Limitless

by John Gold

  I would never have thought myself capable of living through having the lower half of my body ripped away, losing all my limbs, and suffering serious burns on the rest of my body. Even my skull is cracked open. With my resistance! My brain and heart remain intact, but it’s the first time I’ve been this scared. Even healing myself takes some time. The debuffs from the injuries only go away when I cast a panacea.

  The problem is that the third phase of the dead sun is supposed to be an explosion that does 50 million damage. It could be that nobody thought there would be an idiot like me who would think to expand its area and strength ten times over. As a result, everything within two hundred and fifty meters was first heated to maximum temperature before taking 50 million damage. The stones sucked into the center shattered, and for ten seconds, I watch a small sun from the surface of glowing Venus. It isn’t just hot; the fires of Hell would be green with envy. Even from three hundred meters away, I can feel the power of the spell as the small sun buzzes and gives off waves of heat. After that, it explodes, tearing me into pieces. There’s five hundred meters of scorched earth flowing with melted rock, and one little shredded nutcase laughing at the falling boulders.

  Achievement received: Cockroach. First rank.

  Survive a spell that does 50 million total damage.

  Reward: +50 to all attributes

  …

  Achievement received: Cockroach. Eleventh rank.

  Survive a spell that does 550 million total damage.

  Reward: +550 to all attributes

  Achievement received: Sandman. First rank.

  Kill something 1000 levels higher than you and at a higher rank (local boss, raid boss, non-category) with one attack.

  Current count: 1

  Reward: +50 to all attributes

  I promise myself never again to conduct experiments without first fully thinking them through, although I soon have second thoughts when I see the message in the chat. I only used one stream of consciousness, and there are quite a few ancient monsters in the world.

  Femida asked me to send her information about Tanatos. Leon is prepared to pay for “any credible information” on what there is to be found here. Their relationship is built simultaneously on deception and knowledge of the truth: Leon definitely knows that Femida didn’t betray me, though he’s still okay with paying triple for anything she can “surreptitiously” wring out of me. When I send my next video message, should I send a thank you to our sponsors? I decide it’s probably better not to poke the dog.

  But the battle isn’t over. At least, Ablom is dead, and now it’s my turn to head over to his body. It’s smoking, white bones are peeking out in a few places, and the loot is still intact. My advanced perception tells me two things. First, something’s been watching me ever since I stepped into the now-molten gorge. And second, the smell of burnt flesh is nauseating.

  A blue portal opens over by the statues of the angel and the demon. Wait, what? I’ve checked multiple times, and portal magic doesn’t work. The representative of the office of heaven who steps out of it is fairly unusual, as well.

  Angel, Cerubiel, Level 9277, second grade

  He’s a strong guy, and he definitely looks the part. Three pairs of wings line his back, he’s wearing artifact armor covered in runes, and a spear with divine magic out the wazoo is in his hand. Judging by the vortex swirling around his lower half, I guess that he’s ready for battle. He hovers thirty meters above the ground and aims his spear at me. Oh, you idiot!

  “Human, you have brought great woe to the world since your arrival on Tanatos. You are not welcome on our lands.”

  “And why is that?”

  “The first requirement for travelers coming to Tanatos is that they must have reached Level 5000. That is the rule for the lands of the demons as well as the neutral lands of the ancients.”

  At best, that would mean losing eight months spent leveling-up. I would have to spend every day demolishing turtles and other bots.

  “Hey, angel! I just killed a creature 5000 levels stronger than me. You’ve been watching me since I set foot on Tanatos and you still think I’m not strong enough to walk your lands?”

  “Yes. You’re just a weakling who defeated an ancient being with your cunning. And your deception is strong enough to destroy three keepers of the world, but do you think I can’t see the line of your life force? You’re a parasite sucking the life out of the Tree! Your path does not lie on Tanatos.”

  “Understood. So, that pair of statues, or what’s left of them, is the border of your lands?” The angel nods. “What will happen if I cross that border?”

  “You will be an outlaw in the eyes of the celestials. All of our allies, be they warriors or simple angels coming down to the world, will attack you.”

  The angel talks like someone endowed with power and strength, unmoved so far by emotion.

  “So, you aren’t a simple angel?”

  “I am Cerubiel, the oldest of the twelve cherubs in the city of Nor, one of the twenty-seven heavenly cities. And who are you, foul human?”

  “Me? Oh, I’m nobody, and I don’t have a name. You’ve never heard of me, and there are hardly any people in the world who know me.”

  “Don’t lie to me! The impression left by the magic of death, dark rituals, and divine curses is only born by one wanderer. You’re Sagie, spiller of the river of blood in Ovidius. Do you know how many souls thirst after vengeance for your crimes?”

  “I’d love to know! Let’s see, around a hundred pirates who wanted to attack a trading ship? Or the monsters trying to eat me? Or, perhaps, you saved me when a bunch of men sacrificed me on an altar. How about when my family was killed in front of me? Where were you?”

