Limitless

by John Gold

  While I’m sitting in the astral, I wonder why it took me so long to realize that I could make a run for it. I died five times, after all. And why couldn’t I have avoided that fight with the archangel the same way? I have no idea why I didn’t look for normal magic space eddies. After the first attack, it was obvious that I wasn’t going to win, but I still let myself die four more times losing 40% of my experience.

  I jump out into some backwoods town in Katain, find an auction, and buy four new stationary mana storages. I have a feeling I’m going to be dying a lot.

  Next, I open a portal back to the astral and start rebuilding my source of strength there. The charge is half what it used to be now that I’ve died five times, though the supply of mana is still more than the ten best mages in the world could even dream of.

  Dying a few times in a row tells me the level and kind of strength my opponents wield. Mostly, they resemble mage swordsmen with nearly unlimited strength pulls and divine bubbles. They’re interesting to fight. They have an interesting style, and I’m intrigued by the tactics they use. It’s perfect.

  The basics of guerilla warfare were developed three hundred years ago. You strike in the back and then flee the field of battle. And the angels are more than enemies; they’re a valuable resource I can use to do some leveling-up. My sandman counter loves it when I take Carenius’ detachment out with an attack to the rear. I almost pull it off, though the archangel himself survives. The shock wave from his bubble sends me flying a good distance. The ten escorts die in the first few seconds; it takes true darkness to kill Carenius himself. I maxed out the spell just in case he threw up a magic shield. Unfortunately, I don’t even get any loot from his body, as the spell eats up absolutely everything in the area. Even the artifact hammer.

  Things get so bad that I’m stuck in the game for up to three days at a time. Claude gets back at me by making me swim six kilometers, and my diet is modified, as well. I’m getting more meat and potassium-rich food now. In the month since the war began, I’ve gained a kilogram, and the med capsule is telling me that I’m building muscle, I’m cutting fat, and my nervous system is being pushed as hard as it will go. The latter point is because I spend every hour I can in between the magic space teleport spells working on Ledge. Subjectively speaking, at least a month goes by for every three days in real life. My meditation skill is maxed out, though I didn’t get anything. Did I miss something? Being on Tanatos shouldn’t block hidden abilities or gifts.

  Over the four months I’ve spent fighting constantly, I’ve taken out a few thousand angels. They only have their amulets to protect them from surprise attacks, though primitive methods like that aren’t nearly enough to keep them safe from my strikes. Would a bulletproof vest keep a cockroach safe from a slipper? No, even if a titanium skeleton reinforced with tungsten carbide might. Battle follows battle, attack follows attack, and I’m able to push the front away from the River of Life to the flying angel cities. In that time, I’m killed thirty-six times, twenty by cherubs. They use unique blades, long-range spells, and equipment. Not only that, but they create 75-meter-wide areas where they can sense any spell, and they can also…teleport the blades of their swords. You’re sitting there waiting to ambush yet another celestial patrol when a tiny portal window opens right in front of you to reveal a sparkling blade. The angels figured out in the very first month that I can’t sense them more than around fifty meters away. Now, LJ is always on guard, responsible for defense. The chimeric shield that floats next to me is his second home.

  A long time ago, back when I was sleeping in the city of the dead’s drainage ditch under Kkhor, I learned how to leave LJ active and keeping an eye out while I sleep. My consciousness split into two parts. At this point, I can clearly recognize how part of me has divided off to guard my rest with the chimeric shield. It’s actually a little unsettling to realize how evil I am without LJ. I’m cruel in battle, I can be villainous, and there’s even some arrogance in there. That’s what Azami was able to see, and it’s gotten to the point where it’s starting to scare me, too. After that hits me, I stop leaving the astral without a completely charged shield. Nobody in the world can do a billion damage, and I recharge it whenever I can to make sure it doesn’t break. But I can’t not use it. It’s the only thing saving me from the blades of the cherubs.

  I’m now facing siege warfare. The heavenly city of Nor floats in the sky a couple kilometers up. Nobody has even thought about using a protective dome. There’s no such thing as flying magic—only levitation. And my advanced perception tells me that there are several lookout fortresses in the stone foundation of the island that will raise the alarm if I get close. That forces me to put off using a gravitational well, though it’s right then that the angels send an envoy. Only three of the twelve cherubs in the city have survived. One of them is standing right in front of me.

  Angel, Batanit, Level 9177, second grade

  The angel makes a point of throwing up his magic shield as he lands right in front of me. My magic vision tells me that his magic space eddy is linked to the island by a silver line. So, he’s replenished from the city source. In other words, he’s immortal.

  “Greetings, Sagie.”

  “Oh, hey, the angels have manners! Although, no, that’s not the right way to respond. Greetings, Batanit, the first intelligent angel I’ve come across!”

  He smiles, and I don’t like it. That’s the way people act when they feel like they have an advantage, and it’s the same way Carenius acted when I found the charred remains of my tree.

  “Do you think being immortal and as strong as you are means that you can kill as many of us as you want? That you’ll get away with it?”

  “Was I the one who started this? Did I hunt you first? Did I tell you that you couldn’t be on Taratos?”

