Stumbling on a slight bump in the otherwise even grass of the landscape outside of Zecklent, Ubert easily caught his balance as he ran as fast as he could away from the nightmare behind him. Visions of the other Bereft being quickly cut down with ease flashed through his mind as he glanced behind him, looking for any sign that the monster of a man was following him.

  How did he do that? We should be completely immune to any magical attacks!

  At least, that was what the evidence had shown, and before this happened, the Bereft didn’t have any reason to doubt that assumption. But he’d seen the opposite of that assumption happen before his very eyes, even if he wished that he hadn’t.

  “Idiots! They couldn’t restrain themselves even a little bit, could they?”

  Even as he complained about how stupid the other Bereft had been, as they had ended up losing any sense of self-preservation at the sheer strength of potential inside of the powerful figure, Ubert had to admit that he might have succumbed to the same temptation if he had been any closer. Truth be told, he had barely restrained himself from attacking the man as soon as he’d seen him shortly after his arrival, but he’d managed it well enough. The others were too weak to handle the incredible hunger for such a meal, but he wasn’t.

  Ubert was also smart enough to know when to run, because he was under no illusion that he was strong enough to face that frightening individual and even survive, let alone actually get close enough to consume his potential. That was why he escaped as soon as he had seen the other Bereft go down under whatever assault the man had brought upon them, because he was sure that he was going to be next. The only way he was going to survive was if someone else much stronger than him faced this threat to their existence.

  It was time to find the Progenitor. The original Bereft. The only one that was likely strong enough to win against such a powerful individual.

  Stretching out his senses, Ubert could detect other Bereft far in the distance. Some unique ability within his new existence allowed him to sense where others of his kind were located, which let him know that he was heading in the right direction toward where more Bereft had congregated. He assumed that they were in the town of Gardencleft, which was located to the west of the city of Zecklent. His senses also told him that there were now no longer any Bereft left alive in the city he was leaving behind, which made his flight from there even smarter, as he was 100% sure he would’ve joined the deceased if he had stuck around.

  Ubert’s new stats allowed him to cover the distance between the city and Gardencleft fairly quickly, as his strides covered a dozen feet each; it was the fastest he’d ever moved before, and he reveled in the newfound speed enough that he wasn’t willing to give it up anytime soon. From conversations with other Bereft, he knew that the increases in his stats had diminishing returns after a while, as the consumption of more potential would eventually only grant him a fraction of what he had already acquired. But for now, he wasn’t really concerned about that. All that mattered to him was escaping the death that awaited him at the hands of the flying individual back in the city.

  Another glance behind him, as the town of Gardencleft came into view ahead of him, revealed that no one was following him, neither on the ground nor in the sky, and he breathed out a sigh of relief even as he pumped his legs faster to reach the town. He didn’t know if the Progenitor was actually there, as his senses didn’t tell him how strong the Bereft he detected actually were, but his hope was that they might know where he might be.

  Rushing through the gates of the town without any of the normal citizens noticing him, he sped toward where he felt the greatest local congregation of Bereft. It didn’t take him long to arrive at a two-story building that he recognized as the Faction headquarters for the settlement, which the Bereft in Zecklent had abandoned because it was too obvious of a place if someone was looking for them – though, logically, that was different in the much smaller town.

  “Who are you?” he heard as he slowed to a stop, as two women and a man moved toward him from where they were lazily lounging against the Faction building.

  Within seconds, Ubert had caught his breath easily enough to answer the woman who had addressed him. “Ubert. I come from Zecklent, and I have urgent news for the Progenitor – and a warning for any other Bereft.”

  “A warning? Of what?” the woman asked, her entire demeanor – as well as the demeanor of the others with her – skeptical. He couldn’t blame them too much, given how invulnerable he used to feel with his new stats, but he could also sense that getting through to them about the seriousness of the situation was going to be a chore.

  He pointed vaguely toward the east, where the city he’d just fled was located. “Someone came to the city and was too strong for us; he started killing us from a distance as if it was the easiest thing he’d ever done, and I was the only one to escape. Only the Progenitor is strong enough to defeat him.” I hope.

  “That’s because you’re pathetically weak,” the woman said with a scoff. A quick check of her strength revealed to Ubert that she wasn’t quite twice as strong as he was, but it was close. He didn’t think it would matter, though, based on what he’d seen. “There’s nothing that we can’t handle here.”

