Anton watched as what he could only describe as black fire erupted from Caitlyn’s body. The black fire covered her body and her wings, which exploded from her back as the symbol of Keres appeared over Caitlyn as she flew after Venneta. Anton’s new level and attributes had increased his ground speed. He sped after the fiery woman at more than twice the speed of sound. His Physical Damage Resistance had also increased to 42, which ensured that the little friction damage he suffered from moving so quickly did not damage him.
As he followed Keres in Caitlyn’s body to the north, Anton pulled up and reviewed his Notifications. The newest notification popped out at him.
Conviction has reached 35,555,878,
35 Million? He was earning Conviction for killing all of the dead and undead.? Anton pulled up some of the Conviction award notifications to check why that was happening.
You have killed a Level 1 Minion of Anubis, 10 Conviction Earned.
Minion of Anubis? Was that Death mage dedicating each of the dead that she created to a God? Did she get Conviction for that? If she received Conviction for that, and he’d only killed at most a fraction of the horde…
Anton activated Specter and raced after Caitlyn. If he was right, things were not going to go the way the Goddess expected them to.
***
Vennetta had never felt such pain before. She had to admit that being the test dummy in a physical encounter that matched Neo getting slammed through the buildings in their epic final fight of the third Matrix movie was on her list of the worst things that could happen to her. The spell she’d cast to augment her healing rate had allowed her to survive the experience, but it had hurt a lot. Even with her incredibly high Willpower, it was still a few moments before she could pull herself out of the crater she made when she’d finally slammed into the ground.
As she stood up, she felt that something was closing in quickly and reached out with her senses. Rushing toward her was…a divine? What was a divine doing on the mortal plane? Anubis had said that wasn’t possible. She spent a small amount of her Conviction, and her God answered. Caitlyn had spent 5 million on Conviction to call forth Keres. It seemed that spending Conviction could allow a God to possess your body. That was a thing she could do? Could she earn Experience while her God rode her body?
No, whispered into her mind from Anubis.
What a waste of Conviction. Five million Conviction, though. Vennetta had earned far more than that from taking over everyone in the area. Of course, the Death Node connection had been interrupted, but she didn’t really need that anymore, did she? Not with the artifact her God had gifted her. If she could subjugate the Celestial as soon as she killed her. First, though, she needed to banish the god from the Celestial's body.
“I call on the power of Anubis to Banish thee back to thine own realm!” Vennetta declared as she pointed at Caitlyn’s oncoming form.
Vennetta could admit it; the Celestial looked like an avenging angel with black fire surrounding her with two flaming long swords as she flew toward her. Unfortunately for the Celestial, the energy of the Goddess that had infused the celestial was snuffed out when the ten million Conviction she spent counteracted the conviction she’d spent. While the celestial’s wings and black fire didn’t completely disappear, their intensity lessened, and the black fire swords vanished.
The celestial, now off balance and trying to retake control of her body that her God had just been ejected from, began to tumble toward Vennetta, who casually pulled out her ebony short sword, the Wrath of Anubis, from her inventory. She lined up her blade and then thrust it toward Celestial’s heart. If she couldn’t convert the Celestial, she could sacrifice her to Anubis.
Two things happened that saved the Celestial’s life. First, the boy appeared between her blade and the Celestial, whom he pushed off to the side as he also parried her strike. Second, the celestial crashed through the window of a skyscraper through the inner walls and out the other side of the skyscraper until she landed in a different building altogether. The building she’d burst through collapsed from the damage she’d done to it. The boy saw this, focused his gaze on Vennetta, and attacked.
What followed next was a sequence of attacks that resembled something out of an animae movie. Impossible fast, ultimately fatal, yet parried or blocked repeatedly. Neither the boy nor herself were highly adept at sword fighting, but it turned out both were fast. Incredibly fast. Fortunately for herself, she was faster. At the end of the first volley of thrusts and parries, she was able to put a slash into his torso and then stab the blade into the right side of his chest and in to his lung.
“It would seem, boy, that you have only delayed the inevitable. My blade will kill you, and then I will go kill your friend as well.”
“Yeah, No! This sword in my chest, that’s nothing but a flesh wound, you ugly skank,” the boy said with a wicked smile on his face even with the sword piercing his lung and exiting his back.
