by Kieron Uchee
He glanced back at me in fear, only to discover his running had led towards the fallen Orc. Who was now on his feet and looking pissed off. As Yakoff tried to run around him the Orc stabbed upwards in a brutal attack and left the knife buried in Yakoff. I meanwhile had sheathed my swords and run over to Stephany and was ripping her ropes apart and helping her to stand.
As I pulled Stephany to her feet the Orc howled in triumph, I glance over to see what was happening and noted that Yakoff was now dead and that a dark gray mist was rising from his body. As I took this all in the Orc shouted at me in said, “It is done, the sacrifice of an unwilling victim has happened. The Dark God comes.”
Yet another fuck me moment I thought as the mist from Yakoff’s body continued to coalesce and began to expand forming the outline of a portal. The surface was a heavy cold black, not like the blackness of night or shadows but something far worse.
Suddenly a figure appeared in the blackness and stepped through the portal and as he did the mist was sucked into his body. He stood 3 meters high and had a very dark reddish tinge to his skin. His eyes were glowing with green fire and as I looked at him my interface announced,
The Dark God Skanda has breached the barrier between realms.
You must kill the Dark God before he sets up his temple and begins to change
the land.
Do you accept the challenge
Yes or No?
As I accepted I noted that the Dark God had grabbed the Orc and holding him up to his chest he gazed down at him and then somehow seemed to absorb the Orc’s life energy, draining his body of both life and power. As the mist left the Orc and was sucked into the Dark God he threw back his head and howled.
It was time to go, and holding Stephany I stepped into Shadows. Unfortunately, this did not stop the Dark God from seeing me, and as he began to move towards Stephany and I covering the distance faster than I would have thought possible I realized I was about to die. My power was not yet a match to that of a God, and I suspected my spells and abilities would have very little effect on him.
Whispering to the drunk scared girl, “I am sorry Stephany, you deserved to live.” I prepared myself to go out fighting when Nyx appeared in front of me. Seeing the Goddess of the Night stopped the Dark God who seemed surprised but then began to charge forward again.
Nyx shouted at me, “Hang on.” Suddenly all went dark as she turned into the night itself and wrapping the girl and myself up in the darkness we began to travel at great speed, soon we arrived at the village and entered back into the light of the courtyard in front of the Inn.
There was a large crowd of people standing around with Stephany’s parents in the center. I slowly pushed through the crowd which parted for me as I approached. Handing over the girl to her father I said, “She is alright but will have a bit of a hangover in the morning, take care of her.”
Seeing the mother break down and cry, I slowly walked through the crowd towards Ingar who stood with Reona and Tasia. They all greeted me with smiles but then noted the bleakness of my expression. Looking at them I spoke quietly, “We are in trouble and I mean real trouble. Some damned Orc summoned a Dark God from another realm and he is heading this way.”
Seeing the stunned look on their faces I nodded, it was hard to believe we had gone from a good time dancing and singing just a few hours before to this point in time, where we would soon be fighting a losing battle for not just our lives but our souls.
Explaining what had happened I told them I had managed to flee without mentioning Nyx. After hearing the story Ingar took charge and rushed off to find the Mayor to have him start arranging for people to flee or fight. I headed towards the bar, lighting a smoke up as I went, I wanted to find a quiet spot to talk to Nyx.
Chapter 34 Some Gave All
Sliding into a booth I sat for a moment thinking about what I had seen. The Dark God was something that I had not seen before and it was frightening. I have been exposed to Gods and powerful entities since I had started playing Gods and Men, yet I had never encountered anything like this. As I sat there musing about what I had seen Nyx slid into the bench opposite me and waved her hands.
“There,” She said. “Now we won’t be disturbed. I can see that you are troubled Torn and I wish I could reassure you, but I can’t. The Dark God has entered your realm and while his power is still acclimatizing to this realm he is more than you can handle, after all, he is a God.”
“How the Hell did he get here,” I began. “If the barrier between the realms is getting that weak why have we not seen other Gods arrive?”
Nyx spoke softly and said, “There are several reasons why he was able to be summoned and managed to get here, first the Gods of this realm are imprisoned in a sphere of stone from which they cannot escape. Without them here to oppose the Dark God, he has no opposition. Second, most Gods are content with what they have, why leave a realm where you rule supreme to go fight and possibly die in a strange realm. Third, he was summoned, he just did not hop over”
As I listened I felt like I was being hit below the belt and it hurt, I would be damned if I was going to justify why I had imprisoned the Gods of this realm, they were Dickheads at best and the world was better without them. But the power vacuum that they had left was slowly being filled with bad people and things like this Dark God, and that damned BanHammer.
It was time to step up and try to deal with these problems, and I was the person to do it. After all, If I died I could come back, again. What I would find after the upcoming war and the shadowy forces that were coming forth I did not even want to speculate on.
Looking at Nyx I asked, “What can I do, I am prepared to do whatever it will take but I don’t want to just throw my life away, I do want to kill or send this SOB back where he came from and shut the fucking door. How can I do that?”
