Ander was on his hundredth dispatched salamander when another two hundred fell from the sky above and the portal closed. Marking a final wave of foes. The young man was beyond irritated when that wave came. Much to his irritation, though he’d gained enough power to increase his range and potency.
Ander thought for a long moment at the predicament. If the barrier was powered by Kyrion’s soul, then he should be able to reach at least that far with his ultimate technique. “Chiyo dear. Please get far away from me and any monster. I’m about to do something I’m not too proud of.” Ander was fully proud of what he had planned.
“Ander…What exactly are you going to do?”
“I mean. If Kyrion’s going to play deity and we both come from the same world. Shouldn’t I follow suit? He isn’t that much stronger…Well he wasn’t before I got here.”
“Wait… You can bring back the dead?”
“No. Not yet anyways. I can restart a stopped heart if I'm careful but I’m not really a healer.” Ander said as stripes formed on his body as black and white lightning radiated from his body in an aura of power.
Chiyo got plenty far back. “Get away from the monsters!”
The other agents did so making room. They knew Ander was strong but no one tested his limits. That was the thing when two monsters were on the planet. If either one could blow up the world it was better not to anger them both simultaneously. What Ander did next, proved them right.
“Genocide… Bolt!!!!!!” Ander yelled as the combined blast of lightning
turned the first into dust on impact.
The blast spread out 10 times, each strike spreading more and more as the creatures were one shot and the power of the attack increased greatly. What had been a struggle, turned into a slaughter beyond what they could hope as within a minute the attack had crossed over to China to the west, as well as the western UC, to the east. Monsters turned into dust and spread as the bolts soon continued for another ten minutes meeting in Spain before shooting into a rift. The slaughter continued throughout the world as every Salamander that had existed, did exist, and had yet to be, was wiped out of the universe.
“Salamanders were the most common of foes and quite powerful, but not the strongest of or deadliest I suspect.” Ander let out a breath and collapsed having pushed his soul to its limit and gotten stronger for it.
“Ander…How limited is that attack?”
“The enemies have to either be similar or I have to know what I'm aiming at. I only set it to attack gargantuan lizards, without wings.”
“If you targeted humans?”
“Kyrion would put both of us down for our own good. Not you. Me and himself. More than likely.”
“I couldn’t see that happening…”
“Same. So don’t bring up hypocriticals.” Ander lay down against a building.
“Hypotheticals.”
“Tomato, apple.” Ander collapsed his forehead hitting a light pole and denting it on the way down. A cocoon of white light surrounded him as the excess power was put to use.
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“I found Sera. She’s currently being held in an old Slayer containment field. Both of her alleged parents had her sealed before they could fall.” Dwen said to Issac and the others via their connection.
Issac’s machine grabbed a rhino covered in stone and slammed it into a two-headed lion. “What!”
“Thats. Where are they?” Jin asked in a whisper.
“Trapped in the real world.”
“Wasn’t every–” Jin started.
“They aren’t Esprs, just trained agents. Nothing odd about them and not ranked high enough for magical gear.” Kilo stated.
“So she’s alone.” Mira stated.
“Yes. We can get there in an hour if we leave now.” Dwen said from Jin’s speaker before scowling.
“When did she get in your machine Jin?” Moca asked.
“Uh…Not sure…” Jin lied, horribly.
“It doesn’t matter, If you want to save your friend we need to work together. My brother also likes this machine because it's faster and has a second seat in it.”
“It has the same specs, but red with flame motifs.” Kilo stated as the blue mech morphed into a blue jet and shot off.
“Which makes it faster. That's science.” The red machine transformed into a red copy of said machine.
The rest followed suit in time figuring out the buttons when black and white lights passed through them and into monsters around the area that had gone into hiding. Causing dust to shoot up from the ground.
----------------------------------------
All around the world people fought, died, killed, accumulating points that would eventually go to magical items and weapons. As well as large amounts of power. The abrupt battle was turned around and most enemies had been eliminated on the surface.
That was until a red metal pickup truck, the size of a moon slammed into Kyrion’s domain forcing its way through the protective veil around the planet.
“Not good.”
Ceres flew into the massive truck and easily tore apart the metal letting out a purple breath attack that created bubbles to form on the surface before a group of blue, green, and black-furred monsters with large ears but scarred humanoid cow faces. They somewhat resembled minotaurs with their horns, but their build was closer to a human’s proportions and height.
Upon getting out of the ship they noticed the dragons hovering around them waiting for an excuse.
“So, why are you here?”
