“Oh fucking hell, this is bad.” Eric swallowed the awful surge of dismay he felt. His furious sense of triumph of minutes before, the sweet endless rush of shockingly fast travel of just moments before, that wondrous fiery flicker of hope… had just died to bitter ashes before the mocking laughter of his most hated foe as he forced himself to face the sight before him.

  What a fool he had been to think that even several hundred thousand of his elite troops stood a chance against Malificent’s most twisted creations.

  Where once countless sentinels had held firm, tightly pressing their foes in what seemed actual containment with so many wings shattered… was now anything but.

  Clearly, his desperate hope that most of the locusts wings had been shattered and that an entire territory’s worth of horrors was being recycled between Elonia’s death twisters and the edge of the black region had been naive and stupid. And he had KNOWN that awful truth the moment he had raced to the second incursion point.

  Because there was more. Somehow, even with the once lush jungle-covered territory, an oasis of green, now void of any trace of greenery, reduced to crumbling lifeless dirt the color of ashes and howling winds, there were always more bugs whose only desire was to feed, multiply, and devour until the entire world was devoured. Until Earth was but a ruined ball able to support absolutely no life at all… at least above the surface, at which point all the bugs could die at once as far as Malificent would be concerned, for their purpose would have been served.

  To absolutely ruin the last planet Eric’s mother had ever embraced or cared for.

  To destroy what Eric had absolutely REFUSED to, even at the cost of his own ascension.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, it just doesn’t end!” He winced at his own pathetic words as he raced for all he was worth, wasting no time, not a single damned second as he gazed at the horrific sight shown so clearly with his now nearly 850 Perception.

  His once tightly deployed quintuple rowed phalanx of revenants had been forced to stretch and expand their perimeter, giving up their greatest strengths in their desperate effort to contain the massive swirling swarm of locusts… MILLIONS of fucking locusts… pressing up against Eric’s 200,000 that by some miracle were still holding like an expanding half bubble around the territory breach… but with quintuple rows of 25-foot-long spears replaced by short killing blades and desperation, close range where locusts could employ their one devastating attack, a bite that could snip even Eric’s finger right off the one moment he had been overconfident and stupid…

  And they dismembered his revenants just as easily.

  For every revenant that managed to beat a handful back… one fell to their foes…. Stretching their number thinner and thinner and Eric to his horror realized that he was about to witness a rupture that could have only ONE ending.

  Eric choked back a scream, his now painfully clear thoughts fusing with Battletime in a desperate flash of revelation, realizing that yes, there was still one path he could take that would at least buy them time.

  And it only risked absolutely everything, forcing him to endure that which Malificent’s curse made so damned perilous for him! Despite his outrageously high resistance.

  His lips curled in a fierce smile. Because there was something he could do about that, wasn’t there? In that endlessly stretched moment in time as Mach 2.0 ratcheted up to 2.6 with over a million Revenants now at his rear… he prepared for his most cataclysmic head-on collision ever as he made full use of Cultivator’s Resilience, forcing himself to permanently redirect 100 points worth of Spiritual Energy formerly compressed to glorious effect in his Lower Dantian to flood his entire body with a pure Body Cultivator’s strength… forever infusing every last cell with supernatural resilience to physical harm… at the cost of permanently sequestering so much of his spiritual potency.

  And he knew damn well that an extra near one hundred points would make all the difference. Because one point of Damage Resistance was a hell of a lot more than simply subtracting 1 point from unseen damage rolls. It was more like supernatural density increasing from copper to bronze to iron to steel. A blow that had once easily penetrated its target would suddenly find it extremely difficult.

  A single point would make the average man’s untrained punches all but irrelevant, save for critically hitting eye gouges and the like. And 30 or so points he knew from firsthand experienced was enough to stop most small arms from doing more than leaving a bruise on his skin. 300 had made him all but immune to artillery fire, at least when Battletime was further working to slow the relative velocity of an object.

  So just how far would a Damage Resistance of 438 protect him from hitting bugs at Mach 2?

