Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 88 (Patreon)

My return to Earth was swift, but my return to Crownhill even swifter. I had been in quite a rush to deal with things back home before, but now that Myrina was counting on me I had a fire in my chest. My only concern was how quickly I could get her here.

Was Lisette the last of my foes on this shard? I certainly hoped so. Because if there was anyone else the System still considered a contender for the title of Shardlord, I planned to cut a bloody swath through their forces before the sun set.

I crossed the barricade to find things slowly returning to normal. The fires had been contained shortly after I'd finished fighting Kyle, and now they were out entirely. I saw an entire work crew busy repairing Doctor Roswell's clinic.

That was good. I'd originally thought I'd need to assign a work team to that, but it seemed the good doctor had commandeered a team himself. They'd stolen a spare window from one of the malformed System-generated copies of the clinic next door and were using it to replace the shattered one.

"Hey, I'm back," I called out when I saw Frank assisting with the efforts. "Sakura and Bridget?"

Frank nodded back toward the city, dusting his hands off as he stood. "They're in the new council office. They've got you-know-who down in the basement. But don't spread that around. The exact location where they're keeping her is supposed to be a secret."

I nodded. "Smart."

I left Frank and the others to their repair job and headed straight for the new council chambers. There were more guards at the door than I remembered, but that wasn't that much of a surprise, considering this was the heart of our local government and we'd just experienced an attack.

They let me through without a word though, with one of them pointing me to a set of stairs leading downward. Hearing the familiar voices of Sakura and Bridget, I followed the stairs down.

In the basement of the new council building, I found Lisette in what could best be described as an improvised dungeon. It was complete with dank atmosphere and a few large metal poles that held up the building. Lisette was thoroughly bound, with handcuffs around both her wrists and ankles, and a rope wrapped several times around a pole as well as her throat.

She rested on her knees while Bridget and Sakura both loomed over her.

Lisette wasn't looking her best right now. She wasn't bruised or wounded in any way that I could tell. With how fast she healed, though, would I even be able to tell? She was, however, absolutely filthy. Her clothes were covered in dust, her hair was a mess, and she smelled a little funky.

It was amazing how much a little body odor did to ruin the femme fatale impression she worked hard to give off most of the time.

"It's you again..." Lisette said, voice not sounding quite so sweet. She wasn't happy with her captivity.

"Hello, Lisette. I trust Sakura and Bridget have been taking good care of you?" I asked.

Lisette stared at me with hard eyes. She was dirty and helpless, but judging how she'd ended up in Crownhill County Prison, that wasn't anything new. And despite her appearance, she was unbowed and unbroken. Somehow, she still thought she could win. No wonder the System didn't think she'd given up yet.

But I knew better. Her star had fallen, and claiming this shard was beyond her now. My people would not let her slip away easily now that we’d caught her, and my level would grow while she remained stagnant.

Worst of all, one way or another Myrina would be here soon enough. If Lisette lived to see that, she’d be truly finished then. What made this woman dangerous was her strange and unique abilities.

Abilities Myrina had just spent a considerable time researching for me. We’d know secrets to her class not even she had discovered yet.

In short, our fight was over whether she’d admitted defeat or not. We’d already had our climactic battle, and I’d won.

When I met her eyes, she spoke with a confident tilt to her chin, meeting my gaze with a glare. "I'm prepared to negotiate."

I shook my head. "That's not how this works. You're our prisoner. You should look a lot more worried than you are right now. In case you hadn't noticed, we just went through an apocalypse. Who knows what us savage barbarians are capable of?"

Lisette rolled her eyes. "Oh, please… I know restoring law and order is your whole thing. It's the reason you have all these followers and why so many people are flocking to you. They all think you're the closest thing around to getting back the lives they lost.”

Her lips twisted up in a grimace. “I never would have guessed simply trying to make things be just like the way they used to be would work so well. I didn’t think you could beat a ruthless hierarchical society where the strong consume the weak for levels."

