The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

Clarissa

Everything was on fire. I watched as Purgatory turned into a massive funeral pyre. The stone itself was melting and the waves of heat were coming off from the city. I turned away from the massive sunken inferno.

A short distance later, my personal guard was waiting next to an airship resting at the top of trees, a rope ladder descending downwards. "Is the city lost?" I glanced at the woman who had asked that question.

"Yes, we are should-"

"Perimeter breach!" One of the scouts called out. Everyone turned in that direction as a massive Molten Golem was advancing through the tree line. It was a level 5 monster. To have it show up in a level 1 zone was a cruel joke.

"Beam attacks in two. One! Fire!" Shouts rose up from several of my personal guard as beam attacks were used. The Molten Golem stumbled backwards, impacting a tree which burst into flames. I was already climbing up the rope later.

"Orderly retreat, keep up the fire, don't let it advance. Summoners, decoys!"

"It is giving off too much heat!"

The shouting continued as I reached the deck of the airship. After a minute everyone had ascended to the airship, the massive plume of smoke from Purgatory was rising in the distance. I could feel the heat in the air. I made my way to the bridge.

"Set course East for East Bastion, low altitude high speed," I called out to the helmswoman. "All personnel to combat positions to combat flying monsters." My people shouted affirmatives back towards me as the airship swung around and quickly set off.

My hands clenched in frustration. I had done everything I could to save Purgatory. At least a large portion of the population had evacuated before the assault. What really hurt was the billions of points of lost infrastructure and businesses.

Looking out the front window, my soldiers were firing beam attacks at the flying monsters that moved to intercept us. I had to give their bravery and determination credit. A couple of them had died from the constant attacks that had plagued the surrounding zones.

While the high level monsters broke down, but until that happened they were nearly unstoppable. The fact that my personal guard was struggling showed the sheer difficulty of handling monsters above our level. While they could have been stopped with the cannons, we would have burned through our points too quickly.

Now Purgatory had been lost, the civilians fleeing to other cities, the wilderness, or most likely to their deaths. The other cities were worse off, many having high level monsters move through. Even grinding groups weren't immune. It was a concentrated assault all over the place and no trace of the perpetrator.

I had already prepared a contingency plan in the event of a catastrophic collapse of the Purgatory Empire. It had been created with the idea of Michael dying and a high level opponent like the Divine Empress rampaging through everything. A hidden base that was kept off all records. I had a decoy fall back base that was kept secret.

People would look for first base and find clues scattered about if they dug deep enough. It was also known by people. The actual secret base was only known by me. We would go to the decoy base first and see if we were attacked. My people were assigned in a buddy system that changed every other day to help ferret out any individuals who were compromised.

All that wealth, time, and effort, gone just like that. Purgatory had held on for a while, but without walls to defend it and elevated cannons, it was too vulnerable to attack. I wanted to see my hard work burn away with my own eyes. That was why I had stayed for so long.

Doctor Katz had gone missing in the chaos, dead or alive, he no longer mattered. My thoughts drifted to another person. Michael. I could only hope that he won this war. The ability for our enemy to attack at range while hidden was crippling. There was no worthwhile target we could strike back at.

It was over. I was going to hide out in the wilderness with individuals I trusted and had vetted extensively. Michael had been correct in his response. It was painful to admit that, but it was arguably the best response. The fact that monsters would show up haphazardly indicated to me that I wasn't being taken seriously. Their focus was elsewhere.

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Well, I wished them the best of luck trying to find me. The Regional Map building in the East Bastion had been destroyed. That way there was no chance of tracking my position. I would hide out in a level 3 zone to start with. The mistlands were a great place to have a concealed base.

But the real base was in a level 4 zone, in some darklands. It hadn't been simple to build in the slightest, but I had managed. The entrance was big enough to fit an airship. There was a nice cliff that had been cut into, with an enchanted rock façade on hinge doors to conceal the outside. Enough food had been stored there to feed 200 people for 2,000 days.

