Over the next couple of weeks, Anton and Caitlyn worked with Felix’s group to push back the undead that made it to Dover. It wasn’t as bad as either Caitlyn or he had thought it would be. The dead fought against each other and then separated or disappeared altogether. He’d gone to investigate and found that once the undead reached a certain level, they gained some intelligence, and low and behold, they acted intelligently. That had made it much harder to track them down.
As the dead fought amongst themselves and smarter undead emerged, they changed course and headed toward Baltimore and Washington, DC, which left the Dover area free and clear of new incursions. They hadn’t tracked them all down yet. A small group of undead occasionally appeared, but it was much easier for the patrols to track down and deal with them, even if they’d gained a few levels.
After the first week, when they had cleared most of the dead out of Dover, Anton made a quick trip up to Philadelphia to scout out the city. He found empty streets and no signs of the dead anywhere. Not even the corpses of the dead had remained, or their equipment could be found. It was a bit weird but not something he was too worried about. The dead had vanished, which could only be a good thing.
Anton put that out of his mind and returned to Dover. Over the next week, Anton watched as Caitlyn worked with Felix’s Earth mages. Instead of a bunch of little forts, a lot of them worked to create a much larger fortified area with 100-foot walls that were 20 feet thick and allowed people to walk along the top to keep a lookout. There were also areas with overhangs to protect against aerial attacks. There were other areas without the overhangs to allow people to step out and attack things in the sky if needed. They’d learned their lesson dealing with aerial attackers while dealing with the monsters that had spawned from the Air Node.
The new fortified area used highways 1 and 13 as the natural line for barriers along the Southwest and Northeast. White Oak Road held the wall along the Northwest. The southern wall ran from east to west along South Little Creek Road. From above, the fortified area looked like a cup that tilted off to the left, but it gave them almost a square mile to work with initially. Later, it could be easily expanded.
Once the walls had been completed, everything was moved from Dover AFB into the fortified area. During the move, Felix set up his headquarters in the Old Rwaq Institute building along the southern wall, which had been highly modified and fortified. The parking lot had been remolded with Earth magic to contain ammunition storage areas far enough away from everything so that if there was an accident, casualties would be kept to a minimum. The houses to the east of the institute had been connected and turned into a makeshift hospital that looked more and more like a real hospital.
Anton was amazed at how fast the Earth Mages were modifying or constructing the various structures and buildings that were needed. The only thing that slowed them down was their lack of mana. They’d work until they ran out and then rest before getting back up and continuing. Unlike Caitlyn and himself, no one else was leveling rapidly. A few had reached level 40, though.
Caitlyn’s link to Elemental Water came in handy to help supply everyone with drinkable water. The Earth mages shaped an access point to Silver Lake to the Northwest of the northwestern end of the Fort. Unfortunately for Rita’s Italian Ice and Frozen Custard, which was also on that northwestern corner, it was in a perfect place to put access to the water from the lake. Anton watched as Caitlyn reshaped the area into a reinforced pool, which was filled with water from the lake through some underground conduits she had created. Once the pool was made, she worked with some engineers to build stone buildings that pulled water into an area that was turned to steam and then cooled and reclaimed as pure fresh water. In this way, the water was sterilized and rendered pure for everyone.
People still had to come to get the water, but everywhere within the fort was no more than a mile from anywhere else. Food was still an issue, but Pavo was able to get rations from the system shop, so as long as they had a way to make credits, they could feed the people in the fort. Luckily, there had been a large payout from the defeat of the Death Mage. Caitlyn and Anton both donated half of the gold they earned, which ended up giving Pavo 600,000 credits to make sure the fort had enough food. Pavo had said that they should be good for food for a while to come. Even so, they would need to come up with a way to supply food for everyone. Did they need a farm or a greenhouse? What were the odds that he could find the blueprints to a magical greenhouse? One that didn’t have plants that would try to eat the harvesters.
