Age: 17 years, 1 month
Months passed with Asura training under Andremedia and, with her new found experience, she once again climbed up the mountain of mastery and found herself on the steps of her third mastery. A tree that stood almost a mile around and many miles high towered over her, a small entrance carved into the base. She took a deep breath before walking inside.
Torches lined the wooden hallway, a dangerous design choice, she walked through. The path gradually slanted up and she soon found herself in a large open area, about the size of a foot ball field, though only a few dozen feet up.
“Welcome challenger! As one who admires the grace of the fae, the strength of the dragon, and speed of the angel a special challenge has been prepared for you! Ready yourself!” Across the wide open region a tiny tree formed and a large red fruit grew from its branches.
“A tree inside a tree? That can't be-- eek!” She jumped back when a pillar of wood shot down and nearly crushed her. A spike of wood shot out from behind, grazing her side, but dealing no damage when it brushed off the leafy protection she got from the dragon class.
Asura charged forward while more spikes and pillars formed from the wood around her, attempting to stab and impale the girl while she ran. The ground suddenly opened out from under her, revealing a pit filled with spikes, but she quickly took to the air with her wings. Three more spikes descended and attempted to impale her. She wasn't fast enough to avoid them, so instead she rolled over before reaching out and, barely, managing to grab one just beneath the pointed end. She was pulled along by it, but managed to avoid being impaled. Fortunately they stopped a few meters from hitting the ground but they still sent her careening against the unforgiving surface with a groan.
“I'm never... doing one like this... again...” She groaned before rolling to the side, just before another spike shot up from where she had been laying. Scrambling to her feet she drew her sword and charged forward, lifting into the air with her wings.
More spikes shot at her while she weaved around and cut through the obstacles. When she came within a few yards of the fruit, massive pillars of wood shot up and surrounded it, blocking her way. She cut once across it and, while her sword did slice through it easily, the wood closed the wounds almost instantly. She flew up when more spikes tried to impale her, this time diagonally from her right. Flying up and then around the pillars she found they surrounded it on all sides. There was a little bit of space between them, but not nearly enough for her to squeeze through, even without her wings.
“Dang it! Not another puzzle.” She let out a growl before ducking under another spike. “Fireball!” Flames enveloped the pillars.
When the flames died not even a single burn remained on the wood. “Come on! There's gotta be a way!” she said before flying back from yet another spike, then diving to the ground. The moment her feet touched the ground she charged forward, around another spike, and tried to grab the fruit. Even pushing as far into the hole as she could she was still about a foot short from reaching it. A spike stabbed into her back, making her groan out in pain before she pulled back, breaking the wood that impaled her.
“O-okay. Let's try this!” She double tapped her foot. Rather than appearing in the center of the pillars, she instead appeared right outside them. She tried a few more times and angled her movements, but she missed every time. Finally she fae-stepped backwards before another spike could come up to impale her.
“Wait a moment. No way, they can't mean to...” Asura grumbled before darting forward to avoid some more of the spikes. She sheathed her sword and switched her inventory around until her bow materialized in her hands. “Well, here goes nothing!”
Her first arrow bounced off the pillars, while her second went through, but missed the tree completely. With each shot she was forced to reposition herself to avoid being impaled, thankfully her training paid off and her fifth shot hit the tree and her sixth one landed true, impaling the fruit through the middle and sending it careening out from the pillars. With two small fae-steps she appeared close enough to grip the fruit and roll away from another spike.
The assault of wood stopped and slowly the deadly lumber retreated back into the walls, floor and ceiling of the mostly empty chamber. The tree the fruit came from burst into flames and began to grow to the width of a pine tree and rose up until it touched the roof. Once it had finished growing the fruit in her hands turned to ash and the tree glowed with fire. The red flames slowly changed to green and the tree began to shrink and crumble from the heat. Within a few more moments all that remained was a small stand of crumbly ashen wood on which a black bow rested. Slowly she walked towards it and picked it up.
“Fail-not,” she said in awe before blinking. “Wait, what kind of name is that for a bow?” She rolled her eyes and pulled the string back. To her surprise the string was easy to pull, even taut it gave almost no resistance and she was able to shoot off a few quick shots. “Wow... this bow is weird...” she mumbled before pulling it to full length and shot again. The arrow sailed through the air lightning fast and embedded in the wooden wall. “W-wow... now, to see the fun part!”
