Ash Livingstone, the ruler of stronghold Ash had been a simple lab scientist in his former life. Working at a private facility owned by a pharmaceutical company, he had lived from hand to mouth, blandly living his everyday life and his neighbors knew well enough to give him a wide berth. The truth was that Ash had not always been a loner, he had once been married to a beautiful woman by the name of Lisa, as lovely and quiet as anyone could get. It was said that she was the sunshine to his dark clouds and the neighbors in the area found a better time relating to her than her somewhat creepy husband, for the life of them they couldn’t figure out why she had married such a man.

The day the truth came out that Ash had been physically abusing his wife, the whole street was in an uproar. Her brother who unluckily for Ash was a black belt taekwondo master had come storming onto the house and beating the daylight out of Ash while publicly shouting at Ash to stay the hell away from his sister. The same day he was arrested to the joy and shouts of those around, it was as the cops were driving away with sullen but angry-looking Ash that the archailect hit, Ash had seen the messengers in the sky and felt the wave blast the moment he ran out of the police car with his cuffed hands. The cops in the car were annihilated at once, the car crumpled as Ash was thrown smack dap into the ground, his brain shutting off. He had awoken to find himself In the woods, with little to no signs of civilization in sight. For days he lived off the woods, foraging for fruits and killing squirrels that were somehow faster, stronger, and with a lot of adaptive powers.

It was days later before he found humans, a group of ruffians who had held somehow foraged for food and water. He had snuck in under the cover of night to steal some food when one of their guards had sighted him and promptly raised the alarm, running through the same woods he had just escaped from, Ash had come across a now destroyed chemical lab. Locking himself in there with the safety of items he knew as the back of his hands, he prepared to blight and kill them with an array of corrosive chemicals he had mixed, not until he saw a man step out from their midst who seemed like their leader lit his hands on fire, his bare hands. As the structure burnt around him and the chemicals became toxic vapor, Ash had wished he had such ability.

His message page had popped open for the first time then, showing him his class had been selected as a mage. Eyes burning, throat bleeding, he had watched his body permeate with the toxic gas and sludge. His skin had peeled and popped like bubbles and regrown back, being baptized in the sludge and vapor of the toxins, Ash had felt himself smile as he stood back up, his class had finally chosen an aspect. By the time the already destroyed building was cinders, a naked Ash had appeared among the soot and debris naked, eyes glowing a faint green. He had made his way back to the camp of those rogues, where he met them already beating into another group of similar ruffians, already the rule of survival of the fittest beginning to set into this new world.

Ash smiled as the men of the group that burnt him could only watch in horror as he wrapped the head of their leader in toxic sludge, melting all of his head brain including in the corrosive mixture that now flowed through his blood and veins. The other group whose leader had been beaten bloody with signs of burns on his skin took the advantage to lay into their oppressors and at the end of the battle, over fifty men were dead on both sides, the rest had quickly bent the knee to him with the leader of the second group named max being the first to do so. For that, Ash made him his second in command, one must reward loyalty, even if it were under dire circumstances.

From there they consolidated their power, taking more and more territory as their group grew from a bunch of brigands to a small army and when the notification about dungeons and cores came up, Ash had seized the initiative by taking half his troops into an uncommon dungeon to clear it out. Without strategy he had lost more than half his men in the dungeon, but they got the job done, besides, it wasn’t his fault they were weak, this world was one where the weak died and the strong survive. The core had been transformed into a stronghold, one made of stones and wood, but it had been enough to draw thousands towards his new abode, and thus the stronghold Ash was created. In time for their crisis to begin as Ash used his newfound philosophy and strategy, throwing people at it.

Any who survived and had proven themselves by bringing back loot were afforded a chance in living inside the stronghold and also choose a path, something he had done by acquiring the path of the cruel venom, any who died had themselves to blame. Thus, Ash had created a fiefdom based on survival of the fittest, even the neighboring strongholds that had surrounded him could not hold up to his might and last he heard, they had perished in their crisis, resorting to fighting each other instead of uniting under one leader to combat their crisis.