I smiled. "Was that what you were going for in Crownhill County Prison? Forcing humans to fight one another until the strongest emerged?"

"That's what the System is doing to us, isn't it?" Lisette replied. "The System shoves all of us together on one little shard, all starving and hungry for levels, where the only option is to kill one another. In theory, the System would be left with the strongest faction it could find when all is said and done.”

She shrugged, “That's why I decided to do it myself, just on a smaller scale. It's like that old East Asian black magic myth, where a hundred insects were left in a box to devour one another so that their poison might concentrate in the survivor. That's what the System is doing to us. It’s concentrating all our levels in a select few."

I had little to say to that. That was, after all, what the System had done.

"There's more to building a powerful faction than just pushing yourself to a high level,” I replied. “If I'd done as you had, you probably would have succeeded in taking over just by controlling the minds of my elites. But instead, people of all levels work together to rebuild—and though your powers allowed you to dominate the strongest of my people, others stepped up to fill their shoes."

"I almost got away with it," Lisette insisted. "And I will get away with it next time."

I frowned. "What makes you think there'll be a next time?"

Lisette’s smile grew from ear to ear. "You can't torture me down here. It would go against everything you stand for. You’re going to have to make a deal with me. And a deal is just what I'm offering."

I crossed my arms. "You're in no position to bargain. But sure… let’s hear it."

"A month," Lisette said. "Give me a month to get clear of the city and promise you won't attack me before then. Do that, and…”

“Nope,” I interrupted her. “A month is too long.”

“Fine”—she sneered—“less than a month, then. I'll give you my surrender. The System will declare you the winner of its little game and it'll throw us at who knows what, next.”

A sour look twisted her still-pretty features. “Maybe I'll have more luck with one of them than I had with you. I’ll even promise to go after them instead. I won’t be seducing an ogre or troll, but there’s got to be something handsome among the races of the multiverse."

From what I’d seen of Themyscira, a surprising number of races were close enough in appearance to humans to be sexually compatible, at least as far as Lisette’s abilities went. If I were to point her at my foes, she could probably do considerable damage.

It was a good play, mostly because I could sense it was true. When she said she’d use her tricks to weaken one of whatever race the System threw at us next, she wasn’t lying. My gut told me that much.

Lashing out in anger would win me little, while turning Lisette into a tool that worked for me would be a tremendous boon. It was an appeal to reason, and I was glad she respected me enough to give it. With any other man, she probably would have just batted her pretty lashes and smiled to get her way.

"And if I agree,” I pressed, “you'll fix Marcus, Kyle, Rick, Terrance, and Chuck?"

Lisette nodded. "And all the others I might have influenced, as well. I can fix all of them. Just agree to a week where I can make myself scarce, and I’ll not bother you."

I turned and paced the floor a few times.

This woman was dangerous. On the one hand, her offer was genuine. On the other, letting her go could be like letting loose a snake in my room before going to bed. I might spend the next few years dreading when she'd turn up again, knowing the trouble she'd cause. Lisette was a disaster waiting to happen.

Or was she?

I had crafted a Talisman of Protection from Good and Evil for Frank. What if I crafted one for Kyle, Marcus, Terrance, Chuck, and all the others? I didn't have the elemental cores right now, but perhaps in time I could make them so numerous and so cheap on the streets of Crownhill that everyone could buy one for pennies.

Lisette might spend years planning her revenge only to discover her powers had been rendered obsolete. Myrina, no doubt, knew a dozen ways to deal with people like her. If there weren't ways to deal with Charisma classes, they'd be running the entire Multiverse by now. From what I'd seen, that wasn't the case.

Yes, this was doable. If I played my cards right, Lisette wouldn’t have any choice but to target my enemies.

I just had to drive a hard bargain and let her think she'd escaped by the skin of her teeth. That should put some real fear into her. Fear enough to force her to keep her distance until I’d prepared enough countermeasures.

