Chapter 181: 171. Floridian Homecoming

Jay stood on the bow of the lead ship. His Champions stood behind him. To their backs, the sun rose, painting the eastern horizon a swath of golden orange light like runny egg yolk. To their front, the central lands of Annexed Florida lounged in between the Atlantic and the gulf. Company Graven Divinity flew at cruising speed hundreds of feet above the water where mega sharks, monstrous krakens, and many ocean-swimming beasties waited under the surface. 

They cruised above the coast where patrolling groups of adventurers swept along the beach and took down hostile monsters trying to cross the sands and invade habited areas. Not everyone in Annexed Florida was a part of the Protectorates, which was perfectly fine. But Annexed Florida still needed a program to help point people toward solving monster issues. And the Protectorates needed to circulate a sort of trading system that coexisted with the new Pre-Pre-Apocalypse. This was made more difficult by the lack of certain System features YoAnna couldn’t acquire because of the indefinite delay of the Uk-Guk-Gara Dungeons.

The archives had a solution. Hailey read up on how other universes handled this stuff and got some feedback from Kleo. Then she roped Frank into helping her start the Adventurer Initiative.

Jay looked down as a young girl living in a small coastal town stopped to deal with a Rabid Racoon trapped in a magic monster cage. The young girl had the Shadow Fighter Class. She used it right away to manipulate the morning shadows into a solid spear and poke the monster to death. Then she pulled out a butcher’s knife, enhanced it with her shadow powers, and entered the cage carefully. She hacked the monster apart even further to loot something valuable from its corpse. Whatever she left behind would get carved up by other people for their uses or get tossed into a pit outside the town for neutral monsters.

Once the young Shadow Fighter finished, she continued on with her morning. She was probably an adventurer and one of the strongest in her town since she had a Classical Class with an affinity. There were less of those compared to people with Derivative Classes since you generally needed someone like YoAnna to guarantee a Classical Class. But it could still come up at random out of pure luck or circumstance. Cutie had gained a Classical Class as one of the first unregulated, after all.

The Shadow Fighter’s town didn’t have walls like others. The town reinforced their homes and set simple but effective magic traps for monsters to stumble into, setting them up as easy kills. Other towns had followed the same example but would invite friendly monsters to pose as look outs or night guardians. Jay spotted a couple of Mothmen perched on the rooftops of another town Company Graven Divinity flew over. The town and the tribe of Mothmen had worked out a deal that allowed the townsfolk to sleep at night while the Mothmen held the defense in the dark hours.

Some towns stuck to having rotating shifts of adventurers or part-time adventurers patrolling the area and getting into magic fights with sea monsters or swamp monsters. Not everyone trusted monsters even if they were friendly or neutral. The Protectorates made it a part of their duties to raise monster neutrality awareness among the people of Annexed Florida. It had taken a lot of convincing and public outreach designed by Hailey and Emily to ensure Floridians didn’t attack all monsters on sight.

Just like the Mothmen, some monsters were downright beneficial to have around if you could befriend them or turn them into familiars. Like living Pokemon, but a little more intelligent. The ‘good’ monsters could point toward interesting flora that was worth cultivating for their medicinal properties. Friendly monsters could also lead to secret lairs conjured out of view of towns by the System, which could grow into problems if they weren’t detected in time. The friendliest of monsters would sometimes give quests that gave extra Experience. Or at the very least, they would point toward places where food was plentiful. Walking mango groves were a thing nowadays. They would appear in the morning at a location, then when nobody was looking, they would move to another place like ninja ents.

Kinda creepy, Jay thought.

But those mangos were delicious. Almost addictively so. There were jobs on the adventurer post boards for collecting mangoes from walking mango groves.

People with magic for farming and making food became important members of this new society. [Crafter-Types] were highly valued. Money stopped being an issue since everyone needed to rely on either direct trade or simple favors. And there were a lot of homes and lands left available after nearly ten million people left Florida in exodus, choosing to stay with the USA rather than be a part of a land ruled by the Protectorates. The people who stayed seemed to do all right, but that didn’t mean they were all in favor of the Protectorates.

Most people were just trying to pick up the pieces from their destroyed livelihoods and rebuild themselves after their world fell apart because of YoAnna’s Apocalypse. It was certainly not easy to set things up where the remaining Floridians could have autonomy and means to grow, especially when there was mistrust and misinformation lingering about. Jay still believed the Protectorates took the best course of action for themselves after his… follies.

