by Oliver Mayes
Daemien: Here’s my base location Rotten Vale. How long for you to get there?
Scorepeeus63: I’m on my way! Twenty mins!
Daemien: Thanks for your help. We’ll sort out the streaming settings after you get there. Let me know your progress.
A few minutes passed.
Daemien: How are you holding up?
A few more minutes passed. No response.
Daemien: Scorepeeus, please respond.
Scorepeeus63: Sorry, I was just killing some people.
At least he was enthusiastic. It was a bit disturbing, seeing those words coming from a nine-year-old. Quite funny though, in a perverse way. Maybe slightly too nonchalant? He was probably a decent player then. Either that or playing it cool.
It took Damien a fair bit of fiddling around with the streaming settings before he found there were some problems. All the details from Scorepeeus63’s HUD had to be toggled off so his lower hit point, stamina and mana bars wouldn’t be on display. Damien was level 43, Scorepeeus63 was five levels lower. For the purposes of Damien’s plan, it would be easiest to turn off all of his assistant’s HUD displays entirely. Which would be wise to implement as soon as Scorepeeus63 arrived in the area, in case he felt compelled to kill any more people before he got to Damien’s base.
While he moved into position, Damien made his own preparations: he withdrew his watch over Archimonde and returned to his base in advance of Scorepeeus63’s arrival. About five minutes later, Scorepeeus63 arrived. He was oddly adult-looking for a nine-year-old, but then again it would’ve been far stranger if the game had allowed him to play with his real-life physical settings. Even realism has limits. Damien assumed his assistant had acclimatized himself to the different dimensions of his game-rendered adult body through trial and error. He had a full entourage of demons in tow as well. Top-level enthusiasm. Damien made his presence known and came out to shake his assistant’s hand. By the time the nine-year-old was done shaking it, Damien felt like it might fall off.
“Dude, this is such hax! I get to be Daemien for a day, Praise Be! Who’s blocking you? Is it Aetherius? Why don’t we team up and get him instead? I’m way better now than—”
“Score, dude, I need you to focus. If you talk while I’m broadcasting they’ll know you’re not me. You’ve got to be calm. I need you to stay quiet while we do this. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, totes! I can be calm and quiet! It’s great to meet you! Praise Be! Where’s your base?”
Damien scrutinized his follower, mulling over whether or not this would work, then started channeling his Portal. His base was right over their heads, through a hole he’d excavated in the ceiling, but most of their minions would not be able to physically pass through it. The only way he’d been able to keep his headquarters hidden for all this time was by creating his own dungeon infrastructure. His winged imps had helped with that, although they’d had to do it in shifts.
Once there was enough space, Damien had built a Soul Well then deconstructed it and moved it back as his minions continued excavating. By degrees, his own private kingdom had become almost as large as that which Bartholomew had granted him in the Downward Spiral. It had taken an entire morning, but that was a small price to pay for privacy.
Damien ushered Scorepeeus63 and all his minions through the portal, then his own, before passing through it last.
“I formally transfer ownership of my Demon Forge and Soul Well to Scorepeeus63.”
He still needed his Gateway in order to open a portal back to the Inner Circle. He’d just have to make sure his accomplice didn’t look in that direction while he enacted the plan. Scorepeeus63 clicked in the affirmative on the notification that appeared in his HUD. The structures immediately went from blue to green, indicating they were now in possession of an ally rather than being personal properties. It was no longer Damien’s base. Damien invited his newly ordained host to take a seat on his own Soul Well and gave him the pep talk and technical guidance required, entering his settings to talk him through the necessary changes.
“When I start the broadcast, all you have to do is watch without moving too much. I’ll be playing some video files from my own menu, it’ll look suspicious if you’re running around all over the place or looking around you while you’re supposed to be focusing on the video yourself. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, totally! When are we getting started?”
“Sit here. In about twenty minutes, after I’m in position, we’ll begin. Keep your head still! The more you look around the less likely this will work. Understand?”
“Yup, got it, just look straight ahead and wait for your cue to show my location.”
Damien nodded. He remained on call with Scorepeeus63 as he Portaled to his new Gateway in the Inner Circle and led his full force back to his original lookout point. He’d be doing the same as Score, keeping his head still and looking forward. Fortunately, Noigel finally had enough imps for his Forbidden Knowledge to take effect. Noigel would watch over Archimonde while he enacted his plan, informing him of Archimonde’s movements. The rest of his minions – thirteen more imps, two hell hounds, a succubus and a wraith – lay in wait on the other side of the ledge. The sun was setting. Damien wagered by the time he got a reaction the wraith would be very useful. He had at least one very specific purpose for it in mind. Everything was in place.
“Score, are you ready?”
“Yeah, I’m yours to command!”
“Okay. Remember to stay calm. Just look straight ahead and you’ll have done me an enormous service.”
“All good!”
“Send me a livestream.”
It came, and Damien expanded it till Score’s vision filled his entire HUD. He moved his head around a little to see how much leeway he had. Not much. If he turned too sharply, his own surroundings became visible outside of the window he’d maximized showing Score’s vision. Damien would have to keep his head relatively still as well, moving only his eyes to choose settings.
