by L. M. Kerr
"Hmm? He was… hit with a blast of Elemental Lightning, while his Defensive Artifact was busy, and then stabbed through the head." He muttered.
"His killer really took no chances, huh. Shame." He sighed again,
"1,879, you were supposed to help me test Arcadia's defenses in a few weeks, not die randomly. Another failed Seed, I really should have left more in the First Layer or brought them all up…"
If Micheal had been there, he would've recognized the speaker.
It was a figure he knew very well. A figure that became infamous in the original timeline of the 7 Layers.
A man known as the Vile King.
Constantine Lancaster.
Micheal had inadvertently killed one of the many unwitting subordinates of the Vile King.
A man Micheal had vowed to kill.
If Micheal were to have overheard the Vile King compare himself to Xavier, he would've agreed that they were similar.
They were both insane.
The major difference between the two lay in that insanity, however. Xavier let his obsessions and compulsions control him, growing so powerful in part thanks to the magical Seed the Vile King had planted in him.
Constantine, on the other hand…
He was an actual genius, incredibly intelligent and driven. His planning and foresight were extraordinary, making him one of the most dangerous men in all of existence.
Xavier had been responsible for the deaths of thousands in the future.
The Vile King was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions in the future, all before vanishing, his whereabouts unknown by the time the Last Army formed.
Constantine sighed, rubbing his eyes. He stood up from his desk, still holding the cards in his hand as he turned to look out a window.
Before him, a world of magic unfolded. Instead of a regular skyline and horizon, he looked out upon dozens of floating islands, some connected by thin land bridges while others were carved off and alone, floating above a vast void of darkness.
The Third Layer. The Miracle World of Floating Islands.
Slowly, Constantine flicked a card from one finger to another, his eyes piercing into the rising darkness of the dying evening. He began to speak aloud to himself, in contemplation.
"Humanity is far too weak. If I leave them as they are, my entire species will be wiped out by the other Races…" He sighed deeply, his mouth twisting in genuine pain,
"One day, you all will thank me. I am not doing this for pride or for glory. I am doing this because I must. I am doing this for all of you, for the survival of our species." He shook his head,
"Well, 1,879, you may have perished, but you have helped find a new potential Seed. I'm almost at 10,000 Seeds now. Hmm…" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully,
"I'll leave for the Fourth soon… I should begin testing humanity, preparing them. The Second Layer is already prepared, but perhaps I should activate some of the strong Seeds in the First instead of bringing them up…" His eyes flashed,
"Without great suffering, humanity will never rise up."
.. .. .. .. .. ..
"…"
Back on the First Layer, Micheal had recovered from his shock.
'If that is the case… it all makes sense.' Micheal stared at the body of the killer, where the black wisp had vanished from.
'He was one of Constantine's slaves.' His eyes hardened,
'That was clearly a Seed Remnant.'
The Ability that the Vile King possessed was incredibly powerful.
It was a Limited Ability that he purchased when he arrived here, in the First Wave, for 825,000 Points. He was one of those that started with a massive Points total.
..
Empyrean Soul Root - 825,000 (1/1)
..
'If I recall, those Seeds worked just like upgrading one's Physique, increasing someone's talent and potential.' His eyes flashed,
'But they also linked your soul to that of Constantine himself. By doing so, your Abilities would grow stronger and you would become stronger faster, with your Soul stat boosted… but you also became an unwitting servant of his. While he couldn't force you to do anything, he could shape your thoughts, directing them, guiding them…' He frowned,
'Manipulating them.'
The Vile King's influence was spread far and wide.
'But I didn't think he did much of anything on the First Layer.' His frown deepened.
'The Great Disaster on the Second Layer was caused by him… but I don't recall hearing about anything on the First.'
He pushed the thoughts from his mind as he walked up to Xavier's body, ignoring the blood pooling out of it. He reached out with his right hand, jerking his Steelborn sword out. He winced slightly, a feeling of lightheadedness swarming over him.
His Recovery stat was well above that of a normal human's, but still nowhere near capable of healing an injury this bad. His entire left arm was essentially dead, almost completely numb. As he felt the wooziness, he reacted, his hand flicking off to the side.
A Life Orb appeared, flying out of his body for a scant second.
The orb shattered.
Instantly, his body magically restored itself, all of his injuries healing in an instant. The numb and aching pain from his left arm vanished as if it had never been.
Sophia looked on, unsurprised. After their week of combat and hunting together, Micheal had come to trust her enough to explain how they functioned. He'd explained it to her after they had come back from hunting one night, giving her a brief rundown.
Her reaction had been rather amusing.
"You can come back to life with those little orbs?!" She had eyed him askance as they talked, inside one of the open lounges in a random skyscraper.
"Yes." He'd nodded.
"Like… life, life. Like, you can die, but then come back." She seemed unconvinced.
"Yes, that is what I said." He shrugged.
"But what if you die of disease or like food poisoning. Does it still work?"
"I would assume so."
She had stared at him in disbelief for a moment before she recalled how Micheal had seemingly died and come back when fighting the Pirate Lord. Her eyes widened as that mystery was solved.
