“Welcome back my beautiful children to another broadcast! I know how tough it's been tough tely. How you’ve all dearly missed your Papa, Crazy Seven. Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties and were attacked by some foul infected.”

  “But never fear! Though it took us a good few days and there were some close calls, we are back in action once more! So let’s get down to the test. I have some special news ter on which should make you all giddy with excitement. Before that, I’ll start with the bad. Rip the bandaid off am I right?”

  “I’m sure you’ve been hearing the faint whispers and rumors. Of how the virus and infected as a whole have changed. As if they’re under another’s command. At the cost of many lives, we found out the truth. A horrible truth which frightens me to my very core."

  “Out of Nuke Isle City, which is now fully overrun and considered a Dead Zone, is a creature who calls himself Jason, the Progenitor. Like you or I, he was once human. But the virus twisted him beyond our comprehension into something… dark and foul."

  “He has shed off his previous humanity and become a full fledged monster, whose only goal is the destruction and ensvement of our race. Through his evil ways, he has caught a few humans and transformed them into what he calls, the Chosen. That’s right folks, just like that weird cult which has strangely been silent this past week.”

  “If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s started sending his armies out into the nd. That means millions upon millions of ravenous infected, Alpha or otherwise, all coming straight for you. Terrible right? Well that’s not all. This evil bastard has created some sort of Infestation which spreads damn near everywhere. Touch it, even just a smidge, and you can kiss your sweet ass goodnight.”

  “Up next is the Kraken. An impossibly ginormous infected octopus which puts even Godzil to shame. He passed through here folks and I gotta say, you’d better watch your ass. There’s no beating this creature, only staying out of it’s path. Currently, he’s already wiped out nine cities in a short span of time. Stay safe darlings.”

  “All this bad news is really cramping my style, so let’s go into the good. Though admittedly, it’s not much. Remember that Rat Emperor fellow who got his asshole destroyed by those damned aliens? Well, he came back just in time to get a fat nuke right at the edge of his army, killing most. Unfortunately, the bastard managed to escape.”

  “Speaking of nukes, most countries have deployed a vast number of them. I’m talking dozens of cities getting hit. Although we do have a number of how many infected died, we're not too sure. At the very least, over a hundred million of those bastards are gone! But at this rate, we might kill ourselves or make this pnet uninhabitable for future generations. Nuclear Winter ringing a bell? Buckle up kiddos, it’s gonna be rough for a couple decades.”

  “But now we get to what I really wanted to talk about. Something that’ll knock your socks off and shine hope down upon is all. Off some pure luck bullshit, I managed to find a… sanctuary. An actual completely safe pce away from any of the craziness going on above ground.”

  “Above ground you say? That’s right! The sanctuary is fully sealed underground and safe from basically 99% of all the horrors in this world. It’s from a group who call themselves The Order of Time. Apparently, they ran a secret organization from before the Apocalypse and were dedicated towards helping humanity.”

  "I know, sounds like some conspiracy nonsense. Would've said the same if I hadn't seen their facilities myself."

  “Why they haven’t come out until now is due to some… problems. The early stages of the virus hit them particurly hard and it took them some time to resolve them. However, now they are ready to finally accept survivors into their fold. All are welcome and none shall be turned away.”

  “Here, they promise complete safety from outside threats, food and water, shelter, and even entertainment. I checked it myself and it’s real. Actual TVs and computers! Can you believe that?! Ah~ and the showers~”

  “Ahem, anyway, I’m going to be moving there soon and increasing my broadcasting range even further than before. Hopefully to other countries if I’m lucky. As for you all, I sincerely hope you make it to these coordinates. 35.299656 by -78.188241. I’ll always say these coordinates after each broadcast for those who didn’t get them.”

  “Please, please come. This truly might be yours, and your families, only chance at survival.”

  .

  .

  .

  .

  ( Jason )

  It was time. A few days had passed since the mother of my children, plus Athena, had left me. They might have already nded on the shore and caused some mischief. As for myself, I worked on a few things but nothing truly groundbreaking. Now though, I was outside of Nuke Isle City, waiting patiently for my foe to arrive.

  The time of our destined battle had arrived between me and the Near-Perfect Vessel. Feels almost, weird in a sense. We had been connected to each other since so long ago, when I first had that vision. It was the virus warning me of his presence. Only after I consumed the previous virus did I fully understand why it warned me.

