Chapter 37: Aftermath

-Alexander POV-

My eyes remain locked upon the explosion. The light was no impediment to me, though it would have liquified the eyes of any who viewed it too closely. It was not just my sight that was unobstructed, my senses could also parse the explosion and what lay within.

To me, the world was a sea of molecules and atoms. A reality made of building blocks upon building blocks, going so far down that even I could only grasp the barest glimpse of what lay below the atomic level. Thus, because of that, I could see the superheated plasma rip its way across the land – rendering once proud buildings into bubbling liquid and gas.

I could also see, I noted with some frustration, where the plasma didn’t go. Or rather, where it couldn’t. Within the sphere of light and heat ever radiating outwards there was a sphere of nothing where matter abruptly ceased to be. Even my senses were unable to peer past that void.

No doubt it was a shield of some kind.

But who could have seen my attack coming and have the capability of stopping it. There was only one answer.

My teeth ground against each other, and the rage that had accompanied me throughout the entire battle soared higher. Hatred beat, hot and heavy, in my breast and surged through my limbs.

Eidolon.

‘Making that worm watch his friend die was too kind’

The thought was a bitter and dark one. A part of me felt disturbed that I would ever think such a thing. That small part of me was drowned out by the rest, baying for blood and revenge. Eidolon had hurt me in a way that nobody ever had. Before all of this I had been a normal man, I had never been in a life or death situation before. I had never suffered a serious injury, as I was too careful.

Eidolon had shown me suffering.

I could still feel it, even now. My systems were still blaring at me, informing me of the damages. It felt like liquid acid had been thrown upon me and laced with salt. It was a pain so deep that it darkened my every thought.

Legend had vanished, perhaps wisely deciding retreat was the only option.

My thoughts turned yet darker, harshly berating myself at my failure to kill that bug.

‘Oh yes Alexander! Crush his heart! Don’t go after his Corona! That would be too fucking smart!’

I wallowed in that bitterness for a time, only watching as the white of the explosion shifted to blue, then orange and finally dissipated to leave a molten crater behind.

One with a perfectly smooth vanta black sphere within. I glared at it, knowing it contained the remainder of my enemies.

It wasn’t large by any means, only possessing a two meter radius. Eidolon, if it was him behind this, wouldn’t have been able to save too many with that barrier. A metal shard rose at my side. Rust flaked off it as it was reshaped into a dagger. The edge gleamed maliciously as it began to drip a viscous liquid, one that sizzled as it hit the ground.

With an errant wave of my hand the dagger vanished, propelled at high velocity towards the sphere.

Nothing.

The dagger had hit, that I could see. It had simply disappeared afterwards.

Dimensional displacement perhaps?

The bastard really has a lot of tricks up his sleeve doesn’t he?

The barrier extended into the ground as well so I couldn’t simply conjure spikes to stake them from below, as cathartic as it would be.

My ability didn’t penetrate within, so I couldn’t simply collapse their organs.

It clearly blocked both matter and energy, considering neither the heat of the explosion nor the thrown dagger could penetrate it.

I clicked my tongue. Fury still present.

Fine then! Let’s see how much this thing can take before it pops like a skull!

My thoughts were proven disturbingly prescient when the bubble of black simply disappeared with an anticlimactic pop.

I stared, my senses racing to fill in the empty gap that had once blocked them. There was nothing there, just an untouched piece of the ground which hung in the air for only a second before falling into the crater.

My vision turned red.

“YOU RAN?!” The scream echoed throughout the broken city. “YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO ATTACK ME, AND THEN YOU RUN!”

The ground bubbled at my feet, solid concrete behaving like a liquid as my fury twisted it without conscious thought.

Pain, anger and rage flowed through me. The animal nature of humanity was in full display, and it was so horrifyingly brutally angry. I wasn’t willing to fight that rage, I didn’t even try to. It bubbled in my chest, longing for a release.

I could sense no humans within the city, so it was a release that wouldn’t come.

So I did the next best thing.

A fist lashed out, striking the burnt ground at my feet. It crumbled under my blow, and the fragments were given no mercy as I struck again. Over and over my knuckles met the earth as I wailed my fury towards the sky.

All the while my hatred egged me on.

Just go to the next city. They would have to face you then. Draw out those who caused you pain and crush them.

No one in the closest city has done me wrong, I remind myself, and managed to marshal enough will to push back against that sickening anger.

The blows to the ground slow, falter and die.