As he woke up that morning, Ash felt something fundamentally wrong with the atmosphere. Pushing away one of the ladies that graced his bed the night before, not like she had a choice to protest anyways, her husband had fallen behind on his quota of animal hide for the day. He wore his robe and stepped out of his room, his guards standing straight at the sight of their boss,

“Any problem boys?” he asked,

“None sir, quiet as ever” one of them replied,

Ash nodded as he walked towards the balcony of his tower, glancing around his stronghold, a sense of pride in what he had accomplished, then he heard it, everyone did. With a subtle beat like that of drums, he felt a chill pass through his body as he saw what looked like torches appearing from inside the woods that faced his stronghold. From those very woods poured out the refugees that had camped near his walls, and with the way they marched, he knew they were up to no good. Ash snarled as one of the guards on the tower blew a horn to rouse the forces of the stronghold, by now the sound was loud enough that everyone in the stronghold was awake,

“Bunch of fucking ingrates!” he snarled as he moved towards his room,

“Notify all three commanders! tell them to lay waste to those barbarians outside my walls!” he shouted at the guards who scrambled off to relay his orders,

He had barely worn his leather armor and picked up his sword when max burst into his room, ignoring the frightened naked woman on his boss’s bed,

“William leads them,” max said with his deep voice,

“Fucking bastard, I make him a commander and he bites the fingers that fed him, the rest?” Ash asked as his eyes began to glow green

“Still on our side, William took his entire contingent of soldiers, probably a thousand men along” max explained as both he and Ash jumped from the balcony down towards where his commanders were beginning to muster their troops.

A few weeks ago, he couldn’t had accomplished such a feat, but the higher he climbed in this new world and his system, the stronger he was becoming, and now, William and his people had given him an excuse to wipe people out and gather levels, he supposed he should be grateful to the idiot. He saw a messenger run-up to his army, kneeling and reporting,

“The rebels and commander William say they would like to negotiate,” he said,

“they’d like to talk now, would they? max, on me, the rest of the army should follow behind, talks or no talks, we lay waste to them tonight” Ash growled,

The wooden gates of stronghold Ash opened up with its leaders marching out along with their troops, facing the rebel William whose eyes glowed yellow, beside him a dark man with no distinctive attribute, except his level, a level forty-five initiate. Ash’s eyes narrowed,

“So, you bunch of bastards thought you could gather numbers against me cause you have a level forty-five initiate? who the fuck are you anyways?” he shouted, facing the man who only smiled,

“Lord Ash of stronghold Ash, you are hereby relieved of your position as lord of this stronghold, you and your troops shall surrender or be eradicated!” William shouted,

Ash began to chuckle, not believing what he was hearing, anger rose in his chest as his men and army began to laugh behind him,

“I took you in, you and all your troops, and this is how you pay me back? never mind, wipe them out, save the level forty-five initiate for me” he ordered as his eyes glowed green

The army roared as both sides prepared to battle,

“stop” a voice resonated around the plains and Ash felt his body seize up as an overwhelming power held everyone on the field.

(*)

Moyo sighed, he hadn’t expected the idiot of a lord to actually do battle. As he peeled off the mask on his face and released the shroud on his core, he felt his full might and power settle down on him. His braided locks finally flowing back to his shoulders, he felt his core brimming and took a deep breath before exhaling,

“ah, that’s better, now where were we?” he said as he opened his eyes to look at everyone who had paused,

With a thought he released them, watching as they all fell to the floor, panting. He winced, perhaps his power was too much for initiates, snorting to himself at the thought, he took a step towards Ash as he appeared in front of the man who stumbled backward, eyes wide as he stammered,

“y…you…you!” the man stuttered,

Moyo just kept staring at the man as he scrambled backward,

“Less than ten percent of humanity left on the planet” he started,

“and what do you do?, treat your fellow humans like trash, I should erase you where you stand,” he said darkly,

Whispers of “titan blade” filled the air as Moyo turned to the rebels of William which included his soldiers and all the refugees outside the stronghold. William was petrified, sitting on his back and staring up at Moyo even as the sun began to rise from the east,

“m…Moyo” he said as his head finally clicked,

Moyo nodded, turning back to the troops of Ash who had wisely distanced themselves from their leader,

“This is not my battle however, William is more than capable to trash your ass, and I’d let him prove it,” he said,

Grabbing Ash by the throat as the man shook and struggled in his vicelike grip, he threw him at the middle of both armies. Turning as he felt someone try to attack him, a simple punch saw Ash’s bodyguard max explode despite his rock path, Moyo raised an eyebrow as he manipulated the aether around him to prevent the gore from splashing on his body,

“Anyone else stupid enough to try attacking me?” he asked, seeing them all cower,

“Good enough” he finished and turned to see Ash standing, gripping his blade tight,

“at least you have some balls on you, William, will you fight this man in honorable combat?” Moyo asked,

