[Feat Achieved! Massacre]
[+1 Gold Gacha Ticket]
[Rolling Gold Gacha Ticket]
[Cruise Ship]
|Rare Item|
A large luxury cruise ship that is 350 meters long and 80 meters wide, the cruise ship is manned by automatons that can’t perform any duty other than the ones they are assigned to on the ship. In addition, this ship has infinite fuel in its engine.
[Feat Achieved! Birdcage Pyre]
[Rolling Platinum Gacha Ticket]
[Nas’hrah]
|Elite Familiar|
Fear and Hunger - Nas’hrah, once known as the Doom and Terror of the modern man, left as a floating disembodied immortal head. Nashrah is an extremely powerful wizard specializing in Blood Magic and Pyromancy as well as rituals. Despite his incredibly foul behaviour, he has considerable wisdom and knowledge. Luckily, his loyalty is enforced by the gacha even if his vulgarity remains. Regardless, you get to reroll the ticket you rolled him on for free to not have to deal with him.
My eyes finished trailing over the text of my rolls. It was unfortunate that such a potent familiar had to be wasted. Nas’hrah had sounded like an able-bodied subordinate, the kind of worshipper Chaos would have gladly claimed.
I looked toward the crater of melted slag and glass the Frenzied Flame had left behind. It was a beautiful sight, a small prelude to the glory that awaited the world when the Frenzied Flame was fully realized.
A crushing sound dragged my attention back as the titan tore itself free from the crater. An ugly scar ran across its crystalline body where the beam of pure destruction had struck. Shards of crystal sloughed off its frame as molten fragments dripped from the wound.
“You’ve done well, Nas’hrah. Rejoice in the realm beyond. My ascension to Lord has begun.”
[Feat Achieved! Slay the Queen]
[+1 Platinum Gacha Ticket]
[Devil Trigger]
|Epic Ability|
Devil May Cry — Allows you to tap into your inner demonic power and transform into a Devil form, greatly enhancing your physical abilities and power. If you were a normal human before, with Devil Trigger, you could tear apart tanks with your bare hands. Scales with your current abilities.
“Perfect.”
I removed Minor Regeneration and locked Devil Trigger into the slot.
Inside my very soul, I could feel the demonic power waiting to be released. With a thought, I willed it forth, and the air around me screamed as power filled the air.
The world seemed to ripple as my Devil form forced itself into existence. Scales spread across my body, traced with golden lines of flame-red light. My severed left hand was replaced with a fragment of condensed Frenzied Flame that burned brighter than the rest. A crown of eldritch fire formed above my head.
Power filled my skin until it felt ready to burst. For a moment, I truly felt as though I could do anything.
The alien scream of the titan filled the air as dozens of invisible cuts struck my body. Unlike before, I didn’t summon forth Infinity.
The strange force blades slid harmlessly across my skin, the fire flowing with them, while the strength of my transformed body endured the rest.
The Frenzied Flame answered my call faster than ever. The flames of Chaos burned through the extended blades, reducing them to nothing with a casual wave of my hand.
The crown above my head blazed brighter, forming a sun of pure destruction. It flared outward as dozens of bursts of flame erupted from my crown, filling the sky before raining down toward the titan.
The creature reacted instantly. One massive limb swept through the air, and hundreds of force blades extended outward to intercept the falling inferno.
The sky exploded.
“Did you think that would work twice, fool?”
My cloak of levitation snapped behind me as I launched forward, flames spewing from my feet like thrusters.
More slashes peppered my body, yet I only laughed harder as the fire within me continued to build. My left hand, formed from flame yet denser than the rest, condensed further into a three-fingered claw.
The distance between us vanished.
My flaming hand sank into the titan’s body with glorious force. The crystalline giant screamed as the Frenzied Flame took hold.
I could feel it clearly now. This heretical fragment of a beast sought to defy its destined end.
Unacceptable.
I flooded my fingers with power.
The titan’s massive crystal body began melting piece by piece as the fire spread through it like a living infection.
The titan thrashed wildly, its massive limbs filling the air with slashes in a desperate attempt to push me away. The attacks tore through the air around me, splitting the desert floor and sending waves of force rippling across the battlefield.