  I’ve already figured out what’s going on. The winged beasts have heard of me somehow, even though I’ve never worked on a reputation with them, and we already hate each other. The angels don’t like the fact that the keepers of the world let me through, that I don’t have the requisite level, and that the color of my aura doesn’t fit their décor. What did you expect? But the angel has realized that I’m not really having a conversation with him any longer.

  “Enough. You are forbidden entry to our lands.”

  “I didn’t ask for your permission.”

  The angel tosses up his spear, and I can feel the wave of strength from a long way off. The tip glimmers silver.

  “In that case, I will punish you myself.”

  I’m at least three hundred meters from the crown of my tree. The angel definitely knew when and where to appear. His combat outfit, his buffs, his emotional state, and his weapon are all at the ready. He was planning on killing me regardless.

  My chimeric shield blunts the hit I take, leaving the angel’s weapon to bury itself in a cliff and release the charge pent up inside it. Interesting little toy!

  Two light blades appear in Cerubiel’s hands. They do long-term debuffs, burning holes in the mental body of their victims. I get the impression he wants to keep me from going any further by crippling me. That might work if I didn’t have panacea.

  The angel absorbs a hit from my force blade with his magic shield. A tiny magic space eddy appears right above his head, which tells me that his defense is linked to the astral source of his strength. Knocking through it will be like breaking a castle shield.

  “Idiot. Punisher! Maximum!”

  This time I just intensify the spell; there’s no point scaling it. Instead of the latter, I use all eleven of my streams of consciousness to spend a deluge of mana. My health bar hovers at 1%, as I spend everything on the attack. More than 100 million mana gone, just like that.

  I’m perfectly fine with dying so long as I take the bastard with me. Looking up, the angel sees the light blade appearing above him. My hair stands on end, my teeth ache, and my arms are covered in goosebumps. The clouds part, allowing the shining blade to illuminate everything around us. Plants dry up, sweat evaporates, messages start popping up in the chat about thermal damage an
d debuffs from being mentally burned, and all I can say is wow before the explosion.

  Fighting the Kraken taught me something: to reduce the damage you take from area spells, you need to lessen the surface area of the parts of your body that are exposed to them. Right before the hit, I crouch, tuck my knees up against my chest, and take cover behind my chimeric shield. Its charge should last for fourteen seconds of 50 million damage.

  Whereas I beat Ablom with a thermonuclear explosion five hundred meters away from where I was standing, I kill the angel with an atom bomb dropped from thirty meters above him. And I forgot what happens when Light Magic is highly concentrated. I’m thrown backward, flying across the stone plateau and the field around my tree. I tumble over the cliffs and eventually come to a stop half a kilometer out at sea. But I survived, damn it! My shield is barely intact, and I got another tick for sandman. Human – 1, angels – 0.

  Relationship with the angel race: -100000

  Current relationship: Hatred

  Mental mark received: Enemy of the angels

  All representatives of the race will attack you without warning, and also be careful of the peoples allied with them.

  Achievement received: Live ammunition. Third rank.

  Exceed your natural maximum speed by a factor of three.

  Reward: +150 to all attributes

  And thus begins my war on Tanatos. As soon as I pull myself out of the water, a couple angels try to kill me. Fools! I’m already under the crown of my tree, where killing me is almost impossible. My chimeric shield sucks up 200 million processed health, and a shower of dry leaves falls from the sky.

  The pair of angels turns out to be just the first of the group sent to destroy me, but I have a hard time killing even them. They have a minute-long bubble, a magic shield pulling from an astral source, and maximum spells using Light, Water, Air, and Mind Magic. They put up a fight normal people could only dream of. And when I realize what they’re really capable of, it hits me how lucky I was to take Cerubiel out with one strike. All he had to do was throw up a bubble, and I would’ve been toast.

  It’s not even worth mentioning minor details like 100% resistance to all forms of damage. The pair is enough to kill the entire Darin Empire in a week—everyone. They come at me with area stunning, debuffs that hit my mana regeneration, and areas with sharply reduced mobility. In those latter spots, the air gets so thick that Fire Magic burns out and disappears before ever reaching the target. Even my bone blade’s force strikes are blunted by the defensive barriers. The angels themselves use Light Magic to attack, the injuries my mental body takes each time doing more and more damage. My strength regeneration falls by 57% when I let a light blade blow slip by and kill one of the angels with a blow to the eye. The bone blade in my arm pops out at the last moment, not giving my opponent the least chance to react. And when he drops dead, his partner goes crazy, attacking me over and over without giving it the least thought. I catch his hits to my neck and back with my chimeric shield. But then, I break his knee, smack him in the eyes with an open palm, crush his windpipe, and hit his solar plexus. When he doubles over, I bring my bone blade down on the back of his head.

  I barely have time to loot the bodies of Ablom, Cerubiel, and the pair of angels when an entire squad of punishers led by an archangel comes at me.

