Battleforged: Book 1 - THE BILLION CREDIT HEIST - An Earth Apocalypse LitRPG Adventure

Sometimes it was all about timing. The moves to a dance. The notes to a song. Getting the pace and flow just right… so every step was perfect, and harmony rang through the air as one juggled a dozen things at once.

Rescuing a handful of mortals.

Planting seeds of wonder along avenues not even the most twisted goblin curse could latch on to.

Taking out a random wildcard that somehow was activated at just the wrong moment to assure nothing but blood and terror where Eric had tried to plant a seed of hope.

Yet that weed, so impatient to sprout, had been easy enough to find and pull free.

But it had taken time.

A few precious seconds.

When he was certain he had entire minutes to spare.

He had been juggling so many things for so very long that perhaps he could be forgiven his arrogance. His Hubris.

He had flown beside the fiery wings of an ascending Gold, after all, where they had both been lost in the rapture of a song that transcended the System itself.

Because it really was all about timing.

All the more so with those of Faerie blood. Doomed to dance to the songs of their lives until oblivion’s dirge played the final note of existence for all time.

Still, Eric knew he was cutting it close, unforgivably close, delaying that extra pair of minutes. Yet whether he wanted to accept his role in the wonder and horror that had rocked the System that night or not, the fact remained that his communion with his mother, so deep and visceral that they had faced down Malice as one, effortlessly shattering so many twisted strands of fate and curse wards, also meant that he could sense their twisting of probabilities strands with an acuteness he suspected very few could match.

Which meant that his growing suspicion turned to absolute certainty when he sensed the foul strands thick and cloying over the entirety of Ashland, most especially his Ascension Pod, via his personal arcane connection alone. He didn’t even need to be there to sense how it was all being twisted away from public thought and perception. Yet one more bitter attempt by Greed’s faction… Malice’s faction, to turn a hapless population away from any possible source of salvation and into the arms of indentured servitude, slave collars, and eventually the soul steel mills that would be their eternal torment and doom.

Yet he sensed as well the limitations of that curse seeking to seep into the minds of classers who would otherwise pay the promise of salvation that much more heed. All he needed to do was to spend a few moments sharing precious truths with a small group of former captives who were karmically very much in his debt and all but immune to specialized compulsions tied to System banes as much as anything else, which mean that Mary, the former highly placed executive of one conglomerate or another, just might serve as the key to crack open the door that would let the truth tumble free, gaining ever more momentum until the curses infecting his regions were shattered entirely.

Eric flashed a bitter smile, sensing that those foul workings along with a dozen others spewed with such gleeful hate across an arcane connection millions of light years long toward his world on this endless night were at least part of what had depleted Malice considerably on the very night the monster finally had to face down his ancient nemesis.

His wife.

Eric shuddered in disgust at the very thought.

Before shaking his head, because none of that mattered as he increasingly sensed the sharp discordance to the dance he had thought all but mastered. The slow crescendo that would have ended in a furious climax with him ready to take on whatever was coming Elonia’s way had just shifted pace and tempo into a dark dirge of despair.

Somehow, he could imagine Malice cackling with glee even now.

Even while begging Aurelia for quarter… a heartbeat before she ascends and is out of his hair forever… he was still doing all he could to obliterate the last gambit she had put in effect here on Earth.

Then again, Eric could be entirely wrong. Grasping for straws to justify his absolute FAILURE to understand the notes to this song! - His mother had been perfectly willing to allow Earth to shatter and explode to assure her son’s ascenscion by her side. What was one more world, after all, considering all they had – Don’t think it. Don’t even think it!

Eric shook his head with an anxious snarl as he picked up his pace. Free of all mithril that could weigh him down, stronger and faster than he had ever been before, with Speed Racer Perk in effect to counter inertia and a quickly shouted “Roboro ventus incurvio attentio!” howled towards to the heavens, embracing his runic lore to summon the wind in all its howling fury to blow at his back at a slight downward angle, but keeping him to on the ground, flattening the endless fields of waist-high grass he blazed through and enhancing his Speed Racer perk to an awesome degree as wind rsistance went down to near nothing and Eric was now approaching absolutely absurd bullet train speeds, a part of him wanting to scream with a rush of exhilaration as it all came together, forests and fields blurring by, or they would if his perception had been mortal…

And none of it mattered.

Because whether it was irony, malicious Cards of Fate in play, or simply the work of Bronze tier professionals… the end result was the same.

The handful of reds that had been slowly positioning themselves to pierce the veil of howling storms into Queensland, along with a thousand or so other reds that had been stopped cold in their advance, were no longer plodding at the rate of a slowly marching party of high level White-tier classers possessing a powerful Storm Warden or Shaman of some sort in their party.

They were now racing along at the Speed of Elite Bronze tier opponents making use of reinforced Magitech mobile infantry vehicles, and were presently making a beeline right for the palace, as if the storm were not even there.

“Fuck!”

