The fairy’s grin twisted wider and wider until it went from one side to the other and a high pitch cackle spread out. It waved its arms in a chaotic and maniacal fashion. What the hell?!
Jake turned to Nathanial, only to notice a confused expression which quickly turned to shock.
“Can we take a closer look at the thing?” Nathanial asked, as an old man pulled out a pair of binoculars.
“It’s laughing maniacally and…” he began.
“And what?” Nathanial asked.
“You know… It’s almost as if… It’s drawing letters in mid-air…” the old man muttered.
“Letters…” Nathanial mumbled and he jumped back as the area around the fairy warmed up and a dozen fireballs came into being. Fucking hell… That’s why it called the fireflies back…
“You fools, do you really think I’ve never dealt with explosives before,” the deafening screech echoed out. It can speak?! Wait. Shit!
“The ex-” Jake was about to shout out, but the fireballs descended and smashed into the small piles of fireworks sending them flying into random people. Screams echoed out, and James collapsed on the ground from a severe burn to the chest.
“You humans are all the same, relying on petty tricks like rockets and flamethrowers! How do you like a taste of your own medicine?!” the fairy screeched. T-This fairy… It’s not like the goblins, it knows our weapons and flaws…
“What wrong?! Aren’t you going to spray me with bullets, haha? Isn’t that your solution to everything?! Weren’t you parading around Desla Forest spraying bullets at those stupid goblins, weeelllll?!” the fairy taunted.
A flock of fireflies descended, as the fairy flew behind a squadron of them, and cackled. Jake turned to Nathanial and noticed that he was calmly giving orders to the others. He’s surprisingly calm…
“Calm down. It’s bluffing. It’s not as strong as it looks. Think about it, if it had such a powerful move, why wait until now?!” Nathanial shouted. A secret behind that move…
Owen screamed as a pack of fireflies engulfed him and his flesh withered away until a sack of flesh collapsed on the ground. A woman screamed in grief and started crazily shooting at the fireflies. Unfortunately for her, they dodged her bullets, almost as if they knew where she would point next, and shot towards her.
“F-fuck. Someone died… Just like that?!” Jake involuntarily jerked back.
Thousands of fireflies covered her leather coat and her skin began to shrivel away when a burning table smacked her from behind setting the fireflies on fire killing many of them, but before they could celebrate, several more people, two men and one woman collapsed into sacks of flesh.
“You bastard. Come down and fight us yourself!” one man screamed.
“Why would I do that? Only a human would be stupid enough to fall for those taunts,” the fairy laughed as it jerked around like a lunatic.
“What’s it doing?!” Nathanial shouted at the man with the binoculars, who quickly lifted them up. This isn’t the time for this! We’re dying here!
“It’s definitely drawing letters. They’re faint but staying behind in those spots!” the man shouted.
“Stop it! It’s summoning more fireballs!” Nathanial shouted, as James crawled towards an unlit firework, barely mustered the strength to light a match and it flew towards the fairy. The fairy suddenly jerked back and dodged the initial impact, but then more fireworks shot out from the first.
The fairy screamed as it was immersed in flames and lit on fire. It waved its arms around crazily, but the flames only grew stronger, as its wings burnt away and it dropped on a sea of fireflies which carried it away. The other fireflies followed them back towards the grove. W-We won. Just like that…?
“So, this is magic…” Nathanial muttered, before shouting, “Treat the wounds of the injured! Get me more fireworks or improvised explosives! Gather up the matches and recycle spare wood into shields, be ready to light them on fire, if more of those bastards come!”
“What happened there…?” Jake muttered.
“Why it was so slow at the end? From what we saw, it seems that it not only takes a while for it to charge up a spell, but it also can’t move,” Nathanial explained.
“It was an idiot then?” Jake asked.
“Well… It depends. If twenty waves like that show up and kill a few people each time, then we’ll all be dead before the sun rises,” Nathanial sighed.
“Crap…” Jake muttered.
“But. We’re prepared now. Everyone. Gather around the rabbit pen. Form a compact protective circle. Gunmen, be on the lookout for goblins. We will also need a squad of shield bearers with flaming shields at the ready. How is James doing?” Nathanial asked.
