CHAPTER 3: Tracking the Wildcard.

The wildcard woke up in a prison cell, not remembering a single thing about his past- and what he did/what caused him to get arrested in the first place.

To break free, he accepted the deal of the now ex-Hopian Officer, Karia Solas. The deal consisted of her breaking the wildcard out, in return for him helping Karia complete the "trials" that she was told about by an old cultist named Bersia. More specifically- Karia promised her to break the wildcard out of prison and to use him to complete the trials, in return for Bersia's soul. Such is the ability of her Blessing "Carry Me On"- one of history's deadliest by default, in the hands of the right user of course.

Back to the tracking. So, after somewhat guiltily mowing through the guards at Vegahold Prison, Karia ran out the building with the wildcard on her back- but their escape was interrupted by Commander Aora blocking their path outside.

But- with Aora being tired after encountering and surviving an attack from my estranged loser of a brother, AKA the "sixth" King- she was mentally and physically drained. This let the wildcard and Karia escape to the boat Karia had prepared for them beforehand. This was done by using one of her Spirit of Bersia techniques, which let

After this, Karia introduced the world to the amnesiac wildcard- and named him Seric.

Afterwards the duo set sail, getting materials at a bazaar in my territory, and completing a few trials across my territory as well. An anomaly to note is that a man that I can not find any records of existing, sold a glowing cube to a merchant- which ended up in the hands of Seric...

Even more oddly, that cube ties into the trials (where actually learned how to use his previously talking boat for the first time), because at the end of a certain trial, that cube got sucked into his hand. I'm... not 100% sure what it even did for Seric. This might be part of the haze, but that is not for me to write here.

Anyways. Besides the trials, the duo also went to the island of Magthera. Well- an artificial island may be the better term. Magthera consists of many metal houses and energy-platforms that are built over, and around the magma stored inside of my territory's biggest volcano. It's also surrounded by the sea, and one can get a magnificent view of the pillar Vega from the top of the volcano.

The reason why the duo went there though was because Karia actually wanted to do Seric a favor- quite rare. But as for the favor, she brought Seric to Magthera in order to meet a perverted doctor named Dahai that she knew had a Blessing called "On My Nerves". She hoped his Blessing would let the two find out more about Seric's biology.

But- it wasn't so simple to find him, as the relatively strong doctor had been kidnapped prior to them arriving- despite being skilled in utilizing pressure points in combat through his Blessing.

And so an unwilling Seric and Karia played hero in order to rescue him- and Karia took out the mentally and physically thick and bouncing idiot named Aeko, who was responsible for kidnapping Dahai. As a small remark- Aeko is still alive, and has a partial invisibility Blessing. I can't remember its name at the moment and I don't care enough to look through my database and find it, it's inconsequential.

More importantly, after returning home to his adoptive and equally disturbed daughter- the doctor Dahai then used his Blessing to study Seric's body. This revealed that the boy has no organs, and that he's apparently 116 years old.

Karia and Seric then left from Magthera in shock after running from the Hopian Army- and while on sea, they encountered a literal pirate ship. Upon Karia coercing Seric to meet the crew, the pirates seemed quite deranged and desperate to get rid of their annoying larger than life robot crew member, King Metallica.

Wanting to feel loved, the only way King Metallica would leave the crew was if someone won him from a fighting tournament. And so, with Karia wanting an extra hand on her journey, and with Karia also wanting to take her mind off of her guilt for betraying the army- she agreed to participate in the tournament and dragged Seric along with her, in order to have a chance at enlisting the robot into their ranks.

On that note, it turned out that the deranged robot himself with a human soul was a dedicated follower of me and my brothers. I can respect that bravery a bit considering he didn't even know that he had a soul but- he's still incredibly dumb for ignoring the fact that he actually followed so little of our scripture, besides spreading the word.

