Siva Chapter 00
Two Years and Nine Months After Release
Not every hero are born to save worlds. There is one who would even destroy it for his goal.
In the online world of RPG: Terroa, there exists a hero branded as an abomination. His name was, and forever shall be known as, The Destroyer.
The modern world was shaken by his arrival, the very air trembles when he breathes. His actions are recorded in history, he was a villain feared by all. In every aspect of the word "villain" itself, The Destroyer give pride to the ones in the same profession. But...
In every story passed down from generation to generation, there will always be the existence of the two sides of the coin.
One side belonged to what was intently believed by the masses while the other side is the truth and the real history behind the events.
These sides can never be equal nor will ever be fair for while the other gains favor and sympathy, the other will always be subjected to judgment and prejudice from the results.
It's a fact. It's the disgusting desease of society.
Not everyone is brave enough to look at the eyes of their foe and understand their actions for it is more comfortable to hate than to understand one's intent. They just chose the easier to believe side of the story since the majority stood on that common ground. This is ironically the result of the fear of being the "others" --the very same fear that gave birth to The Destroyer.
In all of this, through the course of chained inevitable events, this majority unknowingly made him stronger, pushing him to commit what he did this day...
***
--Release Date April 21, 2103
--2yrs and 9mos later
From left to right of his vision was the sight of the seemingly endless horde of users. They lighted their weapons, prepared their spells, pulled their arrows, and activated their war ships.
It was nearing 2 P.M. in the mighty city of Dakar, the city where almost all of the most powerful players of Terroa are now gathered.
—all against a single man.
Numbering around over 2 million, it was near 72% of the total numbers of all the B to S-ranked players in Terroa. In fact these numbers closed in to almost 99% of all the people with hidden anger and unfinished business with him….The Destroyer. This is the largest force ever assembled in the game and every media perks in the business is waiting in silence for the main person of this event to come.
Actually, this silence is lent upon by the anticipation of a decisive battle that might actually decide whether the peace of this world should exist or not.
The Panorama Corporation which created the game had announced their support of this endeavor but also told of their problem. Any avatar who dies in this battle will not be saved by the back up system anymore. It means that for every player that was covered by the insurance system, their insurance is revoked and they can’t buy back their dead characters, in exchange for the event’s reward money and the opportunity to use their very own insurances to create a new character instead.
For weak hearted players, this is such a huge gamble.
But for those players whose careers have been more or less disturbed by The Destroyer, this is just enough of a hassle for them to finally end his meddling activities.
His fame will end here.
Their overall commander, a short man from the Tekz Race, the leader of the so called The Union of the Six Federations army, stood mightily in the elevated stage in the front wall of the city.
The citizens have been evacuated, and this whole city that sized over 20,000 sq. km will become a battlefield from just a few minutes from now, if Intel is correct. A hot trail of wind was blowing from where they were facing and the heat of the Sol had made the plains wet with the sight of hot sand.
And just when the tension was rising to its utmost limit and with all of their confidence in their numbers all bid a smile in their faces, an information prompt on their visions popped up in a holographic display.
[You are inside the Killing Zone. Your defenses are reduced by 70%]
Their smiles instantly vanished and their tensed faces bade the ominous threat of such ability. No magic nor armor could protect any person from his Spirit and that’s what made him frightening. Of all the discoveries of the secret and hidden classes of fighters, his avatar’s build alone was the sole player who had gained and actually exploited RPG: Terroa’s only fault.
He exploited the fact that this game boasted a freedom that no other game had ever offered and used every nook the system had to offer to increase the affectivity of his ability.
And with this, the players that awaited his arrival for the ambush looked around them for signs of his image.
“Anything up there?” Called Commander Jack.
[Negative sir.] The officer in the watch tower inside the city answered on his communicator. [There’s not a sign of his…]
Then, it happened.
From 5km above them, the warships they thought was already overkill against a single man, exploded one by one as a bluish lightning strike traveled on them in incredible speeds.
Jack’s communicator echoed with reports from them and along with it was the sound of screams of their plead to life.
Pain is real in Terroa. And so when there is pain, fear will always be present.
The feeling of being electrocuted is there and one of The Destroyer’s ability is as such. He can wield four high level elemental magic at which was already impossible to achieve even with the pioneer users of the game. Without actually dedicating monstrously large amount of time in research, practice, money, the effort to gather the materials and resources to design one, and of course, trial and error, one cannot achieve such progress in both invention and magical ability.
One by one their ships exploded over their heads and they all looked puzzled as they trailed with their eyes how the blue lightning traveled from one ship to another.