“He’s pretty badly burned, lucky his wounds aren’t critical, but I don’t know how long he’ll survive without water and medicine,” an old man with a half-bald head sighed.
“I see, tch I didn’t want to dig into our reserves but… Colins, go investigate what types of medicine we have at hand!” Nathanial shouted. Colins walked away and started probing several people, while Nathanial smacked his fist against his podium.
“Damn. Damn. Damn. That fucking kid. First, those fucking goblins. Then, those fucking spiders. And now, he’s sent fairies to fuck with us. What’s next, a fucking dragon?!” Nathanial screamed, his face turned red from rage.
-----
Far to the North, a woman in her early thirties wearing a suit and a spear strolled along through a swamp. She was accompanied by a middle-aged man wearing a white gown and white face paint, along with a man in his early twenties who had a nose similar to that of a dog and shaggy hair.
“How much further do we have to go?” she asked.
“The newbies should be within a few dozen miles,” the dog nosed man replied.
“Those damned Rae Lords, they couldn’t just transport them directly to us,” she scowled.
“Agreed, it’s probably part of their sick game,” the man in the gown said before frowning.
“What is it, Elmhilt?” the woman asked.
“Fairies.” He muttered and the three moved into a battle stance. The young man stretched out his finger and started writing words in mid-air, the letters glowing bright with each letter added to it, as he did so an ocean of fireflies blotted out the sky and flew towards the group. The numbers far dwarfed that faced by Nathanial’s group.
The dog-nosed man smirked, as hundreds of golden fairies revealed themselves, as-well as one with six butterfly wings, an emerald crown and sceptre. It stretched out it’s sceptre, but as it did, the spell completed and a big wave of fire engulfed half the firefly swarm. Dozens of fairies screamed as they were burnt away into dust.
An emerald light descended and was blocked by a spear wielded by the woman in the suit.
“Is this all? An emerald king? Really? I shouldn’t have expected much from this place…” Elmhilt sighed as a blinding light exploded from him and decimated another half before the woman took her other hand from behind her back revealing a completed spell.
“Aaah!” the fairy screeched as it and its comrades vanished into ashes.
“Let’s move. I’d hate to imagine what the newbies are facing,” the woman urged as they shot through the swamp.
-----
“It’s been awfully quiet. Not a sign of them,” a guard muttered.
“Maybe, we scared them off after that bout with the fairy,” another said.
“I doubt it, knowing them, they’ll probably planning how they’re going to kill us,” Jake sighed.
“Yeah…” the guard sighed.
Behind them were dozens of sleeping people, despite the danger, they still needed to sleep, otherwise they would go insane, this included their leader Nathanial, making Gerry the substitute leader while he slept.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make it out of this alive. We already know there must be people around here somewhere, based on what the fairy said,” Gerry replied as he chugged down a bottle of water. I hope you’re right, I’d hate to think we’re all alone in this shithole… I know that Anarak transported other people, but they might be off on that cube for all I know.
Gerry sighed as he gulped down again and gazed at the sky.
“Will I ever get back? What’ll happen to you?” he muttered and Jake sighed. Trapped in this shithole away from our friends and family and even society itself. Alone with these abominations which wouldn’t even be fit for a third-rate fantasy… What’re we going to do…?
-----
“What’s wrong, why did you stop?” Elmhilt asked the dog-nosed man.
“Something’s wrong… But… I can’t smell anything wrong… It’s as if…” the dog-nosed man said.
“It must be your sixth sense,” the woman said before her vision began to shake and she closed her eyes before appearing in a dark murky world with a thick mist and billions of little lights.
“W-Where are we?!” the dog-nosed man asked.
“T-This is… A dreamland space!” Elmhilt shouted. A dreamland space? We were called by spirits?
A crazy laugh rang out, as a pumpkin headed man holding a pumpkin staff floated down.
“Welcome, my name is Sir Antoin, and we’ll be taking those nice bodies of yours,” he cackled. T-they want our bodies? What sort of spirits are they?! Normal spirits can’t take bodies!
