“Kelly, please wake up! I’m scared!”
Kelly gasped, jolting out of bed so fast that her sister lurched back with a cry.
“Marsha! What’s wrong?”
Kelly blinked at the harsh light flooding what had been her blessedly dark room to meet the disapproving countenance of her father, already dressed in his work suit, leaving Kelly more than a bit disoriented. Yet the blinding headache she knew she should be suffering was gone as if it had never been. She winced, and it wasn’t from blinding light her perfectly healthy eyes had already adjusted to. Rather, it was the blurry memory of her mother shouting at her with tears in her eyes before Kelly started screaming herself.
She groaned, almost certain a bottle of shattered tequila had starred in that ugly little scene somewhere.
“You would know if you hadn’t been passed out, oblivious to the world,” her father said with a glare that so quickly turned to a tired sigh.
Kelly lowered her gaze, hating the awful knot of frustration and shame welling up in her gut. The same way it always did when the memories became too much to bear and she drank to forget. Sometimes leaving the house entirely to meet up with friends who knew that not everything was right. That something was seriously wrong.
Or maybe nothing was wrong.
All of them haunted by dreams, maybe. Or discordant fragments of a life that never was, but she KNEW had been. And how fucking stupid was she being? Pining over a version of herself that had been miserable and alone and so damned furious and violent and here she was, happy, somewhat healthy, save for a tiny drinking problem, and whole… and why was she acting like an idiot risking fucking up her life like the first time she had been sixteen? Just because she was haunted by stupid—
“All former Classers who REMEMBER what they were! Do the dreams speak to you? Then come to the designated spots that should now be blinking in your interfaces. Your Blue Corp Brothers will kit you up as per your skills and predilections. Help defend our city and become official Blue Corp HEROES!”
“Holy fuck!”
“Language!” Her father snapped, before giving her a look of genuine concern.
“Kelly? What’s wrong, baby?”
She flashed a bittersweet smile. Her father only called her that when she was genuinely worried.
“I… Um… I think I just got a Blue Corp interface message from the prince?” Her sister and father were giving her matching pairs of jaded looks. “I’m serious!”
“Kelly! There’s been a monster surge! We’ve all been ordered to shelter in place!”
Kelly blinked at her sister. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The Southern territory’s gone full blackout. Wild uncontrolled mana.” Her father’s imploring gaze sent chills down Kelly’s spine. “The territory’s warping. Mana’s surging and causing havoc with Freetown’s electromana power grid. People are reporting… odd manifestations.”
“And dinosaurs!” Marsha said anxiously. “Mini T-Rexes, all teeth and wild eyes and they dart in so fast that they disembowel you and rip out your guts before you can even scream!”
“Marsha!”
“Sorry, dad. But it’s true! You can read the reports in Community Chat. And how fucked up is it that we finally have a 3-D entertainment system filled with all my favorite anime, but we still can’t take pictures without Bronze-tier equipment?”
“It’s because it’s far easier to recompile and distribute animated Terran works than it is translate fresh 4-D pictures into a format that our minds can both appreciate and fully comprehend,” her father said tiredly. “That’s one of the basic instructional media arts classes that you and your sister are both taking. And you’re at least going to class, Marsha.”
Marsha glowered. “Yeah, but that makes no sense. How the hell is there some extra dimensional complexity that there never was before? The cardinal directions are all the same. We all look the same. Gravity’s the same. But magic intersecting with electromagnetism and free will are somehow generating some extra dimension a fucking camera can’t compensate for? It’s fucking insanity! Right, Kelly? We now have access to laser sabers and plasma cannons. And spells! You even have a wand! So why not a decent snap-phone? Why not any phones at all?”
Kelly rubbed her eyes. “Ask dad. He’s the Professional Physicist who woke up with an extra doctorate degree’s worth of info in his skull.”
“Just as you did understanding how to use swords, spears, and arcane wands,” her father said dryly. “Which is a wonderful thing, and absolutely no excuse to drink excessively and worry your mother. You’re not the only girl she’s mothering, after all.”
As if on cue, their baby sister Quilly chose that moment to wake up with a scream.