Damien activated his own livestream, sending all Scorepeeus63’s vision out to his viewers as if he were seeing his own base through his own eyes. All Score’s own settings had been turned off, so Damien’s settings overlaid them. There was nothing to indicate this was not coming directly from Damien.
“Good evening, and welcome to my latest livestream! I’m recording from within my own base today, because I want to have a discussion with all of you instead of the usual killing. We have a common enemy that requires our immediate attention.”
The numbers had already started to climb. Damien kept his head completely still. Score had done an admirable job of doing the same for the last few seconds. He could hear what Damien was saying but would only be able to see the whole stream on repeat later, despite being the closest to what was happening. Damien could only hope his resolve persisted.
“I know I haven’t been streaming very much lately. I do apologize. Today, I want to show you why.”
He opened the first of the videos he’d lined up. An excerpt of his conversation with Magnitude:
“All I have to do is announce a deal and the whole forest comes running to protect the wall that’s fencing them in. They don’t want the wall to be destroyed. They want to be a part of it. That opportunity does not extend to you, due to your competition victory and your class.”
“That’s Magnitude. The guy who bought out Carlisle and turned the Human Realm into a prison. He’s some kind of earth-manipulating dwarf thing. He’s keeping us all penned in, by making us work against each other.”
He reached out to Noigel. They couldn’t talk plainly, because anything shared between them would be transmitted in the livestream. But the viewers couldn’t read Damien’s thoughts. Noigel could, if he made his intent clear enough.
Squeeze twice if Archimonde is responding.
Noigel squeezed Damien’s arm twice. Good. Very good. He’d got Archimonde’s attention. All was proceeding according to plan. Time to move this along.
“I
pushed through despite the threat, and was presented with this thing. It’s an occultist, working with Magnitude. It’s higher level than me, with abilities I don’t completely understand. It’s pretty horrible. Viewer discretion advised.”
Damien clicked on the second video, showing his first ‘altercation’ with Archimonde. It was painful, showing everyone just how inferior he was to someone that shared his class. But it was necessary. He had to give as much credence as possible to this ploy. Everything about it had to ring true, save for the fact he was not broadcasting from his own location. His bait of falsehood would be obscured with liberal application of the truth.
Magnitude’s group had attempted to use the humiliation Archimonde heaped upon him to their advantage, to keep him silent. He could shout no louder than by spreading it around the internet in a livestream. Archimonde’s deep, throaty voice echoed out into the ears of almost a million viewers:
“You told the whole world of the existence of occultists. That did not belong to you, Daemien-chan.”
Damien cut the footage. No need to show himself being eaten. He was sure everyone watching had the gist of how their confrontation went. Time for the next phase.
“As you can see, all the players in the Human Realm have been penned in by this alliance and are being held here first by coercion, then force if they resist. I’m arming all of you against this as best as I can: by revealing everything I know about how Magnitude and Archimonde’s abilities work. My base location is here. I’m opening my map to reveal my base’s location.”
Scorepeeus63 was still looking steadfastly ahead. Damien coughed, then made it as plain as possible.
“I’m opening my map to show my current location, so Magnitude and Archimonde can see where I currently am.”
There was a pause, and then Scorepeeus63 tabbed straight to his map. There was the indicator, showing where he was. The trap was set.
“I will continue broadcasting Magnitude and Archimonde’s known abilities and potential weaknesses until one of them comes to kill me. After I’m dead, they will open negotiations with me in private so I can advance without further revealing their capabilities and motivations. If they don’t contact me, I will continue this tomorrow after I respawn until I get an audience. I don’t recommend anyone else search for me here unless you want to die. Horribly. Archimonde and Magnitude, your time starts now.”
Damien took a deep breath. This was the fun part.
“Magnitude is a magic-user who manipulates the earth in order to do damage, move rapidly underground and create defensive barriers. He can detect incoming enemies around himself in a wide radius, so long as they are in physical contact with surfaces around them. I don’t know his class name. It’s hidden, just like mine was. However, his abilities require health instead of mana, which means forcing him to cast in rapid succession—”
Noigel was squeezing his arm nonstop. Damien had no way of knowing how Archimonde was responding, but something was definitely happening.
“—will result in him being unable to continue casting without killing himself. He is very tanky, with jade armor, high health and ridiculous health regeneration. Using damage-over-time effects on him completely cancels his natural regeneration, rendering him unable to cast abilities. He has another ability, called ‘Renewal’, which brings his health back to full and removes all debuffs in a blinding flash of light. I assume this has a cooldown, so the best way to kill him would be to force him to use Renewal, then apply pressure. He looks much stronger than he actually is.”
Damien stopped talking and Noigel stopped squeezing soon after. Archimonde had stopped as well. Damien had them right where he wanted them. But he knew from what Magnitude had said that Archimonde and Magnitude, even if they were allies, did not get along. He’d reviewed his footage, while he’d been waiting fruitlessly for Archimonde to get out of his way.
