[MA] 171. Even You (Patreon)

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[A/N: Chapters this week: 2/3

Late chapters: 0/4

Next release: Saturday]

Earth's first line of defense, the tanks and humvees, had been five hundred yards away from the portal on all sides. Humanity's ground troops followed, organized in groups ranging from ten to ten thousand strong. A few dozen to hundreds of yards separated each group.

The continued stream of corrosive mana swallowed a good chunk of the front lines.

And yet, Shen didn't feel guilty. He hadn't seen Earth's front lines fall, but he could estimate their success rate based on what he saw now.

The two thousand D-rank gnolls had split up after invading and met Earth's troops on all sides. They left only corpses in their wake. Behind the portal, where the mana explosion only covered a hundred to two hundred yards of humanity's front lines, there was already an extra two hundred yards filled only with the dead.

It told a clear tale of what the gnolls had left behind in the now-covered area.

Even as the explosion threatened the lives of other gnolls, the D-ranks that hadn't been caught continued to systematically reap the lives of every human they met. They focused on broad attacks to maximize their killing effectiveness. Each swing of swords and halberds, axes and maces, even knives and fists never killed less than a few. Whenever someone was beyond their range, they moved sideways to kill them before quickly moving deeper into Earth's ranks.

To make things worse, their mana usage was a work of art compared to humanity's. They knew exactly how to use spells to damage the enemy's defensive equipment without touching the enemy, thus avoiding dealing with soul resistance. They also were masters of indirect magic, barely wasting any willpower to slow down, unbalance, disable, or even damage humans.

Shen only saw two gnolls with an aura, but all others had a kind of artificial aura around them, just like Alicia's black fire sphere. However, each field was two hundred yards wide, and the gnolls had total mastery over them. Unlike Alicia, they controlled their elemental fields in a way that the elements damaged the enemy, yet their mana never touched anyone.

Fields of lightning and fire were the most common, leaving a terrible blackened sight as the gnolls moved on. Stone and ice shards materialized in other fields, aiming to pierce or crush the enemy. Water fields either drowned Earth's troops or made them incapable of fighting. Gravity turned humans into sitting ducks.

Humanity tried to fight back, but it just...

...couldn't.

Earth's elites, the Pioneers and peak E-ranks that should be fighting the enemy D-ranks, were nowhere to be found. Shen guessed they were inside the mana blast. Due to its epicenter's location, it had consumed a much larger part of Earth's army directly in front of the portal. Earth's generals were in that direction, so it made sense to defend there first.

The consequence was that Earth's defense was left with its weakest.

Whenever human E- or F-ranks threw spells at a gnoll D-rank's elemental field, a hole appeared on the field's boundaries to let the magic through. The gnolls never wasted time with willpower battles. They dealt with the spells physically—dodging, destroying, or taking the attacks head-on. In the latter case, their equipment plus resistance left them unscratched.

Arrows, bolts, and bullets were utterly ignored. The helicopters and mounted machine guns had trouble targeting enemies so close to their allies, but even when they shot, the gnolls just dodged. Earth couldn't shoot missiles or heavy artillery shells with the enemy so close to humans, either.

Not that there were many helicopters around. The white cubes had made short work of them. The few dozen stragglers outside the blast range desperately tried to destroy the fifty white cubes going their direction.

Marzia's magic artillery failed to find their targets. Even as Shen looked, a beam appeared on top of where a gnoll D-rank had just been. It harmlessly hit the ground while the gnoll moved on.

Shen could barely believe humans were almost as stupid as the gnolls.

"Focus on locking the D-ranks down!" Shen yelled with his Lion's Roar. "Put spells in front of and around them! Erect domes around them! Force them into a battle of will, or at least make them slow down to physically assault your barriers! Fill the area around them with mana! Win some time!"

That was Earth's emergency strategy, using numbers against the D-ranks, just as the D-ranks had used against Shen. Everyone had been briefed on that; they simply didn't have the presence of mind to realize they should do it.

The issue with that tactic was that it could only be used with superior numbers. Otherwise, Earth's defenders would be locked down in a battle of will against a few while the enemy kept attacking.

Fortunately, the gnolls didn't have the numbers to counter that tact.

Not anymore.

Shen had considered the orb's blast might kill humans. He had still done it because of the direness of the situation and the potential gains. He would make the same choice again.

