It’s a new dawn, a new day, and once again you somehow managed to get your hands on some of my ramblings.
A rather foolish choice, particularly when curiosity killed the cat, and while satisfaction may have brought it back, nothing here is going to satisfy you.
If anything, the only things to be found here will drag you down into the pits of despair… Still here?
Strange, but okay if you’re sure, maybe this time you will manage to embrace a little known thing called honesty.
So, jumping right in, what would it take for you to be willing to do more than just condemn whatever you personally find morally unacceptable?
To move past the convenient little box, which requires absolutely nothing of you, and actually be willing to risk it all, for the innocent suffering, dying, or the worlds that are burning?
We already established, the life of a single child apparently isn’t enough, nor the lives of the dozens to hundreds or even thousands of innocents who die every day, if not every hour in some corners of our cosmos.
So how many?
How many of the innocent can die, before you are willing to do the right thing?
Do you have an answer this time to a question far harder than it has any right to be, maybe something along the lines of “It would take my loved ones to be at risk” which is an answer, a selfish one, but at least would show you’re capable of caring about something more than just yourself.
So, what do you have to say?
No?
Yes?
Anything?
Maybe, the truth is simply you’re no different than the majority of beings in existence.
Blood covering your hands, red drops dripping off your fingers, as you smile, laugh, and live your life.
The cost of your choices, a tangled web filled with hollow faces, haunting your very reflection, showing exactly who you truly are, but also something you will never have to truly face.
After all, how could you imagine all of the endless consequences of your choices, when you’re unwilling to even face the actions you know without a shadow of a doubt would make a difference in someone’s life… Maybe, you simply don’t care, maybe you’re lying to yourself to justify things you know not to be true or maybe you’re doing everything you can just to survive, and see another sunrise.
The thing is, life can always get better, it can always get worse, but what life ends up being, is whatever we are willing to accept.
Change after all, is driven by those who are unwilling to bend, unwilling to accept the status quo the average person doesn’t even notice, and how could the world change, when most don’t even see the problem?
When suffering, even the most monstrous things in existence, can become as insignificant as the sun rising, at least to those whose lives are unaffected, and it makes me wonder… which is truly worse, those who become known as villains, those who cause suffering or the ones who enable suffering in the first place?
Those who can pretend everything is alright, who can watch a child shaking, crying, as a dog walks up to them growling, and can just keep going about their day, without lifting a single finger to help them, refusing to even make eye contact.
Who are the real monsters, when those who commit monstrous deeds, are made by those who do nothing?
The random musings of the Destroyer of Worlds
____________________________________________
A whirlwind of glowing screens filled with explosions, fire, destruction, and animals twisted beyond imagination are projected above a stone table, where a spinning shifting orb covered in runes floats.
While underneath it all, three draconian beings watch as people’s lives are destroyed, as a world burns, and something new rises from the ashes.
“The plan is proceeding well, humans certainly are living up to their reputation, they’re a violent, greedy, and bloodthirsty species, which will act like a plague upon our enemies.” An elderly looking draconian being covered in gleaming golden plates, mummers in a deep sagely voice.
Their words though, almost seem to crash into one of the drakes, each word causing them to squirm, until they just can’t take anymore.
A younger looking drake a few feet shorter than the other two, covered in silver, and gold hesitates, before saying in a silky smooth feminine voice “This is true Aurelio, but the amount of humans killing each other within the first hours of the system being unlocked, already numbers in the hundreds of thousands… is this just?
How many innocents are going to die?” The third drake is covered in a mix of silver, and red plates starts to laugh “Osmond, do not mock Ayrsia.” the golden drake says with a frown.
Osmond bows “I am sorry my liege.” He then mockingly glances at Ayrsia “I mean my lieges.” Aurelio sighs, and shakes his head, before turning to Ayrsia.
“Ignore this fool, who seems to forget his place.”
The air grows heavy for a moment, almost as if the weight of a world is hovering above them, and deciding if it wants to squish someone like a bug, causing Osmond to tense.
“But, with all of the excitement, it can be forgiven, besides it would be a shame to spill blood over children flirting.” Osmond, and Ayrsia both blanch, while Aurelio smiles “Oh to be young, now to answer your question Ayrsia, is this just? You have to look no further than the orbs to find your answer.” He then points one of his gleaming talons to the screens filled with death, and destruction.
