Chapter 40: The natural Bomb
Ethan distributed the experience points and his legs stopped shaking. The free stat points, 2500 of them, glinted innocently at the edge of his vision.
He tossed 1000 of them without looking, balancing his build across agility, vitality, perception, and strength before dumping the rest.
[Agility: 391]
[Vitality: 320]
[Endurance: 243]
[Strength: 434]
[Intelligence: 229]
With each heartbeat, everything beyond sixty meters sharpened until the world pressed against his retinas.
Every heartbeat was as clear as his own, the steady rhythm of perimeter guards, the panicked gasps of wounded soldiers struggling with their injuries.
It was like someone had pulled all the excess weight off him.
His bones would ache with blood loss for the next hour, but right now he felt remarkably light. Residual static tasted metallic on his tongue.
"Getting stronger..."
Spark approved loudly in his earpiece, tiny webbed fingers digging into his hair at the back of his neck.
"Why do you look like you just got taller again?" Marcus asked.
"I know."
"Wait, that wasn’t an answer."
Ethan ignored him for now as Barry’s holographic projection stood a few feet away, piercing through the mist rising from the ground.
"Well, Ethan, I have some information for you. You’ve declared yourself to half the Pantheon, claimed a living shard of divine Typhon’s essence. And now you’re glowing with quite a lot of energy."
Ethan watched his fingers as he flexed them. The blue-white crackle of electricity danced across his knuckles, then died.
For the first time, he could make it obey. Instead of shooting out wildly, it waited for his command, coiling in his fingers, patient.
[Trait Unlocked: Residual Authority Level 1]
[Weather patterns and residual divine energy may be manipulated for limited time.]
"Chief, I hope you can keep this a secret from the revolutionary...for now."
Barry smiled, his fingers zipping his lips. But his eyes showed something to Ethan. But Ethan didn’t care for now.
He drew his hand back, eyes flicking to the sky. He raised it again, wanting to test the divine energy. A ripple of power went through the clouds above him and the air began to change, pressure mounting. He could feel it, like the clouds and his own mind connected somehow.
Is this how gods feel? He thought.
A mighty growl of thunder echoed through the air.
Lightning crackled.
"Wow, wow...Enough games," Marcus said, frowning. "We’ve got to get you to the hospital and meet a future natural disaster that wants to talk with us. So let’s fucking go."
Ethan stopped, his eyes now on her.
He glared at Seris. "She’s coming with us. Unconscious. Gagged if she wakes up." He muttered.
Marcus paused.
"You are an idiot. I knew it."
"...I don’t want to discuss this. It’s just instinct. I don’t know, something tells me we need to keep her alive."
"You’ve been saying that since the resources headquarters. You know that she is trying to kill you, and she will keep trying..." Marcus replied.
"....."
"Okay." Marcus backed away, taking out a knife. "If you don’t want to do it, I will do it myself then." He said, ready to slit Seris’s neck. She’d already done enough damage to Ethan. He really didn’t want more people taking advantage of him.
Storm Sense detected warm bodies of human stature around them.
Trees flashed in rhythm between them and the pursuers. It seemed Angelia’s actions had already been reported to the revolutionary.
Within an hour or two, remnants of Angelia’s other lieutenants must have fallen into the yellow haze, a disappearing act burned into his memory by their commander herself.
Spark nuzzled into his neck. "Father, more loud now."
"Not your father."
"Father."
Marcus walked beside him, pale. "You’ve got to admit, this is incredible. Most people only read about this in history books and novels." He looked at Ethan with fear and admiration mixed together. "Becoming a father to a beast."
Barry appeared once more from the hologram on both of their terminals, voice low and urgent.
"Rick already knows the package was delivered. He’s waiting there for both of you. And it seems reports about you two have been transmitting by Amanda. Even now she has been asking around about your unit and their new hunter credentials."
Ethan led his small group away from the battle scene. "We walk back like we belong here, and Chief, don’t worry. The mission will be accomplished, no matter what."
"Of course. That’s why I sent you both. Now go back to your units and return." Barry ordered.
"Sir, yes sir!" Both of them replied.
