An act of God
8 minutes ago, outside the warehouse...
"Edith, let's end this quickly," I whispered to my companion, activating my new magic. "And remember, his magic is very much target oriented, so if you were to avoid his line of sight when he attacks, you can avoid the attack itself."
She returned me a nod, keeping her eyes forward. "Yes, master."
I'm not sure whether she understood the strategy fully, because I didn't have enough time to explain it to her. But she went along with it just fine. I used my growth spurt skill on the same apple, and hurled it far to the handlebar mustache man's left side. The moment his eyes tried to follow the apple, Edith and I ran in separate directions. I was heading to the spot where the apple was going to land, while Edith bolted at the enemy once again.
"That's not going to work twice," he said, and aimed for her legs. My distraction didn't work at all, but it's fine. Remembering my advice, she immediately reacted and sidestepped out of the way and avoided the invisible force, which broke the ground instead. However, she did not expect a second attack, aimed at the same part of her body.
The force reacted with the defensive layer around her shin, and the collision generated enough force to violently trip her. She face-planted on the bare ground. Her defensive layer only activates against external forces, so if she were to exert force and collide with an unmoving object, there would not be any energy negation. As far as the defensive layer is concerned, her falling on the bare ground is treated no differently than her throwing a punch at someone. It's a major flaw, and I was thinking of a temporary workaround for it during this fight.
Edith attempted to get up as quickly as she fell, but the handlebar mustache man was not holding back anymore. He aimed for her, and triggered his invisible force over her head, smashing it on the ground two times consecutively before she managed to roll out of the way and become mobile again. She suffered a broken nose and upper lip laceration — both were healing in real time — and she no longer bothered to wipe the blood away. My apple landed on the ground just then, growing into a full tree. While I was running towards it, I made some key observations on the enemy's skill based on his recent attacks.
He was able to attack Edith without her attacking first, so his skill's capabilities are not limited to counter attacking. But this raised the question: where does he derive those invisible forces from? Clearly, he doesn't generate them out of thin air, because if that's the case, then the name of his skill — cause and effect — makes no sense. I had a theory that he was replicating the effects of kinetic energy produced by Edith as she was sprinting, but I didn't have enough understanding to confirm this yet.
As soon as I approached the newly grown apple tree, I noticed the effects of my new skill. The trunk of the tree was as black as coal, and there was smoke emanating from its apples, leaves, and branches. Touching the wood, it was as brittle as charcoal. In fact, it was charcoal. Closer inspection revealed that the insides of the apples had melted due to built up heat, which also burnt the exterior. The same property applied to the rest of the tree; it was burnt from the inside.
I'll be honest with you. This was within the realm of my expectations, purely because the code I wrote for my new skill was a hot pile of trash. And it's not even my fault. The idea behind the seed modification is quite simple, as the name implies. It allows me to modify the properties of a seed, so that I can breed a new botanical species. But the problem is my mana control, as it always is. You see, changing properties of a seed requires rewriting the DNA of the seed cells, which is a process that requires absolute precision. I spent quite some time trying to find a way around this barrier, and settled on quite an undesirably approach — I coded a self-learning AI to handle the DNA modification.
So, if I were to use this skill, the only parameters I need to give are the properties that I desire to embed within or remove from the seed, and the AI will attempt to reconstruct its DNA appropriately. When I say 'attempt', I mean 'most likely fail' because the AI is exceptionally dumb. In the case where the tree turned to charcoal, I tried adding properties of fire and heat conductivity.
I didn't give up hope though. Because, I knew there was a small chance of success, and repeated experimentation will eventually lead to it. There's also a small risk of the DNA becoming contagious, which could potentially destroy the planet. But let's not worry about that. I plucked another one of the fresh apples from the branch I was holding.
I saw Edith not giving the enemy any chance to switch his attention to me. But she was burning herself out in doing so. She shot a set of 4 fireballs of extreme intensity at the handlebar mustache man, and immediately got out of his line of sight. He attempted to step back to give himself some time to lock on to Edith in order to effectively counter attack. But I threw my new apple right behind him after using both seed modification and growth spurt. Luckily, he did not immediately notice, and the tree that grew on his blind spot had properties of electricity and electrical conductivity. Like a Tesla coil, streams of electrical current flowed into itself as well as onto the handlebar mustache man. He was shocked, literally and expressively, but he still had the 4 blue balls of fire to worry about.
