The clean up was, surprisingly, far easier than Ray would have thought.
Not only was he able to claim the building, but also the fenced-in area around it. The System apparently viewed any kind of supporting structures, such as fencing or a driveway, as an extension of the claimable building. Looking back, this made a lot of sense to him as he had been able to claim the basement and parking garage of their first building.
Once the claim was complete he was down to a paltry six Power. He used another two Power to clean the remains of the Building Mimic out and the remaining four to reinforce the door and the walls. That ensured that the structure was heavily reinforced for what it was but left Ray bankrupt until his reserves were rebuilt.
The group piled into the building to explore it a bit. While the gooey, half-digested remains of both victims and monster had been removed, nothing else had been touched. The substation building had a small break room, bathroom, and of course the central bank of transformers and other electrical management devices. Ray wasn’t an electrician, so he didn’t even know the names for most of what was lined up against the far wall. Regardless, none of it seemed to be working so he ignored it for now.
Verrick was the last one in, closing and locking the door behind them with the new solid steel security bar that Ray had made. After double-checking that it was as secure as it was going to be, he walked over to where Ray was sitting.
“My Lord, I have many questions,” he said, standing there at attention. Ray sighed and gestured for the Aelvin to sit. The {RANGER} gracefully went from standing at attention to sitting crisscross across from him.
“I figured you would,” Ray replied after Verrick had taken a seat. “I have a lot of questions too, mostly about my abilities and how they work. So I don’t know if I can give you all the answers you are looking for, but I can certainly try. You deserve that much.”
Verrick nodded in thanks at that statement. “As you are able, My Lord,” he acquiesced. “The first inquiry, and arguably the most important, would be how you are able to alter matter itself to suit your needs. This seems to be an immensely powerful, unilaterally flexible ability far outside the realm of what should be possible within the System.”
“Well, that probably stems from my Class,” Ray began, getting an inquisitive look from the {RANGER}. “My class is a Unique one called {SYSTEM LORD}. I have abilities that allow me to alter, claim, or destroy anything around me as long as I have the Power available to do it. I’m not sure what exactly I am capable of, but I couldn’t agree more that my abilities are absurdly versatile.”
The Aelvin {RANGER} just stared at him, a single eyebrow on his otherwise expressionless face raised in surprise. Ray assumed this meant he was shocked, as he simply stared at him for nearly a full minute.
“Was there… anything else that I could answer for you?” Ray asked after a moment.
Verrick nodded. “Indeed, My Lord. There was discussion amongst the {RANGER}s as to the possibility of receiving weapon upgrades to our bows. Such enhancements would increase our offensive abilities immensely.”
“Yeah, of course!” he replied with a grin. “I have a way of storing Power, something that apparently isn’t available anywhere else in the System regulated shops. So I plan on building a couple of big batteries and improving a lot of different things. The foremost of those being our weapons and modes of transportation.”
The {RANGER} looked confused for a moment, “Are you not concerned about your defenses My Lord? I heard mention of something called an arcology, however, I do not have a mental reference for what such a defensive construct may look like.”
“Ah yeah, right. Could be that the idea of an arcology was entirely human,” Ray reasoned aloud. Refocusing he explained. “An arcology is like a giant building that is entirely self-contained. It would have air filtering systems, homes, businesses, farms, literally everything that would be required for a single building to be self-sufficient.”
Verrick nodded at that description. “I see. Essentially it is an artificial habitat, not unlike that of a space station or sealed space that is independent of the environment outside of it.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s actually spot on,” Ray replied, surprised that Verrick even knew what a space station was. He was so surprised, in fact, that he voiced the thought aloud.
The {RANGER} 's response was the first time he had ever heard a laugh escape the man. “My Lord, I may be from a high magic world, but I have fought across hundreds of worlds in various states of technological enlightenment or decay. I know what a space station is.”
That got chuckles from most of the Aelvin and even a few chuffing laughs from Nyx. The Goblins looked a bit confused, but they were still at a much lower level of development than they had been before the Integration.
