Es – Eric! They’re swarming! There’s too many of them! The sky is black with locusts!

  Eric took a ragged breath, heart spiking with panic as he snarled and raced through the sky faster… faster… as fast as he fucking could. As fast as 60 Usain Bolts cracking Mach 2 as the shrieking air kissed his face no worse than the breeze he needed to suck great big gulps in as he glared at the crackling storm of lightning and thick white fog that did NOTHING to block his Unified Perception as he approached the border between wild ascending Black-Tier nightmare and New Arcadia, the glorious bastion of hope, freedom, and second chances that he had given so much of himself to forge.

  He thought he could keep ahead of the locusts picking off hot spots on the way to his primary target, knowing Bunbun was slowly but surely grinding away the swarm behind.

  He had been a fool not to realize just how catastrophic logarithmic progression would be.

  Maybe it was because of the wild nature of spicy magic in the air, the abominations below feeding on the territory’s very potential. Perhaps, if they had spawned anywhere else, they wouldn’t have a hundredth of their present numbers.

  Yet even with that bittersweet consolation, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the horror of seeing not just hundreds or thousands but an endless swarm of midnight black Bronze-tier locusts turning the skies dark with their abominable existence as he screamed his defiance and raced for ever higher altitude, determined to soar above them all.

  It was beyond his worst nightmares, Gaia itself sending a System message.

  - APOCALYPSE EVENT IN NEW ARCADIA! -

  - ALL CLASSERS WHO HELP TO AVERT APOCALYPSE WILL EARN HERO STATUS! -

  - ALL CLASSERS WHO HELP TO AVERT APOCALYPSE WILL EARN CONTENDER STATUS! -

  - ALL CLASSERS WHO HELP TO AVERT APOCALYPSE WILL EARN BRONZE TITLE ACCOLADES! -

  The world’s panic brought home like never before just how dire the situation had become as Eric glared down at the nightmare swarm below.

  If there was a tiny, microscopic sliver of hope… it was that somehow, by some miracle, Elonia was maintaining not one but three Doomtwisters that were slurping up countless locusts and shooting them in the air to soar right back into Black-Tier chaos before far too many of the bugs, dazed but not eliminated, simply turned around and tried to push through again.

  As to why they were all clustering at this specific local… Eric could sense it. The way a normally unbreachable barrier that should have held against monster incursion for years if not decades had been pierced by the same Malevolence as had spawned this horrid nightmare in the first place.

  Which meant that Elonia was suffering a shocking degree of pressure, like a knife blade pressed against fragile skin.

  Even now, he could sense his sister’s sobs, blood streaming down her cheeks as she began tapping into her very Soul Reserves to feed the Doomtwisters HUNGRY for sacrifice.

  Even her own.

  “Elonia!”

  “I have no choice Eric. I won’t flee this world, even if your master opens the gate to salvation herself!”

  Eric howled against the growing darkness and the mocking laughter of his sworn foe, half a galaxy away. Because of course he understood exactly how Elonia felt.

  No matter how many golden gates suddenly opened before him, he wasn’t fleeing his home until he had taken out every goddamned mocking foe that thought they could ravish and pillage what he had built with his own sweat, blood and tears.

  He would fight until his foes were no more, or he was dead on ravaged fields far, far below.

  Fields absolutely covered with hundreds of thousands of swarming locusts, desperate to break through his sister’s final defense.

  Fields he was now hurtling himself toward like a bullet even as he altered his angle to be sharply acute as he squeezed tight his ring and summoned forth over 8000 legions. Legions he did absolutely everything he could to summon linked together EXACTLY as he willed.

  A tightly packed sharp V-formation in 3-D space. Like a massive umbrella with Eric himself as the sharpened tip even as he pulled ahead at such shocking speed that when he slammed into the swarming cloud of locusts, the impact rang through the battlefield with the crack and boom of a supersonic explosion. For even if he had zero air resistance, his targets surely did not.

  You have CRITICALLY STRUCK 12 Foes for CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE with Mach II CHARGE!

  Your foes have EXPLODED ON IMPACT!

  Catastrophic damage YOU have suffered has been mitigated to 1 Medium Wound, thanks to Physical Resistance and synergistic use of Battletime and Charge!

  You have saved versus shoulder dislocation!