It didn’t matter.
The Frenzied Flame spread faster with every passing moment.
Crystal cracked and shattered beneath the heat. Whole sections of the titan’s body collapsed as the fire burrowed deeper, melting its structure from the inside out. What had once been flawless crystalline armor began to sag and deform, turning into glowing rivers of molten rock that poured from its frame.
The titan screamed again, the sound warping as its voice fractured alongside its body.
It tried to fight. It tried to escape. Yet every movement only exposed more of its body to the burning chaos spreading through it.
The Frenzied Flame did not simply burn.
It destroyed.
Little by little, the titan’s immense form collapsed under the assault until its once towering shape became little more than a mass of melting crystal and burning slag.
I grinned as the titan struggled weakly. It no longer had the means to swing those massive limbs or carve the air with its slashing attacks.
One final push and I would—
Only because I had flooded it with so much flame was I able to sense it.
It was trying to run.
The Shard believed it could escape destruction.
Any satisfaction I felt burned away, leaving only wrath.
Even as it fled into the void, I reached deeper into the flame, pushing farther than I had ever pushed before. Stretching to my limit, the power flooded through me.
For a brief moment, my mind was pulled elsewhere as heat and power surged through my body.
Before me floated a towering island of crystalline blades, writhing through an endless black void.
My mind struggled to comprehend the landscape: vast fractal structures of dark-red crystal drifting through a sea of nothingness, their impossible shapes twisting in ways that eyes simply could not perceive. In the distance, other islands floated through the strange expanse.
I faintly recognized it.
Shardspace.
Yet where I was didn’t matter.
There was only one goal.
One truth.
“LET CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD!”
The island screamed.
Then a thousand voices screamed with it as Chaos devoured the island whole.
Rebecca could only stare grimly at the portal sitting in the middle of the street as she hovered high above the scene.
Black armored vans had cordoned off the area, and the exit was surrounded by multiple containment foam turrets set at overlapping angles. In a rare sight, every PRT agent on site carried firearms, many of them high-caliber weapons.
The Birdcage breakout had forced an unprecedented response.
With the strange parahuman mastering ability the crystal monster had demonstrated, the situation demanded hard-line measures.
Tension hung thick in the air as every set of eyes remained locked on the portal that opened into the endless desert. Only the occasional distant boom or a towering pillar of fire suggested that anything was still happening on the other side.
A few people had floated the idea of sending scouts through, but the level of power being thrown around in that desert made the suggestion pointless.
Rebecca kept herself perfectly still as she hovered overhead. The posture was deliberate. Years of discipline had long since trained any fidgeting out of her.
Alexandria needed to be both icon and threat—the living symbol of the Triumvirate’s authority.
Even so, this entire mess made her want to tear her hair out.
Her earbud crackled to life. “Ma’am. Legend’s returned.”
Rebecca gave the local PRT commander a brief nod before turning and flying toward the command tent. For obvious safety reasons, the command post had been set up nearly a dozen miles from the portal, well outside the potential blast radius of whatever was happening inside.
She touched down outside the tent and returned a few quick nods to the capes and officers waiting nearby before pushing her way inside.
Contessa and Legend were already seated.
A third person sat with them.
Rebecca’s eyes immediately focused on the unfamiliar woman. She had dark hair and a face that was strikingly average in a way that almost felt intentional. The green-scaled plating of the power suit she wore made the realization immediate.
“Dragon?”
“It’s nice to meet you in person, Alexandria. Or should I call you Chief Director?”
Rebecca grunted at the unexpected development. Dragon had not been part of their contingencies, but she was far too tired to waste energy arguing about it.
“Alexandria is fine.” She shot Contessa a hard look. “I’m assuming there’s a good reason for this.”
Contessa returned the look with a tired nod.
“Two reasons. Whatever master effect may be involved here, I hoped Dragon’s… new nature might allow her to bypass it if he becomes a problem. The other reason—well, it’s easier to show you.”
Dragon nodded and turned toward the screen beside her.
“Fifteen minutes ago, I began receiving scattered reports of parahumans across the globe suffering sudden panic attacks or bouts of hysteria.”
