Scattered squads of preventers were embroiled in small skirmishes with Shazz the lich’s monsters. From the northern skyline, a meteorite rumbled toward the lich, its rising roar drowning out all other sound. A giant uneven crater yawned on the right beneath me, gleaming with dead bones from Deznafar, battle avatar of the Departed.
The monstrous half-mile-long spear drove the lich into the sand and pierced its entire length through the earth. The meteorite was about to land in the very same spot. The lich flew out of the hole in the ground as if nothing had happened and continued fighting.
I didn’t want to fly into the epicenter of the coming Armageddon, so I continued to try and make out the guardians of the Treasury from afar. Shazz didn’t seem to notice the falling meteorite, but he created a large black shield an instant before it landed, fully protecting him and his surroundings. The huge red-hot stone fell into the shield as if into nothingness, and the shield collapsed.
All the same, Shazz was hit. His life paused at a single unit of health—it seemed the preventers were using all the artifacts at their disposal.
Still miraculously alive, Sharkon was frozen nearby in a defensive stance. Heaps of player corpses lay around him. I couldn’t see the guards anywhere.
The lich held onto Immortality, and he looked furious. He did something and a few dozen undead units suddenly fell dead. The bones collapsed and flowed into the lich in streams of plague energy. I noticed that the undead were somehow slowed, and even the fast Bone Hounds were running as if in jelly.
At the same time, Shazz rose still higher and created his own version of a spear, although it wasn’t so large. The crystalline stake sparkled as green charges ran across it. Spreading his arms, the lich sent his cast weapon up to the skies, felled several huge Nightmare Rotters and Terrible Queases to draw in even more plague energy, then clapped his hands. The lich’s spear lanced down, multiplying in flight, and one spear became hundreds. Far away as I was, I could still hear the air crack. All the spears hit their target. Hundreds of players died at once. Not even hastily erected shields saved them.
One of the survivors who wasn’t in the area of effect of Shazz’s ultimate magic created a blinding silver disk above his head. A column of light struck the sky, bounced back and returned in a hundred beams, lancing into the bodies of dead players. Not believing my eyes, I lowered Storm and saw all the players reviving with full health.
The preventer army recovered its initial numbers. In mere seconds, the revived players finished off the remaining undead roaming among their ranks, and began to form up in battle formations.
Then I was seen. The figures below squirmed, started running to and fro. Their mouths opened and they shouted something, but I couldn’t hear the words.
A few preventers took off and I instinctively sped up Storm, rushing to the back of the undead army.
I turned in flight and saw as one of the figures scurrying below aimed a hand at the lich and released something odd, so small that I couldn’t make it out from above. All I saw was a black dot, a mote of dust that seemed to float toward Shazz in a strange spiral trajectory. I focused and recognized the spell’s source—Horvac.
I flew in a circle above Shazz. Spells, bolts and arrows flew at him—I could see his body shake with each hit, but he wasn’t dying, though I was nearby, in the same area. Maybe because his Immortality activated before I showed up.
Wrong. It was something else keeping the lich alive, and the resource wasn’t endless. Or maybe I got too close. The black spark sent by Horvac reached its target and buried into Shazz’s chest.
A black spot appeared there and started growing. When the lich was fully covered in black, he died. His body collapsed in a heap of ash, blowing into the air on the wind.
Hundreds of triumphant roars carried across the desert.
I was the only legate left not only in this area, but in the whole world.
In the next instant, messages flooded my vision; Sharkon, Flaygray, Nega, Anf and Ripta were all back under my control. Dozens of nameless mobs joined them—all almost at level six hundred. Waving away the notifications, I ran to the nearest dune and saw the figures of the guardians fighting behind it, highlighted with frames. I sent Sharkon there, first ordering him to go underground.
“The boss is back!” Nega shouted, whipping a bleeding minotaur.
“The Sleeping Gods heard our prayers,” Flaygray groaned. He was fighting off three leading players from Mizaki.
