Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Epic Orchestral Fantasy Music: "Follow The Light" — Alibi Music
https://youtu.be/R9UWw9hb13s
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Late Morning - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 0 : Richmond, Virginia | East Coast United States
World: Earth | Rank: 6 Population: ~1,895,413,000
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*Wooooom* The heavy, low hum of hulking mass shifting—the kind of vibration you didn't hear so much as feel, deep in your ribs, resonating with your bones—it filled the air that morning like the ring of a death knell, the kilometer-long rails of the gun on the horizon dragging down streams of clouds while arcing electricity through them as if to fuel thunder.
Frozen at the lip of the wall, I found it almost mesmerizing—my breath held as I watched the enormous machine slowly pivot toward me, its mechanical joints groaning under the immense strain of a lowered muzzle.
Such a monstrous cannon was never meant to aim at the horizon.. it didn't look like it could...
...But at the moment, it did.. as if forced by something other than programming...
Squinting, my gaze fell beneath the lower rail, finding a figure racing toward me.. a man in clean, white and silver armor, with a bright golden halo over his head.
Even from afar, it was easy to tell what he was, the faint fog releasing from his body like a distant smoke signal.
But while I was already certain, the moment I focused on him, the system gave me a panel to confirm it:
*Vwoop* 'Jack Ricora... (Possessed)... Class: Angel's Avatar... Level 612.'
-Woah...- It was a local system panel, something I had only heard of after leaving Earth to travel the system.
Only available to local residents of a world, the panel exposed all sorts of information about people beneath the umbrella of their local system, from age, name, race, class and level, to more obscure things like titles, inheritances, and gold.
Though, despite never having seen one, the detail it presented me with felt.. abnormal...
But I didn't have a chance to question it.
*VVMMMM-CRACKLE* Feeling a wave of static ripple outward and stand the hairs on the back of my neck, my pupils dilated and snapped up to the gun.. my gaze landing between the hulking rails as they arced with electricity.
-Shit...- Feeling the static rapidly building, I darted for the inside of the wall, throwing myself down below the lip before, in a single gut-twisting electromagnetic pulse, the gargantuan slug tore past me, carving through the sky like a spear hurled by gods, cavitating the clouds kilometers above while boring a glowing, molten hole through the top of the wall. *WOOSH*
Even with my speed, I barely got under it, getting caught by the shockwave, slammed into the wall, and sent tumbling toward the ground, only to correct myself and land on my feet in the last moment. *fwip-CRRACK*
Smashing the brittle concrete road as my feet plunged into it, I looked up with haste, expecting countless people, mercenaries and apostles alike to greet me...
But, there weren't any. -H..huh..?- Neither combatants.. nor citizens...
Looking down the long straight road lined with countless bland, poorly decorated concrete buildings without a soul in sight, I felt my brows wrinkle. -What the hell..?-
It was a ghost town... With the distant wailing of sirens, the sterile scents of heat and stone, and the sight of dark, trash-littered buildings, it was truly like the place had just been abandoned... Abruptly, no less...
But, I wasn't given the chance to do anything more than look.
"You need to leave."
Hearing a stern, irritated voice carry through the steady wind blowing down the street, I turned to find the halo-donning man walking toward me, some hundred meters away, wielding a thin, long sword to his side.
"Beings of your class are not permitted in this world. If you are the System Cluster manager's avatar, I can permit your entry, but you must do so as an observer." His voice rasped with the intent to kill. "If you do not leave now, you will break the balance of this world even more than you already have..." He gripped his sword tighter with every word, not straying his gaze from mine in the slightest.
Even as I looked into the very core of his being. -To think I'd get mistaken as a System Manager...- They were essentially gods that looked over and managed several server worlds in a 'cluster', a group of worlds granted 'their own server' under the administration of the higher rank, central server world, extending the System's umbrella under the condition of a tax on the exp mercenaries connected to it earn.
It was a rather small price to pay for the unfathomable 'benefits' of the system.. even if.. like any other pyramid scheme.. the benefits were nothing more than illusions...
Illusions that consumed people more efficiently than even the most convincing mirages.
*crink* Watching the man march closer with every passing second, I couldn't help but feel pity... He too was trapped in the maze I was only just given the hope of escaping.
Unfortunately though, being the avatar of an administrator, a freedom-less husk left to act as the body of another being, he was too far gone... "What a bastard you are..."
Speaking to the cloudy-body possessing the boy, his body froze in an instant, his eyes widening as his heart started pounding. "You..." The previously poorly concealed bloodlust immediately erupted from him as if to try and hide the pulse of fear that wavered his tone. "Are you.. a destroyer?"
"Hm..." Thinking he was referring to the title in the system, one granted after destroying or assisting in the destruction of a civilization, I nodded without thinking. "I suppose."
But.. that was the wrong response.
Almost instantly, the boy's expression warped with horror—his knuckles turning white. *WOOSH* Closing the distance between us in a blink, the tip of his sword slammed into my sternum, and the ground blurred beneath my feet. *CLINK-WHOOOM*
*WHAM-CRRRACKLEE* Slamming into the wall, cracks ripped through it, its flat face warping to try and catch me while the metal-reinforced concrete screamed with strain.
