(Neb’ila POV)
My mind went numb when I heard his words, ‘Dear Neb’ila of the Hooded Claws’. Not once since I came here have I been called that, nor have I ever mentioned it, so he was truly a player from Sugarea much like I was. The worst of it was how I forgot his name at first, but when he called me by that name, it all came flooding back to me. A true god amongst men, of the likes Sugarea or this world have and will ever see. With him came an air of unexpected outcomes and possibilities.
His work in magic was so profound he ended up creating nearly 13% of all the magic spells in the game, with 86% coming from the developers themselves, and naturally, the remaining portion was mixed around the other players. He was also now an actual god too? Was there a limit to him? How could he even accomplish what I did over hundreds of years in but a month, or even less? I gave in on escape, and just tried to be as nice as I could, but the other friends of mine, all of which were now gods, wouldn’t be as easy to buckle at the knee, and I pray for them, not to be annihilated and forgotten by him.
We sat in wait, passing the time by idle chatter, he learned of what I did and I learned of what he did, although, I ended up saying more about myself than he did, I knew he wasn’t all that bad. He went through the effort of creating towns for a group of individuals, the demons which are widely hated for obvious reasons, and gave them a home, although, with brute force. He also revived a lord and guards without expecting anything in return from it, only wishing to talk, as unbelievable as that sounds.
I’m a god and I’m starting to doubt the church, of which there were six different ones. The one I was part of, which focused on many of the gods I am friends with, spread rumors of demons being completely evil beings, seeking nothing but the end for all life. He brought about a new light on the subject, making it seem a complete lie, as he showed more compassion than any demon had in the past, even ignoring the fact he was a human back on earth. He didn’t seem very human either, feeling much like a demon and human were mixed perfectly, with an insane intellect and a disastrous cunning.
It came ever closer tonight, and the last light of dusk slowly faded, barely holding itself over time, until he stood up from his rather strange looking chair, which had to accommodate a much larger tail than most demons had. He made a gesture to show me out of the room, and I didn’t want to make an effort of resistance, so I braced myself for the worst. If anything, he would be capable of summoning a meteor shower, a comet, or whatever hellish things he planned, all would be within his grasp as he was better at magic than any human I knew of, and even the gods, and by a gap that couldn’t be bridged in a thousand years.
“Shall we?” He said in a monotone voice that I was now familiar with.
“Of course!” I said, trying to hide the anxiety I was feeling at the moment, but failing as my voice was evidenced enough of it.
“We will have an interesting night to be sure, are you fully prepared?” I had to be, for whatever he was preparing would most likely be of a larger scale than anything us gods have done for a long time.
“Are you sure whatever you are about to do is alright for the world? It won’t end in a way that would be bad, will it?” He would probably be laughing if he had a face to show it.
“Too broad a term, bad? A lot of things are bad but they aren’t world-ending. Besides, nothing I got will end the world I am currently residing on, not for the foreseeable future at least. Also, what will your god friends do when they find out about your disappearance?” He said with a never-changing monotone voice that seemed to fit any situation.
“They shouldn’t have a problem as long as it doesn’t directly harm the people of the planet or themselves for that matter.” And now that I think of it, didn’t seem all too god-like for actual gods.
I followed him outside, and we were just outside the doors when he raised his hands to the skies, and a light began to pour from them into it. A solid best of mana, so dense it shook the ground we stood on and made crackling jets of lightning rain sporadically from it. The beam of mana quickly doubled in thickness, and kept increasing several times over, until it turned nearly 20 meters across, and the light it produced was enough to stimulate daytime, if not more.
The burst of mana left the air flooded with it, and it crept into all available sources, such as people and magical materials. The light soon grew darker, not from having less mana being put into it, but because it was forming matter that used it. And they were rather large chunks of stone forming a near-perfect sphere above him, and I soon found out what it was, as it became more evident as the pillar faded and people rushed from their homes expecting a fire or some other disaster.
“I-is that a…?” I couldn’t believe what he had done.
“A moon? Yes.” It was, he said it was and it looked like it was, but I couldn’t believe it.
“B-but h-how? Why?” I was almost speechless and I spoke what came to my mind first.”
