One side benefit of Dimensional Step synergizing with my Affinity and other Skills and then Evolving is that everything I do with Omnipresent is a lot more snappy and quick. There’s no more pushing hard with my will and driving it to sort through things or filter for what I’m looking for. Everything is smooth, easy, responsive. Finding Hvitserkur is as easy as focusing on him and Omnipresent snaps straight to his location with a Portal instantly. It doesn’t seem like he has any awareness that I’m watching, and I pull his Status.

  Hvitserkur (Level 524 Rock Troll)

  Health: 67000/67000

  Mana: 15500/15500

  Conditions: Ascended Regeneration, Unbreakable, Elemental Mastery, Magma Born, Stalwart Aura, Resolute, Mark of Resilience, more…

  Ten more Levels since we took him on, and no doubt that means he’s been busy killing. I look around him in my mind’s eye with Omnipresent and see a lot of high Level other Rock Trolls are near him, and I zoom out to see they’re spread over most of this world which has a single, irregular shaped continent that covers around half of the planet’s surface. I spend a few minutes looking around from a distant perspective. The world is heavily populated with both sapients and sentients, but nothing looks higher than Level 80 and only a very few people have obtained Mythic Class. A world that’s not particularly harsh or dangerous, probably with standard AMLs near one.

  Everywhere near Hvitserkur for a long way around is dead and rocky ground is now the dominant feature in a radius of thousands of kilometers. On the wide-ranging outskirts of the rocky circle, Rock Trolls oversee what I can only describe as slave working camps and oppressive conditions for the ape-like humanoids on the planet. It looks like Tenebris has either convinced or placed Hvitserkur on a planet that’s even easier than Earth to dominate and left him to destroying this world. Like sacrificial lambs offered up to save us.

  It makes me feel sick.

  At the same time, I’m grateful Hvitserkur isn’t doing this on Earth.

  I open my Status and stare at the Title there, Mark of Tenebris, and make a call. Tracing it with my SMI, I feel the deep connection it has to me and the integration it has with me. I follow it all patiently, ensuring I have every bit of it, and then I activate my SMI and the raging current of Dark Mana that flows within me and through me and I burn it out. I burn the whole fucking thing out even though it feels like I’m searing myself from the inside. A second later I’m back to full Health and the pain is gone, and so is the Mark.

  I stare through the Portal at the massive, hulking figure that looks more like a chunk of mountain and watch him sit elevated on a mountain looking out over his domain. Rocky knobs and spikes cover his oversized limbs and fierce face which is dominated by a massive jaw and glowing green eyes. I remember that face vividly in my mind, and I remind myself how big he really is. It’s hard to even get a sense of proportion, but he’s one big bastard. His rough, thick skin the color of weathered granite is still scarred from centuries of weather and battles.

  Part of me wants to step through the Portal onto the mountainside and see if I can take everything he can throw at me now. See how far I’ve come and laugh at him while he tries to kill me. But I know that’s probably a fantasy and I only barely escaped last time. Hvitserkur was in no danger from me. Jon’s broken face flashes through my vision, hopefully for the last time, and I grit my teeth. No fucking around. I’ve got a plan that I’ve already practiced on other powerful Monsters, though none as high Level as this one.

  If I was actually Superman like Jeff accuses me, my glare is intense enough to fire lasers as I ramp up Perfect Focus to massively increase my Strength, Agility, and Perception. Time slows down as I manifest a Portal and step through onto to the rocky ground.

  Hvitserkur senses me as soon as I step through and his massive form explodes into action even in my current state. He begins to fling his arms wide like last time, ready to call the power of rock and boulders to his command. Before he’s even a quarter of the way through the motion I’ve triggered Dimensional Step and poured everything I have behind the Evolved enhanced effect.

  No fucking around, we’ll know in a second who’s won.

  Space bucks and twists all around, resisting what I want to do. Pushing the Skill to its limits and beyond. I throw my immensely powerful Affinity, my core of Dark Mana, and everything I have into forcing dimensional space to do my bidding. I flex powers no human has ever been able to combine and I push it further, overcoming all the inherent active and passive defenses Hvitserkur is endowed with just by being what he is.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  With a thump that causes powerful, rippling waves across dimensional space I break through and my Skill takes hold, straining my mind and regeneration hard, crushing me with the stress.

  Suddenly, that feeling is replaced by intense cold that pulls at me, but my Constitution and regeneration shrug it off. I feel intense relief. A surge of triumph.

