Walking through the bloodied fields stained with the crimson red of the humans and the disgusting muck of the green foe, monstrosities beyond any that could be seen elsewhere. Trudging through the bodies and the unsavory sounds of the soaked grass on the closing night, and then they would have stopped as they spotted the group of further humans.
"Ms June, we are here. Now I must do something, it will take only a moment."
June would nod and then look into the crowd that was rallied there, ready for what would be their final push in fending off the skirmish. There was someone that stood out from the crowd with their poise standing out from the rest, a more sense of refinement about them, and a captivating sculpted figure through time standing out about them. She would tap on the back of the man as he quickly whipped around to see whom it was, he would see it was an unfamiliar face, but would still greet her with a pleasant smile. The man's wavy black hair seemed to flow eloquently in the wind and his dazzling smile put one at ease. The moonlight reflected perfectly off of his ivory skin. The only blemishes to the warrior were the scars and bruises that laced his body showing the proof of his experience, yet these imperfections were beautiful in their own way.
"Ah greetings." That's when he remembered a call of the hearings that there was a girl that had fallen from the sky realizing now that this was her. "So you're the angel that dropped into our dirty crusade huh. Well I'm glad it seems you're alright. I am sorry that you had to be here of all places, but I promise this will be over soon." He gave a reassuring thumbs up to go along with it.
It was funny for her to think about how different this guy was from Dr. Bale, she would expect more of that stone cold attitude from a seasoned warrior like this guy, unless there was something she didn't know about the doctor? "I am glad to hear that, your words bring assurance sir. I assume you are the leader of this skirmish?"
The man would nod, answering her with a sense of pride in his voice. "I am Sir Betholamew." He would put a fist over his heart and a hand behind his back, this appeared to be some kind of salute
June would see this and swiftly do the same towards him. "I am Maiden June."
The man would extend a hand and she would extend one back giving a firm handshake towards each other as a nice introduction with two big goofy smirks on their faces.
"June, June get over here!" June would hear her name called and she would turn around hearing that it sounded like the voice of Doctor Bale. She did not have any words because when she turned around she would see him standing in front of another hospital encampment like the one from before. This one seemed a bit bigger and fortified.
June would quickly run over towards him, and when she did she would notice that she felt even faster than before seemingly twice as fast as she could barely stop herself from suddenly crashing into Doctor Bale who would just look at her with some sort of disappointment in his face as he was like a stone wall not moving an inch from her and catching her picking the girl back up.
June would try to counteract his disappointment with her sweet little smile which Bale would just roll his eyes towards her and open up the entrance and walk in expecting her to follow which she did. "You should go to sleep, I made a spare room here for you."
June would then pipe up to talk as this thing out of nowhere was definitely something worth talking about. "So Doctor, you're going to explain what this is and how you even did this! This is crazy for you to just make a hospital out of nowhere."
Bale would suddenly switch his direction towards another room and stop inside of it, the room had a whiteboard and markers to write on it.
"Ah yes you're still ill informed about this world, so I shall break it down to you."
He would draw on a board an orb that represented the "system" and then multiple branching paths off of it which displayed different symbols. One being a sword and a shield, another being some sort of blue flame, another the picture of an abstract cosmos in appearance, and another the picture of a brain, lastly the picture of a red flame.
"Now I'll start and give you a small overview." He points towards the center with the orb representing the system. "This is that system that you saw, this system is in a sense you, well the idea of you. The systems of all transcend their users to an uncountable degree, we can't even see them truly for they are not just these simple screens. Now if you're curious as to why we aren't at the same level as this supposed idea of us, is that we are not fully in sync or connected to this. Every time you use a skill point or rather enhance one we are simply becoming more connected with our being in a specific way."
June would have put a finger to her chin attentively listening as she tried to cram this information in her brain, she suspected her head might be steaming at the end, but she was one to pick things up rather quickly and already had knowledge on many strange and mysterious things. "So does that mean, everytime someone levels up they'll change?"
Bale would nod his head. "Everytime someone increases their statistics, they may notice a change in personality as they become more attuned to their true selves. Though some are already matching in mannerisms and disposition as they are supposed to be."
June would now seem sort of wary hearing this, she would change? She tried to think if she felt any different than before, but as far as she could tell she just got a bit more powerful. She would feel internally relieved, maybe she already was aligned like he said.
