Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

It was the one Epic that the Real-Ryan refused to touch. How stupid would you have to be to take a skill that called itself ruinous? Doubly so, now that he knew a little more about concepts.

How could you do that?

Dumb-Ryan didn’t even need to step outside, the moment he got all of those skills the Trial System awarded this Ryan a title.

[Strongest of the Third Realm].

While it wasn’t the undisputed version, it was still absolutely crazy that this Ryan didn’t need to take a single step out of the safe zone for the Trial System to acknowledge him as the current strongest.

Dumb-Ryan activated [A Ruinous Insight], his eyes flickering to the button asking him if he wanted to get out into Lazhen. He smirked, then went back to Earth.

Real-Ryan had a feeling he knew what the skill told Dumb-Ryan to do. It was what he had been considering at the time too. Go out into one of the leveled zones and start killing your way out of there.

The smirk though, the idea of relishing the slaughter that was likely to happen?

Now that a little alien.

Dumb-Ryan went back to Seffara’s mansion. She was passed out sitting by the wall, bottles strewn around her. He barely gave her a look.

Dumb-Ryan just took out her laptop and began his research on the adventurers on Lazhen.

The same as Real-Ryan.

In the news, there was a mention about the Tyrants getting attacked but he barely cared. More manipulations by the Witch Tyrant obviously. More preparation for the apocalypse to come. He just had to get stronger.

When the exhaustion period from [A Ruinous Insight] had passed?

He jumped out of Lazhen’s exit portal and began a slaughter at the Adventurer’s Guild. They weren’t prepared for a level six [Fearless Cutdown], one boosted by the stakes of [A Ruinous Insight] and boosted again by his aura.

He knew what to do, how to do it and how to win. Only twenty adventurers in an enclosed space?

Dumb-Ryan slaughtered them all. Then he went outside. There the red alert had begun, drawing all the adventurers in.

He barely fought like a [Rogue].

When he got shot in the chest, [Unrelenting Willpower] drove him to keep going. It became a gruesome chaotic ranged battle where a single apex monster went around choosing what he wanted to kill while they tried to bleed him from afar.

He started to duck down alleys and break into Realmers’ houses. While he didn’t target them, he didn’t really care for their safety either.

Sometimes a [Fearless Cutdown] would slice right through a building and kill someone who thought they were safe.

The adventurers were picked off, their healing potions taken until Dumb-Ryan reached the potion limit.

But by then most of the adventurers had started fleeing. There was no Mahjit to rally the forces or Kenheart to speed-blitz and save them.

Both of their corpses lay dead in the guildhall. That had been planned too.

With the potion limit he started acting a little more like a [Rogue]. Disappearing into buildings, jumping off rooftops, never staying still for any wayward snipers that might have taken position after running away.

Real-Ryan understood what was going to happen. He clenched his fist.

Dumb-Ryan made his way through to the town center. He took the portal.

A few Realmers tried to fight back but none were strong enough to stop him. All he did was stand to the side of the enchanted building and stated loudly that he’d kill anyone that dared to approach.

Adventurers pulled back the Realmers, not willing to get into an enclosed space with the monster.

Then when the timer ticked down, he simply left. They would have to reclaim the portal for themselves and that would attract monsters. Monsters that had already begun to circle, called by the beam of red light in the air. They hadn’t approached because of Ryan’s aura, but now that it was covered once more?

They waited for Dumb-Ryan to leave.

The scattered adventurers in a town full of Realmers were left to fend for themselves.

When he left, the Witch Tyrant gave him an after-action report for his actions. All Dumb-Ryan did was listen and nod.

Then he returned to Earth.

There, he didn’t find Seffara drop dead drunk on the floor. She had been watching the TV.

She had seen what had happened in Lazhen. They started arguing.

“You! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!”

“I did what was necessary. They were trying to ambush me. I killed them in return.”

“YOU DON’T INVOLVE CIVILIANS!”

“I don’t think I killed any Realmers.”

“Lazhen’s under siege! They can’t teleport in because they don’t have control over the portal. They’re going to fucking die.”

Dumb-Ryan almost, almost looked remorseful. “The surviving adventurers will be stronger. It’ll be better in the long run.”

Seffara’s presence destroyed the room they were in.

He tried to argue. “We all need to become stronger. It’s what the Tyrants did. Become strong, then do good for the rest of the world. It’s the right decision.”

It wasn’t the right answer to give the heroine of Sapphire.

Seffara caved in Ryan’s skull. Her fist turning his head into paste and crimson mist.

Smart-Ryan could have told you that was coming. Say what you want about Seffara, even if she herself might not agree with it, she was both a heroine and an adventurer. She knew she had to put down a monster before it went out of control.

Seffara stared at her gauntlets full of a young man’s gore. Someone she had trained. Someone she had failed. Her hand shook.

Then she screamed and started punching herself in the head.