She then turned and glared at him for hiding that from her.
"So if I shoot you right now…" She said as she fingered a small handgun,
"You will die but then come back."
Micheal squinted at her, his eyes narrowed,
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Let's finish this discussion at a later date."
He shook the memory from his mind as he looked down silently at the corpse of the serial killer for a brief moment. He reached down and picked up the Nullification Aura Necklace. He then quickly searched the man's body, finding little else. He snagged the two blades that Xavier had wielded, White Steel Swords that cost 5,200 Points in the shop.
And then, before he did anything else, he instantly went to the Ability tabs on the Shop and picked out the Impact Release Ability.
..
Impact Release - 45,000 (2/20)
..
He immediately purchased it. The Points he had gained from killing Xavier had totaled enough, even with the Points he spent, to purchase it.
'Better safe than sorry. If I'm gonna buy it, there's no reason to not get it instantly.' He thought as he felt the Ability merge with his Status, knowledge entering his mind.
.
— - Status — -
Name: Micheal Care
Points: 1,782
Race: Human*
Physique: 1 Star
Age: 18
- Stats -
Strength - 40
Endurance - 28
Recovery - 26
Soul - 10
Abilities - (4/7)
Life Orb Master
Ki Cultivator (Mortal Tier - Middle)
Grandmaster Sword Mastery (1/5)
Impact Release
.
Instinctively, he could feel a certain awareness in his mind. The Impact Release Ability was one that he could activate at any time for a brief period. Any blows that hit his body in that time were magically recorded, an equal amount of energy stored in his soul, though the damage from those impacts remained unchanged.
He could sense that, with a single thought, he could unleash that stored energy in whatever manner he pleased.
'Huh.' He blinked, stretching his fingers.
'I'll test it later. Right now…' He looked at Sophia, giving her a thumbs up.
"He doesn't have a Spatial Ring or anything else noteworthy, but he's definitely dead. He won't be killing anyone else."
Sophia nodded as she looked back at him, her eyes moving underneath the mask she wore. After a short moment, she responded,
"What about them? We can't just leave them here! They'll die." She motioned at the unconscious team laying at her feet.
"Let's take 'em inside and toss them in one of the rooms. They'll wake up before anything dangerous happens in a little bit." He walked over to her. As he moved, he pulled at his clothes. The battle had ruined his shirt, though his pants were fine. He'd need to change once they went below.
"After that, we'll continue on our way. The Godfather Organization's HQ is about 30 minutes from here." He scooped up one of the unconscious figures, one of the heavier looking men. He then grabbed another one, carrying one on each shoulder.
Sophia clenched her fists as she heard that, giving him a nervous nod.
As he began to carry the unconscious men down, a seed of worry wormed its way into his heart.
'Constantine will know Xavier is dead, but I don't think he'll know or care who killed him, he's a minor character in the grand scheme of things. I didn't know he had any Seeds down here, I thought they were all concentrated on the 2nd Layer and higher… I need to spread word of the Golden Morenkai killing method as well as the Dragon Building Liquid quickly.'
The Vile King had his nickname for a reason, something he embraced. Countless disasters were caused by him, all in his insane mission to 'strengthen' humanity.
There were tens of thousands of Clusters. Not all of them were occupied. In fact, many of them weren't occupied at all. Despite that, each Cluster would spawn multiple Golden Morenkai a week.
If humanity could start harvesting these Morenkai on a mass scale… the average Points value per human would jump enormously. If this combined with the Dragon Building Liquid to get tons of fighters to a 1 Star Physique this early on… the potential the human race had would jump by a huge margin.
The warriors of humanity would have a much easier time resisting the disasters the Vile King unleashed, and might even benefit from them.
'The Golden Morenkai drain the electricity of a skyscraper, shutting down the nearby street lights. What's the best method to use for people to track this…' Micheal pondered the question in his mind as he entered the stairwell, moving down into the skyscraper.
He sighed,
'Maybe Shin will have figured something out.'
.
Chapter 58: Magic Swell
'Hehehe, I've figured literally nothing out.' Shin smiled as he looked over the edge of the lounge he was leaning on, aiming down the sight of a long rifle.
He had just purchased the weapon from the Shop for several thousand Points for the second time. It was a Winchester Model 70, a type of rifle designed for hunting large game back on Earth. It had a long, dark brown stock and extended about half a meter out in front of him for the full barrel.
He'd purchased a previous version of this weapon earlier in the week. It had become damaged and lost the day before, however, when Shin had been ambushed by a team of thieves. He'd managed to escape using his teleporting Ability, but had left the previous rifle behind.
'But that's okay. I don't need to understand these monsters to know how to take them down.' The thought flashed in his mind as he zeroed in on his target.
In the city streets below, dozens of Morenkai could be seen, shambling about ominously. At the slightest sign that a human was down there, the monsters would throw themselves forward in a mad craze for blood.
Shin was reminiscing about his own experience down there earlier this week, when he was hunting about for the Golden Morenkai.
'I've hunted quite a few of you now, however.' He smiled.