Vennetta locked at the boy. The sword in his chest had to hurt, yet he had a smile on his face, and she couldn’t detect an ounce of pain in his eyes. It was like it didn’t even hurt him. Even so, she couldn’t let that last insult pass, “Ugly skank?” Vennetta repeated, “I’ll show you an ugly skank as you become my slave in death for all eternity. I call on the power of Anubis through the blade already within you,” Vennetta called out as she spent 100,000 Conviction to convert the man before her to a death servant.
WARNING! Conviction Action has Failed! Target is already classified as undead
WARNING! Subjugation has failed! Target has detected subjugation attempt.
At that moment, the boy looked at the sword piercing his chest and said, “Oh really?”
***
Anton watched as Caitlyn crashed through a building and ended up in another one as the first collapsed on her. A spark of rage welled up from within; this bitch was now toast. That’s when he was surprised. Not only did this mage keep up with him, she surpassed him and finished her attacks by planting a sword in the right side of his chest. That meant that at least some of her attributes were more powerful than his.
Anton smiled wickedly as he taunted the Death Mage, “You must really like this sword. Too bad, it’s mine now,” just before her sword, no her artifact, evaporated as he activated Assimilate.
Warning! You have chosen to Assimilate an Artifact.
You are attempting to Assimilate an Artifact created by Conviction gained in the service of the God Anubis. In order to overcome the influence of the deity that created the item, Conviction equal to the Conviction imbued into the weapon must be sacrificed. Additional Conviction must also be sacrificed to your God to convert the Artifact to your God’s will. Alternatively, you may choose not to sacrifice any Conviction to acquire the artifact. If so, the SYSTEM will recall it
ERROR Assimilate will not allow the Artifact to remain in its current form.
ERROR: You cannot both keep the artifact and allow the SYSTEM to recall it if the artifact does not exist.
ERROR has been elevated; please wait.
Time froze around Anton as it had before. Everything stopped, except for his ability to see with and move his eyes. It was like he was a bug stuck in a clear rock-hard resin. He could look around without moving his head, but he couldn’t move anything else, nor could he activate any of his skills or powers or do anything else. Unlike the last time this happened, he didn’t have to wait long. As suddenly as time froze, everything began moving again as new notifications appeared in his mind.
SYSTEM Message
Previous ERROR resolved.
1 Million Conviction Sacrificed.
10 Million Conviction Sacrificed to Claim Artifact for Assimilation.
Congratulations, you have Stolen the sword: “Wrath of Anubis” from the Chosen of Anubis.
Title Gained
Scourge of Anubis – You have destroyed the primary weapon and symbol of Anubis. All attacks against the servants and minions of Anubis receive +10 to hit and + 10 to damage. As the Scourge of Anubis, The God and any clergy or celestial creatures dedicated to the god Anubis automatically recognize you as a hated enemy on sight. This effect cannot be masked or obfuscated.
Should Anubis destroy you, their Divine Prestige will increase, although attempts and failures to do so can chip away at their Divine Prestige.
Should a member of the clergy or one of Anubis’s celestials destroy you, their reward of Conviction is increased tenfold.
Synergy Detected between Raise Dead, Immortal, and Assimilation.
Assimilation has evolved.
First Evolution: Assimilation works as before but has added functionality. You have learned a new Psychic Skill, Animate.
Animate - You may now Animate creatures that you Assimilate instead of breaking them down within a range equal to your skill level in feet. The animated creatures are treated as natural extensions of your body. You see through their eyes, hear through their ears, and feel through their touch.
Animating a corpse that is assimilated requires you to spend 100 Psychic Energy to do so. This cost is paid after all resource pools are reduced to zero and before the creature is broken down or Psychic Energy. 100 Psychic Energy invests enough energy in the corpse to give it structure and mobility.
You may choose to manually initiate the animation process or automate it as you like.
Animated Corpses become extensions of your body and may be controlled out to 100 feet + 10 feet per skill level of Animate from your body.
You may control a number of animated corpses equal to your skill level in Animate.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Animated corpses have 10 hit points and use your resource pools for all other expenditures. You may utilize abilities, talents, perks, skills, spells, and physically attack through any animated corpse you control.