“Creation magic. And because why not? It will help me and any who I teach of a special type of magic.” The new moon had no craters, so it was a perfectly smooth white circle in the sky and was the closest moon to the planet by far.
“Just, because? And it will help with magic?” He nodded before saying anything.
“You are a god after all right? You’ve been here longer than I have right?” I nodded, “Then you would have known that the moons and the planet control different types of magic, right?” I nodded once more.
“I still don’t see what type of magic you would need help with.” He wouldn’t need help with magic if he could just create a moon in orbit in less than a few seconds and have it all ready orbiting without causing a massive disturbance in the already delicate orbits of the moons around the planet.
“Well, it is a magic not yet harnessed by a mortal soul as of Sugarea, care to take a guess of which I refer to?” I hadn’t a clue but was more intrigued now than ever.
“I have no idea what magic you wouldn’t have already mastered by now, what is it?” He would have a devilish grin on that crystal bone face of his.
“Null magic my dear.” I dropped to my knees at his words, as Null magic was more of godly trait than we, the so-called gods, could even attempt to make our own.
“H-... how?” I slowly leaked the word from my mouth in a whisper.
“Research, and plenty of it, as I had planned to release my knowledge on it to the public as of the tenth anniversary, but I was transported here instead, so I decided to grace these lands with it instead. Are you alright my dear?” Why did he call me dear?
“Just, a moment please.” I wanted to cry, as I felt so overconfident before, and now, I know I would have been disposed of like any other pitiful insect that tries to leech off of humans.
“Now is not the time to cry,” he said, brushing away a single tear from my left eye, his finger warm and comforting.
“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one on the receiving end of all of this.” I let out a few sobs in between my words but got it out in mostly discernible words.
He lifted me and angled my head towards the new moon, which I looked at with tears, “Now’s the best part you know, as the World System is going to take control of it and it will shift in color, why not watch as it happens?” His voice is still the same as ever but somewhat comforting.
I looked up at the moon, and in what seemed like no time at all a yellow dot slowly expanded over it, covering the moon from the middle outwards in equal portions until the whole was consumed in the new hue. It looked beautiful to me, and he finally put me on my feet and opened his hand palm up. A small black flame came from it, slowly maturing into a refined elliptical object that seemed to be completely absent from reality, not devoid of matter, but devoid of existence.
I knew of void magic, and this wasn’t it, instead, it was something that shouldn’t be possible for a person to control, Null magic. So many world bosses could utilize it, making them hard to counter in magical prowess at times. But if Ashen knows Null magic, then is he a world boss? Surely not, but the possibility remains, and if it does turn out to be true, what would happen to the world? I would have to keep a constant watch of him to determine if he was or not, but that comes after this.
“It's beautiful. How did you ever learn to create such a thing?” There would be no way for anyone to create a moon in as little time as he did, the sheer amount of mana it wound require, it was impossible for admins to.
“Isn’t it? I came up with the spell a few years ago, back when I maxed out my knowledge on earth magic.” His response gave me great chills, as he was capable of this years prior, what could he do with his power as of now?
Before I was able to respond, a great golden light came crashing from the sky, a portal to the Divine Realm had opened, and now nearly 30 of the gods that were closest to me were entering the space above the town. They seemed angrier than ever when they spotted Ashen, and they all made their way to him elegantly but as fast as possible. They reached nearly a hundred meters away before they all stopped as if a barrier impeded their movement, and it seemed I was right in that aspect.
A large dome of hexagonal interlocked translucent hemispherical barrier appeared in no time at all, stopping them as if it were a physical wall. I wanted to tell them to ‘run!’ or, ‘get out!’ but neither came from my mouth. All I was left to do was to stand here watching whatever Ashen would do with them. And I feared for their lives, but nothing on my mind would allow me to interfere with his actions, so quietly I stood, just behind him, as he flew to where they were outside the barrier.
“What brings you here today, gods and goddesses?” He said, in as mocking of a monotone voice as he could ever speak in.
“What did you do to her! Where is she! What happened! Why is there another moon!?” Along with several other phrases that were unrecognizable they all called out in a large jumbled mess of words.
“Calm yourselves, your goddess is fine, just wanted to show some magic, ask her yourselves in just a moment.” Not a second after he had finished talking, I was teleported next to him, and I tried to start flying immediately.
