“Can you hear me?” Sam asked the robot.
It turned slowly to him and nodded. However, it did not speak. Sam frowned, wondering what the grille was actually for. He narrowed his eyes, and in a flash of insight, used Elemental Sight. When he used the skill, he could see that a faint trail of energy was being sucked into the robot’s mouth every few seconds, presumably its power source. Now that Sam had unraveled the mystery, he was satisfied. He started to walk away, but then paused. He had bought the barracks on the presumption that the soldiers it created would be exemplary specimens. So far, he had not been able to see that. Walking up to the robot again, Sam paused and readied his weapon.
“Attack me with all you’ve got,” he said to the robot, ready to deal with anything.
As soon as he said the words, the thing exploded into a storm of motion, whipping its falchion around in a tight arc. Sam parried the blow with Mjolnir before probing its defenses with the weapon. The robot leaped back, jets of flame erupting out of its legs, and carrying it a dozen feet backwards. It blurred forwards, appearing in front of Sam with a crack of pavement breaking, before bringing its weapon down in a two handed strike towards Sam’s head.
He raised his hammer to block, purposefully ignoring the flying knee that was coming towards his chest. He wanted to find out how hard these things could hit. The strike rocketed into his chest with a loud bang, causing him to stumble backwards, coughing up blood. The strike had been quite powerful, but not compared to anything he could bring to bear. Still, fighting multiple of those things at once would be a tall order, even for him.
“Stop!” Sam shouted, satisfied with what he had seen.
The robot froze, and then returned to its previous position. Sam looked over the massed ranks of robots behind it, and realized that this street would soon be filled up with automatons if this kept going like that.
“All of you, start patrolling the streets. Divide yourselves into units of 20, each led by one of the F Rank robots. Do not attack any of the townspeople, or follow their orders. If intruders enter the city, deal with them with extreme prejudice.”
In response to Sam’s words, the robots marched away, dividing up into small groups as they did so. Within a few minutes, the street was clear, save for the odd robot popping out of the barracks. The crowd started to leave as well, having gotten their spectacle for the day.
With the defenses of the city in good hands, Sam made his way back to the city hall. He was unsure of what would be best for him to do, and he wanted to check in with his captains first. Normally he wouldn't have bothered, but the city was now on high alert for the impending threat, and it would be best to remain cautious. If he was to find something to do with his time, it was best served in service to the city’s safety.
In the ruins of Athens
The Overlord stood over the massive corpse of a giant humanoid monster, breathing heavily. Blood ran freely down the side of his head, and his stores of Dao energy were running low. That had been one of the hardest fights he had ever been in, and if not for the healing energy of a level up at the end, he would likely have died.
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The fight had been through waves of increasingly stronger monsters, each themed after Greek mythology. It had culminated with a duel with Cronos himself, which had been the fight that had nearly killed the Overlord. The titan had been level 80, far beyond the Overlord’s own level of 57, and if not for his overpowered Dao, he would not have been breathing after it.
It was all worth it however, as the monster’s corpse evaporated, letting its giant, curved sickle drop to the ground. The weapon was made out of dusky obsidian, and its jagged edges caused the Overlord to flinch as a sense of existential terror entered him.
Mastering himself, the man walked up to the sickle and picked it up. A wave of howling energy entered him, probing every corner of his being. Upon feeling that its hunger for power knew no bounds, the weapon happily bound itself to him. Shrinking down to a more manageable size, the Sickle of Cronos glinted in the light of the sun.
The Overlord laughed in jubilation as the weapon accepted his ownership, and he started walking towards his ship. He had long since eschewed the help of his faction members. They were all far too weak to do anything but hinder his progress. The only thing that they were good for was tending to his city back in the Grand Canyon. The only one of his subordinates that was even worth a damn was Anonymous, and the girl was still pathetic compared to him. As the ship flew off into the cloudless sky, the Overlord plotted his eventual rise to being ruler of the planet.
Outside of Paris
Hugo Mar and Reaper stood face to face, their armies stretching out behind them, Reaper’s of massed skeletons, and Mar’s of the Legion. They met on a blasted plain, crisscrossed with lines of blackened earth from where Reaper’s skeletons had stripped the energy from the land. In the background, the fires raging in Paris still burned.
The two men were reluctant to see each other, but promises of cooperation and peace had enticed Reaper out of Versailles. The man was a surprisingly high level for his provenance, and he was by far the highest leveled human on the planet. With a level of 74, he was ahead of the likes of the Overlord and even Sam Atlas. However, he had started to cultivate the power of necromancy rather than personal might, and his true power was contained in the millions of skeletons that roamed Europe. In addition, he had no skin in the game of planetary governance, as part of his unique situation rendered him incapable of joining, or being the leader of a faction. Because of this, there was no way for him to become eligible for the position. However, he did not care.
“I am glad that you made it here, Reaper. We have a common enemy in Sam Atlas, and I believe that if we combined our efforts, we could wipe him off the map.”
“If you are too scared of the man to fight him on your own, then why should I join with you? I do not deal with weaklings,” Reaper responded. The man’s voice was a sepulchral whisper, but it carried clearly over the ground towards Hugo Mar.
“I know that you have been living in your little palace, growing fat off the work of your soldiers, but you should know that even with your inflated level, Sam Atlas is stronger than you. He could dismantle you in an instant, especially with all of the effort that you put into your pets.”
Reaper snarled, and his army started to shift uneasily. Hugo Mar raised one eyebrow and slammed his aura down on Reaper, who quailed. The man gritted his teeth and pushed back against it, but the damage was already done.
“As you can see, I have nothing to fear from either you or Sam Atlas. I only extend this offer to you as a matter of convenience. Why only crush someone when you can crush them utterly? With your help we can eradicate every last trace of that man’s faction. I might even let you keep some of the world after I defeat the other two faction leaders.”
Reaper put on a show of mulling it over, but Hugo knew that the man was already convinced. A few minutes later, Reaper nodded.
“Very well then. I will join you. However, I will not be your subordinate. We are equals. Understood?”
“I am glad that you could see the light of reason. May our partnership be long and fruitful.” The two men shook hands, and with that a new alliance was born, which would determine the fate of the Earth.