A couple of weeks later, disappointment replaced her excitement. It would have cost Eileen ten years at modern level rates to catch up to the leaders. But they’d be leveling up all that time too! No, that would never do. She deleted her first character, a cute level three night elf, then sat down to study the mechanisms of Disgardium.
Like the real world, Dis revolved around money. Don’t want to have to farm experience? Hire some powerlevelers and follow them around in instances above their levels, and voila! Buy an Ultima scroll, portal to the frontier and… Boom! Aggressed mobs that fall within a five-yard radius explode in a fountain of blood, and you get the same experience in three seconds that you’d normally get in years of farming like a loser. The spell was once considered the most powerful in the game. And all for a bargain price of two to three million phoenixes. Although really, you needed to do that far more than once to really get results.
Glyph the elf dragonfighter, who came up with it and found money to make it a reality, got a ton of achievements. That was when his Azure Dragons clan got to page one of the leaderboard, by buying up all the rarest ingredients for the Ultima scrolls and raising the average level of its members by over one hundred. Ultima was still used to this day, although its scrolls fell dramatically in price after the recent invention of Armageddon.
Eileen had no money, but she did have something else. Along with her intellect, nature had gifted her a beautiful body. She didn’t bloom right away, stayed an ugly duckling in school, but by college, she was starting to get glances from boys. That academic, the puffed-up cockerel, wasn’t the first to offer her access to society’s plenty in exchange for certain choice services. Maybe that was what helped Eileen stick to her chosen path so long—certainty that if extremely necessary, she had a secret weapon.
It became extremely necessary when she found herself two years into Disgardium and not a step closer to her target. Some of the bastards from her sacred black book had already died without her! And her best years were behind her… In a world where youth and an ideal body could be bought, natural beauty had become far more valuable. And if it came along with intellect…
She opened another notebook, the one in which she wrote the names of those who offered her success and riches in exchange for something. And she chose the biggest name she could, the name of a man she met during her research. Joshua Gallagher, leader of the Children of Kratos.
Eileen wrote to him. And, to her limitless surprise, he not only remembered her name, but he even invited her to his family residence, sending a luxury personal flyer to pick her up. Both Joshua and Vivian Gallagher met her, and that was the first surprise for the girl, who had been expecting something entirely different. Not knowing what to think, she sat in stunned silence and listened to the aristocrats’ offer.
Vivian did most of the talking, but judging by how she looked at her husband, Eileen knew who ruled in this partnership. Vivian spoke in innuendo, but Eileen quickly got the point.
“Risks to reputation, do you understand, Miss Waters?” Vivian asked, cracking her fingers. “Delicate operations… Non-standard methods…”
To put it simply, the Children of Kratos didn’t like to get their hands dirty. Their puppet clan Heroes trained fighters, but couldn’t participate in operations where the name of both clans was at stake. And their reputation—both in real life and among the game factions. A potential enemy could have a perfect relationship with King Bastian the First, or take advantage of the patronage of one of the gods, or control one of the Gallaghers’ numerous ’friends.’ If the Children of Kratos or the Heroes fought against them, it meant risking their reputation. That word emerged a few more times in the conversation.
“Reputation is the most important thing in everyone’s life. After death, all that remains of a person is memory.”
There, Vivian fell silent.
Eileen could have argued; right now, the most important thing in her life was to pay the rent on her apartment. But all in all, Vivian was right. When power and money get involved, some people start to think about what they’ll leave behind,—and that streets and monuments named after them are preferable to graffiti on a tombstone.
“Why me?” Eileen asked after agreeing to their offer. There were no contracts, only verbal agreement that she had best not break.
“You are suitable,” Joshua said, finally deciding to break his silence.
“There will be no more explanations.”
“Josh…” Vivian looked at her husband reproachfully and turned back to the guest. “But he’s right. We had four hundred and twenty nine search filters for a clan leader, and you matched all of them. Joshua wanted to make you an offer three years ago, but you refused to even discuss it.”
