Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

“Get Legend’s chocolate today! Good chocolatey Legendary taste, right to your tastebuds!”

• Seffara the Sapphire, in the earlier years of the Superhero Generation.

*The chocolate company was subsequently found to be guilty of engaging in highly unethical practices in developing countries.

—

Seffara did not cave in Dumb-Ryan’s skull. It did, however, take him a good few seconds to respond.

“He had a bullet through his head!”

“You were there, you did nothing but stare for a full minute. You always try the potions. That’s—that’s basic adventuring rules!”

It was finally dawning on him that Seffara was looking for someone to blame. You couldn’t blame Ryan for what had happened, they both had to know that.

“How was I supposed to know he had a potion?! He couldn’t even pay for his meal!”

“Fuck!”

Seffara swore and dropped him onto the ground. She was just venting, even Dumb-Ryan could tell that she was in the anger part of the grief phase. Even Seffara knew that was what was happening… She turned away from the terrified first realm and looked like she hated herself.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Hundreds of deployments, ambushes, dragons and Tyrants and you end up dying to some stupid kids with guns. Barry you stupid fucking bastard!”

“I–I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was so close to you.”

Dumb-Ryan couldn’t help but stare at the blood on Seffara’s gauntlets. Neither Ryans could imagine that there was anything left of the teenagers. The supposed heroine sighed, then looked up at the cracked concrete of the bridge above them.

“It’s fine. I’m sorry.”

After a moment of silence, he had to ask. “Could you tell me a little about him?

Then the heroine and future blacklister talked a little, Seffara had that same look she had when she told them about her and Barry’s past. It was a lot more emphasized on Barry’s past than anything else, as if she wanted someone else to hear about the crazy old orc who had done so much, and that very few knew about.

Then Dumb-Ryan, awkward as he was, shot his shot.

“This sounds weird, I think this meeting wasn't a coincidence. I–I’m about to be blacklisted and I… met the Witch Tyrant.”

It was a similar conclusion that Real-Ryan had come to. That him meeting Barry wasn’t a coincidence and he could get help. Meeting Seffara the Sapphire, one of the surviving foils against the Tyrants. The one shining star of morality that Americans could point at and go ‘hey our government might be a bit shit but our people are still great.’

It sounded like a good idea.

But you had to remember, Seffara wasn’t Barry.

They arrived back at her compound. She carried him over her shoulder, running half the state of California in record time. Dumb-Ryan took a three hour nap. Or rather, he took one and a half hours to fall asleep then woke up with barely any rest.

First they planned, then they trained.

The [Knight] in shining armor never pulled her punches. She embodied the spirit of ‘bleed now so you don’t die later,’ and ‘I’m going to beat the arrogance out of you.’ It had been the same with Real-Ryan and it was the exact same with Dumb-Ryan.

The difference was that there was no Milo and Clara there to break up the ruthless tempo, no old orc to offer wisdom when he was down.

And Seffara was still grieving.

“One moment’s hesitation and you’re dead!”

They went again until Ryan’s body broke, then she threw him a medium grade healing potion.

They went again.

And again.

Ten hours passed like this. Neither stopping nor wishing to stop. Seffara even had custom-recovery potions for high realm adventurers.

Seffara was trying to distract herself from her grief.

Dumb-Ryan was remembering what training had been like under Nextra, his old sword coach.

Both feeding each other a perpetual cycle of pain and suffering.

When they were done, Dumb-Ryan was sharp as a sword and taut as a fully drawn bowstring. He understood the stakes. Before he left for The Realm, Seffara had opened a bottle and started drinking.

In The Realm, things mostly happened in the same way. Though there were slight changes. Dumb-Ryan gutted the outpost [Mage] instead of pommeling her in the stomach. He slaughtered Garbolt’s team the first time, barely hesitating at their expressions of fear and horror.

He did not hesitate because to hesitate would be to die.

He killed the Demonic Tactician cleaner than the Real-Ryan did. Then came up with the plan to trick and kill the human General.

—As well as many of the General’s aides as he could. That was something the Real-Ryan never did. Dumb-Ryan killed them as they came, only stopping when a sword cut deep into his arm.

There was no laughter, no smile or enjoying the trickery. Only a grim determination to get stronger. A bloody focus on maximizing achievements.

Dumb-Ryan could only see the world in one shade of color.

An ex-adventurer could get shot by random kids and die.

The Manager wasn’t an impartial but fair god.

The Witch Tyrant’s image was all propaganda.

Seffara the Sapphire was just like Nextra.

There was nothing left but to get stronger. If he wanted to be free, he needed to be stronger.

It was the only thing that mattered.

And the Trial System rewarded him with an S+

He picked to extend his Trial skills, then used his remaining reward to choose two skills: [Fearless Cutdown] and [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation].