  Angel, Carenius V, Level 9201, second grade

  It’s Carenius who shows me that a light hammer can be so strong it leaves nothing left of the target. His artifact hammer can cast the spell at any angle and with any level of strength, and the fact that he has ten floating familiars tells me that the spells the weapon casts have an effect imbedded in them. He takes 500 million durability off my chimeric shield and sends me flying the exact same way Cerubiel did. I even get a new rank. On the other hand, fighting in the water without the protection of my tree and an empty source in the astral turns out to be problematic. I’m up against eleven opponents with a mutilated mental body and no tricks left up my sleeve.

  You died and will respawn in 3 hours and 59 minutes…

  Logout

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  When I climb out of the capsule, I notice ten missed messages from Femida. She got the video, which means she’s going to be yelling at me or patting me on the back. Maybe, she has a bunch of questions. My neuronet switches on a voice channel and connects me with her.

  “Hey, you little idiot! What possibly made you think to attack a peaceful population?”

  “It’s good to hear you, too.”

  “Moron! After you killed the cherub, the entire world got a message about a fractured relationship. One angel down. Wait, why three?”

  “Check the third video…”

  “Idiot!” Femida falls silent. She needs time to calm down and make a good decision. “So, if you’re going to keep killing them, they’ll start hating all humans, and we won’t stand a chance against them. Stop it and give yourself up. Once you’re in their jail, you can work on rebuilding your relationship and…”

  “Enough! I have a quest to open an interworldly portal in the middle of Tanatos. The angels aren’t going to let me through. Sure, there are multiple ways to skin this cat, and most people would think my decision was a dumb one, but this war is much better for me than you think.”

  Femida is no fool, and she quickly realizes what I’m talking about.

  “An achievement?”

  “Yep. Though the requirements are brutal, and I’m the only one who can get it.”

  The girl on the other end of the line sighs heavily.

  “Do you have any idea what the angels are going to think about humans after your war with them? Or what they’re going to do to you? They’re a good 5000 levels higher than you!”

  “Oh, that’s another thing, check the last video I sent you. I die in it, so Leon will appreciate that. And we can make money off it!”

  “How?”

  “The angels showed me their true battle potential. Leon was right to be afraid of open war with Tanatos. They have artifact weapons, maximum spells, they make you fight on their turf, the fauna is aggressive, and so much more. Just one angel is worth an entire army.”

  Today, I’m able to convince Claude to take me swimming in the open sea. Galboa taught me that people don’t like begging or whining, so better tell them what’s in it for them if you want them to do something for you. I persuade him that swimming once in the ocean is much more effective and useful than swimming every day in the pool. He even lets me swim out to where the island I’ve seen lots of times over the past three years should be, but I don’t see it. I can feel it out there, but I can’t see it. Masking fields haven’t been invented in our world, not to mention fields big enough to hide an entire island, though my senses are all yelling at me that it’s somewhere nearby. It’s like the way you feel an energy generator: my hair is standing on end, my brain is tense, and my motor skills have deteriorated. I’m positive there’s a powerful source of energy nearby.

  Having found nothing, I swim all the way to shore with Claude whistling out a pace behind me. He likes our trip. We got to head out to sea, something everyone who lives in space can only dream of, and he also got me to swim five kilometers. Claude works the oars—motors are long-since prohibited; I head back under my own power. It’s unspoken punishment for missing two days of therapy.

  The war can wait. I really like the idea of a masking field for the ArtIn I’ve been developing in my free time. Even with my ability to use eleven streams of consciousness in the astral, the project seems somehow unattainable. The scale, the difficulty, describing and creating artificial intelligence, growing technological demands, and the search for an alternative way to house Ledge are all tricky. Yes, that’s what I decided to call it.

  “Ledge” is short for knowledge. It’s there to collect and process information, design steps we can take to hide where we’re transporting what we’re buying on the cargo side, create warehouse hangars to support production, develop countermeasures at a minimum c
ost level and with direct intervention, and look for operatives who can handle tasks that require an intermediary. Ledge is now also responsible for disguising our primary manufacturing complex, which is in the solar system’s outer asteroid belt. Neither I nor 99.9% of people have been there. Because the sunlight is too diffused, solar panels as well as inhabited space stations are pointless. Only lone miners head out on long-haul flights. For me, however, that’s perfect; the supply of different metals, minerals, and additives is practically untouched, and I already have two automated factories there mining and processing ore. The ship loaded with uranium and the nuclear generator will be showing up in a week. Once I get it there, it’ll be sufficient to handle my energy needs for the next few years.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Login

  I’m killed right at the respawn point. A group of angels ambush me under the cover of invisibility, noticing me before I see them. The death penalty doubles, and I’m switched to a random respawn point within 25 kilometers of where I died. But I only notice the bad news at my third attempt—the angels can track me via the mark on my mental body. The fourth time, I dive into the astral after dashing off in the middle of the battle and finding one of the many eddies in the magic space around the River of Life.