by EA Hooper
The Demon Lord grabbed Fynn by the throat, but he Scanned the attack as well.
Life Render (Requires Breaker | Requires Lifeforce Strike | Upgraded) – Mana Usage: High | The user sacrifices 50% of their body’s lifeforce to generate an extremely powerful Breaker. This attack has all the upgrades of the user’s normal Breaker. | Upgrade – Sacrificial Finish: If this attack impales an enemy, the user can sacrifice the rest of their lifeforce to send a devastating wave of Breaker energy through the target.
Before Noah was halfway done with the text, Breaker magic exploded throughout the Demon Lord’s body, launching him and Fynn in opposite directions. Noah ignored the pain of his internal organs being liquified, and instead he finished reading the impressive spell’s text.
“Lucky me,” Fynn said, rising to his feet. “Thanks to Isaac’s runes, I can use that attack all I want without dying. So, don’t get any ideas about following them underground.”
Jim, Lemm, and the other devils formed a brigade behind the Demon Lord as he climbed to his feet.
Gwendolyn Vanished to Fynn’s side, and already other players had grouped behind them.
“Fynn, I didn’t know you were so cool!” Gwendolyn said. “Is this what it’s like to be on the good side?”
“How noble,” the Demon Lord said with a chuckle. “We’ll see how long that lasts after I’ve killed you a hundred times.”
“I killed a guy a hundred times once,” Fynn said, readying his blade. “He didn’t give up, and neither will I.”
Chapter 24 | Year 93
Player: Vincent the Builder
Location: Styxis (World) | Risegard (City) | Southeast Ruins (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 186
Spirit*: Lv 196
Resolve: Lv 178
Perception*: Lv 201
Agility: Lv 186
Strength: Lv 185
Vincent continued to burrow through the ground while raising walls behind their group. Eventually, he opened a hole into the massive trench that circled around the city. He received a message from Fynn saying he was fighting the Demon Lord to give them time to escape. Vincent thanked the man, although he wasn’t sure where they were escaping to or if they should leave at all.
The walls of the massive trench were too high to jump, so Vincent launched his teammates onto the ledge one by one with Zero Field. He barely made it out himself before portals opened across the channel, releasing hundreds of hell ants.
“I’m glad I didn’t finish that trench,” Vincent said. “At least players still have a path to escape the city.” He glanced toward the unfinished section, noticing more devil portals opening. “Let’s get away from Risegard for now.”
“What’s our plan of action?” Quinn asked as they hurried away. “We can’t just leave Jim and everyone behind. How the hell did he even get possessed?”
“I don’t know,” Vincent said, trying to think. “I didn’t know the devils had that power. Who knows how long it lasts.”
“I’ve seen this before,” Juniper said. “I tagged along with a party to take on the Nightmare Court once, and they offered one of our members a Soulbound item if he let them possess his body to fight against us. After we killed him, he respawned as normal.”
“It’ll be tough to kill him with restoration runes everywhere,” Vincent said. “The bigger problem is that he’ll respawn at the Daiglass Tower that Isaac controls.”
“You really think Isaac was part of this?” Quinn asked.
“He has to be,” Vincent said. “Those runes are layered into the blocks he uses for construction. The Foundry is clearly powering them, and he even had me dig a big trench around the city, making it harder to leave. The only question is how to stop him.”
“We need to destroy the Foundry,” Juniper said. “Then his runes will stop working, and we’ll be able to clear out the monsters. The toughest problem is getting past the Eternal Ring.”
“If I had a stronger void attack, I could break it,” Vincent said. “Maybe that new spell I’m working on could do it. Also, destroying the Foundry is easier said than done. Isaac has hundreds—if not thousands—of drone knights there. Then there’re devils, the Demon Lord, Jim, and anyone else they manage to possess. If we actually get past the Eternal Ring, they’ll send everything at us.”
“It sounds like we might as well stay here and level grind a few years,” Quinn said in a depressed tone. “Eventually, the players here will get strong enough to overcome all those obstacles. Maybe we’ll overpower the runes and kill Jim at some point. If we could force a Lotus Capsule in his mouth, that’d do it.”