  He could only hope it would be enough.

  With a surge of will, he shunted so much of his glorious Spiritual Energy from its eternal cycle through his major meridians to flood and saturate his entire body in a way that only a true master teaching a disciple for months or years…. or his System-enhanced skill perk of Cultivator’s Resilience would allow for.

  Making it clear that even here, Conceptio was influencing the path of Cultivation to better resonate with his own AI paradigm.

  And Eric was absolutely 100% Okay with that. Just as he was okay with EVERYTHING that helped him to survive. An internal truth that was then twisted and used against him as his nemesis slammed yet another card of fate down to cripple Eric in whatever way he could.

  Card of Twisted Aid in play!

  Because of course you should be utterly protected from every threat imaginable, no matter the cost!

  ALL your defenses have been boosted to MAXIMUM as your QI floods every iota of your Body AND Soul!

  Congratulations! This BOON of a curse that you have NO counter for, for it’s a path you yourself acknowledge as being desirable… has elevated Physical Resistance to 438!

  Elemental Resistance is now a shockingly high 420! With Hyperion Blazer bringing this to 630… You could resist even a Half-step Silver’s fireball!

  Your Qi Resistance is now 494! No wujen below Silver is hurting you! You are all but immune to ALL Basic and Bronze tier Qi attacks!

  Your Mental Resistance is 484! You can now fully resist a Silver-tier Monster’s insidious compulsions! You now see all the strands of fate binding you!!

  Dense Neurons enhanced by both Physical and Mental resistances beyond the pale means that, Squid-brains, Darklords, and Psionic Knights will find you a surprisingly tough nut to crack indeed, with a Psionic Resistance of 230! - They can read your pathetic meandering thoughts just fine, but White-tier Psionicists have little hope of hurting your DENSE Neurons at all!

  NOTE! You have spent a Total of 913 points of your Spiritual Energy MAXIMIZING your glorious defensive gains! Your NEW Spiritual Energy pool presently cycling through your Dantians is 337!

  And you can rest assured that you will now ALWAYS prioritize doubling ALL your resistances to the maximum that Cultivator’s Resilience will allow.

  Isn’t that WONDERFUL!?!

  Eric howled with frustrated fury as his Spiritual Energy crashed to just a fourth of what it would otherwise be, if he had never bothered with that perk at all. And he had no choice but to endure that mixed blessing. Keeping all his focus, every last iota of focus on the obstacle before him as his interface SCREAMED with a number of reds bursting through that his interface put a two million.

  Two million.

  And the number was shooting up as the locusts tore through the rift like an endless swarm of madly buzzing flies, eager to burst the already disintegrating containment field of Eric’s desperately fighting revenants before flooding the entire world and Eric WOULD NOT LET THAT HAPPEN!

  He howled as he lowered his head, accepted his losses, and picked up speed as he gave mental orders to all those struggling still.

  “Line up and get ready to BE the Supersonic bullet you always wanted to be!” He shrieked to his men while they were still miles away from their targets that instantly turned to seconds as his revenants spread out to tear through the entire hoard like a supersonic shotgun blast.

  Even if at that moment they were only going 400 miles per hour. Not enough. Not NEARLY enough.

  Not until a screaming Eric made contact, fist first with the closest locust after roaring his defiance, knowing it would hurt.

  And hurt it did.

  Beyond his wildest dreams.

  You have CRITICALLY STRUCK 57 Individual locusts for CATACLYSMIC damage! You have UTTERLY obliterated your targets with transcendant flame and kinetic blast!

  An additional 567 locusts have had their wings blasted off and are critically injured due to your supersonic shockwave (and releasing 57 bug shrapnel bombs that have torn through your foes!)

  Brittle Bones Curse in FULL EFFECT!

  You have shattered right radius, right ulna, right humerus! You are suffering hairline fractures within your right scapula! Right clavicle has snapped in twain!

  You have shattered 27 Carpals, Metacarpals, and Phalanges of your right hand.