Ignoring his clothes getting holes burnt through them by the stream of high voltage current, he focused his magic on the fireballs. One by one, all 4 of them exploded. It seemed like he used the same concept of Edith's defensive barrier; he hit the fireballs with equal amounts of energy to cancel them out. He immediately moved away from the tree that was no longer producing streams of current. Because, it had burnt down and died, which is exactly what happened previously. Self-learning AI my foot.
Anyway, the handlebar mustache man gave me a nasty glare with the corner of his eyes, while he stood with holes burnt all over his clothes. I returned him a confident smirk, although I can't say that I was actually confident. I learnt nothing new about his skill from that exchange, time was still running out with regards to Edith's mana consumption, and the princess was wasting that precious time by attempting to console a boy with trauma.
Edith once again refused to give the handlebar mustache man any time to relax, and launched another set of attacks. And of course, I threw an apple in addition. The same fiasco repeated 3 more times. Each time, I switched between the same two sets of properties for the seed modification; fire & heat conductivity, and electricity and electrical conductivity. The results did not change in any significant way whatsoever. And the handlebar mustache man was getting more and more efficient at countering this pattern of attacks each time. I couldn't see an end to this situation where we would subdue him. Unless, I come up with a strategy that would reduce Edith's rate of mana consumption.
So without conclusive evidence, I decided to consider the theory I thought of earlier. Assuming that the handlebar mustache man's invisible force magic was just a replication of kinetic energy, it can be confirmed that his entire magic skill is just copying a physical effect and targeting it on to a point in space. With that being said, I had an idea.
While the handlebar mustache man was taking a breather, I signaled to Edith — who was just about to attack him again — and we regrouped. I whispered to her the plan, "Let's stick together. Deactivate your defensive layer, and simply focus on offense. And more importantly, don't move away from my side."
There was no need for me to explain my intentions, as Edith trusted me wholeheartedly. Prepared, she got rid of her defensive layer that was consuming a ridiculous amount of her mana with each use. "You two are troublesome, I admit," the handlebar mustache man said. "But you're not getting out of here alive. No. Matter. What—?"
Fireball incoming!
He ducked and fell over, dodging the fireball that was shot at him with no warning, and it was faster than ever. Being able to focus entirely on her ranged attacks, without having to worry about mana consumption or counter attacks, Edith was now like an overpowered stationary turret.
Sighing at our seemingly stupid strategy, he stood back up just as Edith shot another one. This time, he saw the fireball coming his way. Dodging it perfectly, he aimed his arm at Edith's face. If his attack were to hit Edith in the face without her defensive layer, it would realistically take about 15 seconds for her to recover from it. A spark of fire appeared between Edith's eyebrows, about to trigger a strong explosion.
And then nothing happened. The spark simply disappeared. If this sounds familiar, that's because it's my virus nullifying the effect of the attack. I was continuously releasing my mana with no specified instructions all around me. Mana without instructions basically acts like a wave of energy that disappears shortly. But there is an interesting property to it — it is unique to its owner. I don't mean that my mana contains my DNA, rather it's more like a connection that remains until the mana unsustainably disappears.
So, as long as the released mana is connected to me, the virus would treat it the same way as it treats me. I was 99% sure that this would work. Yes, that means there was always a 1% probability where Edith could have gotten her head blown open. Anyway, I was glad that it worked. If you're wondering how continuously releasing mana will affect my mana consumption, I should tell you that unlike everyone else, my mana capacity is bullshit.
> Mana Capacity: 54000
I mean, the estimate is not wrong, as in, there is mana worth 54000 in my nerves. But if you remember how this 54000 came to be, you will know why it means nothing. According to my biology, mana is sourced directly from the virus, hence it was infinite. But with the seal skill activated, mana worth 54000 was stored within my nervous system accessible for use. So, let's say I release mana worth 4000. My total mana won't be reduced to 50000 like you would expect, rather it would instantly replenish, becoming 54000 again.
Technically, whether it instantly replenishes or just never reduces, I didn't know. But that's an experiment for another day.
Baffled by what just happened, the handlebar mustache man instinctively took a step back in fear. "Y—your tricks mean nothing."
