The New World

-Althea-

I tapped my forehead, sweat forming over my brow. This was going to be a complete botch of a mission if I didn’t pull something together. Turns out I was wrong. Isa turned towards Lester as she pulled acid bombs from her dimensional storage,

“Burn the evidence. We can’t let anyone know we were here.”

I facepalmed at myself for going blank for a minute. Isa tossed everybody a few acid bombs, and we got to work. I made a claw on my finger before drawing a hole into the glass vial. With a few quick slings, I dispersed most of the acid over a few walls nearby. The others threw their bottles at patches of untouched runes, and as the border guards closed in, we managed to get rid of the evidence in time.

Now we needed to hide. Running out into one of the vast ravines of steel, we looked around for cubbies to crawl under. After the fight with the beetlecrab king, there were none. I ran forward towards a wall, cutting open a bit of steel paneling,

“Come on, everybody.”

I curved a finger to slice out a cylinder of solid stone, my ability to slice any matter coming in handy. Jerking the stone out, I dislocated a finger before kicking the clean, artificial-looking rock. It exploded, which was much better than leaving a perfectly made cylinder of stone out in the open. My foot didn’t thank me as stone pelted out into the distance, along with a popping echo.

We all squeezed into the new space, and I pulled the sliced paneling over us. Another quick cut later, and we all had a tiny slit to see from. We leaned forward, Lester having crammed Alexander into the enclosure with us. The teenager pressed against me while unconscious and Lester huffed,

“If only the boy was awake. He’d be having a better time than any dream he’s dreaming. I’ll tell you that much.”

I glared at him, “Just be glad he’s not.”

Isa laughed before Other Hod hissed, “Be silent, fools.”

We listened to him, and soon, the border patrol arrived. As they did, several remnants walked up in pseudo-Sentinal armor. They inspected the scene and bits of corpse remaining, one detective saying to another,

“I swear, who’d have guessed a beetlecrab would get this close to the wall.”

“I wouldn’t have, let me tell you. Usually, they stay out in the wastes where there’s more food in the open. The wall tends to scare them off. This one must’ve been attracted by something. Poachers, maybe?”

One of the armored remnants walked over towards the stone cylinder I cut out earlier. He squatted beside it, only a few feet away from us,

“You know what, I don’t think it was poachers at all. This isn’t a natural stone, see? It matches the other cuts we’ve seen lately. You know, the ones near old gateways.”

A sheen of cold sweat formed over my forehead as the others gave me stares. I shrugged, giving my best, ‘whoopsy’ kind of face. It didn’t work.

One of the detectives looked up, staring at the steel panel I placed back onto the wall. He narrowed his eyes, walking up to it. Umbral energy pooled into our pit as Other Hod brandished his claws in silence.

Before he lunged out, a colossal echo radiated across the landscape from above. This shockwave stripped steel on the surface, and it nearly lifted these detectives off the ground. As that booming stopped, the remnants turned to each other,

“It looks like we’re being attacked again. Come on, we have to head out.”

The perceptive detective gave one last look at our steel panel before they both left the crime scene. After a minute, I pushed the steel panel off, and we all took a deep breath of relief. That was close. Too close.

Turning to everyone, I waved my hands in nervousness, “Look, guys, I wasn’t trying to get us caught. I promise.”

They ignored me, everyone staring up. I waved my hands in front of Isa’s face, and she ignored me still. As a looming shadow passed over me, I looked up to the sky with them. My knees went weak. My breath seized in my chest. I gasped for air as my skin crawled at the entity brooding over us.

A Spatial Fortress loomed over the entire sky like a herald of the apocalypse.

I remembered seeing one from far away in the Nebula Drifter. It didn’t seem all that intimidating, and I thought Schema showed a meh effort against the rebels. Those thoughts up and died when faced with a Spatial Fortress in person. The moon-sized monster spanned from one horizon to the other, swallowing most of the sun. Its shadow created an ocean of darkness, this entire planet at its utter mercy.