“I’m alright! Please, everything is alright, just don’t attack!” I said desperately to them, which none seemed to listen as their fury grew more than tenfold.
One of my closest friends, Alereth, did what I so desperately said not to, he attacked. A large golden lance appeared around his right arm and he slammed it into the barrier, only for the lance to be utterly destroyed, and it’s mana ripped from it, feeding the barrier, and giving it a slight gold hue. All of them joined him in his fury and attacked with a plethora of holy spells, none of which could harm the barrier. Ashen laughed in a dry cold monotone laughter that gave me and the gods all goosebumps and shivers.
“Please, not attempt to break this barrier, it is for the town. If you want to attack me, then why don’t we do so in private?” I looked down and noticed that nearly everyone in the town was staring up at us, some even running away.
He teleported us both outside the barrier, behind the gods and allowed me to return to the Divine Realm, which I did, and once there, I waited. Not even a minute later all the gods came back, none looking worse than before. They all seemed glad to see me though, and they asked for everything I knew on Ashen, and once I did so they joined me in my thinking about him. We all would leave him alone but monitor him closely and would agree to inform all other gods to do the same.
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(Erik von Ranznedese)
I awoke to a large gleam of light and a report of an insane amount of mana in a town we control. I quickly dressed and headed to the board room for a brainstorm on how to approach the situation, I was accompanied by my most trusted and skilled allies, and would send reports to all other countries, even the beast king, and would rally the nations if it were a threat to all of us. After a long and loud discussion, we found the mana to reveal another moon in the sky, what a bizarre occurrence, but surely it was a trick?
The last time a new moon had formed was over 1700 years ago, and only then were the new gods found to have done so. For another moon to be made, and of a white color, indicated it was true. We all were staring at the moon for answers, and our eyes met a sight only befitting a god. The white pearl in the sky slowly tainted yellow from the inside out, and it was consumed in the color until no other hue was discernible. We were all so shocked, not a single word could be leaked from any of our mouths for the next hour.
“Your majesty,” one of my top military generals, Sir Gal said abruptly, “I ask permission to take a mage squad to scout the area, to determine if further action is necessary.” It seemed fine to me, but it might be hard to convince any magic-user to go near a place with mana density that high.
“You may bring as many as you need, but with all haste. We can’t spare any time if this develops into a national crisis.” I said, getting a small bow and his leave as a response.
General Zair spoke up next, “Your majesty, It might be worth investigating the demon and Dragonoid to see if they know of this matter. They have shown themselves to be miracle workers, and as much as we all hate to admit it, are more than strong enough to either execute the action themselves or know enough about it to find out who did.” He said, causing me to nod the entire time, it was a fair suggestion, and seeing as we had little choices to choose from, as our resources were currently expended from our campaigns of demon hunting, it was the best option left.
“Shall I leave it to you?” I said which he bowed deeply.
“Of course! Leave it to me!” He said and left the room to fulfill his duties.
“Any other suggestions?” I said, trying to get more actions done to limit the reactionary time we would have to deal with if it were to turn for the worse.
“I got one.” A voice said from a woman I did not know of.
“Who are you?” I said, alarmed at the intruder.
“You wouldn’t know of me, but my lord gave me permission to grant you knowledge of the current events taking place.” What was she saying? Who could be her lord if I was the king? Was she an assassin or an emissary from another kingdom?
“Who is your master?” I said bluntly, and the guards lining the walls all brought their swords and spears in her direction.
She looked to be a woman of mature age, nearing her forties, but her skin was a light brown that reminded me of a tree’s wood. She had strange lines that were in a strange pattern littered across her body, which itself was covered in a large mage’s robes and covered her figure considerably, and the hood hung low over her face leaving only her mouth to be viewed. Her voice sounded fine-tuned and near perfect, and her body seemed slim but strong. She would make the perfect assassin, as no man would dare to rid themselves of this rare beauty, but she would have no problem with killing them in their sleep, I could hear it in her voice, that she had killed many unfortunate souls.
“You have met him. Lord Ashen. He was the sole cause for the new moon in the sky, and the god’s decent.” What? The gods have descended? But for what cause? Surely Ashen couldn’t have angered even them?
