Jas cracked open his eyes. He lay in a recessed doorway, his body stiff and numb from the cold, the cardboard beneath his ass having done fuck-all to insulate him against the January cold. The skin on his face felt like it was burning from the frigid temperature, and his breath condensed before him with each exhalation.
He lay still. The Brooklyn street was quiet. It had to be way past midnight. Every store was hidden behind its roll-up tal grill doors. A cat froze on the far sidewalk and stared right at him, then darted away and was gone.
An ambulance was wailing in the far distance. Honks ca from the busier avenue over. Neon light from the electronics store signage reflected luridly on a sheet of ice that had ford on the road.
Jas shifted his weight. His ass protested, his hip flared up in pain, and a dull ache rumbled through his mind, the vestiges of a hangover. What had happened? Sothing. Hed been
Jas scowled and rubbed his gloved hand across the back of his mouth. His mustache had grown so long it ground against his lips. Why did that feel weird? He never trimd his beard. Why did he feel like it should be shorter?
He blinked again and felt around him for a bottle. It was a hopeful gesture. He couldnt rember if hed had one with him or not.
Nope.
With a sigh he sank back against the door.
Jas pursed his lips. He was missing sothing. Sothing huge. He stared morosely out over the street. A white car slid by, tires hissing in the salted slush.
He should just try and go back to sleep.
But
The mory of a voice whispered in his ear: Whatever it is, youre not alone, yeah?
His heart rate jolted as he sat up. What the fuck? Who - where?
Bonnie and Clyde, he whispered, surprising himself. Now what the fuck did that an? It felt so important. Tears filled his eyes. His chest cramped with emotion. What was wrong with him? He felt around desperately once more for a bottle.
Nothing.
Sothing had happened to him. But not last night. He dredged up the mory. Hed been at the shelter till 8pm, then left after an argunt with one of the guys there. Had begged enough money from the yuppy bar goers to get a bottle of Cheer Wine, then sat in a dark park trying to make it last. Had thought of going back to the shelter, then just wandered around, pan handling a little more till hed collapsed here and called it a night.
So why was he so freaked out?
A sense of certainty washed over him: this wasnt who he was. Not any more.
It felt like he stood before a groaning door, fingers on the handle. A door behind which waited millions of gallons of water, all of it causing the door to strain, to bulge, the boards bending out and fit to break.
All he had to do was turn the handle.
Jass mouth was dry as an ashtray. He couldnt catch his breath. Did he want to open that door? Did he want to invite in that chaos, that madness?
For a second he thought: no. Turn away. Keep things chill, keep things the way theyd always been.
But then with a gasp he blinked and willed the door to open.
A thousand mories poured over him.
Demons cavorting amongst crowds, hacking them apart.
A towering chanical construct six stories tall blasting with shoulder mounted guns.
A hellish landscape with a central tower, malefic and right out of a Lord of the Rings movie.
Faces. Strangers who sohow felt familiar.
With a cry Jas lurched to his feet and staggered out into the center of the street. Turned and searched the sky wildly for a burning symbol he knew had to be there, hovering in plain sight, demonic and portending extinction.
The sky above the Brooklyn streets was as empty and dark as ever.
Gasping for breath Jas wheeled around as a car slamd on its horn and then leaped aside with far more grace than hed ever had before. He landed neatly on the pavent in a superhero crouch, one hand on the ice-slicked paving, and then stared down at his fist in shock.
What the fuck?!
And thats when it ca back. All of it. mories lost in ti. mories of what was to co. Of what could be. A possible future, one in which he, of all people, starred as the savior of humanity.
An ill-begotten savior who failed to save 95% of humanity, but still.
Holy shit, he whispered. The System. The Neses. The demonic nodes, Crimson Hydra, Colonel Hackworth, Blue Light, eting the president, flying with Jessica on a Wing, the Castrum, the Pits, angels, the backrooms, the Zorathians, flying into an actual black hole to fight a Seraph - all of it ca crashing ho.
Jas stood up smoothly.
Inhaled, looked up into the middle distance, and then summoned his statistics sheet.