Her father sighed. “Kelly, take care of your sister. I’ll see to your mother and Quilly.”
Kelly swallowed. “Dad, there’s an all points bulletin.”
Her father turned, his normally affable bearded countenance was now granite hard. “No, Kelly. I don’t care if the prince himself is trying to entice every battle Professional in the city to go out there. There is no way in hell I’m letting my sixteen-year-old baby be drafted to fight off black-tier abominations!” The man snapped. “You’re what, level twenty?”
“Twenty seven!”
This earned a snort. “Though I never dreamed I’d actually have to say it, the threats from a monster surge are level one hundred. Beyond level one hundred. They can evolve in terrifying ways. But Blue Corp security should be more than up to the challenge, no matter how enticed your friends are to try their hand at fighting beasts that will kill them before they can even blink!”
Kelly blinked, gazing at her father. “How do you even know all this?”
Her father sighed. “Kelly, it was part of the information upload we received before we ever signed up as Terran settlers.”
Marsha whimpered.
Kelly gazed at her puzzled-looking father for long moments.
“Earth, Dad.”
“I’m sorry?”
“We don’t call it it Terra, we call it Earth. We were born here, remember? We didn’t ‘settle,’ anywhere.”
Her father scowled. “What are you getting at, Kelly? Of course we were born here. In Illinois, to be precise. Even your baby sister. Your father’s a proud UC Graduate, and if you’d actually apply yourself…”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “Sure, dad. I could be a fellow alumni, assuming the university, or Chicago itself, even exists.”
Her father sighed, rubbing her head. “I’m going to check on Quilly. You both stay—”
His words cut off to the sound of loud crashing and screams, just across the hall.
Kelly felt her blood run cold. Quick as thought, her hands covered Marsha’s mouth before she could whimper.
Cold eyes met her sister, even her surprised father blinking at Kelly’s furious glare as she put finger to lips.
Not bothering to waste time, she dove into her closet, tossing on her chainmail hauberk and strapping on her half helm in less than ten seconds, having timed herself as a way to handle her panic attacks, with the knowledge that she was at least doing something! seven more seconds to belt and secure wand and gladius, then grab the boar spear she kept in the false panel that seemed to come standard in these odd, futuristic Blue Corp apartment complexes that seemed equally suited for high tech professionals and low tech adventurers who preferred low-tech gear.
She paid no mind to her father’s angry look, making it clear their would be a ‘talk’ later.
Then his expression became one of naked fear mirrored by Marsha when the air rang with a second scream. Not one of anger or dismay but someone suffering in absolute extremis. Very much like that horrific recording of a man being eaten alive by a bear he had tried to befriend, now forever etched in Kelly’s brain, and one reason why she would never ever bother with any sort of bullshit tamer class. Any animal looked at her sideways, it was going into the fucking stew pot. Period.
Only this was worse, somehow, if that was even possible.
Kelly’s heart was pounding as a cold sweat broke across her armored back, knowing it was only seconds before the absolute worse would happen.
And there it was. A roar that shook the entire building, causing the Altopaz windows to rattle tinnily as the air cracked with the sound of some hideous beast trying to break into yet another neighbor’s door. And what was worse, so much worse… was that it was a lot closer than the earlier banging had been.
“Fuckers are eating us like sardines trapped in a fucking can!” She hissed under her breath as she stumbled into her parent’s bedroom, locking gazes with her mother and an angry-eyed Quilly who was furiously suckling her teething pain and terror away.
Her mother gave her a look saying so much with her panicked, anxious, and pleading eyes.
Wordlessly, Kelly held her mother close. Gently, for her Strength was now 40, and she was wearing mail and her mother was wearing nothing but a nursing gown.
“Come with me, mom. My bedroom’s the most fortified. And if anything happens…”
“Kelly…”
She shook her head. “I’m the one with the wand and the spear and 40 Strength. I’ll fucking handle it. Or if not...maybe it will be happy with me, and leave you guys alone. I’m only hearing one scream per apartment.”
Her mother choked back a desperate sob at those words.
