Velik wouldn’t say he was happy that he was apparently nothing more than an arrow the gods had pointed at their target, but he wasn’t exactly surprised either. Gods used mortals, not the other way around. The fact that they’d lied and withheld information to get him to do what they wanted was pretty much what he’d expect from them. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel~fire~net

If he’d known that taking the LPS out into the wider world outside the Garden would trigger the collapse of human civilization, he wouldn’t have done it. Conveniently, they hadn’t bothered to tell him that. That left him in his current position, with possibly the fate of humanity resting on his shoulders, but probably the gods had some other backup plan if he failed.

They wouldn’t confirm that for him, of course. Not knowing is losing this battle could doom humanity was a powerful motivator to push past his limits and do whatever was necessary, regardless of the cost.

Bastards.

The way he saw it, he had two choices. He could do what the gods wanted and save as many people as possible from the monster hordes sweeping across the Garden, or he could abandon civilization, let everyone die, and see what the world looked like with a few reawakened divine beasts. When he thought about it that way, it wasn’t much of a choice at all.

The rest of the night was just a matter of being as efficient as possible. Ghestal was a big country, to say nothing of Slokara south of it. There were two other countries beyond that, as well, but he couldn’t range that far afield, not when he knew the divine beast was going to breach the surface locally. His route needed to end with him near the necropolis, ready to kill the monster the instant it emerged.

They’d know the time was near through the simple fact that as it woke up, it would rip essence out of everyone, leaving them all bereft of system support. Until then, Velik darted through the air, tearing apart armies of monsters with [Voice Lance]. A single use of the skill could easily slaughter dozens of targets if they were packed densely enough, making it perfect for clearing out open plains.

The monsters in the frontier region were a bit more difficult to reach, but the skill was flexible enough that he could create a thousand finger-sized spears as easily as a few dozen full-sized ones. Death rained down from a sky shrouded in slowly-gathering dark storm clouds.

They swept in from the west, crossing the sea and threatening to unleash their fury on both the humans huddling behind their walls and the monsters gathering at the edges of dark, wild places. In some places, the storm was already at full strength, but that did nothing to quell the suicidal aggression pouring out of every single monster Velik could find.

He was a ghost running across the sky, bringing death and salvation in his wake as he passed over village after village. Nobody saw him; nobody knew what caused the monster hordes to suddenly die en masse. For the most part, the villagers were just thankful to live through the night. Velik pushed himself, and though he couldn’t be everywhere, it was obvious where he was needed and where the champions of humanity were fending for themselves.

Eventually, the storm dwindled into a cold, steady, miserable rain illuminated by the gray light of dawn. Velik had done what he could to ensure some representation of humanity survived the united efforts of every single monster to overwhelm it, and he ended his journey on a stretch of empty, rocky ground above the buried necropolis. There he settled, his back to the wall and weariness heavy in the slump of his shoulders, to wait for the end to begin.

* * *

An immense amount of decarmas had been spent to build the infrastructure that allowed for inter-city communications, and that privilege was reserved for the upper crust of society. Dirty peasants weren’t permitted access into the tightly guarded communication hub buildings, and even rich merchants often found that mere coin alone wasn’t enough to secure entry.

The invasion of body snatchers that had infested the government had changed those policies. Monster hunters coordinated on a never-before-seen level as they worked with the growing circle of druids who’d taken the skills necessary to root out the invisible threat plaguing humanity. That did not mean certain people whose domains had been invaded by ‘dirty, smelly, disgusting savages’ were taking to their new reality with grace.

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Aria found herself fantasizing about simply blasting the comms attendant with a spike of pure mana as she watched his jowls waggle. He was delivering a heated sermon about the filth monster hunters tracked into the buildings, blissfully unaware that the alternative was to let the monsters themselves in, and the really annoying thing about it was he wasn’t even the first one. She’d suffered through half a dozen similar lectures from other hubs in the past month.

Like I wouldn’t rather be soaking in a hot bath right now. Why don’t you go out and kill a couple thousand monsters, then see how clean you are when you get back?

The main door opened behind her to reveal a Blendstin messenger in black livery, accompanied by none other than Aria’s cousin, Giller. She paused in the open door and took one look at Aria and the attendant, then snarled and stalked forward.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“Excuse me?” the attendant asked. “Who do you—”

“Move, idiot!” she practically screamed at him. Turning to the messenger, she said, “Take the first room you find open and start working your way down the west coast. I’ll handle inland locations.”

“You can’t just barge in here,” the attendant said, hustling to plant himself in Giller’s way.

“We’re in a state of emergency. I can and will put your head through the gods damned wall if you don’t move.”

“Giller, what’s happening?” Aria asked. The monster hordes were bad, but that had been ongoing all day and the logistical challenges had been mostly worked out.

“New info came in. The gods themselves broke the silence on this. The system is going down for everyone, human and monster alike. We need bodies on walls and mages making new walls where there aren’t any, and portal specialists to help evacuate people from places we can’t defend. It’s a nightmare. We’re contacting all our trading partners and outposts to get people moving while we still have time.”

“System going down?” Aria repeated. “That’s… What?”

She’d been out in the field killing elites and dispersing hordes for the last ten hours, returning only to check in that the area she’d been assigned to was finally clear of threats. If what Giller was saying was true, though, she had no more time to waste humoring a self-important blowhard.

“No one knows how long it’ll be missing, or if it’s coming back,” Giller told her. “Thank the gods for the Black Rain.”

Black Rain?

Giller must have noticed the look on Aria’s face, because she said, “Started about six hours ago. Swept all up and down the country. It killed every monster it caught. Didn’t touch the people.”

“The gods did that?”

Giller shrugged. “Must have. Who else could?”

“They didn’t send anything but the normal rain to my corner of the world,” Aria grumbled. “Cold, wet, miserable rain.”

“Which is exactly why I can’t let you in,” the attendant said, butting back into the conversation. “You’re dripping all over the floor!”

Aria looked down at the slowly spreading puddle beneath her feet, then up at the fat man in front of her. With a thought, a telekinetic wave of force smacked the man aside. She strode past him without another word, while Giller chuckled quietly behind her.

“Always did have a temper, didn’t you?”

Ignoring that little quip, Aria took the first open communications room, where a different attendant goggled at her bedraggled appearance. “Ma’am,” she said, “You can’t be—”

“Shut up and get to work,” Aria snarled. “Or I’ll flatten you and do it myself.”

Kicking the door closed behind her, Aria approached the massive communications array. Fully twenty crystals sat in a large metal plate, indentations holding each one in place. There was room for ten more, but the network hadn’t extended that far yet. It might never reach that point if the system really was disappearing.

What would that kind of world look like? she wondered. Hopefully, this will just be a temporary issue. The gods wouldn’t just…

She knew she was lying to herself there. The gods could and would do whatever they wanted, with no explanation and no apology. That was why they were gods. If they decided to change a fundamental part of reality, it wouldn’t matter how much of a disaster it was for the mortals on the ground.

“Wh-where are you connecting?” the new attendant asked.

“Cravel Monster Hunter Guild,” Aria said shortly.

The magic fired up, and Aria had to wonder how long it would keep doing that. She wasn’t sure what exactly it meant to lose the system, but the communication crystals themselves were paired items purchased directly from the system store, so she had to assume they’d stop working.

Will I lose my spells? My stats will go, for sure. What happens when the system comes back? Are we all starting back over from level 1? Will magic items start working again, or will we have to replace them? What about the monsters? How will this change them?

There were so many questions, but Aria doubted she’d get any answers ahead of time. The most likely scenario was that they’d all be finding out together, and she hoped they’d live through the experience.