Will of the Unyielding [LitRPG Apocalypse • Progression]

Mind as calm as still water, Darius made his way toward the eastern city gate.

With each step, his figure flashed.

When the soldiers guarding the city gate saw him, they immediately knelt in reverence and shouted, "Warlord!"

Although the soldiers at the city gates were on guard duty, they were not part of Hector's Guards but, instead, they all belonged to Darius' Legion.

The two groups were very different despite their similar tasks.

The Guards operated within the city. They patrolled the streets, protected core buildings and important people, acted as escorts, and generally maintained a safe environment for the citizens.

In contrast, the Legion was tasked with guarding the city gates against external threats, be it human or beast, and in times of war, they were the ones to leave to fight the enemies.

There was a time when the Guards also stood at the city gates alongside the Legion, but due to frequent skirmishes with the Federation over the years, Darius and Hector reached an agreement and clearly divided their responsibilities.

Darius nodded at the soldiers and said, "Open the city gate."

The soldiers shivered with excitement at the order. It had been too long since they had seen their Warlord act personally, and now it was finally happening again. The new recruits were the most thrilled, having never seen Darius fight.

Silly grins plastered their faces as they opened the gate.

As soon as the gates swung open, Darius saw the hundred Legion soldiers standing still and thought, The fight hasn't started yet? That Fusor is truly quick to call for help, but I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

He stepped out under the fervent gazes of his soldiers trailing behind him.

With every step Darius took, their excitement grew.

He soon stood beside the hundred soldiers and shot them a glance. They were all staring straight ahead, so focused that they hadn't even noticed him. He couldn't help but nod inwardly. Good soldiers.

Then he took another step and positioned himself in front of them.

That's when his still mind went into turmoil.

He… is here.

Darius could only see Nova's back, but that was enough. Perhaps, if he hadn't known Nova had exited the portal, he might have needed a second or third look. But in this moment, one glance was sufficient.

Slowly, he walked toward Nova. He didn't spare a single glance for the Federation's soldiers.

To him, they were worth no more than a swing of his sword.

Thud.

"Boss!" Darius called out as he knelt a few meters from Nova.

The soldiers who had trailed behind their Warlord to see him in action froze at the sight of him kneeling. The one hundred soldiers, already stunned, now widened their eyes as they realized who it was kneeling.

Fusor, standing beside Nova, almost fainted at the sight.

Nova turned his head and saw Darius, a faint smile curving his lips.

"Oh, you're here." He pointed at the three Grade 1s and said, "What should I do with them?"

Gilbert, Stephan, and Charl turned their heads to see who this monster was speaking to but soon wished they hadn't.

One of the leaders of Nemesis, someone with the "Run" tag, was now respectfully kneeling before the monster.

Their already pale faces drained of color. A single thought rang in the three's minds: Finished. We're finished.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Darius glanced at them and, noticing their clothes, said, "If they sign a soul binding contract, they can live. Otherwise… they die."

At the mention of the soul binding contract, the three's faces went blank.

"Soul binding contract?" Nova echoed. "Let me see it."

"Here." Darius took out what looked like a simple scroll, filled to the brim with minuscle words, from his Inventory and handed it over.

Nova read through its contents multiple times, thinking in awe, 'Just one thought from the holder can extinguish the soul of whoever signs it, and the terms are as strict as they could be. But there's a downside too, for all of this to happen, they have to willingly sign it…'

He looked at Darius and asked, "Why didn't we use them before?"

Darius' lips twitched. "Boss, they cost 100,000 Gold coins each…"

How could they afford such contracts when, nine years ago, after all expenses, they barely had 1,000 Gold to spare?

"Ah, I see." Nova nodded. Although he found the price high, it didn't faze him. The Purple Portal had filled his pockets with Gold coins.

He turned to the three and dangled the contract in front of their faces.

"Will you sign or die?"

Gilbert and Charl had yet to react when Stephan immediately said, "We sign."

Resist? What a joke.