Having her out in the shadows gaining levels and causing trouble would be a thorn in the back of my mind, but maybe I needed that. If she was loose, my men would train harder, knowing what happened today could happen again. Heck, I would train harder, knowing she was out there.

How did that old saying go? If there is a scorpion in the room, I should like to know where it is?

Something like that. Lisette would be my scorpion. My fearsome foe to strike terror into my own heart and those of my allies. A foe that would keep our weapons sharp and our eyes keen. Otherwise, I feared what sort of enemy the System would throw at us should we ever let down our guard.

"Three days," I finally replied. "Fix everyone you've damaged, and you'll have three days to make yourself scarce."

"That's not enough time to gather supplies or new followers[C1] !" Lisette replied, cheeks flushed with anger. "I'm no survivalist. I'll need help if I'm to survive in the wilderness until the System finishes whatever it is that it's doing. Besides, I’m wounded. I barely have a tenth of my full health points. It’ll take me three days just to recover!"

"No." I shook my head. "The moment I find a single one of your puppets, I'm hunting you down and finishing you off. You're going out of town alone, or not at all. Wounded or not."

Lisette met my gaze and found it hard and unflinching. Sparing her life was the most she could bargain for. No more.

"Fine..." Lisette sighed, shoulders slumping as she recognized her defeat at last. "I recognize that I've lost. You've won."

The reaction from the System was instantaneous.

Congratulations! You have achieved victory over all factions on your shard, uniting it under one banner and forging a powerful faction. As a reward for your efforts, you have been granted the title Shardlord (Legendary)

This title grants:

· +25% to all resource stats (such as vitality, stamina, rage, or mana) when defending your own territory.

· Access to additional exclusive territory management features intended for regional lords.

· +15 Charisma.

This shard has been fully consolidated, and all its territories now belong to a single faction! Celebrate your victory, for in three days the next stage of the integration begins.

"I trust you are satisfied with that?" Lisette stared up at me with a displeased look on her face. Clearly, she'd gotten some kind of defeat notification.

I swept the notification away. "I am. But now it's time for you to fulfill the second half of your promise."

I pulled out Galbatorix's communication device. Myrina would want to know the moment she could come to Earth. Hopefully the wizard would be willing to pass along one more message for me.

It's done. See you soon.

I stuffed the communication device back in my bag right around the same time Kerrie and some of her new girls hauled Chuck down the stairs. Due to Lisette's powers, I was the only man allowed near her. Frank probably could have handled her thanks to his new talisman, but I wanted to save that surprise for the future.

No need to give Lisette extra hints if we didn't have to.

We started with Chuck because we assumed that he was the most durable of all of Lisette's victims. That meant we could get aggressive with containing him if Lisette was foolish enough to use him to attempt an escape.

For that scenario, the room was well armed. Kerrie stood in one corner with her bow drawn and ready. Sakura and Bridget held either of Chuck's arms. I even had a couple of Mana Bolts hovering over my palm.

Still handcuffed, we presented Chuck to Lisette. When she placed her hand on his forehead and concentrated, we all tensed.

After a moment, Chuck gasped.

"Ugh... man... my pants feel really tight..." Chuck said while he shook his head, as if clearing his mind of the fog that had settled over it.

"Chuck?" I asked.

I approached the man as Bridget handcuffed Lisette again. "How do you feel?"

"I... uh... damn. I've been up to some crazy stuff. For..." He whirled on Lisette, anger plain on his face. "It was you! You controlled me!"

"You remember all that?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's like the worst post-nut clarity of my life." Chuck shook his head again. "Also, remind me never willingly to visit Doctor Roswell's clinic unless I absolutely have to." The man shivered.

I chatted with him for a while longer, but he seemed to be the same man I remembered. Granted, I didn't know Chuck as well as the others, but Lisette hadn't shown herself to be too adept at making her minions talk—at least not to hold a proper conversation. I was pretty certain after talking to him that she really had removed whatever it was she'd done.

With Chuck cured, we brought in Rick next. Like Chuck, Rick became angry at Lisette as soon as he woke up.

