Immersion World

by Max Jager

  Mendelen's clones quickly began rushing into the darkness, trying to surround Kaden again while he couldn't use any more portals. But the clones were unable to see in the darkness.

  Mendelen himself quickly rushed in and threw a kick for Kaden's side. As Kaden sidestepped the kick Mendelen grabbed one of his katars by the chain and swung it for Kaden's neck. Kaden twisted his scythe to block the attack, but the katar sliced clean through the handle of his scythe, shortening it by a few inches. In a panicked attempt to dodge what would have been a lethal blow Kaden stumbled backwards and fell onto his back.

  As Kaden fell Mendelen stabbed his other Katar down at Kaden's head. Kaden now knew that these katars had an armor piercing enhancement, he couldn't block him and his armor wasn't going to stop them either. Thinking fast he used the handle of his scythe to strike Mendelen's arm and knock it aside causing the attack to miss.

  Once the attack missed Kaden quickly flipped back onto his feet. Mendelen again swung his katar by the chain at Kaden and Kaden quickly tapped the handle of his scythe on the ground, causing hundreds of skeletal arms to reach out and start grabbing onto Mendelen, and the chain, catching the attack before it could reach Kaden.

  Mendelen quickly activated his anti-magic undershield to cancel out the skeletal arms, as soon as he cast the spell the arms disappeared. But before he could move Kaden rushed in and slashed his scythe at Mendelen. He couldn't dodge fast enough, the blunt side of Kaden's scythe slammed into Mendelen's ribs. The force from the blow sent him flying across the battlefield, and he slammed into the rubble of a house just outside of the dark part of the battlefield.

  He was hurt, but his armor had absorbed most of the blow. Mendelen stumbled back onto his feet, then pulled out another night vision scroll. His anti-magic undershield had canceled out his first spell. As he walked back into the darkness, his clones all rushed in and surrounded Kaden. That was, until a blast of black flames burst out from the center of the clones, immediately killing many of them. Although, he still had a few hundred of them left. He kept the clones attacking Kaden as he moved back in himself.

  One clone rushed in and swung its axe at Kaden, but Kaden quickly backstepped and slashed the bladed end of his scythe at it. However his attack was quickly blocked by another clone with a shield. The scythe cut through the shield, and the clone's armor, taking both of the clones out with it's massive blade.

  As soon as they were both down Kaden summoned a Black Aether: Energy chakram and hurled it at the clone that was blocking his portal. But before the chakram could make it there Mendelen summoned another clone with an anti-magic undershield attached to it in front of the chakram, making the chakram instantly disappear.

  Another clone lunged at Kaden with its axe, making Kaden have to side-step to dodge. Kaden responded by punching it in the head, the blow struck hard enough to slam the clone into the ground and dispel it. But as soon as the hit connected Mendelen moved in from the side and again swung one of his katars for Kaden's head. The chain of his katar magically extended to reach Kaden, even from a longer range.

  Kaden quickly dove out of the way of the swing, then before he could move again Mendelen swung the other katar at him. Thinking fast Kaden sidestepped the attack and grabbed the chain. As soon as he touched the chain he could feel Mendelen draining his energy, and Mendelen started rapidly summoning more clones around Kaden forcing Kaden to quickly let go of the chain.

  Seeing the clones surrounding himself, Kaden quickly spun around with his scythe, intent on taking them all down in one swing. His scythe cut through all of them with ease, but as he finished his spin Mendelen threw one of his katars and wrapped the chain around Kaden's scythe.

  Kaden immediately felt Mendelen draining his stamina again. He quickly tried to pull his scythe away, to yank it out of the tangle of chains it was stuck in, but he couldn't get it untangled. Mendelen timed it just right, and yanked the scythe at the same time as Kaden. The handle of the katars gave Mendelen a firm grip on them, and the scythe had no such handle, so when they both yanked the scythe it slipped out of Kaden's hands.