“Right, well, I feel kinda stupid,” Ray responded with a chuckle, getting in on the laughs at his own expense. “So yeah, Derrick is putting that together right now. Or at least he has a plan to put one together. He fused a couple of buildings together and reinforced them. He had me spend a bunch of Power to lay out the foundations for the arcology as well. I have no idea what he’s doing right now, but the man does not stay still for long.”
“Indeed, My Lord. Derrick does seem to be one who enjoys any pursuit that takes his fancy,” agreed Verrick.
With that, the conversation ended for the evening. The {RANGER}s settled into the front of the building, keeping an eye on the door. Ray was regretting that he didn’t add any windows, but he didn’t want anyone, or anything, peeking their heads in and seeing them.
The group settled in for the night, hoping that the precautions they had taken would see them through the hours of darkness. It didn’t take long for the feeling that there was something else outside to permeate Ray's mind. That suspicion was quickly backed up when soft clawing at the door started.
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At first, it was a soft pawing sound, like a cloth over the metal of the door. That noise escalated quickly into scratching, as feral growls accompanied the noise. The entire group held their breath with some of the {RANGER}s going so far as to nock arrows into their bows. The scratching didn’t last long however, and whatever it was gave a final guttural growl before they heard it shuffle off.
Dry swallowing, Ray eyed Verrick who quickly put a finger over his lips. Nodding in agreement that silence was the best option for now the group settled back for a long night.
And a long night it was.
While nothing gave the door a solid strike, the area around their little oasis of safety was busy. They had, apparently, chosen a location that became a hotbed of activity at night. Between the roars of unknown monsters, the constant moving of creatures and undead around them, and the loud and brutally quick fights that erupted they got very little sleep. It was several hours later, however, that an event shook them all to full wakefulness.
Ray stared blearily at the door, exhausted. He had checked his stats what seemed to be a few minutes ago and, seeing that he was back up to his full eighty Power, knew that it was now past midnight. How far past he didn’t know. All he knew was certain of was that it wasn’t daylight yet. But it was finally quiet so he could get some sleep.
As his eyes drooped closed and he settled in to get some rest, he suddenly shot to his feet alerting everyone around him. Verrick rolled to his feet, alert as he stared at Ray with questions in his eyes. But instead of responding Ray just tapped his ear. The simple movement caused the {RANGER} 's eyes to go wide.
The outside of their building was utterly silent.
There was no roars, no fighting, no scratching at the door or walls. There was no shuffling and no moving of undead or monstrosities. It was utterly silent. Silence in a world where everything made a noise. Either everything around them had died off… or something really, really bad was about to happen.
The tension was so thick Ray could have cut it with a knife and served it to everyone as rations. Sweat beaded his forehead and ran down his neck as the oppressive silence weighed down on them, a palpable force they could practically feel in the air. This was not normal. It was not good.
The tension turned to fear as a whispering noise sounded out across the room.
No. Not the room, Ray realized. It was sounding out across the entire hex. Probably even farther. It wasn’t loud. Like a soft noise on the edge of his hearing. But he heard it nonetheless. It was there. Without warning the sound went from a whispering quiet to utterly deafening as the screams of a billion souls wailed in fear, terror, and endless suffering.
{EVENT}
Catching only a glimpse of the System message before he was slammed into the floor, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he faintly heard the others collapse as well. The roar of utter chaos didn’t go silent even as he felt his eardrums burst. He clawed at his face as if it made perfect sense to attempt to remove the noise from his body by ripping out his mind. His nails left deep gashes in his face and scalp before his body gave out and he vomited all over the floor.
He lay there in a pool of his own blood and bile while his body and mind burned in excruciating pain. The screams fell silent at some point, but the pain didn’t leave until long after they had stopped. At some point his awareness came back, struggling above the ocean of physical self-inflicted pain and the psychic soul-rending pain that had kicked off the entire pain-filled experience.
Groaning, Ray sat up. The cuts on his face and head still trickled a bit of blood down the sides of his face. Wiping the blood away from his eyes, he looked around the room. The Aelvin were still unconscious, however, Verrick had struggled to his knees and was gasping for air. Both the Goblins looked dead. Nyx was nowhere to be seen.