“Bossman?” The cow people stopped when they caught a glimpse of Kyrion holding up the barrier.
“Is that what I told you to call me?” Kyrion asked in mock irritation which was used to kids the curiosity..
“Uhhhh.. Oh great Mooooooster Kyr. Father of all Mooooonsters, eater of the stars and moooons, Cosmic Glutton, there is mooore but I forget.”
“Also, add Commander of Unity and Peace, as well as, Captain of Drisil, Kaolad, Missionary of Kao, Rion, Insane, mad, Santa Claus, Lord of Thorns, Crimson Magpie, Casino Owner, He who frees deities, slayer of dragons, Brewmaster, True Pacifist, Relentless Demon, oh and Trouble. Add those to my list of titles.
‘Uhhh Mooster, did you forget that you have some of those titles?”
“You didn’t mention them the first time. Now did you. “
“Sorry Mooster!” The Mino people said in unison.
“Good. Now why are you here right now?”
“Ah. You see. We saw the humans fire off a powerful shooter. And thought that dey is ready to be ummmm…Concord. That it.”
“It wouldn’t be fun. Also, this world is ripe with all kinds of food. Have you heard of a cheeseburger?”
“Is that a weapon?”
“Use your context clues. What do I keep you around for anyways?”
“We are the Ko’su’dina.” (emergency field rations.) In Kyrion’s home language.
“Is that so. That’s a truly honorable position. What was it now, a 3 rank promotion on death?”
“Four. We become Kyr’s right hand. You must have many right hands.”
“I’ve had a few in my lifetime.” Kyrion was irritated by the world-ending version of himself that people feared. The same terrible sense of humor, and mischievous nature. When had Kyrion called a sentient creature food?
A long blue dragon floated above the cowmen and hovered with a curious expression. “Are they friends or sausages?”
“Ah. You know, I wouldn’t be this way if sentient monsters never tried to eat me first. If rabbit people can eat kids. I should be able to eat rabbit people. Isn’t that right Ceres?”
Ceres slowly blinked and landed next to Kyrion. Drool leaking as the cow people seemed to stir an instinctual hunger.
“Uh yes. I could go for some beef.”
The cow people knew that word and stepped into a shield wall. “We are not the beef!”
“You came here against my orders. You are what we want you to beat. Don’t you want to be my Dina?”
“That sounds alot like dinner when you remove the first two parts.”
Kyrion pulled out a three-day-old cheeseburger he’d been saving. “This is a hamburger with cheese.”
“Meat?”
“As well as bread, cheese, and vegetables, a perfectly balanced meal if there ever was one.” Kyrion waved it back and forth then tossed it at the group and watched them gobble it up animalistically. Kyrion’s minotaurs are vegetarians by nature, with a solid influx of eggs to help them get large. In comparison, the cow people in front of him were like wild oxen. Kyrion didn’t eat his minotaurs. But…
“What was that meat! It was delicious.”
“Ground Psudo Beef.” Kyrion stated. Pseudo Beef was imitation meat grown from meat plants developed by Dwen during her time here. It was beef if beef could be multiplied and grown on trees. It was a failed experiment but tasted no different than cow meat. There just wasn’t enough soul in it. Kyrion scowled. Flavor? Seasoning, it wasn’t seasoned enough.
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“Ground Beef?”
“Sure!”
“Beef as in cow?”
“Kind of.” Kyrion stated, catching on. “Oh the aftertaste is because it’s three days old? Gotta eat them fresh.”
“You fed us a baby?”
“Do you want it right out of the oven?” Dwen had cooked them in the oven. Which also didn’t make them burgers. Kyrion prided himself on eating anything. But he’d gotten spoiled as of late.
“You mooonster!”
“I won’t deny that. Now then. If you stay on this planet any longer I’ll force you to eat more Pseudo Beef until you can’t live without it.”
“Heartless! How dare you turn us into canablies!”
“Oh. Oh…Well, you come to my friend's world, ahead of schedule. Drop monsters on an unprepared populace and call me a monster? Do you know why you’re supposed to wait?” Kyrion’s sclera turned dark and surrounded them in mana.
“Because you’re lazy?”
“Ugh… No, because this world has the best food I’ve tasted, albient not the most nutritious. I’ve been making a cookbook based on all kinds of things since I’ve been here. You are getting in the way of me saving the universe from a tasteless future. If you don’t was Psudo Beef, I do have gyros.”
“Do they have meat?”
“Lamb. Not Psudo Beef.”
“Alright.” Kyrion pulled three hot gyros out of his pocket. Each one paper.
