Rebirth Online 6

by Michael James Ploof

  “Oh, Big Daddy, that’s so sweet,” said Kit.

  Clever, said the Throne.

  “Anna?” I said as the elf continued to stare out over the land.

  “Do you think that the Throne is going to allow you to create rather than destroy?” she asked.

  “The Throne does not control me, Anna. It’s a program, and it has no power over me.”

  She nodded. “If you say so, then I will trust you. I’ll take care of Frostmore.”

  “Good,” I said and kissed her on the lips. “I’ll leave you with fifty of my gilded sons to help you rebuild and prepared the city’s defenses.”

  “I’m sending dwarven builders and some of the elven enchanters here now,” said Cecilia.

  Since my statements about wanting to build up the lands that we conquered rather than destroy, my guild mates’ attitudes had changed dramatically. The Throne, however, was not so pleased.

  The other lords will want lands of their own, he reminded me. You have promised them conquest, glory, and the blood of surface dwellers.

  Then I will reappoint new lords who understand my vision, I told the Throne. You wanted a Dark Lord who could conquer the Surface World, well, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

  I wish to see the Surface World burn like the Underworld. I wish to fill it with the pleading voices of the sick, the cries of the dying. I wish to reduce it to ash. For oblivion awaits all things, and I am the Harbinger of Destruction.

  If we reduce the world to ash, then what is there left to conquer? I asked, hoping to stump him.

  You misunderstand my intentions, my young apprentice, said the Throne with a laugh. I wish to bring true peace to the world, and that can only be found in oblivion.

  An NPC that wants to crash the whole game? Who the hell wrote that program? I wondered.

  The Throne didn’t answer me, of course, and I returned my attention to my guild mates.

  “Come, there are three zones left and little time. Soon the sun will rise, and my power will wane.”

  I led my army to the Arcane Mountains, a high-level area that was a popular questing zone for high level players located east of Ozara. The mountains were home to the Arcarath Dwarves, a clan known for their prolific magic abilities. The main dwarven city, Shimmerstaff, was growing in popularity lately, and I knew that there would be hundreds if not thousands of players there.

  The dwarves may have been skilled magic users, but they were no match for my demonic sons and my thousands of minions. As our armies bombarded the mountain city with spells and curses, I summoned more undead from the surrounding land. Thousands of dead dwarves and other creatures clawed their way out of the ground, and soon the city of Shimmerstaff was overwhelmed.

  I tore through the halls with my demonic sons, killing NPCs and real-world players alike. Hordes of undead and Underworld monsters filled the stone streets, burrowed into the deepest chambers, and wreaked havoc on the dwarven stronghold. The real-world players tried to help to defend. They rushed through portals from other zones by the thousands, but soon they too fell to my hordes.

  One hour after we arrived, the Heavy Metal Thunder banners were flying from the ramparts, and the gathered dwarves were brought before me. Just like the yetis had done, the dwarves swore fealty to me rather than face death, and the zone became ours.

  I appointed Ember as the queen of the Arcane Mountains, and the rest of us moved on to the next zone.

  In the Red Grass Plains we defeated the minotaurs and real-world players in less than an hour, and I appointed Trinity to be the queen of the realm.

  With nighttime waning, I quickly led our armies to the Forest of Fairies, a high-level zone known for its entertaining and whimsical quests. It was a beautiful realm full of tall, luminescent trees and filled with wondrous light, but by the time I was done with it, the place was a smoldering hell hole.

  “Kit, would you like to be the queen of this realm?” I asked after the captured fairies swore fealty to me.

  Her eyes shimmered and she bit her lip with one long canine.

  “Oh, Big Daddy, do you mean it?”

  “Of course,” I said with a smile, and she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me happily.

  “I won’t let you down,” she said between sniffles.

