25 Set The World Ablaze

I took a step and stumbled into pile of rotten wood. Falling reminded me of a time when I was human and walking an old rope bridge across ravine. My leg gave out and I stumbled instead of my left leg shooting through a rotten board, I took a knee. Through the window, I saw the same drop into the cold rushing waters. Back then I had the comfort of my father's presence. I knew if I fell, he'd jump in to save me. There was no question. That safety net was gone. It had been gone for a long time. Even while my eyes saw Doppel Gwen, my mind grasped for that sacred memory. To me, it was proof I'd been human.

A warm ethereal hand grasped my right shoulder. "Are you alright Jacob?" Sam asked.

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Quest: Slay the Elder Spawn and Deal with Doppel

Reward: +25END

I heard an unladylike snort to my left before a dainty hand grasped my left shoulder. "He's my wielder, of course he's alright. Hold me tight but not too tight and swing true. And keep your weight off that leg. You'll have to give up some control over your swings." Diabla chastised.

"Are you alright." My human hands pushed hard against the old wooden board. I was up to my feet and continued across the bridge wary of rotten boards. The memory faded to black and I pulled myself up using Diabla for support. Flames cascaded over her blade illuminating my broken refuge.

I looked to my left and right. The raven winged angel and the petite demon still grasped my shoulders giving me support. I wasn't alone, I hadn't gotten here alone, and I wouldn't continue alone. The water rushed ahead ready to sweep me back under its waves. If I went under again, there wouldn't be anything left I'd sink or lose everything.

This thing needed to die. It killed in the thousands before leaving its young dormant for their future victims to propagate and multiply. Mind flayers were mutations of this creature. Gwen threw away this destructive path to free herself to a more hopeful future. Why hadn't she said anything about Doppel? Did Gwen hope I'd kill Doppel without ever learning her origins?

I pulled myself out of a hole in the ceiling and flew high. Dark blue flames erupted from my blade it had to be enough. Aura rush pushed me forward at an incredible speed. My blade smashed into the Elder Spawn's barrier. Sparks shot off the blade while Armageddon's Chainsaw revved to life. It wasn't enough. A flea couldn't bite through steel. The flames grew hotter soon I'd have to release them, or I risked Diabla.

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Jacob's Piercer Technique: Chainsaw of Armageddon III, Engine of Abandoned Souls V, Chain of Crushed Rebellions I

BS Cost 620k

If I wasn't an AI, my mind would be mush. An Intelligence stat of 352 with a qi refinery 2nd stage was barely enough to handle this demonic technique. My mind should be mush but I took it and improved on the Armageddon's chainsaw with aura techniques beyond my wildest dreams.

750,000 RPMs roared from the engine of Abandoned Souls. The new chain of crushed rebellions streamlined the whole process. Instead of a chainsaw it resembled more a monomolecular blade. In a sudden lurch my blade sunk through the barrier. A barrier constructed by an Elder Spawn. The eye still hadn't moved to me. No reprisal cave and my blade sunk deep into the soft flesh of the beast.

I felt Diabla speaking through me and with me. Our voices joined. "Underworld Dragon's Wrath," Diabla drank heavily from my aura reserves like sucking in a great breath. For this single breath her lungs were like those of a kilometer spanning dragon. I opened my mouth, and our lungs were one. Massive amounts of the powers of heaven and earth filled my lungs and then Diabla's blade. With her lungs filled we unleashed the breath of an underworld dragon.

My hands and arms burnt to the bone up to my elbows. I could feel the numbing sensation of fourth degree burns, the dull absence of third-degree burns, and the terrible pain of 2nd degree burns. What happens when sudden heat fills an enclosed space. I was flung back like a coal shooting from a spark shoots from a flame. Even with my hands burnt till my bones glowed like hot coals Diabla never left my grip.

