Chapter 166: Fallen Antarnia

Hulk gave Apophis a set of clothes.

Apophis put them on, then prepared to go to the underground garage to see Antanria.

However, before he could leave, Ceasar asked, "Do you have a minute?"

Apophis was surprised. "Yes, of course."

Ceasar said, "Do you have a strategy to get all your people off the planet? You have a lot of captains and crews, after all."

Apophis was confused. What was Ceasar implying? "We have two corvettes on the planet. That should be plenty."

Ceasar answered, "I see. So you just expect your two corvettes can get past all the anti-aircraft batteries and Imperial ships without issue? The Coalition tried to negotiate safe passage, but that broke down."

Apophis said, "For now, no. We don't have a special strategy. We're going to have to try to use stealth and the element of surprise to evade all the obstacles, because we definitely don't have the firepower to destroy the Vk.5 mechas that Hulk says are guarding the batteries."

Ceasar said, "Not necessarily! Thanks to your, uh, achievement on Cronos I, there are more than ten million players on Terra. We've got players from Hyrule, Toxic, and Lord Of War. If everyone joins forces, we can definitely take them down!

Apophis was astonished. "Man, you were on Cronos I. You saw these machines in action. A single one can hold a battle line a kilometer wide against tens of thousands of players. They're designed to tank a hit from… well… a tank!

"And how many do you think the Imperial army can send against us from their local base? Hundreds? Thousands? We're in the capital, remember!"

Ceasar replied, "Not if we methodically focus our attacks. I'm talking about elite SuperGuild players, not the average casual. If we treat it like a giant raid, we'll succeed for sure."

Hulk intervened. "Don't worry about it, Apophis. He's been trying to convince me, too, but his plan seems to be totally hopeless, no matter how I look at it."

Apophis thought for a second.

Then he answered, "There may be a way, but I have to talk to Lotus before making a decision. Now, if you'll excuse us, Ceasar, I have a priority mission to take care of."

The Apophis, Hulk, and their group started back towards the underground parking garage.

***

When he arrived on the scene, Apophis saw his team and all the members of Eclipse for the first time in a week.

Lotus had really selected an amazing group of players. Despite the intense events on Cronos I, and everything since then, none had left the guild, nor even the mission. All had remained loyal.

Apophis was overcome with a peculiar sense of satisfaction. For almost the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to have built something solid, to be part of an organization that didn't simply exist to take everything from him.

Then he saw ThreeDog and Jiraya talking, and decided it was time to remind them who was the boss.

He approached them and said in a serious tone, "For people who play sixteen hours a day, you sure are trash at it."

The two players glanced at each other in confusion, unsure whether it was a reproach…

But then Apophis's serious expression broke into a grin and the three men burst into laughter.

"Well," said Jiraya, "If I was a cheater like you, I'd have killed Lucifer with a snap of my fingers! What took you so long, Boss?"

Apophis was happy to have found his two most valued subordinates again. "No doubt about it," he chuckled. "This is the noob room. I didn't know we had one of those."

Then Apophis greeted the rest of his crew who had died while fighting Regnier: Aurora, FantasyDoctor, and StarLight. Everyone was elated to see their guild's spiritual leader safe and sound again, rather than in the clutches of the enemy.

Then Apophis came back and addressed Jiraya again. "Where's Antanria?"

Jiraya was embarrassed. He didn't know how he was going to explain the strange situation. "Follow me." He left Apophis to the small supply closet where they'd set up Antanria's bed.

She was still unconscious.

Apophis, like Hulk, was very surprised by the Zetark princess's change of appearance.

After a few seconds of reflection, he asked Jiraya to leave him and Antanria alone and to guard the entrance of the room so that they could have a moment of privacy.

Jiraya was surprised by Apophis's request.

He wanted to ask for an explanation, but instead obeyed the order and posted himself at the entrance to block any intruders.

Apophis opened his inspection menu and examined Antanria's system details.

╔══════════════╕

╟─╼ NPC CHARACTER

║ ╰╼[Name]: Antanria

║ ╰╼[Title]: Princess

║ ╰╼[LvL]: ???

║ ╰╼[Rank]: C

║ ╰╼[Class]: Esper

║ ╰╼[Biology] Female Fallen Zetark

╚══════════════╛

A lot had changed in Antanria since their last meeting. In a very short time, she'd reached Rank C and unlocked the Esper class!

What was an incredible feat in and of itself, especially for an NPC, but her biology was the most perplexing part.

A Fallen Zetark?! It didn't make sense. Unlike players, the bodies of NPCs didn't usually evolve unless they grew to the level of demigods. This was definitely a first in Horus!

But, again, even if Antanria had been an Eternal, this would have been much too fast.

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It took most players months of grinding and questing to achieve Rank C, but Antanria had done so in about a week. This was a much more impressive progression curve than any ordinary Eternals.

Then, after several more moments of consideration, Apophis noticed something else quite disturbing.

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He hadn't realized it at first, because someone had put thick blankets over Antanria to keep her warm, but Antanria's cheekbones were very pronounced—as though she were severely malnourished.