It moved at paces I could never hope to match. The writhing of its many eyes and mouths seemed slow from far away. Up close, their behemothic size and gravitational pull left me unable to even move. Those eyes, they shifted across its form faster than tidal waves across planets. The mouths clamped shut with such force, wind bursts erupted over Gypsum’s surface. The weather of this planet warped under its might.

The atmospheric pressure dropped, and my ears popped several times as the air thinned. It pulled the air to it, and the fortress’s eyes stared at this planet with a hunger unending and infinite. It would rush across the surface of this world without an ounce of mercy. We would all become consumed by an endless wall of flesh, being crushed under its sheer mass.

Isa and Lester flopped down, each of them unable to stand. Hod and my knees wobbled as this abomination eyed all below it. Surrounding the figure, many of Schema’s ships arrived, covered in graphene plated armor. They commanded this force of nature, and they decided all of our lives. My stomach sank as the eldritch horror neared us.

We were all going to die. As our hope plummeted into an abyss, a ray of hope arrived. A blot of gold formed over the megastructure around us, and from it, halcyon claws tore the fabric of dimensions apart. The strongest gialgathen, a being told of in legends, walked onto this plane. As he arrived and roared out, a wave of relief poured over me.

I couldn’t believe I was thinking this, but thank Baldowah that Lehesion had arrived.

The golden beast unleashed havoc on the Spatial Fortress, the writhing planet squealing in terror. I covered my ears as those howls radiated across the ground, passing over us. The others protected their ears, but they were still left ringing. The sound alone was enough to make my arms and legs turn to jelly. Turning to the others, I started a choppy system chat that communicated via thought.

Althea Tolstoy(lvl 12,000 | Class: Breaker) – We need to head out. We can use one of the warps in the ensuing chaos.

I hit my legs a few times till they weren’t numb anymore. Everyone followed me as we ran towards the turbulent ring at the center of the planet. Isa and Lester swung on hooks, Hod warped via shadows, and I sprinted while carrying the unconscious Alexander. His arcane magic saved us, but that kind of casting came at a cost. Seeing other mages always reminded me of what an average one was like.

Despite his lacking mana reserves, Alexander did what we needed him to do. Tugging him along, we passed a war-torn portion of Gypsum. The fight in space was close enough that their impacts required going for cover often. The shockwaves stripped steel from the ground, more than strong enough to kill ordinary people. 𝒇𝗿𝙚ℯ𝑤ℯ𝑏𝒏𝑜ѵe𝙡.c𝐨ｍ

The existing superstructure held out, but the old remains didn’t. Other Hod pulled the group into a shadow dimension for a second or two each time a compressive wave passed over us. This stopped us from getting liquified. It would eventually tire Other Hod out, so we passed through to Gypsum’s core conflict – the ring. Above us, Lehesion and the Spatial Fortress demolished one another. They melted, burned, scorched, singed, radiated, crushed, smashed, and shattered each other.

As we passed into the current living space on Gypsum, the fight’s crashing booms became echoes. They sent chills up my spine as they dwarfed us from above. Coming into the continuous, long room via a sliced passage, we found complete and utter anarchy. Hybrids fought Schema’s forces on the ground, many remnants, espens, and other species duking it out. The current citizens hid where they could, but many of them raided the exposed stores and homes. These opportunists took full advantage of the situation, and it left me agitated. A deep disappointment in these people passed over me. Surrounded by all this, I turned to the others,

“I can’t believe they’re doing this. Can any of you-“

Isa and Lester shattered a warping shop’s window, going in and raiding many of the maps and supplies in the store. Like starving vultures, they stuffed the valuables into their storages, satchels, and packs until they were stuffed to the brim. I facepalmed, more disappointed in myself than them. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I still grumbled,

“Guys, please. Show some dignity.”

Their hands full of trinkets and charts, they jogged over. Isa snapped,

“Dignity is for the poor. I’d rather be shameless and rich.”