Bale would move his hand over to the sword and shield continuing on. "This is the physical aspect of the system, this is what is used when you increase physical stats or gain physical skills." He would drag it over to the red flame. "And this is for the magical aspect." He would drag his hand over towards the brain. "And this is for the cognitive aspect. For now, there is nothing really special I need to tell you about these, but the last two are more complex."
He would swipe over towards that of the blue flame. "This here, this is your soul. You might think that this would just be your system, which in a way it is as it is the most connected part towards it. But think of the system as a more abstract and refined thing than your soul which similarly to the system is practically you. But that does not mean you shouldn't worry about this."
He would seem to speak in a way that would further garner her attention making sure she was really listening. "Be careful of anyone who has the capability of hurting your soul, although it is harder to hurt one's soul than it is to hurt their body due to the soul transcending the body, if damage is done to your soul it is irreparable by almost any means. It is the second most fatal possible thing that could be done to someone besides attacking their system which is known to be impossible."
"IF you want to defend your soul you must first become aware of it, though that in which how you may isn't just a straightforward teaching at least how I know of." Now finally he pointed to the abstract cosmos detailed on the board. "Finally, this is simply your unique skills that you have from your class. It is how I summoned this place as my class, is that of the doctor. This simply a high leveled version of that skill.
She would be noting it down carefully within her head, she was so clean and organized that it was like her own brain had become a neat little library where she stored information in books to be recalled and pulled out whenever the need came.
"Now goodnight Ms June." Bale would say as he left and pointed down the hall indicating where she would be staying as he walked elsewhere likely to rest himself. June would have wandered over to the room and sat down on the bed falling down to the bed and laying back down on it staring up at the ceiling. Now that she was all alone once more she would be left with nothing but her thoughts.
Looking to the side of her she would once more feel a twinge of pain, usually sitting here in the bed would be George right next to her, she would shake her head. There was no use in having sad thoughts anymore, besides she WOULD reunite with them once more. Even if it was supposedly impossible she would simply find a way. Content with herself now she would slide herself under the covers and grab the bear from.. What happened to it? She would look around, but from her thoughts about it, it suddenly appeared out of a blue portal with a similar feeling to the system. Must've been a sort of inventory, how convenient. With it now back to her she held onto it tightly as she drifted off to sleep.
She would wake up to the sounds of the digital voice of her system calling her name. "June, June.. JUNE" June would suddenly shoot up at the repeated beckoning of her appearance and stared right at the system. The system showed a face now with two slashes making frowning eyebrows and two dots making eyes, with a red anger emoticon on the top right of its screen
"You really need to wake up quicker girl. Anyway's time to finally talk about those rewards huh. June would seem to swat at the system seeming angry herself. "Bug off, I was finally getting some good sleep after so longggg." The system would shake around its angry face to make it seem like it was shaking its head. The angry face would turn into a neutral one.
"Anyways, you need to wake up as Dr. Bale has informed me it is about time for more battle, you must be ready." June's ear would suddenly perk up. "Does that mean he thinks I can fight now!" The system would just silently stare at June. "No, not at all. You were easily dispatched by that Prime Infected with a single punch. In your current state I'd say you could beat it but not easily."
June would groan, but then again she could just help out around here like she was supposed to. "Anyways just go on about whatever you are gonna tell me."
The digital screen would nod its head and shoot some confetti before clearing its, nonexist throat? "Well madam for being so awesome and clearing that secret quest. You got some extra levels beyond just from killing those guys. You are now at level 5!" June would interject "Out of?" The system would continue "100!"
June would think to herself, hey 100 wasn't that bad especially if she got 5 levels from this one quest. Unless this was like one of those games where there were tons of other things to obtain at the maximum. She just hoped it wouldn't become boring.
"And so as you may have already felt you naturally gain stats up in all categories by leveling up. Each time a stat increases it's not entirely linear, but everytime you level up a stat it's about at least double of what you were before." The system continued on which made June only wonder what heights of people around her really were, with how fast she was going the possible potential of how fast she could be in the future was slightly nauseating and exciting to think of.
"Now something that you may have noticed is that everyone has some sort of aptitude towards stats, with yours being mostly balanced with inclinations towards speed and your unique ability as outliers. But anyways with all that boring stuff out of the way you have gained a title and some skill points to invest, go wild!" Suddenly confetti would shoot out into the air from the system as they giggled and suddenly their interface shifted to show a stat screen
Offense:5
Defense:5
Speed:5
Mental:5
Magic:5
Ability:5
Soul:5 [Locked]
June would think for a moment at what the best possible option would be, she got 4 skill points per level currently having 20. After battling that juggernaut creature she already knew what she wanted to do. She would place 5 points in defense,offense,speed, and ability. Though she then wondered about the skills from earlier she recalled she could level up as well.
