Anti-Mage

Now that he had a moment, Anton pulled up his personal status and went over his basic information.

Level 27? Nice!

Anton closed the rest of the notifications for now. He had the women to rescue and a Node to shut down. Lucky for him, he hadn’t been in the middle of going through his notifications because three men who hadn’t been in the area affected by his Spectral Scream rushed into the hallway. As they raised their weapons to fire and released another Spectral Scream, which killed them instantly. It wasn’t fair. But, it was effective.

Anton made his way to the room where the women were being held and looked in. One of the women seemed to be holding up better than the other three, but all looked like they’d seen better days. Before they could speak, Anton spoke, “My name is Anton. I’m here to free you. Also, we’re in kind of a time crunch, so let's keep quiet and keep the questions to a minimum.”

What he’d said was technically accurate, but they didn’t need to keep quiet; he just wanted them to. If everything went right, they’d be back with their fellow military personnel and out of here soon. Anton stepped up next to the woman who seemed to be handling the situation better than the other two when he noticed that she was handcuffed to the bed she sat on, as were the other two.

“Okay, ladies, if you’ve been watching the messages that have been appearing for the last day, you know that magic is back in the world, really. I’m going to dissolve the handcuffs holding you, and we’re going to get out of here. Try not to be too surprised when they disintegrate, okay?”

Anton walked up to the first woman and touched the handcuffs as he let his Anti-Mage ability destroy the handcuffs. He could only destroy one pound of physical material per willpower point per hour. That meant that he could destroy 759 pounds of physical material in 60 minutes, which was about 12 pounds per minute, 6 pounds per 30 seconds, or 2 pounds per 10 seconds, which happened to be exactly how long it took him to destroy one pair of handcuffs; 10 seconds.

Once the handcuffs were destroyed, Anton looked at the ladies and pulled three oversized T-shirts and three sets of sweats from his inventory and placed them on the ground. “Sorry, I don’t have bras, panties, or shoes in my inventory. This will have to do for now. While you get dressed, think about the safest place you can go in the world. I’ll be in the hallway grabbing the gear of the soldiers that were here. We are on the clock, so please hurry.”

Anton left the three women and went back out into the hallway. He quickly picked up all the weapons and ammunition from the corpses but left their clothes. A few minutes later, the women came out into the hallway and gasped as they looked at the bodies lying everywhere.

“You killed them all?” the first woman asked.

“Yeah, these bastards are part of a force that killed the President and attacked Washington, D.C. When this is done, I’m going to have killed a lot more than just these asshole. Well, truthfully, I already have, but there will be more,” Anton said with a hint of anger in his voice.

“Good,” The first woman said.

Anton nodded as he asked, “Where do you three think you’ll be safe?”

“Send us back to NORAD; that’s where we came from. I expect you’ll send us through the portal thing in the other room.”

“That’s the plan, then I’m going to take it out of commission?”

“Why?”

“Because the forces attacking us understand magic and how to use magic in their tactics. If I leave this here and they send another force, what just happened will happen again. I’m not going to let that happen,” Anton said.

“Very well. How long until you think they’ll send someone to check on the forces you just killed?”

“Anytime now, so let’s get moving,” Anton said as he led the women into the Node room.

Once they were all in the room Anton placed his hand on the Node. He quickly pulled up the holographic targeting display, which he used as a scrying device so the women could see what he was looking at. He zoomed in on Colorado Springs, down to the south west and into Cheyenne Mountain.

“We were told to come and go near the entrance just on the inside of the vault door that sealed the mountain,” one of the women who hadn’t spoken before said.

Anton considered that and followed the road into the tunnel until he came to the vault door, shifted the image through, and found a group of guards and other people waiting. “Right here?”

“That’ll do. I’m Lieutenant Marshall, by the way,” The first woman said, “The other women are Staff Seargent Jacobs and Airmen Cody. If you ever make it to Norad, look me up. I’ll introduce you to the brass.”

“Will do, Lieutenant Marshall; now, if the three of you are ready, let's get you home.”

Anton opened a portal, and Lieutenant Marshall Called out, “Stargate!”

“SG One or Atlantis?” someone called out through the portal

“Universe, of course.” Lieutenant Marshall said.

Anton had to check and make sure that his mouth was closed. Had they just used the Stargate franchise as a sign countersign? They had.

Lieutenant Marshall nodded and led the three women through the portal. As Anton was about to shut it down, he heard someone call out, "Wait," but he didn’t wait. Anton deactivated the portal. Someone over there would think that they could control this location without understanding how under classed they all were, at least until they picked a class and earned some levels.

