Arcane Kingdom Online: The Fallen City (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 3)

by Jakob Tanner

I scratched the back of my head. “Congratulate me when we make it through.”

  “Oh I’ll do more than that, hot stuff,” she said and blew me a kiss. “If not, I’ll make sure I kill you on our long flight to the bottom of this dismal sky.”

  The Arethkarian ships grew bigger as they approached.

  Our ship rocked in the air of the starry night sky. Our deck trembled as our enemy’s ships approached us. We slowly drifted closer to the nest of Sky Wyrms.

  “Let me know when,” said Jackson.

  The Arethkarian fleet was getting close. Their cannons and turrets were raised and locked onto our ship. We were seconds from being captured. Seconds from being destroyed. My leg shook, my foot shivering against the deck panel. A beam of light formed in one of the enemy turrets. It was now or never.

  “NOW!” I yelled.

  Jackson pulled back the engine lever, igniting the mana exhaust and shooting us forward towards the Sky Wyrms.

  The ship flung through the air. Laser blasts followed us through the sky. The crew worked the masts, adjusting them to maneuver in and out of the incoming wave of attacks. The blasts hurled past us and towards the den of Sky Wyrms. The big red eyes of the monsters twitched and their mouths roared. The group of resting sky serpents untangled themselves and chased straight for us.

  “Duck,” I yelled.

  Jackson maneuvered us below the incoming attack of Sky Wyrms as the creatures swirled through the air towards the Arethkarian fleet.

  “Go, go, go,” I said.

  Jackson pulled the engine lever to the max, burning crystal mana fuel, shooting us through the sky. I held onto the deck as my hair flew back in the sky.

  The Arethkarian fleet’s attention turned to the Sky Wyrms attacking them. They wouldn’t be catching up with us now.

  I turned ahead and found we were in a new part of the cloud ocean. We were in a clear valley of stars. In the distance was the ring of lightning patches the map had described. We were nearing the gates of Ariellum.

  In the middle of the star valley there was a golden doorway floating in the air. We approached it. I hoped the door would open as we got close. It didn’t.

  Shade pulled out his pistol and fired at it.

  “What are you doing?” Serena yelled.

  The bullet bounced off the door.

  “Worth a try,” the Lirana shrugged.

  I rubbed my chin. I materialized the note Theobold had given me. He had written down the codes necessary for the quest, including opening the gates. Written on the scrap of paper was the necessary spell.

  Run://open_dlc_content

  I pulled my gloves off. To cast the spell correctly I needed my wrist bare. I pressed down on the swirling dark mass of the Prophetic Seal and cast the spell.

  A beam of black energy shot out from my hand towards the golden gate.

  The gates opened wide, emitting a bright light. A powerful force sucked us through the gate, teleporting us away from warring skies full of enemy ships and dangerous Sky Wyrms.

  24

  I was in total darkness. Then in a blip I was falling ass first onto the deck of the ship. The bowsprit nosedived into a mountain of sand. My bottom ached and my head throbbed. Motion sickness from the teleportation.

  I stood up and took in our surroundings. The sky above was a dark murky gray. Below the ship laid a desert of black sand. An endless pile of ash. The shrill whistles of wind blew across the desert. The gust sifted the dark sand, uncovering the remnants of bones and ruins. Lightning flashed in the distance.

  Kari held onto the ship’s railing to help herself up while Serena pushed herself to her feet, wiping dirt off her knees. Both of their faces were pale, their eyes wide with concern. They were thinking the same question I was.

  “Where the hell are we?”

  Above us, amongst the rigging and sails, the crew whispered back and forth, an indecipherable murmur like radio static on low volume.

  Jackson scratched his chin and crossed his arms. He let out a grunt. “Back in the prison cells of the pit, other inmates and fighters used to speak of a place. A horrible dangerous landscape in the depths of the cloud ocean, where the sky met the ground again. They called this place, the bottom world.”

  A message appeared in my HUD.

  You have discovered the Bottom World + 100 EXP!

  Welcome to the Bottom World

  You have entered a forbidden realm seeped in the curses and corruption of ancient Illyria. The debris of destruction will never leave this place and will envelop you if you remain here too long.

  (Duration: 5 hours)

  “Oh man,” I said. “Are you guys seeing this?”

  “Yep,” said Serena. “So it sounds like this place gives off a magical version of radiation poisoning. We got five hours to get the Ultriga Weapon and get out of here.”