“Isaac has probably thought about tricks like that,” Vincent said. “He knows what kind of obstacles we overcame at the Battle of Midrun.”
“I’m sending messages to Valery and Zhang,” Xan said. “We’re going to need their help with this.”
“I agree,” Vincent replied. “Although, Valery’s Mod Gun won’t be much help when they have negative energy on their side. Although, she could teleport people to safety, at least.”
“Valery?” Juniper asked. “That mod Lucas held captive? As a mid-tier mod, she’d only get one teleport a day that can bring two people with her. It would take years to rescue everyone, and that’s assuming they don’t capture her.”
“Isaac’s probably already thought about what to do if and when Valery arrives,” Vincent said. “That might be why he had Jim possessed. More negative energy users make it more difficult for Valery to clean up this mess. That means Quinn and I are clear targets as well.”
“I’d never agree to anything,” Quinn said. “Not even if they tortured me for years.”
“Quinn, I don’t want you to get tortured,” Xan said, making a sad expression. “Oh no. Do you think they tortured Jim? Is that why he agreed?”
“Let’s hope not,” Vincent said.
“So, what’re we doing?” Quinn asked. “We know they smashed one Jump Gate, and I assume they got the other too. That doesn’t leave us with many options other than going back to fight, taking the branch, or getting teleported away by Valery.”
“That’s not true,” Vincent said, remembering his upgraded tome. “My Builder’s Tome just unlocked Jump Gates. Give me a second to check it.”
Vincent equipped the tome and flipped to the page for Jump Gates.
Jump Gates
Basic (200,000 BP) – The most common type of Jump Gate.
Mini (100,000 BP) – A small-sized gate that can only take the user a distance up to three Jump Crystals away. Players cannot link crystals when using this gate.
Landing Pad (75,000 BP) – Players can jump to this platform, but they can’t use it to launch themselves.
More types available at Grade 3.
Vincent checked his Builder Points, finding that cheating the Boss Hunters as they brought him gild for the trench had netted him around three hundred thousand points to use. “I can make basic gates, shorter-ranged mini gates, and landing pads for one-way trips,” he explained to his friends.
Vincent looked up to make sure they were in sight of Lavrin, the Dead-World covered in reddish clouds. They searched the nearby landscape, trying to find a place to hide the Jump Gate. Xan contacted Valery, and the pair talked over private chat while Vincent found a good spot.
Xan sighed and glanced at her teammates after a long conversation with Valery. “She tried to contact Isaac, and he basically admitted it was all his doing and tried to goad her into doing something about it. It’s an obvious trap, and Valery is way too cautious after Lucas captured her.”
“So, the only moderator in the game isn’t coming to help us?” Juniper asked.
“She says she’ll help on two conditions,” Xan replied. “The first is that we find a way through the Eternal Ring. The second is that we put together a suitable army.”
“I’ll send out a guild alert,” Vincent said. When he went to the guild menu, he discovered Jim had passed
ownership to him before removing himself. Sadness fell over him, knowing how much the Crickets meant to his friend.
Vincent made a guild alert to explain the situation. Within minutes, he received a flood of messages from guildsmen begging to know how they could help their friend Jim. He sent a mass reply giving them instructions to gather equipment and to provide him with their coordinates. Even if Valery wouldn’t teleport to Styxis directly, Vincent hoped she would at least bring people to Cryasal.
Their team searched for another thirty minutes before finding a suitable spot for the miniature Jump Gate. Vincent placed it in a ditch between two blackened, long-dead trees that had rocky hills on both sides. He stepped onto the platform, though his heart felt heavy at the thought of leaving Jim behind.
The ghostly apparition of Izrid, First King of the Devils, appeared, startling Vincent until he remembered the quest he’d agreed upon. The devil raised a long-nailed finger, pointing at Elfry where his vengeance awaited.
No time for quests, Vincent thought. This is way more important.