Kelly flashed her bravest smile even as the high-rise complex rang with fresh panicked screams that soon became howls of terror and a choked off gurgling cry.
It was all she could do to catch her mom’s stumble… sensing the woman’s racing heart.
“Calm down, mom. Or your fear’s going to set Quilly on edge and then we’re truly fucked!” Kelly hissed, her mother flinching at the force in her tone. She took a deep breath. “Don’t worry. I just messaged a friend. Maybe…” she shook her head. “Maybe he’ll actually be able to help?”
It was sheer madness, thinking that a brief message to a chance-met stranger she had come on way too strongly to and never bothered messaging again would give two fucks about her now… and even if he did care, he probably had a thousand better things to do than worry about one stupid girl in a city of a hundred thousand plus.
Assuming he wasn’t just another edgelord playing the handsome brooding asshole so damned well that she was totally falling for him and she would have totally dragged his ass off to class the next day if they had ended up spending the night together. But her sister was there and of course family had to come first.
But still… she had to try. Her family was counting on her.
She was all they had.
And she sure as hell wasn’t enough to take on whatever was tearing through aluminum-topaz alloyed apartments advertised as being stronger than steel reinforced concrete when she and her family had first signed on to the settlement quota and FUCK! Now she was doing it.
“I was born here… fucking implanted memory bullshit!”
KS – Hi Ernest! On the off chance you’re get this in time, we could really use a hero right now! A rather nasty chomp chomper is eating my neighbors and I think we’re a couple minutes away from being next? Anyway, there are five of us here, and if you happen to be in the neighborhood, I hope you wouldn’t mind saving my family! I’ll happily surrender to your every fantasy as a big THANK YOU ;) I’d let you tie me up and spank me and do all sorts of other things to me all night long, if that’s your kink! ;) - Or I could take you out for ice cream, your perfect virgin princess! Just please, if you’re in the neighborhood, swing on by? Here’s my address! - Sincerely, (your future girlfriend if you want one... who’s in DESPERATE need of a hero!) - Kelly)
“Kelly!”
Her baby sister started to scream.
The dinosaur next store began to roar as they darted into the back bedroom, Kelly thinking as fast as she could, forcing them all in the hidden trap door in her bedroom closet.
The look her parents gave her was priceless, though they were too terrified to speak.
“Wrap yourselves in the blanket. Now quick, give me Quilly’s diaper!”
“Kelly?”
“No time! I can tell it’s a stinker! 30 Perception, remember? Now get in there, and if you can possibly make yourselves go… go! Smear it on everything, because the one thing most predators won’t eat is prey covered in shit!”
Her father’s eyes widened, caught between outrage and what Kelly dared to think was hope. “Kelly…”
“No fucking time. Get in there, now!”
“Not without you, love.”
Kelly answered this the only way she could, physically forcing her father in with just a fraction of her Strength. And the look he gave her, forced to realize in that moment just how absurd was the difference in power between a relatively healthy 11 Strength male and a girl as strong as two Olympian Gold Medal power lifters. She flashed her father a sad smile. “I’m your only shot. Now get the fuck in there and STAY THERE. No matter what happens. The only thing you’ll get if you try to come to my rescue is two more dead daughters.”
Her father blanched, gazing at her in horror. “Kelly…”
His words were cut off when she forced him inside the hidden compartment that no modern apartment should have but somehow hers did… as was the case for all apartments with reborn Classers… which also had a weeks worth of water and protein bars… just in case.
She took a deep, steadying breath, preparing herself for whatever was to come only to find out that, as much as she tried to play the tough badass woman, she was a scared girl who just wanted to sob in her father’s arms and have him hold her safe and snug when the air abruptly rang with dreadful banging sounds.
Only it wasn’t another neighbor’s door.
It was her own.
And that’s when she got the message.
ES – I’m coming. What floor?
Kelly sucked in a ragged breath, heart pounding as she dared to hope. “Tenth,” she said in a daze.
ES – Are you still there? What floor!
Kelly flinched as the door rattled far too loudly. She choked back a sob, realizing she was being an idiot.
