“Do we know what his Origin is?” Carmela asked a moment after Chris’ disappearance and Harry’s heartfelt admission about disliking the guy.

  Isaac shook his head. “Not really. I asked Rakin, but he either doesn’t know or refuses to tell me. And honestly? This time I’m willing to believe it’s the former.”

  Carmela nodded. “I will try to find out then. If he’s offering his assistance, I have to know what he’s good at.”

  “You’re retaking control then?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

  “The sooner the better,” she replied. “The last round proved what even a somewhat organized group is capable of.” She turned to Harry. “You will help me, yes? I understand you don’t desire a leadership role, but with Isaac leaving us, I will need a second-in-command.”

  Harry nodded without hesitation. “I shall do my best to support you.”

  Carmela exhaled, her shoulders dropping a bit. “Thank goodness,” she muttered. “That should make my job a bit easier.” Her gaze wandered to Isaac again. “When can I expect Elaine to join us? She’s good with logistics.”

  Isaac shrugged. “I think she is a level or two away from being able to come here. But will she? No idea. You should message her.”

  She gave a firm nod. “Will d—”

  Carmela’s voice cut off as, suddenly, a symphony of distant screeches, howls, and roars filled the entire Battleworld. The ground shook a bit, and at the beginning of the Victory Road, the Titan took its first step.

  Guess it’s time, Isaac thought, seeing the timer drop to zero. It vanished a moment later, only to be replaced by another notification.

  Hosts! The Victory March has officially begun. First swarm is approaching! Don’t let it touch your Titan!

  “That’s our cue, gentlemen,” Carmela said, her body shifting into her Legacy.

  Isaac shared a look with Harry, and they too transformed. Together, the three of them shot into the sky that soon filled up with dozens or even hundreds of more Hosts. The destination was clear.

  The Titan and the monsters slowly emerging from the woods.

  The first beast Isaac identified was an honest-to-god gargoyle. Only, instead of stone, it was made entirely out of wood. It had normal eyes, though—the yellow, glowing orbs shared by most Broken Strain beasts.

  For now, those gargoyles were the only monsters to claim the sky for themselves. The ground, however, had a bit more variety among the countless beasts already in sight.

  First were the spiders. Dark as night and the size of a grown cow. For once, Isaac was glad that his other friends weren’t here. They would all have a heart attack if they saw the swarm of arachnids filling the Victory Road or leaping between the trees along its edge.

  Next came creatures that were kind of difficult to describe. To put it simply, they looked like amalgamations of different animals, merged together with bits of wood, stone, and other stuff.

  Not a pleasant sight, those ones.

  Finally, there was the last monster type that made up the swarm. Of all four, these looked the least dangerous.

  Slimes.

  They came in a few colors, mostly dark ones. Their size wasn’t anything special either. The few Isaac already spotted hopping out of the treeline were no larger than an average human. Shouldn’t be an issue.

  All right, Analyze.

  Potential Threat: Low

  Honestly? Not surprising. Isaac was much stronger than the average Host here, and this was just the beginning of the Victory Road. He would bet that for anyone still below level forty, those beasts rated at least Low-Moderate, if not Moderate, threat.

  “The plan?” he asked the two Pioneers flying beside him.

  Carmela spared him a brief glance. “You two go wild. I will try to form a small group that stays near the Titan.”

  Isaac nodded and sped up, Harry hot on his tail. In seconds, they passed all the Hosts also speeding toward the horde filling the Victory Road.

  Viron stirred in his Core, the Symphony also beginning its song.

  He dove.

  Obliteration.

  Like a bomb, he crashed into the swarm, the explosion of blood killing more than a few beasts around him. He quickly transformed, reached out with pure Blood Manipulation, and activated Red Puppeteer.

  The corpses rose, joining the seven nightmarish monstrosities that had just climbed out of the ground. Those soon merged, forming the familiar shape of Harry’s Somnara. The man, however, was nowhere to be seen at this point.

  Isaac chuckled and, with a grin, threw himself at the monsters closing in from every direction. He hacked and slashed with the Root, occasionally hurling a makeshift Crimson Death into the crowd. His army of puppets also grew by the second, soon becoming over two dozen strong.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  For a brief moment, he considered throwing Crimson Cataclysm into the mix, but held himself back. He was already using plenty of Viron for Red Puppeteer, and with more and more Hosts arriving to help, he didn’t need to go all out. Better to save his strength just in case.

  And so, the battle continued at similar intensity from there. The swarm really was almost endless, and where one beast died, two more took its place. For him, that wasn’t an issue, but he could see how some people could struggle with the never-ending onslaught. This was only proved by the few Hosts who thought they could join him and Harry at the frontline and had to retreat as a result.

  Every so often, Isaac glanced back toward the Titan in the distance, and each time, he almost couldn’t believe what he saw.

  The massive representation of Earth was barely moving.

  Sure, the Interface called it a march, but with how slow the Titan moved its legs, an ordinary jogging human could have passed it. That shouldn’t have been possible, not given the creature’s sheer size.