Lester grinned, “Now that’s something we can agree on.”

Other Hod appeared from a shadow nearby, slicing a Hybrid into three parts. He walked over to me, sliding past two fighting Sentinels,

“The warp is this way. Come.”

We ran with them, passing an absolute hellscape. Schema and Elysium brawled in this giant ring, and they left blood splatters, torn corpses, and valuable weapons everywhere. I took a classer’s set of daggers as I passed by, figuring we already sold our souls to evil. What could a little bit more wrongdoing hurt?

We killed groups of Hybrids as we passed, prying our way to the warp station. Hordes of citizens stood between us, and they clustered too densely for us to escape. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt regular people, so I left my cannon down. As I bit my lip, our chances for escape seemed slim.

Isa and Lester agreed with me, but our eldritch allies did not. Other Hod extended his claws, and Amara leaped into the group. They devoured people, Amara’s mouth opening wide and snapping like a shark’s maw. Her hair wrapped around people’s necks and strangled them, their eyes bulging out of their heads. She dragged the corpses to herself, indulging in a bloodbath that drenched the ground in sanguine red.

Other Hod stayed classier, only slicing people apart. I turned away, unable to watch anymore. As I gazed elsewhere, I found a group of mages warping in from other places. These remnants were guarded by Version 2.0’s and the armored guards that acted as border patrols. Even Blighted ones skulked around them, their defense of these mages airtight.

I slipped through the veil, walking up towards them. The sorcerers performed a ritual, one of the Hybrids carving a predetermined, runic inscription on the ground. It was in that weird language Daniel preferred using, and they all spoke in a tongue that Amara’s language decoder couldn’t understand.

Unreal amounts of mana flooded through this ceremony, the members glowing bright and bombarding their surroundings with radiation. Their blood boiled before they began a dance. Above them, Lehesion’s actions augmented. The glowing gialgathen sped up, becoming a superior version of his old self. He cast magic faster, moved quicker, and let out more power with each blow.

Unlike in their previous encounter, Lehesion swarmed the Spatial Fortress with all his might. He gashed and gnawed at the far more massive monster, pushing it away from us using a flood of blows. The gialgathen moved at a pace both unbelievable and unseen. He blurred in my vision, his body radiating with violent, palpable energies.

I raised my rifle, aiming at a mage’s head in front of me. Killing them would likely leave Lehesion at a disadvantage, and the fortress may kill our greatest enemy. Before firing, I lowered the barrel. I didn’t want to die here, along with everyone else on this planet. Even if they raided stores, not everyone here was an awful person. Most were just trying to get by, and that beast above would rush over the surface of Gypsum until nothing was left.

The metabolic processes in the Spatial Fortress’s gut would be so fast and torrid, it would create violent heat flows. Any sand and stone would be melted as its enormous body disintegrated the crust on this planet. It would flow deep under the surface, its everchanging form stripping this world bare of organic material. When it was finished, the world would be dead.

And only glassed desserts and igneous stone would remain.

I gawked at the cataclysmic display of scale and power above before a message ripped me out of my trance.

Isa Antoun(2,342) – Where are you? Amara and Other Hod handled their…business.

I sprinted back to the warping area, almost slipping on the gore as I did. Despite the absolutely menacing scenery, people still fought their way onto the warp with us. A group of mercenaries already took control of the station earlier and had punched in some coordinates. As they began warping, Isa, Lester, and Other Hod fought their way onto the platform.

Amara fiddled with a red status screen as I passed her. Nearing one of the mercenaries, I reached my hand through his chest. A few more punches later, and I left him littered with holes in his torso, his armor soft as styrofoam to me. Securing the platform, we looked outside, finding many Hybrids mopping the floor of the bloodied remains.

They cleaned the area until it shined, and more civilians ran in, unaware of what was about to happen to them. Before our eldritch friends killed them, Lester raised a hand,

“Wait a minute. I got an idea. Let them come up. We’ll use them as cover when we warp.”