“What… the ever-loving fuck was that?” he gasped, taking out some water and draining the bottle. He handed one to the {RANGER} as well, receiving a grateful nod in return. Verrick didn’t have an answer for him, but the mottled, decaying, System message in front of him did.
{EVENT}
DIVINE DESCENT
ANUBIS, GOD OF THE DEAD, HAS DESCENDED UPON YOUR WORLD
SHOULD ANUBIS CLAIM FIFTY-ONE PERCENT OF THE WORLD FOR HIS PANTHEON IT WILL BE LOST
{WARNING}
SEA OF THE DEAD
WATER TRAVEL IS NOW IMMENSELY DANGEROUS
ALL VESSELS WILL BE ATTACKED BY THE ROAMING DEAD
{WARNING}
THE PLANETARY UNDEAD SPAWN RATE IS NOW DOUBLED
“A fucking God? Can we… just get enough of a breather to actually fucking accomplish something? Please?” Ray moaned in despair. “At least limit it to the fucking ocean… but no. No, you just had to fucking make the undead even harder to get rid of.”
As if hearing his complaint yet another System message appeared in front of them all:
{WORLD QUEST ISSUED}
REPEL THE GODS
{QUEST CRITERIA}
DEFEAT ANUBIS
{REWARDS}
THE CLAIMED TERRITORY WILL BE ASSIGNED ACCORDING TO INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION
NEX WILL BE ISSUED ACCORDING TO CONTRIBUTION
ALL FACTION LEADERS WHO PARTAKE WILL HAVE THEIR CLASS UPGRADED BY ONE RANK
ALL FACTION MEMBERS WILL HAVE THEIR GRADES UPGRADED BY TWO LEVELS
???
???
???
ALL SURVIVORS REMAINING ON THE PLANET WILL HAVE THEIR LEVELS UPGRADED FIVE LEVELS
Ray read through the rewards, and while they still seemed a bit light to him they were far more in line with what he would expect of having to fight a literal God.
“That’s better,” he muttered. “Still impossible, but better.”
Verrick stood up on somewhat unsteady legs and addressed Ray, “My Lord, we need to move. Now that this announcement has been made and a Quest issued factions will start to move to consolidate their territories. The System does not issue quests that cannot be completed. While difficult, this will be far from impossible with proper planning,” he explained.
Thinking it over, Ray realized the {RANGER} was right. They would need a lot more people, weapons, and levels, but if they could stop Anubis on their own without anyone’s help? That could, theoretically, give them enough territory to start making serious changes. Then Verrick continued speaking, changing his view on the matter.
“Please note, My Lord, that the Quest stated we must defeat this wayward divinity, not kill it,” he pointed out. “We do not know the criteria that may constitute a defeat. It could be something as simple as pushing the divinity back from a particular objective. Additionally, there are aspects of the Quest that have not been revealed. The rewards may be far, far more than we are aware of.”
“Those are… really good points,” Ray said, watching as the Goblins and Aelvin began to stir. He was glad to see the small green guys were still alive. They were weak but incredibly loyal and versatile. He knew others saw them as fodder, but he valued them. Particularly when they began to adapt and evolve.
He listened to the quiet that surrounded them. There were no sounds or noises. It seemed to him that the undead and any other creatures may have retreated back inside of their buildings and nests to wait out the Quest announcement. He didn’t blame them, the arrival of Anubis was an overly traumatic event. Being caught outside in the middle of a bunch of hostile creatures while this had happened didn’t seem like a good method to walk away in one piece.
“Get everyone up,” Ray ordered. “We need to get moving. Now. Even if it's dark outside I don’t think anything is going to be coming back out right now. Moving now is the best choice, particularly if we can get ahead of any pursuers that may still be looking for us.”
Verrick nodded and began rousing everyone. While he did that, Ray turned his attention towards his missing Soul Companion. Nyx had vanished, and he had a funny feeling that it was more related to his ability that it was to her actually missing.
He held a hand out over the floor and spoke quietly, “Come here Nyx.”
Mist rose from the floor and coalesced slowly into the form of his canine companion. After a minute or two she finally solidified and looked up at him. “About time,” she snipped.