“Before mana, this world already had the power to feed everyone, to take care of most if not all of the needs of its people, and yet, it was a world where millions of people suffered every single day. A world where children starved, while others lived like kings, a world where power mattered more than life, and that was before we infused it with mana. With it, they could have reached unimaginable heights, but instead this is what they do… This is who humanity is, they’re the same selfish monsters, you can find prowling, and stealing wherever they’re allowed to exist. If anything we have done is unjust, it’s pairing this plague upon our enemy’s planet, but war is rarely a just thing.”
Osmond tilts his head “What could be more just than weakening our enemies, without spending a single one of our people’s lives?” Osmond then stares down at Ayrsia, with a glint shining in his eyes.”Surely Ayrsia, you don’t value these humans, and the Nelka empire’s planet more than your own subjects?”
Ayrsia glares up at Osmond “Don’t pretend, you care about justice, when you’re responsible for that monstrosity you call the marketplace!” She then takes a step towards him, as her claws dig into the palm of her hands, and disdain grows across her face.
“And, this may shock you, but finding disgust in how you’re gleefully extracting whatever wealth that your greedy little paws can find their way into, regardless of the suffering we both know you’ll cause, isn’t actually some grand moral quandary.” Osmond’s eyes start to glow red “I am doing what’s right for the Salzon empire!”
Ayrsia tilts her head “And who are you to decide that? There is no justice to be found in the deaths of millions, billions of lives, and that’s just counting the humans… tens to hundreds of billions of creatures will end up dying!”
Osmond scoffs “That’s just life, every single day out kin risk their lives in the name of power!”
“ENOUGH!!!” Aurelio sighs “Where would the justice be in allowing our people to be swallowed by another, in doing nothing, while everything that makes us who we are is stripped away?
In the end, we had to make a choice.” Aurelio shakes his head “But if it will ease your mind Ayrsia remember this, if we did nothing, practically every sentient being on this world would be dead in little more than a hundred years, while now?
They have been gifted the chance at immortality, and every single existence, which was treated as lesser, has the chance to reach their full potential.
What we have done, might have been selfish Ayrsia, but don’t ignore the gift we have given them all, even if they can’t appreciate it or are even suffering.
This world, just like most of the universe, has always been one of pain, but maybe now, it has the chance of becoming something better, and never forget.”
He pauses, his voice becoming almost still in nature.
“That the hands of the Nelka empire are drenched in the blood of millions of our people, or how if we remain weak the fallen or really anyone across the universe could come along, and crush us whenever they want.” His eyes start to glow with golden flames dancing within his cat like irises “We will do whatever it takes to survive.”
“But, will we truly survive, if we lose everything that makes us who we are?” Ayrsia mutters to herself.
____________________________________________
Status Screen1
“These status screens are already getting insane.” I can’t even imagine how crazy they will get once my levels really start going up.
My eyes are drawn to the free attribute, just wasting away ‘Sigh’ it’s quickly tossed into intelligence, who knows maybe it can keep me from forgetting basic things which can be the difference between me living, and dying!
Status Screen1
Two hundred forty mana turns into two hundred, and seventy.
A noticeable bump of thirty, which doesn’t seem like all that much, but then again, that’s ignoring any mana regen which is still strangely absent from my status screen.
I begin mentally poking my status screen, but alas!
It’s unaffected!
“Hey you, status screen, I can literally see my mana, which means, in like ten minutes it will be pretty easy to figure out the regen rate, so just tell me you stupid convoluted screen!”
‘Poke’
‘Poke’
‘Poke’
‘Crunch”
I glance behind me, and see my skeletal honey badger standing on a stick, just staring away at me.
“Fine!” Keep your secrets, at least for now.
I haul myself to my feet, and organize the last of my stuff or all of my worldly possessions.
There is a rolled up tarp, a wheeled mid sized cooler, which has a collapsible handle reaching about three feet.
Two backpacks, one being a hefty black one that wouldn’t be out of place on a backcountry hiking trip, the other is a small sporty waterproof number, and finally a black duffle bag covered in a patchwork of random pieces of cloth, sewn in with a mix of random threads.
The tarp, duffle bag, and the smaller backpack are strapped onto the top of the cooler by an assortment of cables, while the larger backpack is just sitting to the side “Now, off to adventure I go! To well, a graveyard…”
My phone quickly finds its way to my hand where once again a sea of notifications await, I briefly browse through them, but for the most part it’s just people freaking out, claiming that it’s the end of days.
