Rebirth Online 6

by Michael James Ploof

  “Yeah, where the hell have you been?” Ember asked.

  “In the Underworld, why, how long have I been gone?” I asked.

  “Almost a week,” said Cecilia.

  “What? A week?” I couldn’t believe that I had spent that long in the throne room. I hadn’t been sure how long I was gone, it had only felt like a few hours.

  “I ensured them that you would be fine,” said Nanaya. “I know what it is like in the throne room, time just kind of slips by.”

  “Was there any trouble?” I asked, thinking that surely our enemies would have tried to make a move in my absence.

  “Surprisingly, no,” said Trinity. “Everyone is gearing up. A new expansion came out a day after you left for the Underworld.”

  “Yeah,” said Stormy. “It’s called the Defenders of Ozara. A new zone called the veil was created where players can quest for items that are supposed to help them fight you.”

  “What kind of weapons?” I asked, and Cecilia pointed at the looking glass as she brought up images of weapons and stats.

  “Mostly demon slaying weapons and buffs to protect against dark magic.”

  The gods are preparing for war, we must strike now! said the Throne

  “Then we need to strike first,” I said and gestured toward the balcony. “Come on, I want you guys to meet our new warriors.”

  My guild mates followed me out to the balcony, and I gestured toward my silver children.

  “Are those…” Trinity began.

  “Nymphora’s spawn, yes,” I said.

  “How many?” Cecilia asked.

  “Over 2000.”

  “Where is Nymphora?” said Anna.

  “I invaded her realm and defeated her army, then I forced her to swear fealty to me with NPC Mind Control,” I explained. “She’s now the lord of the first level of the Underworld.”

  “What happened to the old first level boss?” Tweak asked.

  “He got promoted with the rest of the bosses when I killed the Lord of the Sixth level.”

  “You’ve been busy,” said Nanaya.

  “I guess you could say that,” I said with a laugh. “With the addition of the silver warriors, we’ll be able to crush everyone. It’s time to expand our kingdom.”

  “It’s about time,” said Nanaya as she rubbed her hands together. “What zone do you want to conquer?”

  “Frostmore,” I said pointing north. “It’s a high-level area, and there should be a shit load of loot, not to mention NPC armies that I can convert to our side.”

  “Man, you’re really serious about conquering the game, aren’t you?” said Tweak.

  “You’re goddamned right,” I said as I looked to the others. “Are you with me?”

  “You know we are,” said Nanaya.

  Stormy, Zoe, Ember, and Cecilia nodded agreement, but the others looked like they had their reservations.

  “I don’t know,” said Anna. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about all of this.”

  Tweak, Ember, Trinity, and Kit nodded agreement, and I spread my arms wide.

  “What would you have me do instead?” I asked. “We’re past the point of no return. If I surrender, then it’s all over.”

  “That’s not what Dr. Marks said,” Anna reminded me.

  “And you believe him?” I said with a snide laugh.

  “Yeah, I do,” she said and looked to the others.

  “The doctor isn’t your enemy,” said Kit. “He said that if you gave up the Dark Throne you would be hailed a hero. He said—”

  “He said that he could fix my spine!” I roared.

  They don’t believe in you, Samson. They will betray you.

  “Dr, Marks is a liar. If I give up now, they’ll take everything. Is that what you want?”

  “No, that’s not what we want,” said Anna in a kind voice. “We want the old Sam back.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, scowling at her.

  “Look at yourself Sam,” she said and pointed to the mirror on the far wall of the common room.”

  I glanced at it and saw the demon lord staring back at me, but I wasn’t disturbed by what I saw, on the contrary, I was excited.

  “All I see is the most powerful player in the game,” I told Anna.

  She shook her head and looked away from me.

  They will betray you, Samson. You must see that. Strike them down now.

  I tried to ignore the Throne’s voice in my head, but his words were my own thoughts. I hadn’t wanted to consider that my guild mates might betray me, but my suspicions were beginning to grow.

