Before he could get back to kicking ass and taking names, his phone rang. The face of Aoi Summers, the NEET that changed her last name and moved to America for his old buddy Rictor. She reached out to their group before they had a falling out and he started doing his own thing. Her face was plastered on his phone, though he never saved any of her pictures. The blue hair was flattering, but he never liked the shaved sides.
Zack answered.
"This better be good. I'm dealing with an apocalypse." Zack said.
"Where are you? We need you sealed in a vault beneath the sea now. You are our only late-game asset left. The damn miasma is interfering with our satellites, or was one of them eaten when I wasn't paying attention."
"About that, I'm in my home state and just left my apartment with two demons," Zack said.
"Minotaur and succubus," Aoi said.
"Succubus and hellhound," Zacks said.
"You didn't read any of my messages on the forum. The signs were appearing, and you can't tell me you didn't see them," Aoi said.
"Are you still with Rictor?" Zack asked.
There were only two reasons she might call him Rictor was dead or he was their only hope.
"Listen, Zack, I don't want to get into this now. We must extract you to a safe house until we can get the resources to break your caps."
They were going to try to halt the invasion in the early game, as that's where their group's powerful members mostly stood. Zack remembered a full 20 early-game classers.
"So Jeremy died, what got him?"
"Rictor is trying to figure that out while putting out fires and dealing with the apocalypse, but if I had to guess."
"Ms. Summers, we have your report on the outbreak in Tokyo."
"Make a PowerPoint and have it ready for the meeting."
Captain Ally and his communist platonic friend Red Scythe were an early and mid-game duo who liked to PK in the dream world. If they were the last ones among us, they could usher in the new world as a true utopia.
"Where are you? I have a team of seals who just returned from their mission and could use an easy win."
"I'm at the Elementary School, you know, the one. I'm going to save them Aoi this time for sure. They won't be sacrificed, and I'm not going to die. One second," Zack said.
Zack hid behind a door as it opened and one of the goat demons stepped out. He slashed down and tore open the demon's throat just under its helmet. The next goat raised its weapon as Zack moved faster.
His pressure stat made him just a little faster and more robust. Close enough to smell the goat's breath he finished it.
Zack pulled on the contract, and Werzelith and Ziri came running, titties bouncing in the air. They zigzagged, dodging four black sages.
Zack dodged the incoming twisted black spells.
He yanked a war hammer from a demon goat's cold, dead hands and tossed it to Ziri when she closed in. Ziri whipped around and threw the war hammer. It spun and stopped on a barrier.
Zack cursed.
Barriers were the worst. They could even block his bullets. Fortunately, they were limited in range. He threw a string of pressure and tripped one up. Werzelith threw the other Warhammer when she saw it.
The black sage's leg snapped in half. His head turned just in time for one of the twisted black spells to hit his shoulder. He pushed back with pressure as flesh blistered and burned.
He threw away from it and let the spell slam into the building. The entire wall turned into sand and spilled behind them.
Zack raised his gun and fired as the remaining three lowered their shields to fire their twisted magic. Bullets sizzled in the flesh, and he felt his density increase.
Pressure: 2.4
"Zack, your arm," Werzelith said.
Ziri picked up a hammer and killed the last one. "No shit, that's another four down."
Werzelith lvl26
Ziri lvl29
Zack stared at one of the broken bodies.
Black Sage lvl15
They weren't powerful, but they had magic, making them formidable. Combine spells that rot entire buildings away with skin immune to small-arms fire, and they are hell to fight.
"Are you still there? Zack, get out of there. Events that were once uncertain always happen. Sometimes, they're worse. We need you to drive the demons back."
"Are there other groups?"
Of course, there were, but did any survive?
"We don't have time to brief you. Get to the cabin and wait for extraction. This isn't a dream. We're doing this live." Aoi said.
His phone went black when the call ended. Aoi was the one giving it life. Zack raised his gun.
"Feast," Zack said.
It didn't tip Artemis into level 3, unfortunately.
Soul mass
Soul Density
Soul Pressure
Soul Space
Those are the statistics that made him a late-game threat. Well, that and around five billion pressure at a hundred density.
Zack couldn't be power-leveled into an early, late-game threat. There were little roadblocks called caps.
After nine density, he needed a touch of something truly powerful to strengthen his soul enough to leap the first-level cap. At twenty-five, his requirements started getting ludicrous. When he left the group, Zack focused on ways to reach his full power faster.
