Chapter 22

"THAT IS ENOUGH!"

I was so surprised I dropped Eyeless Jack, who fell to the floor, gasping. I turned to look for the source of the voice, to find…

My blood ran cold.

The figure walking out of the nearby ruin was the unmistakable form of the infamous Slenderman. Only, he had had some upgrades to himself: he looked like he was now partially encased in a mechanical exoskeleton, with robotic tentacles, 2 shoulder turrets and an energy shield on his left arm. His face is still blank, but I could feel his mood: a lend of impression and slight annoyance.

He "looked" at us first. "First of all, I must congratulate you. You lot are the first to manage to overpower all my proxies for many millennia. And you," he pointed a finger at Toby, "for the six billionth time, keep your mouth guard on."

He was interrupted by a burst of gunfire directed at him. A squad of enemy soldiers with assault rifles had obviously noted the unusually tall figure. Slender just sighed in annoyance.

He extended his left arm, and a strange weapon, rather resembling a cannon, extended. He aimed it at the enemies, and the cannon fired a small burst of what I caught to be several thin strands of focused energy beams. Despite being thin, the energy tore through the enemy soldiers with deadly efficiency, downing all in less than a second.

"Sir."

I turned to find Xu looking at me in a very serious way.

"Our troops are inbound and can cope with the remaining threat. Meanwhile, we need to discuss this event and how we should respond, along with the appearance of these…" he gestured to the entities, "supernatural beings should be dealt with."

I nodded. "Sounds logical."

A while later…

I took a sip of water.

We went to a meeting room that belonged to the Countrhumans, and by far, we've pooled all the things we know, and came to a few resolutions that I won't go into detail.

At that moment, the door opened and a young-looking U.S Countryhuman soldier stepped through.

"General Jones, all hostiles have been eliminated."

"Good." Then Jones raised an eyebrow, "why are you so nervous?"

The soldier swallowed, "Well, our troops discovered that these terrorists have an airfield, and…"

"And what?"

He shuddered. "Frontline reports are that the Chinese PLA troopers captured 2 A-10 Thunderbolts on the runway, and that U.S Army soldiers found a nuclear bomb of South Korean making in a shed under their procession."

"WHAT!?" everyone screamed.

"Affirmative, sirs."

A tense silence followed.

"We must approach the United States government and the South Korean government right away." Xu said, his voice deadly serious, "and to prevent this happening, we need to secure our perimeter. I'll send in my Capital Guard's 1st Division; Jones, mobilize your 3rd Army Group; Sergey, bring in your family guard; Wilson, start drafting a plan to form a marine battle group with this ship as a center."

"Good, is that all for now?" I asked.

Xu nodded. "It is."

"Good. Because I need to see Venus."

A few more moments later…

Me & my team walked into the tank garage with the girls behind me.

"Wow, is that your tank?" Venus asked, pointing at the Lowe.

"Yes."

And I went into an explanation of what has happened since our appearance into this world, my teammates supporting details. By the time we were done, the girls were looking at us as if we just told them we were fourth-dimensional beings.

"Wow." Venus managed.

"Man, you five had really good luck…" Cindy muttered.

"So anyways," I looked at the girls, "now you're here, what are your plans?"

Another, effing, long silence with the girls casting glances at each other.

"I'm joining up."

I looked at Venus, confused. "What?"

"I'm joining up in tankery."

"You sure?"

"I don't have anywhere else to go." She looked at the other girls, "anyone has other ideas?"

We were met with a slow flurry of 'noes.

"Okay, then…"

I stopped when all the girls tensed for a moment.

"What?"

Then, Venus reached into her pocket and pulled out a sleek cell phone, with words inscribed in the back: "Panzer Ace".

Slowly, more phones came out until every one of the girls was holding a Panzer Ace system.

"Well, that's the cue, then." I decided.

Suddenly, my own cell phone began to ring.

I raised it to my ear. "Yes, sir?"

"LISTEN, KID," God's voice said in my ear, "I'M MAKING BIG CHANGES."