  You have saved versus concussion!

  Charge is now Rank 11!

  NOTE! YOUR ALLIES ENJOY A FRENZY BONUS OF 20%+11%+(20%*56xspeed of charging knight (MACH II) = 1151% Damage bonus? ABSURD!!!

  MODS HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF ANOMALOUS BOON!

  Conceptio is FASCINATED by how thoroughly you have warped the synergized set of skills that you yourself have forged!

  (Good thing you’re not playing any actual game! Earth may be in jeopardy, but no nerfing allowed HERE!)

  Meaningless words flashed across Eric’s inner eye, even as his world became the shock and boom of a concussive blast that a multiple synergistic skills, a Contenders boons, a monstrous Physical Resistance attribute, and yes, most definitely Dense Neurons, prevented him from being fatally damaged by.

  And somehow it all made sense when he heard the crack and boom magnified a thousand-fold, sensing that his charge had, somehow, transmuted to Deathmarch actually allowing his 8400 revenants to momentarily MATCH his speed at the moment of impact even as the shockwave generated sent half the massive cloud of locusts crashing to the ground, stunned, wings shattered, as his sarissophoroi OBLITERATED thousands of giant Bronze-Tier bugs that had become little more than a crimson mist, raining upon the ground.

  And there had been a price to pay for his revenants as well. The extreme force they had generated had hit them just as hard. Only their rune-reinforced 140+ level revenant shells kept them from suffering similar fates as their targets, though to be fair, Mark of Resilience had become shockingly strong with 32 Ranks in Runic lore, and even more importantly, 5 Ranks in the Essence of Dominion, now boosted with Impermeability.

  That, and his revenants had torn through what was effectively a cloud of swarming mantises while being tightly compressed in a tight hedgehog formation over 5 spears thick. Like a brick splashing into water at high velocity. Sure, a few flecks of stone had flicked off, revenants perishing even as their targets exploded like shrapnel bombs. But the great majority had pulled through.

  Eric allowed himself a single fierce smile as he took maximum advantage of his angled dive and pivoted to race above the fields below, running parallel to them without making contact with the earth itself. And over 8000 of his Revenants were able to handle the G-Force and Torque.

  The remainder struck the ground like supersonic missiles, obliterating themselves and over a thousand splattered revenants.

  Serge Centuria!” Eric screamed over the battlefield, his words echoing in the howling ether so alive with furious curses and Eric’s even more furious rebuttal.

  “Rise, Motherfuckers!”

  He flashed a fierce smile as a full 1,600 of the over 9,000 obliterated locusts reformed from the sea of swarming abominations to join their fellows as they raced up for the heavens at a far more sane 400 miles per hour.

  He wanted to howl with furious vindication as so much potency roared through his shuddering form.

  Ten thousand Bronze Tier abominations dead, Half-step or no. Immature cores or no. The power shuddered through his soul as his 2nd Tier Core Saturation reached an absolutely glorious and utterly unheard of 96%, so much killing energy then channeling into Master Necromancer and flashes of insight regarding the use of all those skills kissing the borders between life and death.

  Call to Battle successfully raises 1600 Additional Revenants! (1500 survive to race to your side in battle! The remaining hundred have valiantly slain 176 additional revenants with their gladii before being dismembered and consumed by your swarming foes!)

  You are now a Level 43 Master Necromancer!

  Spirit Mastery is now Level 37! (All head your Call To Battle!)

  Rituals of Summoning and Binding is now Rank 34! (No opposing spirit has ever bested you!)

  Flesh Sculptor is now Rank 31! (Your sarissophoroi are masterwork creations far beyond their base origins!)

  Eric howled with righteous fury, earlier dread having blossomed past utter horrified dismay to find that yes, things were even worse than he had feared. Yet at least he was HERE! At least he could FIGHT! And that was ALL that mattered.

  Even as his arm continued to throb, Eric only now sensing that there was a PRICE to be paid beyond surface numbers as he continued to push himself and his gifts to shocking new heights, he still reveled in sensing the increasingly agitated chalkboard scratching susurrations of his prey. Eyes glaring as his targets seemed to rush and spin about at dizzying speeds before Battletime slowed it to all once more, and he braced for impact once again as his world turned white with a shockwave that utterly obliterated he knew not how many locusts, only that he had torn through the densest heart of it, his nearly 10,000 revenants, soon reduced to a little over 9000, matching him for speed as the air, and a fair number of his sworn, erupted in another eardrum rupturing shockwave that would have been utterly devastating for anyone before Silver at ground Zero.