People had been so angry because of the Devil Flakes, the spreading of the apocalypse blood, and Jay’s botched attempts to talk about it. Before Annexed Florida became a thing, the USA looked at the Protectorates as invaders. That had been a hard pill to swallow, but the constant threats from politicians who had turned their backs on YoAnna and the constant terrorist attacks from everyday people becoming Systemic and wanting an outlet for their anger and a reason to use their new powers had placed the Protectorates on edge. Something had to change.

So they took Florida for themselves and set down some borders. This helped establish YoAnna’s influence across their new ‘nation’ and give the [Godling] more leverage with her High Divinity powers. Because of the vast power the USA still wielded even with the world’s infrastructure dismantled, YoAnna had way more leeway with her High Divinity. Though YoAnna had discussed a few concerns regarding her limits. How many magic nukes could she block until one finally broke through if the USA went full-tilt annihilation mode? Or how much blood could the Champions wade through if they had to fight the USA to save everyone from annihilation? How much bad stuff did Jay have to do until he couldn’t believe himself to be a hero of comedy anymore?

“It’s a nice morning,” Jay said. “And yet there might be some killing to do.”

“On YoAnna’s wicked scar, can we take a break?” Dennis moaned. “Please? Pretty please? YoAnna, please!”

YoAnna’s impression blanketed over them, answering to Dennis first with an apologetic touch. She swept across her Champions, hesitating on Casey since she might not want YoAnna’s touch.

“I’m fine,” Casey said.

YoAnna’s divine presence skipped over Casey and settled on Jay’s shoulders.

“What’s the sitch?” Hailey asked plainly, trying to hide her excitement. She was always up for some killing.

“Fifty special forces. High Rank 3s. USA. Forty miles south,” Jay informed. “They’re hiking a trail through the glades. Must’ve entered through Miami in hopes of catching us unaware. They’re blessed with angel magic, though, which might be the reason they’re cloaked from YoAnna’s gaze.”

YoAnna’s impression was filled with embarrassment. Jay reached up and swept his hand through the air to comfort his deific wife. He suffered -100 HP of damage, barely paying the pain much mind as he kept tracking the special forces. They fell under the domain of his [Smiling Doom of Assassination Orders] now since most of their members had the intent to harm or kill individual Protectorates in secret.

“Okay, this is stupid,” Dennis said. “Why would they even attempt something against us with only that level of manpower?”

“What if they aren’t planning to attack right away?” Emily asked. “They could be trying to infiltrate the local area. Set themselves up for the long game. Find dissenters to turn against us. Plan out ways to strike from the ground level. And they are blessed by angels, correct?”

“Yup,” Jay answered.

“High Rank 3s with angel blessings. That means Chance could be on their side. Ironically, that actually might be a danger to us. Especially you, Commander Luckrun.”

Dennis sighed in anguish. He was one of the Champions who took getting called a villain the hardest. Jay didn’t blame the guy. He was at his core a true hero-type. A bit of a white knight, but you needed guys like that to risk it all for what was right. Thus, Jay wouldn’t put Dennis on a mission that hurt his morals too much.

“Hailey, with me,” Jay said. “YoAnna, could you send Frank down? Maybe he could talk military lingo with these guys and avoid the killing.”

“It’s gonna happen regardless,” Hailey said under her breath, knowing everyone could hear her.

YoAnna affirmed with her godly impression before fading away. Jay told Emily to talk Beren down if he tried to follow or the Duelist might blow things out of proportion. Then Jay patted Dennis on the arm before jumping off the ship with Hailey riding sidesaddle on a broom.

“It’s the Gravity Devil and Wicked Witch!” shouted a young boy with a Sound-Blaster Class. His voice traveled across his town and reached every ear. Thankfully, the town was far from the USA assassins hiking up the trail. At the speed of their movement, they would reach the town in two hours. Jay intended to wait for them, but he would rather settle down without causing a panic.

“Should I?” Jay questioned himself.

“Do it,” Hailey said as she strode over to a breakfast joint.

Jay looked at all the townspeople as his friends and applied [Emotion Wave Stabilizer] to calm them down. Even the excitable Sound-Blaster kid took a moment to recompose himself and see that there was no danger as the Protectorates’ Commander and Secretary entered the diner.

The scent of Great Quality coffee filled Jay’s nostrils. Monster eggs, unique pancake mix, high-quality bread, fried bacon from monster boars, and other delectable treats filled the air with their smell.

Jay took a seat at the counter with a projection of Hailey taking out a makeup kit and pretending to touch her face up. They were dressed in dark clothing, all black for Jay with a hood and cloak. Hailey wore her Halloween colors she’d fallen in love with, but in a more Floridian style bikini and short cover-up that showed off her legs. The diner’s patrons took a gander. It wasn’t every day that the Gravity Devil and the Wicked Witch came to town.

