Back in Juwin, players would be watching the fight between Humanity’s Vice, and the Guildless player Nero. Although players wouldn’t receive any infamy for player killing, the Respawn Time of a player was dependent on their Veils. Each time they died, a Veil would be removed from their player making them weaker in the event. For example, Because Diggy was defeated twice, he had lost 2 Veils or 200 levels.
To explain in an RPG game sense, it is similar to a player in a Souls game dying and losing their max health until they go to the campfire and rekindle. Except in Asper Online, the rekindling could only be done after the Domination Event was over.
Players that didn't have a Veil at all, were kicked out of Peppermint until Domination was over if they tried to respawn. Domination seemed to only be happening on the Peppermint Server. For some reason, the other servers could not start their own Domination Event. Which is why there was a spike of players entering other servers. Most of them were casual players, but those invested in Peppermint stayed, hoping that someone would come and save them.
In preparation for the event, an invite was sent to players of all guilds in the Peppermint Server demanding all players who were not a pirate to join. Any Guildless player would be deemed as those in favour of the Domination Event. Although The percentages were low, the population of Humanity vs the Guildless were about 98% to 2%. Meaning, that if you were unaligned at this moment in the Domination Event, there was a strong chance you would be considered a Borealis member.
In the Seething City of Juwin, The sky faded with clouds created by the heat of Nero’s presence. Meanwhile, the chill of the exuberant City glistened with the corpses of the fallen players. Because players could not respawn, this gave Vice an incredible advantage. Nero leaped in the distance and Vice raised his staff, conjuring skeleton rogues from the fallen enemies. ”Attack!” He commanded. The skeleton hoard would attack Nero, attempting to strike him but his martial aptitude was much greater that he expended the skeletons in seconds. He began to run upon Vice. Vice then called for his Durandal. Which converged into Nero blasting him away. Vice then began to chant, and raised the dead bodies once again, except this time it was a stronger variant. Armoured Skeleton Warriors. As Nero fell from the sky, where he landed the skeleton jumped to and began attacking. This time Nero received a status as he hit the floor. “Stunned!” he yelled. The crowd control was enough for the skeletons to catch up and begin attacking him, chipping damage from his health. Nero started blocking but then decided to fight his way out. He put his fist into his palm and a tornado sprung from his chest sending the skeleton away into bones. Nero flew out of the hole and landed back on his feet. He entered a fighting stance once again.
“Is that all you got?” Nero taunted. He then began running towards Vice but this time he was running on air in spirals. This caused targeting Nero to be more difficult. But Vice had a plan nonetheless. He placed his hand over his ears. “Bring in the 500s.” As Nero neared Vice, three players would emerge. Nero could only inspect them for a moment but for certain they were Humanity players. Even more, they were much higher level than the average player. Although he was 200 levels above these players, it was still 4v1. And for Nero crowd control seemed to be something he didn't want and Vice quickly picked up on this. “Stop his movement!”
“On it!” one of the players cried out. It was Gonerz. “Gonerz was the leader of the late Wave guild. He had reached Level 562 since we had last mentioned, which for him was quite a stride. He had started through the swordsman classes becoming a Templar, and later multiclassed into a Blizzard. Thus when he jumped towards Nero, he swung his sword which Nero thought he dodged, but instead, an array of ice sprung from his sword planting Nero on the floor. “Ugh!” Nero said.
Another player came from behind Gonerz. It was Breadguy, the late leader of Dragonedge. He too had improved, training himself in several classes as well as appearing as a level 567. Starting as a Metalmancer, he played more of a range damage position in fights except more recently expanding that into the Earth Archer class, focusing on large critical damage, with big skills. But the metalmancer and earth archer both contained skills that could stop a player. Breadguy from a distance shot an arrow at the suspended Nero. As it hit him, a tether was created from the arrow to another object. Nero kept shooting these arrows until Nero was tethered as if he was in a spider’s web with strings that seemed metallic and taught. Nero seeing that his crowd control was increasing saw on his screen wiggle status. He began jamming the necessary actions on his HUD but the status of stun was simply increasing. “This is…This is…!”
