As I continued to watch the video, the implications of the reaper war beca apparent. Wraiths and Phantoms would be waiting for invasions constantly on edge. From what I gathered the Invasions would be similar to a covert operation in modern day combat.
You would have an unknown force that would wreak havoc in your domain. Phantoms would be like the mayors for each zone. The Wraiths both their citizens and soldiers. Specters on the other hand would be the ones like adventurer parties in novels that went to slay the dragons.
The clear division of roles allowed for responsibilities to be black and white. Everyone would know what to do and why. In a perfect world, the roles should have been reversed. You would take most of your military might to attack and reserve a few to defend.
But if Lilly and her white uniford posse were all just Phantoms, I could not even imagine how powerful Specters would be.
Yet that did not explain why they were tasked to venture into the most dangerous places. All with minimal support and only a handful of people.
It made no sense. Why would they make such a risky decision?
"Because no one else is strong enough," I concluded.
With the nurical superiority of the undead, if they used the wraiths as cannon fodder, that would be a quick path to the end of the world.
Forcing the Phantoms to join the Specters probably would work in the short term, but if the zones fell one after another no one would care about how much land the Specters reclaid.
"And if the undead use lost zones as a staging ground, the likelihood that the surrounding zones would be also fall increases."
I rembered the amount of undead that stord around during my enlistnt. What kind of battle would one wage if you were defending?
Fatigue, supplies, training, fortifications, the problems that would arise from such a situation would be a nightmare to solve.
As I pondered these, my mind started to sink into a negative spiral.
What should I do?
What could I even do?
A loud thud ca from the video which called my attention. The video showed Scy rcilessly smacking Grim on the head with an angry glare. The blows were so powerful the poor grim reaper got deford.
"Ouch! I know I know! Don't rush you glorified gardening tool!" Grim rebuked in anger.
"Pfft! HAHAHA!" I hollered in laughter.
That image of Grim's skull getting smashed all the way to his stomach was very amusing to see. The cody allowed to forget the things I began to worry about unconsciously.
Grim then picked up his face and pushed it back towards his head in a manner only cartoons could do.
"Ehem! Finally. Once a Specter grows and evolves his {fate} for the ninth ti, the reaper becos a Revenant. A Revenant is the single most powerful being in the reaper army.
"They lord as absolute kings because they are the final bastions of Hellsgate. Once in a while, hell sends a massive army in the back lines to create lost zones. These are called floor breaks," Grim said in a serious tone.
The term called forth my mories of the massive undead army that suddenly appeared during the enlistnt. Fear, anxiousness and panic crawled up on my spine as I rembered the frightening force.
Dullahans, Liches, Death knights, undead dragons and an organized undead army completely different from the mindless zombies.
Was this what the Assault teams fought against? Even just the mory sent shivers throughout my body. Could I really defeat such monsters with just bullets and grenades?
How could you even stop sothing like that?!
"Yet not one of the Floor breaks for the past two centuries succeeded. This is why Revenants are respected as kings. All seven Revenants of the battlefronts had single handedly annihilated the floor breaks multiple tis. As gods among n, Revenants are the only thing capable of ensuring the continued survival of Hellsgate."
At that point I rembered what happened to the army I was so scared of.
Like a tale from myth, David Thomas ca in, threw a halfhearted punch and nuked the entire army out of existence. The surreal demonstration of power would surely remain in my mind till the day I died.
A Revenant— a goal so lofty it seed like an impossibility. Doubts continued to hamr out the naiveté from my mind.
"Beco the strongest reaper? What a load of bullshit!" I roared.
'How could I even dream the strongest reaper if such an army already sent shivering from fear.'
"GET A GRIP YOU FUCKING COWARD!"
My words slowly awoke sothing inside . It was disgust. I got disgusted at myself. I spoke such high aspirations yet cowered the mont danger ca forward.
'Close Hellsgate? Fucking imbecile. If seven Revenants were not enough, what could you do?' the voices of doubt in my head began to get louder.
"SHUT UP! They have yet to et a fucker like ! I am Limitless!"
