Apocalypse Tamer 108: Man vs Virus (Patreon)

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Vasi returned with an army from Hell.

Basil couldn’t describe the soldiers that walked out of the portal any other way. The creatures were a motley crew of fork-wielding bug monsters, demonic beastmen awfully similar to the ones his party had fought in Hungary, knights whose armor burned like furnaces, and many other warbeasts. They poured out into Earth's dimension in regimented order, their legions ready to conquer the world in their master’s name. Their fluttering banners proudly showcased their allegiance.

“Pony Princess Vasi?” Basil chuckled as his girlfriend flew to his side. The silly name on the banners made it hard for him to take the army seriously.

“I managed to talk my father out of renaming Bulgaria into Vasiland, but I had to make compromises.” Vasi put a hand on her waist. “Please don’t joke about it, Handsome.”

Basil never even considered it. Instead, he found himself distracted by his girlfriend’s new appearance. He didn’t have the opportunity to observe her metamorphosis closely earlier, and he found himself charmed by what he saw. The way Vasi’s wings fluttered behind her, her divine poise, her charming smile combined with the awe-inspiring aura of power that surrounded her… what was there not to like?

“Basil?” Vasi grinned. “Did my beauty leave you speechless?”

“It did.” Basil put a hand behind his girlfriend’s waist and pulled her to him. “You look like a goddess.”

She smiled shyly while putting her arms around his shoulders. “You don’t mind the hooves?”

“I ain’t that superficial.” He lightly kissed her on the lips. Her lips tasted of sweet fruits and mint. “You could have a serpent tail instead of legs, and I would still stay by your side.”

“Oh, sweet talker you.” Vasi leaned closer to Basil to better whisper in his ear. She rubbed her thigh against his waist. “Since I can shapeshift now, my bear knight, I’ve figured we could… experiment a bit.”

Basil was thankful for his armor, or he would have done something very inappropriate. “Whatever you want, dear.”

“I look forward to it,” she said before letting him go. “I feel we both need a good time.”

“Yeah,” Basil agreed. “But that will have to wait for later. How many soldiers did you bring?”

“Dad could mobilize a whole legion in short order, so around five thousand soldiers. Their levels range from thirty to fifty on average.” That should be more than enough to deal with most gearsmen. “As for Mom, she lent me her spellbook and a gift for you.”

Vasi clapped her hands and then extended them in opposing directions. A sickly-green spear covered in ancient runes materialized between her palms. The tip oozed fetid yellow fumes and golden poison. Basil carefully grabbed the shaft and examined the weapon’s stats.

Birgha Spit-Spear

Family: Weapon (Spear).

Quality: A.

Power: +19 STR

Crit: +10%

Accuracy: 75%

Effect 1: [Spiteful Spite]: Birgha always inflicts the [Poison] effect on a successful strike; this effect ignores Resistance, but not Immunity.

Effect 2: [Wakeful Fumes]: Birgha’s fumes protect the user from [Sleep] and harmful musical effects, such as an enemy [Bard]’s Performances.

Effect 3: [Troubakill]: Attacks from Birgha inflict supereffective damage (x3 damage) against enemies who can cast Performance spells (such as [Bards]).

Effect 4: [Unused].

A spear forged by a melomanic Fomor to kill bad musicians, an act that spared Outremonde from the evils of Country Music, Rap, and K-Pop. You better not ask where the ‘spit’ part of the name comes from.

“Why is it called spit-spear?” Basil asked.

“My mom spat on the tip once,” Vasi replied.

Basil squinted at his new weapon. “Is this a toothpick?”

“One only big enough for Rosemarine,” his girlfriend joked back. “There’s one spot left to put in a rune, if you want.”

“Good call.” Vasi wasn’t the only one who had learned new spells. He immediately empowered his new weapon with a rune he had just learned.

You refined [Birgha Spit-Spear] with an [Accuracy Rune]. The weapon’s accuracy has been raised by 20%.

“You’ll thank your mother for me,” Basil said as he summoned his halberd. Thanks to his Dragoon II Perk, he could easily wield two spears at the same time. “Its abilities are rather situational, but it will make for a nice backup weapon.”

“You will thank her yourself. You’ve impressed her more than she let on, so she’s eager for us to visit Outremonde again.” Vasi’s expression softened. “How are you holding up, Basil?”

“I shoulder on and power through, like always.” Basil sighed. “There’s no time to mourn. I can’t show weakness before the others. Not now.”

“I see.” Vasi gently touched his arm. “Basil… I’m with you. Always. You may not want to show the troops how you feel for morale’s sake, but when we’re alone… you can be anyone you want. Everything that you want to say, all the tears you must shed… I’ll hold you in my arms through thick and thin.”

