by E. M. Hardy
“We know,” Elia answered. “Someone’s got to do it though and we’re the only two who have Ritorio’s invitation. It’s a do or die situation.”
“Well, let’s equip you with some better gear,” Varkas said. “Hmm, right now I can give you a better piece of armor with fire resistance. And for you, Fhauste, I think I still have some Dragon Mesh in the back. You’re pretty lucky no one else in the guild other than Null needs light armor because Dragon Mesh is pretty freaking badass. Most people don’t get that kind of armor until they’re around Level 15.”
I thanked him, and both Elia and I followed him to the armory. The piece he handed to Elia was really impressive – it was bright white-gold with blue and gold lining and bore the symbol of the Silver Blades on its plating. There was a red gem embedded right into its center, just below the collar, and Varkas explained this was the enchantment that gave the armor its fire resistant property.
The Dragon Mesh was equally amazing. It was comprised of dark green scales meshed into a seamless piece of armor. According to Varkas, this was made from the corpse of a Green Dragon they had slain a few months back, and it would make me resistant to poison attacks. After donning it, Varkas also resupplied my quiver with more arrows.
Once we were ready, Elia departed to visit the ruins of the Golden Dragon bank and I promptly logged out of the game.
Chapter Twenty One
The moment I was back in the real world, I felt a lingering void swirl in my gut and suck the life out of me. There was this itch in the back of my brain that was prodding me to get back down and log into the game. When I checked the clock, I was shocked to see it was still the same day I had logged in way back, only it was now nearly five o’clock in the afternoon. In the game, it had been a good four and a half days.
I needed to be careful. I was spiraling into a virtual world that could easily mess with my perception of time. I could live a whole lifetime in Vatenkeist Online but, in the real world, it would only be a few months. Three weeks in the real world equated to one full year in the game. If I got too addicted, my brain could lose it in ways I couldn’t even imagine.
The clock was ticking. I only had an hour and twenty minutes out here before I had to go back in the game and initiate our infiltration plan. Elia would be in there waiting for me.
One of the first things I did was head down to my little gym. It was once a music room but, when Jason and I both decided playing music wasn’t going to be a career, we had turned it into our own private training grounds. We still kept a guitar and drum set, but we hardly ever played, especially since I started working as a private contractor. We were just too busy. Or rather, I was.
In the gym, I took a good thirty minutes to exercise. Mainly sticking to a full bodyweight workout with pull-ups, push-ups and a few pistol squats thrown in there. I was spending more and more time in Vatenkeist Online so I had to keep my body in shape. I didn’t want to waste my body away and let it wither.
After exercising, I headed to the kitchen and treated myself to a full meal. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to starve. I added in a protein shake, flaxseed oil and some vitamin complex to keep my organism functional while I was in the game. Everything I did now was to ensure my real body wouldn’t crash and burn because I was too busy in the virtual world.
I then took a shower, cleaned up the house a little bit out of pure paranoia, and then spent the remaining time checking my social media accounts. It was so fascinating for me – my brain felt like days had passed but, out here, it was just a couple of hours. I felt like a time traveler of some sorts. It was so bizarre to be back here and log in to see people posting about stuff that felt like they happened ages ago when in reality they were only a few hours old.
By the time I checked the clock again, I still had ten minutes left. That was when I chuckled and realized I was getting excited to log back in.
“This won’t do,” I reminded myself. “The moment I get my revenge, I’m never going to touch this game ever again.”
I didn’t need to help in the war between the Silver Blades and the Horde. I didn’t need to get involved with the players getting too mixed in with the game’s economy and world. I didn’t want to get addicted to the game. Their battle with the Ascendants was the only thing that kept me coming back. Or so I was telling myself.
With the little time I had left, I made myself some sandwich and took a quick snack. Once I was set, I got back in place. This time however, before I went full into the game, I went through the menu and made sure that the game would notify me once I had been in for more than six hours in the real world. That way, I’d be able to log out before I’d get too sucked into what was going on in there.
I then let the game take over and, before I knew it, I was warped right back into the foggy land of Cael’vron.
***
The Save Girl was busy talking to a small group of adventurers. They all looked like complete beginners, wearing the same type of gear Elia and I had kept on for so long. It was a little endearing to see them go through the same beats we did when we first arrived.
I checked if I materialized with everything I needed. I did have my dagger, my Elven Longbow, my quiver filled with arrows, and to my relief I was still wearing the Green Dragon mesh armor they had given me. When I checked my pouch, I still had all my cash and Ritorio’s badge.
Satisfied that every one of my things was still right where they belonged, I made my way to the headquarters. That was when the first surprise hit me. The front façade was in ruins. It looked like the front wall, door and windows had been broken and burned down.
I saw Varkas ordering around a few soldiers cleaning up the area. I approached and asked, “What the heck happened?”
He looked up and saw me. “Huh? Oh, hi! Actually, I just got back here. I logged out a while back after I went with Valentine to the skyship port. You can ask Mikaela though. She’s inside arguing with the boss. Elia’s in there too.”