“Phantom Spectres. Phantoms even among their fellow phantoms. Monsters from the Spirit Realm itself. It should be impossible to run into them here but…” Elmhilt muttered.
“Yes, indeed it should, but we’re here, aren’t we?” the pumpkin headed man said before lunging at the woman. She waved her spear and a huge burst of energy spread out, but it phased through the man and continued through to the lights who screamed out in pain.
“Is this all you can do?!” he shouted as he grabbed the woman and smirked.
“Finally… After three hundred years, I’ll be reborn once more…” he said as he moved his hand forward, encountering not flesh but dense set of words separating the two with a big explosion.
Millions of lights flooded in, but a bright light exploded out from Elmhilt pushing them back, however the pumpkin floated through completely unaffected. He’s so strong, as strong as Madenne… Is he also Level 50?! Shit, she’s not equipped for fighting powerful spirits. Why?! There are only supposed to be weak monsters around here!
-----
I made it… Good thing those humans didn’t pursue me.
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A vast city with thousands of fairies unfolded before the wingless fairy, the fireflies lifted him down, and he went to talk to one wearing a medal.
“Humans are attacking. Hundreds of them. Under Level 10. They destroyed my wings and fireflies with explosives. I need your help!” he shouted.
“Level 10s? We have bigger problems to deal with. His Majesty was killed!” the guard screeched.
“His Majesty… Impossible… Even a Level 20 would have a tough time against his emerald magic… Was it Huumlis?!” the unwinged fairy screamed.
“No. Worse. Humans. Three of them.” The guard shouted as hundreds of fairies frantically cast wave after wave of protective spells and erected a giant transparent shield.
“We’re all going to die!” one fairy screamed. Fuck. I want to get my revenge against those bastards, but who knows if they’re in league with that trio, I might be running into a trap!
-----
Blood dripped down Madenne’s arm as she gripped her spear. That fucking spectre, if I specialised in spirit magic this match would be over in an instant.
She dodged back as it swooped in, it reflexively stepped back to dodge the explosives, and wrapped his hands around her throat, with many letters coming into being around him and binding her.
“You’re quite a slippery one, but this match is over now,” he said. The dog-nosed man and Elmhilt panted as they poured their strength into keeping the endless lights at bay.
“This match is over?” Madenne suddenly started laughing and Antoin backed away. Hundreds of golden letters rose up and he reflexively dodged them, but he gasped in shock as they stopped in place and embedded themselves into the surrounding space.
“W-What are you doing?!” Antoin screeched and the Dreamland Space began to tremble as cracks spread from that spot exposing a giant rift. An immense force from it blasted Antoin and the other lights away, with Madenne taking the chance to slip through it with her compatriots.
Madenne opened her eyes on the very spot she vanished from and looked around to confirm they had escaped.
“Finally, we’re out of there. What did you do exactly?” the dog-nosed man asked.
“When we were transported, I scanned the Dreamland Space for any possible weaknesses, and I noticed something… A small crack which was slowly closing.” She said.
“A small crack?” the dog-nosed man said.
“Yes, I don’t know what caused it, but something probably ripped that space apart and it hadn’t completely recovered,” she explained.
“Something powerful enough to tear open a Dreamland Space… At-least Level 80, right?” the dog-nosed sighed.
“If an intruder did it, then yes, it probably was someone who was Level 80,” she nodded.
“You say that but, is there anyone who’s Level 80 on this planet?” he asked.
“Who knows, this planet’s huge and there’s plenty of places we haven’t explored yet,” Elmhilt said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised, if there was someone powerful behind that Antoin, how else would he appear here of all places?” she said.
“Someone powerful. A necromancer, perhaps?” the dog-nosed man said.
“Or… A spirit king.” She said.
“What?! That’s ridiculous!” the dog-nosed man shouted.
“Would a necromancer let their spirits take over living bodies? There’s a good chance they’ll lose control over them.” She explained and the two nodded.
“If it is a spirit king… Which one is it?” the dog-nosed man asked.
