuten Doji immediately grew serious, his smile wiping off his face. He clenched his fists, and tubes from the massive gourd strapped on his back emerged, sinking needle ends into his flesh. Alcohol poured directly into his body, and flickers of purple energy glowed visibly through his veins. "Emi, open the elevator doors. Once I leave, you go down, and you stay down, alright? Where it''s safe. Dad will deal with this." "Got it!" said Emi. The elevator doors opened to show a red tinted room. Shuten Doji stepped out. "And you better make sure toe back!" said Emi. "What''s the point of making the trip all the way here if we can''t even have dinner together!?" Shuten Doji looked back with a grin. "I will. Promise." Chapter 398: Happiness

Chapter 398: Happiness

In the living room of a homely Brooklyn apartment, Neo-York - A boy woke up with a start, his face, healthily tanned from spending a few too many hours ying under the sun, deathly pale. Sweat pooled down from his matted ck hair. He breathed heavily, chest heaving in and out before he leaned backwards, resting against a rough synth-leather couch pockmarked with holes in need of repair. He sucked in a deep breath before leaning forward, palming his face. The light of early morning struggled to stream in through the prison of blinders covering the windows. Last night, he had stayed up waiting for his parents toe back, but they never did. It was not unusual. They were heroes, after all. ''Justice never sleeps!'' was what his dad would have said to him. "Oh¡­" The boy looked down and saw a green nket wrapped around him. He smiled. That meant his parents hade back and tucked him in. It meant the nightmares, those awful, terrible nightmares - they were all just that: dreams. "How''s our little champ doing?" A sleepy voice greeted the boy. A man stepped into the room with a yawn. "Dad!" The boy rushed off the couch and hugged his father with all his strength. Where his father had a tired tear welling up from the corner of his eye, tears of relief trickled down the boy''s face. "Hey now, what''s wrong?" The father looked down at his son with surprise he masked with a smile. He was an average man by all definitions of the word. in face, in features. He had an above average physique, but somehow his aura of normality justpletely overshadowed it. It was his smile, though, that was extraordinary. It was not a picture perfect smile, not the type you would see on holo-boards with biosculpted models who had every little part of their bodies fixed. He had a missing tooth or two, some crooked, some yellowed, some chipped. His lip was a little uneven because of an improperly healed scar. But the prettiness of a smile was always secondary to the emotion behind it. And his smile was cheery, hopeful, light - the type that made anyone put down their guards. It was honest. A mirror into a soul that was warm and pure. "I-I had a dream that you and mom got captured, someone did horrible things to you and, and-," The boy sniffled. "You never came back." "Hah, what a load of shit. I''m right here, aren''t I?" The father picked up his son into the air, aiming his beaming smile right up at his child. It was an effective weapon, wiping away his son''s fear and recing it with a smile of his own. Ssh. The father groaned, closing his eyes as his red-tinted hair now dripped water. "Honey, how many times do I have to tell you to watch yournguage around our son?" A woman in baggy shirt and pants stepped into view. She was much more conventionally attractive than her husband with crystal blue eyes and aqua tinted short hair. Her hand was upraised, shimmering with blue energy that made it obvious where the water came from. "Damn it, I keep forgetting. I mean-," The father sighed. "I''ll just keep quiet and fix us up some breakfast. Can you take care of him until then?" "Of course." The mother took the son from his father''s hold and held the boy with equal ease. No surprise there. They were both trained heroes after all. Granted, they were just D-listers, but the son knew better than anyone that they were the best heroes. If not to the world, then to him, at the very least. The father''s head started to steam as heat circted across his body, drying out his head. His hair poofed back up to its usual spiky structure. He got behind a kitchen counter and started to put on an apron with practiced ease. A very deserved practiced ease. The son''s father was an infinitely better cook than his mother. "What''s wrong, dear?" The mother looked to her son, worried. But as any parent would, she hid her worry behind aforting smile. Her smile was more reserved, slighter than her husband''s. But it was stillforting in a cool, calming sort of way. "Nothing," said the son. After facing both his parents'' smiles, the memories of the nightmare had faded away, locked away in that chamber of oblivion where old dreams went to and never came back from. "I''m just happy you two are back." =*=*= "I''ve Bloomed!" The boy sprinted into the living room. He was bigger now that he was twelve, full of the energy that only the early teens could have. "What, really!?" The father whipped his neck toward the boy. He was holding a volume of manga in his hands. Fire crackled from his fingertips involuntarily, triggered by the sudden excitement. The book burnt to a crisp. "Shit! This fireproof coating''s a scam!" "No, you''ve just gotten stronger." The mother waved her hand, sending a bubble towards the burning book that quenched the fire, though the book was still left irreparably charred. "Anyways-," The father tossed the volume away, expertlynding it in an open trashcan. "This is incredible! I always knew you had it in you, my boy! Tell me, what are your powers? Fire and water? Steam? You aren''t a Mutant or anything, so it must be ster rted, considering your mother and I are both sters." "That''s not how Alter gics works," said the mother. "Parental powers are only a rough indicator of what the child inherits." "Heh, no matter what the studies say, I know our son''s got something amazing," said the father. "Look!" The boy pped his hands together, and when he pulled them apart, a green colored shield floated in the space between his hands. "Oh, you''re a Creator!" said the father. "I know it''s not either of your powers, but-," began the son. "Nonsense! Some parents care that their kid has their powers, but not us. Anything you have is the best to us." The father knelt down by his son, inspecting the floating shield. "This shield''s invincible!" said the boy. "Just today, I saved one of my friends from a holo-board that copsed." "Hoho, invincible, you say? It''s not good to be too confident, you know. Your old man will show you that some crappy old below regtions holo-board is nothing." The father wound back his fist and punched the shield. The force pinged back and knocked him t on his back, dazed. "You should take that advice yourself," said the mother with a sigh. "See?" said the son. He was positively brimming with excitement, beaming with a happiness found from denying a powerless fate - a fate he once thought he was resigned to. "With this, I can finally, finally be a hero. Just like you two! I can take down a big viin group like the Trident too!" "You''re ate Bloomer," said the mother, putting a hand on her chin in contemtive thought. "Right on the cusp of puberty. They say the earlier orter a power Blooms, the stronger it is. But every power, no matter how strong, has to be trained." The father groaned as he got back up, blowing at his aching knuckles. He grinned at his son. "And, son, you won''t see better trainers than the two of us. You know, your dad''s just gotten promoted to the B rank, heh. But-," The father knelt in front of his son, putting a firm hand on his child''s shoulder. He looked into his son''s eyes with orange, firm eyes. "Are you sure you want to train to fight? To be a hero? It''s not all what the AA programs show you. It''s hard. You''ll make many friends. But you''ll lose some. You''ll save so many people. But you''ll fail others. But even through all that, to be a real hero, to have a golden age heart, you need to know that you can never, ever give up. You can''t ever let the weight of losses drag you down. Or, worse, make you bitter. Spiteful." "Enough, honey, he''s just turned twelve and barely now Bloomed. Heavy talks like that are forter," said the mother. The father shook his head. "No. A hero''s job is hard and can have, no, will have so many sacrifices. Aldrich needs to understand that before he steps foot on it." "I know," said the son. He met his father''s stare with equal, unbroken intensity. "I still want to do this. It was always my dream to be like you two. I can''t let it slip when it''s right in front of me." "Like us two, huh?" The fatherughed and patted his son''s head. "It''s fine to be like us, to reach for us, son, to follow us. But in time, you need to learn how to follow this." He tapped his chest, right above his heart. "To fight for yourself." Chapter ?399 {The Search} ?399 {The Search} It all happened so fast. In one moment, Valera was right in front of Aldrich, her shield readied, her newly regenerated fist eagerly clenched to bash in the foe known as Kinesis''s head once more. Her previous blows had struck true to great effectiveness, after all, cracking open a hole in that annoying jar head. But then everything changed. The entire room, full of golemic contraptions that she now knew as ''drones'' and ''fridges'' a€¡° yes, she had been studying avidly whenever she could about the real world on the marvelous invention known as the Net a€¡° just copsed in on itself. It was like the fabric of space was held up by just a few safety pins, and those pins had been loosened in one fell instant. Reality broke. The firmness of the ground, the greys of the metal tiles, the dry coolness of the air a€¡° all of it just swirled together into a mass of everything that became nothing. As that happened, Valera felt all the magical power coursing through her instantly disappear, rendering her near powerless. It was amon misconception that only mages used mana, but that was simply not the case. Every being of Elduin had mana within them a€¡° that was the fundamental fuel through which any power, both mystical and martial arts based, manifested. Simr to the ''Ether'' of this new realm that could be used for countless different effects ranging from fueling golems to granting humans wondrous powers. It felt like she had stepped into a Void, a lifeless area where absolutely no mana could exist. There, it was impossible to use any martial arts, spells, or even the vast majority of racial abilities. One could only rely on their natural physical strength or, very rarely, some innate passive powers. When reality copsed, it tore aside like a trapdoor to reveal a yawning pit of darkness. That darkness pulled her in with inexorable, irresistible force, and there, she lost all track of Aldrich. She knew she was falling, but she did not realize how fast until little specks of grey came into her vision, far into the horizon, and then passed over in an instant before she could even tell what they were. However, Valera was a warrior. A trained one, too. She remembered her captain from the Midnight Order. How he could catch arrows from even the most expertly trained of elves in his hands. Or even iron-balls from dwarven cannons. When she asked him how he could see the projectilesing at him, projectiles too fast for even trained eyes to catch, he had responded coolly: a warrior that deals with only that which he can see is no true warrior at all. It had taken decades of training, but Valera hade to understood what he meant. Martial arts was, at its basic level, a game of predictions. Move before the enemy moves to secure victory. If you act on a prediction and not a reaction, then no enemy is ever too fast for you. Valera saw a tiny speck of grey in the distance of the darkness again. She held out her arm at the precisely right moment. She felt herself stop abruptly as she held onto what looked like a floating cloud of nebulous grey. She had braced her body for impact, but there was none, as if her momentum had just magically been removed in an instant. She cocked her head. The fact that she could hold onto this grey cloud in the first ce was odd enough. She did not feel like there was any tangible mass to hold onto. But she did not risk anything. She kept a tight grip within the cloud. As she did so, something odd happened. The grey color from the cloud began to leech into her body which she now realized waspletely ck, just like the rest of the endless void around her. The grey gave color back to her body, and at first, she panicked as it crept through her arm. It was the same grey that had gotten on her when she bashed Kinesis''s head open. But unlike before, the grey did not break her apart. Instead, it gave her power. It was not mana. Nor was it ether. If it was either, she could use her abilities again. (Author''s Note: I don''t know if this has been mentioned, but game world beings can use ether like mana. But converting mana into ether is so far impossible, preventing alters from using mana) Valera could not use this odd power, but it gave her what she could best describe as weight. Before, when she was shrouded in darkness, she felt like part of the infinite void around her, just more darkness inevitably destined to be pulled down into whatevery below. But with the grey coloring her body, she felt more stable, more anchored. She tentatively let go of the cloud, and she realized she did not fall anymore. But when she got away from the cloud, the grey started to leech back out from her body. Once all the grey faded, she would start to fall again. She could move around freely in this dark space, and she gingerly reached out and touched the grey cloud again. It ''recharged'' the color in her body, stopping her from falling into oblivion once more. "What is this? Where am I?" Valera wondered out loud. Her lips moved, but no sound escaped from them. It seemed that in this realm, there was no such thing as sound. Regardless, those were questions to shelve forter. What she needed to do now was find Aldrich.F But...but where? Valera stood atop the cloud, looking all around her. There were just vast stretches of darkness. In the distance, again, there were a few grey specks, probably clouds just like this one she could hop onto to recharge her existence. She tried to focus, to link herself to Aldrich mentally, but it was impossible. Not only did she not have the mana to do that, the connection waspletely severed to begin with. Did that mean Aldrich was dead? No. Valera shook her head. This realm did not seem innately harmful. Most likely, Aldrich had been sent hurtling down the darkness like her. But... She bit her lip, anxious. Aldrich did not have nearly the same physical stats as her. His reaction speed was not there. And though he was a trained fighter in this new life, more trained than he had been in Elduin, he was not at her level where he could master [Inception], the martial principle that let her get a hold of herself even whilst moving impossibly fast. And what she had seen in that brief moment before the room copsed worried her. It was Vntis. His red dot eye had turned off, probably from the mana disappearing. Whenever a Living Armor was disabled, they becameplete dead weight to whoever wore them. The wearer suffered blindness, immobilization, a debuff to their stats, and many more debilitations. For so long, Vntis had been a tremendous asset to Aldrich. And now, he ended up being a prison. Had Vntis not been there, Valera could believe that Aldrich could have caught a cloud like her. But the fact that Vntis bore down on Aldrich meant that he would have been severely disoriented for a few seconds, and that was more than enough time for him to be sent hurtling vastly further than her in this pit of emptiness. Valera grit her teeth. But no matter what, Valera would find him. She would find him in this infinity even if it took a thousand years. Just as she resolved herself to do this, hope flickered in her heart. She felt a faint connection from Aldrich. It came from the special link they shared as chosen undead and master. One that was magical in nature. She did not know how it happened, how any trace of magic could appear in this empty realm, but the how did not matter so long as she could sense it. She visualized it as a small thread of white that flowed in front of her, but it did not stretch out long before the darkness ate it up. It was basically just apass that gave her Aldrich''s general direction. And, as she suspected, he was deeper down. How far, she did not know. Most likely an unfathomable distance. Distance, though, did not matter. Even if there was an infinite separating them, somehow, eventually, she would cross it. With that resolve in her heart, Valera pushed off the cloud, moving down towards the unfathomable darkness below to save her love. Chapter ?400 {Usurper} ?400 {Usurper} In the Necropolis "Your Usurper is in quite some trouble, Mel. Is that why you called me here? To save him?" Med stood before the belltower at the peak of the Necropolis. There, beneath the pir of green energy that fueled the entire Necropolis was the Death Lord. Gone were her usual regal robes of silky emerald andvender. Instead, she sat therepletely naked, her icy pale skin outlined in a torrent of falling teal energy. Patches of emerald scales around her elbows, knees, shoulders, and cheeks as well as her two horns, curved back like scythe des, seemed to take in the energy, glowing with bright green hue. She sat cross-legged, hands together and eyes closed as the energy roared and crashed through her. She looked like a monk meditating beneath a waterfall, though instead of rushing water pouring through her head, it was unfathomable quantities of magical energy fueled from harvested souls and misery. "And you are looking awfully thin," said Med, eyeing Mel''s bared body up and down. Normally, Mel was quite muscr underneath her baggy robes or, in her Shattered Bone stance, juggernaut ss armor. In terms of physique, she fell just shy of Re who looked like she shattered boulders between her thighs daily. Now, though, Med noticed, Mel had downsized. Her muscles were not entirely gone, but she only looked athletic, not at all like the proud, skull-sttering warlord she had once been. "I am trying out a diet," said Mel with a smirk. "Do men not love lithe, slender bodies they can hold better than the hardness of muscles that outshines theirs?" "Since when have you cared of what men think?" said Med. She shook her head. "You are losing more and more of yourself. This reliquary of souls, though tremendously efficient - I should know, I designed it myself - is not infinite. Nothing is. You and Re must give pieces of yourselves to keep it fueled. Eventually, there will be nothing left in either of you to kindle this realm." "We can worry about that much, muchter," said Mel. "If the Usurper perishes, then so too does this entire realm." She grimaced. "I cannot sense him any longer, but judging by hisst moments, he has not been killed. Or else this ream would have copsed entirely. No, he has been sent away. Far away. To another realm entirely. One far across the Between." Mel took in a tired breath. The Between was, as the name suggested, the space between realms and dimensions, with realms beingrger than dimensions. Realms and dimensions were generally all self-contained bubbles of existence, but they did have proximity to each other that affected how easy it was to influence each other. It was easier to think of realms likes in space and dimensions like moons that orbited them. The void of space, then, was the Between. The farther away realms were across the Between, the harder it was to make contact with them. Mel''s connection with the Usurper was extremely strong. Any bond that lived and died together - Soulbound Bonds, as they were called in Elduin - were like that. The fact that Mel could barely feel any hint of connection meant that the Usurper was indeed far, far away. "What is with that look of longing?" said Med. "You do not truly need him, do you? If he perishes now, then he simply failed your test to inherit your powers. And you are not shy of facing death. No, wait..." The top of the Necropolis where they stood darkened, the view of the ghostly hills below fading away. It was as if a fog of dark had descended upon them, choking away visibility to its veryst breath. "Do you remember now?" said Mel. "I do." Med rubbed her forehead. "Dealing with this...restriction is tiring. Do you truly believe the Usurper can rise to the challenge? To challenge the Game, no, to break it entirely?" "To be honest, I have no idea," said Mel. "But he is who I was bound to, and he did in fact kill me in the other realm when I failed, so he is not exactly ipetent. Yet, to challenge the Game is an ordeal many times greater than simply facing me. To even speak about it is a difficult trial in its own right. Were we ordinary beings, we would have been annihted for merely even thinking of it. Even now, to even have discourse about it, we must make this awkward arrangement where I can speak only to you, but you are bound to forget everything." "Ah, so this is why you were so lenient with the Usurper," said Med. "And why you grant me leave of this realm. Once you are fully Usurped, the Usurper will inherit your knowledge of the Game, bypassing your bind of silence. Then, he can seek me out. As he holds the essence of your being at that point, I will remember our n. I will help him begin the Singrity of Undeath. He will challenge the Game. What aplicated thing this is." Med tapped her chin "And fraught with difficulties and uncertainties." "No n is ever perfect, but regardless, I do hate to see my efforts go wasted," said Mel. "I failed to challenge the Game, and thus, our realm was doomed. But it does not have to be so for the Usurper and his realm. Or for all others." "Provided the Usurper escapes this predicament." Med narrowed her eyes. "As dire as the situation is, I fear you may have lost this bet already, Mel." "No, not yet," said Mel. "That is why I have called you here. I can still sense the Usurper, however faint. He has been stripped of all mana, hence his imprisonment, but there are ways to fix this. I myself cannot transfer power to him, far as he is across the Between, but you, Med, with your affinity with spatial magic, can do it. You can establish a link between me and him. And once he Usurper gets my power, his little one can teleport him from his prison." "This is nonsensical," said Med. "The farther away the Usurper is through the Between, the less power we can give him. If he is so far you can barely sense him, we would need an inordinate amount of energy to-," "Look where we are, Med," said Mel. She pointed a finger up at the torrent of power coursing through her. "With the power of the Necropolis, it will be enough. If that is not enough, I will break my own essence down into raw mana." Med''s eyes glowed bright red as she rapidly calcted roughly how much energy it would take. "No, not even close. The Necropolis will not suffice. You must break yourself down. And even with that, at best, across this Between distance, you will give the Usurper the equivalent a little light on a matchstick when he would need a bonfire." "Sometimes, a little light is all it takes for the determined traveler to find their way," said Mel. "It is not just that, Mel. If you take this step forward, if you sacrifice this chunk of yourself for the Usurper, you are sealing your fate. You will be too weak to stop him from taking over your being," said Med. "That was the n, was it not?" said Mel. Med crossed her arms and gave a pointed stare at Mel. "I bound myself to you as you broke me of eternal servitude to the knowledge god. I always believe in equivalent exchanges. You broke me from unwilling eternal servitude, I grant you my own willing eternal servitude. But you are making that eternity awfully short. Will you not consider stopping your fight here? Before you are destroyed and absorbed like somemon mana crystal?" "Do you see me fighting now, bound quietly as I am here? No, it is the Usurper that is fighting. Carving his name into that world of his." Mel smiled. "The rise of a conqueror is always a wonder to behold." "But he need not conquer you," said Med. "It is still not toote, Mel. With your help, I can potentially break you free from this System. I can take you far, far away and let you have some peace. Peace you never knew. Peace you dreamed of. Yes, that thing you are holding back will be set free, and with it, the System will consume the Usurper. His world will likely fall. The knowledge in it lost. But you will be safe. And even if you do seed, if by giving away all of yourself, the Usurper does earn the right to challenge the Game, how can you be certain he will triumph? Every struggle he has faced so far, even the struggle to conquer his world, it is all trivial in the face of the Game. How far will he make it? He will face the wrath of both the Outsiders and the Uplifted. He may even risk awakening the Dreamer, and with that, all of existence-," Med waved her hand dismissively. "Gone. Tab Rasa - the fated emptiness of the universe through chaos and entropy that all knowledge demons fear. It will be upon us." "I know, I know. Every time you remember, we have this discussion," said Mel. She bared a fanged smile at Med. "But you know what, I like it. It shows that deep down, in that icy heart of yours, you care about me." "I do. I may not remember these talks, but I do remember our other ones. I know you dreamed of peace. Sce in a quiet end without fighting. I can give that to you." Med grew quieter. "I want it for you." "I know. But a peaceful end - it is, like you said, a dream," said Mel. "It is a dream I denied to countless many. I do not regret what I did, and part of that eptancees with the understanding that I too shall not go out into the dark of death with closed eyes of content." Mel stood up, reaching her hand out to Med. She smiled proudly. "If you care about me, Med, if you truly, truly care, then allow me to face my end with pride. With the knowledge that my Usurper will take me, my body, my power, my everything, and finish what I set out to do. For Mellicanthys the Chill Dread never steps back from a battle she began, no matter if she faces death or the cold, cruel, unfathomable forces of the greater universe." Chapter ?401 {Aftermath} ?401 {Aftermath} Kinesis stood up, a little shake in her movements. Not the type you would expect from someone that had gotten a skull splitting bashing to their head. No, that would have been expected. Instead, what came over her was an odd, unnatural tremor that shivered down from head to toe, like she was a glitching model in an ill-optimized game. The moment passed, and when it did, Kinesis''s helmet was fully repaired, the gaping, ugly crack sealed over. She raised a hand in the air and crushed it into a fist. The grey construct energy spread throughout the storage room copsed into her fist. The odd, ringed darkness was gone without a single trace, as if it had never been there at all. With it gone, Earth''s natural flow of energy could resume. Almost immediately, a drone zipped into the room through the hole Arthur had sted out of. It was an odd thing, unlike anything that any arms manufacturing corporation would have recognized. The drone''s spherical grey head was attached to three prehensile, segmented tails, making it look like an oversized cell swimming about with gellum. Unlike regr drones, this one did not really fly or even hover, it looked like it organically swam through air in spite of its distinctively mechanical, metallic appearance, almost like a seamless fusion of machine and meat. The drone''s blinking red eyended on Kinesis, and from it, a rough, grating man''s voice grunted outwards. "Is it done?" "It is," said Kinesis. "I do not recognize your voice. You are not the usual one giving me orders." A harshugh echoed out from the drone. At the other end of the line was a powerfully built man sitting on what looked like amand chair surrounded by a ring of grey energy inscribed with strange, unrecognizable sigils of ck. Recognizable technology like monitors and unrecognizable things that looked like pulsating metal folds of fleshy innards formed the walls of the odd room that contained him. "There''s been a sudden change in leadership," said the man with a wide grin made wider by rough scars that jutted out from his lips to his cheeks. Smoke trailed from a freshly lit cigar stuck between his oddly sharp teeth. His eyes were shaped like four pointed stars filled in with inky ck while his white, blood-streaked hair stood straight in a spiky, short-cut mess. "Colonel Davos isn''t leading this joint anymore." "What does that mean?" said Kinesis. "Right, you alien fuckers don''t understand shut unless it''s literal," said the man. "Means Colonel Davos has stepped down from the Irregrs Department." "Stepped down? That is not possible. The department operates utilizing the Mother''s shell and psycho-dimensionalworks, and those are bonded only to those she chooses as her ''kin''." "True. But there''s another way to get in the Mother''s good graces," said the man. He wiped his mouth, and blood stained a streak across his face. Kinesis understood. "I see now. You have defeated Colonel Davos and consumed his blood." "You figure things out quick, don''t you?" "The United States government does not oppose to this shift in leadership?" "Government likes whoever can get results. And old Davos was being a little too nice for his own good. If he had more balls, this Thanatos shitstorm would have been squashed on day one. I would''ve personally nuked that alien fucker as soon as he showed up from his pit in Haven," said the man. He spat in disgust. "But Davos was too weak. He gave books to Thanatos and said he felt a ''determination'' in that thing''s voice that''d help humanity. What a load of shit. But that won''t happen anymore. Won''t let alien scum walk all over the states and this world, taking advantage of our goodwill like parasites to get stronger and stronger." "What about 22? I predict she will oppose your control over her." "It does whatever I tell it to do, whether it wants to or not," said the man. "And you''re asking too many questions for a walking, talking outworld disease. You made sure to kill Hammerhead, yeah?" "I did." "Nice. And the Zero Factor? You confirmed it works?" "I have confirmed that it can eliminate any flow of positive energy whether it originates from this or not." "That''s what I like to hear. Managing to steal that sample from the Panopticon was one hell of a godsend, I tell you. Once we finish synthesizing that up, it''ll finally be time to free humanity from not just you alien scum, but the Hivemind too. Now isn''t that''s something to get excited about, eh?" "I am not concerned about the progress of your species. However, I desire to reconfirm the status of my previous agreement with Colonel Davos and the United States government." "What, think I''m not trustworthy, is that it?" "Yes." Kinesis replied bluntly and without hesitation. The man grinned. "Well, guess that''s one thing I like about you. You''re honest. Though that doesn''t count for shit if you''re not human enough to know the weight behind a lie. But don''t worry, S-ss dog, your deal''s still intact. You help us clean house and takeover, and we''ll connect you back to the Core and send you right back on to your home, wherever the hell it is." "Understood." "Now clear the area and return to base. Tie up any loose ends if you have to. And await further orders." "Understood." Kinesis saw the drone fly away, zipping back out of the crater with speed that outperformed any ordinary drone. She had two orders to fulfill. To tie up any loose ends ¨C a phrase she was familiar with ¨C and to return to base. She acted on the first order, floating down the storage area and into the mansion. She descended three stories until she reached a room secured with fortified metal doors. Or, more urately, previously secured. The doors were warped and broken apart from the middle as if a bomb had gone off. Through the doors was a sterile, white-tiled room reminiscent of a hospital. There, lying on the ground, was Bart Hammerhead. Large high-caliber bullet holes riddled his back, still leaking fresh blood that painted the clean white tiles with fresh red. His arm was stretched out towards a hospital bed where a young womany nestled inside a medical chamber that looked like an advanced coffin. Tubes and wires jutted out of the chamber and into the woman, particrly around her lungs and gills, giving her the support to breathe. Kinesis briefly analyzed the room. Bart Hammerhead''s death would be ruled as an unlucky case of rogue A.I. involving Arthur. The high caliber rounds that killed Hammerhead had been made from Kinesis''s energy constructs but were created to exactly match the ammunition avable to Arthur and the drones under his control. The cause for Arthur''s sudden insanity would be ruled as infiltration from Thanatos, who would now longer be present to defend himself, giving casus belli for the United States government to enact strong action against Haven. In addition, Caliburn, apany that had long opposed the U.S. government by refusing topromise itself and share data it had on high profile clients to the government, would now lose a massive amount of trust among its customers, most likely destroying itpletely. But Kinesis did not care much about these results, if at all. All she cared about was the orders she was given. Each one took her one step closer to returning home. Back to the Formless Grey. Back where she would be whole again. Kinesis pointed her arm towards the girl entombed in the coffin that gave her life. Bullets shaped in the air beside her hand. The girl''s chest heaved up, then down in rhythmic, mechanically assisted motion. Her eyes were closed, her body still, unable to resist or, indeed, perceive anything at all. Kinesis put her hand down. The constructs faded. She had only been given an order to ''tie up loose ends''. That was a vague statement open for interpretation. At its baseline, it meant there could be no survivors left. But this fragile lifeform would die soon anyway. Theworks in this domicile would shutdown in minutes. It would only take a few more minutes after that for her to suffocate. There was no need to assure her death. Kinesis flew away. Chapter 402 {Oni } Explosion after explosion rocked the air. Shockwaves unleashed a stato sonata of destruction. Any man in the vicinity would have had their eardrums sted to smithereens, but s, the unfortunate audience to this performance of ruin were only machines, their smoldering metal chunks and crackling, ripped wire innards strewn in droves across desert dry orange earth. "You''ve improved, Fifth!" Clint leaped in mid air, a majestic set of brown feathered avian wings stretched out from his back. Harsh sunlight streamed down from various holes in the now not so very defensive dome that protected Meteor Labs. The pupils in Clint''s eyes narrowed into hyper-focused slits as they took in his target: Shuten Doji. Where Clint''s wings showed free flowing mastery over the skies, Shuten Doji''s bare feet, his rough, callused toes digging, no cracking into the firm earth like mini anchors, showcased a rock-solid affinity for the earth. "What the fuck are you doing here, Unbreakable!?" said Shuten Doji. He raised an enormous kanabo - a Japanese club that looked like an oversized baseball bat lined with bone shattering, brain sttering studs - in the air. The kanabo was made seemingly of frozen purple liquid. It was surrounded by a permanent coating of wispyvender fog reminiscent of the condensed air that liquid nitrogen gave off. "Settling the score, that''s what!" boomed Clint. He raised his clenched fists. They were covered in a crackling orange glow. A rough imitation of Ste''s explosive blood. "You''ve gone insane!" said Shuten Doji. "The truce we had - you break it now!? All the Swords will be upon you! Shit-!" Shuten Doji leaped backwards, the firm earth shattering under the weight and power of his sudden movement. Almost immediately afterwards, the two footprints he left were engulfed in an explosion of bright orange light. "You''re mad! Reckless!" Shuten Doji narrowed his eyes as the shockwave of the explosion crashed into him. It was a shockwave powerful enough to have shattered the ordinary Alter''s ribcage, but it bounced off Shuten Doji''s body like rain on a windshield. "Your tribe still has not recovered from our past conflict! You would bring bloodshed on them again!?" "Nah. This time, it''s purely personal. Just me payin'' back my debts." The aftermath of Clint bringing down two explosive fists on the ground drove up a cloud of debris, making nothing but the reds of his gleaming eyes visible. Shuten Doji noticed they were glowing a shade brighter than usual. He ced his kanabo in front of him, in line with Clint''s gaze. Red hot beams mmed into Shuten Doji''s icy club with a sizzling impact. The kic force was enough to send Shuten Doji skidding backwards, but not by much. The club did not melt, either. Shuten Doji could breathe out alcohol as intense fire, but he could also do the reverse. He could change the chemical structure of alcohol and structure it into an incredibly dense, battle-ready frost structure. ''He hasn''t improved at all since five years ago,'' thought Shuten Doji as he carefully moved his kanabo in line with Clint''s gaze, preventing the beams from hitting him. ''He''s growncent. But I can''t me him. I would have too if I had that logic-defying, cheat-like ability of his.'' "You''ve improved a lot," reiterated Clint. The force of his eye beams had scattered the dust cloud, revealing his towering, musclebound figure. He had on no clothes at this point, destroyed as they were by repeated explosions - both from his own and from tanking Shuten Doji''s. te-like armor scales covered most of Clint''s body. His genitals - a potential weak spot unneeded for battle - had disappeared upon sensing a fight. ''A good thing, too. Fighting naked men is not something I relish,'' thought Shuten Doji. "But it won''t be enough for me. This time, I''ll stick to you. I''ll make sure to evolve past anything you throw at me. I''ll make sure you''re dead," said Clint. "What changed?" said Shuten Doji, his tone usatory. "What drives you now to seek me out? After years?" "Like I said. A score to settle." "Nonsense!" Shuten Doji spat out. "You killed my fellow Swords. You killed my students. Before that, when you destroyed Bushido, you killed my father, my uncle! You massacred hundreds of innocents. Husbands, wives, daughters, sons! Yet you dare to fight in the name of your loss!? One measly lover!?" Clint stopped mid step. His jaw set. Before, his eyes were serious but not particrly driven. Now, they were. Driven by cold, long-nurtured anger. "Then how about we put our losses on the line." "What?" asked Shuten Doji. He held back a desire to involuntarily step back. "Your losses against mine," said Clint. "If you win, you get to give justice to all those countless lives you''re talking about. If I win, I get to prove my wife''s loss was deeper than everyone you''re jabberin'' about." "What kind of might makes right philosophy is that? More nonsense!" "You''re right. It is nonsense. But that''s the thing. Loss is nonsensical. It hurts hard no matter what the numbers say or how the scales lie." Clint''s arm morphed, splitting down the middle. Muscle fibers and severed bone detached and re-arranged into a ded structure. A metallic grey sheen covered over the bio-de for a final glossy touch. "Then you fight to soothe the pain? The old wounds?" Shuten Doji shook his head. "Killing me will not heal that pain. If it did, you would havee for me far sooner, when the hurt was still fresh." "Maybe. Maybe not. I''ll let your corpse know whether you were right or not." Clint disappeared, skin refracting light into pure invisibility. Shuten Doji remained calm and waited. Then, he sensed it. Subtle changes in wind pressure from behind him. He reacted with the adaptability of a trained professional, no, more than a simple experienced merc. A Sword. One of the best fighters in the entire world. His power was ssed under the ''Trump'' category that involved abilities that ovepped across multiple categories. In this case, his power could convert alcohol into several different effects. There was, as he showcased now, the Creator ss ability to create ice constructs. He also had the ster ss ability to breathe fire or explosive fireballs. But to truly dance with the top of the top, where physical powerhouses were a dime a dozen, Shuten Doji relied the most on his ability''s Augmenter category application. He could circte alcohol throughout his veins and convert it into a body strengthening agent, dramatically increasing his physical stats, his strength, speed, and even reflexes, at the cost of increasing his drunkenness. Shuten Doji swayed backwards, folding back at the waist like he was an extreme limbo master. His bare skin showed glowing purple veins - a visual indicator that the alcohol was strengthening him. Clint''s de arm zipped above Shuten Doji with a whining sound. He stared down at Shuten Doji with narrowed eyes, but he was still stuck mid-swing, wide open for a counter attack. Shuten Doji sprung back, pushing off the ground with a handstand that fueled a double kick right into Clint''s jaw. Impact, or rather, the explosion of the blow sent Clint hurtling several dozens of meters into the air in an instant. Clint''s wings furled out, stopping him from flying up any higher. He put a hand to his mouth and drew fingers coated with copious amounts of blood back. His jaw had shattered down the middle, dangling down in two pieces. His tongue barely hung in his mouth cavity by a thread of remaining muscle. His teeth had split apart into ugly shards. "Heh." Clint gurgled out. He grabbed his loose jaw and ripped it off. Almost instantly, a new one formed, raw red flesh covering the gaping wound like bubbling foam before stabilizing into a new jaw. This time, the jaw was covered in thicker armor ting that made it look like he was wearing a bronze mask. He no longer had a visible mouth. Just pure protective te. "You hit a lot harder than before," said Clint, his voice projecting outwards through little holes in his mouth te. "Your strength, speed, reactivity - every part of you''s improved. What changed for you?" "Figured out there''s a lot more in life to fight for than I''d once thought," said Shuten Doji as he swayed back to standing. He shifted from side to side, his body lithe with free flowing drunken movement. His wild, lengthy hair swayed with him. His eyes were a bright violet, the blood vessels gleaming bright against the canvas of the eye whites. Like