  And Eric WAS at the epicenter, protected only by perks, feats, monstrously high Physical and Neuronal resilience, and even he was feeling a bone-deep throb.

  But it didn’t matter, he decided as he erupted through a score of bursting revenants, his own wounds instantly healing as his skeleton ached, tasting so many of his enemy’s curses and retributive strikes in his twisted masterwork.

  NONE of that mattered.

  All that mattered was another shockingly potent wave of potency from another 10,000 fallen locusts as he roared the words to enlist another 1,600 into his ranks, as he continued to infuse his body and soul with so much power that a lesser Contender would have either ascended or exploded.

  As for himself? Gazing with growing dismay at the endless ocean of world-consuming death below… his own forces still just a paltry fraction of that terrifying number? The infusion of potency was exactly what he needed, his choice already a foregone conclusion.

  Necromancer is now Rank 44!

  You have chosen the perk: Undead Legion: Tier 7. (Up to 6,400 revenants may be risen after each battlefield victory!)

  NOTE Call to Battle now allows you to raise up to 3200 revenants after each sally, charge, or engagement!

  Willpower Check: Critical Success!

  Eric’s eyes bulged, thoughts racing even as he fought to race upwards, lashing out with his Bloodfire-enhanced blade to cleave the swarming bugs in twain, sucking in the sweet succulent potency and healing growing internal damage some twisted bane was preventing his Unified Restoration from fully repairing. Yet with his blade in hand, cursed wounds sealed nonetheless, thanks to Vampiric Drain along the Path of Blood. A path to power he had such a strong affinity for. A path to power that he would have claimed long before, had he not lit his soul with the fires of the Ascendant Phoenix by his mother’s side.

  “I should be raising twice what I have been. WHAT THE FUCK!?”

  With that revelation shouted aloud, he sensed a distant Bronze-Tier goblin’s scream as a curse, a bane, an impairment perfectly timed to hinder him when he MOST needed to be strong was ripped away, Eric getting only a flash of a blackened pentagram upon which innocent blood had been sacrificed and a goblin shaman, old and decrepit, screaming as he began to smoke and hiss and erupt in icy flame that froze him in eternal ice even as the shaman’s sanctuary erupted in cleansing fire.

  And Eric spared the vision of his dying foe no more thought than that as he howled with furious vindication, NOW fully cognizant of his power, the subtle fog of a rarely used enhancement, because when had he had time before this apocalyptic moment to put it into play? That cloying fog of forgetfulness had been burned away, Eric appreciating the added sense of potency now thrumming through his soul.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Lord of The Dead II Perk has been FULLY RECLAIMED!

  Retributive Backlash has OBLITERATED Bronze-Tier Curse-Master (Bloodtear Faction)

  Eric laughed aloud in furious vindication before his sister’s panicked cry shocked him back into terrified focus.

  “Help me!”

  “Elonia! What’s wrong!?”

  His desperate eyes wildly searched for the pair of Silver Globes he instinctively sensed his former Underlord had formed, having made sure to strike the locust swarms as far from them as was reasonable, to minimize the shockwave.

  Only now, it seemed that half the swarm was focused right on his sister’s sphere.

  Eric’s eyes lit with hot-blooded fury.

  “FUCK NO! Reinforce her bubble, Wyrmwood! We’re going in hot!” Eric roared, knowing his former creation and now future headmaster understood.

  He could feel his panicked, exhausted Underlord struggling to hold his force globes, only now realizing what a catastrophic strain trying to counter thousands reduced to less than a hundred locusts covered in Malice’s eternal spite that had still managed to pierce his silvery globes, causing his poor headmaster countless injuries it what would have been a catastrophic cascade of backlashes in anyone less than Silver.

  Eric’s eyes widened, realizing to his horror that he couldn’t hit the swarm with Mach II force.

  Yet even as he raced for his sister’s globe, he caught sight of an abomination hovering right over his sisters’ globe, radiating the killing aura of a half-step SILVER QUEEN!

