Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 164: Waiting

Zac felt paralyzed for a second, unsure of what to do now that he found her. But after a shake of his head he walked up and sat down next to her.

“Are you here to thank me again?” Alea said with some annoyance when he sat down in the gazebo.

“I’m sorry I doubted you back there. I wasn’t thinking straight in the heat of the moment,” Zac said as he looked over at her. “You have been great support from the start, and I won’t forget that again.”

She looked mesmerizing in the sunset. Her long silver hair danced in the wind, and her two horns looked like aetheric fire. She looked back at him, and only gave a roll of her eyes in response.

“I know. You keep getting hurt because of me, is there anything I can do to return the favor?” Zac asked, his eyes staying on her this time.

Suddenly she moved straight at him, and this time Zac repressed his instincts to block her. If she wanted to punch him to vent some anger, so be it. But his eyes widened as her mouth closed in on his as her hands wrapped around his head. His arms wrapped around her slender frame as if by instinct, and the two shared a passionate kiss in the sunset.

Long repressed emotions were surfacing in his mind, making Zac a bit dizzy. The dizziness intensified, and a loud gurgling in his stomach quickly told him that what he felt might not have an emotional root. A sense of unease quickly doused any passion as Alea slipped out of his hands.

“That’s for pointing your big thing at me,” she said with a giggle and winked at him, before she left Zac to his own devices. “A night on the toilet might help you remember to think straight in the future.”

That night Zac truly understood what it meant to anger a poison master. He’d never felt so empty as he did after his tenth trip to the outhouse, as he’d been exploding out of every orifice with each visit. There were even times where he wondered if he would have even survived if it wasn’t for his high vitality. However, he almost felt it was worth it as he thought back to the passionate moment in the gazebo.

The next day a pale-faced Zac walked over to the Academy, making some small talk with the girls there. The mood was quite heavy, as a noticeable part of their small army died during the Zombie horde.

“We heard from Joanna that a group of warriors will go to another Incursion in a few weeks,” one of the Valkyries suddenly said. “We want to go.”

“You want to go? War is no joke. The Ratmen won’t be as strong as the demons, but they’ll likely be stronger than the Zombies. And they’ll also be more cunning,” Zac said skeptically. “It’s good to strive for power, but don’t bite off more than you can chew. There is no rush.”

“We know that. But we finally understand just how far we are from people like you, or even the demon soldiers. We could only stand on the sidelines for most of the battle, completely useless. We came here because we want to get stronger. Some more of us might die if we go, but death is inevitable. Those who survive will be more powerful on our return,” the girl continued.

“Besides, pretty much all of us gained enough experience to get our class. When we go to the next incursion we will have finished our skill quests, and we will be far stronger than now,” another girl added.

“Oh? What class are you getting?” Zac asked curiously.

“We’re all getting the Warrior class. Alyn says it’s best for us to all have the same starting point, as that will help with War Arrays in the future. From there we will start to specialize.”

“That’s good,” Zac said with a nod.

Honestly he was happy that he’d listened to Alyn to have them all get a common class. With the new heritage their future might look far better compared to if they got some odd class that became available due to their specific circumstances.

“Work hard, you have improved, but there is a long way to go. You can go to the Incursion if Ilvere and Alyn judge you’re ready when the time for the operation starts. They have a better grasp on both the power of your squad and of the Ratmen,” Zac said as he walked into a walled-off area of the gravity array and sat down.

It was a small secluded spot that he kept for himself when he came her to utilize the array. The first thing Zac did was use the rest of the rewards he bought with his contribution points. The Fruit of Endurance unfortunately only gave a 3-point boost, but it was better than nothing.

The quest for the upgrade to [Eye of Discernment] was quite simple. He only needed to inspect a thousand people with the skill, and it would get upgraded. Of course, it was only simple since Zac could essentially inspect anyone without fear of repercussions. If it was some weaker person the quest might be impossible to finish, as the wrong inspection might result in a beatdown or even death.

Next he sat down and started meditating again. He had already made a huge stride with his improved Dao of Trees, but he wasn’t content with just that. He was already in the last stretch of his F-Grade class, but he was far from reaching his target for progression in the Dao. In fact, even with his recent break-throughs he was still only third place on the Dao Ladder, with Abbot Everlasting Peace and Guru Anaad Phakiwar firmly ensconced in front of him.

The days passed and Zac was getting less and less communicative, mainly holing up to practice his skills or meditating. However, progress was limited. Impatience was gnawing at him as he waited for the deadline to arrive. He hadn’t expected the final horde to end so quickly and now was stuck waiting for a week until Bernard would open the portal.

The only real change to him was when he got word that the Gnome finally got his hands on a pill of purification. It was a pill that was deisgned to combat miasma. As soon as Zac got his hands on it he eagerly ate it, and it truly helped a lot.

