Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "Yes Estell, and we'll just be in the next city over. We can get back here pretty quick on horseback." Mendelen replied.

  Estellese sighed and stepped away from the sick patients. "Okay, you're right. I'll go rest. Let's go see the lights." She relented and stepped away from the patients.

  "Alright, follow me." Mendelen replied as he lead the way out of the medical center and walked over to the stables, where he had left his horse. He hadn't wanted to bring it with him for his trip through the mountains. He climbed onto his horse and Estellese climbed on behind him, and the two of them set off for Oline city.

  Within an hour they reached Oline city. Mendelen left his horse inside of a spare garage where he kept some food for it, it was his makeshift barn until he could build the horse a better one. He lead Estellese out to the center of town, a big circular area with numerous streetlights waiting to be turned on.

  "Wait here." Mendelen instructed as he ran inside a nearby building and ran into the basement.

  In the basement Zanath was working on adding the finishing touches to a generator, that was hooked up to the city's power grid. When he noticed Mendelen walk in he looked up. "You said you had a large source of magical energy? The generator should be all set up, just need to insert it here." He said as he gestured to a small chamber on the machine.

  Mendelen nodded and pulled out the six diamonds from his bag. The elemental spirits trapped inside them were still enraged, and were still bashing on the edges of the diamonds in a desperate attempt to break free. Mendelen dropped the six diamonds into the small chamber and closed it.

  "Really?" Zanath took one look at the diamonds and shot Mendelen a questioning look.

  "It's temporary, just temporary. Once we find another reliable power source I will set them free." Mendelen explained. "Just don't tell Estellese."

  "Yeah, she'd kick your ass into next week if she found out you were using the creatures of this world as a power source. Can't say I approve either." Zanath stated. "But it's not my problem though, I held up my end of the bargain. What you do with it is your business." He shrugged and started to leave.

  "Thanks. Once you find a more stable and reliable power source, please let me know. I will buy it off you. I'll even pay more than I paid for this." Mendelen replied.

  "Sure. Just don't get me involved when Estellese eventually finds out about this and gets pissed off at you." Zanath answered as he left the room.

  "I know." Mendelen sighed. Once Zanath was gone he flipped on the power switch and the lights in the room suddenly turned on, then he walked back upstairs and stepped outside. Half of the lights were on, the other half were still not working.

  Estellese stood outside and briefly applauded him. "It worked, you got the power up and running. Well, mostly."

  "Well Zanath helped, but yeah." Mendelen shrugged.

  "Yeah I saw him leave a moment ago." Estellese said. "But still, congrats. I'm sure the people living here are really happy." However, as she spoke something caught her attention. She walked past Mendelen and looked up at the sky behind him, over the emory forest. There was a massive black cloud of smoke coming out of somewhere to the north east.

  "What are you looking at?" Mendelen asked as he turned around, as soon as he spotted the smoke he froze, like Estellese, and stared in shock for a moment.

  "Is that… Coming from Bele village?" Estellese worriedly asked.

  "I hope not." Mendelen answered. "I'll get the horse." He added as he ran over to the garage to grab his horse.

  While Mendelen ran off Estellese got a message. She quickly opened her virtual keyboard and screen to read it.

  [Message] "Estellese! The village is under attack! We need help, the fighters are too sick to hold them off! - Cathrine."

  [Message] "Cathrine, what's going on?! What is attacking us? Last we checked there was no monsters nearby. -Estellese"

  [Message] "Not monsters. People. -Cathrine."

  [Message] "Raiders? Why? We give everything away nearly for free. -Estellese"

  [Message] "Not raiders. They are too organized, they have a uniform, it's an enemy army. -Cathrine"

  [Message] "Who the HELL would attack us? What enemies do we have? -Estellese"

  [Message] "I don't know! Just please get here quickly! They are destroying everything! -Cathrine"

  As Mendelen rushed over with his horse Estellese was getting message after message from people within the city, all reporting attacks from some human faction.

  "Get on, quick!" Mendelen shouted as he stopped his horse right beside Estellese. She started to climb on, however, before they could take off Zanath came riding in on a motorcycle and came skidding to a stop beside them.

  "Bele village is under attack, I can bring one of you there quickly." Zanath offered.

  Estellese immediately jumped off the horse and got onto the back of Zanath's motorcycle. "Where the hell did you get a bike?"

  "I repaired a broken one from the city of course. Ages ago." Zanath answered as he took off his helmet and handed it to Estellese.

  Estellese refused the helmet. "I have my magic barriers, don't need it. Just go!"

  "Alright." Zanath answered as he put the helmet back on.

  "Estellese." Mendelen spoke up. "Try to contact Kaden and get him to come help. He doesn't listen to me, and Zanath's driving. He might listen to you."

  "Got it." Estellese replied as she opened her virtual keyboard and screen again, she immediately began messaging Kaden. When Zanath didn't immediately take off she added a quick "Lets go! I need to protect my village."

