Chapter 306

Etson, Florida - 1:14 PM

My Evil Twin had put up Shield, his Force Fields, and even stopped attacking me to create Construct after Construct in order to delay the inevitable, but it was no use. By the time I was finished, I had completely burned through the foundation of the house. There was a suspiciously Anthony-shaped hole where the concrete was less damaged than the rest. Resting atop it was a book and a small box gift wrapped in red paper with a green ribbon.

A part of the ceiling and attic fell on me, but something so mundane couldn’t actually hurt me. Between his Dragon’s Breath and my own, the house was halfway demolished. The front wall where the windows had been had been knocked down and the parts that hadn’t been disintegrated were freshly singed. Tommy, Gabrielle, and the others were all on the sidewalk, looking in.

This fight was over.

<<<>>>

[[Victory!]]

You have defeated the Scenario Boss [Anthony Franklin’s Evil Twin]; +5,000 points.

[[Notice]]

You have completed a portion of the Scenario that you had not received a quest for yet.

Additional points will be given as part of the Scenario reward.

[[Main Scenario Complete!]]

The prodigal son of Etson has returned, and the calamity in disguise has been put down. Where an infiltrator would have spent time integrating itself into your society, making friends and putting down roots only to systematically murder and pillage on the way, a small group led by one man in particular was able to hunt it down before its schemes could be set into motion.

Rejoice, for the savior’s evil replica has been deposed, and a new scenario can begin soon.

Scenario MVP: Anthony Franklin

Reward: 10,000 points, +5,000 points (Scenario Break bonus).

[[Patron Quest Complete!]]

Excellent work, Ant.

Even though it didn’t have all of your memories like the Prime Doppelganger, your Evil Twin would have likely still been a disaster in its own right if it had beaten you and taken your place. Can you imagine the kind of havoc it could have wreaked? Especially if it had taken over this Faithful group.

That being said, be careful. Seraphim is still here, which is always dangerous. Don’t do anything reckless, please. My heart can’t take any more of you destroying yourself.

Reward: +40,000 points, the Strings of the Puppeteer spell book.

<<<>>>

“Well, that didn’t go according to plan,” Seraphim sighed dramatically, waving his hand. Despite the scenario ending, he still seemed to be in a good mood. “What is it you players say? C’est la vie? At the very least, it was rather cathartic to see you beat yourself up.”

“Call the Dealer, Sara,” I whispered, barely audible even to myself, as I jumped into the crater to collect my loot.

“You’re going to need to speak louder than that, Antagonist,” the administrator said, leaning forward slightly. “What, sad to see yourself die like that? It can’t have been the first time, given what Baltastasia did to you.”

I didn’t answer right away. Sara didn’t get back to me, but that was fine. She would deliver the message. I picked up the box wrapped like a present first.

<<<>>>

Anthony Franklin Box

This random box can only be opened by players with the same name. Inside will be one item that is tailor fit to meet the player’s needs, chosen by the system at the time of its opening.

<<<>>>

A personalized gacha box was a fantastic prize, and honestly this would have made sticking around in Etson worthwhile. The last one I had opened, which had been a Head Box while I tried to get the Cowl of the Warmongering Mystic, had been slightly disappointing because it held the Glasses of the Messenger of Peace instead. Those had come in handy so I really shouldn’t complain, but it wasn’t what I had been hoping for.

This was going to be sitting pretty in my inventory for a while. Maybe use it to get the tunic to round out my class set, or perhaps when everything looked grim and I needed to pull something out of my ass. It was something to fit my needs at the time of opening, after all.

Or, just maybe, it had the Leopard Print Undies inside.

Taking a calming breath, I sent the box to my inventory before I was further tempted to rip it open. Comfort Plus underwear was one of life’s greatest pleasures, but I had to think of the run before myself no matter how much it pained me.

I looked over the book. It was one of the less powerful drops I could have gotten, but it was an interesting one. Evil Disguise. The skill would cause me to grow a goatee, giving me a persona that made it so only those who knew me best would recognize who I was. Whatever I did in that form was attributed to a made up-person. It didn’t matter that the rest of me was the same or that I sounded and acted like myself because the system helped make it work. I sent it into my inventory.

Finally, I turned towards the administrator. “What the fuck was this shit, Seraphim?” I asked angrily.