"What do you mean?"

"The Teufels-Soldner proved unstable in a recent experiment. For safety concerns, I've removed it from your body. I'm also removing the Wolfsgeist because I foresee too much trouble coming due to them. I also need to shut down a massive part the Army sector of your shop, which includes all system-developed gear and deleting the Oberkommando Sicherheitstruppen. Your armies will now compose only of people recruited in Oarai, but I keep the army slots there, and you can always purchase modern weapons and equipment for them in the remaining parts of the sector. I also deleted Lucas's assistants because it's too much stress managing the related archives, and the same goes for your bulky armor. But for compensation, I've created a new pocket dimension and built a nice house for your team, and by that, I mean ALL the people from your world here. In that house there will be offices for each of you, and a secret room will be hidden in each of your office, hiding my master surprise, though the house had lots of small surprises as well. I also gave each of you a motorcycle, and a nice car for each team. And apart from that, I will be giving several of your people, namely you, Johann, Konrad, Henry, Vladmir, Andrew and Venus for a massive biological evolution. And last of all, I'll be taking Johann's axe for a while, I need to upgrade it."

"Biological evolution?"

"Yes. And as for what I mean, you'll know in time."

And the phone cut off.

"Umm, all of you?" I turned to the boys, "I need you to come with me. And you, Venus."

An hour later…

"Man, this is cool."

We're inside the new pocket world, and I'll have to say, the house looked very sweet. It's a big manor of a style that combines English and German, with a big garden around the central building. The manor house was an English colonial house, with brick walls, large, elegant windows that provide abundant natural lighting, a large set of marble stairs leading up to the front door, and beautiful, Collins-style columns. The garden was surrounded by a 2.5-meter-high wooden fence, supported by stone pillars and built on a low stone wall; the garden was beautiful yet modest, with springs, grape vines, trees and whatnot. The whole thing was located on a high, steep, rather shrubby hill on an island, overlooking the sea below.

Looking outside of the stone wall, I was surprised to see that the house was very well-defended: the main gate, which is where we are now, has a set of heavy gates made of iron, hidden in concrete structures on both sides of the gate, along with iron barricades that can be moved into the road. The main road that led down from the main gate was closely watched and defended by concealed bunkers, pillboxes and trenches within the shrubbery. There are also many hatches in the land, presumably hiding turrets that can be deployed if under attack.

Drawing my attention back, we walked up from the gate to the manor (it actually took us 1 whole minute to do so). Walking up the marble steps, we approached the front door.

"Hey," Venus interrupted, "do we have a key or something."

But I extended my hand and gripped the door handle nonetheless, and to my surprise, loud whirring came from inside as the locks deactivated. The double doors swung inward, revealing a massive, ornate living room, with both classic, antique-looking (and very beautiful) furnishings and all the stuff a group of modern teenagers could ask for: TV, fridges, game consoles, and all.

It took me a whole minute for me to stop gaping.

"Okay, everyone, stop gaping and go check out your offices."

"I hope God gives me back my axe soon." John muttered. The axe turned to light and disappeared when John unslung it after I told him of God's plans.

"I'm sure he will."

…

It took me a while to find my office door. It was made of dark, reinforced steel, with a simple, rectangular handle that only has one round indent where my hand might go. There are vertical patterns engraved into the steel, looking eerie and almost evil. Small panels are set in the door, one at the height of my eyes, the other above the handle. The frame of the door was made of heavy-duty steel too and had cold LED lights set into them, giving the door an intimidating look.

I shrugged and opened the door (that took me a while really, the door's locks turned out to be a fingerprint and retina scan, combined with a PIN). And I was struck dumb.