Even more fireballs incoming!
He couldn't dodge all 6 of them, and ended up getting struck by 2. Of course, he counter attacked for each fireball, but the result didn't change. We stood unaffected while his clothes were ripped, and his neck and waist suffered 3rd degree burns. Edith followed through with another barrage of fireballs.
But this time…
Teeth clenched, wearing a frown, and overall extremely pissed off, the handlebar mustache man forcefully put his arm forward. He aimed at our general direction and performed his skill. Expecting another explosion, I remained calm. That was until instead of explosions, a targeted gust of wind blasted at us at speeds reaching 500 kmph (310 mph for my fellow American readers). That's the kind of wind speeds you would find at the edge of Jupiter's hurricane.
It was brief and did not cover much distance; it didn't even scathe the warehouse a few meters away. But it still hit us, it hit me. I managed to change my mindset of expecting a fire based attack into expecting a windstorm. But I couldn't control the panic that took over me. The virus reacted, discharging a surge of energy that was mostly targeted at the ground beneath me. It was a last second attempt by me to have the energy be absorbed by the ground. The ground was obliterated, Edith was sent flying away from my side, the handlebar mustache man was struggling to understand what just happened, and of course the warehouse collapsed on top of 41 innocent souls.
Princess Loeya, clearly confused, looked around to make sense of what just happened. She saw me standing over the spot where the destructive force originated from, with my pants torn and one of my coat tails ripped off. But she looked a bit further to me and recognized the handlebar mustache man. "Lord Heath?" she said faintly.
Amidst the fire burning behind her, the dust still settling, and the captives groaning, I barely heard her. I swiftly turned my neck in her direction. Walking up to her, I helped her up on her feet with a curious frown. "Do you know that man?"
She coughed a bit from the dust, before responding, "Yes, that's lord Heath. But… I don't know why he is here."
"I don't care why he is here, Loeya!" I had to shout for her to hear me. To some extent, I was also letting my frustration out on her. "I care about why you never bothered to mention someone like him even exists in this kingdom?"
"What do you mean? I did warn you about the Children of God when we first met."
A realization struck me. If you remember, in the charcoal kingdom on the other side of the planet, Edith and Devon were known among the people as those 'Closest to God'. In Eden, they apparently use the term 'Children of God' which is the same thing. This handlebar mustache man who goes by the name Heath is one of the 5 Children of God, in other words, immortal biological robots created by the Omnipotent. Not only are there 4 more of them, it's also safe to assume that the immortals in this part of the land far outclass Devon and Edith; based on Heath's level and unseen magic skill.
Honestly, I'm embarrassed that I never realized this connection. But in my defense, the bastard God had lied to me.
I sighed with my hand held over princess Loeya's shoulder. I stepped back and turned to Edith, who was keeping her eye on the enemy while getting up. I walked up to her, and whispered to her the final plan for the night.
It's as they say, desperate times call for stupidly risky measures. "But master Zenith, I can still go on," Edith immediately objected to my plan. "I can—"
"Don't make me repeat myself, Edith," I interrupted her, calmly as I could. "Our time advantage is running out. Get going now."
Forcing herself to leave my side, she ran to the collapsed warehouse and started helping the captives who were still alive and stuck underneath debris. Not asking any questions, princess Loeya also began helping out, followed by the rest of the standing captives including Gregory who put down the corpse of his friend.
It sucked that it had to come to this. I walked a bit closer towards Heath, who was cautiously searching the dead bodies of the red mages near him. He soon found what he was looking for — mana potions. He chugged it down, and waited silently for it to take effect. For someone with a mana capacity of 5.7 million to need to use potions, it was clear that his last attack consumed a lot of mana. It was not a bad point to observe, but I was already way past that. I didn't give a damn about how his dumb skill worked anymore.
You see, back when I developed my seal skill, I had this suspicious thought. If you remember, the virus had a lot of influence in developing that skill. So I thought, what if there is a feature in that skill that I'm completely unaware of? A feature that would allow the virus to override the seal, so that it could take over my mana utilization when it deems necessary? In theory, that meant that the virus would automatically perfect any magic skill I use. For example, if I were to use my seed modification skill, the AI that I coded would suddenly become hyper intelligent.