Hatred aside, King Metallica also adored stories- and so he told Seric all about the rise and fall of "The Five Kings". The Kings in question being I the intellectual, Dalkan the prideful, Trinian the Honest, Rosian the loving, and Cobran the viscous I suppose. And yes- those titles do actually affect our skills- or weaknesses in my brothers' case.

..For my wife's sake, fine, Rosian's title is not necessarily a weakness.

Regardless, as a quick but most likely obvious recap of the story King Metallica told about us however. It started with my dad and mother making this universe, then how they made this world, got bored of it, burned it, and finally killed themselves (where they resided in the barrier between life and the afterlife). Then a new era began as me and my 5 brothers rose from the ashes (that was intentional on my parents part). We worked together for a time, and built the massive pillar Vega as our home- but eventually we started to "grow weaker" through being near each other. That and we were starting to hate each other as well for the most part due to having very different ideologies.

And so me and my brothers decided to split up- and declared that we would have a race to the top of the pillar Vega the next day, in order to determine which one of us would get to keep living in the pillar. I won the race with ease but my brothers said I cheated, however they were just extremely stupid. I climbed the pillar before any of them woke up, and after some whining they finally left- and each of them broke off a massive chunk of the main continent which we lived on- leaving me with the centerpiece and the pillar Vega.

After that, we made our own groups of humans- but most of them turned out like garbage. So we made some more. And more. They improved and became more useful after each iteration- but as far as the story goes, they were always evil and me and my brothers ended up killing ourselves out of depression. But of course the real truth of the matter is that the humans became too competent and managed to defeat us...

Whatever, they didn't REALLY beat me anyways.

Back to the tournament for King Metallica now. Seric didn't have much of a say in participating, and so he was forced to suffer through a few fights while Karia won hers with ease. Seric did win his first fight through tricks, but the second one against the orange haired boy Popshot proved far more difficult.

Popshot was a skilled martial artist with the Blessing called "Lock me Up", which allowed him to freeze his body for a moment- and have a much stronger kick or punch in return.

The fight between him and Seric ended in a "draw", with Popshot clearly losing on purpose after he realized the fight looked intense enough for King Metallica to think it was real.

Being a good sport and having respect for Seric's skills however, after the fight Popshot offered Seric a drink. They then got to know each other better, and Popshot even trained Seric a bit in order to prepare him for the fight against the crew's captain, Adesia.

A bit later, both Seric and Karia took on Adesia. The fight was fairly brutal with the woman's Blessing allowing her to set her own oxidized blood on fire, and in combination with the "claws" she attached to her hands- she was throwing her blood left and right and burning the duo. The Blessing was called "Relight my Vitality".

But in the end, despite the difficult battle, Seric and Karia won through dumb(ish) luck- which was by Seric summoning his "Best Friend" and kicking it into Adesia once she was distracted enough with Karia

After this, Popshot told Seric a bit about his past life- and how Adesia actually saved him from being owned by Fixed Reality Casino in the past. He also told Seric about how his current goal was to save his dad from the same Casino, who was also "trapped" there with Popshot before he got saved.

The duo and King Metallica left in a scummy fashion, with Karia and King Metallica robbing the crew of pirates for seemingly no reason. The trio just barely managed to escape by jumping off of the ship after being chased down.

But it turns out that Karia actually wasn't 100% evil for once. She only robbed the group after overhearing from a few folks that they planned to poison her while she was recovering.

But, I did some more observing and it turns out the ones who wanted to poison her were working alone. And so most of the pirates actually said goodbye to the trio just as they were sailing off. It also turned out that the loot Karia and Metallica stole was mainly fake, with some of it being real- mainly for Seric, as he was the one person the crew actually liked at that point.

Right- after this comes a vital part, the true beginning of the "first step". The trio went to complete another trial, but the "mysterious voice" who Seric heard at the other trials, told him that he now needs to complete the rest of the trials in Dalkan's Territory instead of mine.