'If a .45 ACP round was not enough then I would use 7.62 NATO! If that still wasn't enough, then let out the .50 BMGs! Let's see if a death knight could survive a 120mm APFSDS tank round! Undead dragon? et anti air autocannons chambered in 20mm armor-piercing discarding sabots! David used a nuke to kill them all.
If that was the case, I just needed to bring my own nukes!'
Right, I would never be able to fit in the mold of the reapers. Without a manifested weapon, all I could do was bring guns from earth. But so what? If Arica was good at anything it was blowing the absolute shit out of its enemies.
"Then allow to bring glorious freedom to Hellsgate!"
The video with Grim and Scy continued as I rode the tro. Unknowingly I stood up and shouted like an idiot in public. The people were staring at in curiosity and wariness. I nonchalantly sat back down and ignored them. I was already a reaper, why the hell should I care how humans viewed ?
"Such is the tales of the seven Revenants. In the history of Hellsgate this era is called as the Reign of seven kings! This period is the only ti each battlefront is guarded by its own Revenant! They are so cool, right Scy? Rember their nas and etch their legacy in your hearts!"
A slide show of then began of each Revenant appearing in heroic poses. What was this? A promo video?
"The Invincible hero of North Arica, David Thomas!
"The Relentless necromancer of South Arica, Simon Guevarra!
"The Virtuous great knight of Europe, Clive Zanardi!
"The Immortal bastion of Africa, Hannibal Mandela!
"The Peerless warlord of Asia, Li Wu Di!
"The rciless berserker of Australia, Peter Vujicic!
"The Unbreakable Viking of Antarctica, Erik Odinson!"
I seared their nas and appearances into my brain as my blood boiled. These n were the ones who shouldered the fate of the world. And they were the ones I wished to beat.
Whoever made this video knew what he was doing. I cycled through despair, joy and hype all in a span of a few minutes.
"Focus John, you need to walk before you can run," I said to calm myself.
A Revenant was still too far. Becoming a Specter while a bit closer still needed too much prep work. Right now, I was nothing but a Wraith. My only focus was to join the defenses and kill as much as I could. All to earn souls for a blessed mag and to improve my abilities.
I already had plenty of ideas for my zone's fortifications but that would wait. According to {Code} I needed to 5,000 souls to evolve a third ti. I didn't know yet how hard it would be to earn such an amount. But if evolving to a Phantom requires to defend a zone, it might be a better idea to delay that as much as I could.
While I got a ton of answers from this video I still had to many questions. But right now, my focus was to go to the gun range and train wielding my armory of guns in the ti I got left.
"He who sweats more in training bleeds less in battle," I murmured.
This nugget of wisdom ca from George S. Patton Jr. One of the most respected commanders during the second world war. And I was in the sa situation. I return to Hellsgate tomorrow night. Thus, I only had today to get in as much practice as humanly possible.
I eventually got off the tro and took a cab to my destination. Upon arriving, I noticed there were hardly any people. It was, after all 8 am sharp on a Sunday morning. As I walked up to the Phoenix Rod & Gun Club. A familiar face greeted .
"John! Long ti no see, I hardly recognized you boy! You lost a lot of weight, you look great!"
The African Arican man with black hair and a magnificent beard was nad Earl Simmons. He was a friend of my dad from high school and was built like a truck. A native of phoenix he has been a manager of this place for as long as I could rember. He was kind, sharp and didn't stick his nose into other people's business. An overall good person.
"Hi Mr. Simmons. I ca here to shoot my guns. Is there anyone using the range yet?"
"Naw boy, you are the first one. I wasn't even done opening up but saw you and rushed out."
I wasn't sure if it was lip service but hearing that Earl ca out just to greet felt nice. In Tempe hardly anyone knew , but in Phoenix, so people saw grow up. It felt nostalgic. Like I finally ca ho. But I didn't co here for such trivial matters. I ca here to train and prepare for battle.
"Mr. Simmons, could I rent the entire place for a day? I am willing to pay 10 grand."
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