Prologue: War of Legends
A serpent swam through an ocean of clouds high in the sky. Some may have thought this monstrosity was flying, but that was a misunderstanding, this beast needed clouds to stay airborne. This blue-scaled beast ducked and weaved through the white mist, never rising too high above or too low below the clouds.
It’s elongated body stretched endlessly into the horizon, while the scales had a chameleon effect of blending in with the blue firmament and the white cumulonimbus. It's split iris had an amber glow that shined like a lighthouse through the dense white sea.
The goliath dove into my three teammates, its massive jaw dislocating as he stretched it wide ready to eat. As it spiraled down into the tower-like cloud, a bulge could be seen from its gullet as it constricted the newly acquired and still squirming food. The serpent had millions of dorsal fins made of an electric-like rock, which not only caused thunderstorms, but it helped the beast stabilize from its erratic maneuvers.
The clouds kept a pristine white color as purple tendril lightning bolts shot in every direction. The electricity shifted in a uniform direction and formed a tornado of blinding light inside of the core of the cloud.
Lightning burst upward as the serpent’s head rose to rejoin the battle, letting its tongue flicker from its mouth. Its very presence manifested a dense fog, the dew that covered its body evaporated from jolts of lightning that intensified the fog.
The name of this divine serpent was Leviathan, a naturally created entity that was born from heaven since the beginning of creation. The body stretched around the world three times over, hovering high above the ground.
The goliath was commanded by lazy gestures from a fluttering white-winged angel, scorn was etched on her soft face as she noticed that not only did one of my comrades avoid the jaws of Leviathan, but he was unperturbed by the lightning surges around him.
After she contemplated the cause for the immunity, her eyes narrowed towards me in the distance. She then noticed that the clouds around my ally and I were pitch black as opposed to the white clouds around her.
Any normal person would think that clouds turning black during a thunderstorm was natural, that would be true in most cases. The truth of the matter is, this grand and final battle in War Scroll was held in Empyrean, the highest heaven untouched by the laws of nature and man. Corruption in such a pure domain would raise an inquisitive brow, along with the presence of a demon such as myself.
My very attire was that of a businessman; a crimson suit and a black vest with a flowery gold pattern. My ram-like horns made me feel like the antithesis of what should be in heaven. A lit cigar with gold wrapping and a black metal brand sat in my mouth as I deeply inhaled.
Two bland-looking human servants, both of opposite genders to the other, had metal collars that were chained to my hand. Their inclusion in this war allowed me at least one or two wild cards if my team were to fall apart. They didn’t show any emotions as they were Non-Playable Characters or better known as NPCs.
A demon in heaven with slaves...it makes me chuckle just thinking about it.
“Dante,” the angel said in a soft voice carried through the rushing wind. “One of your allies have been consumed in a single fell swoop from a Calamity class monster, might you think your guild has lost this battle?”
I huffed my cigar and laminated, the current situation was abysmal and this serpent required over 100 regular players cooperating with dozens of flawless strategies in synchronization to kill it, but the game servers haven’t shut down yet.
2 minutes and 37 seconds
Till Shut Down
I stared at Virgil, noting that her Crown of Thorns was constricting to the point of drawing blood on her platinum blond dreadlocks. Her body glowed an ethereal blue from the status effects of the crown.
“The clock is still ticking,” I tapped on my wrist with a vile smile. “You think the last five players can let this game end with an anticlimactic surrender?” I rose my arms into the air and had a shiver run down my spine as I shouted. “MILLIONS OF SOULS BEAR WITNESS TO THIS WORLD’S END! AND OUR VICTORY WITH IT!”
This battle has been approved by the board of developers and the marketing team for War Scroll, the top five players in a one on four-fight for supremacy. As it does seem one-sided, the truth of the matter is that Virgil acting as the sole combatant would be unfair if not for her ranking as the number one player in the game’s history, albeit because of her function as a support for a team. So the minds behind the game decided to allow her the ability to control one of the strongest beasts in the game. So, to market for the sequel to this game, they decided to stream the battle live on their official website and the decided victor’s prize would be the inclusion of their characters in the following game’s story.