The display flickered as multiple recordings appeared: parahumans of every type, some shaking, others staring at nothing, several shouting in fear.
“There doesn’t appear to be a clear pattern for who is affected,” Dragon continued, “but every subject is reporting similar visions. Flames consuming the world… or destroying it.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Could it be an extension of the new cape’s power set?”
“I considered that as well,” Dragon said slowly, an uneasy expression crossing her face. “But…”
She tapped the screen again.
“Seven minutes ago, I captured this image over London.”
The screen shifted to video footage.
Scion was flying high above the city.
For several seconds, the golden figure moved exactly as expected, drifting through the sky with the calm, almost mechanical grace he always displayed.
Then something changed.
As if struck by an invisible force, the golden entity—something that should have been all but invincible—suddenly dropped out of the air.
The camera zoomed in.
What it captured looked disturbingly close to a spasm crossing Scion’s face.
It was a surreal sight. The same being capable of ending entire universes now looked… afraid.
The reaction lasted only a few seconds before Scion vanished in a flash of light.
Ice settled in Rebecca’s veins.
“Where did he go?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Dragon replied with a frown. “I’ve tapped nearly every camera network on the planet trying to find him again, but I’ve found no trace.”
Under normal circumstances, that kind of unchecked power would have deeply worried Rebecca. Compared to Scion, however, it barely registered.
She turned toward Contessa.
“Was Clairvoyant able to—”
Contessa shook her head before the sentence could finish.
Legend remained silent beside her, his expression grim. Rebecca couldn’t blame him. If this truly meant what it looked like…
Damn it all, was it happening now?
“What does the Path say?” Rebecca asked, grasping for any thread of certainty.
“I don’t know,” Contessa replied, her expression unusually tired. “Too many factors are interfering. Eidolon and Scion are blind spots. Whatever master effect we’re dealing with here might disturb the results, and the anomaly’s own abilities complicate things further.”
She paused briefly.
“The Path cannot be trusted in this situation. Even predictive models could be used against me, and that says nothing about the new cape’s abilities.”
Rebecca exhaled slowly.
Fuck.
“I’ve given Dragon free rein across several Earths to expand her infrastructure,” Contessa continued. “Beyond that, I don’t currently have a clear solution.”
Rebecca turned toward Dragon.
“What can you bring to bear? At this point, you might be our only real advantage.”
“I’ve upgraded several ships and prepared a few dozen new suits for the Dragonflight,” Dragon replied. “But I need more time before they’re fully operational.”
Legend shifted slightly where he stood.
“I don’t want to sound overly optimistic,” he said slowly, “but is it possible we’re jumping at shadows? This doesn’t necessarily mean he’s triggering the end of the world.”
Rebecca remained quiet for a moment as the three of them continued discussing possibilities.
They still had far too little information.
No capes had been sent into the pocket dimension yet due to the risk of the unknown master effect. The caution made sense, but it also left them almost completely blind.
Her earbud crackled again. “Ma’am, someone just exited the portal!”
Rebecca straightened slightly.
“It’s the young boy and the dragon reported earlier. They’re requesting a meeting with one of the Triumvirate. What should we—”
Rebecca closed her eyes briefly.
It wasn’t like they had much choice.
They needed answers, even if this turned out to be a trap.
“Send them through,” she said.
She glanced around the tent. No one objected.
Contessa immediately stepped through a Doormaker portal, choosing to remove herself from the room just in case this was some kind of trap. Even if the Path was unreliable, they still could not risk Contessa.
Legend, Dragon, and Rebecca waited.
The minutes felt agonizing with so many uncertainties.
Eventually, the tent flap opened.
The young boy walked inside wearing Victorian-style clothing, looking almost absurdly out of place in the middle of a military command post. The silver-purple dragon that had accompanied him remained outside.
Rebecca immediately felt a sense of unease when she saw the expression on his face.
She had seen that face before.
“Do you—”
“ARE YOU READY TO SAVE THE WORLD, HEROES!” the boy shouted with a raucous grin, throwing both arms into the air.
The face of a madman.
***
Sorry for the slight delay
Comments and Thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Likes are like a drug to me and boost my creative juices.
I have advanced chapters if you wanna read ahead.