Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 150: The Third Wave

Zac had a sense of Deja Vú as he stood waiting on the wall, somberly looking toward the inner regions of the island. Next to him stood Ogras and his three generals. Zac had been extremely surprised to hear that Namys was dead, worried that some monster or powerhouse had arrived at the island.

He was even more shocked to learn that she was killed by Alea on Ogras’ orders. Zac immediately called an emergency meeting between the three of them, and it took an hour to finally get to the bottom of things. Ogras was almost biologically incapable of delivering clear answers, whereas Alea refused to divulge anything Ogras hadn’t.

To hear that the sour-looking demoness had far gone plans to kill him in his sleep without him even having an inkling of it caused Zac a fretful sleepless night. He knew Namys wasn’t one of his biggest fans but had no idea that it went to the level of wanting to eradicate him. Zac understood Ogras’ actions, and Zac also felt it showed that Ogras was in it for the long haul, but it also meant that they had lost one of the best fighters and leaders for the third wave.

Ogras looked unusually pissed off as he was chewing on a piece of dried meat next to him, which was out of character for him. The demon usually adorned that annoying grin no matter the situation, so seeing him trying to take out his anger on a piece of dried boar was a bit funny.

“What’s with you? Your courtship not going according to plans?” Zac asked as he glanced over.

The demon snarled and threw the piece of food down the wall, telling Zac he hit bull’s eye.

“Did you know?” Ogras asked as he angrily looked at Zac. “The brat did at least.”

“Know what?” Zac asked, genuinely confused.

“Emma MacHale is a god damn lesbian. She’s dating that plain looking bore from the government. All that effort wasted,” the demon growled.

“Really?” Zac asked, having some difficulty restraining a smile. “I had no idea. How did Emily know? Emma told her?”

“Apparently there were all kinds of rumors before your world got integrated,” the demon said, his frown deepening as he took out another piece of meat.

Zac thought it all pretty funny, but he was also a bit confused. Emma moved here to get away from the government, but at the same time dated one of their top officials. Was Julia not aware of the disgusting things Ogras mentioned earlier?

It appeared that the slavery in Greenworth wasn’t an isolated incident, rather a well-kept secret, where only a few like the Mayor were out in the open. Important personnel could ignore rules, or even basic human decency, as long as they provided the government with enough benefits. The reason Emma wanted to leave the government was that some of the stars got provided personal slaves, in some cases even children.

Those people were the ones that Ogras went around killing during the night, and after Zac learned of it he felt it was for the best. He wanted nothing to do with a bunch of degenerates like that. The important part was whether those actions were supported by the Government at large, or whether it was a small faction within the splintered organization that acted in such a way.

He was planning on getting to the bottom of things by interrogating Julia, though he didn’t want to waste time and effort on that with the wave incoming. It might also prompt Emma to cause trouble, and he would rather wait until he had the Lord-title in his hand.

“I think it’s great. At least I won’t have to keep poisoning her while she lives in your compound,” Alea suddenly interjected, dragging Zac out of his thoughts.

“What?” Zac asked, turning around with wide eyes. “What did you do?”

“What’s with that look? I just sprinkled a little something that would give her the runs and feel bloated and a bit feverish. Not in the mood for a roll in the sack,” the poison mistress said with a small smile. “She thought she had some had come down with some tropical fever.”

Zac couldn’t help snorting when he heard Alea’s confession. He had avoided the movie star the last two days while mentally preparing for the third wave, hoping to improve as much as he could. He had mainly focused on incorporating his evolved Dao into his fighting style, and trying to gain a second Seed upgrade.

The first part went great, and he felt he possessed a far better command of the Middle Seed of Heaviness by now. The area he could expand his Dao field with the mental attach had also almost doubled after having consolidated his insights. Unfortunately, things hadn’t proceeded as smoothly in regards to his meditation, and his other seeds were still at an early stage.

“Don’t go poisoning any more of our people,” Zac only said before turning back to look out over the wall.

“Yes, dear,” Alea answered with a wink.

Incursion Master (Unique): Close or conquer incursion and protect town from denizens of other alignments for 3 months. Reward: 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, town upgraded to City, status upgraded to Lord. (2/3) [00:00:08:44]

Zac closed his menu after taking a quick glance at it, taking one last look over his forces. This time it wasn’t just him and the demons up on the wall waiting for the wave to arrive.

The Valkyries stood at the ready, having swapped out their spears for bows. Few of them were excellent marksmen, though the improved attributes made most people decent shots by now. Of course one might not need pinpoint accuracy if there was a sea of monsters beneath the wall.

There were also the group of tinkerers from Cogstown, who looked the most excited of the bunch. They stood next to two newly mounted cannons making final adjustments. Zac could only shake his head when he saw that a few of them actually talked with the cannons, drawing weird glances from the demons closeby.

The first time he saw the craftsmen Zac had thought Basso was dumping his town lunatics on Port Atwood in a bid to get rid of them. Most of them had large patches of fur singed off and missing extremities, or even limbs. More than anything they held a burning madness in their eyes, giving off a very unsettling feeling.