  “I’m marching on Frostmore tonight. I want you all to take the time to reconsider where you stand. Meet me in the courtyard at midnight if you wish to continue to be a part of this guild. If not—”

  “Don’t say it Big Daddy…” Kit sobbed.

  “If not!” I yelled over her. “Then I have no use for you.”

  I opened a portal that would lead me to the dungeon beneath the castle and began to step through.

  “Sam, wait! Don’t go down there!” I heard Anna yell, but her voice was cut off when I stepped through.

  I The argument with my guild mates had left me furious, and I figured that finally dropping Bogrum and his guild mates to level zero would feel pretty damn good right about then. But when I emerged in the dungeon cell that had housed them, I found it empty.

  You ignore my warnings… the Throne growled, and alas, you have been betrayed.

  “Where the fuck are they?” I asked the empty room. “Miramar!”

  “Sire?” he said cordially. “It is good to have you b—”

  “Where the hell are my prisoners?” I screamed, and my fury caused dark power to surge in my core.

  He took a step back, for indeed, I must have looked intimidating.

  “They were released, sire.”

  “On whose authority?”

  “Mine…”

  I turned around and found a frowning Frisco staring at me.

  “Why?” I asked. “Why in the hell would you do that?”

  “It wasn’t right, Sam,” he said evenly.

  “Not right?” I scoffed. “They tried to do the same thing to you. They killed us both repeatedly.”

  “That doesn’t mean that we should do the same thing.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Frisco,” I said in a voice that sounded more like the Throne’s than mine.

  “What are you going to do, Sam?” he said as he stood defiantly before me. “Are you going to kill me now too? Jesus, man, don’t you know who your friends are anymore?”

  “I thought I did.”

  “Sam, the girls are scared of you. They won’t admit it, but they’re fucking freaked out. I mean look at you dude, your literally becoming a dark lord, not only in appearance, but by your actions as well. You’re down here torturing the Orc Chieftains, you killed Dr, Marks, and now you’ve got even more demigod children.”

  He released your captives. He betrayed you. Kill him now.

  “Where are they?” I said angrily and took a step toward him.

  “Under the protection of the game masters,” he said.

  I unsheathed my sword in a rage and swung it at one of the saltires. My sword sliced right through the thick iron and shorn the thing in to.

  Kill him! Kill him now!

  I turned murderous eyes toward Frisco and raised my blade.

  “Are you really going to kill me Sam?” he asked in a voice laced with disappointment.

  Do it now! Strike him down and prove yourself worthy of the Dark Throne!

  “Get out of here,” I warned Frisco as I battled with the Throne’s impulses.

  “You’re losing control, Sam, look at you.”

  “Get out of here!” I screamed, and flames erupted from my horns.

  “Why? Because you’re afraid you’ll kill me? Don’t you see what’s happening Sam?”

  Strike him down you fool!

  “Shut up!” I screamed
at the Throne and smashed another saltire. I lashed out at another with Fireball, and my spell went right through the back wall, leaving a ten-foot-wide hole in its wake. I took mental hold of another saltire and pushed it into the others, and the force of my telekinetic push crushed them all against the far wall.

  “Fight it Sam!” Frisco yelled.

  If you won’t kill the traitor, then I will…

  “Frisco, run!” I warned, but it was too late.

  My right arm suddenly thrusted forward on it’s own, and a spell that I had never seen shot out if it and hit Frisco in the gut. His black fur instantly began to rot, and he looked up at me not with fear, but sympathy.

  “Sam…” he said as he reached for me.

  I reached for him, but the rot quickly spread across his body, and right before our hands met, his body crumbled into a pile of ash.

  “What have you done?” I asked the Throne as I stared in horror at my dead friend’s remains.

  I did what you should have done.

  My rage mixed with my sorrow and left me shaking. I wanted to smash the Throne, but I knew that it was too powerful. If I moved against it, then I would relinquish it’s blessing, and I would go back to just being another player. But if I was patient, then I might be able to figure out how to trick it into—

  Far better men than you have tried…came the voice in my head.

