“You good for the night? Need any snacks or anything before bed?” I asked, knowing what her answer would be. Even now, as sick as she was, she tried her best not to be a burden. But I knew her. Below that surface level, Ash was a fighter. She was so much like the uncle she had never met.

  “No, I’ve got the tablet for another few books, and Floof is here to keep me company,” she answered, running her hand through the fur of the puppy that was laying next to her on the bed. And puppy though he might be, the dog was already huge.

  Floof had been a gift from her grandparents as her cancer worsened. She had always wanted a giant dog, so they'd found her the biggest one they could. The look of a purebred Tibetan mastiff snuggled up to my daughter was almost a happy enough thought to make me forget the reality of what she was going through.

  “Well, I’m feeling a little hungry myself, so I’m going to drop you something off anyway. How about some eggs? I always liked an omelet for dinner.” She was so thin these days, and even if I couldn’t fix it, I’d be damned if I was going to give up on trying.

  “Wait, do we still have any habaneros? If we do, I’ll take an omelet with those. I can still taste them. Thanks, Dad.” She looked up at me from the tablet in her hand to give me a quick smile, before her eyes went back to whatever book was her goal for the night.

  It wasn’t fair. She should have had her whole life ahead of her. Instead, she had spent the last year of high school with nothing but her bed and medical treatments.

  Her mom and I were supposed to be taking her for a visit to her brother at college. But after she had taken a rough fall, the doctors didn’t want her to risk any travel at the moment. She was due to start another round of chemo in a week, and we had to focus on that. Which meant, I was going to spend the whole time Heather was away getting as much food into our daughter as I could.

  As I turned on the gas for the stove, a voice boomed out in my head.

  __________

  Congratulations.

  Your planet has been chosen for Integration.

  Examination underway.

  The planet, designation ‘Earth’, has been judged as too weak to survive post integration.

  Merger underway.

  Planetary designation has been updated.

  Integration underway.

  Welcome to the greater multiverse.

  __________

  “No!” I yelled, dropping the pan in my surprise. It clattered loudly to the ground as my thoughts raced.

  This couldn’t be happening. I had gone so far away. I had left the System behind. They had agreed not to chase me.

  None of those thoughts mattered. Something had changed, and as I ran toward my office to verify this was really happening, other new thoughts flooded my mind. I had to find Heather and Rich. They needed me, now more than ever.

  Ripping the door open, I spotted the sword mounted on the wall, the lines inscribed in it now flaring to life. Earth, or whatever it was now after that merger, now had a mana flow. This was real. And that meant Ash now had a real chance.

  A loud bark followed by her scream, brought me back to the reality of what I would need to do before that chance manifested.

  I yanked the runic blade free from its mount. The contact of my skin on the handle was the final confirmation I needed. I felt its power start to flow through me while I charged back toward my daughter’s room. The familiar sensation of the giant sword in my hands threatened more memories I didn’t have time for.

  “I’m coming!” I yelled, my voice amplified by the magic I hadn’t felt in so long, flowing again into my body. I was already moving twice as fast as I had been able to minutes ago.

  No answer came from my daughter in return, and Floof’s barking was growing further away—the answer as to why was obvious. There were still a dozen spiders the size of apes in the room, and through the broken window, I could see the dog chasing the ones that had Ash.

  The snarl I emitted as I took the head off the first of the spiders was new. It seemed there was a rage that came with defending your children. That explained my parents so long ago. At that moment, I understood them in a way I never had before. But things here would be different than they had been that night.

  Not wasting my momentum, I spun, my hands holding firmly onto the sword as a dozen legs were removed from different bodies. Horrible chittering sounds erupted from the spiders as it dawned on them that I was no easy prey. More of them were pouring in through the broken window, answering the cries of their fallen allies.

  I didn’t have time for this.

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  Slamming my elbow into the face of a spider trying to take a bite out of me, I pushed forward. I wasn’t strong enough to wield the sword in a single hand just yet, which was hampering my ability to do this as quickly as I’d have liked. Instead, I forced my way forward, slicing off any spider appendages that tried to bar my path.

  Their mass, dead or alive, was not enough to stop me from leaping out the window. There was nothing on this planet that could stand between me and my daughter, or, at least, there wasn’t yet. We’d need to be ready for that eventuality when that time came. But that should still be a far ways off from the here and now.

  The sword in my hands was likely the most powerful weapon on the face of the planet, even if I couldn’t access all of its abilities currently. It should be enough to carry us through the integration transition. Once we were past that, I could figure out what had changed.