Eric choked back the awful sense of dread clawing at his throat. His earlier cocky sangfroid, feeling like the absolute master of his situation after a few terrifying moments as fragile as he had been less than a year ago had been replaced by anxious dread for his sister’s sake as he sensed the elite company of reds shatter multiple barriers and wards that had been made with blood, sweat and his sister’s tears as if they weren’t even there.

Because his sister was awake!

She was alive!

He could sense it as clearly as he could the desperate timbre of her voice as she released a System wide Sylvan distress call.

If any of her loyal soldiers, sworn champions, or hidden aces were anywhere within sight of Queensland… they were to flee at all costs.

Death would be their only reward for daring to face the monsters that had violated all pacts and treaties. Monsters determined to butcher them all.

Eric wanted to laugh at the bitter irony of it all.

After all that he and his mother had done in their mad gambit for ascension, his sister was encouraging all her pawns to flee! So that they, at least, my live… even if she would fall.

“Fuck! It doesn’t end this way, Elonia!” The word were a whisper, the farthest thing from a shout, instantly wicked away by the end as he blinked back hot anxious tears.

Queensland Territory is now In Contention!

Contender Eric Silver has entered Queensland Territory!

Eric wanted to snarl in helpless fury as the System message blared in his interface, almost surprised that half dozen seven-foot-tall invaders clad from head to foot in futuristic looking armor of chrome and steel didn’t spin around at the message. Of course, if they weren’t faction leaders, they would only know where he had entered the territory, like a perimeter alarm, and be blind to him from then on, and if they weren’t sworn to any particular faction, they wouldn’t have gotten any message at all.

One thing that was undeniable was that the half dozen reds he rapidly approached were not folks to be taken lightly.. The mana thrumming through the golden circuits that Eric’s unified perception spotted so easily underneath the hyper advanced alloy plates and the reinforced fiber mesh made it clear that these monsters were Bronze power-armored specialists as they effortlessly smashed through the front door of the palace.

As if the pressure of their Bronze-tier cores and the absolute ruin of Eric’s hired artillery pieces on the shattered rooftop battlements of a decidedly worse for wear palace didn’t already give it away. Eric winced at the sight of it, Elonia’s palatial pride and joy now looking like the shattered remains of a baroque European villa that had been hit by an axis bombing run during the second world war.

It was the tiniest of consolations that he saw no bodies. Neither elven defenders, nor his adventuring companions, thank goodness, and no sign of Mory, Yini, or the gunners as a whole who Eric would have thought most vulnerable to an enemy artillery strike. He saw no sign of anyone save for the high powered mercenaries who clearly weren’t just slinging Mark II Blaster rifles, that was for damn sure, he thought, getting a closer look at one of the mana cannons being held like a minigun that he most definitely did not want to get caught on the wrong end of, if his wildly flaring danger sense that eased a heartbeat later as a casually turned head looking a stunned Eric’s way was brought back in line with a curt burst of staticky noise that yes… he COULD make out with his absolutely absurd Perception, Universal Translator, and Unified Perception.

“Karl, Bruno, you’re point. Keep lethality to a minimum, but defend yourselves and the mission at all costs. Gunther, Leon, you’re to gather the targets. Lina, you’re shepharding Anna and Emma. They follow your orders to the letter or you escort them both out immediately.”

“Dad, come on. You know we can fi—”

“Enough!” The voice snapped. “You and your sister keep comms clear! This isn’t a game, Anna. You two want to earn that conquest title for your academy credits? Then you both do what you’re told, same as any other soldier. Just as you risk peril, like any other soldier. And my duty to you and your mother is to keep that risk at a fucking minimum! Are we clear?”

“Yes, Father,” echoed a twin pair of subdued voices as Eric froze stock still, caught between laughter and horror, forced to wonder just how many parties were throwing cards of fate around that night. Or perhaps it was the result of nothing more than opportunity and planning, multiple organizations being informed of an all but unique opportunity to pillage a low magi-tech virgin ascending world, and what merc company wouldn’t take advantage of that? And if he were cynically honest, there was perhaps no better or more practical way to teach one’s children how to survive in a universe as perilous as this one, particularly when peril and conflict were both needed for advancement, then to put them in the thick of what was actually a very controlled and contained dynamic where one’s own resources were many times what any opposition could bring to bear.

Only two things kept Eric from showing his enemies exactly what a wild native wearing little more than a shredded shirt and strained blue jeans was capable of. A wild, bloodthirsty native possessing a mithril blade that he could now summon at will, an extension of the class he had forged, perhaps an extension of his very soul.

Eric shuddered, still recalling the horror in the eyes of Lord Crevpost when he was forced to face the youth who had butchered his children. No matter that Eric had been thrust into a kill or be killed situation, and that the man’s children had done everything theyc could to see Eric dead. Even now, Eric could taste flashes of fate cards, countless possibilities, a smiling angel in silk and elegance who’s witty banter might have actually won Eric’s jaded heart… only to die by his blade.

Her entire world to fall to his Hyperion Ascension.

Thanks to a fate card Eric was bitterly certain that his mother, not Malice, had put into play.

What was that his mother had said before she had ascended to Gold?