Dumb-Ryan appeared back in The Realm. His one and only safety life having been extinguished by the heroine of Sapphire herself. The Witch Tyrant appeared in concern as he screamed and clutched at his head. Unlike the real world, this version of the Witch Tyrant had no idea that he had been training under Seffara. If she did, she might have given him a heads up.

Now Dumb-Ryan was a head down.

Real-Ryan had seen Dumb-Ryan push through some truly horrific injuries with barely a grunt of pain. Apparently soul damage, one where your entire head had been crushed, was something else entirely. Even [Unrelenting Willpower] wasn’t enough for him to stop screaming out in pain.

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When an ordinary Trialist lost their safety life on Earth they were automatically forced to become Realmbound, revived and stuck in The Realm forever. When a Destined lost their safety life, they could still go back to Earth but they would still be placed back where his body had died.

And that would mean Seffara would kill him for real.

Now Dumb-Ryan was stuck in The Realm—at least until he got stronger than Seffara.

Minutes later and he was still clutching his head in pain.

Skills, levels, aura, everything was damaged. Aura, being the projection of one’s soul, was constantly turning on and off. Broken.

The Witch Tyrant simply sat by, watching. Seeing how Dumb-Ryan attempted to fix his soul. Weeks went by, a whole new set of skills were desperately learned, abilities mastered with a different path.

You could apparently use your own aura to heal your soul then your body. Real-Ryan hadn’t known that.

In the middle of a herd of hostile monsters, in the height of the buff given by [All Against Me!] Dumb-Ryan began to increase his realm.

His fear Epic filled the gaps of his soul. Where before, the Trial System gave him the skill and the concepts, he had now taken the skill into himself.

Neither of them understood exactly what had happened. All Real-Ryan could feel was that his other aura, his original aura had been snuffed out from his alternate self.

Dumb-Ryan upgraded his entire body while under soul damage, the realm evolution coming with an entirely new class.

[Dread Phantom]

An Epic class that was about using aura to boost himself. Terrifying foes by showing that they were up against an unkillable, unstoppable and unbreakable spectre.

When he was done, his soul was still flickering from damage, though no longer enough to matter. Either the class or his willpower had reached the threshold

Dumb-Ryan smashed through the outpost, almost shrugging off bullets, skills and spells galore. His cheek got blown off and he kept going forward, killing everything in his way.

The fifth realm Leafstalker didn’t stand a chance.

Then he slaughtered the Demon King like he was made of paper. Not even listening to a single word. Why would he? He already knew what Demon King Arctus wanted.

Then he left the safe zone with another two Epics.

[Second Chance] and [Siphon Death]

Now they’d have to kill him twice. Now numbers wouldn’t just make him stronger, they’d be living potions that he could endlessly consume.

When he appeared in the Cataclysm Abyss, the Witch Tyrant gave him an offer.

An offer that he gladly accepted.

It was the [The Binding Curse of a Tortured Hero’s Soul]. The ritual she had tried to implant in him at the tournament. The Witch Tyrant cast the ritual and Dumb-Ryan took it in like a monster. Barely grunting out in pain, even as his damaged soul began to warp under the pressure.

A screaming soul the Witch Tyrant had captured and tortured. Thrashing within another’s soul in twin agony.

As the [Dread Phantom] lay screaming in the Cataclysm Abyss, the Witch Tyrant hosted the tournament. This alternate world was darker despite it all, she talked a little about how the blacklisted dragonslayers on Earth were causing havoc and they needed to stop things like this before they happened.

It was something that hadn’t happened in the real world. Gamielle had pretended to be her mother and placated the dragonslayers in an interview as a reward to the Real-Ryan. Without something like that happening, apparently Dumb-Ryan’s Earth was in a much worse state.

The Witch Tyrant told the world and the champions that she had managed to curse the blacklister known as Ryan Robinson through a leveled zone and he was as weak as he was ever going to be.

The tournament winner would be whoever managed to slay the monster first.

Leafstalkers, tournament favorites, even Zedart showed up to chase him down.

Real-Ryan understood Zedart. That idiot was regretting everything and now was on a self-redemption arc to put down the monster he had helped to create.

Meanwhile, the [Dread Phantom] was in too much pain to fight them all off. He ran, hiding in the dark as the adventurers used their skills to hunt him down. He dove deep, the Cataclysm Abyss seemingly helping him along. The monsters fled while the shadows rejoiced under his presence. They tripped up his pursuers while leading him along.

They started to gain a more physical inky black form instead of the formless dark shadows.

They led him to the Unwanted.

And the Unwanted took him to their city.

There Kraxxsken treated him with kindness, protecting him as the adventurers dove closer. He declared to Shara that this [Dread Phantom] was their savior and sent his army of Unwanted to combat the pursuers.

The [Dread Phantom] looked like he had made no progress on wrestling with the thrashing tortured soul. He was desperate, barely holding on, knowing he would die if this kept up.

So he took the only option he could think of.

[A Ruinous Insight].

The skill answered for him and him alone. Whispering sweet visions and words that only made sense to the user.

And the [Dread Phantom] began to laugh.