The four cows fought for them and Kyrion watched in mock amazement as all four fell over sick after ingesting actual meat. Or…..Kyri
“Oh… Looks like you can’t digest…parchment paper.”
“Soo good.” One of the cowmen said as their eyes dilated and he entered a food coma.
After ten minutes of waiting. “We require more of the gyros.”
“Snacks don’t make demands. But, I’ll make you an offer. If you can convince your crew to settle on the Moon, or a remote island and act as one of my special crews. Swear on your souls to listen to this version of me, then I will offer to have you revive payment in gyros not to be confused with Euros.”
“They sound the same.”
“Yeah, the person I got this language from calls it that.”
“We’ll be right back.”
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Kilo had hopped out of his mech and placed his hand above a biometric scanner only for the limb to begin to glow silver as the screen changed then turned green.
Issac charged into the next room the second the doors opened towards a second set of automatic doors that clearly didn’t open fast enough as the young man tore the doors apart.
Various pods which held robotic soldiers lay empty as the group of young heros arrived in a lab where a ginger haired woman was connected to hundreds of wires that had been embedded into various parts of her body. Her eyes were covered in a dark red cloth as a pool of copper lay on the ground under her. A mask on her face did nothing as the rest of the life support attached to her didn’t follow.
Jin’s eyes widened as he moved to block Moca, and Lee who had been behind him. Someone who had been a friend, was instead used, by the people she trusted, and turned into a living husk.
“Lee, Moca, I can’t stop the others but you two should turn around.”
Lee scowled as he moved around Jin then scowled. “Oh…We need to get out of here. Now!”
Mira looked to Lee. “What the hell do you mean? Our friend is.”
“This was the future I saw! Damn it! I thought we would avoid this outcome. Listen if we don’t get out of here. All of us are going to die.”
----------------------------------------
Despite such a proclamation, Lee didn’t leave. He waited for the others to leave first.
“I won’t leave her behind. Now either help me get her down or run. I won’t be going anywhere.”
“You know I can see the future. If you die! There won’t be any coming back! Something is wrong here.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Sean?”
“I’ll stay.”
“You’re all fools.” Lee stomped his foot. “Moca, don’t you have something to do? Family to find?”
“My father is a dead bastard, my mother has been dead for years, and apparently I’ve been talking to a robot in a hospital bed. I have no other family and honestly, I don’t have much left to lose. So I won’t leave a friend behind.” Moca clenched her fist
“Moca….Kilo, I’m sorry. You’re the only one not here right now. Aren’t you?”
“That is somewhat correct. Jin, can you get Dwen out of here if things get messy?”
“Why are you all giving up? We should be able to win against whatever comes our way!”
“No. Something hasn’t felt right for a while now. If the worst comes then we will need to be ready.”
“What are you going on about?” Jin scowled as an image shot through his mind in slow motion.
“Jin you’re mech can get Dwen out of here. If she dies, the earth is likely—” Kilo started when his eyes exploded from inside his metallic skull. Blood, oil, and coolant shot everywhere and coated the area in a green blood-like substance.
As Kilo’s head fell forward, a large missile-like projectile hit him in the back of the head and impacted his shull. The robotic body was durable enough to keep it from skewering him.
Jin turned to the others only to see Mira lose her head as a tentacle of water wrapped around and squeezed with the lethality of a guillotine.
Issac had grabbed Sera, only for his veins to tear out of his body and then drill into the young man’s brain through his ears.
Sean moved quickly dodging striking and closing the distance only for a pulse of power to shut off his artificial Esper abilities, as tendrils of water grabbed each and every limb, beginning to pull.
Finally, Lee, and Moca who had been too slow to react, were crushed by the ceiling plate that fell on top of them as water rushed in to fill the room and drown anyone present. The former needed a second for his pecognition to trigger while the latter seemed frozen.
“Jin-” Kilo started.
Jin drew his Phoblade and slashed toward a missile launcher that had just risen out of the ground. Cutting it in two he raised the temperature and conjured a blast of flame which was used to evaporate the surrounding water and dry out the moisture in the air.
Sean moved Moca to a safe location, before charging forward his abilities given by the procedure failing as he threw a dagger into a tube connecting Sera’s life support to her body.
Issac tore the wires apart only for Sera to pay him back with a fist that passed cleanly through his torso yet barely managed to avoid anything vital.
Issac felt the wounds rapidly close as the wound regenerated and he struggled back to his feet, exhausted.
Mira fired her death gun into various launchers that had appeared destroying them before they could lock on.
Kilo interfaced with the room seeing the others move and began to rench control from the entity controlling Sera.
