My Invincible Defense: Traversing the Endless Worlds

“I remember there’s a big dam just outside Black Mountain—like an old abandoned hydroelectric plant. Why don’t they fix it?” Finn asked.

The man of the house jumped in. “That wreck of a power station’s been taken over by the Sandhawk Raiders. Damn it, those Sandhawk Raiders are all out of their minds. Last time I drove past the station, two pickups chased me for over ten kilometers for no reason at all.”

Beverly piped up in her childish voice, “The City Lord said on the radio that they’re gonna put together an expedition force, chase off those Sandhawk Raider bastards, and take the power station back! Then we’ll have all the electricity we need!”

“Yeah!” the man said, full of confidence. “Soon as the City Lord calls for volunteers, I’m signing up. I’ll put a few holes in those Sandhawk Raider crazies and get even for last time!”

Under the dim, yellowish candlelight, the woman frowned. “Don’t you dare go! With your third-rate shooting, you’re better off hunting wild bison! If something happens to you out there, what are Beverly and Decker supposed to do?”

“My shooting’s no good? You can look down on my electrical work all you want, but don’t you start on my aim! …” the man shot back, arguing fiercely.

The family of four kept bickering noisily while Finn and Jimmy sat listening in silence.

Suddenly Jimmy spoke up in his native tongue. “Bro, I miss home. My mom nags exactly like that too. I used to get so annoyed with her, but after not hearing her voice for so long, I suddenly miss her.

“Back then, if I got homesick I could just call her. But now… this is another world. There’s no way to reach her at all.

“The flow of time in my world should be the same as here, right? What if I go back and find out decades have already passed?”

In the darkness, Finn sat in the chair with his eyes closed. “Relax, I’ve checked the files. The time flow on Blue Planet—the one in the solar system at the end of the third arm of the Milky Way, in the 1994th cosmic sector of Gamma-TWO-A-9527, the world you’re from—is exactly the same as here.”

“Whew, that’s a relief!” Jimmy let out a long breath.

“Looks like you’re not ready to become one of the Celestial Sojourners yet,” Finn said softly.

“Why?” Jimmy’s eyes went wide.

“We’re just travelers passing through the Endless Worlds. Loneliness is part of the deal,” Finn murmured, gazing out the window where distant stars flickered faintly. “Let’s go.”

Finn and Jimmy said their goodbyes to the Jackson family, stepped out the door, and hurried toward Michael’s inn.

“Hey, you two out-of-town punks finally decided to show up. I’ve been waiting forever—I’m closing early tonight. Things haven’t been too peaceful around here lately.” Behind the counter, old Michael stood holding an automatic rifle and let out a long yawn. A copper oil lamp burned brightly on the table.

Finn gave him a polite smile and headed upstairs. The night wind brushed over him, carrying a slight chill.

Old Michael was just about to pull the iron-sheet door shut when a rough, calloused hand grabbed the edge. “Who’s Finn?”

Michael’s eyelids twitched. He swung the rifle butt hard at the hand, straining to slam the door closed, but the palm shoved forward with a surge of strength and yanked the door wide open.

Behind it stood a crowd of savage, vicious faces—at least twenty men, every one of them armed. Some had rocket launchers slung across their backs. Their hair was dyed bright red and green, their faces thick with brutish muscle, and killing intent rolled off them like heat from a furnace.

“I’m Finn. What is this? Middle of the night, and someone’s already looking for trouble? Is a man not allowed to sleep in this city?” Finn walked down the open-air stairs, staring down at the twenty or so burly men below in the freezing night wind.

“Our boss has something to ask you. Come with us.”

Finn’s face tightened slightly. If someone was really gunning for him and there was no way out, he’d have no problem painting the streets red.

“Bro, we doing this right here?” Jimmy whispered, legs shaking as he quietly reached into his backpack for the rifle.

“No. Let’s go with them,” Finn said with a cold smirk. He led Jimmy down the steps, surrounded by the twenty glaring thugs, and they headed deeper into Refuge City.

