War Aeternus: The Beginning

by Charles Dean

  “No way in hell you’re leaving that hospital bed until you’re all healed up,” his dad insisted.

  “Gotta agree with the grand poobah,” Wolfe agreed, soundly failing to ‘help a bro out,’ as he often put it. “An extra day in the bed this week will prevent having to pay for three more next week.”

  “If you try to leave, I’ll stab you until you have a reason to stay,” his mother replied in the closed-eyed, big-smiled, creepily-calm voice she used when making threats.

  Lee tried to protest, but it eventually became clear that he wasn’t going to get anywhere.

  He even tried to sneak out when negotiations failed, but the second his family wasn’t paying attention, and he tried to stand up despite the pain it caused him, a doctor came in and told him that it’d be at least six weeks before he would be fully healed, so he should really just lay back, relax, and remember to breathe no matter how much it hurt. The doctor insisted that he wasn’t just trying to torture one of his patients, that it was good to stretch out the tissue or something, but Lee wished the doctor could try taking deep breaths with the guy’s ribs and lungs in the state his were currently in.

  And so, when the seven hours finally ticked by, Lee was practically counting down the seconds in a mix of dread and anticipation with bated breath. Half of him was looking forward to finally being able to stretch his legs again, but he had that pressing concern of how it was going to go over with him showing up in a medieval world with swords and arrows and knives and a thousand other things designed to kill, maim and torture a fellow while wearing only a hospital gown and a rib brace. To make the anticipation even worse, he didn’t know exactly when the seventh hour ended, only that there were seven hours left. Luckily for him, the droning conversation from his parents and family was so monotone and dull that it eased his nerves and let him finally relax as he waited for the end to come when he would be warped back into the game world.

  ——-

  When it finally occurred, and he once more found himself back in the slave quarters, the gauze and wrapping from the hospital covered his bare chest, and he was wearing pants. He wanted to smack Augustus. I was worried the entire time, and you were just going to change my clothes anyway?! He wanted to shout, but before he could even grumble at the shape-shifting voyeur, he became aware of all the NPCs staring at him. No one said a single word; they just stared.

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted seven people to your religion. Faith has increased by 7. Current Faith: 10.

  Wait, what’s going on? Am I still dying? Lee panicked, looking to see if his broken ribs were still causing damage over time. Forty-seven hit points . . . Not much, considering it took me over seventy-two hours and that’s all I managed to recover. Still, not bad, and they’re not going down anymore, are they? Lee waited for a few seconds in silence as he watched his hit points for any change, not trusting that a blue box would warn him in time. When he finally accepted that he was going to be fine, he let out a deep breath, dusted off his leather pants, and stood up.

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted four people to your religion. Faith has increased by 4. Current Faith: 14.

  The silence persisted as no one said a word while Lee checked his inventory. He was happy to find the rest of his equipment still there, and he put it on while everyone watched. Lee was almost certain that there wasn’t a single one of them that was even blinking as he adjusted his shirt, debating whether or not he should tuck in his leather armor top.

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted five people to your religion. Faith has increased by 5. Current Faith: 19.

  Finally, someone broke the awkward silence. Lee felt relieved until he realized what that person had said.

  “NECROMANCER!!!” one of the slaves yelled from the crowd. “He’s one of those skeletons that’s BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD!” the annoying man continued to bellow before a loud smacking sound rang out, and his voice went silent.

  “You idiot!” a familiar voice shouted angrily. As soon as the smack occurred, the man was jolted from the crowd and onto the floor. “How dare you associate a great and mighty miracle of our Lord Augustus with something so simple and twisted as necromancy! His chosen one has returned to us!”

  “Thanks, Miller.” Lee wasn’t sure if it was depression, anxiety, or embarrassment that was causing his oncoming headache as he stared at the crowd.

  “That’s right! It’s a miracle!” one of the slaves got down on her knees and bowed her head. “Praise be!”