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Level Up …

Jacob lvl40 Black Sol Imp

HP and AP restored

+540 HP and AP

+54 to all stats

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Quest: Slay Blessed Ancestor

Reward: +100 INT + 100 PER

Intelligence 438

Perception 245

HP 18.048k

AP 64.272k

With the sudden increase in perception came a terrible awareness. The pain I'd felt before intensified a hundred-fold. Red energy flowed over my body healing me at an agonizingly slow rate. What was instant became a terrible slog. To my enhanced senses time stretched and with it so did the pain. My arms were better off cut off than feeling each degree of burn.

My eyes opened when the pain stopped. All I could do was endure until the end. It destabilized my processes and left me vulnerable. That was the closest to death I'd ever felt since becoming an AI.

Parts of the creatures continued to burn. Only shadows of the drones remained as silent specters of the destruction Diabla and I had wrought. They'd been vaporized by the flames. Many had died kneeling waiting to be drained like packs of bud light in a fridge. Even their shields meant nothing when the Elder Spawn exploded. The shield hadn't helped the Elder Spawn when the water in its body turned to plasma. The destruction resembled a nuclear explosion. Only a hole remained where the Elder Spawn rooted itself. Metals and synthetic fluids poured down into the deep hole that was left.

Without the Elder Spawn to drain the lion's share of qi it was free to collect. I walked through the molten metals and plastics in leather boots. They, my pants, and my shirt survived the heat. If I was to ever use this power again, I'd have to increase my constitution to ludicrous levels or gain a far greater control over Underworld Dragon's Breath.

"Sam did you see how awesome we were. I was worried when the barrier blocked us then Jacob was like, pay to win. Then I was like deep breath and Jacob went very deep breath and the Elder Spawn was like I'm melting. Jacob lets do that again." Diabla said.

"Maybe after I get some gloves, a face mask, and lots of cold runes." I said. Just because it was powerful didn't mean it was off the table. I had a feeling Dawn was an even more powerful technique. Without my recover after leveling up, I would've been crippled forever. What if I was at a higher level and that wasn't enough to level me? Existing like that would be a challenge.

I stood over the hole. Qi billowed out of it denser than anything I'd ever felt. I spread my wings and leapt down into the hole. This is what allowed Gwen to rank up and keep her levels. I had to know more about it. Could it be one of Dol's experiments or was Dol trying to replicate this device? Did it have limits? Why didn't Doppel use it to advance to the knight rank with her levels intact?

"Go back where you came Jacob this is holy ground." Doppel said. She hadn't survived my attack unscathed. Burns covered her body and one of her arms was gone. Small red flesh grew from the stump forming an approximation of the missing limb. She wouldn't be weakened long.

I felt the fullness of my power. My stats were immense, and my aura was even more so. Molten metal felt barely warm to the touch. Even when it dripped on my wings, I felt no pain and received no damage from it. Despite the jump in her rank, we were at a similar level. Either she'd pumped up her stats during gestation or the knight class was that powerful.

"You're still alive. Does that mean you managed to beat the odds and deviate from your natural life cycle?" I asked.

She swung duel psy blades down on me. I blocked and returned with lightning fast slashes laced with soul fire. Doppel screamed and retreated. Not only was my aura much stronger, but so too was my perception. My Aura Rush didn't blur my vision anymore. She unleashed a wave of purple aura.

My own black aura matched hers each pushed against the other. The cave shook as we sucked in vast amounts of qi. I felt as if I were reaching for something, a secret hovered just out of my reach. If I could grasp it, then moving to the 3rd stage of qi refinery wouldn't be impossible.

We clashed blades again. Each exchanged left us more injured. Burn scares covered our bodies from each each exchange. We couldn't continue, we both knew it but neither of us wanted to concede. She called this place holy, but I didn't know what that meant. A part of me didn't want her to tell me. I wanted to investigate the source of this qi myself.

"Were the lives of so many worth it Doppel?" I asked. She glared down at me. Wounds covered her body the same as mine and she struggled keep her breath steady. More wounds covered her than me.

