philtucker

Chapter 127

NYC, 19 Hours Earlier

Becca lounged in the armchair she’d dragged out of home furnishings into the center of the abandoned mall’s plaza. The power was out, but late dusk light filtered in through the skylights high above. Her Bushmaster lay across her lap, glossy black and gleaming. With one hand she brushed the tip of her braid over her lips; with the other she thumbed the safety on and off.

Before her stood the demon.

Tall, elegant, refined, it regarde...

New Cover Art

Chapter 126: Cornucopia Seed

Steam rose from the skull that was half buried in the sand. Driven by morbid curiosity, James flew his Wing down and passed slowly over it. The skull alone was bigger than a school bus, the bone undamaged by the impact with the boulders, the stench of boiling brains and burned flesh filling the air.

“That’s next level, man,” said Yadriel, his voice tinged with awe. Then: “No new level? C’mon!”

James could only marvel. Though the moment had been tense, they’d never be...

Chapter 125

James emerged into a vast chasm, perhaps fifty feet off the red rock floor, the cliff-like walls rising a mile before disappearing into metallic-blue mist. The scale was mind numbing once more; it seemed the demons couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go big.

The air was cold and acrid. Everywhere James looked he saw fallen boulders, some shattered in half, drifts of rust-red sand, and then the cliffs which undulated like curtains as they extended straight ahead and behind. The fog roil...

Chapter 124

The next three levels were as varied, bizarre, but ultimately unchallenging. The Hollow Hill was a small mountain of bones that had calcified into a funereal whole that resembled a giant skull. Great orb spider demons picked their way delicately over the white surface, and from their spinnerets came virulent sprays of Infernum-tainted webbing.

James and his crew dropped Heavenly Assaults all over the hill, cleansing its exterior, and then watched as the Castrum Mortis bashed its way ins...

Chapter 123

The portal to the second layer was hidden in the depths of the citadel tower. The Wings made searching for it a quick affair; they zipped in and out of the levels after exploring the abandoned crown, and finally entered the ground level floor which sank at a precipitous angle. A huge staircase descended into the depths, large enough for the Wings to swing around and around, down and down, until they floated out into a cavernous chamber in whose floor burned a circle of crimson light, its surf...

Chapter 122

Pits are Now Open

Layer 1, The Fallen Plains, Unlocked

Denizens of Layer 1 May Emerge

Deeper Layers will Unlock Every Subsequent Day,

Releasing Its Denizens

Humanity Must Defeat All 27 Layers to End the Apocalypse

Advance Access to Deeper Layers is Possible

By Destroying Each Successive Layer’s Crimson Diamond

Chapter 121

He found Crimson Hydra gathered around Kimmie and Kerim. They lay in twin beds in one of the penthouse bedrooms. Late morning sluiced into the chamber. Folks had pulled up chairs, and Denzel sat beside Kerim, holding his hand, his expression profoundly lost.

“Nothing?” asked James, stepping into the doorway.

“Vital signs are fine,” said Jason quietly. “There’s nothing to heal. They’re just not waking up.”

James moved over to sit beside Kimmie, whose body dipp...

Chapter 120

“Once I absorbed the Reservoir Cube, a completely new understanding as to how to approach manufacturing filled me. Not only was I flooded with new possibilities and schematics, but also an appreciation for how best to realize the greatest number of accomplishments by the Pit deadline.”

They were still floating down into the cavernous space. James crossed his arms and allowed his gaze to wander, taking in the hundreds of small drones who were all building and working together to cons...

Chapter 119

Crimson Hydra elevated fifty-six local Blue Light and special forces operators to level 117, Ascender 1, and cleared out every hive in the local Philly area.

They reconvened at just past one in the morning at the central airfield. Righteous Obelisks glimmered as they slowly revolved in the stadium lighting, and the choppers and Wings used up the entirety of the field.

James sat on the edge of a storage container some fifteen feet above the large crowd that formed below him. Jelly ...

