Perrin pulled himself onto the black sandy shore of the dark river. A large red pop-up screen was flashing annoyingly in his face. Rolling onto his back, he closed his eyes and listened to his surroundings. Only sounds of the gentle lapping of waves against the small shore met his ears. Mentally acknowledging the pop-up. The world flashed, and Perrin found himself standing in a white room with a singular terminal standing in the center. He approached the terminal, and the dark screen lit up.

User has been forcefully placed in the final challenge instance of the area.

Calculating odds of death. Please wait…

99.9%.

Analyzing moments before user-entered challenge area. Please wait…

Conditions met for Alpha protocol intercedence:

User did not enter a challenge instance voluntarily. None may leave a challenge instance once started. User ascension level severely below the estimated threshold for Challenge.

Please wait…

The system will offer a situational boon to offset the User's deficiency.

The User may choose one of three options.

Warning:

Choose wisely, as boons with the Unique modifier will never be offered again.

1. Army of Two (Unique)

This boon gives User the one-time ability to summon any one person to aid them from any plane.

Caution: Person cannot exceed User's ascension level. The individual must accept the invitation. If they do not accept, the User's boon is still consider used.

2. Power up

The User will gain the foundation to progress to Body of Steel.

Caution: The process used for this boon is permanent, and the User loses the flexibility of a self forged body.

3. Dirty Cheater (Skill)

User will gain the Walkthrough guide assistant for Dedra.

Three paths opened up in the wall of the white room. A label of each boon was displayed artfully above each path for Perrin to read. He paused, looking over the options trying to get his mind in gear. He'd been transported somewhere but wasn't sure where. According to the system, he was in a pretty serious situation. So severe, in fact, that it was offering assistance to offset the unfairness of the situation.

Perrin considered the three options carefully. The Army of Two option seemed like a no-brainer choice given his current solo situation, but the other two options were certainly something he needed at the moment. An auto power up to Body of Stone without all the hassle it would take to gain it on his own was almost too tempting to pass up if it wasn't for that permanent bit. He was weak, and according to the knowledge crystal on the subject, the power up would increase his strength and make him a lot less squishy. The Dirty Cheater skill was nothing to scoff at either. Having a freaking walkthrough guide would be beyond helpful, especially considering that he was inside some secret level for the area.

Perrin started to pace and talk aloud to himself as he considered the options. "I actually need all of these boons, to be honest. All three are powerful by themselves, sure, but they are also flawed choices when you got down to the brass tax. Auto power up does give you power while simultaneously stripping away flexibility to alter your body forging. The Dirty Cheater skill would give me a walkthrough but without the power to actually use the knowledge. It really only left Army ofTwo. That one was also a Unique modifier. If I understand what the system is telling me. I won't get this option again but the other boons are still on the table if I survive the black death forest. Yay me!"

Perrin sighed and looked at the Army of Two. It really was the best option for him. He could do this alone, probably... maybe... No, he could do this, but he didn't think that his mental health would hold up without someone by his side. Mazikeen was the obvious choice. If she could have followed him, he was confident that she would already be in here, so maybe this is a workaround. Moving the cursor over to the Army of Two option, the text changed to another screen.

Army of Two:

Conditions for unique boon:

The person summoned cannot exceed Users own ascension level. The person will be brought here with all celestial and planar nodes severed, i.e., the person's soul will never re-enter the Soul Sea of their home plane again.

Would you like to confirm your boon as Army of Two?

Yes/No

Perrin cursed as the pop-up crushed his hope of gaining a powerful ally. He felt the panic of the situation overtake him. The helplessness of it all washed over his mind like acid in his mind. He let the feeling run rampant for thirty seconds then killed the feeling violently. A cold mental calculating peace replaced the panic. His heart and breathing slowed. He'd learned a long time ago to let the fear have its way for a moment. He knew suppressing his feeling 24/7 never lead to positive mental health. He needed to be aware of the pressure but not let it control him. Closing his eyes, he pushed his hamster wheel into overdrive as he thought about what to do.

Okay, Perrin. We are in an unknown, openly hostile area in a world that has been designed as a crucible of death for you. Become powerful or die. Who do you want with you? Maze, the only powerful person you know, has been blocked from assisting you. It almost seems as though it was done on purpose for some reason. Sideline that thought. Who would you choose next? If I killed someone, who would I call and expect them to help me bury the body? No questions asked.

He smiled as the answer came to him almost instantly. Mentally selecting yes, another box replaced the previous one.

Congratulations

You have chosen the unique boon Army of Two.