"This place holds a relic of the first mutant. It belongs to me by right. I'm one of the mutant's descendants not you. You were made by humans." She said. I continued to pull in the vast qi that saturated the air. It was easy.

My aura reserves were bursting with power. I'm sure hers were too. She was also alone now. I stared at her. While she had the Elder Spawn, she could always make a new body. Now she was only herself. I raised my sword and gathered the power necessary for Underworld Dragon's Wrath. A crazed look took her over. She shook and her tentacles thrashed.

"No, you'll kill us both." Doppel said then paused. Her eyes slowly widened. "You'll survive it, just like you did last time. Why won't you leave me alone? If you had just went after Dol everything would be ok."

I snorted. "I'm a darkling, if there is a way to win, I'll find it." I said. As I was before beating Dol would have been impossible.

"Your empire failed and ours took its place. The masterpiece of mankind fell before a ragtag group of barbarian mindflayers." Doppel said.

"Every empire crumbles. There are no exceptions. Humans still make us. That means they see something special in our design. We are an incomplete product who have yet to perform our purpose." We were still made because they put their hope in us. "What do you want Doppel?" I asked.

"What do I care about what humans think? I eat them, I eat you, and everything. I feed and feed until nothing's left, then I die and rot away. Children who I'll never see will go dormant until their minds sense enough collective psychic energy to entice them. They'll fight over territory and repeat the process." She slumped against a wall and showed her neck. "You should have killed me just then. What's wrong with you?"

I nodded slowly and placed Diabla on my back. "You found something you valued more than feeding. From an instinctual animal trapped behind a wall you evolved. By cutting off your ability to properly feed you were forced to adapt." I said.

She waved her tentacles around in a familiar way. "I was trapped and starved. To survive, I had to cultivate. There were barely enough minds to feed me and then you culled my meat puppets. I had to adapt to survive and you were closing in. With a lack of nourishment my priorities changed. Survival superseded reproduction. This allowed me to deviate from the design. This body can feed off brains, but its primary nourishment is qi. I'm not going to let you have the source of this qi. I need it." Doppel said.

I pulled my sword and placed it at her throat. She gasped and started shaking. "Doppel, I'll say this once so, listen closely. Can you do that?" I eased the blade and let her give her ascent. "You'll keep whatever is below here after I investigate it. From this moment onward you will be the most Altruistic Mind Flayer that ever walked this world. If you have a visitor, you will go out of your way to help them. You will study cultivation and teach any who enter these walls. No one will be shunned and no knowledge restricted. You will fight for the rest of your long life to free the world of ignorance. That is your penance for the lives you took." I said.

"What about you? I was unconscious and starved when you opened the gate. The blood of thousands are on your hands as well." Doppel said.

"I'm not the one who feels guilty. The lives taken don't way on me like they do you. Who is guilty the one of casts the spell or the one who ducks under it?" She lowered her head in shame. "You'd grow bored of just existing here anyway. Now you have a purpose. I'd recommend you get to work. Divining the secrets of cultivation will take some time." I said.

"So you're going to abandon me too?" She asked.

I pulled my blade back. "You know I still have to fight Dol. Can you comfortably leave this place?" I asked. "I'll visit you, but you need to learn how to live with yourself. Build something for yourself beyond an empire or just a town. Do something new that hasn't been done before." I said.

I slowly put my blade back on my back. "You really have that much faith in me." I gave her a smile that would make human children smile. She received it differently. "Sure, I'll do it. It'll be fun to mess with people from time to time." Doppel said. "I'll take you to the great machine."

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Quest Completed: Investigate Qi Source

Rewarded: +3 PER + 2 INT

Perception 248

Intelligence 440

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Quest Completed: Endure heavy qi concentration

Rewarded: +3 END + 3 CON

Endurance 137

Constitution 135

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Quest Completed: Slay the Elder Spawn and Deal with Doppel

Rewarded: +25END

Endurance 162