It took Owen several seconds for his brain to process what happened. He had fought with Jared who had seemed off, then his dad became just as weird. The image of his dad being burned up by that red energy was ingrained into his brain now. He tried to shake the image, but he couldn't forget it that easily. He had to fight the tears that began pooling in the corner of his eyes. He was all alone now. His dad had been the last member of his family that was still around and now he just wasn't.
He opened his eyes and let the tears flow, before realizing he wasn't seeing the clear blue sky he was used to seeing. His surrounding were a black void and when he sat up he was surprised to see a woman looking to be in her late twenties. He quickly wiped the tears from his face and got a better look at her. She was an ethereal beauty, with dark black hair, but it all somehow felt off. He felt his tears begin to gather again, but he could feel the aura coming off of this woman and didn't want to waste her time as he wasn't sure how he ended up in front of her anyways.
Looking up into her eyes, she smiled, before in a gentle voice saying. "So, you are my new inheritor, don't tell me this means that boy Xerxes is dead." Owen felt all of the color drain from his face and a cold sweat appear on his back. She still had the gentle smile on her face though somehow it looked more mischievous. All at once, as if a pane of glass had shattered the void surrounding them was replaced with a garden area, with the two of them appearing in chairs on either side of a small table.
The goddess's appearance had also changed somewhat, she looked much more casual, wearing what almost looked like sweatpants and a sweatshirt. The unnatural beauty had mostly disappeared as well, but the goddess was still unrivaled on earth. Realizing he had just been staring for a while now, he wiped his face again before making eye contact. Her eyes didn't seem to match her demeanor as it looked like she was looking through him with an ancient intelligence that made him shiver.
"Uh Xerxes is alive, he trained me for a little bit after the tutorial." Owen stammered out, his brain barely able to process the last day. The goddess seemed to notice his distress and snapped a finger and the next moment his brain was clear of all of the clutter as if it had been placed behind a fog. "I am only doing this temporarily, so we can get somewhere with our conversation. I am Xerxes old master, the original Polymath." She made a mock bow with the introduction and it took several seconds before Owen realized he hadn't introduced himself.
"I'm uhh Owen, Xerxes said I somehow stole your inheritance." Owen said, trying to not make eye contact with the last statement. "Well I hadn't originally planned on bringing you to my realm for another several days, but sadly I had too. You've been targeted by the sins, which is unfortunate, but I can't get involved again, so you'll have to learn how to defend yourself." The goddess said, while looking him up and down. Owen was struggling to understand her meaning, but then remembered that Jared had been called herald of envy by the system. "Are you talking about the seven deadly sins?" Owen asked, unable to hide the disbelief in his voice.
The god before him rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Not in the way you think of it, they are real beings and there aren't only seven of them. Regardless, the time we have is limited, so don't interrupt anymore, not until we meet in ten days." Owen nodded and seeing the nod the goddess continued. "Normally gods don't interfere with the mortal world, but my inheritance isn't a simple thing. With the sacrifice of experience any skill becomes possible to learn." "
You stole my inheritance off of a system created item, but because it was stolen, it is not truly yours. You have probably noticed that you've been able to upgrade skills but haven't unlocked any new ones. I will fix that, but because the inheritance is still originally stolen, it becomes easier for others to steal it, when otherwise it would've been impossible. The sins have their eyes set on trying to steal it from you upon your death, so your job is to not let them take it from you." she shrugged as she finished the last line. Owen immediately tried to ask a question, but she lightly tapped him on the forehead. An intense pressure felt like it was rushing through every aspect of his being and rewriting his very soul, but in less than a second the feeling was gone and Owen opened his eyes to see he was lying in the street again.
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Aesona looked down on the mortal and frowned. She had made it possible for him to learn skills again, but something about his soul hadn't felt quite right when she had given him permission to have her inheritance. It was almost as if the inheritance wasn't hers either. Closely tied to her, but it was already straying away from the path she had taken which wasn't normally possible. Deciding she would spend some time to research it, she closed her eyes and instantly disappeared from her realm.
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Owen's whole body felt and at a quick glance he could instantly see why. It had looked like he had been burned all over his body, causing his flesh to burn and flake off in several places. Then the fog that the goddess had used to clear his head, slowly disappeared and everything that had happened felt like it fell from the heavens and onto his shoulders. He felt his tears begin to build, but this time he held them back, he would find a way to bury his dad, even if it was only a memento. He started to channel his HP to heal his body and began trudging over to where Peggy was supposed to be fighting monsters.
