“Even if you are a human, you’re remarkably pathetic.”

Disappointment wasn’t something you see every day on the Lich leading the Death Squad.

“I just don’t wanna fucking die,” I sobbed, tears streaming down my eyes, mucus running down my unkempt beard. I was chained to a skeletal throne by melded pieces of bones around my waist, arms, and legs.

“Your skill is annoying, human, just tell us where the revolutionary cell is.”

I had been tempted for three weeks. Three weeks I had been subject of the vilest tortures the undead had come up with, from trying to scramble my brain to physically tearing me apart and have human slaves with a Healer class patch me up.

I wasn’t tough. Never been. Always loved going to the gym to help with the chicks, but never really had good hands to throw around.

“Human, just talk,” the Lich sighed, the flames in his eye socket flickering with an annoyed blaze. “Please, I have other matters to attend. All these Dungeons spills the revolutionary are triggering are wearing down my old bones—and I’ve run out of new ones.”

One of the many things we had not anticipated: the apocalypse having a sense of humor. It made dealing with it much scarier.

The Lich gave me a long stare and just raised a hand.

Mind Break

I screamed in pain, my head feeling like it was about to split into two. Blood started pouring out of my nose and eyes as the monster tried to intrude in my thoughts, but my Passive came to life yet again.

Atlas’s Aspiration (Grade E) Description: Responsibility empowers you.

It was a skill I had never managed to level up before being captured by the undead as I tried hiding away. I had tried and asked others, but I had never managed to trigger it after randomly receiving it from an infamous Random Chest—and not for a lack of trying, trust me. Apparently, it helped resist mental torture.

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Me dying would have not been a huge loss for my race; sadly, I had a very important piece of information on me: the location of the bastion of humanity.

Atlas’s Aspiration (Grade E) Reached Level 99

“Honorable Mortus,” a Death Knight clad in black armor entered the room and managed to give me some respite.

“What did I say about being bothered while I torture the human?”

The Death Knight just stayed put, not saying anything. They weren’t the brightest of their race and that only made the flame in the Lich’s skull rotate.

“What?”

“Commander Kerrigan has found the fortress and intervened personally. The humans have been exterminated. We have just finished catching the stragglers.”

“WHAT?!” The Lich screamed.

“They were hiding in a pocket dimension of a Legendary Dungeon. We hadn’t challenged the Dungeon yet, but the spillovers were minor and it created suspicions that someone was farming part of them.”

“My goodness,” the Lich clutched his skull, “I’ve been torturing this idiot for three weeks for nothing?! I won’t even receive a commendation from Kerrigan! Do you know how many episodes of Six Feet Under I could have watched?!”

The Death Knight didn’t reply, and simply waited for orders.

I, in the meanwhile, even with the blood starting to pool in my brain, felt new streams of tears coming down my face.

This was the end of the human race.

Perhaps the undead would keep some as cattle to feed their vampires, or breed some slaves to play games with them. The undead were twisted like that.

“We are finally done,” the Lich clapped his skeletal hands with an unsettling rattling sound. “Are you ready to go? Wait, wait.”

The Lich took out a phone and wore a glove over his fingers, coming by my side and crouching down.

“This one is going to make Kerrigan so jealous. He doesn’t know I’ll be the one killing the last rebel.”

The Lich snapped a selfie with my mangled face and then turned to me.

“What’s your name, human? I need a good story to tell.”

“Fuck you,” I said to a disappointed undead who just shrugged.

“Have it your way. Let’s have our goodbyes then, shall we?”

Persephone’s Tribulation

Suddenly, I felt my consciousness shatter in a million pieces. I knew instantly that I was about to die, and I expected nothing else than a cold embrace.

However, something warmed my chest.

Atlas’s Aspiration (Grade E) Reached Level 100

Atlas’s Aspiration, Secret Evolution Conditions Fulfilled

Atlas’s Aspiration (Grade E) > Atlas’s Destiny, The World on My Shoulders (Grade SSS)