Chapter 164
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* World Quest 2, The Apocalypse Beasts: Ah, this is one of my personal favorites. I present to you the apocalypse beasts! Your world has been cursed with 3 tyrannical creatures of astronomical power that are currently being incubated and grown into their adult forms. Each of these absolute monstrosities is able to turn the world on its head, demolishing countries in their path and tearing the very fabric of reality apart. Know that if these creatures are allowed to awaken you will likely not live much longer than the 5 years’ limit. Each of these monsters have cultist worshipers from your own planets, given knowledge of these creatures before the integration even begun. They will try to awaken the monsters’ adult forms to destroy your world entirely, leading to astronomical amounts of power as a reward for the cultists in their success for when they leave the smoldering wreckage of Panu. Your goal is to stop and kill their cult worshipers, and find out where these creatures are being incubated so that you will have a world to live on when the 5 years of time runs out. Current Threat Level: Extremely High. Catastrophe upon failure of completion when 5 years has passed: Nekra, the Skeletal Devourer will be unleashed onto Panu. Chalgathi, the Plague Dragon will be unleashed onto Panu. Chubin, the Glass Kraken will be unleashed onto Panu. Advanced Details Have Been Unlocked: Upon completing this quest and finding the incubation chambers of any given apocalypse beast, you may either kill them before they’re born for an item of immense power or claim their eggs for yourself. Killing them will bless you with a unique tier 50 Spirit Item, while claiming their egg for yourself will link them to you as a minion. Claiming them as a minion will not produce them in their adult form, but rather they will begin as an infant version of themselves and must be cultivated to higher grades of power over time before coming into their true potential. You have already been in contact with Chalgathi’s starter quests, thus you will soon receive an update on his particular questline now that the World Quests have been distributed.]
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[Chalgathi, The Apocalypse Beasts World Quest, Panu, has updated:
Congratulations on being the 3rd person to collect all 5 Chalgathi artifacts. Now that all artifacts have coalesced into one item set, you are to be given eventual access to the sub-event: The Altars of Despair and Hope.
The Altars of Despair and Hope are exclusive areas designated by the Elysium Administrator, where only the chosen of the apocalypse beasts who’ve acquired the 5 needed artifacts, as well as abducted involuntary participants from across the multiverse, may enter. This applies to all apocalypse beasts, not only Chalgathi. Here at the Altars of Despair and Hope you will be divided into two groups: Cultists and Non-Cultists. As previously described, the outcomes of this world quest differ greatly depending on which of the chosen acquire the prizes for these quests. Thus, cultists will be pitted against non-cultists when reaching these altars. Non-Cultists across all three apocalypse beast categories will arrive at the Altar of Hope, and Cultists across all three apocalypse beast categories will arrive at the Altar of Despair. It will be highly incentivized to work together with your given team upon arrival, and severe punishments will be handed down to those who intentionally harm any others within your own category while involving yourself in this sub-event of the questline; with more details to arrive upon event initiation.
The Altars of Despair and Hope will first open with an event initiation in 4 months, 1 week, 3 days, and 5 hours from now. Upon opening the altars: the next phase of World Quest 2, The Apocalypse Beasts will begin. You can expect to enter an alternate pocket realm at that time along with other various people, places, artifacts, and events drawn in from around the multiverse; and can be expected to be gone for approximately 1 year’s time. Participants who do not collect all of the necessary apocalypse beast artifacts upon event initiation will still be able to join the Altars of Despair and Hope sub-event upon completion of the item sets.]
It looked like he had some time before the next set of events concerning the world quest. That was if he didn’t get assassinated in the meantime by other participants who could no doubt track his location with the ‘ping Chalgathi artifacts’ ability.
Then again, perhaps his growing and sinister reputation would cause the others to fuck right off. That Japanese man had certainly tucked tail and run, leaving his compatriots to be slaughtered when Riven had appeared last time.
His red eyes glazed over the information for the third time since it’d appeared. Silently closing the notification, Riven continued to meditate in a hovering position with steepled hands - cross legged in the air. He wore his new upper-body plate armor: Messenger, and had put on his dark steel leggings and boots. Meanwhile his weapon, Jackal, continued to channel the portal ability as it created an orb of multi-colored light above the blade in the center of the room. It was almost time, but he had another five minutes until they were able to teleport back to Riven’s Eye Wormhole near Brightsville.
Using this time to his advantage while his minions got ready, he pulled out the map that’d been deposited in his spatial bag concerning the sin-related dao treasure.
