1% Lifesteal

Illya chewed on her nails, eyes bloodshot as she stared at the bane of her existence. She hadn’t slept in days. The artifact—the massive, mummified arm of crimson skin and wicked nails—defied every attempt to even as much as mute its aura of bloodthirst.

Several of their members stood anxiously around the intimidating object, similarly displaying signs of stress and severe exhaustion. The situation wasn’t helped by the mountain of rancid, rotting flesh, which smelled so bad it would make a mortal faint.

The situation was starting to fray everyone’s nerves, and she felt the influence gnaw at her, demanding that she claw someone’s throat out with her bare fingers.

They tried, repeatedly, from runic inscriptions to shackles to wards, but nothing worked. Ether constructs simply couldn’t maintain their form in the presence of the limb.

Naturally, an artifact as powerful as this had to be worth a lot of money. But its no doubt significant monetary value was hardly of consequence when its mere presence was enough to thoroughly derail their plans.

The lack of living bait shouldn’t have been a significant problem. The smell of blood alone was already enough to maintain a trickle of starving monsters through the passages.

The problem was that they instantly lost their minds, rushing towards the limb standing before her like moths flying into a flame. And when they came here, they slaughtered each other.

It was hardly possible to cause a break with a pile of monster corpses.

At this rate, their plan would be a failure.

But that didn’t have to be the case.

This object was dangerous enough on its own. If they just figured out how to best utilize it, the damage it could cause might very well surpass anything their previous plan was capable of doing.

The only problem was that it might be too effective. Their plan didn’t involve razing the barbaric city to the ground. This was just the first step to sending their message. It was supposed to plant a seed of dissatisfaction and create a ripe opportunity for a rebellion.

Sowing seeds of despair would only serve to reinforce the status quo as the people swarmed around the familiar scent of the blood-soaked striped flag.

Taking a frustrated breath, she made an executive decision. “Fall back, everyone,” she said, sighing tiredly. “We have exhausted our options for the time being. We will take a day off to recuperate and then continue our—”

An ear-piercing shattering sound echoed through the entire realm, and the cloaked men and women turned to face the source as one.

Standing upon the mount of flesh, they had an elevated vantage point and could clearly and easily identify the origin of the deafening noise.

It came from the passage—the entrance to the realm.

A massive, bone-white arm of chiseled muscle protruded through the now-broken barrier. It was so thick that it barely even fit the wide opening, stretching at least 15 meters in length. Its horrifying size made the gigantic limb before them look like a toddler's arm.

“Oh… boy,” Damian croaked, lifting his arm to scratch the back of his head. “That’s not good.”

Illya shot the burly man a lethal stare.

“Sorry, boss,” the man said, stepping back.

The gigantic arm suddenly shrunk, deflating like a balloon as it receded back through the passage. Illya recognized the look of that limb. Everyone present did.

That was the Avatar of Dominion. One of the most famous talents in this part of the world.

Its call to fame?

The owner—the empress of the American Empire.

“We took the gamble knowing this might happen,” Illya stated resolutely. “Do not falter. Master will call for us soon. Do your best, everyone. Resist until your last breath.

“Do not die in vain.”

***

Freddy summoned his Gore Knuckles before he even saw who was shouting. Both him and Sophia kept their forms concealed behind thick branches, keeping most of their body out of the view of whoever might decide to throw a projectile their way.

“Please identify yourselves!” the voice shouted. It was a man’s voice, and it sounded distinctly… militaristic?

Freddy raised an eyebrow. Despite his better judgment, he peeked behind a branch and took a look at the people surrounding them.

Numerous compound bows were aimed at them, and their users were all clad in military-style camo. Rather than despair at the sight, Freddy felt elated. “Don’t shoot!” he shouted. “We’re civilians!” He promptly retracted his Gore Knuckles and gestured to Sophia, telling her to put her sword down.

“Stay put!” the man yelled authoritatively. “Prepare your identification cards and throw them down!”

“All right!”

After retracting his Freddy took his out of his storage ring and Sophia did the same thing. They threw them to the ground, and one of the people surrounding them rushed to pick them up.

“We are going to prepare a safety cushion for you,” the man said. “Please jump off the tree with your arms placed behind your head. Do not resist. If you show any signs of hostility, we are authorized to use lethal force.”

“Okay!” Freddy confirmed.

The uniformed men threw a ball beneath the tree, and within a second, it inflated into a large cushion. Sophia went first, hands placed on the back of her head. As soon as she got off the cushion, one of the nearby men used a metal manipulation ability to shackle her.

A chain extended from the man’s hands, attached to a pair of arm cuffs which glowed with a runic seal.

“Hey!” she shouted in protest, causing several of the nearby soldiers to raise their bows and aim them at her.

“Do not resist!” the man shouted again. “You have nothing to fear if you are innocent. This is just a precaution.”

Freddy soon followed after her, and just like Sophia, he, too, was shackled once he got off the cushion. Rather than tense up, he was visibly relieved. “Never thought getting arrested could feel this good.”

