“The Jukal have noticed your actions. Depending on reaction times, you can expect them to start moving within the hour.” Anna’s voice came from the air.
“Who is that? It sounded like Anna.” Induca looked upward.
Dave grabbed a Mirror of Communication and pressed a quick call number. It connected a moment later.
“Ready Pandora’s Box,” Dave said.
In front of his eyes screens appeared.
Quest: Defiance
You have foiled the Dark Lord’s plans and used his own power against his creations. He has marked you for revenge. There is only one way to stop a god: you must become one yourself.
So, you became a god and then you made your buddy the Dark Lord. Even I’m impressed, sure it was sneaky as hell, but who doesn’t like some rogue-ish action? Alright so I guess that you won’t be having any more troubles from that guy!
Requirements: Stop the Dark Lord from hunting you. By any means necessary.
Rewards: Legendary Item: Dark Lord’s Domain
Class: Defier
Stop the Dark Lord from hunting you
In front of Dave the shadows seemed to meld together and then float away, revealing a tome. Dave grabbed the book, frowning. He opened the book, his eyes went wide as information was poured into his mind, it was a legendary class ability.
It took just a few moments for the tome to load its information into Dave’s mind.
As the back cover closed, the book dissolved into dust.
Dave closed his eyes, focusing on what he’d learned.
Dave focused on the domain, it would basically increase his affinity to darkness around him within a certain area. It was one of the few ways that one might be able to boost their affinity above 1000, a realm at which people could freely become that element, destroying and creating their physical body at will.
To many this was a second life that would allow them to avoid dying, however the energy it needed was only enough to use it for a short period of time, sometimes only once in a few days as mana needed time to regenerate and your body needed to adapt.
New Class: Defier
So, well, it was you or him right? How the hell you did it? Still just whaaa? But anyway, you kicked some Dark Lord ass, killed his shadowy ass and we’re here now. Looks like you’re not willing to let your enemy live while you gain power. Ruthless. Good rule for life though!
Status:
Level 1
Effects:
You defy the odds and the Gods (Imma poet and didn’t even know it! Sometimes I’m just too funny).
Since you’re the first person to get this class we’re wading into the unknown. Let’s say you get a 10% increase to stats when fighting an opponent 20 or more levels higher than you.
+10% to stats when fighting opponents 20 levels above you.
Quest: Champion Slayer Level 4
Kill 100 Champions (117/100)
Rewards: Unlock Level 5 Quest
+10 to all stats
Increased/Decreased reputation with Affinities
400,000 EXP
Class: Champion Slayer
Status:
Level: 4
Effect:
+40 to all stats
Relationship with Affinities Pantheon:
Dark: Trusted Friend
Light: Despised
Water: Favorable
Fire: Trusted Friend
Earth: This is you, don’t really expect that it’s going to be much different than how you feel that day about yourself.
Air: Favorable
Quest: Champion Slayer Level 5
Kill 200 Champions (17/200)
Rewards: Unlock Level 6 Quest
Increase to stats
Increased/Decreased reputation with Affinities
Chapter 23: Pandora’s Box Opens
“What the hell is all that noise?” the Jukal commander demanded. He was in charge of the controllers that oversaw Emerilia and the feeds that went out to the Jukal Empire. He had just been cutting videos together of the latest battles between the Dark Lord and the Lady of Light when the different screens within the command center started to go off.
Since the last great battle, he had received accolades from his higher-ups and it seemed that even the emperor himself had taken notice of him.
Now he threw himself into his work even more. Hearing the alarms, his mind went back to the day where his name had risen into prominence.
“Sir! We’re getting reports that there’s a Jukal on the surface of Emerilia!” one of the controllers said.
“Well, Lo’kal is supposed to be down there somewhere. What of it?” the commander said.
“No, this person was caught with altering the programming within the game,” the controller said.
The commander’s face turned serious. “Alert the military. We might have an in-game hacker. What information can you pull up?”
“We’ve got a location of the hack. We’re pulling up feeds now. However, it seems as if the AIs are bugging out. They’re being complicated and not doing what we need them to,” one of the controllers said in a frustrated voice.
“Show me the feeds!” the commander said.
The main screen changed from the fighting that was happening on Markolm and instead turned to the interior of Dark’s hall.
People couldn’t see into the hall with normal sensors. However, the Jukal had made the halls for the different members of the Pantheon—how could they not know what was going on within the building that they had created?
The rough images were compiled slowly, coming into focus.
“What?” The Jukal controller changed where the cameras were aimed.
An image became clear as a tunnel appeared in the ground underneath the Dark Lord’s hall.
New alerts started to pop up at the same time as they were viewing the recording.
“What is it now?” the Jukal commander growled.
“Malsour has just been named the new Dark Lord,” another controller said.
“If I’m not wrong, then this looks to be the tunnel they used to enter the Dark Lord’s hall.” The first controller pointed to his screen as the tunnel continued forward to the hall.
