Chapter 160: The Necrams FAFO

At an unknown time, somewhere in one of the four galaxies, a smaller planet was home to humans. They were peaceful and farmed. A great plague swept through their nature, and they were gifted with something rare from the gods: power. Rather than letting the entire new planet die, one of the majestic rulers from above decided to make them humanoids who could live forever.

Blessed with this newfound power, they eventually got bored. Thousands of years passed, and the planet wasn’t big enough for them anymore. To make farming more efficient, they were given metal rods that they could use to harvest the land. The king at the time sent a very young Mike Alger to research other planets after their mechanical team finally made a breakthrough: spacecraft.

He took a team of their newly crafted AI bots and their best soldiers and found another small, peaceful farming planet near them. They pretended to be friendly. They learned new ways to optimize their farming and yield larger crops. They were given different types of seeds to grow other things like corn and tomatoes—luxuries they didn’t have before. Rather than thanking the people, after about 50 years, when most of the farmers were older and about to die, the young, motivated Lieutenant Alger decided it would be better to kill everyone and steal their power.

Angry that they didn’t have much power to give as mortal humans, he slammed the pole in his hand into the ground and noticed something odd. Life force was pumping into him at an alarming rate. He called his general over, and eventually all the higher-ranking officers took the entire life force from the planet.

When they returned to their home planet, the king was thrilled. They had new crops, new ways to farm, and could expand their lands by consolidating space like the other humans did. These adventures continued, and Mike Alger became a general. Eventually, as head general, he invented the DNA viruses the Necrams use on the planets they land on. Rather than having a planet to call their own, they built an enormous space fleet and conquered planets with ease. Eventually, they needed to pass on to another galaxy, as theirs was becoming sparse.

He reached out to the banished goddess. He knew the new rules.

’No god or goddess can interfere with the galaxies unless given permission by Zeus.’ He smirked, thinking back to the day Tiamat blessed them with immortality.

She opened a portal for him and disappeared again, without a trace.

Now she sits waiting in the Forest of Unknowns, observing this hostile takeover. Is Tyler too powerful? Only time will tell, but Commander Alger is going to learn a valuable lesson either way.

*******

Tyler, Nyx, Sophie, Kass, and Amanda landed at the coordinates sent to them by Artic Academy. The people in coats saw them, thanked them, sent off cameras, and ran back toward the castle.

"Typical... yikes." Nyx shook her head.

"It doesn’t matter. They’re going to learn if you fuck around, you find out." Tyler smirked.

"Leviathan, when they get close, just crush them all in a giant whirlpool. I’m done hiding my cards. They want a fight, they can have one." Tyler grinned.

"My pleasure. I could use a nice metallic feast." Leviathan’s distinguished laugh echoed through Tyler’s head.

"You sure this is the right call, kid?" Ritsu asked.

"Never been more certain of anything in my life. Well, aside from marrying those four." Tyler smiled while looking ahead.

"NOW!" he ordered.

The cameras picked up a massive whirlpool cracking the ice. The screams from the drones made everyone watching laugh.

"They’re fucking AI. How can they know fear?!"

"Fucking douchebags!"

"Fuck those assholes!"

Commander Alger simply cut the feed. He didn’t need to watch what was happening. All 10,000 of his third-level bots were being ripped apart like toy cars.

"SON OF A BITCH!" he screamed while slamming a tablet on the ground, shattering it. The other generals were walking on eggshells at this point. Every suggestion they’d had had gone horribly wrong.

"Can someone tell me how ONE fucking person is so powerful?" Mike demanded of his room of generals.

"Look in the mirror, sir," General Astrid said politely. "He did challenge you directly. Maybe that’s the best course of action."

"I’m not going to challenge someone directly when we have over a million AI bots and over 500,000 trained humanoids. That would be foolish. I do think we need to rethink our strategy, though. I wonder if Tiamat would listen?" he asked curiously.

"Doubt it. You saw the feed from the elves. She’s pretty much playing the middle right now. She knows how strong Tyler is. Apparently, that staff is the key. We need to get it away from him somehow," General Cooks said with an evil smirk.