Ah yes.

All her cards were on him, this round.

NO, no, no, it wasn’t a card she had sacrificed… IT WAS AN ENTIRE WORLD!

Thirteen worlds, to be exact.

Or was it fourteen?

Eric choked back a scream. There was nothing he could do about any of that now.

No way he could take back his furious, killing blow…

Even when the girl had pled for mercy with her dying gaze.

Because after he had already cut down her brothers… so eager to kill him first…

It was all he could do not to crumple to the ground and start screaming in horror, madness, and shame right there… NO! HE REFUSED! HE FUCKING REFUSED! TOO MUCH WAS ON THE LINE! HE WOULD SEE THIS THROUGH!

Even if by some twisted bit of bitter fortune and wild luck he faced yet another family who thought this particular clan on this particular night would be easy enough, safe enough, controlled enough, to bring ones most precious treasures along to join in the fun.

Elonia. The she’s in danger, I have to get to her NOW!

Eric curbed the screaming anxiety now tearing through him, recalling with exquisite clarity the cammander’s words.

The words of a father.

Keep casualties to a minimum.

From Eric’s eyes, the man was most definitely a threat to be resolved.

From the mercenary’s own eyes… he was perhaps an honorable man doing his job… hurting as few people as he had to in order to get things done. The same as upright professionals everywhere.

Yet those revelations didn’t stop Eric from becoming one with the grass and fields all around him as he steadily approached, hand at his hip, ready to draw a blade no longer entirely of this world in the blink of an eye.

Before freezing stock still as the commander froze, the rest of his armored men already inside save for a pair guarding what was most definitely a high tech transport vehicle right out of a sci fi movie.

Stealth check: Tie!

“Commander?” Crackled a voice in comms that Eric had a hard time pinging direction on but knew had to be from one of the two seven foot tall armored sentinels setting up point on top of their armored vehicle.

The captain slowly swung around, Eric’s Unified Perception clearly making out the beam of golden light, like a flashlight, emanating from the man’s visor as he carefully scanned his periphery, Eric making full use of his Quickness to stay out of range, a taste of adrenaline, a spike of peril all that was needed for BattleTime to rev up into full gear, his thoughts whirling as he contemplated and discarded a dozen possible gambits to handle this latest batch of invaders.

Failing to think of a single one that wouldn’t end with multiple Bronze-tier corpses, the risk of exploding power armor, and the possible death of his sister.

FUCK!

It was only in that moment that, in his desperation, he thought to embrace one of the very few items that had survived his golden transformation that had obliterated even his mithril mail.

The thin golden ring even now spinning around in his interface.

Because even if it was stupid as hell for him to freeze up, the wide-eyed countenance of a near naked elf teenager wearing scraps of clothing and nothing else suddenly pinging on the battle-mech’s sensors was exactly what one might expect from a new recruit in way over his head who just wanted to surrender without getting killed and get this awful night over with.

“Sir, we got a native! Orders!”

“Please don’t shoot! I give up! I… please, all my friends were killed, I just want to go home!” Eric cried as the commander gave curt orders and one of the two heavily armored sentinels rapidly approach with a high pitched whine from his servos.

And for all that Eric’s Danger Sense screamed when the mech-warrior approached him, his Bronze-tier minigun aimed right at Eric, he still kept his stumble so slow it felt like molasses, even as his finger burned with the ring now on his hand.

You have successfully soulbound Ring of the Phoenix!

This Silver-tier masterwork will successfully disguise your identity from all targets below Gold ascension!

One Soul Point successfully invested!

Your ring will now successfully cloak your identity from all outside sources below Gold tier, barring critical success roles on their part!

Note! Current investment only protects you from dusk til dawn!

Further Soul Point investment is needed to cloak identity under indirect sunlight (or better).

Note! Your Ring will cease to work until the following sunset if you channel any arcane, cultivation, or necromantic arts while wearing this ring!

Further Soul Point investment will allow you to partially or fully bypass these limitations.

Note! A Silver Phoenix Talisman is currently in play!

All restrictions are temporarily lifted! All opposition below Master tier will fail to penetrate your disguise under all circumstances!

Eric could take scarce comfort in the messages flickering across his interface, because no matter how much he looked like a terrified elf recruit in that moment, well put together, perhaps, but seeing as how Strength over 20 no longer showed up as additional muscle mass beyond the steroid-free ideal for a given person, that actually told very little… all it took was a twitchy plasma trigger finger and Eric was either crispy fried toast or an obvious threat if he survived the blast.

“You, on the ground now!” Roared the Bronze in oddly synthetic words that made Eric think arcane translation box, right before suddenly flaring his aura.

Kurt Russo, Rank 15 Bronze Battle-Mech Specialist. 200 St / 200 Vit / 300 Qui / 250 Fin / 250 Per / 250 Arcane Reserves

You have successfully used Identify passively upon a projected aura! You have successfully detected Physical Stats, Perception, and Arcane Reserves.