  I froze. I hadn’t known that the Throne could hear my thoughts if I wasn’t speaking to it directly. But how was that possible? The Throne was just another NPC program, and programs couldn’t read people’s minds.

  Or could they?

  I know everything that lies in your heart, Samson. We are one, you and I, there is nothing that you can hide from me.

  I felt like I was going to be sick, and the feeling soon turned into panic. I suddenly felt like I had a parasite in my brain, and the intrusion made me crazy. A storm of emotions grew inside me, and the Throne’s echoed laughter filled my mind.

  Do not fight me, Samson, for without me you are nothing.

  “Fuck you.”

  Without me, you are nothing. Without me, you will be caged like an animal. They’ll torture, you, kill you, and they’ll take your women as their own.

  “No…” I growled.

  Your kingdom will be given to Bogrum and the Orc Chieftains. Your wealth will be stolen from you.

  “Never!”

  A laugh echoed in my mind.

  Then stop fighting me. Stop denying your true self. Embrace your power completely, and RISE!

  I roared like a caged dragon, spread my wings, and shot straight through the stone ceiling. Wood, earth, and brick broke before me as I barreled through, and soon I blasted through the tower wall and out into twilight.

  “Defenders of Haven!” I bellowed like a god. “Prepare for battle, for soon we march on Frostmore!”

  At midnight, I waited in the courtyard for my guild mates, and I have to admit that I was a little nervous about who would and would not show. To my surprise, however, all nine of my guild mates emerged from the castle near the gardens and strode toward me.

  “You have all made the right choice,” I said as I opened my arms wide.

  “We just spoke with Frisco,” said Anna.

  “Did you really kill him, Sam?” Trinity asked.

  “Yeah,” I said without remorse, though I felt a ton of it. “He released Bogrum and the Orc Chieftains, did you know that?”

  “Of course we did,” said Anna. “We’re the ones who let him do it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it was the right thing to do,” said Kit.

  “For the record,” said Nanaya. “I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You’re getting soft,” I told the rest of them. “The Orc Chieftains have been messing with us since the tournament, and you think that they deserve a second chance?”

  “You dropped them all to level one,” said Cecilia. “I think they paid for what they did to us and then some.”

  “Yeah, bro, last I heard they were questing in a level 1-5 zone. I think that they’ve learned their lesson,” said Tweak.

  “They would have learned their lesson in the Underworld, but you all robbed me of that victory,” I said. “But I will forgive you for now.”

  “Blow me,” said Trinity. “I’m not interested in your forgiveness. I’m interested in loot and in game gold.”

  I scowled at her, but she wasn’t intimidated in the least.

  You let your subjects speak to you in such a way? the throne scoffed.

  Hey throne, eat a dick, I said in my mind.

  He laughed at that, and I opened a portal that led to Frostmore.

  “Mount up,” I told my guild mates. “It’s time to fuck some shit up.”

  Chapter 6

  I flew through the portal with my guild mates and my thousands of sons behind me and emerged in a wintery land of white. Frostmore was a big realm, but there was only one major settlement that belonged to a race of intelligent yetis. The city, called Winterton, was also a popular new place for level 40+ players.

  “Looks like there’s a lot of players around,” said Cecilia as she hovered beside me on the wings that I had given them all.

  “Good,” I said. “I’ve been wanting to try this new spell for a long time.”

  I opened my interface and tapped on Summon Undead, then I chose a radius of about two miles between us and the city. For a moment after I cast the spell nothing happened, but then the ground began to rumble, and something began to move beneath the snow.

  I had expected maybe a few hundred undead creatures to emerge from the snow, but I was surprised to see thousands of boney creatures begin crawling out of the frozen ground. There were Yetis, humans, elves, dwarves, furries, you name it, and once they had crawled out of the ground, they began slowly stalking toward the city like extras from a zombie movie.