Virgil sighed, the stakes were too high to allow a support class opponent to survive. Slowly she guided her hand in my direction, Leviathan then shifted its head in the same motion, ducking its head into the clouds, with a trail of purple light following his movements towards me.
Desecrate Grounds Spell:
Devil’s Presence
The smoke from my cigar shifted from grey to black, then it charged towards the angel as if it had a mind of its own, slowly tainting the clouds the same color as it grew closer.
Desecrate Grounds was an exclusive spell type that was dedicated to Evil Clerics, a hidden archetype among the main 3: Warrior, Mage, and Rogue. The spell entailed the ability to curse an area so that allies may have a boost in attack, defense, and immunity towards some elements and debuffing enemies to lower the prior mentioned stats along with vulnerability to most elements. Devil’s Presence is the highest tier in that category, immunity towards all elements besides Holy.
Of course, I was the shadow to Virgil so to speak, She was a Holy Cleric ascended to an Archangel and I an Evil Cleric ascended to that of an Archdemon. She also had similar abilities such as Consecrate Grounds which amounted to a consistent healing factor to allies and immunity towards most elements besides Dark.
Her command to Leviathan gave me an opportunity to shift the tides of the battle and expand my domain on the battlefield. Solely for the reason of multitasking, when you cast a spell or shift to command an ally, you lose concentration in a spell. Although this wasn’t a problem if you were of a higher level, unfortunately for her, we were evenly matched, just like the age-old battle between light and dark.
The dark clouds close to me shimmered with a purple glow, the danger was approaching as the light grew brighter by the second. The situation may be grim, but the advantage gained was insurmountable.
Leviathan left his safe zone and entered my Desecrated Grounds, defeating him was no longer an impossible feat.
Unexpectedly, the serpent hissed in pain as its wincing face flew skyward a foot away from me. Blood spurted from its mouth as red numbers in the 6 digit range faintly glowed above his head, and the number kept climbing rapidly.
“DANTE!” Virgil trembled with wrath, contrary to angels supposedly embodying the 7 holy virtues. “What did you do to Leviathan!”
Although Virgil’s ranking was unmatched, a cleric was a cleric. A supporting role within a team, as a player alone she was about as physically inept as a toddler fighting a soldier, but as a member of a team, her skills would make a company of novices defeat any veteran team.
Leviathan was her queen of the chessboard so to speak, losing that beast would result in checkmate.
I, myself was surprised at this turn of events myself. Examining the situation a bit closer revealed the bulge in his gullet made no progress to its stomach, as the food writhed around spasmodically.
Ah-ha
I choked on a bit of smoke as I chuckled at my revelation. It appears that one of my teammates actually got eaten by Leviathan, the only speculation I had as to why it took so long for the damage to start to take a toll was because the serpent kept itself within Virgil’s Consecrated Grounds, instantaneously healing any wound inflicted onto its insides. Meaning the moment she allowed her queen to attempt a check on the king, she would lose it to the very piece she thought she had taken.
My mind thought about who might be inside the belly of the beast, I shifted my glance at my first comrade to appear after the serpent’s strike. The cloaked mage was taking his time delaying spells for an instantaneous strike of complied effects.
Well, it obviously isn’t Vinea.
I shifted my gaze from side to side to find the rogue, but their work is better suited in the shadows out of people’s perception. He was possibly organizing an assassination strike or some sort of unexpected alternative.
Not Baal either, there’s no way he could inflict 6 digits worth of damage.
So by order of elimination, it had to be the warrior Asmodeus. Perhaps that brilliant man anticipated this turn of events. Behind the avatar, the man was a retired military tactician for the American Military. Although self-sacrifice was a bold and foolish gambit no matter how you looked at it if he would’ve stayed a minute longer on Virgil’s grounds while in that beast, he would’ve surely perished. Now that he’s over in my domain, he’ll be able to reside in that serpent for as long as he pleased, and since there are no scales inside of the gullet to act as a defense, it will fall within minutes.