“What are you doing here?” I might be able to use her as a negotiation piece with Ashen, for if he can create a moon then he would best be an ally than an enemy.
“That I can only say was temporary, for I was recalled to the castle for security measures, and was sent out to warn you of the situation.” That didn’t answer the question of how she got in here, and if what she said were true, then she would have had to navigate these winding halls incredibly fast to have gotten here in time, something tells me she is trying to deceive me.
“Very well, tell your lord- er, tell Ashen that I’d like to have a meeting with him in private when he wasn’t busy if you could.” She gave a nod and vanished from sight as if her body turned into the air which then blurred from the room.
“Have the guards be on high alert, it seems there is an easy breach to the castle, it could lead to grave danger if not discovered,” I ordered, and they all bowed as I left to continue my slumber, for it would be greatly needed for the events soon to come.
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(Grass’ix POV)
I might just be any other demon, but after what happened to our entire country, we couldn’t ever return to the way we were doing things. Our old towns were destroyed over time from constant raids from adventurers that wanted to claim gold or glory. I was being asked, as many earth mages were, to build a large sprawling town for us, which seemed suspicious in itself, but lord Aeyrs showed promise with how he created living space like nothing in front of us for us to utilize and replicate.
I was starting construction of another large building for us to live in, as only the mages and higher status people were being housed. I might have a house, but I couldn’t just leave these people homeless, not because I was ordered to, but because it went against my pride as a Calos demon. I got interrupted from my work, when I saw a great beacon in the sky, which attracted my attention without fail, along with every other demon that could see it, and then some that couldn’t.
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It was as if it were calling to every one of us as if it was something from deep within our souls, and in the place of the light, a moon took shape, of perfectly white and filled brightly, like a beacon of hope to us, and our work sped up greatly. We continued for a minute before we all looked again and saw it change in hue to a yellow so magnificent and brilliant. We all stared in awe, and we quietly spoke to each other about its grace before a great power besieged the area it came from as if it were to be taken from us.
We all hastened our work, creating a new structure every few minutes, each capable of housing several dozen demons each, and we continued without fail till the sun rose and the scarlet hues of dawn broke across the sky giving us all a feeling of exhaustion that seemed to hit us at once, as we had forced our bodies into a state of mindless overdrive and continued throughout the night without end. We all made to rest in the new structures that had yet to be furnished and we laid on the ground that we made, and rested till dusk where our strength came back more than tenfold.
When the night was settling in, we all arose, like we were one, or had the same instincts, and began to work as a hive once more, only stopping once every hour to gaze upon the new pearl in the sky and appreciate its beauty. After hours of work, and dawn coming in but an hour, we thought our night would end like the last, and were surprised when it didn’t as we were visited by a figure we wished to not see ever again, ‘lord’ Ashen. Most slowly made their way opposite to him and tried to flee the immediate area, but I, I was not so lucky.
“Excuse me, you there. The one helping construction, with the ram horns.” There would be no denying it, he was referring to me.
“Yes?” I said, as nicely as I could have tried to someone more akin to an enslaver than a leader.
“Would you spread the word of my arrival to the elders for me, I need to have a word with them.” At least I could leave, so I nodded and walked off to the great buildings that lord Aeyrs had created.
Pushing open the doors of wood, I saw a gathering of the elders in a circle and spoke to them from the doorway, “Elders, there is a certain, lord that wishes to see you all.” They murmured to each other but eventually, the twelve of them agreed to have him come here, so I had to fetch him.
I walked back to where he was standing and saw him examining the last building I had made with magic before his arrival. “Lord Ashen, the elders would like to see you. I am here to escort you there if you so desire?” I just wanted him to be gone from my workspace, and to stop fiddling with my magic!
“Strange, it is as if your very magic was completely altered as of a sudden, and I hear you. Yes, please take me to the elders, as I fear I have not gotten a good chance to explore these roads yet, and would not know the path by foot.” His voice made him sound serious but made me want to punch a wall with how arrogant he sounded.
“Alright, if you would,” I said and he started to follow me, and after a short moment, we arrived at the elder’s residence.
“Thank you, if you need me, you know how to get to me.” He said before going inside, and I just started working on my duties once more, as these houses take time and effort to build, not like he was doing any of that.
