22. Many Questions. Few Answers.

As they finally made it out of the tower, Leon suggested they climb to the rooftop of one of the buildings so they can get a better view of the surrounding area.

Since they don't have a specific goal in mind, Leon is also hoping they'll see something of interest.

Leon sends a pulse of his mana through the golden chest plate as it melts into a liquid metal and covers his entire body. With the shadow cloak draped around him and little Onyx lying across his shoulder, it's enough to make most people cower in fear.

Little did he know, since he became the master of the tower his entire aura has changed. Paired with his current appearance gives him an air of importance.

Using a ledge on the side of the building, he hoists himself up and begins to climb. Leon used to do parkour fairly regularly, but it's been a while so he is a bit rusty.

Since Alexis isn't able to climb up like Leon did, she reluctantly stayed on the ground level with Ava. Spike and Edgar are both stored inside their respective artifacts.

He though it would be better to let their new pets get some combat experience. He also doesn't want to give away all his cards just incase.

In the future if they get into trouble he won't hesitate to call them out.

When he makes it to the roof, he sits on the edge with his feet dangling off the side.

Shielding his eyes with his hand, he scans the city in all directions.

Besides the usual carnage and destruction there's not much else that stands out.

"Don't move, bud, or I'll give you a headache you won't recover from."

Leon was so focused on his task that he didn't even notice the man creep up behind him. His voice is gruff. If Leon had to guess he would say the man must be pretty old.

Too bad he can't see him. Right now the man has the barrel of his gun place on the back of Leon's head.

"I see you have an artifact in your possession. I'll be taking that.

Leon stays silent and unmoving. He's not afraid of this guy. First off, even if he was shot with a gun his golden armor is much stronger than normal bullets. Secondly, since the man has a gun, it means he doesn't have any artifacts, at least not any combat oriented artifacts.

"Hey! You want a bullet in your brain? I won't ask again."

As son as he finished his threat, Leon quickly spun around and smacked the gun right out of his hand. While the man had his finger on the trigger and with the force of his strength, being several times higher than normal humans, the mans trigger finger was bent at an odd angle.

"Ah! Shit!"

The man screams while holding his broken index finger. Realizing he has no chance of winning a fight with Leon, he charges towards the door leading down into the building.

Leon doesn't plan on letting him get away.

<Whistle!>

He lets out a sharp whistle while pointing at the fleeing man. Hearing his masters order, Onyx lept off his shoulder with enough force to push Leon back a couple of feet.

Onyx expertly glides towards his target and lands on the mans back sinking its fangs into him deeply.

The mans movements become visibly slower and slower until he finally collapses. When Onyx finishes his meal he glides back to Leon's shoulder.

"Good boy Onyx!"

Skeet skeet!

Leon doesn't feel remorseful at all after killing another human, especially one that tries to rob him.

He checks the mans body for anything of value. Just as he expected, nothing.

He starts to wonder if this guy was alone or if he had a group. If he did have a group then it's possible they might have artifacts and Leon's not confident enough to go on an all out battle when he doest know what they're capable of.

He quickly retreats back down the side of the building and reunites with Alexis.

"What an odd girl." He thinks while looking at her sitting comfortably on Ava's back.

She's got a good imagination, he didn't even think of the possibility of her riding on Ava. Too bad Onyx is so small. If they had a large pet that could fly it would be an insane advantage.

"What did you see up there?"

"Oh, not much sadly. I guess for now let's make our way through the city and gather as many cores as we can to upgrade the tower."

"Hm, that's a good idea. Let's go Ava!"

As soon as she gave the command, the giant spider sped off taking the lead with Alexis riding on top.

With Leon quickly chasing behind them, Ava left nothing but carnage in her wake.

Ava's speedy growth paired with the boost from alexis' crown made her an unstoppable force. While charging through the streets she used her long spider legs to pierce the walking corpses.

"Ava! Over there!"

"Skree!"

"And that one too!"

"Skree skree!"

Leon was caught off guard by their teamwork to say the least. With Ava leading the charge, Leon would grab the cores from the bodies. Onyx was also helping out with his incredible speed.

He would glide around snatching up a couple of cores with his tiny hands and feet and fly back to give them to Leon.

He can't help to think how lucky they are to have gained such powerful creatures. Now that he thinks about it, he wonders if other people have gotten any pets as a reward? Or if there are even any humans that obtained such powerful artifacts like himself.

After a few hours of cleansing the streets and gathering cores, they chose a small restaurant to hold up in for the night.

It's not particularly defensible with all of the windows but that won't matter if they stay on the roof as there is only one path to get up there.

The group sets up camp on the roof as the sun finally dips below the horizon. Ava is sleeping soundly with Alexis doing the same while leaning on each other.

Only Leon and Onyx are left awake. Onyx is actually a nocturnal type creature so even though he was awake during the day, he stays up most of the night as well.

Leon still doesn't sleep all that much unless they are in a completely safe environment.

"Say Onyx, I wonder where you came from..." Leon says mostly to himself.

"Squeak!" Onyx let's out a cute little squeak sound and rubs it's nose on Leon affectionately.

"It's crazy just how fast everything changed. I have so many questions and no way to find answers. Sigh."

Onyx looks at him with big pitch black eyes as if he too was pondering.

As soon as night fell, the world suddenly became a lot more ominous. There were strange sounds echoing off in the distance. Whatever is making those sounds is something not native to earth that's for sure.

With darkness encompassing the surroundings and alien noises coming from the city, it was enough to make any man's skin crawl.

Leon sat there looking up at the stars with a small fire crackling in the center of the roof. The fire was made using his camping stove. He continued stroking Onyx' fur while deep in thought.

Before he knew it, the sun had already started to rise once again. He didn't even feel the slightest bit fatigued either.

While walking over to the edge of the roof he spotted an apple tree just a little ways off in the distance.

He suddenly has an idea as he pets Onyx who is lying on his shoulders.

"Hey bud, see if you can get me one of those apples."

"Squeak!"

He leaps off Leon's shoulder aiming for the apple tree. Leon knows he could easily get one by himself but he wanted to test out Onyx' capabilities. It's also good training for the little guy.

Gliding through the air, he closes the distance and latches onto the tree. He climbs out on one of the branches and after struggling for a moment, he finally manages to rip the apple off the branch.

The only way he can carry the apple without limiting his flight is to bite into the apple with his teeth. He scurries all the way to the top before jumping out and gliding back to Leon.

Leon is very impressed with how smart onyx is. Normal animals usually aren't capable of doing things like this with such accuracy.

Although it was a simple task, it was still impressive.

Onyx lands in his shoulder and proceeds to drop the apple into Leon's hand.

Leon looks over to where Alexis and Ava are sleeping. They look so peaceful, completely contradicting the current state of the world.

Most humans that don't have the means to protect themselves these days most likely live in fear 24/7.

Just thinking about if he had never got his first artifact back at the grocery store makes him very thankful for his situation.

Using the azure blade he cuts the apple into a few pieces and feeds one to Onyx who happily crunches and swallow it in an instant.

At first he was worried about feeding onyx with him being a bloodsucker and all, but was pleasantly surprised when he ate it.

He decided to give the other pieces to Ava and alexis once they wake up.