Apophis pulled back the blankets and was horrified.

She still wore one of the dresses which Apophis had bought for her soon after she had woken up, a dress which should have been much too small for her now.

But though the skirt of the elegant dress now came above her knees, rather than falling gracefully to the level of her shins, the rest of the fabric was almost draped over Antanria's body.

She was barely more than a skeleton.

Nearly all the muscle mass in Antanria's arms and legs had withered away, and as Apophis approached, a dark energy resonated through her veins and bones in time to his own heartbeat.

It took Apophis only a moment to realize the truth:

Antanria possessed Apophis's own cosmic energy, as though an invisible vein constantly channeled power from him and into her.

This explained why Antanria had evolved from a Pureblood Zetark to a Fallen Zetark. While Apophis's energy must have been a corrupting influence in the past, its darkness must not have been sufficient to force the transformation.

But recently, he'd gained more and more power… which was, also, darker and darker.

Apophis remembered the quest he'd received when he first found Antanria on Omeya. To wake the princess from her coma, he'd injected her with his own vital energy.

He'd assumed that this energy would quickly dissipate, being similar to using a jolt of electricity to restart a dead battery, but apparently that had been a faulty assumption.

Instead, this injection of energy had created a bond between the two of them, one which caused Antanria to continually absorb his energy even across the vastness of space.

How was this possible? The only explanation was the extension of the same theory that Apophis had told to Emma previously…

…That some divine force was guiding Antanria, preparing her—and Apophis—for some future destiny.

Did that destiny involve them both being corrupted by darkness, or had Apophis's path of embracing the darkness changed all that? Had Apophis irreversibly altered fate for both himself and Antanria by ruthlessly pursuing power?

Well, no matter what the future held for either of them, Apophis realized that Antanria's situation was nowhere near as terrible as he'd initially feared.

He remembered his own evolution to a Fallen Zetark, which had been incredibly stressful and painful. And even a normal mutation for an Eternal was a lengthy process.

As an NPC, Antanria's biology wasn't even designed to mutate. She was, honestly, lucky to still be alive! For most NPCs, absorbing this much mutative energy would be like sleeping next to an exposed nuclear reactor core.

It was no wonder that Antanria had wasted away, and it was a blessing that her body had preserved its life by putting Antanria into a coma.

Apophis thought about the situation for another moment, then returned to Jiraya, who was still guarding the room.

"Do you have healing, Energy, and Strength-buffing potions?" he asked.

"Uh… I've got a couple," said Jiraya, looking confused.

"Go get more!" Apophis said, and Jiraya went to search for them.

***

Within fifteen minutes, Apophis had a wide array of potions gathered from the various members of Eclipse.

Healing, Energy, and buffing potions were essentially specialized food supplements and vitamins which worked on a biological level, so they should be just what was needed to help Antanria's body recover.

Apophis had to put a plastic tube down Antanria's throat, like she was in a hospital, because otherwise it would be impossible for her to swallow the potions.

Then he trickled them down the feeding tube, one by one.

First the buffing potions, to allow her body to work as efficiently as possible. Then the healing potions, then the Energy potions, then finally several combined health/Energy regeneration potions.

At first, nothing seemed to happen.

Then, the dark energy racing through her body accelerated, breaking away from the precise signature of Apophis's own energy as it regained its own internal stability.

Then every muscle in her body seemed to spasm!

Antanria's body began regenerating its muscle mass, then its fat stores. Her arms and legs returned to normal, then the muscles of her torso, and finally even her breasts and hips regained a healthy amount of fat.

Her hair gained a slightly different shine, her skin shifted to a slightly darker hue as her blood supply rejuvenated itself, and her cheekbones lost their thinness.

But she didn't wake up.

And then her body began to shrink again as the dark energy ate away at the new resources available to it!

"More!" Apophis shouted. "Hurry!"

Every one of the fifty members of Eclipse gave up the last of their potions.

Apophis agonizingly poured three hundred buffing potions, six hundred healing potions, and twelve hundred Energy potions down Antanria's feeding tube. He began administering them as quickly as he could.

The dark energy in her body greedily absorbed potion after potion… but then, suddenly, it began slowing down.

Apophis didn't want to waste the guild's limited resources if he didn't need to, so he also slowed down the rate of administering potions, instead shifting to a schedule of ten potions of each category each hour.

Then Antanria's regeneration picked up speed again, going even further than it had before.

Her hair grew several centimeters every minute. Her muscles, rather than returning to merely a neutral state, became as toned as though she had spent hours each day exercising.

Her body sculpted itself into the form of a perfect twenty-year-old woman…

…And after four hours and forty potions of each type per hour, Antanria opened blood-red eyes and choked as she grabbed the feeding tube and ripped it from her own throat.

Antanria spat a dribble of potion onto the floor just as the dark energy that had been surging through her body seemed to vanish, completing its fusion with her essence.

Apophis gave a huge grin of relief as she met his gaze. "Welcome back to the world of the living," he said.

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