Her kind words warmed Basil’s heart. He felt blood flushing to his cheeks. “Thanks,” he said softly. “I might take you up on it after we deal with the Unity.”

“Of course.” She smiled kindly. “Whenever you want.”

Vasi had a way of soothing him even in the darkest times.

With Vasi’s reinforcements, the troops were finally gathered for battle. Basil and his girlfriend rejoined the rest of the team at the center of the camp. The artificial Neurotower loomed over tanks and tents, a true steampunk tower of steel, gears, and screens. For all of its power and size, however, it looked absolutely tiny next to Rosemarine.

“Argh! This is so unfair!” Shellgirl pointed a finger at the Hesperides Dragon. “Your new form and my dear Vasi’s are both overpowered! Now I’m this team’s dead last!”

“That’s right, I’m still ahead in the pecking order,” Plato boasted. “Mammal supremacy!”

“I can feed you my fruits, if you want,” Rosemarine suggested to Shellgirl. “The nutrients will help you grow big and strong.”

“Keep those in reserve, Rosemarine,” Basil pleaded. Due to their miraculous healing properties, they had already used hundreds of them on the night’s wounded. Though Rosemarine’s SP regeneration let her create nearly fifty fruits per hour, Basil would rather stock a few for emergencies. “Shellgirl, just be a little patient. You’re two levels away from transforming yourself.”

Shellgirl pouted. “Easy for you to say, Partner, you get new abilities all the time.”

“It’s okay, Shellgirl,” Bugsy reassured his teammate. “I’m sure your new metamorphosis will be wealthy and powerful!”

“It better be gorgeous too!” Shellgirl complained with her fists clenched into fists. “With unlimited assets and massive market penetration!”

Considering whose essence she had consumed, Basil had no doubt the capitalist in her would find joy upon evolving.

“My dear Shellgirl, I think you will more than pull your weight today,” Vasi said with a grin. “In fact, I will require your help. I cannot cast spells and use boosters at the same time, so…”

“Ohoh, you want me to juice you while you zap them all?” Shellgirl’s sour mood instantly turned joyful. “Now that’s a bundle I can get behind!”

“With our current tactics, we should be able to overwhelm most of the Unity’s conventional forces.” Basil turned his head to look at Simeon, who joined the group with Neria and Benjamin. “It’s a shame non-monsters cannot benefit from your All for One Perk.”

“I hope you don’t mind fighting with demons, Simeon.” Basil had seen tamed fiends among the Swords of Saint George, so he doubted the paladin would be picky about their reinforcements.

“The real demons are up there, Ser Basil.” Simeon pointed at the sky. “We only have four hours left before they rain hell on us.”

“The Neurotower is ready, Basil,” Benjamin added. “We’ll begin the attack at once.”

“About that…” Basil tightened his grip on his halberd. “Can you teleport my party as close to the cannon’s command center as possible?”

Benjamin frowned. “Why?”

“We have more firepower than the entire army put together,” Basil stated. Considering the Bohens’ levels, this was less of a boast and more of a fact. “Most importantly, Blackcinders wants me dead. Considering how she’s acted so far–”

“She will come to confront you in person,” Neria guessed. “She won’t let you escape her again.”

Basil nodded sharply. “Her subordinates failed her too many times, so she’ll try to deal with us herself. Considering she’s the most dangerous member of the Unity forces on Earth, we better isolate her.”

“This would let our army spread through the lunar complex and sabotage the superweapon,” Simeon agreed. “But Ser Bohen, do you understand the risks at hand? You will not only enter the dragon’s lair but challenge her to a fight. The Unity will come at you with all their might and fury.”

“Eh, I still have two lives left,” Plato stated. “I’ll take my chances.”

“I will shoot everyone who approaches Mister,” Rosemarine declared with pride. Steve echoed her boast with an engine roar.

With his team confident and at his back, Basil feared nothing. “We’ll carve a way forward,” he promised with determination. “All you will have to do is follow the fires.”

—---

The moon landing started with a screen, and then another.

You have entered the [Unity Space] Field:

• Level penalties will not apply within the Field.
• [Dragon] and [Artificial] Types will have their stats buffed.
• Atmospheric conditions will—

[Unity Space] overridden by Rosemarine’s [God-Field: Garden of the Hesperides]!

When Basil landed on flowers rather than metal, he knew vengeance would be his today.

He, Bugsy, and Rosemarine teleported ahead of everyone else in a hangar larger than any cathedral. Gearsmen hauled barrels of alien fuel amidst futuristic space shuttles and other advanced vehicles, all under the supervision of a red dragon the size of a bus. Rosemarine’s appearance sent vehicles flying in all directions as she tossed them aside, immediately alerting the Unity forces.