  From a few hundred meters away I stare at Hvitserkur floating and beginning to panic, in the dead of space hundreds of miles up from the planet’s surface. Disconnected from his greatest strengths and abilities. And I hope completely at my mercy.

  “Die, motherfucker,” I mouth in the cold vacuum of space as I hang there, weightless, and start triggering my Skills.

  Resonant Strike disrupts his being, the resonance of the waves shaking his molecules apart. He partly resists it, enough for his Ascended regeneration to handle, but I expected that. I follow it up quickly with Tempest Strike that rips at him from every part of his body, feeding me with Health and Stamina. Iron Mandate forces him into only defensive actions for the next ten seconds, an eternity in this fight. Psychic Eruption blasts his mind twice, three times, followed by another Target Siphon.

  Between my inherent regeneration and Target Siphon, my Stamina pool is being replenished so fast and Hvitserkur’s Health is being shredded so fast that I start chain triggering Resonant Strike over and over, piling on the damage as quickly as I can.

  Hvitserkur holds out for a few seconds but the outcome was never in doubt and I watch him lose control and explode, shards of his body flying in all directions, as Resonant Strike disrupts him from within. Some of the shards hit me and stop while I drift backward due to the momentum transfer.

  I float for a while then open the blinking kill notification and stare at it for a while.

  Things have changed.

  After a while, I turn my attention to what’s next. I struggle with my conscience for a few minutes before deciding to head back to Earth to assemble a team. This is the first place we’ll visit, to kill the rest of the Rock Trolls that are crushing the inhabitants of this world. I’m tempted to go down and do it myself, but it will be a good opportunity to train and practice in an environment that’s not very dangerous other than the Rock Trolls.

  With a thought and instant trigger of my Skill, I get ready to Step to Logan, then change my mind and Step to Taiwo instead.

  The insanely powerful dimensional defenses of the Shop offer me no more resistance than walking through a rainstorm as I fold space and emerge in a room with Taiwo. He jumps and his power armor immediately materializes around him; when I use Dimensional Step there’s no Portal and no warning, I’m just… there.

  “Fuck! Don’t kill me!” exclaims a short, barrel-like creature covered in a translucent gel that smells of flowery resin. From what I can see it doesn’t have any eyes, but it does have a lot of wavering tentacles and antennae.

  “Bronwic!” exclaims Taiwo. “Good to see you. It’s been a very long time. Too long! I’m just in the middle of something if you could wait for a few thousand UTUs?”

  The tone is as friendly as always, but he doesn’t return the armor back to his Inventory. His customer scrambles on octopus legs to the far side of the room and uses a sturdy weapon rack for cover. I didn’t think my expression was anything but friendly, but here we are.

  “Sure,” I answer, since that’s fair enough, and I exit the door then make my way to the lobby following the simple color coding that I’m more than used to at this point. Every Shop seems to be different, but they all follow a universal approach to helping you get to where you want to go, or I suppose where you’re supposed to go. As I’m walking I can’t help but wonder what Taiwo has seen or knows that caused him to keep his armor on. That my Mark of Tenebris has gone? Something else? Maybe I just scared the shit out of him. My thoughts are troubled as I enter the reception area and nod to the Merman there who gives me a look of surprise.

  I ignore it and sit down to wait, which doesn’t really bother me. It’s been ages since I had a good look through my Settlement tabs or took stock of my Inventory which is now fully stocked and straining to capacity, despite the fact I spent enough time over the past six months to push it to be an order of magnitude bigger with my new understanding of how dimensional space works.

  Just to make sure I’m not bothered, I tweak my SMI and deactivate my High Enforcer ability to hide my real Status. A few minutes later I’m deep into the Settlement tabs and pretty excited about what I’m seeing when Taiwo walks in and gives me the normal, warm grin I’m used to.

  “You’re making them nervous,” he says in a joking manner and gestures to what is now three Mermen behind the reception counter and a couple of customers waiting in seats as far away from me as possible. I shrug and stand up.

  “What about you?” I ask as I tilt my head. “Making you nervous?”

  Taiwo laughs and gestures for me to follow him.

  “No, not unless I need to be.”

  I kind of believe him. He’s so believable. But as high as it is, his Charisma no longer dazzles me and in the back of my mind I still have echoes of remnants of fragmented conversations from after I saved Earth from the Dark Mana core and was totally out of it. Was he on my side? Wasn’t he? Was Tenebris? Did they ever expect me to be where I am today? Was I just some fun or a pawn or something else or all of the above? I fucking hate it, and I hate that I have doubts about a relationship and friendship that’s saved my ass more than once.

  But I feel like I can’t unsee what I’ve seen.