Effthrin looked out upon the hellish landscape and smiled. It looked as if there was a fertile cultivation area within the SYSTEM once again. While the types of realities that existed produced all types of souls he so liked the souls that came within The SYSTEM. A being or construct that had been around longer than he had. The reason he enjoyed the souls that made their way to him from there so much was because of the absolute chaos that ensued when they arrived as they realized that The SYSTEM was not the end all. There was no dying within the SYSTEM. If they died there were a lot of places their souls could go. Some even ended up in his realm, what some of the enlightened ones called The Lower Planes. Not that they were lower in any way. They were just elsewhere.
Effthrin brought his thoughts back to the soul before him. A man named Kelly had died so suddenly that he didn’t even know he was dead. Currently, he was standing on the floor of Effthrin’s palace looking around wonderingly. It wasn’t that this soul was interesting. It wasn’t. Another death from the shenanigans The SYSTEM was pulling. They were popping up throughout the various lower planes. No, this one was interesting because of one of the Karmic Links that he had.
Effthrin had followed the link back to a woman who vowed to kill the dragon that had killed her man. Making offers that Effthrin would gladly take her up on if he had a way to enter the Physical realm near her without the SYSTEM shutting him down. But then a memory flashed through the man's mind, This woman, this Jessica was an Illusionist. An Illusionist? Hmmm, if her belief was strong enough it could work with a little push.
When he was done with this soul he’d have one of his servants take it to the Soul Forge. It would be of much more use as brick than in its current configuration. Maybe he’d even put the brick near the killing fields so it could soak up some of the death and corruption that was always down there. With that thought in mind, Effthrin sent a pulse of power up the Karmic Link with a bit of knowledge for Jessica. Then he called forth his lieutenants. It had been a long time since Hell had come to a planet. It was time to make that happen again.
***
Jessica relived the moment over and over in her mind. Kelly had died without so much as a whimper. One moment that pompous man was stepping onto the trap they’d placed on the bridge, the next a dragon was rising from underneath. The dragon had flown up and locked eyes with Kelly. A moment later blood had shot from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he fell over dead. Jessica looked at Kelly in shock, as the Dragon huffed and then flew up and away before she could even think to react it was out of range and heading south.
Jessica, a mage focused on illusions, dispelled the illusions she’d placed on Lions Gate Bridge. Everyone looked at Jessica who, without a word, turned and walked to the Prospect Point Café where Kelly and she had holed up for the last two days. He’d been the strongest man she’d ever seen. Since the SYSTEM had taken over he’d done whatever the hell he wanted and had fun doing it which included keeping her safe.
That first couple of hours had been kind of crazy. Kelly had found her as a couple of men were trying to have their way with her. He’d saved her and then continued to protect her over the next couple of hours as people lost their minds and attacked each other in sight. They’d both adapted quickly to the kill-or-be-killed environment. They’d even killed several people before they unlocked The SYSTEM
Things changed when they were attacked by giant rats. After they’d killed the rats they’d unlocked the SYSTEM and chosen their classes. Kelly had chosen a fighter-type class and she’d chosen the class Illusionist. She found out that she had an innate ability that allowed her to create phantasmal illusions that had physical substance if she put enough mana into them. That coupled with the class she chose, and she could create Holographic type illusions or physical structures that looked like what she wanted them to.
The Second day they’d made their way north to get out of the city and found a group of people near the bridge. Kelly and she had quickly taken charge and set up a roadblock which they used to exploit people and protect themselves from the monsters they caught a glimpse of on the other side of the bridge. There were some big damn wolves over there. They killed any monsters that tried to come across the bridge and extorted or killed anyone who tried to cross the bridge without their permission. It was easy for Jessica. If someone couldn’t tell if the ground below them was safe, they would step on and fall through the bridge to their death 200 feet below.
Their group had a couple of people with an affinity for water on the shoreline. They’d wait for a body to drop. If the person survived the fall, they’d kill them before they could recover. Otherwise, they recovered the bodies and looted them. When they were done they took them down the coast a little bit and threw them into the inlet where they were pulled under quickly.