  Arrogant fool. “I don’t think you understand—”

  Ubert cut himself off as he felt a flare of powerful potential behind and above him, and it was familiar enough that he flung himself to the side on instinct. It had been just in time, too, because a moment later he felt something powerful pass through where he’d been standing, only to impact the Bereft man from the group he’d been speaking to. The unfortunate man dropped to the ground an instant later as his life seemed to dissipate before his eyes.

  Shocked at what had just happened, the two women stared at the downed Bereft, even as Ubert took off at a run. A glance back was all it took to make him shiver as he saw the flat, determined eyes of the powerful individual flying 50 feet above the street, staring at him while he escaped. Fortunately, before the man could follow Ubert, the Bereft he had left behind recovered from the sudden attack and growled in anger before launching themselves off the ground. Using every bit of consumed stats, he watched as they managed to jump high enough to close the distance to their target, and Ubert paused before he swung around a corner to see what happened.

  Unable to dodge while in the air, the two female Bereft were unable to avoid the powerful projectiles that were launched from the floating man. Each of them were unerringly shot into their chests, and Ubert witnessed them seeming to collapse upon themselves in mid-jump, all the energy leaving them as they were hit. He couldn’t tell if they had died instantly, or if it took a little while, but the end result was two bodies arcing through the air in an uncontrolled ascent, completely helpless against the powerful man, who started to turn in Ubert’s direction again.

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  Needless to say, Ubert didn’t stick around longer to watch as the two women undoubtedly slammed back into the ground upon their descent. Instead, he took off toward the western gate of the town, determined to flee again before he could be targeted.

  How did he find me? Or is he simply moving through all the towns around here, and I just got unlucky?

  Regardless of the reason, he was still determined to get out of Gardencleft as fast as possible. As he passed through the gate, he didn’t look back, but he still stretched his senses out to their fullest. Just as he feared, the individual Bereft began to disappear inside the town, winking out from his detection range one after another. There were still half a dozen Bereft scattered around the town, but they all seemed to be moving toward where the others were quickly falling, having absolutely no chance against the madman on the loose, killing them indiscriminately.

  Desperation lent even more speed to his legs as he took off to the southwest, his mind now in full-blown panic mode. Ubert couldn’t even think straight anymore, and his instincts took over without his cognizance. Instead of trying to escape toward a place where he couldn’t be easily found easily, such as a deep hole in one of the nearby mountain ranges, his sense of other Bereft took over, placing his feet in the direction of even more of his kind.

  Relief overtook his mind temporarily, as he saw the gates of another town ahead of him, which made his steps falter for a moment as he realized what he’d just done. But the barest flash of a powerful potential behind him sent him fleeing again. Unable to process, let alone care about, the fact that he was essentially leading a predator toward others of his kind, all his mind thought about was sheltering within the prospective safety of the walls ahead of him, despite the fact that such safety was an illusion.

  There was nowhere safe from the man following after him, murdering Bereft. His only chance was to keep running and hope that the powerful presence was delayed long enough inside the town to allow him to gain enough distance to escape.

  So, running was what Ubert did. The Bereft he passed inside of the town – which he couldn’t even remember the name of during his panicked flight – looked at him in confusion as he didn’t even stop to acknowledge them. His only goal was to pass through the town to get to the other side, where he could escape from the man-turned-nightmare following him.

  Five miles past the town, he felt the last of the Bereft disappear from the unnamed town he’d just run through, which set off another round of fresh panic. His instincts failed him yet again as he tried to hone in on the next-closest concentration of Bereft he could sense, as some primal part of his mind likely thought that there might be safety in numbers.

  Stupid mind… numbers can’t stop him. There still might be one that can, however.

  Ubert lost track of how many towns – and even a second city – that he ran through, but the result was always the same. Just as he thought he’d finally run fast and far enough to lose the homicidal man following him, it only took a whiff of the powerful potential to set him off again. Soon enough, the panicked Bereft was starting to flag in his run, his fright-fueled energy finally beginning to run out as he stumbled along his path, his senses automatically stretching out as far as they could to detect his next target. It wasn’t until he nearly face-planted into a tree that he realized that he couldn’t sense any other Bereft in any direction but the one he was facing – to the north. At that point, he didn’t even know where he was, as he’d become lost at least an hour ago in his run, but the concentration of the Bereft he felt ahead of him was much more numerous than before.