“I can’t possibly fathom what you mean,” he replied coyly. “You’ve survived the scenario and yourself. Should you not be happy with the outcome?”

“What happened to some big finale? A narratively satisfying conclusion to our back and forth?” I demanded.

Seraphim scoffed. “That’s what you wanted,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “I’ll be honest that this was a rather slapdash attempt at killing you, but I don’t see why you’re throwing a fit over it. You survived, and you’re better off than ever.”

“I’m throwing a fit because you’re trying to kill me, like, the moment I came back!”

“Our agreement was only that I would not use the system to trap you here,” he stated simply.

“Yeah, and how long did you have a body double of me sitting around? How long would that thing have gone unnoticed before getting killed? Could anyone here actually stop it?” I asked, stepping out of the crater.

Outside, Tommy attempted to come back into the house, but I threw up a Force Field. He bounced off of it, frowning, and I could see the frustration in his aura. I ignored it. His feelings didn’t matter right now.

“No, probably not, but I imagine you would have come back around to deal with it eventually,” Seraphim answered with a nonchalant shrug.

I scowled. “Fucking really, man?”

“You really should calm down. After all, if anyone here should be angry then it should be me,” the administrator said, flaring his wings. The feathers barely ruffled at all as a dangerous look appeared in his eyes. “Were you not supposed to win the Star Spangled Shadow Invasion? Were you not supposed to return to Etson victorious with accolades awaiting you? I give my complete and total support to you for the event and you spit in my face by going out of your way to get third.”

“Yeah, I won,” I shot back.

“Third place is not a victory!” he yelled. The force of his anger caused the house to creak around us. “You made a mockery of the whole event. Even worse, you made a mockery of me. You don’t care one bit about this other regressor stealing your glory, which means you also blatantly lied to me.”

That put a half-smile on my face. “What’s the matter, Seraphim? What happened to being able to see right through me?” I taunted.

“It seems as though I have underestimated you, which I will not be doing again,” the administrator said sourly. “I have taken your measure with my own eyes, and I see now what it will take to kill you. No mere monster will do, so more drastic means will have to be considered.”

“Well, good luck with that, because I’m not sticking around for you to test what’s going through your sick head,” I told him. “I’m out of here.”

“You’ll just leave your hometown to die?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Bold, if impotent, threat. As if you’re allowed to run amok,” I scoffed, putting my hands on my hips. “You’ve already established the difficulty level of your areas. Changing it, like you did with the Writhing Zeppelin, will only get you in trouble.”

The angry look on his face changed to a sneer. “I don’t think you understand the unique position I’m in,” he said.

“I don’t care to think about you in the slightest,” I countered. “The moment you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind.”

“Perhaps you should. After all, you have now been a part of two very widespread blackout events,” Seraphim said. “The first one during the Vespae scenario, where an underling of mine saw you emerge as an Angel.”

“So?”

“So, the second time this happened there was a similar event, this time with another regressor changing into a Fallen Angel,” he stated factually. “I descended for that one myself, just to make sure with my own eyes.”

My fists clenched. I hadn’t noticed any administrators back when I was fighting Coe, but that didn’t really mean anything. There was every possibility I missed them in the heat of combat, and he had clearly seen the Rubberbuilt’s alternate form. At this point, there was no reason to doubt him.

I crossed my arms. “What’s the game, Seraphim?”

“Game? No game,” he said, showing his palms as if he had nothing to hide. “I’m just telling you that I’ve got the ammunition to… let’s say enhance the scenarios. After all, I would just be destroying a regressive glitch, the Antagonist, so any actions I take in doing so would be justified. That includes razing this damned city to the ground on the off chance that you’re still here.”

“So my options are, what? Leave and you kill everyone, or stay and you kill me?” I asked angrily. “Sounds like a pretty shitty deal to me.”

“You should feel lucky I’m here speaking to you at all, considering you didn’t uphold your end of the bargain in Dublin,” Seraphim replied as he matched my anger.

“That’s a weak fucking excuse and you know it,” I told him.

“Whether it is or isn’t doesn’t matter. I am the administrator, and I am the one who wields all of the power here,” he growled, stalking towards me. His wings curved forward around me as he stopped almost two feet away. He leaned down so that his eyes were level with mine. “You will follow my rules, because to do otherwise will see your friends, family, and everyone else hurt, torn apart, and killed.”