  The scythe was pulled right over to Mendelen, who immediately picked it up, then sliced it into three pieces and threw the pieces aside. With Kaden's weapon gone, Mendelen quickly began moving in again.

  "Come on!" Kaden complained. "Why do you guys always gotta break my scythe? That's hard to repair ya know!"

  "I told you a giant scythe was impractical Kaden." Mendelen stated.

  "But it looks cool!" Kaden protested.

  Mendelen rushed in and stabbed his katar for Kaden's head. Kaden quickly ducked under the blow but Mendelen just slashed his other katar for Kaden's throat. Kaden blocked the attack by striking Mendelen's wrist and knocking his attack aside.

  Mendelen quickly kicked Kaden, knocking him to the ground, then he threw one of the katars down at Kaden's head.

  Kaden quickly rolled out of the way and sprang back onto his feet. "These attacks are coming a little close to killing me, my friend."

  Mendelen didn't respond. He pulled his katar back and rushed at Kaden again. He started with a right-handed swing for Kaden's head again, but this time one of his clones grabbed Kaden from behind to stop him from dodging the attack. Thinking fast, Kaden grabbed the clone and pulled it off himself, then threw it at Mendelen. It knocked Mendelen to the ground, and in that moment Kaden began summoning chakrams and wildly throwing them out into the crowd of clones. Each chakram cut clean through every clone it came into contact with. By the time Mendelen got back onto his feet most of his clones had been destroyed.

  Mendelen looked around at the few clones he had left and sighed a little. He hadn't wanted them all to be lost that quickly, but at the same time they had served their purpose. This fight was over. He sent the remainder of his clones over to guard the portals while he moved back over to Kaden.

  This time Kaden moved first, he rushed in and threw a jab, but Mendelen swung one of his katars for Kaden's neck before he could get close enough to reach, forcing Kaden to step back and evade the attack. Mendelen then began swinging the katars at Kaden, one after the other, forcing Kaden to keep dodging and evading the deadly swings.

  Kaden backed away and put a lot of distance between them, giving himself as much time as possible to evade. "Oh… You are trying to kill me."

  "Of course I am. What did you expect to happen when you started killing all of those people?" Mendelen growled back.

  "But, did I kill any of those people?" Kaden questioned.

  "Kaden, I'm tired of this wordplay. Yes, you killed them, no matter who you blame for their deaths, it was you who pulled the trigger." Mendelen growled back.

  "True… True." Kaden nodded a little. "But, what if they are not dead? What if, maybe, they are not completely dead, but instead are only kinda dead."

  "Kaden, what the hell are you talking about!" Mendelen nearly shouted back at him.

  Kaden grinned under his helmet. "I know something you don't know~"

  "I'm not here to play your games, spit it out." Mendelen demanded.

  Kaden shook his head. "Great hero, you have not yet unlocked that secret yet."

  "Tell me what you're talking about or I'm going to just assume you're making it all up." Mendelen growled.

  "That would be bad. You need me and my information." Kaden pointed out. "How about this? You beat me, in a fair fight, and I'll spill the secret and call off my armies. But I can't do either of those things if I'm dead."

  "Fine." Mendelen grumbled, relenting to it only because he knew Kaden couldn't win. He immediately resumed swinging his katars at Kaden one after another, as he had been doing before their fight went on it's tangent. This time he was aiming for Kaden's arms and legs instead of his head and neck.

  Kaden kept dodging the attacks, one after another, and as he dodged he slowly moved in closer instead of backing away.

  Mendelen noticed him moving in close and quickly grabbed one of his katars as he swung it past Kaden. As soon as he had
a grip on the handle he stabbed his katar at Kaden. Kaden quickly sidestepped the attack and threw a punch for Mendelen's chest, but Mendelen evaded it by taking a step back and kicking Kaden hard in the ribs. Kaden was knocked to the ground but immediately sprang onto his feet and lunged at Mendelen. Catching him off guard with the quick recovery, Kaden slammed his fist into Mendelen's chest and sent him flying several feet backwards. The blow broke a few ribs, and fractured his leg when he landed on it wrong.