  A horn blared in the city and a magical shield dome suddenly rose up around the yeti city. My heart surged in anticipation of the battle to come, and I could feel the Throne become excited as well.

  The Throne was very, very pleased, and I knew that its vast resources of power were at my disposal.

  I tapped on summon minions, and when my interface asked me how many I would like to bring forth from the Underworld, I selected 10,000. I directed the portal to open about a quarter of a mile from the city, and soon the denizens of the Underworld began to pour out. They were met by defensive spells and cannons, but Winterton wasn’t prepared to handle such numbers, such vast power.

  “My sons!” I bellowed and pointed at the city. “Attack!”

  My guild mates and I flew with my demon children toward the city, and I grinned when I saw the real-world players scrambling around like ants. I unleashed a Nuclear Thunderclap as thousands of spells rocketed out of my children’s’ palms. The explosions that followed turned night into day, and my mushroom cloud rose above the city like a demonic god.

  “Follow me!” I yelled to my guild mates, then I swooped down toward the shield and continued to bombard it with spells.

  The shield held for a little while, but it was soon overwhelmed by the thousands of spells coming from my sons and the Underworld minions, and it burst into a million sparks of multicolored light soon after. The city was left exposed to us, and I knew that I could reduce the city of mostly animal skin huts to nothing in a matter of minutes, but I wanted to get my hands dirty.

  I landed upon the battlements of the shoddy wooden wall that surrounded Winterton and unsheathed my enchanted sword. The seat of my great power crackled and sparked as I put it to work on the closest yeti warrior. My guild mates landed among me, and together we tore through the ranks upon the battlements like a steam engine. They may have had their reservations about my campaign, but on the battlefield, they were the skilled fighters that I had always known, and they held nothing back.

  My sword sung through fur, flesh and bone, and soon the city was overrun by my minions. There were perhaps five h
undred or so real-world players in the city, and I abandoned my attack on the yetis when I spotted a group of them trying to make a stand at the center of the smoldering city. I opened a portal that would bring me to the middle of the group and stepped through with my sword singing. The defenders screamed in surprise and pain as I sliced off heads, severed limbs, and smashed faces with my Fire Shield.

  Less than ten minutes before the battle began, it was over, and I floated above Winterton with my guild mates to survey the damage. I had ordered my sons to gather all the NPC yetis that were left, and at least two hundred of them were brought to the southern outskirts of the city.

  I landed before the yetis, and they cowered before me.

  “You have been defeated, yet, I have spared your life. Kneel before me now and declare your allegiance to the Dark Lord Samson, and I shall not only spare your lives, but I shall resurrect those who have fallen.”

  The yetis glanced around at each other with wonderment, and one by one they began to kneel before me.

  “Behold the power of the Dark Throne!” I bellowed, and from my hands bright green light washed over the city.

  To the shock and awe of the yetis, their fallen brethren began to rise, and their wounds healed before their eyes.

  “All hail the Lifegiver!” Nanaya commanded the yetis, and I glanced at her with a wide grin.

  Zoe, Stormy and Cecilia looked like they were having a good time, but the rest of my guild mates looked less than enthused, and I began to wonder if the Throne was right about them.

  The yetis hailed me and swore their fealty to me, and I declared myself the King of Frostmore.

  “And you will be its queen,” I said to Anna.

  “What?” she said with a frown.

  “Our kingdom is expanding,” I told her. “I will need you all to take care of the many realms that we conquer, and I give the first to you. Do with it whatever you want, I do not care.”

  Anna looked out over the land and her eyes shimmered.

  “Listen,” I said to all of my guild mates. “I’m not trying to destroy everything and leave it in ruin. I’m not trying to fill the world with monsters and ghouls. We’re expanding our kingdom, that is all. We need the four zones around Ozara for safety, and we may need to take more beyond that, only time will tell. But I need you guys to help me manage it all. We won that tournament together, and you all deserve your own Kingdom to do with as you please.”