“I thought he was talking about something else,” Eileen blushed.
“It no longer matters. The clan has been created. It is growing and completing its missions. Its current leadership does not suit us.” Your task is to accept an invitation to the Widowmakers and forge a career there. Your character will be leveled up very quickly. When you are ready, you will take leadership.”
“How? The current leader is just going to retire?” Eileen laughed nervously.
“Something like that…”
Half a year later, an unhappy accident struck. The building that was home to Sequoia, leader of the Widowmakers, literally collapsed into the earth. Something about cavities beneath the foundations, design errors, greedy construction companies…
Eileen was unanimously chosen as the clan’s new leader.
Unlike the Children of Kratos, the clan was constantly at war—it chose the fattest targets it could and quickly deprived the victims of all their castles and territories with a fast, treacherous strike. The Widowmakers got rich faster than anyone else in the world, transforming in the space of a few years into a force that even Modus and the Travelers respected. Eileen was proud of herself; nobody knew of the support from Children of Kratos, and the clan’s success was believed to be entirely her achievement.
The Gallaghers were also pleased with her. So pleased that they didn’t object when Eileen, after doing so much to promote the progress of the Widowmakers, asked for a seat at the table in the Alliance of Preventers. The Alliance was an impermanent union that united only for particularly high-ranking Threats. Its members changed from year to year, but the clans of Hinterleaf, Horvac, Colonel, Glyph and the Gallaghers always remained as the unshakable foundation.
Eileen achieved incredible progress of her own, too, somehow managing to change her game class of priestess to Striking Blade of Innoruuk. This was made possible thanks to a dark god with whom she was the first to level up maximum reputation. That was no easy task, especially considering what amorous Innoruuk, Lord of Hatred, valued most of all (that something), but the reward was all the sweeter.
Chronos’ Hourglass— a divine artifact with a yearlong cooldown—came into Eileen’s hands in the Pirate Treasury. She got there by eliminating a Threat with a pretty’ high potential. Incidentally, Eileen was the only one from her clan to participate in the elimination. The other nine party members were from Children of Kratos, which was not very fair—the Widowmakers were the ones to find and capture the Threat. But Eileen made her peace. This was the way it always would be. Sequoia’s sad end told her all she needed to know of the value of loyalty over any contract. But Eileen never shared the artifact with anyone, or even showed it to anyone. It became something like an insurance policy for her, a ‘golden parachute’ in case everything went to shit; not wanting to risk the item, Eileen kept it in a bank slot.
The artifact’s action exceeded that of any other she knew— Chronos’ Hourglass allowed you to put Dis on pause. Time stopped (or slowed almost to a stop) for a minute for everyone except the owner. Not long enough to take out the strongest boss in a dungeon on her own, but enough to steal something valuable. Or someone.
Last year, Eileen visited the goblin auction house specially to check whether her idea could work ther
e. As soon as she entered the hall, the artifact turned inactive. Disappointed, Eileen forgot the idea of pulling a particularly valuable lot straight out of the ASS. But as soon as the auctioneer’s hammer struck and the auction was declared ended, the Chronos’ Hourglass turned back to color. She still had to make sure. Eileen activated the artifact… And it worked!
She didn’t risk stealing anything then. There was nothing particularly outstanding for sale that day anyway.
It wasn’t easy to recover reputation with the Goblin League after the first battle with the undead. The entire Alliance suffered when the Threat took control of Hinterleaf, but nobody held it against the Modus leader after he presented the logs for examination. They lost took stock of the losses, then beggared themselves paying to recover their reputation with the little green folk. It cost enough money to buy a space fleet, but the preventer clans managed to achieve only ambivalence with the Goblin League. Still better than hatred.