  "Got it. See you there Mendelen." Zanath said before he and Estellese sped off on the motorcycle.

  [Message] "Kaden! Bele village is under attack. We need help, where are you? -Estellese"

  However, she received no answer. After a moment, she sent another message.

  [Message] "Kaden, this is important. Please answer, where are you? We need help. -Estellese"

  Still no answer.

  "Any luck?" Zanath asked.

  "No he won't answer me." Estellese replied.

  "Want me to pull over and try? He usually answers me." Zanath offered.

  "Hell no! I need to get to the village!" Estellese shouted. "I'll keep trying." She immediately began sending more messages.

  [Message] "Kaden! This isn't a joke, we need your help. Can you help us? -Estellese"

  Still, there was no answer.

  [Message] "Kaden! Please! People are dying, the village is in danger, where are you? Can you help us? -Estellese"

  "Still no answer?" Zanath asked. "I can try messaging him."

  "No we need to get to the village asap! Just keep going!" Estellese argued. She decided to try one more time.

  [Message] "KADIN! Where the HELL are you! We need your help. -Estellese"

  And this time, she finally got a response.

  [Message] "I'm in ur base. Killin ur dudes. -Kaden"

  [Message] "You're WHAT?"

  [Message] "I am in your base. Killing your dudes. -Kaden :) "

  [Message] "This isn't a game asshole! You're killing people!"

  [Message] "Yes. I am pretty sure I just said I was doing that. :P -Kaden"

  Estellese was fuming. She had turned a bright shade of red and was breathing heavily as her mind raced through the conversation. But the more she thought about it the angrier she got.

  "You okay?" Zanath asked.

  "No. I am not." Estellese growled back, then she got another message.

  Zanath considered asking her if she needed to stop, but quickly decided that that would be a bad idea.

  [Message] "Uh, before you get mad or anything. I just wanna clarify something so we don't have a misunderstanding. -Kaden" After a moment a second message popped up, from Kaden of course. "Just to be sure there's no misunderstanding. I'm killing both your dudes and dudettes, I promise I am stabbing everyone equally. Well, everyone in your city, not my own soldiers. Anyways just wanted to make sure that was clear."

&n
bsp; [Message] "Kaden I am seriously going to kill you if you don't knock this shit off!" Estellese wrote back.

  [Message] "Kay! See you soon :D -Kaden."

  "I'm gonna kill that little asshole!" Estellese roared out in frustration.

  "Who? Kaden?" Zanath asked.

  "He's the one attacking the village!" Estellese shouted out.

  "Ooh." Zanath replied in mild shock.

  Estellese started reading through her messages from other people, all of them were calling for help but one stood out more than the others.

  [Message] "I think I found the leader! There's a black knight standing up on the mountains. Sarah tried to engage him in combat and he took both Sarah and Charley down. I can't go after him, I'm locked down over here. -Fate."

  "I know where he is." Estellese stated. As the motorcycle pulled into the village they could see the devastation in front of them. The village had been set ablaze, people were fighting everywhere in the streets, bodies were lying all over the ground. The city guards were trying to fight off the attackers, but the attackers were just on a completely different level. It was easy to tell the attackers apart from the villagers, all of the attackers had the same insignia on their clothes. A black phoenix flying off to the left, leaving behind a trail of black flames in the shape of the letter M.

  There was a man in the distance fighting with forty swords, wielding them all telekinetically. A blue haired man wearing a heavy suit of clunky armor was smashing homes apart with his massive hammer. Another woman was sprinting through the streets at blinding, inhuman speeds gunning everyone down with magically reloading crossbows. Sure, the guards defending the place had equally diverse magic and skills, but they were completely outmatched, and the sickness that had shot through everyone in the village in the city left them all weak.

  "Drop me off here, I'm going after Kaden." Estellese growled.

  "No, we need to stick together and protect the townspeople. Kaden could be setting a trap for you." Zanath stated.

  "I don't care! I'm going after him anyways!" Estellese shouted.

  "We can't do that, it is probably a trap." Zanath repeated and didn't stop the motorcycle.

  "Fine then! I'll get off myself." Estellese shouted back as she clapped her hands together and disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

  Zanath was briefly blinded, his motorcycle skidded to a stop just outside the village. "Or, run off like an idiot and trigger the obvious trap. That works too." He sighed as he hid his bike in the trees and grabbed his pistols. Then he started walking into the burning city.

  - Next chapter: The Moderators

  Chapter 25: The Moderators

  - Chapter 25: The Moderators -

  What sounded like the roaring of a dragon echoed through the dimly lit castle-like halls of the underground ruins. Followed by a loud clang of metal and a yelp of pain from a feminine voice. A young woman who had long unnaturally red hair that was tied back in a ponytail, red eyes, and a matching set of light plate armor could be seen skidding and flipping across the ground in an ungraceful manner after she was kicked square in the chest by a thirteen foot tall ogre. As she went skidding across the ground she dropped her spear in the middle of the room, then slammed into the back wall.

