Chrysalis

by Leto Spirit Blackman

  I walk back to stand in front of the group. "There are horrors worse than what I am, and they are coming for you. Now." I look off into the distance. "Fairies and Alvinius come to stand with you. But the monsters will get here first. Be strong." I swipe in the air and transfer ownership of Land's Wound to Jill.

  I teleport back to the top of the wall and then open a Portal to Sarvina. Right before I go I release them from my skill. "Goodbye." I hear Jill and Kala yell as I step into the Portal.

  ~

  End of book two.

  The story continues with book three, Metamorphosis.

  Thank you for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed the adventure. This was my second book I have ever written. I have learned a lot, and grown as a writer. I plan to keep growing and perfecting my craft. Writing is my new joy and love and I'm pumped beyond belief to be embarking on this journey. So, thank you again, it is only with your support I am able do what I truly love.

  If you enjoyed this story please leave me a review, it makes a world of difference.

  Thank you!

  Leto Spirit Blackman

  How to contact Leto Spirit Blackman:

  Email: CrucibleofImmortality@gmail.com

  Check out a some great pages:

  Leto Spirit Blackman - Facebook Author Page

  Leto Spirit Blackman - Amazon Author Page

  Leto Spirit Blackman - Goodreads Author Page

  GameLit Society

  RPG GameLit Society

  Please check out the first chapter of a new series I am currently working on following on the next pages.

  Gray Sky: Book one of Civil War Online

  Gray Sky: Book One of Civil War Online

  Initializing...

  Beta Build .7136

  Civil War Online

  Timestamp: 2105-102 T 9:38 UTC

  "...I heard that it is a completely new build-out, from the ground up..."

  "Shh, he's coming online..."

  I open my eyes to find three people standing around me in army fatigues. A burly man stands in front who looks to be in his forties. He sports a salt and pepper look, his eyes hard, and his arms and face crisscrossed with scars. To his left is a gorgeous woman with long black hair tied into a pony tail. She looks to be in her late twenties, but her eyes say she is much older. Her face is devoid of emotion, actually, that is wrong, she looks like she is depressed. Her right arm has been replaced with a metal prosthesis. She is leaning against a broken wall looking bored. Finally, to his right is a scary looking man. He is skinny, with a bald head and deep purple bags under his eyes. There are a pair of goggles resting on his forehead. He tosses a glowing glass object filled with a liquid between his hands. He has a tattoo on his scalp, but from where I am sitting it is hard to tell what it is.

  "Welcome to Civil War Online, kid. I'm Vehemence, but everyone calls me Mence." He offers me a hand. He grips my hand intensely and pulls me up with ease. He then brushes off nonexistent dirt off of the front of fatigues that I am wearing. "To your left is Kitten, but don't call her that unless you have a death wish, Kit will work fine." Mence smirks at Kit, but she ignores him and lights a cigarette. "This ghastly gentleman is the Alchemist, and well, we just call him Alchemist." Mence shrugs.

  "Thanks, I'm Gray. They told me I would be working with a group in the beta test. I guess that is you guys?" Gray looks at them.

  "Kind of young, isn't he?" Kit asks, in a deep sultry voice. He could be mistaken, but it sounded like she almost growled at him.

  "I'm eighteen." I say, not liking that the beautiful woman is talking down about me.

  "Don't you mind her. Anyway, I was told you are one of the best gamers in the world and that is why you were chosen to be in the beta?" Mence asks me.

  "Yeah, mainly MMORPG and RTS." I say proudly.

  The Alchemist makes a noise that I assume is a laugh, but sounds more like a frog dying. I glance over at him, he is frowning.

  "Well, kid, welcome to Civil War, this is like nothing you have ever experienced before." Mence chuckles and flourishes his hands to the world around in a dramatic gesture.

  "Yeah, this is really amazing. I knew the full-immersion technology for this game is cutting edge, but this is out of control! It feels like real life." I lean down and pick up some dirt and run it through my fingers. I can feel the grains of rock in the dirt, and an earthy smell lingers on my fingers.