Please enter the name of the person you wish to summon:

Perrin entered the name, Maximus Taylor.

Searching Users home plane…

Please wait

17 Maximus Taylors found.

Searching and sorting for soul connections

Please wait

Soul connection for one Maximus Taylor found.

Attempting to reach Maximus Taylor…

Please wait…

~~~~~~~~~

A tall, powerfully built man sat at the bar playing with the orange slice on his drink. He was immaculately dressed in a way that screamed old money and an aristocratic upbringing. Every stitch of clothing was tailored all the way down to the dark brown oxford loafers on his feet. His dark suit jacket was laid casually across the back of his seat as though it wasn't worth thousands of dollars. He had sandy blond hair framing an uncomfortably attractive and cleanly shaven face. Needless to say, when he walked into a room, women starred and neckbeards deem him 'specimen.'

His aqua blues were was staring at his phone screen. The messages he had sent still lacked the delivered indicator below them. He was starting to get concerned. Perrin was never late. If anything, he was always early. Showing up twenty minutes prior to the acceptable fifteen minutes prior to an appointment. The man picked up his old fashion and downed the drink. Respectable drink that and delicious to boot.

"Brandy, one more if you don't mind love." He called to the pretty blonde bartender. She turned to him and winked. He gave her his number three smile, and a blush came over her face. Of course, she was too young for him, but that's why he'd given the number three smile instead of the number six. Number three was just enough to let her know that he appreciated how she looked but not in a "lets get out of here" kind of way.

Hopping off his barstool, and headed to the bathroom to relieve himself. He made it into the toilet when his work phone went off. He ignored the vibrations. He was not on the clock right now, and whatever it was could wait. He finished his business, and he washed his hands. His phone continued to vibrate non-stop. He continued to ignore it. Drying his hands off, he walked back to his stool and sat down to wait on Perrin. His work phone was continuing to annoy him.

Brandy sat down a fresh old fashion, and he gave her a wink and a number four smile. Maybe she wasn't too young for him. He wasn't that old, and she sure was a beauty. He looked down at his drink and noticed a card sitting beside it with a phone number and the words 'off at 12' written on it. He chuckled to himself. The number three may have been a little too much. His personal phone started buzzing, and he pulled it out, hoping to see Perrin's name on the caller ID but instead, he saw 'unavailable.' He knew what that meant. They realized he was ignoring them and had broken protocol to call his personal number. That actually gave him pause. Whatever had happened must have been quite serious. He sighed, took a swig of his drink, and answered the call.

"Taylor"

"This is Mike's Pizza, we have a deliver at Paddington Lake RV Park. We are running about five minutes late. We apologize and were are willing to offer you a side of wings on the house if you'd like?"

Max's heart skipped a beat at the message. Something big had just happened at Perrin's place five minutes ago.

"That's okay. No need for the extra wings. I'll actually come pick up my order instead."

"Sounds good. We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to seeing you."

The call ended, and Max put the phone in his pocket. Downing, his new drink in one long pull, set down a hundo for the pretty Brandy and started towards the door. Hesitating, he turned around and picked up the card. Made eye contact with the cute bartender and slipped the card in the pocket of his coat, giving her a number four smile again.

"Keep the change beautiful."

The bartender went a little pink, and Max turned away, heading out to his SUV, mind already in a hyper-vigilant state.

Tearing out of the parking lot, Max plugged in the address to Perrin's place into his GPS. The ETA said he was twenty-five minutes out. He pulled out his work phone dialed up his personal team that kept an eye onPerrin. They answered on the first ring.

"Taylor 12-6-9 Bravo 4"

"Confirming please hold. Confirmed."

"What's the situation?” Max said.

"Three individuals just showed up out of no where without transportation. Two females and one male. They have started setting fire to RV's one by one heading directly towards Mr. Adair's residence. Facial recognition on the group coming up with nothing. Mr. Adair showed up half an hour ago with an unknown female. Facial recognition also coming up blank. We are unsure when she appeared but we can confirm that she was not in the vehicle when he left his place of work."

"How the hell did she get in the vehicle with him?"

"The surveillance tech in his vehicle stopped working shortly after he stopped to get a meal on his way home. She must have been picked up at some time after it went down. The unknown female didn't seem to be hostile and per your request we have nothing inside Mr. Adairs RV."

Max looked down at his GPS.

"My ETA is 20 minutes out."

"Update sir. Mr. Adair has just left his home and seems to be dressed in combat attire with an assault rifle in hand.”

Max cursed violently, stepping down on the accelerator so hard he felt like his foot should go through the floorboard.

"What should be do sir? We have a QRS team ready and on standby."

