Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 426: An Unfortunate Letter

Chapter 426: An Unfortunate Letter

Two months ago…

Artus Emberheart was in a terrible mood. His mortal enemy was back in town but kept not getting caught. It made Artus feel useless. Like he was fumbling his only chance.

He was currently resting inside the Hand of God starship he commanded. Endless stars stretched outside the window, yet he couldn’t care less.

Suddenly, a knock came on his door.

“What?” he barked out.

A trembling voice responded. “Sir… There is a message for you, sir.”

“I’m busy! Fuck off!”

“Sir, it’s… It’s an important message from the New Cathedral, sir… The coordinates of Earth-387 have been discovered.”

Artus had been about to lash out at this useless underling, but he paused. “Earth-387? The planet of Jack Rust?”

“Yes, sir! You had asked to be notified immediately if that happened! I rushed here to let you know!”

Artus remained frozen for a moment. This was like a dream come true.

When the Hand of God occupied the Cathedral, they naturally took control of the Cathedral’s teleporter as well. That teleporter connected to all Church outposts across the universe, but there were obviously failsafes. The locations and frequencies were all encoded—moreover, even activating the teleporter safely required certain secret procedures, so it couldn’t be used.

The only ones who knew those codes were the Arch Priestess of the Church—its highest leader—and Elder Shield, who’d managed the teleporter but had died in the battle for the Cathedral.

Since then, the Hand of God had assigned experts to decode the information, but they never expected anything. It was just too complex a task, and every teleporter entry was encoded in a unique manner. Even decoding one destination every thousand years would have been a good result.

But those experts had already decoded a destination? And it was the Earth-387 that Artus was desperately searching for? This was almost too good to be true!

However, if he received this report, it had to be.

“Hahaha!” Artus laughed out loud. “Luck has finally abandoned you, Jack Rust!”

He flashed outside his cabin, grabbing the underling by the shoulder with a strong grip. “Tell me more,” he commanded, madness glinting in his eyes. “Has anybody visited that planet?”

“Not yet, sir…” the underling replied, fear clouding his face. “The matter was reported to Envoy Solvig, who respectfully asks you to use the frequency and occupy the planet in the name of the Hand of God.”

As the man spoke, he handed over a sheet of paper containing complex teleporter frequencies. The name “Earth-387” was written underneath.

Artus laughed again. He snatched the piece of paper and, without giving the underling another glance, teleported away. He barely even watched where he went—his mind was too preoccupied imagining Jack Rust’s face when he found out his planet had been destroyed.

Eva Solvig had commanded Artus to occupy the planet, but he wasn’t planning to obey. Jack was his mortal enemy. He would just destroy the planet and claim they’d put up resistance. That was reasonable.

Plus, by assigning this task to him, Eva had tacitly accepted such an outcome.

After a series of short-range teleportations, he reached a large-scale teleporter only half an hour later. He used his authority to cut the line and input the frequencies into the teleporter directly. Light flashed, and he was gone.

Space warped around him, in much the same way his soul did. Artus couldn’t contain himself. He spent the teleportation period laughing. The tables had finally turned in his favor. He was heading to Earth!

He landed in a cloud of dust. His perception instantly howled out, covering a large landmass. He was in a small forest—green trees rose out of the ground, while several weak cultivators patrolled the surrounding area.

A brorilla stood right in front of the teleporter, shocked by Artus’s sudden arrival. It raised a hand to stop him—Artus simply pierced through its heart, killing it instantly. The brorilla toppled to the ground. Alarms blared. The land came alive, but Artus couldn’t care less. He was a late C-Grade—even with his Dao cracked, there was nobody in this planet who could stop him.

“Hahahaha!” He laughed out loud, shooting into the air. “People of Jack Rust, prepare to suffer!”

He gathered a large amount of power, intending to decimate the land for many miles around—keeping the teleporter intact so he could leave later. Just as he punched towards the ground, however, sharp whistling filled his ears. His attack was sliced to pieces, only breaking a few large trees. A young man holding twin daggers faced Artus in mid-air—this was Dorman Whistles, the boy who’d fought in the Integration Tournament once upon a time before joining the Black Hole Church.

Jack had met Dorman at the Cathedral. At that time, Dorman had been bloated and overweight due to consuming a far too powerful treasure. However, before leaving for the hidden realm, Jack had used his understandings into life energy to suck all the extra power out of Dorman, restoring him to his original fit condition. He’d also given the young man more than enough Dao stones to break through.

Three years later, Dorman had reached the middle C-Grade. He had returned to Earth when the Cathedral was invaded and remained here ever since, acting as the planet’s protector.

Stolen story; please report.

Today, he was finally needed.

Artus laughed again. “I don’t know who you are and nor do I care! You’re only a four-fruit cultivator! Do you really think you can stop me!?”

“Yes,” Dorman replied simply. He kept his daggers at the ready—his eyes were cold.

A new arrival shot towards them from the other side of the planet. Artus hesitated—the aura of the incoming person was much stronger than his own. When they arrived, his eyes widened.

“You!” he said.

“Me,” Elder Huali replied, her smile not reaching her ears. She had received the frequency of Earth’s teleporter from Shol and had retreated here when the Exploding Sun was annihilated. Not many people knew of her existence—she lived in isolation, still grieving the loss of her faction and many of her fellow cultivators.

It seemed like a joke that she’d been made Grand Elder just a few years ago.

Of course, Huali knew about the ongoing war and the Cathedral being occupied. However, Dorman came from the Cathedral, and he was aware of how extensively encoded its teleporter was. The Hand finding their frequencies had been basically impossible—that was the only reason why there were no countermeasures in place and why they’d let the teleporter stand. They needed it so Shol, who was searching for Jack in System space, could teleport back when he found him.