In the surrounding zones, there were astrolabes activated, along with the rest of the Empire. It had been my last order along with destroying all the Regional Map buildings. These actions would disrupt the ambient energy, with the locations hidden away, and force them to invest in cities if they wanted to locate me. Only I knew all of them. Just concealing my base would have given away the general location. Using this strategy was an all or nothing strategy and undoing the order would be incredibly difficult. It was not something that could be triggered on and off.

I had been hoping to find the perpetrator, which was why it hadn't been an option. Now it was only a method to hide in the wilderness and nothing more. I could only hope it would give whoever or whatever was attacking a lot of headaches.

I took my preparations seriously. I hadn't evacuated from the sphere, since its range had been expanding. There had been no point. It had been a massive headache to build, but after the Divine Empress, I was a firm believer in having an escape plan, even if I never used it.

There was one thing that I kept an absolute secret. Even from Michael. He knew about these escape plans but didn't care too much about them. While I understood that mindset with his strength, that was a mindset I didn't have.

I felt the rod under my chest armor. It would never be leaving me no matter what and I would never let anyone else know that I had this item. Even if it meant my life, I could never risk revealing it. I knew Michael would take it, anyone and everyone would want it.

Locating individuals with high combat skills, arranging for them to be in grinding groups that talked about this item. Then having them go off themselves to grind an area without any nearby support, while their stats were low. Many had died from the basic monsters. More had died from death.

There had been one failure with the person wishing for something stupid with their meta-point. The subtle conversations I had instructed the grinding team to carry out had not been successful. But that was not an issue in my mind. It was only a matter of time until there was a success. I just needed to be patient.

Two years ago, someone made a wish for the most valuable item. They were then killed by the grinding team, and the item was brought directly to me. That team was on board the airship with me. They didn't know what I had. They were instructed to kill anyone who came back from fighting Death, take any items, and bring them directly to me.

They probably knew what I had, but none of them dared discuss it. I had been plucking the best operatives I could find from the arrivals who were practical and willing to work with me. I made sure to monitor their strength and skills, but I wasn't overly concerned. There had been no indications of disloyalty. Also, the constant mental manipulations had only strengthened that loyalty over time.

It was easy to slowly manipulate a person if you controlled where they slept and had access to the most skilled people who could explain exactly how such a thing could be done. Jacob had been quite useful with his knowledge of mental manipulation.

Michael had wanted something like this for a long time, but he didn't need it, I did. Its presence inside my armor, gave me confidence in dealing with whatever crisis arose. I could out hide Michael easily. In my possession was a Portable Store.

The only downside was that it didn't give regenerations or have building upgrades, but everything else, including stats could be purchased. With the stats I had and the stats I would get in the future, I would only need to visit a city every couple of decades for a regeneration. I could hide out indefinitely.

Once I had weeded out the mentally weak and unstable individuals in my retinue, I would allow them to partake in using the Portable Store to get more stats, building up my power far away from civilization. By the time Michael reached combat level 9, I would have 50 to 100 individuals at combat level 7, with myself being a notch above.

It was a completely new strategy and one I was loathe to follow. But there was no other option with the corner I had been backed into. With time, all the skills could be upgraded for my soldiers. While I had rotated them around and arranged for them to get skills, it was still a hassle since they needed to move in groups to beat monsters.

But that was fine. In time, the weak would be pruned away. And all that would be left was strength. Strength that was obedient to me without question. By the time Micheal reached combat level 10, my people would hopefully be at combat level 9. The gap would be closed with time.

And if the enemy showed up and tried to take over, they wouldn't be able to handle my personal army. Michael was also right about that. Strength was what mattered at the end of the day. I wished that wasn't the case, but I refused to lay down and die helplessly. I would triumph against any hardships sent my way with my years of careful preparation.

The Portable Store had been a longshot gamble, but it had paid off and been kept absolutely secret in order to make my permanent escape from the leash of the cities possible. A shame that things had reached this point that there was no other option.