He thought about it for a moment. He could send the team in, but it would probably raise a lot of questions. Ones that would have Perrin extremely pissed at him once he put two and two together. He wasn't exactly hiding anything from him, but he had direct orders not to involve him in their investigation of Core Inc. It had been the main reason he'd not stayed in touch with Perrin for the past two years.

The investigation started up when a research team at Core Inc. was working on a government-sponsored contract. The contract was an incentive to develop a more sensitive energy detection device. According to the initial reports, they had actually succeeded in creating something next-gen using a metal discovered buried in the arctic ice by some government scientists. There wasn't much in the information about what the substance was other than it wasn't on the periodic table, and it been under the ice for about a billion years. The metal had been used in the device and was working beyond all expectations, and then out of the blue two years ago, it detected something that was initially thought to be some type of static or glitch in the sensor array. Once researchers further investigated the glitch, the team discovered what they called a "novel" ambient energy with some pretty unique properties. Properties that the DOD was quite interested in obtaining.

Max had been sent in to "fix" the situation. Fortunately, it was only to shut down the local research and hush everyone involved. Offer the scientist more money than they'd ever make in a lifetime to come work on the project at a black site. His team was doing just that while he visited Perrin, who happened to work in the building next door on the Core Inc. campus. That's when he saw Perrin have one of his episodes for the first time while simultaneously getting a message that a massive surge in this "novel" energy was being recorded on the device his team was trying to shut down.

Max reported to his superiors what had happened. The brass told him to lock down the facility but let the scientists continue to look into what caused the surge. He witnessed five more spikes over the next two weeks before he confirmed his suspicions that the surges in energy were directly correlated with Perrin's fainting spells. That's when the guilt and shame started.

Max never told his superiors about the correlation between Perrin's episodes and the surges. He trusted the government about as far as he could personally throw them. His family wealth had come from his family's global defense and technology corporation. His parents had been killed in an unknown terrorist attack while on business in the middle east when he was thirteen. An event that altered his life forever and the main reason he had joined the military despite the ridiculous fortune and corporation left to him.

His father had always told him, "Son never trust in the government wholeheartedly. But that shouldn't stop you from loving your country."

A red flag came up on Perrin when they were vetting everyone who worked on the campus with high-level access to Core's systems. Max was immediately put on a gag order to not interact with Perrin in any way without permission. Max should have known Perrin was going to get flagged. A former SF Engineering Sergeant is never really lost by the government. They don't actively watch them, but they usually know where they are and what they're up to. Let's just say that you aren't going to a foreign country without the government silently flagging you. You will never know, but it will be recorded. Hell, Max wasn't even allowed to leave the country on vacation without approval, and he was outright banned from stepping foot in some nations unless it was for government business. That's part of the price of having that level of clearance and knowledge, or so he guessed.

So the guilt was strong in Max. The guilt of watching his brother's life implode. The guilt of knowing that Addison was cheating on him for months while he was mentally breaking down. It was almost too much for him at times. To be honest, if Perrin had reached out to him after he finally caught her with Getty, Max would have disappeared that bastard in a heartbeat. But he hadn't, and Max was thankful because he would have felt honor-bound to make it happen, and he was reasonably certain he would have had to call in favors to keep from getting caught. The level of active surveillance in this place was insane. Max had three different government agency black ops teams under him. This project was being watched like an active domestic terrorist cell suspected of having a dirty nuke.

At one point, Max was positive that Perrin was going to do something stupid, so he called in a couple of their old teammates to stop in unannounced and cheer him up. Thank the stars that little reunion had been a turning point that got Perrin out of that dark spot. That didn't ease Max's conscience in the least. He'd failed his brother in every way possible. Then last week, something strange happened.

A spike in the novel energy sent the research team into a nerd freak-out. Max reached out to his personal team to confirm that Perrin's episode hadn't put him in any danger. Something that had always been a concern for Max. But Perrin was grilling outside his fifth-wheel, according to his team. That immediately put Max on edge. It had been the first time that a surge had happened without it involving Perrin. These massive surges have kept up every night for the last week. Then a suspicious group of people started sniffing around Perrin's park. All of this was highly suspicious.