Their little recovery scheme had gone to shit when that man had seen right through her illusions. Now Kelly was dead, and she had nothing. Nothing! Jessica walked into the Café, and to the office that had been turned into a makeshift bed and sat down on her sleeping bag as thoughts of revenge started to percolate in her mind. As she made deals with Gods, devils, and The SYSTEM a voice answered her. An offer was made, A price decided to which Jessica Cline agreed.
Jessica’s body went rigid as information flooded her mind and power she had no chance of channeling normally flooded her body and created a fully functional ritual diagram she happened to be sitting in the middle of. She sat cross-legged with her arms on her knees wrist up as a blade appeared in the air and cut across both of her wrists.
One of the people currently resting in the Café came to investigate the sounds coming out of the room and to check and see if Jessica was okay only to find her sitting in the middle of an active ritual diagram that ignited into flames that started to spread throughout the café. Some people that were sleeping were killed before they woke up while others screamed and ran for their lives.
When the Café was consumed a Pillar of fire rose into the air with Jessica sitting under and off to its side, yet still in the column of fire. At its center, a fissure 100 feet high opened in the column of flame and spread wide. Those members of her team who could see into the fissure saw a landscape of fire and volcanoes covered with creatures that writhed and squirmed in all directions for as far as the eye could see. Standing on a Hilltop was a handsome Devil, wings spread as it pointed to the fissure and roared something in a language most of them couldn’t believe.
Jessica saw none of this. While she lived, the ritual would remain open, which was ironic because she was being bled out and healed at a rate that would make sure she couldn’t move and wouldn’t die for a very long time. When she did die, the portal would close, and she would be drawn through to the other side. She was too far gone in her grief and rage to care at that point and just watched as everything she knew was overrun by the demon horde she had helped release into the world.
***
As Adam followed Ansfrin into City Hall, he looked around and noted that only the Hospital and City Hall had power. He also noticed that he was being shadowed by more of the disguised Lizard men but most of the people around them were human. Adam considered using Identify but decided to wait. Until he knew what was going on, there was no reason to make things harder by antagonizing someone who seemed to be keeping people safe.
Adam followed Ansfrin into the Mayor's office. There were already two of the Lizardmen pretending to be humans in the room. Ansfrin walked over to the desk and sat down as he gestured for Adam to take a seat. Once Adam was seated Ansfrin asked, “May I ask what your intentions are?”
“I intended to visit the SYSTEM Shop and then go kill monsters. I’ve visited the SYSTEM Shop. I’ll be heading out to kill monsters either in the city or somewhere else if you don’t want any help. Now it’s my turn, were you on Earth before the old SYSTEM was replaced by the New SYSTEM?”
“Why would you ask that?” Ansfrin asked.
“Cut the bullshit, If I couldn’t see what you looked like I can smell that the three of you aren’t human…”
Adam was cut off as one of the guards pulled his holstered weapon, which was not a 9mm Browning even though it looked like one, and shot Adam in the back of the Head.
Adam didn’t even flinch as his Damage Resistance kicked in and the bullet bounced off as it bounced off his skin.
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Everyone froze until Adam reached up and waved his hand in the air near his head as he said, “Damn flies, buzzing all over the place.” Adam held Ansfrin’s gaze as he continued, “The First one is free, there will be consequences if I’m attacked again.”
Ansfrin held up his hand and the guard behind Adam holstered his weapon.
“Good,” Adam said, “Now I believe I asked you a question?”
“We were here before the SYSTEM Changed,” Ansfrin said.
Adam nodded. “First, I don’t care why you were here before. What I want to know is what you plan to do now?”
“As you have surmised, our plans have changed. Right now, we plan to establish a city and grow, whatever that entails within this New SYSTEM,” Ansfrin said.
“And the Humans?” Adam asked.
“Partners, colleagues, allies, if everything goes well,” Ansfrin said.
“That means you’ll have to come clean on what race you are?” Adam pointed out.
“Well cross that bridge when we come to it,” Ansfrin commented.
“Speaking of bridges, was that your group of people up north at the Lions Gate Bridge?” Adam asked.
“You are familiar with the landmarks and cities of Earth?” Ansfrin asked.
“You first,” Adam said.
“No, those people are not with us. Just a bunch of assholes lording it over everyone else, and yes I can see how that might appear hypocritical.”