Rage built in him as he walked, but this time with a focus behind it rather than the all consuming rage he had felt earlier. These sins had tried to kill him for his inheritance and used his dad and Jared as tools to merely have the chance at stealing the inheritance. He decided in that moment that he would get stronger, if for nothing else than to kill the sins involved in his dad's death.
It didn't take him much longer to find Peggy as an organized effort to heal those effected by the battle had picked up and she was in the middle of it directing people, while healing large groups at the same time. He was happy to see that Myra and Lucas had already joined in as well, each of whom gave him an odd look when he arrived. "You took long enough, what happened?" Myra asked, her tone shifting immediately when she saw his face up close. "Not here, but I killed all of the monsters on the south side of the city."
Owen watched Lucas's eyes open wide and even Myra looked surprised, but Peggy only called him over. "You looked like death packed you up into a ball and spat you out, come over here." She called over to him and Owen begrudgingly moved closer and she began healing him. Several minutes went by before Peggy dismissed Owen telling him to channel his mana, as she began moving on to another group and began her heal skill again. She looked exhausted, but had a determined look on her face as she kept up the hard work.
Owen used keen eye on the person being healed, but it wasn't anything interesting. He felt like he was close to accomplishing something as he kept scanning the people being healed, until a system prompt appeared.
*You have witnessed the use of Pursuit of Change and been able to grasp a small understanding of the skill. Would you like to learn the skill Pursuit of change? Y/N?*
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Owen despite his foul mood, felt his jaw drop and he thought back to what the goddess had said. She had given him permission as a true inheritor, which she had said would let him learn skills again, but then he was confused. He hadn't had permission when he had learned Polymath's spear mastery, but had still managed to learn it. He was worried about it, but decided it would be something he saved his questions for their meeting in ten days., but between now and then, tier 3 gates were appearing and tier 2 gates were going to be breaking in the next... 5 hours. Owen felt like the wind had been knocked out of him.
Looking around, he immediately realized why everyone else looked so dour as well. Looking back as the system prompt that had yet to disappear, he selected yes. It felt like knowledge poured into his brain for how the skill worked and grinned when he saw it had been added to his status page. It even overpowered the annoyance that built up when he saw that the skill cost him 300 experience. Instead of pouting about it, he shared the system prompt that had appeared as he learn the skill, with each of his friends.
He still wasn't in a great mood as he wanted to tear the sins apart, but for right now, he knew he needed to focus on power. When he would meet with the polymath next, he would have to ask her if builds were something that went with the polymath inheritance. Someone gave him a light flick on the back of the head and when he turned, a very frustrated Peggy was standing behind him with hands on her hips. "If you have that skill now, you should spend the time helping out with healing these people." Owen nodded dumbly and was dragged with Peggy as they each began moving person to person.
Owen quickly read the skill and was shocked at what he first saw, but it then made sense with how he had seen Peggy healing. Normally Hp was something the person themself would need to guide in their body to heal the different areas that needed healing, however the skill pursuit of change ignored that requirement. It allowed for Owen to choose where the Hp needed to be used and slowly would heal that area while transferring his mana into vitality for them to heal with. He looked at Peggy in amazement as he helped with the healing, she had been healing for much longer than him, but somehow, she was still able to keep going though she looked extremely exhausted.
Owen took over, letting her rest and tried to spread the range of the skill. As he did, he felt like he had reached some limit. He then pushed his mana into them as the last group of people began healing at a visible rate. After a minute or so they were healed and Owen collapsed onto his butt, breathing out heavy. It gave him a chance to have a real look at the city and he was worried. Building had been crushed together or had chunks torn out of them. The streets had claw marks and bodies littering the road, making it impossible to drive almost anywhere. It made him remember Briar's explosion of power and the destruction it had caused to everything nearby.
It made him worried they weren't going to make it through the tier 2 gate breaks. Several tier one gates hadn't been accurately blocked, creating devastation as no one was nearby to help cull the horde of monster they spat out. But they still hadn't had to deal with bosses. If there were any tier 2 gates hiding, with bosses appearing, just how much of the city would be destroyed before someone would be able to stop them. He moved closer to Peggy and waved Myra and Luca to sit on the ground with them as he began speaking in low whispers.
"Myra, do you have the power right now to kill a tier 2 boss by yourself?" Owen asked seriously. She was about to scowl, but the look on her face just made her nod her head instead. "Peggy, do you think you would be able to take on a tier 2 boss by yourself." She gave it some serious thought, but shook her head. "These hordes made me have to rely on the masses rather than just my own power." Nodding Owen looked at Lucas, who just shook his head. "I had a level 23 person stop by and help out when the monster go to be too much for me. I've gotten stronger, but not quite strong enough."