Nyx stared at me and then sighed, looking sad she said, “There is one way and only one way to defeat this God, another God must kill him. Unfortunately, I am limited in this realm to minor magics. I cannot defeat him. However, if you obey me and do exactly what I say, I can empower you to kill him. It will require a sacrifice and there is no guarantee of success but it is the only plan that might have a chance to work. What say you, will you stand with me against this Dark God?”
I looked at Nyx and nodded, I would do my best and hope that it was enough. Nyx smiled at me and said, “I will meet you at the battle, and remember you must do what I tell you if we are to have a chance.”
“Nyx,” I asked, “How or why is this happening, not just this Dark God showing up but the war that is coming and even the darkness that seems to have spread across this realm?”
Looking at me Nyx slowly replied, “Things have been in motion for a long time, and are speeding up, some of us who have not forgotten who we are have speculated that once it was decided to have mankind enter VRP in the real world a splinter group did the same. They created a copy of the original realms, and kept it hidden, their intent was always to eventually merge the realms. They took their time and grew in strength while we Gods grew complacent. Now they are seeing the opportunity and are trying to seize the moment in this time of weakness.”
I nodded, the information seemed to fit the big picture and while it did help me to understand what was happening it did not help me to know how to change the future. One step at a time I thought. Nyx smiled at me and then faded into the night and was gone.
Standing up I made my way outside and walked over to Ingar who had been put in charge of mounting a defense. I stared as he directed small groups to find weapons and evacuate the village. Of the men in the village about twenty would fight with us, the rest were packing up families and preparing to flee.
Reona and Tasia were acting as Ingar’s lieutenants and while it did seem to be a mass of confusion there was a clear order that was slowly revealing itself. Within half an hour Ingar and the other guards from the Caravan along with Reona, Tasia and myself plus the twenty male villagers were walking up t
he hill. If we had to fight it would be on high ground and really it was the most likely spot that we would be attacked at due to the nature of the surrounding land.
The men quickly started some fires for warmth, soon the day would be upon us but I remembered the coldness that emanated from the Dark God. The fires would help even if only psychologically. As I stood there Tasia handed me my armor and began to put hers own on, as did Reona. I checked my maces and other gear, just wasting time as we waited, but it gave me something to do.
I noted that most of the others were doing the same, getting ready to fight a God was enough to make anyone nervous. As the dawns prelight began to spread across the land, a growing darkness could be seen approaching from the west. Soon we could hear battle shouts also, it would seem that the Dark God had found some people to join him.
Within minutes the bottom of the hill was occupied by a combination of 20 Goblins and Orcs. They stood there jeering at us with taunts and threats some even turning around and showing us their hairy asses. It seemed surreal and it reminded me of an old movie scene. Abruptly the sound died away as the 3-meter-tall figure of the Dark God appeared. He stopped and seemed to stare at us and when his eyes focused on me he let out a huge roar.
Ingar meanwhile was shouting at the men, “We must stop the Orcs and Goblins, if they make it past us they will attack all the people fleeing.” Turning to me he shrugged and said, “I hate to leave this at your feet, but it is up to you to try to stop big ugly down there.”
I nodded it was my plan to engage the Dark God in combat alone anyway, plus I had my secret weapon Nyx. I was not sure what was going to happen but I knew that either the Dark God or myself would be standing at the end, and I sure hoped it would be me.
The two groups stared at each other for a moment then the enemy began to charge up the hill. “Hold your arrow ready,” Ingar screamed, “Let them come up half way before you fire at them, as soon as the arrows are fired, the spears must be thrown.”
I nodded it was a good plan, we had the high ground and with 10 bowmen shooting, plus the spears that the rest of the men would throw we had a good chance to knock out a sizeable number of the enemy.
The attack went according to plan and we decimated the enemy. Between the bowmen and the spearmen attacking we soon had only 8 of the green-skinned brutes left alive. They were still rushing to close in for hand to hand combat as they ignored their fallen comrades. Ingar’s guards shined here as they met the attack head on and with the help of the villagers we soon began to cut down the enemy.
It was still deadly combat and I winced as I saw two of the villages with mortal wounds, but as I gazed down at the bottom of the hill I knew it was now time to get into the action. The Dark God had let his troops rush up the hill, probably thinking that they were enough to defeat us. Once he saw that they had failed in their attack he began to stride up the hill with darkness flowing off his arms and a terrible look on his face.
Suddenly Nyx was beside me and as I started down the hill she shouted, “Get your swords ready and change into your Dragon form, your Elf body is not strong enough to handle what will happen.”
I pulled both of my swords from my arms and then metamorphed into a Dragon, I was still humanoid but much more recognizable as a Dragon. With a thought, I sent out my elbow claws as well as my hand claws and roared with a fury that matched that of the Dark God.
I was aware that the sounds of victory coming from the men behind me had faded as they witnessed my transformation. Not that it would have mattered if I had known, I was focused on one thing. Suddenly all around me the Diggerduggers appeared and began to pop up from the earth and dive back into it.