  "So, what exactly did they tell you about this world?" Mence asks me.

  I try and think back to who 'they' are, but all I can recall about the people that recruited me is hazy faces. "They didn't really tell me anything." I look down and realize that I am standing on a metal surface with a circular indentation. It looks like it is a lift of some kind.

  Mence's eyes follow where I am looking. "It's your spawn point, well, kind of, you will not respawn if you die. So, do us a favor, and don't. That lift travels deep below to the Factory."

  "No respawn? Pretty hardcore. The Factory? What's that?" I ask.

  "Jesus. Take a seat Mence, I'll give the kid a synopsis, this is taking for-fucking-ever." Kit flicks her cigarette off to the side. "Everything is recreated to scale in this game. Earth, everything is in this world is exactly where you would find it in the real world. We are on North America, and more specifically, Kansas City, Missouri. You will experience real world physics, none of the crazy shit you are used to in your games. There are no pop-up windows giving you quests. There are no graphical user interfaces, and no hotbars to place skills. This will be as real an experience as it gets." Kit walks around me and then stops in front of me and picks me up with her metal arm.

  "Woah, hey now! Put me down!" I yell at her. Kit grins, exposing sharp pointed teeth. I also notice that she has yellow eyes that look oddly feline.

  Mence laughs.

  Kit puts me down, "Just checking how heavy you are kid. Chill. Anyway, about twenty-five years ago Earth was bombarded with crystalline meteorites of unknown origin. These meteorites smashed into most of the lower half of the United States, Mexico and South America. Most of the world was also assaulted with these meteorites. Scientist talked about a new form of energy and radiation, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, anyone or thing near the space rocks changed, became monsters. We are part of the Northern Reclamation Government, or NRG for short. Our job is to find and secure the Prime Crystals. Any questions? No? Good, lets do this." Kit licks the back of her hand and then rubs it against her hair, like a cat.

  "NRG, that's funny, that is the name of the game company that recruited me. Wait, I thought there were role-playing mechanics in this game? How do I level up, pick my skills, and my class?" I ask, taking a step back from the woman grooming herself.

  "Open your shirt, kid." Mence says to me.

  "Wha...?" I begin to ask, but Kit's face says to just do what I was asked. After undoing a few buttons I look at my chest. I gasp. "What the hell?" There is a silver cylinder where my sternum should be, it is raised about half an inch from my skin. I can see blue wire-like things snaking off from it under my skin.

  "Collector." I hear a scratchy, deep voice say off to my side.

  Mence laughs, "Well, would you look at that! He speaks. He must like you, kid."

  "What does he mean 'Collector'?" I ask, fingering the warm metal embedded in my chest.

  "When you kill any of the baddies that thing in your chest will collect the energy that they absorbed from the crystals. You get to keep half and the other half goes to NRG. But, don't fret, you can use your War Points to buy equipment." Mence explains to me.

  "Vehemence." Kit says with a deadly coldness.

  "Damn. You know she is pissed when she uses my full name. We better get going, seems Kit is getting antsy, this babysitting job was a pretty big detour for us." Mence picks up a huge machine gun and also a sword that is probably as large as I am. He attaches the sword to his back with an audible click, then the sword folds into itself until just the hilt is showing. Mence looks off into the distance and then whistles. I h
ear fast approaching footsteps, and an enormous dog, the size of a horse, run up to us.

  I stumble back and fall on my ass. "Holy crap. What is that thing?" It looks like a wolf that ate all the steroids, like all of them, in the world. It has purple eyes, deep gray fur, with white mixed in. Around it's neck is an electronic collar with glowing lights.

  Mence pets the wolf's head, "This is Ibuki." He then proceeds to talk to the giant wolf in baby talk "Yes, who's a good dog? You are!" He scratches the wolf around her ears. The whole scene would be comical, if I wasn't almost pissing myself. This wolf could eat me in one bite.