Should an Animated Corpse be flooded with 201 Psychic Energy, it will explode, doing 6 points of damage out to one foot, 3 points of damage to two feet, 2 points of damage to 4 feet, and 1 point of damage out to 8 feet. Animated Corpses are susceptible to this explosive damage.
Second Evolution. An artifact of significant power has been assimilated into your core. The SYSTEM has claimed the magical potential of the artifact as it was unusable by you. Karmic Balance must be maintained, however. A reservoir to contain excess Psychic Energy will be added to your Soul Core and take the place of your Mana pool.
From the void of your missing Mana Pool, a new Psychic Energy Reservoir has been created. As a mana pool grows as you level, so does this Reservoir.
Psychic Energy that is spent will automatically be refilled from this reservoir. Your standard Psychic Energy regeneration rate also refills this reservoir.
Current Psychic Energy Reservoir: 0 of 47,974
Anton closed his notification. He thought about the evolutions that had just happened to Assimilate; he liked them. He’d be able to assimilate more creatures and utilize his skills and abilities more often. Also, the Animate function of Assimilate would come in handy. He could assimilate bodies and then animate them and maybe even turn them into small bombs that could cause a lot of havoc if needed. At skill level one, he could only animate one corpse, which he needed to change.
Anton pulled up his unspent Psychic Skill Points and coughed. He’d forgotten that killing the dead and undead had increased his levels rapidly. He now had 5,671 unspent Psychic Skill Points. Anton designated 755 points to Assimilate, which raised the skill to level 50.
Next, he designated 1,274 Psychic Skill Points to Animate, which increased that skill to level 50 as well. Immediately, he felt a change as his skill Assimilate reached out to every dead and undead within range. With a thought, he flexed his will and assimilated 124 dead. Fifty of the dead within 600 feet were assimilated and then animated. The cost was variable but cost anywhere from 290 to 315 Psychic Energy each. The other 74 dead he assimilated were broken down to replace the Psychic Energy he’d just spent to animate the 50 corpses.
While Anton flexed his new skill, he looked down at the hand that had held the sword that had pierced his chest and then back up into Vennetta's eyes, “Are you missing something?”
Vennetta looked at the rapidly closing hole in Anton’s chest and her empty hand before she exclaimed, “Where is my weapon!”
“I ate it, “Anton said as his animated dead moved around and spread out to get the maximum amount of coverage they could if they exploded.
“No matter, I will destroy you,” Venetta started to say as she reached out to grab Anton. He, in turn, grabbed the hand that was reaching for him. Whatever she tried to do to him must have been magic-based because he didn’t receive any notifications. Her brows furrowed, and she whispered something in Latin. Anton ignored her antics and activated Possession. He was pleasantly surprised when it worked. His body flashed into his Specter Form and was absorbed into her body, which he then took control of.
Just then, one of his animated corpses detected movement as Caitlyn walked out to the edge of the floor she’d been knocked into and then looked up in his direction. This Death Mage was strong, so he needed to figure out a way to protect Caitlyn and also kill this bitch. She had way more hit points than him and probably had willpower high enough that he wouldn’t be able to control her for long with Possession. Also, she could heal for days while surrounded by the dead. He could try to outlast her, but then he’d be stuck dealing with her for a while, and Caitlyn might get killed. No, he wanted to get rid of this Death Mage, and he wanted to do it now.
Anton activated Planar Shift
Planar Shift activated
Warning Unwilling …
Error! Primary consciousness of user-activated Skill.
Error! The body of the skilled owner is not the body utilizing the skill.
Error Elevated.
Error Reviewed, Skill activated as intended, Possessed body is currently an extension of the skilled owner.
Error Resolved. Possessed Bodies are considered willing targets by the possessor in all cases.
Anton couldn’t take Vennetta to the Sun; that would kill him before he was able to escape, and then he wouldn’t get any experience, so he decided to see how well she liked a vacuum. Anton utilized Planar Shift to move his possessed body and himself 10,000 miles straight up into the exosphere. If this worked, she would either suffocate or burn up during re-entry.
Anton, riding the Death Mage’s body with Possession, reappeared in the near vacuum of the exosphere and immediately deactivated Possession. Next, he targeted her with a Mind Bolt to make sure he’d get credit for her kill and then activated Specter. In the time he’d done that, his body had taken over 100 points of damage due to exposure to vacuum and extreme cold.
WARNING!