The adventurers came, dying, fighting, winning against the horde of strangely well-equipped skin shamblers. In their territory they were becoming the hunters, chasing down and eating adventurers alive. Even if you stabbed them and they were bleeding out they would desperately, hungrily attempt to take a bite of your flesh.

Though not all adventurers became prey. Juniper’s team along with the makeshift team of Zedart, Shadowstrider, Slyfus, Goreblatt and surprisingly, Sideark, tore through the lines. Mysterious trackers from the Leafstalkers helping them along.

They fought, killed to the last, even Rax’s personal golem came out in defense.

Juniper’s team took that tough construct on while Zedart’s team went ahead.

Hordes of the Unwanted were cut down as they charged forward. They all felt it in their bones but Juniper made it clear with her Epic. They had to move quickly, they had to move in faster. They roared, fighting like monsters themselves.

The shadows in the Cataclysm Abyss stopped trying to hamper them and swept forwards into the center of the city.

A single pulse. Then two. Every single creature felt it at the same time.

Dread.

They were still adventurers, they dove into the unknown. Despite knowing they were going to lose.

There was still hope that they had made it in time.

They were not. Right as they got to the center of the city, right as the real Rax twirled his spear, the shadows all disappeared. All of them turned to look towards the workshop.

The [Dread Phantom] had finished his sublimation.

And the [Dread Revenant] rose. An Epic class that completely resonated.

For a moment in the fight, it almost looked like they had a chance.

Shadowstrider’s weird artifact bolts actually wiping out half of the [Dread Revenant] body. Unfortunately, even with half of the body blown off [Siphon Death] kept him alive. Not even having to use [Second Chance].

After that, it was barely a fight. Only Juniper and Zedart barely holding on before getting overwhelmed by his sheer strength.

Zedart, Sideark, Shadowstrider, Goreblatt, Slyfus and Juniper’s team all died.

The [Undisputed Apex of the Fourth Realm] was awarded.

The [Dread Revenant] dragged the Unwanted to the skies above, slaughtering everything in the way. The Leafstalkers and adventurers were all the same to him. The [Dread Phantom] rushed the town of Morteles and took over that System portal too, then he let the Unwanted sweep the base.

Rax awarded the portal to Sharesshvil.

It made it clear to the world that the Trial System itself considered them monsters.

Then the [Dread Revenant] simply left and went back to the Trial portal.

In the Fifth Trial he simply ignored the city and disappeared into the forests to train. Hone the class that he’d obtained.

He did not meet King Theskar, he did not abolish slavery, he did not care for the Fifth Trial because it could no longer give him more achievements.

Now the [Dread Revenant] was side by side, in the same room as the Manager. A monster that only knew of achievements and getting stronger. In that small but infinite distance, a simulation or not, Ryan felt the concepts stir around the monster. For even concepts could be simulated here. It gathered into a skill.

The skill he refused to touch.

Then the [Dread Revenant] activated the skill.

[A Ruinous Insight].

A skill that still gave him the shivers. The [Dread Revenant] frowned, as if noticing the fear, then it turned to the Manager.

“What is going on?”

The alternate Manager in front of the [Revenant] smiled. “Just an observer from an alternate reality. Ryan, the [Revenant], meet Ryan, [The Rogue Adventurer]. I wished to let the two of you meet. You see, he holds himself back, unwilling to take the steps to maximize his strength due to the morals he holds dear.”

[A Ruinous Insight] was still working, it just changed focus from the Manager to the Real-Ryan.

The [Dread Revenant] nodded at him, as if understanding everything all at once. Driven by the skill to find the path to ruination.

“You think you are better than me. But you know deep down that I’m the rational one. When everything collapses, the only thing that will matter is power. You know it to be true. History proves it to be true time and time again. Villains turned into heroes just because they’re powerful enough to control the narrative.”

Real-Ryan made a disgusted face, then he turned to his Manager. He thumbed at the [Dread Revenant].

“You really think this idiot’s stronger than I am?”

The Manager nodded. “He would win in ninety-nine out of a hundred encounters. The one encounter being if you were using the peak of [Resource Overload] and somehow the city didn’t see the [Dread Revenant]. In most cases, his [A Ruinous Insight] would counter your creativity.”

Ryan considered this. He started counting on his fingers, ignoring the deathly stare the [Revenant] was giving him.

“High speed regeneration, physical capability is probably at one realm ahead, probably at the same realm in a crowd, aura control isn’t better but it’s not like [Aura Tyrant] will work against it. The [Dread Revenant] doesn’t really use mana so my [Arm of the Arcane Saboteur] wouldn’t really be much use either.”

Ryan stared up at the ceiling, genuinely thinking about most common scenarios.

Then he turned and evaluated the [Dread Revenant], giving him a good look from head to toe. The still standing monster had shadowy cracks all over his eyes, it felt like he was draining your vitality just looking at him.

Smart-Ryan shrugged.

“Meh, I think I win ninety percent of the time. Maybe I’ll lose if you get the jump on me. I doubt it though.”