"Fourth Stage Undead?" Josh inquired. They went over what that type of undead that was recently. However, Don made it seem like the fourth stage wouldn't be showing up for a while. "I can't be sure unless I see it, but if it was someone not from our group that looks like a human, then it has to be the fourth stage," Don answered.
"The question now is, why? Why would it take Jake?" Don muttered in thought. No one could think of anything. No one understood the Undead or Bugs, and even they were just as confused about this world. If anyone could have had the answer, it would have been Don, but if Don didn't know. So he was just as clueless.
"What do you want to do then?" Rebecca asked. "I'll just have to go look for him myself. If the Stage Fours are here, then this changes everything. We should have several more months, but things are progressing far too quickly..." Don answered.
"Progressing far too quickly?" Tim asked. He didn't let what Don said slip by. No one told the newcomers what happened to Don or how he had been here for pretty much nine years. Don decided to explain to him everything. From how he used his wishes to rewind time, and how he died, how he came back to life, and how this was his tenth run.
"Damn... That's..." Tim paused for a moment to linger on the emotion. "Sad." Tim finished. Everyone agreed with Tim in silence. It was pretty sad. To have to watch your friends die over and over and be the lone survivor over and over. "It's fine. I am more so focused on trying to keep all of you alive and getting you all back home, and that includes Jake." Don said with a firm voice.
"So, April and I will head out. Rebecca, you are in charge until I get back. We'll have to bump up the plans sooner rather than later. If everything is progressing this fast, then that means the war is coming sooner than expected. I'll search for Jake on my way to our main objective. I'll just have to bring him along. If any of you find him during your scouting and scavaging, be sure to bring him back." Don said.
Everyone agreed in some way or another, "Then dismissed." Don said and hurried out of the room. He went to the front of the prison, just outside of the entry, and brought out the bikes. Both his and Rose's bike with his spatial distortion. "Did you pack some gas in your storage thing?" April asked.
"Yeah, more than enough for our trip. Come on." Don replied and hopped onto his bike. April sat behind him and held onto him tightly while Don turned the bike on. "Are you sure we should be leaving so soon? I mean, you still wanted to set some stuff up before our departure, right?" April asked.
"I did, but that was because we had time to do so. We are all out of time. The moment the fourth stage showed up became the deciding factor. When the first appears, the rest will as well. It will be a bloodbath." Don took off as he answered April.
"Not to mention, they are tough. Breaking past their skin and flesh will be hard enough. To add their power and speed alongside their intelligence. We'll need more than just Seed Powers to take one down." Don explained over the roaring winds.
April just listened. She knew Don's judgment was usually best, so she went with it. Besides, she didn't care even if it was the incorrect judgment. She just wanted to be with him. She didn't want to lose her beloved ever again.
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"Sooo...." Tim looked towards Rebecca. "I guess Don really took off, huh?" Ion asked. "Don gave us our orders. Nothing has changed. Remember, he always planned to leave. He's just leaving a bit sooner than when he probably would have. So, let's return to our duties." Rebecca said, and everyone went off to partake in their duties.
"What do you want to do? You want to go looking?" John asked, looking at Josh. They were pretty close friends, so he figured Josh was just as worried as him right now. "No. The closest town is a fair walk from here. Even if he did search for him while doing some scavaging, we would need to stay in that town for several days to even get a decent hulk." Josh said.
"Right now, I think we should focus on the base and our training. Even if it is a little offset of our original roles, I think right now, all personal who can't help with the building should be on patrol and guard duty. In contrast, those who can provide help with the building should focus more on that." Josh explained his train of thought.
"Want to run it by Rebecca?" John asked, and Josh nodded. Since Rebecca had yet to leave the room, they went to her, and Josh told her his idea. She agreed, and they made an announcement on the intercom saying what the plans were for now.
"Till we get our base operational and running, we'll need to focus more on that. No scouting or scavaging until then. With that said, we should get a garage for vehicles up and running soon as well. All personal who can aid in building, please help our builders, and those who can't, please keep the patrol and watch duty." Rebecca said.
No one seemed to complain about this new set of roles. In fact, everyone agreed. Sure, they were all concerned and worried about Jake, but they knew that the nearest town was a fair distance from them. Even if they sent someone out, they would have to stay in that town for a few days just to bring back a good haul.