Mikaela’s back. I could only guess that she was done looking for recruits in Strovport. I stepped over the rubble and made my way inside. I found Elia seated in the foyer and she was surprisingly not in her armor. Instead, she was wearing a beautiful blue dress with white and silver lining. She looked comfortable and relaxed, just taking a moment to listen in to the discussion unfolding in front of her.
Neither Vahn nor Mikaela noticed me as I stepped in. I took my position against a ruined book shelf and gave Elia a wink as I too listened in.
“I already said no,” Vahn insisted. “The fortress in White River isn’t worth it. It’s just not worth the effort and resources.”
Mikaela slammed a fist on the table in pure frustration. “Damn it, Edgar! Listen to me! If we don’t start making our moves on White River, the other factions will scramble to take it. From there, it’s just two more steps to our doorstep here.”
“We don’t even own this place,” Vahn shot back. He seemed quite perturbed seeing as how Mikaela called him using his real name. It was the first time I ever heard someone be referred to by their names in the real world. “The Ascendants own Cael’vron, not us. Our concern is the hometown. We get Cael’vron, the rest will follow like a stack of dominos.”
“What happens if this whole plan goes out the window?” Mikaela asked. “What happens if Elia and Fhauste get caught in the castle? The Ascendants will not let it slide and they will run us out of the whole freaking game.”
“What do you mean they’ll run us out?” I finally spoke out. “They can kill us, but we’d just respawn.”
Everyone looked at me but it was Vahn who answered my question, “They won’t try to kill us but they’ll kill every ounce of what makes this game fun for us. They’ll destroy our reputation, take all our resources, and ruin all of our missions. In due time, none of the NPCs will trust us. We’ll never get another job in this game. We’ll have nothing left but to just play with the boring basic quests or be forced to make new characters and star
t from the very beginning. It’s more than just a game, Fhauste, it’s a social cycle and a vicious one at that.”
That made more sense than it probably should have. I replied, with my gaze fixed on Mikaela, “Trust us on this mission. I know Elia and I are still relatively novices in this game, but we’ve been through a lot already.”
“Even if you succeed, there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to take the city from the Ascendants,” Mikaela insisted. “There are four other main guilds here and they’ll all fight us for the top spot. Well, there are like a few dozen others but none of them really matter. The top four, however, won’t sit around when the lion leaves the pride. They’ll do everything in their power to establish their rule here. The Ascendants will then flee over to White River and we’ll get caught in the middle.”
“Then let’s attack on all sides,” Elia suggested. “Why are we only focusing on defeating the Ascendants when we can hit them all at the same time?”
Vahn scoffed. “We only have nine members and a few cheap soldiers. We’re not an army to handle that level of conflict just yet. If the Ascendants don’t annihilate us, the other guilds will.”
“That’s because you’re thinking of attacking them individually, but what about simultaneously?” I pointed out. “If we were a bigger guild with all fifteen members, then it would make sense to do so. That’s how most guilds would normally approach this type of situation.”
“War?” Mikaela asked.
“Real estate,” I corrected her, and then explained further. “The only way to deal with so many enemies all at the same time is to freeze them out of the fight. If we can cripple them, even for just a while, we can gain the needed time to move on our own without interference.”
Vahn stroked his chin. “I know how we can accomplish this, but it’ll be the riskiest move we can do. We’ll have only one shot and, if just one piece of the puzzle doesn’t fit, it’ll all come crashing down on us.”
We all turned to him but it was Elia who asked, “What do you have in mind, boss?”
“The Obelisk Gallant is set to sail again soon,” he answered. “If I can convince Klarg, then maybe he can blow up the entire Cael’vron skyship port.”
“How would that help?” Elia didn’t see the point. “Skyships fly. Destroying the port won’t ground them.”
Mikaela shook her head. “When the skyships dock, they’re grounded through a central fueling system that recharges their levitation crystals. If we take out the port’s central hub, we can keep all of the guilds’ members stuck here in the city.”
“Giving us the time to head to White River and take the fortress,” I concluded. “How are we going to get out of here if the port’s wrecked?”
“We’ll just make sure the Obelisk Gallant is already up in the sky,” Vahn replied. “We’ll have to board it some other way than with a docking ramp. I’ll have the others come up with a good plan. The assault on White River isn’t your concern. You and Elia need to focus on taking out the Ascendants here.”
I faced Elia. “Are you ready?”
She nodded back at me. “I am. I’ve done my research and, while it isn’t a lot, I think it’ll be enough. Some of the jargon and routines that the bank employees use aren’t common knowledge, so I think we can surf by when talking to members of the court. We do have to beware of Lord Julian Gygan. He’s the financial advisor to the Grand Duke, so he could see through our cover if he starts asking pointed questions.”
“We don’t need to stay undercover for long,” I told her. “We just need to get inside the castle. From there, we can do what we need to find out who the Ascendants are within the court’s ranks. We just need one.”
Vahn then asked, “What’s the signal to let us know it’s time to attack the skyship port? We’ll have the men ready as quickly as we can.”
I looked at Elia and then back at Vahn. “If I’m getting good at one thing, it’s blowing stuff up. You’ll know it’s time when we somehow manage to cause a ruckus at the castle. Something is going to go boom in there.”
