“If you’re lucky enough to get a card with a soul, just sell it off. Chances are it's either more trouble or annoying than it's worth.”

~Merchant King Darius

The Original Berserker frowns

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“What?” Devin slurred as notifications slid into his face.

The world spun while he was besieged by molten pain that penetrated through his muscles and bones.

More than that, his mind was utterly exhausted, like something deep within him was depleted to the last drop.

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The screen flashed, giving Devin horrible vertigo. I can hardly think, let alone read all this. Although he knew the messages were important, he couldn't give it even a moment's notice. There were other, more pressing concerns.

A horde of dog-sized spiders and ants sped towards Devin while the soldier tried to carry him to the wall. For some reason, the soldier was nowhere near as nimble as before. He barely moved faster than a slow 15 mph when the monsters had to be running at twice the speed.

Seeing the horde quickly gain ground on them, Devin made a decision. He pushed the man forward.

"What?" He asked, confused. "What do you think you're doing?"

“Don’t worry. Go help the town.” Devin said, dismissing him with a heavy gaze before ignoring him altogether. He pulled a piece of equipment from his vault—the skull of a deer that seemed to contain an unnatural darkness. The description made him wary of using it, but he couldn’t deny its powers were perfect for this situation.

Helm of the Necromancer

Artifact/Ethereal

A ritual implement of a powerful necromancer

contains a portion of its passed owner's powers

1st Circle—CHA

Forms a Temporary Pact with the user

+{Raise Dead}

+[Command]

+(Soul Aether)

He hesitated for a moment, then ignored his blaring instincts and put the skull over his head.

It was different from the mind fog that came with his rage combo. Devin didn’t remember much when he gave his body to the Berserker, but bits and pieces still made their way to him. It was all flashes of snarling, iridescent light, and blood. It was fragmented, yet he could still remember.

Donning the Helm of the Necromancer was completely different. His mind was taken to a dark place, trapped instead of used as a road to flow through. He felt something lingering at the edge of his awareness, but it was beyond his perception.

All Devin knew was that it wasn’t friendly.

Then he knew no more.

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Devin woke up, startled. “What? Where am I?” He slurred, wiping the drool off his face as he clumsily got to his feet. The few people who were on the bus gave him weird looks, including the bus driver who sideyed him from the mirror. The digital signboard at the front said ‘College Rd.

Nowhere near his destination. He sat back down, and pointedly stared out the window, utterly embarrassed. Great, more people whose gonna think I’m weird. Devin tried to calm himself down by looking at the wispy clouds in the sky, despite the honking horns, and wheel screeches of deadlock traffic.

July in Florida was a mix of hot as hell and steaming rain. The humidity was so that one couldn’t escape the heat even in the shade, the boiling moisture in the air would follow them wherever they went. Even rainy days were no exception. It could rain three feet of water, flood half of the poorly built neighborhoods—hell, even a few of the good ones—and still be nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oddly enough, today wasn’t one of those days.

Despite being in the middle of summer, a massive cold front had rolled in, dropping the temperature to below 50, freezing for a Floridian like Devin. He was lucky he still had his winter coat he had gotten years ago from the flea market. It was definitely cheap fabric, but the multiple layers kept him warm even now after god knows how many years of use.

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It was so cold that some roads had little pockets of ice on them. So, he shouldn’t have been surprised that the roads were chocked full of traffic due to the numerous accidents across Gainesville.

Devin groaned as his phone vibrated in his pocket, already thinking of an excuse to tell his boss why he couldn’t come back in even though he just left. Just imagining what the annoying bastard might say to get him to come back to the store was so anxiety-inducing that Devin ignored his phone. He would rather look at nothing than hear whatever that man had to say.

Staring up into the wispy clouds, Devin saw something he thought he might not ever see in his life. Glittering, white snow falling from the pale blue sky. He wiped his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things.

“Look, mommy!” A little girl yelled from the back of the bus, “It’s snow!” The mother muttered a tired agreement.

The various passengers looked around, seeing the magical snowfall. Devin was no different, even he pulled out his phone to capture a picture of the stupendous moment. Who knows how long this is gonna last. He put his phone a little too close to the window—

—and yelped when a snowflake zapped through the window and into his fingers. He waved them through the air as if he touched a hot stove. “What the hell was that?”

Devin took a closer look, trying to see the snow up close despite an entire inch of glass in between him and the outside world. None of the snowfall he saw accumulated, melting as soon as it physically touched something, whether that was the concrete of the sidewalks, roads, or buildings, or the various people that were walking to and fro around the city.

Another clump of snow, this time tinged with a blue hue, flew towards his window. Devin put his hand to the glass, trying to replicate the earlier phenomenon.

The clump of blue snow drifted past him, yet Devin felt a magnetic pull between his hand and the snow. He put both hands on the glass, even adding his forehead into the mix, all to feed the increasing magnetic force between him and the clump of snow.

It slowly gravitated towards his window, before zapping through the window once more, this time right into his forehead.

The bolt bashed into his face, flinging him to the bus’s sticky floor. “Awww, my head.” Devin didn’t bother getting up, rubbing his temples to try to relieve his sudden headache. Static stabbed into his skull from all directions, worsening the pain the longer Devin noticed it. “I think I need to go to the hospital.”

With that said, Devin was glad for an immediate response. The bus driver kicked the bus into gear, getting them finally moving again. The relief lasted for two seconds, disappearing when the bus smashed through the cars in front of it. The force of the collision sent Devin flying through the rows, until he hooked an arm on one of the metal poles connecting the nailing the seats to the bus interior.

More pain blossomed in his arm, but he promptly ignored it. He got into a seat right as the bus crashed through another row of cars to get onto the intersection, right into oncoming traffic.