Eric immediately collapsed and whimpered as the man stomped up to him, grabbed him by his wrists before tying a thin cord of something around them. Eric purposely kept his arms utterly limp, sobbing with supposed terror, not fighting it at all. Merely grateful that they weren’t pulling out Mithril collars which would have necessitated a quick and violent change of plans… but it made sense. If you’re on a tight mission and time table, why the hell would you waste the crazy expense of scores of mithril collars against White-tier opponents that you don’t have a personal hate hard-on against? Who has the resources or space? A far more practical choice was a cord that Eric could sense the arcane lightning circuit coiling through within. It was more than enough deterrent and restraint for any low level Conscript in way over his head.

“We got a live one, Captain. I doubt he’s seen two decades, though. Pretty damn young for an elf. My scanner detects no bombs, traps, or pathological agents.”

The figure in the most impressive suite of power armor immediately turned to face the pair of them, his massive blaster carbine held casually at the ready, Eric catching sight of hard grey eyes on a weathered but not unhandsome face giving him the once-over through his crystal clear face plate.

He frowned at Eric for a long second, snorted, then actually went to the trouble of handing Eric a water flask. “You thirsty kid? You look like you’ve been through hell and back.”

Eric didn’t hesitate to take a grateful sip. “Thank you, sir! I… yeah, you’re right. It’s been a long night.”

“That it has,” the merc commander agreed. “You can call me captain. What’s your name, boy?”

“Alaric, captain.” Eric swallowed as if in fear. “Thank you for not killing me… sir.”

“Now why would I do that, Alaric? Way I see it, you’re just a kid in way over his head, involved in a fight that’s really not your own. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Eric flinched, then slowly nodded. “I just… I wanted to help, since they’re my people and all. You know? But it’s… this entire place is surrounded by orcs and gnolls and ogres. It’s a death trap staying here. I just want to go home!”

The captain nodded his head in mimed sympathy as his comms went off at a pitch and language that no young Sylvan Conscript would be expected to understand.

“Sir, we’re encountering resistance in the form of small arms fire. We’ve spotted multiple Artillery Classers…”

“Mory, Yini, Retreat and get out with Elonia! Don’t get yourselves killed! These are Level 15 Bronze with Tier-3 Blasters!”

Eric sensed a surprised jolt. “Fuck, Eric Silver, you’re alive? They have us surrounded! Elonia’s your sister, right? She’s here. We’ve been keeping her safe! Yini took out a goblin assassin who thought the loss of our guns meant we were helpless fucks!”

Eric felt a tremendous wave of gratitude with Mory’s mental party-link pulse. Honestly, he was just grateful to find that they could still link up, at least at very close range, after Eric had been literally light years away.

“But our back exit’s been cut off. They’re closing in!”

And a voice he hadn’t expected but that warmed his heart filled his mind.

“It’s okay, Eric. You can tell them.”

Elonia. She was alive, aware, and in so much pain! Eric cringed at the agony he could feel, understanding somehow that something had gone horribly wrong.

Eric felt a jolt of terror now understanding what Elonia expected him to say. Did that mean she was too weak even to speak? Fuck!

It was all on Eric, for better or worse as the conversation finished in the blink of an eye.

“Offer truce! Surrender! Tell them to stop firing, you have the princess!”

“Repeat that, Bruno!”

“Yes, sir! We’ve encountered multiple white tier plasma traps of only moderate significance…”

“It didn’t even singe our armor, dad.”

“Quiet on the comms!” The commander snapped. “You know the proper countermeasures, Bruno.”

“Yes, sir. But we don’t know the exact location of our target. Gunther’s checked the bedrooms upstairs… Sir! Our targets are offering a cease fire! Sir, they’re surrendering! They’re surrendering and they have the princess!”

The captain’s face lit up with a pleased grin. “Excellent!”

“Yes, sir. They… they’re asking that we give them our word of fair treatment, that they won’t be summarily executed and that the princess and her family won’t be harmed, and they’ll all surrender peacefully.”

The captain froze. Hard eyes calculating, before he slowly nodded. “Acceptable. Hell, this is a best case scenario. Good. Be wary of traps, make sure the area is damn secure before Anna and Emma follow you in.”

He then turned to the two individuals beside him. “Kurt, you stay here and watch our six. Matilda, escort our new friend here and ask the pertinent questions.”

They then turned around and entered the palace, the armored woman Matilda now gently leading Eric along.

“Quite a night, isn’t it, Aleric?”

“Yeah, I guess it is, sir,” Eric said. Playing oblivious to the comms he should have no ability to hear or the voices that all sounded the same, not having had a good look through the face plate of the mecha suit behind him.

Still, this earned a chuckle. “It’s ma’am, kid.”

“Oh… apologies, ma’am.”

“No worries. So, anything you can tell us about the manor, it’s inhabitants or reinforcements? Because it’s all about being on the winning team and treating your friends right. And you do want to be our friend, don’t you kid?”

Eric immediately nodded. “Yes, absolutely, ma’am! I’ll do everything I can to help you. Both here, and, well, wherever you’re going!”