Two Epics at realm two instead of one.

He didn’t go back to Seffara, he showed up at a random location in Sector Two. There, the Witch Tyrant found him almost immediately, with Gamielle nowhere to be found.

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In a small forest, the now bloodied Ryan and the Witch Tyrant had a discussion. He lied to her, telling her he only had one Epic. Then he demanded for some rules between them and… surprisingly, she agreed.

Unlike Real-Ryan, Dumb-Ryan didn’t need to threaten mutual destruction. Not only did he not come in and challenge her but she approved of Dumb-Ryan’s brutality.

Then the Witch Tyrant sat and showed him the performance again. Told him of the greater multiverse and the likely dooms of both worlds.

Dumb-Ryan took it all in without question… not that Real-Ryan hadn’t been tricked at first either. But that was where the difference lay. While Real-Ryan hesitated from the impossible challenge—

Dumb-Ryan simply had grim determination. It made sense in his world, it explained why the Witch Tyrant was doing this.

She was just trying to get The Realm ready for war.

A simple conclusion that made sense.

Power above all else.

What had been disappointing to the Real-Ryan was reasonable to the dumb one.

He slaughtered the first team he came across. It wasn’t Zhenyu’s team, another slightly less competent team of adventurers wandering the woods.

To Real-Ryan’s surprise, Dumb-Ryan came across a Leafstalker.

It was Tar’el, his old elven battery in the Cataclysm Abyss. Perhaps even being overzealous and hunting down a new blacklister.

Or maybe Tar’el was smart and knew this monster had to be put down now.

There in the moonlit forest the two fought to the death. A second realm adventurer against a realmer in the fourth realm. There was no hesitating here, they weren’t at the same realm grade, one mistake would mean death.

And Dumb-Ryan didn’t hesitate.

At a crucial moment [Fearless Cutdown] split apart Tar’el.

Both Epics leveled.

Dumb-Ryan’s hands barely shook. Only grim determination was left. He dug a grave for the Realmer and took one last glance before stepping away.

Perhaps the Witch Tyrant sensed a potential shaking of resolve. Too much tension and there was a chance that her new weapon would shatter. She appeared, sitting on a marble, floating by him. They discussed random things like his Trials and his actions. Her giving him an after-action report.

Dumb-Ryan found out something interesting that Real-Ryan had learned awhile ago.

The Witch Tyrant was surprisingly chatty, or rather, she liked to evaluate and offer advice, then offer her opinions about the state of the world and how things had come to be.

It was surprising but Dumb-Ryan found a kindred spirit, someone that loved to talk about skills, classes and the Trial System as a whole.

It almost seemed like a proper mentor student. To someone else it might seem like she actually cared.

Smart-Ryan shook his head, he knew manipulation when he saw it. The Witch Tyrant was making sure that her little ‘key’ didn’t snap or break under pressure. Maybe she with her full mind would care a little. Not this monster that was operating a million different mindsplits at the same time.

When he saw the outpost and saw over fifty adventurers milling about and a turret on the top, Dumb-Ryan moved away and decided to go back to Earth to strategize.

Right back into Seffara’s welcoming arms.

She’d clearly been drinking.

Seffara didn’t ask what happened, and he didn’t tell her. No after-action report, no shouting at him that he had done something wrong. Just the continuous barrage of rough lessons. Treating him like a soldier in a war he wasn’t prepared for.

Except even soldiers had comrades.

Dumb-Ryan had a drunk abusive veteran and one manipulative Tyrant.

Bones broke, weapons shattered, teeth were knocked out.

Real-Ryan could tell that exhaustion was piling up on Dumb-Ryan. Though it seemed like Dumb-Ryan was actually too dumb to realize that he needed a break.

Real-Ryan remembered the feeling, it had come up multiple times, when he first killed Zedart. When he finished the Second Trial by himself, when he realized he had become the target of an entire world and was told that his own dreams were just a convenient illusion.

It had been too much.

It had happened recently too. Dealing with a near genocide—where the fate of an entire species had been on his shoulders had been nearly too much. As much as he enjoyed the fight, it had been tough on his nerves as well. So close to disaster, where it wasn’t just my life at stake.

Ryan remembered being too exhausted to deal with One-Eyed Rick and retreating to his allies. It hadn’t been done with too much thought but now he was realizing just how important it had been.

Dumb-Ryan didn’t understand that at all.

What happens if you push Ryan without giving him a break? What happened if you pushed someone beyond exhaustion, both spiritually, mentally and physically?

They broke.

Except Dumb-Ryan never did. He only saw one goal.

He just needed to get stronger.

Then everything would be solved.

