Chapter 222: Manifestation of Hatred
“Can’t we go any faster?” Eli asked from the passenger seat of their autopod. Jillian stood in the driver seat, but was leaning back somewhat relaxed. The pair were looking forward through the windshield of the small autopod as it drove calmly down the streets of their city, back towards their home. “Time is sped up there, every minute outside is 4 minutes in game.” Eli explained frantically, as if Jillian didn’t already know this fact.
“I’m not breaking traffic laws for this, Eli. It’s just a game.” She turned to him with a calm voice. “Whatever we lose, we’ll take it back. It’ll be fine. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me?” She raised her eyebrows at him once more.
Once again, Eli avoided the question and her eye contact, shaking his head in response.
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“Isn’t this enough?” [Synopse - Level 183] asked Makaroth. He was a tall human wizard with short stylized black hair, wearing fancy blue and black robes with a magnificent wildwood staff strapped to his back with a glowing white orb atop of it. Synopse stood atop the mountain to the north of Rene, and he and several other high level players were staring down at the town below - all of them wearing the Sages of Destiny guild tabard on the front of their chest armor.
“No, not yet.” Makaroth replied, standing in front of the group to get the best view. His face was glowing from the bright red flames of the burning town below. Pillars of black smoke were rising up from the razed town of Rene, blackening the otherwise clear night sky above.
“Unleashing that guy on this island is a bit cruel, I don’t feel good about this.” Another member of the guild, named [Calikgos - Level 180] commented.
“I know. It’s not our usual style.” Makaroth turned to the group, seeing all of them having similar expressions of doubt about what was going on. “But it’s my duty as a father to discipline my son, and teach him valuable lessons. This is a lesson he was never going to learn on his own. Thank you all for helping me with this.” Makaroth explained, and got a few nods of approval, primarily from a female cleric who was smiling at him, and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.
“Don’t worry, we all support you honey.” She smiled, the name [Lilya - Level 188] floating above her head. She was the closest in level to Makaroth, who now sat at level 195.
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“STOP THIS!” Amlie screamed at the top of her lungs. “STOP RIGHT NOW ZUON, OR I’M TELLING MOM!” She stood behind Artaphernes, Herilon, Sapphire, Quinn, Christoph, Travis, Ren, Farlion, Snowflake and Rakkan.
“Hah, uh oh Zuon, you’re lil sis is gonna tell on you.” Seraxus replied jokingly to Zuon who stood behind him. Hajax, Gambit, and a player Rakkan didn’t recognize named Sylvia also stood at his back. Zuon held his bow in his hands with several instruments floating behind him. Hajax held a scepter and shield, giving off a dark aura to his allies nearby. Gambit had his fists up, ready to fight like a monk. Slyvia had a staff in her hands, glowing black with energy that transferred to runes on her body - informing everyone that she was a warlock.
Lastly, and most importantly, was Seraxus, with his large black sword in one hand, a spear in the other, and 5 weapons floating behind him identical to the weapons that Rakkan used, but all looking of incredibly rare artifact quality with various glowing effects on them.
“C’mon Amlie, you know mom’s not going to care. Besides, this time it’s Rakkan’s fault.” Zuon shrugged, motioning to Rakkan who stood beside an angry looking Herilon and Artaphernes, weapons at the ready with grimaces on their faces. The entire street of southern Rene was illuminated by red flames from the nearby burning buildings, which Kayliera, the druid member of the Night Hunters was desperately trying to extinguish with water magic, but failing. The entire while she was doing this, Sylvia kept her eyes locked on Kayliera with a mocking smile.
“You won’t be able to put them out like that, lil druid.” Sylvia squeaked in an extremely high pitched, mousy voice. “It’s demon fire!” She added gleefully, shooting another blast of red flames out towards a nearby building.
“We gotta take out the cleric first, and the warlock. Don’t bother with Seraxus until he’s alone, his gear is too strong.” Quinn explained to the others, and got a few nods in return.
“Yo, Hajax, watch out, they’re comin’ for you.” Seraxus replied mockingly, having overheard Quinn.
“Don’t underestimate us just because you’ve got an OP weapon.” Quinn replied angrily, followed by a release of an arrow. The arrow split without her using words to cast, forming into 20 which she redirected around in the air above the street to maneuver them towards Hajax.
In response to this, Zuon strummed several notes of music on the instruments floating behind him, and Seraxus suddenly dashed forward with incredible speed. Artaphernes and Herilon both engaged with him, followed by Rakkan.
