Axl landed one heavy footfall in front of the next, the mixture of fine lunar dust and battle-ash kicking up with every step. The stone obelisk on his back strained against his heavy plate armor, the slitting construct never meant for one person to carry, even in the moon’s gravity and with his higher Physical Attribute than most. Still, he kept trudging up the mountain, towards the goal of his final quest.

  

  >>Terrania Quest (Urgent, Highest Priority): Lunar Nexus Redirection.

  >>Activate the Obelisk at the Foundational array atop Tearfall Mountain Fort.

  He got the notification when the rest of his banner was wiped out half a day ago, some mental attack they didn't detect, and he still didn't know the source of. Axl had woken up surrounded by corpses and picked up the obelisk, then kept going.

  Axl looked back, scanning across the wrecked defenses and smoldering refuse littering the mountain, then across the starry void above. There, he spotted something approaching, a sleek craft of bright metal and detailed artistic flourishes, one of the Vikam’s flying machines. They didn’t need to rely on unstable Mana rifts to cross planets, as if the scientific wizardry from Terra’s golden age was finally made to work with Mana. The delusion that these ships would help humanity achieve Terrania’s promise was short-lived. Now, Axl looked up at the miracle craft and smiled at the chance of taking down some invaders with him, not to just die of oxygen starvation after delivering his cargo.

  He hurried up, the final stretch to the top of the mountain crowded with the blasted remnants of the fort, a single meandering spiral up left clear, like the tip of a drill bit. He had to circle a heavy ballista to reach the top, the large weapon having fallen from the blasted-off ramparts onto the bare stony surface. It teetered precariously over the side of the mountain's flat peak, ruined by the fall and the failure of the fort’s gravitational inscriptions.

  The Vikam sky-ship landed a few hundred meters down the mountain and slowly unloaded a small contingent of soldiers, their paper-thin armor as artfully designed as their ships. There was no urgency in their formation, a casual air in their shuffling, as if lining up for the slop line.

  Axl's teeth tightened, his gums starting to bleed at the pressure. Humanity was fighting a desperate war, but these slitting bastards were just casually playing some game.

  He finally encircled the ballista's remains and reached the exposed fort courtyard, its walls entirely gone, and with a glance, confirmed that the Vikam were starting to close in. His eyes widened as he spotted an elite among them, a tall figure walking behind the others with no void-protecting armor on. It was uncanny to see somebody in the vacuum of the lunar surface in what looked like a monk's robe and a weathered walking stick. These elite all carried a single weapon, like a sword or spear, but somehow managed to cause more damage than heavy artillery.

  Axl hadn't seen one of these at such a short distance before. In the latest large-scale battle their banner was assigned to, an entire row of armored Terran high-knights was cut down the middle, dozens killed in the blink of an eye. One of those eerie elites hovered high above, alone in the dark, slowly sheathing a sword, and was gone in the blink of an eye. Axl could now appreciate firsthand that these invaders weren't human, with elongated ears and a too-wide mouth filled with nightmare teeth, stretched across their noseless, pale skin. It's as if they were a merger of elves from the classical era of early vids and the scrunched-up face of a bat.

  "I'm going to take you down with me," Axl muttered at the smiling monster, the empty threat reaching only the inside of his helm. Look at me, getting all chatty as I’m about to die.

  Soon, he reached the exact location of the quest marker and hurried to brush away ash from the small metal slab flush against the rock. He activated a set-in Mana crystal, and the meter-wide socket opened. Then he strained to insert the obelisk, the two-meter-long spike pointing to the stars. With a heavy thunk, it hummed to life, a strand of Mana rising from the ground as the dense inscriptions of Mana-transmitting metal glowed along its surface.

  

  >>Terrania Quest (Urgent, Highest Priority): Lunar Nexus Redirection.

  >>Update: Guard the Obelisk until redirection is complete. Status: 3%

  "No rest for the miner," Axl grunted, unsurprised by something like this.

  Taking heavy cover, he turned towards the incoming Vikam, twenty soldiers with decorated crossbows and ceremonial daggers at their belts, most not even carrying a spear. The elite soldier walked behind them, casually twirling his walking stick.

  Axl had gotten rid of as much support gear as he could, even an oxygen bolus for the way back, but he still kept his rifle and a single twenty-pack of bullets strapped to its hilt. He meant for it to be a way to die on his own terms instead of choking to death or venting the faceplate, but this was much better.

  He lifted the rifle and activated [Mana Absorb], the Skill draining the area around his rifle of ambient Mana. It packed the bullet already in the gun with far more Mana than the powdered crystal inside the ammunition was designed to hold. It made the shot punch harder, and could even cause a small explosion when it landed, but most importantly, it drastically improved his shot’s range. This was his pride and joy, an upgrade from the simple [Mana Sense] that he'd been born with, and how he managed to get his six kills.