Next, Anton needed to take the Portal Node offline. If people wanted to rule the world, they needed to do so without utilizing this technology that had been left behind. So, how could he limit access to the node? Well, he could open a portal to space and fill the area with a vacuum, but a mage or someone immune to a vacuum could overcome that pretty quickly. Plus, the atmosphere would be escaping the planet. How about opening a portal near the Sun? It was probably too hot, as he wouldn’t ever be able to get close to the Node again. Okay, at least until he somehow upgraded again, but still. Lava? Nope, it would be a pain to clean out afterward. How about water…under pressure? That might work, but he’d have to be able to access the node if he needed to. Also, anyone who could deal with high pressure and not breathing would be able to gain access once they could counter the current. But someone just teleporting in wouldn’t be expecting that, at least at first.

Anton liked the idea. Water under pressure would keep anyone who teleported into the facility from getting close. While he was worried about this foreign military, he was also concerned about the Elves on the Planet on the far side of the Sun. He was pretty sure the elves on the Planet Minerva would have issues if they teleported in. Before he started, though, he did a couple of other things.

First, he checked in on his family. They all looked to be safe and sound in Minot in his father’s bunker. They’d keep for a bit. Next, he used the node to look over Washington D.C. The city, for the most part, was untouched, though he could see fires here and there. Foreign soldiers still surrounded the White House, but they seemed to be staying within the barrier they’d set up. Andrews was a bombed mess, as was the Pentagon. The Naval base just south of the White House was intact, and the military personnel there seemed to have their shit together, for now at least.

Another thing he noticed. Now that he could see around town, he saw that bridges near the White House across the Potomac River had been destroyed, which cut the people on the west side of the river off from the east side unless they went nine miles to the north or seven miles to the south. What assholes.

Once he’d taken a look at Washington D.C., Anton shifted the exit point of the portal closer to the southern tip of South America and searched. He had taken scuba lessons and remembered that for every 33 feet (10 meters) he went down, the pressure would increase by 14.7 psi or one bar. So, if he were 1,000 feet below sea level, he would feel 30.3 bars or atmospheric pressures. Water under that pressure should fill this place up and prevent anyone from surviving for a little while. It wouldn’t be instantly fatal, which is how he wanted it, just in case he had to deactivate the portal at some point.

If he remembered right, the entrance into the docking port was more than 1,000 feet underwater. If that were true, all he needed to do was create an opening that allowed the air to escape so the water from the docking area could flood the facility. Well, it would flood the Pillar chamber, this chamber, and every chamber below this level. If there were any chambers above this chamber, they’d probably be fine. Luckily, he had a device that could very easily create a doorway to allow the air out. Granted, it usually had some form of barrier to prevent that from happening, but Anton was sure he could turn that off.

Anton found a place just off the south coast of Isla Hermite at the southernmost tip of South America. He focused on finding an area where the sea floor was about 100 feet below the surface. The only real requirement was that the place where the portal opened needed to be under less pressure than the facility's underwater dock. The bigger the difference in pressure, the better.

Once he found a place he summoned a portal and rotated it so that it was parallel to the sandy ocean floor. Anton placed the portal one inch above the seabed with the exit pointed up. The portal opened into darkness. The barrier that separated his target location held the ocean back and kept the atmosphere from the room he was in from venting through the portal, for now.

If he wanted to, he could walk over and stick his hand through the portal into the ocean, but he thought better of it. It was still the middle of the night over North and South America; the light from this room would draw any sea life in short order. With magic in play and monsters spawning, there was no need to bring any extra attention to the portal until he was finished.

Anton quickly looked through the controls until he found the setting that would deactivate the safety barrier that prevented gas or liquid from passing through. While he fiddled with his User Interface (UI), Anton felt a change in pressure as his ears popped. Someone had just appeared in the facility. The slight change in pressure had alerted him to that fact. Anton quickly rotated the portal in the Node room horizontally, moved it up against the roof, and then shifted its position so that it was directly above the Node. Once in place, Anton deactivated the barrier that separated the ocean from the room he was standing in. Immediately, he was hit by rushing wind as it tried to go up and through the portal. He knew the human body could withstand up to 100 atmospheres of pressure, possibly more, and there was no way this little stunt would create that much pressure. However, each atmosphere of pressure was placed at 14.7 pounds per square inch, which meant that the water rushing in through the portal was doing so at just over 30 atmospheric pressures. That meant the air it was pushing ahead of the water was pushing the air in front of it at that same pressure, which meant that the winds were trying to lift him upward were moving at just over 400 miles per hour.

Anton had been expecting something like this. He made sure that the portal would remain open indefinitely with a thought and released his grip on the node. The wind lifted him into the air and up through the open portal above him. The air was moving quickly enough that it kept the ocean from forcing the air to collapse for the moment it took him to activate Specter.