  "Man, this is so effing real." I mumble. I can feel sweat running down my face.

  "Here." Mence holds out a piece of meat to me. "Feed this to her. Slowly. She needs to get to know your scent."

  With much trepidation I hold the jerky in my hand for the wolf. She cocks her head and looks at me and then to the meat. I can see her sniffing the air, she licks her chomps and takes a step forward. It takes all of my willpower not to step away from her. Ibuki takes another step forward, leans closer and smells my face, then she eats the food out of my hand.

  "That's a good girl. This is Gray, he is a new member of our team." Mence grins and pats her. I notice the wolf has large packs secured to both of her sides. "She is a good example of an Infused Beast. She grew up in crystal country." Mence grabs her collar and gently tugs on it, "Without this thing she turns feral and would kill you in an instant."

  I hear a cat hiss, and then Ibuki growls. I turn around and I see Kit has claws that have come out of her fingers. Her prosthesis arm has metal claws.

  "Oh, for the love of... you guys cut it out! We have been traveling together for the better part of a year now." Mence yells at Kit and Betsy.

  Taking a moment I really take in my surroundings. It does indeed look like Kansas City, if it was hit by a bomb, many, many bombs. Most buildings are destroyed, roads overgrown with weeds and grass. Oddly enough, there is a Gates BBQ standing down the street in pristine condition. Mouth watering smoke billows out of the restaurant.

  "Miracle." I hear the Alchemist say behind me.

  "Yeah, it really is." Kit says with a far off look in her eyes.

  "Ever had Gates before? Damn fine BBQ. And yeah, it's really is a miracle that it is still standing this close to the border, that building is over one-hundred years old. If we come back by this way we will stop in, it's kind of a right of passage for newbs." Mence tells me, everyone, including Ibuki, is staring at the restaurant.

  I chuckle, "Okay." This game is funny, and these guys are really committing to this reality. "How long have you all been logged in?"

  Ignoring my question, "Come on kid, we have a bit of a trek to The Great Wall."

  Everyone is walking away.

  We walk in silence for an hour, not by my design, I tried to ask a million questions at first, but everyone seemed to just ignore me. I tried to not take it personally. But, I was hurt a little, I was always kind of socially awkward. Touching my face and hair confirm that my real body was scanned and uploaded exactly as it is in real life. I sigh, I wish I had been able to alter how I look. Not that I'm some monster, I think I am reasonably attractive, for a gamer that never exercises and doesn't eat that well. I have short dark brown, almost black hair. Some people have told me that I look like a skinny Ryan Gosling, I had to look up who that is. He was an actor from way back that women were crazy about.

  I can't tell if I love this new game or not, the immersion is insane, but walking for an hour is not so great. I want to kill some monsters and get some loot! We have passed a few groups headed in the opposite direction. Most are dressed in black hazmat suits, masks hang off of their necks, or in their hands. They look exhausted, and shell-shocked. They all look at Mence and my group with a mixture of fear, awe, and respect.

  "Uh, do we need those suits too?" I ask my group.

  "Yeah, you don't need to worry about it. We are special." Kit tells me.

  In the distance is a huge wall, it is obviously made out of some type of metal, because the sun is reflecting off of it, causing me to squint. "So... am I going to get a weapon or be able to shoot fire out of my hands, or something?" I ask Mence, since he seems the most likely at answer my questions. I like him, he has a charm that is endearing, but there is also something dark about him that I can't place.

  Mence grunts and then looks back at me, "They really did send you in here blind." He stops walking, causing everyone to stop. "Undo your shirt again. We need to activate you."

  "What do you mean?" I ask holding my shirt defensively.

  Mence laughs, "It's okay, kid. No need to be scared."

  Sighing, I open my shirt.

  Mence walks up to me with his hand out and then pauses, "You want to do the honors?"

  There are a few vendors along the sides of the roads. They yell at the other groups, trying to sell stuff, but they don't yell at us.