KS – Tenth floor! West wing!
ES – Cool. Open your window?
Kelly blinked at that. “Shit. He’s right. I have fucking rope! Why the fuck aren’t we climbing down to a lower floor? Piercing Strike will crack that fucking window even if I’m dangling with my ass in the wind at 8 stories!”
She forced feet paralyzed by fear to MOVE, rushing over to the window latches and pulling the window pane down. The room was immediately filled with howling winds and the sharp tangy scent of spice and magic and such a frisson of delightful power shivering through her soul that she would have laughed with sheer wonder were it not for the crack and BANG in the hallway.
So instead, she darted into the far corner of her bedroom, choking back a whimper, praying that the smell of piss and shit wafting from the trap door and yes, her wetting herself in primal terror, might coax the monster now coming their way to looking for dinner elsewhere.
Only there was no such luck.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
And everything she thought she knew about fear proved to be nothing more than the titillating thrill of a campy horror movie when she saw beady dark eyes just above a massive scaly maw half as large as her body snake into the bedroom, as the awful musk of dinosaur flooded her nostrils with the nightmare predator radiating such awful killing strength that was now glaring RIGHT AT HER in the corner of her bedroom free of trundle bed and workstation that still had her unfinished essay because what was the fucking point if she was going to be an adventurer and level up and learn to cast actual spells when she unlocked her 30th level Node?
Only now there would be no further studies or adventures, because she was about to be eaten by the massive nightmare that had just opened its mouth and ROARED at her and it was all she could do not to vomit when the smell of rotting carrion and fresh meat washed over her, 30 Perception making the source all too painfully clear.
Soon to be joined by her blood as the creature leaped with superhuman quickness and she didn’t even have time to scream let alone set her spear for a charge when the air flashed with a blinding surge of crimson flame and now the creature was on her, drowning her, suffocating her in thick cloying blood as she screamed and screamed before being pulled into the embrace of none other than Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter who was gazing at her with fey green eyes so bright and hair like flame and she didn’t care that his eyes and hair had changed or the sheer killing aura he radiated left her dizzy and faint or that he held a sword that seemed ready to cut through reality itself or that they were both covered in hot, sticky blood.
All she cared about was that by some miracle, this wild child had actually come in the nick of time and saved her and then her lips were pressed against his own and the kiss was hot and sweet and her heart was racing and she really was a virgin this time around, and she wanted nothing more than to claim him here and now and she could feel his heart pounding as she sobbed her thanks in his mouth before locking lips so fiercely, so passionately with his own and she could feel him burning with need equal to his own and then Quilly was screaming and sobbing and she just wouldn’t stop that Ernest broke off the kiss with flushing cheeks and a rueful smile.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
And all she could do was sob in his arms.
So his kissed her again, hot and deep and she wanted him SO BAD and the jerk had the gall to step back and tease her with a wink and a smile before moving so fast she couldn’t even see him as the trap door was lifted and two seconds later the room was filled with her sobbing family, crying for relief and terror at the monstrous predator sans head that now filled up her entire room.
“Honey! Thank god you’re okay!” Her mom sobbed.
Her father was rendered speechless, just looking at the beast.
Eric met the man’s gaze and had the gall to wink “Ernest Edgelord Slaughter, at your service. You mind if I cast a spell that will take care of this mess here?”
Kelly’s father stared at the young adventurer in open-mouthed awe, at an utter loss for words before he jerked a nod. “Yes, please… we would be grateful.”
“Thank you. Now if you’ll forgive me saying so, it might be much better if you all wait in the other room. This will only take a moment.”
And Kelly could tell by the spike of alarm that her father was giving off that he was losing control of the situation and hated losing control but this boy had so clearly saved their lives and was radiating the killing aura of a true Bronze-tier warrior, like Prince Caliban’s elite shock-troops or the very few power-armored mercenaries she had crossed paths with in the shopping district near the Blue Palace. Yet Ernest simultaneously looked so disarming and sweet and he HAD saved their lives...and was so fucking powerful that his MITHRIL SWORD crackling with crimson fire (bloodfire!) had decapitated that Bronze-tier monster in a SINGLE SWIPE!