“I don’t know. The only ones I know of are Vandik and Elaine.” She sighed.
“Elaine. Wasn’t she the one who destroyed Atlantis?” he asked.
“Yes. Atlantis ruled over eight parallel earths and managed to get to the sixth wave in the third game, but then, she appeared. Elaine. The strongest necromancer. With her angels of death, the Atlantean Forces fell and those worlds were infested with monsters, I was shocked when I learned that she died in this universe. If even she can die, then what chance do we have?” She sighed.
“If we were to convert her strength to levels, how strong would she be?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but at-least Level 2000,” she said and a shiver went down his spine, “Don’t worry, spirit kings only have a portion of their power without a vessel and not all spirit kings are that strong. It’s just Elaine that’s a monster.”
“A vessel?” he asked.
“Yes, and no ordinary vessel. It needs to be powerful enough to hold her soul,” she explained. Vessels to hold their souls, so that’s why they’re sending lesser spirits. The spirits would train the bodies up, and then the master will snatch it.
“The stronger the spirit king, the harder it is for them to descend, even if there was a vessel, she would expend a lot of energy doing it, so it’s hard to say who would win. Only the ones trained from early on are risk free, as they’re soul-bound to their king’s every command, even if they don’t know it,” she explained as they shot out of the swamp and into a mountain pass.
-----
Jake yawned as the drowsiness began to set in. Not yet, got to hold it until it’s my turn to get some rest.
A faint animal cry echoed out and Jake strained his ear to figure out what it was. What the…? What was that? …It doesn’t matter what it is, I need to tell Gerry, one time this happened, we got attacked…
“Gerry!” Jake shouted.
“Yes?” He asked.
“I heard some faint animal cries, I’m not sure what that was though…” Jake said.
“I see.” Gerry said before his face twisted into a horrified expression as several giant bats came into view with several goblins and spiders in their talons. The goblins struggled and screeched, but it was to no avail in contrast to the bats’ strength, among them was a feather cap who looked vaguely similar, but no one could connect the two.
“Fire!” Gerry shouted and dozens of bullets flew into the bat flock, but they continued as if they didn’t feel a thing. Impossible… They so much as flinch. Are they bullet-proof?
A sudden gust of wind pushed Jake back and made him fall on his back as they descended. One of them grabbed him and flew into the sky with him.
“Let me go!” he screamed as he struggled.
Gerry watched with his open as the flock disappeared towards the north. How on earth are we supposed to deal with these bats?! They don’t so much as flinch when we fire at them, is Anarak trying to kill us all off?! How are we supposed to survive?!
----
“What is it, Gunaf?” Madenne asked as the three climbed up a vertical drop on the side of a mountain.
“I smell… A human.” The dog-nosed man replied.
“I see, we must be getting close,” she said.
Madenne and the two dragged themselves off the vertical surface and into a cave on the side of it.
“Are you sure they’re here?” Madenne asked.
“Yes, the smell is coming from in here,” Gunaf said, as a giant bat flew towards them, screeching and drawing its talons.
“A doom bat.” Madenne. Her spear glimmered with strange letters before extending into the bat’s throat and retracting, leaving a dead corpse in its wake. I see. Doom bats like catching large mammals for food, especially goblins, they must have been caught by some, I hope they’re still alive.
Madenne casually strolled in, not making the slightest bit of effort to hide her presence, and killed two more bats the same way as the first without batting an eye. Several letters floated around Gunaf, as he and Elmhilt closely followed.
“I’d like to finish this up quickly before Antoin shows up, so I’m going to use the drone. It’s bad for experience, but we can make up for it later.” Madenne said as she waved her arm and a metal disc appeared which floated up and followed them. A red light flashed as it looked around, searching for enemies.
A bat came around the corner in the complex cave system, only to be gunned down within seconds by small bolts of plasma and collapsing. The trio quickly ran through without giving it a second glance.
Gunaf turned to a wall made of rubies and was about to speak when Madenne said, “Leave those trinkets behind. We can get them on the way back, hurry!”
