[John POV]
My muscles simply refused to fire.
I sat slumped against a shattered slab of concrete, the jagged rebar biting into my spine, as I tried to remember how to pull air into my lungs.
Nakime lay across my lap. Ship's nanites had wrapped around her like a matte-black bodysuit, shielding her charred flesh from the morning sun, but the harsh scent of burnt skin and ozone still clung to her. She had burned through every ounce of her stamina taking Debbie out of a heavily fortified GDA Headquarters, and the exertion had completely levelled her.
Twenty feet away, Nolan knelt on the ruined asphalt in a rigid seiza posture.
He didn't move a muscle. He physically couldn't.
Debbie dropped to her knees in the ash. Her fingers clawed into the pulverized concrete, scraping the skin off her knuckles until they bled. She grabbed a fistful of the sharp debris and hurled it directly at Nolan's paralyzed face. The rocks bounced harmlessly off his cheek.
"You lied to me," she gasped. Her voice wasn't a scream; it was a ragged, ugly scrape against her throat. "Every single day for twenty years. You slept next to me. You held our son."
Nolan stared straight ahead, his jaw locked rigid by the curse.
Debbie scrambled forward. She grabbed the torn, bloody fabric of his uniform, twisting it in her bleeding fists as she shook him. He didn't budge.
"A pet," she spat, the word choking her. She hammered her fists against his immovable chest, the impacts doing nothing to him but bruising her own hands. "I was your wife! I built a life with you! And you took Mark... you took our son, and you beat him! You used his body to slaughter people, Nolan!"
She grabbed his collar, pulling herself up from the dirt so she was inches from his paralyzed face.
"Did you feel anything?!" she demanded, her voice finally cracking into a raw, devastated shriek. "Tell me! When you were caving our son's face in... was it as easy as putting down a sick dog?!"
I forced my heavy arm up, dragging my thumb across a fresh, jagged scrape on my forearm. I broke the thin scab, letting the crimson bead up over the skin.
"Nakime," I croaked, my voice cracking from the ash in the air. "Drink."
She flinched away from the copper scent, pressing her face against my torn shirt. "I can't, Master. I don't deserve it. I… I let you die."
She cried, her voice scraped out of a dry throat, the weight of her guilt physically pressing her down into my lap.
I wrapped my good arm around her head, pulling her tight against my chest and completely ignoring the sharp protest of my cracked ribs. "I'm breathing, sweetheart… I'm right here."
I leaned my head back against the concrete and swiped a bloody finger through the air to open my system interface. The blue holographic screens popped up, completely uncaring about the apocalyptic tragedy surrounding us.
[Feat Achieved! Flip the script on ROBs]
[Reward: +1x Mythical Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved!Rise From True Death]
[Reward: +1x Legendary Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Die in the line of battle]
[Reward: +1x Legendary Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Neutralize Omni-Man]
[Reward: +1x Diamond Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Enslave Your Mortal Enemy]
[Reward: +1x Diamond Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Execute the Perfect Bluff]
[Reward: +1x Platinum Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Survive Conquest]
[Reward: +1x Platinum Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Turn Your Curse into Victory]
[Reward: +1x Platinum Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Finally Discover Viltrumite Weakness (Via. Ship)]
[Reward: +1x Gold Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Weaponize all of the USA's Nuclear Facilities]
[Reward: +1x Gold Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Overcome Your Deepest Trauma]
[Reward: +1x Gold Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Save the World from Impending Doom]
[Reward: +1x Gold Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Prevent terrorism by villains (Via Pepsi-Man)]
[Reward: +1x Silver Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Prevent tens of thousands of civilian casualties (Via Nakime)]
[Reward: +1x Silver Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Master Rage Baiting]
[Reward: +1x Silver Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Change Thula's Fate]
[Reward: +1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Change Vidor's Fate]
[Reward: +1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Change Conquest's Fate]
[Reward: +1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Change Nolan's Fate]
[Reward: +1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket]
I couldn't even process the tickets as my eyes locked onto the names on the list.
'Thula? Vidor? Aren't they….'
The adrenaline I thought I had exhausted completely flooded my system again. I shoved myself upward, nearly dumping Nakime onto the ground.
"Hey, Nolan!" I pushed off the rebar, locking eyes with the paralysed Viltrumite. "Nolan! Are there others? Who else did you bring to Earth? Answer me—"
The sharp, high-frequency hum of a teleporter cut the air directly to my left.
A blinding column of blue light washed out the morning sun as Cecil Stedman stepped onto the rubble, his blue coat snapping in the wind as he calmly adjusted his tie.
"Let me answer that for you, Mr. Kaisen," Cecil said, his voice flat and exhausted. "Thula and Vidor have been neutralized."
Nolan's jaw forced itself open. "No… that can't be. Earth isn't strong enough—"
"Shut the fuck up, you liar!" Debbie screamed.
The curse recognised the command instantly.
Nolan's jaw snapped shut with a violent, audible clack of teeth. He strained against his own facial muscles, the veins in his neck bulging as he produced nothing but muffled, suffocating grunts.
Cecil pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket, watching the immobilized alien god struggle against his own biology. "That's new. So, the curse is actually real."
His eyes narrowed through the smoke, already running the brutal calculus on the geopolitical value of an obedient weapon of mass destruction.
"Cecil, now is not the time for your schemes!" I snapped, trying to stand but settling for a heavy lean against the rebar. "They're Viltrumites! I'm not strong enough to—"
"Oh, can you stop looking down on us humans for one damn second?! We are strong enough." Cecil barked, snapping his lighter shut. He pinched the end of his cigarette, dragging in a long breath of smoke. "I'm sorry. It's just… last night has been a meat grinder for everyone. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, can you heal the others again?"
"I can't, Cecil. You know my power's limitations." I tapped my bloody knuckles against the concrete. "I need hard assets to sacrifice, and fighting Conquest completely drained my funds."
"Well." Cecil reached into his coat and pulled out a small remote. "As a show of gratitude, the United States of America officially gifts John Kaisen ten billion dollars in hard currency, rare metals, and precious resources."
Cecil pressed a button.
Blue teleporter lights strobed across the ruined street like a violent disco. Heavy wooden crates slammed into the concrete one after another, shattering open mere inches from Nolan's knees. The immobilized conqueror couldn't even flinch, forced to helplessly watch the spectacle as neat, stacked rows of solid gold bullion spilled out around him.
"War funds really are fun to play with," Cecil muttered, stepping over a stray gold bar.
[A/N]:
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