Even Tim knew that walking everywhere was pointless since you could only carry so much. Plus, you had to worry about the environment and the foes you would be facing. There were just too many risks. Noah was thankful for some help, and Dillian was just as pleased. With this, Dillian was able to work on upgrading their base walls by morphing the property of concrete to steel. The problem was, he could only do it in sections, and the change took a lot of time since it was covering a wide area.
Since it took so long, Dillian was putting this off until the other things could be finished; however, since others helping Noah, he able to focus on the base walls. Of course, Noah knew that they would need Dillian's Earth Seed Power, so he focused on the things that didn't need it. Such as drafting up blueprints for a garage, electrical fencing, and those robotic turrets.
Noah actually had a wild imagination when it came to things like this. He could guess the parts that needed to go with each blueprint, but he wouldn't really know until he tried to put it together. It also seemed like unless the thing actually worked, he wouldn't be able to produce it with his Seed Power. He learned this when he tried to create a sci-fi laser gun from scratch, but it seemed like he was missing something. He could only assume that was why his Seed Power didn't produce the laser gun he made.
In addition to that, the laser gun was more like a toy. It did no damage whatsoever. So, Noah wasn't too upset. He was mostly hoping for a cheat, where he could create something cheap and produce a stronger version with his Seed Power, but that didn't seem to work. Noah did give those who came to help him orders to prepare the land for construction and gather various materials into various piles.
Those that weren't going to help with construction were in the watchtowers. Even Sofia, who was on Juan's shoulders, was looking out at the wide field. "Wooooow!" Sofia said with amazement. Even if the lands were bare, they were so far up that she found it cool. Then she saw something, "Hey, papa, what's that?" Sofia asked, pointing at something coming towards them off in the distance.
Juan tried to look at it, and when he did, he saw an oversized scorpion making its way towards them. Though that wasn't all, there was something on top of it. Riding it as if it were some kind of animal. "Is that a person?" Juan muttered. "Regardless, we should tell the others," Catalina said. "Good idea!" Juan agreed and went to tell Rebecca.
Rebecca gathered those on patrol and guard duty: Josh, Sussan, Ryan, Tim, Lilly, Juan, and Catalina. They had Sofia stay with Rose, and Rebecca explained the situation to her. Rebecca and her current group were out front waiting for the scorpion, and whatever was riding it to arrive.
Everyone was prepared for a fight. Josh had landmines set in the air in front of him. Ryan had two balls of water swirling around his palms. Tim had his GreatSword, which was enchanted with the flame property thanks to Sussan, and Sussan placed those flame pillar traps on the ground. Lilly had summoned a blue scaly sea-serpent that was the size of a python and a large Hell-Hound that was the size of a Dire Wolf. Both of these summonses sat beside her.
Catalina and Juan were standing behind them. Catalina right now had a small pink line connected to Ryan. She was boosting Ryan's Seed Power. Juan had his winds gently running around him. He was ready to shield his allies and heal them if need be.
"I come in peace!" A bolstering male voice called as the oversized scorpion, and the person riding the creature came within view. They could see now that the person riding the bug was a beefy shirtless man who looked like he had just come out of a jungle or something with how dirty he appeared and messy his hair was.
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While this was happening, Jake was still sitting on the throne. He hadn't moved since he dismissed everyone, but the female undead from earlier returned. She was wearing a raggy skirt and a torn-up tank-top. Both looked far too small on her, and her feet were still bare. The undead woman was standing beside him politely with her arms in front of her and her hands together.
She was currently taking in the open cave where many undead were hard at work carrying various materials around and things they considered food such as humans and bugs. Jake had been watching this whole time as well. In fact, the thing he noticed the most was that this cave he was in housed an inner-city filled with undead.
He couldn't wrap his head around how the undead could make homes and do what they were doing now, but right now, he was more concerned with how to get out of here. Sure, they had been treating him like a King, but he didn't know why or even understand it.
Jake looked towards the female undead. Aside from her discolored flesh, she didn't seem damaged like the other undead. There were no chunks of meat taken from her body, nor was she missing any limbs. "How did you die?" Jake found himself blurting out his thoughts. When he saw the undead woman look in his direction, he instantly knew what he had said and cleared his throat, "Nevermind." He said.
