Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 124: The Zhix

Tens of warriors poured out from nowhere and mindlessly charged at him making some loud clacking noises and Zac immediately took out a weapon. However, since his goal was to see if an alliance was possible he didn’t bring out [Verun’s Bite]. Instead, he took out a black wooden club made from the extremely dense trees he’d found on the island long ago.

After a roughly a minute of thwacking twenty-seven antmen lay down on the ground unconscious, and Zac was finally able to take a good look at them. He realized it was a misnomer to call these things ant-men, as they were even more human-like than Ishiate.

Their faces were mostly human, apart from their noses that were mostly two holes and a slight protuberance. The same could be said about their ears, almost looking like the cauliflower ears of professional wrestlers. Their eyes were almost human, though a bit larger and their irises were purple.

All in all their faces could have passed as ugly humans if it wasn’t for the two antennae on their heads and the fact that their skin was tinged a bit purple. Their skin was quite hard as well, but not to the point of being a chitinous exoskeleton of the Ayr Ants back on his own island.

They also had four normal appendages and even wore clothes. When people spoke about the Zhix earlier he had almost imagined them to look a bit like the Mantis-ants, having swords for arms. But they held actual weapons in their pretty human-looking hands.

Zac picked up one of the Zhix at random and walked some distance away from the others before pouring water from a canteen over it. It quickly woke up sputtering and clacking, desperately waving its arms.

“I know you understand me. I need to speak to your leader. Don’t make me knock you unconscious again.,” he said as he held the warrior down with his foot.

The Zhix warrior gave no response apart from struggling and screeching, and Zac could only sigh and knock him out again. At least the intel was good, and these people were not very strong.

Actually, as Zac walked through the forest he was starting to guess why. There was not a single living thing on the island. Perhaps they had already hunted everything to extinction. An island like this might not have too much wildlife from the start, and they might have found themselves without anything to kill to gain levels.

Zac kept meeting groups of warriors, but he kept knocking them out. He was surprised by the sheer number of them, wondering exactly how they could survive on this island. Could ant-men eat leaves and bark? Were they excellent fishermen? He had seen no boats though, and it felt a bit unlikely for a species that lived underground to be used to the sea.

After walking for almost an hour Zac reached the central mountain, and by this point he’d clobbered well over a hundred of the warriors. Finally, he saw something that seemed man-made, a pretty even mountain path that led along the wall.

The path was only a meter wide, and after walking for ten minutes the drop was high enough that Zac wasn’t sure he’d survive the fall. Luckily he didn’t need to walk much longer until he reached a great plateau. It was even larger than a big town square, and roughly a third of the way up the mountainside.

More impressively it was clear to Zac that the whole plateau was actually carved into the mountain itself, rather than a natural formation. Enormous statues lined both the sides of the squarish plaza, with the inner side looking almost like the entrance to some ancient tomb.

He didn’t have time to admire the beautiful craftsmanship though, as there was a whole army standing at the ready between him and the entrance. A quick estimate put them at roughly a thousand warriors, most of them hefting daggers or short swords.

Zac remembered it was the same with those he’d encountered so far on the island, and he guessed that their choice of weapons was a result of mainly fighting underground where ranged weapons and large unwieldy things like spears weren’t as effective.

The army stood without moving, balefully glaring at Zac who walked up from the small path and entered the plaza proper. He looked back at them for some time and decided to make one last attempt at communicating. He empowered his voice with Cosmic Energy to make sure that everyone on the plaza, and any hidden leader, could hear his message.

“This is is the last time I try for diplomacy with the Zhix. I am Zachary Atwood from a neighboring island. I am a human, one of the two other races that were affected just like you when the so-called System decided to merge our planets together into the current mess.

“I mean no harm to your population. All the warriors I have encountered so far are still alive. But I need to speak to your leader or leaders. As a token of trust I can give you a piece of information you might not know. You are not alone, your kind are spread all over this new planet,” Zac said.

Being god damn lunatics who attack everyone, he silently added in his mind.

There had been no reaction during the beginning of his speech, not even with his last sentence. Zac suddenly realized why, and wanted to smack himself. Unless they were idiots they should understand that their kind were still alive just form checking their own Ladder.

Still, there was some movement in the army. Generally it was just small glances between the troops, but it was enough for Zac to know that they understood his words. After being relentlessly attacked so many times he had actually started doubting the effect of his language skill.

“Why should we trust someone who reeks of impurity and chaos?” a sharp voice came from the distance as a group of Zhix walked out from the huge gate in the mountain.

In the front a Zhix that was almost twice as large compared to the others walked, and it was accompanied by two elders and eight guards dressed in far more intricate gear than the army in front of it. The Zhix army quickly made way to create a path for the new group.

