Descend- Bursting Out: A litrpg adventure

by David Burke

  Reflexively he sharpened his mental defenses and hardened his Iron Will. He was only a guy and stray thoughts still crossed his mind. He didn’t want to end up in hot water because he thought about the wrong girl’s backside while talking to another girl. Still he took stock of his increases. For all that they had grown in power, he was strong now in ways that he hadn’t thought possible.

  Awareness: 3043, Durability: 2780, Kinesis: 2888, Metabolism: 3226, Formation: 3450.

  At level 218, he wasn’t yet at the max indicated on the A’snkarnt implant but he still felt like a god. This had to be beyond anything they had expected. He had just tripled in power by fusing with six more girls. While he needed to rest, there was still Emma, Martina, Harper, Grace, Kayla, Kenzie, Olivia, Hanna, Rosa, Bella, Zuri, Sora, Uremi, and Abby that he wouldn’t mind fusing with.

  He could only shrug. He was getting greedy now. He already had eighteen times more wives or girlfriends or whatever they all were than he had ever expected to have in his life and each of them were amazing women both inside and out. They might not all be as close to him as his wives, but they were all still great girls.

  With the added stats he was now at 331,760 PSI with the crown on. His highest skills hadn’t broken four hundred despite intensive training, so he knew there was still a great deal of mastery which he needed to achieve. But this was definitely a start.

  He also had picked up some great new abilities: Esseme’s skill, Incarnate, Faith’s Psionic Teleportation, Madison’s Mass Control, Charlotte’s Hyper Accuracy, Samantha’s Judgment, and most surprising he had obtained Veil from Daphne. He had expected her power amplification ability but as they fused it had become clear that he wouldn’t be able to use it on himself. At some level she must have decided that was not the best ability for him. Veil was useful; it was the skill that allowed her to stand in plain sight and yet be overlooked.

  Jay was pulled out of his speculation as he noticed that all of the girls were ready.

  He sent a telepathic hug to Huong, Mia, Jessie since he would be leaving them behind. Then said to the two teams with him, “Gather close and everyone make sure you are in physical contact with us and I’m going to teleport us to the entrance for the tenth floor.”

  As everyone was getting situated Amelia and Trina both came to stand next to him. Amelia said, “God, I know you only fused with six girls but that was almost too much. I feel scattered all over on the wind. Sorta like I was pulled in too many different directions.”

  “I know that is why I am not gonna agree to any more fusions until we are able to bring our skills in line with the higher stats. We need to adapt to this. But it was the quickest way that I could think of making sure we all had the power to face whatever obstacles are in front of us,” Jay replied.

  “She’s right but this is a rush. I’ve never imagined power like this was possible. I can see your stats and you are still so far beyond us but we are now more powerful than you were when I thought you were practically a god,” Trina said.

  “Yeah, I think we keep throwing that term around, because we don’t have any real conception of what a god actually is, but maybe someday we will. Who knows, maybe when this is all over we will find out that this entire universe is just some experiment being conducted by a being beyond what we can perceive now,” Jay said.

  “It really isn’t that complicated. This much power or that much power. I have fire and I will use it with all my strength. Now, let’s go rescue everyone else and get free from this place,” Meikiyo said.

  Jay smiled at her and then with a thought they were all teleported in a flash.

  Chapter 37- Fields of the Dead

  This time unlike all the times before the doorway to the tenth floor opened up and they were able to walk into what looked like the ruins of a castle. Check that, more like a haunted castle. Somehow there was something familiar about this place. Jay couldn’t put his finger on it for quite a while.

  He ran through scary movies he had watched looking for anything that was giving him this sense of deja vu. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. This was where future him had been sending messages from. Somehow the background aura of this place had bled into those messages and he recognized it.

  All except that last message. That message had come from somewhere else. Something like a ship hangar. But he definitely recognized this place. He was almost picking up memories, yet they didn’t seem real. More like the dream of a dream. Perhaps it was simply that their link through time had become too tenuous as differences added up.

  Who knew? Not he for sure. All he could think of was his freshman literature class and The Garden of Forking Paths. Even with the ability to manipulate time, Jay still wasn’t sure that he understood any of this.

  He simply shrugged his shoulders. They had work to do. The team was already doing their job. They had spread out and were protecting all sides as they moved forward across the fog-covered graveyard in front of the castle.

  The A’snkarnt had definitely spared no expense on this. Of course, they would have to really up their game to outdo the dragon on the fifth floor or the duplicates of the eighth floor. “Let’s move as fast as we can. Use our speed to our advantage and if we get lucky, maybe nothing here will be prepared for the power increase that we have. Maddy, can you carry Veronica please?”

  She nodded and so he started to focus on his scanning. There was nothing that he could identify as living here. Well other than his teams. Once Veronica was being carried they were all able to move at super speed. They crossed the open area in nothing flat. Meikiyo’s flame burnt up the fog and it suddenly felt much less creepy.