50 Animated Corpses are Out of Range.
Control of all Animated Corpses has been lost
Animated Corpses will now revert to their previous State as Corpses.
Anton wondered what that meant for the corpses to return to their previous state but put it aside as he watched the awareness come back into the Death Mage’s eyes. She looked around for a moment until her eyes focused on him before she looked directly at Anton, and a request for telepathic contact appeared.
The Chosen of Anubis wishes to establish Telepathic Contact with you. Allow, Yes or No?
Anton chose “Yes”.
Not truly alive or dead, no wonder I couldn’t subjugate you, The Chosen sent.
Hey, Lady, better make it quick; you might be able to hold your breath, but if you haven’t noticed, you're not moving at orbital velocity. You’re going to get really warm, really quick, Anton sent back with a smile.
From just our encounter, I would think that you, of all people, would know that there are always exceptions to the rules. Magic doesn’t work on you; you cannot be converted into the dead, and you walk a line between life and death. Yes, I’m sure you understand that lesson.
And your point? Anton asked.
My point is this: we WILL meet again. I think I will thoroughly enjoy myself watching you suffer when we do, Vennetta said with a vicious smile.
We aren’t married, nor would I ever marry a necrophiliac bitch like you, Anton said.
Necrophilia, so be it. I’ll make sure to include that in your punishment, worm. The Chosen said just before she vanished.
Congratulations! You have defeated the Chosen of Anubis, a level 3,161 Mage of Death.
Your portion of the Experience Award is 416,461,750 XP
You have been awarded 6,322 Gold
Class, Vampiric Pseudo-Specter has reached level 300
~
Class, Vampiric Pseudo-Specter has reached Level 440
Maximum Hit Points have increased to 20,268. Current Hit Points 20,165
Stamina has risen to 54,711. Current Stamina 4,761
Maximum Psychic Energy Reservoir (formerly Mana) has risen to 67,842. Current Psychic Energy Reservoir: 0
Psychic Energy has increased to 24,460. Current Psychic Energy 23,360
Current Attributes
Strength 4,377 / 110% / 2,084
Agility 4,379 / 110% / 2,085
Dexterity 4,159 / 110% / 1,980
Endurance 4,371 / 110% / 2,081
Constitution 6,183 / 210% / 1,994
Perception 4,379 / 110% / 2,085
Intelligence 4,365 / 110% / 2,078
Wisdom 4,155 / 110% / 1,978
Willpower 6,784 / 210% / 2,188
Charisma 4,365 / 110% / 2,078
Luck 27,385 / 1210% / 2,090
Anton closed his notifications and personal information. He’d received a lot, but right now, he was more worried about what had happened to the Chosen. He’d defeated her, but he hadn’t killed her. What did that mean? He’d been watching her when she vanished. He’d been in his Specter form. He’d seen the node of energy that represented her Soul Core. He’d watched it disappear. Anton activated a couple of his seldom-used skills, Eagle Eyes, and Aura Perception, and moved over to where she’d vanished.
Anton noticed a slight ripple. He activated Manifest, appeared in the material plane, and inspected the area again. There was no ripple on this side of the dimensional barrier. Anton deactivated Manifest and reached out to touch the ripple as he activated his Analyze skill.
Analyze has reached Skill Level 5
You had detected a Conduit into the Cycle of Reincarnation created when Vennetta AgedFlesh accepted Ascension to a Role of Divinity.
Would you like to leave your Mortal Flesh behind and Ascend into a Role of Divinity, Yes or No?
Accept a Role of Divinity, Become a God? No way did Anton want that, but that bitch had just been given the choice to become a God instead of dying. How the fuck was that fair? Anton sighed; that was so fucked up, and nothing that he could do anything about at this point. Even with the levels he’d gained, he had nowhere near the levels that women had.
Anton reread the notification and chose “No.”
Next, he activated Planar Shift to return to the top of the Chase building in Philadelphia. Caitlyn, with her black fire wings extended, floated nearby, looking out. Anton took a moment to review his regeneration rate. His Psychic Energy was regenerating 20 points per second. He could Assimilate to recover if he needed to. Still, he could just as quickly recover his primary Psychic Energy pool and fill his new Reservoir in under an hour without doing anything.