In the early game, summonings using human sacrifices were rampant. One was in his hometown, where a bunch of goat men summoned a creature called the Dark Mother.
"What do we do now, boss," Ziri asked.
Zack smiled and felt his nerves get twisted. He checked his watch and moved to one of the one-way doors. Once closed, there wasn't a handle to open it from the outside. He placed a hand on that door and wiggled a thread of pressure through a seam, and the door clicked open.
"Follow me, and don't attack until I tell you to," Zack said.
The prophet counted down a few seconds and charged in. The painted direction to the gymnasium appeared overhead as he moved in slowly. Chanting in a guttural language could be heard echoing off the walls and quickly reaching its peak. That was good.
He turned a corner on a ritual room with the remaining black sages standing with a hundred children of various ages, and most of their teachers lined up. One goat wearing ceremonial robes yanked a young girl's head up to cut her throat. The sound of thunder echoed through the room. A seam in space appeared before it opened, revealing the face of a creature made of flowing roots, black fur, and too many eyes.
The black sage lowered his ritual dagger and held the girl to the monster. Her face was frozen in a scream as the creature's head slithered into the physical world. Above the worshippers, it stretched into reality, its many scythe-like appendages stretching and cracking.
The circle drawn from blood and guts on the ground caught fire, and mana from the demon goats poured into the seam. An alarm went off on Zack's watch, and he shot one of the goats close to the center of the portal. The ritual's activation hit the dying sage as its mana poured into the tainted seam.
The creature turned its attention to Zack, and he waved at it. Before it could lunge, the creature shrieked.
"What's going on?" Werzelith asked.
The portal lit up with silver light before it cut the creature in two. Its black blood spewed out of the portal as more of its body pushed through before another flash of silver light cut that chunk.
"I corrupted the ritual and killed the vessel of a dark god," Zack said.
The black sages were frozen due to the ritual as Zack casually killed them one after the other while the front half of a dark god spasmed on the ground.
"This would have been impossible by myself or with only a minotaur. I needed two demons that could each handle a group of goat demons." Zack said.
"You timed this. How did you know this was going to happen?" Werzelith asked.
"Didn't I tell you I'm a prophet? This ended my run every time I tried it. Thanks to you two, I managed it live. When I shot the black sage, I knew it would disrupt the ritual. The question was whether the dark god was far enough along to die from it without being strong enough to survive here. It was a gamble. I rolled the dice and won this time." Zack rubbed his shoulder. "This time was a little close."
He placed a foot on the struggling creature's side and flipped it over. Its foul face locked on him as He unloaded four rounds into it. Burning, shrieking cries echoed through the school as the vessel of the dark god began to die. Even cut in half, weakened from its early summoning, and footing most of the bill, the demon god was beyond brutal.
Zack finished the last of the black sage's and removed his shirt. Then he walked under the blood fountain in the air and let the spurting dark god blood fall on his face and chest. It stung his skin, burned his eyes, and made his soul scream.
The prophet shook under the fountain as he felt the first cap lift. The death of the dark god vessel fed him many hours' worth of soul mass.
"Who are you?" A teacher asked.
Zack stared at her. She was a young woman in her early 20s with chestnut brown hair. "Hey Clare, remember me? I helped get more followers on your only fans." Werzelith said.
"Wendy, you look like your cosplay were you doing a shoot." The male principal stared at Clare in shock. "The world ended. You can't fire me now."
"Feast," Zack said.
The chest of the dark god vessel exploded in a shower of gore.
Artemis lvl3
Lever Action Rifle Transformation
Zack stared at the children, who were either crying or staring at him in horror. The prophet looked at his stats.
Zack Sin lvl1
Cultivation: Mortal
Body Tempering 0/9
Soul lvl8
Mass: 1
Density: 8
Pressure: 5.9
Soul Space: Locked
Soul Weapon: Artemis lvl3
Zack felt the soul steel shift, and in his hands was a copy of a lever with a walnut stock and a long silver barrel for added range and power. The more Artemis levels, the more forms and power she can handle.
The blood of a dark god had burst the first cap, and he wouldn't have to worry about the next one until he reached soul level 25.
Nearly six times pressure means his bullets regen one every 5 seconds. When he concentrated, it was one every 30 seconds. When Zack let it happen passively, it was once every 5 minutes or longer, so his combat problems were less severe. The next problem was how he was going to transport nearly 150 people, feed them, and hide them. Worse, most of them were children.
A text appeared on his phone. "Ally is in your area."