  “An act of god!” another man shouted. The rude man accusing him and Miller had apparently broken a dam, and one after another, the crowd began to shout random things over each other. Lee couldn’t understand it all, but he caught several bits.

  “The divine has come down and restored him to shape. The chosen one, blessed by the deity himself!” came an exclamation from a woman in the front.

  “Praise be Augustus and the undying Herald!” arose a shout from an old man.

  One person was even shouting “HE MUST BE DIVINE! HE MUST BE ONE OF THEM!” over and over again, pulling on his buddy’s shoulders as he did so.

  Your party has massacred 43 people. Your party has been awarded 52 silver, 5 sturdy leather boots, 9 sturdy leather armor pants, 6 sturdy leather armor chest pieces, 8 sturdy leather armor wrist guards, 11 short swords, 15 tower shields, and 4 sturdy leather armor helmets. Your share is 26 silver, 2 sturdy leather boots, 5 sturdy leather armor pants, 3 sturdy leather armor chest pieces, 4 sturdy leather armor wrist guards, 6 short swords, 7 tower shields and 2 sturdy leather armor helmets.

  Due to the much higher level and a greater number of enemies killed at once, your party has received a massacre EXP bonus. Your share of the massacre bonus is 5000 EXP.

  Your Courage has improved by 15 for fighting against such overwhelming odds. Current Total: 20

  You are now Level 9. You need 1132 Experience to reach Level 10. Your level increase has boosted all primary stats by 4. Your current Power, Toughness and Spirit have been adjusted to 19.

  “Look, I didn’t die. I just . . .” Lee held up his hands defeatedly as the crowd pressed in closer around him. “I just . . .” He tried to come up with an explanation, but he knew it wouldn’t matter. The group had gone from mute to talking so loudly that, even if he were to let the fast food he had eaten earlier in the day have a voice too, no one would hear it.

  Miller came forward and slammed the butt of his spear on the floor, silencing the crowd. “Quiet!” he yelled so loudly Lee was certain the air had vibrated from the force. The crowd cowered back, giving both Lee and Miller each some distance. “The great Lord Augustus told him exactly how the battle would unfold before our fight even started. Augustus directed Lee to defeat our enemies with fire. The mighty Augustus has clearly chosen him for a reason, so—”

  “It’s because he died for us!” one of the younger girls standing nearby shouted, answering his unasked question. She stepped closer to Lee without ever breaking eye contact, her sparkling violet irises locked on his. “He died to give us our freedom! He was willing to sacrifice everything to save just a few souls that didn’t even follow his god! So, his . . . The god Augustus must have been moved!”

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted a person to your religion. Faith has increased by 1. Current Faith: 20.

  “Yeah.” A far less attractive man whose beer belly had stood the test of physical slave labor stepped forward. “He died for us, and we couldn’t even lift a hand to help him.” The surly goat of a man kicked the bed next to him in frustration. “Filth! That’s all we are. Filth who rejected even a god’s miracle!”

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted three people to your religion. Faith has increased by 3. Current Faith: 23.

  “No, look, it’s just . . .” Lee was ready to reject their claims again, but then an idea popped into his head. “It’s just that I couldn’t bear to imagine you all suffering, going through life as
slaves and being so mistreated . . .” Lee paused. He wanted to say, ‘fellow human beings,’ but they weren’t all human. The slaves were of mixed races and likely mixed origins. “By your fellow man,” he said at last, finally settling on a word that he hoped no one in the crowd was so ultra-politically-correct they’d get mad at him for using. “It horrified me, so I had to stop it.”

  “You could have told me how things were going to turn out if you knew in advance,” Miller said with a slightly accusatory tone.

  “You knew?” Ling asked, ducking her head and pushing past Miller. “You knew you would die? If . . . If you knew you would die, why would you do it?” she asked softly. “Why would you risk the end of your life for people you’ve never met before?” Ling repeated, adding confidence and volume until it became a loud and clear question.