“And do any of your pals up there watching know what you know?” I challenged.

“So they could, what? Try to steal the glory of killing you?” he asked, his lips curling into another sneer. “They have the same inklings I put in their head before, but no one’s put together as much information as I have. I’m waiting for the day I kill you properly for everyone to know my victory.”

“But that hinges on me staying, and you can’t force me to comply thanks to the System Contract we signed,” I said.

“A small setback, but such trivial matters are meant to be overcome. You’ll either stay and fight until I manage to kill you, or you will leave and they will die. Either way, I will be completely justified in my actions.”

Setting my jaw, I put my attention on the group waiting outside. They were watching this exchange closely, a wide range of emotion between them from anger to frustration to hope. Like I could magically fix this. Those three were annoying.

Especially because their faith was misplaced. There was no doubt in my mind that I could leave Etson behind. It sucked and they didn’t deserve that fate, but it was still the right call. I had a plan, and it was a damn good one. The best one yet. Sacrificing one or two cities, since I doubted Stanley would be safe, and dozens of towns just to appease a power hungry jackass wasn’t ideal, but if it had to be done then it had to be done.

“And, of course, I’m going to have to deal with that pesky Angel of the End, too,” he continued, rubbing his chin. My gaze snapped back to him. The administrator grinned. “Oh, that got a good reaction out of you, didn’t it?”

I said nothing as I glared at him. The movement had already given him everything he needed to know, and I was chastising myself for it.

“Not Arontalscion, since it seems like his regressor is against you, but player Gabrielle Garcia clearly knew the name Esaraphelscion,” he continued slowly, as if he was piecing everything together. “Her appearance in the Vespae Hive during the first blackout would explain the fires quite nicely, just like the presence of the ice in Dublin announced his.”

“She’s trapped in the Hall of the End,” I insisted. “There’s no summoning her.”

“Normally, I’d agree, but the system has been rather fickle around you glitches lately,” Seraphim mused, and I gave him a confused look. He shook his head. “Either way, she’s the one who has allowed you to regress. That kind of thing requires punishment, does it not?”

“You will not touch a flaming hair on her head,” I growled, taking a step forward into the administrator’s personal space. My chest was less than an inch away from his as I squared up. “She has nothing to do with any of this because you and your ilk keep her locked up in that stupid, golden box.”

“I really have struck a chord, haven’t I?” he laughed before throwing his arms out. “You can’t touch me, Antagonist. You know what will happen if you do! All your threats and bravado amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things. Your friend at the end may be stuck in a box, left forgotten in the farthest reaches of the system, but I’ll have to check and see for myself.”

“She doesn’t even remember anything, Seraphim,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’ll basically be dunking on one of the most powerful monsters in the system because, what? Her past self helped me? What the fuck does that accomplish?”

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

Ant, I appreciate you getting worked up over the thought of something happening to me but Seraphim can’t do anything. Not really. He can make inquiries, but that’s it. I am safe. Please calm down.

<<<>>>

“Admittedly, not much,” he replied, but his lips curled into a grin that I did not like the look of. “But it’s not about her and what she doesn’t remember, or where she’s been, or anything.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Then what’s it about?”

The administrator leaned forward so close that his forehead was almost touching mine. There was a look of victory in his eyes. “Hurting you, of course,” he answered, his tone oozing with giddy cruelty. “I’m going to make sure you know the price of crossing me, you stubborn son of a bitch. She clearly means something to you, so I’m going to get her replaced. I’m going to parade her broken body through the streets for all to—”

<<<>>>

[[Warning!]]

A treasure hunter is blocking administrator access.

<<<>>>

Seraphim’s eyes went wide as he straightened up. I don’t know if he had a screen telling him what was going on or could feel it instinctively, but I knew what it meant.

The Dealer had arrived. I didn’t know what he had done, but I immediately sprung into action.

My left arm was still regrowing, but I didn’t need it. I reached up with my good one and grabbed the administrator by the throat. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as I tried my best to crush his windpipe in one hand. Seraphim jerked backwards in an attempt to escape, but my grip on him was tight with rage.

Four blade Constructs appeared, one on each of his arms and legs, and began Spinning. They cut through his skin, but not deep enough for my tastes. When they stopped cold, I dismissed them and summoned a new set to slash again. He flailed in panic.