Her father gulped and gave a quick nod.
Ernest was all smiles. “Thank you. This will only take a second.”
And before she knew it, Kelly and the others found themselves shivering together in the living room, staring in sheer terror at the shattered door while the air filled with a ringing buzz like the worst episode of tinnitus Kelly had suffered before she had evolved into a Classer in that awful scary pod during her first life...Tinnitus that had never bothered her again.
Until now.
“Surge Centuria.”
She blinked as the apartment full of clean wholesome lines seemed to warp and twist in strange ways, reality bending in screaming directions as the refrigerator, or arcane ice box, began to warp and bleed, the chairs trembling and knotting strangely, black ichor pouring from the sparking 3-D Entertainment Center.
“Imperator Imperat Tibi!”
Marsha screamed as the air turned thick and cloying.
Quilly cried uncontrollably.
Her father turned green and began to vomit as the entire living room began to stretch like a non-euclidian noodle.
Before all of reality snapped back into place, along with the hideous shriek of metal and plastic bending and warping in unexpected directions as the refrigerator, chairs, and stove twisted together in a hideous mockery of a predator dripping kitchen oils and grease as it opened its metallic mouth and shrieked a reply.
“Ave Imperator Abedimus!”
Kelly stumbled to her knees, suddenly as nauseous as her father when the bedroom door slammed back open, and there Ernest was, giving her such a concerned look, with the massive velociraptor that had nearly devoured her placidly stomping behind him, knocking fresh holes into the wall… the Altopaz wall, as it maneuvered in the too tight apartment.
“Are you okay?”
Kelly gave Ernest a look. “Why did you turn reality into a Steve King novel with bleeding lanterns, supernatural shrieks, warping physics, and a fucking animated refrigerator?”
Ernest blinked. “I’m sorry?”
Kelly crossed her arms. “Look at my fridge!”
Ernest’s eyes widened at the sight of the second velociraptor, shivering with pleasure before its master.
The revenant behind Eric hissed at its metallic double who happily hissed back.
The redheaded boy groaned and rubbed his face. “I hate it when this happens.”
“Happen a lot?” Kelly asked dryly.
Ernest shrugged. “Actually, yeah. A lot tonight. I have fifteen metallic golem velociraptors to go with the thirty five newest recruits to my army.”
Kelly blinked. “So did you take up a golem path?”
“Um… no? Honestly, I’m not sure what’s going on. Normally, I do my necromancy thing in wild-lands filled with spicy sharp magic… like the air is around here tonight, or in wild plains and fields when taking over fresh territories… but I guess that shit never happened, this time around.”
Kelly snorted. “Tell me about it. Apparently in this life, we’re all colonists of Terra, which we totally remember being, having Professions uploaded into our brains and I keep thinking my irises should be purple, but I know damn well that I went to Lincoln High and was born in Chicago so… what the fuck.”
The redheaded boy grinned. “Tell me about it. Well, the good news is that I think that’s the last of the terror birds to break through Wormy’s perimeter. That’s why I was able to come so fast.”
“Who’s wormy?” Asked Marsha, gazing at Ernest so intently, her earlier suspicion and worry from the ice cream parlor replaced by a look of sheerest awe. “And can I pet him?”
Ernest gave his pair of revenants a look. They lowered their heads.
“Alright, but remember, if you see any of these bad boys without the glowing yellow eyes, you’re probably already dead, since their Quickness is over 200.”
The father frowned at Ernest and he had the gall to wink.
Marsha swallowed but gently lowered here trembling hand to touch the creature’s scales. Her eyes widened with awed delight. “He’s warm… and he’s breathing!”
Ernest grinned. “Yup! I bring my revenants so close to the brink of the life that they pretty much ARE alive. But they can still fight on, no problem, if you pierce them with a dozen spears and their rune-enhanced flesh is tough as fuck. See the crimson sigil right there?”
Kelly winced, feeling suddenly dizzy, but Marsha just nodded. “I do! It’s all sparkly!”