Ripta and Anf successfully reflected attacks from a titan and elf that were joined by the players chasing me. They didn’t seem to know my abilities, because they fought furiously and passionately. I discharged Sleeping Vindication. A second later, only Sharkon, the guards in my group and I remained alive within a radius nearly half a mile across. Now was just the time to decide what to do next. Reason told me to take to my heels.
“What’s that?” Nega pointed at the blackening sky beyond the dune.
We ran up to the top and saw the whole desert covered in a silver veil from horizon to horizon, laying so thick that the sun was hidden in the sky. It covered us too, sticking to our skin and equipment and seeping through it.
Plague Dust
Kills all life, infecting it with the Destroying Plague.
I heard screams and wails all around. Players twisted, rotting alive and collapsing into piles of stinking flesh.
Shazz was dead, but he had fulfilled the Nucleus’s will.
Chapter 12: All hail the hero!
THE LAKHARIAN DESERT is often imagined to be an endless sea of sand dotted here and there with windblown cliffs and even rarer oases, but in reality, it is far more diverse than that. There truly is a lot of sand there, and now the view over the state of Lakharia, long since wiped from the earth, is nothing but monotonous waves of dunes as if frozen in time. But there are also stone planes in the desert, and lifeless hills, mountain ranges and dried-out streams, along with ancient ruins strewn across the land—in one of those, Infect managed to find the entrance to an instance.
Today, it was the battle that played the role of archeologist. The shockwaves of Armageddon and Sleeping Vindication freed polished stone structures from the sands.
At first I thought it was nothing out of the ordinary, just Dis revealing a new instance to the world, but we found nothing of the kind. We meaning not only my guards and I, but Crawler, Infect and Hung, who turned up just in time.
Relatively little loot dropped from the players. Shazz left nothing at all behind when he died. The preventers protected their equipment, but their bags were packed full of expensive reagents, ingredients and all kinds of battle elixirs and potions. I couldn’t carry it all off myself.
The abundance of loot reminded me of the Serendipity I was collecting for Fortune. Ugh. Shame the spheres only dropped wdien I was the cause of death. After that slaughter, the goddess’s quest would have been complete and I’d have one less thing to worry about.
It was the same with Reaper’s Scythes. I tried not to think of how much they would have leveled up if they’d absorbed the unspent lives of the dead. It was upsetting. But only a little—on the whole, the situation had turned out far better for me than I expected. I’d gotten out of the Nether, saved the temple and both armies—the preventers and the undead—were defeated. And then there were the mountains of loot that my friends indiscriminately collected.
I looked at them and suddenly thought of Crag—did he survive the battle? He was already undead, and Plague Dust should have no effect on him. Maybe Tobias was killed before Shazz died. Or maybe the lich killed him first, knowing the warrior’s abilities.
One of the stream of notifications I got told me that Plague Boost kicked in after the lich died, but I hadn’t gained any levels. In any case, I decided to go through the system messages later, in calmer circumstances.
Leaving my friends to their looting, I took command of my dead troops and sent the remains of Shazz’s army, now mine, to Tiamat’s temple. A few queases and rott
ers, a sole surviving Banshee Lieutenant, ten Bone Hounds and around seventy more units, a motley mass of beasts at level six hundred. Plague Reanimation allowed me to keep only a hundred servants at a time. The rest, it seemed, had simply collapsed into dust.
I had to set up a solid defense for Tiamat’s temple within a day. Tomorrow, an auction would begin in Kinema with a single item for sale—the Portal Key to Holdest.
My mechostrich span its springy steel legs, somehow managing not to get stuck in the sand. I held on tight and went through long lines of logs while my guardian friends excitedly discussed the battle.