“Brought this from Russia,” Jay said to the woman working behind the counter before pulling out a big shiny rock. “Diamonds. Lots of them. Good Quality, though. But you could make some fancy stuff with it if you trade it to the right [Crafter-type].”

“Would’ve preferred something Great Quality if you have it, sir,” replied the diner woman. “Though, those are nice and shiny. Russia, you say? What’s the Protectorates doing there?”

“Helping clean up my mess as best we can,” Jay said. “You sure you don’t want these shinies? Might work well as trade toward friendly monsters. You know how they love unique shinies.”

“Alright, alright, you’re a persistent one, I’ll give you that. My cousin swears he saw this pack of crow griffins that took roost nearby. Intelligent, monsters, and good traders. Might get something worthwhile with these. Russian, right?”

“They’ll sense the foreignness and know it’s unique. You might as well think of them as high Great Quality when trading with crow griffins,” Hailey said through her illusion. The diner woman looked at Hailey like she would be a reliable authority on this. She accepted the offer, took a pile of diamonds from Jay and rung up their order. The coffee came first, which was a delight. It fell short of Superior Quality, but there hadn’t been a shipment of Superior Quality cocoa beans in a while. Someone was going to strike it rich when they found some.

Jay and Hailey hung out at the diner for a while until Frank showed up. Not much had changed from his Rank 4 evolution other than the obsidian scales growing a little more over his dark skin. He was wearing a leather jacket and dark blue jeans to match, coming across as a simple loner crossing through town. It was a good act, and for some reason, people didn’t pay him as much attention as long as he distanced himself from the more colorful personalities of the Champions. He had a glove on his Nidhogg II, concealing it from prying eyes. But once he sat next to Jay, Frank became a brighter part of the picture– he was the Floridian Dragon, after all.

A mug of coffee ended up on the counter in front of him. Frank thanked the diner woman before turning a baleful glare toward Jay and Hailey.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m only the Secretary,” Hailey’s projection said.

“It was totally her fault. She’s a bad influence on me,” Jay said.

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Jay.”

“Better than dropping a house on you, eh?”

“Ha ha ha.”

“You have no idea the things I do to keep these children under control,” Frank told the diner woman.

“I can imagine. My ma had eight of us. And we were all special,” the diner woman said. “But you all must be the most special lot of children ever. Heck, you ended the world.”

“Yeah,” Frank said. “Yeah, we did.”

“Come on, Floridian Dragon, let’s take a walk,” Jay said, dropping to his feet.

“I’m not even from Florida. I’m Texan,” Frank muttered.

“That’s turncoat talk, Frank. We might have to string you up,” Hailey teased.

“Bah.”

They exited the diner. The town was a little more active later in the morning. People hawked from a small market where they traded stuff. A herd of Rank 2 Magic Ducks waddled through town, only stopping when people fed them scraps of food. By feeding the ducks enough, they might magic up an item of yours with a random buff. They left quite the mess behind them, though. But their poop could be used for fertilizer.

Jay, Hailey’s projection, and Frank exited the town and followed a trail into some woodsy area. Once they were behind enough cover where perceptive eyes couldn’t peep, Hailey tossed up a sound barrier.

“They want concessions for the damages they’ve suffered because of your ruthless attacks against their military,” Frank said. “First, they asked for all of our knowledge on spellcraft.”

“And you’ve denied that,” Hailey said.

“We’ve denied that,” Frank confirmed. “Then they wanted us to return Beren and give up Jay. That was pretty laughable. I even had a chuckle. Denied.”

“And?” Jay sensed something he wouldn’t like coming up.

“They want their representatives for the ball to not have to kneel,” Frank added.

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“They must kneel,” Jay said darkly. “All guests. Must. Kneel.”

Frank nodded slowly. “We told them that.”

Jay nodded in satisfaction. He couldn’t compromise on that point. Maybe it was hard coded into him now that he was YoAnna’s husband. Or maybe he had something to do with YoAnna carrying the Luckrun name.

YoAnna Sainte-Luckrun.

Just like that, the name of a nobody family had shot high in the Multiverse of importance. Britney carried that name, too, and she was blazing trails even YoAnna hadn’t known were possible. Having the guests kneel to his deific wife was to honor her as System Guide, and to honor Jay’s name, moving beyond the desperate and poor origins of Jay and his mom.

Jay let out a breath, shuddering. They had fallen silent for a moment while Jay had brooded to himself on the importance of the guests’ kneeling.

“Sorry,” Jay said. “The whole kneeling thing is more for me than anything. It’s causing problems, huh?”

