Down In Ohio - Down In Ohio - Prologue (Part 2)

Sometime later, Tony let out a cough, pain shooting through his body as his consciousness gradually returned. He made his best efforts to remain still, as movement hurt every part of his body. He knew that he had already lost too much blood. He would have already died, but he had seemingly passed out and leveled up in the meanwhile. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a game, and just because he leveled didn’t mean he was restored to perfect health. Having health above zero didn’t mean one would continue to live long unless they fixed the original issue. He got a small boost of vitality, but he was still covered in wounds and bleeding out, so death would still come for him.

All around him were countless bodies. The old man was dead. He had ended up in the mouth of an alligator turtle and was chomped in half. Then there was the young boy. He may have been a stalwart, but death was death, and you couldn’t bounce back from being dead. His head was bitten clean off by a frogman. Against all odds, Tony managed to hold out the longest, but eventually, Tony was sliced open by a mud hen.

The battle was over. The few straggling humans were in the process of being hunted down by monsters. Meanwhile, other creatures walked along the bodies looking for those still warm to eat. Tony hoped he died before he ended up as lunch. He had no dreams of escaping this battlefield. Why should he? Where would he go?

The enemy army had long since breached the wall. Everyone was dead, and the Ohio State Reformatory was little more than smoking rubble. Even if by some miracle he escaped this battlefield, Tony didn’t know of any more survival camps in Ohio. There were no more settlements, forts, or landings. As far as he knew, this had been the last refuge. This was the last batch of humanity, and now it was wiped out.

Of course, he could leave Ohio, but with the standard monster at level one hundred twenty, he would die to the first monster he encountered. In that respect, it could already be considered a miracle he lived to the end of the battle, even if he spent most of that time unconscious. Either way, it would take months of travel to leave Ohio, and there was only a meagre hope of there being anything in the next state over. In many places, it was even worse. Tony had heard plenty of rumors. Tornado Alley now sported continuous tornadoes across its landscape, and they were strong enough to strip the skin right off a Buckeye.

Head east? The Appalachians were nearly impassible, and if you did manage to cross the uncrossable region, fighting off abominable snowmen and New Jersy Devils, the oceans were filled with abominations large enough to swallow aircraft carriers whole. There was nowhere left in this world that could be considered safe. Tony had reached the end. He was dying with countless regrets. Those regrets weren’t just a failure to level at the curve either. He had regretted his life leading up to the Awakening too.

Back in the day, he had been an attractive man. Perhaps, he had been too attractive. As a result, he had turned into a narcissist. He barely concerned himself with his family. When his mother died and his dad became a mess, he had been too caught up in his own life to care. It was true that he knew countless beauties, but he used and abused all of them. One of those beauties against all odds became one of Ohio’s princesses. This was a story he had never even told the old man, since it was one of his greatest shames.

It was perhaps because of their relationship that he had managed to survive for so long despite being pathetic. After he lost his family, she rescued him. Even though he was weak, she had continued to take care of him for nearly two years. However, always the narcissist, he had continued to use her until she abandoned him. He could still remember the look of disdain on her face.

“You’re ugly,” she had declared on that final day. “Get lost.”

He had tried to use his relationship with her to bully a family out of their rations. She had overheard them fighting, and intervened. After that, he was still allowed to tag along, but he no longer received any special privileges. Given how he had acted prior, many of her followers sought revenge and he was eventually forced to flee the group. He could still see her with her back turned to him, completely uncaring as he fled for his life, ignoring his pleas for help.

It was no wonder that he had developed such a bitter feeling when it came to women. As soon as he was no longer attractive, she decided to dump him. At least, that’s how he used to see it. Ever since then, he had struggled every day for his life. He was forced to steal, kill, and worse just to survive. He couldn’t do it any longer. He hated her, resenting her for all she had taken from him. It took several more years before her hatred melted to regret, but there were no second chances in this apocalyptic world. He never heard what happened to her. For all he knew, she was still alive, although it seemed unlikely.

It was only at this moment, bleeding on the ground, that he finally accepted he had been at fault the entire time. If he had been a better person, well, maybe he wouldn’t have survived longer, but he definitely would have been happier in the process. His heart was filled with regret. He regretted his narcissism. He regretted how he used people. Yet, as his body turned cold and numb, there was one thing he regretted more than anything else.

Am I going to die a virgin?

A beautiful guy like him who had been surrounded by women; how could he have ended up a virgin? It was pretty simple. When he had the appearance of a top model, who was good enough for him? Tony refused every girl because no girl was good enough for his inflated ego, and by the time women became a limited resource, looks were no longer what women were looking for, not that his face could still be considered attractive after becoming scared and mishappened. Thus, he became a 28-year-old virgin, just as the old man had guessed. Perhaps, he could die happily if he just knew the feel of a woman once.