  Your right hand has effectively been pulverized!

  You have Charged into additional opponents at slightly reduced speed!

  Left arm successfully SAVES against shattering!

  Three ribs have been cracked.

  You are suffering a hairline fracture of your cranium!

  You have SAVED versus broken neck!

  You have SAVED versus cranial hemorrhaging! (Dense Neurons enhancement mitigates damage!)

  NOTE! Brittle Bones shrapnel means you are suffering from multiple internal injuries and hemorrhaging!

  Charge is now Rank 15!

  Eric silently howled as his world became one of dizziness and shocking pain in the blink of an eye, feeling a faint flicker of bitter satisfaction when the arcane bow-wave between his feat enhancement and his revenants snapped into full effect once more.

  The messages flashing before his mind’s eye were just enough to keep him from sinking completely into the darkness as he crashed into the Black zone in an explosion of arthropod shrapnel and a shockingly loud sonic boon

  NOTE! YOUR ALLIES ENJOY A FRENZY BONUS OF 20%+11%+(20%*67xspeed of charging knight) = 1551% Damage bonus!

  FULL Charge boon in effect!

  1,000,000 Supersonic missiles have successfully OBLITERATED 97.98% of Locust Swarm!

  1,996,432 Locusts have been OBLITERATED by your Supersonic Legion!

  SHOCKWAVE Has sent almost the ENTIRETY of the swarm back across the barrier!

  New Arcadian queen allows for transfer without resistance!

  74,353 Sarissophoroi have FAILED To save and have been obliterated as badly as their targets!

  Congratulations! You are the FIRST Terran to lead a charge obliterating over ONE MILLION Bronze-Tier foes in a single strike!

  You have achieved the DEEP SILVER-Tier Title:

  Charge of the Prismatic Light Brigade III!

  - NOTE! Your shell is UNABLE to contain the potency of a Silver-Tier boon! Boon deferred until you have saturated your core as far as you dare and finally ascend to Bronze!

  - NOTE! Your sister has attempted to save your broken form with Royal Sylvan healing ritual, but you’ve already left her territory!

  Eric choked back a wheeze at the bitter irony of it all, flashing a bloody smile as he desperately tried to right himself, or at least his orientation of himself, but he was so damned dizzy and black shelled creatures were closing in on all directions and he really just wanted to close his eyes and.

  “ERIC! I’M LOSING YOU!”

  “Fight, Eric! I can’t do this alone!” An increasingly panicked Bunbun wailed.

  And the sound of Elonia’s panicked cry, and the anxious sob of a girl who had endured being devoured by orcs before being reborn anew finally snapped Eric out of his deadly fugue enough to understand his environment, his peril, and see exactly what he had to.

  Your crippled right hand has been chomped by—

  Crimson fire flashed, along with Eric’s desperate furious wheeze… the farthest thing from a howl. Yet in sharp contrast to his broken, dying form, his crimson blade of fire had never been thicker, stronger, BLAZING With more furious intensity as a snarling Eric, facing a massive swarm of tightly packed locusts here and now, amidst the rain of shattered bodies, lashed out for all he was worth.

  Power Blow has successfully Cleaved through 16 Greater Locusts!

  Vampiric Drain TRUMPS Brittle Bones Curse!

  You have healed 1324 points worth of health!

  Perception Check made!

  Mental Resistance allows you to sense that which was hidden!

  Unified Perception check made!

  You now SEE the strands of blackened silver binding you to the one you hate above all others!

  Eric howled even as he wheezed for breath, coughing up blood before commanding his blood to obey his will once more, even as he snarled and struck the massive swarm, again and again as he DEMANDED a thousand microtears and gushers to head his will, fibrin and clotting factors deliberately placed successfully countering the blackened strands of curses so eager for his death.

  His head pounded as he survived the shockingly thick storm of falling corpses and furious locusts as he demanded ever MORE from his blood, infusing his entire battered body with Burst of Strength, no matter that he dared swing his dachi with his left hand alone.