“Huh? Who are you?” the red dragon asked Rosemarine, mistaking her for a Unity dragonlord. “How did you–”

Having teleported into the base with her ultimate attack fully charged, Rosemarine opened fire with a giggle. “Eden Guns!”

The Perk said Rosemarine would unleash a breath of pollen, but the description could not do justice to its application. The plant dragon unleashed three sparkling beams of golden particles from her mouth and cannon-arms, each of them as large as the late Apollyon’s Gehenna Cannon. The Unity dragonlord, who had the misfortune of being in the path of all three, was immediately vaporized along with the half a dozen gearsmen.

Basil and Bugsy immediately assisted their friend’s bombardment, the former with water Elemental Orbs, the latter with his mighty firebreath. Their projectiles hit the fuel canisters and rocked the hangar with countless explosions. The ground trembled as flowers and vines pierced through the metal floor.

Considering Rosemarine’s God-Field could cover a one-kilometer per level radius, it might very well overrun the entire base.

“Bless Weapon,” Basil said, activating his newfound Prayer spell in between two Elemental Orbs.

You have raised your halberd’s Strength bonus by +9 (1 point per 7 levels) for ten minutes!

Since the weapon bonus intervened before all the silly multipliers, Basil hoped to reap much destruction from this spell. Vasi cast another spell as soon as she teleported in, empowering the entire team.

Vasi’s [Hasten World] granted your party the [Haste] status for ten minutes.

“Ten minutes?” Bugsy asked as the last gearsman fell. Steve teleported next to the equally tall Rosemarine, with Shellgirl and Plato standing on each of its metal shoulders.

“Five is the normal duration, but my robes double the length,” Vasi explained with a grin. “Tier VIII.”

No matter the system, spellcasters always stayed ahead of the curve.

An alarm rang as Rosemarine’s bombardment ran out of steam. Screen monitors in each corner of the hangar let out a crimson light even as flowers covered them. The initial strike was a success so far. Basil could only hope Walter’s program would work as advertised.

“Stop me if I’m wrong, but there is no air in space, right?” Plato pointed out the obvious. “Shouldn’t we be careful about collateral damage? Shouldn’t we float due to lack of gravity too?”

“Have you forgotten the first rule of the System, Plato?” Basil mused. “Normal logic no longer applies.”

“The current Field determines the laws of physics that apply within it,” Vasi speculated. “Rosemarine’s God-Field says the area around her if is a land of flowers with normal gravity, and so reality bends her way.”

“I cannot smell the stench of death without air!” Rosemarine boasted.

“That’s the spirit.” Basil raised his halberd. “Destroy it all!”

—---------------

Watching Earth through her command center’s window, Blackcinders counted time. The moon was facing a vast ocean right now. In a few hours, it would fly over the land of Europe and set this monkey farm ablaze. Blackcinders could barely contain her impatience.

A strange sensation beneath her feet drew the dragon out of her thoughts. She glanced down at her claws and quickly noticed a green shape growing out of the metal floor.

“Grass?” she wondered.

A notification flashed before her eyes.

[Unity Space] overridden by Rosemarine’s [God-Field: Garden of the Hesperides]!

Fortunately, Blackcinders had trained intensively to regain her lost levels on her own. She had been planning on hunting Bohen on the ground if needed, and never truly trusted technology not to fail at the wrong time.

But the message clearly indicated something had gone awry. The ringing alarms only confirmed it.

“What’s happening?” Blackcinders turned around to face her dragon lieutenants and engineers. All were hard at work on control consoles while monitors flashed brightly. Flowers were growing over the metal like rampant weeds. “Is there a bug in the Field effect?”

“Bohen detected on the engineering deck!” her lieutenant answered in a panic.

“What?” Blackcinders rushed closer to the monitors. “Show me.”

A screen swiftly showed her footage of a plant dragon unknown to Blackcinders firing at will in the ship hangar. Basil Bohen was present alongside his motley crew and a winged fairy of some sort. The apes had brought reinforcements.

“How did he get in?” Blackcinders’ claw scratched the floor in her fury. “The engineering deck is two stations away from the command center. How could security let them through?”

“They teleported in,” her lieutenant explained. “And they’re not alone.”

Other monitors showed Blackcinders the full scale of the disaster. The security sector, the recreation deck, and even the medical bay were under attack by hostile forces. Portals opened and filled the lunar base’s chambers with blue particles. Human soldiers led by a winged knight teleported in their wake. A bat monster made of shadows opened fire at surprised dragons in the recreation deck, helped by insectoid creatures and other monsters. They poured in by the hundreds.