Anton stopped his upward movement as the last stream of air shot past him and was replaced by water from the facility. He descended back to the bottom of the ocean bed, where he floated off to the side of the opening and looked down into the cavern. He knew he couldn’t pass through the portal while in his Specter form, but he could sit here and watch what happened.

Anton didn’t have to wait long. The ocean flooded up and out of the subsurface docking area, filling it and then the pillar room before rushing down the hallway into the node room. Some of the water was being drawn up through the ceiling, while some rushed down another hallway to fill the rest of the facility. It was a lot of water moving very quickly. Dead bodies had already floated up through the portal and were being drawn away by the current.

A moment later, more military personnel, these alive, in military uniforms of the invaders, tumbled into the Node room and up through the portal into the ceiling. They must have tried to stay in one of the hallways, realized they couldn’t breathe, and followed the current to try to find a safe harbor. Unfortunately for them, the current entered this room, where the hole in the ceiling created an inverted whirlpool that was sucking everything up and through it.

Anton watched as the soldiers were propelled up to the surface. Six living soldiers had shot up through the portal. The stream was fast enough to draw sand from the seabed upward and fill the water with sand. Nobody was going to be able to see anything down her from the surface in a little while.

Anton shot up until he floated above the surface, where he saw the six soldiers flailing. One of them was shouting as he discarded his weapons and clothes so he could float more easily. Man, it was going to suck to be them. The water was only 100 feet deep at this point, and they couldn’t be more than a half mile offshore, but it was dark, and the shoreline didn’t have any lights on it. Not that he cared, but they’d probably make it unless they swam away from shore. One could only hope otherwise he’d have to track them down later.

Anton ignored them and activated Planar Shift. He appeared in the Node room again. It was most definitely underwater. Anton floated over to the Node and activated Spectral Reach. He felt the tug of the current trying to pull his hand upward, but with the rest of him anchored in another dimension, he was fine. He reached out and touched the Node.

Anton pulled up the menu, made sure he could access it if needed, and then deactivated Spectral Reach. Next, he quickly searched the facility, looking for any survivors or places where the air had pocketed. On the sublevel below, there were plenty of areas where people could survive if they made it to them, but no living beings were present. Also, there was no floor above the Node level, which had been completely flooded. Anton searched for a good hour before he sat down, used Battle Meditation to replenish his Psychic Energy, and then used Planar Shift to get back to Washington, DC. He could get back here if he needed to, and once things settled down he’d close the portal and drain the facility

Anton appeared floating about fifty feet above the Treasury Building next to the White House. He looked around and noticed the barrier the invaders had set up had retreated to 15th Street Northwest on the West side, 17th Street Northwest on the East side, H Street on the North side, and Constitution Avenue on the South side. The East side of the East Wing of the White House was still burning, and smoke filled the area from the explosion he’d caused. That isn’t to say the invaders hadn’t been busy.

On the south lawn was a new, much smaller ammo supply area. There was also a Command and Control tent set up on the north side of the lawn. Anton pulled up his Basic Map and checked to see if there was a distance-measuring tool. There was! He checked the distance between the ammo and the Command tent. It was just over 420 feet. It also looked like magic had been used to force the ground into a ridge that acted as a barrier between the two areas, just in case the ammo exploded. That was fine; Anton wasn’t going to use the ammo in the ammo dump, at first, at least.

Anton moved into the Command tent and watched. A few individuals were sleeping on cots in one corner, while a few others took reports and sent people back out. Anton picked the closest soldier to the person who seemed to be in charge and possessed him. For the next four hours, Anton lay on the bed. He pretended to be asleep while he listened to the individuals making their reports and the orders Major Fulbar gave over the radio and to the individuals who walked into the tent. Once conversation around 2 a.m. Some day he was going to find a way to hear while he was in his Specter form.

“Sir, what do you want us to do about the monster that the Supreme Commander trapped before she died?”

“She trapped four. One is out and about already, two are in the basement of the building, and we have the one we trapped later here on the South Lawn. Which one are you asking about,” Major Fulbar asked.

“The last one, Sir,” He killed, with little or no effort, over 1,000 of our men and women, Sir!”

“Actually, the number is relatively higher than that. He hit a few convoys of troops making their way here as well. That’s why he’d disappeared for a bit in the late afternoon. We were lucky to get him when he returned,” Major Fulbar said.

Anton stopped listening and released the body he’d been possessing. He quickly moved over to the location of the temporarily locked individual and looked at it. The silhouette that seemed to be half in and half out of the Real world couldn’t be touched there, but the pearlescent energy, which was his life force and soul, that Anton could see and touch in the dimension. Anton reached out and touched the Soul.

