Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 187: The Power of Friendship

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit

Species: Einherjar

Level: 100

XP: 54,771/1,010,000

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 2,300/2,300

Stats

Fortitude

215

Perception

355

Strength

225

Agility

415

Magic Power

230

Magic Regeneration

390

Free Points: 0 Stat, 1 Skill

Aura

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood, regeneration)

Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection)

Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid range, combat/mental/sensory, armament)

Central Skills

Form of Horror XXIV

The Chosen Weapon XXVIII

I Am The Sword X

Grave of Swords XX

Armory of Ancient Times XVII

Legacy of a True Warrior XII

Skills

Hundred Faces XXVII

Stealth XXIX

Power Strike XXX

Piercing Strike XXX

Sundering Strike XXX

Blades XXX

Sneak XXVII

Sweeping Strike XVII

Far Strike XXVII

Manifold Strike XXI

Hunter’s Gaze XXX

Phantom Step XIX

Unknown Fear XXVII

Bestial Regeneration XXVIII

Undying Focus XXIV

Tools of Terror XIX

Fleeting Presence XVII

Crippling Blow XVIII

Absolute Blade Mastery XVIII

Compounded Impact XVII

True Cut VIII

Legendary Blow XVII

Fully Geared XII

Knightly Leader XVI

Analyze Person IX

Continent Strider VIII

Burden of Power VI

Expert’s Insight V

General Skills

Gralloch XII

Alchemy XII

Death’s Embrace VIII

Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Relatives)

Advanced Bureaucracy VI

Police Procedure V

Healing I

Quest Giver I

Omniglot (4 languages known)

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack)

Flight of the Poltergeist

Ephemeral Form

Haunting Pursuit

Greater Hydra (3 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Ignore Injury

Megalodon (2 stack)

Shark’s Body

Wave Charge

Twilight Weaver (3 stack)

Lesser Illusion

Perception Interdiction

Warp Wave

Razor Apparition (3 stack)

Remote Wielding

Immortal Blades

Razor Trails

Lindwyrm (2 stack)

Lindwyrm’s Heart

Moment of Immortality

Least Demon Lord (2 stack)

Moment of Immortality

Grand Hellflame

Space Elemental (2 stack)

Fixed Point

Space Affinity

Isaac grinned as he looked over his new Status. It was looking fine. Sure, it was lacking quite a few fourth Evolution [Skills] before it was perfect, but that would be fixed in time.

And his new race was awesome, no doubt about it. Supernatural looks, the ability to predict conflicts and react ahead of time, a free [Aura], and more besides.

But it wasn’t all perfect. It had come with a new sense, the power to sense who was a “true warrior”. And now, he wanted to fight them.

It wasn’t a need to fight anyone he met, though. It was more like … it was unfamiliar.

Like a spoiled kid from a rich family who’d never missed a meal feeling hunger for the first time. A new sensation, one he hadn’t built up any tolerance against. Something he hadn’t learned how to deal with.

Now, Isaac had had plenty of practice when it came to self-control and nothing had or would go wrong, but it still wasn’t fun. Especially when he was walking through an area with the densest concentration of what his race considered “true warriors” outside of a military base.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of trouble. Isaac’s tendency to always show up at customs when he could had bitten him in the ass, this time around. He still noticeably looked like himself, true, but there were clear differences from what he’d looked like before.

End result? Isaac had to go back to Germany, get his passport reissued with his new face in record time, and only then go to Camelot. Sure, he could have just snuck in the moment he was out of sight of the border, but if he got seen in England after the fuss he’d just caused, it was near guaranteed that someone would throw a hissy fit.

But now he was here, finally, and there were no more problems to deal with.

…. weeeeeeeell, there was still the trickster deity he’d have to wrangle straight answers out of. That wouldn’t be fun.

Isaac kept walking, his [Aura] whipping through the half-medieval, half-modern, all-magic town to take in all the changes and there were quite a few indeed. If he was reading this correctly, Arthur’s new memories were heavily influencing this place’s design.

He also figured out that his ability to sense “true warriors” worked through his [Aura]. There were fewer even here than one might have thought, as apparently, that definition didn’t apply to everyone who could fight well, but there were far more than anywhere else he’d sensed.

The man who looked like he should be an action movie protagonist wielding a comically large sword, anime-sized, in fact, wasn’t a warrior. Well trained, capable, and everything else a warrior needed to be, but not one in spirit.

The weedy teen punching a bag under the man’s watchful gaze, on the other hand, burned with a bright, indomitable spirit. Isaac took a note of him and he’d show up for a little training as well. If the kid had the [System] unlocked, he might even teach him a few [Skills]. That kind of drive, that kind of inner strength, he might go far.