“Don’t let the black sword hit you, I can’t heal through that!” Sapphire instructed.
“Switch.” Seraxus shouted as he converged his floating weapons forward on the frontlines of Rene’s defenders. All but his crossbow had engaged the blades of the others, but the Crossbow had been sent forward high in the sky above the battle, and his cast of switch suddenly swapped his crossbow with the black sword in his hands, followed by him sending it down like a thrown spear down at Sapphire with incredible speed.
Sapphire was quick and saw it coming, hopping backwards to avoid it. While this happened, Hajax raised his shield up to block some of Quinn’s arrows, and avoid the others, and Gambit disappeared into the flames of the nearby buildings.
Snowflake and Farlion stood back behind the engagement in front of Amlie, looking tempted to join into the fight, but Quinn quickly held her hand out to instruct them to hang back. Once she was sure they were listening, she turned her bow towards the black sword pursuing Sapphire, and watched the look of pure fear on Sapphire’s face as she danced around the glowing black sword.
“Can you get this thing off of me?!” Sapphire shouted frantically, but looked over and saw Rakkan’s echoes, Artaphernes, and Herilon, we're all struggling against Seraxus. Unlike Joltblade, Seraxus’ movement was unreal. He continuously flipped, rolled, ducked and dashed around while manipulating his weapons simultaneously, forcing them to be completely on the defensive.
They managed to land several hits onto him, but were dealing damage only in the triple digits due to his equipment and bonuses from his black sword, and each hit he landed was stealing life and healing him back to full.
“Hey, hey, check this out guys…” Seraxus said, directing his words to his stream now as he suddenly stopped swinging his weapons around in lieu of standing completely still and crossing his arms. “No hands.” He laughed, letting Herilon, Artaphernes and Rakkan land dozens of hits on him for free, unflinching. “Yo you guys got some sweet mithral weapons, you mind if we take ‘em?” Seraxus asked Herilon as their eyes met, motioning to his mithral greatsword as it slashed into Seraxus’ body, dealing only 835 damage.
“I don’t even need to heal.” Hajax laughed from behind him, stepping forward with Zuon and Sylvia while Sylvia sent another blast of demon fire towards the nearby Lagnok pasture, destroying the fence and setting the field aflame. Quinn fired a pinning shot out at the blacksword to try and lock it down, but the arrow split on the blade upon impact, and this caused Seraxus to let out a loud laugh.
“Yo, she tried to pinning shot my sword.” He said mockingly, getting a laugh from Hajax.
“What are these noobs even doing?” Hajax shook his head.
“Peekaboo!” Gambit shouted suddenly, jumping out from a nearby burning building with his fists glowing yellow. He took a swing out at Quinn and forced her to jump backwards to avoid it, but it was a feint as his real target was Sapphire. Sapphire, focused on dodging swings from the deadly black blade, didn’t notice Gambit coming at her from behind.
“Sapphire!” Quinn shouted frantically to warn her, but wasn’t fast enough to react. Gambit, a high level 171 monk, closed the gap between himself and Sapphire in an instant and rather than punch her, instead pushed her forward into the black blade. Upon impact, the blade dealt a whopping 1,359,260 damage to her, killing her instantly, despite hitting her shield.
“Nice, new souls for the sword. Been awhile since we’ve had new players to PK since we’ve been stuck on Puagas.” Seraxus cheered as a black mist sucked out of Sapphire’s disintegrating body and was absorbed by the black sword.
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“Fuckers.” Quinn shouted angrily, aiming her bow at Gambit and releasing several shots in rapid succession. Gambit was skilled in dodging and deflecting the shots, but Quinn was no pushover and caught him off guard, managing to get a shot through and pinning him down with a shot in the leg that released vines into the paved stonework of Rene’s southern street.
“Uh oh, she’s kinda good.” Gambit said as he eyed the vines. “Need a root removal, Hajax.” He called out over the other fighters towards Hajax far in the back.
“Don’t think so.” Kayliera shouted as she joined the battle, doubling the roots on Gambit with a druidic spell while simultaneously, Quinn fired a red mark on Gambit’s chest.
“Rain of arrows.” Quinn roared angrily, firing her entire mana supply into an arrow that split into hundreds, and all converged on the red mark on Gambit’s chest.
“Oh shit!” Hajax shouted frantically, stepping forward a bit but reacting too late. Quinn’s arrows converged on the monk and killed him almost instantly, taking him out of the gameworld.