Gunaf sighed as they charged into a giant chamber filled with dozens of bats with several unconscious people, goblins, and spiders in the middle. The drone started firing away, and a spear went straight for the throat of the largest bat.
Several letters glimmered in-front Gunaf before a flexible stream of fire smacked into two more bats giving them serious burns and avoiding hitting the people in the middle.
A powerful gust of wind smacked into the trio, but it was blocked by a wall of light conjured up by Elmhilt. Madenne took the chance to swoop into the center and stand over the three unconscious people.
She quickly wrote a few letters and a sea of flames spread out and burnt all the bats behind her to a crisp, the opposite direction of the other two of the trio.
Several more streams of fire spread out from the duo and several more bats collapsed. Gunaf sighed as he thought, When will I reach her level? I’ve trained for so long, but I’m still only level 25. She’s already at 52. I guess, I’ve been too relaxed in the low risk training areas against “safe” monsters.
The last of the bats passed away, just as Madenne leaned down to examine Jake and the others.
“Strange. Very strange.” She said.
“What’s wrong?” Gunaf asked.
“They have no level,” she said.
“What?!” he shouted.
“They have no level. If they have no level, they can’t use any magic. Fuck, things are worse than I thought,” she said.
“How’s that possible? Doesn’t everyone get that tattoo when they arrive?” he replied.
“Yes… They probably messed up and forgot to do it. Again. You two. Carry the people and try what you can to wake them up. We need to get to the rest fast. Or they’re all going to die.” She shouted and the two picked lifted the three up onto their shoulders before sprinting after her.
Fucking Rae Lords, always screwing things up. This is the fifth time this has happened. Get a grip, Mirdew.
-----
Nathanial slowly opened his eyes. Ugh, that was a horrible dream. We were transported to this shitty world filled with goblins and spiders and fairies who were out to get us.
He looked around a few times, before double-checking what he saw. He was greeted by a black sky with several moons and a cube. Fuck, it wasn’t a dream. I’m still in this shithole.
He quickly jerked up and shouted, “Gerry!”
“Here, Chief.” Gerry replied.
“What happened while I was asleep?” Nathanial said.
“Jake and a couple others were taken away by a pack of giant bats.” Gerry said.
“What?” he replied.
“I said. Jake and a couple others were taken away by a pack of giant bats.” Gerry said.
“What. The. Fuck. Tell me exactly what happened.” Nathanial said.
“Yes. Four hours ago, Jake heard a strange sound. Shortly after, a flock of giant bats carrying goblins and spiders appeared. A powerful gust of wind smacked into us, and before we realised it, Jake was being carried away by a bat. We shot at them with our guns, but they didn’t so much as flinch.” Gerry hurriedly said.
“I see, I got it. Fuck. Jake was one of our better people, ugh another one had to die.” Nathanial turned angry red. If you like eating goblins, be my guest. There’s a whole forest of them, in fact I encourage it, kill them all, just leave us the fuck alone.
Nathanial almost tripped over when a voice boomed out.
“Good morning everyone, I am Rae Lord Mirdew. One of Din’s Seven Kings, and the Administrator of Rae Dae, the universe you’re currently in.”
“R-Rae Lord?!” Nathanial gasped.
“Indeed. I should have spoken to you all yesterday, but I got a little side-tracked.”
“Side-tracked? You were playing around as always.” Anarak’s voice rang out.
“Anarak!” the voice protested.
“You probably think I sent you all to die, right? Don’t worry, we’re not that bad… At the moment… I mean… We aren’t that bad. We’re perfectly reasonable people, and to boost your chances of survival in our crazy world, we’re giving you a splendid gift. The ability to use magic.”
Nathanial gasped. Couldn’t you have done this yesterday before people started dying?! You call this a gift?!
“Oh please, Nathanial. I already did you a favour by warding off the phantom spectres,” Anarak’s voice rang out in his head. The phantom spectres? What the hell are those? Ghosts?
“What, indeed.” Anarak chuckled.
“I present to you… Magic v3. My new product after several years of development. We spent thousands of years collecting feedback from you, the users, and we have finally incorporated it into one simple design. One universal app to unify the many species and races under our dominion, I even borrowed inspiration from your silly little cell phones.”