That made it all the more surprising to get an invitation from the ASS to bid on an incredible item—a Portal Key to Holdest. The idea of capturing the Threat didn’t come right away. At first, Eileen was thinking about how to win the auction and be the first (at least, after the Threat) to set foot on the snowy continent. Although, would it be snow? The world was magical. Maybe the climate in the southern hemisphere of Dis was different from earth’s?
Then it hit her! The Threat would surely be there. The goblins wouldn’t just change the rules of the ASS for his sake! And that meant… She couldn’t do it without help from the Children of Kratos.
The Gallaghers listened to her idea and gave the required orders at once. Their masters of artifacts and magical engineering settled on a cell in the basement of the Widowmakers’ main castle, equipping it with the same limiters and blocking shackles that were used for criminals in the Commonwealth. There should be no problems with delivering the ‘cargo* either—a Space Splitter* put aside by the Gallaghers would get around the teleportation ban in the ASS building. They’d tested it. But how would they find out who was the right ‘cargo’ exactly?
A day before the auction, analysts from both clans were reassigned from the undead battle to rack their brains over the auction. A ’friend-or- foe’ system of symbols? Only a third of the attendees invited to the auction were from the Alliance, and there were no plans to share this plot with them. How could they figure out which of them was the Threat? Behind whose Mist Veil would Scyth be hiding?
“Belials Blood/’ Joshua said suddenly after silently listening to the members of the emergency meeting. Then he drifted back to thoughts of the coming battle with the lich.
A droplet of BeliaVs Blood was another artifact that had been considered useless. If one broke the defensive shell around it, the higher demon’s blood, frozen in a tiny ruby, would draw in all the magic in the surrounding space for a few moments, then disappear under the ground, burning all around it. Perhaps traveling back to its master. Its fire would deprive the bidders of their Mist Veil, and that meant the class-A Threat could be identified.
There was no time to test the theory. In case the blood didn’t work, Eileen took along an Armageddon and Ultima to burn the hall to a crisp. Whoever survived would be Scyth. That option risked war with the League, but only for the Widowmakers. The Gallaghers were willing to sacrifice them…
It all went to plan.
“Three!” the auctioneer announced loudly. “Sold! For a hundred million phoenixes to bidder number thirteen! By the will of Maglubiyet, the deal is done!” The auction is now officially over, and I thank…”
Eileen activated Chronos’ Hourglass. Time stopped and seconds continued only for her. She’d gone through it all a hundred times in her head. Eileen quickly rose to the podium, stood by the auctioneer and threw Belial’s Blood into the center of the hall, trying to keep all the chaotically divided bidders in view: ten rows with six seats each…
Almost all the bidders lost their Mist Veil for an instant. The back rows were untouched, but, fortunately for Eileen, the Threat was within the area of effect: Scyth, human, level 564 Herald. Row six, seat four. Right. One of the ones that came in last.
As she carried the Threat back to her castle, she regretted that she had no more Belial’s Blood. Perhaps someone in the Alliance had some. Eileen would do all she could to get it. The important thing would be to rive a dagger into the Threat’s heart at the exact moment of the demonic blood’s action. The banishing ritual required the words “I banish you from Disgardium forever!” to be spoken just as the deadly strike was dealt.
The thought captured Eileen. What if it worked? If the blood of the high demon absorbed all magic, then would Scyth lose his link to his divine protector for an instant? The girl kept the idea to herself. Let things calm down, let the Alliance destroy the temple, let Nergal’s Summons end… And she could always excuse herself before the Gallaghers by saying that she considered it unnecessary to bother them for the sake of a ‘crazy’ idea that just happened to work…
Another knock at the door. It opened.
“Forgive me for bothering you, Miss Waters, but it’s time,” Jade said. “The journalists are starting to complain.”
“Alright,” Eileen answered.
The clan’s press center was so full that people were pressed up against one another. Everyone expected something extraordinary, just as the press release promised. Ten drone cameras streamed it for the whole world.