“Nothing new,” Frank said. “But we’ve given them leverage to incite more rage out of their people. Agents of Change are sending in rapid reports. They’ve caught enough video. They’re spreading it to all standing metropolitan areas with a working internet. It’s to where anyone with an inkling of wanting to fight is signing up.”

“So the difference is their speeding up war measures,” Hailey said. “They want this, Frank. They want this fight.”

“Is there no way to avoid it, Hailey?” Frank asked. “We’re talking a military might of millions. And it’s growing.” Frank waved his magitek arm north. “There’s power. That’s us. Then there’s manpower. That’s them. And they have way more manpower. Even Tim can’t stand endlessly against hundreds of thousands shoved down his throat.”

“We don’t stand against hundreds of thousands,” Hailey countered. “We go for the most important. The most powerful. Then we tear out their throats and spread their blood for all to see. We break their spirit. We break their war effort. And then they cannibalize each other when they realize they can’t unite against us.”

“That’s not the American way,” Jay said. “Their history, their stories, all the small magic they’ve built up in a short time, it all says keep fighting to the last man and dominate.”

Hailey hesitated slightly. “I’m not saying outright genocide. But Lilith–”

“No,” Frank said.

Jay kept his mouth shut.

Hailey shook her head. “We have to consider it. The Rare Quality materials we’re bringing back might be all Lilith needs to push to new limits.”

“Kleo gave me the impression that they’ve gotten Rare Quality loot over with Company Booty Pirates,” Jay said. “That might just be enough for Lilith to… to reach Epic Quality with some help.”

“Fuck.” Frank shook his head. “That’s scary, man. Even I’ll admit that.”

“We also have some nuclear magic samples for her and Team Magic R&D to examine,” Hailey added. “For defensive options, at least.”

There was also the issue with the Russian Warmade, but that could be discussed later.

“It’s Company Magic R&D now,” Frank corrected. “We’ve finished recruitment for it. Mike and Macy approved of the choices. We got the best [Mage-Types], [Crafter-Types], and [Medium-Types] to assist your work there. The area has been expanded again, too. It’s looking more like a mini-college campus now.”

Hailey gave a genuine smile. Her, Mike, Lilith, Macy, Brit, and Emily were the originals. Their work had helped the Protectorates get ahead of everyone on spellcraft and incantations. But now that the information was out there, Company Magic R&D needed to ramp up high-quality production to counter their enemies. But for what means? For devastation and genocide? Or for safety and defense? Maybe a mix of both.

“Five miles out now,” Jay said, shifting their attention to their main objective here. “Let’s make this quick. I want to be home.”

Frank used an outfit swapper and changed into a Wildland Combat Leathers Outfit (Superior) which was reminiscent of the old Monster Combat Leathers. It was all dark greens and browns with nicely fitted all-terrain boots, stretchy legging with pockets, and a vest that left his arms bare. Out in full view was Nidhogg II, the colors inverted compared to the last version. Now it had a bold white body with red trims and lines of black and gold. The fingers didn’t end in claws anymore. But the knuckles seemed broader and heavier compared to the last version.

Jay and Hailey didn’t bother changing outfits. Together, the trio moved to intercept the USA assassins. They picked a spot where Hailey’s magic concealed them while the wicked Unseelie [Mage] started weaving traps into the area. As she prepared, and the USA assassins drew nearer, Jay wondered how he would subdue these people. Past attempts had been successful where Jay could put the fear of him into enemies, but having other Protectorates serve as escorts or jailors led to disaster and lost lives on the Protectorates’ side. YoAnna had reassured Jay their pantheon was still growing and learning and would become more practiced at this with enough time. They couldn’t rely on him for everything, and they had to learn to work out difficult situations where killing wasn’t the only option.

It would be so much easier.

But choosing the easy route wasn’t part of Jay’s creed. It wasn’t the creed of the Protectorates.

“Hello,” Jay said as Hailey dropped the invisibility magic from around him alone. “You may know me as the Gravity Devil.”

The troop of men and women stopped all at once. They twitched slightly as they stared at Jay with blank looks on their faces. No surprise. No emotion. They acted as if everything was perfectly fine except for hearing the nickname Jay had acquired among many. It took Jay a split-second to realize something was terribly wrong. Then Jay took another split-second to smell a trap– the narrative was running way too smoothly and the fourth dimension was quiet. Way too quiet.

“Frank, Hailey, back off!” Jay ordered with gravitas.

“In the service of the almighty powers above all others,” chanted one of the USA assassins.

“[Horizondancer],” Jay said, slowing time until it was nearly imperceptible from being frozen. He watched his Mana Status drop way more than it should. At the same time, a bunch of cleverly concealed talismans broke– temporal defenses in the form of incantation-harboring items. Each of the USA assassins freed themselves from [Horizondancer].