The group was shocked about this, but silver lining- after "completing" that trial by talking to the voice, they discovered that Seric's boat suddenly gained more rooms on its inside. At this point the boat stopped talking to Seric as well, I have not been able to find a reason for why this was the case.

As for his boat- it's fairly small, almost like a motor boat- and it's also completely white, and almost neon. Near the back of the boat is a lever for driving, and near the front is a cube with a door on it. Inside of this cube is a big area which consists of a few rooms, so yes it defies physics- but many Blessings do as well so that is not a major concern.

After the boat upgrade, the trio went to the island of Birzion for supplies. They were greeted by the kind but cowardly tour-girl named Abigail, and she offered to guide them around the island.

But they soon discovered that the island was in a poor state however, after being approached by the sexist and corrupt mayor of the place, Virile Noble. He got into power through a loophole with an old law, it's so ridiculous I'm not going to mention it. And yes, the reason why he approached the trio and Abigail was due to the girls' appearance and how they were in public... don't blame me for that shithole of a place and his views, I'm busy with my continent as is. If my people felt so capable as to try to kill me thousands of years ago, they can handle their own islands.

...Anyways, after physically and metaphorically getting humiliated by the mayor and his men, the trio and Abigail were left angered- but they were spared regardless.

But things didn't end there. With Karia wanting revenge, and King Metallica wanting to help his new acquaintance Abigail- they vowed to take down the mayor of Birzion.

Before I explain any further however, I suppose I should explain the mayor's past- as it ties into his demented views. In particular his vigilante "master" or mother-figure Venus, who he went on patrols and played hero with as a child- was sexually assaulted and left in a vegetative for the rest of her days.

Virile took this event as a reason for why he would never let this happen to any women again, and thus why he wanted to rule Birzion in the first place. And in particular it was why he felt the absurd need to be so harsh on the women there.

But alas, the trio didn't know this and even if they did they wouldn't give two shits I don't think- I doubt any humans would to be fair. Maybe Seric though but he'd still try to take down Virile regardless I'd imagine.

Anyways, they tried to fight the mayor once again. During the fight, Seric met his Blessing's "deity", and was able to unlock the ability to turn his boat into a small but incredibly heavy knife, that can cut through anything. He also learned that he can throw it extremely far. I've been monitoring him to make sure he doesn't accidentally abuse this ability- and due to his morals and average intelligence, he hasn't. Yet.

But back to the fight, due to the trio being cocky- all three of them got obliterated once the mayor started using his Blessing "My Parabolic Eruption", which let him cause explosions in the earth from a distance by slamming his body on any surface.

Abigail's father Onyx almost killed the mayor with his blood-hardening Blessing- but due to his admittedly strong will, Virile Noble was fully healed after gaining a second Blessing- and he struck down Onyx as well.

But just before he could wreck even more havoc, Commander Aora who was already on her way to investigate the island beforehand- ended up saving the trio by defeating Virile Noble with one kick.

Well define "saved"- the reason why she arrived in the first place, was to attempt to convince Seric to give himself up back to the army (the Hopian Army did a fair job with tracking the boy down to Birzion I'll admit).

Furthermore, to help with convincing Seric to be given up to the army, Aora revealed what Seric did to get arrested in the first place. It turned out that he massacred the entire island of Aprase in a horrible fashion, and decapitated a Commander of the Hopian Army who was there as well- Erucid.

Karia and Seric were both shocked at this, with Karia being furious once she realized she gave up her past life in the army, as well as hurt her friends- only to save a monster. ...I'm not sure why she was so surprised considering it's common knowledge that only the worst people of this territory get a life sentence, but alas. I'll save that for another rant.

On a more interesting note, King Metallica on the other hand fully accepted Seric and said his love for him wouldn't change despite his crimes.

And with King Metallica convincing the crew to stay together, Seric was not given up to the Hopian Army. Commander Aora did not pursue the group any further, out of the "fear" that Seric would go on another rampage if he was agitated. Smart.

