William turner woke as the rays of sunshine broke through the little abode he resided in; his body had been attuned to such since the advent of the archailect. Getting up from his little bed made of used foam and cloth on it he stretched, feeling his bones pop while standing under the rays of the sunlight itself. From his little home, he could hear the guards of his stronghold move around, probably preparing to change shifts. Like every morning, his mind went back to the day the archailect arrived, a bachelor living in his small one-bedroom apartment up in New York, not a fancy place with its wooden floor and soaked walls, but it put a roof under his head and warmth during the cold seasons and he was happy for that.

Like everyone else he saw the message appearing in his front, a blue box with the floating almost angel-like being in the sky, however, they proved not much to be the angelic benefactors their Christianity opposites as the one in the sky set a man on fire due to shouting at it, burnt the man to Ashes, no bones were left. Panic ensued, and in the space of thirty seconds, William saw the same fear and terror he had always thought were hilarious in those apocalyptic movies right on the faces of people. Then the countdown ended and a wave of power he could only equate to a megaton of emp blew through the whole of New York and as he found out later, the whole world.

He woke up right under a ray of sunlight, skin cut in different places and leaking blood like a faucet. Staring up into the sunlight, he remembered his determination not to die, or maybe it was the voices screaming in pain and anguish that kept him alive. All he knew was that he acquired his class and path: mage and sun wielder at that point. His body healed at a rapid pace and as he found out later, he could heal others also, a skill he learned to keep to himself, along with the ability to raze a person to cinders, same with the weird alien being that announced the coming of the archailect.

He shook his mind from such thoughts, opening the wooden barely hanging doors of his home to stare at the hundreds of people shambling around aimlessly in the walls of the stronghold, and these were the ‘chosen ones’ allowed inside the walls of the stronghold known as Ash. William shouldn’t have been surprised when he had realized a while back that the geography of the world had been warped, zones and habitats that had nothing in common had somehow been merged seamlessly. Ash was situated in a green zone in a continent that to William and the rest of the thousands of people here was new. New in the fact that it was made up of Rocky Mountains and sprawling desserts with little swats of grasslands that oddly were not eroding. As mind-boggling as the sheer thought was, it was the least crazy thing in this new world.

He waved at a few bed-ragged guards he passed, watching a few men drag in a three-headed deer and bundles of wheat stalks that had been planted outside the stronghold. Another crazy thing about this new world, or C-102 as the system message had written, crops grew at a very stupendous rate. Seeds planted a week before had grown into readily harvestable crops currently that were being harvested in steady batches. Still, he stared as the men and women who had dedicated themselves to harvesting said crops carried the batches straight into the tall large building the leader of Ash had taken as his abode. Gritting his teeth, he began marching towards the building,

He passed by a few tired-looking farmers and with a flick of one finger he barely moved, he began sending tendrils of sun healing power from his reserves into them, taking silent joy in the way their eyes opened in shock and confusion as their weariness left their bodies. It was nice helping out whenever he can without alerting the…hounds of their leader, shaking his head at the thought of the ruthless control in the stronghold. He was powerless to stop it really, there was nothing he could do as an initiate, not yet anyways. With his overly washed robe he had picked up from an abandoned mall what seemed like a lifetime ago, he steadily made his way to the front of the building, nodding at the two brutes that manned the giant doors who nodded at him and opened it up.

The inside of the building was filled with ornate-looking chairs, some had been plundered from rich homes that had been evaporated to dust and by some stroke of luck left some unharmed upholsteries. William had even seen the white house reduced to rubble and only recognizable by the white dome above it that had been broken to rubble in a now marshy area that was filled with dinosaur-looking reptiles and snakes that were reportedly big enough to swallow a school bus. Sometimes his mind wondered if the president or the government of America survived, but he had pieced together from people that most people in a building or some sort of shelter had died with what people were calling the cleansing.

And the fact that the messengers had returned to inform them that as much as ninety percent of humanity had been wiped out of reality. William remembered staring up at the messenger that announced the news, he had stared with such hatred that his barely filled core had begun to accumulate power in his wrist, but common sense and self-preservation prevailed in the end. Had he sent that blast of power at the messenger, he was pretty sure it would have wiped the shot out and wiped William out as well. In one day the entire powers that ruled earth along with most of its population had ceased to exist, electricity was gone, their military weapons gone, and even if you had guns, what were you about to do to people who could now shrug off a shot or two from a gun?.