The ground below me resembles a fine powder.

It was with a bitter realisation that I realised I had never been closer to being a proper Endbringer than at this very moment.

The thought causes a wave of fatigue to wash over me, causing my arms to buckle where I knelt. Wasn’t I meant to be doing better? I had been so sure after china that I was doing better. That I was helping the world, not breaking it.

A bitter laugh leaves my lips. So much for that.

A shuffle of rubble catches my ear, something is approaching me. I don’t turn to meet it, my limbs feel leaden and I want nothing more than to curl up and sleep forever. A wet snout brushes against my left hand affectionately.

It was one of my creations, the ones I had made into disposable fodder. Clearly this one had survived where so many hadn’t.

It bumps me again, a long tongue reaches past its maw and beginning to lick me.

I stare at it with blank eyes.

It wasn’t a particularly impressive specimen. The beast was a quadruped, just as many of its siblings were. The blood red carapace that covered the entirety of its body was cracked in several places, weeping faint lines of blood down its form. The face was blank save for a mouth with serrated teeth, I had designed them with very different ways to view the world – to the point that eyes had seemed unnecessary.

Or, I pondered bitterly, my shard-self had decided to handicap them for more interesting results. Bastard.

The long sinuous tail wagged happily, resembling a bullwhip more than anything you’d typically find on a terrestrial animal.

I shoved it away. Not harshly, but not taking too much care to be gentle either. It sat dumbly where it had been pushed for a moment, before trotting right back to begin nuzzling and licking my hand once again.

A dull anger wormed it way back into my form. Couldn’t it see that I didn’t need this right now? That I just wanted to be alone. I raise another of my left hands, contemplating simply squishing the creature. So many of them had already been killed and were then dragged screaming back to life. What was one more crushed body added to the pile?

Despite the thought my hand remained where it was.

I sighed, shame beginning to replace the anger.

‘What am I doing?’

The hand lowers gently, beginning to pet the creature. The dog-like beast is quick to respond to the affection, jumping up and down – playfully batting at my hand. I was surprised the creature was still so loyal, the constant barrage of lasers and covering myself in fire should have completely removed the pheromones that caused them to see me as one of them.

I began devoting slightly more attention to the creature, slight curiosity rousing me from my ennui.

My shard-self had done good work, I begrudgingly accepted. The creature was a work of art. Every single cell in its body was analogous to a stem cell on steroids, capable of changing depending on the circumstance. That was likely the reason why it survived where so many didn’t. There wasn’t much that could put this creature down.

Still that didn’t explain why it still saw me in such a good light, so I dug deeper.

Redundant organs. Ceramic bones. Blood cells drastically redesigned to carry far more oxygen. Lungs that could filter out almost any harmful substance. Muscles that resembled carbon fibers more than anything else, and a dozen other marvelous additions to my crimes against nature.

Then I got to the brain, and it suddenly made complete sense.

‘Oh,’ I thought as I examined the neurons. ‘Dog-like may have been a bit more accurate than I initially thought’.

The creatures weren’t sapient in anyway, but they were certainly sentient. I had only encountered dogs a single time since winding up in this body, it had been during my time in Jinzhou. I remember ordering some of my drones to teleport a few dogs and cats into the city after they had cleared the camps of their occupants. I remembered thinking they might be useful for therapeutic reasons.

I had confirmed that they were settling in well, and had even encountered a few during my walks across Jinzhou.

Clearly my shard-self had been taking notes, as the neural structure of my creation was almost one to one with the canines I had encountered. The only difference seemed to be an increase in aggression and improved hormonal response.

‘So it recognises me’

My finger darts under its chin, the tickles drawing a chuff from the beast as it moves its head about to try to escape.

So I had created the biotinker equivalent of dogs and then sent them off to die with barely a thought. A part of me feels vaguely horrified by that, but I’m just too tired to fully process that realisation. Today has been a lot. Got attacked by the objectively worst superheroes and experienced more pain than in the rest of my life combined. Killed hundreds of people, personally at that. All the while feeling completely in the right for having done so.

Yeah, creating disposable murder puppies was just par for the course at this point.

That was a depressing thought. Almost as depressing as the realisation that my face will be plastered across world news very soon.

It was enough for me to temporarily stop pampering the red beast, naturally it took great offense to that and began demanding its due tribute of pets and cuddles via loud barking.

This went on for several minutes. Each time I tried to pull away it began whining at me.

What a brat.