By the time he reached the briefing room, Isaac was grinning ear to ear and he had a list of potential candidates as long as his arm and it was growing with every passing second. When it came to training the right people, this would be invaluable, he realized.

His first thought when he’d gained the ability had been that he’d more easily be able to read his opponents, to figure out if they’d break if things didn’t go their way or if he was in for a rough slog. That was useful, sure, but the true power lay elsewhere, in training.

The moment Isaac entered the room, he froze. This room had been included in his sweeps and he’d seen both Arthur and Elena within, which matched what he was seeing now.

What he hadn’t seen, somehow missed then, and couldn’t even see through his [Aura] even now was the damn cat.

“Welcome Einherjar, a little early, isn’t it?” the cat asked “Then again, I suppose Isaac Thoma is the meow-ster of subverting the expectations of the divine.”

Isaac sighed “Elena, about your deal with him, did you say anything about how his explanation needs to be understandable?”

She nodded.

“Puns can be misunderstood, so speak plainly,” Isaac said as he sat down.

Loki transformed back into a human and flowed onto a chair as he did so, perching on its back in a way that should have made it topple over if the rules of physics had been in effect.

“Spoilsport.” He grumped as the world once again took on its oddly purple sheen and time slowed to a stop.

“I feel like I might play some pranks later. I won’t promise anything because the situation might change, but I feel like there are certain people who’ll push me too far soon enough.” Isaac said.

“Thanks.” Elena said, “Now can we get this over with?”

“He’s been that bad?” Isaac asked.

“You have no idea.” Arthur sighed “There was a condition in their deal where he can’t get too crazy with his pranks even if they’re in retaliation for something someone else did, but he’s been ‘taking revenge’ on people who tripped over him and Elena made the mistake of spraying him when he got on her nerves.”

“That would explain the altitude-triggered stink bomb on your private jet,” Isaac said.

“Don’t. You. Dare.” Loki hissed.

“I’ll sneak it on the plane of someone far more deserving,” Isaac told him just as Elena gave him a WTF are you talking about look.

“There’s a can of Surströmming on that plane. It’s a Swedish delicacy, fish that’s not been preserved in a way that prevents decomposition canned, and left to rot. By the time it’s ‘ripe’, the can starts to bulge outwards and really shouldn’t be taken on planes because when the air pressure goes down, those cans tend to go ‘pop’ and afterward, you can basically toss the plane. Without high-power magic, you’ll never get the stench out.” Isaac explained.

“And why exactly do you know that?” Arthur asked.

“It’s a fun prank when you’re not on the receiving end.” Isaac shrugged.

“That stuff sounds vile,” Elena said.

“Eh, it’s not bad as long as you prepare it properly.” Isaac shrugged again, then looked pointedly at Loki “Though I think it’s about time for you to spill your guts.”

Loki immediately shifted back into a cat and started coughing.

“Explanations. Not. Hairballs.” Elena ground out.

Loki laughed and shifted back.

“I had to try, we all know that.”

When he got a trio of flat stares in response, he sighed, slid down into his chair, and began the explanation.

“In the beginning, there was magic. Mystical, wonderful magic, and within it, the gods lived. Then, humans came along and we gave them magic, either by infusing them with it, or by teaching them to harness the natural magic.

“And for a time, things went beautifully. Gods above, humans below, and both sides of the divine beings were in balance. The occasional cursed species came into being, then they got their various weaknesses to prevent them from devouring all people, mystic healers were nerfed to prevent them from ushering in paradise, and so on, and so forth. Chaotic in details, but the big picture was calm. So far, so good.

“But humans are tricky little munchkins and started abusing the ever-loving shit out of magic. For good and ill and all that. Things got bad. Shit like murdering the followers of dark gods, poisoning wells with deadly curses in revenge, things got chaotic damn quickly and we started removing magic we didn’t like. Here’s the thing though, we can’t directly erase things created by the other side, otherwise, we’d just be stuck in an endless cycle of ‘Create! Remove!’.

“So everyone was messing with how everyone else’s followers could use magic, making it unstable, or dangerous in other ways, and the fixes for that started to cause magic to mutate, until eventually, people started withdrawing their magic. And so, the world grew mundane. Monsters died out or were reduced to mere shells of their former selves, until eventually, we ended up with the modern world, with a few overzealous little teacher’s pets vacuuming up every last bit of magic in the world, leaving behind only stories and memories.”

Loki shrugged “It really isn’t all that complicated when properly explained, I guess.”

Congratulations, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for uncovering a secret of the world!