Na: Jas Kelly
Class: Apostate Eradicating Crusader
Rank: Void Emperor Absolute
Title: Vanguard, Master of Mysteries, Overlord, Keeper of Humanity,
Divine Bulwark, Pri Servant, Light Against the Dark, Eschewer of Glories
Virtue: Justice
Benedictions: None
First Miracle: Death Attack
Second Miracle: [Expended]
Third Miracle: Unchosen
Corporal Perfection: 0
ntal Dominion: 0
Spiritual Exaltation: 0
Summons: None
Aura: Void Subli
Aura Strength: 6
Aeviternum Points: 9
Strength: 6
Stamina: 5
Speed: 6
Agility: 4
Power: 5
Arete: 3,412/3,412
Unspent Points 3,789,000,000
Holy shit, he whispered again. He stared at that last number. Almost 4 billion unspent points. What was that divided by 9,000? Sothing like450,000?
Jas blinked and staggered back till he could lean against a storefront.
He had the equivalent of 450,000 Reservoir Cubes of power unspent within him. He couldnt catch his breath.
Thaguavar the Black had reached the depths of the Pit with 3.
He had 450,000.
He couldnt even process what that kind of power ant.
Wait.
Hed spurned Jelly. The Eluthaarii had appeared at the last second. Clearly it had the power to reverse ti for itself and co here to confront him.
Its rage had to be infinite.
Jas pushed off the wall and looked everywhere about him.
Nothing.
Just a frigid New York City night.
Wouldnt he co? Maybe to kill him? Prevent him from fucking up the works? Or had he earned this fairly? Would the Eluthaarii allow him to get away with it?
Still nothing manifested.
Jas licked his cracked lips. Waited. Watched.
Still nothing.
Jas slowly lowered his fists.
Fuck. He shivered against the cold. A group of young n ca down the sidewalk, clearly drunk and in a festive mood. One of the n blew vape smoke into the air and laughed in delight at so comnt. Jas stepped back so they could pass, and they regarded him with the usual mix of pity and blankness.
One of them called out, Get a job, pops!
The rest laughed and they kept on walking.
Jas watched them go.
Theyd probably be dead in a couple of months.
The System was still coming.
Everything was on track.
Everything was going to repeat itself. Nothing had changed.
Nothing but him.
But for now it was all as it had once been. The windows above the stores were dark but filled with life. n and won and children sleeping in their beds with nothing more to worry about but their everyday concerns. All over the world people were going about their lives. Laughing, fucking, lying, swearing their love, being bored, studying, trying to get a raise, farming, whatever.
Humanity.
8 billion of us.
And only he knew what was to co.
Tears filled Jass eyes and he walked down the street, leaving his backpack behind. Took a turn, passed the 43rd Street subway station, and stopped outside a bar.
Paddys Luck.
A small crowd was gathered before it, folks smoking cigarettes, shoulders hunched, feeling solidarity in their shared privation.
Jas stared at them in wonder. Looked past them into the bar. It was loud, full of people, music loud and insistent.
You OK there, buddy? The bouncer looked at him with sympathy. Need sothing?
No, Im fine. He wanted to bless them, hug them, tell them how wonderful they were. But that would just get him shoved back. So he grinned, wiped the tears away, and stumbled off.
For awhile he just walked. Took in Brooklyn in all its midnight glory. The traffic, people hurrying along the sidewalk, the lit windows, the complete and utter lack of destruction. No corpses, no shattered glass, no overturned cars, no demolished walls. No smoke choking the skies, no wail of children, nothing.
Just the world, as it always had been.
Jas finally fetched up in Grand Salvation Army square. It was desolate, the winter cold having driven everyone away. He wandered across its great expanse. He could rember the National Guard trying to control the situation here so vividly. He stopped where hed stood with the others, waiting for commands. Could almost hear the cries of the desperate crowd, could rember their plight so vividly.
He walked to where the barricades had been, through that space, and out into where the crowds had stood. Faced the direction from which the Nem1s had co.
The wind blew, cutting into him like a scythe, and with it he thought he heard a thousand voices raised in reedy song: All we are saying
Jas sniffed sharply and turned in a circle.
Nothing but darkness, ice, and cold.
And were he to tell anyone, they really would think he was mad.