Then a familiar news anchor is plastered across the thumbnail just this time, they’re looking shall we say, a bit less put together.
Like they’ve spent the last few days doing absolutely nothing, but getting wasted.
The ever so dreadful aftermath… dead eyes, mangled clothes, sweat dried across their face, and a number of questionable stains covering their clothes.
The only real difference being, it doesn’t look like they’ve been having anything close to a good time, which maybe isn’t always so different, and my curiosity gets the best of me.
WARNING!
THIS IS AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!
“Over the past four hours wild animals across the country have been seen breaking into stores, attacking anything they see, and wandering around outside of their natural cycles.” He then pauses, almost as if he’s afraid to the next few words “Then there’s the new development, pets have begun to maul their owners on masse, and at this time it is being recommended that owners of animals, particularly cats, birds, snakes, lizards, or ANY arachnids! Are advised to get as far away from them, as quickly as possible! Potentially, tens of thousands of people have already died, when suddenly their five pound pets gained fifty pounds, other unique abilities, and burst out of their enclosures or just turned on their owners. In other news, zoos, pet stores, and pounds have become hotbeds of unique dangerous creatures that traditional firearms have no impact on.”
The anchor pauses staring directly into the camera “I have to warn you, the following video is,” They pause, and their teeth clench together “Graphic… and disturbing in nature.”
The screen then transitions to a grassy city park where there is a fourteen foot tall or about the same height as a semi truck, lion, and it’s not even standing on two feet.
The lion’s mane is covered in wispy white flames, but more important than its mystical glowing fur, is the hand sized teeth currently crunching down on the chest of a human body.
The bones are snapping like they’re nothing more than twigs.
‘Crunch’
‘Crunch’
‘Crunch’
Gunfire erupts, bullets smash into the side of its body, but it doesn’t even shudder as the bullets impact it.
The lead not even piercing its skin, just clinking onto the sidewalk.
The lion just looks at the three police officers with their ar-15s, before it roars, and then all we can hear is their screams, as the camera cuts off.
“Experts are unsure what is causing this change in behavior, but suspect it is related to the hunger, and the strange abilities we all are currently experiencing. One thing is clear though, animals are quickly becoming a force that traditional arms have no impact on, and in order to address this threat. The governor is working with the national guard to set up safe points throughout the city, where the military will hopefully be capable of deterring these threats, but in the meantime, everyone is being advised to either remain in place or to gather together with their neighbors, given there is safety in numbers.”
The news anchor looks directly into the camera “The most important thing to remember is that when we work together, and support each other, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. Stay safe everyone, and never give up hope. We will make it through this!”
I turn my phone back off “Death by pet cats.” What a terrible way to go, and could make my journey to the nearest graveyard a bit more interesting.
‘Caww’
I glance up, where there is a tree limb that’s a few feet above my head, it’s about the size of a solid fist in diameter, but more importantly, it’s straining to hold the weight of six dark black birds who have bright blue tips.
Each of the birds is about the size of a goose, and every single last one of them is staring down directly at me.
Tier One Crow – A bird that’s considered to be fairly intelligent, even known to use tools, and that was before it became a tier one creature.
They are also known to work in groups, remember their friends, enemies, and believe in equal shares, with the greedy being ostracized.
They are one of the mighty descendents of dinosaurs, you know those things with the massive teeth, which were running around earth not so long ago, and might explain so many species of birds, even before the system had a body count far above zero.
With the only thing truly standing in the way of them regularly eating humans, being the size difference, but in the cases there isn’t one.
Birds go for it, and are known for taking out humans, oh, and one more thing.
A flock of crows has a super special name that starts with an M, and ends with an ER….
They’re called a murder, a murder is currently staring at you 🙂 good luck
‘Caww’
The birds are watching me, their beady eyes all tracking, my?
All of their heads shift, in fact their eyes seem to be rotating, almost as if they’re mesmerized.
I follow their eyes, which lo, and behold are all locked onto my orb that’s slowly circling me.
Who would have guessed that animals would be able to tell that a floating bone orb the size of a marble holds something more than just bone, regardless of how dense or small it is.
The nose of a Scavenger truly knows all.
‘Caww’
With a thought the bone orb floats a few dozen feet away from me, before it splits in half looking an awful lot like a blood clam.
A red meaty core dripping with blood, with a tiny glowing pearl just encased in bone instead of shell, and the birds lose their minds.