“You can see that?” Said a surprised Ernest. “Cool. You might just have what it takes to be a Classer, maybe even a cultivator or use the Runic Magic school I dreamed up. Anyway, assuming my revenants survive the fight with whoever or whatever’s trying to kill them, they’ll heal up with their kills so… yeah! They’re pretty badass and I love them and they kiss the border between what’s alive and what’s not, and that’s not saying anything about the people I um… hmm…” Ernest’s brow furrowed. “Okay, some topics I guess aren’t fit for discussion—whatever!—but if you like my chompy buddy here, I think you’ll love Wormy!”
And before Kelly or her sister could ask who Wormy was, the air rang with a mournful howl that had little Quilly burst into fresh tears as the father of the house blanched and stumbled back into his davenport sofa that had only half-transformed into a mini T-Rex, Kelly thought.
At least it still had cushions!
“World Eater,” her father said with a breathless whisper. “They swore they wouldn’t be a threat for centuries! Had we known the hour was so late, I never would have agreed to colonize…”
“We were born here, Dad!” Kelly glared at her shaken father, swallowing her own fear.
She turned to Ernest, biting her lip. “So, what do we do about that?”
Ernest blinked. “Do about what?”
“About the source of that awful howl! The World Eater, according to my father.”
Ernest blinked. “Oh that? That’s not a World Eater.”
Kelly let loose a relieved breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “Oh thank goodness.”
“I mean… not yet.”
“What?”
“That’s Wormy!”
And before she could ask, he led her back to the bedroom window, the two of them trailed by the rest of her family who had had enough of the strange, warped living room, now gazing out at the starry night sky, and even if her parents and sister were frowning, because they couldn’t actually make it out, Kelly had no such problem, her eyes going as wide as saucers as she stumbled back, shaking in Ernest’s gentle grip. “What the actual fuck… that thing is blocking out half the night sky! It’s… it’s like one of those sand worms in…”
She twisted around, glaring into Ernest’s gentle gaze. “Your eyes aren’t spice blue.”
Ernest smirked. “That’s because this isn’t a movie. Though I do have a pretty awesome shout-based psionic attack. That’s pure coincidence, I promise,” he said with a wink.
But Kelly was just gazing at him open-mouthed when the massive World Eater let loose another mournful cry echoing through the entire city.
“That thing is a mile fucking long!”
Her mother sobbed.
Ernest shook his head. “Nope, only a fourth… no, more like a third of a mile long. He’s grown a bit with the juicy kills and becoming my Underlord, but he’s just letting me know that the surge is contained.”
Kelly gazed at him for long moments. “The World Eater is your pet… and he’s giving you city updates?”
Ernest frowned thoughtfully before nodding. “Yeah, pretty much exactly that.”
“No. Fucking. Way.”
“Totally way.”
“I so want you to kiss me right now.”
Ernest chuckled. “Your dad is looking right at you and your room REALLY needs to be cleaned.”
“I almost got eaten by a dinosaur. I claim adventurer’s privilege.”
“Sure, but I mean, your whole family is staring at us.”
“Don’t let us stop you,” Marsha quipped.
“Marsha!” Her mom snapped.
Ernest winked, gently taking Kelly’s hand and giving her a gentlemanly kiss. “It was a pleasure swooping in and saying hi. We’ll definitely have to do milkshakes and burgers again. But since the fridge veloci doesn’t do magic rings or flight… I’m going to have to ask you to show me the stairs.”
“Wait, Kelly, you know this boy?” Her mother asked, gazing at Ernest with something uncomfortably close to awe.
Marsha rolled her eyes. “Yes, mom. He’s the edgelord kid we were telling about who’s way too cute and has to stop cutting classes and he’s clearly trouble because Kelly so wants to date him?” Her cheeks flushed. “But, um… I’m glad he’s trouble and he can cut classes all day, as far as I’m concerned! Thanks for coming to our rescue, you awesome edgelord!” She said with a cheeky grin.
Ernest laughed. “Take care, Marsha.” He then winced at the loud screech of the fridge-raptor banging against the furniture, though not the people, Eric made sure of that, as it burst through the door leading out of the apartment. “Sorry about your fridge! And your, um… chairs, sofa, and entertainment center?”