Adam smiled, “Yeah. Anyway, their leader tried to kill me. He’s dead”
“You killed their leader?” Ansfrin asked.
“Yep,” Adam said nonchalantly.
Ansfrin looked at one of the guards, “Put everyone on full alert. If they saw him fly this direction they might be coming this way to retaliate…”
Ansfrin was cut off as the door burst open and someone came running in, “Boss, The bridge is on fire. Our scouts just called it in from downtown.”
Ansfrin looked at Adam which caused the individual that had rushed in to stop talking.
Adam shrugged, “Like I would be surprised if you had communications gear that works,” Adam said with disinterest.
Ansfrin nodded, “Which Bridge?”
“Lions Gate,” The newcomer said.
Just then Adam felt something akin to an aura of putrescent, but it was more raw, more diabolical, more infernal. Adam noticed that all four lizard men in the room had felt it as well as they all looked out the window to the northeast where the Bridge was. From their position, with everything in between all they could see was an orange glow off in the distance. The bridge was just about 4 miles from his current location. He could get there in under a second if his listed maximum speed was right. Though he’d break the sound barrier and probably kill a couple of people with the shockwave he created, whether he ran or swapped into dragon form and flew. If he keep his speed just under the speed of sound he could travel at about 1,026 feet per second and be there in about 16 seconds.
Adam stood, “I’ll meet you at the bridge,” and moved at 700mph, purposely keeping his speed below the sound barrier. He ran north up Gambie until he reached the bridge and then jumped into the air as he swapped to dragon form so he could rise above the skyscrapers in the downtown area of Vancouver before he turned to the northeast. From just north of the Cruise ship dock, Adam could see the orange-red glow to the northeast near the bridge and a column of fire, with what looked more like a spatial tear forming in its center.
As Adam flew toward the pillar of flame his eyes zeroed in on the pillar of flame and the fissure that opened. He even saw what looked like a Demon Lord standing on a hill in the background pointing at the fissure and making a declaration that he could almost understand. What the demon lord said didn’t match any of the languages he knew but it was close. Imps, hellish dogs, cats, and variants of every type of race Adam had ever come across, heard of, or read about started to rush through the dimensional portal.
One thing did surprise Adam. There were no SYSTEM Messages. Nothing. When the SYSTEM had taken over one of the messages had said, “Note: All areas dedicated to resurrection, reincarnation, and after-life simulation have been repurposed. All entities have been released and either resurrected or reincarnated as determined by the entity.” So, if he was looking at Hell, or a realm of hell, he was looking at an area that was outside of The SYSTEM.
As Adam was trying to understand what was going a couple of thoughts came to mind. The New SYSTEM had designated this area as the Foundation and reset everyone so that the people in this area of the SYSTEM could grow and then integrate into the greater SYSTEM. It was one of the reasons he’d wanted to purchase information on the politics of The SYSTEM. The amount of information that he would have been required to purchase, and the cost…He couldn’t have even afforded a percentage point of the Information. So, he’d skipped that for now while he focused on leveling and growing stronger, after a little hacking of course.
Now though, it looked like one of those aspects of the afterlife, specifically a bastard Demon Lord or whatever he was, had decided that the extremely low levels of this planet made a perfect place to feed its hordes. Adam could tell just by the way the flame was spreading out from the rift that a lot of people were going to die if it stayed open for any length of time. He could just feel the wrongness of flames. Something he had never felt before.
Adams eyes were drawn to the woman at the base of the pillar sitting in a cross-legged position as the blood drained from her wrists and fed the flames in the ritual circle she sat in. He also noted that the flames also seemed to be sustaining her somehow.
Adam checked himself. How was he seeing the energies involved? His vision almost felt like it had when he’d had higher perception and could analyze and Identify as part of his vision automatically. He pulled up his status screen and didn’t see anything that would indicate that he had those abilities again or that he’d somehow cast his new Analyze or Identify spells which were much less powerful. Regardless he felt the effects. Maybe the Suppression of the SYSTEM wasn’t all-powerful which meant that portions of his Chaotic Nature were adapting to the situation and resuming forms they had held before. Still, there were no SYSTEM messages, logs, or notifications that were tracking any changes to him.