You have helped in the efforts to uncover the secrets of the Earth’s magic.

For uncovering a secret of such magnitude, you have gained 500,000 XP (20,000,000*0.025 reduction for only being a supporter in this endeavor)

“Holy crap.” Isaac yelped as the [System] window showed up, losing his composure for the first time in a long while.

Firstly, he could now gain XP from scientific endeavors. He’d already expected that from the [Class] description, but it was an entirely different thing to see it confirmed.

Secondly, that information had been worth twenty million XP. An insane amount by any measure, enough for over ten Levels even after the fourth Evolution.

Thirdly … yikes. He’d gotten a ninety-seven-point-seven-five percent haircut on that, reduced to “just” half a Level’s worth of XP with the rest being lost to the ether. Seeing that much wasted was painful on a visceral level. He’d have to experiment if there were other tricks to gain XP, to see if there was a way to abuse his other timeline knowledge to farm XP. But that was an issue for after all this.

“That doesn’t explain why Isaac and Arthur didn’t inherit any magical memories.” Elena said, “So, finish the explanation.”

“It’s really not all that complicated.” Loki shrugged “The Heir [Classes] are based on the memory fragments left behind by impactful people. Those got scrubbed of magic as well.”

“That explains nothing.” Isaac said “I thought the deal was to give an answer we can understand. So, where’s the context?”

Loki rolled his eyes before answering. Too much dry academia, too little fun. Too bad, buster. You made a deal and everyone knew he kept his promises.

“Reincarnation isn’t really a thing. You’re born, you live, you die, you go to an afterlife, end of story. But I’m sure you’ve heard all those stories about people remembering things from other lives, things they couldn’t have known any other way. What happens is people leaving behind parts of their memories for others to pick up and certain impactful or influential people are sometimes asked to do the same by gods, so somewhere down the line, their wisdom can change the world, for the better or worse.” Loki explained.

“Or, you know, there are situations where there aren’t any memories, because they didn’t exist in a way humans could interpret or even because the person you’re inheriting from is fictitious, so the memories are created based on the public perception. Of course, those memories aren’t going to involve magic.”

“Fictional people?” Arthur asked.

“Sherlock Holmes is apparently possible, but I never met someone who holds the [Class].” Isaac said, “I think the real question now is if there’s any chance the [System] will just go away if we beat it, or if they change it enough.”

“Nah, you’re stuck with that thing. It’s too big a change and they couldn’t walk it back even if they wanted it to. They can barely make small changes like the Events, they locked themselves out of anything bigger unless everyone, and I do mean everyone agrees with the change and that ain’t never gonna happen. I could have told them that was going to happen, but no one listens to ol’ Loki.”

Loki cackled as he bounded onto the table “Anyway, I’ll be holding you to your word about moving the fish, Isaac. I also know you didn’t mean to trick me into giving you all that XP so I’m not mad at you over that, but this just means that the next time will be a lot more expensive. I expect chaos and destruction, riots in the streets. Or, you know, a prank video that gets millions of clicks on YouTube. Toodles!”

With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke that stank of rotten fish. Yeah, that tracked.

Congratulations, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for uncovering a secret of the world!

You have helped in the efforts to uncover the secrets of the Earth’s souls.

For uncovering a secret of such magnitude, you have gained 500,000 XP (0.5*1,000,000 reduction for only being a supporter in this endeavor)

“And there’s Level 101.” Isaac grinned “So apparently I get XP for making scientific discoveries now.

“There is an Aspect combination that allows for space travel which used the Cosmic Leviathan, Void Dragon, and the Lord of Time and Space.”

Nothing.

“Okay, that didn’t work. The gods Janus and Hermes are the most likely to help humans directly.”

Nothing.

Isaac then proceeded to list a dozen big secrets he hadn’t spilled yet in this timeline but the only [System] message he got was a disappointing clarification.

No XP is gained for reiterating knowledge held before the Class Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit was gained.

Seems like the [System] itself was now fed up with him.

He sighed heavily and passed that knowledge along to the others.

“One more thing,” Isaac announced in a formal voice, got to his feet, and gave an exaggerated courtly bow.

“I, Isaac Thoma, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, hereby formally request to join the Round Table of Camelot.”

Arthur rose from the table and replied in the same manner “Welcome to the Round Table of Camelot, Isaac Thoma.”

Would you like to join Arthur Wells’ Skill [My Round Table]?

This organization’s stated goal is to save the World, and its past actions and stated future plans show a strong adherence to this founding principle.

Your task would be to support this cause.

In addition, this Skill will create a spectral copy of you which carries with it some of your Skills.