He noticed the servants in the stronghold trembling as they moved around, eyes narrowed, he could only imagine their esteemed leader was up to his usual antics again this morning, harassing the women. As William walked up to the room where a green core hovered in the air in front of a gleaming metal and silver throne, William couldn’t help but remember the video message that had appeared in the air a day before. A message from a dark-skinned African man with dreads and red beads in his hair.

A man that gave off the power of a god, and from what he had seen, was an expert. William for the life of him couldn’t understand how anyone could survive in the yellow zone, he had seen a yellow zone as he ran through the transforming landscape, the levels of the monsters there drove a lance of shill into his sun-warmed body. they still had enough trouble fighting the hordes of creatures that assaulted them here in the green zone and someone had carved out an entire sector in a yellow zone. He stood before the throne where a pot-bellied but muscular-looking man with red beards held a spear, eyes gleaming as he drank down a cup of homemade beer and beer. William bowed at the waist, for that was the custom their esteemed ruler Ash of stronghold Ash had commanded them to do, his thug-looking bodyguards at his sides, they were all initiates.

William was a level 30 initiate, but he was sure he could kill Ash with a perfectly placed sun lance to the heart if, of course, his guard max with what he heard was a body aura path follower on some weird path that made his body as hard as metal didn’t interfere at that moment. Best to his knowledge the path of the lord of Ash was on a toxin path, no one had lived to tell the tale after challenging their despot of a leader and William had no immunity to toxins to so much as to try and fight him head-on, but one day, William promised to himself, he would carve out the heart of the brute in front of him who was shamelessly pawing the chest of a woman who was petrified to her bones on his lap.

Standing back straight, he stared at Ash, doing his best to remain calm and not look at the stockpile of aether shards that was slowly making its way to the ceiling of the structure. The notifications that had been sent by the archailect had been clear, fledglings to acolytes couldn’t use the abundant aether in the air and needed the aether shards gotten from killing monsters to recharge the aether in their cores. Ash had ordered that those who wanted to remain in his stronghold had to turn over whatever common and uncommon aether shards they had gotten after wiping out the monsters as a tribute to him, sharing them among his ragtag army while sparing a few for the healers to help in the recuperating of the maimed and healing members of stronghold Ash.

“sir William!, it’s so nice to see you! how’s my commander this fine morning?” Ash laughed in his deep rough voice,

With steel in his voice, William replied, “doing well sir, we have successfully finished the crisis event yesterday sir, lost over fifty men to the level fifty spike leopard and its brood of monsters, a hundred more are sick and dying. I came to request additional aether shards for the healers” William answered,

William was a peculiar case, normally he should need the shards to top off his cores, but for some weird reason, he didn’t need as much as an average initiate, which was one or two after a fight. He had found out that the sun healed his wounds and somehow replenished his cores, the more he increased both his vitality and intelligence, the more it increased, not by much but he could feel it.

Lord Ash as he was called now cleared his throat, and from behind a pillar stepped out a thin-looking glasses-wearing man in a long black robe with black painted nails. Mr. Emmet who served as the steward for the stronghold of Bastion was a necromancer, a mage who studied the arcane art of raising the dead and had just broken into the realm of an initiate and slithered out of his hiding spot. To say this man sickened him to his guts would be an understatement, he could live with a man like Ash, he was manageable, but Emmet? who raised the corpses of their fallen soldiers to the horror of their family members deserved to die, but he knew that as long as he was loyal to Ash, he had immunity.

Lord Ash turned to his steward lackey,

“say, Emmet, how many shards did we make yesterday?” he asked,

“over one thousand common shards and half as Many uncommon shards my lord” Emmet the necromancer replied in his throaty voice, Emmet was sure he had just puked a little in his mouth,

“and if we remove the usual tribute to me and the fine army we gathered that protects this great stronghold of ours, how many would be left to give to the healers for their monthly budget?” Ash continued as the woman on his lap whimpered from the aggressive way he squeezed her breasts,

“just over three hundred shards” Emmet replied,

“and how many did we hand out yesterday?”

“a good four hundred my lord”

William once again had to hold down the anger that raged in his chest, already he could feel his core bubbling with fire and light are interwoven together, all it would take him was one indication of his target and a lance of sunbeam at Emmet and the necro would be char soldering on the ground, but that would accomplish nothing than to infuriate Ash and set them against him. Taking a deep breath he bowed again,

“please, I beseech you, many are dying, the healers can’t do enough with so little shards, if you could let the people without paths get one from the core, it would- “was all William said before his instincts screamed at him to dodge an attack coming at him,

With a skill born of survival during the end of civilization as he knew it, William rolled sideways and dodged a shot of poison that melted the very floor where he had stood before, if that attack had met him, he’d be losing his flesh by now. Staring into the furious eyes of Ash who bellowed,

“I warned you, William, not to bring up such a topic!” lord Ash said, squeezing the woman some more as she choked in the pain with tears in her eyes,

“I would give those I deem fit! let them die! they had classes and still lost! this is my territory! I am king here!” Ash shouted as a smirking Emmet watched on and max his guard placed one arm on his ax.

