Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

Kev had levelled up at the same time as Ryn but his growth was far less smooth. As his other-sense expanded outwards he became aware of everyone within a two hundred kilometre radius of his body. Not only that but he went from being able to feel their emotions and surface thoughts to true telepathy. I’m going to get proscribed, was his last thought before the wave of information and sensations left him curled up in a screaming ball on the ground.

Every human across almost all of the UK, every monster, every pet and wild animal. All their thoughts and feelings washed over him. He was happy, sad, hungry, full, jealous and content all in a single moment. People were dreaming, fighting, fucking, scheming and everything in between in his head all at the same time. His mind began contracting. He was burning parts of his brain to fight against the overload. Then a cool hand rested on his forehead.

Claire’s consciousness was acting inside his body. He fought back the overwhelming wave of other-minds and narrowed his focus down to Claire. He could feel her thoughts operating at a speed too fast for him to comprehend but the emotional overtones were clear. Fear, concern, desire to help. She was using her ability on him in a way that she hadn’t been able to before. Jumping to level twenty four had been kind to her. No screaming fit and agonising pain.

He watched as the mote of light that represented her focus flitted around his body. As it moved through his head he felt a pang of fear, Ascension were almost as anti-psyker as the Carnival, but her emotions made it clear that she was working to help him and he quickly calmed as the effect of whatever she was doing to his brain washed through him. The terrible knowledge of all those minds was still there but his physiology wasn’t reacting the way it had before. No terror chemicals flooding his system, no overwhelming sense of knowing.

As he calmed he watched the mote of light rove over the rest of his body. He’d always had a slight stoop. His body was too tall and his vertebrae must have impacted due to the weight in some way. Claire fixed that, leaving his back straight and granting him an extra inch or so of unwanted height. Kev knew he stuck out enough already, even in a world with humans permanently transformed into mythical creatures, and getting even taller wouldn’t help. The mote withdrew and he cautiously opened his eyes. The colours of his team's emotions swirled around him and their thoughts were his to listen to, if he wanted. He shut that down before catching more than a whisper of their inner monologues.

The ambiguity of not knowing what someone really thought was the thing he missed most from before he got his power. Seeing their emotions like swirling clouds of gas was something he’d become accustomed to, it was unavoidable for him now, but reading their thoughts without their permission… It made him think people like him should be collared and proscribed. It was a violation. That was not something he would ever dare to say aloud.

He blinked and uncurled, sitting up carefully. He raised a hand to his head to rub his temples and push his auburn hair back from his face.

“You ok now mate?” asked Bad, kneeling down beside him, a cloud of contradictory colours floating around his body. Kev’s longtime friend was elated, self satisfied and worried in equal measure according to the clouds of emotion around him.

“I’ll be ok. Did you get taller? You seem bigger than before?” Kev said groggily, still trying to push away the disorientation of all the minds that were in the periphery of his senses.

“That’s the least of what I got mate!” Bad sounded extremely pleased with himself. “Are you sure you’re not going loopy?”

“He’ll be fine, you can tell he’s back in control if you’ve got the eyes to see!” said Sally. She was taller as well. Simon was doing something to her armour, a grey mist flowing from one hand to the armour as he seemed to absorb dirt from the ground with the other.

“Where’s Ryn?” asked Kev as a pang of fear ran through him.

The others just raised their fingers to the sky and Kev looked up, following their gestures. A tiny comet was falling, a long tail of white hot fire trailing it towards the ground. It swerved and dodged, darting back and forth as it fell towards the ground. It was heading eastwards as clouds began to obscure it from their sight. Kev reached out with his power and found two minds fifty kilometres up. One was filled with surprise and more than a touch of fear. The other was filled with a burning rage and determination. He knew the feel of Ryn’s mind and she wasn’t the one who was worried.

“Feels like she’s doing ok,” said Kev as the high altitude duel passed out of sight to the south east. “I kind of feel sorry for that guy to be honest. He wasn’t going to hurt us if he didn’t have to. Ryn’s going to kill him.” Emotional colours weren’t necessarily simple to explain but the blackness at the edge of the red representing Ryn’s rage made it clear Ouragon wasn’t going to survive the fight.

“So what did you get?” asked Andrea. “You aren’t proscribed now?”