William stood straight as he walked into the space Moyo created for their duel, nodding at him,

“I’ll be delighted to,” he said,

Moyo grinned and turned back to Ash, purple eyes glowing,

“Good, in the spirit of fairness, you both get a rare aether shard,” he said as he dipped his hands into his pockets and produced two rare shards, throwing one to the both of them,

“let’s get this over with,” Moyo said as he floated up in the air over the two combatants,

(*)

William crushed the rare shard and felt a rush of power pour into his core that made him stagger, eyes wide as he felt his core fill to the brim, burning hot and ready to be unleashed. As the sun rose to its full glory, he locked his gaze on Ash, the man who had begun to grin as his skin took a green tinge with a green liquid that dripped from his hands and sizzled on the ground. William began to draw from the excess power that rotated his core, pulling it to form an armor over his body as light and heat merged in a seamless burning robe over his body, eyes glowing with a blade in his hand.

Ash glanced up at the man that floated above them, William still couldn’t believe the man known as Moyo stood above them. The founder and lord of Bastion himself, rumored to be a peak acolyte or advocate of a path no one knew, he was sort of a myth to the remnants of humanity, a goal everyone aspired to be. Ash gripped his sword tightly,

“If I kill him,” Ash asked,

“You would let me live?” he asked Moyo,

The man above them merely raised an eyebrow at Ash in return, William grinned, and with a thought, two yellow orbs appeared at both sides of his head and shot a lance of pure sun energy at Ash who brought up his toxin-covered blade to block. Perhaps it was intuition that saved the lord of the stronghold from having two holes drilled through his head, but as the beams burned holes through his blades, he turned his head at the last minute to dodge the beams, getting only two heat burns at the side of his face as the beams splashed on whatever barrier Moyo had thrown up to protect the people. Ash cursed and threw the burnt blade to the ground, pointing at William with both his hands as he shot thick globs of toxin at him.

The difference between Ash and William had been a work in progress, while Ash had fought from behind his army, rising out to deal the final blow to whatever foe they faced that had been weakened, hence gaining a large share of the experience point from boss fights, William had been training his skills daily. Over the few weeks since being in command of his regiment, he had experimented on his skills, gaining three more uncommon skills adding to the two he already had.

With motions born out of constant practice, William conjured up a rotating circle with intricate-looking scripts written on them, his skill sun shield appearing to block the globs of toxin that sizzled off them. They ate a lot of his mana, but with the excess energy running rampant in his body, he couldn’t feel the drain on him the least,

“interesting’ he heard Moyo say above him, but without giving it a thought he charged at Ash who shifted back and began shooting glob after glob of toxin at an incoming William. He could feel his shield reaching its limit and with another thought summoned another sun shield in front of him. The first shield broke only for Ash to meet another one looming over him,

“Curse you!” Ash had shouted as his entire body took on a green hue like the very toxin was right below his skin, William’s eyes narrowed in wariness, whatever skill Ash had wanted to activate, he knew it couldn’t be good. With one hand stretched out in the direction of Ash, William activated his last skill, sun flare, he had gotten it during the crisis. An uncommon skill that allowed him to activate a burst of light that both blinded and stunned his foe for s few precious seconds.

The light burst forth in a yellow and white haze of glory as Ash shouted in surprise, in that very moment of shock, William placed an accurate sunbeam straight through the heart of Ash. The light cleared to show a shocked Ash staring at the black and burnt spot where his heart should had been located, he tried to talk but could only cough out blood, eyes wide as he toppled over to the ground before dying, his body crystallizing in an instant. William stood over the body of his former lord, the whole field quiet before shouts of victory rose from his rag-tag army, with a breath of relief he looked up at Moyo who had begun to descend back down while clapping, a gleam in his eyes.

The man landed and clapped him on the shoulder while grinning,

“Impressive for an initiate,” he said,

William merely nodded and looked at him, unsure if pulling up the man’s stat would be a breach of privacy,

“I’m an expert if that’s what you’re wondering,” Moyo said,

William just nodded dumbly, expert, figured, not like he had any hope of attaining a level that high anytime soon. Moyo waved his hand as the barrier melted away, William couldn’t see a thing, but with the way people could now walk into the space, it must had been removed. He watched the lord of Bastion walk towards the cold-looking troops of ash,

(*)

“I’ll only say this once and once only” Moyo started,

“I am Moyosore titan blade, lord of Bastion and the entire sector one of the yellow zone. Due to the selfish and irresponsible attitude of your former lord, he has been executed in a coup lead by your commander William, and as such he is now the lord of this stronghold” he said as a wave of power blasted out of the stronghold and its entire structure crumbled to dust, no bricks or wood left standing, it was as if the structure ceased to exist.

