Excise: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse Book 2)

by Ryan DeBruyn

  She opened her mouth and confusedly stated, “I think you are–”

  “You think I don’t know the enemy when they are standing right in front of me!” He pointed at her again, and his voice grew in octaves as he continued, “I know you were part of the Cathodiem guild! I know you were high ranking! I know you were part of the war with Mars, and I will not reveal the plans–”

  He cut off as his eyes snapped to a place in front of him. His jaw clenched, and he swiped his hand through the space his eyes had been riveted to. Clearly, he just got a notification. Selaphelia, who had tried to Analyze the man as soon as she arrived and also tried to access her interface frowned. She tried again and still couldn’t access anything.

  “Choose a class and be reborn,” he spat out like it was some sort of poison in his mouth. Then he turned and began walking away from her before he added over his shoulder, “One of you will not be reborn unless you choose to donate your Stasis bank and your whole party does the same—not that I expect you to think of anyone but yourself!”

  He vanished a half step later, and in front of her finally popped a notification screen.

  Rocky

  His eyes opened into darkness lit by a recognizable, pulsing, red grout, and he turned his head from side to side, trying to remember how he’d gotten here. Between the red lines, black Dragon scales adorned the walls, and again, he wondered what brought him back here. Hadn’t he been somewhere else?

  He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes but found that there wasn’t any. Instead, his face felt entirely smooth and unblemished. His beard that he’d grown accustomed to since the fateful crash of energy was missing. He took in a deep lungful of breath and felt his lungs and body react as it should. Had he been shaved by a nurse or something?

  “You think that is air you are breathing?” an amused voice parroted from behind him. Rocky jumped to his feet and spun. What he saw made him tilt his head questioningly. He definitely didn’t know this strange creature.

  Standing there was a strange-looking man wearing what could only be described as a giant rabbit fur draped over his entire body. He wore the head of the creature like a hat, and the long ears were sticking straight up, making it appear to almost be alive. The front paws of the rabbit skin were draped over each shoulder and hung loosely in front of his tanned and muscled chest. A massive braid also hung over one shoulder and was plaited and tied with a leather cord. His bottom half was covered by brown leather trousers, and out of his mouth, he blew smoke rings from a hand-carved tobacco pipe.

  “Not even going to comment on my perfectly chosen movie quote?” The man chuckled, and this time, since he wasn’t imitating Morpheus from the Matrix, Rocky could hear his Native American lilt. The way he phrased the second question made him look around himself again.

  “Are you saying this place is virtual reality?” Rocky asked as he looked for some glitch or seam that might not load properly to tell him his last few weeks had been some sort of crazy government experiment or something.

  “Ahhh, the old trapped in a game plot. I can see how that might be an easier explanation for recent events.” He took a deep drag off his pipe, which lit itself and made Rocky even more sure he was in a video game. “I’m afraid that this dance of life is truly taking place, Rockstar.”

  Rocky’s brow furrowed at what appeared to be his new nickname. The man’s choice of wording and his clear humor at the whole situation made a few things come together in Rocky’s head. “Wait, you are the person adding the little notes on to my notifications, aren’t you?”

  The man smiled and removed the pipe from between his teeth with a flourish, “My name is Michabo, and yes, I have been helping to guide–”

  Rocky sputtered in shock at Michabo’s choice of words, which cut him off. Michabo’s smile widened, as Rocky indignantly spat, “You have been making fun of me since the first day, you mean!”

  “The path we chose to walk all those millennia ago has been very lonely, and you happened to be one of the first people I found interesting upon waking up.” Michabo changed demeanor and almost seemed to gain massive puppy eyes, making Rocky feel sorry for him momentarily.

  Then he shook himself and commanded, “What the Atlantean hells, stop that!” Michabo winked at him, and his smile and normal demeanor returned, showing that he’d been play-acting. As Rocky watched, he saw one of the ears twitch and move, showing that the rabbit pelt was actually alive. Rocky pointed at it and sputtered anew, “Okay—Michabo—I think you should explain.”

  “Ahh, I shall start near the beginning, then?” he responded quickly and took a quick puff of his pipe before tapping the mouthpiece on his temple. “This all started due to the disparity that grew from Gaia’s champions’ strength. You see, Gaia is the mother of all things, and all things should have equal rights upon her.” Rocky squinted, not understanding where the story was going.

  Michabo saw his look and shrugged. “Perhaps an abridged version as bringing you and the others out of that destroyed Dungeon took almost everything we’d stored so many millennia ago.” He ran his tongue over his teeth and continued, “To put it simply, this path you have set moccasin upon was put in motion more than a billion years ago. The guilds had grown too powerful and even managed to begin to hinder the all-powerful Gaia.”