Kev watched the colours change around his friends. Worry and fear, sickly green and yellow suddenly replaced the exuberant blues and emerald greens. He did a brief check over his status and concluded that technically he hadn’t gotten a real control modification. His Mind Lock power came close, forcing another mind into a loop to repeat their last actions as long as he had reserves to keep it going, but it was not the kind of mind control power anyone would be overly bothered about.

Mind Eater though… as far as he knew, and he had done a lot of research into the kinds of powers he might develop as he levelled, was unknown. It allowed him to create a clone of someone's mind in his head. It would be like taking a picture of someone and having them live on in his head, able to advise or abuse depending on how they viewed him. He couldn’t imagine ever using it. There were already too many voices in his head coming from the outside.

He moved to stand and found his armour didn’t fit right anymore. Whatever Claire had done to his spine had left him with badly fitting protection. It was cramping his shoulders and forcing him to hunch uncomfortably.

“Argh! Now my bloody armour doesn’t fit!” he grumbled as he tried to reach for the external straps and clips to adjust it.

“One sec mate!” said Simon as he finished adjusting Sally’s armour. The girl sighed in relief. She had grown a good three inches due to her level up. She had always been lean, having the physique of a runner rather than a lifter, but it had been taken to a new level. Her musculature had increased in mass but was as slender and streamlined as ever. Her face had taken on a sharper look, much less mousy; more bird of prey.

Simon moved over as Kev continued to struggle to reach the clips around his throat so he could reset the armour to its factory setting and get it to readjust.

“I said hang on. I got an Armourer skill. I can optimise it for you. Hold still you bloody bean pole!” Simon was more assertive, more confident than he had been. Kev held still as Simon went to work and he saw that same confidence mirrored in all his friends. The jump in levels had taken them from people who sometimes needed to worry about monsters, at least local monsters, to people who had almost nothing to fear unless a Line or the Wall broke. Other than people, of course.

Kev was shrouded in grey mist and then breathed a sigh of relief as his armour shifted. Within a few moments it felt right on his new frame but the mist kept flowing out from Simon’s hand.

“I think it’s fine now?” he asked.

“I’m just upgrading it. Need thirty seconds then it will be better than it was before.”

“You think you can improve on my designs?” came a voice from behind Kev. He leant his head round, brushing his fringe out of his eyes with his free hand, to see a B-800 in psychedelic colours striding out of a portal and moving towards them. Simon remained focused on the job at hand and didn’t move.

“No sir! I’m just improvising the materials!” Simon answered quickly without moving. He finished whatever he was doing to Kev’s armour and stepped back, spinning on a heel and coming to something that could pass for military attention. The B-800 ignored him and marched forward to take Kev’s arm and examine his armour up close. Kev was painfully aware that even with his armour on the lime green mechanical hand could crush his reinforced bones if Bob wanted to. He would have to get used to being paranoid. He was a hair's breadth from being proscribed and it looked like his future levels might tip him over that edge.

“Huh. Did you mean improving by any chance? What’s the power called, kid?” The B-800s head pivoted to look at Simon without moving its body at all.

“I’m mixing a mod called Armourer with one called Urchemy,” Simon barked, staring straight ahead.

“Lose the fake military schtick. Ascension never really got it right. You guys are classic religious-fantasy types, not military nerds like Belisarius’ bunch. Do you want a job kid? The pay’s shit but I’ve got all the best materials. We can work something out. Some kind of apprenticeship maybe?” Simon nodded hesitantly.

“Outstanding. Ryn will be back in a minute. John is a bit pissed off for various reasons at the moment but overall I think this went well and he’ll chill out soon enough. You!” The body righted itself like a puppet being reset to proper posture and a hand shot out to point at Bolf. “Some kind of sensor jammer went online on the other side of the portal when the bloke Ryn just murdered came through. I need eyes and ears over there now. Move it puppy or I’ll tell your mum! It must be interfering with teamchat as well. I can’t reach Vic and if we don’t find out what’s going on in a minute or so John is going to abandon Africa to the Thing and start blipping heads off as he nukes France and Italy. I’m surprised he’s not done it already to be honest. So get moving dog!”

