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Scarlet Code

Imagine a time without death. Perhaps it's a utopia where noone dies at all. Or perhaps it's a wasteland filled with nothing. But what if I told you you had to die for the first option to come true. Would you believe me? Let me tell you this. I am dead. Yet I couldn't be more alive.

brother_pheonix · Sci-fi
Not enough ratings
47 Chs

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Lily and those others were standing further away from the holograms Sil had just dove beneath. Henry's skull showed no facial features but he leaned in close to Lily after seeing nothing happen for a second.

"Should we help him?" He whispered to her.

A shadow flew into the sky expanding to blot out the sun. And then an explosion of flying bodies appeared in the middle of the Roman Tortoise formation. And there, standing there, was Sil holding the legs of two holograms swinging them about like they were nothing. His body wreathed in oozing darkness. Spears sticking out of his body making him look like some nightmarish porcupine.

In his jaws was some poor hologram who was withering quickly into nothing. The Spears popped out of his back as his scarabs ripped and tore through their newfound enemies. The scene itself looked like it came from some nightmare.

In truth this actually was a close call for Sil. When he had slid under the tortoise shell of the centurion holograms he had thought they might be easier to take down after breaking through their shields. But that was not the case. He had completely forgotten about their Spears.

And being stabbed by 10 at once took him down to 4 HP! He immediately dragged a hologram to his mouth and started eating him with his drill Teeth. His health rising quickly. And as he bit into one he grabbed a couple of the others. And then he felt it. Nagging at the edge of his mind.

Like an annoying sister wanting him to play with her. The power that had helped him in the dome that took so much to use before now wanted to play more.

And he let her loose.

Power flooded him as darkness exploded through the holograms causing some to fall back while others to suffer from being stunned. He pulled the soldiers from where they stood sliding his sickles back into his arms as he already had two decent weapons. /Eclipse has activated. D rank upgrade detected. 30% increase in stats. All other non-faction abilities will be negated. Duration 1 minute. Cool down 2 hours/

From where Lily and the others stood they now came to understand the power their new teammate had in full. He was terrifying to look at. His gold mask and crimson eyes only served to make the look even more fear inducing.

He swung the soldiers he held in his hands as his jaws slammed together biting the soldier in half. The remaining soldiers were sent flying as their comrades were being horribly ragdolled in a barbaric fashion. And when his new weapons desintegrated he started jumping between the catapults destroying the enemies filling them with ammunition and firing them.

But this was not to say the others were standing still. Henry appeared by a catapult and with a swing sliced the things axle in half. It slid down at an awkward angle collapsing toward the holograms closest to it. But he too was almost killed by a rapidly spawned centurion from behind. It raised its gladius to strike at the vulnerable reapers back. That was till Sil landed on its head plowing it into the sand with a digital squelch.

Henry took a peak behind him as he felt a sudden chill. And there was Sil crouched like a primal animal with bits of data floating around him from his crushed foe. The shadow slowly leaking off of him getting less and less till the sun once again shined overhead and his color returned to normal.

Meanwhile Lily had her vines around another catapult stopping it from launching any volley's of rocks. The Egyptians were closing in around her pouncing at her from the sands. Suddenly Hoy's shadows interfered swinging their etherial swords at their foes.

The sounds of metal clashing against each other happened as they fought. Many a gladius and khopesh clashed as the battle grew in fury. More and more enemies appeared almost overwhelming the group at several points.

At that point they'd gather around Beth as her miasma kept alot of them at bay. When one of them became too heavily injured Sil would grab them and throw them into his Coffin for a but to heal. Meanwhile he'd be chowing down on a hologram to keep his health up from the coffins cost.

Many would think that Sil or Beth might break first. But the first person to break was Hoy.

"Stop Simulation!" He shouted. The holograms froze and dissipated. Taking a look around everybody looked worse for wear. Lily had a few cuts on her robes and Beth was disheveled from running around. Steam rose from all of them. Sil wasn't excluded. Hoy quickly walked out to check something.

The others followed suit walking out dumping water over themselves to cool off.

Henry let out an excited sigh. "That was bloody amazing!" He said loudly raising his hands high and laughing as he suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Lily and Beth smiled at each other and laughed.

"That was a good battle. And it looks like you are starting to understand your powers more Sil." Hoy said as he sat down as the steam coming from them all finally stopped.

He was stretched out on the ground. "Yeah. I would have died back there if it wasn't for Eclipse activating. That really gave me a boost." He said as he played through the battle in his head.

"True and the fact you are able to Regen health by eating viruses is a bit... gruesome. But at least you aren't like Fenrir. Bloody guy loves eating everything including players." Beth commented with a shiver.

I couldn't help but shake my head as I ventured upstairs to take a break. I sat down on the couch and I felt something cold and hard next to me.

Looking down I saw the paper Henry normally read. But instead of solid lines it looked like a forum page. Like what was that thing? #acebook?

I held the paper wide and suddenly it lit up and things started to come together. A slow scrolling page filled with talk about the dome, trading, information, etc. I turned a page and found a commentary section about the dome battles. But one discussion in particular caught my eye.