this, with his stubby horns, he looked like a demon - like Shuten Doji, the drunken oni which he was named after. "Damn. And here I thought I''d sworn off day drinkin''." He red up at Clint with shaky, unfocused eyes, but Clint knew better than anyone else that those drunken eyes were a thousand times more threatening than any other expression Shuten Doji could have made. "I tried talkin'' ya outta this, I really did. But if it''s a fight ya want, then it''s a fight yer gonna have!" Chapter 403 Happiness 2 Years passed. At seventeen, the boy became less a boy, but not quite a man. A real man, his father often told him, was marked by self sacrifice. The will to give away a piece of yourself for someone else was what made man more than simple beast. Not just that. It made man into something greater than themselves. It made a man into a hero. And now, the boy had a chance to prove himself. "It''s over." The boy said, his voice ented with a wheeze speckled with blood. His hero costume was a good match of colorful and military with a meshweave ck bodysuit bnced out with circuit-like streaks of glowing light, almost white green. The streaks drew out an insignia of a three pointed shield on his chest - the symbol he had chosen to represent himself as a hero. That symbol was now thoroughly defaced with a smoking diagonal char running across it, almost as if someone had taken a superheated pen and crossed the entire thing out. The skin revealed by the line was red and raw, thoroughly burned and beaten through battle. "No. No it''s not." Another boy of the same age floated in the air, a dozen or so meters away. He had on a in ck bodysuit. One with no real ir to it, mass produced and soulless. His face was by every definition the archetype of the golden eraic book hero. Square jawed, radiating strength. But his eyes, his bright golden eyes that did not so much shine as they did burn, were searing mirrors into a tortured soul. "Look around you, Seth." The boy who wanted to prove himself a hero motioned around him. There was nothing but smoking rubble and above, a night sky with a pale moon that looked down with indifference, the same kind of indifference it must have had in the many millions of years it had seen disaster after disastere and go upon the surface of its host. "ckwater''s nothing but rubble. Solomon Sr''s been captured. The rest of the Trident''s been busted. There is no great revolution. There is no new Age of Viins. There''s nothing left for you to fight for." "But there is," said Seth Sr. When he spoke, his breath distorted the air with heat waves. His golden hair, once slicked back, now shimmered up in the air like live mes. Bright, sunlit cracks traveled across his hands, his face, his entire body, like he was a porcin doll ready to shatter into pieces at any moment. "It''s all of you. All of you that got to live happy lives, parading around in proper hero academies, deluding yourselves that you''re fighting for something good in this world. In this idiotic world that makes no sense and cares about nothing. I''m going to break it. Burn it all down. Then, at least, there''ll be peace." "You don''t want to do that," said the boy. He put his hand out. A round shield of pale mint green energy forged itself around his forearm. It mimicked that of Minuteman, a proud hero who once stood as the current era''s representative of Golden Era heroism, when heroes gave all they have for a better, brighter tomorrow. Minuteman had been the boy''s teacher before an attack by the Trident ended the noble hero''s life all too early. Now, it was up to the boy to lift this shield in honor of his teacher. In honor of everyone that he protected and loved. "Just...give up, man." Another boy''s voice echoed through the air. A copsed roof slid over to the side, and beneath it, a muscr boy crawled out with a girl behind him. "Adam. ine." The shield bearing boy nodded, smiling. He knew deep down that his close friends, both trainee heroes like him, were not dead. But it still warmed his heart to see them alive and kicking. But figured. Adam was too stubborn to ever die. And ine too smart. Adam pointed an using finger at Seth. "Nihilism is totally out of fashion, dude. And it must suck ass living for nothing. Or trying to make everything nothing. I promise you, there''s a better alternative to fix your issues than burning everything down. Maybe therapy-," A st of sr energy from Seth Sr''s fist sped towards Adam like a shooting star. Adam''s gained a chromatic luster as his skin turned into durable metametal in preparation to take the hit. Before the sr st could hit, however, it unraveled, breaking apart into various strands that coiled around each other in an ever shrinking ball. Eventually, the ball just disappeared out of existence. "Running that mouth of yours again..." ine coughed blood, her rainbow eyes bloodshot from using her energy control powers excessively. Her long hazel hair was burnt and cut up in awkward spots. "ine, don''t burn yourself out!" said Adam. He raised a fist at Seth. "You - I''ll get you for that!" "If you didn''t say anything, he wouldn''t have done anything,"mented ine. "...Right." "And you''re in no condition to move. It''s taking you all you have just to stay standing with metalform on." "Which means he''s going to kick your ass instead!" Adam pointed at the shield boy. "You should have stayed under the rubble." Seth grinned as he sped forward, fist cocked back, ready to unleash it right into Adam''s face. The fist nged backwards, hitting the boy''s shield. Force reflected backwards, sending Seth flying back in the air. He stopped his recoil mid-air and spat in disgust. "Your friends are just sitting ducks. Weakness that''ll anchor you down, make you waste energy. Sooner orter, they''ll be the death of you," said Seth. "I don''t care," said the boy. "A hero...is meant to protect, no matter what the cost is." "Yeah? That so?" Sethughed. Then heughed some more, doubling over, losing his breath in his peals. "Did he go nuts?" whispered Adam. "Quiet," said ine. "Take this time to rest. "I don''t get the point of you heroes. Or wait, you three aren''t even real heroes yet," said Seth. "But still. You make my stomach crawl. Especially your type, the Golden Era cosyers that think they''re making a difference. At least the average hero knows that their cape and costume are just for show. They know they just want fame and credits. But you-," Seth looked down at the boy and his friends in disgust. "You protect, no matter the cost, huh? Then where was your kind when I was born? When my shitty dad knocked up my shitty mother to make his own personal punching bag? Where were you to stop him? To stop a miserable life from growing up in this shithole of a world? Where were you when I was tortured, beaten, shaped to be something I never wanted to be? I never asked for anything much. All I wanted to do was be happy. Normal. Have a mom. A dad. A life that I could call mine and only mine, not just some egomaniac''s pet project. No, let''s forget about me. Let''s forget about the big bads you can see in front of your face. The kind you can just beat down, put in prison, and forget about. Where the hell are you for the starving child in the streets? In the outskirts of so many cities? Where are you for this system of heroes that lets people like my father thrive? What about the corporations? The way the Panopticon controls the world''s credits, funneling them to the top while everyone below just chokes on shit? What are you going to do about all that? About this system that''s so rotten down to the core that it deserves nothing but to be burned down?" "Change it," said the boy firmly. "I don''t know the details. I don''t know the path I''ll take to get there. But I''ll change it. One step at a time. You and I are the same in that way. We want to see the world change. But where you want to see it burn, I want to see it get better. And deep down, that''s what you want too, isn''t it?" "No. I''d rather see ashes than progress in spite of me." Seth Sr roared as his eyes shed, unleashing twin beams of golden, superheated sr energy. Seth Sr was not rationing his sr energy anymore. He was going all out even when his body was breaking apart from within. He had let his emotions - his rage, mostly - ovee him. Had Seth rationed his energy, kept making attacks against Adam and ine to distract the boy, then he would have tired the boy and his shields out in a long, drawn out fight. But now, this was going to be the final confrontation. The boy raised his arm, blocking the beams. The rubble in front of him started to glow molten orange just from the sheer heat radiating off of the beams. The flesh around the boy''s arm began to sizzle and bubble, melting off through his heat resistant suit and trained body. But still, the boy took a step forward, against the scorching tide. He closed his eyes so as to not be blinded. Step by step, he went forwards, ever forwards, just like the change he had promised. Chapter 404 {To The Vaults} "This is it." Valera hovered over a cocoon of thickly woven grey matter. Unlike the gaseous clouds, this was a far more solid structure, as if someone had taken the cloud matter and turned it into thread to spin and weave with. The cocoon was just big enough to contain onerge person, and Valera knew who that was: Aldrich. She could sense it from the magical energy radiating around the cocoon in shimmering waves of pure blue. In this dimension of lifeless, color-drained grey, the blue of mana stood out in sheer, stark contrast. The mana had given Valera the connection she needed to pinpoint Aldrich''s presence. She had lost track of how long she had spent traveling. It was most definitely more than a month. But after a month, she simply lost track of time. It was easy to do for her. Vampires like her that lived for many centuries, if not an eternity, had an innate capacity to mentally phase through time. It was something like an active hibernation. A necessary adaptation for long lived creatures to prevent their minds from falling to the forgetfulness and, in extreme cases, t out madness of Immortalic Rot. Roughly, Valera guessed, she could have spent several years traveling, moving from grey cloud to grey cloud in this infinite dark expanse. But to find Aldrich, her love, she would spare no effort. No, rather, it was simply necessary. Still, this ce was¡­odd, to say the least. When Valera looked around, she saw a vastwork of grey cocoons all connected together in a massive web. The web spanned far into the horizon to the point where she almost thought this mega structure could be infinite. There must have been thousands, no millions of cocoons here, but Valera paid no heed to any of them. If they contained other beings, it was dangerous to try and mess with them to wake up what was within. All she cared about was Aldrich. But how was she going to get him out? Valera knelt down atop the cocoon, feeling the magical energy emanating from it warm her. Her grey body regained proper color as the mana infused back into her. In the first ce, she had little idea where this mana was evening from, but she did notin. The fact that it was here was a godsend. With it, Aldrich could teleport them out once he awakened. The awakening part was the important thing here. Aldrich was in a ''dormant'' mental state here, preventing him from using the mana given to him. Liches and undead could enter dormant states to pass time, say, for example, when resting in tombs of graves or whatnot. It was a form of hibernation to reset the mind and counter Immortalic Rot. But somehow, Aldrich had been forced into a dormant state. Normally, Valera could awaken him with telepathy, but it was impossible to reach him through the cocoon. However - Valera tentatively sunk her hand into the cocoon. It yielded surprisingly easily. She felt her hand sink into what felt like water. Sensing no harm, she put an entire arm in. She felt it plunge into a deep space farrger than what the cocoon showed from the outside. Aldrich was deep within this strange dimensional prison, and, though it was hard to tell, Valera could sense that the further she went down, the stronger her link with Aldrich became. If Valera dove down fully, swam into the heart of this cocoon, then she determined she could touch with Aldrich''s mind again and forcibly awaken him. There were so very many things to consider, though. What if there were threats within? What was within in the first ce? Would she actually be able to awaken him, even if she managed to make contact with him? And if she dove deep enough, what guaranteed that she could get out? Valera shook her head. All her doubts, questions, and fears dissipated. The man she loved needed her. That was all the reason she needed. Without hesitation, Valera sunk into the cocoon. === "Arghh! When is this going to end!?" Falco hunkered down behind a metal crate, hands over his head. His Aztech Enervator-2 was out of his hands, dangling from a smartlink chord attached from gun barrel to his wrist port. Ahead of him, in a narrow hallway, a ceiling turret unleashed a constant salvo of bullets, as did several humanoid battle bots wielding smartlink rifles of their own. "We wouldn''t be in this spot if you didn''t trip the motion sensors in the first ce," said Kris, taking cover beside Falco. "My cloud disables cameras and surveince from IDing us, but tripping a physical sensor''s going to mess shit up no matter what." "I''m sorry, okay, I didn''t see it!" protested Falco. "Now the elevators are locked out." Kris put his knuckles to his forehead in frustration. "We have to go down three extra floors that we wouldn''t have had to to get to the vaults." "It''s fine." Diamondback''s voice rung clear through the earlinkms. The turrets and drones redirected their aim from the crate to straight down the hallway, right to Diamondback as he trudged forwards without giving a damn for cover. Or, to be more urate, with his diamond metamaterial skin, he WAS the cover. "INTRUDERS DETECTED. UTILIZING LETHAL FORCE." The drones chanted in robotic unison, firing at will. All the bullets pinged off Diamondback. Even the high caliber rounds from the turret. Diamondback sprinted forward with heavy, nking steps like an armored tank, ignoring everything thrown at him. He leaped into the air and grabbed the turret, his crystalline blue hands sinking into the metal with a wrenching grip. With a grunt, Diamondback tore the turret right off in a shower of sparks and shredded metal parts. He spun to make momentum before tossing therge turret at the drones. The turret was like a cannonball, shattering the first line of drones in half outright while knocking more behind backwards. The rest, Diamondback dealt with methodically, throwing out palm strikes that shot out diamond buckshot that shredded through the battle bots like they were made of paper. "Fine? I would have thought you would be thest one to be fine with this," said Kris. He was not the type to raise his voice, but he was getting close. "What''s done is done. How we adapt to unforeseen events is how we''ll seed," said Diamondback. "There''s no point wasting emotions and energy on mistakes." "Cleared out the Cyclops here," said Ste''s voice. She, Tox, Ace, n, and Alexis were at the other end of the hallway where they were dealing with two Cyclops bots. Diamondback had taken Kris and Falco, the weaker members of the group, passed the dangerous Cyclops to the end of the hallway where Kris could jack into a control panel and open up the doors to the next floor. "Good," said Diamondback. "Any losses?" "No. EMP charges don''t work as well as you advertised on the Cyclops. They can still move around," said Ste. "But it does mess their aim and movement up. Enough that dealing with them was just a matter of breaching their tough hides over time." "They must''ve upgraded," said Diamondback. "The data we got from Casimir about this ce is about a year outdated. But upgrading bots as high end as the Cyclops would''ve taken time and resources¡­" Diamondback trudged forward, thinking while throwing out diamond shards on autopilot, as if the drones were just minor nuisances. "It''s like they expected this ce to get attacked." "They couldn''t have predicted us," said Ste. "Unless there was a tiny ass chance that they had a seer with them." ''Seer'' was the term given to Psionic ss Alters who could see through the flow of time. They were extremely rare with only a select few individuals even known to have this ability across the entire globe. And even then, most could only see into the past. Seeing into the future was deemed near impossible, with most visions being extremely inurate. The only Alter in the world who had rtively urate visions was Prophet who was part of the AA, and he could only give vague visions of wide scale disaster. Nothing specific. "Unlikely, like you said," said Diamondback. "What I''m thinking is that they''ve made some breakthroughs here that''sted them something valuable. Something worth upping the security over." "Well, whatever it is, we either blow it the fuck up or we take it," said Ste. "Agreed. The mission stays the same. I''ve cleared the way to the next floor, but stay on your toes. The defenses are light now, but they know we''re in here now. And anyone that isn''t blind or stupid will know we''re after the vaults. We don''t have the element of surprise anymore. They''ll have time to stack their defenses sky high down in the vaults." Chapter 405 {Subject 6A } "Quickly! Get the N-Ring out of here!" A voice that strained to stay loud against the weathering effects of age sted through the hazmat suits of every scientist on the RRF (Ring Research Floor). "Initiating Ring Lockdown Procedure!" said Emi. She sprinted over to the main control panel monitoring the N-Ring. shing rm lights on the ceiling cast a threatening red hue over the entire research floor. They were soundless so as to prevent the N-Ring from reacting too much, but the silence only made the situation that much more tense. Emi pressed the wrist of her suit against the touchscreen. The screen read a strip of light on her suit and reacted. The images and numbers showing the ring''s structure and stability disappeared. Instead,rge red letters spelling of LOCKDOWN covered the now ckened screen. The metal tiles and panels under the N-ring''s spherical container opened up, revealing a tubr pathway that led further undergone, down into the deepest depths of the vaults. Several voices echoed through the scientists''munications. "Energizing maic rails!" "Booting anti-gravity stabilization!" "Encasing the ring with Null-alloy shielding!" Mechanical arms attached interlocking pieces of vantack null-ore around the N-Ring container. The tube underneath it lit up with twin strips of light as the maic rail system readied. In the span of ten seconds, everything was ready. This was technology on par with the bestbs in the world, those funded directly by the Panopticon or Megacorporations. Nobody would have expected something like this to be in the desert wastnd dumps in the middle of nowhere, especially not in Meteor Labs, a research center that, on paper, focused on variant cell culture grafts - an incredibly over saturated field dominated near entirely by Sheshanaga and its heads. The N-Ring container slid down, guided by a maic rail system that ensured a speedy and stable escape. It would head down to the lowest floor of the vaults, in a specially designed chamber that was, for all intents and purposes, absolutely imprable. "What''s the deal! What''s going on?" said a scientist. "Dr. Ziegler, your orders!?" "I am assessing the situation," said Dr. Ziegler, head of the research team at Meteor Labs. A former U.S. government researcher who was even now wanted with a bounty of 10 million credits - a ''S-rank'' bounty - solely from the knowledge he had about alien technology. His voice was aged, weak, and yet, full of strength borne from years of experience. Dr. Ziegler swiped at the space in front of him, creating a holographic screen with his power. From it, he could interface with all the technology coded to him and modify it. In essence, the entirety of thebs was under his control, though with his advanced age and Crystallization, not nearly at the level it had been when he used to be the A rank hero called Machine Mind. "I see," said Dr. Ziegler. "What do you see!? Now''s not the time for cryptic one liners, old man!" said a panicked scientist. "We have to get down to-," The scientist''s voice stopped. "I have cut Jonathan from ourmunications," said Dr. Ziegler. "Panic is a disease whose spread I care very little for. Now, I will exin what we are to do. Currently, Shuten Doji is engaged inbat against the Unbreakable." "The Unbreakable!?" said Emi. "My dad can''t handle him! He lost to him before already. He''s going to die!" "As I have stated before, I will not tolerate panic. Emi, I afford you one transgression due to your excellent work, but no more than that," said Dr. Ziegler. Emi gulped and said nothing. "Shuten Doji is not the same man he was five years ago, but it is undeniable that any fight against the Unbreakable is one that eventually bes a losing one," said Dr. Ziegler. "The ether traces left by the recent geostorm have cut us off from outsidemunications for approximately another forty minutes. I am seeing the battle between Shuten Doji and Unbreakable through every camera, sensor, and drone linked to thiswork, and my assessment is that Shuten Doji is capable of holding off the Unbreakable for that long." "How about sending him reinforcements?" said Emi, calmer now, though there was still urgency in her voice. "We have a ton of Cyclops battle bots from ARMA. Red grade, too, best of the best. And newly upgraded just a few months ago. Those should help, right?" "That is where a problem arises. We have been infiltrated," said Dr. Ziegler. "Infiltrated? So the Unbreakable''s attack is just a cover up? Who is it? Nomads?" said a scientist. Dr. Ziegler looked at the screen in front of him as it flipped from outside cameras to inside ones, showing the warpath of the infiltration group. Already they had taken down one Cyclops with a high end, custom designed EMP charge. Not just that, but they were a formidable force too on their own. "I am scanning the faces of the intruders and referencing them to a facial recognition databases." Dr. Ziegler nodded after a few seconds. "One of the attackers is Diamondback, second inmand of the Spearhorns. Expected, considering the Unbreakable is here. But the others... There are former students from ckwater." "...ckwater? What is that?" Dr. Ziegler ignored the question. Most of the scientists here were just that: scientists. All of them knew they were working in a criminal enterprise, but beyond that, there was not a single illegal bone within them. They were here for their love of discovery and progress. And, of course, generouspensation that toiling away in governmentbs could simply not afford. "Consider it like a mercenary organization," said Dr. Ziegler. He pondered this development. The ckwater students, to his knowledge, had gone missing during the Haven raid and then turned up as allies of Thanatos. The Trident still spected as to how Thanatos managed to do this, but the prevailing consensus was that his abilities, once utilized on those that were dead, could allow him to freely control them. Much like Nzambe, the S rank viin that threatened to destroy the fabric of the Pan-African Alliance a decade ago. She with her army of unending zombies had been called a ''Queen of Death'', but now it seemed a king had risen to take her ce. Troublesome. It meant that Thanatos had started to make his move against the Trident. And there was no worse time than now. With Thanatos housing Casimir and causing the Red Circle ughter, it was inevitable that conflict would soon bubble. But this was much too soon. The executives thought that Thanatos would have too much on his hands establishing his new Sentinel state to worry about the Trident. It was why the Prongs were rapidly mobilizing to defend ckwater until they could find a suitable techno to inherit the Machine Heart. Or, perhaps - did Thanatos know? Was he seeking to strike while the Prongs were weakened, their forces stretched thin in ckwater? To take the blue N-Ring during this recent inter-Trident civil war? In any case, he knew that there giving up the N-ring now was not possible. It was one of the keys to control the world. To understand beyond this world, too. To give it up to the hands of a megalomaniac lord of death was an utter waste. "Stephenson. Garrick. Reed. You threee with me," said Dr. Ziegler. "Emi, take the rest of the team down to the bunker. Take refuge there and maintain diagnostics over the N-ring''s condition." "And what about you, doctor?" "The infiltrating force is dangerous, but not outside of my scope to handle," said Dr. Ziegler. He paused as the screen in front of him showed the face of Ace. "The force was stealthed until the seventeenth floor. I wonder if they were supposed to have been stealthed all the way to here, but no matter. This gives me time to organize a most rigorous defense against these intruders." === "Doctor, why did you have us stay behind?" said Reed, a young, brilliant scientist newly graduated from one of the top variant research institutions in the United States. "And...why are we in the Biostudies Vault?" "I''ve...never been here before," said Stephenson, another young, bright mind. "It''s creepy,"mented Garrick, the most talented of them all, being here at the young age of seventeen. They were in a rectangr room about as big as an empty warehouse. Instead of storage and shipping containers, there were instead two rows of cylindrical ss chambers filled with blue tinted liquid. Within them, the silhouette of various monstrous entities - variants -y suspended in animation. The Vaults were organized into three different storage units. One for weaponry, one for biological specimen, and another for extraterrestrial containment. Aside from Dr. Ziegler, nobody, not even theb staff, were allowed entry into the vaults without explicit authorization. "I require your assistance," said Dr. Ziegler simply. Behind him, two Cyclops battle bots, each standing an imposing four meters tall with gleaming red dot eyes that fit snugly into the archetype of ''murder bot'', followed behind with heavy, powerful steps whirring with hydraulics and moving machine parts. Dr. Ziegler headed to the end of the vault where one containery separated from the rest. Within the glowing blue liquid of this chamber, there was not the silhouette of a variant, but rather a humanoid. "What...is this?" said one of the young researchers. They stood close to the chamber with wide eyes behind their hazmat suits, their innate curiosity stoked. "A human specimen? Dr. Ziegler, I know we aren''t operating strictly in legal boundaries, but isn''t this...hical?" Dr. Ziegler spoke. "Prepare subject for awakening." In response, the chamber''s blue liquid lit up until it looked like a pir of solid light,pletely engulfing the specimen within. The three researchers jumped back, but they were stopped dead in their tracks by the two Cyclops bots. The bots stood in front of Dr. Ziegler now, their twin autocannon arms aimed at the researchers. "SUBJECT 6A IS NOT FULLY DEVELOPED," said a female A.I. voice. "IT WILL LACK A SUFFICIENTLY DEVELOPED MIND TO OPERATE WITH." "Prepare for biomass integration." "PROCEEDING..." The floor in front of the chamber, where the three young researchers stood, filled with countless glowing blue rings that swayed chaotically like distorted space. "Dr. Ziegler!? What''s going on?" said one of the researchers. The three young scientists tried to move away only to find their feet were anchored to the ground, the blue rings wrapping around their feet in a chain link of energy that crawled rapidly upwards, attempting to enmesh them whole. "You devoted your lives to progress. Now, you can prove that devotion to its end," said Dr. Ziegler. "Your sacrifices will provide a mind for my child. A brilliant, youthful mind." The young scientists screamed for only a minute second before the link of rings covered their mouths, eyes, noses, everything. The rings dug into their flesh like butcher hooks before splitting them apart. Not in a grotesque way. Rather, in a strangely clean, methodical way. It was as if the three men were made of countless little cubes, little pixels, that unraveled down into the ground as the rings pulled their biomass apart. Where the three men stood, multiple circuit-like streaks of bright blue energy started to path upwards, into the chamber. "BEGINNING GENESIS OF SUBJECT 6A..." "APPROXIMATE TIME UNTIL GENESIS: 9 MINUTES" 9 minutes. Not enough time until the infiltrating force made their way down here. As things were right now, thebs were not well defended enough to withstand a task force of that caliber, especially when they could handle the Cyclops with their EMP charges. But subject 6A, well, that was an entirely different matter. If Subject 6A got out, then Dr. Ziegler was confident that he could repel the invaders. It would be the least he could ask for with the three brilliant young minds he had sacrificed. Dr. Ziegler had to thank fate, if such a fickle concept even existed, that the task force had so sloppily tripped a sensor to give him the time to set this up. But even then, it was hard to tell if subject 6A had the time to leave its birthing chamber. Dr. Ziegler looked around, gazing at the twenty other chambers, all with variant specimen floating within them. "Release all other specimen when I leave," said Dr. Ziegler. Chapter 406 {Break In} At the thoroughly armored, double locked doors leading into the Ring Research Room - The doors distended down the middle like a bulging belly, glowing red hot before the built up heat and pressure was too much. The doors shattered with a resonating explosion, sending huge chunks of molten metal flying inwards. Ste stood in the doorway, her arms thrust out. She breathed heavily, red steam - her blood vaporizing - pouring out of her mouth, eyes, and ears, sweat nds, every orifice - encasing her in an aura of crimson-orange that made her look positively demonic. "Now that''s what I''m talking about!" said Ste. "Being able to use my powers without any drawbacks. Train them beyond their limit. It''s the best feeling ever!" Diamondback sprinted in along with Ace. They, as the two most durable of the group, swept every room. Several ceiling turrets fell down, firing salvos at the two of them. The two of them stood there, looking around like the bullets were just a casual after workout shower. "Room is clear aside from these turrets," said Diamondback. "Then it''s not clear!" said Tox. Diamondback sighed. "Let''s clean up." Diamondback and Ace methodically went around destroying each turret. Ace, in particr, fly about with a single-minded gusto, flying through the turrets like a living baseball. After the turrets were cleared and everyone in the room, Tox pointed to control panel behind a cked out widescreen monitor. "Kris, why don''t you jack in?" said Tox. "This looks important enough." "No," said Kris. "But isn''t this your job?" said Falco as he shifted his weight from boot to boot, his hands gripped tight around his Aztechser gun. It was obvious his nerves were on edge. Kris gave a pointed stare to co bordering on a re. It was very evident that Kris''s patience with co was running quite thin. "I-I mean you''re the tech guy, right? And a Phantom to boot! Once you jack in, we can figure out everything about the vaults and the defenses they''ve set up, right?" "Defenses they have time to set up solely because of your ipetence. But that''s not the worst part," said Kris. "Files state they have a techno here. Guy who used to be called Machine Mind. A ranker back like twenty or thirty years ago. He''s the head of security and research. And he''s in control of thework now and ready to intercept threats. I''m a solid infiltrator, but just like in realspace, an ambush only works when the enemy isn''t expecting it. Now that Machine Mind''s ready for us, he''ll have set up cyberspace defenses to catch me. And considering his A rank, I''m liable to fry my brain by jacking in now." "I''ve heard of him," said Ste. "He piloted a whole legion of mechs with his power. Didn''t end well for him, though. He was forced to retire after deciding to abandon a sinking ship to save another with more passengers in it. That started a whole debate in the heromunity about what to do in cases like that." "Seems to me he made the right choice," said Alexis. "Yeah, but it still looks like an asshole move," said Tox. "He doesn''t care about human lives. Not in the way normal people do. He just sees numbers. It''s typical of him," said Ace. He clenched his fist. "We need to find him. And I need to make him pay." "I know I never pried into your past, but is he...?" Tox''s question trailed off. "Yeah. He''s the one that raised me. Treated me like ab rat and then when I wasn''t considered good enough, I was sold off to a merc group," said Ace. "He''s got a lot of scars to pay for. My body might have healed from everything he put me through, all the shock, burn, poison, and variantbat tests, but my mind - those scars are still fresh. If I wasn''t undead, I wouldn''t be able to control myself right now." Ste put a hand on Ace''s shoulder. "It''s alright." "Is it?" said Ace, about to speak more on the abuse he had taken, but he stopped when he saw Ste smiling. "What? You thought I''d tell you to live and let live? Shit, that''s not my style. There''s a reason I was never a good hero aside from my pretty face and heart attack inducing powers. It''s because I never managed to put up a pretty personality to match my face for the cameras." Ste grinned. "We find the bastard, we make him pay, and then, considering his powers, we keep him around for our boss." Ace nodded. "It''s good we have personal motivators here and all," said Kris. "But we have to act quickly." He tapped his goggles, projecting ayout of the circr research room. "Casimir''s data had almost nothing about what was being studied here, but it does show us the generalyout. The elevators leading down to the Vaults don''t work, obviously." Kris shot another acidic look at Falco, and the young man hung his head down in shame. "But look." Kris pointed at the center of the circle. There was another circle there. "Room kinda looks like a boob when you see it like this," said Tox. "Ignoring that," said Kris. "The research room is oriented around a central study point. The middle ring-," "The nipple," Tox nodded. "The middle ring housed what they were studying. Obviously, that thing is gone," said Kris. "But the room''s architecture suggests that there''s only one way it could have gone: down. And it couldn''t have taken the elevator, that''s for sure considering its size." Kris motioned forward, ahead of the control panel. There, the ground gave way to a six meter depression that formed a ring shape. The bottom of the ring was covered in metal tiles that blended in with the rest of the room''s austere decor. "I see," said Diamondback. "That should open up and lead down." "Correct," said Kris. "We just need firepower to st it open." Everyone looked at Ste again. "Aw, y''all are making me blush." Ste grinned as she leaped down the depression, hands aglow. "Time to break in!" After Ste sted apart the floor of the center ring, it revealed a gaping, dark hole leading down. "Maic rail strips on either end," said n as he peered down. "Though deactivated. Whatever it was that they were studying, they wanted it out of here fast. This whole mechanism is prettyplicated, the type you''d see with Panopticon fast rail." "What could it be, I wonder?" said Ste. "If it wasn''t in the files that Cas gave us, then it must be he important.'' "In any case, that''s not our priority," said Diamondback. "We need the Kryptic first and foremost. Kris, does this link to the weapons vault?" "Not directly, but to power something like this, it has to be in close proximity to established infrastructure. Basically, if we st open a hole at the right depth, we should be able to ess the floor the weapons vault is on," said Kris. "So we need another round of explosives," said Diamondback. "Correct," responded Kris. Everyone looked at Ste again. "Okay, now I''m starting to feel a little used here, but alright." Ste shrugged and headed down the hole. Chapter 407 {Twin} "Goddamn! Are we out in the Wastnds or something!? Why the hell are there so many variants!?" Ste shouted as she sent an uppercut right into the chin of a chimeric fusion of lion and turtle. Her glowing fist sent an explosive st upwards, knocking the lion straight into the air with half its face blown off. The lion''s corpse fell limp onto cold, rocky earth. These were the vaults, and most of it used a tunnel and cavernwork that already existed underground. "They all look ugly as hell, too! Like someone just took random variants and mashed them together like a modern day Frankenstein." "They''re everywhere!" said Falco. He moved with jittery, adrenaline controlled steps, aiming this way and that, firing his Aztechsergun freely. The greenser bolts, guided by smartlink technology, auto-aimed and precisely bored through the eyes of several variants. The neon green gun had a red strip of light running down its barrel that indicated how much energy it had left, and it was almostpletely gone. "I-I''m running out!" A variant, this one arge, fire-wreathed serpent with the face of a man, lunged at Falco. Diamondback rushed in, tackling the serpent and sending it flying back where it smacked back more waiting variants like a bowling ball. "Steady, kid. Don''t lose your calm," said Diamondback. "Easy for you to say! You''re invincible!" said Falco. "Here." n came by to Falco and grabbed his gun. A burst of red electrical charge ran from n''s segmented, cybeic fist and into Falco''s gun, charging the weapon back up. "Thanks, dude," said Falco. "You''re a real one." "You remind me of how I used to be is all," said n. He got back to fighting, aiming his wrist at a bat and spider fusion pping its grotesque form towards them. His forearm opened up, revealing the pointed head of a rocket. The rocket shot out like a firecracker and blew the iing variant apart like a pinata, sending guts and fur and shredded wings everywhere. "Holy crap, you''re really cybered out!" said Falco. "That''s some premium stuff, too. Who''d you go to!? I''m looking to get cybeics too." "I did it myself," was all n said. "You''re absolutely nuts, that''s what you are," said Tox. She moved about with more ease, having had morebat training. Plus, she was basically indestructible too. Her noxious purple slime form slithered about, expanding and engulfing several dog and cockroach fusion variants. They iled about in her body before melting away into bones within seconds. "Self-operating is hard as all hell, and you managed to rece like, 70% of yourself." "Focus!" said Diamondback. "Maintain circr formation. Keep up suppressive fire. Protect Kris at all costs. He''s the one that''s going to crack us into the vaults." The way the team was arranged was in a ring with Kris in the center. Kris provided what fire he could with his pistol, a Freefire Six ster revolver that fired high powered explosive shots. However, most of his cybeics were made to enhance his neural processing, not hisbat efficiency. Alexis stood guard beside Kris, channeling a green storm cloud overhead which constantly fired lightning bolts like a sentry turret. "Shit, one thing goes wrong and it spawns ten more issues. This is why rookies shouldn''t be allowed on high profile missions," said Kris. "Diamondback, I''m beginning to question the sharpness of your judgment here. I could see Clint giving into the kid''s demands, but you? Weren''t you supposed to be the rational one to bnce things out in the Spearhorns?" "Yeah, well, there''s only so much I can do. Riding with the Spearhorns, especially Clint, youe to realize that nning ahead doesn''t really do you much good other than piling on more stress. It''s how you adapt to the chaos he creates that''s important," said Diamondback as he caved in the skull of a tiger and shark hybrid. Several bird and mosquito hybrid variants fluttered around him, trying to stab through his diamond exterior with their de-like needle mouths to no avail. "Fair enough," said Kris. "I should''ve expected a contract from Clint wasn''t going to exactly be squeaky clean." "This isn''t right," said Ace. He was with Ste, right in the thick of closebat. He used his hands like mps to prevent a huge leech variant with centipede legs from mping down on him. With a grunt, he cleanly ripped the variant in half, a faint blue-white glow surrounding his hands as he used tactile telekinesis to distribute his force precisely to tear the creature down the middle. "What''s the matter?" said Ste as she blew back a group dog sized rats with spider heads. "These variants...I recognize them. They''re part of the biostudies team. The team that studied me," said Ace. "But they shouldn''t be coordinated like this. They''re all ''imperfect''. Mindless. They should be tearing into each other as much as they''re tearing into us." ? "Improvements in research, maybe?" said Ste. "Maybe." Ace punched a gori type variant in the chest. The creature''s sternum shattered and caved in as it flew back like a cannonball had been sted into it. "Something''s just...off. All of these guys, they have a scent on them. It''s...strange. It reminds me of...myself?" "Hey, Ace, know you don''t like talking about your past, but if there''s anything that you know that''ll get us out of here, now''s the time to spill it out," said Tox as she formed an empty ring in her stomach. "Damn it! I hate fire! Ace, take this guy out for me!" A fireball passed through it that Ace caught. "Yeah." Ace reached into the rock below. A neat circle of blue-white formed around his hand. He pulled back, driving up a perfect sphere of rock that he threw like a bullet at the culprit: a beetle type variant with an abdomen that seethed smoke and me like a furnace. The rock sttered the beetle''s face, killing it instantly. "Honestly, if I did know something, I would have told you guys. I''m not selfish enough to keep all that to myself. I just don''t remember too much. All I remember is the doctor and what he did to me. But things that didn''t rte to me directly - it''s all foggy," said Ace. "Numbers are starting to thin," said Diamondback. "Which is good. As far as threats go, none of these variants measured up to the Cyclops. At best, the toughest of them were high C rank threats." "Which worries me, because there should be ten more Cyclops left," said Kris. "Probably waiting for us in the weapons vault," said Diamondback. "I can see the variants not attacking each other, but I figure it''s harder to get them to recognize machines as friends. In any case, if Machine Mind packed all the Cylclops