“You turned up just in time, boss!” Nega shouted, running along beside me. “If it weren’t for you, our much-tortured bones would be gleaming in the sand right now…”
A little to the right of her, throwing up sand, Sharkon careered along on his heavy legs. Flaygray, Anf and Ripta sat upon it, but the succubus’s ass was too dear to her; she was a fan of tenderized meat, she said, but not if it was her own sensitive backside. The subject livened the guards up and they started making jokes, ever more obscene. The prospect that soon they might no longer be undead clearly excited them.
The first notification I read stupefied me. I don’t know how Plague Boost worked with minions, but in my case a reaction was needed.
Attention! Shazz9 Supreme Legate of the Destroying Plague, level 591 Zicft, has died.
Plague Boost activated! As legate of the Destroying Plague, you caji claim 40% ofShazz’s total experience: 24.18 trillion points.
Accept?
Understandable; in the heat of battle, the levelup effects could be a distraction, so the game mechanics allowed you to choose a more suitable time for it. Thoughts overwhelmed me. How would things work out with the players wiio were turned undead and my position as legate? Would Tiamat’s temple survive now that Shazz was no longer blocking the path to it? What would happen if we lost the temple? So much to think about, and the guardians kept trying to pull me into their frivolous chatter… All of this together, plus many more questions and doubts related to my parents, Tissa and Karina, the clan and the preventers, the noncitizens, the Nucleus and the Sleepers… With all of it together, I didn’t realize right away that the numbers measured in the trillions—millions of millions of experience points!
Once I realized that, I accepted Shazz’s final gift without hesitation.
You leveled up…!
You leveled up…!
You leveled up…!
You leveled up…! Current level: 564.
1275 free attribute points available!
Level 400 reached!
Rank four is now available to your skills, abilities and crafts!
Level 500 reached!
Rank five is now available to your skills, abilities and crafts!
Attention! Achievement upgraded to What A Great Day To Die!
You have leveled up to 375 without dying once, and your name will once again go down in the history ofDisgardium!
Reward: chance of Second Life passive skill activating increased to 75%.
Attention! Achievement upgraded to Just A Perfect Day To Die!
You have leveled up to 500 without dying once, and your name will go down in the history ofDisgardium!
Reward: chance of Second Life passive skill activating increased to 100%. Choice of where to revive after death (place of death or linked respawn point).
Unlocked achievement First Ever: Just A Perfect Day To
Die!
Achievement Just A Perfect Day To Die! earned for the first time in all the history ofDisgardium!
Reward: active skill Spirit Shackles.
Spirit Shackles
Creates a 30-yard zone in which the souls of defeated playei’s are pulled in and held for an hour. The owner of Spirit Shackles can choose whether the owner should revive in place; go to their respawn point or wait for the timer to run out.
Attention! This skill does not revive deceased players if their game timer to revival has rwt elapsed (10 seconds; 1 hour and 12 hours for the first; second and third deaths per day respectively).
Unlocked achievement First Ever: Level 400!
You are the first in Disgardium to reach level 400! Your name shall forever be recorded in history; people like you expand the limits of what is possible for all sentients, and give others an example of what can be achieved!
Reward: Grain of Transformation artifact.
Grain of Transformation
Divine artifact.
It’s OK to change your mind!
Onetime use: resets all main stat points and allows you to redistribute them.
Unlocked achievement First Ever: Level 500!
You are the first in Disgardium to reach level 500! Your name shall forever be recorded in history; people like you expand the limits of what is possible for all sentients, and give others an example of what can be achieved!
Reward: active skill Flight.
Flight
You can fly without limitation!
Does not require mana.
Threat rank increased! Current class: F.
As I was showered with incredible achievements, gotten basically for free, just for being near when the lich died, I felt no particular joy. But relief did wash over me—I was far higher in level than any other player now, and it would take them a long time to catch up to me, if they even could. It was just a shame that now I didn’t know where to grind, and I wouldn’t be able to help my friends anymore—I was so high above the mobs that the boys wouldn’t get any experience after the penalties.