With a confident smile, holding my hands up and twinkling my fingers, I taunted her inquiry, “~Maaaagic~”
Her rosy lip twitched upward, “I haven’t lived 32 years to be laughed at!”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“I haven’t lived 61 years to be schooled by a youngin,” I huffed some cigar smoke in her direction, as Leviathan sprayed more crimson rain from its mouth.
The serpent twitched as its eyes darted in every direction, lightning danced with the blood in the air but held no shocking touch when it kissed me. The beast held hostility to me as its only opponent within its range of vision, it then proceeded to dive like before.
Paralyze Spell:
Draconic Venom x7
Spectral chains manifested in the air, piercing the serpent’s soul. A purple hue colored the chains as flickers of black embers danced lightly around it.
Normally Leviathan would be unaffected by such a spell type because of its immunity, but since he was in my domain his immunity was stripped. The main cause for concern was that his power was still overwhelming, even if his immunity was taken away, a high-level spell of paralyzing would just slow it down. Venea took his time preparing 7 consecutive delays of the same high tier spell while attention was on me, causing the goliath to freeze for a little bit of time.
Virgil was livid at this point, stomping her sandal on the non-existent ground. She held up a scepter of a golden dragonfly that had rubies for eyes, then slashing it down in my direction.
“Feel the wrath of God!”
Mass Summon Divine Prayer:
Rapture
Countless wisps of blue motes gathered above the clouds like an inferno, each one grew into the shape of a human being. Most of the vanguard were naked humans, both male and female with a variety of weapons ranging from swords to maces as they marched onto my territory. While the ones closest to Virgil were fully suited in knights armor and stood still in her safe zone.
It was interesting to note that a lot of the faces of these specters were NPCs in the story of the game.
Most notably was the figure in front of Virgil had an ethereal crown and a royal cloak, brandishing a longsword.
His name was King Vladimir, and he played a pivotal role as the subjugator of demi-humans and the leader of the Coalition of Humanity.
Which to make things short and sweet, was an alliance between world powers to defend the world from false gods who wreaked havoc on the world of Sheorth, and demi-humans who were persecuted because of their appearance.
Funny enough, the evil deity I devoted my character to for power, was the one responsible for tricking gods to invade the world of mortals.
So, she’s sacrificing the pawns to buy time for Leviathan to be released while keeping her useful pieces as a meat-shield.
1 minute and 3 seconds
Till Shut Down
That countdown was infuriating, why would they give us so little time for a fight of such grandeur. More to the point, how can we end the fight in one move?
I just had to buy time for my allies to come up with some reckless plan, so I unsheathed a demonic ceremonial black dagger. The edge of the blade was coated with so much blood that a faint trail of rust could be seen.
I pulled forward one of my servants towards me, causing the young man to fall on his knees. He looked into my eyes with an empty expression. His copper hair was unkempt from the influx of electricity exuded from Leviathan’s frame. Eyes widened as he followed the demonic blade plunge towards his abdomen and slide up to his throat. Blood sprayed in a ludicrous amount as it got tainted more and more black.
Mass Summon Sacrifice:
Apocalyptic War
Each droplet of blood separated from one another, crimson beads held in stasis at different elevations that matched the number of troops brought forth by Rapture. The droplets expanded and took a demonic form of petty monsters from hell, ranging from imps to small whales to antlions.
Both Apocalyptic War and Rapture were both major spells that didn’t require mana to summon, but their only efficient use was to act as meat-shields and buy time. As all of the creatures that were summoned were of either low tier or middle tier quality, which even a single veteran player could defeat if given enough time.
“Two can play at that game!” I shouted to Virgil as I unhooked the servant’s collar, casting him aside to plummet from heaven to earth.
Virgil clicked her tongue as she changed her divine army’s target from me to my own hellish army.