Anton considered his last thought. Maybe Caitlyn could create something, but to do so, she would need something that produced light. She had water, fire, earth, air, and death. If he could get elemental node gems for Light and Life, she might be able to create plant life. If he could also find the darkness-based node gem, she’d have all eight basic elements. Would that give her access to the concept of nature and allow her to grow plants? It was definitely something to consider.
Anton was drawn out of his thoughts when a soldier walked up to him where he looked out over the fort, “Anton, Sir. Felix requests your presence at Headquarters, Sir.”
“On my way,” Anton said as he dropped from the top of the wall to the ground. One good thing about having 62 points of Physical Damage Resistance is that a drop from 100 feet didn’t even hurt as he landed. Anton walked down the street while the runner that had come to summon him ran for one of the stairways down to the ground. Anton walked at a normal pace so the kid could catch up, which he did in short order, “So any idea why the big boss wants to see me?” Anton asked.
“We have a visitor,” the soldier said.
“A visitor? He or she must have come in early this morning before I woke up,” Anton responded.
“He did arrive early. Felix has been talking with the man for the better part of two hours.”
“And Commander Sheppard, where is she?” Anton asked.
“Commander Sheppard left around the time our visitor arrived. She was working on the substructure of the fort last night. It is my understanding that the mages and herself worked until they were done, which was only accomplished about three hours ago.”
“Nice, so the underground area is almost ready to be occupied then?”
“Commander Sheppard's report indicated that the area is 90% finished,” The soldier said.
“Very well, please lead the way,” Anton said as he followed the soldier to the headquarters building. While electricity hadn’t been restored, one of the more remarkable items Pavo had found in his Military Supply Node was a simple magical light that would last for one year for 100 credits. They floated wherever they were placed and produced light equivalent to a 100-watt bulb. They could be turned off and on with a touch. Pavo had purchased enough had been purchased so that every building could have at least one. Supposedly, they would work for at least a year. As Anton walked into the headquarters building, he noticed three of the lights in the entryway.
Anton followed the soldier into the back of the building and up a set of stairs to the second level. As they drew close, the soldier knocked once and announced, “Sir, Mr. Anton, as requested.”
“Ah, here is benefactor now…” Felix started to say as Anton stepped into the room and saw their guest for the first time.
Multiple things happened at once. Their guest, a middle-aged bald man in a white robe, turned, saw Anton, and declared, “You bear the mark of a false God! You shall be cleansed!”
Felix pushed back from the desk and became surrounded by a bubble. Anton knew that it was a force bubble and would protect him from quite a bit, courtesy of an item he’d purchased from the SYSTEM.
The soldier who had been in the doorway dived out of the room.
Anton, for his part, looked at the robed man in confusion as the beam of light showed through the roof of the building without damaging it and vanished an inch from his skin. Anton looked down and then back up to the man, “Yeah, that’s not going to work. Is there a reason you’re trying to attack me?”
“Defiler! Unclean! You serve that which strikes from the darkness. You are Death incarnate; You are Undead, You must die!”
A bubble of pure white light appeared around Anton and fully encompassed him.
You have been hit by the Divine Power “Judgement of Light” 100,000 Conviction has been sacrificed to strike you down where you stand. Judgment of Light is a magnification of Divine Conviction; it cannot be countered with Conviction…
Anton ignored the rest of the notification and drew everything he was wearing into his inventory.
You have Died, Specter has activated.
God damn, Divine attacks. They were the only thing that worked against him 100% of the time. That was fine, though; he hadn’t lost anything this time. He looked onto the Material Plane from his Specter form and watched as the bald man turned toward Felix. That was a mistake. Anton reached out and touched the Soul Core of the idiot that had called down a divine judgment on him and activated Possession.
It wasn’t even a contest of wills. One second, Anton was in his Specter form; the next, he was in control of a slightly overweight balding man as soldiers rushed into the office from behind him. Anton used the body he was possessing to call out, “Felix, HOLD!”
Felix held up his hand as the guards stopped behind Anton. Felix asked, “Anton?”
“Yeah, it’s me; who was this idiot?”
“Was?”