Artus paled. He was a seven-fruit C-Grade with a broken Dao—his combat efficiency had never been lower. Facing him were a talented four-fruit and a powerful nine-fruit cultivator. No matter how much he wanted to destroy this planet, it was impossible. He needed Eva Solvig. She should have come along—but how could they have imagined that a peak C-Grade was hiding in this tiny planet?

It was too late for regrets.

Artus didn’t speak anymore. His figure turned into a ray of light shooting down towards the teleporter. Dorman and Huali dove after him, but they didn’t intend to fight. They were too powerful. If they really battled here, though they would certainly win, the continent below them would not come out unscathed.

Their intention was to ensure Artus left the planet while keeping casualties to a minimum. To them, this was already a terrible situation. If he went berserk, they couldn’t stop him before he eradicated tens of thousands of lives, including Jack’s family which was nearby. They just hoped he wasn’t too crazy.

As for Artus himself, he was filled with bile. He had finally discovered Jack Rust’s planet, and not only could he not do anything about it, but he also had to willingly walk away. After he left, they would certainly destroy the teleporter. He couldn’t return. This was his only opportunity.

Yet, he feared that if he attacked, they would ignore all casualties to kill him. However great his hatred for Jack Rust was, his wish for self-preservation was stronger.

Once again, he had been one-upped.

He shot towards the teleporter and began activating it from afar, roaring out in impotent fury. These two C-Grades had robbed him of his best chance for revenge. He hated this. He hated everything.

But he could still attack once. They couldn’t stop him without using excessive force. He gathered power, intending to smash into the ground next to the teleporter as he passed by and at least destroy part of the forest.

Just before attacking, however, he paused. His spread-out perception caught something. A child was sitting on a treehouse very close to the teleporter. A small young boy, barely five years old, watching with a mouth it had forgotten to close.

Artus had met Jack Rust before—he would never forget that man’s aura, and he could tell that this boy carried a hint of that same aura. It was Jack Rust’s son.

Artus’s eyes widened. He laughed out loud. “What a great gift you gave me, Jack Rust!”

Artus abandoned his attack. The gathered energy caused a backlash inside him, but he didn’t care—instead, he directed the entirety of his power towards that boy, no longer caring about enraging the other two C-Grades. Before he even reached the teleporter, Artus made a grasping motion and the boy flew towards him as if pulled by gravity. It yelped.

“NO!” Two voices came from above, accompanied by a shrill scream from deeper inside the forest. A D-Grade, dark-skinned woman flew towards the boy like she’d gone mad. A large brorilla followed her. Yet, these two were weak. As for Dorman and Huali, they could not attack in earnest or they’d blow up the entire forest and kill everyone. And, without using real power, they couldn’t stop him.

Streams of power fell towards Artus, attempting to distract him and save the boy. Artus laughed. He let the attacks land, let himself get bloodied all over. He raised a hand to protect his vitals and let it be cut off from the wrist. This would permanently weaken him, but so what? His Dao had already cracked. He was never going to advance again. All he cared about was causing Jack Rust pain, and this little boy was his ticket to achieving just that.

“NO!” the sky rained shouts yet again, but there was nobody who could stop Artus. A dazed Eric Rust fell into his grasp. Artus flew into the teleporter and activated it, whisking them both away. Screams filled Artus’s ears like music.

He was heavily injured, and he would need to spend even more power to ensure this mortal boy arrived safely at the other side of the teleportation…but it was all worth it.

Jack Rust had taken everything from him. Now, he would pay.

***

Jack was frozen from the soul up. The chaotic space storms around him disappeared, as did the powerful enemies pursuing him, leaving only Artus Emberheart and Eric Rust.

His own son had been taken hostage. This was…unbelievable.

“Hahaha!” Artus laughed madly. “How does it feel, Jack? Your own son being in the mercy of another. You, powerless to stop me. This is perfect!” He tore the tape covering Eric’s mouth, letting him release a terrified scream.

“Dad!”

Eric wore tattered blue robes. His hair was dirty, his cheeks marred by tears, and his eyes sunken as if he’d been like this a while. He hadn’t started cultivating yet—the only reason he survived in the vacuum of space was a Dao shield conjured by Artus. The moment it went down, Eric would die instantly.

It was also Artus who’d used his powers to spread Eric’s voice through the void, letting it reach Jack’s ears.

Hearing it, Jack was completely and utterly stupefied. His panic subsided, turning into cold terror matched with calmness, and a powerful instinct surfaced from deep within his soul. He had to save Eric—no matter what.

How did this happen? he wondered as his mind turned somber. Have they conquered Earth? Do they have my family? Or just Eric?

One part of his mind said that if they had everyone, there was no reason to just bring out Eric. Another part couldn’t shake off the fear.

“I know you can hear me, Jack!” Artus shouted from outside the Animal Abyss. “Come out or I’ll kill your boy!”

Eric could hear this as well. His little eyes widened as he only just realized what was going on, and his fists balled up. He stubbornly shut his mouth—even with things having reached this point, he didn’t want to endanger his father.

But it no longer mattered.

Jack knew that going out there was suicide. He knew that, even if he did go and surrender himself, the chances of saving Eric were nearly nonexistent. But he still had to do it, because if he ignored the death of his own son, he wouldn’t be human. He wouldn’t be a Fist.

With steady steps, he exited the Animal Abyss. He now hovered in the void. Darkness was behind him, and invincible enemies at the front. Yet, Jack stood brave and tall, not cowering in the slightest. His many wounds were badges of honor.

“Release my son,” he commanded. “You can have me.”