Bolf glanced around at his team before bolting through the portal to the Loire. The rest of them gathered round the entrance, talking quietly to each other as a hundred drones emerged from another portal and moved over. These were unlike any they had seen before. The silver flowing lines were reminiscent of Bob’s combat drones from all the way back to the B-1000 line. These were different in some regards. They had bulky blue crystals sprouting upwards from their backs, like miniature cathedral spires growing out of their spines that peaked a foot above their heads. None of the kids had ever seen this type before but the machines weren’t ungainly despite what must have been a sizable weight throwing off their centre of gravity.

“What are they?” asked Jane. “They’re new to me.”

“B-3000s. And you still haven’t seen them. These are not for public consumption. So keep your mouths shut. They’ll only go through if we need to secure the other side of the portal,” snapped Bob as the drone waited impatiently for Bolf to return.

“What’s up guys! That was awesome!” said Ryn from behind them. Her armour was slashed on her left leg but there was no blood, just scorch marks rising up her thigh as though she had bled heat.

Team Report:

1 Human killed (level 27): Essence per kill 514228

Essence gained per team member: 514228

“Fuck nuggets!” said Ryn, channelling her sister as the system announcement appeared in her vision. “I just punched up three levels? I wasn’t hallucinating right? He showed as level twenty four when I scanned him!”

“Another one of Goodman’s toys. Don’t take your levels, kids. We can’t admit you to the Accords until we get this shit under control.” The drone paused speaking and it seemed to Ryn that he was conducting another conversation at the same time. Probably many conversations at the same time knowing Bob. “Keep the Essence in reserve for now but if you’re in a bind use it to jump up. Better a living outlaw than a corpse. You’ll have the whole Carnival and Gemini behind you if needed but try to avoid using it yet if you can.”

Bolf bounced through the portal. He literally bounced as something had thrown him through at speed and he skidded across the ground on his back despite being in his etheric form and immune to physical damage. Claire rushed over and rested a hand on his shoulder.

“What the hell?” yelled Jane as her body glowed brighter and she rose up into the sky on a pillar of flame.

“Vic is alive. Starfall is injured. Too many-” barked the dog; Ryn gasped in relief. She hadn’t ever really had to face the concept of her parents' mortality. They were members of the Carnival and would be in the vanguard whenever the Void decided to attack. That was just common knowledge.

Kev reached out and stripped the update from his teammates mind. The Loire had been on the receiving end of a contingent of boosted Imperium warriors as well as several elite squads of level twenty fours. Combined with the forces Armand’s uncles had mustered, some of whom were also boosted past the level limits of the Accords, the drones had been forced onto the defensive where they hadn’t been reduced to scrap.

Any locals loyal to House Aubert were keeping their heads down. The relief force had been reduced to a few dozen drones trying to defend the portal as Vic flew overwatch and forced the more powerful elements of the enemy to focus on her. Starfall was being tended to by some local healers but would likely be out of action for a while. The Ascension fighters had moved to the south before the main attack and were rushing back to support the portal defences.

Kev processed the data he had pulled from Bolf’s mind into a file and dumped it to Bob through his implant. After a fraction of a second's pause all the drones in the area responded in one voice : “NOW THIS BULLSHIT WILL NOT STAND!”

The B-3000s began rushing through the portal at the same time as Jane shot through over their heads. The B-800 cocked its head to look at Ryn’s team as they stood in shock for a moment.

“Ah shit. Just wait!” The drone tried to shout at them but they were already moving. Bad and Sally moved faster than Ryn had thought they ever would, blurring into motion and passing through the portal in a fraction of a second. Simon cursed and began worrying at something he held in front of him as he ran, grey mist swirling around his hands. Andrea just vanished, appearing next to the portal and jumping through.

Bolf shook himself. At some unspoken command Claire leapt up onto his shoulders as he grew to double his size, sprouting two extra heads and three hissing tails that ended in fang filled mouths dripping poisonous saliva that smoked as it landed on the concrete. As soon as the girl was seated on his shoulders he lunged back through the portal, knocking the last few B-3000s out of the way.

“Mask on chaps,” Ryn said to Kev and Armand. They obliged, silvery metal covering their faces from the world. As soon as they were sealed Ryn engulfed her friends in cool flames, only a few hundred degrees, and they all appeared at the portal entrance. She reached out with her right hand and shoved Kev through before her body converted into fire and she stepped through herself. Armand hesitated for a moment. He hadn’t been home since his father had been killed. He took a deep breath, pushed back his shoulders and followed after his friends.