“One down, four to go.” Quinn declared to the others.
“Ah man…” Seraxus sighed in annoyance, unfolding his arms. “Gambit’s always dicking around. Alright, guess it’s time to stop messing around.” Seraxus began manipulating his black sword once more, sending it after Quinn and Kayliera. They did their best to avoid it, but it kept them preoccupied and unable to help with the rest of the battle in anyway. It was still somewhat manageable, until three arrows hit Quinn from behind, being fired by Zuon and redirected around the burning buildings to get at her from a blindspot. It pinned her in place, allowing the blacksword to cut her down in a single hit.
“Quinn!” Kayliera shouted anxiously, momentarily shocked by the death of their guild leader. She watched as Quinn’s black soul was absorbed into the sword, and this brief moment of distraction left her open for the sword to turn on her, stumbling away and eventually being hit by it as well.
“Whelp, there goes the back line.” Seraxus said nonchalantly.
“Nice shot, Zuon.” Hajax commented.
“Thanks.” Zuon replied proudly. Sylvia said nothing, but instead threw another ball of demon fire at Amlie’s farm fields, setting the crops ablaze.
“Zuon, stop this!” Amlie screamed angrily. Chax and Ruffily, who’d been gathering materials to try and start repairing the damage, arrived behind where Amlie, Farlion and Snowflake were standing.
“It’s getting worse, woof!” Ruffily said with wide eyes of terror, taking in the scene of the burning town.
“Can’t we do anything? This is a pretty shitty birthday present for Aegis to return to.” Chax said, turning to Ruffily with a look of desperation in his eyes.
“Until the fire is put out, we can’t.” Jorik replied, running up behind them.
“Alright, alright.” Seraxus shouted, jumping back away from Artaphernes, Rakkan and Herilon to get back to where his companions were. He looked unscathed, while Rakkan, Artaphernes and Herilon were all breathing heavily.
“This is impossible, how can that weapon be so fucking strong?” Artaphernes shouted in frustration.
“It’s because it scales, and he’s been scaling it nonstop since the game launched.” Herilon explained.
“You guys get it though, right? Ya’ll can’t touch me.” Seraxus explained to them, then looked beyond them at the gathering of crafters further north on the road, cowering behind Farlion and Snowflake. “I also don’t wanna get Zuon in trouble with his mom, so, here’s the deal.” Seraxus pulled his blacksword back into his hand.
“Rakkan, you’re the tough guy who started all this, right? You thinkin’ you’re hot shit just ‘cause you took out that nobody Joltblade. You and me, one on one, lemme put you in your place. You do that, and I’ll tell Sylvia to put out the fires for all those hard working crafters back there.” Seraxus motioned to Amlie, Ruffily, Chax, and Jorik.
Hearing this, Artaphernes and Herilon both turned to Rakkan, whilst Rakkan stepped forward with his echoes.
“Good man. You don’t wanna have a repeat of Puagas, right? Your boy Aegis wouldn’t be too happy to come back and see his whole island burned down, just ‘cause of you, right?”
“You can’t beat him, not alone.” Herilon warned Rakkan as he watched him step forward.
“It’s fine. This is my fault. Maybe if he kills me, he’ll leave the rest alone.” Rakkan replied, taking a deep breath as he lined himself up in the middle of the street a few meters away from Seraxus.
“Even though you’re weak, you got balls man. You really went through all this trouble to reroll and make friends with some Kalmoorian noobs, just to get back at us?” Seraxus asked him, raising his eyebrows curiously. Rakkan looked from Seraxus, to Hajax, to Zuon, and then Sylvia, all four staring at him curiously.
“Shut the fuck up.” Rakkan roared back, dashing forward angrily at Seraxus. Seraxus bent his knees as if preparing for Rakkan to engage, but instead he suddenly threw his blacksword up into the air like a spear, above Rakkan, Artaphernes, and Herilon’s head. They followed it with their eyes, caught off guard by this action - and by the time they saw what trajectory it had, it was too late. Seraxus used his advanced warmaster class skills to manipulate the sword at an extended range, and used it to cut through the crafters and Amlie, killing all of them - including Farlion. The only one who managed to avoid it was Snowflake, whose golem body dashed to the side in time to only lose one of his stone wings.
Rakkan, Artaphernes and Herilon looked back in horror at all of their bodies disintegrating, and their souls were absorbed by the blacksword. Meanwhile, Seraxus and Hajax burst into laughter.
