Rowan started the car, roaring the engine. “This is considered easy in rally driving, so no panic, yeah?” he warned the others.

  Pushing the gas pedal to the floor, he dashed forward, gaining speed. Isla started screaming, Cora ululated in excitement, and Bree tried to draw breath, surprised by the speed. The road had a few curves, and in that kind of driving, Rowan had to turn the wheel in what appeared to be the wrong direction. However, at a hundred miles per hour, it was that or crash.

  The last sixty yards of the roads were a straight descending line. A second before hitting the barrier, Rowan activated Joint Trip: Warp and shot forward in the air for two more long seconds.

  “Go!”

  He had to push Isla out forcefully because she was still screaming in fear, and then he jumped as well. His team and the car appeared in the real world, the vehicle crashing in the farthest Rezz truck. Fighting and explosions ensued. He looked around, trying to identify who the important people were and where the bodyguards converged.

  There was a stack of twenty-inch-long rebar pieces in his spatial inventory, and Rowan pulled them off one by one, pushing them into people’s bodies. As soon as he took his hand off them, the metal bars became real, appearing inside chests or heads. It was chaos. Opened mouths were screaming: shooter, shooter, thinking someone was projecting those bars from a sniper position. Everybody looked up.

  Ten out of the twelve leaders were now dead, with fifteen seconds to go. Good enough. It was time to check the other objective. Running toward the tanks, he took in the situation. The trailer in which the Hummer had crashed was done, three tanks completely broken, and a fourth cracked, leaking a milky substance. There were bullet holes all over the tanks carried by a second truck, spraying liquid. On a third truck, the roles he had asked for were reversed. In a blind fury, Bree hit the recipients with a war axe while Isla protected her, armed with a shield and sword. One tank was shattered, and another started to crack.

  The last truck was intact. About twenty Classed Warriors and normal military tried to move it away, but the driver was going slow because of the snow and the chaos. Rowan ran and jumped up, moving in the air, extracting grenades, and pushing them into the tanks. The pins had been taken off before he had stored them in his spatial inventory to have them ready.

  A backflip, and he arrived near Isla and Bree in time to put three more rebars in people before the timer expired. Getting back into the real world hit him hard. There was a bright, cold light from the blizzard and noise from the grenades exploding in a row. Rowan flourished his spear thrice, clearing the terrain around him, but the enemies kept coming. The second tank had split open, pouring its liquid, stinking of rotten milk, over them, and Bree moved to the third.

  Where the heck is Cora?

  There was no time for messages. Plunging the tip of the spear to the ground, Rowan activated Gravity and Cold. Enemies become slower and heavier, the normal ones falling, and he projected the debris lying around at them with his enhanced Telekinesis.

  Fortunately, being in the middle of the enemies prevented the mechas or the enemy snipers from firing. It was impossible to do without hitting friendly targets. Yet some Classed persisted in engaging in melee, surrounding him, or going after Bree and Isla. The Ranger continued to give two more hits to the third recipient, cracking it, then fell on her knees. Isla tried to hit the fourth tank herself but without any result. All three were stabbed with various weapons, and Rowan realized he was faring poorly against too many opponents.

  I need a better AoE.

  You have taken Lethal Damage. Delayed Truth activated. You have 0% HP.

  Team member Bree has activated Ultimate Strength.

  Rowan took a Health Potion and cast Combat Heal. He knew a few more HP and seconds would not save him, but any enemy he took out was one threat less to the County. Anger overtook him, and it was of the cold type. Killing was an ice cream, and it tasted good. He took his knife out and pushed himself forward, ignoring hits, soaking them to get closer to people and kill. One soldier. Another. A third. A fourth.

  He grabbed an Awakened, stabbing the man’s guts with rage, holding himself up by pure will. He was covered in blood, his and theirs. A roar, wild and deep, made him turn his head. Grabbing the underbelly of the truck, Bree pushed up, her veins and eyes bulging, her body doubling in size. The trailer moved too slowly, inch by inch, and it looked like a failed attempt, but when the woman’s skill ended and she returned to normal, falling on all fours, the last tank continued its trajectory, tumbling and breaking.

  There was a groan of joy in Rowan’s throat, exiting through gurgles as his lungs filled with blood. He slit another soldier's throat, finally plunging his blade into the next soldier’s groin as he fell to his knees. He was not dead, though, as his subconsciousness activated another Combat Heal at the last moment.

  “Leave my mom alone!”