  Michabo pointed his stem at Rockland, and his face grew stern, “In fact, your ancestors were some of the most powerful.” Rocky blinked in the long pause that followed, unsure how to feel. Eventually, Michabo continued, “We’re still not sure which guild reached and cleared the Tectonic Dungeons first, but we are relatively sure that the first individual to arrive was male…” He faded off, looking into the bowl on his pipe. Then he took a deep drag and began to blow out the smoke into a beautiful artistic scene of pale white fog.

  In the smoke tapestry, there appeared to be a woman bound in seven chains and a lone man standing before her, looking at the restraints. The smoke shifted, and it almost seemed like the man was rebounded as he approached and attempted to break the massive chains that held the damsel captive. Michabo smiled at the picture and then blew a few more wisps of smoke that added ears to the man and a small group of faceless people who crowded in the entrance to the cavern that held the captive.

  “I did one day arrive at the prophesized end of the labyrinth and believed myself to be the first to have found her. However…” A few tears rolled down his cheeks as he took another drag on his pipe and blew out to adjust the fading scene. In the reconstructed scene, a small girl with baby rabbit ears ran past, touched the chains, and then attempted to wake the captive woman. However, all of her frantic motions seemed to do nothing. Michabo, who seemed to not be able to approach any farther, offered her all manner of weapons to help her break the chains, but nothing seemed to work.

  The scene seemed to almost be stagnant as Michabo continued to breathe out smoke until Rocky realized that what was changing was the size of the little girl or the girl who was attempting to break out the female captive. Rocky smiled, seeing the detail and pride that Michabo wove into the image, showing his love of all the women who attempted the feat and even more so for the young women with the rabbit ears.

  Then the scene shifted, and a large group of heavily armored and deadly looking people stood in the entrance to the chamber. Who they were was unclear, but they radiated power and death. Michabo was on his knees before them, seeming to beg for something. His daughter was being held by one of the figures, his knife at her throat, and behind the group lay many butchered corpses of some of the other women who’d attempted to liberate the trapped woman.

  Before the scene could go any farther, Michabo swept his hand angrily through the smoke. “They said they were merciful that day, letting me keep my life! That the power in that room was only meant for the first person who’d arrived there!” he snarled.

  Rocky gulped, understanding that those faceless figures had not given his daughter back to him. He felt himself shudder in revulsion. Somehow, he kn
ew that the women were killed needlessly but for a nefarious purpose he couldn’t understand. So, he asked, “Why did they kill the women?”

  In response, Michabo smiled sickly and shook his head. “That is the very center of this little web. I have already risked quite a bit considering my suspicions. Ask your Guide if she ever met an Epic ranked woman, and then ask her how many Epic ranked men lived on Gaia. We were hoping for Gaia to choose someone else, but…” He shook his head and then shrugged as he faded off on that line of thought.

  Both of Rocky’s arms raised on each side of him, palms up, asking for more information. He flicked his fingers wordlessly, saying tell me more, but Michabo shook his head sadly before stating firmly, “That is enough to get you asking the right questions. You will get more when we know you are on the right side.”

  Blinking, Rocky tried to think of something that might get more information from the very old Native American man in front of him. Unfortunately, the only thing he could think to ask next gave Michabo the ability to completely change the topic. He opened and closed his mouth as he continued to think of something subtle that might get an answer.

  However, he was cut off as Michabo insisted, “I will answer the question you were going to ask. You are currently in the spirit world. Since you and your party were all able to rank up your classes, I was able to pull you into the Earth as the Dungeon died. You might remember your ‘spirit’ companion, Sela, having a similar experience.”

  Michabo placed a lot of vehemence in his voice on Sela’s name during the statement, and Rocky glared at him. The glare didn’t do anything as Michabo continued in a more neutral tone, “Regardless, once Apep’s influence was wiped out from that place, I regained access. Luckily, your little stunt killed the Dungeon and Apothis. Plus, we had enough power stored to pull you and your companions out of there. Unfortunately, since this is a form of body reconstruction, it has severely limited your rank up class choices.” He shrugged, grew more serious, and a hint of sadness crept into his eyes. “A point that I regret is that we only had enough Ether banked to speed the path of rebirth through the seven spirit realms for four of you.” He puffed on his pipe and cringed slightly before adding with a mouth full of smoke, “One of you will have to be left in the spirit realm–"

  Rockland stopped listening as his eyes went wide in shock, and he felt his whole body tense up in outrage.

  Epilogue

  Deep Under Chalk River – Frankie

  Frankie felt the Dungeon die as he ran through the tunnel his Geomancer dug for him. Only an idiot would stay and fight with that cocksure of a priest, Apothis. Planning elaborate traps, gloating at every opportunity. That was not the way you won, and Frankie learned two costly lessons to that effect.

  He glanced down at his black leg and then looked at his black hand. He smiled; Rocky should have killed him when he’d the chance! Now, he was going to get to Toronto and convert everyone!

  Algonquin Valley and the Grotto would suffer!

  It was only a matter of time and strategy…

  Somewhere in the Orion Arm

  An entity woke up slowly and incredibly disoriented. What was he? Why did he feel so necrotic, so dusty and unused?

  Automatically, his mind flitted over the dry and arid surface of his body in a way he was familiar with but unsure why it felt so natural. His entire surface was devoid of nearly all life. The life that did live seemed to be contained in small, pressurized domes. The surface roiled and bucked with a familiar energy that tickled his memory.

  The life forms in these tiny, glass domes seemed familiar too, and his heart lurched to a start because of the feelings. A feeling akin to taking the first breath of air after an extended submersion underwater jolted through the planet before his heart lurched a few times, nearly coming to a stop. With a bit of coaxing, the planet managed to begin spinning his core more naturally, and with it came the blessed heat of life.

  What had happened to stop his heart? While it continued to turn and beat, it had been doing it at the most glacial of paces. When the planet quested out to find heat, it found almost none. All of his water was frozen and withdrawn below the surface.

  Again, without knowing why, he began pushing his new magmatic blood through long-unused veins. In some cases, he was spilling the scalding, creeping liquid on to the surface, but in others, it was pressurizing before reaching equilibrium. All over the surface, steam began to rise from cracks as the deepwater began to melt, then evaporate and expand.

  Within moments, the sky was filled with dark clouds and not long after, the heavens opened and began to rain, snow, hail, and monsoon over the entire planet.

  What to do next? The planetary god didn’t know, but for some reason, he was leaning towards helping life on his surface and creating more. Something told him he needed to have life to use this energy effectively or to gain power himself. Something deep and forgotten told him the only way to advance himself was to gather more Etherience.

  In the back of his mind, an image of green, long-limbed humanoids came to the forefront, despite the few strange, multi-colored creatures that inhabited his surface currently.

  Afterword

  We hope you enjoyed Excise! Since reviews are the lifeblood of indie publishing, we’d love it if you could leave a positive review on Amazon! If you scroll through to the end of this book, you’ll easily be able to leave a review, otherwise, follow this link to be redirected to the Ether Collapse: Excise Amazon product page to leave your review.

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  About Ryan DeBruyn

  Ryan is currently a student back at school for the third time, studying Electrical Engineering and trying to find a career that he will love. Having a love of travel, he could be called worldly or just curious. He has long been fascinated by different cultures, but especially by the similar stories they all tell. So, he has attempted to create a science fiction/fantasy world that will pull together the myths and legends in a fun and interactive way. His book, Ether Collapse, is an attempt to do that while also diving into a world where humanity is forced to start over in an apocalyptic LitRPG.

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  About Mountaindale Press

  Dakota and Danielle Krout, a husband and wife team, strive to create as well as publish excellent fantasy and science fiction novels. Self-publishing The Divine Dungeon: Dungeon Born in 2016 transformed their careers from Dakota’s military and programming background and Danielle’s Ph.D. in pharmacology to President and CEO, respectively, of a small press. Their goal is to share their success with other authors and provide captivating fiction to readers with the purpose of solidifying Mountaindale Press as the place ‘Where Fantasy Transforms Reality.’

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  Mountaindale Press Titles

  GameLit and LitRPG

  The Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout

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  A Touch of Power by Jay Boyce

  Red Mage: Advent by Xander Boyce

  Wolfman Warlock: Bibliomancer by James Hunter and Dakota Krout

  Axe Druid by Christopher Johns

  Skeleton in Space by Andries Louws

  Chronicles of Ethan by John L. Monk

  Pixel Dust by David Petrie

  Appendix

  Alchemy is the Basis of All – Alchemy guild located on Helion Prime. Is studying gasoline which was traded to him by someone in Florida.

  Alex Watt – 11-year-old young man that Rocky discovere
d while entering Ottawa. Family was massacred by Corsair’s goons. Died during the Ottawa Exodus Struggle.

  Algonquin Grotto – This is where Selaphelia Ardensai chose to start the settlement of survivors. It was chosen because of its natural defenses in the mountains and cliff faces that surround it on three sides. On the fourth side is a large river that runs through Algonquin Park.

  Algonquin Park – Is the full Park of Algonquin as seen in our current world.

  Algonquin Valley – Is the Territory of Rockland Barkclay, and it sits within Algonquin Park. It is quite large but does not encompass the entirety of the current Algonquin Park from present day Earth.

  Amber Dell – A member of the A-Team. A muscular native American woman who is extremely pretty when she smiles. She also seems to take things a little too literally often forgetting or not understanding the whole meaning of things. Apprentice-Fencer.

  Apep – Essentially a black hole, another form of godly being similar to Gaia but more on par with a Star God. Instead of bringing light to worlds a Void god attempts to subvert worlds away from the light to gain power.

  Apothis – One of the countless souls that Apep has at his command. Apep continually spins out his head priest Apothis to try to conquer worlds. Master-Necromonger