“Spread out! Find her!” A shout nearly caused him to open his eyes, but he fought the urge and kept playing dead.

The voice was harsh and didn’t sound friendly at all. It wasn’t the voice of a human. He vaguely became aware of shapes moving out across the battlefield. He remained still though. The cold was overtaking him, and he could feel death looming. However, as he was hoping that the being approaching him would go in another direction, he sniffed a faint whiff of flowers, and then he was jolted awake. Pain spread through his body as he was suddenly picked up and turned. For a second, he thought he was going to be eaten, but instead, he fought the urge to let out a grunt as his body was tossed onto something. That something was shockingly warm, but also somewhat soft. Confused, he instinctively reached up.

Squeeze. Squeeze.

Something in his hand was very soft and seemed to compress under his fingers in a somewhat satisfying way. The heat seemed to melt into his body, pulling him back from the abyss of death.

“Y-you’re alive?” Tony heard a voice whisper under him in disbelief.

His eyes finally flickered open, and when his vision adjusted to the view, he couldn’t help but look down at fiery red eyes staring back at him unblinkingly. It was the flame princess herself, Olivia Blane. He was on top of Olivia Blane? How could that be possible? He could smell her light, flowery scent like sunflowers on a green plain.

Although he was near death and his brain was sluggish, he was quickly able to realize what was happening. The monsters had been ordered to search for someone, and that someone was no less than Olivia Blane. She was trying to escape the battlefield, and she came across him, using his body to hide under. Unfortunately, she hadn’t realized that he hadn’t finished dying yet.

“Y-you…” Tony croaked, but then put the hand that had been touching her breast to his mouth, closing his eyes and mouth to keep himself from coughing.

She turned pale as he struggled with his coughing. Although he was a lot of things, he wasn’t going to let his last actions in this world reveal the location of the flame princess. Compared to Tony, her level and ability were unimaginable. If it was her, she might be able to escape this battlefield. If it was her, she might be able to even escape Ohio. Eventually, the coughing settled, and he managed to avoid making too much noise. It was only then that she seemed to relax slightly. That’s when he noticed his hand had failed to catch some of the blood coming out of his mouth, and it ended up on her cheek.

He carefully reached into his pants and struggled to get something out… She looked worried for a moment, but eventually, he came out with an embroidered white cloth handkerchief that looked like it once belonged to a girl. If the lighter was the last thing he had of his fathers, then this handkerchief was the last thing he had of his older sister. It was immaculate, perhaps the only thing on him that wasn’t covered in filth. He wiped her chin with it.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered.

She gave a slight shake of her head. “It’s my fault. I thought you were dead.”

“You can continue to use me if you need to. I don’t have much longer anyway. Even if you need to chuck my body at the enemy to buy yourself time, I don’t mind.”

She lifted her hand from where she had grabbed him to pull him on top of her. Her white, flawless fingers were covered in blood, his blood.

“I see…” She responded simply as if she was used to the sight.

“I’m just… going to sleep, for a while.” Tony tried to keep his head up, but it felt increasingly heavy.

Without Tony’s hand there, there was nothing to support him, and his head finally collapsed in her chest. He supposed if he had to die, dying in the breasts of the flame princess, protecting her from her enemies wasn’t a bad way to go. The old man would have been so jealous. Tony planned to drive the old man crazy with it as soon as he reached the other side. That was… if Heaven existed.

Grrrrrrrr…

Tony felt the hot breath of a beast right next to his face. Before he could do anything, he felt his body flung to the side. He felt more pain as his back struck the dirt. There was the sound of a sword being drawn, and then a wave of flame. By the time Tony got over the pain enough to look up, the houndwolf was burning in orange flames, its form flailing wildly a few feet from Tony’s side, yet the warmth of it felt good.

“I felt something!” a distant voice shouted. “She must be over there!”

As Tony’s eyes met the terrified eyes of the flame princess, he could only look away shamefully. They were looking for someone alive. Had Tony been dead and decaying, perhaps his smell would have hidden her, but he was still alive. It looked like he even messed this one up. He wanted to offer to act as a distraction, drawing them the other way, but he couldn’t feel most of his body, let alone his legs. All he felt was coldness and wariness. Had he not felt the sudden jolt of pain when she moved him and been warmed by her hot body, he might have already slipped away, into death.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered. “Run. I’ll… shout or something.”

She looked down at him and then bit her lip as if she was weighing things up. Finally, she gave a small nod to herself and reached up to her throat where she pulled off an emerald necklace that Tony hadn’t noticed before.

“There is no time to activate this properly.” She sighed. “You’re our only chance.”

Tony blinked, not sure what she was talking about, but then she took the necklace and put it around his neck. He could feel that it had some kind of energy emanating from it. It had to be some kind of magical item, although admittedly Tony had encountered very few of them during the last ten years.