“Speed it up.” The commander was excited, feeling as if his name would once again be raised up to the highest places within the Jukal Empire.
The tunneling sped up; the mining ended and then powerful magic was employed as the group cut through the ground and then smashed their way into the Dark Lord’s hall.
“The power readings—that must be Party Zero as well as Fire, Air, and Water,” one of the controllers nearby said, looking at the readings.
“Over the last couple of months, it’s gotten harder and harder to connect to their identity chips within their bodies,” the controller muttered to herself.
“We’ve got another alert—seems that we’ve got multiple teleports across Emerilia,” the controller who’d called out the Dark Lord alert said.
“Must be the gods moving around,” the commander said, dismissing it.
“No, all of these teleports were at the same time,” the controller said.
“How is that possible? Only the gods can do that and they can’t move to multiple locations at the same time.” The commander looked up from the sped-up feed of Party Zero and their gods rushing through the hall and meeting the Dark Lord.
“Bringing up the feed,” the Jukal said, inputting commands. For a few minutes, nothing happened. “Come on!” The Jukal hit the side of their console to aid it as mist sprayed down from above.
Finally, the image on the screen was resolved and showed a portal. There didn’t seem to be anything different about it.
“I could swear that the alert said that something had been attached to the portals,” the controller said.
“Well, seems that everything is fine,” the commander said.
“Sir, you’re going to want to see this,” the controller with the feed of the Dark Lord’s hall said.
<
br /> The commander looked back to the screen, frowning. He saw Dave cut Dark’s arm off and then teleport Deia away; then Dark couldn’t do anything to him as he tried to cast a spell through his AI.
“Okay, well, becoming a god, he can get the ability to teleport. Why isn’t the Dark Lord’s spell working? Was there an AI glitch?” the commander said.
“The AI registered Dave as not part of Emerilia. Instead, it said that he was a Jukal, thus the Dark Lord couldn’t do anything...” The controller’s eyes went wide.
Dave raised his hand as soul gem constructs rushed out to the divine wells.
“What are those?” the commander asked.
“I’m not sure, but they were able to break and re-code the divine wells,” the controller said.
The commander felt a bit of unease at it all but dismissed it. There had never been a problem with Emerilia before. “It’s probably just another glitch in the system. After all, we’ve never had players and POEs as gods before. Open up the AI logs and see if we can’t debug it. In the meantime, prep a video of them taking down the Dark Lord and remove the part about his spells not working—add in something in between,” the commander said.
“Yes, sir.” The controller watching the Dark Lord sent off the logs and started to hack together a video of the events that had gone on.
“The flying citadels have just reached Markolm. Party Zero as well as the gods have also arrived!” the third controller said excitedly.
“Come on, people, keep those streams live. This is some of the best content I’ve ever seen! I want it flying out of here as fast as possible. Call all of the editors and other controllers to work—we’re going to need them all to get this sorted out!” the commander said in a clear state of joy as he moved to his seat. Mist sprayed on him as he started to work his screens.
“Sir, we’re, uh, getting readings of Lo’kal teleporting people away from Markolm,” a controller said.
“That kook hasn’t done anything in a long time. Maybe he wants to save some of them.” The commander sneered and shook his head. “Just like when he made this planet all over again. Humans aren’t good for anything but providing entertainment. They’re all savages.”
The controllers all nodded in agreement. Humans were nothing but things to be watched and pitied for their savage ways.
“Now, get back to work. Lo’kal can do as he pleases unless it messes with the stream.”
The commander’s orders threw them into action as they worked to bring Emerilia’s latest content to the Jukal Empire.
***
Ela-Dorn looked upward as she listened to Jeeves’s voice that was being broadcasted across all of the Pandora’s Box Initiative’s bases and ships.
“This is not a drill. All vessels are to be manned and operation Pandora’s Box is to be started.” Jeeves’s voice continued on, repeating the same sentence in the same monotone voice.
Ela-Dorn heard it two more times before it settled in.
She dropped what she was working on and ran out of the room. Devastator-armored units that had been training now marched through Ice City to the three portals that connected them to the asteroid base. Carts were moving faster than ever, moving personnel and vital equipment and items from base to base.
Ela-Dorn opened her interface as she made it to a landing bay. Inside there were racks of carts, waiting for whoever needed them. She jumped into one.
“Moonbase!” she yelled as she looked over the information coming back from the massive portals within the moonbase, ark shipyard, and the asteroid base.
With a swipe of her hand, a real-time view of the original Pandora’s Box workshop came into view. There was little in there. People and items rushed through the now more than twenty portals between bases in the hub of portals. However, her view was not of this, but of the teleport array that Dave, Malsour, Steve, and Bob had built and used to open up portals on Nal, their gateway to the ice planet and asteroid base.
Now it was once again active. It showed a portal at the bottom of a bay, with Alturarans coming out of it through its event horizon. The crane pulled out what looked like packages of clamps.