And so, my night continued, and I was continuing to create houses and buildings for many uses, such as blacksmiths, food shops, markets, and plenty of others. We would have a few years before every demon was fully accommodated, but that would just have to wait until we were able to complete the towns in a fast manner, and with the newfound strength we got, it shouldn't take too long from now on. The last thing anyone of us would want to hear is that Ashen is taking direct control over our growth, as not a single one of us regards his decisions over Aeyrs’ to be valid.
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(Ashen POV)
It took no time to get to the place I needed, as the demon with the strange magic had shown me swiftly, likely trying to rid himself of me, which I didn’t mind. I entered, pushing the wooden doors open easily and finding a semicircle of old and strong demons of all kind sitting before me around a large oval wooden table. I quickly created a chair of stone beneath me as I sat because my figure was hard to prepare for, especially on short notice and with how I never came to visit.
“Elders,” I said plainly, to which they all responded with a nod, some pleasant some not so much. “I will keep this short, I have constructed a new moon, I call it Orius, but feel free to dub it something else.” They looked shocked at first but one spoke out.
“What proof do you have that it was you?” Said an old slightly wrinkled demon with slightly curved horns nearly 30 centimeters straight up from his head, and his skin a fainted greyish-red.
“What proof do you need? It allows for the use of Null magic.” They looked to one another, and all just shrugged, as none seemed to know of it.
“What is this, ‘Null magic’ you speak of?” The same demon called out again.
“Would you like a demonstration?” I asked, getting a more focused set of eyes on me from him than before. “Then let us leave the building, for safety.” Not for them, the building, as I know how to handle my magic, but a building might interfere with how I can control it.
They followed me outside, as the very first light of dawn was nearing, and now would be as good a time as any. I held both my hand's palm up, in one a prism appeared, and in the other, a ball of nothingness, like a black that is so dark it doesn’t even exist, similar to a black hole but something far different. I pumped mana into the prism, and it shot a gleaming rainbow from it, and slowly started getting angled towards the ball of nothingness. When the light hit, it just disappeared, as if it were deleted from existence, the mana itself was completely gone from the light that touched the Null magic.
The very mana that powered the spell was ripped from reality as if to make it separate from its existence. The Ball of Null magic grew an ever minuscule amount, and I stopped pouring mana into the prism, and both started to fade, only the Null magic took a while to do so, so I had to manually remove the mana from it. The magic display was on another level to all present, even me to an extent, and they just frantically started to look and observe all they could, but one lone light blue-skinned man, one with a thick white beard mixed with a few pointed segments of bone that grew from his chin, had spoken up about his disbelief.
“This is but mere void magic! To what do you have to boast about such lies!?” He said, clearly frustrated.
“Oh, you think this is mere void magic? Shall we test that theory?” I said as a retort, leaving his eye to twitch a few times in anger.
“I’ll prove that this is nothing but meaningless lies!” He spoke out, his hatred evident, leaking into his voice.
“Then let’s do such.” When I finished my words we all appeared outside in a blank area that was yet to be utilized for construction.
The others looked around in astonishment, as instant teleportation was not so common in this world as Misfortune has found out. I quickly threw a glance at the demon that spoke out, and the orb of Null magic was still in my hands, and it would only be sent out far above the ground, nearly a hundred meters before I let them do their testing. They could throw magic spells and the orb should destroy and consume them all, it was in its nature and it had the near exact opposite rune format of normal spells, like a fireball.
“Have at,” I said and they seemed to prepare spells of all sorts, most physical but one even tried to use an emotional spell on it, and in practice, it should even counter that.
A large barrage of spells came forth at the orb, and it was bombarded by nearly a hundred thousand mana all at once, a fair amount to its breaking point, as even Null magic has its limits. Fireballs, ice shards, spikes of rocks and metal, sizzling hot water bolts, bolts of lightning, a burst of blinding light even, and they all came to the same end the light from the prism did. They seemed both annoyed and I think happy? It was so frustrating they kept at it for nearly an hour, seemingly negating their fatigue and the sun barely broke over the horizon, leaving a tired group of old men in the morning, annoyed and joyful.