  It was still enough.

  Enough for him to gaze at the endless swarm of death as his health still continued to plummet, and take the desperate step needed to assure he’d be able to drink DEEP of the potency of his foes and live to fight another engagement.

  Live to fight for as long as it took to free his world from this nightmare, once and for all.

  “Don’t worry, Fearless Leader! I’m almost there! Bunbun to the rescue!”

  Eric couldn’t help flashing a smile as his familiar’s words even as he bit back a scream.

  Daring to enhanced his blade a full twenty-fold normal length and thickness and killing power, the shockingly brilliant bar of crimson fire then showing that it was capable of more.

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  SO MUCH MORE than he had once thought, even as his Burst of Strength enhanced physique crashed from an artificial 2184 to 1184 and his Quickness from 1438 down to 438.

  Still more than enough to tear through the swarm about to wash over him, desperate to consume him as his massive thick bar of fiery crimson death expanded from a glorious 40 feet… to 400 feet.

  Eric’s eyes widened in awe and wonder as scores locusts were shredded and desiccated with a single swing of that massive bar of crimson flame as a sweet, glorious rush of power flooded into his battered body. Sweetest nectar to his howling soul.

  Congratulations!

  Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 27!

  You have learned the Legendary Skill enhancement: Phoenix Reach!

  Desperation, a furious desire to live, and the remembrance of skills you once mastered to a dreadnought-destroying degree have begun to bubble to the surface of your ever-growing potential once more!

  Now, when you infuse Bloodfire Strike with a minimum of 1000 Strength and Quickness channeled into your blow, you may, for 10x baseline cost, extend 40 foot reach to 400!

  Effective cost: 300 Qi and 30 Temporary Soul reserves! (7.5 SR with Crimson orb in play!)

  His eyes widened with wonder, even as the doom of an entire world crashed in around him.

  “Fuck! This isn’t the end.. this is just the fucking beginning!” He screamed as countless injuries were rapidly repaired by the shockingly sweet flood of power bubbling like Champaign in his veins.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  He glared at the massive swarm before cackling with laughter, screaming his favorite phrase even as he darted forward once more. Only this time, injured as he was, he wasn’t unleashing a defensive slash. This time he was taking full use of his Battleforged Blademastery skill perk, less concerned about the buzzing nightmare horrors rapidly surrounding him, than he was HOW MANY MOTHERFUCKERS HE COULD KILL WITH ONE SWING!?

  Adrenaline pounded, Danger Sense and opportunity screaming in glorious concert as he ducked his neck below snapping pincers before unleashing a second MASSIVE 400-foot-long blade of sanguine fire and oblivion, tearing right through the massive host even as half of his own revenant battalion finished crashing through the gate, so shockingly fast he had been moving with Battletime.

  Save for now, his Quickness temporarily reduced to 427 even as he spent another 400 Qi from his now massively depleted pool and 7.5 Soul Reserves like it was nothing, the tip of his phoenix blade striking all his targets for 20-fold baseline Bloodfire Strike damage that was further multiplied by Cultivator’s Might, Cultivator’s Fury, Death’s Disciple and Reaver Rank II damage multipliers to obliterate each and every one of the locusts he tore through with one glorious blazing strike.

  All 227 of them.

  And this time, when 600,000 revenants joined the 400,000 he had just raised to pincer the swarm between them, he was READY!

  Weaving and lashing out with his crimson blade to blast through hundreds of Locusts, laughing like a madman as his body shivered with such incredibly sweet potency that successfully burst open every twisted pustule inside him filled with his enemy’s tainted malice, cleansing it all with the purifying glory of blood and fire as his foes erupted and malevolent curses finally began to fade, only pulling away when he sensed his revenants being surrounded once more.

  Realizing again, what a fool he was to leave one and a half MILLION corpses on the ground that would eventually be devoured by his foe.