Finally, the last player Wildabeast, the late leader of Jungle, sped through both the players into the front lines. He threw a greatsword into the sky, and then flew to it, grasping the hilt. The Signature move of Crusader classes was their greatswords. As he reached the peak of his leap he turned facing the sky, and pushed off the air, descending towards Nero at supersonic speeds. When he reached the floor he had already struck Nero in his chest, sliding on the floor and he waved his greatsword behind him.
“Bullshit!” Nero yelled. “This is utter horseradish. crappers, crappity crap crap crap!” He was waving his arms around in a tantrum.
“We got you good, huh!” Wildebeest yelled.
“It’s not over yet,” Vice muttered. He swung his staff and Durandal was sent towards Nero, this time, stretching into a lance that he threw right through Nero, over and over and over until finally Nero’s HP was blinking red. “Keep this up until we finish him.
They continued the same strategy. Gonerz continued to slash Nero with strikes and with every off-attack, a grain of ice would keep the root status going. Then Breadguy would Fire arrows that dealt damage, but kept him tethered in place and Wildabeast would find a surface in the sky to pounce off, once he caught his greatsword connecting a critical attack onto Nero.
“That Abbyser Gladiator build you got there is pretty cool!” Gonerz complemented Wilda who displayed a thumbs up emoji.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Now's not the time to celebrate,” Vice yelled. “Durandal!” The body of metal came to Vice once again. “Let’s finish this!”
“Sphere of Obliteration!” The Durandal flew into the sky and began expanding. How the skill worked is that it would go into the sky and players around could give it mana, which would increase the damage. With players still being in Juwin, they were contributing to the Sphere which grew in size. “Now!”
“Now!” the people yelled.
“Get him!”
Even a little child player reached out her hand, “Get him big bro!”
The Sphere of Obliteration crashed into Nero dealing damage but something was amidst. The sphere seemed to connect to Nero’s hitbox, but there it seemed to be hitting an aura that surrounded Nero’s body. “I’m done with these cheap tricks!” he yelled. His eyes glowed a bright white. He faced the Sphere of Obliterating and turned his head towards the players.
“Wait no!” Wildebeest yelled. He ran towards the sphere reaching his hand but it was too late. “The sphere exploded dealing millions of damage to the nearby players.”
Nero then expanded his arms, breaking free, and landing onto the floor.
“Wait, no get him quickly!” Vice yelled.
Nero flashed towards Breadguy who jumped back to evade his attack. But Nero makes a pull motion as if pulling air towards him with his left hand and Breadguys body is hurled towards him. Nero began chanting a spell. “Chronicle of the 10 Mantras: Demigod. First was a right fist engulfed in flames that landed on Breadguy, and then it was a left engulfed in lightning. After a kick surrounded by water energy. But sooner or later, any player watching couldn’t see what was hitting him but saw a pallet of elemental strikes hitting him. After Cross hit arms in front of him with his two pointer fingers out and other fingers clenched into a fist. He blew.
Breadguys’s character fizzled with his body dropping with a soul above it. Nero’s eyes closed his eyes, turning to face another player. This time he appeared in front of Wildabeast, and waved his hand. This time though, Wildebeest saw something target him and dodged. Although Nero wasn’t surprised he didn’t seem to show any emotion. He tried again and again.
“He only has 10HP!” Vice yelled. “We can do this!”
A ray of ice hit Nero dealing 5 damage. It was enough to get Nero’s attention for the moment and Wildabeast leaped into the air. “Here!” Nero then turned to face Wildabast who in a second came crashing down to strike Nero dealing 4 damage. But their trade wasn’t one-sided. Wildebeest was none the wiser to what Nero did but he fizzled.
“Your sacrifice will not be forgotten,” Vice yelled. Vice then raised his staff one more time.”Durandal-Epitome!” The hunk of metal went to attack Nero but Nero grabbed it with his hands and threw it like a frisbee into Wildabeast dealing enough damage to instantly fizzle him and shatter the Durandal into pieces. A soul was left on top of his body.
Nero then floated towards Vice and raised his hand to face but it was too late.
