Prologue
Alvin Stormbreaker kicked in the door of the throne room in the Demon King's palace. Dressed in golden dragonscale armor, each piece enchanted to the limits of the material and blessed by a separate deity of the Pantheon of Light, he made a truly fearsome appearance. He had lost many friends and allies to make it to this place, where he felt he would finally be able to lay their souls to rest after defeating the Demon King that he had been summoned to face what felt like twenty years ago.
He marched down the obsidian aisle, trampling the vibrant, rich red carpet, drawing his sword as he charged forward. The Demon King stood from his throne and began chanting a long spell as Alvin rushed down the carpet. When Alvin was halfway to the King, he was intercepted by the Succubus Queen, whom he had wounded greatly in a duel a month before.
"You will not stop my Husband... You and the Light always trying to purge our kind just for the fact that we don't age after hitting adulthood... Your Light is vile and tainted!" she screamed as they clashed swords.
"Your kind corrupt the mana gifted by the Light and cause the spawning of monsters!" Alvin snarled as he recited lessons he had been taught by the Church. "By the Light, be Purged!"
Alvin's armor glowed brighter and brighter, before a beam of holy light crashed into Succubus Queen, slamming her backwards until she cracked into the barrier between the King and the world, allowing the black mist that had been gathering around the King as he chanted to seep out of the barrier, preventing the barrier from repairing. The mist seeped into the Queen, healing her and sending her rocketing back towards Alvin, who had just used the first of three charges of Divine Purge.
He dodged a strike by the Queen, only to be smashed by her tail which suddenly had a huge mace head attached to the end, unlike its standard spade-like appearance. He grunted, stumbling back a couple of steps before catching his footing and attacking again, countering when the tail came around to attack him. He dodged, and lined her up with the barrier before triggering Divine Purge again, sending her rocketing into the barrier, cracking it further.
As she absorbed more of the black mist, her horns and wings grew, and the plate-like scales that covered her forearms, calves, and tail spread to cover the rest of her body, which expanded as more and more black mist was pulled into her. By the time she was back on her feet fully, she was now covered in black plates that seemed the equal of his own armor.
He used his third and final charge of Divine Purge, which stopped her charge, blasted her backwards through the barrier, where she crashed unconscious at the feet of the King, who looked extremely sad, his hands above his head as he chanted, a roiling ball of viscous black mana pouring mist down the stairs in front of him. Alvin snarled as he rushed forward. "AND NOW YOU PAY FOR THE DEATHS OF MY FRIENDS!"
"By the mercy of the spirits of yin and yang, return this hero back to the world he originated from! TRANSLOCATE!" the Demon King finished his chant just as the Hero's sword pierced into his chest.
The black mist wrapped around the hero, sword and all, and screamed out in pain as he felt all of the magic and power he had gained being stripped from him by the mist, before the world went completely black, the last thing he saw was the Demon King collapsing into his throne, blood flowing from the wound in his chest as well as from his mouth.
After a minute of darkness, a golden script appeared in the air before the Hero.
GAME OVER!
Result: Stalemate!
As you inflicted the dire blow against the Demon King, he managed to finish casting the spell of hero banishment, Translocate, returning you to your original world. After many months of absorbing miasma produced by his followers, the Demon King and his Succubus Queen regained their strength, and were unable to be ended by the Church of Light.
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Completion Score: 98%
Slowly, the darkness faded and there was absolute silence in the auditorium as he removed the helmet which had connected him into the simulated world of Rhigor. This was the World Championship of the Fully Simulated Reality Game of Rhigor XIX: Light's Final Purge, which was being held before the beginning of the beta for the very first Fully Simulated Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Game, Rhigor XX went into testing in a month. Rhigor XIX allowed a player to spend what felt like years or decades in the game, only for it to have been hours to pass outside, since it took advantage of full REM capabilities.
It had been decades in the work, and despite the critical acclaim of Rhigor XIX, it was still only a single-player game, despite how realistic everything inside had become. For the past five years, since the release of Rhigor XIX, the company behind it, Immersive Immersion Incorporated, or Triple-I for short, and ImmImmInc by fans, had been holding tournaments, in which the top ten players of each tournament would be invited into the beta for Rhigor XX, including being given special limited edition pods which included something that they had just finished successfully testing: Muscle Feedback.
As Jacob stood from the chair, the screen above his chair flashed with his results, only for the room to burst into cheers. It then went through many recorded scenes from his travels, including the hunting of the golden dragon and seeking the legendary materials from various other monsters as well as the final confrontation. Jacob had managed to work his way through the qualifiers and into this championship despite not being amongst the wealthy who actually owned a copy of the game.
He heard his opponent stir, and was about to go over and offer his hand when they ripped the helmet off their head and slammed it on the ground, cracking the expensive device as they cursed up a storm. Moments later, their result appeared on the screen above their chair, glowing a soft purple instead of the standard golden color.
Game Over!
Result: Overthrown and Crushed!
After betraying the king who summoned you and offered you the support of his nation for your service as Hero for the Church, you successfully took over the nation and performed a series of summonings for heroes whom you immediately sent off as cannon fodder. Eventually, those heroes, unprotected by the Pantheon of Light's blessing, which you refused to relinquish, were convinced to join the side of the Demon King.
They then returned while you were in the middle of summoning another hero, killing you and freeing the kingdom of your tyranny. After killing you and tearing down the church of the Light, they handed the kingdom over to the Demon King, who carefully saw to repairing the damage you had done to the well being of the Kingdom before pulling back to his own throne, where he held a celebration for the heroes you had summoned.
Completion Score: 28%
Jacob inhaled sharply at the revelation of this sort of ending, however it was by far the lowest completion score ever seen in one of these tournaments outside of a Qualifier.
"And with these results, we have seen two new endings discovered for Rhigor XIX, and still nobody has managed to reach the vaunted Completion Score of 100%... This year's Champion, and the person with the highest Completion Score recorded in a Tournament: Jacob Sorilin!" the announcer declared, waving towards Jacob, who looked completely flabbergasted. "Remember, fans, that the first fifty people who sends in a Helm Drive with a real 100% Completion will obtain a lifetime subscription to Rhigor XX as well as free updates to the latest developed pods a half year before release. All competitors here will receive the latest FSR Helm and a new copy of Rhigor XIX, in addition to their standard rewards. Let's hear it for our competitors, whom we hope to see as streamers in Rhigor XX when the beta goes live in six months!"