They swarm it, six giant birds dive at the orb, and start fighting over the two halves.
Their beaks, and even their wings slamming into each to the point of blood being spilled.
The two halves tumble down one of the sides of the hill, and the birds chase after them in a blur, which is of course when two more of them dive at me.
The first one gets within a foot of me, before the honey badger jumps onto its back, and drives it into the dirt.
Blood, and feathers burst out of the bird upon impact, but unfortunately the other one wasn’t stopped.
I freeze, until it slams into me, its talons rip into my arms, as my hands reflexively fight to keep its beak away from my eyes.
Adrenaline rushes through my body as I grab the crow by its head, and start slamming its body into the ground.
For a moment everything fades away, but when it clears the forest has gone quiet, and the crow is little more than a broken piece of meat.
My body grows cold, as I’m left panting on the ground, with my heart pounding in my chest, and pain racing through my arms.
Gashes cover my arms, what is surprising though, is that it’s only about two times worse than trying to wrangle a feral cat with completely bare arms… which is to say, that they’re definitely not looking anything close to good, but not quite I need to go to the hospital right now or I’ll die bad.
My smaller bag is opened, and the first shirts I get a hold of are wrapped around my arms.
They slowly start to bleed through, but the cuts don’t seem too bad, well at least to me, and all of my first aid training, which amounts to a single class, like ten years ago.
“You know, having minions do the fighting really is the best fit for me, I don’t know why anyone would want to be covered in blood or to feel pain. You know, why would anyone want that?”
The blood covered honey badger just keeps staring at me, while I’m a bit delirious, and mumbling to myself, as the adrenaline works its way out of my system.
“You just don’t get it, raise the dead tier one skeletal crows.” Mana flows into the crows, at first there are just a couple of cracks as their bones snap back into place, but then the bodies start to shudder, before the skeletons burst through their fleshy prisons in a spray of red blood.
The blood covers my face, my clothes, all of my bags, and I just stand there, my eyes going blank.
“This really isn’t my day, harvest.” One tossed blood ball later, everything, even the shirts wrapping my arms are mostly blood free.
A good sign or at least them feeling numb, and not being filled with a burning pain probably is, but I’m too much of a coward to check underneath the shirts, instead I throw on the back packs, begin pushing the cooler, and set off with my undead minions following silently behind me.
After a few minutes of walking though, I finally notice it, everything is quiet, the birds aren’t making a sound, no bugs, and no people or children off in the distance making a racket.
Just the sound of my cooler rolling down the park trail, and the jingle of the straps on my bags swinging away, which in a word, is disturbing.
The sharp silence, almost a herald of disaster, and sure enough once I reach the end of the trail reaching a break in the trees.
The first thing hovering off in the distance is countless giant plumes of dark black smoke.
Then there’s the parking lot, along with some picnic areas, which are also completely empty.
I have the park all to myself, which honestly, is something that I would often wish for, after all who doesn’t like a bit of peace, and quiet, but now?
It’s just highlighting just how unnatural the current circumstances are, like even during the peak of the pandemic there were still some people wandering around.
I keep walking, making my way towards the exit of the park, a mile quickly passes when a buzzing sound starts to encompass me, kind of like the echo of a stadium filled with people.
The buzz is just radiating out, but what I hear is nothing like people cheering, it’s a sound much darker in nature, it’s a sound that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and with every step, it just keeps building.
Another mile passes as the crescendo rises, and once I reach the top of the hill at the end of the park trail.
A wave of sound crashes into me, people are screaming out in pain, gunshots ring across the city, explosions occur every couple of seconds, and car alarms are endlessly blaring, all of the noise swallows me whole.
The city is burning, people are collectively losing their minds to a degree I have only seen news broadcasts of.
It’s amazing how in person it’s all so much heavier, the heart wrenching screams of people in pain, the sound of people being broken, abandoned, and left to die.
I freeze, a primal part of me wanting to rush off, and help, but a more practical, a colder part of me stops me in my tracks, with a simple question (Why, why should I help them?) The sixty plus pound backpack sways on my back… and I’m stumped.
Every single day people scream out for help, every single day people suffer, and every single day we all pretend that they don’t exist.
Why should today be any different, are these people more deserving of help, are their lives suddenly more important than my own, and how many of these people screaming out there are the same people who actively made countless people’s lives worse?
