Gods of Myth and Midnight: A LitRPG Novel (Seeds of Chaos Book 3)

by Azalea Ellis

  I stood, stretching weary muscles. The fatigue from fueling the lance was both mental and physical, somehow. In a way, we were lucky to have access to such effective training. Normally, I wouldn’t level up so much unless I was fighting my way through a life and death situation, straining my body to its limits. On the other hand, in a way, I was fighting through a life and death situation. I just wasn’t the one in danger.

  I looked at the people in varying levels of catatonia who waited in the huge lobby for us to check them. There were more of them now than when I had woken that morning. We were falling behind.

  Sam sat at one of the tables, his hands submerged in a bucket of yellowish-green goo. It writhed and bubbled strangely, almost as if it was alive. I mean, it was alive, technically, but not in the same way an animal was. It sprouted into crystal, then melted down again, the color changing to an eggy white and letting off a burnt smell.

  He withdrew his hands, washed them in the rigged up sink in the corner, then dried them on a rag. “They’re seeing if I can offload injuries into bacteria and algae. It doesn’t work very well, but it’s something. I’ve been experimenting to try and find what will get me the most charge to the healing side of Harbinger. This Skill…it isn’t meant for healing. Sure, that’s what I’ve been using it for. But its purpose is to learn how to hurt people, and then do it better.” He tossed the rag into the bucket of similar ones in the corner, then turned to me. The edges of his sclera flickered for a moment, darkening inward. “If I could just use Black Sun on these people, I’d be able to get the charge I need. Half of them are catatonic from the brain damage. They wouldn’t even notice, and they’d be fine once I healed them.”

  “I understand what you mean, but I’m worried about unintended side-effects. These people…they’re already desperate and depressed enough.”

  He let out a huff that was half-laughter, leaning his head backward and pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. “I know. I’m just so tired I don’t have the energy to…”

  He was too tired to care, I finished silently. “Well. It’s time for a break.”

  He lowered his hands. “No, I can handle it, Eve. There are almost a dozen more people waiting in line for healing.”

  “And one of the other healers will handle them, or one of the human medics, or—” I held up a hand to stop him from interrupting. “Or they can wait. I’m pretty sure your bedside manner would not be improved by Black Sun sucking the will to live out of your patients. You and I both need to rest. I just got kicked off my own station by Adam. Let’s go. A little bit of sleep, and our Seeds will have us rejuvenated enough to start chugging again.”

  Sam sighed. He threw a look toward the people waiting for healing, but nodded.

  The Estreyan guards assigned to each of us followed as we left the healing and processing room, which was basically the whole bottom floor of the building we’d taken over. The higher levels held barracks for the medics and soldiers, the lab, administrative and organizational staff and data, quarters for people waiting for more extensive healing procedures, and quarters for my team and the Estreyans who’d remained.

  I fell into my bed and was asleep seconds after my head hit the pillow.

  Chapter 36

  I hold within my hand

  Grains of the golden sand —

  How few! yet how they creep

  Through my fingers to the deep

  — Edgar Allen Poe

  Early the next morning, I got up and decided to go out with one of the patrols to help distribute supplies and cases of the serum to the more desperate areas of the city. A single lane of the main roads had been cleared forcibly, pods and other obstructions bulldozed to the sides, so we were able to make decent progress.

  Chanelle, Zed, and Gregor joined me, along with two of our Estreyan guards, who I’d noticed bragging about their job to the other Estreyan warriors. We rode out in a convoy of military and transport pods.

  Chanelle smiled as we bumped along, looking out the window at the dirty, litter-filled street. “This is pretty wonderful.”

  Zed raised his eyebrows high. “Is that what you call it?”

  She kicked at Zed’s leg, and he jerked away dramatically to avoid her. “I just mean…we’re helping. I’m okay, I can think again. I’m healthy, and I may not have a Skill anymore, but I’m still stronger than before I became a Player. I’m actually able to do something now.” She turned to me and waved vaguely to the city. “It may look ugly now, but we’re going to help patch things up. We succeeded. It’s a very good thing.”

