Present
Baladan could only sigh as he looked through his system. The familiar stats and abilities being displayed before him as he scrolls through thinking about his next step.
Bal: 'let's see… I have taken down Horus so Shoel is now available. If I want to get past those devilish bastards blockade I'll need strength. Should I eat the last 10 Shadow Corpses and evolve? First let's look at my requirements shall we?'
He quickly flicked his wrist as a screen displayed before him.
[Please chose a path related to your class and abilities before gaining your requirements]
[Life & Death Monarch]
[Death Aura Master]
[Pure Life Sorcerer]
[Periodic Metal Emperor]
[Pure Aura King]
Baladan stopped to think about his choices, all of them sounded pretty powerful. His worries stopped him from picking a choice straight away.
Bal: 'If I pick a class like Periodic Metal Emperor would that give me abilities based off my metal manipulation? What about Life & Death Sorcerer? I don't think I've even gotten an ability from it yet…'
He sighed once more as he looked over his options. His eyes kept moving over the different titles with no descriptions, however there was always one class he kept going back to. That one was at the very top Life & Death Monarch!
Bal: 'The only reason I've been able to win so far was my versatility… if I never learned sorcery I wouldn't have been able to capture Horus. If I didn't have Aura I would have died many times against those Shadow Corpses… the best route for me is the same path I've been walking since the beginning! A spell sword!'
He took a deep breath before selecting Life & Death Monarch. Instantly the screen began to change showing his requirements.
[5 Requirements till 1st circle]
1. Kill a 2nd circle being.
2. Eat the flesh of 10 first order beings to complete your evolution.
3. Gain control over Life.
4. Eat 10 hearts from both the living and dead.
5. Consume 5 first circle soul crystals.
Baladan was dumbfounded, reading the insane requirements he had been given.
Bal: 'Eat 10 living and dead hearts!? Is it telling me to eat a heart straight out of a humans chest!? What even is the last one! Soul crystals? Did the first orders have crystals? Wait… now that I think about it, does the first order beings even disappear after death?
Horus didn't disappear after death, did the worm? I can't remember… well shit! Now I have to look for these soul crystals! Also what does it mean to gain control over life… I was born with control over death… how do I acquire control over life…?'
More and more was being placed on his shoulders as he sat up looking over to the holy looking bird next to him.
Bal: "Horus, we will be leaving soon. You can still fly right?"
Horus: "Of course master, with these new wings I can fly even faster then before!"
Bal: "Good, I'll be getting on your back so be careful with your speed. We are going to save my mother even if it kills me!"
He had enough of worrying, instead now that he had captured Horus he decided to use his flight to get there as fast as possible! Finally he left Shoel and summoned Horus.
The massive bird immediately began to crush the roof of this building with its weight. Baladan didn't care for this however as he jumped up into the bird as it jumps into the air and takes off towards the skies!
All those near the building or close by to time square could only see a white blur zooming through the air into the white clouds.
Bal: "S-Slow Down! T-this speed is too much! I-I haven't gotten used to flying yet!"
He wasn't scared of the sudden acceleration, after all he had broken the sound barrier not to long ago. It was just he didn't have his aura up giving him extra protection so he couldn't even open his eyes fully.
Fortunately he was able to use his aura to disperse the wind pressure as Horus flew over the city towards a very populated area filled with houses.
Horus: "I'm sorry master! I should have let you prepare before taking off…"
Baladan just rolled his eyes as he looked down trying to find out where we were based off his memories.
Bal: "Start getting lower, we don't want to get to close to the other Hunter Falcons. I can't see the street names from here either"
He threw the previous mistake to the back of his mind as he tries to focus his aura into his eyes. He was looking towards the familiar buildings trying to remember the way back home from time square.
Bal: 'Let's see… it should be a straight shot from Lincoln street, now where is it… Ah! There it is!'
"Horus! Follow that street slowly, my house is coming up soon"
Horus: "Yes master!"
Immediately Horus went lower gliding above the buildings as it followed the road. Every now and then they would see large amounts of shadow corpses gathering in the surrounding buildings however what they saw a lot of was dead bodies.
Normal people who hadn't been turned, their body parts were strewn everywhere. Some houses had been completely destroyed while others had been set on fire.
Bal: 'Did someone do this deliberately? It feels like a group has been feeding people to the shadow corpses to keep them in a certain are-'
In that moment a massive explosion went off blowing up a horde of shadow corpses that had surrounded a small house on a corner close by.
Even with the explosion he didn't see any humans running around. This confused him greatly, that was until he finally flew down landing onto the street before jumping off. He sent Horus away as he began to walk up towards his house.
Bal: 'Who cares if there are people down the road or not. Mom I'm almost home!'
He casually walked past Shadow Corpses without a hint of worry. As he stepped up onto his porch something was off, he instantly kicked open the door to find the place a wreak.