That wasn’t the reaction I expected from someone who had survived the system before. I had learned when fighting Abbatrastoria that the administrators were once players, and that meant they were dangerous. They had gone through the same thing I had, just not as many times.

But Seraphim, or rather Walsard, was clearly caught off guard. His reaction to flee rather than fight was very telling. It occurred to me that he wasn’t a winner, just a survivor. He might not have even been in the raid against whatever final boss his world had endured.

The thought of it pissed me off, and I didn’t care to figure out whether it was true or not.

“Now you listen here, you detestable pissant,” I roared, releasing my anger very clearly as my Tyrant’s Will bored into him like a spike through the heart. “You can threaten my life, try to kill me, maim me, or even try to keep me here. You can even burn down my hometown. But you lost the moment you threatened my wife.”

“Your w—”

That was all he managed to get out. I activated Dark Sacrifice, the more powerful version that my Evil Twin had used that brought down my maximum hit points, and my fingers dug into his skin. Asi appeared on my hip. It spun and impaled Seraphim through the chest, causing him to rumble in pain. His skin began to shift, likely the start of some skill, and I punched him in the face with my stump of a wrist.

“You’ve been a pain in my side for centuries, Walsard,” I said, using the real name that Aaron had provided me. It seemed the Fallen Angel had been telling the truth, because the shock of hearing it gave the administrator pause despite the pain. “I have put up with your bullshit for one hundred fucking runs. I have daydreamed about your death since my first regression. I have wanted nothing more than to take your head and mount it on my wall for all to see.”

The entire time I spoke, Asi pulled free and struck him again and again as he tried, and failed, to escape my iron grip. It cut through his wings and pierced through his heart. I had learned from my fight against Abbatrastoria that these assholes were dangerous, rusty or not, and I wasn’t about to give him a chance to fight back. Blue blood spilled everywhere, including on myself.

The administrator slumped in my grip, arms and legs falling to the ground. His eyelids were heavy and his breath rattled and wheezed. He no longer had the energy to escape from my grasp, but I didn’t dare release him. Not when he could probably return to the administrative layer.

“Your time is over, Walsard. You’ve fucked humanity over for the last time, and this is all you have to show for it,” I whispered, bringing him in close. The administrator’s eyes had trouble focusing on me. “I’m not surprised you didn’t put up a fight. You’ve always been a pathetic bitch of an administrator, and even your death comes with a whimper.”

I spat on the ground and held him high.

“You were never my nemesis. How quickly you rolled over and died proves that decisively,” I told him. “Rot in Hell, scum sucker.”

Asi spun in the air before slicing through the administrator’s head. It slowed down momentarily, but still managed to cut through in one clean motion. His brains fell out of his skull, and his body slumped once and for all.

I took a breath, but there was no time to bask in the glory of victory.

“Anthony, what the fuck did you do?” Tommy asked incredulously. “That was an administrator.”

“If any of you have any sort of loyalty towards me, you will forget that this ever happened,” I said, my voice still strained from what had just happened. “Talking about the death of an administrator will only bring terrible forces down on all of you.”

“Lucky for you, I happened to be in the neighborhood,” a growling voice said from the empty space beside me. A rift opened up out of nowhere, green and glowing, and the Dealer popped his head out. “You took care of one, but if you want it to mean anything you’re going to have to take care of his team, too. Before they realized what happened.”

“Yeah, I figured this wouldn’t be wrapped up neatly with a little bow,” I sighed, putting my bloody hand against my forehead. “Can the situation be salvaged?”

“I can work something up.”

“Because you owe me for making me fight Abbatrastoria for so long?” I snapped.

“Because I owe you the universe, Anthony Franklin, and I’m going to be in the red for the rest of my life,” the Dealer replied with a grin. “Now, come on. They’re already getting suspicious. Bring the body.”

“Yeah, I got it,” I grunted. The pieces of Seraphim went flying into the rift through telekinesis, and I followed.

“Wait!” Gabrielle yelled, running past Tommy. “That was nuts, Ant? How did you do that? What are you?”

I turned and looked at her with weary eyes. “I’m the guy who’s going to save the world,” I answered honestly.

Without wasting another breath, Asi fell into my hand and I stepped into the Dealer’s rift. It was time for a slaughter and, hopefully, some answers.