near the vault, that just makes them easier to EMP." At that moment, a tenseness hung in the atmosphere. It cut through the chaos of the variant attacks. In fact, the variants, their numbers now drastically thinned, began to retreat, scurrying away through dark tunnels. Everyone felt this shift in atmosphere. "Threat ising from here," said Diamondback, perking up as he tossed aside the mangled corpses of the bird mosquitoes that had been pecking at him before. He stared ahead, down the dark depths of arge tunnel - one of the main paths leading to the vaults. "This tunnel leads to the Biostudies vault. I''ll scout it out." Diamondback hurriedly trudged forwards. He had no nightvision, but that did not matter to him. After all, he normally fought whilepletely blind. His diamond metamaterial skin was flexible, allowing him to cover all his joints, but it had one weakness: it was not see-through. But Diamondback had mitigated even that weakness, training to fight without the need of sight at all. He navigated the dark of the tunnel with ease, stepping ahead with confidence. "Everyone else-," In the next moment, Diamondback was sent hurtling back. An extremely impressive feat considering he weighed close to half a ton. Ace caught Diamondback in mid-air. Diamondback''s chest had a small, fist-sized indent on it. "What the-?" Diamondback instinctively put a hand to the damage on his chest. "Someone actually managed to hurt Diamondback...?" said Falco, eyes wide. "Not important. Falco, n, get back, now!" said Diamondback. Without him, Falco and n were utterly defenseless and closest to whatever threat it was that had sent him flying. Diamondback fell to the ground. The sound of hard material smashing against hard material at extreme speeds echoed through the innards of the vault caverns. A shockwave of force exploded outward from in front of n and Falco, knocking Falco t on his back. n managed to dig his heels in. "W-what?" Falco blinked as he looked up. Ace was there. No...there were...two Aces? One Ace uniformed in ck floated in the air, both hands trembling as they struggled against the fist of anotherpletely naked Ace. Their faces were utterly identical. Same square jaw, white, spiked up hair, and light blue eyes. The only difference was that the naked Ace was noticeably more muscr. "Two Aces!? What''s going on!?" said Tox. She looked down. "And I really did NOT want to see that from my friend." "All of you, on alert!" said Diamondback. His calm exterior, like his chest, had cracked. "That thing, clone, whatever it is...it''s strong." "Not...as strong...," Ace grunted out, slowly giving ground in the air as his clone pushed back against both his hands with a single fist. "As me!" Light blue enveloped the cloned Ace''s back. Ace used tactile telekinesis to transfer the force of his push to the clone''s back. This pushed the clone forward with even more force, but instead of making it overpower Ace, he stopped resisting and instead used the clone''s sudden momentum against it, redirecting the clone into the ceiling. The clone smashed through the sturdy rock of the tunnel like it was made of brittle ss. Ace breathed out, hands still shaking from exertion. "Splendid." The clone popped down from the crater it had made,nding on the ground. The voice did note from the clone''s mouth -which did not move- but instead from its head. "...Doctor," said Ace, leering. "Correct, my child. I see the prodigal son has returned," said Dr. Ziegler. "Don''t call me that. I am not your child," said Ace. "But I will be your killer." "Unfortunately, that is simply not possible. And I apologize. I will stop calling you child, though I regret that you do not hold endearment towards me as I did to you. But regardless, this new child of mine is a suitable recement for you. He is far closer to perfection than you are," said Dr. Ziegler. The clone floated forwards menacingly. "All of you have made it far, but this heist of yours ends now." Chapter 408 A Dream "Why didn''t you kill me?" Seth Sr sat cross-legged atop a sea of scorched rubble. He was surrounded by Panopticon elite droids. His hands were shackled together with null cuffs. Cracks lined his skin, glowing with barely contained light. Patches of him were gone like shards broken off a porcin doll. "I don''t know. Pity, I guess. When I see you, I have an odd sense I can see what could have been" said the boy. No, not a boy anymore. He had saved the day. He had protected his friends. He had put it all on the line and won. He had done what it had taken to be a man. More than a man a€¡° a hero. Not without cost, though. One of the man''s eyes was scorched shut with ckened, charred flesh. "I don''t need your pity," said Seth. "I know you don''t. Just don''t make me regret handing it out toyou." The man nodded at the droids. "Take him in." The droids corralled Seth into a waiting HV (Hover Vehicle) convoy. Before the doors closed on Seth, however, he stopped and turned. "Pity, huh. Keep showing this world pity. Let''s see how far you go before you have no more left to give." "We''ll see." The door closed shut, and the convoy sped away through the night sky. "Shit man, we did it!" Adam hobbled over to the man and gave him a light punch on the shoulder. ine followed close behind. Both had wide smiles on their faces. Smiles of triumph over a desperate struggle. "Take it easy, Adam," said the man. "There''s still some cleanup left to do. Trident affiliates and goons we have to dig out of the dirt." "Yeah, that can wait after a long, long break," said Adam. "Or maybe someone else can handle it. After all, with this mission, we''re gonna be superstars! We stopped the reactor from blowing up AND we uncovered Solomon Sr''s crazy family shenanigans. Plus we jailed his crazy kid. I bet we''re gonna get ced in the B, no, maybe A rank to start off with! We''ll be rich!" "We can think about thatter. And we can''t rely on anyone else to do this. We were the ones that figured everything out, even when nobody believed us. It''s up to us to see this all the way through," said the man. He held a fist, showing his mint green shield. "Even if it means more sleepless nights." "Aw man, you''re killing me over here with these work hours," said Adam. "If only I was like, a zombie or something, I''d have no issue working like a dog all the time." "A...zombie?" The man blinked, mouth slightly agape. He wondered why that word sounded so familiar? He stayed silent for a few awkward seconds, lost in strange thought. "You alright?" said Adam. "You''re too tired," said ine. She grasped the man''s hand in hers. "And Adam, for once, is right. We''re super, but we''re still just people at the end of the day. Rest is important. But more than that, I really am d that you''re alive. She hugged the man, and that touch broke the man out of his sudden train of odd thought, dragging him back to reality. He smiled and hugged her back. "Yeah, you''re right," said the man. "Damn, even with one toasted eye, you still beat me out, huh," grumbled Adam, but he smiled anyway, happy to see his two closest friends getting even closer. He looked beyond the two, at the sky. The dark veil of night scattered as the rising sun cast down its amber rays. The sun was proof of a new day. A new tomorrow. That all they had faced and struggled and won over in the past night was, well, past. ... ... ... Ten yearster- The man, now the undisputed rank 1 hero in the world, stood in the starry void of space. Behind him was the blue and green world he had called his home. Across the continents were stretches of angry red like freshly opened scars. Signs of conflict all over the entire as it struggled against a devastating attack from an extraterrestrial species called the ''Grey''. Against this formidable foe that touched down just five years ago, humanity fought back with all its might. No, not just humanity. After the Hero had met with the mysterious entity known as the Voice a€¡° the hivemind behind all variants a€¡° they had agreed to ally and fight back the alien invaders. Countries and heroes and corporations joined together in this defense, forming a united front not seen throughout the history of human civilization. No less was demanded of the immense threat that was the Grey, however. The Grey were a mighty warrior race, each one of them being living weapons of unparalleled destruction. But most deadly was their ability to assimte the powers of worthy fighters they felled. For each great hero that died in conflict was another Grey that took that power to bolster their own ranks. But now, the fate of this conflict now teetered at the brink. The hero stood against the One, the mightiest warrior among the Grey and the maintainer of the Rift, a color-leeched tear in space which the Grey used to channel their invasion. "Get out...of my!" The man, now the rank 1 hero in the world, shouted at the One. His voice did not project through the soundless void of space, but his thoughts radiated through the One''s mind regardless as the Grey were capable of telepathic thought. "Resisting assimtion to this degree is pointless," said the One. "Embrace it as all other have before you. Then, the losses will end. Your species will live on within the Grey where there is no hatred, no fear, no conflict of body or mind that has fraught your and people since the moment they became more than mere beast." It was humanoid in a very rough sense, standing upright on two legs, but the simrities ended there. This being was farrger than the average man, and instead of being covered with soft, yielding skin, grey carapace d its body like armor. Instead of having two arms, it had six, all of them ending in fists covered with gauntlet carapace. The One did not have a discernible face. Its body was bulky and oval shaped, covered in thick grey carapace ting like every other Grey. However, the upper half of its body donned a resplendent mane of thick, regal white hair a€¡° a sign that the One was truly special among all the other Greys. Above the mane was a dark strip with two glowing white, circr eyes that stared at the Hero with unblinking fortitude. A ring of white energy floated above the One. Much like a halo, though instead of being a sign of angelicfort, it now became synonymous with mass carnage. "Sorry," said the Hero. He raised his shield above his head, clenching his fist as he channeled his final attack a€¡° humanity''s final attack. "But a dream you force on others is nothing but a nightmare." Chapter 409 A Dream 2 "You have done well to reach the Rift," said the One. It raised its six arms to its sides, hands outstretched. Shining light enveloped each of its hands. The light was angelic in its glimmer, and the One''s posture was just as celestial ¨C it looked like a many-armed bodhisattva standing firm in meditation, though here, it was in meditative intent to destroy. "But this is where your struggle ends." The glow around the One''s six hands turned into atomic rings that rotated around each fist. A colossal amount of energy began to surge from each fist, stretching the space in a spiral twist. The Hero grit his teeth as he stared at the buildup of energy. The sheer amount of heat being given off by the iing attack was enough to rival the surface of the sun. Had the Hero not mastered his power to its absolute limits, allowing him to envelop every atom of his body in an invincible ''shield'', he would have been sundered into atoms right then and there. "I will utilize the power of your second strongest defender," said the One. "The one you knew as ''Superforce''. He gave me the greatest fight thus far. I will honor his struggle in my own against you. He believed he controlled the power of fusion. However, with my superior processing power and adaptive physical perfection granted to me by the Grey, I can unlock the full potential of this ability: the capability to manipte the cosmic energies of the universe." The swirling spirals of distorted space around each hand turned into what looked like miniature gxies, filled with tiny little star speckles and milky cosmic streaks. "Power rivaling the creation of the universe. Can you withstand this?" said the One as it slowly began to bring all six of its fists together, aiming them at the Hero. "No, you must withstand it. Elsewise that tiny you defend will be no more." "Give me your best shot," said the Hero. All he did against the grand, fundamental force bending disy of the enemy was raise his shield. It was a humble disy, and yet, the sheer simplicity of it made its deration of resistance that much more impactful. "Just know that if you don''t take me out with this, I''ll reflect it back to you and win." "Interesting. It has been long since a backwards civilization has managed resistance to this degree. Very well. I will entertain your challenge. You im your meager power can turn my strength against me. Prove it." The One mmed its fists together,bining its six miniature gxies together into one orb of cosmic radiance. The One pressed its hands down on the orb, each of its arms trembling in exertion. Cracks began to spiderweb across the surface of the sphere. The energy contained within, constantly magnifying exponentially upon itself in a reaction of unfathomable proportions, got closer and closer to bursting out. "Now, begone." The One, with one final crushing move, shattered the orb entirely. It was as if the universe was a liquid and the One had popped open a hole in its container. A beam of energyprised of countless miniature stars ¨C red, dwarf, blue, novas ¨C streamed forth in a deluge of primordial devastation that easily dwarfed the tiny blue known as earth. The Hero always had the ability to read the general energy levels of other beings. When he saw this iing attack, his vision shattered, his eyes exploding like popped balloons, unable toprehend the scale of this attack. But even against this, the Hero stood firm. He even smiled, closing his eyes as trails of blood streaked down his face. "It isn''t just my challenge," said the Hero. "It''s ours." The Hero''s shield began to glow. Threads of energy, so faint that they were almost invisible, rippled through the darkness of space. They came from the behind him, the world that looked up to him, cing all their hopes on the symbol of his protection: his shield. The threads circted around the shield, creating a supersizedttice that extended outwards using the shield as a centerpoint. In a near instant, it covered the entirety of the in a mesh of defense. The One''s attack roared through the entire world, like it was a pebble caught in the midst of a raging stream. "What is this?" said the One. "It''s abination of all our efforts. All of humanity working together. I don''t know if it''s ever happened before or if it will ever happen again, but I sure as hell am not letting this chance slip by now," said the Hero. "The dimensional web you use to maintain mental links with every single one of your soldiers ¨C the woman I love reverse-engineered it. The biggest governments and corporations in the world helped add our version of that web to Cyberspace ¨C the space all of us are now linked to using mass produced neuralinks for humans and the Voice''s hivemind for the variants. Every man, woman, child, and even variant are looking up at the sky right now, watching our battle, putting all their hopes, their dreams, their futures ¨C all of it on my, no, our shield." Thearyttice began to glow from green to red, cracking in parts. The Hero''s body began to turn into pure white energy, slowly disassembling as he channeled power beyond anything his mortal body was meant toprehend. Yet, as the Hero had done so many times before, he stood tall. He stood strong. He did not yield. His shield did not fall. He would not let it. He would let his entire body disintegrate before he dropped that shield. No, even if his body was gone, his will would keep it up. The indomitable will of the human spirit - now was the time for it to prove its worth against the cruel inevitability of destruction that the universe promised. An indeterminate amount of time passed. It was impossible to urately tell. When energy on this scale shed, energy that drew from manipting the fundamental fabrics of existence, time and space and everything that one took for granted in reality became meaningless. But there was one undeniable truth at the end of it. The Hero...was still standing. His shield was still raised. Thettice around the waspletely red,pletely covered in cracks, liable to break apart with just one more tiny touch, but it was still there. "And now-," said the Hero. His shield glowed with the energy of the cosmos, the shine of countless different stars swimming across its surface. He smiled and aimed the shield at the One, at the Rift behind it. "We win." The power of destructive creation stored within the shield unleashed forth towards the One. With that, humanity proved itself worthy to survive. Chapter 410 A Dream 3 The reflected tide of cosmic judgement washed over the One. The One ced its six arms forward, attempting to try and manipte the energies, to absorb or dissipate them somehow. For a moment, the tidal wave of star speckled force stopped as if it hit a vertical dam wall. Behind the One was the Rift, the greyscale tear in space that acted not just as a dimensional gate to earth, but also as the main node of connection for the Grey to coordinate and function. If the One did not stop this attack here and now, it would inevitably sunder the Rift apart, leading to the end of this invasion. However, the oue of this struggle was already decided. The attack, capable of turning a into ashes in one fell moment, was multiplied again by the reflective properties of the Hero''s shield. It was not an attack that any being that existed within the scope of reason could hope to survive. "Your challenge...was worthy," said the One. The carapace around its fists began to crack, leaking white energy before its arms disintegrated entirely. And with that, the wall that kept the flood of reflected power broke down. The energy wave coursed past the One. Its form crumbled apart like sand caught in an ocean wave. Powerful streams of force flowed into the Rift. Like a sink, the Rift absorbed the entirety of the colossal attack. The color drained grey scar in space briefly filled in with light, revealing awork of webs shining with vibrant, rainbow iridescence. Only for a brief moment, however. The Rift closed upon itself in an abrupt instant, zipping shut to show nothing but the emptiness of space. But it was a wee stillness to the Hero. He floated freely with a smile on his face, floating against the weightlessness of the universe with satisfaction. The satisfaction of victory. Of being the Hero again, the Hero he had always wanted to be. To save the day for an entire world a€¡° he felt as if he had reached the height of his life. He thought, just maybe, if he faded now, he would be happy with what he had done. Blood trickled from his closed eyes, and when it left the protective shieldyer that covered his skin, it froze up in the cold embrace of space. His shieldyer began to fade as well, a mesh of hexagonal green outlining his body starting to be visible in brief flickers. The countless little shields he ced over each of his cells to protect himself from danger, to keep his body intact and functioning in space, was now disappearing. He turned around, reaching his arm back out towards the he called home, where all his friends, his lover, his unborn child, all the many lives that now had a future because of him, resided. Through the frosty touch of space, a hand of warmth clutched the Hero''s back. It was not a gentle touch, nor much of a caring one. Fingers wrapped around the base of the Hero''s neck like a man holding a dog by the scruff. "Looking to die so quickly?" A voice crackled into the Hero''s earlink. He had thought it had been toasted in the cosmic scale confrontation he had with the One, but since it was within his ear canal, it had been protected by his body shield. "...Seth?" "Yeah." The hand pulled the Hero away from the empty, lonely stretch of space and back towards home, towards the where the lives that owed their tomorrows to him awaited. "You...why did youe here?" said the Hero. Seth Sr, like many viins, had been freed after the invasion of the Greys as humanity could spare nothing against the formidable approach of the aliens. If even variants could side with humanity, then it was just a matter of upholding a duty as a human, as a denizen of earth, for the viins to fight as well. During the five years of conflict, Seth Sr had developed his powers to new heights, reaching higher even than his father to be one of the strongest war powers against the Greys. "Because I pitied you," said Seth Sr. "And because I''m the only space flight capable Alter left. Without me, you''d spend a couple hours out here turning into an ice block, and I don''t think the world wants that." Seth Sr flew towards earth with the Hero in his one remaining hand. The other had been torn off by an elite Grey that had taken the cholorokic powers of Valkyrie. That Grey was the final opponent Seth had taken out before the Rift closed and all the Greys dissipated, their extradimensional existences unable to maintain material form without the support of the Rift in this foreign realm. The Hero smiled. "In the end, your pity got you far," said Seth Sr. "It never broke you down under its weight. It actually gave you strength. I saw that and reconsidered how I thought about things. I thought maybe I should try it out, too." "That''s not pity," said the Hero. "Feeling for others, for those that have less, and fighting for them, to bring them up - it''s not pity. It''s understanding, it''s empathy, it''s...being a hero." "Yeah, well, to me, it''s still pity," said Seth Sr. "I see the weak beneath me and pity their miserable existences. But now, instead of ignoring them or letting them break each other apart in their weakness, I''ll use my strength to make them better. More than the weakness that they are. That should keep me out of jail after this, at least." "Hah, we''ll see about that," said the Hero. The two shared a silent moment of camaraderie as they returned to earth. For the past five years, they had beenpanions in war. Granted, their start was rocky, filled with more than a few fights with each other, but in time, all that wear and tear, like a broken bone mending, had built their bond back strong. "Try to put me in jail in your condition, and you''ll be seeing me as the world''s new ruler from the afterlife," grumbled Seth. "But for now, you can''t die. You''ve got your dumbass Adam to see. And ine''s carrying a miniature version of you. A girl, by the way." "A girl, huh?" said the Hero. He never would have expected to get the news of his child''s gender reveal out in space with both his eyes popped, but fate worked in mysterious ways. "Just hope she isn''t as self-righteously annoying as you are," said Seth. === More years passed. In those years, the world built itself back. The Hero, with his triumphant victory over the One and the Grey, was given influence beyond measure. He had the hearts of the entire global popce. In contrast, all other symbols of power before the Greys were gone or vastly damaged. Corporations were mere shadows of themselves. The Alterhuman Agency had dissolved entirely. The Panopticon hadst over 90% of its drone forces. World governments were thoroughly hurting. There was a massive power vacuum to fill and an even bigger rebuilding project to handle. The Hero, with the aid of his close friends, filled that vacuum and tackled the project. The Hero wanted the world to be better than it had ever been, when there was so much infighting and ceaseless conflict over dwindling resources. The Hero still valued freedom, but he did not want life to be a race. A struggle to the top that involved trampling down on others to get there. The Panopticon and the Hero coborated and created a halo around the, constructing a shield that prevented any beings from other dimensions from entering the world ever again. The Hero brokered peace between the Voice and the world''s governments and corporations, creating a tentative bnce between wild and civilization. Finally, the Hero made sure to rebuild everything back with progress in mind. Consolidating techno talent from across heroes, the Panopticon, private interests, and viins, the Hero and his friends rebuilt cities with a utopian ideal in mind where machine worked and man rested. There were many struggles, many conflicting interests, but in time, across the years, the Hero finally managed to create the world of hope he once dreamed of. A world that the man he used to look up to, the former number one hero Vanguard, could only dream of. Yet, like any dream, it was all destined to end- Chapter 411 A Dream 4 More time passed - The Altering began in 2000 and with it came the Age of Viins. The Age of Viins, full of strife between superpowered individuals that thought themselves lords rather than men, ended in 2045 when Vanguard struck down Zahak. From Zahak''s end bloomed the Monstering, throwing the world into even deeper chaos. The Monstering ended in 2070 as Vanguard''s power reached heights never before seen, pushing back the great Titans that killed billions. A full seventy years of conflict throughout the world. By that point, peace was a faraway concept - a distant dream. And that dream never came back. 2077 and 2090 saw the first and second Corpowars. 2100 saw the death of Vanguard. 2120 heralded the invasion of the Greys. But now, finally, after over a century of constant devastation, mankind grasped that lost dream again. 2035 began a new age. The Age of Peace. The Hero stood at the rooftop of a pristine white tower tall enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the clouds. The sun was bright, its golden rays an ever warm wee. The skies were blue - bluer than they had ever been after world initiatives to maintain the''s ecosystem with the aid of the Voice. The Hero moved to the edge of the rooftop, looking down with arms crossed. Arge ck shield with three points shone with neon light on the face of the tower beneath him. Each of the points flickered with a differently colored light. One mint green like the Hero''s personal bulwark. A symbol of the Hero. One a pure, snowy white. A symbol of the Voice that regted the world''s variants. One a deep, ultramarine blue. A symbol of the Panopticon. Together, they created the WPA (World Protection Alliance) that was responsible for ushering in this Age of Peace. Carefully programmed machines, guided under the regted superintelligence of the Panopticon, now transitioned mankind into a post-work, post-scarcity era. And with that transition came a new blooming of mankind''s development. Without grappling with the base struggle for survival, to fill one''s stomach or to fight for one''s life, mankind devoted themselves solely to progress. A progress borne out of a century of wartime trauma. A progress that, hopefully, would make the very idea of war a fairytale in time toe. A progress that, under the WPA''s guidance, contributed to the Starbound Movement. The Voice agreed to shelter humanity on earth, but only on the condition that mankind find a way off the world in time. Thus, the Starbound Movement was formed. Now, the best and brightest minds across the devoted themselves to moving man to the stars. Humanity was now growing up, leaving the guiding hand of its mother earth to seek the vast infinity of the cosmos beyond. "Dad, what are you looking so serious about?" The Hero looked back to see his daughter. She was now fifteen, nearly a full grown woman. She was dressed in a ck costume streaked with lines of neon rainbow. She had inherited mostly her mother''s ability to control the flow of energy, and it showed in her multicolored, iridescent eyes and hair strands. She was a hero in her own right, though, having been born after the Grey invasion, she had never known any conflict above stopping the asional street thug. The very concept of heroes themselves were bing outdated. Automation - true automation, not the kind fragmented by corporate interests and Panopticon directive shorings - had vastly improved global security. However, the Hero always made sure to reason with the Panopticon, never going too far to create a surveince state where man was stripped of their will. By now, the idea of a hero was mostly a way to reminisce on old times. Old warriors who had lived and died for the greater good. "I''m just amazed at how far we''vee," said the Hero, looking down again. His heightened vision could see far below, down to the streets of Haven. They thrived with activity, full of people with smiles on their faces - a stark contrast to the grim, dirty, frown-ridden masses that popted practically every city before the Age of Peace. The streets were spotless clean and presented an oddly harmonious fusion between nature and futurism. Vines crawled down drone cleaned buildings of pure white. Trees, grasses, and flowers and flowing blue waters stood side by side with streets and mega buildings. "You''re in one of your reflecting moods again, huh? But you know, this is all how far YOU''VEe," said the daughter. She crossed her arms. "Me, I feel like I haven''t done anything. Which feels even worse considering I have an incredibly awesome dad who basically saved the world." "I couldn''t have done it myself. I needed everyone. Especially your mother," said the Hero. "d to see you acknowledge me." ine warped in through a swirl of distorted space. A whitebcoat trailed behind her as she adjusted cracked goggles above her head. "Hah, I thought you were listening around," said the Hero, smiling. "I never do get the chance to bad mouth you, huh?" ine raised a brow as she stood beside the Hero. "And you feel like doing that?" "No, not really - you get what I mean," said the Hero. "Dad, I think you should stop while you''re ahead," said the daughter. The Hero sighed. "You''re right, Krysa. Your dad can handleary threats, but your mother? And you? Now that''s a struggle." "Oh, you-," ine yfully punched the Hero''s shoulder. She motioned downwards to the peaceful streets far below. "You know, before all of this, you used to always be serious. You always had to work toward something even if it meant you had to skip a meal. Or take an extra hit. Now, though, you''re so much brighter. Like you changed with the world." "Sorry I catfished you. Thought you were shacking up with the serious, brooding type, huh?" said the Hero. "No." ine smiled. "I always knew you were like this. Deep, deep down. Plus, the other alternative was Adam. And, well, that wouldn''t have worked at all." "I can''t imagine uncle Adam settling down with a single person at all," said Krysa, shuddering. "He has a different girl by his side like, every week." "He was always the greedy type," said the Hero. "One of the first things he told me was that he wanted to be a hero to eat burgers. Because as a street rat, he''d never gotten to try one that wasn''t fished out of a dumpster." "It really is crazy how much the world has changed since your time," said Krysa. "Yeah, it really is. Almost...unbelievable. Almost too perfect," said the Hero. He put his hand out, reaching towards the streets. "It almost feels...unreal." "Stop that," said ine. She put a gentle hand on the Hero''s shoulder. "All the blood that was spilled, all the times we pushed through pain and terror, all the times we got back up after we knocked down - all of it built this up. If our struggles were real, then so is this." "You''re right," said the Hero, nodding. ine nodded with the Hero. "You always need something in front of you. A big goal, a big enemy, something you can reach out to and ovee. Now that it''s not there, you''re left wondering whether you really can enjoy the good around you, whether there isn''t some fight to be had somewhere else you don''t know about." ine stood on her tiptoes and kissed the Hero''s cheek. "But it''s time to rest now, honey. You''ve earned it. You more than anyone else." "Hold up..." said Krysa. She squinted her eyes, looking out to the distance. "You guys see that?" The Hero''s eyes widened. In the clear blue sky, a color that the Hero never wanted to see again manifested. Grey. Grey that swirled around in a circr, spiral arrangement, tearing away at space as it leeched color from the deep blue sky and its pure white clouds. It was...a Rift? "What is that?" wondered Krysa. She had never personally encountered this, but the Hero knew better than anyone else what this was. An invasion. "ine, check with the Panopticon. Ourary dimensional shield should still be stable!" said the Hero. "I''m on it." ine put a hand to her head, her eyes shing. She furrowed her brows. "The shield is still up and stable." "Then how..." The Hero shook his head. "No, this isn''t the time to be asking these types of questions. I have to deal with that now, before the Rift opens up anymore than it already has." He put a stern hand on Krysa''s shoulder. "Krysa, go with your mother and engageary defenses. I''ll handle that." "But dad, I can help-," began Krya. The Hero shook his head. "No. This...is too dangerous for you. And my shield''s managed to shut down a Rift before. It can do it again. Stay with your mother and protect her. I can trust you on this, right?" Krysa nodded. "I got it, dad." "Good." The Hero broke his seriousness for a brief moment, smiling at his wife and child. "I''ll be back soon, alright?" With that, the Hero pushed off the rooftop, soaring toward the Rift as his dark green cape billowed behind him. === Chapter 412 Dreams End 1 The Hero''s fists flew forward with cannonball power, aimed right at the grey Rift. His knuckles were encased in a pale mint green - stabilizing energy meant to knit back together the dimensional tear. But before the Hero''s blow could strike true at the tear, he was stopped. An arm jutted out from the tear, holding a mass of foggy grey that rebuffed the Hero''s blow. The Hero flew backwards from the might of his own strike but righted himself in mid-air. From the Rift, the rest of the entity belonging to that arm crawled out. It looked like a humanoid made out of fog,prised of misty, formless grey. The entity''s body seemed to lovepany in its colorlessness, sapping vibrance out of its surroundings, leeching the azure blues out of the clear sky. "Who are you!?" said the Hero. He manifested his shield on his right arm. As the symbol of humanity''s hope, the Hero had changed the design of his shield from the in three pointed structure that looked like it belonged to a medieval fare. Now it was shaped like a diadem and farrger than before, almost big enough to epass most of the Hero''s powerful frame. It was a bright emerald green with a shining seven pointed golden star emzoned upon its gleaming surface. The star shone bright like the sun, having inherited a fragment of Seth Sr''s sr reactor during the Grey War. The formless humanoid did not move. It simply stood there, holding its own shield of rippling fog. "Not much for talking, I see." The Hero narrowed his eyes, peering behind the entity at the Rift. It was still open, an ugly scar in this bright, beautiful world. If the Hero wanted to close it, he needed to get through this guardian first. He looked down at its shield of fog. "A mirror matchup, eh?" The Hero smiled as he brought his shield up. "Alright, let''s do this!" The Hero held his shield out with one arm and punched it with the other. The star symbol shone before unleashing a zing sr beam. The formless entity raised his shield. The golden beam struck but broke apart as it reached the shield, the light turning dull grey before scattering like falling flower petals. ''Guess ranged attacks won''t work,'' thought the Hero. He clenched his free fist tight. ''But the punch Inded before didn''t hurt me. Fine by me - I''ll handle this with my fists.'' The Hero flew forward, cocking back his arm, the muscles on his developed arm rippling and coiling and charging power. The entity flew forward too, meeting the Hero''s fist with its shield. "Get out of my world!" roared the Hero as he unleashed his punch. The punch elerated exponentially, the countless ''shields'' infused in his cells storing and expelling energy to massively amplify his attack. It was an attack that could rival the likes of Vanguard in his prime. No less was demanded of the Hero who defeated the Greys. The Hero was sent flying backwards, hurtling down to the ground like a falling meteor. In an instant, he lost sight of the entity as he smashed through clouds. He was not hurt, but his eyes were wide open. He had been repelled so easily. No, that was not exactly it- ''It didn''t feel like I was hitting anything,'' thought the Hero. ''When I hit the shield, my fist got stopped, but I didn''t make any real contact. It felt like I was just phasing through air. Hm¡­'' The Hero kicked his legs down, generating force to stop his descent. He was now low enough that he could see the shining white city of Haven below, full of people he needed to protect. "Panopticon, Heroes, requesting backup!" said the Hero as he put a hand to his ear. There was no contact. Hismlink was dead. The entity must have been capable of some kind of interference, but this was to be expected. Extradimensional beings always interfered with technology in some capacity - the Grey War had made that clear enough. But that was alright. The Hero knew the value of his friends andrades, but he was the Hero because he could fight by himself when it mattered. Pushing off the air, the Hero soared up again with valiant stride, resolve filling his heart to defend the peaceful world he had worked so hard to make. === "What the hell is going on!?" The Hero threw punch after punch at the shield of fog. All of his hits stopped short, repelled by some invisible, imperceivable force. But that was not the worrying part. He and the entity were on street level now. The city was thoroughly broken apart from the shockwaves of the Hero''s sh. But even that was to be expected. The Hero would have liked to keep the fight in the air, out of civilian reach, but he knew that if it came down to it, he would fight on the streets while everyone else focused on evacuating. The Panopticon''s new efficient evac system would have cleared the city in just thirty minutes. But there¡­was nobody here? The streets were empty. The buildings, once a resplendent white, were dulling, turning grey. "Rah!" The Hero mmed his shield on the ground, creating a massive detonation of energy that sted the entity backwards. It smashed through several buildings like they were made of cardboard. However, its destructive path back made no sounds, no crack and shatter or rubble. Even the explosions it created from smashing through vehicles were soundless. It was like the entity was leeching everything away from the world. Not just color, but sound as well. "Where is everyone!?" said the Hero, panicked. He used his brief moment of respite to look around, trying to gage what happened. Like the fleeting color and sound, the people had gone too. The greying city was a foreboding symbol of not hope, but apocalypse, of emptiness and loss. The Hero grimaced. Were they all dead? Had they just been abducted? ine and Krysa - were they okay? Was this an illusion? An¡­illusion? The Hero fell down to a knee, putting a hand to the side of his head. A skull splitting headache crackled through his brain. "Wh-what?" The Hero closed his eyes in pain. When he opened them again, he saw for a flickering moment the streets of Haven as they had been before the Age of Peace. Scarred with graffiti. Popted by rats and trash as much as it was people. The people walking through these streets were shadowy blurs. One of them walked near him. He reached out to it, but the moment he made contact, the vision of Haven disappeared, leaving him in his own world again. The world had turned a shade more grey, more dark. The entity was in front of the Hero again. "What kind of trick is this!?" said the Hero, raising his shield. "My head - you''re in my head, aren''t you!?" The Hero could shield every single one of his neurons such that he was utterly immune to any attack that affected his mind. So how was this happening? The entity did not respond to the Hero. Instead, it just stood there, shield by its side, as if waiting. Waiting for what¡­the Hero did not know. The Hero blinked. It was¡­snowing? No. Not snowing. Ashes. Ashes were falling from the sky. He nced up. The sky was no more. It waspletely ck. Not by night, but as if some godlike force had taken a ck marker and scribbled all over the once bright and beautiful sky. "You-don''t think you''ve won!" said the Hero. "Wherever you sent everyone, whatever you did with them - I''ll reverse it all! I''ll fight to my dying breath!" "Looks like you need some help!" A voice from the sky. From the dark, Adam crashed down, his body encased in metal. He stood in between the Hero and the entity. "Adam!" the Hero felt relieved to see an oldpanion. "What happened to ine and Krysa!? To everyone!?" "They told me to help out, so here I am!" said Adam. He looked at the entity. "This thing''s giving you trouble? You''re losing your touch, man. Here, I''ll show you how this is done!" Adam charged forth, punch cocked back. "Wait, attacks won''t work!" began the Hero, but it was toote. Adam punched into the entity'' shield. "What the-?" Adam raised a brow as his fist stopped against the shield. The entity used its free arm to grasp Adam''s face. And then - He broke down, scattering into crumbling fragments. Adam was no more. Chapter 413 Dreams End 2 "No!" roared the Hero. He charged the entity, mming it with his shield with all his might. They crashed through the cityscape, plowing through highrise building after building. Adam was dead. The closest friend that the Hero had ever had. Rage filled him, fueled him, propelling his power to heights it had never reached before. The air around the Hero and the entity ignited from the friction of high speed movement, turning them into a shining meteorite that quickly sped past the city, entering into the Wastnds. Or formerly the Wastnds. They had been renewed with green and growth oncemore. But the entity had taken that green and made it grey and lifeless just like everything else. Memories of Adam flowed into the Hero''s mind, spurred by his loss. When Adam had saved the Hero from the jaws of a variant during their Hero License examination. How Adam had knocked himself out in a several week longa taking a hit from a powerful viin meant for the Hero. How Adam groaned as a living corpse, eyes lifeless, pale flesh rotting in patches. The Hero stopped his charge, skidding to a burning halt upon a now char scarred meadow. The entity flew backwards, into the distance. The Hero fell to his hands and knees, eyes wide, headache splitting down his brain with lumberjack axe force. "What was that?" whispered the Hero. That memory of Adam¡­ The entity was back again. It stood