But rather than a gasp, all that could escape my mouth was a heavy.. disappointed sigh... "Haah..." *crUNCH* Ripping my self out of the rubble, I looked down at the hastily approaching man with an unnerving calmness before ducking beneath the path of his sword.
*Fwip* Even from a distance, his blade traced a molten line across the wall with such force it exploded, blinding me with a cloud of dust and fragmentation. *CRRRUMBLE*
Though.. somehow, the image my mana projected in my mind momentarily laid over my vision.. outlining him and his sword.. coming to slice from my neck to waist.. perfectly.
*fw-pat* Catching his blade just off my collar with an unamused ease, my voice turned heavy with pity. "Sorry, kid." -You shouldn't have given your body up to such an arrogant being...- *WOOM* An orange, molten glow instantly lit the cloud of dust as my knuckles slammed into his liver, melting his armor with the impact alone before abruptly stopping, hoping not following through would at least preserve most of the boy's body.
It was a shame.. but it was the only mercy I could provide.
A quick.. instantaneous death.
*CR-RRACK* Before another second could pass, the impact blew a hole through him, the outward shockwave reducing his organs and bones to a uniform mush before he simply disappeared, ripping through the sound barrier and zipping over the lifeless concrete jungle in a streak of light.
*Ding!* 'You have killed a Level 612 System Mercenary...'
The ringing of the kill panel pierced through the silence before an echo of the punch could even ring out—the panel seeming to linger as I fell, echoing the disgust that filled my mouth as I watched the streak of light fade over the city.
Although an unfamiliar feeling, in that moment, I felt powerless.
Despite giving the boy a swift death, the greatest mercy I could, it felt terrible. My attack was far from reaching the god that wore his skin, and even if I followed through, nothing would have changed. Even at the peak of my power, just before the system wipe, my attacks couldn't reach across the boundary of divinity.
Now was certainly no different.
*Vwoop* Watching as the cloudy figure who once possessed the boy reappeared in the air above me without a moment of mourning, its beautiful wide, white wings and cloudy halo disfigured by the furious look of disdain, I couldn't help but scoff with disgust. -You're all the damn same...-
Lifeless, greed-bound beings, gods were. Creatures who manipulated the system to abuse and control those of inferior existence.
Creatures whom I wished to kill more than anything else in the world...
Even if I doubted whether that was even possible...
But just as I lowered my gaze to the long street again, the figure lost its shape like a popped balloon. *Puff*
-H..Huh?!- It was killed before it could even react.. and while I heightened my senses to ready myself for whatever did it, time warped and slowed.
"~For a being of your stature to be curious in Earth. I'm honored.~" *Woom* Hearing a voice echo through a medium other than air, I stiffened before a hazy figure with features incomparable to the god he dusted appeared and descended before me.
It was a tall man with perfectly white hair, his grey eyes paled with blindness, wearing a beautiful, ethereally flowing white robe with a bright, blinding halo over his head.
He was an administrator on a completely different level from the one I had just seen.. one more than strong enough to put me on edge. -This one.. might be troublesome...-
But.. just as I expected him to punch me across the continent, he pulled a hand from behind his back and bowed with a practiced elegance, exposing several sets of pure white, feathered wings sprouting from his back. "~I apologize about the.. misguided being that greeted you. This world isn't a place beings of your stature typically roam.~"
His voice was light and polite, yet carried a weight and clarity only comparable to the administrators of higher worlds. "I could say the same about you..." Keeping my senses heightened, I couldn't help but leak the skepticism in my voice. "What is an administrator like you doing in such a low rank world..."
Slowly lifting from his bow, his eyes drifted, as if trying to gage me, before smiling. "~You say that like my strength is troublesome to you. Surely you know of administrators' limitations.~" He paused before continuing with chill. "~Or is it perhaps that you plan to do something that will lift them...~"
Straightening my posture slightly, I spat, "As if such an over-classed administrator would restrict himself to those guidelines."
Pausing again, he took a moment to give me a good look before easing the weight of his tone. "~Forgive me, it appears the misunderstanding is deeper than I.. anticipated... What is your purpose for being here.. miss..?" His voice quickly uptook a more polite, albeit forced, tone as he continued. "It appears my subordinate mistook you for a Destroyer.. here, that is a being who revisits old worlds with the intention to destroy them... But if you were one of them, the planet itself would already be screaming.~" Still trying to gauge me, his expression soured.
But, while I didn't understand how he wasn't able to at least get a system panel on me, I eased my tone as well. "Earth is my home world. I only now got the opportunity to return now after well over 500 years... According to the system.. at least..."
"~Five.. hundred...~" His eyes widened as an inescapable awe flooded his voice. "~You must have been a part of one of the first groups summoned into The System when it was initially connected.~"
Feeling my skin crawl as it felt like he somehow looked through the inside of my body, a chill passed my spine.
"~How truly fascinating.. though that does not change the fact that you cannot be here.~" His tone firmed to a threat in an instant. "~You need to leave.~"
Feeling his presence grow as time itself thickened, my gaze thinned.. bracing...
"~I do hope you will comply and leave yourself.. for if you don't.. by the grace of God I will make sure your final moments in this world aren't easy...~"
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