Zac honestly couldn’t tell whether the supersized Zhix was a male or female, as it looked completely androgynous. He was expecting a female since the information he possessed from Adran said that most insectoid species were ruled by a queen.

Then again, the same could be said for the warriors as well, he had no real way of telling their genders, they all pretty much looked the same.

The party stopped a decent distance away from Zac, the two advisors clearly looking unhappy.

“Your holiness, you mustn’t talk to the fallen. It’s against the precepts. The impurity must be cleansed, lest it keeps spreading. We’re already sullied, but we might still be redeemed. But if we start consorting with agents of chaos we will truly be lost,” one of them hurriedly said.

“What the hell are you talking about? Fallen? Sullied? Do you even know what’s going on, being stuck here on an isolated island?”

“Do you think your tricks will work on us, fallen one? Your kind might have taken a new face, but you can’t hide the impurity coursing through your body. We eradicated your kind in the olden days, and we will do it again,” the other advisor huffed, and it looked like most of the warriors agreed with the sentiment.

“You mean the Cosmic Energy? It’s not like I asked to have it. But our worlds got merged together, it’s not like we had any say in whether the System crammed our world full of the energy. And you call me fallen, but aren’t you the same? I sense that you are at a decent level,” said with a frown.

“More lies, just like the Dominators always spewed,” the other elder scoffed.

“You said you’re from another world than ours? Explain,” the large Zhix interjected ignoring the entreating looks from the others.

Zac thought for a second before he started narrating an abridged version of what he’d learned the past months. First, he explained the system, with the classes, attributes, and ranks. Next, he told them about the history of the multi-verse, and about the Apostates. Finally, he explained their current situation, mostly composed of information from New Washington, and some information about the incursions.

Honestly, he would have rather just captured the large Zhix and forced a contract of binding on it, but it wouldn’t work for multiple reasons. First of all, a contract couldn’t be enacted under coercion. The contracting system was created by the Apostate of Order, and something like using it under threat of violence was the opposite of what he envisioned.

Besides, it appeared there were special restrictions in place on New Earth. It appeared it wasn’t possible to enter contracts with the other races at the moment. Zac had been curious about how the girls had known about the contract back at Greenworth and was told that it was common knowledge in the new world.

People had also found out that entering a contract with the Ishiate simply wasn’t possible, the system blocked it. The general theory was that the System still considered the three races on Earth in contention, and blocked certain systems cross-races. Perhaps a leader of the planet had to emerge before all systems were completely unlocked.

“I don’t know anything about your kind, but from your words it sounds like there were some people on your old world who could use Cosmic Energy, and who used it for evil. That has nothing to do with us humans, or the Ishiate. We come from our own separate worlds, and are busy struggling with our own problems to have time to plot against your people,” he finished.

“I sense no falsehood from this being, and what it says has some merit. We have called the strange events of late a Dominator plot so long that we have almost convinced ourselves of it. But our hive is dying and we need to open our eyes, even if what we see is not what we hoped for,” the large one slowly said.

“No! Impurity must be cleansed!” one of the well-equipped guards suddenly roared as it ran toward Zac, who immediately readied himself with furrowed brows.

However, the huge Zhix moved with amazing speed and suddenly held the royal guard by its neck.

“Order is not lost just because some things change. You dare defy the hive?” the leader said as it held the warrior by its throat.

“It… is… heresy,” the guard squeezed out, looking unwilling to back down.

The leader only snorted and with a sickening crunch crushed the neck of the warrior, and threw its body away like a piece of garbage. Zac was amazed at the power of the thing, as the corpse was thrown over twenty meters away, without it seeming the leader used much force.

He had a feeling that the high power was something it was born with, rather than something it had gained from the System.

He already knew that many species were far superior to humans, or even demons, when it came to innate power. Some species were born at E-Ranked Race or even higher, and many had naturally higher stats.

Others were extremely adept at grasping Dao seeds, making it seem as though the universe itself handed them out as gifts. The universe simply wasn’t equal, and some were just better than others.

“You call yourself a human, is it? You have told a fantastical tale. But how will we know you are not lying?” the leader said as it turned back to Zac. “You told us that the reason we lost a part of the hive was the so-called Tutorial, but why was no one returned after a month?”

“If no one was returned they either all died, or were dropped off somewhere else. I’m still searching for friends and family as well, as they might have been thrown anywhere in the world. As for proof… Well, what kind of proof do you want?” Zac asked, to which the large Zhix only turned toward the huge gate.

After a few minutes another Zhix came running through the gate, and it was dressed quite differently from the others.