The Dark God had stopped his advance upon seeing my transformation but quickly started up the hill again, closing with me at an incredible speed. We were about to engage when Nyx once again appeared and threw out her hands causing the remnants of the night to surround and block the Dark God.
Walking towards me she said, “That will not hold him long, so now is the moment that you must do what I say. Take your swords and thrust them into me.” Then reaching out she grabbed both swords and stabbed them into her own chest.
Double Crit
Bleed effect
I read the message as I stared in horrified shock at Nyx who stood with a wan smile as she looked down at the swords. “Nyx, what are you doing?” I yelled as I watched her standing there.
She looked at me and smiled then said, “I am giving you the power to defeat this abomination, you must defeat him to continue.” She then reached out her hand and touched my armor and whispered some kind of a blessing on it. Then with a sigh she was gone, her body had literally turned into darkness and traveled up both swords.
The swords suddenly flew together and began to change, and in the space of a heartbeat there was one sword, the shadows seemed to drip from it and it felt alive in my hands, without knowing why I lifted the sword and said, “I name thee, Godslayer.” The sword hummed in my hands and I felt a vague presence in the back of my mind.
I also became aware that I had received another essence this one was a higher being, and as Nyx’s soul bound itself to the three lesser souls and to my soul I shuddered as my very being began to evolve. The code that my avatar was made of began to change, and I was helpless to stop it.
A new window opened up and I read,
You have received the first of three higher souls.
By receiving two more you will be accepted into the Pantheon of the Gods as
an equal.
The choice is yours to become one of the Higher Powers with your ascension
or stay as a normal deity.
Another window opened up and I read,
You have killed a God, you have leveled up, you have leveled up, you have leveled up…
I closed that window away only to discover another window had opened which read,
You have entered an open-air battleground, all earned XP doubled for participating and tripled for winning.
I quickly closed that window, the time to look at that would be later if I could survive this battle.
The dark chains of the night that Nyx had cast were rapidly been torn asunder as the Dark God raged and roared. Everything that had happened had only taken seconds and had all been hidden under the veil of darkness the Nyx had surrounded us with.
I rushed at the Dark God as I activated my racial for double speed soon I was half flying half running, moving at incredible speed with the sword Godslayer held in front of me. Just as I was about to close with the Dark God the Diggerduggers went into action.
While the Dark God’s focus was on me they dived below the surface and then suddenly thrust themselves upwards straight into his feet and legs, sending sharp jagged stones into his flesh. As he screamed in pain and rage he stumbled forward, with his legs and feet held fast to the ground by the sharp jagged bedrock.
Both of his legs fractured under his weight and momentum and he thrust his hands forward to stop his head from hitting the ground. As he looked up at me with hatred in his eyes I thrust Godslayer straight into his left eye and into his brain.
Triple crit
Bleed effect
I quickly pulled the sword out and thrust it into his right eye and once again read,
Triple crit.
Bleed effect.
The Dark Gods body began to jerk and thrash around, Godslayer had killed his brain, but the rest of his body did not know it yet. Pulling the sword out of his eye I swung using all my strength and severed his head from his body. Standing there I was surrounded by a cloud of icy darkness and lightning began to flash. I suddenly felt Godslayer begin to devour the essence of the Dark God as I stood there, then the sword began to pass on to me his soul, and once again a window opened and I read,
You have received the second of three higher souls.
By receiving one more you will be accepted into the Pantheon of the Gods as
an equal.
This time the cha
nges were more painful and almost overwhelmed me, I could feel who I was beginning to fade away as the code was being rewritten. I seemed to stand off at a distance as I watched the core of who I am and what I am changing as my avatar began to assimilate the new code. I was suddenly aware that there was a very real chance that I might not be me anymore and I began a titanic struggle to keep my identity.
This lasted for an eternity and I almost lost the struggle but eventually, I became myself and could feel my body and then the world come back into focus. Eventually, I blinked and looked around, I was surrounded by Reona and Tasia who were supporting me. Standing facing me was Ingar and his guards and surrounding them were the men from the village.
As I looked around I saw fear on many faces, so turning to Tasia I asked, “What the Hell happened?
Tasia looked at me with a pale face and said, “You somehow managed to kill the Dark God, and then it was if a living shadow descended on you. Lightning was flickering from within the darkness and yet nothing was visible. Once that all faded away you were here kneeling on the ground holding that sword.”
I glanced down at my hand and could see Godslayer, taking a step forward I swung the sword across my back where it just seemed to turn into Shadows as the Roses and Thornes quickly spread across my back and sheathed it. Turning to look at Reona I asked, “What else happened?”
Reona looked at me and then said, “You are now human or at least half human by the look of you, in addition, you are now level thirty. Also, you do not register as one of the races in this realm, your status declares you to be an Ascended one, a demigod. Your name is now displayed for all to see as Tor. I am sorry, everyone now knows who you really are now.”