Pandora looked at the 18 men protecting the 2 injured helicopter crewmen that had survived. The 18 had their weapons aimed at her while she stood there looking at them, “Okay everyone, this is how this is going to go. You are all going to take a vow to serve me or…
Pandora wasn’t given a chance to finish as the individual in the center of the group with his handgun pointed at her fired a single round that would have entered the center of her head. Pandora’s perception, agility, and dexterity were all high enough that the bullet seemed to travel in slow motion. Not quite a crawl, but definitely slow enough that she could keep track of it. She reached up casually and used her ability Absorb: Kinetic Energy to stop the bullet in its tracks as the kinetic energy from the bullet was turned into Magic Absorbed Levels (MLAs).
Everyone froze until a screech filled the air as a horde of small flying creatures took to the air on the opposite side of the group.
“As I was saying, you can either make a vow to me and live, or I leave you here and you all die,” Pandora said as she pointed at the flock of creatures that were now heading toward the group of men.
“You’ll die too?” one of the soldiers in front called.
“Let’s see, Pandora said as she jumped six feet into the air and shifted to her Umbral Dragon form. Pandora flew toward the horde of small creatures, which broke apart and fled before her. She circled until she could come back down to the place she’d started from. As she came in for a landing the shadows enveloped her as she shifted back to her human form. She landed gently on her feet facing the assassins as she said, “Nah, I think I’ll be fine.”
Pandora watched as emotions ran across all of their faces, the most identifiable of which was fear. Before the leader could speak again Pandora said, “I don’t think you understand just how FUCKED you are. All of you are currently in a different dimension. You have attracted the attention of shadow beasts, which will be back after I leave. I can travel back to Earth and will continue doing what I was going to do without you. You will all die here or get turned into some form of shadow beast or revenant that will exist forever in this realm that is not part of life or light. Also, I’m sure you have all seen that flashing light in your vision. That is your notification light, which you do not have access to on the Material Plane. Think ‘Status’ or ‘Notifications’ and read through your messages.
Pandora watched as almost everyone’s eyes glazed over. Two of them had not accessed their status screen and were keeping watch. Pandora made eye contact with them. “If you all are going to have a chance, including your two injured friends, you all need to be in tip top shape. I can heal both of them if you’d like?
One of the soldiers looked at his counterpart then shrugged and nodded as he said, “Please.”
Pandora walked forward slowly until she entered their ranks and came to where the helicopter crewmen were lying on gurneys. Pandora reached over and used Absorb: Heal Other/Temporary Hit Point Bonus to heal both of them to full health. It didn’t cost very many MLAs either. As they started to breathe easier and move around Pandora stood and moved back out of their formation back to where she’d first addressed them and waited.
Within five minutes all twenty of them had reviewed their notifications and their leader was looking at her again as he asked, “This Vow, what does it require?”
Pandora considered how to answer the question as she reviewed some of her mother's memories. Her father had once had a conversation with Adaline about how oaths and vows hadn’t meant that much back on Earth because there had been no SYSTEM that anyone could access so no one thought they were enforced. Of course, no one would have seen what the SYSTEM was doing when no one could access their notifications, which would be the same on this version of Earth. Pandora thought for a moment and decided that she needed to explain what it meant to make an Oath or Vow to her and what would happen if they broke that vow or oath.
“Okay, cliff notes version. A vow is a promise you make to someone three times. Once stated three times the vow is noted by the SYSTEM and enforced. If you ever break the Oath there are serious repercussions for doing so. You could lose levels, abilities, and skills. On this Earth, it is almost impossible to know what the negative effects of breaking an Oath or Vow would be though.”
“Then why should we?”
“Because unlike the rest of the humans on Earth, I can actually access my notifications and I will know when a vow has been broken to me. How? The SYSTEM will send me a message letting me know. Additionally, once someone has broken an Oath to me, they’re dead to me. Whatever promise I make to you that I would do if you break the Oath is what I’ll do”
“You talk a big game. What can one woman do?” the leader said snidely.
Pandora realized she wasn’t going to get anywhere with the leader. The next instant she had crossed the distance to him, grabbed him by the throat, and retreated to where she’d started while squeezing his neck hard enough that he couldn’t breathe. She also positioned herself so that he was a meat shield between the other soldiers and her.
“What can I do?” Pandora called out to no one in particular asked as she moved forward grabbed the leader and returned to her starting point
“Let's see, I can steal all the information from this mind,” she said as she absorbed his thoughts with her ability Absorb: Memories for the last 10 hours.
The soldier brought his rifle up and pulled the trigger. The bullet was armor-piercing and did enter her body which caused everyone to pause. Pandora touched the rifle and used the ability Absorb Items to turn it into MLAs while everyone watched while the bullet that had barely entered her body was pushed out and the wound healed completely in the next 3 seconds.