Are you are willing to accept these conditions, to strive towards this shared goal?

Y/N

Without hesitating, Isaac clicked on “Yes”.

“So, who else already joined?” Isaac asked.

Instead of answering, Arthur created a [System] window in front of him.

Round Table of Camelot

Member

Assigned Shade

Arthur Wells

none

Elena Hightower

Arthur Wells

Steff Cooke

none

Adam Bailey

none

Robin Pearson

none

Seon Yoo-jin

none

Franz Habicht

none

Isaac Thoma

none

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

Thirteen slots, over half of which were filled.

Thirteen people to fight a nihilistic cult, to overcome human nature, and beat back Armageddon.

Isaac recognized the names Robin Pearson and Steff Cooke as belonging to other members of Camelot, though he hadn’t had any substantial conversations with either of them.

The rest, meanwhile, were the people who’d been in the Starhail with him. Even Yoo-jin had joined in.

“We were waiting on you to pass out most of the shades.” Arthur explained, “Whose power would you like to borrow once every few days?”

Isaac had thought about it a few times. Habicht’s investigative powers would come in useful in a wide array of situations, but Isaac could cover much of what they did with [Analyze Person], his senses, and common sense.

Bailey’s physical modification would have been useful as well, but the borrowed [Skills] were too limited to be of true use.

And so on. There were many capabilities that would help, but what he decided on was a powerset that covered his combat weaknesses.

You have gained the Shade of Seon Yoo-jin, “The Shield of Seoul”

You gain +20 in his highest Stat (Fortitude), +15 in his second highest Stat (Strength) and +10 in his third highest Stat (Magic Power).

You have chosen to borrow the following Skill(s):

Glacial Fortress (one week cooldown)

The power was rather simple, yet also absurdly powerful.

[Glacial Fortress] conjured a mass of spikes and defensive ramparts a hundred meters across and between fifty and two hundred tall, depending on what the situation called for, the whole thing forged from almost indestructible ice which clocked in at almost negative one-hundred-and-fifty degrees centigrade. The cold wouldn’t hurt the caster’s allies, of course.

It could be shaped however the user wanted during its creation and altered for a couple of minutes afterward, though the longer the fortification had been in place, the harder the change was.

The whole thing was perfect for protecting a large group of allies in case of a sudden overwhelming AOE attack or trapping a large monster within.

It was also not something anyone would ever expect Isaac to pull out, it simply didn’t match his [Class], nor was it available through any Aspects. In other words, it was the ultimate ace up his sleeve.

And if anyone found out about it, well, he could always switch to another shade. Anyone who went after a member of the Round Table would not only have to plan for that person but also every [Skill] held by every other member.

Isaac’s own shade would be passed around between the various members of the Round Table as it held his training [Skills], wherever it was the most useful.

There was also Bailey’s powerful healing that could be summoned at the drop of a hat.

Unfortunately, switching shades without being right next to Arthur was … tricky, to say the least. It took an hour to switch out shades and five minutes to send out shades that weren’t bound to anyone to someone who didn’t currently have one assigned either. And they needed constant communication to arrange everything, which would hopefully be included in a future [Skill] upgrade.

But even the basic [My Round Table] was powerful as hell. Arthur could wield the unassigned shades as his own personal army, vastly increasing his own power. And the flexibility it gave to its other members was invaluable.

“So that’s that.” Arthur said, “Formalities done, answers wrung out of the prankster god, and we’ve formally agreed to work together.”

He sighed, seemed to struggle with his self-control for several long moments … and exploded.

“CanwepleasetalkabouttheutterinsanityLokijusttoldus!”

“Magic was real, humans messed with it until the gods had to delete it and there’s an afterlife.” Isaac shrugged “Not something we can change, not something we can influence, all we can do is deal. End of story.”

“How can you be so calm!” Arthur exclaimed.

“I’ve dealt with terrible crap and horrible revelations before.” Isaac shrugged again.

“People can mess with magic to the point where even the gods grew nervous.” Elena said, addressing no one “Loki didn’t outright say it, but I’m not the only one who heard, right?”

Isaac grinned viciously as he answered “I didn’t hear it, but you might be right. There might be a way to pay them back for everything!”

What followed were a few hours of spitballing just what the gods might have been worried about, specifically, until Isaac hurriedly got up and said he’d be back in a few hours.

“Where are you going?” Arthur asked.

“I’ve got a can of Surströmming I promised a god I’d relocate. And my off-the-books minion just located the perfect target for that.” Isaac said with a bone-chilling smile, flickered, and vanished, streaking away in the direction of Heathrow.