Was he a tech CEO before he became a god? Why am I getting this PR and marketing spiel?
“The new version of magic has 12 new features, 28 UI improvements, and a playlist to store your favourite songs in, so that you can listen to Mozart while you slay dragons. As a universal app, it can be used on iOS, Android, neutral interfaces, and many systems beyond your sheer comprehension.”
“Wait, what?” Nathanial shouted.
“The first part of Magic is the Magic Tattoo, a registered trademark of Mirdew Industries.”
Several hundred glowing bar codes descended from the sky and burrowed into their skin. Nathanial looked at his arm and a bar code briefly appeared before fading away.
“I won’t bother explaining it, as you have the magic terminal for that, which you’ll get next.”
The phone in Nathanial’s pocket started vibrating, so he took it out and looked at a strange progress bar which disappeared and a mysterious app appeared labelled “Magic v3”. Oh, for fucks sake, you’re not telling it it’s literally an app?! I know that people like having apps for everything, but this is ridiculous!
The sounds of Anarak snickering rang out, as Mirdew began to speak again, “In the upcoming version 4, I will unveil the divine ascension system which will give you the chance to become a god. I was unfortunately unable to get it into version 3, but the next version should only be a few hundred years away in contrast to the gap between 2 and 3, so that’s something to look forward to.”
“Mirdew! What the hell’s going on here? How can we get home?!” Nathanial shouted.
“Don’t be in such a rush, once the Fifth Game begins, you might wish you were here instead. It’s simple, Rae Dae is an experimental world built for us to prepare for the Fifth Game, one of the Great Games between us and beings beyond your imagination.”
“What is this ‘Fifth Game’?” Nathanial asked.
“Yes, what indeed. Have you ever heard the legend of Atlantis?”
“An island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with a powerful civilisation?” Nathanial asked.
“Idiot, that’s just an outpost. The real Atlantis was a powerful empire spanning eight parallel earths harbouring god-like power.”
“What?!” Nathanial shouted.
“They were destroyed during the Third Game fifty thousand years ago by the Witch Elaine. Even their four legendary heroes couldn’t stop her.” Mirdew spoke and Nathanial’s mouth dropped open. Is he saying that an ancient civilisation far more advanced than our own was destroyed by a single person? Shit, the Earth’s in trouble, if someone like that appears again.
“Indeed, even if you went back right now with this knowledge, it wouldn’t change Earth’s fate in the slightest, so why not see how far you can go here? Perhaps, you’ll even find something… Interesting,” Mirdew hinted. True, even if I miraculously convinced the government, what could we do against gods… But, if I became a god, then… This bitch Elaine is nothing.
“You say rae a lot, what exactly does it mean?” Nathanial asked.
“Ah, good question. Raes are what universes are made of. They’re the fundamental substance which makes up a reality. That big cube in the sky is known as the Great Raeputer, a computer made of rae which helps to stabilise spacetime in this universe, this wouldn’t normally be necessary, but… This universe was heavily damaged.”
“Damaged? How?” Nathanial said, but Mirdew stayed silent. Silence…
“The magic app should have all the information you need to… Survive, although if you’re an idiot, then you’ll die any- What. How dare you interrupt my speech?!” Mirdew’s angry voice rang out as hundreds of goblins wielding swords and shields marched towards the camp.
“Get lost, I’m busy talking here!” Mirdew screamed and an immense pressure descended on the army sending them running. Fucking hell, good thing Mr. Egomaniac arrived or we’d all be dead.
“As I was saying… There should be a camp with other survivors like you sent from a bunch of different worlds, they also have magic terminals, although probably different from yours, I figured you’d be too dumb to handle a neural terminal without months of training, and I can’t afford for you to die from something stupid like flinching from a blue screen appearing during a fight with a dragon.”
“There are dragons?!” Nathanial shouted.
“Maybe. Okay, that’s it for today, and keep in mind that if all goes to plan, then the Fifth Game will begin in a mere twelve cycles.”