“Made my life worse.” In a way, it’s kind of funny, how when someone needs help, almost everyone expects it, yet when everything is fine, suddenly all the suffering in the world doesn’t even seem to exist, at least for most of us.
Well, maybe now everyone will know what it’s like, know how it feels to scream out, and have no one answer your cries for help, to be afraid, to lose everything in a world that truly doesn’t care if they live or die.
The screaming cuts off or rather the cold part of me, the drive that pushed me to keep living even when it got below freezing.
The part of me capable of looking past the world becoming covered in snow, while I shivered alone in a tent, and with only a smelly damp sleeping bag to keep me warm.
Tunes out all the screams, the cries for help, the noise, and dissociates from it all, but as I start walking forward, it suddenly becomes far harder to just ignore everything… it’s one thing to block out sounds, it’s another thing entirely to ignore what’s happening right in front of your eyes.
The park trail starts off at a parking lot inside of a little cul de sac of houses, which seem to be intact or at the very least are not on fire or have people screaming out in pain, but across the street things aren’t so peaceful.
There is a shopping center, filled with a number of small stores lining the sides, with a grocery store in the middle of it all.
Gunshots are coming from the grocery store, people are screaming in the parking lot, and some of them are curled up into little balls as blood leaks out of their bodies.
Cars are on fire, people are running with carts filled with food, solid shards of ice are mixed into the rubble of the shattered pillars, and then there’s the bodies.
People laid out on the ground, not moving at all, and completely ignored by the people trying to get their hands on well, whatever they can.
I take it all in, detached, perhaps in shock or disbelief, but some dumb kid doesn’t share my inability to act.
They rush right into the madness, maybe they picture themselves as some kind of hero, or just read one too many comic books that rattled on about how with great power comes with responsibility or maybe, they are simply a better person than I could ever be.
They beeline it to some lady propped up against a car, who is screaming out in pain, and right as they’re hanging over her, offering their hand out to help her, there is a bang.
Their head bursts open in a spray of red, for a moment, it even looks like there’s a hole going completely through their skull, but then they crumble to the floor, and a man covered in a bullet proof vest rushes over to the woman.
He waves his gun around at anyone who even so much as looks at him, before he helps the woman into his car, and tosses his groceries into the trunk of his car.
In a cool cold efficiency, as if it’s just another day, and he didn’t just gun someone down in cold blood.
A fog seems to cover my mind, until a thought drifts through my head.
(What did you expect? In a society that’s willing to kill each over a roll of toilet paper… The real question isn’t what are people willing to do, it’s if there’s anything they’re not capable of doing?)
‘ting’
The grass a few feet from me erupts as a small circular hole bursts into the ground, and everything becomes clear as adrenaline rushes through me.
Another bullet falls from the sky, this time smashing into the sidewalk sending shards of stone flying into the air, and I run.
My backpack is bouncing against my body, as my hands push the cooler in front of me like a dolly, and after a few minutes of running I slow down.
Finally out of the danger zone, or at least no bullets seem to be falling around here, and strangely enough i’m not even out of breath.
Like sure, my body is covered in sweat, but it’s nothing like what one would expect when carrying more than sixty pounds, while pushing even on wheels quite a bit more than that, but still I stop.
My skeletal minions plopping down beside me, as I give one last look at the shopping center.
A few cars drive past it, speeding up as they see the chaos, red, and blue lights have even started flashing, but if any cops are even alive they’re in no way stemming the chaos, hell they’re probably the ones shooting.
It’s every man for themselves, just like it has always been, and I stare at the madness that is humanity.
People killing each other over resources which could very easily be shared, people turning on each other instead of working together, and just shake my head before turning my back to it all.
Screaming, crying, people yelling out in pain, and fire becoming my backdrop.
In the end though, I’m really not any better than any of them, but why should I be? https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!disq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0fcacf96-c7cb-4bf9-b188-ab3dc2c6b220_994x1600.pnghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rBXm!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff5f2a0c4-cc66-4406-a86e-31da12a9d8c2_994x1600.png
Due to formating issues this story doesn’t quite look the way it’s supposed to 0_o and you can read an updated version on Kobo, or other platforms. https://litrpgandpolitics.wordpress.com The story is also at around chapter 60 with around 400,000 words, and will posted once per day, until it’s caught up.
Then it will either be weekly, or twice a week, with that being said, I still welcome any feedback, after all I’m still editing everything 0_0 and different perspectives can so often help one see the things we take for granted.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you have a great day!