"Tell me, General, how the FUCK do you take away something that returns to the owner whenever he needs it?" Commander Alger demanded, shooting a nasty stare at him.

"Dark magic." He grinned.

"Oh?" Mike smirked. "Please, tell me more."

*******

"Well, that was fucking easy. Thanks, Leviathan." Tyler smiled while chilling in his phoenix form.

"OH FUCK, THIS HURTS!"

Ash came out and bent over, laughing hysterically.

"You thought being reborn as a phoenix was fun?! How daft are you?"

The girls burst out laughing as they watched Tyler squirm. When he finally came out from his ashes, he was an adolescent phoenix, and he blew fire at them.

"Whoa, that feels amazing. How the hell?" Nyx asked. "That was regular fire. That wasn’t his white flame."

"Champ’s a quick learner, I’ll give him that. It’s a buffing spell adolescent phoenixes get when they’re reborn. Essentially, it provides internal warmth and rejuvenation for allies. His thingamajig must be going crazy right now."

"Sys—" Amanda started, but quickly covered her mouth.

"Got it. Yeah, I’m sure."

[Ping! Congratulations. You are now an adolescent Eidolon phoenix. Your aura grows more prominent, and your eyes have a new shade of gold.]

[Ping! New spells learned. Flame of passion: Buffs allies in frigid temperatures and revitalizes their statuses, including health regeneration.]

[I’m really sick of pinging you. You have 10 new stat points in all categories and 50 more in spirit. Your staff is level 9 and has gained half of the experience needed to go to level 10. Congratulations, Tyler. Sophie killed 3 bots, which was enough to send her past the SSS limit. Stand by. She is going to go through immense pain again.]

[Strength: 220

Charisma: 220

Wisdom: 220

Mana: 220

Dexterity: 220

Constitution: 220

Spirit: 285.]

"Sophie, be careful!" Tyler shouted, but it was too late.

{You have exceeded the SSS limit. Your body will rebuild itself now.}

To everyone’s surprise, Isis popped out of Tyler and made the process much more comfortable for Sophie. She cast a unique green spell that allowed Sophie to naturally break down her body, bone by bone, cell by cell, and rebuild it without screaming or writhing in pain.

"Thanks, Isis. I owe you one," Tyler said with a large smile.

"She’s amazing..." Nyx trailed off.

"Care to share the wealth with some of these familiars, dude?" Kass teased while giving Tyler a friendly jab in the ribs. "Dude, you’re like a rock now. Fuck me, please?"

Tyler grinned. "Not now, later."

That was all she needed to hear. She smiled and hugged him.

Amanda watched in amazement and finally asked a question that shocked everyone.

"Can you, like, take me under your wing, Isis? Is that okay to ask, Tyler?"

"Of course it’s okay to ask. You don’t have to ask me to talk to my familiars. I made that very clear when you met Ash. My family is your family, always," Tyler said while walking over to her and giving her a hug.

"I can do what I can for you, Amanda. If it’s Qi, it shouldn’t be a problem. Teaching you this type of magic would be very difficult, although you are elven. Ask me that question when you are beyond SSS, dear. I will be happy to assist in any way I can," Isis said with a kind smile.

{Body 90% complete.}

’Fuck, thank the gods for Isis. This hurts like hell, still!’ Sophie thought as her face was being restitched together.

When all was said and done, Sophie, just like Nyx, simply looked like a more beautiful and more powerful version of herself.

{Congratulations! You have passed the SSS limit. New stats are as follows:

Strength: 107

Charisma: 107

Wisdom: 107

Mana: 107

Dexterity: 107

Constitution: 107

Vitality: 107.

You can now teleport. Anyone beyond SSS gains this ability. Feel free to share with other members in your system database.}

’Wait, so did Tyler gain teleportation from Vox or from his system?’

{Both. He can realm travel with Vox and teleport on his own now. You can only realm travel when in physical possession of Tyler.}

"Damn, Sophie, you look amazing!" Tyler said while giving her a kiss.