However, there were two problems with this hypothetical feature. One, I will have no control over the mana input, so I can perform a fire based skill intended to light a fireplace and end up causing another charcoal kingdom incident. Two, intentionally letting the virus take control over me is just idiotic no matter how you look at it. But all of this was just a silly thought, so I never really lingered on it for long. Until now, that is.
16 captives, 7 of them children, were confirmed dead beneath the debris, 19 were saved, and 6 were still being searched for. With Edith's help — her ability to control the fire and her body strengthening to lift up heavy objects — the rescue progressed smoothly and swiftly. It also had to do with the fact that all of the captives were near the front door of the warehouse when it collapsed. Anyway, time was running out.
Princess Loeya was still searching for the missing captives, while Edith acknowledged the time. "Everyone move out!" she shouted. Some people needed to be dragged out of there either because they were stubborn or injured. Princess Loeya came under the first category. Nevertheless, they all timely proceeded to head away from the wasteland. "Edith wait! We left Zenith behind," said the princess, halfway out of the wasteland. Somehow she did not realize that until then. But in her defense, she was that preoccupied in saving the captives.
"Master's orders," Edith regretfully replied. "He will stop the enemy while we escape."
With so much time passed that they were that far gone, Heath's mana seemed to have been replenished enough to face me. He was clearly unaware of my abilities, and the previous reaction from my virus only confused him and made him more wary. "Just wanted to check… are you by any chance, still interested in having that civilized discussion?" I stalled for a few last seconds that I could.
He didn't have to answer that, because I already knew what he was going to say.
> State of Mind: Extremely pissed off
"Fuck you," he responded anyway, and initiated his magic skill. A few seconds later, beneath the ground between us, a super heated explosion detonated. It sent a huge shockwave and launched hundreds of chunks of red hot rocks above the surface. The rocks were becoming lava in front of my eyes. Immediately following that, he launched the same gust of wind, aimed at the lava.
The sound of the explosion reached the ears of Edith and the others. They were still increasing the distance between them and the battle as much as they could. Edith was carrying a couple of injured captives over her shoulders while running, as were some of the capable men that were rescued. So obviously, they were not going very fast. But distance is what mattered, so they never stopped.
"Edith, we have to leave the captives here and go back for Zenith," princess Loeya said. "Lord Heath is not someone he can fight by himself. You may have faith in him because you are subservient to him, but trust me, he is going to die at this rate."
"Huh?" Edith was baffled. "You... don't know?"
Admittedly, I never told Edith regarding how much information about me princess Loeya was aware of. She must have thought that I would have at least told her about the fact that I am incapable of dying. But no, princess Loeya knew nothing about what I'm capable of.
Even as I stood before freshly made lava carried towards me by an insanely strong force of wind, assuming a threat on my life is just a terrible joke. I closed my eyes and sighed, acknowledging my tragic existence. And so, for the first time, I intentionally allowed the virus to take control. It was a fairly straightforward plan. If the virus is going to overreact to everything that I cannot anticipate, I might as well not anticipate anything and allow the virus to react. Logically, that should minimize the scale of the reaction, because there is no panic or fear to factor in.
But even the minimized reaction from the virus is a potential world ender. An even powerful shockwave discharged from me, blasting away everything that was surrounding me including the lava and the wind. I hopefully opened my eyes. The apple trees that were around were reduced to splinters, only chunks of concrete were left in place of the collapsed warehouse, and the entire wasteland was just a crater now.
The awfully loud sound of the shockwave reached the others, interrupting princess Loeya. She looked back at the scene along with Edith and unconsciously asked, "What?"
"I suppose I can tell you, because you'll be seeing it anyway," Edith placed down the two injured on the ground. They were far enough for Edith to use her magic to shield them from me. "Hundreds of years ago, I was given my life. But I was not born, I was made. There was not much I was aware of in regards to what I should do or where I should go. But there was one thing I absolutely knew, and that was my purpose of existence."
With my clothes almost entirely shredded, I walked forwards in search of Heath, who I knew was still breathing. "There's no way!" He shouted from my right side. "There's no way it's you!" Through the smoke and dust, I saw the one who arrived in a majestic white outfit, now sitting on the ground naked, covered in burns, splinters, and blood. "You cannot be the Avatar, we would have known..."