  Inside of the room with her was two ogres, two huge beasts who looked to be muscular, hairy, and pretty ugly. There was also two corpses of ogres that had recently been killed and an eight foot tall green wyvern within the large room. The wyvern was covered in scales and otherwise looked like a mini dragon, four legs, a long tail, sharp teeth, pointy horns on its head, sharp claws, and long wings.

  As Sarah struggled to get back onto her feet the ogre that had hit her rushed in and raised its club to attack her. But the wyvern charged in and tackled the ogre to the ground, the wyvern was quick to open its mouth and billow out a stream of flames down at the ogre while it slashed at the beast's chest with its claws.

  Sarah quickly got back onto her feet, in pain but otherwise okay. "Thank you Charley." She said. She stood back up and reached towards her spear, using her telekinetic magic to make her spear spring off the ground and fly back into her hand.

  The wyvern growled back at her, a normal person couldn't understand it, but Sarah could understand exactly what he was saying. "No problem. But please be careful Sarah, these things are dangerous." The ogre underneath him was dead, so he turned on the other ogre only to see it charging at him. The wyvern was too big to move out of the way fast enough, the ogre's club slammed into the wyvern's side making Charley roar out in pain and causing him to stumble away. He curled his wing in to cradle his injury.

  Sarah rushed in as the ogre was attacking Charley. She ran underneath the beast and stabbed her long spear up and into its throat, killing the creature instantly. With all of the foes in the room gone Sarah turned to Charley. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly, then she quickly went rummaging through a small pouch she had attached to her hip. "I got a potion in here somewhere, let me get it for you." She stated.

  "Sarah..." Charley shook his head. "I am fine, I think it cracked a few bones, but you are hurt too. You take the potion." He stated firmly.

  "No, no. You are hurt worse than I am." Sarah argued.

  "I don't care, I don't want you to be hurt. I will live." Charley replied simply,

  "Fine, how about this. You take the potion, we grab the loot and leave this dungeon. Then you fly us to that new little village that the players are building and I will find a doctor or healer or something to heal me up. I've been there a few times before, I had to escort a group of players there a while back. The village has some doctors within it." Sarah said simply. "Estellese is there, so if I can't find any doctors she can help."

  Charley sighed softly and nodded a little, lowering his body and opening his mouth. "Alright, fine." He relented.

  "Thank you." Sarah replied with a smile as she poured the potion into his mouth. While the potion worked its magic she rushed over to the chest and collected its loot. She would return to her friend to wait out the remaining few minutes of the potion's paralysis effects. Once Charley was healed and ready they left the dungeon. They walked outside, Sarah climbed onto Charley's back, then he took flight setting off towards Bele village.

  But, as Sarah and Charley flew towards the village all they saw was smoke and fire. "No... What's going on?" Sarah couldn't believe the destruction she saw. This city was supposed to be a safe haven for those who couldn't fight, where were the guards? The two of them flew over the rooftops, looking around to try and figure out what monster was attacking the village and causing all this devastation. But... There were no monsters here. The farmers were screaming and fleeing through the streets, and they were being chased down and killed by other humans. It seemed like all of the humans that were attacking wore long white capes with an insignia of a black phoenix that was flying to the right, leaving behind a trail of black flames that formed the shape of the letter M.

  Sarah watched in horror from the air as the people in the peaceful village were being slaughtered. The adventurers and monster hunters who were guarding the city were all trying to fight off the attackers, but something was wrong, the guards and adventurers were not fighting at their best. On top of that these invading humans were on a completely different level from everyone else, they were tearing apart even the strongest village guards almost effortlessly.

  Standing in the center of town was a tall blonde man. He was shirtless, wearing only pants and this little red hoodie that looked like it belong to a small child. He had the hood on his head, mostly covering his blonde hair, and he had his arms through the sleeves, the rest of the small hoodie just kinda hung behind him because it was too small for him to wear. He was the only attacker who was not wearing a cape, but he fought alongside the people who did, and the hoodie he wore had the same insignia as the others. He also wore a long chain of larger than normal dog tags around his belt. His name was Damion, Sarah knew him all too well. She hadn't known he was still alive. He s
tood in the center of town with corpses and blood covering the ground around him, and he had the biggest grin on his face, as if he had just won the lottery.

  Three of the guards charged at him, intending to bring him down as quickly as possible. The first guard attacked him from the front, stabbing his sword for Damion's chest. The other two moved in to the sides and were prepared to grab Damion when he tried to dodge the first one's sword. But Damion did not dodge, he stood still and did nothing as the first guard's sword stabbed into his chest. The sword only pierced an inch into Damion's body before stopping as if it hit a wall. And Damion, when he saw the look of pure confusion on the guard's face he just grinned even wider and started laughing as if it was the funniest thing ever. "Stupid." He laughed, and in one swift motion he slashed his knife through the guard's throat.