Murmurs erupted, some even started to cower and run, as the might of the so called Destroyer showed why he was feared all throughout Terroa.
“Fuck! Shoot him down! Shoot him down now!”
[We can’t get a lock sir! He’s moving too fast!]
[HELP MEEEEEEEEE….]
[He’s a monsteeeeerrr…]
[Gwaaaaaaa…]
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck…!!!”
Jack had overused his contacts for this one, summoning eight warships just to kill a man was overkill no matter what eyes looked. Even with the already tentative 1.5M players who wanted to take part in the hunt, to actually reach 2M in total, it was already a feat. It shows just how much of a wanted man The Destroyer really is.
But with all impossibility that’s in existence, this one right in front of him is one that was really hard to believe.
The lightning strike stayed only a few seconds in one ship until transferring into another when it already exploded from inside.
No matter what he did, it was really impossible, a very frightening feat a user, and not an NPC Boss, could actually do.
Then, when all eight had already exploded, the blue lightning strike flew in a steady image in the clouds as if it was gathering strength into a powerful attack to the men below. As this thought entered his mind, Jack looked down on them all and gave a scream, “GET AWAY!” as the image of blue light in the clouds came falling right in the midst of the gathered forces.
At first there was an orange beam of light from the clouds. It wasn’t too vivid nor too transparent but to all whose reactions and perceptions were enough, the warning of such light gave them two seconds to run.
Upon the third, a lightning strike hit the middle of the northern flank and the impact was followed by a thunder that echoed from around 3km. Dust and rubbles flew and the clouds covered an area of around 100m from the impact crater.
As the smoke scattered, so is the smell of burnt meat.
Those players knew that whoever was there in the area where The Destroyer landed had been toasted to crisp without as much of a fight being thrown back. This is how strong this person is. It’s not just his Killing Zone but the way he manipulated the Magic Junction System to create this magical ability was terrifyingly genius.
“WHERE IS HE?!!”
An angry bellowing voice came from the middle of the crater area and its raging tone was enough to put everyone in there, staggering, with some taking a few steps back.
No one wants to meet a direct confrontation with this monster for they know he was as strong as a whole kingdom’s army itself. It was the reason why they gathered this numbers versus him alone in the first place.
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“WHERE IS HE…?!!”
He repeated the question. But this time, a jolt of blue lightning traversed the crater in several directions and it parted the dust clouds that covered him.
For the first time after a long time, they saw how this global fugitive looked like. A man dressed in black lower slacks and white upper polo, black layered hair that flowed brushed up, and a black mask that covered the upper part of his face, a domino, that was his sole redeeming factor.
It’s him. The man that destroys one city after another, always shouting for the same thing for its destruction.
“WHERE IS MY BROTHER…?!!”
Six random lightning traveled across all directions and whoever was hit by that attack burned, if they luckily wasn’t dead crisp like the others.
“What are you doing?!” Jack shouted on them. “Kill him! Kill him now!”
On the order, the players all had their unified screams as they attacked him from all directions. Arrows, spears, fireballs, ice paths, and many more kinds of attack flew at him as the target only did a step and then vanished from their sights.
When he appeared next, he was already above them, in a spat of rage that everyone felt in their cold spines.
The Destroyer dived down like a pointed tornado, with players being thrown away by the collision from his strike. Those who held high grade weapons tried to meet him but they were only met with catastrophe in a form of a black sword piercing attack.
Blood graphics and gore spilled all over him and the once elegant man in white formal wear had now fully transformed into The Destroyer.
This is the image they all knew. The person covered in blood of those who he defeated in battle, and still had the eyes that said he will continue more. This is how the game called Terroa came to be known as the world made of battles. Never stop hunting, was its motto after all. And as such, right at this moment, the conservative players who only wanted to take part in this event for the fame to gain backed out when they finally realized what grave mistake they had utterly made.
Cold magic flew as The Destroyer swung his sword, a reminiscent of the Tier-4 magic spell, Absolute Zero, that freezes anything the spell was cast upon. Only, the attack didn’t have the casting time nor its cooldown period as every swing and kill killed another and continued on.
Ten people is killed every second, and it was a frightening sight even to the media people watching above. Everything else was being broadcasted live to the real world and everyone expected that this is going to be the last time they will hear of his name.
“I’LL KILL YOU ALL…!!”
His scream was full of pain and agony, of hate and fury, of sadness and gloom. At that, another explosion happened inside the city as the fall of the warships seemed to be intended towards there.