"Damn it! I'm married!" Rick clutched his temples between his fingers. "When I find my wife, how the hell am I supposed to explain this to her?”

I gave Rick a pat on the back. The sad truth was that if Rick hadn't found his wife by now, I doubted he was going to. But I wasn't about to take away his hope.

Marcus came in, and when he was cured, he went red as a beet the moment he saw Lisette. Spinning on his heel, he walked away without a word. Kerrie pointed to one of her subordinates to catch up to him and get him talking to prove he wasn't under Lisette’s control anymore, but I could tell his face had held far more expression than it did when he was her puppet.

Kyle was equally embarrassed, though a little more talkative. "That was my first kiss..." he muttered, cheeks red and arms crossed.

"There, there..." Kerrie said, placing a hand on Kyle's head and giving it a pat.

Her transformation at level 25 had given her a bit of extra height so she looked, if not positively motherly, at least more mature as she comforted Kyle before ushering him away.

Lisette only smirked and shook her head. "Ah… young men. Truth be told, I prefer a man with a little more experience." She shot a glance at me, but averted her gaze when Sakura smacked her bat into her other hand. "Jeeze… Can't even flirt with this crowd," Lisette muttered.

Terrance was last. He sighed as he reached for his pants and hiked them back into place, then fixed his button. "That's been bothering me for a while.” He met each of our eyes. “And please, Carter, Sakura, Bridget, Kerrie, Margaret… if all of you could purge your memories of when you found me, I'd be eternally grateful." Shaking his head, Terrance slipped away.

"Well, I've held up my end of the deal." Lisette smiled. "Time to let me go."

I grimaced. "Undo her handcuffs."

"Wait!” The ‘her’ in question held those still-cuffed wrists up. “I know you're a man of your word. I want your oath that you're not going to come after me for three days, like you promised."

"I gave you my word before, and I give it now again,” I replied. “You've bought yourself three days of peace from me and mine—make good use of them. Break your end of the deal, and my people have orders to kill on sight."

I maintained eye contact with her, narrowing my gaze to make sure my warning sank in. "And if I were you, I wouldn't show my face anywhere near Crownhill ever again."

"Right, right..." Lisette brushed my threats off.

"Are you sure about this, Carter?" Bridget asked as she held the key to Lisette's cuffs.

"I'm a man of my word," I replied.

Scowling, Bridget released the cuffs binding Lisette's hands and then her ankles and untied the knot between her neck and the pole behind her.

Lisette rose shakily to her feet. "Ah, it's good to be a free woman again..." She smiled, straightening and dusting herself off.

Despite the tattered state of her clothes, her appearance improved a thousand percent with that simple motion and change of posture. She'd gone from prisoner to a woman enviable at any fashion show with no more than that. There was still weakness in her steps, and I could tell she had yet to regain much of her health pool. But she covered up any lingering weakness beautifully.

"Oh, and Carter, dear... you'll regret not taking my original deal someday."

Before I could reply, Lisette stepped toward the door and vanished.

"We'll see who regrets things..." I muttered.

The rest of us tromped up the stairs, eyeing the crowd outside the door and making sure Lisette didn't cause any more trouble with her departure. It was just a formality, though. I was sure she wouldn't make a scene—not when she knew I was ready to kill her.

Which was why I was extremely surprised when I heard her let out a startled yelp a few paces away from the door to the Council building.

"What was that?" I asked, voice full of surprise.

Stepping outside, I was even more surprised to see a certain familiar red-headed Amazonian warrior standing in the middle of the street. Lisette lay in a pool of blood on the ground at her feet.

"Carter! I saw your victory notification! I was waiting by the portal with Thulga and crossed over right away. Then I used the party system to track you down. And look! You'll never guess my luck!"

Myrina grinned wide as she kicked Lisette's body beside her on the ground. "I found that crazy Charisma-class woman who's been giving you so much trouble. She was just walking down the middle of the street! Can you believe that? She was nine-tenths dead too, just asking to be one-shotted! Well, you don’t have to worry about her anymore. Myrina, expert justice enforcer, was here to save the day! I told you I’d be a big help."