Rubber screeched against the concrete as several cars came to a grinding halt in front of the bus. The driver didn’t seem to notice as he continued to go about his way, turning onto the relatively free Main St, not once letting off the gas.

Several yells came from passengers.

“I have to see her. She NEEDS me. I HAVE TO SEE HER!” The bus driver yelled back incoherently.

Devin gritted his teeth at such an insane proclamation as he held on for dear life. The driver swerved through traffic wherever he could, and smashed through cars wherever he couldn’t. Devin was nearly thrown around the cabin more than a few times, slipping out of his seat entirely only held by his grip.

All while the pain in his head got worse and worse.

When words don’t work, resort to force. Devin told himself, gritting his teeth from seeing no one else step up. The young man forced himself to his shaky feet—

—And was immediately thrown off to the front of the bus, straight into the huge glass window.

Something cracked and the sounds of the road intensified as his vision blurred and darkened while his eyes swam. He blinked the blood out of his eyes and screamed when he saw the rapidly moving ground beneath him.

Against all odds, Devin had managed to maintain a grip on the bus instead of smearing himself on the pavement, He pulled himself over shards of glass, throwing his bloody body back into the cabin of the bus.

The young man sucked in mouthfuls of air, nearly falling into a panic, until his eyes laid on the crazed old bus driver. The crazy bastard wouldn’t even look in his direction, his bloodshot eyes glued to the road.

Devin surged to his feet, grabbing the man’s collar with his bloody hands. “Are you crazy?! You’re gonna kill us all if you keep doing this!”

“She needs me! I need to be there for her!” The bus driver kept saying, not even looking at Devin—almost like he was talking to himself. That changed when Devin got in between him and the road. “GET OUT OF MY WAY!” The old man yelled, throwing Devin off him with surprising strength.

It was almost enough for Devin to lose his grip, but he held on tight. Devin growled—his overwhelming anger overrode the pain ripping in his skull—and punched the old man with all his might. Then, unexpectedly, Devin had blacked out.

Except he was aware of the painful static emanating from all around him. The pain bloomed behind his forehead, climbing to a crescendo as light erupted in the darkness. An orange star appeared in his perception, ejecting massive amounts of radiation onto Devin.

Devin tried to block the radioactive light with his limbs, but the everpresent burn scorched his entire body. He screamed as he fell into the orange, instinctually reaching out a hand to break his fall. Yet, he didn't expect for his arm to dip below the magmatic surface of the sun, nor for his hand to clang against a hard material below it.

Somehow not burnt to ashes, Devin clung to the object—

—And somehow appeared back to reality. The young man sat on the old man’s lap, who sat unresponsively with his bloody head leaning against a cracked window.

Devin had no time to check on the old man’s condition. God, please let this be the break, he prayed as he took control of the wheel, smashing into the left pedal. The already swerving bus swung across the road, smashing up the curb and right into the trees in the forestry median.

The airbag deployed, more than likely saving Devin’s life.

He tried to calm his racing breath and heart, but it was nearly impossible while sitting behind the wheel of a caved-in bus. The window was filled with blood, so much so that Devin had a hard time telling which was his and what wasn’t. When the passengers slammed the doors open, Devin ran out of the bus with them, heaving his guts out onto the grass as soon as he got out.

Sirens echoed in the distance, no doubt on their way here.

Devin became more queasy as he thought about what to say to the officers. He leaned on the tree the bus crashed into, about to throw up again when he saw something sparkle in the ground. Doing a double take, he noticed it wasn’t a pile of snow; it was two silver cards that seemed to reflect an unnatural amount of light.

Bending down to pick it up, he also noticed an intact eyeball right next to it. He yelped, snatching the cards as he fell on his back.

The passengers barely looked in his direction; they looked towards one of the tougher-looking guys, who was checking the old guy out. “He’s dead!” He declared as he checked his pulse and breath.

”What the hell was that guy's problem?” “Someone should call 911, it looked like he was having a psychotic episode.” “Does anyone know CPR? We can probably keep him alive until the paramedics get here.” The crowd talked over each other as the tough guy and another older man carefully picked the old man up and set him down a distance away from the boss.

It was surreal for Devin. Wiping the blood off his face, he wanted nothing more than to go home.

Stuffing the cards into his pocket, he pulled out his phone to get a taxi service, but paused at seeing a text message from an unsaved number. A long one with several paragraphs, but Devin was stuck on the name, Isabella? My sister?

Devin read the message, unable to understand a single word of what she was saying. Monsters? Magic? Sounds like she’s been playing too many games. Devin was about to ignore her, but paused at seeing her last words. “If you never hear from me again, just know that I love you…” Devin read out loud. Something stirred in his chest, something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“You need to stay here.” The tough guy said, walking up to him. “You were up there when all that crap happened, so the police will probably at least need a statement from you.”

He scoffed. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?” His patronizing, holier-than-thou tone pissed Devin.

“Just do the right thing.” The tough guy growled at him, taking an aggressive step forward to loom over Devin. The young man returned his brutal stare until shouts from the other passengers drew their attention.

They yelled, pointing fingers at the shadow in the sky. Devin almost thought it was a plane that was a little too close to the ground, but a powerful shriek that reverberated over the entirety of Gainesville disabused him of that notion. The shape flapped its wings, heading south towards the campus he had just left.

More surroundings blared around the city, more than Devin ever heard before. It sounded like every disaster was happening everywhere all at once. A sinking feeling of horror slapped his gut.

To top it all off, he was hallucinating. How else was he seeing a hologram right in front of him?

Welcome to the The Apocalypse

Have fun. Good luck. Happy hunting ;)

“Is this a freaking joke?” The tough guy said. Devin looked around to see the rest of the passengers were also looking at screens that were in front of them. Even the little girl stared at the hologram with wide eyes.

After that, all hell broke loose.