I didn’t argue with him, not because I agreed with his idea but because I didn’t want any more people to die. They rushed onto the teleporter as it charged, having overheated from too many successive warps before. It cooled as ordinary people squeezed against us. Adding to the disarray, another earth-shattering seismic wave passed over us.

This shockwave dwarfed the others, a ripple passing over the planet. It destroyed the glass covering us, and the wind howled in from above. As it did, a colossal eye passed over us; the iris alone was large enough to swallow a mountain. From the eyelid, flows of flesh peeled down, flooding the area. The Spatial Fortress engulfed all in its path, everything consumed down to the atom.

It neared us, but Isa and Lester lobbed their napalm bombs, venom coils, and acid vials with abandon. Dozens of explosions passed onto the wall of meat coming our way, and somehow it stopped the incoming mass. I fired with my cannon in all directions, desperation overcoming me. Other Hod frothed from the mouth as he sliced with abandon. Amara typed as fast as she could, trying anything to get us out of here.

Nothing worked. The fortress was unstoppable.

The writhing mass of muscle filled the room, consuming the civilians here. Their screams echoed from beneath the surface of the fortress’s body. They wailed out in agony, and it was just as haunting as the Hybridization pits. I screamed as a tentacle scraped some of my skin off, the pain worse than acid and fire and death. It decayed everything it touched and replaced it with anguish.

We were pushed into the top of the warp, fighting off the mass. Right as it got within inches of us, another earthquake passed over the area. The Spatial Fortress retreated, and as it did, I thanked everything for Lehesion’s intervention. Flying up to inspect where they were fighting, I reached over the shattered windows.

It wasn’t Lehesion. It was the ring.

The superstructure awakened, and from it, hordes of nanomachines roared. The liquid metal poured over the spatial fortress, both beasts fighting each other in a slugfest beyond my understanding. They consumed the horizon, like a gray and red ocean fighting over dominion of the sky. Lehesion stayed above, launching plasmic lasers onto the fortress’s back.

Minutes passed, and eventually, the Spatial Fortress shrank in size. It retreated from the superstructure’s hordes of metal wasps, and Lehesion attacked Schema’s fleet as it retreated back where they came from. The warp came back online below me, many of the civilians around us left unconscious from shock and awe.

As Schema left, Lehesion flew over the superstructure and connected with all of our minds. In a noble but somewhat metallic voice, he echoed with triumph,

“And so, we once again tear down Schema’s Hordes. Long live Elysium.”

The civilians around us raised their hands in triumph, and I landed beside Amara. The large warp activated, and we teleported back to Earth. As the ionized spray of mist poured from Earth’s Elysium warp, Hod pulled our team into the darkness. Everyone but me, of course.

He hid in one of the alien’s shadows, everyone confused why the teleporter went off. The remnant guards tried keeping everyone contained, but a few ended up running around in a panic. Hod hitched a ride on one of those terrified aliens, eventually jumping into an alleyway. He pulled us out after making a few more shadow jumps. As he did, Other Hod dropped us onto the ground, and he passed out on the spot.

I turned to the others, finding two unconscious bodies. I picked up Other Hod and Alexander while whispering to the others,

“Let’s get out of here.”

With the warp’s ensuing pandemonium, we prowled out of the Adair’s encampment. Once on the outskirts of the wooden buildings, we found the outer gate. Guards watched the perimeter, keeping the area safe and sound. I peered at the others, and we didn’t have our mage or shadow magician to help us get out of here. We were already hours late, so the others would be worried sick.

I massaged my temples, struggling to come up with some kind of solution. Nothing came to mind before Isa leaned towards me,

“You can turn invisible, right?”

I shook my head, “No, I can’t. I go somewhere else. That’s the best way I can describe it.”

“Can you take us there until we get through?”

“I’ve tried, but I haven’t been able to walk across planes with anything alive.”

Isa pondered for a second before raising a hand, “What about this. You can shapeshift. How thin can you stretch yourself out?”

