Chapter 129 The Battle For Earth Pt 3

All around the forest, which was a perfect circle with a three thousand-mile diameter, The Rogue AI entered the forest. They numbered in the hundreds, and most of them understood what they were doing, but there were some that were just going with the flow.

The AI entered the forest, but there was no reaction from anything, and nothing tried to stop them. Some attacked and cut down trees, but the defenders held fast, refusing to retaliate.

Mr. Tree and Gaia waited until the invaders were one hundred miles into the forest. Then it began.

"Looks like it is going to be an easy road from here! They aren't even trying to stop us!" Brack yelled to his friend Bruce who was running ahead of him.

Bruce turned to give him a thumbs up, but then he tripped on a thin, nearly invisible steel thread created by Katie. Instantly, the mouth of a massive bear trap closed razor-sharp teeth, shearing Bruce in half before Brack could react.

"Bruce!" Brack yelled as he summoned his two forked Sai, but a massive hand closed around him. The gigantic hand crushed and killed him before he could do anything.

Screams started to erupt from the Host of the AI all over the forest, but the AI that had screamed in their heads wasn't there to push them. Many humans turned back and ran from the forest, but they were met by small forces of green-shirted AI that killed or restrained any humans that retreated from the forest.

On the other side of the forest, Danic, a Glass System user, shredded a giant tree hand that tried to grab him with twin glass razor blades. People were dying around him, and he knew they were just people like him.

The AI had gone silent when everyone entered the forest, but there was something else.

The itch was gone.

That pervasive feeling made him yearn for destruction and to kill all those around him, but it had stopped.

Danic Holdt was a gang member from down south, so this change hadn't been hard for him to adjust to. The problem was that he hadn't really understood what they were getting into by coming to this forest.

The thirty people that had been with him were now dead, and he was the only one left pushing to one of the city centers.

"You are alone? Where are the rest of your friends?" Marly asked as her thirty-foot-tall form stepped from behind a tree fifty feet from Danic.

The Glass user immediately tried to escape, but the grass and tree started to weave together, roots bursting from the trees around him. Danic tried to slash them, but they grew back faster than he could cut.

"What is going on?!" Danic roared as he slashed harder, but he was forced to jump back as grass tried to grab him and pull him to the ground.

"You all surprised us with just how unprepared you all were," Marley laughed, making Danic turn on her.

"So then you are just playing with me?! You could have killed me!" the burly man yelled, and Marley nodded her head.

"Your name is Danic Holdt, right? You know that one of the people you are trying to kill is your niece, right?" Marley asked, and Danic froze.

He knew his brother had moved up this way, but they hadn't talked in years.

"Are you saying my brother, Darius, is still alive?" Danic asked, but then a body emerged from a tree near him.

"What happened to you? Looks like you didn't clean up your life," Darius asked from the body of a clone that looked identical to him, but as he was now, much younger.

"What?! Who the hell are you? Is this some sort of System power?! My brother was much older than me!" Danic growled and then tried to slash at Darius, but he was kicked into a tree.

Marley had booted him before Danic could finish his swing and coughed up blood as he smashed into the tree. Roots grabbed him before Danic could fall down and pinned him to the tree.

"Let me go, you fake!" Danic roared, and Darius sighed.

"You are just as stupid as before, but I can see why you don't trust me. I was pretty surprised when Daniel did this to me," Darius said, looking down at his hands.

"If you are my brother, then prove it!" Danic spat from up in the tree, and Darius thumbed his chin in thought but then grinned up at his younger brother.

"I do have one funny memory of a bike seat that broke. I remember how hard it was for you to sit for the next week, but you told me never to tell anyone. I mean, I can tell the story, but I am sure you remember it vividly enough," Darius laughed, and his brother's face turned red.

"Did you really have to mention that? That was so long ago that I had completely forgotten it, and for a good reason!" Danic complained, but that just made Darius laugh harder.

"Marley, you can let him down now and go help where you are needed. I should be able to handle my brother for now," Darius said, turning back to Marley, who nodded.

"Sure, but still be careful. There are more Villains out here, but only about ten of the five hundred have made it this far into the forest. The other girls are facing off against them right now, but none of them have been pushed back to their bodies yet," Marley explained, and Darius nodded.

"Yeah, I can take care of him. I have back up here if we need from the forest if I need," Darius explained as his brother was lowered back to the ground.

"So, now what? Are we going to shake hands and do a little dance? Is that going to make everything alright?" Danic asked, and Darius groaned as Marley left.

"Don't be such a thick head, or you will just end up like the rest of your friends that came with you, understand? I am only out here because mother would turn in her grave if I didn't at least give you a chance. She always said that you could do better, but you chose not to," Darius said as he crossed his arms.

"Is this really what you look like now? I am having a hard time taking you seriously," Danic remarked as he rolled his shoulders.

Danic's body was slowly healing from the kick, but it had done much more damage than he had first thought.

"Yeah... Daniel did this for me. You should meet the kid; you might even like him. He worked for me in a book shop that he bought for me," Darius explained, and Danic gave him a confused look.

"Did I just hear you, right? This Dan guy worked for you, but he owned your shop? Am I missing something?" Danic asked and then coughed up some blood.

"You okay?" Darius asked, and Danic nodded, wiping his hand on his pants and his mouth on the back of his sleeve.

"Yeah, still healing. This thing that the crazy bastard in my head gave me repairs my body, but that was a lot of damage in one go. I'm pretty sure a normal person would be dead after something like that," Danic said, and Darius laughed.

"Yeah, the girls aren't pulling any punches right now. But your people aren't having very much luck right now," Darius said, and his brother scowled at him.

"Don't call them my people, and stop changing the subject!" Danic growled, and Darius shrugged.

"Daniel Brighton is a man that went to school with my daughter, and they became very close friends. The kid is not book smart, but he created a business that sold things without him having to do a thing. I had my bookshop downtown broken into numerous times, but the place never really made any money, so I didn't have the option of moving. Daniel was working for me, and I didn't know about his success; then, one day, he said that a moving truck was out back. Said we needed to start loading up the shop. After that, he took me to a new shop in a perfect location for a bookstore and handed me the keys, then took the day off and left," Darius explained, and his brother looked like a fuse was about to blow in his head.

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"Is he fucking your daughter? Hell, are you getting fucked by him?" Danic exclaimed, and Darius barked out a laugh.

"Well, he is sleeping with Anya, but he is not a bad kid. I am twenty years younger now, but this isn't even my real body. Daniel is the one that is leading the fight against the AI that are forcing the people of our world to kill each other. You see all this forest? This was all created by him, and he is on his way back now," Darius explained and then gave his brother a serious look. "What do you plan on doing now? Will you come with me and help defend my daughter and the rest of the girls? Or do you want to join the others that are nothing more than crystalized husks?"

"I know that I don't want to get kicked like that again, but can you really trust someone like me?" Danic asked, thinking about the money he had stolen from his brother over the years before he left to move up north.

"I think that you will listen if you know that your life is on the line, but you aren't a bad person, Danic. Stop trying to act like one," Darius growled, and his brother nodded with a grin.

The two of them shook hands and headed towards the nearest fighting.