The mist was still dense enough to make both armies partially invisible, it had gotten so bad that I’ve lost track of my comrades.
The war between good and evil was about to begin in all its vile glory.
Civilian-looking spirits clubbed their maces at mothmen who in return sunk their fangs into the spirits. Knights cleaved chamroshes, which was a creature that had the body of a dog and the head and wings of an eagle. A minotaur rammed its horns through two women, both flailing their swords as they burst into bright blue glitter.
I decided to give my side more of a winning edge by shifting things into my favor, I pulled out a small glass vial of black slime, crushing it in my hand I threw the vile nectar into enemy forces. The moment it hit an individual spirit, I snapped my fingers to activate the ability.
Contagion:
Plague of Death
Contagion was an ability that I exclusively used in raids. It was at its best within condensed and populated areas, acting as a poison within a target and would spread as inflicted targets would die, effects would vary on what type of contagion was used. Plague of Death, in particular, was disliked by the community for its mix of effects.
A singular human spirit began to suffer from boils popping up one by one, his pace slowed down as fatigue hit him like a carriage. Hugging both sides of his chest, he began coughing a white glowing ectoplasm as if it were blood. He eventually fell on his knees, then his sides as he cradled himself into the fetal position. It was soon after his passing that two other spirits began to experience the same effects.
Players were outraged that this ability would double in infectivity instead of having a set number of infections per death, and what drove people more bitter was that death was imminent if you were of a lower level than the spell caster.
A pack of barghest led by Cerberus began to chomp on soldiers' necks, viciously tearing them apart limb by limb as each appendage blew into glitter. While a group of archers behind those poor vanguard souls shot a volley of arrows into the pack.
Manticores flew in droves over the divine army, using their scorpion tails as lances for skewering the archers. Who in turn got mounted by knights, who slit their lion throats. Causing the Manticores to explode like balloons filled with red jelly.
I inhaled my cigar, although I didn’t feel the nicotine from it, the cigar itself was merely for aesthetic reasons. As well as a reflection of my real-life habit which I’ve been meaning to quit for 40 years now.
My army was dominating the battlefield, the contagion was cutting enemy forcing down in half in a matter of minutes. This allowed my demons to hold superior numbers and essentially handing me victory on a silver platter. Now, this...this is a war fit to serve as an ending to the game...Huh? My health began to drastically decrease and my servant would have nearly died if not for the fact that she was linked to my health bar. I frantically searched around for what was the source of this madness, there were no enemies nearby attacking me nor long-ranged spells being launched toward me. It wasn’t until I looked at the ground that it all became clear.
White clouds were seen everywhere and Leviathan who was healed from its wounds and paralyze was staring into me, inches away from my face. That damn woman consecrated my grounds while I conjured my own army and spread my contagion! The serpent flicked its tongue at me while it opened its jaws slowly to devour me like my companion Asmodeus.
“Game Over, Dante!” Virgil exclaimed with a smug smile, her posture became relaxed and lazy as she leaned back into an invisible wall in the air.
NO-NO-NO-NO-NO!
I glanced over to Vinea who was kneeling on the clouds, suffering from Leviathan’s electric cloak since my grounds were consecrated, we were both in the same predicament. A sacrifice spell would help if the cool-down time wasn’t so long, speaking about time. It appears that my victory was a mere illusion, a trick of the light so to say.
8 seconds
Till Shut Down
I racked my brain for any solution to imminent defeat until I noticed a quick shade pass through the specters and the clouds. With a quick leap, a cowl covered head was behind Virgil with a dagger brandished against her neck.
“Game Over, Mantuan,” Baal stated solemnly.
Virgil slowly crept her eyes towards her attacker in fear, that name should’ve been under careful wraps. Unfortunately enough, she didn’t turn her head enough for her avatar to ‘notice’ my ally.