I looked up, “Uh, pretty thin, I guess.”

“Enough to cover us?”

My eyes widened, “Woah…Yeah, I could.”

Isa gestured to the others, “You could be like a cloaking blanket for us. It’s worth trying out.”

I grimaced, “Blegh, that’s going to be so uncomfortable.”

Lester shivered, “I know. Talk about disgusting.”

I raised my eyebrows at the guy, and he winced. Isa pointed between us, “Come on. Let’s try it out. Lester, you stay over there and see if she disguises us or just makes herself invisible over us.”

Lester frowned, “Oh, boy. I’m going to be sick.”

I frowned at him, “I’ll make you sick if you don’t shut it.”

He blinked, “Yes, mam.”

Lester walked over to the side, and I thinned myself until I draped over Isa. Lester gagged as I stepped over the veil. Once across, he raised a thumb,

“I can’t see or hear a thing. You guys are gone.”

I reappeared, and we got to work. Lester vomited to the side before burying his throw up. After the big baby got over himself, I covered Isa and Lester while they carried out the unconscious members. After running across the field with my body flopping along, we eventually crossed the border patrol. Once out into the trees, we were home free.

I pulled myself together, filling back into my jumpsuit. Even Isa winced at the sight, and a wave of embarrassment passed over me. Blegh, sometimes I hated my powers and my body. It was times like this that I wanted to be someone else. Anyone else, actually. But here I was, being the woman that shifted like some monster. It reminded me why I didn’t like missions outside of those with Hod.

People judged me, and I pretended it didn’t sting when it honestly hurt.

I pushed those feelings down, rushing forward. I didn’t have time for dwelling on those kinds of emotions, even if I wanted to. Our status reconnected, and I got a few messages from Schema. The A.I. actually recognized our efforts in the other world. It just took it a while to acknowledge us and reattach.

Before reading any of my notices, I sent a message to Daniel. He’d want to know we were safe, especially after arriving this late. Once that was finished, I hoisted our two sleeping beauties up and got us out of there using Daniel’s ring. As we traveled over the tree line, I searched through my status. It gave me a bunch of generic notices, but one message stuck out in particular.

Congratulations! You’ve been offered a class promotion. Though rare, a select few can obtain upgrades to their previous classes. Having shown your fervor, enthusiasm, and ingenuity countless times, Schema has offered you a tri-choice variant option for your Breaker Class. Please select one of the three options below.

– Enforcer | The Enforcer variant of Breakers is a class option that orients itself around widescale enforcement. Whether during riots or while one on one, the Enforcer is given skills and abilities that grant tremendous control of their situation. Considerable AOE crowd control, mind pressuring auras, and even mental suppression, all of those tools and more are at an Enforcer’s disposal.

This variability enables the enactment of Schema’s will on large populations, similar to an Overseer’s abilities. Unlike an Overseer, your restraints will be minimal, only requiring a certain amount of cases closed yearly. If you’re someone looking to uphold the law, the Enforcer is the right class variant for you. |

– Arbitrator | The Arbitrator is a class given to those with sound judgment that will be required given this class’s abilities. Think of the Arbitrator as a mixture of the Speaker and Breaker class abilities. You wield tremendous power over specific system protocols, such as punishment, bounty setting, and even exiling rulebreakers.

Make no mistake about this class’s orientation, however. The Arbitrator can succeed in administering its justice in the face of abject refusal. This class is given suppressive abilities, escape canceling powers, and warping tools. Choose the Arbitrator subclass if you want to be the judge, jury, and executioner. |

– Executioner | Think of the Executioner class as the fingers for the right hand of Schema. You see, Schema’s left hand is the merciful one. It offers peace and prosperity to those that follow his rules and laws. To those that wish to tread on Schema’s kindness, an Executioner’s calling awaits.

