Near the Faction Headquarters
Back on Earth, things were not going as well. Eduardo, Lao, and the other strongest fighters in the faction stood in front of the canyon that circled their city, watching as the earth heaved in the distance. Massive skeletons were pulling themselves out of the ground, and slowly plodding forwards to join row upon row of their number on the opposite side of the canyon. In the distance, a titanic hand jutted out of the ground, wreathed in dark energy. That was what was summoning the monsters. The Titans were awakening, and even that simple action was bringing far more trouble than anyone had expected. Vast, winged skeletal drakes swooped around the sky with the aid of magic, dive bombing the city far behind them. They were quickly dealt with by the artillery, and the shield prevented them from getting through, but they were seemingly endless in numbers.
Every now and again, one of the stronger monsters from the other side would make its way over the canyon, crawling all the way across the base and up the sides. When that happened, it was up to Eduardo and his cadre to deal with it. Further down the canyon, other groups waited for the monsters to approach, and they were stemming the tide, for now. The one benefit of all this was a surplus of essence, and everyone involved in the fight was leveling up quite rapidly. However, this was an untenable situation, and they would eventually falter in the face of such numbers.
Thousands of mid F Rank monsters waited silently on the other side for their overlord to rise. If that happened, then the armies would be moot, as the Corpse Titan would be able to destroy them all by itself. Sam was their only hope.
The evidence of Sam’s growth had been shown a few days ago by his entering of a pact with one of the most powerful factions in the universe. That was showing its worth with the buffs that it gave the fighters of the faction in battle. While small, they were certainly welcome, layered on top of the existing buffs of the faction headquarters. Of course, the efficacy of them began to drop the stronger the fighters involved were, but they were still working against the monsters.
However, Eduardo had no faith that it would do anything against the Corpse Titan itself. He was praying that Sam would return with enough power to fight off the Titans, or at least enough to defend them for long enough to find a plan. One punch from the giant hand would break the force field, and their greatest asset would be gone in an instant. However, Eduardo had faith, faith in God, and in Sam. He knew that one or the other would provide, and perhaps even both. His beliefs were only growing stronger the more that he was exposed to the power of the System. There was something out there, and he would find it one day.
In Kane City
Rodney Kane whipped through a series of sword forms, honing his mastery of his blade. Before, he could simply rely on brute power, but with a weapon as powerful as Excalibur, that was akin to a crime. He wanted to learn how to use it properly, and he used a manual of swordsmanship that he had found in one of the ruined libraries of the city. His weapon mastery was slowly but surely ticking up, and his other powers were increasing as well.
The elemental spirit was pleased with his progress, and had blessed him with a few boons from the power of Darkness. These had given him stat boosts and skills aplenty, and he was training for the eventual day that he would fight Sam Atlas and the Overlord. Unlike them, he did not have access to the month of training that he was sure the others would be availing of, and as a result, he had to increase his power in other ways.
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The vast ritual circle painted in blood beneath him showed just how far he was willing to go for power. His body was bloated with dark energy, boosting his abilities beyond their norm. Most men would have gone mad from such exposure to pure elemental power, but Rodney Kane was of a different sort, and he kept it in check. Power was the end goal of everything, and it certainly justified the means. His dominance over his city was complete, and the few people that had fled his faction had not gotten far. He had brutally executed them in front of their fellows. As long as one supported him, then they were free to do whatever they wanted, but as soon as their loyalties swayed, they would be dealt with.
Kane City was rapidly becoming an icon of sin and depravity within the bounds of Earth, and it was even frequented by a few aliens who had decided to partake of its pleasures instead of trying to plunder them. The thousands of alien heads that lined the streets, affixed on poles, might have helped with that as well.
The city was deceptively open, but there was no escape once any enemy got inside. All of the citizens were armed, and ready to fight, even if they were not willing. It was better than dying at Rodney’s hands in any case. The various higher placers from the tournament that served him were in positions of regional power, and were in charge of spreading his ideology far and wide across the globe. There were no humans to convert, but plenty of aliens to uproot from their hiding holes and land to be conquered.
Unlike the Overlord, Kane did not see the aliens as scum to be eradicated, at least not universally. Most of them would certainly fit that description, but there were a few that were worth keeping around. Mainly females of a certain… disposition. Rodney Kane had not been one for the pleasures of the flesh before the System came, but he had discovered that it had a certain appeal to it, one that was mainly driven by the power that he felt while twisting others to his whims. If they were exotic aliens, so much the better.
He saw himself as some sort of destined king, one whose right was rulership of the Earth. Hell, his dreams went even beyond that. He wanted to become a god, one of the Creator Kings that he had heard so much about from the aliens that had come his way. Most of all however, he wanted to kill Tantalos Veruvax, the man who was preventing him from reaching his destiny among the stars. His elemental companion had told him tales about the world beyond the bounds of this universe, the true world, not this playground for weaklings and fools. He knew that his destiny lay beyond this universe, somewhere among the myriad planes of the Multiverse.
One day, he would find his way there, but for now, he needed to consolidate his power. The Titans were rising, and he was beginning to realize that defeating them would take a concerted effort from all of the factions. They would have to work together, at least for long enough to kill the monsters. Then they could go back to fighting one another. The threat of the Legion was gone, destroyed by Sam Atlas and his faction, but the other two still were at large.
Rodney’s sources had told him that the Overlord was rapidly claiming the Seven Seals, and he might have them all at this point, other than the three that were divided between Rodney and Sam’s faction. He only had the one Seal, but he had no intention of needing another. Excalibur would fit him perfectly. He suspected that there would be benefits to fusing the weapons, as that was the end goal, but if that was true, the Overlord had probably done so already. His main goal in that case was to gain more power. Sam Atlas had disappeared, and Rodney’s sources had told him all about that. His faction had tried to hide that little fact, but Rodney knew better.
As he finished up his sword practice, whipping the sweat off of his brow, his face twisted into a smile, the scar that adorned it bisecting it somewhat. Everything was going as planned.