  As much as he wanted to target the elite, he knew it would be useless—those monsters were apparently able to withstand cannon-fire and Mana bombs that could level an outpost, so a piddling Uncommon Skill wouldn't manage to kill one. So, Axl aimed at one of the normal soldiers at the front, one who was looking off to the side, right at a seam where the faceplate met the helmet.

  Axl condensed the Mana further with a flex of his will, packing it tightly in an ordered way to maximize penetration, not for an irregular explosion. It was barely a fraction of a second, but the effort made him start to sweat, his hands shaking. But he was used to the strain and squeezed the trigger.

  The other side of his target's head erupted in a green splatter, a neat hole right next to where Axl aimed.

  "Seven," Axl exhaled. "I got seven of you fuckers now."

  The rest of the Vikam stopped for a moment in shock, the elite's face scrunched up in confusion as he looked at his dead. Axl ducked back into cover and hurried to pull back the hammer as he loaded another bullet into the chamber. The way his Skill worked meant he could only have one bullet in the gun at a time, but the biggest problem was that he needed time to regain his focus before he could fire again.

  Peering over the edge, he saw the Vikam tighten their formation as the elite straightened, his stick at an odd angle in front of his body. Axl made use of the pause and took a few deep breaths to re-center himself for the next shot. He also noticed the soft ping in his mind, a notification seeming to come from somewhere deep within Terrania.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  

  >>Level Up obtained (Lvl. 5 to Lvl. 6). Select Attribute to Increase.

  >>Physical: 3, Mental: 4, Soul: 2.

  The Physical Attribute wouldn't do much for him, and it's not like he'd be able to use Mental to improve his mining equipment. Soul, at least, should boost his ability to use his Skill, so he put it on that Attribute. It didn't make him feel less exhausted or smarter, but it cleared up the fogginess around his ability to rouse his Skill into action. In fact, it made him notice that the obelisk behind him was positively brimming with Mana, so much that tendrils of it leaked out.

  Realizing the opportunity, Axl retreated a few steps, so the back of his armor almost touched the humming stone. The wisps of Mana felt denser than any he'd ever sensed before, almost a liquid, and he struggled to drag it into his gun.

  Intangible shields had surrounded the huddled Vikam soldiers, and they slowly made their way up. A few stayed behind, aligning their crossbows and firing up at Axl, the streaks of red easily cutting through solid rock. Luckily, they didn’t aim low enough to hit the obelisk behind him.

  Its upload progress only inched up to 35%, so he needed to delay them some more.

  Axl looked at the wrecked ballista teetering at the edge of the blasted wall, right above the spiraling path up. From the top, it looked even more precariously balanced. Axl charged at it with the full weight of his Mana-inscribed plate, a lucky shot from the Vikam clipping his shoulder, tearing off a chunk of his armor. The crash against the ballista struck him to the bone as he coughed up some blood, feeling something snap in his chest. But it was enough for the structure to slowly topple onto the narrow path leading up, right in front of the huddled-together Vikam.

  They stopped, the shimmering of their shield intensifying, and Axl took the chance to take aim and fire at one of them, this time to the center of mass, not having the time to get fancy with his aim. Pushing in the dense Mana from the obelisk was harder than he expected, almost making him black out as his vision darkened at the edges. He barely managed, his left eye bleeding, but the results were spectacular.

  The shot shattered a section of the shield. It pierced entirely through a Vikam bodysuit in a messy green explosion, the bullet continuing to decimate the leg of yet another soldier behind his target. Damn, I should've lined up the shot to hit more at once.

  The elves didn't loiter this time, but actively scattered behind the nearby wreckage and rubble, Axl falling back as another crossbow bolt almost hit his helmet, managing to melt the outside metal.

  The elite now scowled up at him, and Axl wondered why he was still holding back. But it was ultimately a good thing, as the status of the upload was still only at 50%. What the hell was that obelisk even doing? Any Mana-coded data transfer from a beacon that massive should be instantaneous, especially if guided by Terrania itself.

  Regardless, it was beyond his pay grade. All he had to do was wait it out.

  "Eight." Axl smiled as he trudged back, applying an emergency sealant salve to the breach in his arm.

  The Mana condensing around the obelisk was coming off in waves now, crossing his armor to pool into his body. It was too much for his [Mana Absorb] to take up, but he kept at it as his shaking hands struggled to reload, dropping a bullet from the butt of his rifle.