  Worse, whenever the Titan got hit—even by the weak sludge spat by the Slimes—it slowed even further. Then it took over a minute to regain its original pace. Or at least that was what Carmela shared in the few messages they exchanged during the fight.

  Brutal? Definitely.

  Isaac could see now why the swarm was so dangerous, even when its attacks didn’t cause any visible harm to the Titan.

  Gotta move faster.

  More Viron, enhanced by a sliver of blood, filled the Root as Isaac pushed even deeper into the charging swarm. With every swing, a crescent of crimson left his blade, cleaving through everything in its path.

  Blood Thief followed, taking control of all the spilled blood in the area. A single nudge of his will reformed this stolen liquid into crude weapons that he hurled even further ahead of him. Dozens died every few seconds, and yet there still was no end to the swarm.

  The Forest Spiders kept on jumping above his head, trying to catch him in their thick webs. The Graftlings—the grotesque amalgamations of animals—kept on trying to crush him with sheer brute force, only to be cut in two by a wave of crimson.

  As for the Slimes?

  Those popped like balloons when he injected them with even a drop of his blood. For some reason, they really didn’t like it. One could only wonder why…

  Now, the only creatures Isaac didn’t have to worry about were the wooden Gargoyles. With him on the ground, and them in the sky, they refused to come down to face him. Either they were afraid, or nothing could take priority over reaching the Titan.

  That said, he still threw a couple of makeshift Crimson Deaths at them when he had the chance. That was enough to ground them, and the rest, as they said, was history.

  Not much changed as the battle dragged on. Minutes bled into an hour. And the hour soon turned into four. All the while, Isaac was at the frontline, lost in slaughter and the smell of blood surrounding him.

  It wasn’t until the Victory Road ahead of him began to somewhat clear that he finally reined in his bloodlust. Maker’s Shell, which he had activated sometime during the second hour of the battle, slid off his body. He stopped among the field of bodies, allowing his small army of puppets to deal with the few monsters that remained.

  Is it… over? he wondered, drawing in several deep breaths to purge the last traces of bloodlust from his mind. That was also when he noticed a notification trying to force its way into his view.

  Oh.

  Well done, Hosts! First swarm defeated. Rest while you can.

  You have leveled up. You are now level 53. Distribution of Ascension Power has advanced the tier of the following attributes: Power (Awakened I->II), Agility (Unbound IV->V), Toughness (Refined III->IV), Regeneration (Awakened IV->V), Insight (Unbound II->III). No further changes detected.

  The following skills have advanced tiers:

  Red Puppeteer (V->VI)

  Maker’s Shell (IV->V

  Blood Thief (III->IV)

  Burst (IX->Max)

  Isaac smiled. A single level wasn’t much for so many hours of constant killing, but it had been a while since he felt the familiar rush of power. He would take it. It was only the beginning anyway.

  And Burst is maxed now, he noted. Guess I can finally start combining it with my Origin, like Elaine did. Or maybe I should do it after Fusion?

  He shrugged. Whatever happened next would happen next. And given that he had been forcing Fire Manipulation into almost every skill he used over the past few hours with some success, he might not be as far away from Fusion as he had thought.

  Anyway, time to move.

  After a quick transformation into his Legacy, Isaac engaged Cloaking and waited for his Storage Brand to harvest all the Virality Gems from the nearby corpses. Once done with that, he shot into the sky, ignoring all the Hosts who were either chasing the few remaining monsters or also waiting for the bodies to vanish.

  His gaze wandered back to the Titan, and there, he found yet another disappointment. It kept on marching during the fighting, sure, but with four hours already gone, it might as well have stayed still.

  Even after all this time, Isaac could still see the beginning of the Victory Road from here. Worse, after opening the map of the Battleworld, he saw they were nowhere near the end of the first territory. At their current pace, it would take days to reach it.

  Is that on purpose? he couldn’t help but wonder. Has to be, right?

  For a moment, he almost shot straight for the Titan, ready to find Carmela and ask whether something other than the occasional hit had slowed the creature down. Then he remembered his decision to stay away from the main force and instead opened the group chat with the other Pioneers.

  He received an answer to his question within a minute.

  “The Titan was hit a lot during the first hour, Isaac,” Carmela wrote. “Not many wanted to stick close and shield it at first. Now I have a decent group going, but it’s still not perfect. I will try to fix that during this break. Hopefully it’s long enough.”

  Isaac grimaced.

  That explained a lot. Everyone wanted to be on the front lines, killing as many monsters as possible. He himself was guilty of that, even if putting him on defense would have been a waste.

  “Need help?” he sent back.

  “There is no need, friend,” Harry joined the conversation. “I’m already with the lady. We will make sure our Titan is well protected next time.”

  Isaac nodded to himself. “If you’re sure. Let me know if anything changes.”

  A moment later, an affirmative reply came through. He closed the group chat and veered toward the forest on the right side of the Victory Road. There, he found a nice, thick branch and landed.

  He wasn’t sure how long this break would last, and there was no time to waste. Origin Fusion was close. He just had to finish the final step.

  Isaac transformed back into human form and summoned a flame above his left hand.

  To work then.

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