A new Power is Rising (8/13)
[DAY 78]
As night fell, the new Undead in Neo's Legion, taking the still unconscious Luma with them, made their way back towards Abeus.
In the battle between Luma's Horde and his 2,000 or so Soulless, which served as a distraction so Neo would have enough time to subdue Luma, all of his Soulless gave their lives eventually.
They also stopped many of the Undead who heard Luma's call for help and paid for it with their lives.
However, their sacrifice was not in vain and Neo managed to subdue Luma, a Stage 2 Mutant Undead who also has a Stage 1 Soul at the end, together with her entire Horde of Undead, which even Neo didn't know was possible.
He sees this as a new and encouraging result that has a lot to offer in the future.
"If in the future I find interesting Undead that I want to add to my Legion, then maybe I should leave them alone until they have amassed a large Horde of their own. This would allow me to kill two birds with one stone." Neo thought loud, as he watched the 100,000 Undead withdrawal in the distance.
Afterwards, Neo looked at the skyscraper in which his Soulless fought against Luma's Horde.
"But I don't like the sacrifice of my Soulless. Even if they have more than fulfilled their purpose with zeal, I don't want to give missions that determine their guaranteed death." said Neo.
"They are my army, my Legion and Myriad, no one shall judge them but me. Their death is in my hands and no one else's." Neo said firmly as he tightened his fist.
"Sigh, what's with this double standard, I kill and slaughter but get angry when my soldiers die? A war and its battles will always take lives and as long as I seek my revenge I'll have to fight a lot of more battles. Until Androld is dead, until the Cruisers that slaughtered my Legion is destroyed, until the murderers who killed my father die at my feet... until then I will fight, until then my war will go on." Neo explained firmly.
But then he suddenly feeled a light and nebulous connection to something in the skyscraper, a connection which he usually only feels with his Soulless.
"Could one have survived and is now badly wounded? Why can't I share my senses with him?" Neo wondered as he burst into the building and sprinted towards the source of the connection.
"Here it should be." Neo said as he entered a hallway that led to a larger lobby on the 66th floor.
Throughout the stairwell and hallways up to here, Neo found various Undead with bullet holes or missing body parts and every now and then some of his Soulless were among the fallen as well.
One could immediately see from the corpses how bloody the fight against the Horde was and what sacrifices Neo's Soulless made to give their Master enough time.
As Neo entered the lobby, he saw some of his Soulless corpses scattered around the room.
A huge Undead with two swords in his arms and a ruptured skull was also there.
Neo has made the ruptured skull, as he already removed the body cores and endoskeleton from the Stage 2s and Stage 1s Undead.
But when he was in the lobby earlier, he didn't feel the Soulless that's supposed to be here.
After some time looking around, Neo finally discovered the cause of the connection.
Neo then neared one of his fallen Soulless in the lobby. It was a Soulless woman who had her skull ruptured and had a swollen abdome, where her two arms were lying in a protective manner.
Neo has never cared about all Soulless in the past, so he didn't know that some of his Soulless were pregnant before they were turned.
The child also seems to have a Soul and moreover a connection like his Soulless ones to him.
Neo, as a former biologist, speculates that she should contain a fetus of about 8 months or older.
When the mother died in battle, the baby inside her must have sunk into shock and apparent death. It is a miracle that the child can still live without oxygen and food though.
"I'm sorry that I saddled you with such a fate as my soldier. I don't care if other people die, but my Soulless... they are my subjects and my responsibility." Neo said as he looked at the woman for a moment and then took a closer look at her stomach.
He then slowly and carefully cut open the woman's stomach with his claws.
He quickly found the uterus with the baby inside and cut it open without hurting the baby, removing the umbilical cord to the mother in the process.
Then his claws retracted again and Neo took the baby out with both hands.
"I will take care of your child instead of you, rest assured, my loyal soldier." Neo said as he looked at the boy in his hands.
The baby had its eyes closed and wasn't crying, but Neo could feel the baby's heartbeat. It was getting stronger and stronger with every passing second.
Following this, Neo's wings shot out from his back along with his Miasma, which spread throughout the Skyscraper.
Meanwhile, Neo flew out of the building and ordered his Miasma to bring down the building, destroying as much as possible.
Neo, holding the baby in one hand, in his dark armor and wings holding him aloft, watched the building collapse on itself. His Miasma melted everything in its path into a sour liquid and eventually returned to Neo's body.
In the end, Neo decided to fly back to Abeus because of the baby's safety.
...
[DAY 79]
Once in Abeus, he left the baby with a Soulless couple and named them as foster parents for the boy.
The couple naturally accepted the task their Master gave them and vowed to raise the child as their own. They also named the baby Decius.
Neo then briefly talked to Aaron and ordered him to stop putting pregnant Soulless in combat troops for the time being and instead let them live separately with little and light work in the city. They should give birth to the children and thus increase the number of the Soulless.
Neo didn't stay long in Abeus afterwards and decided, as planned, to take a closer look at the fifth and sixth city north towards Safezone 9.
...
After some time Neo arrived over the burning and ash-covered fifth city.