True to her expectations all three abilities were able to meld into one weapon. “Can't wait to go see the guys! They are going to freak!” she said with excitement bubbling through her voice before she ran towards the exit and shifted to her angel form.
------
Asura landed just outside the castle, eager to show off her gear but, to her disappointment the only player there was 5t4r. “Hey. Where is-”
“What the hell happened to you?” he interrupted while staring at her with wide eyes.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You, your wings! Your face! Your hair! What the hell?” he screamed at her.
She stood in confusion for a few moments before running straight into the castle and towards the nearest mirror. The sight that greeted her made her jaw fall open and her eyes bulge. Her wings had turned gray and now had black tips. Her eyes and skin had darkened as well as her armor. The blue jewels were now a fiery red and the white parts of the armor had turned a dark gray.
“I... I don't know,” she whispered before turning around for the mirror to look at herself. All over. She reached down and yanked out her sword. To her relief the blade looked fine.
“What happened? Did you get a make over? I didn't even know the angel's could change themselves to look like that,”
“... Me either. I don't know what's happening. Maybe some kind of event?” she suggested, though she couldn't keep the quiver out of her voice. “I'll need to see if anything happened to Mutt or Scales.”
She fortunately didn't need to wait long before the dragon arrived in the guild castle. He stared at her for a few moments, his mouth agape. Even a number of their other guild members had come to stare. “What happened to you?”
“I don't know! What happened to you?” she asked before she motioned to him. His scales were now more curved with less jagged edges and the dark red was now a light pink. “You look... oddly adorable.”
“Hey!” he objected with a glare. “I look darn sexy! You're just jealous of my sexy dragon form.” He did quickly move to a mirror and glared at his reflection. “How could this have happened?”
“Anyway,” she said quickly. “I submitted a ticket, but there hasn't been any response. Star went searching for anything on the message boards, but no ones mentioned anything like this. Have you heard anything from Scales?” Asura asked while she paced back and forth, almost in a panic. What if something was wrong with her character? What if it had to be deleted and forced her to start from scratch? What if someone had hacked her account?
“Asura, calm down. Don't look so worried, I'm sure whatever happens it'll work out in the end.”
“How can you be so calm? What if our characters are destroyed?” she yelled, anger filling her voice as she clenched her fists.
“Easy girl, easy.” B4hamutt said calmly. “It's just a game. Worse comes to worse you--”
“IT'S NOT JUST A GAME!” she screamed at the top of her lungs in fury. She froze then when some of the other guild members stared at her. “I-I'm sorry. Just, I don't want to... I've spent a lot of time working on my character. I don't want to lose all that.”
“Relax. You're one of the most famous characters in the game. They'll fix your character in a heart beat. Besides, it might just be an event.”
“If it's an event why doesn't anyone else look different?” she snapped. After a few moments she let out a soft sigh and hung her head. “I... I need to go lay down. Message me if Scales comes online.”
“Asura...” 5t4r said, but she ignored him and stormed off. “Why's she so upset? It's not like they'll just toss her character away after all the time she's put into it.”
“Oh, she's just a worrier. I don't know what she's like in the real world but when it comes to this game I swear she's one bad fight away from having a heart attack,” B4hamutt said with a chuckle.
“You know, I heard that could be an issue in some games. Supposedly some people got so scared in one of those horror games that their heart just gave out on them.”
“If you can't handle it you shouldn't be playing it,” the dragon said with a hint of annoyance. “Frankly I don't think anyone who has medical issues should be playing any of these games. It's just asking for trouble.”
------
Asura nestled into her nice, warm, comfortable bed and sighed. She had taken off her armor so she was able to feel the warm sheets while they flowed around her body. It was far nicer than the bed she had in reality and probably a better bed than even her highly paid doctors could afford. It was one of the perks of playing a game like this, so long as you could afford the cost of playing, even the worlds finest luxuries were acquirable. She'd even managed to sleep an entire night in the game world once, though it had required a lot of begging and pleading to get her parents to agree.
For now she just wanted to enjoy herself. She knew everything would likely be fine, but she couldn't fight off that fear in the pit of her stomach. The worry that she just might lose everything she'd worked so hard for. Just the idea made her stomach hurt and tears form in her eyes.
“Asura?” a voice rang out, startling her from her dark thoughts. Standing in the doorway, now opened, was 5t4r.
“What are you doing? I'm naked!” she snapped, face bright red. “How did you even get in here? Wait, are you eighteen in real life?”
“Um, no?” he said in confusion. “I still have the acceptance from last time I was here.”
