Defiance of the Fall

demons nodded as he turned around.
A sea of shadows suddenly emerged at the gate and dozens of spears impaled the few people who hadn ’t already fled after seeing Zac ’s attack.
Billy simply sat down when seeing the battle was over, his lungs moving like bellows as he gulped for air.
Tears were streaming down his eyes as he sat unmovingly, and Zac walked over with a frown.

”Are you ok, Billy? ” Zac asked as sat down in front of him.

”Mama said to never hurt people, ” Billy said.
”But Mama never met people this bad.
These people deserved it, but Billy is still sad. ”

Zac sighed as he looked at the giant.
He realized that Billy might not have ever killed humans before he joined on this mission as most of his time was spent in the Ratlight.
The scene also made him wonder what kind of person he had become.
He had killed close to a thousand people in just a few minutes.
Yet he felt nothing, neither joy nor sadness or shame.
It was as he had cut down a bunch of trees, eliciting no emotional reaction.

He patted the giant on his shoulder before he walked over to Emily and the squad of Valkyries who had protected her.
They had stayed away from the thick of it, mostly providing support while keeping themselves safe.

”Are you guys okay? ” Zac asked as he looked at the group.

”People are messed up, ” Emily muttered before she looked up.
”We need to become stronger, or we ’ll become slaves as well when the world loses its protection. ”

The Valkyries emphatically nodded, having all too much experience in that department.
When people could attain the powers of gods some truly started to treat normal humans as ants.

”We ’ll sweep this place clean before we liberate the slaves in the town, ” Zac said.
”We ’ll also bring over a few hundred of the reserves to take control while we head over to the plantations.
I ’ll watch over the remaining soldiers. ”

’

The girls nodded, and soon the small strike squad went through every nook and cranny of the castle.
Soon hundreds of slaves had been found, some in extremely horrible conditions.
A few even chose to immediately end their lives the moment their shackles were removed.

Everyone was moved out to the square, standing some distance from the timid group of Ez ’Mahal soldiers who had thrown down their weapon.
They didn ’t dare to move a muscle after Zac had told them to stay put before sitting down to restore his energy.

No one even as much as dared to breathe loudly when sensing the immense aura that Zac emitted.
He was sitting in the middle of the square as both a deterrent for any foolish actions and also because he was simply a bit tired.
The attack had cost far more than a normal [Nature’s Punishment] had, and he curiously opened his menu as he waited for the others to finish their sweep.

[Nature ’s Punishment – Proficiency: Late.
Awaken the wrath of the world.
Upgradeable]

It had actually upgraded to late proficiency.
Furthermore, Zac had a feeling that it upgraded before he even used it.
After reading the flavor text he had a strong feeling that the upgrade was linked to his emotional response.
He had been well and truly infuriated after seeing Thanso’s bag, and that rage had fueled the skill.

Unfortunately, he also noticed that the battle hadn’t been enough to reach level 75, even though he had killed two E-Grade cultivators.
He even felt that he wasn’t all that close, meaning that the final level seemed to require far more energy than the earlier ones.
Still, if there was one thing he wouldn’t lack the coming weeks were enemies, so he wasn’t worried he wouldn’t get there soon enough.

Eventually, Zac turned his eyes to the hundreds of ragged people who stood huddled on the square.
Their eyes were all trained on him, some with hope, and others with fear.
He retracted his aura as he stood up, gripping an E-Grade Nexus Crystal in his hand.
His sudden movement made the group instinctually shrink back, and some even tried to hide the few children behind their emaciated bodies.

“I am Zac Atwood,” Zac said with a loud voice.
“You might know me as the Super-Brother Man from the Ladder.
We have killed all the leaders of the Ez’Mahal, and we will begin clearing out the area to kill every one of these scum.
You all are free.”

All the people stared blankly at him for a few seconds, until a few broke down and started crying in large tears of relief.
Others simply fell down on their knees, holding their heads.
A few even kneeled in front of him in thanks.

But suddenly chaos erupted in the ranks of the former slaves as a young man around 17 or 18 jumped a middle-aged woman, ruthlessly started to punch her.
Weirder yet was that not a single person tried to help her, instead opting to either look away or look on with schadenfreude.

’

“YOU FUCKER,” he shouted and started to relentlessly punch and claw at the woman, seemingly intent to tear her apart.

Zac frowned and flashed over before lifting the youth and tossing him away with one hand.

“What are you doing?” Zac asked with a frown.

“That bitch sold so many girls out to those alien psychopaths.
It’s because of her my sister was tortured to death,” he screamed, tears running down his cheeks.

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“We all did what we had to do to survive!” she said, her eyes thick with fear as she glanced at Zac.
“They would be found out soon anyway! They had eyes everywhere.”

A spear tip suddenly burst out through her chest, and she looked down at her engorged chest with confusion, before her eyes turned vacant.
Zac looked up at Joanna who stood behind her with ruthless eyes.

“Question everyone, find the other conspirators,” Zac said, steeling his heart.
“Purge everyone who betrayed Earth.”

His order quickly caused a few individuals to be isolated as they screamed and pled to be spared.
But the Valkyries had long turned to ruthless killing machines as the targets were quickly executed after the details were confirmed.
Zac himself didn ’t act, but he passively looked at the result of his order.
But while his exterior was calm the same couldn ’t be said of his thoughts.

He felt he was walking down a dark path, the weight of his victims causing a heavier and heavier burden.
Would he emerge with his soul intact, or would the sin of his actions consume him?