Inside the flying ship, Ethan checked his system. The update had finally finished, so of course he would jump back to the shop with his enormous EXP in hand.
He opened the Shop interface. Then something sparkling caught his attention, an item far from normal.
[Shop: Restricted Access Temporarily Lifted]
[Item: Veil of Residual Thunder]
[Cost: 5000 Gold]
[Effect: Masks divine signatures for 48 hours.]
He checked his gold reserves, which were now zero, but with his stat points. If he just...
[1000 stat points = 10,000 gold]
With some of his newly acquired gold, the item was purchased.
The circlet, a thin band of silver-blue light, went around the back of his neck.
The pressure in his skull relented. The dull vibration, the constant thudding at the edges of his perception, eased. Still there, but muffled.
Spark tilted its head. "Quiet...now?"
Ethan smiled, looking at Spark. It seemed the little beast realized it instantly.
"Shhhh..."
Marcus let out a slow breath. "Already a father-son duo now, huh? Kinda feel left out right now."
"Shut up."
They reached Ethan’s unit, landing right before them.
Within seconds they reached the forward cache’s perimeter. Meanwhile, the first drops of rain started to fall, Ethan’s rain, the aftereffect of the thing he’d tested before, now washing away blood and black cinders.
The beta unit from Ethan’s personal squad was already on high alert, watching him with a limp figure wrapped in stretcher bandages.
Nobody said anything for three long seconds. Then George spoke. "Signifer, are there any orders?"
He had questions, seeing his senior in such a state. Part of him regretted not going with his senior.
Ethan looked up at the gray clouds. "Secure the mage. She is a traitor. No one speaks to her without me present. Also, double the perimeter. Prepare a command meeting. Primus Rick is coming whether he likes it or not."
He looked back at the large bag where he had placed Spark. He could sense his gaze even now. Their stormy eyes locked. This look would later become known as worship.
"Move out!" Ethan said.
"Yes sir!" Everyone commented.
By the time Rick and his cells, Dayan and two others, arrived with their own units, the unit was already mobilizing throughout the base.
Marcus watched Spark jump to the edge of the table and try to steal the ration bar between them. Spark seemed determined. Marcus kept reaching for it, then pulling back.
Rick walked into the main hall. The forward cache was already filled with the new contingent. Ethan had ordered the unit to clear it and set up a secondary perimeter around Seris, secured and unconscious in a side chamber.
As Rick took in the scene, his eyes landed on the silver circlet around Ethan’s neck, then on Spark trying to steal ration bars from Marcus.
"So what I fear came true."
Ethan sat down cross-legged at the edge of the table.
"Which part? The package or Angelia?" Ethan asked.
Dayan seemed confused why they were taking Angelia’s name in such stress. Marcus came near her.
"Angelia is Hermes’s daughter and brought twelve of the best elites to retrieve the package. Ethan killed eleven of them. In the process, the beast you see, the package, who knows why the revolutionary sent it, bonded to Ethan. And to finish..." He paused.
Dayan whispered, "Holy shit." Marcus shook his head. "It calls me Uncle. I’m still wrapping my head around that too."
Rick looked at Spark, then back to Ethan. "You...loud uncle. Acceptable."
A big crate appeared at his feet. He sat on it with a jarring crunch. "The package was never meant to hatch here, Ethan. It was a contingency, a living shard of Typhon’s essence, recovered from a vault beneath this base."
Ethan watched the pieces fall into place. The location. The timing. The extreme secrecy.
Rick’s jaw clenched. "We didn’t know it would imprint on the first person it encountered. That was a miss on my part."
Barry’s projection rested on the table. "The higher-ups are having a meltdown.
Half wants to kill Ethan and extract the shard and lock it away again. The other half say you’re a threat and should be killed before Hermes or Hera find out."
Ethan laughed sharply. "Tell them to go ahead."
As he stood up, the hum of residual authority followed him and the storm outside grew in answer.
"Why was Spark needed anyway?" Ethan asked.
Rick turned to him. "To let it enter the only place where it can grow and..."
"And?" Ethan asked.
"Destroy the base as we take all the credits."
Silence.