  I looked out the window. “I guess it is. Things can get better.” The thought settled in my mind like a warm blanket.

  While we drove, the spotters looked for infected, and the civilians called out tips to help us find them or asked for help and supplies. We stopped frequently to pick up wounded, drop off cases of serum, and talk to people who had info about the spread of the infection.

  A little over an hour later, we stopped in the center of a marketplace-like square and unloaded a few more cases of serum and some basic supplies like food rations and bottles of clean water, as well as a limited supply of antibiotics and things like insulin. This was a known drop-off point, so people had gathered in waiting, and came forward to get what they could before we ran out.

  Many of the people offered thanks, but just as many were too focused on grabbing what they could and leaving quickly, and a good number of others wore accusing glares and muttered among themselves.

  “You don’t have any more food?” one man yelled, his arm held in a sling across his chest.

  One of the team leaders said, “Sorry, this is all the food we’ve got, this time. But there’s plenty of the anti-meningolycanosis serum, and we brought some sanitary wipes and baby formula, too.”

  “We need food!” the man said, his voice rising to the edge of a yell.

  “This water will be gone by tonight. There isn’t even enough for all of us to get a single bottle!” another yelled.

  I frowned as I realized they were right. I turned to the inoculation team member beside me as we unloaded the remaining boxes of supplies. “Do we have more, back at the base? People need access to clean water, or things are just going to get worse.”

  She shrugged uncomfortably. “Relief resources are stretched pretty thin. This isn’t the only city where the water isn’t running anymore. Roads are shot to hell, how are the transport pods even supposed to get here? Even if they could, the Emergency Management Department doesn’t have the money to get everyone what they need. They ran through the budget weeks ago, trying to keep people alive while the aliens were still busy killing us all.” Her voice tightened as she looked up at the Estreyan standing beside the convoy and scanning for trouble.

  I sighed, closing my eyes for a minute and rubbing chilled fingers against my forehead. I’d known the problem was big. I’d known I didn’t comprehend everything that would need to be done to get Earth back on its feet, but I kept being reminded how utterly screwed our current situation was.

  “And you aren’t even trying to do anything about the gangs,” Arm Sling yelled, to the nods of several of the other civilians. “They’re taking control of the streets, stealing from the rest of us honest folk and making it generally unsafe to even leave our houses.”

  “Those of us that still have houses!” someone else shouted. “Cause your damn aliens destroyed some of ours!”

  Arm Sling pointed his good arm at me. “Don’t think we don’t know who caused all this in the first place. We have eyeballs. You’re one of them! I’ve never seen a human looking like you.”

  “You betrayed your own people!” one of the others yelled.

  Those who weren’t angry, or at least weren’t brave or stupid enough to voice that anger, quickly withdrew with their supplies, while others pressed in closer. Anger has a way of feeding off the anger of others, building up like a fire jumping from tree to tree.

  My Estreyan guard for the evening stepped for
ward, placing herself in front of me. “Back!” she called in heavily accented English. “Get back!” There was a threat in her tone and on her face.

  I didn’t think the threat was helpful, but how, I wondered, were you supposed to defuse an angry crowd? I doubted anything I could say would change their minds or make them feel better. My instinct in the face of a threat was to attack. But these people weren’t a physical threat to me, and hurting or scaring them wouldn’t make them change their minds. They were just frightened and in need of someone to blame, and with my obvious role in stopping the war, the friendliness of the Estreyans, and my not-completely-human appearance, I was a natural target for their blame, their anger. “It is alright,” I murmured in Estreyan.

  “You must not be allowed to come to harm,” my guard retorted, her eyes scanning the crowd, and even the rooftops, as if she expected an ambush.