“Don’t… I’m almost dead,” Tony muttered, thinking that she must be trying to give him something valuable to hide or flee with as he tried unsuccessfully to grab her wrist and stop her.

“That won’t matter in a few minutes,” she replied hastily as Tony felt mana being poured into it. “This will activate soon. I will protect you until it does. Just hold on a few minutes.”

“Wh-what?” Her words weren’t making a lot of sense.

“It’s going to be okay. You will get to go back. You will have another chance. You’ve heard of Regression, right? Going back in time and reliving a part of your life?” she stated, her voice filled with passion even now. “Wait one year after the Awakening… and then find me. I should be in Chillicothe around then. Only you can change our fates. Please…”

Another chance? My mind was a bit of a mess. This was all happening too fast. The flame princess was granting me the chance to regress?

“I don’t…” I shook my head. “Deserve… it…”

“That’s why it needs to be you. We don’t have a choice in this.” She pressed her head against his, and Tony only realized then that he was sweating and his body was burning up with fever. “Nobody chooses to do the impossible. You just have to do what you have to do.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Arrooooo!” a houndwolf cried out as it seemed to pick up her scent.

“Stay down!”

Those were the last words she spoke before she burst off of him and began to sprint at full speed. Her appearance was immediately noticed, and the entire battlefield seemed to come alive. She moved at astonishing speeds, and even though it had only been a second or two, she had already crossed the size of a hockey stadium.

Several monsters pounced on her, but she began to wield her blade. Fire erupted from the blade with every wave and slice. Monsters died instantly, some turned to ash before the wind blew them away, while others were torn apart and became fireballs of searing flesh. She killed a dozen monsters that would have one-shotted Tony if they had been on the battlefield during the time before he was knocked out. Her fighting grew more frantic and aggressive as more and more creatures on the battlefield crowded around her.

However, while this was happening, Tony saw the green emerald start to glow. He pushed it down into the mud, forcefully trying to hide the glow under his body. He went unnoticed compared to the flashes of fire magic Olivia was wielding. He realized she was making a scene on purpose, drawing as many eyes to her as possible to cover up whatever the necklace was doing.

It was then that a powerful streak of energy flew out and struck her in the back. She let out a cry as she was finally knocked to the ground. She still tried to fight, but the monsters leapt on top of her. Tony thought she was going to be ripped apart, but a few moments later, the monsters parted, and she was lying there, her arms and legs being held down by various beasts. A man in a black robe approached her. The monsters seemed to part before him. Tony’s eyes couldn’t help but widen. The robed man appeared human. Was this war led by other humans? The old man was right?

“It was a nice try, Olivia,” the robed man spoke, kneeling right in front of her face. “However, it was your failure in the end.”

“You bastards!” Olivia spat out blood. “You won’t get away with this.”

“Really?” He smirked. “You want your last words to be so cliche? Just tell me where you hid the amulet of regression, and I’ll let you go.”

“Fuck off!”

Smack! He slapped her across the face before standing up and turning. “It’s not on her. She probably hid it…”

He was looking around the battlefield. Tony tried to lay low, but the robed man’s eyes seemed to go straight to him. No, the robed man’s eyes were looking right at his chest. Tony looked down to see the glowing amulet was so bright it was causing his skin to glow green. The amulet was also pushing up on his chest as if it was rising into the air. He tried to grab it to hide it again, but he knew it was too late.

“Get it… eh?” He looked back down.

“Hey, Devenon.” The flame princess managed to free her hand and grab onto his leg. “Made you look.”

“You!” He tried to jump back, but a moment later there was an explosion.

A blast of hot air shot out in all directions, and he felt his fingertips instantly burn. When the blast was over, all of the monsters were turned to ash statues, including the flame princess herself. She had been looking at him, a small, hopeful smile on her face. The ash particles seemed to blow away a short moment later, and soon she was nothing but dust. That’s when he heard a cracking sound. The robed man was encased in ash too, but he was still alive. He seemed to break free of it like breaking free of a cocoon.

He let out a scream, and all of his flesh melted away, revealing an abomination of muscle and bone underneath.

At this point, Tony was standing, being held up by his neck, or more specifically by the glowing amulet. Couldn’t this thing go faster?

“You…” The terrifying man roared as he stepped forward, melted skin sticking to the ground underneath. “Will…”

He started to advance step by step, his body barely resembling a human.

“Not…”

He began to move faster and faster, his skin regrowing increasingly fast. Tony could only watch in horror as a monster, such a high level he was even able to take down the flame princess in a single strike, was now bearing down on him.

“Regress!” the monster screamed.

However, just before he reached Tony, there was an eruption of magic, and Tony’s world turned white.