  When the sun rose in the sky, the undead that I had summoned burned to ash, and I sent my Underworld minions back home. It had been a long day, and I was absolutely electrified by the power that coursed through me. The Throne wanted more blood, more destruction, and I found myself wanting it to. But I managed to control the urge, knowing that we had accomplished enough for one day.

  Now that the four realms that bordered my own were secure, I opened a portal to Haven and led my sons and my guild mates back to the city.

  “What’s the tally?” I asked Cecilia as I slumped down on one of the couches in the common room.

  She furiously tapped on her interface, and her smile grew wider by the second. My guild mates gathered around and waited for the news.

  “Well,” said Cecilia as she finished up her calculations. “The loot alone from the battles comes to around fifty-five million gold.”

  “Holy shit!” said Tweak.

  “And…” said Cecilia over him. “The resources from the four realms equates to about twenty million per zone per month.”

  “Excellent,” I said as I read the numbers that she was putting up on the looking glass. “We should cash out about half that and sell it for US dollars.”

  “Dude, we’re like really rich,” said Zoe. “This is crazy.”

  “Oh no,” said Cecilia.

  “What?” I asked.

  She kept tapping away on her interface with frustration, and I got a bad feeling in my gut.

  “The game masters have frozen our accounts,” Cecilia reported. “They’re not letting us put the in-game gold up for sale on the real-world sites.”

  “Tell me you’re kidding,” I said as I got up from the couch.

  “Look.” Cecilia put the notification up on the looking glass, and my fury boiled when I read it.

  “This is such bullshit,” said Nanaya. “They can’t do that.”

  “Oh, they can,” said Cecilia. “They just did.”

  I tapped on the medical icon on my interface, one that I hadn’t used in a long time, and I selected Dr. Marks. After a few rings, the doctor answered, and his image appeared on my interface as my guild mates looked on expectantly.

  “Hello Sam.”

  “What the fuck, doc?” I growled. “Why has our account been frozen?”

  “There are concerns that you and your guild might crash the in-game economy if you continue at your current pace,” he explained.

  “We won that gold fair and square,” I told him. “This is bullshit.”

  “Did you Sam? Did you win it fair and square?”

  “Yes, we did. We’re not cheating, we’re playing the game just like everyone else, we just happen to be way better at it.”

  “Perhaps if you agreed to give up the dark throne, the game masters would consider allowing you to keep what you have acquired,” said the doctor.

  “This is such bullshit,” I growled. “Why allow a player to become a dark lord and then act like in doing so he has somehow duped the system? We’re playing the game you all created, and we’re following rules that you have outlined in the programming.”

  “Like I said, Sam. You might crash the system if you try to cash out. Sorry, but we need to think of the entire game, not just you and your guild. You should consider my offer. Give up the throne, keep the loot that you have acquired, and go back to being the King of Ozara.”

  “The game masters really are afraid of what I have become, aren’t you?”

  “Sam, where does this end?” the doctor asked.

  “Considering the game masters’ most recent actions, I think it ends with me taking over the entire fucking game. I’m really getting sick of being fucked over by the Horizon Corp.”

 
“You should take the offer Sam,” said Dr. Marks. “If you continue on your current course, it is not going to end well for you or your guild mates. The NPC gods are programmed to intervein when the Dark Lord attacks the surface world, and it is only a matter of time before they come for you.”

  “Bring it the fuck on,” I said defiantly.

  Chapter 7

  I was tired as hell from the battle the night before, which was frustrating given the power at my disposal. But I guess even Dark Lords need to rest sometimes. Sleep eluded me for more than an hour, but at some point in the early morning I finally drifted off to the world of nightmares. The Throne came to me in those dreams, whispering in my ear about oblivion, and how all things must end. He encouraged me to take more realms, to slay more people, and to make everyone in the world my slaves. Images of torture and destruction filled my dreams for what seemed like hours, and I woke up screaming in a cold sweat.

  “It’s alright Sam, it was just a dream,” said Nanaya.

