Amazon Apocalypse 4: The Story So Far... (Patreon)

My name is Carter Smith, and I was born an ordinary guy on Earth. Normal parents, normal life, normal everything. Except, perhaps, for my not-so-normal Amazonian best friend from another world. Her name was Myrina, and she warned me of the coming of the System.

She told me that eventually, the world I knew would end, and we would face an apocalypse more terrifying than anything we could have ever dreamed of. Few would believe such a tale, but I trusted her.

The day came decades later, when Myrina had long since vanished and I'd nearly forgotten her face. The world ended, and I fought for survival. Sakura, my former boss, and Bridget, an intern from the office, stuck by me through the end of the world.

We fought rats and zombies alike, slowly making our way through early levels. At least until my untimely death at the hands of Craig, our office's former security guard. But death would not be the end of me, and through the lingering anger of other murdered souls, I returned from death with a new unique title and class that allowed me to defeat Craig once and for all.

With our home secured, I founded Crownhill, a settlement filled to the brim with heroes just waiting for their chance to shine. Frank, my coworker, became a ferocious warrior. The same was true for Kyle and Marcus, two young men I met with the ambition and drive to do well in our new world.

Margaret survived the death of her husband and rose to help guide the city under my leadership. Terrance survived the annihilation of the city's police force at the hands of vicious werewolves. Kerrie became an archer unrivaled by any other, and Rick became a ferocious axeman. All the while, Bridget and Sakura stayed strong by my side and grew as I did.

But for all our newfound heroes, there were ten times as many monsters. Giant spiders, serpents, fire breathing squirrels, gnolls, trolls, ogres, bugbears, lizardmen, naga, undead, golems, and even dragons were all coming for us. Through strength, skill, and a whole lot of work we joined forces under one banner and defeated every foe.

From the shattered ruins of humanity after the System, we built the spark of civilization. Our foes might be bigger than us. They might have had higher levels. There might have been more of them. Most of them were downright stronger than us. In the end, it didn't matter. We coordinated in ways they never could and built weapons and tools that would give us the edge. Eventually, all fell before us or joined our side, like Gobgob and her goblin tribe.

I became a Master Artificer, and through this power learned to construct items of magic and technology on a level I'd never seen from anyone else, even among the people of the Arcadia multiverse. Our ability to make and wield such items could very well be the key to our victory and prosperity when the integration was finally over. Many of our people became skilled crafters, and I recruited Gobgob and her goblin tribe to be among them.

On other shards, we encountered more human survivors. All had lost their own wars for survival, but they weren't dead yet. They could learn to survive as we had, if only they'd let us teach them how. The fighting might be difficult, and the path fraught with peril, but if we worked together we wouldn't just survive, we'd thrive on our new world.

But ours was not the only world in crisis, though. Far away, on the world of Themyscira, my old friend Myrina battled against rebels in Shadefall, and then again in the form of Elder Thalassa. She allied herself with the Serpent Lodge and planned to force Myrina and her older sister Cyra to marry her son, Dramonar.

Dramonar and I clashed, and each time I came out on top, though not before his powerful parents saved his life. In our daring final battle on the grounds before Valkyrie's Watch, he used a spell to tribute his soul to the Chaos Serpent in exchange for power. It wasn't enough to beat me, but I've heard rumors about what Chaos Gods can do with souls, and I didn't like what I'd heard one bit.

As a result of the battle and my final victory, Cyra, Myrina's older sister, unexpectedly found herself married to me. An Amazonian matriarch would only be wed to the strongest, and by my victory over Dramonar I'd proven I was just that. I wasn't sure how she and Myrina felt about that, but one thing was certain, my fate was well and truly tied to the Samhain Clan now.

Their reach extends far beyond their lands on Themyscira, and they have contacts on many other worlds. I have a hunch that sooner or later those other worlds are coming for me, whether I want it or not. Among these other worlds was whatever one Reluna the witch hails from. She came to Earth as an ambassador of the Dragon Lodge, my most profitable trading partners. As an expert on Chaos Gods, Reluna will no doubt be vital to our continued struggles, if only I can draw her secrets out of her.

With the naga and the undead bearing down on us on Earth, I'll want all the help I can get. But with Bridget, Myrina, Sakura, and now even Cyra behind me, I know I'm not alone. No matter what comes for us, I'm certain nothing can stand in our way.

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<Author's Note>

Once again, thank you everybody for reading the last book, and I hope you'll stick around for the next one too.

I realized yesterday that I had yet to thank you guys. Things were tight there toward the end, and I wouldn't have been able to write the last book on schedule without you! Special thanks to Dutch as well. Besides the first few chapters and the last few chapters, I wasn't even fixing the corrections you guys were submitting, that was all him. Gotta say, it felt real good to just forget about the last chapters and focus on writing the next one. So, thank you all for that!

The last book was a bit taxing on me to sustain. I've got covers to update, facebook ads to rework, social media stuff to post, and a whole bunch of other stuff I put on the back burner. Plus, my rent is now higher than I'd like and I'm due for a move. I need to scout out a lower cost of living area to jump to, so I'll be doing that this month. Maybe even buy a condo or something if I find somewhere affordable. I've been looking at prices and interest rates and frankly they're insane, so that's only a maybe on buying something.

Anyway, that's going to happen in the background all this month and probably next month too. Once my living situation is secure again, I'll be able to focus on writing and pick up the pace a bit. For now, let's call it targeting 3 chapters a week. If I end up building a big backlog, I'll increase the release rate. I am still hoping for a release toward the end of this year.

Thanks for reading!