Chapter 614: Defending the holy city
“Uh, Mason.” Becky swallowed in a very different way than earlier that morning. “You seein’ this?”
Mason clenched his teeth, the feeling of being overwhelmed by chaos and variables roaring right back. Jeong was still terrorizing these people from the fucking grave. And the day had been going so well.
“Get back to the others,” he ordered. “Spread out through the city. Protect the civilians and put down anything undead. Go!”
He turned and ran as fast as his inhuman speed could carry him, racing past Becky and then a cringing Haley and Rahman, bouncing off walls with cracking stone or broken plaster without slowing. He pulled up his profile, knowing he had patron and settlement owner options that would be far more efficient than normal methods.
But the fucking thing was so cluttered with shit he hardly knew where to look. He really needed to take a moment to explore all the rulership options. To get familiar enough to browse in a hurry.
You can group message your House, all your players. He saw a message from Haley. I can do it for you, just put it here, I’ll do the rest.
He took a steadying breath and kept running, going straight for the city with Streak racing behind him. It was good to remember he had help. He wasn’t alone anymore.
All players ignore the walls and beyond, he messaged back. Stay inside the city. Destroy undead. Keep civilians alive.
He was hoping to do the same—hoping whatever attack was coming from outside would be slower and give them time. But with the game being what it was, he sure as hell didn’t count on it. Two threats at the same time was more…dramatic.
But he had a million points to spend. Literally. He’d been hoping to spend a lot of it on food production, to get the city and people healthy. But you couldn’t eat when you were dead. He had to assess and fortify those walls (which he was now suddenly very happy he didn’t break apart in the attack).
It also then occurred to him—would Jeong’s defences now be inactive? Or worse? Would they actively attack him and his people in the event? The defenders had been undead and giant monsters seemingly themed with the Endless…would the things just open up and let the enemy in?
Fuck.
He moved at a reckless speed around others, and almost rammed into a servant as he raced through the halls. The woman screamed in terror as he side-stepped, still knocking her tray flying with enough force he knew he’d have shattered her if they’d collided.
But there was no time for apologies. He needed a fucking tree. He needed natural terrain he could use to fey walk. Jeong’s palace and city wasn’t ’natural’ anywhere except where he’d made it, and that was too far to be useful. He had no choice but to get out physically.
He followed his Wayfinder map past a handful more staring servants and rooms, but he saw and bolted straight for an open courtyard. Once outside, he immediately dropped his boot meter, and jumped out of the palace, reaching a good hundred feet before he soared towards the outer walls of the city.
The sky was darkening with clouds. But there was no lightning, no thunder. It was just a cold, colorless blackness oozing across the sky. Mason felt little hairs rising on his neck as he stared into it, seeing some kind of red, curving…
I offered order, boomed a god-like voice.
The red circles in the sky opened in the dark and glared down at Mason as he flew.
Existence without life is still existence, it continued. Now, everything you know will be gone. It will be as if you never existed at all.
“Sounds peaceful,” Mason shouted back, looking down and searching the horizon. It didn’t take long to see dust rising from the south.
And he was right about the walls and Jeong’s defences. Hurray…
Undead defenders were rising up all over the place, those same flying gargoyles circling towers like grey bats. That was a fucking problem.
He searched through his profile frantically, giving up and just messaging Haley.
Undo all of Jeong’s wall defences, if you can. Make our own. Cost irrelevant. Override safety protocols. Pick anything.
He had to focus as he reached the wall—or at least the air fifty feet above it, having literally flown over the whole city. He used his boots to slam himself down on the ramparts.
A few undead creatures snarled and attacked, and he slashed them apart. More were coming, but he ignored them to stare out at the cloud of dust and try to judge distance. It was decently far. Several miles and moving slow. He took a breath and tried to relax. They had time. Not a lot. But plenty could be done with several hundred players and a shitload of patron points.
An arrow bounced off the side of his head, and he turned and glared before putting a Power Shot into the undead archer. Its whole chest exploded away in a spray of shrapnel. It should have been instructive, but the other stupid creatures kept coming and shooting.
He looked around for targets, seeing way too many undead to count. And he sensed Streak still racing to catch him, but willed it instead to destroy any undead it found en route. The enemy so far was weak. Better for them to cover more ground.
“There’s rules,” he muttered sarcastically, leaping off the wall towards the nearest civilian buildings. “Why can every god break the fucking rules but mine?” he yelled. “Get off your ass and help,” he shouted at Cerebus, pointing at the red eyes in the sky. “Look! Right there! A god!”
It was fair to say he didn’t expect the horned god to suddenly leap to his aid. But he was kind of serious, and when this shit was over he was sure as hell paying his ‘patron’ a visit. He’d won the whole damn world, and saw his god rewarded in general and specifically. If nothing else, he expected his damn reward.
But for the moment, he slaughtered walking corpses. Undead were pouring out of military buildings, which at least all looked similar. Mason stood in a street with several such buildings, throwing traps and loosing arrows even as he started drawing Freezing Grasp runes in front of the gates on cooldown.
It was all unnatural terrain and his mana drained like crazy. But he wasn’t worried about over-exerting himself or getting weakened. All that mattered was keeping these things under control—then he could go outside where he was in his element, and stomp that marching army into oblivion.
As the first pack of undead hit his Freezing Grasp, his new title Ender of the Endless flashed.
[Spell: enhanced. Element modified to target vulnerability: fire]
The icy tendrils grabbing the skeletons shimmered, the rune itself warping to a new shape as the blue color went purple, then red, and burst into flames. Mason couldn’t help but grin as fiery tentacles wrapped around the creatures, and lit them all in a blazing bonfire.
He also saw the rune as it transformed. He stopped and stared as it seared into his mind.
[Druidic rune identified: Fire. You have gained a new rune!]
Ha! He blinked and ignored the dull wave of pain that pulsed through his skull. A new rune was a damn nice little bonus. He’d be playing with that for sure, but not now—especially if his title changed the spell to work better against undead anyway.
He eventually stopped casting or shooting arrows, pulling his Claws to save mana. Then he charged into a new pack right at their gate to smash them apart. It didn’t take more than a few seconds.
All players en route, Haley messaged him. Many in city already. Should be coming out. Working on wall defences now.
He took a breath and thanked God for Haley, then raced towards another pack. It also occurred to him that maybe under ‘martial law’ the city’s civilians couldn’t run. Were they trapped in their homes under the rules? He had no idea. But at least they weren’t in the streets…
After the next broken pack of undead, he stopped and looked up and down the street, very happy to see other players fighting. Most looked cautious—fighting in doorways or on rooftops, and he held back the annoyance because he knew they weren’t like him or most of his people. He’d lose weaker players to these packs if they weren’t cautious. But he had to trust them to handle themselves.
The loose undead were tearing at doors and windows. They were hacking at buildings with axes, as if their target were the civilians and nothing else. Mason growled and sprinted straight into the most advanced, dropping his weight until he was as heavy and fast as a moving car.
The street shook beneath his feet, and he shattered and crushed the axe-swingers like a line of dominos, just using his head and body, wincing against the blunt-force hits bouncing off him. Nothing these pitiful creatures could do to him mattered. If anything, they’d just make him stronger.
Pack after pack broke as undead became plain old dead, Mason ignoring everything but his targets. One building had a wall broken enough to see people inside, a dozen civilians staring at him in abject terror as he stood there panting.
“Board it up," he ordered. "Hold the walls with anything you have. Make spears. Anything. Help is coming.”
A gargoyle dove at him, and he shattered it with a lazy swipe before turning to find the next closest pack, running off without waiting for an answer.