  That, or perhaps he was reacting to the vague sense of strength that he didn’t think he could actually detect in another Bereft at that range. If that was the case, then it was more than possible that he’d finally done it; he might have found the only one that could actually defeat the man following behind in the form of Death incarnate.

  If he’s “Death”, what does that make me? The “Herald of Death”?

  The lives of the other Bereft he inadvertently killed weighed heavily on him throughout his run, but at that point, Ubert was past caring. His mind hadn’t lost its panicked state, so the only thing operating at the moment was the sense of self-preservation that overshadowed everything else.

  And it was that sense of self-preservation that sent a shot of energy through his body, pushing him past his limits. The thought that he’d finally found the Progenitor of his kind, the one who was strong enough to defend him, sped his feet along the dirt path leading toward the city in the distance. Added to that burst of energy, whenever his body started to give up again, a brief touch of a powerful potential above and behind him goaded him on, forcing him to put one foot in front of the other.

  Finally, just as he felt like he was going to collapse, his steps brought him through the empty gates of a nameless city, his feet carrying him past the entrance and into a vibrant marketplace set up just inside the walls. The crowds of people ignored him as he shuffled forward, as every bit of strength he still possessed went toward reaching the Bereft he could feel near the center of the city.

  More than just the Bereft, though, he could feel a few pockets of those with potential scattered around the city. His mind deduced that the Bereft had yet to fully consume the Martials and Mages inside the settlement, and the thought of a snack as a reward for finding the Progenitor gave him a slight boost in his speed, allowing him to move slightly faster through the winding streets.

  Ubert wasn’t sure how long he’d been walking, but he suddenly came to a stop as he felt overwhelming power coming from up ahead of him. His panic flared once again, but he pushed it down again as his mind registered it as something different from the murderous man following him.

  Instead of that man, he was feeling someone else: The Progenitor. The fairly nondescript man was surrounded by a dozen other Bereft, all of them significantly more powerful than Ubert, and they each turned toward the weary newcomer as soon as he appeared.

  Ubert felt himself falling, the relief at seeing who could only be the Progenitor sapping all of his strength away. Before he could hit the ground, however, he felt strong hands supporting him, pushing him back upright, where he swayed back and forth as his consciousness threatened to escape from him.

  “Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?” a rough, but commanding, voice asked him. Ubert’s eyes focused on the incredibly powerful man questioning him, and he had to swallow a few times to wet his mouth enough to speak.

  “Sir! I… come with… a warning…” he answered breathlessly. He was barely able to get the words out between his panting breaths, as he had yet to recover from his run. “There is a man… coming… who is kill—”

  Ubert was interrupted by another voice coming from above, however. “Ah, finally. I was wondering if I would ever find the one who started all of this, and I have to thank my little friend down there who unknowingly led me right to you. Though, technically, I guess you could say that this was mostly my fault, so it’s only right that I clean up my mess.”

  As the panic, drained energy, and proximity to two such strong people fought to knock Ubert out, he glanced up to see the homicidal man above, floating on a glowing platform and staring down at all of the Bereft below him. When he looked down, however, he caught the barest hint of fear in the Progenitor’s face, before it erupted in anger.

  “Finishing what you started, Fusionist?”

  That seemed to take the powerful killer aback a little. “You know who I am?”

  “Of course, I do. I may have lost most of my memories before you did this to me,” the Progenitor said gruffly, “but a few of them came back as I became more powerful. I know who you are, and I know how ineffective you’ll be against me and the other Bereft. You should probably just leave us alone; otherwise, we’ll have to kill you. Better yet, we’ll do the same thing to you that you did to me.”

  The floating man shook his head. “No, I don’t think I’ll be doing that.”

  “Suit yourself, then,” the Progenitor responded with a smile, before turning toward the others with him. “Take him down,” he ordered, before jumping nearly straight up, faster than even Ubert could see.

  It was at that point that the ordeal he’d suffered finally caught up to him, and Ubert found himself falling once again… but this time, there was no one to catch him as he hit the ground, unconscious a half-second before impact.