“Oh, well, you can't see anything then. Anyway, knock next time! You shouldn't be barging into my room like that anyway.” She pulled the covers closer over her body while her other hand disabled his room invite so he couldn't barge in again. “What do you want?”
“Well... uhhh... I wanted to talk with you. I mean, I saw how upset you were. I just wanted you to know...” 5t4r whispered nervously before walking into the room. “N-no matter what happens, we're here for you. I mean, the guild is. All of us. We'll make sure you don't lose anything. W-we'll protest and everything i-if we have too.” His bright red cheeks and the nervous gaze started to make her worry. She'd seen enough television to know what that kind of thing tended to mean. Or at least, what she suspected they meant.
And if it did, she was going to have to nip it in the bud now. “I see... Star. You aren't... I mean, you don't have a crush on me, do you?” Asura asked bluntly.
“What? NO! Of course not! I was just trying to make you feel better!” he said frantically while flailing his arms about, his cheeks burning redder.
Asura felt relief, glad it seemed she’d read the signs wrong. “Oh, okay. Good. Had me worried for a moment there,” she said with a smile. “Thanks, Star. I know everything will probably be fine. Maybe in the end it... hmm?” She stopped when a message popped up. “Scales is here! He's having some issues too! Come on, let's go!” She jumped out of bed.
“Eek!” 5t4r said in a less than masculine manner before his hands covered his eyes.
“Oh... right. Relax, it's not like you can see anything,” she said sheepishly before she navigated the menus and her armor formed back on her body. She charged past 5t4r and darted through the halls until she came back to the throne room.
Scales was standing in front of the throne. Rather than having blue, thin scales his body was covered in almost black scales that, while still smooth, were pointed at the ends rather than curved like those of a fish. His eyes had turned black while the irises were yellow.
“Wow... I think you got it worse than me. At least you're not pink like Mutt though. What's going on? Did you notice anything odd when you finished your mastery? You did succeed, didn't you?”
“Of course. I'm a master fae now too,” he said with a smirk.
“Wait. Fae? I thought you were going angel?”
“I was. But I decided after watching all the fae-stepping going about I'd go fae instead. I still had plenty of time to level angel anyway.” He paused when realization dawned on him. “You don't think it has anything to do with the fae, do you?”
“Of course it does! We both mastered fae and now our things all messed up!” She gasped. “A-and you mastered dragon second, right? That must be it! Fae and dragon masteries, at least if taken in that order!”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“I guess? What about Mutt? He mastered leviathan,” Scalios said in confusion when the angel started updating her support ticket. To her surprise the original had a response.
“There's a response, hold on! 'Asura, we are aware of the cosmetic appearance changes to your character. Rest assured there are no issues with your character or your equipment. This is caused by a new feature in the testing phases. There is no current or future danger to any aspects of your character caused by this.'” She read out loud before letting out a sigh. “See Mutt? And you were worried about nothing.”
“I WAS WORRIED?!” he bellowed in anger. “Hey! Get back here!” he called after her before she retreated out the door, leaving them behind.
“Sorry, I need to go do some things bye!” she yelled back before taking to the sky.
“... I swear I'm going to smack that girl next time I see her...” B4hamutt said before laying his face in his hands and shaking his head.
------
Her character was safe! But after all that happened, she no longer wanted to show off to everyone. Instead, she wanted to go have some fun. Switching to the leviathan class, she had to take a moment to look at herself in a mirror, to see how she had changed. Her body was lightly scaled and, rather than hair, she now had small crystaline shards that protruded from her head. Her scales were dark blue, almost black, and jagged at the ends rather than curved. She now had blue armor much like her angels armor, but more form fitting with flippers on the feet and small scales over all the joints. Satisfied, she headed straight towards their beginning region. Crabs scuttled along the beach just a few miles from the underwater capital of Atlantis.
Drawing out her new bow she flew along until she saw a small group of crabs all bunched up together. A wicked grin slowly formed on her lips. Landing a few yards away, she drew the string back and fired. The arrow embedded itself into one of the crabs before exploding in a massive fireball of death. She shrieked in delight while the crabs disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles. Within moments the new leviathan was darting to and fro on the beach, exploding every crab she could get within sight. Not only was it good experience, but it was soooo much fun.
Unfortunately, even the best things must end and when she hit level five she found the crabs were no longer giving her any experience. With a sad sigh she turned from her fun prey and turned towards the ocean. Time to head to Atlantis.