  Shade rubbed his eyes, barely listening to us. He walked slowly to the front of the deck, picking up a fallen spyglass on the way. He stretched out the device and held it up to his eye with a grim demeanor. He pointed to a shadowy mound in the distance. He turned around with a frown on his face.

  “I see the ruins,” said Shade. “In the distance.”

  We all went quiet.

  The harsh scream of a Sky Wyrm echoed behind us. We turned around and floating in the air right above our ship was a swirling portal, rimmed with purple energy, the center of which showed the cloud ocean from which we came. Worse, it also showed an Arethkarian dreadnought along with a Sky Wyrm heading straight towards the open portal.

  “We can’t let them enter,” said Shade.

  “Clay,” yelled Serena, pulling out her sword. “What are we going to do?”

  The monsters were seconds away from passing through the portal and joining our company in the bottom world.

  I lifted up my arm and pressed the Prophetic Seal on my wrist casting, run://close_dlc_content. Black energy shot out of my palm towards the swirling portal. The blast hit the magical opening and the purple rims of energy closed. I fell to my knees, gasping.

  “Clay! Are you okay?” said Serena and Kari, running up to me.

  The portal was gone. Only empty gray sky. No trace of the gates ever being there. I’d sealed off the entrance to this forbidden place from our enemies, but had I also stopped us from ever getting back?

  25

  Staring out into the endless desert of ash and destruction, the party fell into disarray. The ship’s crew morale was edging to defiant. The whispering didn't stop. The crew’s faces were pale and shifty, full of furtive glances. They didn’t understand why I’d taken them to this horrible place and sealed off our only way to get out.

  Serena and Shade argued on what to do next as stormy gray clouds swirled above us. Every direction led to either ruins or empty desert. Our fates weren’t looking good. Was I as wrongheaded as Bella, the pirate queen, who in her efforts to save her own people only brought them closer to destruction?

  “We need to go to Ariellum,” I said. “That’s why we’re here. That’s where the Ultriga Weapon will be. We shouldn’t procrastinate on this. There’s no time. Let’s go.”

  With my words, the party nodded their heads. We left the ship moored in the sand with the crew to protect it. We lowered a plank and the five of us walked onto the black desert plains and headed in the direction of the city ruins. The crumbling ancient metropolis was nothing but a mere shadowy specter, a silhouette in the distance.

  We trudged across the desert in silence. Shade walked behind us all, dragging his feet. His eyes winced at our gloomy surroundings. His body grimaced. We were walking through the sands of history.

  “What’s the story behind the Ultriga Weapon anyway?” asked Kari.

  Shade sighed, not turning around to address the question. After a moment, he spoke. “It was a powerful weapon designed before the great rift. It was an allied effort, designed by Aeri and Lirana minds to combat the growing magitech strength of the Rorn. They created a weapon so powerful it shot a beam right thro
ugh the grand continent, piercing the crystal core and causing the great rift.”

  “Oh wow,” I said. “I knew the Ultriga Weapon was powerful but I didn’t realize it was that powerful.”

  “It’s part of the reason people hate the Aeri so much; they’re blamed for changing Illyria forever, separating homes, families and cultures. Ripping out an old world and ushering in a new.”

  “But people don’t hate the Lirana in the same way,” I said. “Yet, from what you’re saying, they were equally culpable.”

  “True,” sighed Shade, still not looking at any of us, marching towards the ruined city. “But the Aeri never lost a continent, a capital city, and a home. Sure some blamed the Lirana, but my people have suffered. The Aeri continue as it is in their forest cities. Snobbish. It pisses people off.”

  We carried on our way towards the ruins. It was a quiet march. Low murmurs and whistles of the wind drifted across the desert of ash. Secrets to ancient civilizations, bone structures of lost creatures, and immense treasure all laid beneath this dark black sand. It was all but forgotten, except for the brief touch of wind over the ground it was buried under.

  The area was barren and desolate. How did it connect to the rest of Illyria? This zone was DLC content, so was it instanced? Were we in a personalized version of the bottom world, a world continuously refreshed for every new traveller who sought it out? I shook my head. Maybe it was originally intended to work in such a way, back when A.K.O. was being designed simply as a game, immersive entertainment to get lost in, a distraction from the real world. In this incarnation though there was only one Ariellum. Only one set of ruins. It was the only way to explain why we saw the Sky Wyrms and the Arethkarian ships heading towards our portal. This area and the outer Illyria were connected.