  Unless, of course, he claimed them first.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator, Imperat, Tibi!” He roared eight consecutive times as he weaved and darted past the furious swarm eager to consume him AND his revenants as Eric pulled their focus away from the breach that could so easily spell the doom of his world, should they successfully break free.

  “Surge Centuria! Rise, motherfuckers!”

  And rise they did, Eric only taking off for high altitude when every last locust he had obliterated with crimson blade and hypersonic strike had reformed to serve him for all time.

  All 2.5 Million of them.

  He glared down at the swarming Bronze-Tier locusts carpeting the entire wasteland, their once impossible to fathom numbers now finally… FINALLY seeming like something that he just might be able to manage.

  But he sure as hell wasn’t going to take that for granted.

  No. Hell no. he was going to purge these fuckers to the last cockroach, once more spreading his army out and shifting his orientation 90 degrees so that the ground was now a massive wall COVERED in bugs, and he and his 2.5 million best friends were now going to fucking pin those butterflies to the wall for all time.

  “Eric! What the fuck!?!” Squealed his beloved familiar, now at the head of a respectable, even adorable, hoard of a 100,000+ healthy looking locust revenants, though she was riding across what was now the wall, via Eric’s reference point, one ear flopping in disbelief.

  “You look um… better, Bossman!”

  “Thanks!” Eric smiled brightly. “I haven’t checked the interface but I think I’ve just smashed past Level 70 as a Master Necromancer! And I don’t think I’m cleansing my meridian necro-crud any time soon. I can sense Eve laughing at me right now, but I tell you, Lilly, with two and a half million Self-Tube followers joining me for this live-stream, I’m feeling FUCKING FANTASTIC!”

  “And that’s why you and everyone else are looking down at the ground as if sideways is right-ways, because now physics has decided to let my boi call the shots?”

  “Pretty much! Now check this out, Bunbun! See the swarm of half a million bugs still eager to devour us? I call this game… pin the tail on the FUCKING ROACH! Charge, boys!”

  And whether or not Bunbun was impressed or just blinking in disbelief when Eric and his crew charged Straight Down without losing a single stride, just as if they were charging full speed at a very comfortable, very easily controlled 100 MPH, what did get her doing back flips on her mount was when Eric and his friends embraced awesomeness at the exact same time.

  “Piercing Strike!” Eric roared, a shout that was echoed through his ENTIRE regiment of otherwise utterly silent Sarissophoroi, their spears slamming through carapace and ground by the literal million.

  The earth shook.

  Rocks and bugs burst.

  And Eric howled with the sweet wonder of another half million kills being claimed by revenants and core, and once he said the magic word once more, his class as well.

  “Surge Centuria, Boys!”

  Eric curled his fists and laughed like the madman he so clearly was, bright wild eyes gazing happily into Bunbun’s own.

  “It’s official, Bun! My ultimate cultivation mistress just made it clear that I’ll probably need at least half-dozen Boss-Tier beast kills to ‘evolve’ past all the taint I’m so HAPPILY bathing my soul in right now… or a reality-warping Contender fight, since we break all the rules just by existing, if I want to claim a single additional Cultivation level. But get this! I’m now a 71st level Master Necromancer! And that means I have five fucking Perks to play with!”

  Bunbun hopped on her flying mount in her excitement, a curious contrast to the scene of slaughter, swarming bugs, and an ever growing army of titanic proportions down below… or pinned against the ‘wall,’ depending on one’s reference. “Sounds EPIC, fearless leader! Ooh… let me link up with your interface… SWEET! I love these Dreadlord options, though not the Soul Reserve cost and Good God, you have 400+ in almost all of your resistances!? Including 230 in Psionic Resistance, where you elves are normally as fragile as flowers! Your own mom didn’t have anything there, even as a Silver! King much?”