“Oh yeah, you think he gets to live after that bullshit?” Anton asked
“I can see your point. As for your question, this was Aaron, Disciple of Light. It would seem that the God Ao has claimed New York City. He is part of a group of Acolytes who have made their way southwest over the last five days. It seems they’d heard that the Undead had been taken care of. They were sent out to spread their God’s influence in this direction,” Felix explained.
“New York City? Isn’t that 150 miles to the northeast?” Anton asked.
“More like 140 miles. I know you made it to Philadelphia. Trenton is northeast of there and then New York City.”
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“Were you going to try to set up a trade route with them?” Anton asked.
“Not at this time,” Felix said before he changed the subject, “It’s too bad you can’t empty his inventory while you’re possessing him.”
“Yeah, it sucks. It also sucks that anyone that tries to steal from his inventory instead steals from me. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. This guy was weak, really weak. I doubt he had anything worth a damn. But you know what he will be worth?”
“What’s that?” Felix asked.
“Sending a message”
“What kind of message?” Felix asked.
“The kind that falls from the sky.”
“You know, he follows the light. He could have flight skills or spells,” Felix pointed out.
“True,” Anton said as he opened his inventory and pulled out a full block of C4 and a blasting cap with a timer. He set the timer to 10 seconds, “I wonder if Light can protect someone from C4.”
“Dare I ask what you’re going to do with that?” Felix asked.
“It’s the end of June, almost July. For this guy, it’s going to be his independence day,” Anton said with an evil grin, “Oh, and in case I haven’t said so, I really appreciate how the Goddess Keres has helped us out. This prick who is talking, yeah, this guy's death is absolutely dedicated in the Name of Keres. It should be quite violent, too. In addition, I’d like to add…Fuck Ao and the 100,000 Conviction he spent to smite me.”
Felix covered his mouth to stifle a laugh while the soldiers at the door took a wary step back, “Anton, I think you scared the guards behind you?”
“Sir, the Gods are real. Why would anyone want to piss them off,” one of the soldiers asked.
“For you,” Anton said as he turned to the soldier, “A very wise course of action, “for me, I could give two shits about what anyone except for Keres thinks of me until they do something for me. Keres and I got off to a shaky start, but she’s treated everyone here well, so she has my respect. Ao hasn’t even met me. His little bitch boy just turned my physical body to ash, so fuck that God and the horse he rode in on.”
Felix did laugh this time as he called out, “Anton, please.” It took a moment for Felix to control himself before he continued, “When are you going to head out?”
“Which direction is New York City in, Not the road that leads there, the actual city?” Anton asked.
Felix opened a drawer and pulled out an old-school compass and a map. He looked at the map and pulled out a protractor and a ruler. A minute later, he opened the compass and turned until he was pointing roughly northeast and pointed, “That direction, about 137 miles.”
“Thanks,” Anton said and activated Planar Shift. His target was 137 miles in the direction indicated by Felix and 5 miles up.
Anton reappeared in the sky above New York City. From five miles up, he could see Manhattan off to the east and New Jersey to his south. Anton looked down and saw what looked like a racetrack below him. He quickly placed the timed blasting cap in the C4 as he fell. He used Telekinesis to stabilize himself and make things a little easier. When he was done, he put the C4 inside the acolyte's robes near his belt and activated the timer. It wasn’t strapped in, but it should be fine. When 10 seconds had passed, Anton deactivated Possession and expended Psychic Energy to extend the duration of Specter.
As Anton floated to a stop, he watched the acolyte below him come to his senses, look around, and orient on the top of the VIP guest lounge building at the Racetrack. Light surrounded the Acolyte and then the echo of a beam of light was left that pointed to the roof below. The Acolyte had a form of a line-of-sight light travel ability, neat.
Anton moved to the roof where ethe Acolyte stood but stayed well above and back from the roof. It was almost comical when the acolyte opened his robe and pulled out the brick of C4. Anton watched as recognition filled Acolyte's eyes just as it exploded. The explosion destroyed the Acolyte and the ceiling of the building he’d fled to.