Matilda chuckled. “That’s the spirit. So get talking!” she said as they made their way through the smoking rubble-strewn ruins of what had once been a grand dining hall. Fine oak tables that had once groaned under the weight of glorious buffets with glittering crystal candelabras gracing the entire chamber in a warm golden glow was now a pile of smoldering wood, shattered glass, and half-melted silver.

Eric flinched and looked away, even as he filled the air with his patter. “Yes, ma’am. We’re sadly down to a skeleton crew here, with just Lady Valorn’s bunch of survivors who already got shoved out of Gilton from I don’t even know what, and not much more than that. Then, by some miracle, we got lucky and actually managed to hire some artillery mercs that came here from who-knows-where. But tonight’s been a really, really um… crazy night? Stretching out a bit too long?”

Matilda nodded. “Got that right, kid. Go on.”

“Yeah, so anyway, we were supposed to get this major influx of Sylvan alliance conscripts but for some reason that never happened, and then most of our own people fled to who knows where and it’s just a couple score of us, and that’s when everyone’s shouting and panicking and we get word that hundreds… no… thousands of orcs and worse have surrounded us and they’re coming in for the kill!”

He swallowed, lowering his gaze. “Then the princess or maybe the Winter Queen herself surrounded our territory with a whirlwind of snow and that’s when the artillery company that got stranded here when their world gate shut off offered themselves up for employment and we thought we might actually survive the night!” He swallowed and shivered. “Then things got really bad. The whole world started to shake and crumble and I just…” He choked back a sob. “I just fled like a coward and I’m just so tired and I want to go home.”

Surprisingly, Matilda gave him a sympathetic pat on his shoulder that wouldn’t even shatter a mortal’s bones. “It’s alright, kid. You’ weren’t being a coward, you were being smart. This is no place for a Rank 9 Conscript just trying to compress his core. Good for you, kid, even if you’re only at 2%.”

Eric flashed a shy smile, even as he squeezed his palm tight against the thin gold ring he now absolutely loved. “You think so? I’ve tried so hard but it’s been months and…” He swallowed, lowering his gaze. “The captain isn’t going to hurt the princess, is he?”

This earned a snort from the commander.

“Not a hair on her pretty head, Alaric, I promise you that,” Matilda soothed. “Actually, if things go the way I think they will, young Elonia Silver will soon be attending Griffondale Academy under her new sponsor’s name. She’ll then be engaged to one of the handsomest young princes in the sector and be living a fairy tale life free of intrigue and bullshit before you know it.”

Eric smiled despite himself as he docilely allowed himself to be led into a former ballroom that now had fifty plus captives all securely roped and bound, including his entire artillery company, alive and unharmed he was beyond relieved to see. Then his eyes caught sight of the person he most wanted to see. His sister, very much alive and in one piece and possessing their mother’s grace, beauty, and piercing green eyes, even as his heart broke to sense her pain. As if her soul had actually been shattered and the pieces were grinding against each other even now.

Not for the first time, he cursed his mother trying to ram that overpowered Arch Mage class down Elonia's throat, but other things demanded his attention now. Matilda turned to him. “Alright, you behave, kid. Because sure as fuck, I see a medical crisis.”

The commander turned her way. “Matilda?”

Matilda’s steel boots echoed through the chamber, none of the captives making a sound, eyes filled with a curious mixture of despair, anxiety, and desperate hope.

And Matilda was making her way right to Elonia. She bent down and, much to Eric’s surprise, raised the visor of her mecha-suit. “How you doing there, kid?”

Eric felt his cheeks flush with relief and shame, hearing his sister’s breathy voice for the first time in weeks… or had it been months? So preoccupied with his own concerns that he wasn’t there when she needed him.

Again.

“It hurts, doc,” Elonia said, with a wry bitter half-smile of a girl knowing she was talking to the enemy but too exhausted to care anymore, just wanting it all to come to an end.

She didn’t even resist when Matilda gently placed what Eric just knew was a high tech medical strip on Elonia’s brow as two other mecha-wearing individuals took off their helmets entirely, revealing a pair of strikingly beautiful twins with flawless features, violet eyes, rosebud lips, and the slightest tinge of purple to otherwise very human skin.

“Matilda, what’s wrong?” Asked the closest girl in a genuinely worried voice, her twin patting her arm. “That’s what happens when you’re mother is psycho and pushes you way too hard, way too fast, and things don’t go absolutely perfectly.”

Eric flashed a bitter smile, thinking the girl absolutely right, and he couldn’t help noting that neither had even drawn blaster or vibroblade, their weapons securely sheathed still. Not that either girl gave off the aura of seasoned killers… or any aura at all, really.

Despite their company, the two children were the farthest thing from Bronze monsters.

The first girl winced. “Matilda?”

“Put your helmets back on, girls,” their father instructed, which the girls promptly ignored.

“Anna’s right, Emma,” Matilda said with a sympathetic sigh. “The poor dear’s foundation was shattered like glass.” She favored a pale-faced and sweating Elonia with a look so empathetic that Eric wanted to applaud. Who could refuse sharing their heart to someone who looked like they cared that much? Especially since Eric had the sneaking suspicion that the concern was genuine.