***

Unknown to Anton, Brandon was the trapped soul. Brandon had the Ability Divine Luck and a Class that was God tier. A class that should never have been offered to a mortal until they were ready to forgo their mortal shell and ascend or take on a divine role.

Recent changes to the Multiverse had caused the SYSTEM to overlook the error that had been made in Brandon’s case. Eventually, the SYSTEM would have noticed and rectified the error. In ages past, the SYSTEM would have removed the class and forced Brandon to choose another. The being that had melded with the SYSTEM hated for things to be given and then taken away or ‘nerfed’ as he called it. Of course, the SYSTEM probably wouldn’t have detected the error for some time, except for two things that happened.

The first, a being classified by the SYSTEM as divine, was put in stasis. Such events were always reviewed. Second, Anton had interacted with that stasis bubble. The SYSTEM had been keeping an eye on Anton for a while now, and this new ability to affect souls in Stasis drew the SYSTEM’s attention.

None of this was known to either Brandon or Anton as Anton reached out and touched a soul in stasis. Nor could the SYSTEM know how Luck, or Fate, would change the paths of both Anton and Brandon in that instant.

***

Anton felt a wrenching sensation as the temporal spell attempted to pull him into its effect. His innate resistance to temporal magic resisted the pull, but he was still affected by 20% of it. The last thing Anton saw was a flash of light across his vision.

The next moment, Anton shook himself free and opened his eyes to find himself standing on the grass on the South Lawn of the White House. Directly in front of him, 20 men stood with weapons aimed at him. He had time to notice a flashing notification icon in the bottom right of his vision before they opened fire.

Luckily, 20 bullets hitting him, even if a couple of the shots had been critical hits to his head, couldn’t do enough damage to kill him with his Physical Damage Resistance and 1,261 Hit Points. Anton took the hits as he activated Specter and shot straight up 1,000 feet.

First things first, it had been nighttime when he’d touched the soul while in his Specter form; it was now midday. Was it still the 1st of June, or had more time passed than he thought? Before he figured that out though, he wanted to take a look at his Notifications

Warning! You have touched a Soul in Stasis

Warning! The soul you have touched belongs to a creature classified as Divine Tier

ERROR! Divine beings cannot be mortal

ERROR! Divine classes cannot be held by mortals

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR! Interaction of Divine Luck with Anti-Mage has occurred.

Divine Class status on Mortal Elevated to SYSTEM Review.

The SYSTEM is Reviewing the Error.

SYSTEM Review concluded.

Brandon J. Parker has accepted a Divine Class. Brandon J Parker has accepted all prerequisites.

Mortal designation Revoked

Divine designation Assigned.

The designation of Brandon J Parker is no longer compatible with Prime Universe 013.

Brandon J Parker has been transferred.

Anthony Nicholas Thomson will replace Brandon J Parker as the subject of Stasis Bubble as adjusted for innate resistance to magic.

Vampiric-Psuedo Specter Noted

Contact maintained during initiation of Divine being

Anti-Mage does not alter Divine investiture.

ERROR! Permission not given for Divine Investiture.

ERROR! Syphon has been activated.

Ability Divine Luck has been absorbed and added to Anthony Nicholas Thomson.

Title Gained: Hijacker of Divinity – You have acquired something of a divine nature from another entity that has left a trace of that divinity upon you. +25 to all base attributes. +10% Efficiency to all attributes.

Note: Divine Creatures you encounter will know that carry a trace of divinity within you

Anton read over the information he’d just viewed a second time and then a third. Well, crap. That Brandon guy had been a defacto Demi-God. Letting him lose on the assholes looking for him right now would have been nice. Of course, he didn’t have much to worry about himself. The damage they’d done had already healed. Of course, his clothes weren’t doing great, but that was to be expected.

There was one more notifications he needed to look over that at least weren’t red.

Class Perk Gained: Cold Immunity – Psuedo Undead are not affected or harmed by Cold-based attacks or environmental conditions. Immunity to Cold increased by 100%.

Anton closed his interface and looked at the soldiers searching the grounds for him. It definitely wasn’t fair that he could sit in an adjacent dimension and look over the information concerning his classes and such without worrying about those assholes, but you know what? That was okay. Besides, it was time to go on a rampage of bits. A lot of good people died. The first thing, though, was that he needed to know what time it was. He quickly flew over to what was the name of that naval base south of here again.