  Eric flashed a bitter smile. “A ‘for your own good’ curse from a certain asshole who will remain nameless because he ain’t shit. No doubt he was trying to destroy me from within… but since I originally had fucking 1,250 Spiritual Energy… SO FUCKING Close to 13,000! So... yeah. And the awful thing is I can’t even fully hate it, which makes the bane impossible to resist, ha, ha, because certainly some of those Resistances have most definitely saved my bacon. One of the oversized chompy locusts actually failed to bite off my formerly mangled right hand. Considering how well they snipped off my finger a hundred points of Physical Resistance ago… there really is something to be said about increasing those numbers, far beyond a simple damage number reduction.”

  Bunbun nodded sagely. “There really is. Even if your Qi Pool is only a hair over 4000… and why the fuck are we wining about that? Not too long ago, hoss, and a 300 in Spiritual Energy would have made you cream!”

  “True. But my Qi Pool should be closer to 13,000 and some of the absurd skill manifestations I’m experimenting with, as you know, chew up a shit ton of Qi.”

  “Fair point! So, how are we going to overcompensate for all our regrets by absolutely SMASHING it on theNnecromancer front? You know, with your 2.5 MILLION revenant strong army floating over our heads, not to mention the 100K vanguard piloted by Yours Truly?”

  Eric grinned and showed her the perks he was considering.

  She whistled thoughtfully. “Rank 4 in Dreadlord’s Wrath would give you a combined 10% chance of a Critical feat-using strike and most importantly, it would DOUBLE their bonus damage and penetration power to be double your Necromancer level. That, Fearless Leader, is shockingly absurd and absolutely delicious bown, even at 8 points!”

  She then frowned. “But it’s Rank 5 that worries me. Sure, your free critical strike chance for each revenant including Moi goes up to a combined 15% … YAY! BUT it’s at a whopping cost of 16 Soul Reserves!”

  Her excitement turned to concern. “Eric, trust me. You want to curb off those gleeful urges because its a logarithmic increase. And that’s fucking scary!”

  Eric solemnly nodded. “I know. And I understand your alarm, and why you didn’t read the bottom line. Now read it and tell me what you—”

  Bunbun’s eyes bulged… her cute button nose all a-quiver as she hopped up to Eric’s face and quietly whispered in his ear while their massive army kept up a defensive formation in the form of a massive globe that did at least kept the immediate area temporarily clear of enemies.

  “ERIC! It says… it says…”

  Eric winked. “Yes. Yes it does.”

  “Eric!”

  “Bunbun!”

  “You can infuse EVERY FUCKING LAST ONE OF US WITH ONE RANK OF WRATH ESSENCE!” Her eyes bulged. She frantically pattered his chest with her foot. “Do you understand how fucking absolutely… It’s an essence! It will enhance the fury and penetration power and raw damage of absolutely everything! If they were truly living or close enough, like me, they could begin to develop cool powers and skills, just like you! And maybe… maybe they could pierce arcane wards with their spears? At least when hitting Critical success a fat 15% of the time? Which with 2.5 MILLION Soldiers, that’s 375,000 times per charge!”

  Eric chuckled. “So what you’re saying is, sometimes, maybe… burning 24 points on a roll of the dice is totally worth it?”

  Bunbun nodded. “Yes, Eric. Yes, it really is. But the one I think you should consider hardest is right… here.”

  Her choice highlighted with a blinking rabbit ear.

  Eric nodded his approval. “Dreadlord’s Frenzy. Rank one is a Quickness bonus equal to my Necromancer level, which is fucking awesome and destructive as hell, since speed IS king. Best of all, it only costs’ me one Soul Point.”

  Bunbun tapped his forehead. Gently, fortunately. “That’s not all, fearless leader. Look at Rank 2!”

  Eric did just that. Then he lurched back with an awed curse and it didn’t even matter that the message was in his mind because his heart pounding and he was paying little attention to the shrieks, thuds and chaos of pitched battle upon the bug-infested desolate planes a short distance away as he let the words sink in.

  He looked up at Bunbun for long seconds, then down again, double checking his interface just to make sure.

  “Fuck me.” He softly said.

  Bunbun grinned. “If I were a human girl and not your beloved Bunbun…”

  “They get access to any Speed or Quickness perks I might have. What would be a filler perk before hitting Rank III, in anyone else.”