“Mind Rend.” Sera said in a monotone. Causing Jin and Sean to fall to their knees.
Lee slammed both of his hands into the side of her head confusing as he tore out the remainder of the wires as the wrap fell. Revealing two empty eye sockets as Psionic energy slammed into him and pressed him against the wall.
Scrambling to his feet Jin felt something off.
“Wind Spear!” Moca yelled as two spears of wind appeared in front of her only for the spell to go somewhere else as two water tentacles slammed into her. One spear passed through Lee’s head while the other hit Kilo’s left leg causing a chain reaction that led to them dying shortly after.
Jin tackled Moca before the spears could form as the water tentacles missed their sneak attack.
Various tubes could be seen flowing through her ears and implanted to the side via various wires and tubes. She couldn’t hear anything they didn't want her to hear.
“Sera! Wake up!” Issac grabbed her by the shoulders.
The veins in Issac’s arms ceased to flow as a command was sent to his brain.
“Stop!” Sera yelled in a monotone.
Dwen sighed as her sclera turned dark. Moving at a speed that displaced the air around her, she pulled out a familiar purple mushroom and stuffed it in the trapped girl's mouth. “You all are so melodramatic. ”
“What?”
Sera ceased moving as the wires in her body were pushed out and blood followed to the ground as the damage to her body was vast.
“Your turn to stop. Just like that the fight ended as Sera stood in front of them motionless.” Dwen stated as she
“You could have done that the whole time?”
“Those bastards stole our tech and tried to make it their own!” Metallic rods extended from Kilo’s right arm resembling a flat phoblade as he approached the computers and placed a hand on the console. A blue blade shot out and extended into the device as his mind entered the console. Within moments his eyes glowed blue as the data he’d gathered was sent to his mental backup.
“What do you mean?” Jin asked.
Kilo looked to Sera, noticing that the bleeding had stopped but scowled. “There are more here. Dangerous failures. The slayers were trying to force those they’d gathered into machines to create thralls. Sera did surpass their expectations, and was also deemed a failure and was to be scrapped later tonight. The tech they used is a poor imitation of what I am currently and they clearly stole one of our much older models from somewhere. Without knowing what they’re doing.”
Moca scowled. “You’re a robot? Are you an Ai?”
“No, no no. I am probably 50% human. Every power where I'm from has a price and the more one is pushed past their limits the closer they become to a monster. My father had already converted into a machine he could control before he fled here. It’s just that I was the first body he’d managed to find and most recently began to move around outside of my tank and out of the net.”
“I don’t get it. I also didn’t do much.” Moca scowled.
Lee sighed. “It’s better this way. We can wreck the building a bit.” Lee punched a monitor and caused a chain reaction that caused them to pass through the wall as a hole to reality was opened up.
“Oops.”
“Wind wall!” Moca yelled as bullets rained on the opening only to be redirected and ricocheted back into the building causing more damage to themselves as the portal closed.
“You should go. Unlike me, bullets are quite lethal. Jin, Kilo swap machines, Kilo take her back in the red mech.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I am an expert in spirit mastery. Meaning I’m a tier higher than my younger brother. We should be quite close in terms of raw power.”
“That makes no sense.” Moca stated.
“My brother cheats the system every chance he gets. Suffice it to say I can handle things here.”
The others left eventually leaving the humans to Dwen’s machinations. Had they known, what she could do, they would have insisted she not stay behind.
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Ander sat in front of a group of masked people in cloth clothing. He knew them as this country's assassins or Ninjas. He’d been surrounded hours after his fourth genocide bolt. The insignia on their shoulders resembled snakes.
A gun was pressed against the back of his head. As he pretended to be helpless. Rune erasure was easy when the user knew what they were doing. Ander, who'd help Kyrion build structures, knew runes. While he wasn’t a master of them he could easily erase them subtly with careful blades of wind. His control was what made him deadly after all.
“So. What do you want?”
“We noticed you sneaking around and buying up various tech organizations. I want to know what you’re after?”
“Oh? That's simple. I ‘m trying to go home. For that I’ll need resources. Are you going to get in my way?”
“You will need to work with us then. Sign everything in your name over to us when you leave and we’ll take good care of those assets. We guard an important area, if you don’t take us up on the offer we’ll take it off you another way.”
“Oh, your bandits! Here I thought you were Ninja’s.” Ander laughed as he sent invisible bolts into the man behind him and hijacked his body by manipulating the electric signals sent by his brain.