What made this city special comparing it with the others was that there were some soldiers who created greater safe parameters all around the city.
Some soldiers were stationed at factories and warehouses in particular and secured the area with wrecked cars and some erected fences.
In total, Neo found more than 7 such positions with soldiers in the city. Apart from that Neo couldn't feel a single group of survivors in the city, furthermore there were only a few Undead on the streets. So few that it can never match the city's previous population.
"Either the people didn't survive and became Undead and for whatever reason most of the Undead moved together in a Horde outside the city. Or the military has already evacuated all the surviving people in the city to the Safezones." Neo thought aloud as he looked at the city.
"But it doesn't really matter which case it is. What matters is that these soldiers should have further knowledge about the Safezones and can serve as a good addition to the Soulless ones I lost recently." said Neo, after which he went into a nosedive and crashed like a rocket onto one of the camps.
When Neo hit the ground, he didn't even attack the soldiers, but instead wandered in the shadows of the morning night, from one soldier to the next, making them Soulless of his Myriad in the process.
It didn't take long and after about half an hour all the people in the camp had become Neo's Soulless.
With one camp taken there are 6 more waiting, but the problem is that it will be day again in an hour. That's why Neo can only use the same tactic, turning all soldiers inside a camp to Soulless without a fight, ones more, afterwards he has to fight his way through.
Accordingly, Neo asked his new Soulless which camp is the strongest and where they have the most heavy weapons.
The Soulless answered their Master's question without any hesitation, explaining that the camp a few kilometers away from them is the strongest, especially as that is where most of the soldiers are located and the camp has five Hover Tanks and two mechs which were former used for building, there.
Neo, who didn't have much time to waste, smiled upon hearing that reply.
With these weapons, Neo can partially solve some of the armament problems that his Myriad has. While he's still missing the starship and fighter he'd really like to have, the Tanks and two mechs are a good place to start.
Neo gave the Soulless some further orders and then decided to leave for the next camp.
...
After an hour, Neo was able to take the second camp, but he had to kill some of the soldiers who had spotted him in the process. Luckily he didn't raise an alarm and was able to turn most of the soldiers into Soulless of his Myriad.
The previously described Tanks and two mechs were also here and altogether Neo was able to add around 50,000 Soulless and a few Undead to his Legion.
Neo divided his new Soulless into a total of 14 Cohorts and appointed 11 Centurions as their officers.
There are fewer soldiers in the 5 remaining camps, but there should be around 80,000 in total, some of which have Tanks and mechs, which Neo obviously wants to take as well.
In order to be able to do that, however, Neo must take up the fight against the humans, especially since the fact that his Soulless ones stick out with their purple eyes would betray them anyway.
Therefore, Neo decided to initiate the first attack and take out the next strongest camp which also had a direct line of communication with Safezone 9.
Currently, his Soulless in the second camp are all getting ready to move out, and his Soulless in the first camp have already taken up positions in some ruins of the city, near the third camp.
He plans an ambush on the soldiers' third camp in the early hours of the morning. According to its Soulless, it is said to have moderate armament and three Tanks. Furthermore, the Major of the operation in this city, should also be there in the camp.
The goal of the soldiers here in the city from the beginning was to secure the resources in the factories and camps and to evacuate as many survivors as possible to the Safezones.
What also surprised Neo a bit is that some of his Soulless were former Separatist Soldiers.
'Why are the former enemies, the Earth Defense Force and the Separatists suddenly working together? Did both factions join forces to facilitate a successful evacuation, or is there more to it than that?' Neo asked himself these and other questions as he listened to some reports from his soldiers.
He couldn't go on with it for long, though, given that Neo only has a small window of opportunity to strike.
Neo was currently watching the Tanks float out of the warehouses and the Mech pilots as they climbed in and readied their Mechs.
The Mechs are around 8 meters tall and look similar to humans. The pilot of the mech sits in the chest area of the Mech in a small box made of glass.
In the past, such Mechs were mainly used for the transport of heavy construction materials and are one of the reasons why huge buildings of the metropolises on earth could be built so easily and quickly in the past.
The Mech is equipped with two grabbers capable of supporting many times the mech's weight. In addition, the mobility of the Mech has been improved by the military to serve as a heavy mech unit capable to fight the undead and bandits of the Apocalypse.
In a pinch, you have to take every option you get, and that's exactly how the military today uses formerly civilian mechs that were never designed for combat.
...
"Not long now and my Myriad will grow into a modern force unmatched by even the Earth Defense Force." Neo said as he watched his soldiers move out.
Afterwards, Neo wings spread out from his back and he flew up into the air while looking upon his Soulless march towards the third camp...
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UNDEAD LEGION & SOULLESS MYRIAD STRENGTH:
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LEGIONNAIRES: 1,541,123 -> 1,599,765
UNDEAD LEGION COUNT: 296,824 -> 304,414
SOULLESS COUNT: 1,244,299 -> 1,295,351
COHORTS: 402 -> 416
CENTURIONS : 124 -> 135
LEGATES: 21
PREFECT: 1 (Aaron)