  Filling the air with her cries of a challenge.

  “Come, Foolish brat! Bastard get that I should have choked the life out of, the moment you were born! Come and embrace your death!”

  Eric knew what his response HAD TO BE!

  Regardless of consequence.

  Now daring to race for the massive queen warded by protections that would have had Wyrmwood himself snarling with dismay, already filling the air with the twisted susurrations of DOZENS of Silver-tier spells ported in from Malice Bane himself.

  Eric howled his rebuttal, knowing that he dare not unleash Transcendent Abjuration with his sister only alive thanks to the force globe the creature perched upon, as the Monstrous Queen mantis’s features warped into a goblin’s twisted smile.

  A Queen that was, Eric sensed, better warded than any Silver yet to walk across Earth’s surface. Perhaps even his mother, before she had dared to ascend.

  Eric sensed that truth as well.

  Already knowing what he had to do, even as he sensed as well the bitter irony… the Terran Council somehow paying witness in their distant fortified bunkers with baited breath.

  There would be no hiding anything here and now.

  “I will kill you BOTH, you wretched—”

  PHOENIX STRIKE!

  Contest of skills in effect!

  15 Ranks of Fire, Ice, Wrath and Dominion TRUMP 10 Ranks of MALICE!

  You have OBLITERATED your foe!

  The air erupted in an explosion of shocking cold blazing like an inverted sun.

  The massive locust queen froze to absolute stillness under the weight of what were now 15 Ranks of essence infusing Eric’s Higher Order attack.

  Even with the furious power of Malificent Bane warding Eric’s foe, there could only be one outcome.

  The swarm of locust behind the queen that had been frozen to an inverted temperature far beyond the realm of physics were instantly obliterated as seven tons of icy shrapnel exploded from the epicenter of the perfect fiery incision of infinite heat… transcendent heat that had once destroyed a dozen corrupted worlds and saved an equal number of Sylvan strongholds in a night that had never happened… forging a past that now had always been.

  Yet not one bit of frozen shrapnel struck Eric, his revenants, or his sister’s globe, filled with fallen paladins and a swarm of locusts that had managed to slaughter every defender within, save for one.

  For ice knew its master.

  You have slain the pawn of your ultimate enemy and sire in MORTAL COMBAT!

  You wasted no time in bluster, where she could taunt you with the death of your twin before your very eyes. Instead,

  YOU STRUCK TO KILL!

  You have DARED your ULTIMATE ATTACK!

  Your foe was warded by Higher Order Protections!

  EVE APPROVES OF THIS BATTLE!

  You have earned one level as a cultivator.

  NOTE! TERRAN COUNCIL HAS WITNESSED YOUR HIGHER ORDER ATTACK!

  GAIA DECLARED APOCALYPSE WITNESSED!

  HIGHER ORDER ATTACKS ARE NOW IN PLAY!

  ALL IMMIGRATION QUOTAS HAVE BEEN LIFTED!

  ALL CONTENDERS AND CLASSERS ARE NOW WELCOME TO CLAIM EARTH’S BOUNTIES!

  Eric wanted to scream even as he sensed Malice’s bitter, agonized laughter, so many worlds away.

  Even when he lost, somehow that fucker still advanced his own pieces in his efforts to crush his foes.

  One way or another.

  FUCK!

  And there wasn’t time to protest or do anything but race forward AS FAST AS HE EVER HAD BEFORE! Understanding his ultimate master’s coded message in the System message that blitzed through his mind as fast as an entangled electron. He KNEW what it said before the message even pinged.

  “Eric! Help me!!”

  Elonia’s words clawed at his soul, but he was already popping into the silvery globe that opened for him without issue, locking gazes with his screaming sister, who lashing out with a simple fucking wand over the bodies of her fallen paladins as a half dozen abominations that had been holding back only for the pleasure of their sadistic and now very dead queen raced to skewer her and—

  PHOENIX STRIKE!

  YOU HAVE OBLITERATED 6 LOCUSTS!

  In that awful moment his sobbing sister locked eyes with him, trembling as she fell into his arms as the air rang with supersonic ice fragments that reflected back and lacerated all the locusts until they were crimson paste, but didn’t dare touch either child of Ice… just as Eric had known would be the case.