“Have you had your fill? Believe me yet?” The same one was going to say something but, as if he were defeated horribly, just kept quiet and walked along with the others back to their home.
“We thank you, not only for the moon but for this new magic you have bestowed upon us. I know most of the demons here think badly about you, and to be true, I did as well. But it would seem you have more heart than you were to let on.” One of the quietest said, and was also the last one to leave.
“And what do you mean by that?” I don’t know if it was my perception or just my natural ‘brain’ power that figured it out.
“You seem to care about us on a level so deep you ignore it. I have had a gift for these kinds of findings you know, if it were to be false, my life would surely be dishonored.” I guess he knew that I cared for them, but not to a degree large enough to be detected, and when I spoke condescendingly to them and in a monotone voice?
“You might be right to a certain amount, but that would be for later, what is your name, I’d like to contact you again sometime.” for someone to be able to either penetrate my defenses or to be naturally gifted enough to know what I am feeling when I don’t is something I can’t afford to lose.
“Ah, I am called Jurkunnag, but feel free to call me as you wish, uh, Lord Ashen.” He said, a smile lightly gracing his old wrinkled face.
“It would be rude to shorten a name to just Jurk, it would sound informal, besides, it sounds like a name befitting an elder demon.” And it did, I think I might have heard something like it before, besides calling an old person a jerk would just be mean, I still knew that.
“My thanks, now I think I better be off, it seems we old folk will have many great tests to do so we need the rest. And another thing.” Jurkunnag said, leaving me to respond before he would continue.
“If it concerns the Null magic, then it should be alright to test, just don’t touch it,” I said, hoping to at least help them in helping me know its properties.
“Not just that, will it stay long enough for us to do?” As long as I didn’t cancel it directly, and as long as it had mana to feed off of, it should.
“It just needs enough mana to survive, your spells alone is more than enough to sustain it.” He seemed to have something else on his mind too.
“I know it would be dangerous, but may you lower it to make our tests easier, it is far for good reason but I fear we may miss more than not with the distance.” That was a good point, maybe only five meters would do, I’d have to see later.
“I can lower it but five meters from the ground, it might start to feed off the mana in the ground if lowered more.” It most likely wouldn’t cause much damage, but I didn’t want to risk it, and it was better to err on the side of caution.
“That should be quite alright, we shall announce for nobody to enter this region, we will have a special building made to enclose it.” Which would be nice, but it mattered not of what they do around it, as long as it were to be treated with caution.
I bid him a swift farewell and he met up with the elders, which we listening and waiting only a few dozen meters away. I teleported back to the guild base to talk with Aeyrs extensively, but he was out on his own business, which was alright, as I had nearly worked him to death. I felt it worthy to have the maids prepare a lavish feast of meats for him, as he enjoyed them the most out of all the foods. He seemed to be almost exclusively eating meats, as his new body nearly demands it of him, I saw a maid and promptly asked her for it, as I needed to act the part of a proper leader to all of them.
“Excuse me, would you mind relaying a message to the head chef for me?” I said simply to the blonde-haired maid currently sweeping one of the many halls near the central tower.
“O-of course Lord Ashen!” she stuttered, likely not expecting to have a confrontation with me, as most didn’t.
“Tell him to prepare a large selection of meats fit for Aeyrs, and to treat him to as many varieties as possible.” She seemed nervous at first but she tried to collect herself.
“Of course!” She said and bowed before running off to do her task.
Just then something clicked for me, and I just felt like I had discovered something about myself, that I was more comfortable giving orders to those I deem under me, and somehow Aeyrs fell under that category. I feel bad, obviously not emotionally, but I’d have to ask him if he had any suggestions on how to overcome this. He was always good at making me feel better and forgetting things, hell, I can’t remember almost half of my life because of him. And it was a good thing, at least he always told me, obviously I wouldn’t know, but I believe him, he is my brother after all.
I didn’t care for losing some memories, especially if they were bad ones, as he had told me, but it meant that I had less knowledge of my own life, even my parents to that extent. I knew nothing of them, every time I brought it up to him he would change the subject rather quickly, so I felt it was a hard topic for him, so I normally dropped it too. But I digress, tonight will be a time when I can sit with Aeyrs and all my NPCs and we can all gather for one large feast and enjoy each other, as it seems they can.