“Oops, sorry, got your sis.” Seraxus said mockingly towards Zuon, who shrugged back at him nonchalantly.
“The fuck? You said you just wanted a duel? What kind of cowardly shit is that?” Herilon shouted angrily, stomping forward alongside Artaphernes.
“Haha, yo, you really think I’m gonna turn down free soul stacks? They’re all around me on this island. My sword is hungry.” Seraxus replied with a grin.
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Eli rushed into the house, Jillian following quickly behind him. Despite her calm demeanor within the autopod, once it had been parked she began moving with a level of urgency that matched her son. The two didn’t bother with their simulation suits - they threw off their shoes and ran right to their Simbox’s, shutting them and beginning their simulations as quickly as possible.
Both Pyri and Aegis appeared within the castle’s dining hall inside Rene, exactly where they’d logged out. Inside, numerous low level players and NPCs were all cowering and whimpering in fear to the sound of explosions outside. Aegis and Pyri glanced at each other, then the pair rushed out of the dining hall and through the main hall of the castle until reaching the outside streets of Rene.
It was there that they saw the blazing red flames that had erupted across the entire southern portion of Rene, with the black pillars of smoke towering up into the sky and blacking out the light from the stars and moon above. Seeing it in this state, both Aegis and Pyri glanced at each other once more, this time with looks of anger. Then, amidst the sounds of burning and crackling wood, they heard the sound of blades clashing coming from the direction of the town square. The pair broke into a sprint and arrived shortly after, watching as Seraxus cut down and killed multiple Rene guards, all while taking hits willingly from Rakkan.
“Look, it’s just like in Puagas. You get to watch everything burn around you, and you can’t do anything about it.” Seraxus said mockingly as he continued to kill the desperately fighting guards, despite Rakkan and his four echoes swinging at him.
“Yo, Rakkan, give it a rest already.” Hajax sighed as he threw out a heal at Seraxus to help him recover from Rakkan’s damage.
The last remaining two Rene guards charged forward on either side of Seraxus, maneuvering around Rakkan and his echoes, and Seraxus prepared to swing his black blade down on them, but the blade, as well as all of other Seraxus’ weapons were engulfed in cinderbolts and redirected into the paved stone ground of the town square.
“That’s enough.” Pyri shouted, drawing all eyes towards her and Aegis as they arrived in the townsquare.
“Guards, to me!” Aegis ordered the two guards charging at Seraxus, and they both complied, rushing over to him rather than getting closer to Seraxus.
“Oho, here he is.” Seraxus turned to face Aegis, while Rakkan looked towards Aegis shamefully and took a few steps back from Seraxus. Hajax, Sylvia and Zuon all moved to stand behind Seraxus and the two groups stood off from one another.
“Where’s everyone else?” Aegis asked Rakkan.
“He killed them already. Farlion… all the guards, except those two. Snowflake lost his wing, but I sent him away.” Rakkan explained. As he did, Hajax pulled out Herilon’s mithral greatsword from his inventory and started waving it around.
“Yo Aegis, you think you could make me something like this? A greatsword Isn't really my style.” Hajax asked before tossing the sword to the ground at Aegis’ feet. Following this, he and the rest of their group let out a condescending laugh.
“Yeah I want a pretty violin, like that one you made for Yumily.” Zuon joined in. Aegis didn’t reply, he just looked from Rakkan, to Pyri, then back at Seraxus, while simultaneously fastening his shield onto his left arm.
“That shield’s not gonna help you, bro.” Seraxus watched him equip the shield.
“Sorry… this is my fault he’s here.” Rakkan replied with his head down, frustration in his eyes.
“No. It’s not.” Aegis replied as he lifted his head and straightened his back.
“Yo Seraxus. I have a question. How’d you get to Kalmoore with that blockade around Puagas? Did someone give you a lift? Are you taking handouts now from PvE players?” Aegis replied with a mocking grin. Immediately, all of the laughter stopped and Seraxus glared angrily at Aegis. “Don’t worry, I would’ve turned my stream off for 7 days too if I was doing what you were doing.”
“Yo, fuck this guy.” Seraxus shouted angrily, preparing to rush forward at Aegis, but stopped as a puff of black smoke erupted in the middle of the townsquare between the two groups. Once it had cleared, Lina and Darkshot had arrived and were standing behind Aegis. Both said no words, but instead glared angrily at the high level Puagas players standing off with them.