"Do you wish to know?" The female undead asked. "You seem confused as to why you are here, my King." The female undead added. "I am. I remember passing out, and then you saved me and brought me here. I don't know why you did or why you call me King. After all, I am human." Jake said with a shake of his head.
"Human?" The female undead's brow rose since she was confused. She shook her head, "My liege, you are not human. You are the King of Undead, the ruler. A Lich, if anything." The female undead answered.
"Lich?" Jake asked while looking at her, and the female undead nodded respectfully. "You command the undead, create them and rule over them. You give us power, and for that, there is no greater honor." The female undead answered.
"I see..." Jake was trying to wrap his head around this. Don never mentioned anything about him being a King of Undead or anything. Sure, he knew he could create Undead and control them, and sure he wanted an army, but this was different. It wasn't like any of these Undead were under his control. None of them radiated with the gray aura.
"Well, that's one thing. Will you tell me how you died?" Jake asked. "If my King wishes." The female undead would respectfully bow, and Jake would nod since it seemed like she needed his permission for whatever reason. He wasn't used to this kind of thing, though. It felt off to him.
"It was nearly ten years ago when they first came to our planet. They brought strange creatures with them, along with people who could use strange powers. They didn't come for peace, no, they came to take over our planet, and instantly we were thrown into war without warning. Since we were at war with ourselves, we weren't prepared. They rained destruction on our planet, killing off our people and releasing some kind of gas in the air. Those that were killed were reanimated into undead that attacked others, and those they killed were reanimated."
"The war didn't even last longer than half a year before their invasion was complete. They killed over eighty percent of the planet's population and then left. However, they left their creatures behind. At first, we thought they were leaving because we had won, but shortly after, people starting showing up with special powers similar to those who attacked us."
"We attacked them and killed them thinking they were with the people who attacked us, but we found out they weren't. We had taken on in for interrogation, and they said they knew nothing. One they were in sleeping in their bed and the next they woke up here. We kept that person captivate since we felt they were lying, but as time went on, similar stories came up."
"We learned these people who were showing up here randomly were from a planet called Earth, which is strangely similar to ours, Gaia. We decided to look further into it and found out that these people were summoned on this planet to survive an entire year to gain a wish and become something called an Authority Holder. Even stranger, we found that those of us who lived here before all this happened were also given the same."
"Due to this, a large group of people formed together to put a stop to all of this mess. This group became known as the New World Government, and I was part of that group. I was one of the group's Founders; however, I was betrayed by a woman named Aria. She backstabbed me and then tossed me out. I later woke up as a corpse, but oddly enough, I retained my memories and sanity. Unlike the other undead. I don't know why, but I was grateful for it."
The undead woman explained her story to Jake. It seemed like a lot had happened on this planet. A lot more than they knew of. It was also a reminder that they were not on Earth, and this was not a dream or nightmare of any kind. This was reality. Jake sighed softly, "I am sorry you had to go through that." Jake said.
"My liege, thank you, but such is not needed." The undead woman expressed with a smile. She seemed happy that Jake cared about her but tried to hide it. "Tell me, what is your name?" Jake asked. The undead female looked towards him once again, "My name? I believe it was Miranda." The undead woman, Miranda, answered.
"Okay, call me Jake," Jake replied with a nod and a smile. Miranda blinked rapidly for a moment due to confusion, then shook her head, "I-I possibly can't call my King by his name. That would be disrespectful!" Miranda stressed.
"You say that, but I don't know anything about being your King. You seem to have your memories from when you were human, but you also seem to have knowledge about this undead stuff. Besides, you should know that I am not from this world." Jake explained.
"Even still, to call the King by his name is only something those close to the King are allowed to do," Miranda responded. Jake sighed softly since he wasn't getting anywhere. "Then you are now my friend, so please, just call me Jake." Jake said with exhaustion.
"Friend? I am the King's friend?" Miranda questioned the moment she heard these words from him. "Yes, you are now. I'll be needing your help from here on out to understand what is going on. So, tell me what you know, Miranda." Jake said while giving her a soft smile.
Miranda swelled with happiness and then nodded. "Of course, Master Jake!" She said politely. Jake's brow twitched with annoyance since it seemed she called him Master, but it was better than her constantly calling him King. Maybe one day, she would just call him by his name. Jake then asked her, "Okay, so tell me, what do you know so far about the undead and the King."