  Instead of obeying the orders, Thomas came to help, attracting the enemy's attention and absorbing the hits. It was a noble gesture, even if futile. They were going to die anyway. That was what Rowan thought before a descending angel of light approached at an incredible speed.

  I’m hallucinating…

  Mechanical hands extended and grabbed them, and they were snatched up like rag dolls. There were more explosions behind, a flurry of short-range missiles shooting backward in a fan, but what counted was the message.

  Team member Cora is applying Tech Healing Aura to you.

  They landed on the grass in the warm autumn weather of the County. It was the normal moment in which a novel would say something about darkness taking him, but Rowan forced himself up, throwing Combat Heals in the two women and himself and taking a potion over that, ignoring the danger of sickness.

  “Where the hell have you been?” he yelled at Cora.

  “Busy saving your skin!” she shouted back. “The army intended to nuke you, never mind their allies. I had to go east, hack their electronics, disable the nuke, and shoot down a dozen helicopters and five jets. I also disabled the shields with Mana EMP missiles. You should thank me.”

  “Then thank you,” Rowan screamed as Grace rushed to hug him, along with Carla and many unknown Italian soldiers. Italians were huggy by nature, he came to realize.

  “Err… Carla? Why are your folks here? You were supposed to do sorties of your own?”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Che cazzo are you talking about?” the Italian blurted. “It was like bam bam bam fuck fuck boom, and you were back. We didn’t understand a thing.”

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: That expression can be loosely translated as ‘What the fuck’. Your outside sortie lasted about a minute and a half, and much of your achievements were covered in the fog of war and the smoke of explosions.

  “Whatever.”

  All was for the best. They had survived and were free to assess the situation and fight on. Freeing himself from the group hug, Rowan approached the border, stopping fifty feet from it. The blizzard had intensified on the other side, but more troops had appeared, guarding the Engineers. His Strategic Sixth Sense began to pick up signs of disarray. Many of the Classed looked like the typical gamer nerd, afraid to die for real. The military looked grim. People who knew they would die but were still willing to give it all.

  [Rowan to Town Core]: Can you project a live streaming outside, image and sound?

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: Affirmative. I’ll use the forcefield as a screen.

  [Rowan to Town Core]: Excellent. At my signal, enhance our voices and live stream us.

  “Sweetheart, come here, please,” he yelled.

  “Why?” Grace retorted. She was busy whispering something in Isla’s ear.

  “Because I need you.”

  “It better be important,” she growled, approaching him. “I was trying to convince Isla to have a go at another dream.”

  “Oops,” he sighed. “Hope she… Never mind. We’re going to sing together. Baby is Cold Outside. You’ll start.”

  “What?”

  Explaining things would have taken too much. “I’m your commander-in-chief, and this is an order. We’ll sing Baby is Cold Outside.”

  [Rowan to Town Core]: Be ready.

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: I will add a backing track. Calculating the best pitch for both of you. It’s a C. Two measures free. And one two three four…

  The music started to play and repeated the queue because Grace missed the entry, still stunned. Rowan had to shake her arm.

  “I… really can’t s-stay,” she began, hesitating.

  “But baby, it’s cold outside,” Rowan sang, taking her hand. It was more of a bleat, but he hit half the right notes.

  “I’ve got to go away,” Grace’s voice gained some power. Behind them, there was a rumor, people discussing what was happening.

  “Stay put. Rowan knows what he’s doing,” Isla’s voice reached Rowan’s ears as he sang the next line, a repetition of the first. Her words meant that some people thought he was going mad.

  He wrapped his hands around Grace’s waist, and they began dancing. Outside, everyone had stopped, looking in front of them, hypnotized. In the next verse, Rowan stopped singing, facing the audience, swaying on the music alongside Grace.

  [Rowan to Town Core]: Open a gate in the forcefield, as big as the road, just in front of us.

  The portal appeared a few seconds before the catchphrase.

  “But baby, it’s called outside,” he bellowed with wide eyes and a sinister grin, beckoning.

  The barrier that stopped the enemies, the one they worked all morning to overcome, had vanished. Nothing stood in their path but a singing couple, yet the besiegers trembled in fear.

  “But baby, it’s cold outside,” Rowan sang louder, beckoning harder. He had intended to project the image of a psychopath killer, and soon, it was evident he had succeeded. The first to fly were the nerds, the Engineers, then panic propagated like fire in a stack of hey.

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: You can stop. I’m repeating your first verses in a loop.

  [Rowan to Town Core]: Good backing, Core. Wonderful sound.

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: Thank you.