Artemis217: Those battles were sickening. How did the vampire faction manage to get that many Dreds?

Gangsta14: Dunno. But you see how that Anubis hucked that guy. That was awesome! Sparta Forever!

Turtleman317: That was good. But did you guys actually see the collapsing buildings. I was under it and all I could think before dying was "smooth".

Artemis217: Maybe next time you play the sky won't be falling 😂

Turtleman317: And maybe next time you'll last more than ten seconds.

Gangsta14: And maybe next time both of you will actually get to see what a fight is really like. #WarriorFactionForever

I stopped reading after that because things started getting heated. But I couldn't help but smile.

People really never changed. A sword is sharp in the dark but in the light is dull. People really had no shame when facing the opposite side online instead of in person.

I was about to close the pages when I saw something else.

It was a picture of the warrior faction with Ares and Bellona at the front charging into a large group of monsters. Bellona was smiling and her eyes were fierce. I smiled unconsciously before a cough came from behind me.

Henry was standing there with his arms folded. He looked at the paper in my hands and shrugged. "Lily says we can rest for a bit." He said with a bored tone.

I nodded as I went to sit. But before I could I felt his hand clasp my shoulder. "Before you sit we should probably get you an apprentice level weapon skill book." Henry said as he gestured to the stairs. "You've been doing good on your own but having some kind of discipline with it would only make it better." He said.

"Now that is something I can get behind." I said as I stood up.

My scarabs had been constantly cleaning the house. So my contribution points had stacked up enough after the past couple weeks. I looked at interface and found I had 210 points I could use.

As I approached the basement area Henry was standing next to the shelves filled with skill books. And I noticed a significant difference than when I first showed up. The dust was now completely gone from the covers and there was a kind of luster to the shelves now.

I went into the aisles and found what I wanted. The chain sickle book. I went to reach for it and suddenly I felt a zap and my hand was seemingly slapped away. /Incompatable weapon skill. Please find a compatable skill book./ Interface sounded in my ears.

"Incompatable? How!?" I said loudly in shock.

Henry and the others rounded the shelves as I fumed a little. "What's wrong?" Beth asked as I stood there staring at the book on the shelf.

"Even though I'm wielding chain sickles the system is saying I'm not compatable for them." I let out a frustrated sigh. "So... what is compatable then?" I asked. As I thought about it I remembered the drawings of Anubis always showed a staff or two other things that mars colonies had long lost the knowledge of.

Everybody was quiet for a moment before Lily snapped her fingers. "Ah! I know just the thing. Come here." She gestured to me.

"It's been some time since I did this so I forgot about this function. Shift and put your hand here." She said pointing at the end of the shelf.

I slowly shifted into my Anubis state and placed a clawed hand on the shelves side. "Now what?" I asked as suddenly a hum entered the air before a book popped out of the shelves and floated over.

"Apprentice Crook and Flail..." I read on its cover.

"What the hell is a Crook and Flail?" I said as my mind became confused.

I felt heat rising from my arms to the point they began to steam. I hissed at the discomfort, not feeling any pain. But it felt like I had an intense itch that needed scratching. As my chain sickles suddenly leapt out of my bandages heated to a shade of red that only metal can reach.

The chains snapped off them as they rattled on the floor like creatures with their own will. The handles writhed like super heated snakes as the blades warped and shifted to become a different weapon each. One sickle blade grew longer and curved like a candy cane with a sharp back. The other blade split into three sections made of plated chain tendrils with little spikes all over them. They were similar to three medium size whips with small spiked balls at the ends.

The handles grew longer till they were the length of my forearms. Their colors changing from solid red to have black, blue, and gold rings wrapping the handles.

They slowly began to cool as their forms became more solid and the red heated metal settled into a calm state as they laid on the floor again.

Each thing laying before me sat at 4 feet long. The flail when the whips were fully extended reached 8 feet. The black, blue, and red rings giving them a more ancient look.

I couldn't help but feel an attraction of some kind. Like two magnets my chains shot two them snapping onto their respective weapons ends. The flail on my right. The Crook/ shepherds club on my left.

/Congratulations! Successful Equipment Evolution has occured. Twin Sickles of Judgement has evolved to Crook and Flail of Judgement. Cutting ability has been halved due to change in weapon stats. Adding Crushing, Blunt Damage, and Stun stats./ Interface chimed as the screen appeared.

/Crook and Flail of Judgement:

Stats (Critical)

Judges Flail

Crush: 10 DMG (20)

Slash:N/A

Stun: 10%

Skill: Absorption Evolution- Absorbs a small portion of points for self improvement to meet its users needs.

Description: Flail used by the Pharaoh's to punish and judge the unworthy from the worthy so the dead may pass on into either eternal punishment or eternal life./

/Judges Crook

Crush: 10 DMG (20)

Slash: 10 DMG (30)

Stun: 5%

Skill: Absorption Evolution- See Above

Used to cut and bludgeon demons into doing their masters bidding. Used in pair with Judges Flail makes its unique skill more efficient./

Henry seemingly stared at the things in my hands in shock. "Well... That's new."