  Arm Sling wasn’t deterred, though some of the others had hesitated when she stepped forward. The sound of her alien language seemed to egg him on. “You’ve got some nerve, coming out here like you’re so kind and noble, helping us poor people of the city. But we’re not fooled!”

  “Dirty alien!” someone screamed from the back. “Fuck you! My son died!”

  My guard drew her staff, runes written along its surface glowing to life as she stepped forward menacingly.

  The crowd broke, then, scattering into the streets and alleys surrounding the market.

  The inoculation team leader sighed loudly. “And there’s the downside to having the super-powered people come out to help,” he muttered. He raised his voice and called out, “Let’s head back. Keep your super-senses…thing active, Redding. Now that supplies are unloaded, we’ve got space for a few more infected, if we pass them on the way.”

  Zed was scowling as we loaded back into the pod, followed by the female Estreyan guard. “Idiots. Can’t they see we’re trying to help? In fact, we’re pretty much the only reason they’re not all dead right now, or about to be mauled by rabid neighbors.”

  Gregor snorted. “People are stupid. You’ll find yourself becoming stupid, too, if you care too much about what they think.”

  Chanelle fiddled with her tranquilizer gun, then sighed and leaned back. “Not all of them are like that. They just…” she shook her head.

  “People aren’t always rational,” I said. “And they do have some valid complaints. I understand that we don’t have the resources to police the city against crime, but maybe we can get some more supplies for them, at least? Some portable water filters might be a good start. One of the group told me that part of the problem is the availability of transportation and resources, but the other part is money. I wonder if companies would be willing to take Estreyan currency in place of credits. I have plenty of the former.”

  “Other-worldly precious metals probably wouldn’t be unwelcome, if companies agree to sell to you on a line of credit. But let me reiterate. People are stupid. Helping more isn’t going to make people any smarter.”

  I shrugged. “Well, I make a good face to hate. I think I need a PR manager to run some sort of campaign for me.” I lifted my hands in the air, waving as I captioned an imaginary news header. “Eve Redding, Super Likable and Not At All the Reason Your World Got Attacked by Aliens. Also, She’s Trying to Help.”

  Zed raised his eyebrows again, stared at me, and then snorted very deliberately. “That’s why you’re not in the news industry,” Zed said. “That’s a horrible news header.”

  “She is on the news, all the time,” Chanelle said. She elbowed Zed and wiggled her eyebrows jokingly. “I saw her on the news this morning.”

  Gregor squinted at her incredulously, then sighed deeply. “You’re not funny. Please…just don’t.”

  I grinned. “Well, if you know so much about PR, why don’t you show me how it’s done?”

  Zed raised his hands in the air. “Eve Redding, Superhero, Saves the Day Again.”

  Our Estreyan guard, who had been silent up till then, shook her head. “No, no,” she said slowly, the English still awkward in her mouth. “Much simpler, make fear and respect in same title.” She held up her own hands. “Eve Redding, Godkiller.” She grinned, nodding eagerly as she looked around at us.

  My teammates and I shared a look, then burst out laughing.

  “Even better!” Zed crowed, extending his hand toward the Estreyan for a high-five, which she hesitantly returned, but only after he explained how high-fives were supposed to work.

  A few days later, I drove my bike back to the base through the darkening streets. I’d come from inspecting the anchor point the Estreyans were working on. They were interested in my power, Chaos, and the fact that I’d gotten it directly from a god’s physical manifestation rather than as a Bestowal. They’d grown very excited when I told them how I’d eaten some of Behelaino’s Seed core, and they had me push energy into a few crystal orbs, similar to what I’d done to the Yggdrasil tree or the healing lance, in the hopes that my proximity to a real god’s power would give them the “weight” needed to bind the anchor spot to reality. Or that’s what I’d been able to gather from their jargon-filled technical rambling.