Blackcinders recognized one of the leaders as Simeon, a key target and the leader of a minor resistance movement. The bat creature matched the description of Pluto, one of the Metal Olympus leaders. Did these factions join forces against the Unity?

And the plants… the plants were spreading everywhere.

“How are they getting in?” Blackcinders snapped at her engineers. “You’ve assured me the entire moon was warded against teleportation effects.”

“They’re using a neurotower. One of ours, but…” One of her engineers shook his head. “No known identification.”

“They’ve built their own,” another said. “They’re using it to spread some kind of virus.”

“Well, contain it.” Blackcinders prepared to take her leave and intercept the intruders herself. “Deploy all available gearsmen. I will personally lead the charge.”

Her lieutenant’s next words froze her in place. “General, the gearsmen are bugging out!”

For the first time in her thousand-year long life, Blackcinders felt the sharp sting of fear. “How many?”

“As far as we can tell… All of them.” The lieutenant choked. “Not just on the moon...”

Blackcinders turned back to assess the situation. The blue particles caused gearsmen security forces to break down. The machines either fell inactive or thrashed around in confusion. Others simply stopped attacking as if confused about who to shoot. The disease spread from gearsman to gearsman, even faster than the enemy troops could advance. The latter were few, but numbers mattered not when automated weapons refused to fight back.

“The virus?” Blackcinders guessed.

“Yes,” one of her engineers confirmed. “It’s… a Tier X spell at least, maybe Tier XII. How can they cast something so powerful? Not even the Grandmaster–”

Reviewing all known facts and reevaluating her strategy, Blackcinders swiftly reached a conclusion. “This has gone too far,” she said. “Activate the Lunar Cannon.”

“We’re over three hours away from reaching Bulgaria,” her lieutenant pointed out. “And their troops are already on the station.”

“It does not matter,” Blackcinders replied. “Fire at Earth with maximum power.”

A sharp silence followed, only broken by the screeching noise of alarms.

“General, with all due respect, I am not sure you understand what you’re asking for…” Her engineers gulped. “We’ll ignite Earth’s atmosphere if we do that. This will wipe out all life on the surf–”

“Order our forces on the ground to evacuate the planet back to other star clusters,” Blackcinders cut in sharply. “Those who cannot escape in time will be marooned.”

Her lieutenant, too young to see the big picture, was livid. “You want to destroy this planet? After all that we’ve sacrificed to establish a foothold on it? Millions will die, dragons included!”

“Do you not understand the direness of this situation, lieutenant?” Blackcinders grunted. “If these primates have figured out how to create their own neurotowers and how to disable gearsmen, then the very foundations of our empire are at stake. We cannot let their knowledge spread beyond this planet or the Unity is doomed.”

When a house was infected with a disease, the only solution was to sterilize it. No matter the cost. The risks at hand far outweighed the resources invested, or the expected rewards.

“There will always be more docile planets to assimilate, and people who know their place,” Blackcinders said nonchalantly. “Destroy this dump and let us move on.”

Her men exchanged silent glances. None of them moved to activate the launching sequence.

Blackcinders grunted in impatience. “Open fire, lieutenant.”

“No,” he answered.

Blackcinders looked down on her soldier. “No?”

“No, General! I won’t do it! I won’t open fire on our own troops!” To Blackcinders’ surprise, the coward did not back down. A Unity dragonlord was questioning a direct order. “You are insane!”

“He’s right!” one of the engineers said, his peers nodding in agreement. Blackcinders could see the fear in their eyes, and yet they stood their ground in their shared cowardice. “There has to be another way, General!”

“Is this a mutiny?” Blackcinders’ eyes glowed with fury and cosmic light. “Graviforce.”

A mighty pulse of telekinetic energy sent all people present—dragons and minions alike—flying in all directions. Some crashed on monitors, others went through the command center’s blast doors. Only Blackcinders remained unscathed in the midst of it all.

“Fine,” Blackcinders said as she typed orders on the control command. “I’ll do it myself.”

“Ignition sequence activated,” a digitized voice echoed from the remaining monitors. A countdown appeared on the screens. “The Lunar Cannon will open fire in thirty minutes. Twenty-nine minutes, fifty-nin–”

Blackcinders smashed the control console beyond repair with her tail. No one could stop the countdown now.

Only one problem remained.

“This is between you and me now, Bohen.” Blackcinders expanded her wings. “This all ends here.”

The black dragon shattered her window to the tune of alarm bells and flew into the void of space.

The hunt was on.