  That’s right. She was there. She helped me with those guys chasing me. I didn’t plan on dying. I just got super cocky because most of the fights were easy and going the same way, so when I ended up being gutted and passing out, I just tried to look cool one last time so my death wouldn’t be completely pathetic. Yet, the words that came out of his mouth were totally different. Stealing his favorite part of his actual religion from back home, he said, “Please don’t hold me up to any higher standard, and don’t treat me as divine. I didn’t sacrifice much. Death isn’t something awful for the faithful.”

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted one person to your religion. Faith has increased by 1. Current Faith: 24.

  “What do you mean?” Miller’s earnest curiosity made Lee feel bad about all the lies he was spinning.

  “Why wouldn’t you be afraid?” the younger girl who had spoken up earlier asked, edging even closer to him.

  “I’m just saying: Please don’t think that my dying for you was such a big thing. I knew it would be painful—and it really was—but I also knew that, if I died in service to Augustus,”—Oh please, actual God, don’t kill me for such blasphemy, and Augustus stop laughing if you’re watching this. You know I’m lying, so don’t get any ideas—“then I would be rewarded in heaven.”

  Your continuous lying has increased your skill in Deceit by 1. Deceit improves the likelihood of successfully lying to others. Current total: 2.

  “Heaven?” a few of the people asked simultaneously, Miller and Ling included.

  “Yes, if you die in service to your fellow man, if you die doing the right thing in Augustus’s name, then you don’t really die. Your body perishes”—I hate being a thief. Stealing, especially from an actual God, is not right—“but your soul, that which makes you who you are, will go to another world. It’ll go there, and you will walk among the faithful as those of wicked hearts and minds, those whose faith was tested and failed, their souls are sent to a cell of utter solitude, where there is nothing. Not even pain can distract one from their loneliness. Their soul crumbles under the agony of solitude, and who they are is twisted and misshapen until the person who committed the crimes to warrant the punishment may as well have never existed in the first place. Once who they were dies completely, they might get another chance.”

  “Then . . . why doesn’t everyone who is faithful just kill themselves?” the young girl asked, proving more and more inquisitive.

  Lee shook his head. “‘Cause that’s a straight ticket to the worst punishment the afterlife has to offer. It’s worse than being stuck in a torture chamber with the most talented and sadistic man holding the instruments.”

  “So, when you died for us, you knew you wouldn’t actually die? You thought you’d just go to heaven?” the man with the beer gut asked.

  “Well, there is the problem. I don’t know if I’ve been a good enough person to make it up there.” Lee shrugged. “I mean, for all I know, I could have ended up in Hell, recipient of the worst punishment a god has to offer for an entire eternity. Even now, I’m not a one-hundred percent sure where I’ll go when I actually die.”

  “But you said death wasn’t something to fear for the faithful?” the girl pried further.

  “Well . . .” Lee was beginning to understand why parents always answered a child’s questions with ‘because I said so’ as he tried to find a way to get out of this endless loop of questions. “I may be the Herald for Augustus, spreading the word of a god, but even I must be careful of my actions and doubt that I have proven myself as one of the faithful. That’s why I’m not entirely sure I’m a great and religious man. I’m just a nobody, a regular joe shmoe, and I just do what’s right and hope that I’ll go to a better place when I pass on for good.”

  Your actions and deeds have successfully converted two people to your religion. Faith has increased by 2. Current Faith: 26.

  “Wow. For the god who loves carnage so much that he had us burn dozens of men alive, to have a Herald who is so modest despite his amazing abilities . . . This truly inspires a man. I swear, here and now, that I shall serve both the great god Augustus who rewards those who die in his name and the Herald who bathes in the blood of evil bastards by morning, dies to save a common slave in the afternoon, and rises again because he cannot leave his job unfinished in the evening! Rising from the dead like that . . . You’re not just a Herald. You’re like the very son of the god himself!”