The apparition flashed a sharp-toothed smile, almost as if aware of his thoughts. With a quick bow, Izrid disappeared from his view.
Vincent used the three Jump Crystals necessary and launched himself toward Lavrin. He’d heard enough about the world that he didn’t care to Scan it. After flying through space, he passed through the swirling red clouds and noticed all chat sessions besides his local party became disconnected.
I almost forgot that communication is limited on Lavrin. Guess I’ll need to jump to Cryasal any time I want to check my messages.
Once he escaped the clouds, Vincent saw an endless marstone maze stretching in all directions. Before landing, he spotted an outpost in the distance. That’s the one Juniper told me about, he realized. The one built by the Great Vanguard decades ago.
Xan landed next, then Juniper, and finally Quinn. They stepped off the gate, finding themselves in an intersection of the maze with six branching directions. Vincent noticed the gravity was even higher than on Eramar, possibly five times that of most worlds.
“Let’s head for the Eastern Hemisphere, then Vince can make a miniature Jump Gate to Cryasal,” Juniper said. “Once there, we can set new spawns, but we need to play it safe until then. This world is exceptionally dangerous, and if any of us die, we’ll fall right back into Isaac’s hands.”
The other players nodded in response, but they all had a solemn look on their faces. Vincent had heard all sorts of horror stories about Lavrin, tales that made Eramar seem like a fond memory.
“So, I never actually made it past Lavrin,” Juniper admitted. “A World Boss guards the Jump Gate to Cryasal. I had several different teams wipe at the boss, but I know the best path to reach that hemisphere. The plus side is, we won’t have to challenge it, thanks to Vince’s tome. We can take this path through the acid pits, then find a place for the gate.”
Vincent looked at the towering, spike-tipped walls of the maze. With that world’s high gravity, he didn’t think he could make it over the wall even with Zero Field. He wondered if they could dig underneath the walls, but when he asked Juniper, she explained the marstone continued downward the same distance it went up.
“Maybe you could open them up with your tome, though,” Juniper noted.
“I can burrow through marstone, but it costs more than most materials,” Vincent noted, checking his Builder’s Tome. He noticed that the second grade had also opened the possibility of building things with marstone.
Juniper stopped at a wall where the maze made a sharp turn. “There’s normally a path here,” she said, placing a hand on the wall. “Can you bring it down, Vince?”
Vincent nodded, and Juniper moved away from the wall. For a few hundred Builder Points, an entrance appeared. Three hell ant knights and two workers stood on the other side, and they turned to attack the players without hesitation. The two workers sprayed acid at them, but Xan blocked it with a Barrier Wall that melted away.
Knowing his teammates could handle the knights, Vincent focused on the workers. He saw one raising an arm, causing the ground and walls to liquify. Vincent shot three Void Guns through its head, destroying enough of its brain to kill it. He held up his Builder’s Tome and spent a few hundred points to undo the earth-shaping magic the ant had used.
The other worker cast a spell that caused the ground to ripple in front of Vincent. A wave of spikes jutted outward, but he stopped it with a wall just before it could strike him.
Vincent downed a mega-ether, dropped the wall and the spikes, and aimed his fingers at the worker. Before he could fire, the worker spat acid in his direction. With his superhuman reflexes, he saw it in time, opened his palm, and caught the acid with Zero Field.
Vincent threw his hand forward, sending the acid back into the ant’s ugly face. Its skull cracked and melted, revealing the organ underneath, and the Ranger vaporized its brain with a Mana Cannon. He turned to find, as expected, that the three women had overpowered and slain two of the three knights.
Juniper struck the last ant’s head, her basteel hammer charged with a barrier spell. The attack created a forcefield on the opposite side of her target, squishing the ant’s head between her hammer and the shield. The already damaged chitin split open, allowing Juniper to finish it with a fire attack that surged from her hammer and incinerated the ant’s brain.
“How’re we going to stay ahead of the level curve if everyone in Risegard is fighting these things nonstop?” Quinn wondered.