But regardless of not being captured, this event caused the group to receive bounties- and thus made them start doing practically everything in disguises, or in hiding. And it also caused Karia to have a burning hatred for Seric that lasted for a long while.

After this, the leader of my Army, Prósopsi, had a meeting with his subordinate Commanders. He... decided to nickname them the Four Holidays a while back. You most likely already know this but, their titles and names are "Father Kingmas" Ontarus, "Easter" Ufisator, and "Halloween" Aora. I know Prósopsi' did that to get the army better publicity but... ugh.

More importantly though, at the meeting they talked about many things, such as how communications were going with Fixed Reality Casino's owner Domino Afolabi, as they were working with him in order to better negotiate with the Dalkan Territory- which is the one good thing that man has done.

The Commanders also discussed how corruption is quite high in the Hopian Army, such as how Aeko was bribing the Hopian Army to leave him alone in Magthera. Prósopsi's response to this was that he wanted to start a conscription act in order to boost the army's strengths- but Aora was strongly opposed to this. I have no comment on this, but I did agree with Prósopsi.

Furthermore the failed expedition of a massive spaceship years ago (the Mark-01) was mentioned. The magnificent ship was meant to colonize and gather new materials from a far away planet, but it... I shouldn't talk about any details here. But it failed miserably (although it did give me some VERY important data), and it was a major cause for my continent's poor economic state in the present I'll admit.

Aora also clarified what exactly happened to the fleet she lost a few months ago, and she stated that like I said before, she thought the being that destroyed her fleet was a supposed sixth king. In order to make sure Aora wouldn't find out the semi-truth about me and my brothers, Prósopsi and the rest of the Commanders laughed this off completely- even though they knew it was most likely true.

To end off the meeting, to pay his past friend Erucid respect- Prósopsi created a massive attack across the sea that he was sure Seric and co. would be able to see- and hopefully fear.

Luckily however (since we need Seric), this attack was not able to hit the trio directly- as King Metallica removed the tracker that was in Karia's leg immediately after the trio left Birzion. (Note: a lot of army members who get cybernetics also get trackers placed in their bodies, due to the inherent threat someone is with cybernetics).

Anywho, after that big scare and with having to wait to complete the trials now- the trio headed to the Hopian Continent by Karia's command.

Upon entering, Seric soon discovered that the entire continent is covered by my Hopian-dome which projects a dark artificial sky all across my continent. He also discovered that once you enter my dome, it can not be exited easily. Lastly he found out that most of the citizens were severely obese, and lived inside "registered" apartment buildings. Or that they travelled through the tubes I came up with the idea for that hang above the cities.

Back to the group themselves now- a bit later they were attacked by the bounty hunter Amandeath, and Karia just barely managed to fend her off after King Metallica and Seric got incapacitated- more specifically with King being paralyzed, and Seric shot in the head.

Just before King Metallica was about to finish her off however after recovering, Amandeath humored King Metallica- and thus he offered for her to join them. She reluctantly agreed after realizing that she actually was NOT ready to die yet, what a surprise.

From there, the quartet went to a library for King Metallica so that he could read more scripture- one of the few choices of his that I can respect.

While there however, Karia got impatient and left the crew for a bit to do something on her own. She came back a bit later after finding out the location of Diosa Natash, who unbeknownst to her was the servant of my dad, the one remaining god of this universe- Habram.

Why she wanted to take down Diosa was for a few reasons- most of them pointless and petty. Firstly- in her past, Karia was given up to the Hopian Army as a child. She became close friends with a boy named Sariel there.

The boy became her boyfriend after some years, but tragedy struck after Sariel was left paralyzed from the waist down after a vicious attack from Diosa Natash.

Wanting to carry on Sariel's dreams of becoming a Commander, Karia got cybernetics implanted into her body which greatly enhanced her durability and physical strength. The tech behind them is quite "cool" but, here is not the place to discuss it unfortunately.