Assassination Skill:
Dagger of Damocles
This skill was my favorite in the game, specialized to Rouges, it’s damage output was stronger depending on how high either an NPC’s status in royalty was or how high in the leadership board a Player was. Needless to say, this move would be an insta-kill if contact was made. The only downside to the skill was 2 requirements: The user must remain hidden for the skill to take effect as in avoiding visual contact, and the player must not inflict any damage prior to the use of this move. Luckily for us, Baal withdrew from the battle for this gambit to work.
To seal the deal, he used Name Domination to debuff Virgil by 35% on all stats. Which was an odd mechanic implemented in the game that affected every Player. To begin with, when a Player creates a new character you're presented to make a true name for your avatar along with an alias. If an enemy ever ascertains your name, your character will temporarily experience debuffs that add by 35 percent to the target for every part of the name mentioned; First, Middle, and Last. We spent a lot of time and resources trying to ascertain her name, Vinea had a master level spell that could give an anagram of a player's full name to a spell caster but that only incentivized players to make longer and longer names during initial character creation.
I was about to shout with joy when a notification window popped up in front of my face when I tried to motion to close the window...I couldn’t move my avatar. I glanced at everyone else and noticed that all of the other players had a similar pop-up window in front of their faces as well.
All motion seemed to stop, even the finishing blow.
I focused on the text in the window and saw alien characters slowly decorate the screen. Each individual letter seemed like it was plastered on an invisible cube because when each letter was translated it flipped in different directions and was replaced promptly with a readable character.
Error
[ //WhEn GoD cReAtEd LiGhT
wAs He ScArEd SoMeThInG mIgHt StEaL iT?//]
=_-//oR//-_=
[//DiD hE tRuSt NoThInG mAy EvEr Be CaPaBlE oF DoInG sO?//]
Error
Alright, so it looks like a hacker wanted a piece of the limelight and really screwed up the most climactic moment of the battle. It was infuriating when people feel the need to show off their intellect in this kind of disruptive matter.
More towards the question, what the hell does it even mean? It's meaningless in every sense of the word. God created light because humans needed an explanation as to why there was a bright star that lit up the day. Furthermore, if the light was something feasible to steal, big whoop. What could we even use it for? To move at the speed of light? infinite energy? The answer to the question was obvious, if God existed, then he would be certain that no one could steal something untouchable.
“Screw it,” I couldn't shut down the pop-up, so might as well click one of the choices.
I focused my eyes on the second option and a small countdown appeared at the end of option B, it was a small safety system to ensure a player wanted to choose an option and gave ample time to look away to restart the timer.
A tiny ping sound rang in my head, as the last text box appeared.
SYSTEM RESTORED
UNBEATABLE DIFFICULTY SETTING SET.
YOUR ROLE HAS BEEN ASSIGNED.
YOU SHALL BE THE HARBINGER OF DARKNESS.
SINCE GOD ISN'T AFRAID, MAKE IT SO.
TO CREATE A DOMINION AND ELIMINATE ALL WHO OPPOSE IS YOUR GOAL.
…
GOOD LUCK.
~O=O~
SYSTEM RESTORED
“The hell are these edgelord kids comin’ up with these days?” I really couldn't fathom why these hackers always felt the need to be so cryptic when they send messages.
Back in my day, kids would just tea-bag other players on FPS’, I didn’t work all my life to retirement to have my day ruined by some wanna be Zero Cool hacker.
It was at this moment that events replayed in my head like a shotty film wheel. Replaying from each moment in this battle, to when I started this game, to when I retired from my job as a car salesman. The wheel of memories went backward faster and faster, my wife’s funeral to our honeymoon to the day I proposed to her by the ocean beach in the night. Family members whished passed like phantoms and my children reverted from adults to teenagers to toddlers to babies. Then it all ended to the point where I came out of my mother’s womb.
“What..the...fu-” my game avatar began to dissipate into a collection of shining stars, which collected into a singular bright light. I watched all of the other players collect into bright lights as well.
Four bright lights were shot into all four directions across the now black sky.