“Let’s go,” the man said, nodding at the others present.

The person manipulating their shackles gave them a polite tug. “Please do not resist.”

Freddy nodded.

Thus, they were dragged along. Most of the people present dispersed, likely as they continued their search for any of the cultists that might be present in this realm.

He presumed that they’d be allowed to go when they were cleared of suspicion. Suddenly, his steps halted. The man tugged on the chain again, prompting Freddy to continue walking.

Although he’d felt greatly relieved at the appearance of the soldiers… weren’t they kind of in deep shit?

Sophia was also being dragged, but she was quite far from him, as they weren’t allowed to stay close to one another. He couldn’t talk to her. They couldn’t discuss anything. Even if they were near enough to speak to one another, they were being watched.

Doing his best to subdue his panic, Freddy pondered their situation. Would they be interrogated? If that was the case, he should probably run right fucking now!

Sophia had literally grown up in the cult responsible for this. This wasn’t something they even needed to interrogate out of her—this was on her papers! The woman had gone to the police after escaping the damn cult!

Usually, that would be proof that she had cut ties with them. But in this scenario, the fact that she just happened to be there during this terrorist attack was just a bit too much of a coincidence.

And what about him?

If they took a look at his records and saw the two years where he was just completely missing, only to return back to society looking quite different and having quite a bit more power, he’d look even more suspicious than Sophia!

Oh shit… Freddy thought, gulping. I’m going to prison, aren’t I?

Well, only if he didn’t get executed.

Sweat dripped down his back, and he looked over at Sophia. She looked stricken.

Great! Now we’re even starting to look guilty!

The biggest problem they had was that they were both completely unaffiliated with any party. They had no faction standing behind them, meaning that nobody would step up to force the prosecution to do their due diligence.

With how the justice system worked in the empire, backing and status was more critical than innocence. Two shmucks nobody would miss were always in danger when pitted against the law.

His heart hammered in his chest. Should they run? If so, this was a good time to make that decision. They were surrounded by only a few soldiers, while most of the others had spread out to search a wider area.

He pulled on the shackles a bit, testing their strength. He winced. They felt super tough, and without at least a two-star Hydraulic Flex or even a Flowing Strike that would break his own arms, he didn’t see a way to free himself.

The runic inscriptions did nothing to inhibit his essence flow, so they were likely there to reinforce the metal.

Testing it just a bit, he pulled on his essence and tried to use a Hydraulic Flex to—

Immediately, a blaring alarm screeched from his cuffs, and five soldiers turned around, aiming their bows at his head.

“Wait, wait, wait! Sorry! I am so sorry!” he shouted. “I-I-I… I tried using Hydraulic Flex to walk a bit more easily! I uh… I’m pretty damn tired. Hadn’t eaten in days and all that…”

His pathetic excuse didn’t look like it convinced anybody.

The man who was keeping him on a leash pulled out another set of shackles and clasped them around his wrists, then he summoned a giant chain that he used to tie Freddy around the arms.

Freddy’s expression looked extremely sour.

Well then… What the fuck am I gonna do now?

***

Jacob sat with a dour expression, keeping to his small compartment and refusing to talk to anyone. Time passed by, with no signs that anyone was coming after them.

Until things suddenly changed.

The sounds of voices could be heard just past the barrier that kept them isolated, and soon enough, it turned to shouting.

Almost everyone in the room took a stance, preparing themselves for a fight, but Jack raised his arms. “Wait!” he shouted. “I can hear the voices clearly! These aren’t the terrorists! They sound like soldiers!”

A wave of relief instantly washed over everyone in the room.

A few moments later, a blade carved the wall keeping them contained.

For a long moment, Jacob feared that the trap would go off and hurt someone, but to his relief, the soldiers seemed to have disarmed it before opening the barricade.

“Everyone get on the ground!” a voice shouted from the other side. “Hands on the back of your head!”

The smarter among them immediately complied, and the dumber among them followed their example. Even the armored old man obeyed.

Shackles floated over, cuffing everyone, and chains dragged them out one by one.

Nobody there enjoyed having bows pointed at their faces, especially after everything they’d been through, but seeing the uniformed men was a relief, nonetheless. They were taken out one by one and brought out of the dungeon and into the lobby building.

There, a man looked them over, confirming their identities. Jacob, Karen, and Phillip were released from their constraints as soon as their identities were verified, but everyone else was kept in shackles.

And finally, the last one to be dragged out was the old man.

“Please hand your identification over!” the soldier commanded.

“I apologize,” the armored man said. “I do not have my papers with me.”

The soldier snapped a finger, and several additional layers of shackles were placed on the old man. “As a precaution, you will be additionally restrained until your identity can be verified. Please do not resist.”

“That is no issue,” the old man said in his usual, disarming tone. “Thank you for your service.”

Jacob, Phillip, and Karen were escorted out first while the others were dragged individually.

A short hour later, they were regrouped just outside the passage that returned to the gorel realm. Following one after another, they went through.