The gun went off and fired into the back of Ander's head, falling uselessly to the ground. Said gun was then pointed at one of the other ninjas and fired three more times resulting in a battle between allies.
Seeing the distraction Ander left the area as a bus-sized Rhinoceros Beetle standing on two legs rounded the corner.
Releasing his control, the group fought each other for a while longer on their own. Both sides trying to stay alive as a monster interrupted.
“Oi Chiyo, have them marked off as not good standing. If they would try to extort me I must not be the first.”
“I will. See to that. But the Orochi are quite dangerous.”
“I’m sure they are.” Ander crossed both of his arms. “Those weapons were made to disrupt mana. A direct hit from it as intended would have left me powerless had I not caught on.”
“Back up, when did you learn how to mind control people.”
“That wasn’t mind control. I hijacked the signals in his brain to force him to attack an ally. Instead of me. It wasn’t all that impressive and only last for a few seconds. I can’t make armies of people fight themselves. Single target for fine control. Aoe for Chaos and simple commands. Limited to 5 people at best.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I was looking for a better way to teach and taught by forcing someone's positioning to be perfect would make them better and faster. But the journey is just as important as form for many.” Ander sighed.
“Ah. I think I get it.”
“Now then. Any more species that need wiping?” Ander got to his feet as a gold necklace with a citrine jewel resembling a tiger appeared in front of him.
“Huh.” Ander put it on and felt his energy absorption double along with his efficiency which essentially doubled his capacity.
A matching necklace, made from sapphire appeared. Only the creature was a bird.
“I think that’s for you.” Ander pointed toward Chiyo.
“You aren’t going to pick it up and dust it off?” Chiyo raised an eyebrow.
Ander moved to pick it up only for his fingers to pass through the item. “I can’t touch it.”
“Ah. You’ve encountered this before?”
“He turned the planet into his dungeon. No wonder he’s giving off items. When he closes it down, he’ll be forced to reabsorb all of the energy which would likely cause him to explode. I bet his gnomes are making toys!”
“You mean elfs. Santa has elfs.”
“Elves don’t look like that back home. They remind me more of the lost gnome race.”
“Lost? What happened to them?”
“If people knew they wouldn’t be lost. Now then I think this battle has been mostly wrapped up. So what did you have in mind today?” Ander realized he’d reverted to his tactless tone and tried to sweep it under the rug.
----------------------------------------
“We have come to an arrangement.” The cowmen stated.
“You will be known as the Cowboys. I will be sending some of you to train in India.” Kyrion said with crossed arms.
“We didn’t even get to tell you our decision.” The lead Cowboy stated,
“It’s either yes or annihilation. I assume you are intelligent enough to know that going against me, is volunteering to become food for my food. I’ll keep you all in that big red barn and just haul you along.”
“N-no need for that.” The lead Cowboy spluttered out.
“I’m surprised you didn’t resist. My good little dragon is hungry. He could go for some Ko’su’dinas himself.”
“W-w-we s-surender!”
“You know the rules.”
“We swear on our souls and the souls of our species to serve you till the fires of all of our lies die out. As Chief of the Ox–”
“Cowboys.”
“ As Chief of the Cowboys.”
“Good.” Kyrion smiled a smile that caused the Cowboys to sweat milk.
“So they secrete milk when scared. Is all of the water in their body milk instead or is it some type of defensive mechanism?” Karl asked.
“A shame, you smelled like you’d go good with cookies. Santa Claus loves his milk and cookies afterall.”
“I.I am very uncomfortable.”
“I accept your oath. Breaking it means your race belongs to me as food for my food.” Kyrion watched as a bit of his power wrapped around their souls like a chain. He could grant them all abilities that would set them aside from the rest of their kin. The boost would be permanent, and stay even if they turned on him.
“Ultimate regeneration so long as you aren’t decapitated and chocolate, or Kakao isn’t spread on the wound, you will regenerate from almost anything so long as you have milk and blood in your bodies. Limited im-mooo-ortality.”
“That is a nice boon.”
“Good. Good. Don’t become a problem I have to deal with later.” Kyrion bluffed. Despite speaking, the body he was using wasn’t able to fight and keep the realities separate. He’d be spreading himself much too thin.
“Well then. Since I don’t sense any betrayal I’ll inform you that becoming my enemy will mean a slow death on a meat farm where you are given enough milk to survive the horrors of creating and testing psudo beef.”
At that moment, Kyrion quashed all hopes of a rebellion that would have occurred when he wasn’t looking.
Kyrion raised his hands to signify to himself that he was pushing everything out of his domain when a message hit him hard.