But right. So Karia rose through the ranks and ended up as an Officer of the Hopian Army. Her upward trajectory came to a sudden halt after Diosa Natash broke into Vegahold Prison where Karia and Sariel were on guard duty at the time.

(Note: Diosa's goal was to break me free from the very bottom of the prison... which means Habram must have commanded him to do so. But Habram should have known I am not down there however. This is technically according to plan, but a bit intimidating...)

Ahem. The spear Habram gifted Diosa allowed him to eject, and destroy the soul of any living being if he stabbed them in the center of their chests. He did this to many people, and was even able to just barely defeat a Commander of the Hopian Army, Ufisator- who used his entire arsenal to attempt to kill the intruder.

Feeling helpless, and even guilty after sacrificing other army members to save her own life- Karia tried taking Sariel's Blessing, with her own Blessing "Carry Me On". Her promise to Sariel was that she'd help take down Diosa.

But- Karia ignored the fine print when she first got her Blessing, and was shocked after realizing that her Blessing steals the soul of anyone she takes the abilities of.

To make matters even more humiliating, taking Sariel's soul seemed to be in vain, as Karia was defeated and almost killed by the spearman without much difficulty. But again, a young Aora who was an Officer at the time stalled off the intruder until Prósopsi arrived. Diosa was able to escape with the help of Habram after the Head Commander tried to kill him however.

And so, with Karia wanting to avenge Sariel in the present- as well as her deal with Sariel being to kill Diosa, she felt that she had no choice but to confront the spearman on her own.

And so she did- and she dragged Seric into the mess as well. Both of them were defeated- with Seric's soul being sent to Habram, while Karia's soul remained in her body as she was left on death's door after being stabbed twice in the chest. Once in the heart, and once in the womb so that she could never bear children.

King Metallica finally came to save the duo after reading a prior text from Seric, but it was seemingly too late. This broke him, and made him break his oath to Kodan about keeping the Emperor form a secret. He used the form to destroy a big chunk of the Hopian Continent, which was fortunately isolated from the rest of the continent thanks to Habram.

(Note: I certainly would have intervened if Habram's barrier that Diosa established was not in place. After all- if the area that Emperor Metallica used his sphere on was not isolated, the entire Hopian Continent would have been obliterated.)

Back to his rampage- even in the isolated area, Emperor Metallica's rampage killed a few hundred thousand citizens. Diosa was also slain by the Emperor's iron fist, and Habram who tried to save Diosa actually had his hand broken by the raging robot. I'll admit- that part was quite entertaining to watch.

Strength aside- King Metallica was quite humbled by the "death" of his friends and the damage he caused to the Hopian Continent. He then finally admitted to himself that very few of his "pals" actually loved him- which hurt the robot even more, since Seric and Karia were some of those very few.

And yet he let them die, partly due to his own idiocy in blindly following Karia's plans and letting her go after the spearman- just like how he allowed Kodan to die. He destroyed his crown after this realization, knowing that he did not deserve to be a King- and thus he changed his name to Metallic at this point.

But Metallic was extremely relieved after he discovered that Seric, as well as Amandeath survived his rampage.

However Seric was certainly not in a good place, not for the boy himself at least. He was now marked as Habram's servant, and formally ordered to complete the trials with Karia. He also learned about how Habram was sending practically every human to hell, and how there are many universes- such as the one where Prósopsi's ally Aphrodite came from. Habram despises the universe of the "greeks" and seemed/seems to be at odds with Zeus who ruled/rules it.

More on Habram though- with the help of him blessing the crew one final time, Karia was able to miraculously be saved by the immoral doctor Marlox- but she was still left in a coma for days.

(Note: while Habram did bless the crew by having Marlox appear at the right time, Karia surviving long enough to be treated was due to her cybernetics, not Habram keeping her alive.)

Right, so with Metallic wanting to pay back Marlox for saving Karia, he set off with Amandeath to do some bounty hunting- choosing not to take Seric with them due to his current mental state.

