Michael was wearing his ‘magical’ white t-shirt and black boxers, while sitting cross-legged on the guest-room bed. He hummed incessantly, with both palms pressed together as if he were praying. Even though his eyes were closed and his voice was making it slightly difficult for him to hear anything, he was still ‘mildly’ aware of what was happening throughout the noisy house and neighborhood.

Iris, Kelsey, Luke and Philip were in the underground bunker, arguing with Gabriel and Beatrix about who should stay to defend the base and who would be leaving to try their luck in Topeka. Andrew and Delilah were scolding their daughter, who was planning on following the strange and mysterious Nephilim.

Many of those giant pig carcasses were still being loaded into cold-storage or butchered for the various families in the neighborhood to eat. There were several mutated dogs, cats and farm animals that lived in people’s yards or houses; that was where most of the food usually went to, since it was impossible for the twenty or so humanoids to consume so much magical-beast meat.

In the far distance, Michael could hear and ‘feel’ thousands of ‘people’ walking, driving or flying southward. Fortunately, most of them seemed to avoid the cul-de-sac; it was obvious that most ‘sane’ individuals and organizations would refrain from approaching a place that has a tank, anti-air guns and a giant tortoise-monster.

The majority of ‘humans’ who were still alive, we’re desperate for some sort of salvation. They wanted a ‘quick fix’, which would allow them to go back to the way things used to be. Not everyone in the world had access to computers, phones or the internet, but radios were everywhere. Even various beasts and mutated plants were able to receive Arcana’s ‘message’ in one way or another. Whether or not they were willing to risk what little they had left, in order to potentially gain some sort of treasure, depended on their own, individual decisions.

As he attempted to ‘meditate’ and try to remember his mysterious magical abilities, Michael eventually stopped his unnecessary humming and felt something vibrating inside of his brain. While he couldn’t exactly ‘see’ them, he could certainly feel the seven tiny beads rubbing against each other violently.

At the center was a crystal-clear pearl and the other six were frantically pushing against it. After a moment, they all settled down and he heard a slew of voices, though he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

It was then that a pitch-black wisp escaped from his forehead, freely floating around the room. Of course, there was an obsidian chain that linked it to his body, preventing the spirit from traveling too far away. Yet, even with that restriction, it was fairly easy for Michael’s soul to move a few miles in every direction, including up or down.

In the end though, he quickly returned to his ‘mana-core’ and opened his crimson eyes. He muttered “It seems ‘weaker’ than I expected it to be… In the dream, I could go much faster and farther; still, it’s better than nothing I guess?”

After spreading apart his palms, an obsidian wakizashi appeared in his right hand. Michael slowly waved it around a bit, before turning it back into a tattoo, which faded into his flesh.

“Talia said that I should be able to use her equipment as well… Hmmm, what did her gear look like again? Ugh, if I knew this was going to happen, I would have made a fucking list! Wait a second! That reminds me of something really important…” While talking to himself, he pulled the smart-phone out of his magical inventory and quickly logged onto his ‘Noogle-Drive’ account. He sighed with relief, murmuring “It figures that even two months into the apocalypse, Noogle is still up and running, hehehe~.”

It didn’t take long for him to download ‘Noogle-Drive’ onto his phone, then have a copy of everything he had ever written saved onto the memory card. Michael snickered, “Hopefully, I’ll be able to take this with me when I go back to Arcana…”

Once he placed it into his inventory again, he felt a vague sensation that was eerily similar to the object that he had just stored away. It was then that he finally remembered something incredibly important: “Holy shit-monkeys! I totally forgot about that!”

A small, rectangular, crystalline object, with a metallic cover, appeared in his right hand. He channeled a tiny bit of mana into the silvery material and the ‘screen’ lit up, making a ‘ding’ noise; the background was a picture of an adorable bright-green fox, wrestling with an equally cute golden-scaled, baby lamia.

He smiled wryly, muttering “Rachael… Ugh, I can’t believe I’m actually a father. Oh wow, this… that’s a fuck-ton of porn. Wait a second, I totally don’t remember recording any of this nonsense…” There were a decent amount of folders within the ‘Pictures and Videos’ section of the magical phone; one of them was just titled ‘miscellaneous voyeurism’ and contained whole movies from inside of his ‘territory’. The entire population of Luxiana, Inari’s Garden, Sarah’s Necropolis and The Shrine of Huxian was around ten-thousand or so, by the time that he ‘left’; however, the number of different people in his ‘collection’ was even larger than that.

It was then that he started to realize what happened, “Ah, so that’s what happened… I must have downloaded a ton of shit from the mana-net, hehe~. Anyway~, I can masturbate later, but for now, I need to… Nope.” His last bit of self-restraint was totally obliterated, as he started watching a clip of Talia ‘dancing’ for him in her bathroom.

“Nyah~, Tali’s so sexy, hehehe~!” A high-pitched voice reverberated in his mind, as Michael’s left hand started moving outside of his control. After a few seconds, he heard an irritating complaint: “Meow~, no fair Mikey~, I can’t even feel your pee-pee! Let me out~!”

Suddenly, his palm started to become extremely ‘sweaty’, as a pink liquid was escaping from his pores. It wasn’t instant, but eventually, a little cat-girl coagulated and formed around his erection.

Jasmine giggled, as she leaned back against his chest and watched the video with him. However, right as they were about to ‘enjoy’ themselves, a ‘new message’ abruptly popped up. Michael sighed dramatically, muttering “Who the fuck can even… Oh, of course, it’s Arcana.”

“As much as I enjoy watching you and your Companions engaging in amusing and sometimes ‘unconventional’ forms of sexual intercourse, I believe that you still have a ‘Quest’ to complete… Perhaps I was not clear enough before, but you actually do have a ‘job’ to perform. It is not as if you are invincible and there are certainly beings that possess enough power to ‘stop’ you from finishing your task; however, as long as you do not laze around and fornicate constantly, you should be fine.

“In the past two months, the Avatar I sent with you has managed to place down nine ‘seeds’. She has also spread a few hundred million insignificant ‘treasures’ around Earth and likely some of the surrounding planets. All of the seeds are on Earth, so it should not be too difficult for humans to obtain them. There is one for every Element… After someone with a suitably powerful soul manages to find one of these items, they will be able to utilize the devices in order to improve their ‘current’ physical body. Of course, it is likely that there will be dozens of foolish humans who end up sacrificing all of the mana within their souls, in order to survive for a bit longer in that dying universe. When the seeds have finally found the perfect hosts, they will sprout and my Avatar will notify you of their locations. She will also be able to keep you updated with their ‘progress’.”

After reading all of that, Michael complained “Oh for fuck’s sake! You still haven’t told me what I need to do goddamn it!”

Another message arrived moments later: “Your purpose is simply to ‘pluck’ the ‘fruit’ once it ‘ripens’… Then cut down the ‘tree’ and burn the entire ‘forest’ as well.”

Jasmine giggled, explaining “Nyah~, she just wants you to become a gardener. Un~, we can solve the mysterious riddles later, for now~, let’s watch hentai~! Hehehe~!”

Right when he was about to follow her wishes, a third message popped-up: “Kill them, dig the mana-cores from their corpses, and absorb as many souls as you possibly can… before destroying the planet. Is that ‘clear’ enough for you?”

Michael frowned, asking “Wait, you still never answered my question about the ‘Legacy’ items… Like, am I allowed to collect those too, or what?” He only waited a few seconds before finding an ‘interesting’ video of Elina and Talia, ‘wrestling’ with each other; unfortunately, they weren’t wearing any clothing, so he wasn’t able to gain any enlightenment in regards to how to utilize their equipment.