Soon after, a fire explosion happened around the target as an advanced field magic that turned land into fire was cast upon where The Destroyer is. It sacrificed a few players in the process as friendly fire but it was one necessary sacrifice for the benefit of the many.
For two seconds no one moved. They all watched the fiery inferno with positive anticipation. But On the next few moments more, they only felt horror as it became a shock to them when they saw a silhouette of a person standing on its midst.
Even Jack was speechless as he saw for himself what he had seen many times in TV.
“Move! Kill him! Don’t give him a chance!”
And as if to answer his call, the black sword that The Destroyer had became white in the flames as if it was feeding on it while his whole body was still in fire like a blazing armor. He raised the sword and swung it down, it froze the caster and everyone around him and the fight earlier on initiated once again.
Fire and Ice met, they melted and froze, bodies were burned and frozen, screamed bellowed and the voices of those who fell in despair echoed in their ears.
But it’s only a matter of time before he gets tired.
This thought made Jack smile as he ordered for the rest of the men to converge on him.
“Use everything you got! Don’t think about friendly fire and just kill him and bring him down!”
Fog started to form in the battlefield, spreading from just over a hundred meters from the fight until reaching half a kilometer in diameter. And just when it finally reached where Jack was located, 65m high on the wall, a kilometer away, a buzz on his communicator device rang in his ear.
[…et…there…ir…]
The communication line was static and the line wasn’t clearly heard. But even through the interference, there are still a few words and sounds understandable, but not enough to compose a sentence nor a line.
“What?” He tapped the device on his ear. “What are you talking about? I can’t hear you clearly…”
[…ir…et…out…re…ow!]
“I can’t hear you!” Jack shouted and so he walked out of the foggy area and into the higher place, where the arbalest cannons rest. “Huh? Hey HQ! Say that again.”
[…lasma…field…get…men out…re…now!]
Jack tried to patch the sentence, murmuring. Lasma. Field. Get. Out. Ere. Now. Did he mean Plasma field? Get. Out. Now. Get… And it’s there that he realized so he ran down the edge and shouted on the men.
“GET OUT OF THE FOGGY AREA!!!”
And there came a static.
The blue light came in and it was just a short burst but at the next moment, a very large explosion occurred that shattered the wall, killed everyone in it, trashed the people at the edge of the foggy area and created a crater far large than the ones before. It’s even bigger than the foggy area itself since the impact strike was around 1km in diameter or even bigger. Adding the blast radius and the explosion’s impact itself that rattled everything close to a hundred meter, Jack’s mind rattled when he regained his bearing.
In Jack’s vision, a total of 600,000 people died in an instant. And at the middle of it all was a single standing silhouette, slowly walking, making its way towards the now broken wall.
Mouths agape, whispers were delivered, murmurs and whispers echoed around Jack.
The weak hearted ones started to run away and some of them who had Wing Sets started to fly away. To save what remained of their careers, even if the price was to surrender all of their high end equipments and money, they did the only rational thing to do at the moment. To run away from the man considered to be an invincible player in Terroa.
600,00 people just died in a single attack.
He had the fighting sense of a warrior born 500 years ago. He even have the intelligence of that which was born in 22nd century. A man who trampled over those 600,000 players in an instant…
Not even the strongest monster in Terroa was able to do that much damage. No. Not even the fabled dragons could do that much damage to an entire army.
And yet this man did the impossible.
Jack trembled. Because in the dusty fog that housed the silhouette of the man, were eyes, more frightening than the scariest demon monster created by the Neurolink Device’s special graphics engine.
Those were the eyes that transcends in-game quality of a death experience to teach people the realities of war--of the reality of fear.
Death is an ugly thing and it was always part of war.
And in order to save the world of such reality, all technologically advanced countries scouted genius scientists and engineers to create the world of Terroa. But through them all, the Panorama Corporation, a game company, was the one who succeeded first.
And with this great invention, even the UN, SAAU and the Atlantic Federation back in the real world had acknowledged their success. They supported the project and aborted the impending world war three.
But then again, this is just a substitute place for earth to do war. This is just a game. A recreational area. A place where people can relieve their stress, let go of the shackles of a pyramid society, and have a fun adventure that is impossible in the real world.
And yet how?
How is this person able to instill fear on these men?
The thought was unbelievable. This person wasn’t just randomly spouting that nonsense about his brother. Is he really looking for him? If so for what reason? No answer dawned on him no matter how Jack thought.
But through all his thoughts, one thing is for sure.
This man will destroy Terroa until he finds him.
Volume 1 (ch1)