The Executioners act as the last line of defense for the worst of Schema’s bounties. Unlike other Breaker variants, this subclass rules in 1v1 combat, giving the Executioner a fearsome reputation. Its abilities are arcane mastery, a berserker form, and further augmented durability. Choose the Executioner subclass if you intend to handle the most dangerous bounties out there. |

Good luck with your selection process.

I stared at the wall of information, kind of overwhelmed. I tried breaking it down like Torix taught me, and I started parsing out different pieces about the subclasses. The Enforcer was a no go for me. My abilities thrived on stealth, dealing damage, and mobility. The Enforcer would suit someone like Daniel much better since he could afford to stay out in the open.

That left the Arbitrator and the Executioner subclasses. I wanted to go with the Arbitrator for several reasons. I enjoyed the sound of it, being someone who enacts justice in the face of evil. It sounded cheesy, but I didn’t care—that idea resonated with me. Being able to lock people down and teleport were extremely valuable as well. They would let me always get my final shot in, and that was powerful.

Further reinforcing that line of thought, the Executioner class was dreary by comparison. It was a class devoted to killing exclusively. I couldn’t go around solving problems or handling cases on the spot. Nope, I had to follow bounties and do what they told me. The abilities weren’t exactly synergistic either. I already dealt true damage to everything I touched, and the last thing I needed was a berserker form.

My kind of killing was based on finesse, and I needed precision and control. Otherwise, I’d be killed before I knew it. As my hand hovered over the Arbitrator class option, something in me roared out. Memories of the Spatial Fortress erupted in my mind like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. I shivered with a measure of violence, unable to keep myself composed.

I clicked the Executioner option, finalizing my decision. The Arbitrator would help me accomplish missions. On the other hand, the Executioner option would help me survive, and after today, that was priority number one. I didn’t want to be food for some monster, and if rampaging was required for that, then so be it. Finishing that up, my class screen popped up in my vision, and I gazed at the bonuses with a bit of glee.

This was more like it.

Congratulations once again! You’ve now attained a rare subclass variant of the Breaker class – the Executioner. Executioners are granted an arcane mythical skill – Antimatter Generation. This lets them produce stable quantities of antimatter that can give them explosive armaments. *Ample distance recommended from the intended target.*

Another upgrade received by the Executioner class is augmented durability. You’ll receive 3,000 points in both strength and endurance, as well as 100,000 points of health, 10,000 points of health regeneration, and a .5% upgrade to your damage resistance. Your level cap has been raised by 2,000 as well.

The final upgrade is a berserker form. Health, stamina, and mana are exchanged for super physiological amounts of power generation during this form. You will be granted enhanced reflexes, reasoning skills, magic output, physical strength, and speed during this mode. It cannot be maintained for long, and after ending, your body will suffer severe shock.

*This shock will not kill you. You will simply feel like you’re dying. Classer insurance does not cover medical bills associated with side effects following berserker form use, as stated in Schema’s Law Apendum: Adjunct-SC3902. For more information, contact a Speaker versed in law information.*

I gazed down at my status screen, surprised by that antimatter skill. Mythical, huh? If that wasn’t a legendary skill in disguise, then I didn’t know what was. Either way, I opened my status to spot what changed.

Althea Tolstoy(Level 12,000 | Class: Executioner | Guild: The Harbinger’s Legion | Titles: The Shapeless Arbiter, Yawm’s Inheritence, The Harbinger’s Hunter)

Strength – 66,389 | Constitution – 2,890 | Endurance – 5,907

Dexterity – 31,472 | Willpower – 3,139 | Intelligence – 2,002

Charisma – 5,192 | Luck – 1,204 | Perception – 26,264

Health: 2,109,285/2,109,285 | Health Regen: 15% of total health every 30 seconds + 20,000/min

Stamina: 347,970/347,970 | Stamina Regen: 7,928/sec

Mass: pounds(17,340) | Height: 7’01(2.16 meters)

Damage Res – 96.5% | Phys Damage Bonus – 2.1 Million% | Critical Damage Bonus – 165% | Damage Bonus: 65%

The Harbinger’s Hand – Follower Bonus: +2,500 Endurance, Willpower, and Constitution. +1,250 Intelligence, Strength, and Dexterity. -250 Charisma. +50,000 Health, Stamina, and Mana. +10,000 Health Regeneration. Close combat skills, gravitational magic, and aura powers are more easily learned.