  All of a sudden, Rowan couldn’t move a muscle, not even breathe. Any sound or movement ceased. Snowflake stood still in the air; the outsiders had stopped running, and there was absolute silence, except for a voice in their minds.

  The first pitched battle between Mana Awakened armies has taken place. I, The Warlord, will judge the outcome. Count Rowan Allinder is the victor. I’m grading his performance a ninety out of a hundred: Outstanding. The Neek Collective and the US government are the losers. I grade their performance at twenty-five out of a hundred. Shameful.

  Winners, here are your rewards:

  Count Allinder is granted a Divine Gift and a Divine Blessing.

  Direct participants in the battle receive ten free APs.

  Indirect participants receive three free APs.

  Losers, here are your punishments:

  The punishment is death.

  All the Classed present on the battlefield will have their class stripped and be locked off the System. Their stats will be reverted to the level they had the day of their awakening. They won’t retain any perks or skills. Any healing received today will be unhealed and deduced from their new stats.

  The Warlord wishes you a good life because life is a battle.

  The world returned to the previous appearance a second later.

  “Who the heck is that?” Rowan yelled.

  “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” Cora screamed, pumping her fist up.

  “He’s good news?” Rowan asked.

  “No!” she continued yelling. “He was the only prisoner in the other breached dungeon. The most dangerous criminal in the Galaxy.”

  "Why are you so happy about it?” Isla asked.

  “The geas is off! I can talk about him. Before, each time I thought about him, there was a cloud in my mind, and I coughed like I had a furball in my throat. Grace and I dealt with him before.”

  “Oh, my God!” Grace yelped, slamming her right palm over her mouth. “He’s that shadow! Every time I remembered him, something made me forget.”

  “What’s going on?” Rowan asked.

  “We’ll talk in private,” Grace whispered, looking furtively around. Cora nodded.

  Rowan considered it better to let the subject sit for the moment. “So, he’s bad news?”

  Cora grimaced. “Yeah… The legends say he was part of a team of heroes, but he betrayed them and became a Demon Lord. In the end, he was imprisoned in a dungeon.”

  “What the fuck, Cora! You had a god in your prison?” Rowan yelled.

  “More like a demi-god,” she yelled back. “And I had nothing to do with it. It was my parents. And how was I supposed to tell you? He messed with my mind.”

  “Look!” Grace shouted, pointing outside.

  People were collapsing and dying. There had been a lot of damage thrown around. With the heals canceled, the injuries were reappearing. Bullets, explosions, toxic clouds, one could pick a lot of reasons. As soon as someone died, crows covered the body, and it disappeared in seconds. There were screams for help, people too weak now to resist the cold or to heal their wounds.

  “Core, play a message in a loop. Whoever wants to surrender will be allowed to come inside. Tell them to throw their weapons and not to do anything stupid. Open a way in for them. Carla, put your people to triage and organize them.”

  As soon as the announcement was made, there was a rush. Haggard persons with wide, terrorized eyes, rushing to safety.

  “Please, my boyfriend is caught in a machine!” a girl yelled.

  “Show me the way.” Rowan ran out, followed by Cora, with her suit activated. The Gundam’s door was frozen stuck, the robot inactive, and there were some faint noises inside, somebody struggling to push the door open.

  “Cora, can you open it?” Rowan blurted after failing to open the hatch.

  Instead of working on the door, Cora took the Gundam in her arms and flew back inside their territory despite the machine being twice as large as her. A minute later, a boy looking barely eighteen was hugging her knees and kissing her hand in gratitude, while the girlfriend who had called for help was staring daggers at the Nekojin, jealous.

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: If I may offer a suggestion… Now that the enemy is defeated, why don’t you delegate things and go home? You can have your next bicycle riding lesson with Lizzie before sunset.

  [Rowan to Core]: Excellent suggestion, Core. You know what? You did a good job here. Why don’t you coordinate with Carla and take care of the rest?

  [Randolph County AI Assistant]: Thank you, Sir. I won’t disappoint you.

  An hour later, when they got home, Dmitri had just finished reading the latest information on the Internet and shared the news with them. Portals had opened in DC, and hordes of monsters poured over the White House, Congress, and various institutions Rowan didn’t even know about. The President and thousands of people from the military and government have been killed in minutes, and their heads displayed on pikes. The CIA had destroyed the FBI headquarters with a tactical nuke, and the FBI did the same to the Pentagon, which had destroyed Langley. Nineteen states had declared independence, and California invaded Oregon.