  “Silence! You know nothing of honor! You stab in the back, in the darkness, and you even kill sleeping children.”

  “The first cherub I met called me a wood parasite. The first archangel I met burned my tree down, smiling at me as he did so. The first angel I met tried to cut off my head. And now, I see that you’re leeching off your city’s source. I don’t care what you have to say in response to that. This whole conversation is pointless. Do you have anything else? Or should we start the fight?”

  “You may be strong enough to match us in battle, but your girlfriend is nothing but a worm.”

  “What, did she sleep with an angel without noticing? She probably just thought your wings were a blanket.”

  “Oh, you’re all jokes, human. But right now, your Femida is being chopped up into pieces and healed. Soon, you’ll see the first amputated appendages raining down.”

  The angels were apparently able to find Femida, my only friend, and take her prisoner. But why hasn’t she written or called?

  “When did you all switch from helping your neighbor to kidnapping and torturing them? What happened to celestial nobility?”

  I get my first message from Femida, which means she was just taken today. Damn it, she has Isaac with her! He can’t come to Tanatos—he won’t be able to regenerate. They’ll kill him! Idiot! The guy will lose his character.

  “You started this war, so it’s up to you to finish it. Surrender and suffer the just punishment for your actions.” The first pieces of female limbs start falling from the sky, a few hitting the angel’s shield. “If you do, this won’t happen again.”

  When, the angel leaves, I reply to Femida’s barrage of messages in the chat.

  Hey, old girl, how you doing?

  Sans the cursing, her reply comes quickly.

  You owe me a million for getting me kidnapped. I’m really mad at you. Log out and expect company.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  That evening, Femida flies over to the resort and gives me my first slap. I’ve only ever gotten full-fledged punches.

  “You idiot! Didn’t I tell you there would be problems? Didn’t I tell you that everyone’s reputation would go south? Do you have any idea
how panicked Isaac is? He can’t restore himself! What the hell? He was indestructible!”

  “Nothing on Tanatos is indestructible.”

  Another slap.

  “Why is this the first I’m hearing of it? Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten us involved in? I’m getting ten curses a day, I’m getting cut into pieces, but they aren’t killing me. They set up a magic negator that blocks the chat so they can have their fun. Bastards! You know what kind of debuffs you get when your legs are cut off with a divine blade? Would you like me to tell you about the month-long injuries I’m going to be dealing with? Did you know that Isaac said nothing today for almost an hour? Do you realize how hard this is on him? He doesn’t feel pain in the game, but he’s terrified he’ll lose his character.”

  “He’s equally afraid that he’ll lose you. I’m sure he’s looking for a solution right now, so tell him all he needs to do is wait one more day. This will all be over by tomorrow.”

  Femida flies off after making me promise that I’ll take care of the problem within twenty-four hours. She thinks I’m going to surrender and get them to let her go, but that’s not what’s going to happen.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Login

  The seven-kilometer island is floating above me. I don’t see a single crystal supporting it, meaning that magic is what’s holding it up there. Interesting…very interesting. The spell must be stationary, supplied by some kind of creature. Non-living things can’t replenish mana, so whatever’s on the hovering island has to be living or semi-living.

  Ten minutes later, I’m sitting under a large tree. Its crown reaches a height of fifty meters in an hour. Twelve hours later, the lowest branches spread higher than all the surrounding cliffs and forests. Twenty-four hours later, I’m already falling asleep, but decide to try out what I have in mind. I may die or otherwise hurt myself, but it’s worth it. My hand slips inside my bone armor as if by chance. My gaze fixes on the walls of the floating city.

  “Rainbow sunset.”

  Seventeen rings of silvery fog appear right over the flying city, taking on shades ranging from black at the edges to white in the middle. The rest of the rings are all the colors of the rainbow formed into a single sphere. Seconds go by, the sphere expands, and cliffs, boulders, and enormous glaciers start to appear under the silver fog. The rainbow sunset creates a small planetoid that crashes through the protective dome and crushes the island. Thousands of tons of rock come crashing down from a height of two kilometers, and the island crumbles and tumbles as it falls upside down.

  There’s no explosion after the spell lands home. Instead, the island is simply buried and flattened by the planetoid. Nor, the city of angels, has ceased to exist.

  Level 4251 unlocked

  5 attribute points available for distribution

  …

  Level 4833 unlocked

  2910 attribute points available for distribution

  Achievement received: Sandman. Fortieth rank.

  …

  Achievement received: Sandman. Seventy-second rank.

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

  Current count: 5277

  Reward: +3600 to all attributes

  Whoa. Just like that, three and a half thousand angels died from a single spell. And there could have been more, just at a lower rank than mine. What a shame. Such a valuable resource wasted, but nothing too bad, like Cerubiel, the senior cherub in Nor, one of the twenty-seven celestial cities, said. And that means I still have plenty more leveling-up to do.

  Femida respawned eight hours later near Castle Airis; Isaac had some emergency repairs done and swore he wouldn’t go back to Tanatos unless I was there or some lunatic destroyed the entire race of angels. After making him swear he won’t tell Femida, I send him the last video, the one where the angel population dropped precipitously.

