Athanasia: My Hacker System

By the time the dust of the frantic battle settled, the remaining pirate ships numbered less than twenty, yet the primary Galleon, the flagship of the fleet, had managed to pull through the carnage.

John didn’t need to look back to imagine the Dragons tucking their tail and retreating toward the sanctuary of their own bubble once the momentum shifted, leaving the Demons with only one target for their concentrated fury: him.

It didn’t take a genius to point the finger at John as the prime suspect in the battle’s chaotic orchestration. Even if the Dragons had appeared exactly as he’d bluffed, they clearly weren’t working in tandem with the humans.

After all, the moment the scaled warriors arrived, John and his group had bolted in the exact opposite direction at their maximum possible velocity.

The Demons managed to close the gap after four grueling hours of pursuit. The final two hours of the trek were particularly intense as the silver vessels pushed their engines to the breaking point.

John didn’t know the exact mechanics of their propulsion, whether they were burning through a precious type of Mana ore or if it required a collective ritual from the Demons on board to achieve such speeds, something similar to how the Bulltors used to activate the defences of small items. But the result was undeniable. They were gaining ground.

Yet, that last stretch toward the Human Zone proved to be an insurmountable hurdle for the fleet. Every time a ship drifted within striking distance, John dropped a cluster of aerial traps.

These weren’t intended to sink the massive ships outright, but the explosions they caused were enough to tear through the silver plating and shred the black sails. Eventually, John noticed the ships’ speed beginning to diminish.

They decided to maintain a safe distance from him. He held his hand, choosing not to waste any more of his finite traps.

The real reason for their slowing wasn’t fatigue, but a shift in the Demons’ strategy. The leaders on the ships had decided it was safer to track the humans from a distance.

They had realised that closing the gap meant facing a constant barrage of annoying damage from the small aerial traps they could see, avoid, or defend against. If they continued to press the assault, they risked losing even more of their heavily wounded fleet before they even reached their destination.

Their primary objective had evolved. It was clear these humans weren’t mere thralls to the Dragons. The Demons wanted to see who their masters were, to mark the coordinates of their home zone, and to prepare a grander, more disciplined invasion for the future. They wanted to witness the nest of the pests that had humiliated them.

However, they were utterly unprepared for the sight that greeted them at the end of the journey. When the massive white bubble finally loomed through the morning mist, the Demons fell silent.

The zone these humans reached was so colossal that it eclipsed the combined area of the six neighbouring zones they had scouted. It was an anomaly, a zone of such scale that it defied the logic of the current apocalypse stage.

"Hey, humans! Come out and talk to me!"

One of the winged Demons descended from the flagship, dropping alone to the ground just outside the shimmering white perimeter. He shouted in a deafening, magically amplified voice that rattled the very air.

John, who had already crossed into the safety of the zone, stopped and helplessly shook his head at the Demon’s persistence.

"What do you want?" John shouted back. He didn’t take a single step forward, nor did he allow his friends to move closer to the edge. He knew the Demons now held a blood feud against him, and he wasn’t about to give them a free shot. He stood just inside the white mist, his arms crossed. "Can’t you see I’m unreachable for you?"

"Why don’t you show me the same courage you showed to my people earlier?" the winged Demon hissed, his face contorted in a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. It went without saying that he was the supreme leader of the entire Demon force.

John was humiliated and devastated. He was furious. He was baiting the trap, hoping the human would be arrogant or foolish enough to lean on the zone’s perceived security and step outside to gloat.

It was exactly what John expected: a desperate attempt at a snatch-and-grab. He wasn’t falling for it.

"Why? So you can try to take me down with some sinister scheme? Or perhaps you have a trap hidden under that red skin of yours?" John snorted in derision. "Forget it! I got exactly what I wanted from our little meeting. I won’t be taking a single step out of this dome until the protection period is over."

"Damn you!" The Demon roared, the sound echoing off the massive mist around John. He realised then that there was zero chance of the human reaching him. The humiliation would have to fester.

"I swear on our sacred blood, I will not forget what you did! You think this protection will last forever? One day, that damn dome will break down, and with it, the whole sky will fall upon you and every living soul inside! Mark my words, human: you are a dead man walking."

"I’d say the same to you," John laughed, the sound bright and mocking. His laughter seemed to drive the Demon into a fresh state of insanity. Yet, the Demon knew he was powerless; the white veil was an absolute law of the world. It was impregnable no matter what he tried.

"Just hang tight out there for me," John added, his voice turning cold as he turned his back on the Demon. He began walking toward the distant inner structures of his zone, flanked by his friends and the captive Demon he had successfully integrated into his ranks.

"One day this protection will vanish, and when it does, nothing will stop me from finishing what I started in that battle."

John kept walking, ignoring the stream of curses and deadly threats the Demon screamed at his back.

He had gained everything he sought from the excursion: he had probed the strength of the local super-races, acquired a valuable asset who would shed more light on the untold side of the new world, and gathered enough loot to begin the next phase of his fortification and hacking.

The outside world was a den of monsters, but as he looked up at his own towering walls, John knew he had six months to turn this zone into a graveyard for anyone foolish enough to knock on his doors.