The office looked like it was specially designed to suit my needs. The wall to the left was a massive bookshelf, lined with books and inset with LED lighting. In the center of that wall was a display zone with significantly brighter lighting, showcasing a warship model and several tank models; the shelves had several enclosed sectors too; the right wall was divided into several sections by Greek-style supports and inset with large, floor-to-ceiling windows with LEDs set into the industrial steel frame and special blinds (I would've been sure they were sliding metal panels if I haven't touched it and found it made of rough, thick cloth), and controlled by a panel set into the wall. There are several cushioned chairs, and a long table situated near the windows too. The main desk, a large wrap-around one of steel (pretty much all the furniture in here is steel), is set to face the door, with simple, as-little-as-possible items on its top (right now, there's a silver briefcase, a laptop, a stationery set, a paper pad, a printer, a keyboard and futuristic-looking mouse, and a remote on the desk). The desk was surrounding a high-backed, metallized swivel chair mounted into the ground, with metal armrests set with various controls, a tall, padded chairback and a headrest. Behind it was the wall that faced the door, and 2 large flags were hung high: one of Oarai, and another of the Third Reich, sans the swastika.

And as I walked towards the desk, I noticed several more unusual things. The desk and certain spots on the bookshelves have panels where I won't access, like they were concealing something. There are also small indents on the left and right walls at the height of my ankles, likely concealing something.

There was a sheet of written paper on the desk, which I saw when I approached. It informed me a lot about my new office, which I have to say was seriously amazing. The whole room was soundproof, the door had a narrow one-way observation slot of 1.5-centimeter bulletproof glass, the panels in the desk conceal weapons that can be deployed as part of a defense system, and the indents in the walls are infrared sensors linked to the central defenses. But the coolest things of all? One, my desk had a massive display made of 12 screens that can be activated by a button on my chair; two, there's another working terminal, mounted on the ceiling, consisting of an intricate myriad of screens, holographic keyboards and specialized devices that can be lowered by a robotic arm when I need to see my body stats (after the "evolution" tonight, though); and three, my chair also controls 2 trapdoors in front of my desk and underneath my chair, with the desk-front one leading to a chamber that can release tranquilizer gas (for unwanted guests) and the under-chair one leading to a bunker system beneath the house (for quick getaways).

I was marveling at the office when all of a sudden, I began walking involuntarily to the bookshelf. Then, my hands touched a book on the shelf.

Then, to my amazement, the book's spine opened, and another retina-iris scan activated. Then, part of the bookshelf wall slid inwards and grinded to the side, revealing a secret room. And boy, one Hell of a secret room it was.

The room was basically just metal, but the eye-catcher was a slim set of battle armor on a stand in the middle of the room. It was sleek and angular and streamlined, with an intimidating appearance. In the left of the room was a weapons stand with a super-futuristic, slim assault rifle, a large but not bulky-looking pistol. To the right of the room was a sword on a stand.

At that moment, God dumped another box's worth of intel right into my head. It was concerning the suit and the guns, which were all custom designed for me. The suit, the Abyssal Tempest armor, was a suit of forerunning technology, including a diverse range of weapons (I'll just list a few: forearm scythe blades, chest dart launchers, flamethrower gauntlets, belt blade ejectors…) and booby traps (electrified surface, smoke emitters, holographic decoys…). The guns were designed to be wielded in modern combat, with the assault rifle named the Blitzkrieg MK-III (fires 7.92mm caseless rounds at a max of 900 RPS, cartridge holds 50 rounds) and the handgun named the Panzerschreck II (fires 10mm AP rounds, has fire mode selector, cartridge holds 15 rounds). As for the sword, all I know yet is that it's called Vehementus, is a powerful, formidable weapon, and that it has its own 'traits'.

I approached the sword and examined it. Its blade is 90 cm long and the hilt is approximately 20 cm. The blade is sheathed currently, but the handle was exquisite: it had a cross-guard shaped like jagged spikes, and the handle is wrapped in red, worn leather, ending in a silver pommel shaped like a clenched fist. The scabbard was black leather, with steel reinforcements. A snarling wolf was embedded in the middle of the scabbard.

I gripped the sword's hilt-

And was almost thrown onto the floor!

The sword has strong cognitive hazards! As soon as my fingers gripped the sword firmly, I was almost overwhelmed by a tsunami wave of bloodlust and malice. Evil-sounding whispers rung in my ear, urging me to go rogue and kill every being I know.