I ran my hand through my hair as I approached. "Well... shit."

When I nudged Lisette's body, her head rolled away, cleanly separated from the rest of her body at the neck. Myrina looked over at me, proud as a kitten bringing me a mouse.

"Well?" Myrina asked proudly. "Did I do a good job or what? You had an enemy who almost snuck away on you. Can't tell you how many times I've seen that happen. They always pop out of hiding when it's least convenient and make more trouble. Well, as long as I'm here, you don’t need to worry. I'm an expert at finishing off fleeing enemies!"

I sucked in a breath. "Great job, Myrina. But I kind of promised her I wouldn't—"

"Oh, I heard that." Myrina’s grin grew even wider. "She fell for the oldest trick in the book. That was pretty clever of you, Carter. Let me guess, you saw me coming and gave her the old, 'I promise not to kill you' trick!"

Myrina elbowed me in the side and threw me a big wink. "You might have promised not to come after her… but I didn't. Easiest way to bump off enemies there is!"

So much for my scorpion. I’d guessed Myrina would be her kryptonite, but I hadn’t expected it to happen this fast.

Between the winking, the laughter, and the headless body in the middle of the streets, Myrina didn't appear entirely sane at the moment. Granted, she could be a little much at the best of times, but this wasn't the first impression I had in mind when I planned to bring her home and have her meet all my friends.

"Carter? Who is your crazy friend? And how armed do I need to be?" Kerrie asked warily. She had her bow drawn and looked like she'd been ready for a fight until a moment ago.

I realized she wasn't the only curious person. Everyone wondered who Myrina was. Standing over a body in the middle of the street tended to attract a bit of attention.

I coughed into my hand. "Uh... everyone? This is Myrina. You can put your weapons down. Don't worry… despite how this might look, she's on our side." I gave Myrina a gesture, hoping she would introduce herself.

"Hello, humans of Earth! I am what you might call an alien! I'm from another world, and I come in peace!” She threw one arm around me. “I’d ask you to take me to your leader, ha-ha, but he’s right here!”

I rolled my eyes.

“Behold, a token of goodwill." She reached down and grabbed Lisette's head by the hair and began lifting it up to present it to everyone.

Grabbing her hand, I pushed it back down. Meanwhile, the crowd had started backing away.

"Don't worry, she's a friend! I promise!" I held out my hand to everyone. That didn't stop them from backing away.

"I don't think they're too impressed." Myrina looked at me and shrugged. "Oh well. Not all good deeds get rewarded. Guess I'll just sell the loot.” She frowned. “Where do your local necromancers go to buy bodies? Ah, forget it, I'll just sell her here."

Myrina pointed at Frank. "You there! You look like a man who could use a corpse. Fifteen gold, take it or leave it! She's fresh and warm, ready for all your necro-needs."

Frank looked around, then pointed at himself. "Uh... Carter, did your new crazy girlfriend just call me a necrophiliac?"

"New?" Myrina huffed, taking offense at entirely the wrong part of Frank's question. "I'll have you know I've known Carter ever since we were kids. If anything, all of you are newer to him than me."

Margaret put a hand on my shoulder. "Carter, I know you have an... interesting taste in women. Just make sure she doesn't cause more damage to the city than Lisette would have."

Frank shook his head and patted my other shoulder. "You know, there was a time I envied you. But now? Well, every man has his burdens."

"It's not like that,” I protested. “She's not that crazy.”

The redhead looked puzzled at everyone’s response to what she obviously considered to be a generous offer.

“Myrina! We don't sell bodies on Earth." I sighed. I was starting to realize that keeping Myrina out of trouble was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

<Note>

Hope you guys enjoyed Amazon Apocalypse 2! Epilogue later today, which hints at some book 3 conflicts. It should come out about two hours from now, at which point we'll be getting ready for release and switching to Spellheart for a few months.