Suddenly an intriguing piece of information. But, "I wish I know what you're talking about," I replied. "I guess I will find out eventually. Now if you don't mind, I'll be leaving a mark here for the other 4. As well as the rest of Eden." I brought up the last apple I had in my grasp. Although it was more than half broken, there were still a couple of seeds in it. My analysis skill triggered, and I saw what confirmed my suspicion.
"One day, the Infinite Spirit would descend to these lands, whom I should serve, obey, and fight for unconditionally," Edith quoted the lines that were embedded into her memory since her creation. "This being does not belong, for his strength is beyond understanding."
> Level: INF@#56%$#INITE
> Mana Capacity: INFIN&@54%#ITE
> Mana Control: NEGA%#@F$@TIVE
> Skillset: … Seal (Complexity - S , Override) … Growth Spurt (Complexity - A) ; Seed Modification (Complexity - A) …
> Character Trait: Logical, Malevolent, Opportunistic, Calculating
> State of Mind: Troubled
I activated my seed modification and growth spurt skill on the apple, and threw it far away in the opposite direction of where Edith the others were. I had a general idea about what was going to happen, but there was no way to know the scale of it.
> Skillset: … Seal (Complexity - S , Override) ; Seed Modification (Complexity - S) … Growth Spurt (Complexity - A+) …
"What are you talking about?" the confused princess asked Edith.
Looking in my direction, and waiting for the impact, she responded, "You said that man is not someone master Zenith will be able to fight by himself. Be enlightened now, master Zenith is not an entity whose strength can be rivalled, not by that man, not by anyone, not by everyone combined. His strength far surpasses comprehension."
From where they stood, a bright blue glow appeared in the distance. Princess Loeya and the captives all blocked their eyes as the glow became brighter and brighter. Before they even realized, it took the shape of a tree. A tree that was generating a ridiculously powerful electromagnetic field that drastically affected the surrounding air by ionizing it (causing the blue glow). And do you know what happens when air is ionized? That's right, it becomes plasma.
Lightning overflowed from the air surrounding the tree, repeatedly striking at the positively charged ground. Interestingly, as the tree grew taller, not only was its top becoming a more powerful and concentrated electromagnetic field, but also the lower parts of the tree became more positively charged in the process (this meant a stronger attraction between the top and bottom). Also the tree did not stop growing, not before penetrating the clouds, which resulted in an actual lightning storm that would forever go on as long as the tree remains. It was truly a sight to behold — a rapidly growing tree with a bright blue glow surrounding it, striking scary amounts of lightning at the ground directly beneath it, overwhelming the environment with noise and flashes.
The tree grew to a point where you wouldn't be able to believe unless seen with your own eyes. For perspective, an average apple tree grows to the size of 5 meters (16 feet). But the tree that grew under my influence didn't stop at 5. It didn't stop at 50. By the time it stopped, it stood 180 meters (590 feet) tall.
Soon after it was fully grown, the ionized air and the blue glow caused by it only remained at the top. For Edith and especially the others — normal people — it was like seeing something out of a painting. They didn't know whether to be amazed or frightened, witnessing something so beyond common sense. The blue glow faintly shone on the leaves and the apples with golden exterior. It didn't take long before some of them started falling down.
Carrying absurd amounts of negative charge, the apples that fell generated their own lightning strikes at the ground midair. They ran out of charge after 2 or 3 strikes of lightning, and remained undamaged even after hitting the ground due to their tough exterior. This was the true result of adding electricity and electrical conductivity properties to an apple seed's DNA. Edith activated a passive layer of defense — similar to the defensive layer she equipped in her fourth combat phase — above everyone's heads to deflect the lethal rain of high voltage golden apples.
Amidst all this, my silhouette appeared overcoming the glow from repeated lightning strikes behind me. Everyone there had their wide-open eyes on me as I approached. Even princess Loeya stared at me in disbelief, like witnessing an act of God. Only Edith maintained her proud smile till the end. Seeing me approach in my bare skin, she proceeded to remove her overcoat, and stepped forward to cover my naked body with it. She maintained her smile as she respectfully greeted, "Master Zenith."
"Hello Edith," I greeted her back. I looked past her at the others, who were still holding on to their look of disbelief. "Let's go home now."