  "What do I need to do?" I ask, confused.

  "Your Collector. Press it in until it clicks. You'll know when it happens." Mence smirks at me.

  "Okay." I can tell people around us are trying to watch the scene without being obvious. Placing my fingers on the warm metal cylinder in my chest I press. It resists at first, then smoothly slides in with a click,

  Pain shoots in the back of my eyeballs and I hear what sounds like light bulbs breaking. A wave of tiny glowing specks fly at me and then flow into my Collector. The ground under my feet crack open and some more glowing specks enter me. Then I feel the change, it's like someone poured icy-hot into my veins. It's both pleasant and painful at the same time. I can hear Mence saying something to me, but it sounds like he is underwater. My fingers tingle, and I look down at them, purple energy jumps between my digits, like a Tesla Coil. Grinning I hold my hand out and will the power at a wall to my side. Answering my call the power shoots out destroys the wall and knocking everyone around us down with a shockwave.

  "Kid. Put your hands down." I hear Mence say to me in a very serious voice.

  Turning around I see that Mence has his machine gun pointed at me.

  "Hey now! What are you doing?" I yell at him.

  Then I feel something sharp at my neck and I hear Kit purr into my ear, "He said put your hands down." She then presses her claws harder into my carotid artery.

  Slowly I put my hand down, but I can still feel the energy crackling between my fingers. "Why are you guys about to kill me?" I ask defensively.

  "Sorry kid, sometimes things go wrong. We had to put down one of our members before." Mence says lowering his massive gun. "In the future, don't use your abilities outside of the wall. You are lucky you didn't kill someone, or that someone didn't kill you."

  Looking around I see a lot of terrified faces and a few people with guns in their hands. "Sorry. You guys could have warned me as to what was going to happen."

  "Look kid, we had no idea. They are testing out new abilities with you. I've never seen someone use the juice like that before." Mence says with a frown. He turns around searching for something, he then spots a scared looking vendor. Mence walks up to him and flips his table over. There is a crate with broken glass.

  "I'm sorry! I have four kids that I need to feed! Please..." The terrified man yells, backing away.

  Mence raises his gun and shoots the man in the head. I would expect everyone to yell and make a scene, but the other vendors act like nothing happened.

  Mence walks back to me, my mouth is hanging open in shock.

  "It's illegal to sell the crystals or even possess them outside of the wall. Only NRG members are allowed to have any, and even then only to turn in." Mence stares me in the eyes, like he is looking for something. "Huh, your eyes are purple now. Interesting." He then grins and pats me on the back. "So, does that answer your question about needing a gun?" Not waiting for me to answer he walks over to Ibuki and pulls something out of the pack on her side. "Here." Mence says and tosses something at me. It hits me in the chest an
d falls to the ground. Mence laughs, "If you want to survive, you are going to need to be faster than that."

  Picking up the item from the ground, I look it over. It seems to be some kind of leather bracer with a metal barrel attached, similar to a gun. There is also a laser sight on it.

  "So you can tag your kills. The way things work here is if you kill something on the other side of the wall it's energy will dissipate into the air, soil and whatever is around it. But, if you tag it first with that device the energy will flow to you. You'd need to talk to the eggheads as to why it works, something about creating a negative/positive charge that is unique to you, or something like that. The Alchemist can probably explain it better, he used to work at the Factory. What just happened with the ground and the glass jars is unusual. Once you attach it to your wrist it will link to your optical implants, all you need to do to activate it is look where you want tag, hold you wrist out and will it to fire. There is a laser pointer on the side to help with aiming. We usually take turns tagging our kills, but if need be, everyone can tag the same baddie and share in the wealth."

  I stand there still shocked that Mence killed that guy. Kit and the Alchemist walk away with Mence, continuing towards the wall. I see some street urchins run up and begin taking stuff off of the dead body. Jogging to catch up I ask Mence a question, "Was that vendor an NPC?" Mence stares at me blankly. "A non-player character, a computer controlled person." I elaborate.