I gripped my head in searing agony. My sight was experiencing 'red out' like what fighter pilots feel in negative gees, and everything swam before my eyes. I clenched my jaws and desperately tried to shake off the influence.

Finally, after a minute, the horrible feeling wore away. I stood up, breathing heavily.

"THE LINK IS FORGED."

I jumped at God's voice. "What?"

"THAT WAS VEHEMENTUS TESTING WHETHER YOU ARE WORTHY ENOUGH TO BE ITS MASTER. NOW YOU'VE ENDURED IT AND CAME OUT ALIVE AND SOBER, YOU AND THE BLADE ARE OFFICIALY LINKED. AND I KNOW YOU'RE CURIOUS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU FAILED. WELL, IN THAT CASE… YOU WOULD'VE DIED FROM ALL YOUR MAJOR ARTERIES EXPLODING."

I winced as I thought of the awful scene.

"YOU CAN PULL THE BLADE OUT NOW."

And that's what I did. As the blade shimmered in the light, I gasped.

The double-edged blade was of pure, black-grey Damascus steel with faintly visible color patterns resembling smoke. It had engravings of flames and lightning and runes running down its side, and its edges were razor-sharp. A blood groove ran down the blade on both sides of it. And there's a very discrete button and a screw-on cap set into the hilt that I only found just now.

"CAREFUL, NOW. THE BLADE IS NOT ONLY SHARP, IT'S CORROSIVE AND POISONOUS. A HIT BY THAT WILL BREAK THROUGH THE THICKEST OF ARMOR, AND THE TOXINS WILL ENTER THE BLOOD SYSTEM, SHUTTING DOWN AND DISRUPTING BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS WHILE THE ACID CORRODES AT ANY ORGANIC EXISTENCE IT CAN REACH. THE RUNES ENHANCE ITS MIGHT, AND THE BLOOD GROOVE IS BOUND WITH A CURSE THAT WHOEVER OPPOSES THE WIELDER OF THE WEAPON AND GETS WOUNDED BY IT WILL HAVE IMMENSE DIFFICULTY IN RECOVERY. THE BLOOD GROOVE CAN ALSO ABSORB THE BLOOD THIS BLADE SPILLS, AND USE IT TO REPAIR CHIPPING, DULLING AND OTHER DAMAGE. THERE IS A HIDDEN RESEVOIR IN THE HILT THAT CAN SPRAY TOXIN OR ACID ONTO THE BLADE DISCRETELY, MAKING BLOWS MORE LETHAL."

Good heavens, this is truly a killer weapon.

Then, I noticed something. An inscription ran along the blade, close to the hilt. I read it out.

"Honorem Meum Defendam."

All of a sudden, my phone rang. It was Venus asking if everyone can meet in the main living room for now.

I shrugged. But as I left, I hung Vehementus on my belt.

…

"Goodness gracious."

Turns out, everyone has got their own weapons. Johann retrieved his axe, which is now called Valkenrath; Konrad had Blitzschneider, a paratrooper's knife; Henry had Albion's Legacy, a rapier, and Albion's Honor, his crossbow; Vladmir had Krasnaya Dusha, a Soviet Red Army saber; Andrew had Freedom's Fury, a gigantic war hammer; Fidel had the Hammer of the Proletariat, and last of all, Venus had the Celestial Crescent blade. Everyone has their own armor and weapons too, but I will go into detail where I need them. Another interesting thing is that Venus got new names too, but quite a few: for English, Calista Harper; for German, Aurora von Sternenfield; for Greek, Kallista Astron (Κάλλιστα Άστρον).

"This is so cool." Konrad muttered, twirling his knife.

And my phone beeped for the third time in 10 minutes.

"Oh, what now?" I checked the message, but this time, I was impressed. God told us that our "Evolution" will have to be delayed, because Kay, Alisa and Naomi are on their way here for a visit.

"Hey, Andrew, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah." Andrew grumbled, "this time, we need a chat with Admiral Karl."