“Come on, let me take you to the stairs,” Kelly said with a sigh, dragging a sheepish Eric to the exit at the end of the hallway, ignoring the handful of frightened people sticking their heads out, all of them screaming or crying out when the massive fridge-rator stumbled past.
Kelly frowned when they came to the stairwell. “You have two, right? Where’d the other one go?”
Ernest grinned. “Oh I already put him away in my ring. The other won’t—”
His words were cut off when Kelly abruptly kissed him with a desperate hunger Ernest easily matched.
And it said something, with how wild and insane the night had been, how desperately terrified he had been that had he arrived just one second later the beautiful young woman in his arms would be no more… that he allowed himself to savor that kiss for too long moments before gently pulling away.
“I’m eighteen,” she said with a husky breath, bedroom eyes locking with his own.
“I know,” Ernest said with a rueful smile. “I’m nineteen.”
“And you look no older than me.”
“The power of a Silver Talisman.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Never mind.”
She chuckled throatily, squeezing him tight after steeling one last kiss. “You have to go. I know. But um… thank you?” She broke out in tears, squeezing him tight as he held her gently, tousling her hair. “We came so close to… I don’t know what would have… you saved my life. All our lives! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
She gazed at him with a tearful smile. “You sure you don’t want a cute, flexible, and extremely loyal girlfriend who would never break your heart and give you a reason to smile every morning and night?”
Ernest chuckled softly. “Ask me after Freetown is saved and the adjoining territory is tamed.”
She gazed at him for long moments, eyes filling with despair the equal of her smile. “Ernest, I remember way too much of what was recorded in those damned mem-tapes I pretend my mind wasn’t infused with while on a colony ship that never happened. Once a territory turns black and starts spilling over… there’s no turning back. The territory’s gone, unless some really seriously powerful intervention happens. And that almost never happens. And we’ve only ascended for a year and a half?” She broke down in fresh tears.
Ernest chuckled. “I think your mem-tapes are going to need some serious updating by the time I’m through.”
She blinked, gazing at him for long moments. “You’re serious!” She whispered. “You’re not just planning on outlasting the surge… you’re actually going in!”
“Of course.” He rolled his eyes with a teasing smile. “How else am I going to claim it?”
“It’s ballooning out. I’ll bet it’s at least a hundred miles in all directions, and it will only get bigger as the pressure increases… kind of like a red giant star. Let’s just hope the fucker doesn’t go supernova.”
Ernest winked. “In other words, it will be one sweet massive piece of territory, if I can actually claim it.”
She bit her lip. “Please be careful? If it’s not stable as a first tier black… if it actually starts ascending… that’s the equivalent of ascending up the ranks of Bronze.”
Ernest gave a rueful smile. “Wow, I actually didn’t know that. Maybe those mem-tapes aren’t so pathetic after all.”
“Ernest… please. It could kill you so easily, if you play the overconfident fool. Are you even a… um… Bronze?”
Ernest slowly shook his head. “Nope! But I do have a few useful tricks of my sleeve. Now, how about I get going before our unstable territory expands any further?”
She swallowed, realizing she was still holding him tight, lips just inches from his own. She allowed herself one final peck of those sweet soft Sylvan lips, because she had felt the points of his ears when making out with him, just seconds ago.
She squeezed his hand as she stepped back. “Thank you, Ernest.”
He flashed a set of perfectly beautiful ivory white teeth worthy of a toothpaste commercial. “Glad I could help. Farewell, Kelly.”
And before she could even inhale for a reply, he was gone.
“Jeezus. Just how high is his Quickness?” Quipped Marsha, gazing at her from the end of the hall along with their mother and father and even baby Quilly. All of them having seen her kiss her hero maybe just a bit too fervently.
Her cheeks flushed.
Her mom chuckled, eyes twinkling with unexpected understanding. “Come on, honey. Let’s do what we can to fix up the place and pray that your hero is right and that the worst has past.”