  And by some miracle, even in her extremis, he sensed that Elonia was still holding tight to her trio of Doomtwisters. All that was keeping the locusts from devouring the entire world.

  For now.

  “Eric!”

  “It’s okay. Come on. We’re getting out of here.”

  “But my men!”

  He took one look at the savagely dismembered paladins, some malicious force having carved normally indestructible mithril armor like it was simple blood-spattered rice paper, dismayed by the after-effects of the locust-queen’s enhanced frenzy, and gently kissed her brow.

  “They’re all dead. I’m sorry.”

  Elonia crumpled in his arms.

  Eric solemnly parted the globe, but only after making sure that he was completely surrounded by what were now over 10,000 revenants in a massive ten man deep spear phalanx, quickly heading for the second globe at sane speeds that would cause his sister no further strain than what she had already endured, even using plugs of his own blood to gently stopper her ears as the air hummed with the drones and supersonic screeches of a world-ending swarm.

  ***

  “I’m here.”

  Wyrmwood’s exhausted voice washed over him. “Thank fate, Eric. Please, bring her through. We’ll begin the retreat.”

  Eric sighed, gave his sister a gentle kiss on the cheek as he stepped inside, still cradling her in his arms.

  He took a single moment to take in the sight of the sixty foot diameter silver disk upon which the half-dome of force thrummed with the endless swarming claws of countless furious mantises, locking gazes with a score shell-shocked students covered in blood and gore and so many missing hands or feet and there poor Senren was, wild-eyed and screaming and missing both her arms and a foot… and there Jack was, flashing him the strangest smile, holding a wand and glowing with shocking revelations that Eric would have never expected of the redhead. Revelations that were probably worth his own missing foot.

  “Our savior. He’s here!”

  “Who is he?”

  “The queen’s champion! He must be!”

  “Wait, that’s Ernest Slaughter! I saw him on the Freetown live-feed! The Terran Council wants his head.”

  “The Terran Council can go fuck itself!”

  “Dreadlord,” the last murmured by a cool-eyed student, bowing his shockingly handsome sculpted features that Eric needed to hate on sight with a prince’s respect. Yet despite how his physique hugged his too tight silken attire, his body was that of a zero level aspirant and his eyes were those of a half-step Silver Contender.

  Eric wasted no time, making a beeline for Wyrmwood. He locked eyes with the ancient, powerful being, sensing so many terrible truths behind his headmaster’s tired gaze. Yet for his former Underlord, who was the reborn soul of an ancient Sylvan Archmage and so much more… he had only one question.

  “Can you hold?”

  The exhausted looking Silver gently nodded. “For a time. But my sphere weakens with each foul locust that penetrates.”

  Eric bowed his head. “Then I’ll make sure no locust bothers you from here on out. I hope you guys won’t mind if it gets a bit darker.”

  He smiled grimly as a pair of youths cried out when all light was abruptly cut out, before spinning around, sensing two very powerful presences behind him, the only reason why their sphere had held out so long when Elonia’s paladins in her own sphere had all been slaughtered. Of course, Malice had also used his queen bug to flood his pawns with a shocking burst of power, and thank goodness that foul thing had been unable to do so in both spheres at once.

  Eric bowed his head with a grim smile for the pair of heroes before him.

  “Richard. Yuki. You’re both looking stronger than ever. Fucking awesome.”

  The beautiful half Japanese girl gazed at him for long moments before chuckling discordantly.

  “I’ve ascended beyond all I could ever dream of or hope for. My attributes are fucking absurd, I’ve broken through to Bronze, and it’s been just enough for me and Richard to keep those fucking bugs in check!” Her voice was a hushed murmur. “I killed over a hundred of those Bronze-tier bugs. A fucking hundred Bronze-Tier abominations!” She choked back a sob. “And we came so close to dying and Richard saved my ass multiple times…”

  “As you saved mine,” the boy softly said, gently squeezing her hand as a good score of youths paid silent witness to the scene playing out before them.

  Yuki gulped, squeezing back her tears, flashing a fierce smile. “I’ll never be able to attend Mistridge. I know that. But if there’s even a chance we can survive this... Even a chance we can fight them off! I’ll be grateful all my days.”

  Eric nodded. “It will happen. I’ll do everything in my power to make it so.”