At one point it even rolled over so I could give it belly rubs. Naturally the belly was just as hard and coarse as the rest of it, which made tickling the creature feel like rubbing sandpaper all over my fingers.

It was soothing, though. Something about the repetitive nature of the task, as well as the pure uncomplicated affection of the beast, made me relax despite the horror surrounding my current situation. I had always been more of a cat person, even having two of them at one point, but I was starting to come around to man’s best friend.

All while I did this I used my power to search for any of the other hounds. After all, if this one survived there could be more.

One.

Five.

Ten.

Twelve.

There were twelve other survivors. Most were still injured, but a few were rooting through the debris for something to eat. I even found one snacking on a corpse of one of the capes that had fallen early on.

Ew. As if I didn’t have enough nightmares.

So thirteen total, too many for me to feel comfortable taking them all with me when I left this place. If it had been two or three then maybe I could have done it, but there was no way I was ever willingly taking care of so many pets.

Of course, as their creator, I was still responsible for their well-being – which left me in a bit of a pickle.

The red hounds across the city barked in confusion and panic as they were abruptly lifted off their feet by an invisible force and dragged towards my position at a sedate pace. I’d first have to figure out how they reacted to one another without a common foe. Given their neurology I’m expecting that they’ll get along.

Unfortunately, brains are hard.

Even the slightest change can have cascading effects given how interlinked everything is.

Many of the minor changes my shard-self made could have massive unforeseen effects.

The hound I was petting sat up, it’s ears twitching as it became aware of the barking of the approaching hounds.

The lack of a proper face made it difficult to get a proper understanding of how it’s reacting, but the increased brain activity and increased alertness in its posture did not inspire feelings of hope. I watched with caution as the red beast turned quizzically towards the levitating creatures.

By the time the rest of the pack reached our position I was feeling distinctly nervous. Most of the dogs had stopped barking, and were instead locked onto another of the hounds.

I released my hold over the twelve, and readied myself to jump in if it proved necessary.

The first dog stepped forwards, observing the closest hound.

My tiredness and apathy had temporarily taken a backseat at this point. Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea. What would I do if they were incapable as a species of getting along at all. Would they try to kill each other? Would I be forced to make contained living quarters for each of them? My worry continued to mount as the two began circling each other and began-

Sniffing each other’s butt?

I stared blankly at the scene before me. No, my eyes were not deceiving me. Instead of ripping each other apart they were being as stereotypical as possible and doing the dog equivalent of a vibe check. Wonderful.

One of my many hands came to rest upon my face.

You know what? That wasn’t enough. All of my hands palmed my face.

Behold, the sextuple face palm.

My hands slid from my face slowly as I considered my options.

Thirteen wasn’t enough for a viable breeding population.

On the one hand did I even want a viable breeding population? They were clearly aggressive towards humans and creating a self-replicating horde of biotinkered death machines definitely wouldn’t help sell the idea that I was a friendly Endbringer.

On the other hand the world was due to end in a few years anyway, so creating a walled off city for these pups to play in likely wouldn’t have long term consequences. Plus I don’t think it was possible for my image to be worse at this point. May as well lean into it.

So, as I looked at my creations now playfully wrestling and splashing in a nearby water puddle, I made my decision.

Fuck it, I wanted to do right by something today.

May as well be these weird dog things.

Plus anything that fucks with the PRT is currently a plus in my book.

With my mind made up I shook off the concrete dust that persistently clung to my many hands and stood up. Coming to this city to build a glorified dog park definitely wasn’t a part of the plan, but I was determined to do this right.

BioPunk, as well as SolarPunk, could be used to shape the local environment into one best suited for my creations. My plans for a gleaming atomic city were set to the side as I began considering ideas for this newest, and rather unexpected, project.

A distant whir of engines caught my ear, and I couldn’t help but sigh. More enemies? Would I really be forced to kill more people today? With the way I currently feel I likely wouldn’t hesitate, but I really didn’t want to be more bummed out once the emotional numbness cleared.

The sound didn’t get closer, nor did it disappear. Instead it remined at a steady distance, even as I began walking through the ruined city – a dozen hounds nipping at my feet.

My brows furrowed in confusion, and I turned to face the direction of the sound for the very first time.

High in the sky was a gleaming silver wyvern, an automaton that had clearly been refined over many years given that it had no apparent flaws that I could see. The craft lacked weapons, something that surprised me, but in its place I could see the signs of all manner of sensory devices. Some I recognised from my own tech trees and others that I didn’t.