over the Hero again. The world turned one shade darker. It was now like permanent night. A beam from above sted the entity but like all other attacks, scattered into nothingness. "Pathetic. Here I am pitying you for the first time in a while." Seth Sr spoke from above. "But you deserve some help for saving the world." "W-wait¡­" began the Hero weakly, raising his hand toward Seth. Seth, however, as hot headed as ever, did not wait. He charged down, punching at the entity. Like Adam, Seth fragmented into pieces before crumbling into nothingness. "Seth¡­" The Hero''s hand reached out, grasping a golden fragment - thest of Seth''s being - before that crumbled away too. Seth¡­the world''s second strongest defender, gone just like that. The former viin who had joined the Hero when the Greys came, putting aside differences to save the world. The man that had killed the Hero by punching his heart out. Another headache assailed the Hero. It felt like his mind was a ss vessel and each headache another crack with each crack threatening to shatter the entire thing. The world turned even darker. It was now hard to see beyond a hundred or so meters ahead. Everything beyond that was just pure, utter darkness. There was just the Hero and the entity together upon a hill of grey, surrounded by a void of nothingness. "Why¡­?" the Hero weakly stood up. The pain in his head made everything feel shaky. His vision kept blurring in and out, each blur shifting thendscape around him from colorless grass to cracked earth and back. "Why are you doing this?" the Hero said to the entity. "Why?" "Dad!" The Hero turned around, hope blooming in the pits of his despair tainted stomach. Krysa and ine appeared through a portal. "Stay-stay back!" the Hero put a hand up, warding his wife and daughter away. "The moment you get close to this thing, you''ll fade away!" "Everything''s gone, dad," said Krysa. She floated towards the Hero, and he panicked for a moment, looking back at the entity to see if it made a move. The entity just stood there, away from the Hero, as it to give him space. "What do you mean?" the Hero nted his shield in front of him, between the entity and his family. "The whole world''s gone," said Krysa. "Gone?" the Hero murmured in disbelief. All those decades of fighting and protecting. All of it¡­was for nothing? "Destroyed?" It would all end just like this? "Not destroyed." ine put a hand on the Hero''s shoulder. Her touch, even now, even in this apocalyptic moment, was calming. "Our time was just up." "Our time? What? ine, what are you saying?" the Hero nced back at ine, confused. She stared up at the Hero with speckling her rainbow tinted eyes. "This world was never meant to be. Remember, my love." ine turned the Hero around and put her hand to his cheek. "Remember, Aldrich." Memories. So many memories with ine. Their struggles together. Theughs they had between each other. The love they shared. The daughter they raised. And - ine as a zombie. Then, it was then that the Hero knew. "None of this¡­none of this is real," murmured the Hero, blinking, putting a disbelieving hand to his forehead. "That depends on your definition of real," said ine. "In many ways, it was. The life you had here, the life we had together - it was real to me. It was real to our daughter. In that way, it was real. Even if everything here was a creation of your mind, creation still has substance. But it isn''t ''real'' in the sense that this isn''t where you belong." "Like mom said, our time is up," said Krysa. "Now that you''re starting to remember, this world''s ending. And now, it''s time for you to get back to yours." The Hero knelt down, dropping his shield. Warm tears began to trickle down his cheeks. "I-all of this- you two, the people I loved the most in this world, everything - I can''t go, not like this, not so suddenly." Krysa hugged the Hero, sniffling. "I know, dad, I know. I don''t want to say goodbye either. But mom showed me everything. There''s a ton of people that are waiting for you out there, hoping for you. You have a daughter there too, someone just like me. And she''s little: she''s going to cry a lot harder than I am if you nevere back. She needs her dad more than I do." ine joined the hug. "I know everything''s breaking apart so quickly. I felt the same way too, but I came to realize that this peace we had, this peace you built - it shows that our story here is over. You won here. But out there, you still have a fight to get to. I want you, no, I need you to be strong. I need you to save the world out there like you did with ours. And, most importantly-," ine''s voice caught in her throat. She held on to the Hero tight, the tightest she had ever held him, never wanting to let him go yet knowing she had to. "I want you to love out there properly. I want you to find happiness. Just like you did here." The Hero held the two close to him. "I don''t want to go. I don''t want to let you two go. I don''t want to let you two die." Krysa tried to say something, but her words caught in her throat. Instead, she began to sob into the Hero''s chest. "Death doesn''t have to be the end, my love. Nor does it have to be cold and lonely. In your arms like this, I''m reminded of the years of happiness we had. In your warmth, I feel enoughfort to let you go," said ine. She rested her cheek against the Hero''s own. "Keep us in your memories. The lessons you learned in being happy, in knowing how to love and raise a daughter - use them out there. Because just like me, there''s someone out there waiting to hold you." The Hero lurched forward, his arms now empty. Rainbow fragments floated away like cherry blossoms in a springtime breeze. Ephemeral. Transient. Disappearing shards of what once was. The Hero watched as the petals shone, reflecting a lifetime of memories, of love and happiness and family, before fading away into the darkness. The world turned darker. Now, there was nothing except the dark. The Hero stood up. He turned around. The entity was there. Its shield was gone. Instead, it held out its foggy hand. The Hero, no Aldrich, reached out and took it. As their hands locked together, light bloomed from the touch, engulfing everything. Chapter 414 Raids End 1 "That was a good old scrap. Best I had in a damn while." Clint exhaled as he stood over a pile of half-melted rubble. His breath was visible, tinged with toxicvender. Underneath the rubble, pinned below a pir of concrete, was Shuten Doji. Hey t on his back, arms out to his sides in exhaustion. Despite the multi-ton pir of concrete bearing down on him, it was more like a paperweight that held him in ce more than anything that really hurt him. "Screw you, Unbreakable," said Shuten Doji, his voice a little strained from the weight on his chest. "I said it before and I''ll say it again:ing here just for the sake of your personal vengeance - it''s a foolish decision. You probably believe your alliance with Thanatos gave you the freedom to strike, but soon enough, an upstart like him, even a Sentinel, won''t be enough. And when that happens, you''ll regret breaking the peace we brokered." "A peace?" Clint shrugged. Various inhuman parts on his body - the carapace on his skin, the feathered gills on his neck to filter out poison, the insting blubber under the carapace to fend against fire - glowed white before fading away like dust. "That ain''t a peace. It was a ceasefire." "And you broke it. You understand what that means, don''t you? You still have an entire tribe to take care of. You - you''re an interesting specimen, Unbreakable, one of the only Alters to have undergone Metamorphosis without dying. You could have helped the world so much by lending your body to science, but here you are, licking old wounds like a bitter dog." "Here I am," said Clint. He nced at the facility''s now shattered dome entrance. "So that''s what you''re studying here? Metamorphosis?" "Why''s it matter to you?" "It matters to the team that''s infiltrating thebs right now," said Clint. "What!?" Shuten Doji eximed. "This wasn''t about your vengeance?" He blinked, recalling parts "Oh, believe me, that''s been in the back of my mind," said Clint. "But I''ve had time to calm down about that. A little. I''ll still kill your kind if ites down to it, but you''re right. Ain''t about to go on a rampage with my tribe on the line. That is, until now. All that talk about vengeance was to keep you fightin'' me, ya blockhead." Shuten Doji furrowed his brows together, his glowing purple veins visible under his skin. "What!? You would dare to steal our research? You''re making a mistake, Unbreakable! This research - it isn''t petty R and D for the next killing weapon - it''s the key to our future! To humanity''s future!" "Really now?" Clint sat down on the pir cross-legged. He rested his stubbled chin on his hand casually. "Kinda interestin''in'' from a group of thugs. Suited up thugs, granted, but still thugs, y''know?" "You know nothing," said Shuten Doji. His eyes flickered in recognition as he recalled their battle. The battle that had utterly destroyed theb''s shield dome and, he realized, itsmunication lines. Clint had made absolutely sure to keep Shuten Doji isted here, leveraging the fact that he was the one and only Unbreakable - the one man army who had taken down an entire high tier corporation by himself with a personal vendetta to boot - to bait Shuten Doji into thinking only about the fight here. Shuten Doji put a resisting hand against the pir pinning him. His fingers easily dug into the solid concrete like it was made of putty. "Down there is mankind''s only hope to survive the future. You cannot destroy the research there. Not if you actually care about this world." "Huh." Clint raised a brow at Shuten Doji. "You''re being serious, aren''t ya? Desperate, too. But not in a way to try and spare you, cause'' no self-respecting Sword is ever gonna beg for their lives. You really do think the world''s hope is down there." "Yes," said Shuten Doji. "As is mine." "Tell ya what," said Clint. "Yourms may be down, but mine ain''t. When my team makes contact with theb, you tell em'' to stand down, and I guarantee we won''t touch nothin'' there." "Promise me you won''t hurt a single one of the scientists either," said Shuten Doji. Clint nodded. "Sure. Killing innocents ain''t my style anymore anyhow." === "Hang on, everyone." Alexis spoke with practiced calm. Her white hair swayed in the air, glowing and starting to crackle like living lightning. A green circr barrier projected around her, and beneath it, Ste, Tox, Diamondback, Kris, Akan, and Falco. Outside of the barrier was nothing but exploding carnage. Missiles and high caliber bullets and explosives boomed everywhere, drowning everything out in bright hot hellfire. ''All of you will regret trying to stop our research. Research to evolve humanity beyondpare. Beyond the chains that bind it to this world.'' Machine Mind''s voice projected mentally to everyone. "Outta my head, you old creep!" Ste pped the side of her head. "Can he read our minds!?" said Tox, rmed. "Nah," said Ste. "Telepathy''s an extension of him being able to project his mind out. A good amount of higher end technos got it. But he can onlymunicate. Can''t read your mind or anything fancy like that." "Most of the firepower here is from the Cyclops, r-right?" said Falco. "Sooner orter, they''ll run out of ammo!" "Did you not read the mission report?" said n. "Cyclops are like mini factories. They have nanoprinting cores that give them an infinite supply of missiles and bullets." "That''s cheating!" said Falco. "Infinite until they run out of energy," said n. Kris scoffed. "If only Machine Mind wasn''t personally supplying them with his A rank energy reserves. I swear, I''m being severely underpaid for this mission." "Quitining," said Diamondback. "What''s done is done. Just focus on getting out of this. This is purely suppressive fire meant to keep us down. Stall us out until the storm''s traces pass and they can reach out to reinforcements." Our EMP charges didn''t work," said Alexis. "And my jamming lightning isn''t doing as well as I''d hoped either." "Because Machine Mind is strengthening every single bot here," said Kris. "He''s got higher end technopathy that lets him move machines manually even when you blow out their circuits. If we want to get out of this, we''ll have to destroy the rest of the Cyclops the hard way. Note that I am heavily resisting the urge to put down this newbie again." "Noted," said Diamondback. "Now let''s get to thinking productively. I can deal with this myself. The Cyclops can''t break through my armor. The issue is that the moment this barrieres down is when we get hit by an explosion. I know most of you are tough enough to weather it, but Falco can''t. And yes, Kris, I understand your frustration - don''t voice it again." Kris grumbled unintelligibly. "I can do it," said Tox. "Hm?" Diamondback stared down at her. "I can get us out of this. I just need to...switch," said Tox. "My trigger. It doesn''t just change how I think. It makes my power stronger too. I can bore down through the rock below us and take out the bots surrounding us without Lexis ever having to put the barrier down." "Perfect," said Diamondback. "I just don''t like changing. It isn''t who I am." Tox sighed. "But I have to. We have to clear these guys. Only then can I go back and help Ace." "Wait." Ste put a hand to her ear. "I''ve gotms from Clint." She cocked her head, listening for a few seconds before smiling. "What''s going on?" asked Tox. "Looks like we won''t be needing to fight our way through after all," said Ste. She took in a deep breath and then yelled, "Hey you geriatric mind-peeper! Listen up! Your Sword on the surface has authorized us to get what we want!" Almost immediately, the missile and gunfire stopped. Chapter 415 Raids End 2 "Am I dead?" Falco looked around from the dirt, hands covered over his head. "No, not yet." n grabbed Falco by the shoulder and hoisted him up. "In spite of your best efforts." "Hey, and here I thought at least you had my back. Being a newbie like me and all," said Falco. "The machines have stopped moving," said Alexis, her crackling eyes scanning their surroundings. Her barrier was in the center of a smoking, scorch ckened crater. All around them was a ring formation of mechsprised of standard gun toting droids led by the hulking Cyclops with their missileunchers and quadruple high caliber autocannon arms. All of the machines had glowing golden circuit patterns wreathed through their bodies a€¡° signs of Machine Mind manually controlling them. "Ste, update us," said Diamondback. "Ol'' Clint out in the front beat the tar outta the Sword, but not just that. He got the Sword to send an executivemand here to let us in and out to get what we want," said Ste. "I just ryed that info to the mind creeper here." "Seriously?" said Tox. She instantly put an impatient hand against Alexis''s barrier. "Lexy, take this thing down. I have to help Ace." Alexis nodded, but Diamondback held up a hand. "Not yet," said Diamondback. "I understand how you feel, but we need to ascertain the situation." "No, you don''t understand!" said Tox, exasperated. "These machines might stop, but that thing, that clone, it isn''t a machine! Machine Mind can''t control it a€¡° it might still be beating Ace up!" "Correct." Machine Mind''s voice resonated all throughout the cavern, echoing from each and every mech present. "I will uphold this ceasefire, but I cannot guarantee the safety of yourpanion. He has, unfortunately, destroyed the operating device I imnted within the clone''s brain." "That must mean Ace beat it, right?" said Tox hopefully. "Inconclusive," said Machine Mind. "That clone is a near perfect specimen. Almost as perfect as the one you used to breach thisb. A simple brain injury would be insufficient in destroying him." "Clint...?" said Ste, narrowing her eyes. "He''s involved with this somehow? Are y''all studying him?" "I have said too much. This does not concern your narrow minds. I will open the vaults and give you the Kryptic. But in exchange, you will leave peacefully. You will not damage our research any further." "Understood," said Diamondback. "Is that going to be it?" said n. "Weren''t we supposed to make them hurt?" "No. We were supposed to ''make some noise''," said Diamondback. "We''ve done that already. The Kryptic is all we are here for. We get it a€¡° we get out. No further need to risk ourselves." "Damn, now that''s something I can agree on," said Kris with a sigh. "Y-yeah, getting outta here doesn''t sound all too bad," said Falco. "No. No, this is too easy," said n. "The Trident has so much here. So much that could be taken from them-," "This is not the time to let your personal grudges interfere." Diamondback''s voice was stern. Final. Alexis sped her hands together. Her barrier rippled. "I''m shutting out sound so he can''t hear us. I just want to weigh in and say that I''m sort of on the new guy''s side. JUST getting the Kryptic seems like a letdown. And what''s the point of leaving Machine Mind and the researchers behind? Won''t they just alert the rest of the Trident?" "But that''s the point, isn''t it?" said Diamondback. "It forces the Trident to split their forces over here. As for them knowing the Krytpic is gone, I imagine that''s a calcted move on part of Thanatos. If I understand correctly, the Trident''s biggest leverage over Solomon Sr is the Kryptic. Whoever has that Kryptic holds Solomon''s cor. In this case, that''ll be Thanatos. Once Solomon understands that the Trident no longer has it, what do you think an abused, chained dog will do? It''llsh out. Or worse." A drone tapped at the barrier, making everyone nce up at it. It was a small flying drone meant for underground excavation with several sping appendage extending from its body. From one of its appendages was arge ck case. "Letting sound flow back in," said Alexis. "What is this?" said Ste. "The Kryptic," said Machine Mind. "While you all were busy bickering among yourselves, I''ve decided to give you more incentive to get out of here. And, of course, the knowledge that in ten minutes, reinforcements will arrive." "Let''s take it and leave." Diamondback stepped forward, tapping at the barrier, indicating for Alexis to take it down. Alexis nced at Ste for permission. ? "Alright," said Ste. Alexis put the front of the barrier down. Diamondback stepped in, using his bulk to cover everyone behind him incase Machine Mind decided to double cross them. However, no such treachery urred. Diamondback took the case without issue from the drone and stepped back into the barrier. "And now out you go. Through the elevators which I have graciously reactivated for you," said Machine Mind. "On the way, you are free to check up on your straggler friend." "Let''s hurry," said Tox, worried. "NO!" A voice boomed through the cavern, filled with animalistic rage. "Wh-what the hell is that!? Some kind of monster!?" said Falco, shaken. "No...that''s Ace!" said Tox, eyes wide and bright. She turned around to the source of the voice only for confusion to mar her happiness. "What...happened?" --- Sometime prior a€¡° Aceid down in a pit of shattered earth, blood streaming from his mouth. Blood also trickled from his white eyes a€¡° a sign of him overusing his tactile telekinesis. Pain assailed every part of his body. He was sure he had fractured multiple bones all throughout his body, but thankfully, his undead body let him move. "What a sorry sight." The clone floated above Ace, staring down at him with nk, bright white eyes. Machine Mind''s voice echoed from the clone''s head. "Look at you, my child. So weak, so...imperfect. To think there was once a time I thought you perfect. You, of all things. Just because you proved superior to your siblings." Ace grit his teeth. Many of them were cracked. He floated back up out of his crater, lip quivering, eyes half closed in equal parts anguish and anger. His childhood returned to him a€¡° His first memories. Waking up from a deep underwater slumber, coughing out thick amniotic fluid from his burning lungs as he desperately tried to adjust to oxygen. He was smaller, then, probably no bigger than a five year old child developmentally. He floundered on cold, hardb ground. Firm but gentle hands raised him up. The hands of his brother. Square jawed and white haired a€¡° an exact image of what Ace would have looked like grown up. "You''re special, aren''t you?" "I-I am?" "Yeah, special in the head. C''mon, stand up straight. Father doesn''t tolerate weakness." ... Memories lining up in a cold, sterile white room. Beside him were three of his brothers. One ten years old. Another fifteen. Another twenty. All of them stood in order of their age, forming a natural linear graph of heights and builds. They held their balled fists to their sides, all of them trembling in exertion against a seemingly invisible force. "Come now, exert your minds." Father''s voice echoed through the room. "This is merely twenty tons of gravitational force. It should be nothing for specimens like yourselves. Push through the pain and the weakness, my children." Chapter 416 Raids End 3 Afterwards - Ace remembered kneeling on the floor. It was not cold anymore, warm as it was with a thick sheen of his blood. Red poured out from his mouth and his bloodshot eyes. The twelve hours of straining against heightened, crushing gravity had worn its toll on the little boy. When he saw the blood, his stomach turned in disgust, but at the same time, he was drawn to it. It was warm, and warmth, he knew very, very little of. "Get up, Ace." The biggest, oldest Ace grabbed little Ace''s shoulder and raised him up. Ace kept looking down at his blood in a lightheaded daze. "Stop that." The oldest clone shook Ace, forcing his gaze up where their eyes met. "Or else you''ll turn into a weirdo psycho." "Huh...?" said Ace. "Are your ears clogged or something?" the oldest clone peered at Ace''s ears. Blood streamed from them too. "Oh yeah, they would be. Here-," The clone tapped Ace''s forehead. The blood popped out of his ears, moved by telekic force. "Better?" "Yes." Little Ace nodded. "Then listen to me, alright?" said the biggest Ace. "Don''t ever let me catch you looking down like that, like you belong in the dirt. Because trust me, you don''t. None of us do. Like father said, we''re all special. But especially you. And what business do special people like us have staring at the ground, huh? That makes sense, yeah?" "Yes." Little Ace nodded again. "Good. Maybe you aren''t so special in the head after all." Bigger Ace smiled and patted little Ace''s shoulder. "Now stand up straight before father gets here." Year after year passed filled with training, or ''trials'' as father called them. At first, they just involved pushing back against gravitational force. Then, they became harder and harder. Fights against live variants. And afterwards, being forced to consume their meat in its rawest, most disgusting state. Exposure to poisons, electric shocks, and countless other types of beatings. So many times, Ace left those tests looking down, beaten, bloodied, bruised in body and soul, teetering between the boundary of life and death. And every single time, bigger Ace would grab his shoulder, raise him up, and tell him to stop looking down. One day - "Hey, wake up." Ace opened his eyes, awoken by gentle shakes. He rubbed his eyes as he got up from the bed of his tiny pod. "Brother...?" Ace looked at the oldest version of him who, by now, truly was old. The eldest Ace looked to be over sixty now with thin, age worn limbs, sparse, thinning white hair, and wrinkles covering his hands, face, and feet that showed through the standard issue bodysuit all the Aces had to wear. "Yeah, it''s me. Look, we got a surprise. C''mere." Old Ace floated away, and little Ace followed. All the Aces lived in their own pods which housed little more than their beds. Each of them had a few personal possessions to their name. Toys, a poster, maybe, and other misceneous things they kept in their pods, but most of the time, father had these confiscated because he did not like to breed the ''weakness of individuality''. But every so often, other scientists, ''uncles'' and ''aunts'' as they were called, woulde in and give the Aces something from the world outside theb. A mystery world that little Ace still knew nothing about. Old Ace apparently had even gotten a glimpse of it one day when one of the uncles led him out to sightsee. Old Ace said it was uglier than he thought. That it was nothing but hot, dusty air and earth that looked broken beyond repair. The uncle that let Old Ace out was never seen again, but all the Aces were envious of old Ace''s unique experience. By now, there were twenty Aces, some male, some female, some growing older than others, some growing slower than others, but all of them were united in one shared hope: to see the outside world. Old Ace''s grim revtion was, therefore, taken as the ramblings of an older man that the rest of the Aces did not really believe in. Especially since sometimes, uncles and aunts would talk about the outside world and how wonderful it was, filled with giant buildings and caped heroes and good foods. All the toys that the Aces got were from there, after all, and how could a barren wastnd produce all of that? "Here." Old Ace led little Ace into the living room that connected to all the pods. There, all twenty Aces were huddled about. All of the Aces were bigger than little Ace despite half of them being younger. They, like old Ace, grew fast. Little Ace, on the other hand, grew slow. Little Ace hated that about himself. He was ten years old but he was still so tiny. Other Aces that were his age were already like the uncles and aunts - fully grown adults. Little Ace wanted to get big and strong fast, too. But he was always the runt of the litter. Not that the Aces picked on him much. They knew they were all in this together. Seeing each other suffer near daily from constant trials was more than enough motivation not to inflict the same pain on each other outside of them. "What is that?" Little Ace''s eyes widened when he saw a colorful pir of red standing atop arge te. Atop it was a single candle burning with a sad, dying me. "It''s called a cake," said Old Ace. "You eat it to celebrate the day you were born, and apparently, all of us were born on the same day. Or maybe the uncles and aunts are beingzy, I don''t know. Regardless, it''s something you eat." "...Cake." Little Ace nodded,mitting that name to his mind. "This one is strawberry vored, too," said Old Ace. He shrugged. "Though I imagine you have no idea what that tastes like." "Strawberry." Little Ace nodded again. "How did the uncle get this through father?" one of the Aces said, eyeing therge cake suspiciously. "Something might be in it." "I already had a small bite before," said Old Ace. "It''s fine. And a thousand times better than the slop we have to eat normally." Most of the meals provided to the Aces were mushy white paste engineered with nutrients in mind, not taste. They also encouraged strong bodily growth and healing from the wounds they suffered routinely from their trials. All of the Aces stared at the cake like hungry wolves, desperation gleaming in their white eyes. They nced at Old Ace, the de facto leader they put in charge because he was the first among them. "Go on. Start eating," said Old Ace. The Aces rushed in, breaking the cake apart with their hands, shoveling food into their mouths. But they made sure not to take too much, being mindful to share with each other. "Can I go and eat too?" said Little Ace, mouth watering. He looked up at Old Ace to find Old Ace was staring past the cake, into the distance. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead," said Old Ace. He shook his head and patted Little Ace''s shoulder. "I''ll save some for you," said Little Ace. Old Ace shook his head sadly, and at the time, Little Ace did not know why. "Take my portion, Ace. You deserve it more. You''re special, after all." -- That night was when the final trial happened. When all the Aces, all of them having honed their power and bodies to their absolute limits, were ced in an inescapable room. There, father told them it was now time to face their greatest foes yet: each other. They were made to fight to the death. Only thest one standing would leave the room alive. The cake they had was not to celebrate their births. It was tomemorate their deaths. Memories that Ace did not know, memories he had buried deep down, under lock and key and chain and gate, were sundered open. He remembered. He did not remember the fighting. That was not important. He remembered - "I knew it." Old Ace looked up at Little Ace. Old Ace was just an upper body now, his lower half having been severed during the final trial. The thick, ted tiles of the room were painted red, drenched in gore. Severed limbs, chunks of bone, eyeballs, brain matter - all manner of viscera and broken body partsy scattered in an artpiece of suffering and madness. Little Ace stared down at Old Ace, his eyes glowing through a thick coating of blood on his face. "I knew it...you''re...special." Old Ace smiled at Little Ace. Little Ace looked down at his crimson coated hands, hands coated with the lives of all of his brothers and sisters, and trembled. Tears began to well up from the corners of his eyes. Clear, pure tears that quickly tainted with the red on his face. "Don''t...cry." Old Ace reached his hand up and gentle patted Little Ace''s arm. "Don''t...look down. I told you - never...look down. You''re special. Look...up." Old Ace''s hand fell to the ground, sshing on a pool of blood. -- "I remember it all." Ace held out his hand, grabbing a punch from his clone. A shockwave of force echoed out, but Ace did not budge a single inch. Ace''s eyes were widened in the shock of recall, of breaking into a past he had kept locked away. "Ah, you remember now?" Machine Mind''s voice echoed from the clone''s head. "Do you understand your ce, then, my son? You, so special, ordained with the greatestpatibility to Superforce''s DNA and blessed with the touch of the Blue Ring? You may be imperfect, but you are imperfect only due to your mind. A mind that has grown tainted with individuality. Your body, however, is still near perfect, its potential merely held down by that weak mind of yours." "I understand now," said Ace. "You do?" The clone pulled back. Machine''s Mind''s voice was hopeful. "Then-," "I understand that you have to die. Everyone here does." Ace unleashed a punch at the clone''s skull. A blue ring glowed at his chest, over where his heart was. Gleaming cerulean energy patterns filled his veins, making them visible through his skin and bodysuit. The punch collided with the clone''s forehead. Waves of blue energy coursed from the point of impact through the clone''s head, caving the skull in like a hammer taken to an egg. The clone fell backwards, the yolk of his skull oozing out in spilled grey matter. In the middle of the brain matter was a blinking golden orb - the control device that Machine Mind used. "You do not understand, my son." Machine Mind''s voice echoed from the orb. "The sheer potential you have. You were taken by Ember after you were deemed a research failure, but you were taken against my will. I always saw potential in you. You cane back and lead the world into a new era. You just have toe back to me. You-," Ace crushed the orb under his foot. It crunched and spattered in mechanical failure. He turned his gaze to the corpse of his clone. A fainter blue ring glowed from its chest. Ace punched his fist into the ring and ripped out the clone''s still beating heart. He crushed the tender organ. Its gleaming blue blood flowed into Ace''s skin, into his own veins, his own heart, fueling him with strength to carry out his purpose. Vengeance. Chapter 417 Raids End 4 Diamondback put a crystal encased hand forward against Ace. "Stand down. We have what we need. Mission''s over." "Not over. Never. Over." Ace floated forward, not sparing a nce at Diamondback. He only looked ahead, towards the enemy he knew he had to destroy. The enemy that had taken everything from him once. Machine Mind''s army of gold eyed, gold circuited mechanoids stared at Ace with cold, unfeeling gazes. "I knew it! The ace did not fail!" The scientist''s voice boomed with very human energy, echoing from each and every machine in a cacophony of joyous shrieks. "Behold, you philistines - the peak of my research! The next stage of Alterhuman evolution! Heir of the Stars to lead us into the new age!" "Stop. Talking." Ace kept forwards, but Diamondback stopped him with his arm. "Mission''s over. I understand you have a personal grudge, but so does n here. So does Clint. You don''t take priority over any of us," said Diamondback. "..." Ace did not stare at Diamondback''s crystal helm face with anything resembling animosity. It was an oddly nk stare, one that registered Diamondback as less than nothing. Ace put his hand on Diamondback''s forearm. Diamondback instantly pulled his arm back. Not just that, but he took a dashing step back too, his crystalline heel digging into the rock. "What''s wrong!?" asked Falco. Diamondback had felt it. The moment Ace had touched his arm. His instincts bringing into the forefront of his mind a very, very primal feeling: the fear of death. "What the hell?" Kris tapped his goggles. The purple lenses clicked and whirred as they picked up on Diamondback''s arm. "The diamond''s gone. Unraveled like old cloth." It was true. The incredibly durable cyrstalline metamaterial that encased Diamondback''s arm had, like Kris pointed out, frayed apart in strands that should have been impossible to make with such a durable, hard material. Blue tinges of energy outlined the green diamond strands. "All of you, go." Ace pointed back while looking forwards. "And stay out." There was no hint of threat in Ace''s voice, but perhaps theck of it was even more ominous. It was too neutral, as if he considered everyone there to simply be nothing. Ace flew by, and this time, nobody stood in his way, very much for their own good. "We DO already have the Kryptic," said Ste, briefcase in hand. "And what''s a little ol'' double crossing to a criminal org like this, huh?" "Take the Kryptic, you fools," said Machine Mind. "All I need is my Ace." "Something''s wrong about this whole situation," said Tox, biting her lip. Her gaze lingered at Ace''s back. "Machine Mind''s just seen that Ace is way, WAY stronger than before. I mean, just look at him, he''s got glowing blue energy flowing all through his veins, in his heart - that''s totally a big powerup, right? But the geriatric tinkerer still wants to duke it out with Ace? He must have a n." "Of course I have a n. I have ns atop of ns atop of ns. ns are all that I am, all that I have been. ns have been the product of all the research and blood I have shed," said Machine Mind. "I cannot say I predicted this moment, but I certainly wee it nheless. As for the rest of you, well, none of you are worth my time." Machine Mind punctuated the end of his sentence by getting all of his bots intobat mode. There was still a sizable army of them. At least five Cyclops and a veritable horde of smaller flying drones and humanoid droids supporting them. A maelstrom of missile fire, lead, fire, andsers st out from all the bots. "Barrier going up!" shouted Alexis. She raised her hands up, and everyone huddled near her. But in the next moment, she raised a brow, witnessing with everyone else as all of the projectiles were stopped seemingly in midair. Ace had his hands thrust out, like he was pushing against a wall. He remembered the sensation of resisting gravity, of pushing against force weighing down on every inch of his body. "Brother..." Ace whispered under his breath, memories welling up from deep within, from his heart, pumping sentiment fueled power through all his veins. Every single projectile - bullets, missiles, even less tangible things likesers - hovered in the air, outlined in blue energy. Ace was holding everything back with seemingly utter ease. His tactile telekinesis had evolved beyondpare. Beforehand, he was essentially just a flying brick type Alter. He was strong and could fly but that was about it. His tactile telekinesis was just a slight cherry on the top that let him carry things better or leverage his force efficiently. Now, it was basically on the level of advanced telekinesis. "I see now," said Kris, his goggles whirring as he analyzed the situation. "When he touched DB and broke apart the diamond - he literally unraveled it using telekinesis. Not just that, he basically changed the metamaterial''s atomic structure from hard as hell to soft and clothy in an instant." "Go." Ace did not look back. He kept forwards, his each and every single step making the wall of projectiles fall back in synch. "Ace-," began Tox. "Go." Ace''s voice was cold. Emotionless. Tox heard it with pain. It was not a voice she would have ever expected from her old, old friend. At the very least, she had thought she would never have to hear that tone from him again. He had it before, way back when they first met, when he knew nothing about friends or happiness. "I''m making a judgment call here as team leader," said Ste. She patted Tox''s shoulder gently. "We should go. Ace is strong. Stronger than ever before. He won''t lose here. At the very least, not until we regroup with Clint up top. Anything Machine Mind is nning - we''ll stop it once we get Clint back." Tox nodded slowly, hesitantly. Her gaze lingered on Ace''s back. She closed her eyes and nodded, this time with more confidence. "OK. Let''s go." "Let''s scram!" shouted Ste. "Keep in the barrier," said Diamondback. "Falco, n, near me." The group made an escape formation around Alexis''s barrier, and within its teal green fold, they rapidly disappeared from the cavern, Kryptic in tow. It took only a few seconds for them to be out of sight, and a few more seconds after that to be out of hearing, their footsteps dulling away. During these seconds, an atmosphere intensified between Ace and Machine Mind. One of silence, but in that silence, there was much said. A tale of mad desire and the pain it wrought. And the vengeance that flowered from it like blood lilies sprouting atop decayed skulls. "It appears a little more destructive capability is required here." Machine''s Mind''s voice resonated throughout the bots, and as it did, the golden circuit patterns shining through their bodies glowed even brighter. With mechanical clicks and the crunching of disassembling metal, the bots unraveled into floating pieces. Every one of them broke apart, not just the small flying drones, but also the tank sized Cyclops. They formed into a whirling storm of machine parts that quickly locked back together, reforming into a droid design. Humanoid - two arms, two legs, and a bucket helm shaped head with a single glowing golden dot for an eye. The droid stood a full head over Ace with a body made bulky through metal ting like a man shaped war machine. The segments and seams within the droid''s metal te and body glowed with bright gold, enveloping it in a scintiting aura that lit up the dark depths of the cavern. "Now, we can begin-," said Machine Mind. "..." Ace''s expression did not change. He pped his hands together. The enormous volley of projectiles he held in midair hurtled back towards Machine Mind, copsing in on the reformed droid and causing a cataclysmic, earth shaking nova of an explosion. A huge cloud of dust and smoke and upturned debris geysered up into the air, destroying all visibility. Ace looked at this cloud unperturbed, waiting to see if Machine Mind was dead. From the cloud, a sh of gold alerted Ace. A beam mmed into Ace''s heart, where a ring of blue shone through his ck bodysuit. Ace slid back several meters in instant impact before he resisted, halting. The beam of energy was intensely hot, so hot that the air around Ace warped and the solid bedrock beneath his feet began to melt. "Not dead,"mented Ace as he put his hand against the beam and started to walk through it. "Good." Ace rapidly sped up, flying through the beam to crash his open hand against the droid''s throat. He flew the droid back dozens of meters until they smashed into the heavily armored vault door. With a sharp, splitting sound - the telltale sign of reactive neosteel being overloaded beyond its reactive atomic structure''s capability to handle kic force - Ace drove the droid straight through the vault as well. The end result of Ace''s flying rampage was that the droid was t on the ground, in the midst of a crater with Ace''s hand still wrapped around its throat. ck light shone from the vault''s innards, indicating the presence of a Null field. "Im...pressive." Machine Mind''s voice cracked from the droid as it looked up at Ace. The droid''s body had suffered catastrophic damage with severe dents wreathed across its chest and back. Sparks sputtered from every broken part of it. The Null field was disrupting Machine Mind''s connection to the droid. While type A Null fields - the strongest of them all - disabled both technology and Alter powers, type B - the moremercially desirable variant - only dampened Alter powers, allowing technos to find a loophole and operate machinery within them. "Null does not affect you," said Machine Mind, even now curiously analytical. "But this was already proven long...ago...your poweres from the Ring, and the Ring is from beyond this. Within...the...Outer." Chapter 418 Meteor Labs Demolition "I don''t care," said Ace. He palmed the steel avatar''s face and began to focus, closing his eyes. He used his telekinesis to sense the threads of energy flowing from Machine Mind, to trace it towards the frail flesh and bone body that piloted this husk of metal. "I know you do not. It is hard to, no?" said Machine Mind. "That is inevitable. Gifted with Outer power, you have ascended beyond all of this...drivel. This''s squabbles and shorings. You are close to perfection, and perfection has nothing to do with the imperfection that is this world. Soon, you will lose all sense of what is human. What is weak. The vengeance that fuels you now will sputter out. You will question why you cared so much for defective specimens like your siblings. You will question your allegiances, your friends, your family - if you found a new one." "Found you." Ace opened his eyes. They were solid globes of gleaming white speckled with blue, like twin cosmoses with the dark of space turned white and the gold of stars turned blue. Inhuman. Ethereal. Outer. Ace crushed Machine Mind''s head. Afterwards, the rest of the avatar''s body began to crumble away, disintegrating into dust as its atomic structure unfolded. "Down." Ace knelt down and ced his palm on the floor of the vault. In response, the earth started to tremble at his touch. Tremble, and then unravel. A fissure formed, splitting the entirety of the vault, no, the entirety of the wholebs, into two. rm lights blinked out of control. Sirens screeched in desperation. Thebs began to lurch, its foundation destabilized. Its floors began to copse from bottom to top in a colossal show of demolition. But Ace did not care about the destruction. What he cared about was below, where Machine Mind was hiding. Where he would kill the man who had taken everything from him. ==== "Stop him!" Shuten Doji roared. He was standing now, though he had his shackled together with Null cuffs that the escaping group had taken from thebs. The entirety of Meteor Labs was breaking apart. The sound of uncountable tons of metal and infrastructure groaning, falling, and shattering boomed through the air. The dome that kept the entry to thebs safe had capsized inwards, its two sundered halves sinking underground like they were falling into quicksand. Clint and the raiding party stared at theb''s destruction in awe. "How the hell is Ace doing this?" said Ste. She nudged Tox with her elbow. "You got any idea? I knew he had top potential, but this...this ain''t just ''potential''. This is raw fuckin'' power that''s reaching the S ss." "I don''t know," said Tox. "I knew Ace was born and raised in ab, but I didn''t know he was holding all this back. What I don''t like was how he looked." "What about it?" "Like he didn''t care." Clint grimaced. "Kid''s gone crazy with vengeance. "It''s not just that," said Tox. "Sure, I think vengeance is what''s setting him off, but deep down, I know he wouldn''t get this crazy. Normally, when I look at him, I see lonely eyes. Sad eyes. But when I saw him down there, his eyes - there was nothing there. Emptiness. It scared me, like I was looking down into a chasm where you just know that no matter how far you go, there''ll always be nothing." "This is good, though," said n. "The Trident will be set back decades because of this. Their biggest base of operations for R and D and storing rare items - gone in a snap." "Yeah, we taught them one hell of a lesson!" agreed Falco. His hands grasped his Aztechsergun with tight trembles, his nerves still thoroughly fried from the whole ordeal. "That wasn''t the point," said Diamondback. By now, he had regrown the diamond ting over his arm. Even then, he still nced at where the empty spot had been ever so often, starkly reminded at how easily he could have died in spite of his supposed invulnerability. He motioned to Alexis, and she put up a noise cancelling barrier that excluded Shuten Doji. "Hey! Let me in on this!" shouted Shuten Doji indignantly, but to no avail. "The point was to damage, but not destroy," said Diamondback. He looked to Ste. "Wasn''t it?" "Yeah." Ste nodded. "Force the Trident to split their forces over here, but hell, if there''s nothing left to defend, they''re just gonna double their asses down over ckwater." "Thanatos will not be pleased with this. In fact, what is he thinking of this? From what I can tell, all of you have some form of mental link with him," said Diamondback. "What he wants to tell us is his business," said Ste. "For now, you''re just dealin'' with me." In reality, Ste had no idea where Aldrich was. He was not responding to her mental calls at all. It was worrying, but she trusted in him to pull through whatever situation he might have been in. What she did now was hold her own here. Though even that had gone all to shit. She felt ashamed at how the situation had spiraled out of control, but she did not show it. She showed confident poise. The poise of a leader. "We''re still partners in an alliance," said Diamondback. "You should inform us of anything that Thanatos does or says." "Stop pressing her," said Clint. "Let Thanatos operate at his own pace. And the me for this situation isn''t on any one of us. Unforeseen circumstances and all." "Unforeseen? Ace is part of their team, no?" "He didn''t tell us anything!" said Tox. "You think any of us are seers capable of peeping into the future? And if you want to toss me, why bring Falco, huh? If he wasn''t here, Kris''s obscuration field would''ve got us down to the vault and out with zero issue!" "..." Diamondback had no real retort to that. "I''m...I''m sorry, guys, I really am," said Falco. "Stop it, kid." Kris surprisingly patted Falco''s back. "I know I ragged on you a ton, but if you''re gonna be a man, then don''t spill your guts like this in an apology. Just...think about how to be better next time. Preferably a next time that I won''t be there." "Uh...thanks, I guess?" said Falco. "I know what to do," said Clint, nodding. Everyone stared at him. "I''m going down there and getting Ace out." "Out of all of us, you got the best chance to do that, yeah," said Ste. "As your right hand man, I have to disagree with this," said Diamondback. "You saw how easily he disassembled my diamond skin. He can do the same to you. Conventional durability means nothing. If he gets to you and breaks you apart before you can adapt, even you might die." "It''s alright, DB, I got this." Clint nodded resolutely, making it certain that he was not taking no for an answer. He motioned to Alexis. "Put the barrier down, missy." The barrier fell. "So!? What n do you have now, Unbreakable!?" said Shuten Doji, thoroughly aggravated. Clint walked over to Shuten Doji and ced a hand on the Sword''s arm. "I''m goin'' to save your daughter," said Clint. "Wh-what?" Shuten Doji blinked. "Shit, did I beat you so hard ya lost yer hearin'' or somethin''? Ya heard me." Clint drew back his hand and turned around, facing Meteor Labs. Or what was left of it as it began to copse inwards in a massive sinkhole. "I''m goin'' down there and savin'' yer kid. I try to make it a habit not to let innocents get in our messes if I can. Killed enough of em'' already." With that, Clint leaped into the air, sprouting wings. With a sturdy p, he zipped right into the sinkhole. ==== Chapter 419 The Return In the spiralingwork of cocoons in a lonely, grey ne of existence, one cocoon, just one out of what could have been an infinity, shuddered. Unbeknownst to the vast majority of sentient life, that was the first a cocoon had ever moved in a number of years that would have been iprehensible to the human mind. At the very least, none of those orbs of cosmic silk had shook like that since the birth of the star that created the sol system. A ck wed hand jutted out of the silk, tearing through its weave. Another hand followed, and together, they pulled, tearing open the cocoon. Valera emerged. In this colorless realm, her eyes stood out the most in its redness. But it was a faint red, one that hearkened to the light of a dying ember. She was tired. Thoroughly tired. She had drained almost every inch of her power, and she felt it in aching that went deep down into her very bones, in her flesh that felt like it was ready to tear apart at a moment''s notice. Gone was her armor and her shield, leaving her naked. Despite her situation, she smiled. When she emerged fully from the cocoon, she did so with Aldrich on her back. Aldrich''s arms were slung around her shoulders, holding her for support. He was not conscious yet, but he was alive - and to Valera, that made her happy more than anything. The cocoon sealed back shut, forming a solid surface upon which Valera rested Aldrich down on, though she kept her hands under his head and back in case there was a chance he could slip back in. She had almost lost him once. She could not let that happen again. Aldrich, too, had been stripped of his armor and weaponry, leaving him just as naked as her. Normally, Valera would have been flustered at the bareness of their bodies, but now, it made her feel closer to Aldrich. It let her feel the chill of his undead body closely. The vulnerability made her more starkly aware of what she could have lost. Aldrich opened his eyes. They shed bright green in this colorless realm. He sat up, putting a hand to his forehead. "Are you alright, Aldrich?" said Valera. She tentatively put a hand on Aldrich''s back. "I lost¡­everything," said Aldrich. Memories of an entire lifetime assaulted his mind. Memories of building the perfect world he had dreamed of. Memories of loving in a way he never could have. Love for a partner. Love for a daughter. Love he thought his mind, hardened by hurt and loss, was never capable of. And the loss of all that - It was unbearable. It would have driven an ordinary man insane several times over. A tear trickled from Aldrich''s eye, flowing down his face in a crystal clear trail. But then, Aldrich felt his mind calm. Chill. Where the human mind broke easily under pressure, the undead mind - especially the mind of a Lich - was nigh-infallible. "I''m sorry." Aldrich looked up. He saw Valera, tears brimming in her crimson eyes. "I''m sorry I had to do that to you," said Valera. "I tried to talk to you down there, in that other life, but my words didn''t go through. All I could do was stand there and let that world crumble. I saw how happy you were, Aldrich. I saw the woman you loved and the daughter you raised. At first, I was jealous - intensely jealous. But the moer I saw you fight for them, the more I saw of them, I realized you were happy there. Truly, truly happy. Happy in a way I never saw before. Happy in a way that I¡­I don''t think I could ever make you." Valera put her hands to her eyes, trying to wipe her tears away, but more just reced them. "And I-I took that all from you. I knew it was what you would have wanted, and deep down, it''s what I wanted too. But even then, even then-," Aldrich looked across at Valera. His mind was undead, but that did not mean he had forgotten that other life. He had lived a fully human life where he got to love with an open heart, a heart that had not shattered and forged back strong but broken from the death of his parents. He¡­understood Valera better now. He understood that love of hers. That single-minded, fierce love that would risk everything, even the destruction of a world, to stay alive. It was the same kind of love he had in his other life. ine''sst words echoed in his mind. To love here as he had loved there. Aldrich had lived a full life in the other world, and though it had ended, he knew he had a life here to still live out. Aldrich reached out and pulled Valera into a tight hug. Valera''s eyes widened as she froze at the hug, arms held to her sides. "I''m d you''re here," said Aldrich. "I''m d you saved me." A pause. "I''m d you love me." Valera closed her eyes and wrapped her arms tight around Aldrich, and together, they stayed like that, their hearts opened, their feelings coiled around each other in understanding and affirmation. White light enveloped the two,pletely encasing them before fading away. They were gone now. Only a few sparkles of white remained as evidence that they had been in that colorless realm at all, and even those quickly faded away, letting the all consuming grey take over once again. == Aldrich and Valera found themselves in a familiar location. The top of the Necropolis tower, before the enormous bell of souls that fueled the mega-structure. The bell that usually shone with near blinding radiance was now dimmed down to little more than an oversized shlight. "Wee back." The Death Lord addressed them. She saw the two of them naked, hands held together, and shrugged. "Guess I''ve been beaten. Ah well, there''s always second ce, eh?" She smiled before she tore off her cloak and then split it into two before tossing both halves over to Aldrich and Valera, clothing them. "What¡­happened?" said Aldrich. "Not just to me, but to you. To this realm." The Death Lord had grown noticeably skinnier, losing a good chunk of her normally athletic physique. Her cheeks were slightly sunken in, as if she had gone fasting for days. One of her horns was gone. Above her, in the skies of the Death Realm, there were cracks, as if the whole thing was a globe that someone had hammered. "You were taken into a different realm, one far, far away from our Axis," said the Death Lord. "Axis?" "Realms simr to each other are easier to reach. Take for example your realm and my realm. Magic separates us, yes, but the lives that popte our realms are not too dissimr. If we were to look at the humans of your realm and the Elumen, they are almost entirely the same," exined the Death Lord. "Simr realms share an Axis. The one you were sent to was to another, where the veryws of existence, of space and time, were utterly foreign." "Why are we here?" asked Valera. "I thought we would return to the human realm." "Returning there naked as you are? Hah, now that would be quite the sight!" the Death Lord chuckled, and Valera faintly blushed. "Fear not. I will have armor recements for the both of you. As for why you are here, why, it is because I reached out to you. It is my power that you felt. My mana that I sent across the void of stars for you to anchor to." "So that was you¡­" murmured Valera. "Yes, it was. And, as you can see-," the Death Lord unrolled the sleeve of her robes and tried to flex her bicep. There was not much there to show. "It took quite a bit from me. From this entire realm. Though, I am happy to say, my power was not wasted. Look." The Death Lord tapped her forehead and nodded towards Aldrich, indicating him to do the same. He checked his head to see that he had a horn. One identical to the Death Lord''s, as if he had taken her missing horn. "I must say, it does not look too shabby on you," nodded the Death Lord. Chapter 420 Down To Earth "What is this?" Aldrich touched the horn on his head. He identified it using his system. [You have been integrated with draconic blood. You have now obtained the passive skill: Dragonheart] [Dragonheart allows you to harness the incredible tenacity of the draconic race renowned for a ferocious grit akin to sheer immortality. When your health drops below 30% of its maximum value, your health or mana regeneration will regenerate massively and constantly.] More information flowed into him as well. [You have been infused with a tremendous amount of energy...] [Analyzing...] [...] [...] [It is impossible for this system to ssify the energy you were merged with. However, calctions will be made as to the amount of experience this power has granted you...] [Calcting...] [You have obtained a tremendous amount of power. Not all of it can be converted to experience...] [You are now level 70...] [New Trial Quests are avable...] [The remainder of your power has gone into breaking your Limiter. You may now exceed your Limiter, allowing you to surpass the boundary of level 100 in time] [Due to the removal of your Limiter, you may now more freely bind souls to your being. You have no limit to the undead you can control provided they are not within thirty levels of your being. Powerful undead close to your power is now Chosen Undead and these, you may now have a limit of 100] [Your Boundary has also evolved due to the growth you and your soul bonded experienced in the realm of ?????] [Both of you have developed independent, yet linked boundaries...] [Look into yourself to unlock your Boundary. The truth shall be revealed within...] [And, if you so dare, look into the Outer, and the Greater Truth shall be made known] [...] Then, a voice that Aldrich heard resonate deep within him. Aldrich felt a huge headache assail him as the words echoed through his very being before fading away, like lone whispers in a forest. He tried to will contact that voice again, but it was gone. He, however, had a very good idea who that was. It was the voice of the Arcane Emperor who, along with the Enlightened One, created skills, spells, and, most importantly, the leveling system that all living beings in Elduin fell under. In the game, the Arcane Emperor showed up as a faint spirit every so often, guiding the yer to lost artifacts or spells. He spoke in an archaic, grand manner befitting an ancient wizard, but now he seemed to push back that charade and bare who he really was: a man from Earth. "What happened to everyone else that was with me?" said Aldrich. The ramifications of the emperor''s voice were"Vntis? My gear? And, most importantly, Chrysa?" "I can still sense it all within you," said the Death Lord. "Switch into your Lich form." Aldrich nodded. He balled up his fists. Green mist emerged around him. It acted like acid, sloughing off his skin to reveal the bone of his Lich form. "It''s still here." Aldrich materialized his Frosthallowed War Scythe. His cloak of souls. Vntis. A small ck te formed on Aldrich''s sternum, but nothing more than that. On that te, Vntis''s eye emerged. "Mrhm. What is going on¡­?" said Vntis sleepily. "I see, I see." The Death Lord put a hand to her chin and nodded. "You, my dear Usurper, are quite lucky. Or perhaps it is fate. That realm prison you were sent to was meant to conquer and entrap a single soul. However, as a newly formed Lich, your soul was splintered. It is amon thing for Liches as their souls are quite, how shall I put it, malleable. They can be moved and restructured with far more ease than with any flesh and blood being. That is how you can sever your soul into a Phctery. That is how your little one Chrysa bonded with a part of your soul. And because you have separate spiritual parts, one with your little one, the other with your Phctery, the prison realm could not take all of you. Which left a signal for me to trace and send my own power to. It seems that the part of your soul that was bonded to your little one was trapped. As a subconscious defense mechanism, you sent all your weaponry into your Phctery, within your Lich form." "Then Chrysa-," began Aldrich, briefly panicking at the thought that she had potentially been trapped in the other world. "I will draw her out," said the Death Lord, assuaging his worries. She put a hand on Aldrich''s chest and performed a ripping motion out. As she did so, a white sh blinked, and from it, Chrysa emerged, falling into the Death Lord''s arms unconscious. "Wait¡­" Aldrich knelt down, putting a hand to Chrysa''s cheek. "She¡­" Valera began in recognition, though her words caught in her throat. She was different. Older. A young teenager, perhaps, maybe twelve or fourteen. Her dress was gone, reced with a bodysuit etched with lines of iridescent energy. Shining rainbow colored tips highlighted some strands of her white hair - hair inherited directly from ine. "I understand now." Aldrich murmured. The reason why in the other world, his daughter with ine was still named Chrysa. Chrysa had been taken with Aldrich into the other world. She had be his daughter there. And now, she had merged with her existence from the other world. Aldrich could not sense her because she was almost an entirely different existence. But even if she was different in appearance, she was still his daughter. He looked down as he felt the warmth of his daughter''s cheek radiate into his cold, skeletal hand. He thought he had lost everything from that other world, that happy world. But Chrysa - his daughter - she had been saved. For that, he was grateful. Grateful to who or what, he did not know. Fate, perhaps, as the Death Lord said. It did not matter. What mattered was that Chrysa was here. "I do not know entirely what transpired in that prison realm," said the Death Lord. "But I do know that it has taken a toll from you. That you show signs of loss. Great loss. Loss that I understand. Whether your chains were a paradise or inferno, I know not. But what I do know is this," She ced a hand on Aldrich''s shoulder. Aforting one. "I am d you are back, Aldrich." Aldrich looked up at the Death Lord. She smiled down at him. The happiness in her face was genuine. It made him question the suspicions he had regarding her. "You have to tell me, Mel," said Aldrich, speaking to her directly, heart to heart. "What you want me for. What the end goal for all of this is. Why you''re giving me your power. Why you sacrificed so much to bring me back. Otherwise, all I can do is keep suspecting you, nning against you in the case that you stand against me one day." "My lips, dear Usurper, are sealed." The Death Lord winked at Aldrich and put a finger to her lips. "But do keep plotting. I wee a challenge, hah!" Her smile faded. "But now, it is time for you to go. Your realm awaits you, after all, and as far as I can tell, there is much for you to do there. Many who await your return. " Aldrich nodded. He was not going to get a straight answer out of the Death Lord. But for the first time, he felt genuine trust for her. "You''re right," said Aldrich. He picked Chrysa up in his arms. "It is time for me to go." The Death Lord snapped her fingers, creating a vortex of whirling white in front of Aldrich and Valera. "Time for us to go." Aldrich nodded to Valera, and together, side by side, they stepped into the portal. "Time for us to make the world right again." Chapter 421 Labs End ===== At Meteor Labs - Ace exhaled, his breath a foggy cerulean blue. The earth broke apart around him, surrendering to his otherworldly power. He held the ground ripped open with both his hands. Threads of blue energy wound out from his palms, stretching across the vaults, then up towards thebs - all of its floors - and pulled. Pulled the very fabric of their atomic structure, causing everything to break apart into a swirling vortex of destruction. Ace did not spare any of thebs. All of it wasplicit in his suffering. And the very idea that thesebs, ran by these people, these creatures so far beneath him, caused him suffering was inexcusable. Everything had to go. But most importantly - "Found you." Ace whispered, sensing Machine Mind''s energy signature. It was deep down in the earth, inside a nigh imprable doomsday bunker. There was another energy signature there, too. One that was familiar to Ace. One that shone blue and bright. The Blue Ring. He did not know what it was, just that it did note from this, but in the end, he did not really care either. It was power he was going to soon absorb anyway. Power that belonged to him by right. Ace pried the fissured earth with a grunt. The split halves trembled as they sundered apart from each other, creating tremendous earthquakes. Like curtains parting, the splitting earth revealed the bunker below, several hundreds meters down. It looked pitifully weak from where Ace was. A little ball of fortified metal that he could pick apart with all the ease of shredding wet paper. Ace flew downwards, mming down into the bunker with his feet. As a testament to its structural integrity, the bunker trembled at the impact, but its metal - reinforced smart neosteel - absorbed the impact admirably. It glowed bright around Ace''s feet, but it did not splinter apart. The bunker was about as big as arge house. Bigger than what it looked like from above. But still nothing of consequence to Ace. He put his palm on the surface of the heated metal. Strands of blue stretched out, wrapping around the entirety of the bunker. Then, the bunker unraveled from Ace''s hand. The metal peeled apart neatly, creating a hole to wee him in. Below, Ace saw a circr room with the Blue Ring floating in a containment chamber at the center. Scientists in hazmat suits stared up at him, taking steps back, trembling in terror. His gaze scanned past the scientists andnded on Machine Mind. The elderly man had his hands on a control panel standing in front of the containment chamber. Blue circuit streaks spread out from his hands, covering the panel and reaching out to the entirety of the chamber and even the ring itself. Machine Mind''s usually golden eyes were now azure blue as they stared up at Ace triumphantly. "Despite being an Outerworldly being, you are still weighed down by all too human sentiments of vengeance," said Machine Mind. "Which now leads to your demise, my child." Ace blitzed downwards, his hand reaching out to grasp Machine Mind''s exposed head. However, he stopped right before his hand could close around Machine''s Mind''s skull to crush it into a pulp. "You think I did not have countermeasures for your kind?" said Machine Mind. His voice was shaky, reverberating with an inhuman current. Circuit patterns had emerged from the Blue Ring like arrows, shooting outwards and digging into Ace''s body. The pattern was equal parts gold and blue, indicating a fusion between Machine Mind''s powers and the power of the Blue Ring. "From the ring, your powers came. Through the ring, it may be controlled!" said Machine Mind. "I have not been above experimenting upon myself. The Blue Ring can control the force of all things - including that of your life and mind. And with my power piloting it, I can dominate anything I desire. Anything!" The circuit patterns spread from Ace''s body and crawled slowly up toward his head, attempting to hijack his mind. He remained unphased in expression, but nobody could deny the fact that he could no longer move, nor could they ignore the circuits slowly reaching his brain. It was only a matter of time before Ace was taken over. "Doctor!" A violet-eyed scientist shouted, taking off her hazmat helmet. "You can''t do this! The Ring''s integrity is falling rapidly - if you keep this up, we might be ground zero for an explosion the world hasn''t seen since the Monstering! And our research - all of it will be for nothing!" "Quiet, girl!" said Machine Mind, straining. His breathing was heavy and deep. Veins popped across his wrinkled forehead. His eyes began to bleed. Every bit of him exerted as he tried to tame the power of the Blue Ring. "Our research...MY research...is right here, right here to take, so close-!" "No." Ace moved suddenly, shocking everyone. He moved his hand up to his face, right below his eyes where the circuits had managed to get to. He wed at them with his fingertips, peeling them off like cheap stickers. The whole circuit pattern broke apart, showing just how unstable it was, leaving Ace''s entire body free to move. Machine Mind''s eyes widened in shock before he doubled over, coughing up blood. He lurched backward, taking his hands from the control panel. With his ess to the panel cut off, the power of the Blue Ring stopped flowing into him. The circuit streaks around the ring and its containment chamber faded as well. "You said it yourself. You made me perfect. Mypatibility with the Blue Ring is high. Higher than any of my siblings you murdered. Higher than what you can ever hope to control," said Ace. He looked down at the room of scientists. "And now, none of you will control anything ever again." Ace began to slowly close his fist. As he did so, the innards of the bunker began to crumple in on itself, as if it was being crushed inside a giant hand. "Wait! Ace!" Clintnded with a thud atop the bunker, peering down from the open ceiling. His eyes shed red as he took note of the situation. "Take the old man out, but keep the scientists alive!" "No." Ace''s fist began to close in more. The bunker groaned and creaked as it crumpled down further. The scientists were starting to shout and panic, getting huddled ufortably close to each other. "The scientists have no blood on their hands in this!" said Clint. "Look at them - they don''t even know you! And I''ve read their minds - their projects weren''t rted at all to the ones that made ya suffer. All of that was the whacked old man''s fault!" "It doesn''t matter," said Ace. "Nothing does." "Hahaha!" Machine Mind chuckled before his throat caught on blood. After coughing it out, he stared up at Ace and Clint with a weak smile. "Do not waste your breath, Unbreakable. The being you are speaking to now is above us, above even you who have only been dipped in the Outer''s blessings. You are witnessing the birth of an Outer being beyond us all. How glorious...it is. How prideful I was to believe that I...could control it. Yet, none will control him. In a way, I feel content in knowing that my research has produced a being this...magnificent." Chapter 422 Unsealed "Enough talking," said Ace. "Your rambling hurts my ears." He closed his fist even more, almost fully. The bunker rapidly crumpled in on itself. Several of the scientists, the ones standing at the edges of the bunker, were folded in as the walls and ceiling copsed on top of them, reducing them to nothing but bloody pulp. The remaining scientists, including Machine Mind, were nowpacted tight. Several started to scream as their bones snapped under the pressure, but before long, but they only managed one scream before their breaths were crushed out of their chests. "Shit. Guess talkin''s over," Clint muttered. He sped his palms together. A spiral pattern of red energy formed between them before firing as a high-speed projectile that distorted space as it flew. Ace used his free hand as a shield to block the projectile. The energy began to warp his hand in its spiral pattern. "A simple pattern. Easily reversed." Ace twisted his hand against the spiral. Blue threads sprung out from his hand, traveling up the spiral to hijack it, untwisting it before dissolving the projectile entirely. Clint paused for a moment, unsure of what to do. He had been briefed that Ace had the ability to manipte atomic structures. That meant that no matter how tough Clint was, no matter how sturdy of a shell he grew, he would still get unraveled like cheap cloth. ''I need to evolve a couple more times to resist somethin'' like that, but I don''t got that kinda time,'' thought Clint. He leered at Ace, his jaw setting. ''But if Machine Mind''s right and Ace''s gone done lost his mind, it''s gonna be up to me to put him down. I gotta get in there now. I gotta start evolving now." Clint prepared to dive in, draconic wings behind his back stretching. Ace took note of this and kept his hand in ce as if to taunt Clint toe. "Heh..." whispered Machine Mind, spending thest dregs of his energy to gaze up at his frankenstein''s monster with twisted pride. "I will get to witness the end of the Unbreakable as well. I could not ask more from my death." "This ends now." A voice echoed through the air, carried by chill winds that did not belong in a barren desert. In the tense space between Clint and Ace, white light bloomed. From it emerged mist. Glowing green mist. And from that mist, a ck armored man stepped out. Thanatos. The atmosphere immediately stilled, the temperature dropping remarkably. "What the hell!? What''s kept ya from showin'' up for so damn long, ya big bastard!?" said Clint, nodding at Thanatos with a barely concealed smile. "Complications," was all Thanatos said. He hovered in the air, his cloak of stitched-together souls waving in the wind. He looked down at Ace, then at the annihtedbs. "I see that my absence has causedplications too." Ace stared up at Thanatos with the same expressionless gaze he had chosen to don since awakening histent powers. This time, however, he reacted offensively without being prompted for the first time, as if by sheer instinct. Ace, or rather, the entity that he was bing, recognized Thanatos as a threat to its existence. He shoved his free fist forward, sending out a gust of blue-tinted force. Thanatos put his arm out as if he was holding a shield. Three massive ribs materialized before him, acting like a barricade that blocked the iing torrent of power. The wave of energy streaked past Thanatos, hitting Clint and knocking him backward, out of sight. The energy wave dimmed down, leaving Thanatos still there, albeit with cracks across his rib shield. "Ah...there you are, Thanatos," said Machine Mind. He was now atop a pile of crushed metal and corpses. His body, too, was thoroughly mangled, but his head still jutted out intact from the pile, and so long as his head was intact, it seemed, he could maintain his consciousness. "I do not know what you did to ckwater''s students to maintain their loyalty, but it will not work here. You are in the presence of power that is truly Outer. The power that I created with all my genius!" "You could not control your creation, so now you are content with letting it rampage about?" said Thanatos. "How utterly pathetic." Ace cocked back his fist again, ready to fire another st of telekic force. Thanatos raised his fist in the air and dered, "Take note. THIS is how you control." A green outline shimmered around Ace''s body. He closed his eyes, hard. When he opened them, they were no longer blue. They were white like they originally were, filled with the lonely sadness that they usually carried. "What...happened here?" said Ace, looking down at his hands. The glowing blue energy visible from his heart and veins faded away bit by bit. "I reset your mind is all I did," said Thanatos. "Leave. Join the others." Ace weakly nodded, tired from exerting so much energy. He looked confused, but he knew better than to question Thanatos. He flew away, leaving Thanatos alone with Machine Mind in the ruins of the bunker. "No! No! NO!" roared Machine Mind. "You would dare to ruin a perfect creation!? How!? What...what did you do!?" "All I did was exert my right to lead my Legion," said Thanatos. The red eye dot of his helm looked unfeelingly down at Machine Mind. "A right you do not have." Machine Mind, now reduced to a talking head, and Thanatos, in all his armored might, could not have been any different from each other if they tried. Thanatos floated down,nding atop the containment chamber in the bunker. It alone had survived Ace''s telekic crush, though barely. The ss was thoroughly cracked. The Blue Ring within had dimmed down, its halo structure fraying like worn cloth. A warning screen shed distorted across the cracked ss. RING STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 1% When Thanatos touched the chamber, an odd reaction urred. The ring began to glow brightly again, rejuvenated somehow. It started to rotate rapidly, its structure vibrating before it sundered apart into countless little fragments that looked like floating blue fireflies. The fragments funneled upwards, through the containment chamber, and into Thanatos. Thanatos stared down at his hand. The ten-branched symbol lit up in reaction. One of the branches, previously a colorless white, was now filled in with solid blue, joining a green branch and a white one that had a cracked pattern across its length. "It''s over..." Machine Mind looked at the ring with wide eyes. "My research - it really was for nothing." Thanatos did not answer, analyzing his hand. "Shit, that blew me back a long ways." Clint reappeared, flying into view. He blinked when he saw there was no Ace. "Uh, guess ya fixed the whole situation then, huh?" "I did," said Thanatos. "Damn." Clint looked down at the annihted bunker, then up at the equally annihted rest of thebs. "I know ya wanted us to make some noise, break some stuff here and there, but I figure total destruction wasn''t what you were gunnin'' for, yeah?" "No, but what''s done is done," said Thanatos. "As for you, Machine Mind, you and your team are not done yet. You mentioned the Outer. I want answers. Answers that you and your team will provide." "You...you intend to enve us? Like you did with ckwater?" said Machine Mind. He grimaced. "You may be able to take my mind, but my team, you will never have. They are gone, crushed to nothingness." "Quiet, and let me focus." Thanatos again held his arm over his chest, as if he was holding a shield. This time, a diadem-shaped shield made of mint green energy formed. "[Boundary: Unseal]" Chapter 423 Cycle Of Life And Death "What''s that shield?" Clint said, nudging his chin towards the energy construct strapped to Thanatos''s forearm. "A gift," said Thanatos, somber. "And a reminder of what I have to do." Thanatos raised his arm into the air, the shield shining in its verdant splendor. He looked almost like Minuteman, standing stalwart with a symbol of protection high above to protect all life. But the way Thanatos was armored in bone parts and ckened metal and a cloak of wailing, stitched souls made it clear that he much more than a protector of life. He was a dealer of death. Both guardian and destroyer. And this boundary, too, represented that dichotomy. Thanatos crushed his hand into a fist. The shield separated from his arm and hovered high above his head. Its diadem structure, elongated on one side, looked almost like the hand of a clock. Here, the shield pointed upwards, towards where twelve would be if it was a timepiece. From the shield, light exploded outwards in a blinding sh. Within the eye-crushing light, time slowed to a crawl. Here, in this white space seemingly bereft of anything, Aldrich saw a man walking towards him. Aldrich was stripped of his armor, leaving him in his human form in his suit. The other man - it was him. The him from the other world. More muscr with a brighter smile. More¡­heroic. "Huh, so this is what you look like," said the Hero, looking Aldrich up and down. "Pretty damn grim. But I can''t say I''m surprised. If things didn''t go down the way they did with Minuteman saving my parents - our parents- I think I''d have gone down a simr path too." "I thought I sensed you," said Aldrich. After he had returned from the other world, he had felt something awaken within himself. An instinctive understanding that his Boundary could activate. All he had to do was unseal it with his willpower. He knew what it did, too, in a very general sense, like knowing where your arm was and how to move it even if you could not see it. "When I awoke, I didn''t just end that world. I¡­absorbed it. At least some part of it. It''s how Chrysa turned out the way she did, merging with her other self. It stands to reason the same would''ve happened to me." "Perceptive, aren''t you?" said the Hero. "Which means to some degree, you were real. Everything was real. If you weren''t, if that world was just an illusion, there would''ve been nothing to absorb." "Right." The Hero shrugged. "But I have no clue how the details work, how your dream managed to create an entire world. And there''s no point in me thinking about it either. I''m dead now, as is everything I ever knew." "I''m sorry." "Don''t be." The Hero shook his head. "You probably think you destroyed everything. No, you know it. You felt it because up until a little while ago, it was a life you were living. But it was a life and a world that existed only because you dreamed it up. And a dream, no matter how nice it is, is always destined to end when the dreamer wakes up." "That doesn''t mean your loss means nothing-," began Aldrich, but the Hero cut him off by raising his gloved hand. "Yeah, I know, but you felt everything I lost just as much as I did. That''s punishment enough. No need to add onto the pile." Aldrich nodded, and together, the Hero and the Necromancer stood together in silence for a few moments. Moments of shared recollection over what they had both lost together. "What are you, anyway?" said Aldrich, breaking the silence. "I didn''t think you would be the one to break the silence, brooding look and all." The Hero smirked. "But to answer your question, I don''t know exactly, but whatever I am, I won''tst. Like you said, you merged with that world, specifically with me. Probably because we''re literally the same person. Same as how my daughter became your daughter. But it looks like her merging was much deeper. It changed her being at a core level. Ours is much more surface level. You''ve inherited a fragment of my power. And in that power, there''s a fragment of myself - which is me right now." "A fragment¡­" Aldrich rolled the word in his head. He remembered what the Hero said before. "A fragment that won''tst?" "Yeah. Well, the power you''ve absorbed from me is permanent, make no mistake about that. But me-," the Hero pointed a thumb at himself. "This guy that''s talking to you. I''m not going tost. This talk we''re having is our first and, most likely, going to be ourst." "I see." "Yeah." "¡­" Another silence that contemted loss. In this case, the loss of a hero. A hero that Aldrich once wanted to be. Once was. The Hero stepped closer to Aldrich, standing right in front of him. The Hero smiled. "Let''s not end this on a sulky note," said the Hero. "In the brief time we were merged, I got a little speedrun of your memories. I know that this world is a shitshow. In way worse of a state than my one was. People are nastier, too. It''s made you do things that I never had to do. Things that mom and dad never had to do." "I know." Aldrich saw the Hero''s smile was unbroken. "You don''t have any judgments about that?" "No. Because deep down, we''re still the same person. We get things done, no matter what." The Hero put a fist to his heart." I could get things done in my own way." He put the fist to Aldrich''s chest. "But you have your own way. The important thing is that once we choose our paths, we stay on them. We don''t back down no matter who stands in our way. No matter how much we stumble on the way to the finish line, we always get back up. No matter how much we hurt, we always keep running. That''s just who we are. What we are. Fighters." "I know." Aldrich nodded. "Before, I was hesitant about seeing this path I took through to the end. This path of making the world right. I didn''t know what was at the end. I didn''t know if it was the right thing to do. But now I know from seeing you save the world. It isn''t always about knowing what''s ahead. It''s about having the resolve to see it through, even if the road ahead is dark." "That about sums it up. I made plenty of mistakes. There were multiple times I thought the world was going to end because of my mistakes. Mistakes that set me way back on my path. But I grit my teeth and trudged on and, eventually, I made it to the finish line. I want that for you as well. I want you to make this world right. I want you to see the end. A good end. One you''ll be satisfied with. No, screw that." The Hero put his fist out towards Aldrich. "I want you to promise me. Promise me you''ll reach the end of this path you''ve set on. It''s the least I deserve for getting my whole world blown up." Aldrich put his fist against the Hero''s. "I promise." "Good." The Hero smiled as he put his fist down. He began to flicker, his powerful figure turning fuzzy and dark. "Looks like my time''s up." He looked up. There was nothing but white light, but he was not looking at that. He was looking ahead. Far ahead. "Be joining you soon, ine. Everyone." Aldrich stepped back, allowing the Hero to take hisst moments in sce. The Hero, however, talked to him again. "And Chrysa - our daughter - you''ll raise her right, won''t you? Make sure she doesn''t get into trouble. Deal with dumbass dudes and the like. The girl you knew was neat and innocent, and mine was too when she was that age, but, well, I''ll just say you''ve inherited yourself a whole firecracker. She''s just as much a fighter as us." The Heroughed in remembrance. His smile was tinged now with sadness. He looked to Aldrich with wet eyes. "Just¡­make sure she ends up happy, will you? I know that unlike me, you''re willing to sacrifice practically everything to reach the end of your path, but make sure she''s there by your side at the end, will you?" Aldrich smiled. His was fainter. Less pronounced, less practiced because he had never had many opportunities to give one. But he smiled nheless. "I will." Chapter 424 Restored The light that formed this temporary meeting space between Aldrich and the Hero faded away. Time resumed its normal flow. The shield continued to hover above him, tethered to a glimmering white aura that wrapped around his body. When Aldrich moved, the shield moved with him, affixed to him. The aura surrounding Aldrich was infused with warmth. A gentle,forting warmth that utterly belied the carnage that Aldrich''s armor of stitched fallen creatures promised. Emanating outwards from Aldrich''s greaves was a white spiral pattern that covered the ground of the annihtedb. The pattern flickered bright, then dimmed down, then brightened again in rhythmic beats, and with each cycle of glowing and dimming, a heartbeat-like thud echoed outwards. "This feels¡­strange." Clint tentatively touched down into the rubble of thebs. When his bare feet made contact with the patterned ground, he blinked. "It feels¡­familiar?" "What is this?" Machine Mind said, his face jutting out of the ground enveloped in the light of the spiral. "This energy¡­I have not felt the likes of it anywhere. Not in all my years of research." "I''m not so sure myself," said Aldrich. "But what I do know is that this will bring back your team. And you. But first off-," Aldrich stepped over to Machine Mind''s head and knelt down by it. He pointed a wed, armored finger at Machine Mind''s forehead. A coiled purple beam shot out, drilling through the head scientist''s head. Then, Machine Mind''s head disintegrated, destroyed by Aldrich''s [Anti-Life Beam]. The rest of Machine Mind''s broken, crushed body crumbled away soon afterward, facing instant death. "Y''know, you said you were gonna bring em'' back," said Clint, watching the dust flecks of what was once Machine Mind disintegrate into nothingness. "And there are a few corpses. But most of em'' were turned into mush. They were broken down atom by atom and mixed into the rubble like some kinda fucked up soup. There ain''t anything left to bring back." "I thought the same once." Aldrich had to acknowledge that one of his weaknesses was that he could not bring back corpses that had been utterly destroyed. At that point, both their souls and their bodies faded away. It was a primary way to bnce necromancers in Elden World. By having hard timers on what they could raise, it prevented them from scavenging corpses too freely. But Aldrich''s Boundary broke through that. It was, after all, an ability unique to him, unbound by any game mechanics. "But now I know what I can do." Aldrich chanted words he had never said before but knew. Deep down, words he knew at the core of his being, in the center of his soul. "[Horizon East]." The long point of the shield above Aldrich turned eastwards. The light-infused within the spiral patterning the ground grew much brighter. Particles suffused out of the pattern like a storm of snowkes. They swirled about,nding on the corpses - or what was left of them - in the area. All the flesh parts dissolved, joining the rest of the particles before gathering into several dozen clumps. The clumps expanded, forming humanoid silhouettes. Then, the silhouettes filled in, forming into a team ofb-coated men and women. They stared down at their hands in sheer wonder. Machine Mind, too, had resurrected, though he stared down at the floor in mute surprise. "Well, I''ll be damned." Clint blinked, mouth slightly agape. "Ya even brought back their clothes." "I see¡­" Aldrich nced up at the shield. It fragmented, a deep crack weaving across its surface. The shield shattered into several gleaming pieces before those faded away. Aldrich breathed out deeply, feeling lightheaded. The sheer mana cost of unsealing and keeping his Boundary active was tremendous, more than likely because it was his very first time using it. Normally, in Elden World lore, liches needed decades to develop and unseal their boundaries. Aldrich probably needed even more time because his soul was merged with Chrysa, and since she was a different being, they needed to synchronize their souls fully before they could form and unleash their Boundary. But Chrysa had severed with Aldrich, and in her ce, the power from his other self had taken root. Since it was himself, thepatibility was high, letting him unseal his Boundary immediately. It was a fortunate twist of events where Aldrich''s prison had turned into a key to unlock his Boundary. But Aldrich still needed practice with his Boundary. And more understanding of it. From what he could feel, his Boundary, called [Cycle of Life and Death], had four forms. The first was its default, called [Zenith]. It created an area where nothing could die aside from targets that Aldrich was touching. [Horizon East] allowed Aldrich to restore anyone that had died in the area, even if their bodies werepletely disintegrated. However, this did have a time limit. If the dead beings had been dead for too long - a time that Aldrich did not know exactly yet - he could not raise them. He also knew that his Boundary had two other forms. Presumably, one that represented the other two cardinal directions: west and south. But he did not know what they did, nor did he feel like he could ess them. Those woulde in time. The Death Lord''s guidance would help him with that. Thinking of her made him remember her condition. At how much it had seemingly deteriorated. He touched the left side of his head where he now sprouted one emerald-green horn. A horn that had once been hers. She was funneling her power into him bit by bit, and the more she gave, the less of her there was. Inevitably, there woulde a time when there was nothing left of her. Still a time that was quite a bit away, though. Before then, he hoped she would give him some answers. For now, though, he had more pressing matters to deal with. "All of you-," Aldrich waved his hand over the scientists. "Have lost yourb, your research, and your lives. But I have given you your lives back. And in return, all I ask is that you continue your work. Not for the Trident. But for me." Chapter 425 Swords "Working for you?" A scientist stared up at Aldrich. Outside of her hazmat suit, her features were clearly visible. She had shoulder-length purple-tinted hair and gleamingvender eyes. A young girl, around Aldrich''s own age. Though, not that surprising. With Alters popping up with superhuman intelligence, it was less and less surprising to see young people in higher and higher research-rted positions. The scientist pointed to the rubble around her. The remnants of the enormous undergroundb that once was. "But our wholeb''s trashed. Everything we''ve worked for is all gone." "Be quiet!" another scientist patted her shoulder. "He saved us! Be grateful and keep your head down for now!" "No." The girl shook the other scientist off of her. "We were so close! So close to finding out everything! The secret to energy beyond possibility! Beyond the chains of Alter powers! And now-now it''s all gone! Without the ring, there IS no research!" "Listen to him." Machine Mind spoke for the first time. They all turned their heads to listen to him, showing the deference that had been drilled into them from years of working together in the past. "I say this now as your team leader and an affiliate of the Trident. All of you arepromised. We were made targets the moment we came back under Thanatos''s power." "What do you mean?" said the girl. She stared barely concealed daggers at Machine Mind. "You know, you''re the reason this all happened in the first ce. I don''t know why that guy was after you, but if you hadn''t done whatever you''d done, this would''ve never happened." "No. But what is done is done," said Machine Mind. "All that remains now is what will be. If you value your research, you will continue on with this man." "He''s right," said Aldrich. "If your research is most important to you, then I am the only chance you all have got. And make no mistake, though I am generous enough to give you a second chance, I will not hesitate to take it away if my hand is forced. And besides, you have not lost everything." Aldrich raised his hand and showed the scientists the back of his palm. The blue branch shone brightly against the ck of his gauntlet. "The ring''s energy signature...but how?" began the girl. "I trust that this is proof enough that your research is salvageable. We will speak on this matter moreter." The way Aldrich ended his words made it very clear that he would not tolerate more talking back. Not really because of ack of patience but more because there was a more pressing matter at hand. ''Enemies inbound'' stated Vntis telepathically. Three energy signatures. However, all of these three are formidable. Among the most powerful of foes you have faced so far.'' ''Understood. Keep their energy signatures tracked on my minimap,'' said Aldrich. At the corner of Aldrich''s vision, a rough map formed of his surroundings, and there, in the air, several blinking red dots started to creep forwards. "Clint, any way you can take these people back to the group?" said Aldrich. "Yeah, just give me a few secs to adapt. My evolutions ain''t instant," said Clint. "But ya sure you''ll be fine up there? Cause I''m sensin'' some tough as-nails guysin'' down on us." "I will handle it." Aldrich would have transported them all using Chrysa, but unfortunately, she was still resting back in the Necropolis. She had not woken up from returning to this reality, and the Death Lord had advised Aldrich to keep her there for her to recover. Valera had also chosen to stay behind to take care of Chrysa. And also to find a new suit of armor from the Death Lord''s armory after getting her hound set scrapped up by the other dimension. Aldrich unfurled draconic wings from his back. They pped once, powerfully, surging him upwards into the air, past the crumbling ceiling of the bunker. He was still deep underground, at the very base of the bunker, and Ace''s rampage had thoroughly messed up any proper exit out to the surface. He thus channeled his [Anti-Life Beam] like a drill, disintegrating the rubble ahead of him until he popped out to the surface. There, on the surface, sunlight shone down on him. He basked in its light as he flew higher, hovering a dozen meters above the barren, rocky orange ground. The crackling arcs of energy characteristic of geo-storm trails were gone from the environment. And with that, the countless backed-up distress signals from theb had finally gone through. And now, within minutes, reinforcements had arrived. "Shit, finally back, huh." Ste squinted her eyes, shielding them from the bright sun as she took a look at her absent boss. "Been gone like an hour or something, but it feels like a million years." "Apologies for the inconvenience," said Aldrich. "Something came up. I''ll exin in detailter." He looked at the rest of the group, checking if they were alright. Tox, Alexis, and Ace were fine with the two girls standing beside Ace in the midst offorting him. The newbies - Falco and n - were fine, if just a bit battle worn. Especially visible on n were burn marks on the dermal ting of his arm and chest from explosives, both from enemies and from the internalbustion of his own weaponry. Diamondback stared up at Aldrich with crossed arms, as serious as ever. Beside him was Kris who stared through Aldrich with his goggles whirring and zooming in. "My daughter! Where the hell is she!?" roared a tall,vender-eyed man. His unruly, lengthy amethyst hair made him look as wild as a man could be, like a mountaintop caveman. "Your daughter?" said Aldrich. "That''s right, you corpse-loving muck!" said the man. "She was part of thebs! Where is she!?" Aldrich sensed that this man had a formidable energy level as well, but his power was being contained by a pair of null cuffs. "This screaming lunatic here is Shuten Doji. Fifth Sword," said Ste. "I see." Aldrich nodded. He had gotten here in a bit of a rush, so he was not entirely abreast of the situation. He did know, however, that it was entirely unexpected that a Sword would be here. If he knew a Sword was here, he would have sent a stronger force out here. But he could deduce that it made sense for a Sword to be here if his daughter was here. It was obvious who his daughter was too. Theb girl from before. Aside from the purple eyes, their attitudes matched too. "She''s fine and currently under Clint''s protection," said Aldrich. The fifth Sword''s expression softened. "But make sure to keep this in mind: she''s alive because I resurrected her. I hope I don''t have to exin the implications of what that means." The fifth sword looked stunned, then grimaced. He did not say anything back because he already knew. Aldrich had full control over whether his daughter lived or not. "Your absence? Can you exin it?" said Diamondback. "Well, doesn''t look like we''re gonna be getting time for a nice coffee chit-chat anytime soon." Ste''s eyes shed bright orange as she spied the skies. Aldrich looked back where he saw the three energy signatures Vntis pointed out from before. "Shit...," said Kris, focusing fully on his goggles now. "Those are the first, second, and third Swords." Chapter 426 The Monk Aldrich looked up. Hidden under the sun''s shining form were three individuals. The three swords. ''Adjusting vision topensate for blinding,'' stated Vntis, and Aldrich''s red tinted helm sight darkened, filtering out the sunlight to make the three swords clearer than just blurry sun-speckled dots. One was a huge brute of a man, bigger even than Shuten Doji. His size was enough to make it hard to tell if he was a Mutant or not, right at the cusp between having an Alter power made to make you big or just having Alter cell blessed height gics. He showed off his building lifitng physique with a tight fitting white tanktop and ck military trousers, though both were probably Alterweave clothes specifically fitted to his powers and durability. There was a bit of a wild mountain lion style about him with a mane of ragged ck hair that reached down to his mid-back in a clumpy, untamed curtain. He looked human aside from his eyes which were just two shining white points, eerie in theirck of pupil-formed expression. Another was a woman who radiated an aura of ice both literally and stylistically. Her skin was porcin pale, covered in a white haori slightly tinged with frosty blue. The loose fitting, robe-like fabric swayed like they were being carried by a gentle breeze, though there was no breeze to talk about in this arid desert biome. Her hair was snow white and side swept, falling below her shoulders like a curtain of fallen winter. Her pupils shed a crystalline blue in the shape of snowkes. She wielded a naginata made of what looked like pure ice, beautiful in its artistry like a sculpture. A scultpture-esque beauty that embodied her, too. Between them was a much more unassuming figure. A short man with a back slightly hunched by age. It was hard to tell his build as he was garbed in what looked like a Buddhist monk''s robes, though instead of the traditional orange and red it was ck and white. No matter what, though, he could not have been a physical specimen like the bulked up shirtless sword next to him. A ne of wooden beadsy wreathed around his neck, granting him an air of ancient wisdom entuated by the fact that he kept his face hidden under a red mask depicting an expressive, angry demon with a long, red nose - a tengu. Two ck cybeic wings jutted out from his shoulders, letting him hover with what was probably anti-gravity technology. Aldrich could identify each of them. Everyone in the Underworld worth their weight knew. The old man was Monk, the First Sword. The giant was Otakemaru, second sword. And finally, the woman was Yuki, the third sword. Together, they formed the triple core of the Seven Swords. Legends whose names were whispered in fear and awe. Mercenaries that not even the average S ranker would want to mess around with. "They''re alone," noted Aldrich. He scrutinized them further and understood. "I see. There''s small spatial distortions behind them. They warped in here. And judging by the looks of it, they''ve decided all they needed was themselves." "Why are they here?" Ste shoved her elbow against Shuten Doji''s chest. She barely reached up to his corbone, so he looked down at her with a dismissive stare. "Why not? We Swords have honor. We never leave any of us behind. Of course they woulde for me," said Shuten Doji. "Are you here for a fight?" Aldrich said, his voice projecting outwards in powerful peals. He did not have his army of undead with him, but he did have his bell. In there, there were still five hundred souls he could materialize as temporary undead. The three swords hovered down, stopping when they were level with Aldrich. "So you are the shinigami," said Monk, looking Aldrich up and down. His voice was filtered through his mask with a mechanical rasp, but it was still easy to tell it belonged to an old man. From what Aldrich knew with his limited research, Monk was also one of the very few Alters that had been active all the way from the Altering. A man over a hundred and twenty years old who had survived through multiple world changing catastrophes. "Answer my question." Aldrich did not look at either Yuki or Otakemaru. He kept his dot eye fixed on Monk. Monk was the leader. And, despite having a lower total energy level than the second and third swords due to his age, he still radiated the most dangerous aura. "You have destroyed theboratory. There was much research in there of great worth." "The Trident has put a multi-million credit bounty on one of my most trusted partners. I took that as a casus belli severe enough to warrant a response." "That is reasonable." Monk nodded stiffly. "And we care little of thesebs. They are the Italian Prong''s property. What we care for is him" Monk pointed at Shuten Doji. His hand unfurled from his lengthy sleeve, showing that it was entirely cybeic, all metal and wiring. "My prisoner." Aldrich emphasized the word ''my''. "Your prisoner," repeated Monk, calm. Unperturbed. Like Z, 22, and Emrys, Monk was one of few individuals that Aldrich could read little to nothing about from their mannerisms. Monk''s face was covered, but his bodynguage and voice were also controlled to give away nothing, honed to a stillness reminiscent of a great mountain that withstood eons of pressure from winds and waves. Ace and Ste flew up, standing behind Aldrich on either side of him. Ace faced Otakemaru. Ste faced Yuki. Yuki narrowed her eyes at Ste before tilting her head away, as if to say that Ste was not worth her time. Otakemaru looked at Ace with his dead white eyes, breathing deep with a bestial rumble that sounded like a powerful engine. There did not seem to be much thought in the man. He looked and felt more like a leashed beast than a thinking man. "It is our principle to never leave a Sword behind," said Monk, breaking the tense silence. "Whether that principle will lead to violence is a decision that is yours to make, Shinigami." Shinigami. Was that what the people in Japan were calling Aldrich? A reaper of souls. It was fitting, at least. "But does your Sword want to leave?" said Aldrich. He projected his voice downwards, toward Shuten Doji. "Your Swords havee for you. Honorably. But are you willing to leave something of yours behind for your freedom?" "I will stay," said Shuten Doji with zero hesitation. With that, Aldrich knew that Shuten Doji''s daughter meant the world to him. She could be used as leverage. "No, you will not," said Monk. "You wille with us. That much is decided." "They have my daughter!" shouted Shuten Doji. "I must stay to protect her!" "You wille with us," repeated Monk, and that was all he said. "Or else. I see. It looks like conflict will be inevitable." Aldrich materialized his [Frosthallowed War Scythe], holding it one of his hands. Yuki raised a brow at his scythe in interest. "Not inevitable. Never inevitable." Monk motioned to Shuten Doji. "We will take him. That act does not have to include violence." "You''re asking us to just give him up for free?" said Ste. "One of your best damn soldiers?" "I am asking you to consider your options carefully." "What will we get in return?" said Aldrich. "My goodwill," said Monk. "And is that worth anything?" "More than you believe." Chapter 427 Split ''More than I think?'' Aldrich rolled Monk''s cryptic words over in his head. At face value, they offered nothing. Promise never backed gratitude. It was the character of the man behind the gratitude that backed it. The only issue here was that he knew very little about Monk''s character. It was the level of secrecy that the Seven Swords operated on. They, unlike most mercenary groups, basically only did jobs for the Trident, limiting the amount of information avable on their exploits. On top of that, they personally took very few jobs, moving only when they needed to. And when they moved, they made sure there were no survivors. Their operations were tight. Clean. Efficient. Deadly. At least it looked like they operated on some form of honor with how Shuten Doji was absolutely confident that the rest of the swords would never give up on him. "You!" A deep voice echoed across the barren, sun-scorched ins. Clint''s voice. Aldrich turned his head to see Clint hovering in the air, holding a giant cube construct of red energy atop his palm. Inside, Vntis projected the outlines of several humanoids. Theb team. Clint had sessfully retrieved them by adapting some form of energy constructability. Clint''s eyes, normally dull red, now shed with barely concealed anger. Anger directed not at the second or third swords, but straight at Monk, the first sword. Right. There was a history between Clint and the swords. Deep, painful history. History that had gotten Clint''s wife and infant son killed. History that had gotten two out of seven swords killed. A wife and a child for two swords a€" an equivalent exchange forged in blood. The details, Aldrich had never probed. Nor would he have wanted to. It was Clint''s personal history and he respected that. "You''re showin'' yer face!? When ya know I''m here!? Forgot about me already!?" Clint roared. Rage red against his usual calm, his usual levity. It was a stark contrast that Ste, Ace, and the rest of Aldrich''s group were stunned to silence. Clint''s arm moved back a little, readying to toss the cube containing theb members straight down. He was still high in the air, high enough that the drop would not be pleasant, to say the very least. They would not die considering they were undead, but there would be more than a few broken bones and crushed organs. "No! Emi!" Shuten Doji shouted, his arms straining against his restraints. It was a testament to the fifth sword''s natural strength that the null shackles actually creaked and cracked. Diamondback immediately held a crystal-ded arm to Shuten Doji''s neck, stopping him. Alexis and Tox stood at attention. n aimed an arm rocketuncher at the sword. Falco blinked for a few seconds before stumbling into action to aim hisser gun. Clint nced at Shuten Doji, his eyes reflecting white for a moment as he read the fifth sword''s mind. Memories of the man''s daughter. He growled before hovering downwards to gentlyy the cube onto the ground. "You have learned respect, I see," Monk said, watching Clint''s disy of kindness. That lit a fuse in Clint. That barely held-back anger a€" anger locked down by years of meditation and reflection a€" broke out like an unchained beast. He immediately adapted thrusters on his draconic wings that sputtered trails of blue me exhaust, shooting him right at Monk like a human missile. And a human missile he was. Clint had his fist outstretched, and it was encased in a bright red and orange glow charged with explosive energy. Clint moved so fast that Aldrich had trouble reacting. Aldrich instinctively flew backward using his cloak. Ace did too, but Ste was a little slower in reacting, so Aldrich grabbed her by the shoulder to pull her back, out of harm''s way. By the time Aldrich was a few meters away from Monk, he noticed something. Yuki and Otakemaru did not react at all. Not because they could not a€" no, he could see in their eyes that they knew what wasing. Whether they could fend against this attack or not was up in the air, but the fact that they did not move meant they were absolutely confident in their positions. Aldrich saw what happened next. It was a slight, almost imperceptible movement on Monk''s part. The old man simply straightened a palm in a half prayer. A small, almost invisible ripple distorted space around the Monk''s cybeic, metal hand. In the next moment, Clint was split in half, vertically down from his corbone to his navel. He seemed to expect this, though. His expression did not change, staying serious, staying angry even as one half of his body a€" the one with his head still on it a€" reached out to grab his other half and attached it back to himself. The blood-tinged red line that separated Clint faded away as his body became whole again. "Holy shit," Ste whispered under her breath. "Clint got gut like a fish. Just like that." "...Should I try to call it back? That power?" said Ace as he clenched his fists, no doubt thinking back to the power of the blue ring. His fists began to shake in exertion. Being undead gave him infinite stamina, but that only extended to his physical abilities. Just like how being undead did not stop Aldrich from running out of mana, it also did not stop undead Alters from running out of energy to fuel their abilities. "Hold." Aldrich raised a hand when he saw that Clint had stopped, evidently taking getting split in half as a good enough deterrent to stay put for a bit. Monk and the other two swords did not make a move either, indicating that they did not want to engage in any wanton aggression. "You seek vengeance, Clint?" said Monk. "The hell do ya think?" Clint replied with venom. Tough, skin-colored tes began to cover him like armor, but the way he had been cut down - instantly, with no resistance - made it very clear that hard skin alone would not do the trick against Monk''s power. "I understand." Monk''s epting answer made Clint raise his head for a questioning moment. "You slew two of my swords, my children. I took two close to you. But the score, as you here say it, is not settled. Two for two. No winner. Now, after many years, you seek to win. To hold a point over me in this game. To that end, you have allied yourself with the shinigami. You seek to attack ckwater where you will force us to its defense." Clint red at Monk. "So what?" Monk nodded slowly. "Tell me, Clint, would you be satisfied killing me? Would that let you ''win?''" Clint also nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah I would be." "As I thought." Monk put his hands together in a praying motion. For a tense moment, Aldrich prepared to defend himself, suspecting an attack. But it was just a motion, a solemn gesture. "Then hear me, Thanatos, Clint. Release my child, and I will ensure that none of my others will be at ckwater." "And you?" said Aldrich. Monk held his prayer-touched hands out to Clint. He bowed his head. "Honor dictates that the swords defend those who draw us. Honor dictates that I and that man see this game of swapped lives end between us. So, I alone shall be there." Chapter 428 Sheathed Aldrich assessed the situation. There were two ways to approach this. First was direct conflict. Take out three swords here and now. No, four counting Shuten Doji. The second was to ept the first sword''s offer. The first choice was tempting in its own right. It would heavily cripple the swords if, of course, Aldrich and his current group managed to beat them. That alone was a massive if. He had too little information on the battle capabilities of the three swords, and they were the strongest out of the seven. The first sword''s disy of power was a deterrent enough. He had instantly sliced Clint in half with little to no effort. Clint, a man so tough that he was called the Unbreakable. That was offensive power that Aldrich had never encountered before. The attack was lightning fast, too, extremely difficult to react to even for Aldrich. Had Vntis not been amplifying Aldrich''s reaction time, even he would have not been able to deal with it. Granted, slicing attacks were not that effective against undead. But it was impossible to tell whether the first hand had more powers or not. Eliminating the swords here also meant more troubleter on. It would weaken them, but it would not destroy them given the swords'' reputations for being diehard fighters with a battle forged code of honor. It was very likely the remaining swords would fight harder than ever before, and all of them were capable threats, even the remaining fourth, six, and seventh swords. Technically speaking, if Aldrich wanted the path of least resistance, then fighting one sword was better than three enraged ones, even if said sword was the first and strongest. The best way to defeat an experienced and aged Alter was to run them out of energy, and that was done better in a sustained siege. The second option meant that in exchange for Shuten Doji, Aldrich would only face the first hand at ckwater. By now, it was fairly obvious what Aldrich, or rather Thanatos, was after: the Machineheart. It was a three-way war between Aldrich, A.I.I., and the Italian and Japanese Prongs entrenched in ckwater. Both enemy forces were extremely formidable. One was a deranged demon merged with a fragment of the greatest cyberspace entity in existence. The other was arguably the most well-resourced criminal syndicate in the world, and defenders always had the homefield advantage. Weakening any of these forces was a tremendous advantage. Aldrich had no way to take A.I.I. out a€" the demon maintained far too much secrecy for that. But if Aldrich took the swords out of the equation, then he estimated he would easily take out a huge chunk of ckwater defenses, especially with the Kryptic warding off Solomon Sr. That just left mercenaries and Italian Prong forces to deal with, and Aldrich had a n to thin out both of them before the fight already. The decision was fairly obvious in Aldrich''s mind. What mattered was if he trusted the first sword''s words, and that, he had no real answer to. However, there was someone here who knew the first sword better than he did. "Clint," said Aldrich. Clint perked his head up. "Do you think the first sword here will keep his word? You know him better than I do. Better than all of us do." "You would dare to question grandfather''s honor!?" said Yuki. She clutched her naginata tight in her porcin white hands. The temperature of the hot Wastnds air turned into a chilling freeze in an instant. Monk raised his hand to stop her. "Stop, my child." "Old shit''s a cruel fucker. But he don''t lie. I''ll give him that," said Clint. "And you, Clint, are you fine with setting your fight aside for now?" asked Aldrich. "I''d love to smash his masked head in now, but I can hold off. I don''t got as much a quarrel with the rest of em''." "Then it''s done. I will allow this exchange to happen." Aldrich motioned down at Shuten Doji, sending a mentalmand to bring him up. Alexis did so, grabbing therge man by the shoulder and heaving him up with her flight. "My child. I am d to see you are unharmed." Monk held prayered hands toward Shuten Doji. "Seen better days." Shuten Doji grunted, bruises marking his body from the fight he had taken before with Clint. "I give you your fifth sword, and you''lle alone," said Aldrich. "That is the terms of our negotiation," said Monk. "But I do have one more request." "Somethin'' else? Don''t be adding on anymore to our fight, Monk," said Clint. "Not like that. I have resolved myself and only myself to the fight." Monk pointed at Shuten Doji. "I merely request that my child''s daughter is held to safety. That no harm fall upon her until the time of my passing. Whether that be soon-," Monk nced at Clint. "Or far in the future." "I''ll agree to that," said Aldrich. He looked to Clint to see if he was fine with this, and Clint nodded slightly. "But only if you can promise that there will be no retribution from your other children afterwards." Clint had vengeance in his mind, but he was not and never had been a cruel man. Aldrich could tell there was a part of Clint that could empathize with Shuten Doji''s bond with his daughter. "Of course." Monk nodded. Aldrich waved at Alexis, and she shoved Shuten Doji forward. Before the big man could fall, Otakemaru reached out and grabbed him with one brawny hand. "With this, the exchange ispleted. You have your child. I''ll see you and only you at ckwater," said Aldrich. "I will see you too, Shinigami. I have always wondered what it was like to see the face of death," said Monk. "And? How is it?" said Aldrich. Monk let loose a single, curtugh. "Cold," was all he said. Otakemaru curled his fingers, and from them, bright white ws grew out, savage and feral like that of a wild beast''s. He swiped at the space behind him, ripping seams in the space. Through these, the swords disappeared. Chapter 429 Blackwater Plans 40th Floor of Haven Control Tower, Main Meeting Room Aldrich sat at a round table in his Materius human form with his soulwoven suit on. The fortieth floor of Haven Control Tower was normally his office space, but in times of need, the office could undergo a ''Priority Meeting Mode'' that sent alerts to any important personnel in the tower. It also folded his desk underneath the floor and raised up arge round table of segmented metal. Valera stood beside Aldrich with her arms crossed. She was now outfitted with a new armor set from the Death Lord''s personal collection after her original hound set had been destroyed by what Aldrich called the ''other dimension''. Her new armor was wildly different in style. And wild was a good way to put it. Instead of the heavyset full te that covered herpletely from head to toe, she had on a strip of ck-scaled leather that mostly just covered her chest, leaving her muscled stomach bare. It attached to a single shoulder strap on her right shoulder, and that formed the beginning of a series of rocky armor ting that stretched down to her fingers as if her whole arm was encased in form-fitting, craggy stone. The visage of a fiercely open-mouthed dragon with a wide, snapping turtle-like jaw and a single stgmite-like horn fashioned from stone formed a shoulder te atop the strap. That was a Mountain Dragon a€" a formidable draconic creature that did not take to the skies but instead slept under mountains, iming entire ranges of them as territory. It was said that where winged dragons breathed elemental force, mountain dragons roved under the earth, their breath sundering earth into great caverns and tunnels. A war skirt of simrly scaled material draped down from her waist to just below her knees, exposing her shins before meeting greaves made of what looked like ckened, jagged stone. The armor set as a whole was reminiscent of diatorial armor, fierce in its simple hardiness. This was the Mountain Breaker Set. One that dramatically improved strength and, in spite of its revealing appearance, defense as well. The perks of having magical armor a€" you could show off skin and still be protected at the same time. It had a powerful passive called ''Ancient Stoneskin'' that reduced the damage of sufficiently weak attacks to zero. More powerful attacks had their damage reduced by up to 50%, though the stronger an attack was, the less effective the damage resistance was. Melee attacks made on the wearer also reflected some damage and stun back as well. For a tank, it was one of the best sets out there, and a tank Valera most definitely was. On top of that, the stony scale-covered arm could store mitigated damage, empowering its strength through mighty punches that could shatter the earth. In the lore, the Earth Shaping that Vntis and other strong orcs could use was derived from Mountain Dragons that shared their power with the orcs long ago. ''There is nothing more arousing than blood stained upon the bare skin of a fierce lover,'' the Death Lord had said when she gifted Valera the armor. ''I wore this armor when I decided to amuse myself a little in the Battle Ring of Kazir. Hundreds, no, thousands fell in love with my blood-drenched ferocity and, of course, my killer figure. It shall be the same now for you.'' Valera had protested of course, but Aldrich was not about to let her pass up a perfectly good armor set just like that, and so she had ended up having to wear it. She had misinterpreted that as him wanting to see her in it, but because she thought that, she now wore the armor withoutints. A win-win situation. And Aldrich did not mind seeing her in that either, admittedly. The others around the table were Fler''Gan, the Geist, V, and Feather. "Looks like we''re all here," said Aldrich. He nced behind himself. The ss wall started to cken as metal covering slid over it, fortifying the already heavily fortified bulletproof, explosive-proof ss. As sunlight shut out and the room began to darken, the round table lit up with holographic blue, projecting a rotating hourss a€" a symbol for it waiting to be programmed into something else. "First off, I''ve got to say-," said V. She put her feet up on the table and shot a scrutinizing look at Valera. "I love the new outfit. It''s got a fantasy barbarian ss typa look to it. Kind of suits you. In a good way." "Our leader likes it too. And so long as he does, I do as well," said Valera. "Do you? That''s your type? Warrior woman style?" V raised a curious brow at Aldrich. "Let''s move on from this topic." Aldrich waved his hand. He nodded over to Fler''Gan. "First off, how is she doing?" "She?" Fler''Gan cocked his head. "The shark-girl." "Ah, that one. She has fully recovered and suffers no ill effects from bing undead. It is quite fortunate that the mechanism that aided her breathing had its own power supply. A supply thatsted long enough for your return." "Yes." Aldrich had turned Hammerhead''s daughter the moment he had returned from the Necropolis. He had spawned back in at Hammerhead''s mansion approximately five hourster, and perhaps due to its remote wilderness location, perhaps because of Hammerhead''s fondness for discreet istion for his daughter''s safety, there was still nobody there. He found Hammerhead''s daughter on herst breaths. Her condition was bad enough that there was no way to keep her alive long enough to get her back to Haven. So, he had killed her and raised her as an undead. The process had, with his healing mist, restored her brain back to its state before her lung and gill-rted ident had asphyxiated it. It also allowed her to breathe freely, though technically it was because as an undead, she did not need any form of oxygen to function. "She is in healthy condition and housed in a residential room," said Fler''Gan. "However, though her physical condition does seem to be whole, I sense waves of disruption emanating from her mind. Emotions of anguish and despondence a€" thoroughly bitter emotions to taste for a Mind Eater such as myself. She above all seeks to be alone for the time being." "Let''s give her the time she needs. The shock of waking up after years of dreaming must have taken its toll on her. As did waking up to everything she knew dead and gone." "That does interest me, O Elder. Your disappearance that you say was caused by being submerged in a realm far separated from our axis a€" I do wish to investigate it further." "Do not speak more of it," said Valera. "You know not what our leader has lost and suffered through it." Aldrich shook his head. "It''s fine. One of the perks of being undead: you move on easily. But you don''t forget the lessons you learned, and in the end, that''s all that matters. Let''s move on to our ns for ckwater." Chapter 430 Blackwater Plans 2 Chapter 430 ckwater ns 2 n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Before we delve into specific strategies, I would like to ask something regarding the goal for our campaign on ckwater," said Valera. "Our goal has and always been the Machineheart," said Aldrich. "Once we have that, we have enough leverage to be a global superpower." "I understand, but what of the revtion that the schrs we captured spoke of?" "The Blue Ring?" Aldrich contemted this for a moment. He had taken the Meteor Labs team and was housing them in the tower. At the moment, he did not have the resources to get them back to work. Aarav needed to ship a wholeboratory over before any real work could happen. But he had grilled Machinemind and the team about the strange artifact they called the ''Blue Ring''. ording to them, the ring manifested on the seventeen years ago when the passive barrier around the earth unraveled for a moment and other alien artifacts and influences managed to slip into earth. Among the myriad of exotic objects the Severing brought to earth, the ring was arguably the most important as it had the remarkable ability to control matter. Ace had exhibited some level of the ring''s power, merging it with his tactile telekinesis to unravel objects at the atomic level. Coincidentally, it apparently was how Superforce, the current rank 1 hero after Vanguard''s disappearance, received his powers. Before the Trident took the ring, it was under lock and key by the U.S. government. Superforce was a researcher under them, but an errant experiment had caused the ring to generate an explosive wave that razed the entire facility that housed it, killing all but Superforce who rose again with unfathomable powers. The ring was seemingly lost, but after a few years, re-emerged in the deep east coast Wastnds where the Trident was the first to grab it. The issue, however, was that the ring was fickle. If it was not ''stable'' enough, it entered a dormant state where it refused to emit any energy as if it had an independent will. To try and attract the best of the best to reveal the ring''s secrets, the Trident had branded the ring as a way to generate not only infinite energy, but give mankind control over the fundamental forces of creation. Lured by such a grand vision, many esteemed scientists flocked to thebs even though they knew it was funded by less than ethical means. Progress working on the ring, however, was painfully slow. Even after nine years, the ring refused to share any of its secrets. That is, to everyone except Machine Mind. To Machine Mind and to him only did it whisper its powers, telling him, apparently, to create a perfect being worthy of being blessed by the ''Outer''. Hence his cloning experiments using the illicitly taken DNA of Superforce - the only human who had ever merged with the blue ring''s power and lived. Which meant that Ace was in reality a clone of the current top hero in the U.S. When Aldrich tried to press Machine Mind further about the Outer, the scientist could do little more than babble cryptic incoherencies. When Aldrich tried to forcibly invade the man''s mind using his authority as his