It took Anton less than a minute to make it to the front gate of the Naval base, which was actually a joint base: Joint Base Anacosita-Bolling. Inside the entrance, which was manned by quite a few people, he found a clock with the date on the wall. It was now the 2nd of June and 13:39 or 1:39 p.m. If his math was correct, Felix and Caitlyn should be coming out of their stasis bubbles at 9:01 p.m. today, just over 7 hours from now, which meant he needed to clear out that invading force. He only had seven hours. Could he get all of them or at least make them flee? He wasn’t sure but it would be fun to try.,

Anton took to the sky and headed back toward the White House.

***

Staff Seargent Jessica Clark watched from her vantage point at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. She’d been on the roof of this building for the last two days watching those assholes that had attacked the White House. She’d seen something two days ago that had blown her mind.

A man, at least she thought it was a man, had run around killing the soldiers systemically and without remorse. One person had died every second for the 15 minutes she’d been able to keep eyes on the man who blurred from position to position. He’d disappeared for a while and then returned when people had ventured back out onto the South Lawn an hour later when a woman had done something; he’d froze and then vanished.

An hour ago, a different man had appeared where the first man had disappeared and immediately vanished again. She had an infrared camera on the area as well. She’d quickly checked it, and yes, he’d vanished from it as well. It was now just after 19:00. This had started just before 14:00 and hadn’t stopped for the last 5 hours. It also looked like those on the outskirts of their perimeter might bolt soon. She’d been worried about using any radios because they could give away her position, but she had to call this in.

“Recon One, Eagle Command, Over”

A moment later, she received a reply, “Eagle Command, Recon One, Go ahead, over.”

“Recon 1, Eagle Command, Possible Fire sale event commencing soon. Recommend sending some buyers, Over.”

There was a pause for about 30 seconds before a response came back: “Eagle Command, Recon One, Buyers wish to participate. Is it a Full buffet or single platter over?”

She had to admit, that was a cute way of asking if they should try to cover all exits or concentrate their firepower. With what she was seeing, when they decided to flee, they’d be moving in all directions. She responded, “Recon One, Eagle Command, Full Buffet, over.”

“Eagle Command, Recon One, maintain mission, personnel on the way for buffet, Over and out.”

Staff Sergeant Clark smiled, and now it was time to watch the show.

For the next hour, people all around the White House kept killing each other. In some cases, it was sad. In others, it was like watching a scene from one of those Deadpool movies from years back. Around 8 p.m., the soldiers who were still left fled. Unfortunately for them, The United States military didn’t take kindly to people that they had helped who attacked and killed The President and a lot of good Americans. They didn’t behavior like that so much that Staff Sergeant Clark would later learn that not one soldier who wore the black military uniform of the invader lived longer than a week after.

Staff Sergeant Clark watched them flee for fifteen minutes before she felt like someone was watching her. She slowly turned to see a man sitting in a chair on the roof behind her—the same man who had appeared and then disappeared earlier that day. “Hey there, I saw you when I flew over earlier. Could you let your bosses know that the White House is clear, except for two friendlies who will be showing up just after 21:00?”

Staff Sergent Clark began to draw her weapon very slowly… and then shook her head as she found herself sitting in a chair across from the man. He looked at her, then pointed to the weapons more than 30 feet away, all of her weapons, including the knife she had strapped to the underwire of her bra.

“As I was saying, could you let your people know that the White House is clear? I am not going to lie; slaughtering that many people takes a lot out of a person.”

“Who are you?”

“Oh? Sorry. I’m Anton. I was working with the President earlier today until that she bitch put me in a literal time-out. Felix and Caitlyn, two people who were also helping the President, were also caught in the Stasis field and will be appearing in just over 40 minutes.”

“What are you going to do now?” Staff Sergent Clark asked.

“Well, I’m going to go rest and recover some of my energy. Then I’m going to go and wait for my friends. And then I’ll find you again or go talk to the people at the base south of here so Felix can get in touch with his people. A lot has happened in the last two and a half days. I’m sure he’s going to want to catch up with his people. Your stuff is all over there by the weapons. There’s no one on the roof, and your teams are killing most of the invaders who fled.”

“What are you?” she asked.

He ignored the question, “I’m going to head out now. Good luck and be safe. Also, watch for monsters; yes, they are real monsters. With the Magical Density at 100% now, monsters will begin to spawn. If I might suggest, contact your headquarters and then meet up with one of your teams. Word of warning: magic allows people and monsters to fly now.”

With that, the crazy man’s image seemed to flicker, and then he sped off through the air toward the White House before he vanished from sight as he crossed over the South Lawn of the White House. How was she going to explain this to Command? She stood, walked over to her equipment, and made sure her guns were locked and loaded before she picked up her radio and made the call.