Owen felt the beginning of a plan form in his head and spoke hesitantly. "If Myra and I focus on boss assassination, the two of you can focus on clearing out the trash mobs with people who join in. I can leave Briar with you if you'd like, but I'm not a fan of the idea of him being mistaken for a boss monster and people trying to kill him." Peggy nodded. "Yeah, you should probably bring Briar with you, the back up would be nice, but there is too high a chance people accidentally kill them too."
"So, Myra and I will run around the city as fast as possible, assassinating as many bosses as possible to try and keep damage to a minimum. While you guys follow behind and try and help clear the weaker monsters. I'm going to go find whoever Officer Adams superior is and get the police on board with the idea and see if we can't get a second group patrolling and focused on killing the mobs." Owen said as he slowly stood and stretched. "We've got a couple hours till the breaks, so I'm going to go find this guy, you guys focus on resting up. We've got this." He said forcing a grin onto his face.
He turned to leave and saw Myra stand up and join him. "Backup," she said shrugging. Owen didn't mind so they both set off running towards the police station. People were surrounding the outside of the station begging for help and healing. Owen realized their oversight, ambulances couldn't move through the streets nearly as easily anymore so there were probably dozens if not hundreds of people throughout the city wounded from the first break. He quickly dialed Peggy, telling her to come and bring Lucas to the station and as many people who would agree to assist.
I took almost a full hour, but Peggy and a small squad of helpers made it to the station and began helping heal or find places for people to rest. Most of it was set up on the street with monster bodies needing to be moved out of the way and after the area had been prepared. Both Owen and Myra were covered in monster blood. With the station no longer being completely blocked, Owen moved to the front doors and pulled the doors open. It felt like the door was going to break as he pulled, slightly confusing him, but eventually the door gave way, only for him and Myra to notice the station had been barricaded from the inside.
Owen felt disgust start to rise in his chest, but hoped it wasn't the police that had done it. As he and Myra walked through the building trying to find whoever was in charge, they found the chief's office with Officer Adams standing inside screaming at someone who was hiding under a table. "THEY NEED US OUT THERE AND YOU ARE CHOOSING TO HIDE INSIDE?! WHAT KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU, YOUR JOB IS TO PROTECT AND SERVE, NOT JUST WHEN IT SUITS YOU." Owen was impressed, but waited patiently for their to be a pause in the screaming before knocking on the door.
The chief looked to be a man in his late fifties, with salt and pepper hair, and a tubby build. He had pure panic in his eyes that seem to only worsen when Owen opened the office door. "HOW DID THEY GET IN MARK? ARE YOU TURNING AGAINST ME, AGAINST YOUR CITY?!" He continued to babble and Mark Adams turned to them first shocked and then a look of relief. "Was that you guys outside, putting together that relief group." Owen nodded and the Officer guided them to a different office as the shouts from the chief died down as they moved away.
"What do you need?" the officer asked simply and Owen was shocked as it looked like the man had aged twenty years since he last saw him. "We need help with the relief group, Peggy is too strong a force to exclusively work on healing, even if it is required right now." Owen started and Mark began taking down notes. "Myra and I are planning on taking down all of the bosses first, while smaller groups focus on the easier monsters." He continued and Mark nodded. "I don't know if I can get you either, I can try, but as a normal officer no one is going to follow my commands, even with our chief being the coward he is."
Owen was frustrated, but kept his cool. "You need to try. I don't know if you've seen the city yet, but we need someone to help Myra and I can't be everywhere." The officer seemed to paused but quickly logged into the computer on the desk next to him and spent the next several seconds looking around, before a printer at the back of the office whirred and he pulled two separate pieces of paper and handed them to Owen and Myra individually. "Those are the current maps we have put together of the locations of all tier 2 gates. I'll see what I can do about forming a group to help take down the smaller mobs, but I have no guarantee." Mark said sighing.
Owen gave him a firm handshake before both he and Myra stood up and got ready to leave. "See what you can do, we need you guys for the help, if anything try and see if you can get any other high level people to help out, it would be extremely appreciated" Myra said. Owen and Myra then dashed out of the station. They spent then next couples hours helping out with the relief group before the countdown reached 30 minutes. Nodding to Myra, Owen began running south with his map and more than a dozen red circles, with Myra having every spot not circled on Owen page circled herself. They were each going to need to take down close to fifteen bosses and possibly hidden bosses as fast as possible.