Immaterial: Ignores rigidity of matter. Grants 100% armor penetration.

Etorhma’s Sorrow: Health regen continues for 30 seconds after death. If health is above zero after this 30-second window, you will revive with 50% of total maximum health.

As usual, my strength dwarfed almost every other stat by a large margin. My doubled strength paired wonderfully with my Expansive Strength tree, which gave me one health for every one percent physical damage bonus I received. Because of those facts, Strength would always be my core defensive and offensive stat.

Or so I thought. It wasn’t that cut and dry anymore, and I ran into some problems lately with my body’s durability. At this point, using even half of my strength resulted in grim injuries I needed to heal from. Unlike say Daniel, I wasn’t made of steel. I cut myself open with every severe strike, and fixing that would make me a much better brawler. The extra stats and damage resistance from my Executioner class were appreciated for that reason.

On top of that, the skill for antimatter would actually be helpful. The kind of attacks used by it either resulted in one of two options. Either the antimatter passed through a target, eliminating the atoms composing an enemy, or the attack resulted in a colossal explosion. If I could store some antimatter in my spears, they could pierce a set amount before exploding inside of an enemy. Considering the earlier message, I was guessing my idea was more than possible.

It would patch up my only real weakness offensively – an inability to handle regenerative targets. I frowned, remembering all my fights with Daniel. Fighting him was like being in a room where there was no exit, and the walls were closing in. Sure, I could move around and avoid the guy at first, but over time, he wore me down. When he closed in and got a hold of me, he’d crushed me to a pulp.

Yup, that was my boyfriend. Ruggedly handsome, but kind of scary.

Either way, antimatter bombs sounded like a suitable method of actually hurting the guy. Not that I wanted to, I just had this internal rivalry with him after all of our battles. Knowing I had a chance of winning, however slim, was all I really needed to feel satisfied. As is, I didn’t think I would even last a minute against him. I’d attack, he’d survive, and he’d crush me in a gravitational vortex. Not my cup of tea, let me tell you.

Anyway, this was a lovely bonus I hadn’t expected Schema to give me. Minutes of traveling later, the others awakened from their unconscious slumbers, so they could check out their statuses as well. They all carried smiles on their faces, each of them gaining around 1K-2K levels, which was a massive boost for those guys. I was happy for them.

We layed low in a ravine covered by branches, each of us messing with our statuses before Helios appeared from a portal. He walked out of his pristine, clear warp, and wind from Mt. Verner rushed in. A worried group of our guildsmen gazed at us, each of them showing concern mixed with a subtle disgust.

I blinked a few times, confused at what they were gawking at. Looking down, I found myself still unformed. I got so caught up by the status work and getting out of the Elysium camp that I ended up not reforming myself. A wave of shame ran up my spine and into my face. I looked down, unable to meet the gaze of my guild members.

They weren’t trying to make me feel like this. None of my guild members said anything rude or impolite. Well, besides Lester, but I don’t think he could help it. As for everybody else, there was this look they gave me, whether they meant to or not. It was something I was all too familiar with since I was a child. When anyone first saw my reformations, there was this…repulsion that oozed from them. I hated seeing their horror from seeing me. The real me.

As my emotions peaked, a familiar, muscular set of arms wrapped around me. They were firm yet gentle, and his armor bent around my skin, the steel somehow soft and welcoming. Daniel looked down at me, smiling from ear to ear as he hugged me tightly. With a cocky grin, he pulled me off my feet and met my eye. He whispered,

“Hey, beautiful. You look incredible.”

I hugged him back while my throat burned.

He might’ve been a big oaf, but sometimes, he knew just what to say.