  The memories of the st Near-Perfect Vessel are still seared into my mind. Such power still frightens me a bit to this day. That monster was so powerful, it seemed like nothing could stop him. A punch could destroy an entire Continent. An actual walking and talking, pnet destroying being. Able to wipe out all life on the surface in a short period of time.

  Only when The Alliance used their entire might did they finally kill him, if only barely. The craziest thing though? He wasn’t at his full potential. If he had another five years to grow, it was very likely he could’ve actual devoured the entire Gaxy. Scary thought.

  But damned if it doesn’t make me feel good. I’m the Perfect Vessel, no limits to my potential like the others. Not to mention devouring a pnet or Gaxy, even the universe itself could be my pything!

  Of course, that’s far into the future. Many years at the very minimum. At least I have a long term goal though, so that’s good. And hey, it’s a phenomenal ego booster.

  My thoughts were broken when I sensed him arrive within a hundred mile radius. It seemed he knew I was waiting for him and made a beeline right for me. It didn’t take long before he arrived and our eyes finally met for the first and quite possibly st time.

  There were no words between us, each sizing the other up. We knew what would happen here. Either he dies, or I do. To the victor goes the spoils, and the right to lead the infected into the future.

  He was only a foot smaller than me and instead of having a bulky body, was thinner than I expected. Lean mean fighting machine, simir to me. His eyes were a deep red which stared at me unblinking. In the middle of his body was a strange indent. Definitely wasn’t from a wound and it seemed, natural in a way?

  Even from so far away, I could feel the power roll off him. But I was certain of one thing. He wasn’t strong enough to kill me.

  “I’ll give you two choices.” My sudden words halted whatever thoughts he had in that mind of his.

  “Submit to me, or die. I do not want to waste something like you.” That much was the truth.

  The Near-Perfect Vessel was a one in a quintillion, or even higher, kind of being. Those odds make him truly unique in all sense of the word. Since I had the memories of the previous one, I knew what he'd turn into and the true limit of his power. Far more than any Chosen I could create. It’s why I was hesitant to kill him.

  Sure, eating him would bring me a massive boost. But I'd much rather add him to my Horde since recreating him was virtually impossible.

  Though I like to say I can infinitely increase my infected's potential, it was a lie. True, their limit can be lengthened far beyond what should've been possible and they can grow so powerful they could destroy a mountain. But it's not some omnipotent bullshit cheat. Would make no logical sense.

  Technically, they do have an actual hardcap limit. Something I wouldn't be able to change and was hardwired into their very genes. Good thing however, is that some are higher than others. Like my girlfriends / wives, who have limits I cannot currently see.

  After my 'generous offer’, he stared at me for a few moments in complete silence.

  "No. I will devour you and grow my power before they arrive.” They? Is he speaking of The Alliance? But how would he know about them?

  Well, I can simply beat it out of him and rummage through his memories. Always a tried and true method which has zero fws.

  “Hope you can keep this same attitude when I cut out your heart. Mind giving me a name? Don’t want to sughter some random asshole. Not to worry. I promise I'll remember it for at least a day.” I could see a hint of anger in those red eyes of his.

  “Craxis-“

  I fshed forward with all my speed out of nowhere and punched him in the face. The suddenness of my attack caught him off guard and sent him flying back through numerous trees. Wings sprouting out of my back, I took to the air and swiftly followed after him.

  Before the so-called Craxis could get his bearings, I dove down and transformed my arm into a bde. In a single go I ran him through the stomach and pinned him to the ground. It cracked, shook, and broke open due to my sheer strength, which dramatically increased in size every millisecond.

  He grunted in pain and without missing a beat, grabbed my head with both hands and head-butt me. While I was briefly stunned, he forcibly threw me off and into the distance. Fpping my wings and doing a backflip allowed me to nd on my feet fairly quickly.

  But when I gnced up, he was already there with a cw aimed at my head. I slipped it and grabbed his arm with my own, throwing him over my shoulder using his own momentum. He smmed hard into the ground once more. Just as my foot was about to stomp his head, he rolled to the side and barely managed to get out of the way.

  At the same time he opened his mouth and let loose a blue colored beam, drowning out all sound in the world. There was no chance to dodge at such a close range, so I used both of arms and transformed them into a shield. When it nded I was sent flying away, simir to a baseball hit by the greatest batter in the world.

  The pain was immense and I could physically feel my shield disintegrate under the blue beam’s unreasonably high power. It also produced a massive amount of heat, burning through my tough defenses quickly. Thankfully, I had a great deal of control over my own body and could lower the pain.

