A small, nondescript room on the fourth floor of a boring building in Madrid. Unremarkable except for the three Qillathe Syndicate members there. My Swords whip back and forth twice and then I open another Portal to Shanghai where dozens of their Merchants, Thugs, and Extortionists gather to get a foothold on our planet. This time I trigger my newly Evolved Sentinel’s Fury and feel the increased power surge through me as all of them are instantaneously pulped and kill notifications blossom in the corner of my vision.
Vienna.
Cape Town.
Edinburgh.
Quebec.
Bruges.
Cartagena.
I spend ten minutes moving from location to location on Earth, never in any place more than half a minute and sometimes only a few seconds to hammer Qillathe Syndicate members with my new Skills so quickly they don’t have time to react. No questions, no discussion. It’s clinical. Surgical. I harden myself with thoughts of my family and fallen friends, wrapped around me like armor, because there’s no room for mercy or pity. This is just the start of what I have to do.
Once Earth is scoured I return to Orvorax. The Syndicate has somehow managed to regain a foothold in one of the mining outposts, maybe assuming I’ve moved on. I eradicate it in a few minutes with Sentinel’s Fury, then emerge from a Portal in a small military base on a massive space station near Orvorax where hundreds of Chimorak troops are ready to invade again. None of them are even higher than Mythic Class and although those kinds of numbers might have been able to take me on a few weeks ago, today in less than a minute they’re all wiped out.
I open another Portal and peer through it at the head of the Syndicate resource acquisition forces for a few seconds. Based on the filtering I’ve done with Omnipresent he’s a low Level Ascended Class, so I take slightly more care. I’m also trying to stop a future war rather than start one, so I need to consider how to attack this situation. How to get my point across without calling down the full might of the Qillathe Syndicate.
The silence around me in the bowels of the space station I’ve claimed is strange, I feel like there should be more noise. Engines or air conditioning systems or beeping notifications, maybe an alert. Something. This should be more dramatic based on how many I’ve killed and what’s still yet to come, but it feels… hollow and empty.
The asshole I’m keeping an eye on that rapes other worlds for a living doesn’t seem to be on the alert or threatened in any way. I hope that’s just because word hasn’t reached him yet, but I suspect that nothing I’ve done yet is worth his bother and time. My actions aren’t ever going to turn the tide of the entire Qillathe Syndicate and change its fortunes unless I dedicate my life to that goal, and I have other stuff I’d like to do. The Syndicate is too big.
What I might be able to do is replicate what I did with Oblivion Shroud. Make sure the likely future equation of costs in Credits and lives is greater than the benefit of going after me and Earth. Make sure it doesn’t stack up for them. Make sure I put them on the back foot personally and make it professionally unattractive to go down that route. If needed, I’ll make targeted strikes against their assets. Get them to do the math.
I pull up his Status to see what I’m dealing with.
Kzethroq Duunil T’arvink, Reclaimer, Commander, Seeker, High Tactician, Warmaster, more… (Level 19 Knight-Marshall Prospector) (Ascended)
[Chimorak] [Qillathe Syndicate Prospecting Force] [Laniakea/Shapley Superclusters]
As I watch and assess the situation, Kzethroq and several others are teleported somewhere. Omnipresent tracks them as they appear in some kind of outdoor military compound. Dust flies everywhere, kicked up from barren ground. Armored vehicles and what looks like troops in heavy armor move with purpose through the area I can see while watching Kzethroq. His six legs move him rapidly into what looks like a strong temporary shelter and a group of diverse Chimorak follow him, mostly the ones he arrived with.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I reposition the Portal inside and look from a few angles. Four high Level Legendary Classers, three of them combat, and another four combat-oriented lower Level Legendary Classers and half a dozen non-combat Legendary Classes are all together with another dozen Mythic Classers and even an Advanced Classer scurrying around. I take a deep breath and wonder if I should wait to do something until Kzethroq is alone. That option feels infinitely more comfortable but my instincts say it’s the wrong thing to do, I’m hoping nudged by my Luck. Going in while he’s surrounded by so many powerful combat Classers and in his own environment might mean he’s overconfident, not panicking. A more open mood to listening, if I can get through.