  “Floof bark!” I screamed, having lost track of them in the new forest that had popped up in my backyard.

  The angry sounds of a puppy, bigger than the average adult dog, resounded from deep in the woods. That was all I needed as I drew in more of the energy from the sword, further speeding up my charge.

  “Good boy, keep her safe! I’m coming!” I screamed back as my feet made deep imprints into the ground from the force of my running.

  I wasn’t familiar with the exact type of spider that was hunting us, but with the numbers, I had a feeling I knew the general idea. There was likely a broodmother somewhere in these woods, and they were almost certainly bringing Ash to her. It wouldn’t be a fun fight at my current strength, but it was doable, and considering what I was fighting for, the spider didn’t stand a chance.

  Hopefully, they didn’t represent an interest from the Attercop Empire. That was more heat than I wanted to deal with this early. Not that I had really wanted to deal with any. I had enjoyed my quiet family life. But even if they somehow did, it was likely some minor princess trying to stake a claim, not a full empire-backed invasion. If I had to handle that, I would.

  The forest around me was alive with more of the spiders. There had to be thousands of them. Webs were already starting to go up everywhere.

  Was this a monster, or an invader? The answer didn’t matter in the grand scheme, but the sooner I stopped any invading forces, the safer we’d be, while monsters would just be a way of life now.

  Dozens tried to stop me as the barks grew nearer. None of them so much as landed a bite. The old reflexes and hard-learned muscle memory hadn’t faded, after all. They had just laid in wait for when I’d call on them again.

  The lower inscription on my blade blazed to life. The sword had absorbed enough of the mana flow to empower the first of the mana orbs within its sockets. It would be a long while still before I’d have access to all twelve again. For now, only the Growth orb within the pommel had activated. And even then, it was a shadow of what it would be given time.

  __________

  Mana Orb

  Growth (1)

  Socketed [Runic Blade]

  Soul Linked

  First Tier

  Amplified Growth {Persistent, Ambient}

  All experience gained while under the effect of Amplified Growth is multiplied by the level of the Growth mana orb, plus one.

  __________

  Still, it was far better than what every native of Earth could use to fight back against this apocalypse. That was something I’d have to address once I had my family safe. We would have to decide how to weather this integration together. I doubted I would be allowed to run again.

  Did I even want to run again? That exhaustion of so long ago was gone. If this was happening, that meant the horrors had returned, and I couldn’t let that go unanswered. Dammit, Alecks, what the hell had happened?

  A pained bark, followed by a loud growl, brought me back to the moment at hand. Floof had caught up to Ash’s kidnappers, and they had hurt him for it. My anger surged. If they had killed that dog, I would make them beg for death.

  Crashing through a thick wall of trees, I spotted what he had already found. In the center of a clearing was a spider as big as a monster truck. And there was Floof, blood running down his side, still standing his ground, a dead spider below him. Ash was lying behind him, barely moving, but there was life in her eyes.

  I had found them in time.

  “Floof, keep her safe, I’ll handle the big one!” I ordered, charging forward, my sword held ready.

  “Eighdum, follow your brother and do not look back. Alecks, take him to the forest market. Someone there should be able to help. I will always love you both, but go now!”

  Those were the last words Adam had ever heard from his father. He had been very young, the first time he had ever heard the word ‘integration’, and nowhere near as capable of what he was this time around.

  The giant slithering things that had torn apart his home seconds after the words hit him had left him crying for days, even as he and his brother ran deep into the forest. His mother had died in front of him, trying to save his oldest brother while he was dragged off screaming in pain.

  It was the worst experience of his life, and without his surviving brother, he doubted he would have found the strength to continue on. When his body failed him, Alecks had dragged him deeper into the woods, refusing to let him die alone and forgotten in a pile of leaf litter. For better or worse, Alecks had forced him to live.

  But despite all the horrors of that day, his clearest memories were of his parents, and the looks in their eyes as they fought true monsters. They had known they would die. But they fought anyway, to at least give their children the tiniest semblance of a chance at survival.

  Before integration, Adam had possessed five brothers and three sisters. He had lived in a large log cabin with his parents and both sets of their parents. He had been a happy and curious child, just starting to explore the world around their house. Immediately after the integration, only he, one of his brothers, and a sister had lived, and he wouldn’t even know she had survived that night of horror for years.

  That happiness of an innocent child had died. In its place was a deep grief that Adam worked to shed in favor of strength. Only strength would protect other children from the same darkness that had come for him.

  —Memories of Adam Miller before he found Earth