Unlike most treasure maps, this one was actually a 3-dimensional hologram. It was created out of a small metal cylinder, with the top of the cylinder creating a very intricate diagram of a part of Panu from a zoomed-out view.
The hologram displayed a tropical island with a volcano at its center. It had a very distinct boot-shaped protrusion that formed a cove on one side, with trees and other features on the island so tiny that they were smaller than a pinhead but still somewhat discernable. The map spanned many meters across in any direction from the cylinder, and he was even able to get up and walk through it - identifying a glowing dot underneath the volcano through a large sprawling set of ancient ruins that were built into the ground underneath the island. There, where a ruined city lay long forgotten by the looks of how decimated the architecture was, were flowing rivers of magma that eventually led to an odd-looking temple.
It was here, at this temple, that the icon continued to flash.
It had no description otherwise, no details, only the outline of the island, the ruins, and the path down the magma rivers leading to the temple where the dao treasure of sin was located. The very large problem he now had though was that he had zero clue where this island was. It could literally be anywhere, and he had no doubt that the combination of three merging planets would only make it all the harder to find.
“At least it’s a start.”
He looked up from the slit in his helmet, neon red feathers along the spine of his helmet flashing slightly when the portal ahead of him finally materialized. His weapon, Jackal, returned to his hand when he stretched his arm out - and looking through the ovoid gate he could see that it was likely afternoon or early evening on the other side. The location was directly outside of Riven’s Eye Wormhole, and he could not only see thousands of people traveling between the Elysium altar, downtown Brightsville, the slave farms, and Chicago on the wormhole’s other side - but he could also see patrolling helicopters and fighter jets in the sky through a very thin layer of mist that’d become prevalent in his unholy-tainted lands. The silver grasses, black-wood trees with similarly silver or neon teal leaves, and the red vines were very distinct.
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He stepped through shortly afterwards without a word, metal boots flattening the grass underneath him with the wormhole’s brilliant white-blue lights churning to his left.
“FREEZE!” a military man in uniform called out, turning around with others under his command to raise a gun Riven’s way. “STOP RIGHT THERE!”
The man’s squad was a rather odd thing to look at. It was a mixture of two cyborgs, a man and a woman with orange and yellow lines of power lighting up their arms, guns and eyes. There were a couple soldiers as well, a two-story humanoid mech which sported plasma cannons on its back that looked like it’d been pulled out of a manga, as well as two skeletal unholy mages with staves and a whole slew of goblins that looked rather different from the ones Riven was used to.
Riven couldn’t quite place it, and he stared at the little green men for quite some time while ignoring the startled soldier and his squad. The goblins were slightly bigger, but that wasn’t it… they looked more self aware. Intelligent even by the way they weren’t picking their noses and dawdling about, or by the way they interacted with each other or the passing travelers.
Or by the way one of those goblins was the first to recognize him before any of the others did.
The goblin at the forefront of the mixed squad, a small green creature wearing body armor native to earth about three and a half feet tall, was warily clutching at his own daggers. The weapons had obviously been enhanced by Chicago’s engineers due to the way the tips of their blades were plasma-based, but the little man’s buggy eyes went wide when he saw Azmoth and Fay step out of the portal beside Riven.
“YOU FUDGING IDIOT! THAT IS OUR KING!” The goblin promptly slammed a booted foot into the soldier’s shin, causing his commanding officer to fall with a cry of surprise before others of their unit abruptly took in the goblin’s words. “HOW DARE YOU RAISE A WEAPON TOWARDS HIM!”
The red eyes, Riven’s weapon, and the minions recognizable from video footage. The armor was too, but only to a certain extent. The maw across the front was obviously the same, as were the pauldrons and the bloodsilk connecting various plate armor pieces, but everything else was different. The helmet and plate armor surrounding his torso were vastly different, as were the ivory gauntlets he wore, and the flaps of bloodsilk out behind Riven’s waist were also far different from the original look he had. He didn’t wear a cloak either, but rather remained in full plate armor as the ridge of feathers along the top of his helmet wouldn’t allow it.
The goblin quickly bowed with an apologetic and wary smile, and soon the entire squad followed suit. Even the mech took a knee, its pilot saluting Riven from the cockpit in the central body, and travelers who’d been vanishing into the wormhole or coming back out completely stopped their foot traffic to look at him as Riven’s own portal closed from behind. Ratkin traders from Deepnest, humans from Dawn and the Necropolis, the undead created from Allie’s bone garden, green skinned orcs and goblins alike - they all quickly came to a hushed silence when he appeared.