Max decided after the people showed up and disappeared around the same time the spikes happened that he had to break radio silence and reach out to Perrin. He hated himself for waiting this long, but Max was past caring what the brass thought at this point. He only cared about his brother, and he needed to get him out of here before someone put two and two together. Then this shit show had to go and escalate to DEFCON 1.

"Sir, are you still there?"

Max shook the thoughts from his head, "Yeah, no team but keep them chambered. Put the area in blackout. Nothing digital in or out until I say other wise. Perr- uh Mr. Adiar should be able to handle thing until I get there. Prepare to do a clean sweep on our operations and get the team ready to go dark. I want to be out of Rangton immediately after a secure Mr. Adiar."

"Affirmative sir."

Max hung up the phone. He looked down at his GPS and grunted. A sense of urgency coming over him as he suspected these three unknown individuals were more trouble than his buddy could handle, and Max was not about to fail Perrin again. Perrin was his only family, and he just wasn't going to fail him. That was it. This job sucked most of the time anyway, and he already had to pay an outside team to do his job suitably.

He swerved in and out of traffic with many middle fingers, shouts, and horns blazing in his wake. His phone went off again, and Max's stomach felt like it was full of lead. It hadn't even been 10 mins he'd thought. He didn't let the worry show in his voice as he put it on speaker and answered.

"What happened?"

"Mr. Adair engaged the hostiles."

"Okay, do we need to send in a clean up team?"

"I... uh sir... I'm not really sure what I just saw uhm…" the man trailed off.

"Spit it out man!" Max shouted as he swerved around a blue minivan with a stupid 3oA sticker on the back. The female driver was flipping him a bird as he passed in a double line.

"Right sir. Mr. Adair engaged the hostiles and put down the male in the trio. The man immediately stood back up. Possibly wearing body armor. Mr. Adair then threw a grenade. Some type of hazy dome extended around the group. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm pretty sure it was an force shield because there was zero damage done to the hostiles."

"Could you repeat that aga…" the man cut Max off with a shout that trailed off into what he assumed was stunned silence.

"That's not possible! There wasn't anything… how did it… Thats not possible…" the man on the line kept mumbling to himself.

"Pull yourself together man and tell me what the ever loving ball sack is going on."

The man paused, took a deep breath, and took control of himself. The fact that one of his team was this shaken had Max extremely worried. These guys were pros of the pros. They aren’t shaken by anything. But the man pulled himself together quickly and continued in a calm, professional manner.

"The vehicle that Mr. Adair was set up at eeeuhm your not going to believe this shit sir but one of the hostiles put out their hand and the vehicle lifted up into the air. She then made a throwing motion and it shot off into the lake about hundred meters away." The man continued giving Max a play-by-play of what was quickly becoming absolutely inconceivable. Max asked him to give the phone to other members of the team, who all confirmed or even added to the situation as it escalated to Angels falling from the sky.

At that point, Max had decided that the apocalypse had started. He wasn't sure why it had started in an RV park, but it had. He wanted to call them all damn liars, but he knew better. They were afraid. He could hear it in their voices. The people who show up and make other people disappear were stuttering on the phone as they told him what was happening.

"Mr. Adair just ducked what looks like a power line pole. He's picking up the injured woman..." Max cut him off.

"I'm fifteen seconds out from turning in."

A beam of purplish light shot across the top passenger side of his SUV. A white after image burned into his eyes as he felt the wind hit his face. Max blinked a few times and looked over to see that the top passenger half of his vehicle was just gone as if it had been deleted. Nothing but smooth edges.

Max came into the park sideways, and things seemed to slow down as the scene unfolded in front of him like a snapshot in time. Everything was destroyed. It looked like absolute hell on earth. He couldn't even see the people fighting except for brief impacts where assumed two people connected blows with the earth exploding around them. Max knew at that moment that Perrin was dead. There was no way a human could survive what was happening. The place was leveled as god-like beings fought. Swaths of destruction flowing out like waves flatting everything in the area.

He's dead. It's all my fault. He's dead because I cared more about my job than my only family.

His heart twisted in his chest. Then it went cold as he accepted it. Then he went hollow as he shut down that side of himself. The emotional transition happened in the blink of an eye. Max saw two people in strange futuristic cosplay clothing standing back, observing the fight. He turned his wheels towards the two. Attempting to gun the already floored throttle, Max made a beeline for the two. He realized he was screaming. He wasn't sure when he started doing that, but it felt good, so he didn't stop.