……

A pitch-black building loomed under the cold moonlight. The heavy rumble of a diesel generator echoed through the night. One by one, the building’s lights flickered on from the bottom floor up, but the glow stayed dim and gloomy.

Inside a hall on the second floor, Finn and Jimmy sat on cold iron chairs. Around thirty Demon Gang members stood in a tight circle, guns trained on them.

“Hey, out-of-towner, where the hell did you get this bullet head?” the man in front of them asked. His hair was dyed red and green, and he wore a thick wool coat.

A nasty knife scar ran across his forehead. He kept tossing a bullet head in his hand, the faint blue glow from the stone embedded in it flickering. It was exactly the Relic Marrow Bullet Finn had given to Olivia.

Finn frowned, confused. How did the bullet head he handed to Olivia end up in the Demon Gang’s hands?

Finn didn’t answer. Instead he fired back, “You the boss of the Demon Gang? This their headquarters?”

“You don’t rate an audience with the big man. This is just a branch. I’m the one running things here.”

The scar-faced man glared down at Finn, eyes full of menace. “What kind of game are you playing, kid? I’m warning you—there are five Tier 3 Vanguards in this building, and every single gun is loaded with armor-piercing rounds. Doesn’t matter how thick your hide is; we’ll still turn you into a fucking sieve.”

“I can’t tell you anything. I need to see your boss.”

Finn pressed his lips together. He had already made up his mind. If he had to go to war with Black Mountain’s biggest gang, he might as well start at the top and kill the leader first. It would save him a great deal of time.

Some Celestial Sojourners or world-hoppers always fell into the same trap when trouble found them in a new realm: smack down the small fry and bigger ones show up, smack down the bigger ones and the real boss appears. One wave after another, never ending.

Finn hated that endless nonsense. Since these people couldn’t even scratch his defenses, the smartest move was to go straight for the leader and carve his way down from there. Far more efficient.

“Out-of-towner, you don’t qualify to see the boss. Don’t make me repeat myself a third time—my patience has limits!” The scar-faced man’s face turned even colder.

He suddenly jerked the rifle butt back and smashed it hard into Finn’s face. “Looks like I’ll have to knock a few teeth loose before you decide to talk right!”

Finn took the blow without flinching. He only twitched the corner of his mouth, then stretched out his clenched fist and said, “Hm. There’s something you guys want right here.”

“What thing?” The scar-faced man reached out to pry open Finn’s fingers.

Finn opened his palm. A second ago it had been empty; now a hand grenade sat right there in plain sight. Finn flicked his thumb, yanking the pin free. “Congratulations, gentlemen. Fragmentation armor-piercing grenade straight from the Star Cosmos Empire. First time seeing one, right?”

He tossed the grenade toward the ceiling. The blinking red light made it look like Death himself had just dropped in for a visit.

“Ahhh!!!” Jimmy screamed, dropping into a tight ball with his hands over his head. His movements were smooth and practiced. Finn instantly threw a layer of Profound Energy shield around him.

“Fucking lunatic!”

“Get down!”

“Run!” Terrified shouts exploded from every direction. The scar-faced man and all the others scrambled for the exits in blind panic, but it was already too late.

BOOM!

The grenade went off. A blinding white flash swallowed everything. Nine hundred armor-piercing fragments screamed outward at three times the speed of sound, ripping every object and every human body into shreds.

Smoke and dust slowly settled as the shockwave faded. The entire hall had been blasted to hell. Not a single intact corpse remained. Everyone except Finn and Jimmy was dead.

“Let’s move,” Finn said, glancing up at the huge hole punched through the ceiling. “We’re wiping out every last one of them in this building.”

He hadn’t even finished the sentence before the building’s load-bearing pillars let out a deep, painful groan. Cracks spiderwebbed across the walls.

“With all my experience blowing people up and getting blown up, this place is coming down!”

Finn and Jimmy sprinted out of the building. Less than two minutes later, the ten-story structure collapsed with a thunderous roar, sending a massive cloud of dust billowing into the night sky.

One Demon Gang branch—gone.