Unfortunately the effect of one such pill was limited. Whatever the Corpse Lord injected him with wasn’t messing around, and it stubbornly kept causing him rouble. Calrin promised to keep looking, but he didn’t look hopeful. Zac could only put his hopes to there being more solutions close to where he was going.

Every evening he would sit down at the array at the appointed time in hopes that the town leader would open his array in advance. Each time both Ogras had Alea silently stood with him, and wordlessly left when he stood up with a shake of his head.

Meanwhile, Port Atwood was springing up with tremendous speed, the earth and wood mages working overtime in creating one structure after another. The humans weren’t just lounging around either, and their speed in erecting buildings would give Amish barn raisers a run for their money.

Even the Academy was quickly changing, and another contingent was getting created. Quite a few young men had signed up to become soldiers. According to Alyn she believed that after she rooted out those without aptitude or without the drive necessary perhaps less than 10% would remain, but at least it was a start.

Even the empty slots in the Valkyrie squad had gotten refilled with former refugees from the islands. Zac was even more surprised to find out that the new recruits insisted on giving the same pledge as the old members. Zac could only shake his head in confusion, but eventually he relented and accepted, bringing their numbers back up to 80.

Finally the agreed-upon day arrived and Zac sat down on the teleporter array, even though there was hours before the array would open. Outwardly he was unpertubed, but his heart was hammering, waiting to see whether his gambit worked. The minutes passed, and finally they reached the agreed-upon time. Still, nothing appeared in his teleportation menu. Only The Cradle of God was public. One minute passed, then another.

Zac was starting to wonder whether the man had succumbed to the poison Zac force-fed him. Perhaps he even found a cure somehow. However, a new town flashed into being, and Zac immediately stood up and looked over at Alea and Ogras, who accompanied him.

“I will be back within the month,” Zac said, and with unwavering determination on his face disappeared through the teleporter.

He soon found himself in a small room, and from the first look around it seemed it was a garage.

“The antidote. Hurry, give me the antidote!” a wheezing voice came from a corner.

Zac looked over, and saw John Bernard stand there huddled over. When Zac saw the man his eyebrows rose in appall, and shame filled his heart. The man had been quite portly just a week ago, but now he looked like a pale shadow of a man. He had lost almost all his body fat, and had thick black lines under his eyes. If Zac didn’t know any better he would have guessed the man in front of him had undergone months of chemotherapy treatment.

Without hesitating he threw over the small white bottle, and John swallowed the contents without giving it a second glance. Zac also transferred over 2 500 000 Nexus Coins to the man. He had planned to give him a million coins, but after seeing his wretched appearance he changed his mind.

“I am sorry about putting you through this suffering, desperate times,” Zac said with a shake of his had, and then took out one of the small roots that had weeded out the infiltrating monks.

“I will give you a piece of information that might save your life. One of the invading incursions is The Church of Everlasting Dao. They possess infiltrators who essentially have shape shifting capabilities, they can turn into any person. No scouting techniques can spot the disguise.

“This root is harmless to humans but deadly to the infiltrators. It’s what we used to root out all the spies in our own City. We expect your New World Government is already infiltrated,” Zac said as he threw over the root to John.

The man was absorbed in feeling the effects of the antidote, but Zac’s words woke him up and he caught the root hesitantly.

“You know, you’re a wanted man now. That demon’s actions in New Washington has made you the enemies of the whole government,” John said just as Zac was about to leave.

“Oh? Is there people outside planning to catch me?” Zac asked.

“Do you think I’m suicidal? I want nothing to do with your conflict. The sooner you’re out of my life, the better,” John said with grumpily.

Zac only shook his head and stepped out. It was night-time here as well, so Zac had no problem to slip into the darkness unencumbered.

------------------

“It’s me,” John said into the radio as he looked himself over in the Radio.

He was already starting to look better, the dark circles under his eyes already gone. It also felt like he finally would be able to eat again, without it feeling like his teeth were shattering and his throat catching fire.

He was already so engrossed in planning out the feast that he would prepare for himself to celebrate, that he almost forgot he was on a call with a superior.

“Did he come?” a rough voice answered after a few seconds.

“Yes Sir, he stepped though as soon as I opened it. He immediately left town afterward it seems,” John answered as he went over the list in his head.

He’d definitely open up the bottle of 21-year-old scotch he’d been saving for months now. And a mountain of ribs. They killed that huge boar the other day, and it barely contained a trace of miasma.

“Good, you’ve done well. We’ll take it from here,” the man on the other end said.

“What are you going to do? He’s the Super-Brother Man, after all. He’s not some nobody,” John asked skeptically as he put down the mirror. “He also said something about shape-shifters infiltrating the government, and-“

“You don’t need to worry about that. You are hereby relieved.”

A window shattered and John only felt a blazing pain in his head, before all turned to darkness.