I pull up a separate notification screen to review a Contract I’ve prepared, with a bit of help. I’ve taken sections out of the agreement I made with Oblivion Shroud to use in the event this goes well and we can come to an agreement. I don’t feel super hopeful, since most of the time I try to avoid bloodshed it happens anyway - and it’s not always the other side that instigates it.
After a deep breath in and a surge of confidence that this is the time to do it, while they are in their element and calm, I manifest the Portal and step through then close it. Time to walk into the lion’s den.
The instant I emerge I manage to keep my cool, knowing I’m going to get hit with a bunch of shit. I also feel a surprisingly big surge of Mana flowing through me. Unlike the past it doesn’t feel uncomfortable in the least. It feels like my Affinity and my body are ready for a lot more.
Health: 12840/12840 Stamina: 19260/19260
Current Ambient Mana Level (AML): 25 +30 (Gift of Gaia)
Physical regeneration rate: 382529 /min --> 6375 /sec
That’s good, very good - this must be a Scorched World where Mana has scoured the planet and only the toughest or most powerful Monsters are able to survive. My chances of succeeding at this, or at least not getting killed outright, just increased. Colors whip through the air as my Elemental Aegis flares from attacks that hammer me from all sides. I refresh it again and then again in quick succession, draining half my Mana in a second.
I spend another 500 Mana on Wall of the Clan to create an impenetrable clear box around myself. I make sure to include the bottom of the box to protect me from attacks from below. It’s supposed to last 100 seconds, but as multiple Legendary Warriors hammer it wavers immediately and I can feel it will collapse. I still haven’t made an offensive move.
Mental attack resisted.
Mental influence resisted.
Movement debuff resisted.
Necrotic curse resisted.
My cube is suddenly surrounded by a dark, inky, flowing cage. I can tell immediately with my Dimensional Manipulation Affinity that it’s a Spatial Lock meant to keep me here trapped. Multiple Chimorak stab at my protection between the gaps in the black cage and my Wall of the Clan buckles again then collapses.
I don’t move.
Their weapons and ranged weapons slam into me as I stand facing Kzethroq. The pain spikes but my Resistances and regeneration are both high so I ball my hands into fists. More attacks slam into me. Burning plasma fills the cage and I almost move, but instead I grit my teeth and close my eyes, feeling on fire.
A few seconds of torture later my Health is down only 25% and when they stop it shoots straight back to full and I’m recovered physically, though it always takes longer to reset mentally. My armor is shredded and melted but I stand, apparently untouched, and wait.
A Chimorak with six arms, each holding a blade, lashes out and all six blades pass through the gaps in my cage and strike me. Each of them sinks an inch or so into my flesh before they strike bone or simply can’t penetrate further. One glances off my skull, turned aside by the Unbreakable bone, and slices my scalp open. Blood flies and I almost snarl but clench my fists tighter instead as the blades are withdrawn and I stand, still unmoved.
A line of the combat Classers loom between me and Kzethroq, staring and ready, and looking like they aren’t going anywhere. The ranged damage dealers and a couple of defenders are nearer to Kzethroq and look a lot more ready to run. If needed, I’ll chase them across the Universe. Perhaps it’s my Luck, but this is the ideal place for this confrontation.
“What trickery is this?” one of the Legendary Warriors hisses. By now they’ve pulled my Status and can see I’ve survived what might have killed anyone else.
“Interesting Titles you have, human,” says one in the middle, unusually with only two arms placed centrally on two torsos. “Perhaps we will be lucky and it will take a long, torturous time to discover all your secrets now that you’re trapped like a Vullcoonin Grektar.”
It seems to me they’re all a bit unbalanced by the fact I’m still alive but they don’t seem worried. Confident I’m all locked up. Time to make my move.