Kelly nodded, unexpected tears springing from her eyes as her mother swept her up in a loving hug the minute she stepped back inside the apartment. “Thank you, honey. You’re father and I are very, very proud of you.”
“For being an over-emotional lush who comes on way too strong to handsome boys?” she quipped with a tearful laugh.
“No, silly. For loving us so much that you were willing to put your life on the line to keep us safe. I’m so proud of you, I could burst!” She patted her daughter’s hand. “Now come on. We have a house to clean, a door to repair, or at least put the remains of the sofa in front of just in case… and then a future to plan. And yes, darling, that will include the advanced adventurer’s track. I apologize that we were so reluctant for so long.”
Kelly swallowed the sudden lump she felt in her throat. “Thank you, Mom… Dad. I just… thank you!”
“Me too!” Marsha squealed. “I want to see if I have the gift too!”
“Not until we have access to Tier-II Ascension Pods,” Her father cautioned. “Anything else puts you in serious jeopardy, no matter how much we think you’ll at least have Professional aptitude. You’ll graduate from your courses here with honors, and gain access to a proper facility when you go off world for further studies!”
“Dad… why aren’t there any Tier-II pods here?”
Her father gave her a tired smile. “For the oldest reason of all, honey.”
“And that would be…”
“Politics,” Kelly said with a smirk. “But who knows? With a wildcard like Ernest doing his thing, maybe we’ll get to the point where we have access to them without ever having to leave our home.”
“Assuming he survives going right into purgatory, trying to clear ten thousand square miles of hell,” Marsha said.
Kelly winced. “Well, yeah. There is that.”
They all shared an exhausted chuckle, eager to listen to some music and put this nightmare night behind them, when stable life-affirming reality turned to nightmare once more as the half-melted but still clearly comfy sofa her dad slumped back onto suddenly jerked a leg.
Kelly blinked, heart spiking with sudden dread, so wanting to believe it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Before it twitched again, jostling her dad from his exhausted doze.
“Dad, you need to get up. Like right now!”
Her mom flinched, revealing a flash of terror along with Marsha’s screams when the sofa began to twitch, then writhe, then knot itself into a bizarre-looking snake sporting two stuffed teddy-bear eyes, twisting around to stare right at Kelly who immediately thrust her mother and sisters behind her as the thing opened a stuffing filled slit, filled with cloth teeth, silently mouthing words Kelly could only guess at, before it carefully slithered past her, heading right for the broken door that was immediately sent flying off its remaining hinge as it headed for the stairwell.
“Jeezus T.H.!” Megan hissed.
“Language!” Her father barked, now fully upright and awake and completely unharmed, before nearly tripping on the toaster that had turned to a puppy? Bread slots let loose a crackling shriek that sounded suspiciously like words before it too bounced down the hallway, it’s extension cord wagging like a miniature tail. It was followed soon after by both stereoscopic AM radios, her father’s leather recliner, and all the remaining chairs in the house until finally… “No! Not my computer!” Megan cried out as her own personal 3-D holographic-displaying high end computer that their father had invested a considerable sum in purchasing after she had (of course) gotten perfect marks, began hopping down the hallway, its monitor displaying a very life-like velociraptor running after its pack, displaying the words ‘ave imperator abedimus.’
Kelly still didn’t know exactly what it meant, only that it seemed vaguely Latin.
“That has all my homework assignments on it! What am I going to tell my teacher, that my computer turned into a dog and ate my homework?” Megan groaned.
The family stared down the hallway where all their furniture and appliances were hopping, scurrying, and slithering down, before flooding down the stairwell in a series of cracks and crashes that made them all wince.
Kelly’s father sighed, holding his family close. “And that is why Prince Caliban discourages Necromancers from practicing their arts inside the city proper, save for within specially designed facilities.”
Of course that was the moment that Ernest ‘Edgelord’ Slaughter’s massive World Eater began howling in the distance, crimson lightning flashing in the heavens, outlining the massive wyrm swaying just beyond the city limits, and even Kelly flinched when she heard the manic laughter echoing so oddly through the air of a Necromancer having way too much fun.