Anton activated Manifest before he deactivated Specter and appeared beside Caitlyn. Caitlyn didn’t immediately respond to Anton, which drew his attention to what she was looking at because he knew that she had noticed him. He took a moment to look down and take in the situation. The streets below were in chaos. The dead and undead had lost all sense of cohesion and had even begun fighting amongst themselves.
“What’s going on?” Anton asked.
“Looks like the death of that mage freed the dead from the control she had over them,” Caitlyn commented.
“Well, I did defeat her, at least the SYSTEM says so, but I didn’t kill her; she accepted a Role of Divinity, whatever that is.”
“I’ll ask Keres later; you know what this mess below us means, right?”
“It means we’re going to have a lot of cleanup to do,” Anton said.
“Possibly. It also means that the dead that made it to Dover are probably going to be harder to kill. If they’re killing each other, they’re gaining experience, which means they’re leveling.”
“Right,” Anton agreed as what she said struck a nerve, “Meet you there?”
“I’ll be waiting,” Caitlyn said as she vanished. A moment later, a sonic boom knocked Anton off the building. Anton only had time to think That little… before he activated Specter and chased after her at full speed. She still pulled away from him quickly until she was out of sight.
Three minutes later, he slowed down as he came upon the small forts that had been erected around the housing areas north of Dover AFB where the soldiers were fighting the dead and trying to keep the walls of the forts cleared. Caitlyn had dropped into a breach that the dead were pouring through and had begun destroying any dead or undead that came close to her. The soldiers that had been defending the breach saw who it was and dropped back. They started focusing on the dead that were coming through the edges of the hole in the wall she was defending. She seemed to have the breach in hand.
Anton noticed that the dead had begun piling up in areas, and the other dead that were still moving were using those piles to climb up and enter forts that still had secured walls. For Anton, dead bodies counted as matte. He could assimilate dead matter, so he moved to a wall with a huge group of undead and deactivated Specter. Next, he activated Assimilate and converted all the unmoving dead within 68.9 cubic feet of him into Psychic Energy with Assimilate. The bodies disappeared as he gained 69 Psychic Energy.
Next, he tried to assimilate the dead to the extent of his 600-foot range, shoved 201 psychic energy into their bodies after he drained all of their resource pools with Animate, and watched them explode. That stunt cost him 15,050 Psychic Energy but cleared the area 600 feet north of the forts In a 600-foot half circle from his position.
“What the hell was that!” one of the soldiers nearby shouted out.
“Sorry! That was me,” Anton called out.
“Thanks, I guess, but don’t use it unless we’re pressed. These dead and undead are good for Experience,” One of the Captains called out.
“What the hell is that?” another soldier called out as Caitlyn left the sanctuary of the wall and stepped out into the zombies. Every dead or undead within five feet of her began to burn and then turned to ash as she moved forward.
Anton watched as she wielded two swords, which were also covered in the black fire that covered her body and wings as she stepped away from the wall. Once she was 20 feet away, she pointed a sword at the wall, and the ground rose to fill the gap and replace the concrete that had been there.
Anton moved toward her until he was beside her.
“Watch out,” I can’t control which creatures the fire burns. It burns all creatures within five feet of me,” Caitlyn called out.
“It’s probably a cross between the Death and Fire gems you absorbed earlier. That’s magic. I’ll be fine,” Anton called out as he stuck out one of his hands and passed it through the fire above her wings. Nothing happened.
“Aren’t you special,” Caitlyn said with a smile.
“Maybe a little,” Anton admitted. Not as special as you, it seems.
“You know we’re going to be at this a while,” Caitlyn said.
“Not necessarily. Let’s make sure their defenses are adequate, and then we can fall back and provide support as needed. Maybe even take a break. What do you think?” Anton asked.
“Sounds like a plan,” Caitlyn agreed.
“Good. We’ll go from fort to fort, clear out the dead that are nearby, improve the fortifications and then move on. The soldiers should be able to hold them off if they have better walls. Can that new ability you have with Earthen structures handle that?” Anton asked.
“It can. Hey, when you possess other people, can you give them mana?”
“Unfortunately, no. That is the one thing I cannot do,” Anton said, shaking his head. I do not use mana at all.”
“Okay, it looks like we do this the long way then, and I’ll have to allow my mana to regenerate normally,” Caitlyn said.
“Looks like it. Let’s get to work,” Anton agreed.