  Bunbun solemnly nodded. “But for YOU, fearless leader...”

  Eric swallowed, gazing at his familiar for long moments. “We’d have our fucking supersonic bullet going two and a half times the speed of sound. A bullet the size of two and a half million hundred and seventieth level revenants with 25-foot-long spears, all of them boosted all to fuck and back.” He licked suddenly dry lips.

  “Bunbun?”

  “Yes, Fearless Leader?”

  “What happens when they get boosted by my absolutely absurd Charge skill when they’re ALREADY going my speed?”

  Bunbun squealed and did a happy backflip. “Absolutely delicious things! That’s what! And all for the low, low price of just three more Soul Reserve points. For a combined cost of 27 points. Permanently gone… sure. But let’s not kid ourselves. At this point, we’ve broken ALL precepts of balance and stable power progression or the hallmarks of any good story or game… BECAUSE THIS ISN’T A GAME, ERIC!”

  His familiar’s eyes flashed with the pain of girl who had died screaming before monsters who had made damn sure she would never forget that awful truth. Not in her first life, or any other.

  Eric flinched and looked away. No matter the glorious, awful devastation he had caused that day, the righteous slaughter he had embraced and would continue to embrace to the bitter end, the look of pain flashing across Lilly’s oddly human eyes was still more than he could bear.

  And then it was Bunbun gently stroking his wet cheek with her ear. “This is our world, Eric. Our home, and the whole fucking galaxy is out to get us. So let’s fucking DO THIS AND WIN! Because we’re the absolute strongest badasses on the entire fucking planet. Let’s not even pretend otherwise. Which means that there’s only one place that final perk point should go.”

  Eric forced a chuckle, wiping away the dampness in his eyes as he shared a grin with his once more cheerful-looking familiar. He flashed a cheeky grin. “Not on Dreadlord’s Frenzy Rank III.”

  Bunbun shook her head. “Nope. That’s not the answer Mama Bun is looking for.”

  Eric laughed, filled with such a furious surge of EXCITEMENT!

  “Mark of Resilience Rank II. Because my fucking absurd number of perks is already boosting their Vitality and durability by 10% per perk. Rank 2 will double that. DOUBLE all that goodness for well over 400% boost to Vitality and Durability."

  Bunbun dipped her head. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

  “Agreed,” Eric said as he pressed accept and began howling as loud as the screeching, dying locusts below as his body surged with shocking power. His gifts and what was, for now, his deadliest class reforging him like never before.

  You have chosen the Necromantic Perk: Dreadlord’s Wrath V! - Your Revenants now enjoy DOUBLE your level in bonus damage and penetration power equal to TWICE your Necromancer Level! - At Level 71, that’s +142% Damage! - Your Revenants have a 15% Chance to unleash Critical Piercing Strikes with each and every blow they unleash! Additionally, all your revenants are fully infused and saturated with 1 Rank of Wrath at all times for added penetrative power, damage, and survivability! Finally, you now have the ability to channel your weapon feats through your ENTIRE ARMY at tenfold normal cost!

  NOTE! SYNERGISM DETECTED! You are a Level 99 Pristine Phoenix with the class abilitys of 50% Reduction in cost of ALL Essence attacks, 199% Damage bonus to all Essence abilities!

  Your Wrath-infused revenants NOW ENJOY THESE SAME BOONS! - Unleash Piercing Strikes with your ENTIRE ARMY that are twice as deadly as normal while paying only 5-fold the standard temporary Soul Reserve cost!

  Note. There is a price to be paid for an Underlord’s boons! You’ve lost 24 points to your Soul Reserves… permanently!

  You have chosen the Master Necromancer Perk: Dreadlord’s Frenzy: Rank II.

  Your revenants now enjoy your Necromancer Level in speed and attack frequency, striking 71% faster than before! Your revenants enjoy any boons you might have earned or class abilities you might have gained in the realms of quickness and movement.