  He kept his position, watching the status of the obelisk tick up to 57%, 60%, each heavy second a small victory. Then the elite Vikam was in front of him, appearing out of nowhere. Axl raised his rifle, barely able to keep it steady, rousing his addled brain to get the Mana in.

  The space-elf's mouth moved, as if he were talking. Idiot, didn't he know that sound didn't travel in a vacuum? Axl tapped the side of his helmet with one hand, then shrugged, more than willing to let his enemy stall. Each precious second bought another percentage point of progress and a chance for him to reactivate his Skill.

  The Vikam elite stared at him blankly for a moment, then took out a long piece of paper from within the folds of his vest. He held it up, and it dissolved into dust.

  "Can you hear me now, human?" a tinny voice echoed inside Axl's helm.

  "What? How the damn?" Axl replied, surprised. This voice wafted from everywhere around him, far clearer than how Lilly or his dead banner-mates sounded from the Mana circuits of his armor. "And how is it you speak Anglish Common?"

  "It's a simple translation and projection talisman. Low craft, at best. Our people are capable of much more."

  "Oh yeah?" Axl asked, noting that the status was up to 75%, but the rate had significantly slowed down. Even now, a progress bar would always stall out at the end. Some things never changed.

  "Yes," the voice continued with preening smugness. "We are a mighty empire spanning countless lands beyond this meager firmament, and part of our search includes welcoming worthy lessers to our ranks. I see you have obtained not a small measure of artistry, even in such a lacking environment."

  The creature reached out, his bony hand with too-long fingers looking like an animal's claw. Like the outstretched hand of his brother, desiccated from the vent-rot in their hallway allotment.

  Through gritted teeth, Axl was about to continue this pointless conversation, waiting for the progress of the quest to finish up. Perhaps the Vikam elite was unaware of the time limit, or maybe he just didn’t care.

  But then Axl got another notification.

  

  >>New Title obtained (Terrania): Last Human of Luna

  >>All Attributes +2, Call of the Void

  Axl's vision faltered for a moment as he realized what this meant. That they'd wiped them all out, and he was the only one remaining in the entirety of humanity’s ancestral moon.

  Any thought of continuing his feeble charade crumbled, no longer anything left to think about or even fight for. There was only the smirking face of the enemy in front of him and his rage.

  Axl reached back with one hand, pressing against the warm, almost burning stone. Mana coursed through his body like a raging bolt, every fiber of his being inflamed as he drew more and more in with [Mana Absorb].

  The Vikam in front of him said something, but Axl didn’t hear it, he simply raised his rifle with one hand and fired, a stream of Mana cutting through the air. The elite lifted his walking stick, and the bullet stopped at the wood. It pushed him back slightly, but it didn’t even dent the weapon.

  Axl's legs failed him, and he tumbled back, his helm smashing against the obelisk, the Mana surging into his body redoubling in intensity. He looked up at the approaching Vikam, his rifle on the ground, as he planned.

  He grabbed the gun by the barrel and slowly lifted it, raising it above his head like a crude axe. The alien sneered and muttered something else, but Axl couldn’t hear past the blood flowing out of his ears. His entire focus was on [Mana Absorb], stuffing the impossible amount of Mana into the butt of his rifle, at the bullets stored there, ready to turn the ocean of Mana into a proper attack.

  Axl moved his mouth as if to speak, and the Vikam leaned closer.

  The rifle descended slowly, and his enemy didn't even bother raising his hand to block the limp strike. Axl didn’t want to risk the Mana-infused weapon touching the elite's body, since then he might notice, so Axl triggered his eighteen remaining bullets right as the butt of the gun passed the side of the invader's face. The result was an unchecked explosion far beyond anything he'd ever managed to trigger.

  Axl's vision blanked for a moment as he lost track of where he was, then slowly realized he was on his back. He tried to move, but he couldn’t feel his legs, and his left arm was burning all the way up to the shoulder. He couldn’t even open his eyes, only feeling a distant, dull pain in his addled mind.

  He felt the ping of several level-ups and smiled, realizing this meant he got the kill. The only kill of those elite bastards any Lunarian ever managed, as far as he knew.

  "Nine," he gargled past shattered teeth and choking blood, the sound incomprehensible. He piped each level-up bonus to Soul, if only to get a clear head at the end.

  Everything done, Axl slowly let himself drift into death, one last time saying goodbye to his dead brother, his banner commander, and even Lilly. But a notification nudged him awake.

  

  >>Terrania Quest (Urgent, Highest Priority): Lunar Nexus Redirection

  >>Update: Quest Complete

  >>Reward: Rebirth into enemy lands (experimental, long-range disembodied transport)

  >>Accept: Yes/No?

  He could only hazily parse what the message meant, and with the last grasp of thought, he accepted before plunging into darkness.