Whoever Brandon was, Aiden wanted to meet the dude. Retracing his savior’s steps took quite some time, making Aiden think this day wasn’t the same as the one he’d defeated the Prowler on. The distance, terrain, and likely presence of monsters in the territories would’ve hampered movement and made travel difficult while carrying a person.

But thoughts of what might’ve happened when he was asleep after the Prowler fight aside, Aiden made progress. With his unencumbered speed, the red beaming light grew larger and larger by the minute as he passed through several empty rank one and two territories.

The amount of carnage everywhere was, frankly, ridiculous. The amount of bodies left behind by monster and man alike made him grimace as he continued to run, leaping over obstacles quite easily whenever the need arose.

As in the rank three territory, many buildings looked beaten up by kaiju. However, no matter where he looked, giant monsters the size of Godzilla never made an appearance. In that regard, Midrath still had Earth beat.

And he hoped to keep it that way.

With all that they’d learned on Midrath about the system, the worlds, and the greater powers that be, they could save Earth. They would save Earth. He wouldn’t accept failure, wouldn’t accept becoming a slave to anybody, nor would he be used like a piece in a game as the others before him had been.

No, his vision included locking out the Divine Realm from interfering with his life and anybody else's, no matter their race, forever. Loki, Khione, Tiamat, Kyriall, all of them be damned.

Even though Tiamat, Laovi, and Kyriall had given him Blizzy, and he was ever-appreciative for that, he suspected ulterior motives. And if he didn’t stop the cycle from happening, it would keep happening.

Over, and over, and over again.

“Never gonna happen,” he growled as he ran. After he dealt with this little mess he’d made and knew the rules of the game, he wouldn’t wait. Earth’s Authority already called to him, resonating with Midrath’s. “I’m coming, don’t worry.”

Every crumbled building, every bloodstain, every corpse, monster or otherwise, firmly resolved his will to see things through to the end. He didn’t know how he’d go about solving the conundrum of Leyla’s Prophecy of the End, but he’d cross that bridge and find a solution when the time came.

First thing’s first, he had some monster asses to kick.

DANGER ZONE AHEAD!

Enter Unclaimed Rank 3 Territory?

Warning: This area is far above your current level of power.

Yes. | No.

Ignoring the question, he focused on the word “unclaimed” and sighed. “I really did make a mess.”

All the carnage before him, all the death from the rampaging monsters wanting to get ahold of the rank three territory, it all fell on his shoulders. He hadn’t been strong enough to stay awake and finish what he’d started. He’d been saved and caused hell on Earth for so many people because of it.

All of this death, and for why? Because he wasn’t stronger?

“That’s it,” he growled, pushing himself faster, “if Arkayan won’t help me get stronger, then I’ll ask V’Yenya. And if he won’t help, maybe Nin’Yala will.”

Making that promise to himself, he honed his instincts on the full range of the territory and unleashed the full might of Apex Predator. He didn’t care who or what he might’ve hit, only that everything remained still long enough for him to do some clean up.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

His destination had been set before he’d ever left the impromptu hospital. When he finally came upon the origin of the brilliant light, what he found is exactly what he expected.

The Prowler’s corpse.

Or rather the Formation System within demanding something, someone, anything at all to claim it. So he would, and by doing so, he’d put an end to this relentless frenzy.

As he approached the Prowler’s mutilated corpse, Aiden could feel the raw power that caused the monsters to go mad. Even now, a horde of all kinds of monsters, most he’d never seen before, had been frozen in place by Apex Predator in the middle of attempting to consume the Prowler’s flesh and magic, desperate for any morsel.

And so he cut his way through the horde too afraid to move, their frenzied desire the vehicle which brought them to him, the instrument of their demise.

Abusing Apex Predator’s aura made scything his way through countless enemies a matter of when rather than if. Watching their eyes track him as he calmly walked forward, cutting anything in his way.

So afraid were they that they didn’t even let out a fearful whine, hiss, growl. Nothing.

The whole area was perfectly silent, just the way he appreciated after his headache grew back in the impromptu hospital.

Idly, he muttered to himself, carving through flesh and bone alike without so much as blinking as blood splatters and corpses fell in his way. “Hmm, did Brandon drag me by my legs and give me brain damage or something?”

When he finally cleared a path to the chest cavity of the Prowler, the work to clear the way had already been done for him. Ripping a sleeve from his shirt, he used it as a cloth to grab the Formation System.

He’d never seen a purer color in his life than when he set eyes on the Formation System. Red as red can be but clear enough to see through, it was smaller than he thought.

The resource progression of the system still didn’t make sense to him. Even trying to strip away the limitations of as much as he could, he still found no answers as to how to progress himself.

Essence Orbs, different stages of Cores, Pillars, and now Formation Systems…

Regardless of what secrets he didn’t know about these things and the amount he’d collected back on Midrath, he’d be getting answers soon. That was for sure. No longer would he be content with putting them away for future use or using them as dragon food for Blizzy once he had more of one kind than he could ever figure out what to do with.

But that would be then, and this was now.

Tying the two ends of his makeshift cloth together still left some of the beautiful red showing on the sides, and he did not want to accidentally absorb this into his Orrery.

Something this powerful was obviously very valuable, but to what end, Aiden didn’t currently know. A bubbling of excitement and anticipation stirred in his gut for the first time in a long time.

Hopefully he’d just found a key piece of moving forward. And again, once he got back to Midrath, he knew at least two people and a nice wolf who might have the answer to his questions.

So as a just in case measure, he tore his sleeve two more times and wrapped his precious find before dropping it in his pocket.

You have slain the Rank Three Invasion Raid Boss, Serian Prowler.

Would you like to claim this territory?

Yes. | No.

“Obviously.”

Rank Three Zone claimed by Aiden Pearce, Authority of Midrath.

All Rank One and Two Zones under the Serian Prowler’s Rank Three Zone have been claimed by Aiden Pearce, Authority of Midrath.

Assets have been added to Zion’s registry.

“That easy, huh?” After acknowledging the addition of the territories into Zion’s registry, not that he doubted the system, he nodded to himself and looked around. “What about the rest of you?”

The answer was an easy one for him. He dropped Apex Predator and watched as, faster than he could blink, all of the monsters stampeded off to anywhere but right there with him. If he were to hazard a guess, the entire zone would likely not have any monsters left behind at all.

Wherever they ran off to, he hoped he hadn’t just made an even bigger mess. But he had more pressing matters to attend to than slaying pitifully weak monsters just for the sake of it. However, he doubted the horde would be as much of an issue leaving the zone as they were coming in.

If he hadn’t set fear of showing themselves around his territory deep into the core of their being, he’d be surprised. Not to mention, without this zone causing every monster under its domain to enter a frenzied state, they likely wouldn’t act with such recklessness.

“Just a guess though,” he muttered to himself, slowly rising high above the tallest building as he commanded an Ice Wall to act as a platform for him to survey the new piece of land he’d just acquired. “It’s in a better condition than I expected, all things considered.”