The entirety of the gnoll E-rank army had been rushing into Earth when the orb blew up. The D-rank gnolls would destroy the war camp, and hundreds of thousands of experienced E-ranks would have found an unprotected world. Without a solid defense to stop them, nothing would.

Now, at least the one-fourth that had already crossed the portal was caught in the blast. Hopefully, more, if the mana blast also bit deeply into the rift through the portal. The ones already swallowed included almost all wyverns and armored vehicles, except a few hundred stragglers.

More importantly, nearly twenty-one hundred D-ranks, including the ones he had been fighting, were also inside the explosion range. Only around six hundred were still free, killing humanity.

Yet, the most crucial of all things was that the monoliths were also inside the blast area. Shen knew from experience that the orb's explosion would get rid—

Just as he thought of it, he felt the monoliths' influence disappear.

His aura was back at full range.

Shen immediately used it and some qi to push himself toward the back of the portal. A dozen seconds later, he landed.

He had rested enough; it was time to get back to the fight.

= - = - =

Alicia helped the Pioneers fight a couple D-ranks.

Sai waited for the right opportunity to sneak attack another.

Schneider did his best to ignore the carnage in front of him, holding the two metal badges and waiting for Marzia's command.

Then the world became light and pain.

= - = - =

The small metallic room shook, waking Marzia from her stupor.

She blinked and looked around languidly.

"Big Mama!" Hina yelled while shaking her friend's right shoulder. "Marzia!"

Marzia looked at the Japanese girl, who shouldn't be there. Or so Marzia thought. Focusing on anything other than the numbers on the two system windows in front of her was too hard.

The first was bad enough.

=

Earth's Population

(Change in the last 3 seconds)

Total: 2,424,992,882 (-51,415)

Of which:

D-ranks: 3

E-ranks: 66,992,928 (-14,331)

F-ranks: 1,232,020,911 (-33,912)

=

She blinked again, and the numbers changed.

=

Earth's Current Population

(Change in the last 4 seconds)

Total: 2,424,972,121 (-72,176)

Of which:

D-ranks: 3

E-ranks: 66,984,237 (-23,022)

F-ranks: 1,232,010,557 (-44,266)

=

Twenty thousand lives lost in the literal blink of an eye. That had been going on for the past few seconds. Marzia simply didn't know what to do.

Not when the second window was even worse.

=

Earth's Rift Invaders

(Change in the last 5 seconds)

D-ranks: 2,727 (+2,000)

E-ranks: 122,835 (+111,255)

=

The number of invading D-ranks had suddenly skyrocketed and stopped decreasing. Then, the number of E-ranks increased too fast—and was still increasing.

Earth...

Earth was lost.

Seeing their D-ranks die had given her hope, but if Shen was dead...

No, he couldn't be dead. The number of D-ranks remained the same, including the two still hiding. But if he wasn't dead, why had he stopped killing—

The numbers changed again, bringing some light back to an increasingly darker world.

=

Earth's Rift Invaders

(Change in the last 6 seconds)

D-ranks: 2,688 (+1,961)

E-ranks: 100,177 (+88,597)

=

No, the new numbers didn't just bring some light back. They blinded her in how much they made the world shine.

=

Earth's Rift Invaders

(Change in the last 7 seconds)

D-ranks: 2,134 (+1,407)

E-ranks: 53,870 (+42,290)

=

The invader population kept decreasing, and Marzia's smile kept widening. Ten seconds later, they all but plateaued.

She was smiling so widely by then that her face was hurting despite her E resistance.

=

Earth's Rift Invaders

(Change in the last 17 seconds)

D-ranks: 703 (-24)

E-ranks: 0 (-11,580)

=

However, her smile died when she finally looked at Earth's population.

Another ninety thousand humans had died in thirteen seconds. Whatever had killed the invaders had slowed down humanity's downfall, but things were still dire. She had to act.

"Activate Artifacts," she said. That would be Karl's sign to put the plan into motion.

| Activation failed. No one is holding any Racial Artifacts.

Marzia frowned. Karl Schneider had let go of the Artifacts? That didn't look like him. She didn't believe he would betray her, so the alternative was—

"No," she mouthed. "No. No, no, no. Teleport Karl Schneider to me!"

| Racial Planetary Forced Teleport (E): 900 MP

| Your MP: 79

| Not enough Management Points

That was stupid. She knew she was broke. She had used her remaining MP to buy the crystals to protect the world.