The commander's face was starting to turn red as he tried to pull his pistol which Pandora touched and also absorbed before he could fire it. Next came a knife which was also absorbed. When he had no other weapons to reach for, he reached forward to gouge her eyes out with his thumbs. Unfortunately for him, her Minimum Damage Threshold prevented him from doing any damage to her while she, in turn, touched his clothes and absorbed them which left him naked as he turned blue.
Calls to let him go rang out which Pandora ignored. As he started thrashing Pandora said, “Anyone that fires their weapon will be left behind when I leave. This is your only warning.” Pandora made sure to make eye contact with each which was pretty impressive because she was still holding the commander by his neck above the ground and had been doing so since she grabbed him. That alone should have scared the shit out of the rest of them. Once she was sure she had all of their attention she lightly tapped the commander on the ass to wake him up as she casually tossed him back toward his formation. Unable to control his fall and just barely awake he landed awkwardly and slid until he rested at the feet of one of his soldiers who bent down to check on him.
“So what can I do? I can decide to do absolutely nothing and leave you here to your fate or we can stop wasting time, you all take your vow and you start guarding my estate while I deal with the other team that is on the way to Scarborough. Luckily for all of you, they’re not attacking until the top of the hour or I’d just leave you here and you could deal with critters you drew the attention of. So, who wants to make a vow, and who wants to stay here?” Pandora asked.
While the 20 men looked at each other Pandora considered the memories she’d taken from the Commander. “V” as he thought of himself, answered directly to the Emperor in Rome, Augustus Maxamillius Ceasar. He was a direct descendant of “The Ceasar,” whatever that meant. Her dad would probably know, but without being able to review the history of his Earth, it didn’t really matter. All she knew was that a lot of the problems with this society started in Rome.
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While Pandora was reviewing V’s memories she watched as he moved slowly to one of his subordinates who wasn’t paying attention, grabbed a grenade off his battle harness, and threw it at her. Pandora watched as the Grenade tumbled slowly, to her at least, through the air which gave her plenty of time to read the canister and recognize that it was either a magnesium or white phosphorus grenade. Both of these would cause her a little bit of an issue as they could be extremely bright. There were many ways she could take care of the situation but she went with the simplest one of all. She moved forward, opened a shadow portal to the material plane, and allowed the grenade to pass through. When it hit the ground the portal winked out as a bright white light and intense heat blasted back through the portal. So it was a white phosphorus grenade, what an asshole.
Pandora looked at the commander with an evil glint in her eye as she said, “My turn.” Before anyone could move Pandora had grabbed the naked commander by his leg and arm turned with a quick swing, and flung him toward the flying creatures in the distance. Pandora guessed they were about 1,500 feet or so away which was just over a quarter of a mile. Everyone else had frozen as she moved. They all watched as the commander soared through the air for a good three seconds before they lost sight of him. That isn’t to say that they didn’t hear him screaming until they couldn’t hear him anymore.
Pandora looked around the group and then pointed at herself, “I’m a dragon, what about me turning into a dragon and flying around a few moments ago didn’t get that point across?” Pandora said with just a little bit of frustration. “I am about to leave this realm and head up to Scarborough. I can either bring you all back through with me if you make an Oath, or I can leave you here. If you come with me, you will work as my security and protect my interests until such time as I release you. Yes, you will be paid and taken care of. That, however, should not be what concerns you right now,” screams could be heard in the distance. “What should concern you right now is that the creatures over there just tasted blood, they’ll know what it is now and they’re hungry.” Pandora said as she pointed at the bandages where the two wounded people had been as well as the wreckage from the three helicopters, which had the blood of the soldiers that had been killed inside them still.
It only took a moment before one broke, then all of them did. Pandora had them all swear a very simple vow three times, checked her notifications to make sure the vows were registered with the SYSTEM, and then tried to open a shadow portal to send them to his estate. When she first tried it didn’t open. Of course, it wouldn’t open where she was, there was a white phosphorus grenade burning that was probably killing all the shadows at ground zero. “Alright everyone, follow me, we need to head back to where the house is before I can get you out of here. Stay close,” Pandora said as she led them toward where the wall of the house was. Once they were inside the walls of the house she opened a portal without issue and allowed everyone to step through.
Pandora watched as the twenty men stepped through the portal one at a time. She was wondering how she would convince them not to break their vows that probably weren’t important to them when the last man in line dropped and activated an anti-tank mine right inside the portal. She’s seen some information on such mines when she was trying to learn as much as she could while in the Kersor Sector. Being a Sector Lord had given her a lot of perks. She noted that while the mine had a pressure plate it must also have a timer because she could hear the telltale sound of an analog timer clicking. Normally no one would be able to hear it but her hearing was impeccable and her perception was at least 6,000% better than a normal human’s
Pandora moved forward in a flash and touched the side of the mine as she used Absorb Items to turn it into MLAs. As she looked up she noticed that the idiot hadn’t even made it to the front of the pack yet. A moment later she had him by the neck, though she wasn’t choking him. She was just holding him in front of her as she looked at the other men. Pandora systematically absorbed all of his weapons but left him with his clothes. She wouldn’t kill this man if she didn’t have to because he was going to help her teach the rest of the soldiers a very valuable lesson right here and right now.