“Want to tell me what happened?”

“Don’t say a word, my lady, please!” uttered an exhausted looking Lady Valorn.

Eric froze then, waiting for the merc’s reactions, yet no one shouted her down, no tyrannical metallic boot came pounding down to silence her. Though her cry had earned the attention of multiple professionals staring her way, the only one to speak was Matilda, giving the exhausted looking Sylvan noble a pitying look. “The only way I can help her is if I know what’s wrong.”

“It’s alright, Lady Valorn,” Elonia said with a surprisingly reedy voice.” She flashed a bitter smile and it horrified Eric to see that she was missing several of her teeth. She gazed up at the obvious merc healer, paying no mind as one pair, Gunther and Leon, looked to be setting up an actual high-tech electromana portal that sent all sorts of alarm bells blaring in Eric’s mind, realizing that they were now rapidly running out of time.

“I had a shot at a class of unbelievable power and potential, and I blatantly disregarded every warning and caution I had been given by those who loved me the most.” The air rang with her discordant laughter. “I thought, for just one brief second, that I could embrace the same wild luck that seems to be my brother’s birthright. That maybe I could thread the eye of madness’s needle and walk away with a class that put all my trials and tribulations I’ve suffered and overcome suddenly worth it. Worth the constant pain I was feeling. Worth every fucking thing I’ve had to endure to get to this point!” She sobbed the last, tears leaking from red rimmed eyes lined with crow’s feet, and Eric was horrified to see the strands of white in his sister’s silky-blond curls.

“I take it things didn’t go according to plan?” Matilda said, handing Elonia a pill she didn’t hesitate to take with trembling hands.

Elonia sipped from the flask she was passed by none other than Anna, completely ignoring her father’s words to back away from the captive, with a sigh.

“My meridian channels had completely crystalized. In record time, mother said.”

Lina cringed. “Full crystalization and you’re what… only level 50? Ouch. Our instructors say only geniuses and fools try to do that before achieving their Bronze Ascension.”

Anna nodded in wordless sympathy.

“A broken level 50. And your instructors are right, because god knows I’m a fool,” Elonia corrected with a bitter smile. “My evolution pod spat me out before I could do anything but scream. I’m now technically ‘unsuitable for Class advancement.’” As if I needed that stupid thing to tell me that I was well and truly fucked when all my meridian channels shattered and all I felt was pain!”

“Orb has been retrieved, sir,” said the mecha Eric’s interface now pinged as Gunther, holding up a shimmering globe Eric didn’t recognize… until he did.

Elonia chuckled bitterly. “Oh goody. You grabbed the only thing of value in this pathetic wreck of a territory. My evolution pod’s core. I’m surprised you didn’t tear up the whole thing.”

“No need,” the commander said. “The externals are easy enough to replicate. It’s System manifestations like this that have considerable value.”

Elonia sighed. “That does make sense. I should have sold that bloody thing while I had a chance. It’s caused me nothing but pain.” She flashed the captain a half-hearted smile. “Sorry you wasted your time hunting down a broken princess who’s queen has already left the board. Hopefully that little consolation will at least earn us our lives?”

Lina and Anna exchanged glances, before turning to the commander. “You know, dad, we could let them go…”

Anna nodded at her sister’s words. “Honestly, they’re utterly fucked and broken. Probably dead if we leave them here anyway. Nicest thing we can do is drop them off at a neutral-friendly city and just get out of here.”

Their father solemnly shook his head. “I’m afraid not, girls. That’s not how contracts like this work. Our employer will get his golden goose and the responsibility’s on him to fix her.”

Elonia paled at those words. Her eyes gazed searchingly into the crowd as if looking for someone… passing right over Eric’s own.

Mory and Yini exchanged glances, choosing that moment to speak. “If you’re looking for artillery experts, and our present employer were to release us from our contract…”

Elonia chuckled bitterly. “Sure. I think we’re done here. I’ll stay here and bleed my eyes out and you guys can go do whatever floats your boat.”

The artillery commanders flashed a relieved and grateful smile. “Like we were saying,” Yini said. “We had a good run with our present employer, but as we are currently free and unaligned. We’re happy to sign up with whoever needs a good artillery company in whatever capacity…”

The captain sighed, cracking his neck, audible through his mic. “White tier Artillery company, Orc precedent I see… and you guys actually managed to cause us trouble for the thirty seconds we needed to triangulate and wipe your guns out. Honestly, the fact that you’re even alive is what’s most impressive. I take it one of you has danger sense and knew to flee?”

Mory nodded. It was at that second that the portal thrummed to life. All eyes turned its way, over half a dozen mercenary gazes alight with excited satisfaction, as if savoring a job completed in what was no doubt record time.

Quickness Check made!

Strength modified Unarmed Combat skill check: Critical success!

You have disarmed your foe!

You have disarmed your foe!

All save for the pair of teenage girls who’s soft, frightened gasps immediately turned all attention Eric’s way.