  'Same Kaden as always, he doesn't hit much but when he does hit it's devastating.' Mendelen groaned as he shakily stood up and pulled another scroll out of his bag. He activated the scroll and it quickly healed his wounds. However as he turned his attention back to the battlefield Kaden had already closed the distance and was moving in for another attack. Mendelen ducked under his jab and followed up by trying to sweep kadin's legs. Kaden jumped over the sweep and kicked him in the chest, launching him backwards again and slamming his back into a pile of rubble.

  'And his fighting style is as unorthodox as ever. He's still the same Kaden he's always been…' Mendelen groaned. He stumbled back onto his feet, the blow had badly hurt his back and seemed to have broken his shoulder.

  Kaden came charging at him again and Mendelen braced himself for the attack. Just like before Kaden ran straight in with a jab to the chest, but it was a feint, as Mendelen went to block he pulled back the jab and quickly moved around to the side, then threw his real jab from there.

  But Mendelen didn't fall for it, he sidestepped the punch and dropped one of his katars to grab Kaden's wrist, then immediately shoved Kaden.

  he was knocked to the ground and Mendelen dropped on top of him. Kneeling on Kaden's back he twisted Kaden's arm behind his back. Before Kaden could react Mendelen slammed his head into the ground. Kaden's armor absorbed the blow, but he was stunned by the blow.

  While Kaden was stunned, Mendelen grabbed his other arm and pinned them both behind his back. Kaden was struggling to break out of it, his superhuman strength making it hard for Mendelen to pin him. But Kaden had exhausted himself by casting so many of his chakram spells, and Mendelen's signet was now rapidly draining even more of his energy. Plus with the way his arms were pinned, Kaden couldn't use his full strength.

  Kaden kept struggling, trying to break free and was slowly making progress. Mendelen adjusted his grip on Kaden's arms to twist it further behind his back, then he kicked the arm as hard as he could, breaking Kaden's arm.

  Kaden shouted in pain and continued struggling, but the broken arm drastically reduced his strength and his ability to break free.

  Mendelen twisted Kaden's other arm behind his back and prepared to break that one too. "It's over Kaden. Concede."

  Kaden didn't respond, he kept struggling but when Mendelen twisted his arm even further he cringed. "Fine, fine. You win."

  Once he surrendered, Mendelen got off of Kaden. He picked up the katars he dropped and held out a hand to help him up.

  The darkness in the area cleared, and Kaden took Mendelen's hand with his good arm. Once Kaden was back on his feet he turned back to Mendelen and grinned "Well that was fun. Haven't had a challenge like that in a while." He seemed to be genuinely having fun, but by his tone of voice it was clear he was in pain.

  Mendelen glared back at him. "This isn't a game Kaden. That's not funny. Now spit it out, what is it I do not know."

  "There's a lotta things you don't know." Kaden laughed. "My favorite color is red. I do not believe you know that."

  "KADIN!" Mendelen shouted back at him. "What is it I do not know about these deaths. You said you know something I don't about this."

  "Hmmm, should I tell you?" Kaden grinned a little.

  Mendelen drew one of his Katars and held it at Kaden's throat.

  "Chill, I'm just playing around." Kaden replied.

  "People are dead Kaden. There is no excuse to be playing around." Mendelen growled.

  "True, kinda I guess." Kaden shrugged. He took a deep breath, and his expression changed to a more serious one. "In my travels, I came across a dungeon that was unlike any other. I couldn't open portals inside of it. I went inside and the monsters were so absurdly powerful, I couldn't beat it on the first try." He explained. "I knew I had stumbled upon something of importance, and I wanted to get whatever prize was at the end before you guys. Of course."

  Mendelen remained silent, but did not look amused. He had no idea what this had to do with anything.