  He heard moaning behind him. Probably some kind of zombie monsters. But, they weren’t here to fight monsters. They were here to reach the command deck. That was all that mattered.

  A pair of kicks from Bong-Cha sent the fifteen-foot-high wooden gates flying inward off their hinges. The sound of twisted metal echoed through the still air. The sound of moaning grew behind them, but the monsters were going to be too late. They were simply too strong to be stalled by the things here.

  Once inside the castle, Jay kept scanning and they were able to follow the hallways down to what must have been modeled on some type of dungeon workshop. They were about to enter it when he suddenly felt humans all over. There were a huge number of people out there now. A couple hundred at least.

  As he focused more, Jay realized there were a few men along with many women and children. While he couldn’t say that none of them were from the newcomers from clusters seven and eight, he did know that none of them were from his cluster. Even Miguel’s team was very familiar to him.

  So either this place had a way to mess with his scanning, or some of the other clusters had arrived here at the same time. The timing was just too convenient. Jay suspected a trap. Not that it really mattered. He couldn’t risk letting the other survivors die to monsters out there.

  “Everyone listen. There are other life signs that have appeared. I think it is a trap but I also can’t be sure. Some of the other clusters may have arrived,” Jay said.

  Then as if to drive the point home, high-pitched screams of pain erupted in the dark. The landscape took on that horror movie feel again as he could hear frightened cries for help and the sound of fighting going on.

  “No discussion, do as I say. Amelia, take Maddy and Char with you and get the tech team in there. Meikiyo and Trina, you are with me. We are going to try and rescue the others,” Jay ordered.

  He saw the dissatisfaction and even more felt it through the fusion he shared will all but one of the girls here. Thankfully though no one raised a protest and as soon as he saw Amelia and the tech team disappear into the weird medieval-type laboratory he and the two girls with him streaked back out.

  “Meikiyo, take to the air. Scout out where we are needed and direct us. Provide air support for us or anyone who gets in trouble,” Jay instructed as they ran. A PSI blade appeared in his hands and he watched as Trina burst i
nto black and purple flame and took to the air next to his fire goddess. They were both beautiful and unique. He had forgotten that she could do that after her fusion had been made complete.

  The thought left him as he ran into a scene out of a nightmare. A group of maybe thirty women were huddled in a circle around forty or fifty very young children, mostly babies really. Trying to organize them was a lone man with a haunted look on his face, his eyes sunken from lack of sleep.

  In his hand he too held a sword but it gleamed a silvery metallic color and was connected to his body by a similar-appearing armor. The way it moved so smoothly over his body though made it clear that this was a manifestation of some psionic power rather than actual metal armor and weapon.

  Around them were hundreds of shambling zombies. The women to their credit were not wilting flowers. They might be crying out in terror but they were fighting for all they were worth. Not many of them apparently had combat powers but those that did, launched volleys of various energies and burned or blasted at the zombies.

  A closer inspection of the zombies showed that these were more Solomon Grundy than they were Night of the Living Dead. Each was at least eight feet tall and massive. They wielded huge chunks of rock and shrugged off electrical or fire blasts with ease.

  The silver blade the man was wielding cut through them but even severed limbs still crawled along the ground seeking to destroy anything that they could reach. Jay knew their situation. Fortunately it only took him an instant to take this all in and so he shouted out, “Don’t shoot, I’m here to help.”

  Then in a flash he was in their midst. A dome-shaped PSI construct came into existence and he started pushing to expand it. The creatures were strong enough to crush stone in their bare hands but against his expanding field they were nothing. A few more energy blasts went off until they realized that the dome was all around them.

  Jay began talking as he worked, “I’m Jay from cluster number one.”

  The women all looked to the one lone man who simply said, “Jeff, cluster five. Your shield is amazing, but any idea what to do about these things.”

  “Yeah, I do but we need to get all of you out of the line of fire. Have to protect the women and children. Two of my wives are flying overhead. They are going to try and open up a path to the castle. There are still several other groups of humans here. Are any of them with you?”

  Jeff hung his head as he said, “No this is all that are left. A few fell getting to this spot. Suddenly our home started to vent atmosphere and then a doorway opened up to here. We grabbed the children and made a run for it. There wasn’t much else that we could do.”

  “Don’t worry it is just good that you could save the children. Now when I say run, I want you all to start running to the castle.” As Jay spoke a column of fire blasted out of the sky and cut through the hordes of zombies burning a path fifty feet wide and clearing the fog again.

  “Now, start running. I’ve got your back.” Then Jay opened one side of the dome and pushed back at any of the zombies near him. Jeff acted like he wanted to stay and fight but Jay said, “They need you. Trust me these things can’t hurt me.”