“It's too bad. You can defeat us alive, but Humanity will keep fighting as long as I am alive!”
Suddenly Nero was struck by 3 attacks. Two Swords and an arrow pierced through his chest. Nero looked down at his cheek and saw his hands begin to fizzle with negative health. “Well Madder…” he thought.
Nero would fall to the ground, “Madder I have failed you.”
“Madder I’m…”
He lay lifeless on the floor. Vice would give high fives to the 3 players who seemed to be resurrected by a spell Vice cast in that final moment.
With Nero's body on the floor, the city began to cheer, celebrating the victory. “We did it!”
“Hurray!
VIce, Wilda, Breadguy, and Gonerz would put their hands in the centre and raise it. “To Humanity!”
“To Humanity!” the players yelled, but something was off and only Vice would notice.
“Juwin is still under the effects of The Seething City,” he thought
Nero received a message from Madder. “Use it already!”
Saving experience was not the only way Veils were used. Although the Domination event caused one to lose a Veil as a cost respawn, Nero was a player who had a particular PBE skill granted to him by Seismic. One which could only be activated when he was defeated. The Seething City was a skill that reached a far radius. In this case, its radius included all of Juwin City. When he was forced to deactivate the skill, an attack would retract inwards towards his body. Except the damage for this skill was based on how much damage was dealt in the Seething City, by all players, including himself. As the attack ran through each character, they fizzled, and when it had reached Vice, He luckily noticed and jumped, evading the attack. But every other player had fizzled.
The Seething City dispersed. On the floor lay a seemingly lifeless Nero. Vice looked around to see hundreds of Souls upon bodies defeated by the final attack. “Don’t respawn, guys! I can rez’ you all just wait a second.”
Behind him, a floating Nero would appear this time his eyes were pitch black.
Vice jumped back. ‘What is this guy!”
Vice knew at this moment something was amidst and had to come up with something quick. “Well since you are still moving. How about we start back from the first step.”
Vice raised his staff once again but this time cast a new skill. “Mass Assimilation.” Each player that had died had resurrected except they were given robotic bodies. They seemed to be enhanced but still could act as if they were their characters.
Each of the resurrected players surrounded Nero, attacking, jumping onto him like a horde of zombies and attacking him until finally he began to fizzle. Nero raised his hand into the sky “This is lame.” he uttered. “It’s lame you made me use this.”
Vice noticed Nero’s hand move as if he was clicking something on his HUD.
—-----------------------
Back in outer space, Madder would be speaking to the beast. “So is there a reason you gave us all these PBE skills?”
The beast spoke. “Well, I personalized each one around your personalities, your strengths, but also your weaknesses. A player like you wants to give so much, but is so lonely. Crypto is a player who aspires to be Robin Hood. So I made his skill able to steal from the rich and give to the poor. But players like Nero. Nero is a player who has a strong will, almost unnaturally undying. And I think, while giving up is one way out, sometimes the only way through the darkness, is through.
—------------------------
“PBE SkIll” Immortal Deathwish.
A ray of dark energy erupted from Nero’s body into the Sky. From afar players in the other great cities could see it. “Another awakening?” Aluxan whispered. “Come in Vice. Vice?”
Back in Juwin, Nero punched a player instantly, fizzling it. But as the body became a soul, Nero, charged up a skill. “Deathbringer Stance.” He entered a fighting pose with one arm up and the other crossed holding into the bend of the elbow. He then conjoined his body curling his elbow into himself then elbowed the soul, vigorously vibrating. He continued his barrage until finally the Soul was gone. He turned and faced another player, first punching them in the stomach lifting them into the air, and then punching the body until it fizzled into a soul once again. The player though could still be seen taking damage as if the player remained before they could be respawned. “What is he doing!” the Wildabeast resurrection yelled. “What class is this even from?”
“I have never seen anything like this…” Vice uttered to the Captains. “He is dead. He is dead, he has no HP but is still.”
Nero landed into a fighting stance with eyes pitch black facing the players.
“He’s Undying!” Vice yelled. “Death itself!”