The past week had been quite eventful for him.
After killing the first Golden Morenkai, Shin had been delighted with himself. He had not only met Micheal's expectations, but met them and, he believed, exceeded them. He'd also finally remembered what Micheal had said about Golden Morenkai, how they leeched electricity off of buildings and could be quickly tracked if he teleported around again and again, sweeping the Cluster.
Armed with stronger weapons, he'd gone on a hunting spree. Using his Warping Phaser Ability, he was able to teleport about the Layer at a fast speed, scanning multiple large sections in a short period of time.
Including the first one he'd discovered, Shin had found 6 separate Golden Morenkai. He'd cleared out the entire Cluster, looking for even the slightest hint of one.
And he'd successfully managed to take out all six, scoring a huge number of Points.
As for right now…
Shin carefully aimed at one specific Morenkai down at the street level. One with a blue skin tone, an Abnormal of some sort.
He fired.
His rifle echoed as it shot off a bullet, sailing through the air to slam directly into the forehead of the shambling Morenkai. The impact flipped the Abnormal backwards and made it twirl, landing down hard on the ground.
Almost immediately, a swarm of Morenkai all turned to look at Shin. Their ominous, near simultaneous movements, were incredibly creepy to behold, the surreal unison they carried themselves with oddly unsettling.
"Hmph." Shin carefully reloaded the bolt-action rifle, keeping calm and collected. His movements were somewhat skilled, the constant practice of the past week showing its results.
The Morenkai began to rush at him. He was only about 5 stories up, well close to the ground floor. The lumbering forms of the unnatural creatures slammed into the side of the building and then began to scale it, throwing themselves upward with their superhuman strength.
Several of them rushed up only to fall back down. While they were all superhumanly powerful, most of them were quite clumsy. Climbing in a rush was not their strong suit.
"Careful…" Shin ignored this as he looked at the Abnormal he had shot.
It had stumbled down, the impact stunning it. While the bullet hadn't penetrated its head, the force was still very considerable. A blow to the head like that was not something even a Morenkai could fully ignore.
However, this Abnormal seemed to be taking it worse than even regular Morenkai would be. Instead of shrugging the attack off, it remained stunned, unmoving.
'I was right! It's an Abnormal with a weakness in the skull!'
As he saw this, he smiled. This was exactly what he wanted!
Without hesitating, he focused on the Abnormal that was just a couple dozen meters away, ignoring the thronging Morenkai that were rushing him. He took a deep breath…
And vanished, teleporting.
He found himself, an instant later, down on the street level. The nearby area was mostly clear of other Morenkai, at the moment, due to all of them rushing towards where Shin had been. This gave him a clear field as he ran over to where the downed Abnormal was.
"Sorry buddy, you'd do the same to me." He said out loud as he aimed his rifle precisely.
A second bullet blasted from the rifle, the recoil jerking back against him and his shoulder, almost making him fall over. He'd positioned himself carefully, managing to stay steady and absorb the impact. The smell of gunfire stung in the air as the bullet shot forward and slammed into the head of the downed Abnormal.
The body of the creature slid and splayed out on the ground, black blood fall
ing from it as it lay still.
..
—- Points Obtained —-
104
..
Shin smiled.
Behind him, the echoes of Morenkai feet on pavement rang out as the black-skinned creatures seemingly realized they'd been tricked and sprinted back towards him.
Shin didn't give them even a hope of catching him as he immediately ran away from the body and jumped up in the air, his eyes focusing on the skyscraper next to him.
He teleported away again.
"Ah." He muttered out loud as he fell down, finding himself inside a closed off room on the 4th floor of a building. The usual bed, desk, and connecting bathroom could be seen, all unoccupied.
In relatively quick succession, Shin teleported twice more, as fast as his Ability would allow. He quickly found himself on the 12th floor, well above the thronging Morenkai down below.
'Whew.' He took several deep breaths, smiling.
'I've finally got enough Points!' His eyes flashed as he opened his status.
.
— - Status — -
Name: Shin Hopefell
Points: 65,031
Race: Human
Age: 18
- Stats -
Strength - 18
Endurance -14
Recovery - 12
Soul - 12
Abilities - (2/7)
Warping Phaser
Ki Cultivator (Mortal Tier - Early)
.
'With 65,000 Points, I can finally afford the Ability Micheal wanted me to get!' He pulled the Ability up in the shop, checking it over.
..
Magic Swell - 65,000 (9/10)
..
'There's only 1 left… there were 2 left the last time I checked.' He frowned slightly as he saw this, thinking it over.
The Magic Swell Ability allowed one to temporarily increases the size of anything within a certain range for a short period of time. Micheal's original plan had been for Shin to become the same berserker warrior and use the Ability to enhance the size of his sword.
The unique magic of this Ability allowed the force applied to a smaller object to be multiplied when added to a bigger object. That meant if he swung a sword that was about the size of his arm, but applied the Ability and made the sword the size of his body, the sword would fly through the air at the same speed, but the impact would be much greater and stronger. The sword's weight, density, and other qualities would have increased by large margins.