Congratulations! You have killed an Acolyte of Light, Level 41
Anton didn’t receive enough XP to level up, so he closed his notifications and waited. As he suspected, it wasn’t long before four new Acolytes appeared on the roof. One moment, the roof was empty. The next moment, four men stood there looking around. Anton watched as they searched the roof but failed to notice him floating above them. They must not be able to see him in this adjacent dimension.
If I was a Node of Light, where would I be? Anton asked himself as he looked around. That’s when he noticed a pillar of light almost due east of his current position. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Anton asked himself before he shot off toward the light.
You have entered the Domain of Ao.
You do not have permission to remain in the Adjacent Spiritual Dimension while within a Divine Domain on the Material Plane.
Specter Deactivated.
“What in the actual fu…..” were the only words anyone could have heard before Anton reappeared in the material plane one mile above the ground, flying from west to east toward the Church of The Notre Dame.
The Domain of Ao took up a half-mile radius around the church. Fortunately, he’d only been traveling at about 120 miles per hour when he was forced into the material plane. He tried to activate Specter, but it failed. That left him with only one other option as he fell out of the sky toward the church. Anton tried to slow himself down with Telekinesis.
A typical body traveling at 120 miles per hour, one mile off the ground, would fall out of the sky and hit the earth just over 18 seconds after losing power. In that time, the object would travel laterally about 3,187 feet or so. That was just over half a mile. Fortunately for Anton, he was able to control his trajectory a bit and steered his approach so that he slammed through one of the large painted stained-glass windows. Near the ceiling of the church as he crashed through and into the ground at the foot of an altar with a glowing gem floating above it.
You have sustained 880 points of falling damage
Physical Resistance has reduced this by 62 points
Total Damage 818
Current Hit Points: 19,450 of 20,268
It took Anton a moment to collect himself and then dig himself out of the crater he’d created. As he stood, a congregation of Acolytes cast a torrent of light-based spells that were quite blinding but had no other effect on him.
Anton reached out to Assimilate during the light show and absorbed the altar as he commented, “You all don’t need that, do you?” Anton utilized the energy to replace some of the hit points he lost, which closed up some of the superficial wounds on his body.
“What? Defiler!”
“Defiler? Your god cast Divine Judgement on me. You know what, Fuck You!” Anton declared as something within him snapped. Anton reached out and touched the closest Acolyte to him, who appeared to be the leader, as he activated his Sigil of Keres with his Conviction. Then he focused on sending the Acolyte somewhere else with Planar Shift. If these little shits wanted to serve the light, who was he to stop them?
Planar Shift has evolved,
You may now utilize Planar Shift to send others without the need to accompany them. Base Cost: 1,000 Psychic Energy.
You are purposely willing a creature into a nonsurvivable location, resource costs are x10.
Mental Defense Negligible.
Mental Attack Successful.
Planar Shift, Target “Surface of the Local Sun” accepted
As the Acolyte directly in front of Anton vanished, he declared, “You want to serve the light, So be it, Asshole!”
Everything stopped as a Notification popped into Anton’s vision, declaring that he’d killed an Acolyte of Ao within the Domain of Ao. Anton swiped it away as he considered the ramifications of pissing off all of the Gods. Then he laughed as he walked over to the Node of Light gem floating above where the altar to Ao had been. There was a protective shell around the gem, though it was only six inches in diameter, and the gem was floating within. Unlike the gems he’d recovered before, he couldn’t fit within the barrier. Though, for him, it didn’t matter. He reached out, grabbed the gem, and transferred it to his Inventory.
“Thief!”
Anton ignored the cry and began walking toward the entrance. One of the Acolytes surprised Anton by pulling out a handgun from under his robe, aiming, and firing it at Anton. The bullet hit Anton in the center of his chest, stopped, and dropped to the ground. Anton’s Physical Damage Resistance was more than up to the task of stopping most small arms fire.
“Seriously?” Anton asked as a new voice boomed
“You Dare come into my Temple and take my Artifact?”
Before anyone could react, Anton exploded into motion, exited the church, and then headed north along Morningside Drive. One second later, he was 4,045 feet from the church as he activated Specter. He hadn’t stopped moving. Even so, if he hadn’t exited the Domain of Ao and activated Specter, the second beam of light would have hit. The light was still faster than him, after all.
