Mason understood the world was going to take damage. That the whole point of this ‘final event’ was a kind of doomsday fiction that would mean burnt trees and dead animals. Yes, he knew that. But it still made him very fucking angry.

Some kind of giant fire demon was lighting up trees with an innate flamethrower. Its little minions were dancing around in flames, leaping through the forest like they were putting on the worst version of the nutcracker ever.

Mason informed the big one it was time to die, but delayed his anger enough to start with damage control. He ignored the things confused inspection as he channeled, combining a Water and Frost rune in his mind.

He unfocused his eyes and prepared to stamp the biggest, widest combination he could manage just over the canopy. It didn’t need much power, just area, and though difficult to execute wouldn’t take much mana.

He flinched at the mental strain—which he now knew had more to do with his statistics then his mana—and stamped the combination in the sky.

It instantly darkened with cloud, rain and hail sweeping over the forest in a growing storm. He smiled when he heard the little assholes start screaming.

“Oh I dislike you,” growled the big fire demon, which looked kind of like a big, red, ugly Buddha statue. Rain and hail sizzled off his head and shoulders as his jolly sort of face curled into a demonic glare. “I think I’ll burn you down to the bones.”

That sounded like a proper challenge. Mason felt a little thrill of pleasure through the anger.

He raced down from the trees on his hill, rushing through a gout of the demon’s flame. Then another. Then a few flaming missiles and beams. It all flickered and hissed, popping uselessly around him as his defences yawned.

He went straight at the big bastard with his sword and claws to the side, his head lowered in a charge. At the failed attempts to ‘burn Mason to the bones’, his foe began to look slightly concerned.

Fire burst out of it in a massive explosion. The ground cracked as more little creatures started shrieking and leaping out. A huge, bull-like beast made of flame rushed from the demon’s chest to meet Mason’s charge. How exotic.

He didn’t swerve, preparing to strike the bull literally head on, increasing his already considerable weight at the last moment before he hit.

“Welcome…to the…prime.”

Mason had been smashing his horns into mountains for fun for the past several months, whenever he’d found the time. Demons broke easier.

The creature’s head caved in with an explosive crack of stone. Flames burst everywhere. The bull-demon’s legs popped off like fireworks, back half shooting away as it spewed flame. It was kinda cool, actually.

“I wonder if your head will blow off like that,” Mason said, looking up at the fiery Buddha. “Only one way to find out, am I right?”

The world shimmered with heat as the demon presumably loosed whatever power it had left. The air itself was igniting, the creature’s voice chanting on the wind. Apex Predator tested it and shrugged, but gave him Elemental Affinity because it could. Looked like it was even trying to take away the demon's. The cheeky monkey.

Mason rushed straight through, and hacked off a big leg at the knee. The demon roared and came lurching forward, and Mason clawed and slashed its body apart as it came towards him like a human grindstone.

There was a lot of roaring, and thrashing, and plenty more fire. Mason went on murdering. Finally he slashed at his enemy’s neck, and did his best to kick its head flying like he was making a field goal. But it just sort of exploded instead.

“Disappointing. I thought it might burst in the air like fireworks.”

He looked at the smaller demons watching in horror. Others were still coming out of the nearby portal, arriving and staring at the big, exploded demon like they couldn’t quite understand what they were seeing.

“Yeah. That’s your boss. Take a good, long look, you dead, dumb bastards.”

The closer ones bolted. Mason chased them down hacking and slashing, but dragged most back to the portal to make sure they died in the radius. He assumed it was like the previous demon invasion, and made closer and closer circles around the thing cutting his enemies down.

It eventually popped with a satisfying sizzle, yanking up the demonic and elemental remains of the dead creatures as it sucked back to where it came from. Mason took a breath and looked at the forest. He raced in and cut down a few burning trees, but his spell and their natural resistance had done most of the work.

He felt and then heard Shawk arrive with an excited screech. The eagle dropped from the sky, circling once before landing next to Mason with a confused, and agitated chirp.

“Uh, nope. All dead.” Mason pointed a sword. He felt the rebuke without the eagle saying anything. “Yes technically I could have summoned you. I was a little busy. And I didn’t think there was any need. It all went pretty fast.”

Now he felt Streak whining through his bond, too. Like the wolf had gotten all dressed up for nothing. A kind of ‘why did I even get my pack out if you’re not going to let us play with anything?’

Jesus Christ.

“Please don’t ruin the apocalypse for me,” he muttered. “There’ll be plenty to kill, OK? I promise. Whole armies. You can drop them in rivers. On rocks. All over the place. It’ll be a hoot.”

Shawk stared.

“Next time I’ll summon you. I promise, OK? Now I need to listen for the next one, or none of us get to kill anything. Alright?”

Shawk made a kind of labored cackling that was probably old eagle complaining under his breath, then took back to the sky. Mason shook his head.

“I used to be alone in my brain. I miss that.”

He started reaching out with One with Nature, but also glanced at his profile. Information was pouring in—scout group messages keeping everyone informed.

So far everything was yellow (undetermined but probably minor), or green (under control). Nothing required Mason’s attention. At least not yet. His player teams hadn’t found much to worry about.

Unsurprisingly, all the portals were coming from the west. This was what they’d all figured, but it was nice when a thing went to plan. He tried not to be too happy, just in case roboGod heard his thoughts and fucked with him.

For data collection purposes, he logged his own portal to the scouts. Orlon was at the enclave marking everything on their central map. The idea was they’d track it all as it came, and then later maybe figure out patterns.

Again he relied on the forest to find him a threat. His senses stretched further and further, his mind feeling expanded and not just with animal companions. It was like there was a whole bunch of others circling his consciousness, making him feel less like a man, and more like…a central nervous system. A kind of hub, maybe like the Nexus. Or like a giant super synthetic robot god?

He shut that thought the hell down. Whatever the metaphor, he wasn’t emotionless. He was still him, his central purpose crystal clear in his mind—the preservation of life. First his own, and then others. The destruction of anything and everything that meant to break weaker things without reason. That was what Mason had been born for. What the game had only expanded.

The forest found him another portal.

North. Near the old everfrost. Before the first river.

He’d pictured the area even before he started to move. Like he was seeing it from the eyes of the living things nearby now, the connection growing stronger. Maybe he could even scout locations on his own—take a look before he decided to move.

He fought the thought because he didn’t want roboGod to get any ideas. But he couldn’t help but feel what was maybe a Cerebus-inspired snarl of arrogance.

If this was all the planes could conjure, they had their work cut out for them. He’d cleared the first portal in minutes. Up north it wasn’t likely going to burn, either. They’d need to bring a hell of a lot more than a fat flamethrower.

Streak was whining in his ears again, already sensing he meant to go north towards its original home. He rolled his eyes, stepping into the fey with his mental finger on the animal’s summon button.

He crossed the terrain in only a few steps as the now familiar other world blurred around him, Stag silent as it senses his arrival and trailed at his side. Unlike the others, it at least didn’t seem to care one way or the other if he used it. But there was something else there, too, something almost intentionally hidden, like it didn’t want Mason to know.

But their link was too strong to hide it properly. As Mason met the creature’s eyes at the last step, it was like looking into a pool of water. He saw his own reflection there—an eagerness for the violence to come.

“Soon,” he said, smiling. “They’ll get stronger.”

The Stag turned and leapt away like it was embarrassed.

Mason stepped back into the world, summoning Streak the moment he arrived. Then, after muttering ‘you’ll both be stuck here, I can’t do it again for an hour. I hope you’re happy,’ he brought the eagle, too.