As soon as they stepped past the passage, gasps could be heard from most of them.

The blood-red sky above clearly triggered some unwelcome memories from Jack and Jean. Everyone knew what this sky meant. It was the Crimson Twilight—and it was way too early for it to appear.

Still, if this realm was known for anything, it was the inconsistent intervals at which stuff happened. That, on its own, wasn’t too strange, even if the timing was bizarre.

What had them truly shocked was the abhorrent stench—as well as the image of the mound of flesh in the distance. Whatever had happened here, it was… horrifying.

Jacob gazed upon the destruction with a dead look. The ecosystem had been irreparably damaged, and it would take a long time for this realm to become usable again.

However, the implications of the cascading damage this could cause were put out of his mind. They had more than enough capital to make it past this. The actual disaster for him had nothing to do with money.

After a nauseating trek through the forest, through which rivers of rotten blood ran, they reached a clearing close to the main passage.

What he saw there was… quite a surprise.

His name was… Liam? It was the guy who bagged Theo’s wife. He was shirtless and heavily restrained, likely because he, much like the old man, didn’t have his ID with him when the soldiers found him.

The sight of that, as well as the sight of Theodore and Beatrice looking at the man with shocked and ashamed expressions, brought just a tiny shred of joy into Jacob’s life.

He also recognized the woman standing next to the man—it was the chick he brought with him to the club that one time. Goddamn, what a piece of ass!

Maybe he could try… avenging his good friend, Theodore? Tit for tat, as they said. It sounded like a fun distraction from the bullshit he’d been through.

The thoughts about Liam were quickly wiped from Jacob’s mind as he spotted another person. A woman was walking down a path, flanked by two guards.

His jaw dropped.

The woman was nearly as tall as he was, clad in royal clothing and eyeing their group like a hawk. He had seen her plenty of times—her face was plastered on quite a few things and broadcasted almost daily. It was the empress. What the hell was the empress doing there!?

As soon as they stepped into the clearing, Jacob, Karen, and Phillip knelt before the intimidating woman.

Liam, the nervous man, looked at them with confusion as if wondering why they were kneeling. Then, he turned to face the incoming woman. “Holy shit!” he shouted, nearly prompting Jacob to break into laughter.

The man rushed to get on his knees, and the woman beside him soon followed suit.

***

Freddy cursed himself up and down as sweat erupted from every pore on his body.

Why is the empress here!? Why did I shout like that!? Aaaaah! he screamed internally.

Just when he thought his day couldn’t possibly get any worse, something like this happened. That was just great.

Needless to say, the odds of successfully escaping with his life intact were shrinking by the moment. As if the thick metallic shackles weren’t enough, one of the—if not the most powerful person in the empire was standing guard.

To his absolute horror, the woman suddenly turned and looked at him. The weight of her gaze felt like trying to balance an anvil on his head. A single twitch of a wrong muscle, and he felt like he was in for a lot of pain.

The woman suddenly began gesturing with her fingers. A secret code?

Suddenly, the man holding Freddy’s leash tugged on it and pulled him back, drawing him into the forest.

What the—

The men holding the other hostages seemed to do the same thing. However, one person was left alone in the clearing. A fully armored man, with more shackles on his body than even Freddy, stood alone in the center of the clearing as everyone distanced themselves from him.

“Oh, dear,” the man uttered.

Suddenly, with a flash of white light, a figure appeared. Freddy’s jaw dropped.

A white titan with runic formations inscribed upon its skin—a physical manifestation of the empress’s authority, flashed into existence behind her. It was a giant standing even taller than Bloodshed had been when he summoned it a few days ago.

Then, it pulled its fist back and brought it down on the armored man.

A shockwave blasted in all directions, pushing the trees and blowing the retreating people away. Every leaf on every nearby tree was torn off, leaving the canopy barren. The ground beneath their feet sank slightly before bouncing back up, tripping everyone over while the gale blew them away.

Freddy was pushed back, falling to the ground as his ears pulsed with the blast. For several seconds, he heard nothing but a high-pitched buzz.

He didn’t see what was happening. A storm of leaves and dust covered his vision, and a stray shard of stone embedded into his nose. He coughed, spitting brown spit and freeing his lungs of the dust he inhaled.

Another shockwave made the realm tremble, and the sounds of explosions got louder.

With the numerous restraints, getting up was difficult, but he didn’t have to do it alone. The soldier pulled him to his feet and shouted something, most likely a command to follow along.

Whatever the hell was happening, Freddy couldn’t be happier to get as far away from it as possible. The cloud of dust slowly cleared, and he looked around to see where Sophia was.

He quickly spotted her. She was standing just a few meters away from him. But finding her gave him no relief. “Sophia…?” he called.

She stood frozen, eyes wide open as her mouth flapped.

“This isn’t the time to—” he tried, but his words were interrupted as a ritual circle appeared on Sophia’s forehead.

“F… Freddy… What’s happening?” she asked, panic evident in her expression.

Then, her eyes moved into the back of her skull as a pulse of power echoed through her body.