All but a very small amount of NPCs will join, those that can’t have tasks too important to be interrupted by some fancy party, but of those that can, they will be the ones I am closest to. Premium, Misfortune, Planthra, Titan, and even Mina, the maid. They were all close to me in their way, and I think it would be nice to have us all together at least once in a while. I may have no emotion but that doesn’t make me any less human than I already was. Becoming Ashen didn’t strip me of my morals and didn’t strip me of my human thoughts, just my emotions.
I thought of the other NPCs that were in the castle, we had many, nearly half or more were fairly weak only around level 100 or so, while the other half was mostly above 400, as to protect and to serve in case of a monster assault. They were each capable of killing a good portion of each country, but none alone could take on more than a town, it was a grueling task to attempt a conquer of large territories. It would have made me nervous as hell, but I guess that was thrown out of my system along with my emotions, although it was fairly good entertainment.
“My lord, it has come to my attention that a royal caravan wishes to seek an audience with you,” Vron spoke in my head, and what could they want now?
“What country? Bandarainian?” What could they want now?
“No sir, It’s the Britgar Holy Kingdom, from the other continent. The one you visited when your [Trans-Planar Gate] had wrongly transported you back to the physical plane.” Wait, it wasn’t that king, Erik? Well naughty me for assuming such, even after I had Misfortune go and deliver information, of course, they would wait a while before sending a person.
“Thank you Vron, where to?” I wonder what a royal caravan could want, especially one from so far away.
“They wish for you to come to their lands once more, as the elves are doing something drastic.” well, guess I have no choice but to help my friend.
I thanked vron and Teleported to the large doors that led outside the castle, and pushed them open with ease, to make a gesture of power to them. And sure enough, a group of two dozen professionally attired knights were stationed outside, a few meters from the right door, and two men were leading them, one I had seen plenty of before and the other a single time. My old wizard friend, Thalenburn, and one of the other men that came up to me alongside him. They both seemed slightly anxious, but it was only after I was visible to them for a solid moment that their moods seemed to brighten.
“Thalenburn! It has been some time, what brings you here today?” I said, trying to play casual, as I wanted to see him as a sort of friend or colleague since we both studied magic profusely, and he asked me to help him several times after the whole elven army assault on the capital.
“Ashen! It has been some time, but formalities can always wait for our kingdom is being threatened by the elves’ use of the forbidden magic.” Forbidden? What type was forbidden?
“And of what magic is it?” I should clear up any facts that could lead me to better understand the situation.
“Blood magic, mainly sacrificing,” he said scared, as though it happened in the past, which would explain why it was forbidden.
“I see, then we should set out immediately, please stay still the teleportation could be harsh.” All the knights prepared themselves and so did the other knight captain, but Thalenburn knew of my magic, as I had teleported with him several times in our studies.
In a flash of light we vanished, and over a few seconds reappeared at the capital of the Britgar Holy Kingdom, and it seemed ravaged slightly, as though more elves attacked recently. I thought of creating a barrier for the town like I had for Wheatberg but would wait for the king’s approval of it first. Besides, there is now a dangerous enemy at hand, even to me if not careful. Blood magic was powerful, mostly because it would permanently slay a creature, excluding players, and utilize all the energy in its soul to power its attacks, and the more painful the emotions the soul had before death, the stronger it is.
We walked into the palace-like building we had before, and upon the throne was the king, a man that seemed to be more worried than frightened. He was the same man I knew him to be, always passionate and ever caring for all but the elves, for they had robbed this nation plenty, and his anger towards them knew no bounds. I gave a small wave of my hand to him to signal I was here and ready to help, we met before about aiding each other in times of need, most me helping him but you never know when you might need a weaker nation’s support.
“Your majesty,” I said exaggerated, as we have come to be more casual of companions then formal.
“Oh please, just call me by my name Ashen.” He said, and a smile lightly brushed on his face.
“Very well, sir Alexander.” He stood slowly and walked towards me, his left leg had been injured, evident my a small barely noticeable limp he had.
“Oh please, you mustn’t be so calm in the middle of an active war zone,” Thalenburn said, which brought the both of us out of our small daze, more so him as I knew what I was doing as I had already been using search magic to find any elves lurking nearby.