They didn't even have the right to stand before one of them, much less two. They could only blame the Federation for being too greedy, sending them out just a few days after the last skirmish.

Nova let go of the contract, which floated down right in front of their faces, and eased his pressure enough for them to move.

Stephan hurriedly bit down on his thumb, drawing a drop of blood before stamping it onto the contract.

As soon as he did, he felt a part of himself being locked down. A wave of unease rose within him but faded after a few seconds.

"What about us?" Gilbert and Charl snapped out of their daze and looked at Nova.

He had only handed them a contract, but there were three of them and Stephan had been far too fast to agree, leaving them stunned.

Nova turned toward Darius, who took out two more contracts.

Once Darius saw that all three contracts were signed, he turned to Fusor and calmly said, "Handle their proceedings."

Fusor nodded twice, picked up the contracts, and led the three away.

Nova pointed at the hundred Federation soldiers and asked, "Do you need them too?"

"No." Darius shook his head. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and swung.

A sea of fire devoured the soldiers, who didn't even have time to scream.

In a moment, they were reduced to ashes, which the wind blew away.

"They are useless," he said, finishing as he sheathed his sword.

Nova raised an eyebrow, thinking, 'It looked cool, I should try that too sometime. Later I have to ask about their experiences, they might know other ways to become stronger. After all, portals contain civilizations with different developments, perhaps they found something useful there.'

Darius then turned to Nova, his expression complicated.

Nova noticed and asked, "What?"

"Boss, I don't envy you at all right now." Darius gave a wry smile, pulled out a new device and fiddled with it for a few seconds. When he was done, he said, "Take it. You should talk with Cassidy."

Nova stared at the device silently.

Then, he nodded slightly. "Perhaps I should."

He took the device and left without a word.

Darius watched him go and sighed.

He then looked upward at the shuttle that was still hovering there with none inside.

He turned to the Legion soldiers, who had been silently observing the whole time, and said, "One of you, bring that to the base. Everyone else go back."

With that, he too disappeared.

/////

Cassidy stood beside a pool in a blue casual dress, her legs dangling naked in the water as she dazedly stared at the sky.

The commanding presence she had carried during the meeting was gone, now only a sense of solitude lingered around her.

The years had taken their toll.

She had rarely seen her father, Victor, or her friends.

Similar to Nova, they were busy clearing portals to grow stronger. Even Rachel, who had never liked training, had a wake-up call during a skirmish in which she nearly died, and since then had begun training seriously.

The generals also entered portals in rotation, always leaving someone outside in case of an attack. Despite that, they still ventured out.

Cassidy, on the other hand, could count on one hand the number of portals she had entered in nine years. While that might seem like a lot, considering Nova had only entered one, in terms of time, she had probably spent only about half a year away from Earth.

Her combat experience had been honed entirely through skirmishes and, more recently, with beasts. If not for the latter, which provided Stat EXP, her stats would have lagged far behind the others.

She couldn't even train in anything other than ice and sword, since she had chosen a class based on them at the start, unaware of the limitations involved.

Every time she tried learning something else, it felt as though a veil was cast over her eyes, preventing her from understanding anything unrelated to sword or ice.

She could wield a spear but…she could never become One with it.

This lack of variation made her training narrow in scope, but it also made it intensely focused and, as a result, made her stronger than most people.

As her strength increased, and because of her class, her body and personality slowly transformed. Her hair had almost fully turned icy blue from the jet black it had been at the start, and her demeanor had begun leaning toward coldness and sharpness.

All of this added to the solitude she felt.

Bzzz.

Suddenly, the device vibrated in her pocket, snapping her out of her daze.

She calmly fished it out, but when she saw the screen, puzzlement colored her face.

The caller was anonymous. She hadn't saved this contact.

Cassidy picked up and said, "Who's this?"

From the phone came a voice she could never forget. "It's been a while."

Her legs, dangling in the pool, stiffened, along with her whole body.

For a moment, she froze completely.

Then she let out a small sound of acknowledgment.

Her lips softly curled up as she said, "Welcome back."