City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

the two of them; he’d stick to his morals, and if the Baron ever captured him, he’d tell the old shit to get fucked, and he’d die on Earth.

He was the best man Thomas had ever known, and he’d not allow some posturing wanker who’d attack a tent city at night with a goddamn siege weapon to sully his name.

“I’ll find you…” Thomas swore, glaring out into the flickering flame-filled darkness. “… and I’ll kill you, fast.”

***

Chapter Thirty-Six

“Goddamn had to start the friggin’ war with the Gods early, didn’t you, motherfucker…” I muttered under my breath as I continued trying to figure out how to control the ship properly. There were over a dozen dials, levers, and crystalline ‘buttons’ that didn’t move if you pressed them, but you sure as hell knew there’d been an effect.

“Didn’t think to ask the damn helmsman which button fired the guns though, did you? Oh no, nothing that frigging useful…” I berated myself as I slowly turned the ship, passing over the edge of the Shipyard district. I glanced around, trying to spot the other vessels on the ground, but as dark as it was, between the constant downpour and the bright lights on this ship, I couldn’t see much.

Much besides the Battleship, anyway.

The fucking thing was huge, and I caught myself getting fixated on it. The sheer potential it held was insane! It was literally the size of a World War II aircraft carrier. Nothing that big should be able to float, let alone damn well fly, yet here it was, surrounded by dozens and dozens of pulsing, glowing blue engines as it prepared itself to take off.

“Are you done complaining yet?” Miren asked me, and I glared at her. “Because we were talking, and it turns out that there are some notifications you should probably read…” she said casually.

“I don’t need to,” I grumbled. “I already saw that I’m the goddamn apostate!”

“And the experience notifications?” she prodded calmly.

“I can look at them later,” I said sullenly, hating how childish I sounded. It wasn’t the fact that I was at war with a frigging god that was the problem, I admitted as I looked out over the huge hulk below us and turned the wheel to keep us clear of a building coming up on the left. The problem, if I was honest with myself, was that it hadn’t been me.

If you’re going to spit in a God’s eye and declare war on it, then it should be a story you can tell down at the pub. You should be able to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that was me. I told him, ‘Look, you fucker…’, but someone in my team had taken that away with a cock up.

They’d fired a ship-mounted weapon at the Dark God’s cathedral, killing who knew how many.

“Experience?” I asked suddenly, perking up and turning back to Miren, who grinned and nodded.

“Yup!” she chirped. “We all got a bunch! No idea who it was that fired the shot, but damn!”

Okay, get my attention if we’re going to crash…” I said excitedly, pulling up the flashing notifications, one by one.

Congratulations! You have killed the following:

2x Guards of various levels for a total of 3,900xp

A party under your command killed the following:

17x Guards of various levels for a total of 35,700xp

Total Party exp earned: 35,700xp

As party leader you gain 25% of all experience earnt

Progress to level 18 stands at 166,155/225,000

*

Congratulations!

Forces under your command have seized the following strategic items:

1x Light Cruiser Warship for 150,000xp

1x Fast Attack Scout Warship for 50,000xp

As you are at war with the previous owner, you receive 25% of the xp earned

Progress to level 18 stands at 216,155/225,000

*

Congratulations!

A party under your command killed the following:

76x Church of Nimon Aspirant Soldiers of various levels for a total of 258,400xp

21x Church of Nimon Slave-Aspirants of various levels for a total of 45,570xp

11x Church of Nimon Sanctified and Blessed Soldiers for a total of 78,650xp

Total Party exp earned: 382,620xp

As party leader, you gain 25% of all experience earned. Progress to level 18 stands at 311,810/225,000

*

Congratulations! You have reached Level 18! You have 7 points to invest in your stats .

You are now at 86,810/265,000 Exp toward Level 19.

*

“Holy crap, a hundred and eight of Nimon’s soldiers?” I said aloud, shaking my head as I tried to make sense of the deaths. The power of the ship-mounted weapons in a war was insane! The thought of briefly using the ships to bombard the city into rubble and kill the nobles crossed my mind…

But then I thought of how many innocents I’d kill doing that, and my stomach turned over, sickness rising to the back of my throat.

I felt HIM rising as well, the approval and the determination that leaked through the barrier between us. The fragment of his mind desperately desired the fight, offering me the assurance that all were acceptable methods in reforming the Empire. His reassurance that this would be only a fraction of the bloodshed I’d bring, made me shudder.

There was no way I’d be like him. I respected who he’d been, and yeah, sometimes ruthless was the way to go, no two ways about it, but no chance was I doing that and killing possibly thousands in order to kill a few dozen nobles.

I’d be reviled, not followed. The Empire was an institution; yeah, I got that, and nobody loved an institution, but the Emperor had to be a figurehead to look up to. I wasn’t sure if I wanted that to be me.

Hell, I was pretty damn sure I didn’t want that to be me. I wanted a bar somewhere, some grass to lie on, maybe a beach to chill on, a fuck-ton of good booze and food, lots of sexy-time and a laugh with friends. That’s what I wanted.

It was also what I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get. If I renounced my title, I’d have to raise someone up in my place, and that brought a whole host of issues with