She took a few steps into the ocean, letting the waves splash across her ankles as the smell of salt water filled her nostrils. The water was cold and when it touched her she could feel the small pieces of sand getting trapped in her armor. With a few quick button presses the thick white metal armor disappeared leaving her in little more than blue underwear. After another moment her wings followed.
With a deep breath she dove head first through the water and began to swim. Once she was in she began to breath again with a chuckle, though the air gauge still hovered to her right. The game didn't imitate getting water in your lungs or in your eyes so she could still breath, even if her character couldn't. Unfortunately, she could still taste the salt water when it flowed along the rest of her face.
The water was ice cold, partially numbing her body while she moved towards a great glowing dome far off in the distance. Red and blue fish swam through the water, ignoring the leviathan as if she was nothing more than a floating piece of lint.
When she came closer to the structure she could see more of the surrounding area. The dome was completely enclosed and, while nothing could actually be seen holding the water or anything else, coral grew around and up the base of the covering. Underwater caves surrounded the city, enveloped in inky darkness. In one of them she swore she saw a big red tentacle dart inside.
The city itself was an amazing sight. Leviathans could be seen moving about below. Small 'roads' of water twisted and turned down each area, with stone streets set beside each one for the non-leviathan, allowing the gifted swimmers to travel through the city with ease. Small orbs of light hovered in the air to allow their glow to flow through the entire dome. Most impressive of all were the homes. As the entire city was built on top of a massive coral reef the buildings were carved out or, as some seemed to be, grown magically from the underwater substance.
Her oxygen was getting dangerously low, so she took a small rock like object out of her inventory and popped it in her mouth. An air stone. They tasted kinda sweet, designed after rock candies from ages ago, and filled the consumer's air gauge to full. A requirement when visiting leviathan areas, unless you were a leviathan. Or, in her case, were a leviathan who had yet to unlock her special abilities. She had to be careful because each air stone got weaker the more of them she took.
She finally reached the end of the dome and dropped in from above. Almost instantly the world changed from icy and wet to warm and airy. She also realized she was a few hundred feet up in the air and her wings weren't out. She screamed when she plummeted to the ground, flailing about fearfully while trying to navigate the menus, but the ground was coming up very fast.
Before she hit the ground arms wrapped around and stopped her. It took her a few seconds to realize she had stopped before she activated her wings and smacked them into the one who caught her.
“Ow,” a girl's voice said before letting her go. “Wings? I guess you're not a newbie then. Still, you fell for the old noob trap.”
Asura turned to see her rescuer. A leviathan, like her, but with light green scales instead of blue. Both now had large reptilian wings that awkwardly flapped to keep the two aloft.
“You okay?” the woman asked with a cocked eyebrow.
“What? Oh, yes. Sorry. I kinda forgot the whole... wings part. I took them off before I went swimming and I'm so used to having them on I just didn't think about it. Thanks for catching me.”
“No problem. Guessing you're leveling leviathan too? I'm...” the girl trailed off and she stared at Asura for a moment. Her eyes narrowed before she backed up. “Asura? What the hell are you doing here?”
“What? How do... YOU!” she shrieked when she read the woman's name. Yeanna. She quickly flapped and put some space between them before she drew her bow.
“Easy, easy!” Yeanna said and held up her hands. “We're both leviathan's in these lands. No reason for us to start fighting.”
“Easy? After the stuff you pulled?! What are you up to this time?”
“Relax! That was over a year ago. Besides, we gave up on that plan after the quest. Evealie failed the second quest and I'm not really interested in trying for it myself,” the woman said sadly.
“Oh...” She paused and slowly lowered the bow. “I'm sorry to hear that. Did you fail too?”
“No. I'm at three now. Working on my fourth. It's just not the same if you're going it alone, you know? I hear there's only six of us who made it to three. Everyone else ended up failing on their second one, but everyone passed on the third. Kinda weird, huh?”
“Not really. Three of us are in our clan and we're all really good. Supportano is... good as well. The fact he passed doesn't surprise me. I imagine the Eighth was the fifth. The only one who I'm surprised passed is you,” Asura said with a glare.
“Are you still angry about what happened before? Relax! It's just a game. If anyone should be mad it's me. You ended up barely beating me in that tournament and then you go and get your butt kicked,” Yeanna said in annoyance.
“You tried to stop me from participating in the mastery quests! You kidnapped my friend and tried to kidnap me!”
“It's! A! Game! Stop taking it so serious. Besides, I just saved your life. So we're even, okay?”