  “That’s right! What other Herald has ever risen from the dead?” a man in the back tacked on almost immediately. “Who else could accomplish that but the son of a god?”

  You have gained 1 Personal Follower.

  New Status Created: Nouveau Divinity

  Divine Titles: None

  Divinity Abilities:

  1. Hidden

  2. Hidden

  3. Locked

  4. Locked

  Number of personal followers: 1

  Each Personal Faith will increase the Nouveau Divinity’s Divine powers, as well as provide new abilities and powers as the Nouveau Divinity grows.

  “Wait, no!” Lee once more threw both his hands up in protest. “No, no listen! I’m not the son of a god or anything. I’m just a regular man, a regular man who follows Augustus.”

  “That modesty, Lee, come on. Don’t go trying to pull the wool over my eyes. That book, that food you’ve brought to us, those clothes you were wearing when I first met you, the fact you rose from the dead . . . You’re divinity come to earth!” Miller insisted, closing the distance between them and throwing an arm over Lee’s shoulder.

  “Tonight, I shall honor your father and you with more alcohol! And, tomorrow, we shall paint the town red in his name and drink in yours! Or maybe we can do it the other way around. Are you the violent one, or is he? Which one of you wanted me to burn people alive?” Miller was way too happy for a man whose expression likely meant more along the lines of killing enough people to cover the town in blood and not just another way to talk about more drinking.

  Five people now believe that you are a deity. Your Personal Faith has increased by 5. Current Personal Faith: 6.

  What are you talking about? Which one of us wanted you to burn people alive? You’re the one who made the promise, and I just took advantage of it. “I guess the one that wanted you to burn them would be me?” Lee figured rolling into the violence might be better than going with the alcohol. As much as he could appreciate a good beer with his games, he didn’t want to know what would happen if people started forcefully offering him a drink in every single city he went to.

  Seven people now believe that you are a deity. Your Personal Faith has increased by 7. Current Personal Faith: 13.

  “That’s right. You didn’t even keep up with me that well last night. You must not have much of his blood to not be able to drink well as the son of a god of alcohol should,” Miller laughed.

  I tried to tell you he isn’t my father! Maybe the fact that I am not sure if Augustus is telling the truth is preventing me from being able to lie properly? Can Miller actually tell when I’m lying? Lee’s opinion of his comrade rose until he remembered how easily he had duped the Firbolg so many times b
efore. No, he’s just an idiot who likes to roleplay in his own little, fun fantasy, regardless of what reality might say.

  “Lee.” Ling came up and stood beside the young girl in front of him with a face that seemed to be twisted with mixed emotions scattered across it. “Don’t do that again. Don’t go off and do something you know will get you killed when you still haven’t accounted for what you did to me.”

  “What I—” Lee wanted to ask what he did to her, but before he could, Miller just squeezed him even tighter with the arm he had thrown around him earlier.

  “That’s my boy! Only in town for two days, and he already got with one of the beauties! Maybe you have your dad’s genes after all!” Miller laughed, slapping one of his legs with his free hand.

  Five people now believe that you are a deity. Your Personal Faith has increased by 5. Current Personal Faith: 18.

  “Hey! Don’t take that the wrong way!” Lee protested, but given that Ling was just studying him and not offering any objection herself, it seemed as if the entire crowd had already taken it for a fact.

  “Now, our son of a god, the umm . . . The God of Fire and Rebirth has had a long day with the dying and all. What do you folks say about making our way back to town?” Miller asked. “I bet that, after living out here in this dump, you all want to get back to a warm bed and your loved ones, am I right?”

  Three people now believe that you are a deity. Your Personal Faith has increased by 3. Current Personal Faith: 21.

  The crowd all either nodded, said yes or voiced some other word that meant the same thing.

  “Then I guess that settles that,” Miller said. “Let’s go back to town, and tomorrow, we’ll kill and burn some more evil doers in the name of Lee!”

  The young girl in front of Lee stepped closer to Lee and said, “Please, One of Fire, please save my father.”