“The high gravity here adds a big challenge bonus,” Juniper said.
“Also, I could use my Debuff Chains to increase our difficulty rating even further,” Vincent explained.
“Debuff Chains?” Juniper asked.
“Check the team listing,” Vincent told her. “It should be under notable spells.”
“Oh, I see!” Juniper replied, reading it over. “You won’t be able to work on spells with those on, but it’ll hugely speed up level-grinding, especially when combined with the gravity here.”
“And those hell ants have a huge challenge rating to begin with,” Vincent noted. “It’s like the perfect combination for power-leveling.”
“You can see their challenge rating?” Juniper asked.
“Check out True Scan,” Vincent told her.
“Wow,” Juniper said, reading it next. “You three are really something else. Holy crap, Xan. I meant to ask about your world magic wall, but I didn’t know about these other spells. The only people I’ve met with more than one world magic spell are Isaac and Ezra the Tempest.”
“Hang on a sec,” Vincent said, remembering the conversation he’d had with Devon. “The Foundry’s world magic is kept in check by pipes lined with gild. Isaac’s assistant admitted that a big-enough chain reaction could destroy the Foundry. Xan, do you think you could do something like that?”
“I’m not sure how I would,” Xan admitted. “My powers are fairly limited right now. I just poke holes in the ground with light, and then stuff happens.”
“You know, I’m thinking about setting up a new forge and refinery here on Lavrin,” Juniper said. “I know a little bit about how Isaac designed his Foundry. If we can find a world magic vein to tap into, I could create a pipeline for you to use to develop spells more easily. You can figure out how to create chain reactions that can destroy the Foundry.”
Xan nodded. “I’ll try my best, but something like that might take me years. Are we really going to leave Jim and everyone on Styxis that long?”
“Not much else we can do,” Quinn said. “Just like with Lucas, if we try before we’re prepared, then we might as well be handing ourselves over. Jim will understand. If anything, he’s better off than the people he’s dismembering with crows.”
Juniper led them down branching paths until they reached an open area covered in pits of green acid. The four players fought their way past several groups of hell ants, though Quinn lost an arm in the process. They wrapped her arm in healin
g bandages and continued for another hour, circling around many pits of acid. Finally, they saw a stone bridge leading toward an entrance back into the maze.
“You think I can place the gate here?” Vincent asked Juniper.
“I’d wait till we’re closer to Spiral Mountain,” the girl replied, pointing at the twisting mountain in the distance. “I’ve heard that on Cryasal, you can see the peak poking through the sky. Once we get close enough to that mountain, any gate you drop should line up to the landing pad on Cryasal.”
“It’s only a landing pad?” Vincent asked.
“From what I’ve heard,” Juniper answered. “However, Cryasal also has a one-way gate that sends you around Lavrin and back to Styxis.”
They approached the long, marstone bridge that crossed a gorge filled to the brim with acid. Beyond that, they saw walls and an entrance back into the maze. The team picked up their pace, but Vincent nervously eyed the green river below. He spotted a ripple in the acid just before a towering, centipede-like monster jumped out.
The creature flew toward Xan, looking like it might swallow her whole, but at the last moment Quinn jumped forward and shoved Xan out of the way. She grabbed the monster’s pincers as it collided with her, taking them both over the other side and into the acid.
Vincent and Xan screamed Quinn’s name, but she and the monster had already disappeared under the surface.
“Keep moving!” Juniper shouted, waving for them to follow. “We can’t risk anyone else getting pulled under.”
Vincent and Xan hesitated a few seconds, then followed.
“Do you think she’ll make it back to the gate you placed?” Xan asked.
“Yeah, she might,” Vincent said, trying to hide the doubt in his voice.
Xan’s lip quivered as if trying not to cry. “What if they torture her?”
“She’s tough,” Vincent said. “Whatever they do, she handled worse on Eramar with a smile on her face most of the time.”
“If they break her, that’s just one more possessed person we’ll have to fight against,” Juniper pointed out. “A really strong one, at that.”