After setting off however, the two were taken off track when they "stumbled" into Metallic's old close pal who was part of the Red Fists with him- Restroid. Restroid asked Metallic to join him to complete the Red Fists mission and take down the Hopian Army, but he refused after realizing that Restroid was doing things much differently than Kodan would have liked.

And so a fight ensued, with Metallic and Amandeath fending off Restroid and his goons- and with Restroid then asking Metallic for a formal duel at a later date. The stakes were if Metallic won, he would receive Restroid's large bounty. And if Restroid won- Metallic would join the Red Fists.

And so Amandeath and Metallic camped out in a motel and did some preparing for the upcoming battle. At this point, Metallic gave up his faith of the Five Kings after realizing he was doomed to go to hell- smart. In turn, he started praising his "pals" and putting them above all- calling his new ridiculous faith "paldeolegy".

Afterwards, with some help from Amandeath Metallic brought up a hidden memory of his past from roughly 250 years ago. This was just after his forgetful soul was transferred into his robot body by a man named Koltek, who was his maker from the future. Koltek one of the smartest men on this planet I'll admit, his manners were not great from when I talked to him however.

But back to King Metallica- after his maker's abrupt death, the robot ended up being praised and ruling over the island. After a short while though, the idiot accidentally destroyed the island after trying to fend off an invasion with his Emperor form.

I suppose I should talk about Elio at this point as well, a man I may try to communicate with in the future. Before his vulnerable self was recruited by Restroid, he lived in an apartment with his overly strict parents- as well as his older brother Xalen.

After failing to meet his parents expectations- Xalen almost killed himself before being stopped by Elio. This, as well as other obvious factors brought Elio to his breaking point- and so he left everything behind, and was soon left homeless. That is, until the cult leader Restroid scooped him up using classic psychological manipulation. And drugs.

And so, semi-pointless backstories aside- the time came for Metallic to challenge Restroid. While that was occurring however, Amandeath was ambushed by the rest of Restroid's goons- including Elio.

She made relatively quick and brutal work of all of them after properly learning how to use her second Blessing- this will be discussed more later.

Meanwhile, Metallic and Restroid started their duel- in a honorable fashion that Kodan used to like. I suppose I should briefly mention their past with Kodan and the Red Fists. In short, Kodan went from as my wife might say "zero to a hero"- starting off as a homeless ex-army member, and eventually creating and leading the revolutionary group that came to be known as "The Red Fists". But their plans never succeeded due to Restroid's betrayal- which caused the original Red Fists group to be eradicated.

But back to the tragedy, Karia finished a weakened, depressed and poisoned Kodan a short while after the group's major loss- and took his soul.

That's that- I was quite interested in seeing who would win back then, but back to the present. Metallic and Restroid began their duel, and after Restroid confessed to causing the Red Fists demise- Metallic destroyed Restroid without a shred of mercy. In my eyes, the reason why Restroid confessed was to hopefully catch Metallic off guard so that he could finish him. That certainly didn't work however... his processor might have been damaged as well, not like he had a soul like Metallic anyways which complicates- or simplifies things even.

And so- that fairly well brings us to the present day of what has happened to Seric the wildcard and his companions.

As a last addition of sorts as to the current status quo of the crew however- it seems as though Karia talked to and got some advice from the souls that she took beforehand with her Blessing. She felt relieved after realizing that Sariel never hated her, and after she woke up and lost contact with the souls, she apologized to Seric... perhaps Bersia told her something that helped further convince her of Seric's innocence. I've been keeping a close eye on her in case she ever mentions- or confirms this potential key information.

Right- but the peace between the two was soon broken after Metallic tried to kill Karia in order to avenge Kodan. But he was stopped by a reluctant Seric just in time, who was debating whether or not it was a good idea to let Karia die or not.

And so. That actually leaves us at the very present now- where Amandeath and Metallic made a horrible choice, and allowed for Quilline to join their crew after she was cornered by my wife and about to be defeated.