Eileen took a deep breath, drinking in the moment, then spoke, her voice crisp, clear, calm. Her first words fell like a neutron bomb.
“Good day. My name is Eileen Waters, leader of the Widowmakers. Yesterday, I captured Scyth. The world can breathe easy: the highest Threat in the history of Disgardium has been neutralized…”
Eileen paused. All ears in the room listened breathlessly. Her eyes found Ian Mitchell in the dead silence, who blew up the internet the day before with his interview with the Threat. Your day is done, old man, she thought with somewhat misplaced malevolence.
“I am ready to answer all your questions.”
When eveiyone burst out into shouts and cries in unison, Eileen laughed—Ian Mitchell and Clark Katz exchanged dark glances. Both were in her little black book.
Her name was Eileen Waters, and this day promised to be the best of her life.
Chapter 14: Widowmakers
AFTER A SHORT MEETING, the second capsule in the shelter was configured for Hung. Due to certain properties of intragel, the ingredients of which have to be strictly tailored to the individual, Snowstorm’s devices can’t be used for multiple different players. There are, of course, multiuser versions, but not for Dis. One capsule—one character. If you want to make a new character, delete the first one.
Hung was chosen because of Orthokon. The ancient kraken could become the pride of the clan. Bomber already got the ability to summon it to wherever he wanted, although it was limited to the sea, of course. So far, he had had no need to do so. Bomb tried to set it on the Montosaurus when it was wandering the shore, but Orthokon wouldn’t attack another beast god. He wanted easier prey. The dinosaur roared at the sight of its old enemy and took to its heels. He might have torn the kraken to shreds on dry land, but in the sea… No way.
Hung was the one whose mission it would be to rescue me from imprisonment. After the Gallaghers and Eileen left, I tried everything I could think of twice. I prayed to Fortune, the Sleepers and even the Nucleus, but to no avail.
Hung himself couldn’t go anywhere in his undead form, but he easily made contact with Piper and Yemi by mail. Hairo banned us categorically from messaging or calling in real life, although Yoshi was ready to provide an untraceable channel to wherever necessary.
“Can you give a hundred-percent guarantee?” the security officer asked dryly.
“Ninety nine point nine,” Yoshi answered.
“Not good enough.” Hairo shook his head.
I had to talk about Polotsky. And to everyone, including the new hires. Hiding
those kind of contacts from people obliged to protect me seemed unwise at the very least. Willy promised to dig up as much info as he could on the old man, but nobody knew if he’d find anything. Sergei Polotsky was an invented character, and the security officers even doubted that it was Pecheneg himself whom I met in real life.
“It could have been a holographic image. Or a hired actor, a front. With the puppeteer listening in and whispering what to say to you.
But I still hoped that Pecheneg would think of something, whoever he was pretending to be.
Hung logged into Dis, leaving everyone else behind to think of what else to do. Night had fallen in Alaska. Our district was approaching the morning, and the boys yawned constantly, desperate for sleep. We had to wait for Hung. When he appeared and shook his head, the weight I’d been feeling on my shoulders for the last few days felt even heavier. His news wasn’t good.
“Yemi and Francesca are offline, but I messaged them. Piper answered right away—nothing special. She said she’d tell Pecheneg as soon as she could contact him. But…”
“But what?” I asked, trying to hold back impatience and growing anger.
“She wrote that the Widowmakers have at least six known castles, and each of them could be the main one. Even if we manage to find out which one you’re in, the Taipan can’t get you out on their own. Anyway, you might be in a Children of Kratos fort instead. Piper said there isn’t anyone free on the mercenary market. Someone hired them all. Probably the Widowmakers. And that means we can’t take them by storm, and Pecheneg isn’t likely to help you.”
I was very interested to know how they blocked all my chats and mail, but the answer was simple—on castle grounds, the owner set the rights of guests. “Or the rights of prisoners, in this case,” Ed said. “They have all kinds of guests. Not just anyone will suffer that.”
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