Furniture was flipped picture frames had been busted as well as their tv. Everything in the living room was busted up, when he went towards the back door he noticed blood on the ground near the fridge.
This was only small amounts of blood so it was most likely someone coughing it up. That was until he finally got to the back door we're even more blood was spilled directly on the door.
Currently Baladan was holding back his feelings, the nervousness inside him grew as he went out the back door to find a blood trail made from dragging something.
When he followed it he noticed someone had picked up the person or thing that was making the trail and placed it on something before the blood trail was replaced by fire marks.
Bal: 'Someone kidnapped my mom…'
———
A little after the explosion
"You see that! This one was the biggest one yet!"
"Shut up! Look up idiot! We aren't alone!"
When the group saw a massive white falcon flying close by they assumed it would be attracted to the explosion. Their thoughts were betrayed when the bird completely disregarded the explosion and instead kept its normal pace.
This confused the group, eventually they went to investigate. Getting in their truck they drove off after seeing the bird land. On their way to the bird it had suddenly disappeared as a man dropped out of the air landing were the bird was.
This startled many of the people who was using the houses to block their car. They couldn't fully use the roads with all the cars blocking them. So they drove through open yards till they could only go in on foot following the boy.
"Hey… isn't that, that one sluts house?"
"Yeah, the one who tried to run away right? Isn't she being punished by Markov right now?"
"I wonder what a boy like that is doing here? W-wait! Did he just walk past that Shadow Corpse like it's nothing!? The thing didn't even look at him!"
"What is up with this guy… oh he just went inside, let's get a little closer shall we?"
"What about the Shadow Corpses?"
"What about them? It's not like we can't take out a few stragglers, let's go"
They had followed Baladan circling the house, they watched him through windows doing their best to avoid his gaze as he walked out and stood there were the tire marks start.
'Did he know her? Is that why he is here?'
One of the men was trying to get a better look at Baladan only to step on a phone hidden in the grass making a loud crunch sound that made the boy look over at them.
The man gulped loudly as he was seen by Baladan only to have the boy coat himself in white light before running forward grabbing the man by the throat picking him up with one hand.
His eyes had turned from its normal purple to a deep green as he siphons a little time from the mans timer immediately making him turn a little older.
???: "w-wait! Please don't! I-I was just observing you… n-not many people come riding in on a massive bird!"
The other was forced to reveal themselves, their weapons drawn as all four of them finally come out to surround Baladan.
Bal: "Observing me huh? If you don't want to die then tell me what I want to know got it"
He looked away from the man who was slowly growing older in his hands. He looked back to the other 3 his anger very clear.
???: "Why should we tell you anything! You are outnumbered!"
???: "Shut up dumbass! You saw it to! He made that massive white bird disappear just a second ago! Do you really think we can face that!"
???: "That's right, let's just answer his questions! We don't want Ronnie to die do we!"
Ron: "P-please don't kill me…"
He was gaining more and more wrinkles as time went on. He could feel a type of energy leaving his body as time went on.
Bal: "First off, where is the women who used to live here?"
???: "She was taken to our camp… Markov had saved many people in the housing district… this allowed him to build a camp with him as the leader easily… however those who declined his help… they were forced to become slaves to him"
The man felt like he was forced to tell the truth, with Ryder's eyes filling with a hint of gold around the green pupil something felt off. It felt like this man was invading his space even though he wasn't that close.
Bal: "… You took over the whole western side of the housing district huh… then you made your base from scratch? Making the people slave away by abusing your masters power and the people's abilities… oh? You even purposely went and hunted down people who didn't want to join then forced them to join or die… just for them to be used as bait to blow up hordes…"
This alarmed all the people there, it was like he was reading their memories as Baladan turned Ronnie to dust in an instant.
This horrified the other 3, they didn't know how but this boy who had only just become an adult was able to kill someone without a moments hesitation.
Dick: "P-please have mercy… we, we didn't attack that women that wasn't us!"
Bal: "Shut up Dick, just because you didn't do it to my mother doesn't mean I would let you guys go. I hope you know that old lady you killed and fed to Shadow Corpses was like a grandma to me! Grandma Bonnie was a person who did not deserve what you did to her!"
He sent out a kick towards the man punching a hole through his stomach as he fell over dead.
The other two were now scared beyond belief, they couldn't even move a single inch afraid that if they did the next one to die would be them.
Bal: "As for you two… fight"
???: "W-what…?"
Bal: "You heard me, both of you like going to those fight pits and watching others kill each other. So now both of you will fight each other, winner lives"
Baladan was furious at this point. Reading through their memories he could clearly see how scummy these people were. It had only been a couple days into the apocalypse but these people who had been nothing but thugs could easily kill someone for their own benefit. It disgusted him even though he had done the same in the past.
His kills however were against other thugs and gang members who decided to fuck with his people.
Bal: 'Don't worry mom! I'll save you from that piece of trash soon!'