Fuck , he whispered. It really had worked. Four weeks. He had four weeks in which to make a difference.
Then it occurred to him: Hermans was out there. Serenity. Shed not rember him, of course, but she was there, alive, caught up in her own life. Sa with the rest of Crimson Hydra. Fuck, Bjrn was live, Joanna, Becca, everyone.
The urge to go to Hermans was overwhelming. A physical compulsion. But Jas crushed it ruthlessly.
No.
Not yet.
First he had to take care of business.
He summoned his sheet once more. The glowing words filled his vision. For a few monts he fumbled around, issuing ntal commands that did nothing, and then he finally willed the words Root Directory at the System, and an overlay appeared.
Unspent points: 3,789,000,000
Select Purchase Category:
Offense | Defense | Abundance
Substance | Spatial | Temporal
Self | Summons | Virtues
Apotheosis
God damn. He rubbed his hands together. All right. Just a little shopping. Wont need much.
In quick succession he purchased 100 Aeviternum, boosted his physical stats to 1,000 each, waving away the Limit Break and synergy notifications, and then raised his Arete to an even 50,000. He dove into Death Attack and bumped that up to 50k as well and ran a quick calculation.
It now did 62 trillion damage.
Itd do for now.
He snapped up every Benediction and raised his Corporal Perfection, ntal Dominion, and Spiritual Exaltation to 1,000 each.
The effect was imdiate. Strength, calmness, and awareness suffused him. It felt like shrugging off a rotten comforter that had been dropped over his head. The aches and pains, the cold and the hangover, the stiffness and weariness all disappeared. His mind sharpened, his thoughts clarified, and he felt in perfect form.
A whole new man.
With a sigh he peeled off the finger gloves and dropped them in the trash. Took off the ratty green overcoat and draped it over a park bench, and then set his knitted cap beside it.
Jas inhaled deeply.
But he wasnt done.
It took a few minutes, but he worked his way through the nu to purchase for himself every miracle his buddies had possessed. Olafs optimized Circle of Protection, Jasons teleportation, Kimmies ntal defenses, Yadriels transmutation powers, and Denzels resurrection and healing powers. He nerfed Reboot, since hed never be able to pay for that power again, and left himself with a still vastly more powerful version of Kerims ti control.
When he was done acquiring the improved powers, he gave himself the regular Miracles just to be safe.
When he was finished he checked his remaining points.
Unspent points: 3,788,866,124
Fucking hell, he whispered. The urge to go buck wild and turn himself into a god was montarily alluring, but he quashed the instinct.
Instead, he navigated to Abundance.
Current Abundance: 50,000
This is mildly absurd.
Transfer Aeviternum | Transfer Abundance | Transfer Unspent Points
There it was.
Jas held his breath and activated Transfer Unspent Points.
Unspent points: 3,788,866,124
Designate target | Select # of points | Initiate Transfer
Warning: this process cannot be reversed
Jas shook with such relief and gratitude that he stumbled back against he wall. For a mont he just stood there, staring at the letters, and then he dismissed the System.
He could transfer points.
Which ant he could create new Blue Light operators.
He could create almost four million of them with a 1,000 points each. Or or whatever configuration made the most sense. Could he have the System hack their Systems, too? How would he bestow the points? Hed have to go international, would have to reach out to governnts first, would have to convince people, then figure out -
Jas forced himself to close down that line of thought. It was dizzying, overwhelming, but he had a single priority right now.
All right. Jas exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. Ti to do so house cleaning.
He activated his teleportation ability. A portal appeared before him, limned in white fire. Without hesitation he stepped through it, leaving Brooklyn and all of New York behind.
Only to erge in an even colder environ. With only his long sleeved shirt and bare head hed have died of hypothermia in minutes.
As it was, he registered the subzero temperatures as an aside.
Before him stood a large, rustic log cabin in the light of the moon. Once it might have been grand, sothing an entire family or several generations had worked on, but it had fallen into serious disrepair. So sections were discolored, the new timber standing out against the old, and half the forest-encircled clearing before the building was turned into a work area, complete with sawhorses, piles of lumber and trash.
Belanger! shouted Jas. Hey! I know youre in there. We need to talk.
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