  Two weeks later, the war with the angels is over. They won’t be getting in my way, and they won’t be trying to get their revenge on other humans, though I’m still their enemy. Their decision makes sense, too as there are only sixteen celestial cities left. In total, I’ve killed more than fifteen thousand angels and destroyed eleven cities. The last six didn’t do much for me, however, as the populations evacuated as soon as the scouts in the surrounding areas told them I was there. My final skirmish with a radically minded angelic group gets me to the hundred and twenty-sixth rank of sandman as well as Level 7242.

  “Attribute window.”

  Name: Sagie

  Level: 7242

  Experience: 8029660/68315620 (226892060 to go until the next level)

  Race: Human (demigod)

  Class: Mage

  Basic attributes

  Strength: 13956

  Agility: 13956

  Stamina: 46431

  Intellect: 71750

  Available attribute points: 0

  Additional attributes

  Speed: 500

  Survivability: 10415

  Derivative attributes

  Physical damage: 6978 (strength/2, but no less than 1)

  Carrying capacity: 34890 kg (strength*10/4)

  Overall strength: 489310 (stamina*10+25000 from tattoos)

  Mana: 366983 (overall strength*0.75)

  Health: 122328 (overall strength*0.25)

  Health and mana restoration: 104150/minute (mana*2)

  Running speed: 184 km/h (1+speed/10)

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  I take a week away from the game after the war is won. Femida flies in to set me straight.

  “What are you lying around for? The war is over, everyone’s enjoying their amnesty, and you’re here moping around. Why haven’t you been logging into Project Chrysalis? Isaac sent you an iron bouquet of flowers, and you haven’t replied. Don’t screw with the kid’s head like that.”

  “You know very well it was just a thank you.” We’re sitting on the roof of the resort, the ocean surrounding us and the weather beautiful. “I just feel really bad about what I did. Sure, it’ll take me a lifetime to spend the money I get for the loot I collected from all the angels and monsters I killed. But while you were all leveling-up every day on the new monsters, I was killing women and children, the elderly, and everyone else looking to do no more than take out an enemy of their people. I didn’t spare anyone. After each battle, the emotions come back, and I feel regret and guilt. I didn’t go through the ruins of the cities; I’m afraid to see what I did.”

  “Then, why didn’t you surrender?”

  “I would never do that. No, I’m not worried by the guilt. It’s good, actually, since it tells me that I’m still human, that I still care about the lives of the people around me. No, I’m ashamed that I let myself be roped into a war. You think I was fighting all the angels? You’re wrong. Every city functions as its own city-state, with its own interests. When there’s a threat to all of them, they’re required to take up weapons together, but that means that my enemies weren’t the ones holding the weapons. They were the ones who wanted the war. A council of twelve cherubs manages every city, and the power they had corrupted them into sacrificing the interests of their people on the altar of their own ambitions and well-being. Did you know that their true mission is to bring knowledge to the wanderers who come to Tanatos? Aid where they can, hand out quests, give information, and help with local fights against other races—all of that. Guests on the continent get evaluated for their overall strength, meaning that they just need to be the equivalent of Level 5000, and not even necessarily at that level. Cerubiel, the first cherub I met, knew that better than anyone, but all he saw in me was a dark mage who could converse with the keepers of the world. I wasn’t a wanderer arriving alone on Tanatos. His fear of losing his social status, his unmet ambitions, his short-sightedness…the reason we fought was because we didn’t understand each other, didn’t try to see each other’s thoughts and goals. The war didn’t end because they surrendered; it ended because t
he angels elected a new council of cherubs.”

  Femida is the smartest woman I’ve ever met, and it’s only after what she says next that I start to recognize the fact.

  “You were a necessary evil.”

  She leaves without saying another word. And I don’t tell her that I never caught the angels trying to manipulate me with emotions. That means they were doing it, but keeping it hidden from me. I wasn’t an evil; I was selected and turned into one as part of a game being played on a completely different level.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Login

  War, war, war. That’s basically the description of my first year spent on Tanatos. As soon as I weakened the angels, a demon invasion began, and I was asked to make up for what I’d done by helping. The invaders are more of a threat because of their quality rather than their quantity. There are only about fifty superior demons, though they’re at the head of an entire army. And this may be a coincidence, but I meet them as I’m walking from south to north along the border of the angel lands, heading toward the center of the continent. That’s where our first clash takes place. A month later, the demons are weak enough for the angels to take over and force a truce. Then, I have to deal with giants backed by an army of homunculi. I fight them for a month, and they’re followed by draconids who are aggressive although ineffective against me.

  Basically, my arrival on Tanatos threw a wrench in the existing balance of power, bringing all the built-up animosity to the surface—the vanity of the cherubs, the greed for foreign lands felt by the descendants of the Inferno, the giants’ hypertrophic understanding of revenge, and the unique mind of the dragons. The latter don’t attack me, though they clearly see me as an enemy. They’re the first and most interesting representatives of the peoples of Tanatos.