She swiped over to the skill screen going to the unique one for her class, after leveling her ability she unlocked some more, but at the same time each level gave her skill tokens to unlock a skill. She saw that she could level up the skills she already had, but since they were already level 1 they were more expensive costing 2, and it would increase by one with each upgrade.
She was one that wanted to complete things before moving on for better or worse, and thus she would decide to max out. And she would choose "Maidens Arsenal" ; it seemed the ability with the most feasibility and potential currently. She would upgrade it twice and would see it go from her current one to "The reach of the maidens arsenal extends to the confines of a bedroom." → "The reach of maidens' arsenal extends to the confines of washrooms."
The more she upgraded the maidens arsenal the more items she could use from various parts of the house. She would assume the maximum upgrade allows for her to use the entire house.. And then a thought came. That's probably how Doctor Bale makes the hospitals.
Her eyes would suddenly widen as that thought passed her mind, Dr Bale! She was supposed to go see him now after being called. She would quickly rush off out of the hospital skidding to a halt before she bumped into Dr. Bale.
"Sorry sorry! I was just checking this and I.." Dr Bale would just shake his head, he did not seem particularly frustrated. "Every second counts in battle, just remember that. Luckily you aren't fighting. We are going to watch now, come on."
And thus the two would advance towards the battlefield as the sounds of clashing and combat would grow along with the grueling squelching of flesh being mutilated on both sides, even after taking on a whole small group and killing them, this was still a sight to see for June. She acted more out of instinct than a conscious action back then, of course she didn't enjoy killing or something, hopefully?
The Doctor would sit down and so would June right next to him as they looked off at the battle from a distance, within the fighting, one stood out from the rest. It was that charismatic soldier she had spoken to earlier, if she recalled he went by the name of Sir Betholamew, this sounded like the name of some olden day knight, that made her wonder what time it was?
Her head would turn towards Bale and would speak curiously. "What year is it?" Bale would then simply reply. "2075, why?" She would reply back in a fading voice. "Oh no reason.." so this place was in the future yet everything seemed so old-timey, how strange. Though she shook it as simply different events occurred in this other world of course.
"So why are we just sitting here?" June would ask, she thought they would at least do something. "Well we are doctors, at least you are a temporary one. We're gonna pick up the wounded when we can.. And also attack from here if we see an opportunity."
At that moment one of the infected hordes members jumped up in the air to leap at Betholamew, but suddenly a scalpel would pierce through its face and ravage through it. "Like that."
The system would have popped up and growled right in the ear of June. "Whaddya wantttt~" she would then go over to the title tab showing the title infection slayer [With this equipped you counteract infected more easily.] "Oh, thanks." she would equip the title as the system disappeared.
She would grasp a kitchen knife in her own hands, this would be a good test of her newly enhanced power. She would have tossed the knife as it sent a sonic boom through the air and landed on an unsuspecting infected exploding it. Just feeling the strength of her throw it was outlandish to say the least, but at the same time it was amazing. This led her to ask another question.
"If I could defeat them so easily, why are they having all this trouble?" June queried. The doctor seemed almost annoyed by all the questions, but he tried not to show it.
"Well it all works off our mentality. If you attack someone who doesn't expect it, it hurts a lot more than it usually would. If that guy was expecting it, you probably still would have killed it just not as destructively. Another thing is your overall mentality. Those with a strong mind have an overall more excelling power, this strong mind needing to be accompanied by will and emotion." He pointed at the infected. "They have no true will and their brains are like mush, they lack in all areas. I can't imagine how strong they would be unrestricted. Oh, they're making a final push now. I don't sense any further infected."
As he spoke this the final push became visible as there were two of those Prime infected that June had fought earlier in the front lines cascading in front of the rest. Just as all the soldiers were preparing to slaughter the titans, they dissapeared. Precisely they slowly shrunk and dissipated into one of the infected that had a particular appearance about them. Once they absorbed the titans, and not just that they absorbed the rest of the army their differences only grew. They were taller than the little ones but not near the big ones. They had a floating green crown above their head and holes in their hands and a hole in their head, bubbling power would emanate from these holes seemingly being a source for them to output.