  Eventually, I traveled nearly a mile away in the air before smming down into the ground harshly. My arms went back to normal and were completely fried. Both of them were mostly gone as well, only a few scraps left. My regeneration tried healing them, but it'll take longer than normal. About thirty seconds if I had to gather. During this time though, they’d be unusable.

  Taking a peek, I noticed the beam had crossed through my arms and even struck my chest. Luckily, it did minimal damage and only charred the surface.

  Would this Craxis bastard give me a good old rest? Of course not, especially after I sucker punched him before. In just a few seconds he was already in front of me, wildly attacking like some feral beast. He went through an assortment of weapons not too unlike mine. Cws, bdes, hammerfists, whips, and so forth.

  However, there was one thing he showed which was a little different. His arm shifted into some sort of cannon and fired these smaller blue balls of light at me, simir to the beam fired previously. When they made contact with anything, they caused a massive explosion remnant of a giant bomb. Even made these tiny mushroom clouds which looked adorable.

  For the entire duration of his flurry I dodged hurriedly. Acting as though I was cornered. This made his guard drop just slightly, enough to surprise him with my wings. Out of nowhere they suddenly extended forwards, the tips impaling his shoulders.

  I spat a glob of my Blood Poison at his head. He obviously wanted to dodge, but was unable to and stuck in pce. In response, he chose a mutually assured destruction route. Large spikes exited his body, harming both my wings and body. Meanwhile my poison smmed into his face, causing him to scream in agony.

  Arms healed, I transformed them into their Spiked Tendril forms and wrapped one around his neck. Since he was so preoccupied on the poison slowing him down and even slightly paralyzing him, he couldn’t get out of what came next.

  Using him like a bowling bowl, I flinged him all over the pce. Through trees and rocks, smming him over and over again into the ground, and finally keeping him held in pce as my Boneyard ability porcupined him. A roar of angry and pain came from his mouth, echoing to all four corners of wherever the fuck we were. Definitely had gone far from the original pce.

  With insane speed he sliced off my Tendril holding his neck with a bde and did the same to the Boneyard. Bringing both back and transforming back into my arms, I watched as Craxis got to his feet and gred at me. A primal, hatred filled growl came from his lips as one of his hands turned into a small knife. Small for us at least.

  Before I could move, he waved his arm and sent it flying towards me with a crazy high speed. Knowing nothing good was in store, I jumped back and was shocked to find it following me. No matter how I dodged or moved, the thing constantly kept coming.

  So instead, I chose to bite the bullet. My arms went back into their shield state and made it cover my entire body. Turned out quite well. The knife exploded into a bunch of shrapnel which embedded themselves into me from all angles.

  I forcibly expelled them and retracted my shield. But as soon as I did, a rge meaty hammer smmed into my face and sent me sliding backwards, destroying multiple poor trees. He managed to clock me again one more time before I slipped his next attack.

  “Fucking predictable!” My fist rocked his chin from below, lifting him off the ground.

  Taking this opportunity, I wrapped my hands around him and fpped my wings, taking us into the air. I ignored his now cwed attacks on my back and carried us hundreds of feet high before throwing him. Since he had no wings, he had zero mobility in the air and was powerless.

  Since he loved those hammerfists so much, why don’t I join him? When both of my hands transformed, I flew forwards and smmed one into his stomach. And thus I pyed a game of ping pong with that body of his. This went on for a good two minutes and a number of broken bones before he suddenly screamed loudly.

  With widened eyes, I watched as a pair of half developed wings exited his back. Fluid of some kind was dripping down, like a creature emerging from an egg. He tried to fp them, but it didn’t work so well. This bastard truly has a great deal of potential. Evolving in the midst of combat?

  However, I’m not just gonna stand around and let him evolve into his next form. This ain't a movie or some DragonBall fight. So I rushed for him and fused both hammerfists together, forming a rger and more powerful one. I raised it above my head and smmed down. He shot towards the ground, crashing into it with a massive boom.

  A half mile high dust storm was kicked up as cracks appeared like spiderwebs all over the area for nearly three miles. Almost as if an earthquake suddenly appeared. My wings fpped once more and I dove down into the dust storm.

  Suddenly a massive blue beam came out of nowhere and illuminated my face. But since I had a feeling it was coming, managed to dodge with only a scrape on my stomach. I rode along the beam and could feel the heat, the power it contained.