Even as a pair of armored giants crashed to the ground

“Unhand her, now!”

“Ah, something broke my arm!”

“My blaster’s been stolen, we’re under attack!”

Eric stared into the furious panicked eyes of a terrified father forced to suddenly examine all the awful choices in his life that had led him to this moment. His pair of twin daughters teary eyed and trembling, effortlessly gripped by their necks by a monster whose grip was stronger than steel.

Eric flashed a smile chill as death. “I think it’s time we did some negotiating of our own, don’t you?”

“Please don’t hurt us, please don’t hurt us!” Anna sobbed, Eric feeling her heart absolutely racing through the pulse in her shivering neck that his hand gripped so gently, careful not to break a single precious bone in her body, though he did give the panicked, furious captain a hard glare.

“Really? You’re that greedy to get your kids titles that you had them enter an ascending Realm while they were still compressing their core? They barely got twenties in their Vitality! Are you fucking insane?”

“Put down my daughters, now!” The captain roared, though he didn’t point his plasma cannon Eric’s way… didn’t dare to. All his men were caught between confusion, indecision and dismay.

The captain’s eyes took on a furious gleam. “Unless you want us to vaporize everyone here, you’ll do as I command!”

Eric solemnly shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Daddy, please!”

The man’s eyes lit with desperate fury. “Unhand her!”

“Before I do anything else, tell me that either one of your daughters isn’t worth the life of every other person in this room.”

The captain blanched at that, before saying the obvious. “Of course they are, asshole!”

“Good,” Eric said, gently lowering both girls from their tippy toes, though still keeping his grip firmly in place. “Then I’m sure that we can agree that Anna’s life is more than worth you handing me that precious core my master’s been trying to pluck free of this cesspit for months!”

The mercenary gave Eric, still in disguise, a confused look. “You’re not interested in the captives?”

Eric snorted. “Sure, I’ll take them as a bonus. That way a whole fucking faction owes me a personal favor. And that favor will be worth your second daughter. So here’s what we’ll do. I hand you one girl back, you let these idiots go. Then you toss me that orb at which point you and your cronies will go through that gate, including the idiot manning your mech-truck, which is now my mech truck, and you get Anna back. Because we all know she’s your favorite.”

He forced a smile as Anna and Emma’s whimpers turned to frightened sobs. “I’m kidding You’re twins. I’m sure he’d be equally heartbroken if anything happened to either one of you.”

“Please let us go! We don’t even want to be here!” Anna sobbed.

The man’s eyes glared into Eric’s own for long seconds. “If you harm a hair on either of their heads, I’ll make it my personal mission in life to hunt you down and end you!”

Of course his words earned nothing but terrified sobs from his daughters.

Eric flashed a cold smile. “Are you done fronting? Or is your pride really more important to you than your daughters?”

The man blanched at the looks this earned him. He grit his jaw, then his eyes widened at the sight of Karl and Bruno, both on the ground groaning, both missing their plasma cannons, both suffering major deformities where hideous strength had shattered their bones and warped their armor.

The captain’s eyes widened. “You’re no simple spy.”

“That’s right!” Eric said. “I’m a Contender. I don’t march under anyone’s banner like a chump, so I can go where I want, kill who I want, and play mercenary for assholes even more stuck up than yourself. But they’re paying, and that’s what counts. So, do we got a deal or not?”

Hard eyes glared into Eric’s own before he forced a smile. “I need that core, and you look like someone who appreciates the finer things in life. You have a knack for this game, kid. How about instead of this bullshit, you come work for me? Tell you what, I’ll even let you in on the score, to the tune of a full billion credits. Now tell me that your employer is offering you that much for the core.”

“Daddy!” Emma hissed in panicked alarm.

The man inhaled when Eric coolly shook his head, but his daughters’ panicked whimpers immediately deflated him.

He glared, turning to a still stunned looking Matilda. “Free everyone’s binds and let them loose.”

“I… yes sir,” Matilda said, quickly doing just that.

Eric met Elonia’s gaze, and how beautiful and heartbreaking it was to see the hope and despair in her eyes, to realize she couldn’t recognize him but maybe she could guess… and for whatever reason, when he tried to send an interface message… he couldn’t reach her at all.

But he wasn’t stupid. He let her eyes wash over him, refusing to flinch when she was escorted out of the room, along with all the others.

The captain licked anxious lips. “Now, my daughter.”

“Of course.”

Eric immediately let Anna go.

She of course spun around, glaring at Eric. “Let go of my sister, right now!”

Eric nodded. “Absolutely. Just as soon as your dad’s merc crew gets through that portal so I don’t have to worry about you all vaporizing me a second after I let your sister go.”

“Daddy!” Emma sobbed.

“It will be okay, baby, I promise!” Even through the tinny distortion, a father’s anxiety was unmistakable. It was all Eric could do to keep up his cocky smirk even as the red form outside pinged its way to this very chamber, Kurt’s blaster immediately raised to fire Eric’s way before he froze, took in the situation, and immediately lowered his weapon.