“Missed me Bitch” Anton said to no one in particular as he dedicated 4,189 Psychic Skill Points to Specter and increased it to skill level 100. It was time to start using those points to maximize the skills he did use. That left him with 2,381 Psychic Skill Points. He wouldn’t be able to raise another skill to level 100 unless he leveled again, but he could increase a couple of skills to level 10 in a hurry if needed.
Anton looked over his newly leveled skill. As a Specter, he could now travel at 3,500 miles per hour. That was 5,133 feet per second or almost a mile. As he shot southwest toward Dover, he thought he had heard a scream of denial, but he couldn’t be sure. While he shot forward, he looked over his Notifications.
You have Defiled the Domain of a Rival God. You have earned 100,000 Convictions.
You have Killed a Level 41, Acolyte of Ao: experience and Conviction gained.
You have stolen an Artifact from a Temple dedicated to a Rival God; 100,000 Conviction Earned.
Conviction Award for Destroying an Acolyte of a Rival God within the temple of their God; Conviction Doubled.
Anton’s attention was diverted from his notifications when he saw a black streak come in from the Northwest. As he focused on the streak, it came in for a landing and resolved into Caitlyn. The Black Fire now held a hint of darkness, but her body looked more vibrant. Anton activated Manifest so that he could be seen and moved down to land beside her
I see you, Caitlyn signed
Anton deactivated Manifest and Specter, “Very cool entrance. I Didn’t see you before I took care of our visitor.”
Caitlyn shed her wings. The darkness and fire that surrounded her evaporated, and she stood before him in her normal uniform, “You wouldn’t have; I felt something calling to me and went to see what it was.”
“Did you find a Dark and Life Node?” Anton asked.
“I did. How did you know that?” Caitlyn asked.
“Just a guess,” Anton said with a smile.
“Where is this guest you mentioned? I knew he was arriving as I left,” Caitlyn said as she looked around.
“Well, he decided to call down a Divine Judgement on me,” Anton said.
“Really, What was that like?”
“Hot, I’m not immune to divinity.”
Caitlyn looked thoughtful for a moment before she responded, “Obviously, it didn’t permanently kill you, so what happened to the visitor?
“Well, it turns out that he’d been talking within Felix for a while before he tried to vaporize me. He’d come down from New York City. I took him back.”
“You did? How’d that go?”
“Well, I did find out that one of their light-based powers allows them to move incredibly fast,” Anton said.
“Sounds like useful information, but that begs the question, why did he need to move fast?”
“Oh, right. Well, I possessed him and teleported him back to New York City,” Anton started to say when Caitlyn raised an eyebrow at him, “Okay, about five miles above New York City. He had to use his movement skill to arrest his fall after I released him.”
“So, he used that light movement to land? That’s it, you just let him go?”
“Weelll, no. I didn’t just let him go unless you count the particles that were left of him after a brick of C4 went off in his hand as letting him go.”
“I do not,” Caitlyn said dryly.
“He pissed me off,” Anton said defensively.
“Really?” Caitlyn asked with mock interest.
“I did find this though, Anton said as he pulled out the Light Node Gem from his Inventory.
Caitlyn's eyes lit up with a smile just before the gem in his hand leaped from it toward Caitlyn. He could have caught it but he noticed the look of wanton greed in Caitlyn’s eyes as a feeling of rightness filled him. Anton arrested his reaction and watched as a gem full of swirling colors appeared on Caitlyn’s forehead, almost like the mind gem Vision had implanted in his forehead in the Marvel movies.
The Light Node Gem flew forward until it touched the gem in Caitlyn’s forehead and flashed. Everyone was blinded for a moment. When Anton could see again a few moments later, Caitlyn was surrounded by fractal planes of rotating prismatic energy.
Just then, Felix rushed out of the headquarters building, noticed Anton, and looked at the full-sized prismatic energy gem where Caitlyn had been standing just a moment before. Felix visibly calmed himself before he turned back to Anton and asked softly, “What did you do?”