  My Estreyan guard ran behind me, keeping up easily. Half the city had lost power, if not more, and there had been rolling blackouts for the rest of the city. When we arrived at the base only to watch its windows, as well as those of the surrounding buildings, go dark, I wasn’t surprised. We had backup generators running on energy cells maintained by Adam and a couple of the Estreyans who had electrically-based Skills, and they would kick in for the essential building functions soon.

  What did surprise me were the news logos on the pods outside.

  “Why are they here?” I said aloud.

  My guard shook his head. “I do not know, but I will not allow any harm to come to you. If these humans present a threat, only say the word and I will kill them.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Reporters are a hassle, but they don’t deserve to be killed just because they’re nosy.”

  “If you change your mind…”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but cut off as a familiar Window popped up in front of my face. Another quest.

  INSPIRE AWE

  WHEN ENTERING THE LOBBY, USE THE EFFECT YOU PRACTICED WITH BIRCH TO CREATE THE ILLUSION YOU ARE COALESCING FROM FLOATING SPARKS OF LIGHT.

  COMPLETION REWARD: INCREASED REPUTATION WITH REPORTERS AND THE PUBLIC

  NON-COMPLETION PENALTY: MORE DIFFICULT INTERVIEW, INCREASED LIKELIHOOD OF PUBLIC CRITICISM

  I stared at the quest, reading it through a couple times. I sighed deeply.

  Instead of going through the glass doors of the front entrance, which were locked at night, I moved to the side of the building. My guard and I slipped in quietly, and I explained what I was about to do.

  He grinned eagerly and nodded, placing his fingers to his lips in the universal gesture for silence.

  I walked, barefoot and silent as always, to the door leading to the lobby. Inside, reporters with cameras shining like little spotlights talked to the refugees about the building’s loss of electricity, the living conditions, people’s opinions of my team and the Estreyans, and whatever else the public was interested in.

  I reached out with thin filaments of condensed Chaos from around the corner of the doorway, letting them heat the air and create a few sparks of floating light while I stayed hidden.

  At first, only a couple people noticed the bright sparks in the darkness. As I added more and more, letting them float around gently, my audience grew.

  The reporters turned their cameras in my direction, capturing the phenomenon with excitement and speculating it was some sort of superhuman power by one of the aliens who stayed in the building.

  I kept extending invisible threads and lighting their tips till the whole doorway shone like a blazing, multi-faceted fire. When I was sure no one would be able to see me through it, I stepped forward, let the motes draw toward me till they outlined my form, then shot them outwa
rd to reveal myself beneath.

  I stepped forward, letting a few threads stay lit, their tips following behind me like fireflies.

  People’s mouths dropped open with gasps or shrieks of surprise.

  “The power should be back on soon in all the essential areas,” I said. “It doesn’t take long for the backup energy cells to kick in, so don’t worry.” I turned to the reporters. “Are you here for an interview?”

  They tripped over themselves to get to me.

  Forum Page 3

  Welcome to the Earth Defense Force message boards.

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  You are viewing thread: “Interview with Eve Redding”

  ORIGINAL POSTER “COLLEGE BRONY” SAYS:

  This interview was broadcast live last night. Check it out here. A group of reporters went to Redding’s relief center just as one of the rolling blackouts I’m sure we’re all familiar with by now hit. They caught her…doing something that’s hard to explain. I’ll leave it to you to decide what you think happened, but personally I think she’s able to turn her body into light and vice-versa. What this means about the rules of physics, I don’t know.

  She asserts that she is indeed human, but due to a distant ancestor from a few thousand years ago…when the aliens supposedly visited primitive Earth, by the way, she was captured by that NIX organization that just did all the confessional press releases. They experimented on her and were able to give her alien superpowers, which she’s using for good, etc, etc.

  I was actually impressed by how effective her relief center is. I’ll admit, I was biased before. I only watched the interview to see her get torn a new one by the reporters, but after I heard what she had to say and saw the proof of what she’s doing for San Mateo, I changed my mind.