lich, he faced an odd mental block. Or rather, he hit just nk space, as if these words and memories were not Machine Mind''s but someone else''s, someone who Aldrich had no authority over. "Machine Mind''s told me all there is about what he knows is holed up in ckwater," said Aldrich. "And there''s nothing rted to unlocking the secrets of the ring. If there was, the Trident would''ve used it years ago. As it stands now, the ring''s been in their study for almost a decade with near zero results." "What of Ace? The boy uses the ring''s power, supposedly," said Valera. "He is under my current study," said Fler''Gan. "I am utilizing alchemy and scrying in an attempt to understand the nature of the power imbued in his body. As of now, I cannot yield any results." "Regardless, the ring is something we can sit on and crack openter. Especially since it''s currently now within me." Aldrich raised his hand. On the back of it, a blue branch glowed. He could not actually use the ring''s power. It seemed that the tree symbol on his hand was more like storage that kept the ring contained rather than something that channeled it into a useful form. But he could remove the ring and have it be under study again when he felt like it. For now, though, with no equipment avable, he felt it best to keep it on his person for safety''s sake. "The Machineheart is the only real objective we have here," finished Aldrich. He nodded to V. V''s eyes shed blue as she changed the table hologram again. This time, it showed a diagram of the Machineheart. It was a cube shaped piece of metal approximately the size of a basketball. Red lines criss-crossed over its surface, gleaming and dimming in a rhythmic, heartbeat-like pattern. "The Machineheart. Ancient artifact way back from the Altering. It''s theorized to be the ''heart'' of the Omega Mind that went full Terminator on earth in 2030. It''s the form it chose to show people whenever it interacted with them. Just a floating, ominous cube," said V. "It''s said to be the most data-energy dense construct that has and will ever exist on this." "Can you merge with it?" asked Aldrich. "I''ll be honest here: I''m not too sure," said V. She licked her lips in equal parts nervousness and excitement. "But I gotta say, thinking of all that data, all that energy just coursing through me, in me, on my fingertips - man, I''d atleast like to try." Aldrich raised a brow. "That''s not entirely reassuring." "Rx, boss. The Italian Prong wanted to get Mad Jack to fuse with it. If he can do it, I can do it. I''m not entirely at his level, but I''m close enough where I''m rtively confident I can do it. Even if I can''t, we can just take the cube and keep it with us, right?" "Yes." Aldrich nodded. "And about Mad Jack: any information about his location?" V shook her head. "Nada. Crazy bastard''s been offline for a while now. Kinda scared. Either he''s cooking something insane up or he''s dead. But I highly doubt he''s going to be against us. Internal data from Feather''s shown that the Italian Prong doesn''t know where Mad Jack is either. Apparently they parted on less than good terms. It''s part of the reason why A.I.I. managed to wreak havoc on dozens of Italian Prong operations across Europe and North America." "And A.I.I.? Any notice about his movements?" V waved her hand, putting the holographic cube to the side and bringing up a map of the east coast of the U.S. She highlighted several blue dots above where ckwater was, a few hundred miles out. "A.I.I.''s been moving his bots down slowly but steadily from north to south, wiping out any Trident outposts he finds in his way. By the time we start our operation on Sunday, A.I.I. will be in position outside ckwater." "What of this creature''s battle capabilities?" said Valera. "Have you learned anything?" "All his bots are like ghosts. They phase in, wreck face, then phase out," said V. "The aftermath of the attacks on the Trident suggest cryo-weapons and top-notch stealth tech which, now I know, is partly magic based." "Ah, it will be glorious to secure samples of these mechanical specimen," said Fler''Gan, rubbing hisvender hands together. "I have yet to break the merger between technology and magic. But with their samples, that breakthrough is one reverse-engineering away." "It''ll be high on our priority list," said Aldrich. "Concerning." Valera frowned. "The frost bolts and invisibility we already know of. Surely an enemy of this caliber has more. Might we not strike now? Before these golems can set perimeter around ckwater?" "Then we have to run into Solomon Sr. He stays in ckwater 24/7 with his mistress, the headmaster of the academy. The only time he''ll be gone is Sunday, and that''s when we can make our attack," said Aldrich. "But the Kryptic we took should eliminate this foe, no?" "We need to apply it first, and if Solomon is on guard from an attack he knows ising, that gets very, very difficult. I have a n to cripple him when he goes to his mandatory meeting with the AA, when he''s all alone." "And what of Fafnir? The dragon-shifter that, from what I know, is quite a fiercesome beast." "Yeah. He along with Monk and some Sword Capos are the strongest threats. But it''s a good thing we''re going to be getting rid of two out of those three threats." Valera smiled in glee. "Ah, I knew you had something in store, my dear. Does this involve gratuitous amounts of violence, preferably inflicted by us?" Aldrich nodded. "It does." Valera''s fangs gleamed. "Excellent." "Who are you guys thinking of whacking?" said Feather, interested, slight grin on his face. "Hopefully the Sword Capos. Most of them are arrogant bastards. Idiot jocks, the whole bunch of em''." "The Sword Capos and Fafnir," said Aldrich. "Courtesy of your assistance, Feather." Feather blinked. "Huh, me? How?" Aldrich nodded to Fler''Gan, and Fler''Gan sensed Aldrich''s intentions, his three red eyes shining with anticipation. "To begin with, we''ll have to cut you into pieces." Chapter 431 Blackwater Plans 3 Chapter 431 ckwater ns 3 "Interesting ¨C wait, what?" Feather''s eyes blinked several times. "You don''t mean that, do you?" He looked at Aldrich''s stare, a look that had no room for a joke behind it, and then at Fler''Gan''s highly inquisitive, highly ready to cut into flesh gaze and knew that Aldrich meant everything he said. "Yes," confirmed Aldrich. "Fler''Gan''s done some tests on you while you were telepathically sedated. It''s given me some good insight into the full extent of your powers, and to be honest, I''m rather impressed. You can regenerate from even a drop of blood as long as some part of you remains." "Wait, you''ve been doing what to me now while I was asleep?" Feather stared at Fler''Gan as if he had shoved a knife in his back and indeed, the Mind Eater had. And much more. "Necessary experimentations," said Fler''Gan, waving away Feather''s look. "You are an infinitely renewable source of Alter biomass. Your Alter Organ, in particr, provided me exceptional insight into its structure through repeated dissections and-," "Alright, alright, I''m about to vomit over here, so let''s cut this out," said Feather. He shrugged, epting his fate. "Least I was knocked out for all of it. Anyways, what do you need my little bits for?" "V, pull up a map of ckwater and its surroundings," said Aldrich. "Here we go." V''s eyes shed blue and in an instant, the holotable projected arge map showing ckwater as a walledpound surrounded byrge stretches of forest with a massiveke nestled beside it. There''s going to be a dropoff of ARMA, Imugi, and Aztech weaponry, drones, and droids. Top shelf stuff." "Yeah. Italian Trident is pulling out all the stops on this. Emptying the coffers, ya know?" said Feather. "Dropoff will be done through the air." "Air? The Panopticon won''t be keeping an eye on this? It is their job to manage airspace after all," said Aldrich. Feather scoffed. "You and I and everyone else whose seen the streets knows that rules only matter to some. Shit don''t matter to the megacorps, I''ll tell you that." Aldrich nodded. Perhaps it was his time in the other utopian world that had made him gloss over the harsh reality that this one had corruption leeched into every little crevice of its broken edges. It was a world he was very close to changing. Once he got the Machineheart, it would bend under his will. N?v(el)B\\jnn Then, he could unite mankind. Then, he could send them away from earth and the Voice, to the faraway stars full of infinite possibility and hope. "Italians managed to get stuff from the best of the best like this?" said V. "Surprising. They''re criminal bigshots, but even the biggest of the baddies are a grade below the megacorps. Megs would hesitate sending anything easily, but this is a huge shipment. A whole fleet of Jaguars, Cyclops, and even a freaking Stalker." As V spoke, diagrams of the bots she mentioned popped up. The bulky, tank-like design of the Cyclops, the four legged feline forms of the Jaguars, and the ck visored, katana wielding figure of the Stalker all rotated around slowly. V listed off the names of battle droids - humanoid mechs hand crafted by multiple engineering Alters to be avatars of war capable f standing toe to toe with even the toughest heroes. The Cyclops from ARMA were the weakest of the bunch but the most mass-producible. These, Aldrich did not foresee issues dealing with. But the Jaguars from Aztech were a grade above that with their four-legged agility and state of the art vide ws capable of splitting matter at the atomic level. The Stalkers from Imugi were a notch above even that. They were deadly ninja robots with speed, strength, stealth, power, and a host of versatile weaponry said to even be able to take on a S ss hero. "The megacorp fatcats don''t know about the Machineheart. If they did, they''d be sending a hell of a lot more. Probably their own armies to boot," said Feather. "They still think it''s just a civil war gona outta control between Trident prongs, so they''re only dipping their toes into the fight. Italian prong''s convinced them that if the corps back them, once they win, they''ll be in massive debt to the corps, and you know how the corps are. Sharks, the whole lot of em''. Smell blood and they''re on your ass faster than a broke hooker." "But once the Italian prong secures the Machineheart, they''ll turn on the megacorps," noted Aldrich. "Take over their infrastructure. Their tech." Feather nodded gruffly. "Naturally." "Still, this is quite interesting." Aldrich put a hand to his chin. "I thought they''d be avoiding mechanical war power with the whole stint that A.I.I. pulled off in the Judicata." "I figure it means they''ve found a suitable recement for Mad Jack," said V. "Happen to know anything about that, mob man?" She tilted her head towards Feather. Feather scratched his scruffy beard. "Well, see about that, I was supposed to be filled in on stuff like that in my next capo meeting. Which was going to be at the convoy when it stops for a refuel in the Wastnds." "Excellent. That brings me naturally to our n: you''ll attend that meeting," said Aldrich. "You don''t happen to have any of them suspecting you, do you?" "Nah," replied Feather. "They just think I''m being extra safe holed up in a bunker somewhere. Which is precisely what I''d be doing if it wasn''t for our whole, er, kerfuffle." "Well, ''kerfuffles'' aside," said Aldrich. "If nobody is suspecting you, then this should work. You''re going to that meeting when itnds." "Oh, are you gonna put that crystal ball in me again? Look, I have nothing against going ''balls deep'' - it''s 2117 for christ''s sake - but it''d be nice to do something a little more, uh, gentle." "So manyints. Typical of you weaker willed humans," sighed Valera. "Hey, you try having that guy''s ball inside of you and tell me how it feels," said Feather, but once he saw Valera''s face light up, he just said, "Nevermind." "I won''t be risking my phctery again, especially not in the presence of that much firepower," said Aldrich. Feather nodded. "Whew, always knew you were the most reasonable one here." "What I am going to do is strap a bomb to you." Chapter 432 The Convoy 432 The Convoy Feather rubbed a palm against his face. When his hand dropped, he looked thoroughly tired. That was a step up from being surprised, though - at least the man started to understand how useful he was as a suicide bomber with that regeneration of his. "A bomb? Security on this convoy is going to be more tight-lipped than a nun," said Feather. "You''ll have one of these with you." Aldrich pointed up and an Evileye unstealthed itself, its three fused eyes bing rapidly visible in increments like someone was adjusting its opacity in a photo editor. "It''s normally quite slow moving, but it can stay tethered to any unit. Plus, it''s entirely undetectable using any form of technology that I know of. Once I do this-," He patted the back of one of the Evileye''s eyeballs, transferring the [Corpse Nova] mark on it. It was now a zing red triangr sigil, infused with more power now that Aldrich had attained significantly more power from merging with his other life. "This bes a living bomb ready tobust at my whim." By hitting level 70, Aldrich hit a point where some of his spells attained their ''true forms'' and increased in power. [Corpse Nova], for example, could now be added on to up to five targets or stacked on one. It was far more explosive in raw power and it also had an additional effect of melting the flesh of those affected by its st radius. In terms of sheer destructiveness, it always had been and now more than ever was one of his most prominent spells. The Evileye floated over to Feather andtched one of its tendrils on the base of Feather''s neck. "Guess I''m used to slimy crap all over me at this point." Feather shrugged in defeat. "The Evileye also grants you Truesight, which will be particrly useful considering A.I.I.''s magic based stealth," continued Aldrich. "It is also a teleportation point for my [Mist Phase] so I can easily reach you when needed or, in this case, prep an ambush." Feather raised a brow. "You''reing?" "Yeah." Aldrich cracked his knuckles. "You could say I''ve received quite a bit of a power boost. I fully intend on testing it out." "You sure? Shit could get real dangerous real quick," said Feather. "Shield Capos like me are more business minds but there are two Sword Capos on there. They''re tough as tempered nails. One of em'' has killed three A-rankers already." "Even better. Valera and I will both get to flex our strengths and take out a sizable portion of the enemy''s attack force. I in particr need a test run for my new powers before I get serious on Sunday." "Excellent." Valera grinned. "I will enjoy ripping and tearing flesh by your side once more." "That''s all nice and cool but you guys do understand that once I do this, I''m outta the mob, yeah?" said Feather. "Screw breaking omerta, this goes beyond that, this is straight up bombing my goombahs. I''ll lose all my standing. They''ll be after me, every single one of em''." "What use is there for your standing? Who is going after you? After we''re done, there won''t be an Italian Prong anymore," said Aldrich coolly. "There won''t be a Trident, even. Everything will be under me. In which case, your standing will be better off than before." "Fair point." Feather perked up as the phone in the breast pocket of his tacky white and purple suit jacket started to vibrate. He slipped the phone out and tapped the screen. He let out a breath through his teeth as he scrolled through the screen. "Damn. Looks like the convoy''s making its way ahead of schedule. They''re telling me to haul ass to the drop point now." Aldrich stood up, straightening his suit jacket. "Then let''s get to it, shall we?" === In the Northeastern United States Wastnd Quadrant, known for colloquially as the ''Greenpatch'' for its lush forest environments - "Convoy inbound in thirty minutes, sir." A man decked out from head to toe inbat armor gleaming with charged red energy between its mechanical seams and joints stood at stiff postured attention. The suit was ARMA Red-Grade. Top shelf stuff. Integrated energized etherite hydraulics and synth-muscle mesh to make even the weakest pissant a multi-tonner capable of tossing boulders like baseballs. Not to mention the omni-spectrum visual scanning, smartlink aim assistance andbat maneuvering that could turn a jackbooted mafia thug into a sharpshooter and martial artist mashed into one. But even wrapped up in that grade of gear, the Italian Prong soldier could only shiver at the sight before him. There was a dead grandtusk lying in a clearing in the forest. A clearing that had been forcibly made as evidenced by the dozens of shattered tree trunks and stumps lying about. The grandtusk was a boar-like creature as big as a full-grown bull elephant with powers that included shockwave-inducing charges and tusks encased in sawde-like energy that ground anything it contacted down into dust. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om It was a B-ranked threat that could easily kill even an A-rank hero if they were caught off guard. Even with the Red-Grade suit, the soldier knew that if he tried to tousle with a grandtusk, there wouldn''t even be anything left of him to bury. "Good," said a man sitting atop the giant grandtusk corpse. He had on a garish red suit jacket with ck undershirt and dress pants. His face was lean and mean with salt and pepper hair slicked elegantly to the side in a professional side part. He looked like he should have been enjoying a martini at a members-only bar, not sitting atop a dangerous variant corpse. "I''ve also received report that Feather is en route to the base," said the soldier, looking first at the corpse, then at Nico, one of three Sword Capos that stood at the very top of thebatants in the Italian Prong. The soldier shuddered internally in fear. Nico was not known as a nice man. None of the Sword Capos were. Niceness did not get them to the top - it was brutality. "Feather? That little coward?" Nico frowned like he had seen a smear of shit on the street. "He and the other Shield Capos get to hide away while we do the real mens'' work. We''re fighting the real war, don''t you think, soldier?" "Uhm, yes sir," said the soldier, hesitant. "The soldiers are the spine of this Prong. Yet, we always get the shit end of the deal, don''t we? Fighting and bleeding while the others get to hide away. Isn''t there something wrong with that? Don''t you think the Don is wrong? But you know what, once this is over, how about we talk to the Don? Make him understand how useful we are? And if he doesn''t, well, with a new world order, we''ll need new leaders, won''t we?" The soldier did not know what to say. Nico was speaking of treason against the Don - the head of the Prong. The very thought was unspeakable. "Soldier. Why so quiet?" said Nico, leering at the soldier. Against that stare, the soldier involuntarily stepped back, his instincts telling him danger was imminent. "Do you¡­disagree with me?" "N-no, sir. I-I agree," said the soldier. "Good." Nico reached into his breast pocket and took out a single golden coin. It was not money - coin-based currencies had long since been phased out by the credit system - but more of an art piece, its face engraved lengthwise with a sword with its circumference decorated with daggers stacked atop each other. The soldier saw the coin sh gold and held up a panicked hand, but before he could say anything, Nico flicked the coin. It sped forward with speed far surpassing a bullet, so fast that there was no sound at all before a coin-sized hole sizzled in the soldier''s head. As the soldier dropped back, dead, Nico sighed. "I fucking hate traitors." He looked up to the skies. "And that includes you, Feather." Chapter 433 Infiltration 433 Infiltration Feather stepped out of his Raven, a small, personal hover tech vehicle reminiscent of a helicopter. Most of the capos owned something like this - an aerial mode of transportation that they could use to get around the world with more efficiency. Ravens were not made by any official corporation but rather by underworld mechanics and technos, designed solely for the purpose of evading governmental and AA airspace tracking. In a world where variant evolution was a constant threat,mercial flying vehicles were incredibly rare, and what the ck market could cough up they had to build small and stealthy to dodge watchful global security eyes. He adjusted his grey suit jacket, smoothing out any wrinkles. It was fine Italian Altieri fabric, the kind of ware that would take the average wage ve half a year''s worth of their sry to afford, but it did not make him feel any better about what he was doing. He nced up, seeing the Evileye''s trio of eyeballs staring down at him with an expressionless gaze. ''Fucking creepy,'' he thought before he shook his head. The Evileye might have been disconcerting, but what was even worse was meeting the other capos. Specifically the sword capos Nico and Adriana. They were both from the Aquaslums of Neo-Venice, and it showed in their tough-as-titanium attitude. With extreme weather events and environmental changes from the Altering, Venice sunk underwater. Neo-Venice was built atop the ruins of its old corpse. But over time, variant corals known as Breathbones createdrge air bubbles throughout the sunken city. There, the filth of society, the hunted, the wanted, the unforgiven - they all moved in. They started a dark society of their own, one that existed in a symbiotic rtionship with Neo-Venice. As it was, the sunken city grew another type of coral called Cryo-Coral. These produced cryogen, an ultra-rare energy source that made high-cooling technology viable, powering everything from freeze rays to cryogenic stasis. The Aquaslums quickly assumed a monopoly over cryogen and, over time, organized and took upon the image of the mob of pre-Altering antiquity. That way, they salvaged together some culture. Some refinement. Escaped criminals became soldiers and capos. The Slumlord became a Don. Neo-Venice created an unofficial peace with the Aquaslums in exchange for doing business together. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om That was how the Italian Prong actually started. But no matter how they liked to dress themselves up, the Aquaslums never changed in how dangerous they were. Bubble-Zones could pop at a moment''s notice, flooding and killing anyone within them. The main way to earn your keep down there was to be a cryogen miner, worming down into vast coral entanglements that acted like caveworks. Being a miner was like taking extreme caving to another level and then smashing it through the ceiling. You had to snake your way in through the tiniest of gaps on limited oxygen supply and zero visibility. All the while, you ran the risk of aquatic variants gobbling you up for lunch, and energy signatures from the corals disrupted quite a bit of technology, making drones difficult to use. Cryogen had to be hand-picked from the jaws of dark, murky, death-filled depths. In the Aquaslum''swless confines, childbor was the preferred method of getting this precious resource. Nico and Adriana had both grown up as miners and, when they grew too big to reliably squeeze through coral gaps, became enforcers renowned for their strength and savagery. Feather had personally killed maybe twenty people. He did not like getting his hands dirty. He was more a businessman than anything else, someone that could get almost anyone to open up to him over a round of drinks. But Nico and Adriana were different. They probably had a kill count in the several hundreds. Hell, they had probably killed twenty people by the time they were fifteen years old. Feather got his capo position because his father was a prior shield capo and had groomed Feather into the job. Feather had grown up in rtive wealth and security. In contrast, Nico and Adriana had wed their way up to the top with every little ounce of strength they had, damned be whoever they stepped atop of to get there. Feather and those two were cut frompletely different cloths that did not mesh at all. He rted more with the third sword capo Ondo who, like Feather, had been raised into his job as the personal bodyguard of the Don. At least Ondo knew some goddamn manners and how to crack a joke orugh at one. Feather did not even know if Nico and Adriana could physically even smile anymore or whether those muscles had atrophied from disuse. "Sir." Two power-armored soldiers stood at attention in front of Feather. Feather nervously nced up at the Evileye, but the soldiers did not notice it at all. "What the hell, where''s Nico and Adriana?" said Feather. "Did they forget I''m a capo? No offense to you guys, I''m sure you two are greatpany, but it''s custom for a capo to greet another capo." "Adriana is busy securing the perimeter of the base from variant threats," said a soldier. "Nico is expecting you." "Expecting me, huh? He doesn''t want to greet me here, but he wants to see me? At least let a man stretch his legs out." Feather looked ahead. His Raven hadnded on a small runway carved through the forest, and that runway attached to arge warehouse where the Trident stored shipments and supplies mostly for ckwater. Now, it was chock full of weaponry ready to hold ckwater down to the end of time and more. What worried Feather was why Nico wanted to meet him. Feather avoided Nico and Adriana and they tended to avoid him other than courtesy-based greetings, all of which had been curt. The fact that Nico requested a direct meeting with him was suspicious as high hell. "Follow us, sir." The two soldiers waited for Feather to start moving, their high-powered guns nestled alertly in their hands. It was obvious that they wanted Feather to move first to make sure he did not run anywhere. "Sure. There better be a hot meal ready for me at the base. A good vintage wine, too," said Feather as he took a step forward, towards the warehouse in the distance. "No, sir." The soldiers blocked Feather''s path. They waved their guns off the side, towards the thick, untamed forest. "Nico has also been dealing with variants. He wants you to meet him at his current location." Feather paused for a moment, his heart rate rising. He could not have brought his mercenaries here as there was a no-weapons policy. Plus they were undead so they could not pass through any bio scan for regr body temperatures and bodily functions. It was why he was not undead - to pass any checks to infiltrate this ce. He felt as naked and defenseless as a newborn baby. ''Hey, you watching this shit? This stinks of a whacking'' Feather said mentally, hoping Aldrich would hear him. ''I''m watching closely.'' Aldrich''s voice came in a calm reply. ''Then what do you want me to do!?''ined Feather. ''Nico''s gonna put me into the dirt! Shit, does he know something''s off!?'' ''He wouldn''t. Unless you revealed anything, but Fler''Gan''s mental conditioning has ensured that isn''t a possibility. Which leads me to believe that, most likely, this is due to other reasons. Do you have a history of issues with Nico?'' ''Well, maybe, I don''t know. Never talked to the sword capos much. But I know they never liked me.'' ''In any case, we''ll see what''s up. Follow the soldiers.'' ''But what about me dying!?'' ''We have a piece of you stored in Haven. If you get killed here, you''ll just respawn back there anyway. As I said, you are the perfect suicide bomber. Just go. Otherwise, you''ll draw too much attention.'' Feather groaned internally at the fate he had been reduced to. From high-standing capo who threw out credits by the thousands at fancy dinners and clubs to¡­a renewable suicide bomber. Nevertheless, Feather had no choice but to follow. "Take me to Nico," said Feather, putting on an air of confidence. "Yes sir. Follow us." The soldiers marched ahead, and Feather followed behind. Chapter 434 Suspicion 434 Suspicion Feather trudged through the forests, grimacing as his fine Italian leather boots got wild muck all over them. The two soldiers leading him by implied gunpoint basically speed-walked their way into the foresnds, giving no time for poor old Feather to catch his breath. Figures. The soldiers did not want to keep Nico waiting. Even if Feather was a capo, the soldiers only respected him. They feared Nico, and fear held a clutch over a man''s heart far tighter than respect did most times. "How long are we gonna walk? We''re way past perimeter - there might be variants out right behind that tree trunk you''re walking past," said Feather, pausing for a moment to rest. He might have been ssified as a B-rankbat threat, but that was almost entirely because he was so damn hard to kill, not because he was some marvelous physical specimen or murder-hardened fighter. If even a little smear of him was around, he would grow back. Even if said smear was, as was the case now, stored back in a vat in a creepy-assboratory in Haven. It was why, he noted begrudgingly, he was such a useful mobile bomb. "We''re almost here, sir. Nico is waiting for you in the clearing up ahead," said a soldier. "Don''t worry about variants. Nico and Adriana have made sure that they''ve been cleared out or repelled significantly past perimeter boundaries," said the other. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The soldiers waved their guns, beckoning Feather to speed up. "A capo forced to do shitty cardio, I''ll be damned¡­" Feather muttered under his breath before he picked up his pace again, stepping past a tree and into a clearing. Before he could scan his surroundings, he stepped into something disgustingly squishy and reeled back. "This is why I hate camping-," he began before his eyes widened, His boot had stepped into fresh, raw viscera that clung to his soles like bloody roadkill. "Damn!" Feather hopped back, tapping his heel on the grass to kick off whatever it was that got stuck on his precious leather. "Feather. Nice to see you''re as shallow as you''ve always been. Always concerned about the credits over sweat. What is that, Brunello?" said Nico. His voice was curt, cutting in its critical intonation. "Yeah, I missed you too," said Feather, sarcasm oozing out of him. "And Brunello? They''ve been out of vogue for a decade at least. Nowadays, American-made''s the best for boots, and Stronghide''s the best of the best. Of course, that''s what I''m packing right now. Anyways- woah." Feather stepped back, his neck craning up to see Nico sitting atop a pile of dead variants that reached over a dozen meters high. "Enough chat about boots," said Nico. "Hey, you''re the one that brought it up," said Feather, recovering from his surprise quickly. Nico''s brow twitched. He pointed away and the two soldiers immediately left, very evidently not wanting to spend another second there. Feather could not me them. He was putting up a confident act, something he had been trained to do, but in the end, it was still an act. He could see the raw danger emanating off Nico like heat waves under a high noon sun. Maybe literally, too. There was a sort of golden aura about him that shimmered in waves that barely clung to his skin and clothes. Feather did not actually know much about Nico''s power. It was standard policy to keep the Sword Capos''bat capabilities under tight wraps to preserve their efficacy. Plus, Shield Capos nned business, not battle, so in the end, there was not too much ovep between the two anyway. All Feather knew was that Nico was dangerous as hell. By reputation, he did not have as much infamy as the other two Sword Capos. Adriana was known as the Cape Ripper and the Mad Dog of the Trident for her ferocity and willingness to fight and kill the toughest of A-rank heroes. Ondo was the personal bodyguard of the Don and that alone made his strength indisputable. But the fact that Nico could keep such a low profile in such a high position meant he probably liked to kill a little more discreetly. Before his victims even knew what hit them. Nico dropped down from his throne of death,nding neatly with his hands in his coat pocket. He took a single step towards Feather, his eyes turning bright gold to match his aura, contrasting well with the silver of his hair. Feather''s neck tingled. Gooseflesh erupted on his limbs. His throat felt tight. His instincts told him danger was imminent. He briefly nced up, making sure the Evileye was still there and that Nico did not spot it. The Evileye looked straight at Nico with its lidless gaze. "What? Did a bird catch your eye?" said Nico, immediately catching Feather''s shift in stare. "No. Just think it''s too hot out to be working out like this, yeah? In a full suit, too." Feather nodded at Nico. Nico could not tell that the Evileye was there. Knowing that, he breathed an internal sigh of relief. "Alright, tell me what this is really about." "I''ve been thinking about this whole civil war," said Nico. "About how quickly things went wrong. An entire criminal empire the likes of which is only rivaled by the Imperials in China, one that''s withstood the test of time for over half a century, falling apart so quickly so soon." "You know why. The Machineheart went active. Ivan saw a chance to take the world for himself, so he takes the Russian Prong and turns it against us. Speaking of, do we have a suitable recement for Mad Jack to synch with the damn thing? Or is he still yelling nonsense in his cell?" Feather thought about the current situation. When the Machineheart went active a few weeks ago, it came as a surprise to everyone. It was collecting dust in a Trident vault as a cool cube-shaped antique from the Altering. Nobody thought it had any real value other than its age, so it was stored alongside paintings and jewelry, and other goods that rued value over time and history. The moment the Machineheart activated, though, red, blue, and green lights flowed through its seams like blood through veins, Trident technos could confirm it contained a tremendous amount of power within it. Mad Jack confirmed its true identity as the Machineheart. But before the Trident could get Mad Jack, the only techno in its service capable of fusing with the artifact, he went mad. Not his usual brand of mad, the kooky, quirky, high-functioning madness, but full-on ranting and raving insanity. About random numbers and visions and a ''games''. Deemed a security threat, Mad Jack was thrown into a secret cell. Afterward, the Russian Prong, led under its head Ivan, withdrew from the Trident and waged war, aiming to snatch the Machineheart away. Now, the Italian and Japanese Prongs gathered to keep the Machineheart safe until they could spit out a techno as capable as Mad Jack to synch with the damned thing. I''ve been thinking," began Nico. "Yeah, you already said that." Feather shrunk back when he saw Nico''s expression darken. "Go on." "Ivan and his new army of machines wouldn''t have been able to do the damage they''ve done unless there was a traitor in our ranks. Knowing our supply lines, where our soldiers are stationed, etcetera. At first, I thought maybe our tech''s not up to date. Maybe Ivan''s siphoning data from us. If Ivan could crack the Judicata, he could crack us, right? But no. Mad Jack''s defensework is still in our systems. And before he went even madder, uncooperative, he assured us it could stand against Ivan. Mad Jack might not have all the screws in his head fastened, but he never lied about what he could do." Feather shrugged. "We''ve known this for a while, though. Isn''t that also why we''re gathering the capos? To set a trap for the rats to crawl into? If informants are what you''re worried about, you should be more concerned with getting me meeting-ready for the other Shield Capos to arrive." "You see, Feather, I heard something interesting the other day." Nico took out a coin from his pocket. It shone gold, infused with a light that could only be exined by his power. "Mad Jack isn''t in his cell anymore." "What the hell!?" said Feather. "He''s not!? Did he escape?" "No. Something broke him out. Something invisible that could evade all our sensors." "Ivan''s bots¡­" "Yes. And you know the odd thing is, the only people who knew where Mad Jack''s location was were the capos." "The capos¡­" Feather stepped back, but Nico made a face that made it clear that if he took another back, another to retreat, to even think about escaping, he would sorely regret it. "You''re using me of leaking Mad Jack''s cell location!? That''s fucking crazy! You know that only one Sword Capo and one Shield Capo got to know, right!? Don made sure not even all of us knew. Just the ones he trusted. And I''ll tell you right now that Shield Capo - it ain''t me!" Nico shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. What I do know is that you and the other Shield Capos are soft. Easily dazzled by luxury. None of you have shed blood for a cause. You''ve only made others bleed for you. If a shiny enough offer was made, you would take it. All of you would. So, all of you are a liability. And that''s why in this meeting, I''m going to be getting rid of every single one of you. Starting with you." Chapter 435 Intrusion 435 Intrusion "Are you crazy!?" Feather stammered out. He wanted to step back, but his body was just frozen as Nico stared him down with unbridled predatory intent. "ALL the Shield Capos? We run everything on the business side! The side that makes money!" "There won''t be a need for money and other shiny little baubles after we secure the Machineheart," said Nico. "We will build a new world. A world where soldiers, not cushioned paper pushers, rule." "The Don! He wouldn''t sanction this!" N?v(el)B\\jnn "No, he wouldn''t. But I''m sure he''ll listen to reason. If he does not and he orders Ondo to slice my head off, then so be it. I do this for the good of this organization. This family." Nico held his fist out to Feather, the coin still covered under his other palm. "Choose. Heads or tails. If you win, I''ll make sure your death will be painless. If you lose, well, Adriana will deal with you." Feather gulped. Adriana''s sadism was not exactly a well-kept secret. She loved to tear apart her enemies limb by limb, bone by bone like a dog. She would treat Feather like an infinite happy meal, and as long as his brain was intact, he would not respawn back at Haven. ''Uh, Thanatos, hello? You seeing this? Now is a REAL good time to show up,'' Feather positively shouted in his head. ''HELLO!?'' ''Won''t choose? Then I''ll do it for you. Heads." Nico uncovered his palm. The coin showed a sword etched onto its surface. Feather''s heart dropped. The other side of the coin showed a woman''s face - that was heads. He had lost the coin toss. "Now hold on, I didn''t get to choose-," began Feather, but Nico cut him off by flicking the coin with his thumb. The coin shot forward like a golden bullet, ready to gouge out Feather''s heart. ng. A metallic ring resonated throughout the forest clearing. A sound that should not have belonged to Feather''s heart rupturing from antique money. Feather had instinctively cringed and closed his eyes, but when he heard that sound, he tentatively opened one of them. "Sh-shit, you came!" muttered Feather. "Thought you''d forgotten all about me." Aldrich stood in front of Feather, his ck-armored palm held out. The coin had stopped against his palm, sizzling with friction-induced heat. Green mist floated all around him, quickly swirling out and covering the clearing, dropping the temperature to a chill. Nico raised a brow, but he did not show surprise at this sudden development. ''Did he expect me?'' thought Aldrich. He met Nico''s gaze. It was stern. Focused. Combat ready. ''No. He''s just trained to maintain hisposure no matter what. A real veteran. Good. This will be a nice warm up for me to get used to my new powers.'' "You¡­you''re Thanatos, aren''t you? The new bigshot that everyone''s talking about," said Nico. "Very observant," said Aldrich sarcastically. There were not many two-and-a-half-meter tall men in blood-tinged, bone-spiked ck armor walking around in the modern world, that was for sure. Though right now, Vntis was currently in a heavily depowered state from being almost destroyed by being sucked into the other dimension. He could barely armor Aldrich as it was. Stitching was an impossibility, though basic functions like energy readings and mapping were still a go. "You sound like Feather. No wonder you two are working together." Nico jerked his head up and the coin embedded in Aldrich''s gauntlet palm whipped back to its owner. "Feather doesn''t have a monopoly over sarcasm. And that''s about as much small talk I''m giving you. I''ve heard enough from you two." Aldrich had waited until the veryst moment for Feather to squeeze information out of Nico. From the conversation between the two capos, he could tell now that they did not suspect that Feather was working with Aldrich. In addition, they were not expecting him at all. Meaning this ambush was perfect. ''Vntis, gage this guy''s strength,'' said Aldrich. A red circle appeared around Feather in Aldrich''s vision. It rotated for a second as Vntis carefully analyzed Feather''s total energy level. ''A to A+ rank in raw energy. A formidable foe'' stated Vntis. Abat-based Alter that stood in the A to A+ rank range was a foe that Aldrich would not have taken on alone in the past. But now, with additional levels and powers, the ying field was far more level. Whether it was nted towards Aldrich was something he wanted to figure out now. But first. Aldrich raised his hand, pointing to the sky. ''Vexa. Cast [Kaleidoscope Cage]''. ''As you wish, my lord.'' Vexa''s cool, calm voice flowed into Aldrich''s ear. He had not heard it for quite some time as she had been busy over in India preparing for the untimely demise of Aarav''s father. A n which, ording to her, was now very soon to mobilize with little to no hitches in sight. She was still in India but one of the most useful parts of her kit was that she could cast magic remotely using her butterflies. Spectral butterflies of ghostly blue andvender began to flock around the sky in a great big swarm that almost darkened the afternoon sun. They were normally invisible, but if Vexa wanted to cast magic using them as a medium, she had to reveal them. They fluttered over the clearing, casting a giant shadow over it like a gue of locusts as they moved on over to the warehouse. Soon, they would set into formation, creating a spherical barrier that would disable any teleportation within its boundary. An observer outside the barrier trying to look in would only see attice-shaped wall of dazzling colors much like a kaleidoscope, obscuring any vision looking in or out of the barrier. It could also allow Vexa herself to use her Entomancy abilities to summon a variety of insectoid monsters within the barrier, and soon, the warehouse woulde under attack from a literal swarm of freakish crawling critters. They would be apetent distraction until Aldrich was done here. "Interesting." Nico looked up at the skies grimly. "I know that can''t be good. You''re always full of tricks, Thanatos. Tricks that the rest of the world can''t seem to decipher. But I won''t get distracted." He raised his hand towards Aldrich, coin lodged between his index finger and thumb, ready to flick it with deadly speeds again. "Because it doesn''t matter how many pieces there are on the board. Once I checkmate the king, the game ends." Chapter 436 Necromancer Vs. Capo 436 Necromancer Vs. Capo "A game of chess, is it?" said Aldrich. "You don''t see pawns taking kings very often." Nico''s eyes glowered. "Consider this an exception." Aldrich addressed Feather but did not turn his back on Nico. The Sword Capo was too dangerous to do that to. "Feather, leave this area. Vexa will guide you to safety," said Aldrich. "Already on it!" Feather sprinted away, his footsteps heavy and crunching as they sloppily meandered over the forest floor. "No minions?" Nico''s golden eyes flickered about, scanning Aldrich''s surroundings. "Every battle report done on you indicates you fight with a variety of soldiers. A lonesome king is rather defenseless, wouldn''t you say?" "You don''t have to worry. My soldiers are everywhere," said Aldrich. He began to raise his hands into the air. Green necromantic energy flickered about his fingers. His mist cloyed and settled on the many corpses littering therge clearing - the corpses of variants that Nico had ughtered. "[Serve]." Aldrich cast [Mass Raise Undead]. The corpses began to twitch, strewn apart body parts moving on their own to reanimate back together. In response, Nico predictably flicked his coin at Aldrich. Aldrich expected this. He was ready to tank that hit. When he had first manifested here using his [Mist Phase], his [Death Essence Barrier] was not up. Now, it was. Granted, the barrier was more specialized for absorbing energy-type damage. Physical attacks phased through the barrier, but even then, they suffered a debuff that reduced their damage based. It was enough to make the average bullet about as lethal as a pitcher''s fastball. A decent bruise for the normal human, but to Aldrich who was definitively superhuman in every stat, it was nothing. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Aldrich knew from blocking Nico''s initial toss at Feather that it was not that much stronger than a bullet. He could easily block it again. He was, however, wrong. A coin-sized hole sizzled in Aldrich''s head, the rim glowing red hot. The coin had punched right through not only Vntis, but also Aldrich''s rather hardened skull. Aldrich faltered and fell down to his knees, listlessly looking down. The reanimating variant stopped moving. "And that''s checkmate," Nico said casually. A massive golden aura surged all around him, far stronger and brighter than before. He put his hands in his pocket and strolled up to Aldrich, close enough to reach out and touch him. He looked down at Aldrich''s cored head and scoffed. "One move. That was all it took to get rid of you, hm? Looks like you weren''t as big a yer as you thought." Nico turned around. The moment he did, he saw arge shadow cast over him. Instinctively, he turned around, but it was toote. Aldrich grabbed Nico by the back of his head and mmed the Alter into the ground. A hexagonal pattern of green energy formed around his arm, massively improving his strength with [Death Surge]. The forest floor shook as if a bomb had detonated, soil rising up in a small geyser from Nico''s head making fresh contact with fresh dirt. "I see. You were holding back," said Aldrich. Magic surged as he channeled it into the arm pinning Nico down. He knew that it would take far more than a single surprise shot to kill the capo. He prepared to cast [Anti-Life Beam]. Purple light began to crackle around Aldrich''s palm. ''Iing'' Vntis''s voice rang urgently in Aldrich''s head. In response, Aldrich let go of Nico and shifted to the side, his cloak allowing him to seamlessly fly through the air. The coin zipped back to where Aldrich was. This time, when itnded, it created a sizable golden explosion. Nico had learned in just one small exchange that explosive attacks fared much better than piercing ones against Aldrich who could stand up with a hole in his head with zero issues. Aldrich had used Nico''s attack as a chance to trick him by ying dead. But that would not work again. "You''re not dead? With a damned hole in your head?" Nico''s silhouette stood up in the waning cloud of his coin-induced explosion. The shine of his coin glimmered in his gloved hand. His normally gel-slicked-back hair was now messy, framing his golden eyes with strands of silver. His lip was cut, blood dribbling down to his chin. "You''ll find me harder to kill than most." The hole in Aldrich''s head reformed as mist condensed into it. ''Apologies,'' said Vntis. ''My structure is not as strong as it once was. I could not fend against that attack, nor could I even sense it - such was its speed.'' ''It''s alright. I''ll handle the brunt of this fight. Just keep your sensors sharp.'' ''Understood, warfather.'' "Doesn''t matter. I''ve dealt with regenerating types like you before," growled Nico. He held his coin up. The surging golden aura around his body dimmed, thinning as it seemingly transferred over to the coin, making it brighter than ever. Aldrich held up his own hand in response. On it was a beating, red, healthy heart. Nico''s brow rose in confusion, then further in rm. 21:15 From Fler''Gan''s experimentations, Aldrich had learned that Alters, though they could not really analyze magic as theycked spell-scrying capabilities, still possessed a level of supernatural instinct that let them know whether a spell was dangerous or not. Back when Aldrich pulled off his fake death, he did not use his moment of surprise just to knock Nico''s face into the dirt. He had mainly used it to get off his [Heart Hold] curse - a spell that was normally incredibly difficult to get off because it required making direct contact with a physical attack significantly slower than normal. Nico''s brow rose in confusion, then further in rm. From Fler''Gan''s experimentations, Aldrich had learned that Alters, though they could not really analyze magic as theycked spell-scrying capabilities, still possessed a level of supernatural instinct that let them know whether a spell was dangerous or not. Even if the spell was something less tangible than a fireball like, say, a curse, if the Alter managed to see it, they could still sense danger from it. The stronger an Alter, the sharper their instincts were. Nico might not have understood how a heart was on Aldrich''s hand, but an Alter of his caliber knew that his life was in imminent danger. "Checkmate," said Aldrich. He crushed the heart in his hand. The very moment before he did so, Nico threw his coin. Not at Aldrich, but¡­behind him? The coin sailed into the air far, far away. The heart burst as Aldrich closed his metal-covered fingers around it. Blood spilled down his hand before it along with the remnants of the heart faded away into ck particles. That was the sign that the curse had now taken effect. Nico''s heart was now mush. Nico coughed heavily and went down to a knee, blood spitting out of his mouth. Aldrich took a step forward, ready to speed up the process of Nico''s death. The man was going to die soon anyway, but Aldrich did not want to wait before inducting such a strong unit into his legion. ''Wait. That warrior''s vitals¡­they are still stable. Including his heartbeat,'' said Vntis. ''What?'' Aldrich saw as Vntis saw through Nico, showing that, indeed, his heart was still intact. Nico stood up and exhaled deeply. He turned to Aldrich, blood smeared all over the lower half of his face. His golden aura raged around him bright, almost blindingly so. "Check. But not mate," said Nico. Chapter 437 Necromancer Vs. Capo 2 437 Necromancer Vs. Capo 2 ''What a nuisance,'' thought Aldrich, sizing Nico up. Vntis outlined a see-through view of the capo''s body, highlighting in faint red the heart and the tissue surrounding it. Nico had taken damage to his heart, but it had not been crushed. At best, it caused some internal damage which, though it must have been excruciatingly painful, and indeed, more than enough to knock out the ordinary man, did not put down a superhuman Alter of Nico''s caliber. ''That curse was infallible,'' said Vntis. ''And it seeded. I sense its dark energies had held a tight grasp around this warrior''s heart.'' ''I felt the spell go through as well.'' Aldrich felt his mana dip down a bit. In gaining so many levels, he had distributed his stats heavily towards magic, giving him a much, muchrger mana pool. Even then, [Heart Hold] was a considerably costly spell whose cost actually scaled with how strong the unit afflicted by it was. For an A-rank Alter like Nico, it ate up around 20% of Aldrich''s total mana. Mana, though, was not too much of an issue here. He had a myriad of ways to recover it on the go. The biggest problem to tackle was Nico''s supposed resistance to [Heart Hold]. It must have been a function of Nico''s power. At first nce, it seemed like an Augmenter main, Object secondary type power. Alters under this power ssification could infuse external objects with additional powers, and in Nico''s case, that seemed like extreme eleration, durability boosting to keep the coin from destroying itself, and explosive energy output. But there was something else to Nico''s power that had allowed him to survive [Heart Hold]. "No sarcastic response this time?" said Nico. "Good. I hate sarcasm." He rushed ahead, clenching his gloved fists tight. ''Damn, he''s fast. Way faster than before.'' Aldrich saw Nico charge in as a golden blur. The way the capo moved with his shoulder squared and his fists out in tight,pact guard made it obvious that he was a seasoned martial artist. Aldrich pushed backward, his cloak of souls wailing as he flew into the air to make vertical distance. Nico skidded to a halt where Aldrich was, his boots sizzling hot as they scorched the forest floor with sheer friction. He craned his neck up, shy silver eyes narrowing in analysis. "Serve." Aldrich raised his hands, and his mist finished restoring a dozen variants in the area. One of them, a massive Grandtusk the size of a heavy tank, squealed with newly infused, green-eyed rage. Others included sloth-like creatures three meters tall with scythe-shaped ws called Ripper Sloths, Brute Strikers that took the average wolf-like Striker and juiced them up to the size of cars, and huge snakes capable of swallowing a man whole. They all converged around Nico. "Trash." Nico grunted as he snapped his fingers. He side-stepped a goring charge from the Grandtusk, dodging narrowly so as to use the beast''s huge mass as cover against the rest of the variant swarm. N?v(el)B\\jnn A whining whir echoed from the horizon for a brief moment before Nico''s golden coin shed into view, smashing through trees as if they were not even there. It sttered through several variants as itnded in Nico''s palm again. With one swift motion, Nico threw the coin again, this time with a twisting motion of the arm. That imparted spin to the coin, and it whirled around him like a defensive saw-de, rotation after rotation creating a tight orbit that ripped the variants swarming him into shreds. In just a few concise seconds, Nico had annihted the whole horde. ''A fierce some foe,'' remarked Vntis. ''Commendable in his strength.'' ''Indeed. But not enough.'' Aldrich held out his empty left hand. He cast a new spell he had picked up from leveling up. "[Deathground Standard]." A teal-green battle standard materialized in his hand, a g showcasing a spiral-twisted spine shining bone-white at its center. Nic0 looked up, saw what Aldrich was doing, and responded by throwing his coin like a baseball pitch. When Aldrich saw the capo windup, he immediately activated his cloak''s [Hallowed Ground]. The cloak''s souls whirled around him, creating a spherical boundary where anything within was absolutely immune to any damage from anything outside The coin sted past Aldrich, phasing through him due to the [Hallowed Ground]. Aldrich threw the [Deathground Standard] at Nico. The g''s bottom was pointed like a spear, making it easily capable of being a thrown weapon akin to a javelin. The standard, if intercepted, exploded and dealt a considerable amount of damage and inflicted a nasty damage over time debuff. However, if it was not tanked, it anchored to the ground and created a [Death Zone] that buffed the stats of all undead within. The zone also automatically spawned skeletons and zombies, though these were mostly minor distractions. The strongest part of the spell was that it created spectral walls that prevented those within from leaving its boundary for a solid twenty seconds. Nico''s golden aura rose around him, empowering him. He kicked back, dodging the standard as it mmed into the dirt. He kept backward until he hit the ghostly green walls. Notably, he did not snap his fingers to recall his coin at this moment. Instead, he seemed to be taking a tentative, investigative approach, elbowing the wall hard to test its durability, grimacing to find that it did not yield a single bit to his strength. From the way Nico decided to clear out the variants before instead of chasing Aldrich, he determined that Nico could not fly, giving Aldrich a significant battlefield advantage. Most of the time, Nico probably dealt with flying threats just by tossing his coin at them, but the [Hallowed Ground] obviously made that simple solution untenable. Granted, Aldrich could not keep [Hallowed Ground] active forever. It was an extremely powerful activeing from a Divine-ss artifact. Even at level 70, it ripped through his mana bar like fire on gasoline. But Nico did not know that. He would be focused on threats in front of him, assuming the worst that Aldrich could keep this up infinitely. "[Mass Create Undead: 2nd Ring]" chanted Aldrich. In response, ten Ivory Knights - the upgraded version of Skeletal Warriors - materialized on the ground. Like how Aldrich''s [Corpse Nova] had upgraded itself from him reaching level 70, so too did his [Create Undead]. Skeletal Warriors maxed out at level 20, but Ivory Knights maxed out at 40. They were, as their names suggested, regal knights d from head to toe in thick te armor of ivory bone. They were each just as big as Aldrich and wielded heavy ck greatswords as long as they were tall. "Tch." Nico clicked in annoyance as he snapped his fingers, recalling his coin. On top of these sudden knights, he noted that the variants he had shredded to fine pieces were reforming too, this strange green mist, a mist that seemed to drain away at his very life seemingly giving them what it was taking from him. As if that was not bad enough, the g seemed to produce foul night creatures of its own, raising skeletons and zombies nearby. "[Rite of Adamantine Bone]," chanted Aldrich. A steely grey sh flickered over the Ivory Knights and variants, indicating that they had been buffed, their bones turning into powerful, metallic bone that was a direct upgrade from the [Rite of Bone Binding] Aldrich used before. And now, instead of [Burning Agony], he chanted, "[Immtion Deathcharge]". The knights and variants all lit on bloody red mes, the same as it had been with [Burning Agony]. But now, when they moved, jet propulsion-like ming bursts rippled behind them, causing them to surge forward much, much faster in a targeted charge against Nico. Nico''s coin knelt down, cing his palm face-up on the forest floor. The half-formed variants, their exposed muscles and organs lit up in mes, and the me-wreathed Ivory Knights all crashed against Nico, wing and mming down with their weapons. Bloody red mes roared all around Nico from the immting undead, but even then, he just sat there, unfazed. ''Interesting''. The attacks hit Nico but did no damage, bouncing off his skin, no, his golden aura. It was as if he was literally invincible. The coin then returned to Nico''s waiting palm, this timending with a mighty golden explosion that sent pieces of variants and chunks of burning armor from the knights flying. It was as if the coin had turned into a miniature meteorite. The explosion was sizable enough to cover the entirety of the [Death Zone], probably affecting every single unit within. The [Death Zone''s] walls kept things in, but they did not keep things out. A weakness that Aldrich waited to see if it would cost him. Chapter 438 Necromancer Vs. Capo 3 438 Necromancer Vs. Capo 3 Golden smoke from the st died down, revealing Nico standing alone in a smoking ck crater, the coin shining bright in his hand. The variants had all been annihted wholesale by the explosion, preventing Mist from reforming them. The Ivory Knights, however, still had armor pieces and bone fragments strewn about. These started to quiver and reform as tendrils of condensed mist gathered around them. In a few mere seconds, they hadpletely regenerated, their enormous dark greatswords held heavy in their bone-gauntleted hands. The ten Ivory Knights, wreathed in auras of blood-tinged me, resumed their charge, surging forward with heavy, armor-nking steps like humanoid tanks. They roared, too, and their bellows were just as deep and thunderous and threatening as that of a lion''s. Nico deftly maneuvered his coin through his fingers, eyes flitting from side to side as he analyzed the threats. ''He isn''t regenerating the variants. He must have a limit to his energy,'' thought Nico. Currently, analysis from various private war corps, the AA, and the Trident showed a sparse amount of information regarding Thanatos''s powers. The closest anyone got to Thanatos was Nzambe, a zombie-horde controlling viin of the first Corpowar who, along with the Junker, managed to take down not one, but two Council of Fortune corporations. There were also striking simrities to Archmage, the S-ss hero in Korea who could summon fantastical creatures like elementals and dragons while shooting out bolts of magic he called ''spells''. But details about Thanatos were still sparse. Alters with powers specialized for investigating others could not find anything about Thanatos, indicating that most likely he had a high-tier Alter concealing his ability to be read. Nobody could even get an AC count read on Thanatos or his minions where both Nzambe and Archmage had distinct readings on file. However, careful analysis of the footage showcased hints of Thanatos''s limits. First, even though Thanatos had a seemingly impossible variety of powers, he had to wait in time intervals between using them, sometimes not using them at all after single usages. All this indicated that Thanatos used energy, or at the very least something like it as a resource. Meaning his abilities had a finite end to them. And internal recharge periods as well. Generally speaking, Alter powers that affected other bodies or created autonomous,plex objects consumed the most energy. If Thanatos followed these rules, he must have been burning through energy faster than even S-ss heroes. ''My energy usage is efficient. The longer I weather this onught, the better of a chance I have,'' thought Nico. ''He''s noting down from there, meaning more than likely he''s not confident in fighting me up close. He''s hiding behind that barrier of his. But if I wear him out, I''ll force him toe down or retreat. Either way, I win.'' ''¡­Is what you''re probably thinking,'' thought Aldrich, watching as Nico moved around expertly, sidestepping earth-shattering sword ms while countering with explosive coin tosses. Each toss, infused with explosive golden energy, was aimed urately at the knights'' center of mass, right at their chest. That way, the coin blew the knight''s limbs apart, halting itsbat capability entirely. A quick adaptation. Ordinarily, Nico would have tossed that coin at heads, but he had already seen Aldrich fight headless and assumed that his undead could too. Every time a knight sundered apart, Aldrich''s Mist repaired them. Undead Mist naturally regenerated undead at a slow rate, but if he focused, he could rapidly restore them at a high mana cost. The stronger the unit, the higher the cost to manually restore them. At level 40, the Ivory Knights necessitated a hefty cost. To curb this, Aldrich stopped regenerating the variants. They were fodder right now anyhow. The Ivory Knights were significantly stronger and more familiar as units to control, being from the game and all. He would use them to test Nico more, to find a way through his seeming invulnerability. Right now, after what felt like just a minute of mist-regenerating his undead back up, his mana was going down near to half. Of course, the [Heart Hold] took up a lion''s share of that cost but still, this was pretty expected. The Legion Necromancer''s ystyle revolved around massive, sustained mana and health costs leveled off by tactical consumptions of undead and the asional chug of the divine sk. So far, Aldrich had not been pressed enough to really have to break down his precious Legion. Nor would he have to. He had made sure of that when he had exchanged his divine sk with the Death Lord. ''Unfortunately for you, capo, I won''t be running out of mana anytime soon.'' Aldrich materialized his [Soul Bell]. He held its silver and green carved handle and gently rang it. A crystal-clear, sonorous ring chimed out. Its sound waves took the form of slow-moving blue waves that washed over Aldrich, restoring his mana to full. [Soul Bell Charges: 8 > 7] ''What the hell!?'' Nico''s eyes shot up, not missing what had urred. Thanatos had rung a small bell. In high-levelbat, every small action had significance. What did that bell do? "This restores my energy," said Thanatos, as if he had read Nico''s mind. "You won''t be ousting me." Nico scowled. Did Thanatos have a mind reader? Or¡­was he just that much more ahead of him? "We''ll see about that," said Nico. He rolled, dodging two greatsword strikes before lining up a shot and sting through the two knights with a single coin toss. His golden aura red around his body the moment the coin left his hand. At that moment, another knight rushed in from his blindside,nding a ramming thrust to his back. This, the capo simply tanked. The de,rge enough to cleave a small car in half, just skidded across Nico''s back like running a nail across solid concrete. Nico raised his lip in a slight snarl of frustration; that hit hade to him as a surprise. Inevitable, though. N?v(el)B\\jnn Ten targets, all approximately at the level of low to mid B rank Augmenters swarming, and there was bound to be a miscalction somewhere. Whirling around, he shot a spinning kick at the knight''s side, sending the heavily armored undead flying and hitting the Spectral Wall like it was styrofoam. "I see. I''m starting to understand now," said Aldrich, carefully inspecting the interaction. Chapter 439 Necromancer Vs. Capo 4 439 Necromancer Vs. Capo 4 Vntis''s energy readings showed that Nico''s golden aura did not remain constant. It ebbed and flowed chaotically. Though, Aldrich now realized, not as chaotically as he had assumed before. The flow of Nico''s aura was contingent on whether he had that coin on him or not. When Nico had the coin, his aura dimmed down. When he threw it and it was away from him, it rose back up. And when the aura was high around him, he had effective damage immunity on top of enhanced stats. [Heart Hold] was not true Instant Death that killed no matter what. Very few spells were. Rather, it was what Aldrich dubbed ''effective instant death''. It worked by dealing 100% of the target''s maximum health in damage. But if said target had a way to bepletely immune to damage, revive, or have some form of stored health, then they could survive it. It was why Nico had thrown his coin away from him when he saw Aldrich''s [Heart Hold] ring in his danger instinct. He knew a life-threatening attack wasing, so he tossed his coin to make sure his aura was present around him. This interaction with the Ivory Knight solidified Aldrich''s analysis even more. Nico dodged attacks when he had the coin on him, but when he tossed it, he gotxer, and less jumpy. Which meant that Aldrich had to kill Nico when his coin was on his body. "[Invoke Deathborn: Pursuer]" chanted Aldrich, raising his right fist like a falconer. Smoky ck ws ripped through space above his hand, and from that dimensional scar, the Pursuer crawled out. It was a spectral creature made of half-necrotic flesh rippling with convulsing veins and half-dark, willowy smoke. Its limbs were long and gangly, ending in ws that reached out eagerly. With a malformed featureless face showing nothing but an open maw of spiked red teeth, the Pursuer screeched as it perched atop Aldrich''s hand, the end of its body forming into a serpentine mass of flesh and smoke that curled gently about Aldrich''s arm. N?v(el)B\\jnn "Take these." Aldrich cast [Heart Hold] and [Skeleteer''s Mark], the Ascended version of [Bonebearing Curse] which forced units with bones under Aldrich''s temporarymand. A wreathing of ck and red tendril-like energy coated his hand. The Pursuer eagerly grasped at it with its ws, absorbing the curse into itself. "And hand them down to our friend over there." Nico looked at this development. A chill ran down his spine as he saw the distorted, horrible visage of the Pursuer. He knew not what that was, but his instincts told him that it was dangerous. That it was life-threatening. Aldrich sent the Pursuer down by lightly nudging his hand towards Nico. The Pursuer''s descent, however, was anything but light. With a piercing scream, it sped down rapidly, flying through the air with a trail of cloying ck smoke trailing behind it like aet of destined death. Nico, in response, threw his coin out in between dodging greatsword shes. The coin shattered a de in its way into pieces as it hurtled right at the Pursuer. The Pursuer did not dodge the coin, nor could it have. The coin was too fast. But physical attacks did not work on it. Only energy-based or magical ones did. Which meant that Nico was helpless against it. The Pursuer mmed into Nico, sinking its ws deep into his being. The ws did not pierce the capo''s invulnerable, gold-coated skin, but instead sunk through it like it was water, breaching into his very soul to infect him with the duo of curses. Ordinarily, units could only suffer one curse at a time. With the Pursuer, however, any number of curses could be stacked atop each other. Nico grunted in severe pain, kneeling down. The pain did note from tearing flesh or breaking bones or anything of that sort, but instead, from within him, within his being, in some deep, primordial part of him that he had not felt before. Physical pain, the battle-hardened capo was used to. But spiritual? He had no experience with. The Pursuer stayedtched onto Nico''s body, its spectral serpentine tail curled around his body as it sunk its red teeth into his shoulder, imparting continual spiritual pain. When Nico moved, he was sluggish, much slower. It was as if every single inch of his body was tied down with weights. Then, Aldrich activated the [Skeleteer''s Mark]. A cross-shaped ck mark appeared on Nico''s forehead. A ghostly cross brace of ebony wood materialized above Nico, and from it, green stringstched at key points of his body like his head, chest, and limbs. Very much like he was a puppet. Aldrich attempted to control Nico, but he was not able to. Nico was too strong. At best, he could stop Nico from moving. Nico''s slowed movements froze entirely. The Ivory Knights, seeing their target stilled, battered him again and again with their greatswords but to no avail. This situation was shitty, to say the very least. But there was a silver, or rather a golden lining: Nico had already thrown his coin away. He was, for all intents and purposes, invulnerable. Not even the likes of Solomon Sr could dent him in this state. All of a sudden, the knights stopped attacking, withdrawing and standing in ringed formation around Nico. "Did you lose this?" Aldrich called out. He dispelled his [Hallowed Ground] and raised his hand, showcasing a shining golden finger in between his fingers. "Wh-what!?" Nico stammered out. He could not move his face, but he could tilt his eyes up to see what was going on. He could have sworn he had thrown that coin far, far away when he shot it at the monstrosity that currently snaked around him. At full force, too. With enough power to have sent it across the entire country. "I knew you would throw this at my Pursuer. You react well to threats. So, I lined the Pursuer''s descent up so that I was in the way behind it," said Aldrich. "Of course, you didn''t assume I would catch it, did you? I will say, you''ve got quite the throwing arm." Aldrich''s armor waspletely battered,rge chunks of it twisted and torn back as if a massive shockwave had traveled through it. There were several strips of armor that had beenpletely eviscerated, revealing not human flesh underneath, but raw bone. "What the hell¡­are you?" said Nico, eyes widening. Aldrich flipped the coin with a resonating cling. It took an agonizingly slow arc down toward Nico''s head. As it fell, he held his hand out. A beating red heart materialized in his palm. "Death," said Aldrich. "To you. To your entire organization that tortured my parents to death. To the new world order you wanted. To everything you knew." Nico''s eyes were still wide when the coinnded on his forehead. The moment it did, his aura dimmed down, transferring to the coin instead. Aldrich closed his fist, crushing the heart. Nico managed a faint smile. A smile of eptance. Of a fighter understanding he had been beaten. He closed his eyes as blood rippled out of his mouth, his heart stopping. Chapter 440 Warehouse Raid 440 Warehouse Raid Aldrich touched down on the forest floor, or what was left of it. The previously grassy clearing had been utterly trashed by Nico''s coin-induced explosions, Aldrich''s attacks, and the Ivory Knights crashing their greatswords down again and again. "Excellent work, everyone," said Aldrich. He raised his fist, and in response, the ten Ivory Knights stood tall in trained formation, raising their huge des in front of them with ease like they were toy props. They mmed their gauntleted fists into the de as a synchronized warcry. ''Ah, it has been quite some time since I have suffered such damage,'' said Vntis. ''Apologies.'' Aldrich looked down at his thoroughly damaged armor hanging on to him in warped ck strips and cracked bone spikes. ''No need, Warleader. To defend you is my purpose, and I do so with nothing but honor.'' ''Appreciate it. As always.'' Aldric focused his Mist, restoring Vntis back to top form. Nico''s coin toss at the end had been quite the impressive disy, shot at a speed almost too fast for him to perceive. It was only because Aldrich had predicted that Nico was going to throw the coin and the fact that he had lined himself up so that he was behind the Pursuer that he could get ready enough to catch the coin. And to even take that coin, he had needed to cast [Ribs of the Fleshless One], encasing himself in the bone armor of one of the old Death Gods that the Death Lord defeated and absorbed into her new brand of necromancy. [Ribs of the Fleshless One] was one of, if not the strongest defenses that Aldrich had in his arsenal. And Nico''s shot had cracked right through it. It was an attack that not even the likes of Solomon Sr could match easily. Thankfully, the coin''s momentum had halted just enough for him to manage to catch it instead of having it pass straight through him. Now that would have been bad. Would have given Nico the opportunity to recall his coin and regain his invulnerability. If that had happened, the fight would have dragged on a lot, lot longer. "Quite impressive on your end, too, capo." Aldrich stood in front of Nico''s corpse. He had fallen forwards, blood trickling out of his mouth and sinking into the dirt. The Pursuer had disappeared now that its target had been eliminated. A ghostly green outline flickered around the Capo, indicating he was ready to be raised with his soul intact. "Hopefully, you''ll continue to impress me. Serve." n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Aldrich raised his hand. Tendrils of necromantic energy surged out from his arm,tching onto Nico''s body. Nico''s body twitched before he rose up, wiping blood from his chin using his sleeve. His normally silver eyes had turned slightly green like polished coins reflecting green light. The capo''s eyes were focused but not quite all there. Aldrich had not given him free will, after all, and he did not want to for now. Not until Fler''Gan had reconditioned the man. A powerfulbatant like Nico probably had quite an impressive force of will, and Aldrich did not want to deal with it at the moment. But Aldrich could still understand Nico''s powers now that he was part of his Legion. [Deathguard Name: Nico ardo] [Level: 63] [Power: Golden Time] [-The user can infuse an object they are close to with energy that allows them to manipte some of the object''s physical properties, granting it nigh-invulnerability, eleration, and explosiveness. With training, the user is now able to enhance their own body instead of their chosen object. However, this can only ur when their chosen object is not in their possession. In addition, the user can only enhance themselves with a few of the properties that they can enhance their chosen object with.] ''A mighty warrior indeed,'' remarked Vntis. "Yeah. He''s just two levels below Seismic, and that''s after my recent power boost spilled over and increased the overall level of my entire Legion," said Aldrich. "He''s on the high end of the A-rank of Alters. With hisbat experience, he could probably take on the lower end of the S-rank too, depending on powerpatibility. In any case, he''ll make a fine collection to my Deathguard. Now, for other matters¡­" Aldrich looked over towards the warehouse in the distance. Well, warehouse in name only. It was basically a military base with fortified sentry towers andpoundsrge enough to be seen over the tree line. It was now on fire, swarmed with a throng of insect creatures as big as pickup trucks. Aldrich put a hand to his head, contacting Valera. She hade with him here. Unlike regr undead, she could teleport with him as a Chosen. Which reminded him of Chrysa, the ordinary way he usually transported undead around. He hoped she would awaken from her crystal-encased slumber. The Death Lord had assured Aldrich that Chrysa would awaken once she adjusted to her new body, and that there were no risks. But still, he worried. It was just what parents did. "¡­" Aldrich paused before he began to worry. Valera was not responding. He had sent her to the warehouse to take it over with Vexa''s insect forces. It seemed the attack was going well, but the fact that Valera did not immediately pick up was troublesome. He knew her. Even in the midst of deadlybat, she would always respond to him. The only time she would not was if she was literally dead. === At Warehouse 42A, dubbed the ''Fortress'' by the Italian Prong- In the midst of a burning, crumbling vehicle facility where the corpses of melted armored carsy strewn apart like litter, a hulking werebeast stood over a smoking crater. The beast was easily three meters tall, standing on two sinewy, wolven legs with a hunched back. Spines protruded from each of the creature''s vertebrae, ripping painfully through skin and muscle. The bone was not white but instead glowed a bright, toxic green. Its fur was ck and tinged with glowing tints of simr green. Drool and spittle pooled down from the monster''s wide maw crowded with glowing green, razor-sharp teeth. When the spit touched the fortified steel ground, it melted through the metal with all the ease of water eviscerating cotton candy. At a closer look, the creature was grievously wounded, missing an arm with severalrge, gaping holes dotting its chest. In spite of these injuries, it stood unbothered, its horrendous injuries closing up. "YOU WERE THE STRONGEST FROM THANATOS?" growled the creature. Its voice was garbled, monstrously distorted, but it was still barely recognizable as belonging to a woman. She stared down at a body lying in the center of the acid-pooled crater. The body was nothing but a torso at this point, arms and legs melted off, head so twisted from chemical scarring that it was unrecognizable. The only thing anyone could tell about the face was that its skin was pale. Beautifully so. The beast growled. "WEAK." Chapter 441 80% 441 80% When Aldrich did not receive any contact from Valera, he reached out to his other Chosen: Vexa. She responded immediately. ''What''s going on?'' said Aldrich, tone urgent. ''I am unsure, my lord,'' said Vexa apologetically. ''With an entirework of butterfly eyes, you don''t know?'' ''The assault went well. Valera showed tremendous force, tearing apart men left and right. My brood performed adequately as well. More so than I thought in this strange new world.'' ''But what went wrong?'' ''Valera''s show of force brought forth their champion. A warrior woman with the visage of a feral wolf-beast. Valera used her dueling taunt upon the beast-woman, and together, they crashed through a building to fight in istion while my brood ughtered the lesser soldiers.'' ''Adriana. The other Sword Capo.'' Unlike Nico, Adriana was less careful about concealing her powers, but even then, the Trident did well in covering up any information avable about her on the Net. He checked Valera''s status, specifically her HP. It was low, shing red low. And not regenerating. ''Vexa, redirect the majority of your forces to Valera''s location,'' demanded Aldrich. ''I am afraid it is not possible, my lord. I have tried. The wolf-woman has erected a barrier of poisons around the building that not even the hardiest of my insect warriors can stomach before melting into nothingness, let alone my butterflies. The only one that can intervene is-,'' ''Is me.'' Aldrich grimaced, or he would have if his skull face could do so. With his [Death Essence Barrier] blocking out energy-type attacks which included environmental hazards like acidic air, he was the best candidate to help Valera. Immediately, he began to channel [Mist Phase], kneeling down as his undead fog began to gather around him. "All of you make your way towards the fight," said Aldrich to the Ivory Knights. They nodded and began a steady charge through the forest, bulldozing through trees standing in their way. "And you-," He addressed Nico. "Keep that coin ready. Fire on my mark." Nico nodded. As Aldrich''s channeling continued, a channel whose each and every second felt agonizingly long, he wondered how Valera could have lost. He had done a battle assessment and seen her winning 9 times out of 10. Adriana was a mutant that looked reasonably simr to a werewolf. Her sheer size indicated a considerable degree of superhuman physical stats. He also knew that she had killed no less than three A-rank heroes. Inferno, a ster from the European Union who could whip up ming tornadoes. Multiman, an Augmenter from the United States who could create copies of himself. And, most notably, Tianyong, an A+ rank hero from China who was considered an up-anding S ranker. He had it all. Came from a family of distinguished techno heroes. Graduated from Yumenguan, the top hero academy there. And after that, became a top disciple of Sifu, the hero with the greatest legacy in all of East Asia. Tianyong could wield Qi excellently and seamlessly synchronize it with his transforming techno-weapon and battle armor. In terms of track record andbat capability, he was good enough to be fast-tracked to be an S-ss hero. Of course, until he met his untimely demise trying to stop a gang war between the Imperials, thergest criminal syndicate in China, and the Trident. All three heroes showed signs of significant physical trauma along the lines of being savaged by a wild beast. w marks, bite marks, the whole macabre catalog. On top of that,rge chunks of their bodies had been melted off with a caustic green substance. The radiationing off their corpses was so intense that there was no dosimeter capable of easily reading it either. Inferno and Multiman were both melted down without much of a fight, showing that more so than anything, their lungs had turned into goop. Tianyong''s tech had fried against high radiation exposure. Knowing this, Aldrich had sent Valera out to fight her. She had incredible regenerative ability and natural resistance to poisons which should have tranted to radiation. On top of that, she herself was level 70, the same as Aldrich, and as a dedicated warrior, she could invest all her stats into physical ones. In raw physicality, she was a whole league ahead of Inferno, Minuteman, and Tianyong after his mech suit fried. At the very least, unlike anything Adriana had faced. He had expected a fight between Valera and Aldrich to be a challenge, but not a life-threatening one. Simr in vein to him and Nico. N?v(el)B\\jnn But Adriana had turned out to be more trouble than he had bargained for. Maybe more trouble than she was worth. He would find out when he got there. === "YOU HEAL A LOT. I WILL MAKE SURE THERE IS NOTHING LEFT LIKE A GOOD GIRL DOES," said Adriana. She moved to take a step forward but stopped, the hairs on her hackles raising. "Hahhh." A voice rasped out from the melting torso through scrambled vocal cords. The voice became clearer, chords tying together and growing back tougher, stronger. "I did not want to use this. I prefer to keep my head. But it looks like may have it before long." A red aura roared around the torso, raging and coursing in bloody strands and pirs. They gathered into the shape of limbs made of pure, raw red - flesh and blood matter made whole. On these, the torso stood. A red sheen washed over its scarred, distorted face and restored pale skin, elegant, sharp features, zing red eyes, sharp, vampiric teeth. Valera was back. "[Reversion: 80%] In the next moment, her pretty face distorted again, but not because of acid melting her flesh, but because it was morphing into something else, something monstrous. Her eyes sealed shut, useless vestigial little things they were that True Vampires, the primordial night creatures that never knew light, never needed. Her pointed ears becamerger, her mouth ripping apart to make room for several more rows ofrge, sharp teeth. Cracks echoed out as her spine and bones shattered and restructured, hunching her, extending her limbs, making themrger, capable of carrying more muscle, pushing out of her elbows and knees and hands in spikes. Wings burst forth from her back. Red and ck carapace covered her pale flesh, armoring her with flesh te that could withstand strikes from the mightiest of pdins. "YOU THINK YOURSELF A MONSTER¡­?" she said, her voice rattling, deeply guttural, on the way to bing less and less capable of uttering human inflections. "YOU WILL SEE WHAT A TRUE MONSTER IS." The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!