“I guess we can drop the formalities then?” I proposed to Alexander.
“It would be for the best.” He responded slightly disappointed.
“Incoming, northern entrance, nearly a hundred thousand, keep prisoners?” I said, after reading my findings again, it seemed something was off about them, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
“As many as you wish to take, wouldn’t want to ruin your fun of course,” Alexander said pleased that I was here and on his side.
“Many thanks, it has been some time since I last fought. It has nearly taken the best of me, I should get out more, otherwise, I might destroy a continent with boredom.” I said half-jokingly and half not.
“That would be rather terrible, but afraid there is not much that could give you muse, seeing as you are a god after all.” Ah, that was true, so maybe I should try creating an actual religion after myself, but forcing it onto people would be rather awful, and wouldn’t work well at all.
“Well, I’ll find something to do.” I said, “I’ll return by high noon the latest, until then, protect yourselves.” Only a second after my last word, I teleported to the northern gateway, a large stone wall section with large wooden doors.
I looked around, not many people were here only a few guards and none saw me yet, which was fine even if they did, but none knew of my connection to the king, so it could be detrimental. I teleported into an alley, one that was darker during the day than at night at times, I visited here before just once, and nobody was here now. I decided to mask myself behind yet another identity, I quickly changed from my armor to that of a brilliant grey plate armor outlined and highlighted by gold. In my hand was no a large claymore, nearly two meters long from tip to pommel.
Now I am going to announce myself as a Demon Hero, if there was a human and elf one, there was bound to be one per species, and if not, then I wouldn’t have to deal with the identity crisis of dealing with another actual demon hero. My armor covered my face so nobody would know about the giant red sign that was my head which was an indicator as obvious as the sun of who I was. The armor I have on is one made from extremely rare metal, anarylium, which is near impossible to obtain due to its circumstances.
Dropped so rarely enough, it was also put onto a world boss’ item drop pool, so you would have to fight and kill an entire world boss for a very slim chance at getting it, let alone all the material you would need to do anything useful with it. But it more than makes up for this as its physical attributes are unrivaled by any other metal. Anarylium was supposed to be the bones of gods, but I was now a god, so does it imply my bones are now anarylium or is it only pure gods? I guess if I get a chance to crack open a god then I can settle this swiftly because I can’t wait to get my hands on more of this stuff.
It was nearly indestructible, even to magic, it’s physical attributes were enough that it could take a nuclear explosion point-blank, and still be in a solid form. That alone made working with it extremely difficult, and it was near impossible to sharpen it with any ordinary grindstone. If I were to rank it on Mohs scale, it would rank an easy 14, or probably much higher, as it would seem like a flawless metal. And flawless indeed, this set of armor alone could take a direct hit from a god and still be perfectly fine, it could have a mountain dropped on it and still be in perfect condition and shape.
The sword I was carrying was made of anarylium as well, and it could slice clean through anything as if it weren’t there. It could rarely if ever lose its sharpness, and would make anything back on earth look like mere rocks. Light seemed to glam off of its blade, nearly attracted, as though it were two magnets of opposite polarity. A single strike from this would end nearly any creature, the reason I don’t use it, is because I am a magic-user, and I don’t use swords very often. As to why I, a magic-user, created a sword and plate armor, well that’s because it was the only craftable item available, and the admins had yet to add more.
I teleported myself outside the city’s walls, and when I got there, a large legion of elves just barely peeked over a hill in the distance, I came right on time. A guard saw me and yelled out to his fellow guards something just out of earshot for me, even with my enhanced abilities. An arrow got shot towards me, from the elves, and like last time, was ineffective. I caught the arrow mid-flight, and turned it around, sending it cascading through the air into whatever unlucky individual was hit.
A single figure emerged from the field of elves, one I had fought before, and they had a new staff by their side. The elf hero and it seemed as though she got stronger since last fight, but that was all my ‘eyes’ could tell without using magic or skill to look at her actual stats. Part of me was excited to have a new challenge and the other was telling me to make quick work of these insignificant fools. As I contemplated my options, she spun her staff in an unfamiliar pattern, drawing a spell circle with the tip of the staff in the air, it was a pattern that I knew all too well...