A roar that echoed for tons of miles releasing a cacophony of sounds that rattled all that heard it, it instilled a natural fear into everyone in the area creating a mass level earthquake that ruptured the ground, this being radiated nothing but the most prime of evil stealing the title from the prime infected and claiming it as their own, the one truly crowned above them all. They spread their arms out to the side and looked slightly up as a creepy laughter followed their roar adding onto the unsettledness of this creature.
"Far too long has the infected slept. Far too long have we allowed you all to continue living. For all, the end is now. And the beginning of our total reign is now. All of your heroics no matter the path shall have the same conclusion. The end is now."
June would stare in shock at the creature from afar, she had been affected by the scream, the laughter.. More than anyone else had. Her eyes shook and her body became sweaty just looking at that creature. They instilled a maximum fear that could not be outclassed by anything else June would think. She received an even more intense warning from this creature than she did from the prime infected, the power gap between her and this being so large that the system just blared for her to run. This creature was probably 10, 20, 30.. No she couldn't even calculate how many times stronger this thing was, her system was not at a capacity to do so. All she could do was sit there and watch.
Dr Bale would tightly grip onto another one of his scalpels as his fist slightly shaked, this being the first one she saw that made even him shake, even if it be a little. There were slight signs of worry on his own face as his mouth tilted slightly down, but that all changed when a move was made.
Sir Betholamew would be the first person of the squadron to make a move. He held out one hand to the side pointing his palm to his squadmates. "My men, stay back. It is not worth all of you to die here. If anyone is going to die today, it will only be me and this.. Thing." Betholamew steeled his resolve to a maximum as he suddenly got into a stance, one foot in front of another shifting his back foot into a stable stance and staying on his toes ready to suddenly push off at any moment. "And I don't plan on dying today."
The crowned infected would have their holed face curl into a smile as much as an empty hole could. "So be it." In contrast to the knights' seemingly formal and practiced stance. The infected just stood there with his arms crossed as if looking down on Betholamew.
Suddenly the knight pressed off from where he stood, and suddenly he was gone. She could not even perceive his movement, and from the bafflement of everyone else they likely saw the same thing that she did. It appeared all that was left was his shadow, until an impact had been heard.
The sword of the knight had slashed throughout the air aiming to cleave the crowned infected in half with their diagonal slash. But it was left stuck in the air after contacting a mystical green structure crafted by the hole within one of his hands that he dragged across the air, the substance leaking out and solidifying. The aftereffect of this clash would send a whipping wind slash past the infected that cleaved through a mountain range in the distance. It was clear why everyone else stepped out of this fight except for them, these two were somewhere around the peaks of this world!
A punch swiftly came from the infected towards the face of the knight as soon as his sword clanged against the object, but before it could reach him, he suddenly twisted his blade putting the sharp part up vertically and then slashed upwards towards the extending arm cutting off part of the arm of the infected, it would go flying in the air. Betholamew pulled his blade backwards and suddenly sent a straightforward thrust towards the torso of the creature aiming to finish it off. Against his judgement, his senses told him to not follow all the way through, he suddenly let go of his blade letting it fly into the chest of the creature and jumped backwards.
In the spot where the knight had been blasting green light had suddenly shot itself from the amputated hand exploding a small crater in the ground, he did not need his body parts to be connected to use them! The arm began firing and flying in the air more beams of this sickly Betholamew narrowly dodged the second one and started running around rapidly to avoid the other lasers. The infected simply watched in amusement. "Dance for me monkey."
"Fool!" The man reached a hand out while running as the sword called back to him, and with it once more in his hands he deflected a beam of light right back towards the unsuspecting infected. Yet somehow he still managed to react to it, catching the light in one of his hand holes absorbing it into himself, but that was only the first of surprises. In the small instance he used to absorb the energy it broke his focus from the floating hand allowing the knight free movement once again. His sword had been tossed as well shortly after which went right towards the creature's face who used both hands to catch the powerful blade toss, but now he was open. The knight followed his weapon and used his bare hands to smash a downward fist into the preoccupied creature right where their heart would be stopping it as they smashed into the ground.
The force caused the blade to slip from the hands of the infected and fly into the air, Betholamew grabbed onto the blade and stabbed it right through the aforementioned heart hoping to vanquish the creature. "BEGONE!"
And with those words spoken the creature disappeared, but not into some pile of goop he turned into an ethereal dust as an echo of his laughter continued even as he dissipated leaving a chilling feeling for all who heard it.