It had become obvious that Magnitude had been talking about Archimonde, not Damien himself, when he said: “He doesn’t listen to me though, so you’ll have to tell him.” Archimonde was more interested in itself. It had taken offense to Damien revealing the existence of the occultist class. It had complained to him about it directly, just before it ate him. Damien had initially revealed his class and the location of his base to lure Aetherius into the Downward Spiral. Now he was recycling the trick, with new elements in play, to obtain a new goal.
Archimonde had asserted that the occultist class didn’t belong to him. How much more offended would Archimonde be when Damien started revealing what he knew of his adversary’s build specifically? Let’s find out.
“Archimonde is more complicated, but it also shares my class, so I can provide much more in-depth information on how it works.”
Noigel began squeezing again, twice as hard.
“Archimonde is at least level 53—”
The intermittent squeezing stopped and Noigel just grabbed his arm as hard as he could, with both hands. There were shouts and orders echoing from over the ridge which was keeping Damien out of sight. He continued speaking over them, the sound of his own voice drowning out the frenetic activity in the crucible below.
“—with a primary focus on the Circle of Hell ability, which it has imbued with at least two traits at level 20 and 30 respectively and upgraded to the maximum to increase the damage and area of effect. It also has some sort of ultimate ability called ‘Dark Omen’, which—”
Noigel’s claws were digging into Damien’s skin, through the fabric of his occultist robes.
“—summons a large black hole over the caster. It collides with the earth after approximately thirty seconds. It pulls in anything not nailed down within a wide radius, much like the pull effect of ‘Imp-losion’, and probably does incomprehensible damage. Archimonde is an orc, benefiting from the orcish trait ‘Magic Blood’ in combination with its occultist traits. It also appears to have spell-vamp on top of that; I’ve reviewed the footage and its health noticeably recovers when it inflicts magic damage. It has obscenely high health, but is weaker when Circle of Hell is on cooldown. This is because—”
Noigel tapped his arm twice. Archimonde was gone. Damien kept it going a little longer, mainly out of spite but also to continue the illusion for his own benefit. If Archimonde was concerned enough to have left its post to hunt him down, this was a much desired opportunity to make it suffer. Score had already indicated he was willing to die on Damien’s behalf. This was a very worthy use of his life.
“—the upgrades Archimonde invested in make the Circle of Hell last longer, thirty seconds instead of fifteen. However, the cooldown has also gone up. Avoid the Circle of Hell and attack Archimonde with high-burst damage while it has no ability to help it regenerate. Archimonde’s demonic form has made its stats incredibly high and has granted it some additional abilities revolving around the mouth in its stomach.”
Damien looked at the viewer count. 15,000 people were watching this. That would do. He checked the time. It was just past 8pm. He couldn’t see around him while viewing through Scorepeeus63’s eyes, but it would be dark by now. He just needed to sign off and let Scorepeeus63 get out of harm’s way if at all possible.
Damien had always been very nervous about talking with so many people watching. However, now that it had this purpose behind it, Damien found himself extremely calm. They were all part of his plan. He was in control of them, not the other way around. While offering them content, he’d used them as an elaborate disguise for his own personal agenda. They’d inadvertently bolstered his illusion just by showing up. It was a lot of people to mislead for the sake of his own advancement. Damien couldn’t say everything he wanted to, but he could say enough. He worked it out in his head as he delivered his last lines.
“Knowledge is power. I’m off to go get some. Wish me luck.”
He sent the signal to Noigel. He and his minions immediately crested the hill and descended into the rose-filled crucible below. Damien closed his menu the moment he started running, removing the illusion an
d giving everyone a glimpse of reality. The Dark Tower loomed in front of him. The answers he sought lay within. The greatest obstacle had been removed via his deception, but this was the part that really counted.
They were nearing the Dark Tower when Archimonde’s Soul Well-bound minions realized there was a threat. He was almost all the way there before the Gateway started to glow, indicating that Archimonde was returning to base.
The demons were indeed dangerous, but without an adequate Noigel to guide them and their master absent they were easily dealt with. Most of them were still working to build the uncompleted defenses and their cohesion was nonexistent. Damien’s own minions moved from one to the next, pulling each apart in groups before moving to the next as Damien himself ran onward.
The sole exception was the big one. Archimonde’s doppelganger had left the forge when the alarm was sounded to stand directly in front of the doorway. Damien summoned the wraith to his side. The creature’s tongue had no sooner latched around Damien’s torso than the wraith broke stealth to cut straight through it. All Damien’s minions converged on the monstrosity and took it down in a flurry of stabs, bites and strikes while it was still recovering from the critical hit. Then Damien left them behind to run down the passageway, using those of his minions that were not yet fallen to block his path and ease his passage.
Archimonde announced its return, and the return of the 30 souls’ worth of minions following it, with a scream of fury that echoed after Damien into the tunnel. It would not be long before all his own minions were either dead or in Archimonde’s thrall.
Damien didn’t know where to go from here. He hadn’t been completely convinced he’d get this far. All he could do now was continue down the passageway, hoping there was a way through. The tunnel was improbably long. Longer than the tower was wide from the outside. He’d been running for half a minute when he saw a light in the distance. It was a portal. There was nothing else, just this at the very end of the narrow space. There was no choice. He leapt through, into the unknown.