William kept mute, waiting for Ash to simmer down, weary of his surroundings and ready to launch his attacks should it be necessary. Finally, Ash sent the woman away who scurried out the door, he noticed the looks both Emmet and max gave the woman and silently acknowledged to himself to warn her after this debacle he found himself in. he turned to Ash who sat up straight,

“we have hundreds of people outside the walls of Ash who are willing to give their lives to live inside the iron walls of our stronghold, and unless anyone proves themselves worthy of a path, I would give those I deem worthy,” Ash said with finality in his voice. William noted the hypocritical words coming from the mouth of the man who had not been at the frontline of the crisis but inside the safety of his stronghold, again bile filled his mouth at him serving such a person.

But the truth was he could live at any time he wanted, he had been able to steal an uncommon dungeon core from one of their numerous raids, and while it was no rare core, it would do the job of creating a stronghold just fine. However, William realized he couldn’t leave the people behind, all those he had a connection with here, and he couldn’t take them in time before Ash and his men along with their army realized this fact and hunted him down.

“tell the healers to do what they can and let the rest die, for everyone that dies two more would take their places,” Ash said, waving William away.

William nodded stiffly and walked away from the hall, breathing a sigh of relief. stepping far away from the building as he passed rows of wooden stores that sold meat and food for coins, he entered a secluded back corner,

“did you get it?” he whispered,

A shimmer appeared in the air in front of him as a woman pulled down a scale-like hood and nodded, her eyes shone green. William sighed in relief as she produced a bag filled to the core with uncommon shards, he smiled,

“will that be enough jasmine?” he asked the green-haired and eyed woman who nodded to him,

Jasmine was a healer, her class had somehow not given her any offensive ability but to heal, having no path yet was hampering her healing abilities though. She tied up the bag and kept it within the folds of the scale robe she wore. William had gotten the robe from a dungeon boss they had slain but kept it in secret against Ash and his cronies, knowing full well the sort of things they could use it to do. It had come in handy when he suggested it to jasmine the day before, knowing the risk of the mission, she still accepted it. He hugged her as she blushed,

“good, take it straight to the healers, tell them to expressly use them all today and to heal the men loyal to me, they should utter the word phoenix offhandedly and if the men reply with burn, they are mine, if not, the crystals are not to be wasted on the cronies of Ash” he ordered,

She nodded resolutely, he wouldn’t waste the shards on men who would go back babbling to their boss. As she left the alley, he heard a cough behind him, without thinking twice a sunbeam trailed his hand as he turned to land a devastating attack on the man behind him. The man casually dodged the attack with amusement in his eyes and snuffed out his attack In the whole of Ash, there were only four people who were his match, Ash himself, mac the guard, another commander who was far away, and maybe, just maybe Emmet with his weird necro powers, this man-made the fifth.

Jumping back as the man raised his hands in surrender,

“hold friend!” the man said quietly,

“who are you?” William asked,

Without asking, William brought up the man stat, it showed a Mr. M, a level 45 initiate, and a swordsman. William’s eyes bulged, when had a level 45 initiate enter the stronghold and they had no idea? the man chuckled as he threw a red-looking aether shard at him. William caught it in reflex as a flash of surprise passed him and he clamped down on him, still on, guard, this was a rare aether shard. He surveyed the swordsman who had no sword on him,

“where did an initiate like you get a rare shard?” he asked cautiously,

“I’m a wanderer, travel from place to place,” Mr. m said,

“a wanderer are you Mr m?, last I heard, a rare shard can only be found in the yellow and red zones” William replied, still holding a blazing sunbeam in his right hand,

The dark man smiled, shrugging his broad shoulders,

“I have connections, and please, call me m,” he said,

William deduced that if the man had indeed wanted to attack him, he could have done so. Added to the fact that the man was stronger than him and was close to the stage of an acolyte, he released his beam as a show of good faith, the man nodded in appreciation.

“what do you want m?” William asked the grinning man,

“why of course to help you all,” m said,

“that and to wipe out the embarrassments you call leaders” Mr m finished as William raised an eyebrow,

“keep talking,” William said.