“Alright, we’re all here by the gate and your friends have their freedom. Now unhand my daughter!”

Eric looked at the man and chuckled softly. “Nice try. Now how about you and your crew jump through that crackling blue gate, and hand me the evolution core before you go.”

The man froze.

“Daddy!” Anna hissed, snapping the man out of his paralysis.

“Alright!” He said, voice laden with guttural desperation. “Everyone, jump through. That most definitely includes you, Anna. No arguing!”

The man locked gazes with Eric, waiting til his Anna was through before halting Gunther. “My man has the core, you have my daughter.”

Eric nodded. “Obviously.”

The man clenched his jaw, struggling with himself before whispering the words. “Five Billion.”

Eric’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll give you five billion for that core.”

Eric inhaled to speak, before catching sight of the absolute last person he expected to see. Gazing at him so intently from the upper balcony, flashing a sign with her hands in a language only two people knew in the entire world.

Much to his surprise, Eric actually found himself nodding his head.

“Done.”

The captain and Gunther both froze in surprise. Even Emma hissed. “Fuck, you’re actually going to be reasonable?” she whispered.

Eric shrugged. “Well, yeah. It’s five billion credits.” He gazed at the captain. “How are we going to do this?”

The man blinked, open his mouth, before chuckling softly. “I take it an IOU doesn’t do you any good.” His bemused smile turned to an odd expression of such dismayed confusion that Eric would have laughed or spun around, if he didn’t immediately recognize the floral scent.

“Here. Feel free to use my Blue Card,” said none other than Elonia, before turning to the nonplussed Captain.

“I take it a Blue Corp transfer is acceptable, Commander Jurgen?”

The man looked between Elonia and Eric.

Even Emma’s eyes brightened. She even dared to smile Eric’s way. “No way, I know who you are! Who you must be!”

Eric smirked, letting the disguise fall.

“Bloody fucking hell,” Gunther cursed, shaking his head. “Will you look at that, Captain? Those kids were playing us!”

Jurgen flashed a bitter smile. “You hardly seem on the brink of death now, Lady Elonia.”

Eric’s sister managed a brittle chuckle. “Oh, I’m in pain like you wouldn’t believe, I assure you. But as mother would say, a good actress sees every scene through.” She then tossed her card to Gunther who expertly grabbed it, pulled out a cube radiating extremely strong arcane current, and placed the card his boss handed her. After about thirty tense seconds, he pulled free Elonia’s card, calmly walking to hand it over.

“Close enough,” Eric said with a hard smile, earning a soft chuckle.

Gunther stopped, slowly lowered himself, and slid the card to the ground.

Elonia gracefully picked it up, closed her eyes, before they opened wide. “Fuck, they actually paid up!”

“Of course I did,” Jurgen snapped. “Now, if you would be so kind?”

Eric nodded. “One moment.” He turned back to his sister. “Panic room?”

“You really think it’s necessary?”

“I have no idea.”

“Fuck.” His twin flashed a bittersweet smile. “It’s good to see you again, bro,” Before darting off as fast as her pain and superhuman stats would let her go.

Jurgen patiently waited for long tense seconds before his smile dimmed. “Now, Eric Silver.”

Eric sighed. Preparing himself for anything. Letting Emma go with a final whisper that made her flush.

“What did you say to my daughter?” Jurgen roared.

“It’s okay, dad,” the girl said, turning around to give Eric a curious look, a soft hand actually brushing his cheeks before she turned around and strode over to her father.

“What did he say, and why did you… never mind. Come on. Get through.”

Emma swallowed, gazing at her father for long seconds as Gunther jumped through the crackling blue gate along with their prize. “He was bluffing, dad.”

“What?”

“He told me he was bluffing. He wasn’t going to hurt me or Anna. He just had to make sure we didn’t, well, you know.”

Jurgen scowled. “Jump through the gate.”

“But dad…”

“Now!”

“Yes, sir.”

And she did. Eric could sense Jurgen readying himself, all systems going online as he turned around. Only to lurch back when he saw what a coolly smiling Eric was holding.

“That blade… shouldn’t be here on Terra.”

“So I’m told.”

“Higher order concepts? Impossible. You’re still a child.”

“Anna and Emma seem like great kids.”

“They are.”

“I hope they don’t have too bad a first impression of me.”

This earned a surprised laugh. “Whether or not you were bluffing, kid, you still threatened their lives. The live of my angels. How the fuck do you think any of us are going to feel about you?”

Eric flashed a sad smile. “Yeah, but at least I don’t have to tell them that I killed their father… right? And the thing is, Gunther, that last bit’s not a bluff at all.”

Eric’s sad smile turned hard and cold, lips stretching wide, so very, very wide as he slowly assumed a warrior’s stance, his blade crackling with higher order concepts of Heat and Cold, Fire and Ice.

Gunther froze, saying nothing for long seconds.

“See you around, kid. Nice doing business with you.” With those words, he spun on his heels and stepped through the gate that crackled shut just seconds later.