Well, there was nothing for it, if he didn’t stop the ritual that was holding the rift open a horde of devils and demons were going to invade Earth and wipe out the population. Shoot, the only reason he was even considering helping was because he’d just increased his attributes again. He was only level 5 after all. Adam looked at the column of fire surrounding the woman and steeled himself for the pain that was about to happen. Adam locked his gaze with the eyes of the demon master on the other side of the spatial tear and then he darted upward and out of sight before coming down right next to the woman.
***
Effthrin looked over the horde of demons and through the dimensional rift as pointed and called out “FEAST!”
The horde immediately started rushing through the rift and started chasing the humans that were fleeing in all directions, save the female that was in the ritual circle. Each demon and devil knew to leave her alone or their link to their power, and their ability to remain on the mortal plane would be severed and while they could remain for a time, eventually they would run out of energy and return. As long as the rift remained open they could stay within their area of influence forever.
Effthrin watched his hordes start to go through and smiled. The inhabitants of this planet would soon join his forces. Some souls made their way to his realm after death, it was the way of things. If they died while either in this realm or near the influence of a conduit to his realm then even those souls destined for other fates could be subverted and acquired. The slaughter was just the beginning. Once the souls started arriving, then the true fun could begin.
Effthrin was brought out of his thoughts as his eyes caught movement off in the distance quite a way beyond the rift. Something was moving in the night sky. A dragon? A Silver Dragon? No, it was an Adamantium Dragon. How would a planet that had no magic have an Adamantium Dragon on it? As those thoughts crossed his mind the Dragon’s gaze locked with his and he could swear the dragon winked at him before it moved.
A moment later an explosive shockwave destroyed many of the demons and devils near the gate and hurled any of the demons and devils near the portal that the shockwave didn’t kill either back into the rift or away from it. Before the shockwave caught up to Adam he’d picked the woman who had acted as a conduit for the rift up and flung her through the rift with all of his strength toward the Demon lord.
The last thing Effthrin saw was a look of shock in the dragon's eyes followed by a cough and…He had to rewind time and focus on the point just inside the dimensional rift to hear the dragon exclaim “It’s your trash, Keep it!” Which was followed a moment later by, “Oh, Damn!”
Effthrin waved his hand as the blood and gore of the female human was washed away leaving her soul for all to see. A servant grabbed her soul and sank into the ground on his way to the soul forge. Effthrin checked to see how many of his demons hadn’t returned yet and noted that only 9 had escaped the shockwave.
Effthrin watched as the demons around him started picking themselves up and then teleported back to his Throne. He had some research to do and a Dragon to hunt.
***
While the Demon Lord was thinking about how it was going to hunt Adam down, Adam was wondering what had just happened. He’d flown up to clear the building and not accidentally kill any humans that might be in the skyscrapers and come down right next to the woman acting as a power source for the rift. He’d read a theoretical idea once that involved traveling from the upper atmosphere to ground level and creating an artificial lightning strike.
Adam’s Status Screen showed that he could attain a maximum speed of Mach 977 which was incredibly fast and ended up being just over 198 miles per second. Adam had traveled up into the Thermosphere and then dove down at full speed to stop directly in front of the woman.
As he’d suspected, the infernal flames did nothing to him, and his immediate stop hadn’t hurt either. He picked the woman up and yelled, “It’s your trash, Keep it!” as he threw her through the rift at the hill the demon lord was standing on. As the shockwave slammed into him from breaking the speed of sound and the lightning discharge grounded through him he watched the woman sail through the air at the hill the demon lord stood on. The Shockwave had hurt but hadn’t moved him nor did the lightning grounding through him affect him at all.
Adam wasn’t paying attention to the demons and devils that were blasted into oblivion, the shockwave that followed him from breaking the sound barrier by a huge margin, or the lightning strike. His eyes were on the woman as she struck the hill at the Demon Lord's feet and turned into mist. Adam’s eyes went wide as he realized he’d thrown the woman at what his strength had been and grunted, “Oh, Damn!” as the dimensional rift closed, and the infernal flames died.
Before Adam could do anything else a new notification appeared in his vision.
SYSTEM Functionality Restored.