  Yuki gazed at him with hard, bitter eyes before shaking her had with a rueful chuckle. “Because you alone, out of everyone in the whole fucking world, actually has a chance of pulling it off.” She swallowed. “Of saving us.”

  Eric flashed a bitter smile. “You damn well better believe I will. Or I’ll die trying.” He took a shuddering breath, gazing back anxiously at his exhausted-looking sister. “All I know for sure is that you guys are going to look after my sister, and I’m going to go back out there and do whatever it takes. If I don’t make it…” He sighed. “The two thousand revenants now surrounding your globe will keep you alive long enough for my Underlord to take you to the rift that our shared master has opened before New Arcadia city.”

  Yuki’s eyes widened. Her cheeks flushed prettily. “So, you know.”

  Eric flashed a teasing smile, bowing his head over covered fist. “Kung fu brother greets his kung fu sister.”

  He then smirked, dipping his head a flustered Richard’s way. “Young Master. We expect great things from you!”

  “Don’t say that, I’m just like everyone else!” Richard weakly insisted, though absolutely no one was buying it, if the smirks he was getting were anything to go by. Eric spared a final glance at his weekly smiling sister. “Elonia.”

  “Go… Ernest. Go and be the hero we so desperately need you to be.”

  Eric laughed at that. “Damn right! And by the time I’m through, my army will be fucking legendary!” His smile hardened, eyes flashing with an icy heat that had near everyone inside blanching and looking away.

  But his ire wasn’t for them. “And you can tell the fucking Global Council that if they don’t limit their fucking decree to ONLY be in effect for so long as these locusts are a problem, then me and my boys will be coming for them PERSONALLY! And I no longer care if I miss the start of class. Or can never attend at all.” He flashed a bleak smile. “Should those assholes push me… I’ll just take over the fucking world and call it done.”

  “But only if you can save it!” Jack, of all people, shouted.

  Eric snapped his gaze a suddenly flustered Jack’s way, before solemnly bowing his head. “You have my word that I will, Jack. Even if it costs me everything.” With those words uttered, he turned around and stepped back through the globe, leaving the shaken students to gaze with awe and dismay at the queen in their presence that the Paladins immediately saluted, tears in their eyes for their brethren lost.

  “My queen! Forgive those of us who have fallen!”

  A still wan Elonia slowly shook her head, looking so regal despite the tears of blood leaking from her eyes. “No need. I am here. We are safe, at least for the moment,” she said, the crash and din of the titanic battle renewed outside muted thanks to the two thousand vigilant revenants pointing their arsenal of sarissa like two thousand quills, ready to spear and lance anything and everything that dared to attack.

  Yuki felt her cheeks flush at the measuring looks so many were now giving her, before feeling Richard’s arms wrap around her. She closed her eyes, taking a surprising degree of comfort she wouldn’t have expected from his touch, just an hour ago.

  “We’re going to be okay,” he whispered.

  “Fat chance,” she whispered back, though her snark was eased by a desperate smile.

  Richard sighed. “It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?”

  Yuki frowned, turning around to face him, doing her best to ignore everyone looking their way. “What does?”

  “Er… Ernest. Why he’s so strong. Why I feel such a close connection to him. And to you.”

  Yuki smirked, combing a loose lock of gore-spattered hair behind Richard’s ear. “Careful, hero. We’re in mixed company.”

  He smiled, dipping his head in acknowledgment. “Our kung fu brother will do his part. We just need to be ready to do ours.”

  Yuki nodded and took a shuddering breath even as the air screeched and shook with another sonic boom.

  No matter how unlikely that absurd boy who Yuki was increasingly certain was another boy in disguise might be… he was just one gifted Contender facing down a world-ending event.

  Against what might be a million fucking bugs… how long would it be before the Founder of New Arcadia, its ultimate champion in their final hour, fell?

  She swallowed her growing fears before turning to face her wan-faced queen. Elonia, so vibrant and full of life just hours ago, now looked a half-step away from death with bloodshot eyes, coughing in a silken cloth that had way to many drops of blood, and Yuki was frightfully certain that Elonia was burning the wick of her very life-force keeping those Doomtwisters doing whatever the hell they were doing to keep the bugs in check.

  She could only pray that it would be enough.