Chapter 118: Cleaning House

Even going all out it took James two hours to clean all of Manhattan. From Battery Park at the very southern tip all the way up north of Central Park where it bled into Harlem and the Bronx, sweeping through the Upper East side and then down the West, burning his way through Midtown and dropping bombs through NoLiTa, Tribeca, the Meatpacking District, all of it.

Two hours.

The Wing was more a concept than an actuality by the time he was done, a schematic of Divine Diamond and part...

Chapter 117: Nem8

If he pushed the Wing too hard it started to fall apart. James wished the damn thing came with a speedometer. Was he going 200 mph? Faster? He couldn’t tell. But as he drove it harder, forcing the craft to blur up the avenues, he felt its components begin to shake apart, its chassis separating, held in place by raw Aeviternum and his will.

He ripped north up Bowery, tearing along between the five and six-story brick high rises, over abandoned buses and burning cars, leaving a wake of ...

Chapter 116: Rampage

White fire snapped out into a broad circle that encompassed their group. Strange, mesmerizing glyphs rose up in columns, endlessly scrolling like some heavenly Matrix code, and then a rushing roar filled James’s ears and the world fell away, like some kind of elevator-drop rollercoaster ride. For one delirious second they fell through space and time, everything distorting, and then with a slam they appeared in the Marriott lobby, all nine of them bending their knees and falling into half cr...

Chapter 115: Cohesion

“We don’t have much time,” continued James as everyone gathered around. “And I’m not even talking about the Pits fully opening by tomorrow. Everything that we just killed -”

“We?” asked Serenity.

“Is appearing across the world right now. I need to get back to New York as quickly as I can. But first you need to absorb these cubes.”

“What are they?” asked Kimmie, bending over to examine them more closely.

“Reservoir Cubes. The short version is t...

Chapter 114: Party Time

James emerged from the demon symbol’s heart and stood, poised, upon the iron lip. Five hundred feet up he had an unparalleled view of the Yukon wilderness. Belanger’s homestead was a matchbox below, while endless conifer forest extended in every direction, dense and dark and snow laden.

The sky around the symbol was no longer fractured. Before the Light Eternal had ruptured the very physics of the place and formed a fractal staircase, but that was now gone.

Cold wind tore at J...

Chapter 113: 2,315 Unspent Points

The thought of absorbing another Reservoir Cube evoked within James a complete sense of negation. He’d barely been able to retain his sense of self with one Cube; a second would double his power at the expense of his soul.

No. That way lay annihilation.

Then?

James sat up. Ten cubes. He knew a few good people who could make the most of them.

But first he had to square away his own growth. James closed his eyes, rested his hands on his knees, and pondered himself.

Chapter 112: Reservoir Cube

Heart in his throat, breathless, James stepped into the demon symbol. Light swirled before his eyes, fractals that dizzied him, and he reached out, shuffling his feet, unsteady.

Then he found solid footing beneath his feet and the refracted brightness steadied and became clear.

It took him a moment to process what he was seeing. He stood within the heart of a giant flower, its petals made of glowing gold energy shot through with tongues of silver, rising up around him like great, ...

Chapter 111: Light Eternal

“Oh man,” breathed Jason. “Disciple 1! And I get to pick a brand-new Benediction.”

The others murmured their agreement, but James dismissed the message from his vision and turned to the far throne.

Belanger had slumped down to the ground and lay still.

“Be right back,” said James and took off at a run. He crossed the cavern quickly and leaped up to land lightly beside the throne.

Belanger was dead.

James crouched and pressed his fingers to the man’s...

Chapter 110: Kumite

Several things happened at once.

More, even, than James could keep track of.

Somebody started yelling.

He summoned Dikastís. The Avatar of Justice came pouring through space and time to flood James with its power.

You have Summoned Dikastís, the Virtue of Justice

15 of your Arete have been Claimed in His Name

You Are Invested with the Avatar of Dikastís:

+60 to all Stats (Includes Holy Zeal...