“We are not even! Just... arghh! Never mind. Just... I don't even.... Gahhh!”
“Yeah, whatever. Listen, Evealie's going to be meeting me here once she gets home. If you want you're welcome to join us. Three masters and all should be easy to plow through things and level faster.”
“Why would I want to join you? Last time I saw you... well, the time before that you attacked me, and I-- hey! Come back!” Asura yelled in exasperation, stomping her feet. Though, in the air it didn’t have the desired affect.
“If you're going to just bring that up over and over, I'm not going to listen. You really need to learn to let things go girl, it's just a game after all.” With a single backwards wave the girl glided down towards the path, diving into one of the water roads.
“It's just a game to you...” Asura mumbled softly before turning away. She slowly began walking the town in search of the quest giver, ready to unlock the leviathan's special powers.
------
The water was cold, but no longer icy, when it enveloped Asura. In her right hand she held a wooden club with a few crystals spikes in it, though her left hand was kept empty as she preferred.
She was inside one of the dozens of underwater caves that twisted beneath Atlantis. It was technically pitch black, but she was able to see clearly for many yards ahead of her, the leviathan's ability to see in the dark making it simple. Though it made everything shades of gray. Her body now moved easily through the water, feeling almost no resistance from even the strongest currents. The walls of the caves had long been worn smooth, though on occasion she would see small eels waiting to pop their heads out from holes in the wall. The moment anything tasty popped by, or she held her club out to get one of their attentions, the head would pop out to try and devour what they thought was a meal.
Crabs scuttled along across the caves floor as well, though she took extra care to avoid them when she traveled the caves. While not hostile, she had made the mistake of getting too close to one and it took her a few minutes to get it to finally let her hand go. It still hurt.
Asura caught a glimpse of a red fin disappear around the corner down another tunnel and a grin flashed on her face. She began kicking her legs even faster so her lithe body shot through the water in pursuit of the creature. She turned the corner in time to see it disappear around another, then another, while she dodged and weaved around corridors in pursuit of the beast.
Finally, she turned a corner and there it was, momentarily stopped and yanking one of the eels from the wall, their struggle sending dirt into the water and revealing the edge of a statue's head for a moment before the dirt settled and covered it again. The creature's body was that of a large red fish, but its face was grotesque with massive thin fangs that were almost as long as its body was tall. When it turned to face her it revealed two blood red eyes. Slowly it opened its massive jaws, separating almost a foot apart. Despite the great movement of its jaws there was only an inch or so to slide in between its long, thin teeth.
She held her club up and grinned. The blood fish. This world’s larger, but more solitary, version of piranhas. Its tongue darted out for a moment before the beast began swimming straight at her. She didn't hesitate to pull her club back and then swing forward with all her might. The creature was struck across the side of its face, shattering many of its teeth and sending it hurtling into the wall. “Ice bomb.” A small sphere of water in front of the creature began to spin around moments before turning to ice and exploding into little shards. She dove forward and gave it one final smack across the skull before the creature disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles.
“Perfect, another quest done,” she said happily before she turned around and, using her map to help navigate, made her way back to Atlantis. “I love the leviathan's underwater casting ability. Makes all these quests sooo much easier.” It had been almost a week since the event had ended and she was managing to make steady progress towards her next mastery, one quest at a time.
------
Asura popped out from one of the caves with a grin, glancing towards the city. Another quest done meant she was one step closer to getting this class maxed out. She swam in from the side of the city this time, having learned her lesson from her first trip. She walked off in search of the quest giver, but froze when the lights above suddenly went out, cloaking the city in darkness. “What on earth?” The darkness didn't last long before massive explosions ripped through the city, temporarily lighting it back up. Her mouth hung open in shock when dragon characters began to appear throughout the city, some of them even seemed to be player characters.
A dragon suddenly charged at her. She easily dodged to the right so its axe missed her and, spinning around, she caught the dragon under the chin with her club. It disappeared in a flurry of red sparkles while she stared. “What is going on?”
Off a few yards away she could see more dragons attacking a small group of confused leviathans. She backed away and hid behind a wall while her class change counter slowly ticked down. The moment it ended she changed her class back to angel and, holding Excalibur tight in hand, charged the nearest group.
Her sword cleaved through the creature's easily, in fact it seemed to only take one blow to kill them. Not just for her, but even the low level leviathans who were fighting were crushing them. The only ones having a problem were the NPC guards.