“Oh, by the way we did procure a few forged documents to show you’re really from the Golden Dragon,” Mikaela said. “Don’t lose them. These documents are the only things that will keep you alive in there.”
“I guess we’re all set then,” Elia concluded.
I nodded in agreement. “Let’s get this done. Oh, I do have to ask: what the heck happened here?”
Vahn rolled his eyes in dismay. “The Grand Duke ordered an Inquisition to investigate all the major guilds. One of our guards refused entry to the Inquisitors, so they came back with a freaking siege machine and tore down the front side of the building.”
“Null killed that guard out of frustration,” Mikaela then said. “It was unnecessary, but sometimes it is frustrating for a stupid NPC to cause some unwanted chaos. Don’t worry about the damages; other guilds got it worse than we did.”
I could only imagine how the other guilds fared. It was a little unfair when I thought about it. All this chaos was our doing. The other guilds were just people trying to have fun with the game, but here we were plotting all sorts of political nonsense and warfare. It was our fault people, both player characters and NPCs, got hurt.
The only way to fix that was to push through with our plans. I had to stop the Ascendants from taking control. They were everywhere and the way they had their hands in everything meant they could affect the lives of so many of us. Seeing just how influential they truly were was frightening – if they could make my brother commit suicide, I knew they could make others do it too.
I turned to my companions and said, “I’m ready. I want to blow the Ascendants out of the damn sky.”
Chapter Twenty Two
With the documents in our possession, both Elia and I pinned on Ritorio’s badges. I looked back only once to see Mikaela and Vahn start organizing their part of the plan. While we were going to infiltrate the castle, they were going to launch a terrorist attack against the docks. I was sure Klarg would agree to it, seeing as how he did help us fight our common enemy before.
Slowly and carefully, we made our way through the streets. We passed a lot of young NPCs, children frolicking as the adults stayed busy repairing all the damages in the city. I had caused some serious trouble when I blew up the bank but, at the same time, the Inquisitors had destroyed nearly every guild house in the vicinity. It was like a warzone in Cael’vron, and even the smog couldn’t hide that fact.
It was a depressing sight for sure, but I didn’t know if it could match the sickening feeling in my gut when we finally arrived at the castle gates. When we got a look at the fortress that loomed ahead and behind the walls, I knew this was not going to be one easy mission. Even from out here, we could see the castle was built with real-world sensibilities instead of video game logic.
This meant there wasn’t a dozen towers and random buildings just placed together to make the fortress look big. All the buildings and the roofed hallways connecting them made sense. Even the exterior walls were properly made.
There was a deep moat around the castle and it was designed to stop enemy soldiers from digging underneath the walls. The walls were designed like a star with a dozen or so points. This made it harder to scale them and allowed more soldiers to defend the structure. The Grand Duke could let all these additional soldiers ran arrows and hot oil against anyone trying to break through.
“Wow, who would’ve known this place was an impenetrable bastion,” I told Elia.
“I know,” she commented. “Do you have any idea how we’re supposed to proceed?”
I shrugged. “Get in, meet everyone at once and pick a target to follow.”
“That sounds oddly simplistic,” she noted. “It’s not like an Ascendants spy would just show their tell either.”
She was right about that. “I know but we’ll have to go with our gut on this one. I’ll follow who I can while you speak with Ritorio.”
“Why d
o I have to speak with him?” she panicked a little. I could feel the tension and uneasiness in her voice. “Why don’t you talk to him and I’ll be the one to shadow a suspect?”
“You’ll sneak around in your battle-priest armor?” We both knew that idea was ridiculous. “You’ll wake up the whole castle.”
She relented but still didn’t want to cross the bridge and approach the main gates just yet, “I don’t even think we’ll get that far. Just how exactly are we going to put every important court member and noble in the same room for us to observe?”
I smiled. “We’re from the Golden Dragon Trading Bazaar and Bank, remember? I think we can get a bunch of pompous rich folks into a room.”
I took her by the hand and we walked across the lowered drawbridge and towards the main gates. There were six guards posted there, but the large barbican must have had at least another half dozen men armed and ready for enemies. We were immediately halted by one guard, the largest of the bunch. Surprisingly, he wasn’t a Venaris or orc. He was just human.
“What is your business here?” the guard asked. He looked like a war-torn hero, complete with a big scar running down his cheek and a strong, military stand.
Elia pointed at the badge. “We’re friends of Lord Ritorio Grahm and we’re here to see the Grand Duke regarding the damages of the Golden Dragon and financial repercussions.”
The guard looked down at her for a moment and considered the badge. He scrunched up his face a bit but he didn’t exactly buy our story just yet. He asked, “You might be friends of Lord Ritorio, but I was commanded not to let just anyone in the castle grounds now with so much terrorist activity going on.”
“I know that,” I butted in. “Skyships attacked by pirates, banks blowing up, convicted criminals gone missing – oh, yes, there’s a lot of commotion going on. However, you do have to keep in mind that my companion and I here are the money that keeps this city afloat through all this chaos. Would you kindly please let us through or maybe you prefer being executed for not letting the Grand Duke speak with the city’s primary financers?”