But Zac soon realized he was wrong when he watched them mount one of their cannons on his wall. They were extremely skilled at what they did.

The tinkerers hadn’t cared the least about the various species walking the island but instead focused on the various technologies available. They had been astounded by human contraptions such as computers and cars, but they clearly focused more on things connected to the system, which Zac felt was for the best. This group, in particular, was mainly concerned about weaponizing Nexus Crystals and turning them into bombs, and it was their experiments that had caused them to look like they did.

Zac felt it was a bit of a shame that he couldn’t introduce them to Karunthel, the Creator foreman, as he thought they would hit it off quite well. Zac understood why the beastmen were so excited. They saw the third beast wave as an opportunity to field-test various inventions.

Finally, a contingent of roughly a hundred Zhix warriors orderly stood at the wall as well, ignoring anything around them. With them stood Ibtep, who had changed its large backpack with an equally large bundle of wooden javelins with steel tips. The Zhix had been fetched from the island after Ibtep made the offer, and the Holiness had agreed, though the supersized Zhix itself stayed in the hive.

The civilians stayed in the temporary town within the walls, with some having volunteered for various tasks to help out. Those who volunteered were mainly those from the surrounding islands, who already were used by being constantly accosted by beasts. The experts from New Washington had been shocked to hear the town was about to be attacked, with some even demanding to get sent back.

Zac ignored those voices though, telling them that getting attacked was the norm in the multi-verse and nothing to get worked up over. Julia had wanted to participate in the fight, but on Ogras’ advice she was placed under house arrest during the wave. There was no need to give the government official a panoramic view of the powers of Port Atwood.

This was the last wave, and the last opportunity to gain contribution points. Many of the demons had held on to most of their points until now, hoping to gain enough for some more valuable treasures. People would hold nothing back this wave, perhaps even displaying hidden cards just to push themselves further on the contribution ladder.

There was also the competition between Zac and Ogras. Zac had amassed a bit over 80 million contribution points during the waves, whereas Ogras was at a 59. The general consensus was that Zac would keep his lead during the final wave, while a few staunch supporters of the demon lord insisted that Ogras had held back until now, and was ready to explode into action.

Zac personally didn’t care about all that. He only hoped that he would be able to finish the wave quickly, so his plans with the teleporter wouldn’t get ruined. Of course, he had a backup plan by now.

If the wave wasn’t finished and the deadline was nearing, he’d simply step through the teleporter and snatch up John Bernard, and go back. He had wanted to avoid that, as it might result in some retaliation from the government, but as things had progressed up until now Zac felt it didn’t really matter. It was just one more act of aggression to add to the tally.

The minutes slowly passed as everyone was waiting for what would come out through the portals this time. When there were less than a minute left Zac suddenly heard a familiar voice in his mind.

[Special Challenge activated. To become a leader of a world you need to possess the strength to defeat any invaders. Rewards adjusted.]

Zac groaned as he looked around, and it seemed only he heard the voice. Ogras saw the odd reaction from Zac and raised a brow.

“What’s going on?” the demon asked, but Zac had no time to explain when three huge pillars flashed into existence.

Each pillar was far larger compared to the earlier ones, and reminded Zac the incursion pillars. However, the pillars differed from both the sinister red one he’d been living with for a month, and also each other.

One of the pillars was a sickly turquoise color, and it almost looked like ghosts or specters were rotating around it. Zac was immediately reminded of the intelligence report he got from Ogras. The part about the various forces also mentioned the incursions.

The incursions themselves differed in appearance depending on who controlled it, and the turquoise one clearly matched the description of the incursions belonging to the Undead Empire. The second one was pitch black, and it felt like Zac was looking into a black hole as he stared at it.

Zac tried to figure it out, but couldn’t remember any force having such an incursion in the information missive. It likely meant that it didn’t belong to one of the large forces. That didn’t mean it belonged to a weak force, but rather a smaller one that the missive didn’t include due to the low likelihood of encountering them. There was no telling from just the light, and it could be either weaklings or a small elite force full of powerhouses.

The final incursion was multicolored in gold and red. Had it only been the lustrous golden color Zac would have thought it belonged to a church, as it radiated holiness. However, the blood-red intermixed gave a more sinister feeling, and it infected any purity of the gold luster.

“What the hell? Incursions?” Ogras muttered, and many of the demons looked confused as well.

“I got a quest update from the System,” Zac admitted with a sour face. “It said something about me needing the power to defeat invaders to become a leader. Perhaps it felt the normal challenge wasn’t annoying enough?”

As if on cue Zac suddenly heard a shout from behind. It was Janos, who once again stood at the ready at the control crystal for the Array. A large fractal had appeared above it, and any light from the crystal was gone. Zac quickly opened up the town management menu, and as he saw the message inside his sour face turned to a full-blown grimace.

“Shit.”