  “Damn, that was weird,” I said as I rubbed my temples.

  Nanaya climbed on top of me and kissed me softly, and a devilish grin spread across her face when she felt my morning wood beneath her. Anna, Ember, Trinity, and Kit were still in their new kingdoms, but Zoe, Stormy, and Cecilia were in bed with Nanaya and I, and they soon joined her in pleasuring me.

  Sex with my ladies had always been fun, but with the power of the Throne coursing through me, my passion became a wild, unbridled thing. I took the women from behind one by one and brought them to climax with my demonic cock, which, like the rest of my body, had grown in length and girth. I pulled Nanaya onto my shaft for a second time, my passion far from quenched. She took in a sharp breath when I plunged into her smooth wet folds, and she grabbed my horns as she bounced on my lap, screaming and thrashing as another orgasm rocked her delicious succubus body.

  When my own orgasm exploded from me, I roared like a dragon and thrust my cock deep. Nanaya cried out and clutched my horns when I came, and she bit me on the neck, which only made the orgasm more intense.

  Congratulations!

  You are now level???

  “Oh my god,” said Nanaya. “I thought that you were a good lay before, but now, holy shit.”

  Zoe moaned and cuddled up to me. “I’ve never been ravished like that in my life.”

  “To hell with the magic stick,” Cecilia added with a laugh. “From now on it’s called the demon dick.”

  The girls all laughed, and I couldn’t help but join in.

  “I really needed that,” I said as I stretched and got up from bed.

  “Sire,” came the voice of Miramar.

  “What?” I said as I dressed in my dark robes.

  “An army is amassing near the border to the Red Grass plains.”

  “Of course they are,” I said with a grin. “How many?”

  “I do not know that at this time, there is some kind of warding shield that is keeping me from—”

  “It doesn’t matter. Come nightfall, they will all be dead,” I said as I sheathed my dark blade and glanced out the window at the sun. It was around noon, which meant that I couldn’t summon my minions or the undead for about seven more hours.

  “Sire, I must advise against attacking them during the day,” said my dark-skinned assistant.

  “I know you must,” I told him with a grin. “But I must not show them that I am weak during the daytime. This is the perfect opportunity to show them that day or night, you don’t fuck with Samson Sullivan and Heavy Metal Thunder.”

  I turned to my guild mates with an arched brow. “Right?”

  “That’s right Big Daddy,” said Cecilia.

  Nanaya whistled and slapped my ass.

  “Hey, wait,” Zoe said and glanced at Cecilia. “Did you just take Kit’s line?”

  The foxy furry shrugged.

  “Let’s show these bastards that we don’t take it lying down!” Stormy declared.

  We all glanced at her, then we all burst out laughing.

  “Gather my sons,” I told Miramar. “We attack in thirty minutes.”

  “Ah, Sire,” said Miramar. “I have just received the first of the reports from the scouts. They are reporting that the God of War leads the army, with no less than one thousand angels by his side.”

  “Oh shit,” said Cecilia, and she seemed to speak for us all.

  “The fucking god of war?” I said and began to pace. “That’s Megulla and Nymphora’s father. Cecilia, what else do you know about this dude, aside from the super intimidating title that he goes by?”

  “Uhhh,” she flicked through her interface, most likely going through one of the old dusty game lore books that she loved so much. “Okay, Krares, also known of as the God of War, is one of the many gods of the Rebirth Online pantheon. He was born on the blah blah blah…” She flipped through text before stopping on something she liked. “It says here that he is one of the most powerful of the seven gods of Rebirth. He was the one who smote his brother Kregos, and sent him to the…”

  She trailed off, and we all looked at her.

  “Cece?” I said patiently.

  “Uh, sorry…” she licked her lips and continued. “He was the one who smote his brother Kregos and sent him to the Underworld. Krares trapped the disembodied spirit of his brother Kregos in a Dark Throne made for him by the dwarven king Lockmire’s most powerful warlock, Azne…”

  Cecilia looked up at me, she stared into my eyes, as if wondering if she were staring into the soul of Kregos.