“We will bring a righteous crusade of holiness against all fiends and devils,” chanted the Blessed Medium in the middle.

Jay growled ferociously as he clamped down on each of the USA assassins with his Gravity Affinity alone. He was going to crush them. But his Chance Status dropped to x1 CM. All of their Chance Statuses rose above their cap. Jay watched with horror as his Gravity Affinity crusher slid off of the USA assassins like water off a duck’s backside.

“No!” Jay lunged forward, his tomahawk in hand. He used a combination of [Headhunter], [Smiling Doom of Assassination Orders], and [Devil of Gravity] to imprint his ferocious willpower upon the USA assassins, especially the one that was chanting an incantation. This had a way better effect, filling them all with fear. Nearly all of them dropped from the outright power that they couldn’t hope to deny.

But one USA assassin remained standing. The Blessed Medium had an insane amount of willpower that helped him continue his incantation. And with Chance blowing hard with the momentum of the Blessed Medium, Jay felt his approach slow as he chopped down with a mighty blow for the man’s head. But Jay couldn’t get there in time.

“We give ourselves unto you, 777th Heavenly Realms, Perfect Vessels.”

Pure white beams of holiness struck down with an explosive impact. Each beam struck the USA assassins lying on the floor or standing in defiance of Jay’s devilish power. To Jay’s misfortune, he was caught in the crossfire. The holy beams battered and burned and threw Jay around with a bunch of dirt, rocks, and smashed apart trees. Critters and monsters lurking in the area ran away as beams continued punching down from the heavens and pummeling the area.

Jay crawled out of the impact zone. He looked up and saw Frank reaching down to help pick him up.

“I told to get back,” Jay muttered.

“We followed your orders, Commander Luckrun,” Frank said, setting Jay on his feet. “We got back. Then I came forward to make sure you’re still alive and kicking.”

Hailey was still farther back, preparing some spells. The traps she’d laid nearby still remained. Jay sighed as the white beams ended. His outfit was tattered now. The power of that incantation pummeled him a good bit, too. It would’ve annihilated him if Jay wasn’t an Eldritch Monkey Scion.

“Angels, huh?” Frank pulled out a Supreme Dragoon Greatsword (Superior) from his pocket.

Jay cracked his neck. He reached out and yanked the tomahawk back into his hand. He took out a Mana Potion and took a few gulps.

After replenishing some of his Mana, he turned to face the small platoon of Level 90 Cherub Foot Soldiers, oddly shaped people with feathery wings sprouting from their backs. They still had their weapons, an assortment of magic guns and medieval arms that were supercharged with angelic magic now. Trying to [Analyze] them even with the help of [Eye of Venerated Madness] drove an ice prick of pain through Jay’s brain. No matter. He could feel the volatile shifts in the fourth dimension and the message behind the narrative.

“This,” Jay muttered, “is going to be one hell of a homecoming.”

“Your orders?” Frank asked calmly.

“Retreating battle,” Jay answered as he slowly backed away, Frank following right beside him. “They’re strong. Really strong. And I can feel the narrative supporting them hard. We’ll have to lead them into Hailey’s stuff.”

Frank sighed. “Never a dull moment with you, Commander Luckrun.”

“Eh, it’s part of my allure.”

***

5 - Frank

Name: Franklin Stronghold, Rank 4

Class: [Fighter, Level 73]

Race: Human

Allegiance: Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon.

Affinity: Dragon (Dragon)

Statuses: [Health 4000/4000 HP], [Stamina 2600/2600 SP], [Mana 2200/2200 MP], [Chance x5/x21 CM].

Attributes: [1,088 Applied AP]; 170 Resilience, 230 Poise, 150 Strength, 110 Agility, 110 Perception, 110 Intellect, 108 Conviction, 100 Discovery; [0 Free AP].

Skills: [Cavalry Charge]; [Weapon Conflagration]; [Weapons Master of Dominance and Mysticism]; [Dragon Wings]; [Swords of the Prideful Dragon Lord (S)].

Talents: [Analyze], [Questing Starlight], [Champion Cloaking], [Great Status Overflow], [Hand of Draconic Malevolence], [Poised Persistence], [Magitek Prosthetic], [Ranker 120], [Attribute Perfectionist].

Titles: [Baron of Pride], [Immolator of Insolence], [War Chair of the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon], [YoAnna’s Champion of Challenge and Change], [Prodigy of Monster Slaying], [Young Virtuoso of Violent Ballads], [Slayer of Assassins], [Hunter of Immortals], [Mightiest of Earth: #9].