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

afraid of, with my cleaner, better-made armor and rings on my fingers in plain sight. I furrowed my brow at Lydia. “Is there anywhere we can take her where she’ll be safe?” I asked her, and Lydia shook her head.

“There’s the orphanages, but she’ll be sold from there t' the slavers if there’s an offer made. Safest place for her is probably with the gangs, and that’s sayin' somethin'. They’ll pimp her out, but they’ll protect her, as she’d be an asset.” Lydia spat in disgust.

“Then she comes with us,” I said, nodding to Lydia, who turned to the girl.

“Would you like to come with us, sweetie?” she asked, getting a scared look from the girl. “I’ll make sure you get food and somewhere safe to sleep. You’ll be okay, I promise.”

The girl looked at her, clearly scared, but the offer of safety and food from an adult was clearly enough, and she took Lydia’s hand when it was reached to her.

I found Yen, leading the other woman and her baby towards our group, and saw the glares Tang was getting, the way more and more black looks were being thrown our way. I growled to myself. This was horrific; the weak being fed upon and ignored, the honorable being despised, all so that the rich could feed on their misery.

“I think you’d be better off if I was leaving you now…” Tang said to me, looking ashamed and swallowing hard.  I shook my head.

“No chance, Tang,” I said firmly. “You’re one of us. If you get shit, we all do. I’m not leaving you to be attacked by this scum.”

“Scum?” said a nearby man, who’d overheard, and he spat on the ground. “Yer with a Legion thief an’ yer call us ‘Scum’?”

“I do,” I growled, straightening and turning to face him fully, my anger rising.

“Who’d yer think yer are, sonny? Callin’ me scum!” he snarled back at me. Several of his friends began slinking out of the growing crowd to back him up, while others started to move to surround us. Grumblings turned swiftly to swearing and cat calls.

“Look! They’re trying to kidnap a girl!” the blatant predator who Lydia had scared off before cried, pointing to the little girl whose hand she held.

“I’ve had about enough of this,” I snarled, stepping forward as a trio of guards came running into the crowd, pushing people out of the way and lashing out with cudgels at those who didn’t move fast enough for their liking.

“What’s going on here?” The lead guard shouted, scanning the crowd, then focusing in on us.

I glared right back at him, and he curled his lip up as he saw Tang trying to hide the Legion markings on his chest plate.

“I should have known; another Legion thief!” the guard said loudly, sweeping his gaze across the group until it came to rest on me. “And what’re you lookin’ at?” he said, stepping forward self-importantly. “Come on then, papers!” He thrust his hand out.

I smiled coldly and stepped forward instead, coming to a halt a few feet from him, clear of my own group and standing in an open space between the two groups.

“Who am I?” I asked slowly, as though unsure what the question meant. “Who am I?” I repeated.

“I’m your fucking worst nightmare, you self-obsessed, arrogant little shit!” I snarled, rolling my shoulders and cracking my neck. Amon’s simmering rage, as he saw things I’d missed, bleeding through the thin barrier between us.

“I should be asking who you are!” I snapped, slamming the butt of my naginata down hard on the cobbles. A thick weave of mana flashing into it subconsciously, making it flare into incandescent white fire.

“I should be asking who any of you are!” I roared. “You stand there, dressed as a guardsman, pretending to uphold the law, while fucking creatures like that…” I pointed at the predator who gasped as I leveled my glowing blade at him. “…try to abduct little girls from the street in broad daylight! You did nothing to help her, not one of you!” I roared, spittle flying as I swept the glowing blade around, in some cases barely missing eviscerating some of the crowd.

“You would let a mother starve, right there!” I growled, pointing at the wall where Yen had helped the woman to stand from. “You were content to let her waste away, her baby with her!” I swept the blade around to aim at the well-dressed women, who screamed and tried to push themselves backwards through the wall behind them. “You laugh and fucking frolic around, with a goddamn slave carrying your baggage!” I snarled, stepping forward and slamming the base of my naginata down hard before them as I reached out, lightning fast with my left hand, my fingers curling around the collar the slave girl wore. I felt a shiver pass over me, running from my heart outwards across my body, as I squeezed. I started to glow with an unearthly light as Amon’s rage grew to new heights. I felt him acting through me, infusing the spells I knew, my magic, with his knowledge. He fed magic through my skin, miniscule tendrils of magic flaring into being. They sank into the collar, flying through it, mapping out crystal matrices, and then flooding them with power.

The collar crumbled like baked clay, falling apart in my hands as the corresponding ring on the rich girl’s finger exploded. The spell feedback sent her screaming as she clutched at her bloody hand.

“Who am I?” I roared into the shocked stillness, hearing my voice echoing off the surrounding buildings. “Who am I?!” I repeated, the magic that hissed and crackled in the silence of my soul rippling out, my eyes shifting from the dark brown I’d been born with, to a luminous blue, as lightning began to crackle and pop across my skin. “I AM YOUR LORD,” I said, magic filling my voice, and making my words reverberate with power. “The LAW of the EMPIRE is clear.