The two people turned around and looked directly at him. They demeanor never change. They didn't seem worried that they were about to be hit by a vehicle at 50 mph. One of them disappeared when he was about 10 meters away from impact. The driver's side door was there one minute, and then it was simply gone. The one that had disappeared reached in and jerked Max out of the SUV. He felt things breaking inside his body from the force of the pull. The seatbelt ironically doing most of the damage as the man's grip overpowered it. Max watched the SUV be swatted aside by a casual backhand of the other member of the duo.

The man held Max out with one arm, looked him over, sniffed, and summarily tossed his broken body away. Of course, the disdainful toss was like being shot out of a cannon. He made it only a few meters away from the man when the world turned black and white. Everything froze. It looked like someone hit the pause button on a movie.

Max was still aware of everything, but he was not moving. That's when he finally saw the angels. Wings spread out like some biblical photo of the final battle. Some had swords, and some had staves of fire and lightning. He was fairly certain he’d seen it all now.

A blue screen of some type appeared in front of his face. It was the only color in the still-framed world.

I stand corrected. Now I’ve seen it all.

Max tried to shake his head but every part of his body besides is eyes were frozen. He decided reading the box was the only thing to do.

Congratulations

You have been invited to join Perrin Adairs party.

Warning!

By accepting this invitation to assist User: Perrin Adair, your soul will be removed from this plane of existence. If your party fails to complete the Trials of Ascension, your souls will be forever bound to Dedra.

Do you wish to accept?

Yes/No

Max didn't even think about it. He shouted his acceptance immediately, well he tried to but not even his vocal cords would move so he thought it his answer really hard. It was a no brainer for him. All he read was that his brother was somewhere, still alive, and he needed him. Perrin was still alive. His family was still alive.

Warning!

User Maximus Taylor. Please be aware that by accepting this invitation, your soul will be severed from the mortal coil of this plane. Any afterlife, along with your connection to the sea of souls, will forever be lost. If your mortal shell dies, your soul will cease to exist.

Do you still wish to accept?

Yes/No

"What the… well isn't this just peachy. I find out souls are a thing and there is an afterlife and I'm immediately giving it up. Fine, whatever, pretty sure I was going to the bad place anyway. I’ve already said yes. Let's F'in go already."

Congratulations!

You have forsaken your afterlife and all hope of rebirth for the sake of a loved one. The path to true immortality has been opened to you.

Brute force soul severance in process

Please wait…

A cord of silvery light blazing like the sun appeared from nowhere, coming out of Max's chest. Strangely enough, he somehow knew it had always been there. Anchoring him to something. The cord ran up into the sky, disappearing. The cord pulsed then the air beside him shattered like a mirror. Then someone stepped out of the hole made in the world. He thought it was a person. The light never seemed to touch the being completely, almost as though they absorbed most of the light touching their body but not so much that some didn't reflect back. That was disturbing to Max. Hell, everything about this was disturbing. The sedan size ax that they were impossibly dragging most likely to take the cake.

The shaded being began pulsing in rhythm with his cord or trying to fade into existence. Max wasn't positive what happened next as a pain unlike anything he'd ever felt in his life racked his unmoving body. It felt like he'd been dipped into a vat of molten iron that was mixed with lightening. Then suddenly, it was gone. The cord of silvery light burned away like white phosphorus. Silvery flaky smoke rising into the air as the line fell away. Max felt as though he'd lost something unbelievably important. It was like he had somehow lost protection he never knew existed until it was missing. Another screen distracted him from the feeling. He morbidly wondered what this one was going to do to him.

User Maximus Taylor has accepted party invite.

Scanning Please wait…

User is in critical condition.

All prerequisite conditions for Unique boon Army of Two have not been met.

Requesting admin escalation

Please wait…

Admin has accepted escalation.

Stand by for transfer.

The world filled with rainbow light as Max slid along something smooth and tangible but yet translucent. He wondered if light could be solid. Everything around him zipped by at speed so fast that he wasn't sure he was even moving. The rainbow light turned silver, and he slipped out or maybe turned down a tunnel. Then what he could only describe as a crack or perhaps a tear in reality opened up into the blackness, and he fell through. The feeling of falling went on for an unknown time. Then something wrapped around his torso and started dragging him at speed horizontally. The pain from his wounds was getting past his mental defenses. He was confident that he was about to throw up, and from the grinding of bone on bone, it was probably going to be blood. There were just too many things broken inside his body, definitely too many for him to survive.

A pinprick of light appeared out in the darkness, and he assumed that he was being dragged towards it. The light slowly turned into an open doorway. He passed through the threshold, and it slammed shut. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust the to light's harsh rays after his time in the darkness of where ever the hell that was.

A greasy-sounding voice came off from Max's left, "So you’re Maximus Taylor."