These clamps were developed by Ela-Dorn, the Aleph College, and Dave. They were made to control the Jukal portals and also give them shields.
They were dropped through the event horizon. The clamps would be separated out, float around the portal and then attach to a shield, snapping up around it. It flashed with hits as the Alturarans coming through the portal smashed up against the shield, the energies tearing them apart on a molecular level.
The event horizon closed and the teleportation array once again dialed up another location and showed another portal. Once again the crane dropped in the clamps. They separated, runes flaring as they attached to the portal.
Ela-Dorn looked away from the screen and let out a breath. With the clamps, they could cut off and control the people who were entering Emerilia.
The cart she was on passed through a portal through to the hub, then back through to the moonbase. A Mana barrier appeared around the cart as she entered the shipyards for the missile boats.
There were now sixty of the missile boats, all in their slips. Their power plants flared to life as their runic lines came online, ready to move out. The crews rushed to their ships and their stations as engineers ran last checks on the ships and their systems, removing the umbilicals connecting the ship to the slips they were in.
The ships dropped downward once they were cleared and all their crew was onboard.
Dropping downward brought them to the large open space below, facing a massive circle formed of soul gem.
Ela-Dorn rushed toward this circle before she veered off toward a clear soul gem-covered control room that was off to the side of it. Her cart slowed down as she passed through a Mana barrier into a shuttle bay. She hopped off the cart onto the platform and ran into the control room. “How are we looking?”
“All systems are online and we should be ready to transmit,” one of the techs in the room reported.
“Good. How about the portals at the asteroid base?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“They’re ready,” the same tech said.
“Okay. And the covering for this portal?” Ela-Dorn looked to them, holding their eyes.
“Ready to blow it on your orders.” The tech pointed to a big red button behind a Mana shield.
Ela-Dorn shook her head. Steve had heard about their plan, so he’d snuck in one night and upgraded their simple red button to the massive fire alarm-sized button on the wall.
“Jeeves, let me know when all ships are ready to move and how long until the ships out scouting can be back?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“The military group believes that we have enough forces to hold Emerilia with what we have and have given orders to the ships scouting that they are to continue their operations and be ready to be put into action at a moment’s notice,” Jeeves said.
“Okay, that works for me,” Ela-Dorn said.
“Party Zero as well as Air, Fire, and Water have arrived at Pandora’s Box and are moving to the ark shipyard,” Jeeves reported.
Ela-Dorn didn’t say anything, merely nodding as she wondered what was happening on Emerilia.
***
Josh and Bob stood on Goblin Mountain’s Flying Citadel One as it cruised through the air.
The clouds that had been looming above Markolm were now disappearing as the golden shields shone brighter than ever in the sky.
Legions of angels rose up into the air, facing off against the flying citadels. The sky above Markolm was filled with what looked like glitter as the sun reflected off the legions of angels that were forming up for battle.
The sky between the citadels was filled with aerial forces from across Emerilia, looking like a black cloud on the horizon.
Bob smiled as he looked to his side, where the aerial forces were holding their formations between the flying citadels. “I was wondering when she would raise them up to be champions.”
Josh turned and followed his eyes as magical circles formed around the dragons that were part of the aerial forces. “I didn’t think she had the Mana wells for that, and why wouldn’t she have done that before?” Josh asked.
“She didn’t accept power from her followers, instead using it to make the Per’ush islands and try to help the people of Emerilia. However, she had saved up her own power and now she could unleash it to double the strength of her descendants. The reason she didn’t do it before is because it will double a person’s level, taking them from say Level 100 to 200. However, it is much harder to increase your level at Level 200 than Level 100. The longer she waited, the higher their base levels were that are now being doubled,” Bob said.
Josh nodded as the members of the Dracul family started to roar as newfound power rushed through their bodies.
One could physically see the changes as their bodies expanded, growing bigger and stronger. Their aura fluctuated as Fire poured power into them.
The wind picked up around Bob and Josh as Alkao and his advisers descended from above. He was in charge of the aerial forces of the Terra Alliance on this operation.
“We’re ready,” Alkao said simply, his eyes cold and merciless.
Trumpets were heard in the distance. The angels, feeling the enemy getting stronger, now rushed forward to join in battle before they were able to become stronger.
“Seems that they are, too.” Josh frowned. He had a chat invite through the Mirror of Communication at his side; he opened it up and connected to Dave.
“Activating the shields below,” Dave said.
Underneath Markolm, blue pillars shot up from the top of onos spreading outward, creating a Mana barrier that connected with the surrounding Mana barriers that came from the onos.
Josh changed channels as Dave closed off the chat, linking all of the flying citadel commanders together. “Begin bombardment.”
Cannons fired, the air rippling with the Mana ejection.
The rounds rushed through the air, hitting the angels’ lines and Maphrol, the capital of Markolm behind them.
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