  NOTE! SYNERGISM DETECTED! Your revenants enjoy Speed Racer boon! Call to Battle means they can move just as fast as you, regardless of air resistance!

  You’ve permanently lost 3 points to your Soul Reserves purchasing these feats!

  You have chosen the Master Necromancer Perk: Mark of Resilience II

  All of your revenants will manifest the Resilience rune (and multiple other runes of sublime potency) upon their skulls! These runes will boost the Vitality and durability of all your revenants by 20% for every Necromancer perk that enhances your Revenants!

  Eric gazed upon his massive army with the pride of a general. “Hey Bunbun, guess what?”

  “What’s that, fearless leader?”

  “My Soul Reserves are now over a thousand.”

  Bunbun whistled. “Outstanding! And I love these new runes, all tingly and glowy against my skull. I'm gonna hide mine, however. Because fur. Cool?"

  Eric nodded. "You do you, Bunbun. All good."

  "Awesome. So, how much do you have left in your temporary pool after all our slaughter up till now?”

  Eric winced. “Less than a third. And my Spiritual Energy is also less than a third. The good news is that in a place this saturated with the slaughter of millions struggling for their lives… they’re both ticking up nearly as fast as my Mana Pool, so long as I’m out of Battletime.”

  Bunbun nodded, comfortably seated on her favorite perch once more.

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  Eric glared into the distance, seeing nothing but death, desolation, and endless locusts slowly forming a shockingly large cloud that reached high into the sky, lighting crackling between storm clouds that could so easily have been Malificent’s hate-filled glare.

  “I’m thinking that the swarm of fuckers is absolutely never going to stop. That the only way to control this is to severe whatever nightmare is linking our realm with you-know-who’s.”

  Bunbun sighed, looking up at Eric. “I, for one, don’t have a clue. Do you?”

  Eric’s eyes twinkled with mad mirth, even as he pulled out his dread blade once more, reveling in the brilliant play of frozen fire and ice hotter than any supernova as he lost itself in its shocking beauty and promise of absolute destruction.

  Bunbun flinched, but only for a heartbeat. Solemn eyes gazed sadly into his own as she met his gaze, silhouetted against the suddenly storm sky. “Eric?”

  Eric swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m sorry, Bun. I have to cut the tainted cords that bind. Unless I do, this world is doomed.”

  His rabbit stiffened. “Eric, please, I—”

  Arcane Perception Skillcheck made! Soul Sight perception check made!

  Your target FAILS to avoid your WRATH!

  Phoenix Strike SUCCESSFULLY SEVERES TARGET!

  Phoenix Strike SUCCESSFULLY SEERS AWAY THE LAST OF YOUR TAINT!

  ALL CURSES HAVE BEEN LIFTED!

  Phoenix Strike is now Rank 19!

  Bunbun screamed, collapsing in a dead faint.

  Eric snorted, gently stroking her ears and patting her head. “There were tainted silver cords binding you to our enemy. Me too. I’m sorry, Bun. I thought that if I gave anything away, if I made it seem like anything other than yet another stupid tragedy playing out for his amusement… he’d just hide those awful cords again them using level 40 fuckall curse magic I don’t have a hope of unravelling. It’s a miracle that my Elven Mental Resistance is so great at spotting enchantments, curses and compulsions… even if it’s shit all for blocking anything in the utterly alien yet ability-wise convergent Psionic Dimension.”

  Lilly, however wasn’t having it. “You absolute, fucking fuck!” She squealed. “I was just about to confess my love for you because I’m not gonna beg but maybe I can melt your heart! I thought, I was so afraid you had been mind-fucked by that asshole-shaped cloud of locusts approaching for the epic battle… but no, you were just fucking with me!”

  Eric winked and laughed, holding his exasperated bunny close. She forgave him with a bop of his head and together they both witnessed the distant howling challenge of Malice in the form of a million swarming locusts before nodding as one.

  “Time we ended this, don’t you think?”

  “Damn right!”