News popped up while they were strategizing a couple days later. Tar’el’s death had been publicized as the new blacklister having killed them. They hadn’t connected Ryan to this new monstrous Destined, but they would soon. Then it wouldn’t matter, there’d be nowhere to hide, nothing left to go back to.

Seffara didn’t say anything, Dumb-Ryan didn’t justify anything.

After all, it was a life or death fight.

Seffara herself had beaten into him the lesson about hesitating against his foes.

Real-Ryan saw that Seffara wanted to say something. But she wasn’t Barry, she didn’t have the right words or even belief in herself to change someone.

She might have been feeling a little guilty about Tar’el but they didn’t stop.

Dumb-Ryan didn’t even think there was another option other than pushing forward. Real-Ryan could see it on his face. He had once contemplated disappearing from his friends and family so the Witch Tyrant couldn’t use them against him. This Ryan didn’t need that excuse.

The real truth was that it was easier to not have to worry about them.

Become stronger, strong enough to protect them from the oncoming apocalypse. Then everything will be alright.

A sane, logical choice.

Latarro showed up on the TV again, telling all adventurers they could experience his Epic skill buff to fight against this blacklisted monster, promising everyone training.

This Ryan went back to find the outpost mostly emptied except for what was still a fairly well-manned outpost.

He ran, Avale’s shield raised up high. Automatic rifles took too long to start firing from above, the machine gun taking too long to aim at the zig-zagging blacklister. The first few bullets from the machine gun were blocked by Strategist Avale’s shield. By the time someone finally realized to go down the ladders to get a different angle it was too late.

[Fearless Cutdown]

The soulsword sliced through two of the thick wooden beams and collapsed the entire structure. As the outpost guards tried to reposition in the air, they found knives being thrown at their chest. Only the one guard that had [Dangersense], barely dodging in time.

Ryan dashed for the automatics that had been strapped to one of the guard’s chest.

They hadn’t expected a single adventurer to attack their guarded outpost, or if they had, then they hadn’t expected him to be strong enough to take it down.

Dumb-Ryan started shooting. The few adventurers in the outpost didn’t carry automatics, they were hearing the gunfire and screaming and heading right towards him in the open. They were expecting a monster and they were adventurers.

They weren’t expecting the monster to be using an automatic.

They died, all six adventurers that approached.

Right before he entered the Trial, the Witch Tyrant appeared, telling him to drop his guns if he wanted maximum achievements.

Dumb-Ryan simply complied, then walked through.

Valee’s team didn’t have a chance. Neither did the demons. General Grivkas died before the human Strategist even got there. Then, in the depths of the forest, with Dumb-Ryan having gained [Aura of Self-Momentum] they got slaughtered.

Dumb-Ryan didn’t come up with a plan to get the armies to fight harder, he just started killing the human army from behind, causing chaos and slaughtering as many as he could. When the human army swapped to attack him, he simply retreated, throwing their javelins harder than their warriors could.

It was messy, chaotic and most importantly, Dumb-Ryan didn’t look like he was having fun at all.

There was just cold hard calculation in his eyes. Kill everything, maximize achievements and get stronger.

[Unrelenting Willpower] and [Reckless Dash] appeared. New skills the Real-Ryan had never gotten before.

He kept killing, he kept honing and everything died. The difference here was that his Epics were still leveling. [Fearless Cutdown] was at level three and [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation] was at level four.

He didn’t even bother with the idea of learning or leveling other skills. They did level—but the focus was on pushing both Epics as far as he could.

No worry about what the Epics were doing to his mind. As they leveled, the impact of the skills on his mentality got worse.

It was said that Real-Ryan held back his core Epic, the [Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation]. He disliked some of the concepts that came with the skill. Dumb-Ryan had none of the hesitation, he completely and truly embraced every single facet of the skill.

Even doing things Real-Ryan hadn’t realized were possible.

What did it mean when someone could drown out all other sounds but their own? Sound attacks, muting soldiers from communicating with each other, there was even a moment when a fleeing soldier collapsed from a heart attack.

No holding back meant Ryan kept finding new and horrible ways to use his Epics.

By the end of the Trial, Dumb-Ryan had leveled his fear Epic to 5. When he got an S+ for his achievements it leveled twice to seven. A level real-Ryan hadn’t gotten until he had hit realm four.

And then another two Epics were chosen.

[A Ruinous Insight] and [All Against Me!].

For the first time, Real-Ryan blinked. He understood what Dumb-Rayn was going through. He could predict everything this alternate version of him was thinking because it ultimately was him. Just with vastly different circumstances.

Yet this one decision changed all of that. This alternative version of him had to know that the Epics were messing with his mind.

Yet he still picked [A Ruinous Insight] without hesitating.

They were no longer the same people at all.