  Over the next half an hour the same routine was repeated again and again. They had burnt up hundreds of zombies and still more were coming. But at least they had gotten the rest of the clusters to the castle. In total there were only one hundred and eighteen adults but at least they had saved all the children. Jay gave them instructions and sent the rest down to the laboratory that he knew had to mask the entrance to the command deck. At the time he sent a warning to Amelia to let her know to expect company.

  Then he looked out at the throngs of massive zombies. They were throwing rocks and beating at his PSI construct but the wall he had created was one hundred feet high and there was no way that such simple weapons could get through. He felt the drain from the hundreds of attacks but it wasn’t enough to even get ahead of his regeneration rate.

  Meikiyo looked at him and said, “So what now, lover? It will take a long time to burn all of these up.”

  Before Jay could answer, Trina said, “I can sense the negative energy in them. It is like the Forlorn weapons and like my necrogenic power. I could take control of some of them but there are too many for that. But, I believe I could absorb all of the energy from them and leave them as inanimate hunks of flesh.”

  Jay looked at her. He could tell that she wasn’t telling him something. Her plan sounded too easy and so he looked for the hook. Then it dawned on him.

  “I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself,” he said. “Not after we so recently came to terms. You aren’t going to take my college crush away from me.”

  It was a testament to Meikiyo’s growing security with Jay that she simply smiled. Trina said, “I’m not trying to sacrifice myself.”

  “Nice choice of words. You may not intend that but that is what will happen. I remember what happened to you when you absorbed too much energy from the Forlorn weapons. Remember, I was there. I shared in your pain,” Jay protested.

  Trina held her hand up to the side of his face. “I remember and I have treasured that despite everything I had done to make you hate me, you saw something in me that was worth saving. I understand that about Meikiyo too. Being saved by Jay really is a life-altering experience. But you need to get to the command deck.

  “I have sensed your fears when you fail to completely block me out. You know that something is coming and you know that we have a very limited amount of time. We have to end this. Let me make up for my mistakes and take care of this for you. Then you can go and rescue your wives and children.”

  “No, not gonna happen. I have another way. If you are done trying to get out of becoming my seventh wife, then I need you both to open yourself up to me. We are going to create a circuit and then I am going to burn them to the ground,” Jay said.

  “Even with your increase in power, that won’t be enough. Not with only two of us to resonate your power back to you,” Trina protested.

  Meikiyo said, “I’m sorry but I have to agree with her. In this one instance, fire isn’t the answer. It just isn’t fast enough. You will run out of energy before you burn them all up.”

  “Luckily, I’m not going to rely on just fire. Remember you two aren’t the only ones that I have gained powers from. Just trust me.”

  Those three words were all that it took, because they both did. They did trust him and he could feel it. So he began feeding his power into Meikiyo. It was so much more than when he had done this before but equally they were stronger than before too. Jay felt their channels fuse perfectly and then he shuddered.

  He hadn’t intended to try this yet, but maybe now was the time. Before doubt or second guesses could enter his head he pushed forward on instinct. It simply felt right. A moment became an eternity and two became one. Not just in name or in a fusion, but in completion.

  He was Meikiyo and she was him, but he didn’t stop there. He reached out to Trina and pushed. Once again time seemed to stand still and the three were now one. Their bodies and minds had completely fused. It was the strangest experience. He could remember all of their memories as though they were his own. Gah, women had strange bodies. Wonderful, but strange.

  He knew that they were feeling the same bizarreness. Actually that wasn’t true. There was no they. There was no him. The was only I. A unified body and mind. The power in him was magnified and now instead of just the three hundred thousand PSI that he held before this new being contained over one point three million PSI.

  Hands reached out that were both too big and too little at the same time. A body that was complex and powerful beyond comprehension. He didn’t need to understand it. The power was there. This new being reached out with black flames laced with another power it possessed.

  The power to sever molecular bonds. That power belonged to another part of his fusion, but it somehow seemed distant. It wasn’t the complete perfection of the three become one. The energy flashed out and whe
re before there had been an army of monsters there was now nothing but dust.

  A wave of exhaustion ran through him, and then the three split apart again. Jay shook his head. He wasn’t sure what to think. He was tired, but his PSI was already rapidly refilling. No, what he felt more than anything was the emptiness of being alone again. Oh he felt their presence in the fusion, but he didn’t know if this partial fusion would ever feel the same again.

  Deep sighs went through both the women causing their breasts to rise and fall. He could feel their confusion. They too were aware of themselves as individuals again, but missed the complete unity they had held onto for a few seconds. An awareness of each other lingered on but even now the shared memories were fading. Some would hang around but Jay knew he wouldn’t know exactly what it was to be Meikiyo, to be Trina. Not from out here.

  Yet as he looked at those heaving chests and admired the curve of their figure, he realized there were all kinds of benefits to being out here. Yes indeed, it was good to be the king.