More explosions ripped through the city and, while she watched, chunks of coral fell from above. The water roads were losing their form and splashing to the ground. Some water dripping onto her shoulder brought the angel's gaze up before her mouth fell open. The dome above, despite having been nothing but magic holding the water back, was failing. As more explosions tore through the majestic city more and more water began to dribble in from above. Finally a massive fireball enveloped the largest coral building in the city, the castle which was home to only the strongest and richest leviathan players, and the dome above shattered completely. Water crashed down on them and she could do nothing but watch in shock and horror while the icy water charged at her like a herd of rampaging beasts. There was no way to run, no way to hide, she couldn't even lift her hands to defend herself while her body locked up in fear.
The ground shook and the water pounded when it finally hit her. She was thrown backwards by the force, only to be driven forward and down by the turbulent waters that closed in from all sides. The last thing she saw was the once proud city of Atlantis crumbling to pieces, its corals obliterated with leviathan and dragon corpses filling the street. Actual corpses, they didn't disappear. She couldn't understand any of this. The merciless icy waters tossed her like a confused rag doll while she struggled to maintain her composure. Fortunately, aside from the disorientation, there wasn’t any pain, just shock and confusion.
Then it was all over and she was lying on the nearby beach, staring up at the sky. A small message popped up in front of her and she slowly read it aloud. “You wake up on the beach after the attack on Atlantis. The leviathan that pulled you in tells you that she needs to go rescue any others who are still trapped. As an angel you are told to report to the Golden Fortress of Everlight.”
Asura let out a groan before slowly getting up. “Well that explains nothing...” she said before spreading out her wings and taking off. Whatever it was, she hoped it would make sense.
------
The fortress was, despite being called golden, not made of gold. Instead it looked like any normal fortress, albeit nearly the size of a city. It was made of massive stone walls, cannons jutting from them, with three flags for the angels, leviathans and holy beasts. Players were funneling in from all three races of the faction, any of the other three being barred access. Asura landed on the roof, among other angels, and headed in through a side door. The moment she entered a small warning popped up, informing her she would be unable to change her class.
She was directed to a massive room nearly the size of the arena she had fought in recently. Hundreds of angels were milling about, creating an odd sensation as she tried to push through and around the mass of feathers.
Everyone here bore the same sword as her, Excalibur, at their side. At least those who carried swords. She slowly began to make her way towards the back of the room and, to her surprise, drinks and food had been prepared. It didn't technically have any nutritional value, but it was still a nice touch. She took some punch and then stood near the back to wait.
She didn't have to wait long. “SOLDIERS! Silence!” a voice boomed out. The players went quiet almost instantly, though she wondered if people actually stopped talking or if they were just temporarily muted. She imagined the latter. “Those who were at any of the capitals of the Righteous Coalition have seen the damage those scum have caused!” The wall opposite the one she was against suddenly showed images of the three cities, or what remained of them.
Atlantis was little more than a watery grave. Gaia, the holy beast's underground capital, had completely caved in on itself. Finally, Sanctuary, the angel's flying city, had crashed into the earth below. The castle that was once her home was rubble on the ground and she couldn't help but feel anger bubble within her. What if all the things she stored there had been destroyed? There was no way they'd just destroy her stuff, was there?
“This was a prepared assault by the creature's of the Unholy Legions! Attacking each of our capitals in turn, they hoped to weaken our forces and destroy us once and for all! Fortunately, thanks to the quick responses by warriors like you, the main attack forces they sent in were mostly stopped before they could kill too many. Unfortunately, the bombs they placed went off without us being able to stop them. With our three capitals destroyed, the coalition will now operate from here, the Golden Fortress of Everlight. Together we will drive those scum back to the netherworld where they belong!” the voice rang out again. She finally caught sight of its owner, a large angel wearing full plate armor with a massive great sword on his back. He was standing on top of a raised platform on the opposite side of the room.
“The next few years will be long and dangerous, but I know each and every one of you will stand strong and help us eliminate these creatures! The time of peace is no more! This is war!” the angel yelled and raised his fist in the air. No one said a word and after a few moments he lowered his hand. “Prepare yourself. All missions for the Coalition will now be distributed from this fortress. Find your respective leaders and get ready. This will be like nothing any of you have experienced before!”
That, on the other hand, brought a cheer from the assorted angels before they headed out. Asura followed behind the crowd, a grin spreading on her lips. It seemed a brand new event was taking place. She hoped in the end it proved to be as exciting and less frightening than its introduction.