  Landing next to the deep hole his body created, I shot several bundles of my webs down into the origin of the beam. They burned to a crisp, but it was working. Eventually the beam started losing power as more and more of his mouth was covered. Soon, he was forced to stop as I used a Tendril to bring him back to me.

  “Like I said-“ My hooks sprung out of my back and dug into his body, shredding his organs apart from the inside.

  “Predictable.” Just as they were about to move to his heart to end this, his bloody lips curled into a savage grin. An ominous feeling began building inside me seeing that.

  “No-Not as much as you think.”

  Suddenly, his indented chest hummed loudly as a bright light started building. My instincts screamed danger as the phenomenon increased in strength. I hurriedly threw the cackling bastard away and jumped backwards.

  But it was too te. Him as the origin, a massive bright blue light reminiscent of a star radiated outwards. Before I could even try flying away, it enveloped me in it’s power. My mouth unconsciously opened to wail in pain! It hurt so fucking much!

  A great deal of heat washed over me, burning and disintegrating my body! My vision and hearing disappeared as my increasingly destroyed body was bsted away.

  Then, I lost consciousness.

  .

  .

  .

  .

  My eyes, or rather single eye, fluttered open. I tried to move, but found my body still. Looking down, I saw the majority was straight up gone. Vaporized by whatever the fuck that power was.

  Legs, half of torso, right arm, and the right side of my head was gone. Despite the damage, I was still alive. It would take more than this to actually kill me. However, I was extremely vulnerable in my current state. Simir to the blue beam, the explosion temporarily slowed down my regeneration.

  My eye gnced around the surroundings and I noticed how far away I was flung. Seems I wasn’t out for very long though. Perhaps a minute or so? I could still see the mushroom cloud up ahead, only ten miles away. Another mushroom cloud is it?

  While my remaining arm started consuming any type of life around me, I started thinking about him. From what I’ve seen, those two powers of his might have been some sort of mutation from the nuclear bomb he survived previously. During my vision, I experienced the same thing he did, which is far too simir to the bst he just hit me with.

  I’m starting to get a little jealous of all these beam attacks though. First Godfrey and now this bastard. Not only are they super cool, but deal some insane damage. Maybe I should develop my own.

  Anyway, after I consumed and turned this entire area into a nd of death, my injuries mostly heal. I was still damaged a bit, but at least I could move and fight. With my regrown wings, I lifted off like Superman and took to the air.

  Making my way to where I was previously before being blown away, I waited for the mushroom cloud to disappear. Once it did, my eyes glued themselves to the 8 mile wide crater. It must’ve gone down nearly a hundred meters at the least. The surrounding area was barren, devoid of any life whatsoever. A ways away, I could see fire burning both the ground and trees.

  In the middle of the crater was a familiar figure in a kneeling position. Can he not be harmed by his own attack? Maybe not in the traditional sense. I can definitely see from here how exhausted he is, his breaths bored and heavy. His chest was cracked and blown wide open, revealing his still beating heart. However, it was trying it’s hardest to close the wound.

  Can’t just let him recover after doing such a thing to me. I flew down and brought out my bde. He gnced up just in time to see me, but couldn’t even move. I drove my bde deep into his body, pinning him to the ground.

  Didn't give him the time to even react as I sliced his waist off, separating him into two pieces. For good measure, I cut off his arms as well, turning him into a potato.

  Meanwhile, my other arm transformed into a cannon and was aimed at his head. You’re not the only one who can evolve in the midst of battle fuckwad.

  "So what’s it going to be. Submit or die?” His eyes were filled with shock and resignation as he stared at me.

  “Even this was not enough. How tragic. Is this the gap between us?” His body seemed to rex as he closed his eyes. After a few moments of silence, he spoke once more.

  “I am unwilling, but have no desire to die. There is no one to bme but myself for my own weakness.” Getting his consent, I ended this battle by dominating him.

  Thus, my Horde has a new addition who is certainly the strongest. It is doubtful Athena or Godfrey could survive against him. Kraken is another story with those psychic powers of his, but he'd probably still lose.

  I'm not exactly sure what to do with him, except send him back from whence he came. I'll have him sughter and subjugate all of Asia in the same manner as the three wives. Feels fitting since he originally was born in Chiina. He can also start spreading the Infestation in that section of the world.

  With him along, we should be able to theoretically wipe out the humans and control the world within a few months. I'll take a wild guess of three and a half.

  A sigh exited my lips as I stared up into the bright blue sky.

  "I wonder how the girls are doing?"