"Buy life status for Karl Schneider," she commanded next.

| Purchased: Racial Life Status (E) | -9 MP

| Remaining MP: 70

| Karl Schneider: Dead

| You've learned the last holder of two locked Racial Artifacts is dead.

| Do you want to teleport the Racial Artifacts to your location for 1 MP each?

Karl had died.

Marzia froze in shock again and lost track of time until she felt someone shaking her from far away. She looked at Hina—this scene looked familiar. She noticed the girl was blooded and crying—and missing an arm.

"We have to go!" Hina yelled insistently. "They are too strong! We have to go before the gnolls get here! Please, Big Mama! Let's go!"

"Shen is still alive," was all Marzia could reply.

Hina paused. It was the first time Marzia was replying to her. The Japanese stopped shaking the Human Maiden and cleaned her snot with her remaining arm. She was way too agitated, though.

"Fuck Shen," she let out a rare curse. "You trust too much on him. We gotta leave, Big Mama."

Marzia frowned.

Then slapped Hina in the face.

Hina looked shocked and kept silent for a moment. Marzia snorted.

"I studied Earth's strategy," the Maiden said. "You didn't have the time to engage in the front lines, get injured like that, and come back here. Whatever you're planning, I'll let you leave alive because of our friendship. We're done, though."

Hina's eyes widened in surprise, then closed as she sighed. "I only want to protect you, Big Mama. Everyone thinks I'm dumb, but I can see how you're giving yourself on a platter to that boy. He doesn't deserve you. You're much better than that." She opened her eyes and looked Marzia in the eyes. "Come on in; she's alone," she said loudly.

No one came.

Hina looked back as the silence stretched. The room's big heavy metal door was slightly ajar.

There was no one in the corridor beyond.

Still, that stung. Mightly. Marzia really liked Hina and hadn't seen the betrayal coming. She would have to talk to Schneider—

Schneider was dead.

Marzia swallowed her feelings and smiled slightly. "The betrayer got betrayed. You have five seconds to leave. Then, I'll kill you for not only lying to my face but also trying to get me kidnapped. I can only hope you weren't trying to get me killed."

"What?" Hina said, looking horrified. "No! I would never—"

"Four seconds," Marzia interrupted.

She could talk and try to understand the other girl. She wouldn't. Hina could also have spoken to Marzia instead of betraying her. She hadn't.

"Big Mama, listen—"

"Three seconds."

"You wouldn't—"

"Two," Marzia said, stood up, stepped back, and made the metallic table float to stand between Hina and her.

Hina had the gall to look hurt before saying, "Sorry, Big Mama," and finally leaving.

Marzia forced the door close behind her, then felt the terrible weight of reality return to her shoulders. Karl, her second-best friend, was dead and her best friend had tried to sell her. Vicenzo... She didn't even want to check on Vicenzo's status. She couldn't take another hit.

She felt lonely, weak, and terrified. The world was a dark, cold, terrible place. Her father had been right about the true nature of people, and it made everything much, much worse.

Marzia sat down on the ground, hugged her legs, and looked at the numbers while trying to figure out what the hell she should do.

= - = - =

The Supreme Leader kept silent for a long while. His aura had protected him and Failtusk, but not half the army inside the rift.

Less than two hundred thousand E-ranks remained.

When he finally spoke again, his voice was devoid of any emotion, but his anger against the other world was obvious in his words.

"I shall guard the portal alone," he stated. "Everyone else, follow the Seer and destroy this world. Ignore the target. Make this race bleed."

Invading worlds was potentially profitable, but there were many catches. The worst was that at least one dweller had to be alive in the rift. If the last one inside died, all rift dwellers would instantly perish, and the rift would be gone for good.

Yet, Fort Steelrock would rather risk oblivion than let such a humiliation go unanswered—especially when it came partly from their own stupidity.

They had to wash their shame away with blood.

Two thousand D-ranks immediately started running from the fort, following a flying albino gnoll wearing a soft light green robe.

"Even me?" Failtusk asked.

"Even you," he agreed.

The second-in-command of Fort Steelrock smiled in unhidden fury and stepped on Earth.

[A/N: The opening moves are over. Time for the second act.]

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