Moyo scratched the side of his face,

“Well, lord of this land it seems, anyways you get my point. Whoever is not satisfied with this new rule should leave now, this is your chance to escape while there’s still grace, you all enjoyed under the reign of your former boss, I have half a mind to wipe you off from the face of the earth” Moyo stated,

“Who made you lord over us?” a voice shouted from the midst of the troops,

Moyo smiled like he had been waiting for such a challenge. With a brief flare of authority that drove everyone in the entire area to their knees, like invisible giant hands had forced them down,

“I’m not sure if you heard the memo” Moyo started as he glanced back at the sprawling William and his people, waving his hand as the pressure left them with sighs of relief, watching as they stood and stared at him with a mixture of awe and fear,

“In this new world, power is everything, and I’m head and shoulders above you all. A single word of mine would wipe you all from the face of this planet without so much as raising a finger, but I’m no cruel leader like your former boss was. You want to know who made me lord and ruler? I did, cause I can” he finished as he stared idly at his fingers. The men were sufficiently terrified by now, some were shaking even as the pressure didn’t let up on their bodies.

In a flash the pressure had disappeared, the men scrambling to their feet but falling over in an attempt to get as far away as possible from him. In groups the men had begun to walk away, some sprinting away with their initiate strengths. Of the thousand-man army that Ash commanded, barely four hundred were left, it seemed these were the ones who wanted to turn a new leaf. Moyo glanced over them with stoic-looking eyes, only time would tell, but for now, a new stronghold had to be created.

He heard shuffling behind him as he turned, William had taken a knee in his front,

“You know, it’s not right for a lord of a stronghold to kneel before another lord,” Moyo said quietly,

“There is no stronghold left lord, we humbly ask that you take us all into your care” William replied,

Moyo was quiet for a few seconds as he looked out over the multitudes that knelt in front of him, he sighed and rubbed his face. Dipping his hand into his pocket, he opened up a rip as he brought out a rare dungeon core,

“Lord William, step forward” he ordered in his loudest voice as the people stared on, William stood up and walked towards him, his face showing a seriousness Moyo appreciated, he would make for a great lord. Handing him the rare dungeon core as William stared with wide eyes,

“Do the honor” Moyo whispered,

William stared wide-eyed at Moyo before nodding and wiping his eyes of the tears that were about to drop. Moyo watched the man space out as he accessed the dungeon core, the core began to glow as right before their eyes a new stronghold appeared around them. Walls that glowed in the morning sun made out of glowing yellow bricks, a castle rose inside the walls made out of gold and glowing metals, the ground was cobbled with normal brown but pristine-looking bricks, and buildings rose all around them ranging from cottages to different utility buildings. As it all came to a stop, William came out of the trance he was in, again he took a knee in front of Moyo,

“I lord William of the stronghold sun haven, hereby swear allegiance to the lord of Bastion and ruler of sector one of the yellow zone” William stated as Moyo stared in confusion,

A loud gong reverberated around them as a notification appeared in the air,

ZONE NOTICE:

Newly created stronghold sun valley has sworn allegiance to the domain Bastion!. As this is the first of its accomplishment, the stronghold would receive:

10 diamond coins 100 gold coins 1000 silver coins 10,000 bronze coins Communication access with the domain

William stared in shock at the boon while Moyo just groaned,

“Mrs. Martha’s going to kill me” he muttered,

Before William had the time to ask who that was, the skies darkened as a large cloud that flashed with lightning floated over from the woods, men in silver armor carrying large hammers, shields, and maces walked out of the woods as the creatures in the woods ran around in terror,

“Who are those?” William asked as the people ran in a stampede into the new walls of sun valley,

“those” Moyo started as lightning stuck in front of them and a dark-skinned woman with blue hair and eyes carrying a spear that lightning ran through it appeared in their front, tapping her feet while staring at Moyo with frustration in her eyes,

“Those are the titan’s sentinels “Moyo stated,

“You do know Mrs. Martha’s going to kill you right?” the woman said,

“William, may I have the honor of presenting Annika, a battle mage on the path of the storm maiden, and commander of the storm bringers of Bastion” Moyo finished smiling.