Incidentally, I’d died in the Nether—it was a good thing that deaths in Beta Dis didn’t count. The thought flashed up and immediately drowned in a horde of thoughts about the new possibilities available to me. Spirit Shackles could be used in instances to ensure that my dead friends revived right back into the fight—and it seemed I could now always choose for myself where to revive. I didn’t know whether to use Grain of Transformation yet. My stats didn’t matter too much to me now, but Flight…
Without much thought, I took off, leaving my allies and mechostrich confused. Deprived of its rider, the mount slowed.
It was as easy as could be to control the flight—all done with the mind. I flew up a hundred yards, felt the hot desert air beat against my face. I flew at roughly the same speed as Storm, but it was one thing to move on the dragon and something else entirely to fly on my own, feeling no support beneath me and seeing the ground zoom by beneath me. My heart dropped to my heels as soon as I so much as looked down.
The guardians were jumping up and down, waving their arms, and even Sharkon’s blunt face stared upward.
Forgetting my fear of falling, I emitted a victorious cry, extended an arm ahead and started describing circles at full speed above my minions. I’d never felt so good! Even running into a level five hundred vulture didn’t min my mood. I knocked him down with one hit as I flew, realizing with elation that if I wanted to, I could stand in the air as if on land, receiving an invisible anchorage for Stunning Kick. And generally, three-dimensional space gave far more possibilities in battle.
Once I’d flown to my heart’s content, I dropped down to look through the logs further. The notifications didn’t stop at achievements. When I expanded the last messages, I saw new ones. Several mentioned All hail the hero, but I ignored them. Another seemed far more important: Attention! You are the sole remaining legate of the
Destroying Plague, and you automatically receive the rank of Supreme Legate!
New ability unlocked: Call of the Supreme Legate!
Call of the Supreme Legate
You can instantly summon up to ten of your minions or up to three junior Legates of the Destroying Plague to your position from anywhere.
New ability unlocked: Plague Dust!
Plague Dust
When you die, you return to the lair of the Nucleus to await your next reincarnation. Your body disperses into Plague Dust, which kills all life by infecting it
with the Desfroying Plague.
I’d already seen Plague Dust, but I decided to try out Call of the Supreme Legate in action. Selecting all my minions, I ordered them to run to Tiamat’s temple while I jumped there with Depths Teleportation.
“Where are you going, boss…?” I heard as I went.
Arriving at the temple, I waved at the builders, who had already restored the altar and were starting on the roof and columns. I activated Call of the Supreme Legate, selecting the guardians and Sharkon and five random undead minions.
I can’t say it happened instantly. Ten circles of varying sizes materialized on the ground around me. They were as if filled with poison-green slime that gurgled, boiled and disappeared, leaving perfectly drawn holes filled with ectoplasm. The substance fountained up and froze, turning into the shapes of my minions. A strange way to teleport, I thought. As if all my minions are being created anew.
The stunned faces of Flaygray and Nega would go down in clan history. I’d be sure to put the magic pictures on the tavern wall: the stunned zombie satyr with his mouth wide open, baring blackened horse teeth; the alcoholic temptress beside him, a dead succubus with eyes wide. As it turned out, the transfer was far from painless for them—their flesh melted away, seeping into the sand, and then something pulled the now-liquid minions underground and reassembled them again at the destination.
I had to explain myself. “Sorry! I was just testing out a new skill. Anyway, joke’s on you guys!”
“Jokes like that will land you in the hospital,” Flaygray growled, offended. “Where you brought us from, we could build a road to Ruby City out of bricks lying around.”
“Ruby City…?” I asked, confused.
“Forget about it. It’s in the Inferno.”
An offered bottle of the strongest ale from Shad’Erung served as a peace pipe. The guardians took turns to chink from the bottle and soon calmed down. Anf didn’t drink, but smoked some kind of foul-smelling weed. He chittered at us via Ripta that he ‘agrees with everything,’ then left to go talk to my Iggv. I didn’t like it when they talked. Those two overgrown insects were plotting something.
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