“I see the city wall,” Hope said. More beautiful words had never been spoken.

“Keep quiet and keep an eye out,” I said and continued to drag myself up the incline of the terrain towards the city wall. I almost paused when I realized I had made a horrible pun. Now if only I could weaponize puns. That would be the ultimate skill from a meta-point. Punny attacks.

That brief amusement helped keep my spirits up as I reached the wall. I levered to sit with my back against it and look at Hope. I didn’t hear anything and looked at the sky and shadows. We had hit the wall at the Northeast side. Meaning it would be a long slog to get to a gate.

That wasn’t going to happen. The shortest distance between two points was a line. We were going in a line. I looked at Hope who was sagging heavily and clearly exhausted, but she was alive and awake. Both good signs for staying alive and awake.

“Good job, Hope. Now we are going to enter the city. We can’t risk being on top of the wall for long. So we both need to try and plot out the best way to the plaza once we are on top,” I said.

“Um, how are we going to do that?” she asked.

“I am going to pull myself up to a standing position. Then you are going to wrap yourself around my neck and back. I will then get us to the top of the wall. Once there, we look for a path, and any threats. Then you grab back on, and I will lower us down with my one good hand,” I said.

“That…why not just go around?” she asked hesitantly. That was the problem with new people and not understanding the chokepoints of this world. They just didn’t get it.

“If the city is lost, then the gates and the plaza are the key points. That means we need to bypass the gates and go directly over the wall. Once over, we need to get to the plaza. The last open stretch will be the most dangerous, but I can handle that myself. Unless you want to stay out here alone?” I asked.

“No. No. Please, everyone else ran away,” Hope said. I slowly pulled myself up with my hand. Everything hurt. By the Almighty System, it hurt so much.

“Grab on. This is going to be rough. Tight. You can’t hurt me,” I said. Hope wrapped her small frame around my armored torso. I yanked my hand out of the wall.

Air Burst. Air Burst. Air Burst. Air Burst. I shot up to the top of the wall, Hope clinging to my back. I collapsed, and she quickly pulled herself free. I forced myself to roll, so I didn’t crush her, or her arms. I levered myself up and looked around. Nothing alarming in my sight. I then dragged myself over to the edge of the wall.

The wall was a lot harder than the ground, but I managed to dig my fingers into it a bit. I looked out at the mess of buildings and the plaza in the distance. This was not going to be fun. I didn’t hear anything or see any movement.

“Alright, get on my back again and hang on tight,” I said. Hope got on and I pushed myself over the side of the wall. My right hand shot out and dug into the wall to slow my descent. I pulled it out quickly and sunk it in again to keep up my speed at the right amount.

“Ground is close enough to jump,” I said. Hope opened her eyes and looked down. She then let go and jumped down to the ground. I pulled my hand out of the wall, which was a pain, since I had to use my body as leverage. I collapsed to the ground at her feet.

“Ack. Ack!” I coughed up more blood and spat to the side. Time to get moving again. I had a route mapped out in my mind. I had gone into enough of these cities that I had a basic understanding of how to cart my path towards the plaza through the mess of buildings.

I dug my hand into the tough stone ground and pulled myself forward. It was a grind, just another type of grind. Hope followed me with her sword out, clearly nervous as we made our way through Neo Brasilia. At least there weren’t cannibals.

Getting to Clarissa’s safehouse was too much work. It was on the West side of the city, nowhere near my position. Which was unfortunate. The light source was slowly setting when we got close to the plaza, and I heard noise.

Hope and I carefully and quietly made our way along a street and into a building adjacent to the plaza. I slowly pulled myself up to the second floor. It took time, but I only had one shot at this, and I needed to see what I was getting into. I looked out the window at the plaza and my heart fell.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

There were countless dead people and twelve very small children dressed in white. The demonic babies of the Divine Empress. They were patrolling around the plaza in two groups of six and they were at the far end of the plaza currently. I slowly lowered myself to the ground and thought threw my options. I was so close, yet so far.

I would have to go all in to reach the store and get a restoration. “Alright. You wait here, if they see you, they will kill you. Once I get a restoration, I will be able to finish them off,” I said quietly to Hope.

“What are they?” she asked.

“Demonic children of the Divine Empress. I would rate each one as a high level 2 combatant with their stats. Combined as a team, and with their perfect teamwork, they would rate as a mid-level 3 combatant overall,” I said.

“I just wait then?” she asked.

“You did good. Thank you. But just stay back and quiet. Time for me to earn my paycheck,” I muttered the last bit. Hope moved away from me and I looked at the window, judging the trajectory I would need. Air Burst! Air Burst! Air Burst! Air Burst!

That was 800 energy right there, but I had no complaints as I went sailing through the sky. I noticed the twelve demonic children instantly focus on me and move towards the store pillars. Of course, they weren’t going to make it easy. Why would it be easy?

Air Burst. Air Burst. I continued right for the pillars through the air. They were just very good body type fighters. No skills, and no ranged abilities like the Divine Empress. That made sense, since I could never see her giving up her best techniques.

“Acid Shot,” x5. “Acid Shot,” x5. Acid formed in front of me and shot towards the demonic children to force them to move. They scattered to my flanks as I sored right for a pillar. I slammed my head down on it and brought my right hand around to touch the pillar.

A foot slammed into my left side, where I had no vision, and I went tumbling. “Acid Shot,” x5. More acid formed. Air Burst. Air Burst. “Acid Shot,” x5. More acid to keep them back. My body slammed into the pillar. I quickly pulled myself up and slammed my head on top of it.

“Acid Shot,” x10. “Acid Shot,” x10. This time I was taking no chances, even from above. I quickly placed my right hand on the pillar and purchased a restoration. Not having any time to be grateful I had access to the store. The cost was only 678,951 points. A lot, but I could afford it with my platinum VIP coverage.

The pain vanished. My eye reformed, but my vision from it was blurry. My left leg popped back into place. I felt my insides untwist. I had feeling again in all my limbs. I quickly shut my left eyelid so I wouldn’t be disoriented and spun.

My right fist impacted a demon child in the chest. It shattered and they went tumbling across the ground. I briefly realized I couldn’t tell if they were male or female, since they had their hair cut short and a very uniform appearance.

I took a deep breath and spun. I backhanded another demon child whose jaw shattered and they went tumbling along the ground. “You there Divine Empress?” I asked out loud. The demonic children rushed towards me. I shook my head and moved. “Acid Shot.” “Acid Shot.” “Acid Shot.” One after another they died at point blank range.

They didn’t stop or complain even as I melted the last one. I immediately got another restoration for 7,181 points. That was concerning, but there was probably lingering curse damage that was reasserting itself in my body. It wasn’t good, but I could live with it. Being alive and mobile again was the biggest benefit.

“You can come out now!” I called out. There was no response, but eventually Hope wearily walked into the plaza. There were corpses from all the people who had been here. It only confirmed in my mind that others were weak. I spotted five demon children I hadn’t killed.

So probably another group of twenty. They had only gotten eight, while everyone was wiped out. Hope came over. “Use the crystals you picked up, get a restoration. We are leaving,” I replied.

“Um, but, what, I mean, all these people?” she asked.

“The Almighty System will take care of them. I am going to purchase supplies. We need to get out of the city as quickly as possible. The Divine Empress might turn up,” I said and got busy. I left Hope to her own devices.

I purchased a cart and lots of food. A shame this city was only level 3. No meat to enjoy. I then began to strip off my armor and clothing and purchase a new set right in the plaza. I also took the time to inspect my body.

My back and front where the Divine Empress had blown a hole through me, was tender and sore. There might be armor shards inside of me. That was going to be annoying to get out, if the restoration didn’t take care of them. I tried to recall any experiments that had been done.

People with Earth devices had them disappear. And items were pushed out. But the pushing wasn’t that strong, and my Body stat was high. But I was leaning more towards curse damage if anything. My left eye was still blurry but was getting better. Naran and I had something in common now.

He would chuckle about it. I looked at weak female version of Naran 2.0. While she was lacking, she hadn’t panicked or run off. She had stuck with me. She was getting a million or two million points as a reward. Well that could wait a bit.

I purchased some flasks of water and rinsed myself off. I then purchased new armor and clothing. Much better. I turned to Hope to ask her if she wanted me to purchase her some new clothing and water.

“Meep!” she said when I looked at her. Meep? What did that even mean? I looked around and then back at her. Oh, I was being an idiot. I had basically stripped and had a shower right in front of her. Well, she could deal with it or not. I didn’t care that much to get embarrassed. I had more important things to focus my attention on. Like an old Asian grandmother who liked to yeet people into the stratosphere and her demonic children.

“You want new clothing and water to clean off?” I asked.