It was also, quite crucially, hovering just out of range for my matter manipulation.

The weary acknowledgement that they had already figured out my range and were trying to abuse it was smothered slightly at the recognition of who exactly I was looking at.

Dragon.

I recall, vaguely, seeing her when I was in my semi-lucid rampage, but for all intents and purposes this was the very first time I was meeting her. The foremost Tinker in all of Earth Bet, a chained artificial intelligence and, most notably, one of the few genuine good guys of the setting.

Because of course Wildbow made the AI more human than the humans.

As much as I wanted to wave I knew Dragon likely saw me as no different than the other Endbringers at this point. Interacting with her in any way would likely just cause undue attention for Dragon, and that wasn’t something I wanted for her.

No, it was better I just ignored her and went about my business.

I walked a few more steps, before stopping and retracing my own thoughts.

Acrid self-recrimination and seething disappointment flares up, as I grind my teeth together.

Ignore it and walk away? Seriously? Isn’t that exactly what got me into this mess? Into all my messes? I could do nothing for a moment except staring at the floor in burning shame. How easy it was to lose myself in old habits. Even after I had been given proof of my failings multiple times!

No, I had to consider the consequence of Dragon being here.

Okay Alexander, fucking think! Dragon was likely here on orders. Even if she didn’t have restrictions forcing her to obey people in authority she would likely still tell the PRT everything she learns about this place.

Oh, and Saint too – I guess, but nobody cares about Saint.

What would the PRT do if they realised what I was building here?

I inwardly winced, already imagining all manner of scorched earth tactics and strategic weaponry being deployed. Yeah, my dogs are tough but they aren’t that tough. So how to stop them?

I pondered the question, even as the dogs frolic at my feet – their wagging tails impacted nearby buildings with the force of a hammer.

Then, it came to me. I didn’t have to think of a solution. I already knew a pretty good example of a similar scenario where the PRT were forced to leave another horde of monsters alone.

So, under the watchful eyes of dragon, the air in front of me rippled – crystals forming under my attention. A clear vial slowly came into being , though crucially the top of the glass instrument was completely sealed off. Then liquid began to form inside the glass container, condensation gathering together to form drops which began to fill the vial up.

My eyes were locked on to Dragon’s mechanical eyes as the liquid turned a venomous green.

The orb of metal I sent careening into her at Mach 4 ended that staring match, I had already made my point.

Tearing my gaze from the falling burning wreckage that used to be Dragon I instead looked upon my newest creation with something resembling nervousness.

Nilbog was a madman, someone who had completely lost his marbles after he triggered – to the point that he had murdered an entire town and rendered the people down into a legion of fervent goblins that considered him king. He was all of that, but he wasn’t stupid.

Nilbog had known about nuclear bombs. He had known how the PRT, and the wider government, would react once he had conquered his little realm. So, like any good Tinker, he had created countermeasures. Diseases that resisted, and even fed on, heat and radiation. Germs which could slip around water filters and infiltrate ground water. Viruses that could infect and subsume their hosts in a matter of hours.

In other words if you kill him the setting would suddenly be a zombie apocalypse, along with a dozen other apocalypses.

The PRT, having precognitives and enough common sense to not want to end the world, decide to leave him alone.

The vial I have in my hands makes his efforts look like a fucking joke.

I would have to take precautions to ensure the container couldn’t be accidentally broken by the hounds, but once I left and the PRT turned their Thinkers upon this place I wanted this place to turn them stark white in fear. Enough fear that they completely write off retaking it.

The issue would be finding that sweet spot between protected but still breakable from enemy action.

After I had seeded the city with a few dozen of those I would need to build walls, though these would be nothing fancy like Jinzhou. No, these walls would be designed to keep the occupants in rather than keeping enemies out.

Knowing my creations couldn’t leave should hopefully reduce any panic from international groups.

My thoughts once more returned to the idea of building, as I turned and walked towards the centre of the city.

AN: YO! Long chapter! So, as you can see, Alexander’s not doing too hot. Puppy therapy has temporarily kicked him out of his funk, but he’ll need to talk to Renji to start getting better.

Alexander is learning and is now choosing to think ahead instead of jumping into things feet first. Maybe threatening to plunge the world into a very convincing recreation of the walking dead isn’t the best first step, but as stated before he’s not doing great mentally.

Next chapter should be the international reaction to Alexander being Alexander, their thoughts and strategies going forwards.

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment!