Keynes landed in one of hundreds of villages that lay in the Capital’s surrounding area.

It no longer resembled a village though. Not a single hut was left standing. It looked as if a hurricane had passed through and that was far from the worst. Bodies of tribesmen were scattered everywhere. The monsters made no exceptions. Seeing firsthand the consequence of his actions gave Keynes pause.

Once again he doubted himself. Was he on the right side of history? Or was he nothing else but Shaper’s tool?

“Look what’ve you done.”

Keynes whirled, finding Vivena floating a metre above the ground. Keynes didn’t sense her until she spoke up. Clearly, without Alice, he was severely handicapped. Plus, his spiritual control was in disarray after what had happened to him. The race and the inevitable death, [Chaos Aura], the rift, Shaper and now this. He needed to calm down or he wouldn’t even see the next person coming at him with less friendly intentions.

Vivena landed, she wore her green coat - Poison Regali and held the unidentified mace in right hand. She also had her Dexterity boots on. All in all, she seemed to be prepared for a fight and judging by the angry look on her beautiful face, not necessarily with monsters.

“What happened to you?” Keynes asked instead of answering her question, which seemed to rub her in the wrong way.

For a moment, the silence entangled them as they stared at each other, Vivena stared daggers at Keynes while it slowly dawned on him how serious this was. This was the girl Keynes had feelings for and he’d once imagined them being together. Now, he saw nothing but disgust in her haunted eyes.

“You killed them,” she whispered almost too quietly for Keynes to pick up her voice. “And you no longer can hide behind ignorance. There are no more excuses.” Her voice grew colder with each word. Was she going to fight him?

Snap. If she still has the serum I won't be able to get out of this.

In the distance a booming scream tore the sky. It was the gigantic ape and its scream was more than it appeared to be. Keynes felt his stats dip a little.

Debuff Acquired!

The length of the debuff decreased by 50% (Purifying Body effect).

The strength of the debuff decreased by 20% (Purifying Body effect).

Weakened Heart (temporary, 5 minutes, medium).

Attributes are decreased by 4.

Vivena noticed it too and it gave pause.

The battle near the gate still raged. Thousands of monsters swarmed the vicinity of the absurd ape. Keynes and Vivena were too far away for the monsters to react to their presence. Unlike the outbreak, the Dominion of Monsters didn’t seem to continuously create monsters. Keynes didn’t have time to read through the information about the era or even look at the System.

“Should we help them?” Keynes asked.

Vivena looked at him and he regretted asking the question.

“I was wrong about you. We cannot trust you with that kind of power. You must return to Geneva.”

Vivena’s word cut deep, leaving open wounds and there was nothing to cauterise them, nothing to sooth the pain. Keynes slumped a little. He didn’t know what to say. Or if there was even anything to say.

“Wagner sent help. They’ll be here in two days.” Vivena turned her back on him but didn’t move from her spot.

“I don’t go anywhere,” Keynes replied, more out of spite than actual feelings about going back to Geneva. He’d give a kingdom for his mother’s soothing.

“I will make you then,” she said.

The serum was an issue. Without it, Vivena wasn’t likely to beat Keynes but once she used it Keynes wouldn’t be able to even escape with his [Flight]. He was quite sure that his [Flight] was faster than Vivena’s rendering her boosted stats useless but for that to come true he needed to get out of her reach and with her stats being twice as high as his that was highly unlikely.

“I am sorry,” he muttered, not knowing what else to say.

“It’s too late for that,” Vivena said with open hostility.

“I wish it wasn’t,” he said, then took a gamble and started walking toward the Capital. The gate and the giant ape were still three kilometres away, so it’d take time to get there.

“Where are you going?” Vivena asked, a shadow of hesitation in her voice.

“To kill that beast,” Keynes replied. “Despite their betrayal, there must be good people among them.”

Vivena followed Keynes, staying worryingly close but she didn’t try to stop him at least. Nothing attacked them until they came a kilometre from the gate. Keynes found it strange that the defenders were no longer fighting and the monster seemed to redouble their effort to breach the gate.

At the same time, Keynes and Vivena passed through the invisible line.

The Dominion of Monsters

Local Event

The monster horde is trying to breach the walls of the dwelling and create their dominion there.

Mission: Stop the horde leader from reaching the dwelling’s centre.

Bonus Mission: Kill all the horde monsters.

Bonus Mission: Recover The Skull of the Grand Apeling.

Out of nowhere came monsters, in hundreds. There were many varieties of apes and some other animals. The monster Levels were mostly 1 to 3, with packs of weaker monsters creating ‘meat shields’ for the more powerful creatures.

Keynes took his two shortswords out of his dimensional pouch and waited for the first wave of the fodder to reach him. The fastest, dog-like creatures came at him like an avalanche. Keynes unravelled [Chaos Aura] causing havoc in the ranks of the lesser monsters as they threw their bodies at him. Then he felt it; buffs and debuffs from two larger apes with wooden maces and crude clothes and intelligent eyes.

The two apes watched Keynes warily from a distance. Luckily for Keynes, not a single debuff applied to him as his Purifying Body buff shielded him from negative influences.

Almost every single monster--the Lesser Wolfdog--was a common rarity and Level 1. If not for Keynes’s low stamina, the creatures would be an afterthought to him. But in his state, an extended fight put him at disadvantage, especially with only the weaker monsters draining Keynes’s precious stamina. If they truly had some sort of plan, which sounded ludicrous, then Keynes expected heavy hitters to appear once Keynes showed the first signs of exhaustion.

With the buffs from the two apes, the lesser wolfdogs seemed unafraid of Keynes’s [Chaos Aura] even if it affected them all the same. It didn’t kill them in real-time but any Level 1 that stayed for longer than ten seconds started to show signs of organ failures.

On the other side of the dirt road was Vivena. Her [Poison Aura] was so thick its greenish haze was almost visible to the naked eye. She fought with her unidentified mace, it was a blur in her hands.

The essence from the monsters was so miniscule it barely thickled Keynes. Each monster must have at least five times less essence than the equivalent rift monsters.

The area around Keynes turned red and gory from all cut and aura-mulited monster carcasses. Keynes missed the moment Vivena shot forward and smashed one of the apes in the head, caving it. The other ape rumbled guttarily and a powerful debuff hit Keynes and Vivena.

For a few seconds, Vivena just stood there, in front of the second ape and stared at the mace that didn’t move.

Debuff Acquired!

The length of the debuff decreased by 25% (Purifying Body effect).

The strength of the debuff decreased by 10% (Purifying Body effect).

Deadly Labour (temporary, 6 minutes, strong).

The expenditure of Stamina is increased by 45%.

“What happened?” Keynes shouted, not understanding what was happening to Vivena. The debuff was annoying, especially to Keynes, but it wouldn’t stop Keynes from finishing the second ape.

Vivena didn’t reply and instead the greenish haze around the second ape intensified…

Don’t tell me she already knows how to use two auras? Fact, she had two auras for longer than Keynes--

Without a warning, Vivena moved, her face struck by determination. At the same time, the airborne monsters came to the ape’s rescue, swarming Vivena from all sides. They seemed to do very little damage to her, but her advance was stalled and the ape was allowed to retreat behind the ranks of the much larger rhino-like monsters. They waited nearby for their turn.

This is quite dangerous, Keynes told himself. These Level 1s may not be a problem but what if Level 4s and 5s are as cunning as these apes? One mistake could mean death.

The rhinos charged Vivena while she was blinded by the flying monsters. Keynes considered using [Chaos Aura] and spiritual aura to cut through them but there were too many of these little mongrels. On top of that, the deadly labour debuff would have sucked out most of his stamina.

Keynes reached Vivena first, drawing some of the flying creatures to him, his blades slicing two or three monsters in one slash. They were to Level 1s and of a common rarity.

The ground shook as forty massive rhinos came at them.

“Either get out of here or use the serum!” Keynes shouted.

The green haze exploded out of Vivena, hitting Keynes.

Debuff Acquired!

The length of the debuff decreased by 30% (Purifying Body effect)

The strength of the debuff decreased by 10% (Purifying Body effect).

Organ Melting Poison (temporary, 4 minutes, strong).

Organ Melting Poison deals ongoing damage causing organs to slowly melt over time.

What the hell?!

Keynes got out of the [Poison Aura]’s range and took off the ground, drawing even more flying monsters.

“WATCH OUT!” Keynes cried out as the rhinos were about to hit Vivena.

She, too, jumped into the sky, evading the charging rhinos. She did it with enough grace that told Keynes that she’d had it all under control. Vivena then dropped on the first rhino and killed with a single hit.

The battleground turned into a mayhem as other rhinos swung around, enraged. Vivena’s aura eventually started clearing the lesser monsters as they dropped from the air, dead.

Keynes felt the damage of her aura on himself as well. It wasn’t anything significant but he’d been low already and any added damage pushed him closer to the edge. As the deadly labour debuff ran out, he used [Chaos Aura] together with spiritual aura, clearing the flying pest in a few seconds.

It cost Keynes a good chunk of stamina but it was worth it. Those little flying mongrels were annoying. Keynes joined the fight with the rhinos, attacking from the air. The rhinos were Level 2 and were a mix of common and uncommon rarity with mostly hardened skin passive skills. It took some manoeuvring from Keynes to find the right angle at dealing the killing blow, usually in the eye, but eventually, Keynes was able to score ten kills before the rhinos died out to [Poison Aura] and [Chaos Aura]. Wherever the auras overlapped, the monsters died much faster. It was something he was going to exploit in the future. If he could run two auras at the same time, it’d solve his aoe damage deficiency issue.

After clearing the rhinos, the ape lost it and threw all the monsters that so far stood and watched. Keynes didn’t let it escape. The ape was slower than Keynes’s [Flight] and he easily caught up with it. As he drove the shortsword into its brain another debuff appeared.

Debuff Acquired!

The length of the debuff decreased by 30% (Purifying Body effect)

The strength of the debuff decreased by 10% (Purifying Body effect).

Disarm (temporary, 25 seconds, strong).

Unable to use physical weapons to attack.

Oh, so that’s what happened to Vivena. Speaking of her…

Upon the death of the second ape, the monsters went berserk, losing the last shred of cooperation and agenda. This was the kind of enemy Vivena and Keynes were accustomed to fight with.

CRACK! BOOM!

Keynes looked at the gate and saw that the ape managed to destroy it. It started banging its chest, which seemed to have an effect on the monsters. Many of the stronger ones disengaged and fled toward the giant ape.

Keynes, too, raised into the sky feeling exhausted. His stamina reached 1%. All this fodder drained him all too easily. Even Vivena looked worse for wear, with her green coat now red and the solid ground turned-mud.