  "I grabbed seven powerful betas I met in my travels, and went for it. It was even harder than I thought. There was absolutely no treasure, it was just room after room of horribly powerful bosses. They didn't even give you time to rest and recover, as soon as you cleared one room it forced you into the next boss fight immediately. Admittedly, only myself and two others survived." Kaden explained. "At the end, here was no treasure, no prize. Just a very strange looking alter. We spent hours trying to figure out what this altar did, it must do something considering all the trouble we went through to get it. Luckily, one of the people I had with me had lost her boyfriend in the first few days of the game. And she had a necklace of his around her neck. When she leaned over the alter the necklace touched it and it lit up." He explained.

  Kaden waited a moment to let that sink in, then continued. "So we had her place the necklace on the altar, but still nothing happened. It took a couple more hours but we eventually realized that when you open your virtual keyboard next to the altar it syncs up with the alter, and that's where the activate button is." He grinned. "When we pushed the button, the deceased boyfriend was summoned to the altar, alive and well."

  "Are you serious?" Mendelen asked, he got off Kaden and let him stand up. "So there is a way to bring back those we lost!"

  "Well, kinda." Kaden shrugged. "I'm not joking when I say that the dungeon is absurdly hard. Even if the four of us went in, as armed and prepared as we could, we'd have a very hard time beating it."

  "But if we went in with a small army, we could just revive whoever died in the dungeon and be fine." Mendelen pointed out.

  "No." Kaden stated. "If you die in the dungeon, you can not be revived by the dungeon until everyone leaves and comes back. Meaning you need to beat it a second time to revive whoever was lost in the first attempt."

  "Oh… That complicated things. What's in the dungeon? What monsters do you face?" Mendelen asked.

  "I don't know." Kaden answered. "That's the other thing about it. When you leave, it wipes your memory of what enemies were inside. And you can not send any messages to people when you're within the dungeon."

  "You weren't kidding when you said this was an abnormal dungeon." Mendelen thought out loud.

  "I just remember that it seemed like it was not meant to be beaten by us players. And that you need an item that used to belong to the deceased person to bring them back." Kaden stated. "I do fully intend to bring back those we lost in this war. Once everyone learns to stop sitting around doing nothing. I just need to prove a point."

  "You really are a sociopath." Mendelen sighed.

  "I never denied that." Kaden stated. "But I am not responsible for all of their deaths, since I will bring them back. So technically they are not dead."

  "Kaden. They are dead, right now. And did you stop and consider the mental trauma you're putting them all through?"

  "Yeah I hadn't thought of that. They'll be fine." Kaden shrugged.

  "So where is this dungeon?" Mendelen answered.

  "It's too soon to go revive them. The message hasn't set in yet." Kaden answered.

  "Kaden." Mendelen shot him a glare.

  "The promise was information, and me recalling my forces. I didn't promise to tell you where the dungeon was, nor did I promise to revive everyone early." Kaden stated.

  "I don't care, we're going to go revive them now." Mendelen growled.

  "Nope." Kaden grinned. "And you can't make me. If I don't wanna talk, I'm not gonna talk."

  "Prove it. Prove that you can bring back
the dead then." Mendelen insisted.

  Kaden nodded. "Figured you'd say that." He replied. "Unblock my portals and I will prove it."

  Mendelen gave him a distrusting look, but moved the clones out of his portals.

  As soon as the portals were clear again Kaden closed them, then reopened one beside himself and a man with his hands tied behind his back fell out of the portal. Mendelen recognized him as one of the soldiers he had personally helped train before the village fell, he died fighting Damion.

  "So it is possible." Mendelen murmured.

  "Yep." Kaden replied. "You can keep him."

  "And you're seriously not going to tell me where it is?" Mendelen questioned.

  "Nope." Kaden laughed.

  "Fine. I'll find it on my own. I have a military now, and with this force we are finding and completing several dungeons a day. It shouldn't be long before we find it." Mendelen stated