Many of them fell to their knees in silent respect - prostrating themselves. Others gave hushed whispers and avoided being seen by hiding behind trading carts, cargo trucks, or nearby buildings on the perimeter of the wormhole. It was very apparent that Riven inspired respect here, but he also inspired a sense of fear.
The soldier on the ground, a man who no doubt came from the military units of Chicago, Milwaukee, and Rockford, shakily put his head to the ground. “I’m sorry my king, I did not realize it was you and I…”
His voice trailed off into a hushed whisper, and it was obvious by the way he shook that he was terrified.
Riven frowned. “Has it really been long enough that you forgot what I did for your city? I’m not some crazed lunatic out to kill everyone, despite what the world forums paint me as. You don’t have to be afraid, you did nothing wrong.”
The soldier gave a relieved shudder, but remained prostrated just as the crowds of silent people behind him. Out of everyone present, it was only the high elf slaves that remained standing in the immediate area. They glared daggers at him, silently seething with hate while shackled and collared - forced into manual labor against their will. There were hundreds - no, thousands of them now just in the immediate area across the farmlands on either side of the main road leading to the trading hub at the Elysium altar. It was very apparent that the number of high elf slaves had grown, no doubt from Allie’s war efforts due to the towns and one major elf city she’d conquered in his absence.
He’d read the updates in the local forums about it.
But even the high elves fell to their knees when his eyes turned their way, shuddering with fear as his aura softly pulsed out over the crowds on a subconscious level. He hadn’t even realized he’d been doing it until then, but he didn’t bother retracting the aura either. Nor did he feel compassion for the enslaved elves anymore. He had too much to worry about, too many lives were at stake across the world to give a damn about the many tens of thousands of inherently racist people who’d started wars and fights they couldn’t finish.
Perhaps if they’d not been so intent on elvish supremacy, perhaps if he’d not been betrayed in Greenstalk, perhaps if these high elves hadn’t kept human slaves of their own - he may have more sympathy. But now, they were merely cattle. Property of the empire, fuel to be used for the country’s growth.
He paused as this thought passed him by. How different his outlook was now… Why was that?
Numerous reasons really. An additive effect over time after his poorly based assumptions about the world had been whittled down little by little through proof of actions. His morals from the old world were almost entirely dead now, though in his opinion he and Allie could have been a lot harsher on the captives they’d taken. And he still had ideas concerning programs to re-integrate any of the high elves that complied and became productive members of society, it’d just take a bitto implement them. Those that stuck to their guns of being racist, violent bigots could stay slaves for all he cared.
Turning heel and walking through the crowds, Riven began to make his way to his manor. Fay had been wanting to see her brother Tupper, and he was curious how Genua’s training was coming along. He’d given Tupper express commands to turn her non-compliant bad attitude around in Riven’s absence, and he was still salty about how she and her family had made him feel so at home before trying to murder him.
No, she was the only one remaining of the people he’d come to trust before that betrayal. She would bear the humiliation for her dead family as an atonement for their transgressions. Though Riven couldn’t help but wonder how Len was doing, and how far the little girl had come along in her ‘re-education’.
He pulled out his communication orb, modified with Machine-Pillar tech before he’d left to extend to a longer range. The black bauble with mechanical ribbing on its outer shell pulsed in his hand when he infused mana into it - and he felt the connection settle ten seconds later when Allie picked up on the other line.
Riven smiled. “Hello little sister.”
“RIVEN!” Allie’s excited voice came over the line. “YOU’RE BACK!”
He chuckled, passing another group of ratkin traders carrying sacks who all gave him a deep bow of respect. “It’s good to hear your voice. We have a lot to talk about. Where are you?”
There was a pause, then the sound of shuffling papers on the other side.
“Getting ready for an exam!” Allie’s voice called through the orb. “I’m attending that academy we talked about before you left. I’ve even made a friend! You should meet him, he’s really nice.”
“He?”
“Yeah, He. Why is that important?”
“Just curious. How’s your man-harem doing?” Riven looked down to his bag where the enchanted whip he’d found lay in wait, and he shook his head with another chuckle. “I have a present for you.”
“They’re fine, but I haven't really seen any of them since coming here. Hey, do you think you’d be able to meet up for coffee in Dawn’s Capital sometime? Bring a disguise. I don’t want you scaring everyone here shitless after the stunts you pulled in that canyon city.”
Riven raised his eyebrows, giving Fay the thumbs up to fly ahead in order to meet her brother - watching the succubus take off over the crop fields infested with chained elves using plant-based magics or their guards. “A disguise you say? Very well. When did you want to meet? I was going to drop in and take a nap at the manor though. I’m exhausted, and I could really use a comfortable bed for once.”