  So, Throne, you do have a name. I said in my mind.

  Do not speak that name again… His voice was weak and low.

  Kregos is your name, and Krares is your brother, I pressed.

  DO NOT SPEAK THAT NAME!

  I fell to my knees and pressed my hands against my temples. The thrones voice, Kregos’s voice, had been deafening, and I thought that surely, I had been rendered deaf. But the sound had only been in my head, and I heard my guild mates come to my side and ask me if I was alright. I promised them that I was and stood on shaky feet.

  I am not your enemy, I told Kregos.

  He waited, so I continued.

  Your brother has decided that your minion, who just so happens to be me, has gone too far. He is marching here as we speak with no less then one-thousand angels. Now, I have complete confidence in my sons, in my guild, and in my minions. But I am starting to lose a little faith in you.

  You would dare to—

  Yeah, bro, I would, I said. You need to come clean right now. Can I defeat your brother…can you defeat your brother?

  Silence.

  Ugh, dude, I said in my head and gestured to my guild mates that I was fine, and I was just having a conversation in my head with the disembodied spirit of a fallen god turned Throne and Dark Lord trainer.

  If you don’t even think that you can defeat your brother, then why are you trying to conquer the surface world? Didn’t you know that it would come to this?

  I knew, but I did not expect him to act so soon, the Throne finally replied.

  Yeah, well I fucked both his daughters, killed one of them, and turned the other one into a demon and appointed her Lord of the First Level of Hell! Didn’t you think that maybe he might get a little pissed about that?

  It matters not, said Kregos. For it has been foretold that once my brother and I meet in battle again, the end of the world shall soon follow.

  Cool, I said with a slice of sarcasm and a dash of boredom. How about we just kick his ass and continue to enjoy fucking shit up?

  The battle between Krares and I will bring about the end of all thi—

  Dude, you just said that, I told him. Look, what if I told you that none of this is real? What if you could do whatever you wanted and not worry about what is or is not pre-ordained. Then what would you do?

  The Throne thought about it for a moment, then he said with a growl. I would kill my brother, conquer the world, and become the only god.

  That’s the s
pirit! I said with a laugh. Then let’s go kick this pussy’s ass!

  Your words are tempting, but it has been preordained that the world will end when I meet my brother in battle.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a long sigh.

  “What’s going on? Nanaya asked.

  “The Throne, I mean Kregos thinks that when he and his brother fight, it will bring about the end of the world,” I explained.

  “Like the end of the game?” Stormy asked.

  “Yeah, something like that,” I said.

  “But that doesn’t make sense,” said Zoe. “Why would the programmers allow that to happen?”

  “They won’t,” I told her. “Kregos and the God of War are just NPCs following the lore. Hold on, let me talk to him some more.”

  Kregos, what is your brother’s weakness?

  Much like I, he has no weakness.

  Come on, everyone has a weakness.

  Not the gods.

  I need you to think. How do we get in his head? How do we distract him? An old girlfriend maybe? Perhaps he has daddy issues. There’s got to be something.

  The Throne remained silent, and I looked to Cecilia. “Did you dig up anything on this dude?”

  “I don’t know, Sam. All the lore says that he is pretty much immortal.”

  “Then we need to think of something else,” I said as I paced. “Maybe we can strike a deal with him. Nymphora is under my control, after all. Maybe I can use her as a bargaining chip.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” said Stormy.

  “Alright,” let’s get this show on the road. Miramar gather my sons. We need to strike now before they get to the minotaur city.”

  Fifteen minutes later we joined my silver and gold sons in the courtyard. I was a little nervous to face the God of War, but I was confident that my sons could at least defeat the angelic army that had brought with him. It occurred to me then that my children were in essence the God of War’s grandchildren, and that might work to my favor.