“Listen up everyone, this man just broke his oath to me by trying to kill me with a tank mine. Please notice that the tank mine would have gone off within 20 feet of all of you as well, so technically, he tried to kill all of us. That doesn’t matter though. Pandora opened a shadow portal directly behind her and stepped through as she kept a firm grip on the man and dragged him with her. Once on the other side of the portal she turned and faced everyone else back through the portal.
“What’s your name soldier?” Pandora asked the soldier.
“I go by Cliff, Clifford Wexlar,” the soldier said.
“Good to know Cliff. Today is your lucky day. If you do one thing for me I will take you back through the portal and let you go. You will never have to see me again and we’ll call it quits between us. I won’t look for you and as long as you don’t come looking for me, I won’t kill you on the spot. How does that sound?”
“I like the sound of that, what do I have to do?”
“Not much, you just need to open your notifications and read them to all your friends over there in the hallway.”
“That’s it?” Cliff asked.
“That’s it” Pandora affirmed.
“Okay, let’s see the first message is in red and it says, ‘Warning You have Broken an Oath’ The next message says ‘You have gained the Title Oath Breaker’”
“Does it say what the title does?” Pandora asked.
“Yes, it says ‘Oath Breaker – You have broken an Oath as a member of the SYSTEM. While you hold the title Oath Breaker All SYSTEM assisted perks are removed. Levels are reset to 0 and no new levels may be earned. Class modifications are removed and any Class and Class benefits are removed. Attributes and skills are not affected though the SYSTEM will no longer track Attributes or Skill Levels. Can the Oath Breaker Title be removed? Simple answer, no. Longer Answer anything is possible but it hasn’t happened yet’ Cliffor Wexlar read.
“Very good Cliff,” Pandora said as she stepped back through the Shadow portal and let Cliff go. “Now get out of here. I do not ever want to see you again, nor will anyone once they know you will never improve. Now, Go!”
The group watched as Cliff turned and fled down the hallway.
“You’re just going to let him go,” one of the soldiers asked.
“I am a woman of my word. He told you all exactly what will happen if you break your Oath. I’m sure you didn’t understand everything you were looking at earlier when you accessed your status and the notifications. I’m also sure you noticed that you were all somewhere between levels 5 and 10. Well, Cliff is now level 0. He will be level 0 for the rest of his life and even if the SYSTEM comes online here, he will never be able to benefit from it again. That could be a serious problem if monsters show up as he’ll always be lower level than anything he might face.”
“Isn’t there anything you can do for him,” Another soldier asked.
“Not a thing, and not important,” Pandora said in a tone that barred any further comments. “The rest of you are to secure these grounds set up a defensive perimeter and prepare for a possible assault. There is an underground bunker here. Make sure everyone else is moved from the safe rooms to the bunker and then defend them. Yes you can fall back into the bunker if you need to. It should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway, try not to get yourselves killed. I need to head up to Scarborough and take care of the forces that are going to attack my assets up there.
“There’s no way you can get there fast enough,” one of the soldiers called out as Pandora was walking through them to step back outside the wall.
“Boys, you all just watched a little itty bitty girl throw your commander over 1,000 feet to his death. That after taking down your three helicopters, catching a bullet with her fingers, and walking back and forth across a dimensional boundary. Oh yeah, no communication with your military command, consider that as part of our Oath. You can talk to your loved ones but you cannot talk about anything to do with me or where you are right now. I will consider that treasonous behavior and your Oath will be broken. One more thing you should know. I do not have to be present for you to break your Oath. The SYSTEM is everywhere and sees all. If you break your Oath, it will know and then I will know. Because magic doesn’t work on this side of the dimensional boundary you won’t know you broke your Oath to me until I kick you out of my house so I’d be extra careful if I were you.”
Pandora continued walking until she was outside. Shifted into her Dragon form and flew up until she was a mile over the city and headed north. Something interesting happened as she increased her speed. She knew that moving faster would create more friction and generate more heat. To reduce the chance of this she decided to try to use one of her abilities and turned on Absorb Kinetic energy to see if that could help.
As it was explained to her in one of her courses, flight is the struggle of four different forces. You have thrust which opposes drag and lift which opposes gravity. After she reached Scarborough she thought about what had happened and then smiled. When she had activated Absorb Kinetic Energy the little bit of air that came into contact with her body stopped dead and that dead air became the barrier the next particle of air came up against. The overall effect was that while she was flying she wasn’t generating heat or cavitation when she reached extremely high speeds. It was a byproduct of two of her abilities which shouldn’t have worked that way but did.
Pandora made it to Scarborough in record time and came in for a landing on the roof which she stepped off and absorbed the kinetic energy when she landed on the ground before she walked inside. As soon as she was inside, Pandora went to the nearest intercom and clicked It on, “This is Pandora. This is NOT a Test. Everyone is to make their way to the Bunker, Now. This is NOT a test. We have an attack incoming and they should be here shortly.”
