I turn my attention away from the Portal and the strange, unexpected situation I’ve left behind with the Igenis to really look at Uncle Ant for the first time in a while. He’s got a powerful underlying desire to be productive and contribute which keeps him going strongly, despite his age. Some things you can’t change though, despite everything that’s happened; Uncle Ant is hanging on to the past even harder than I used to. He’s weathered and wiry, balding, unshaven, and still dressed in a collared shirt with dress pants and sneakers… even though all of that can be remedied at the Shop. Credits are not the issue.

Uncle Ant and his team are working feverishly to tackle challenging problems and Scotty seems to have slotted right in, so I leave them to it. There’s heaps of work to do preparing our Settlements for all types of heavy combat against encroaching creatures and vegetation. Uncle Ant has a small unit of city planners and ex-military leaders, plus some new post-Influx expert blood, to decide where best to spend our Credits and resources. He’s not the leader of the group, but he is making a valuable contribution which I know will keep him going.

Accelerated mutation and new wormholes, opening up at an even faster pace than in the past, are causing problems all over Earth. When I trigger Omnipresent and the vast web of conflicts, humans, and human-owned MIS Hubs opens in my mind’s eye I’m not even sure where to start, but it’s clear I need to find some kind of way to deal with all the chaos.

I can’t be in thousands of places at once. I can’t save everybody. I won’t even be able to come close to protecting all my own Settlements working around the clock. Sleep isn’t something I need anymore with almost a thousand Attribute points in Constitution, but I’ve seen what happens when we push ourselves too far and get to the breaking point.

While I’m wondering what to do, alarm notifications stream past the corner of my vision at a tremendous rate so I dial up my Perception to follow the lightning fast flashes. Dozens of my Settlements are being overrun by Monsters, but it’s mostly just perimeter alarms at this point. I zoom into a few and see people are swarming to meet the Monster waves head on. With nobody there to protect it, Queenstown is flooded, and even all the defences Jeff installed in preparation to beat back Oblivion Shroud can’t hold back the tide.

Almost instinctively I open a Portal to the Queenstown MIS Hub and step through to see what’s going on, mentally putting the bigger question of where to go aside for a few minutes. Instantly my minimap populates with thousands of dots, all gray indicating no threat to me. From my recent experience I know that doesn’t mean the creatures are weak, it’s more that the combination of my Environmental Sense and Observe Skills don’t take anything seriously unless it’s truly powerful. A bit of a problem for me when judging how serious a situation is for any group I’m with.

I exit the MIS Hub with Acceleration ramped up and leap a dozen meters straight up into the air to get a better look. All over town our defensive emplacements battle with invading creatures, all familiar to me from my time here. Wargs especially seem to be preying on the smaller creatures that have fallen on the outskirts of town. I wonder what has drawn them here until I glance over where they’re headed to Queenstown Gardens, which now looks like a seething mass of vegetation and animals viciously ripping each other to shreds in a chaotic battle royale.

The Mana pulsing from the area is palpable and there’s no doubt it’s a siren call for creatures driven to grow and mutate, gaining more power. A flock of ducks spots me as I descend and banks my way in the air with a booming flap of hundreds of wings, vicious teeth bared and clawed webbed feet extended in anticipation. I trigger Guilty as Charged and a hundred of them freeze into stasis and plummet to the ground, but I can tell from the Skill they won’t take much damage because their reputation with humans is neutral - they just haven’t encountered enough of us.

I trigger Fury of the Clan a few times to blast the fallen ones and the rest out of the sky before I land back on the ground, then I take off at high speed up into the hills near the Skyline Luge that we used as our command center not long ago during Oblivion Shroud’s invasion. I wonder if I should try to buy more points in Fury of the Clan at the Shop for just these kinds of situations. To purchase the next point would be 32 million Credits, no small sum. Even though the Loot and equipment I seem to collect to sell to Taiwo brings in a lot of Credits, I’d need to think carefully - and the next upgrade of another point for 64 million Credits would be out of the question.

Our previous battles with Oblivion Shroud spaceships have blasted clear areas in the trees and I stand in one of them, looking down over Queenstown with my arms crossed and cold wind whipping through my hair. Across the area I can see the mutated life seething and swarming everywhere. My minimap still shows thousands of dots, with a small clear space around me that I enforce by triggering Fury of the Clan absently whenever they start streaming through the trees toward me.

I could wade into all of this and try to turn it back. I could keep Queenstown from being overrun today. But what then? I take a deep breath and I try to be objective. As I look down and scan the Settlement my anger rises up, out of proportion to the situation. Why do I care so much about this place?

A big part of me wants to rush off and spend a couple of hours mowing down everything to liberate it, but bigger fights call to me, and right now doing anything here is futile. This place will no doubt be overrun again as soon as I leave, even if I eradicate everything.

With a deep breath, I harden myself mentally and let Queenstown go, as difficult as that is. It’s not populated, and it doesn’t have any strategic value. Just pure beauty that speaks to my soul, an oversaturation of Mana, and the emotional connection I’ve developed for the place. In a corner of my mind, amongst all the many compartments I’ve shoved things into for dealing with later, I leave a little crack for this one… if there’s a chance to reclaim it one day I’d love to.

Having made the call, I need to decide what’s next.

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We’re in a lot better shape than the last Influx, despite our population being a lot lower, because of all the people who have Leveled up all over the world. We’ve got many Mythic Adventuring teams and even a few Legendary humans, with more joining the ranks all the time. More people with the ability to take on the Monsters that are being teleported in or warped into powerful threats by the Mana that fills everything around us.

Based on last time, dangerous Teleports will spike and then dwindle as our Mana levels become more stable. At the same time, Monsters will be getting more and more powerful over the next weeks and months unless we can cull them. I wonder how many other worlds have been through multiple Mana Influxes as I trigger Omnipresent again and scan all over Earth for the highest Level threat, irrespective of location or what’s around it. One glowing dot outshines the rest and I open up a Portal to Qingdao, on the east coast of China.

Through the opening I can see a massive, brown and black alien form with five hydra-like heads positioned to strike in all directions. It’s moving quickly high on a ridge that slopes down around it on all sides. Dozens of legs flow, spaced along an undulating body that looks like it’s covered in bark-like skin and scales.

Colossal Thuvaraka Ulalhfavoih (Level 264)

Health: 24500/25200

Mana: 6550/9650

Conditions: Mythic Density, Aura Surge, Earth Soak, Environmental Absorption, Slow Time, Two For One, Elemental Mastery, more…

Behind it I can see the smashed ruins from the former city plus tougher, more modern post-Influx buildings that are now ripped apart in jagged spears. They look like they should be burning and smoking, but with clean-burning Mana as the power source for everything, flames are rarely part of a destructive landscape anymore.

A small army of under a thousand people split into 4 equal wedge shapes are climbing up the slopes to the top of the thin row of jagged, rocky peaks that rise out of the Qingdao Fushan Eco-Park and curve around from east to west. Streams of laser fire, projectiles, and magical attacks surge up the hill, sending chunks of stone and dirt high into the air. They rip up the rock but the Thuvaraka is unaffected, completely shrugging all of it off as it turns to the rightmost wedge of over 200 people.

I flicker the Portal over to manifest it between the Thuvaraka and the wedge and leap through, then trigger Wall of the Clan in a square barrier the Colossus slams into at full tilt. I expect a loss of momentum but the body whips around like a slinky at high speed. I barely manage to throw up some Edges that slice into the Thuvaraka’s body and gouge it as the massive beast draws itself in around my Edges and continues on.

A dark brown hydra-like head darts down at me, but my Danger Sense and Accelerated Agility has given me plenty of time to react and I’ve already danced out of the way. I ineffectually pound the Thuvaraka with 10 Fury of the Clans in quick succession and watch as it seems to shrug off most of the damage by drawing itself inward and shrinking. Friendly fire lights up my Elemental Aegis as I dart down to put myself between the Monster and the humans, only to find out I’ve been wrong about why the Thuvaraka has drawn into itself.

A massive ‘thump’ reverberates my Unbreakable bones as it hits me and blasts apart my flesh and organs, despite my Resistances. I’m blasted off my feet and my Survivor Title kicks in as my Health plummets under 20% and my body seizes up, unable to function. I hit the ground at high speed and chunks of flesh and blood fly everywhere, my armor shredded and useless. Everything other than my bones and brain, protected by my skull, have been turned into a stew that’s sloughing off.

My regeneration kicks into overdrive as pain lances through me; after only two seconds full of overwhelming pain I’m at full Health again. I don’t take my eye off all the people trying to take this thing on as it’s surged past me. The first third of each wedge has been completely obliterated by the Thuvaraka’s attack, hundreds have been vapourized with no chance of fighting back. I need to end this, now.

The Thuvaraka rumbles into me, no doubt dismissing me as a steamrolled distraction, which is a big mistake. Its aggressive rumble changes as I extend my Swords to their maximum 30 feet in length and plant my feet, then slice a wicked double chop down through its body to split it in half. Blood, bone, and muscle rip and scrape by me as I part the creature in half, two heads on one side and three on the other.

I expect it to slow down or stop but instead each huge segment seals over almost instantly and then they undulate in different directions, now aimed at two of the broken, scattered wedges instead of one. Ragged attacks from the humans pepper the Colossus with little effect as I race alongside the three-headed segment at top speed and run my Sword through it horizontally.

Flesh parts and rolls back as the segment unfurls like a sausage being cut open and the creature lets out a piercing scream as it grinds huge gouges into the ground. The three heads on this segment all slam into the rocks at high speed, whipped around on their long necks as it comes to a stop. Somehow, it’s still alive so I leap up and run along the body at high speed, dropping a metric shit ton of grenades and explosives as I go like they’re seasoning on my BBQ meat. I dodge the snapping mouths and shrug off the toxic liquids and fumes sprayed at me in a dense cloud.

My eyes and my minimap tell me it’s taken too long to finish this segment and the other one is tearing through more of the humans who are scattering. A tight group of some of the highest Level people are having some limited success in formation and focused on one of the segment heads from behind portable shield generators and re-shaped rock by what can only be the work of an Earth Mage. At least they’re not being mowed down like the rest of them.

I curse the wasted life and this monstrosity as I refresh my Elemental Aegis and swap out my armor for a new set and I race through a new Portal to drop directly down on top of what’s left of the Thuvaraka. I manage to close the Portal just as, not too far away, all the explosives I laid down on the other segment go off and rip the segment’s more vulnerable insides apart. Atop the other segment, I extend my Swords fully and spin to deliver a vicious chop with both Swords that rips the segment open and severs one of the necks. It only takes another second to finish it and I leap down to survey the damage. At least half the people have been killed, but the high Level group is still alive and the injured will recover soon enough assuming nothing else nasty comes along.

“Bronwic!” someone yells and I look to my left. One of the high Level group has a hand raised to me in greeting or thanks or to ask me to wait. I consider it, but this isn’t where I want to spend my time and I know all too well the chains of emotional obligations I can never meet that come with getting to know the people who live in different places all over the world. Instead I raise my hand in what I hope looks like a friendly acknowledgement and open a Portal to the Calgary MIS Hub then walk through without looking back.