  We continued forward, lost in our thoughts. Kari read over her stats and abilities, while also taking note of our own. She was figuring out how to accommodate her abilities to everyone’s play style and how to properly support the team. Serena did breathing exercises, blade soldier yoga to quicken her senses and make her more alert to her body and surroundings. Jackson marched with the intent of a soldier, his broad shoulders jutting back and forth as he moved along. His gait was serious, yet his eyes peered around with furtive and shifty glances. He was no longer enslaved to the fighting pits, but he was still uncomfortable with his new found freedom. Something so naturally human wasn’t coming easy to him. Not anymore. Not after what he’d been through.

  Shade walked at the front of our party, trudging determinedly towards the ruins. What would we find there? Would Shade be happy with anything we came across? We were walking through the remains of a place his people once called home. Was this what it would feel like for us to return to the real world?

  My thoughts echoed back to me. This place. It was originally intended to be a distraction. A piece of entertainment. Something you did to forget your homework, your shitty job and crummy life and the unfairness of the world with its corrupt politicians and crooks. Who knew this “distraction” would end up becoming for so many of us a reality to rival our own? A place of refuge in a lost world. A distraction that became a home, a shelter in a storm.

  The city was in closer view now. Fallen dilapidated columns and the crumbling remains of stone houses appeared in the distance.

  The floor at our feet trembled. Mounds of sand kicked up and headed towards us. Something slithered through the blackened dirt.

  “What’s that?” asked Kari.

  “We’re not the only living things down here,” I said.

  “I don’t know about living,” said Jackson, punching his fists together and buffing himself for battle. “But there’s definitely something here that wants to mess with us.”

  The creatures moved across the desert floor. I still had no idea what was fast approaching towards us, what creatures we were about to face. The last thing I had fought with the ability to burrow and traverse underground was Cuddles, the giant scorpion from the arena pits of the Grand Casino Palace. The very thought made my skin crawl. Were we about to fight two giant scorpions?

  Serena held her sword out, hands gripped tightly around the handle.

  Shade crouched with both of his daggers drawn, preparing to strike, dodge, and maneuver around this new enemy.

  Jackson knocked his fists against his chest, stacking ATKP and TGH buffs.

  Kari lifted her staff, sending protect magic onto Serena.

  I let my arms hang at my sides, fingers twitching ready to cast whatever spell was necessary.

  The mounds of dirt got closer and closer. “Here they come!”

  Erupting from the ground and shooting high into the air was a [Sand Shark], followed by another. Twenty feet long, the scaly creature was silver-skinned and had purple eyes on its side. It floated in the air, flipping high above us and diving straight back beneath the ground we stood on. The creatures slid through the sand like fish in water.

  Everybody tensed, eyes falling to the ground. I tracked the movement of our underground attackers.

  “How are we supposed to fight these things?” yelled Serena, full of frustration. She jabbed her sword into the sand like she was playing whack-a-mole. “Come out and play.”

  One shark erupted from the ground, dealing an uppercut head jab, smashing its nose into Serena’s chin. The blade soldier fell from the attack, taking a 35 HP hit.

  “Serena!” yelled Kari, sending a blast of golden healing magic her way.

  The knight stood up and wiped the blood from her mouth. “Hit these bastards with Earthquake, Clay. Show ’em what you can do to the ground they love so much.”

  “Gotcha,” I said, stretching out my arms and directing my magic at the mounds of dirt circling us. The sand sucked in on itself. Hardened. Rippled with destruction. The sand sharks shot out of the damaged ground, escaping the clutches of my spell.

  In the air, they met the fury of Jackson’s roundhouse karate kick. The Rorn brawler ricocheted off one silver fin and landed on the flesh of the other sand shark, detonating a powerful punch into the companion creature’s nose. The monster squealed, falling back towards the black sand. Jackson fell with it, letting out a flurry of punches. He pushed the creature to the ground even faster than it was falling. The red HP bar above the creature dropped below 50%. Meanwhile, the shark Jackson had bounced off regained its composure, back flipping and diving into the depths of the black sand.

  “Time for some Earth magic, homie,” shouted Shade, eyeing up the ground with his daggers in hand.

  “On it,” I said, tracking the movement in the sand, the rippling black ash. Once I spotted the creature, I stretched out my arm and directed another earthquake spell at where it was heading. The ground hardened and cracked into sharp pieces of stone. The sand shark burst forth from the ground, jumping through the air towards me, teeth wide open and ready to chomp my head and swallow it whole.

  Serena pounded her chest and shouted, “Protect Thy Allies!”

  The sand shark pivoted in the air, heading towards Serena. She readied her blade in sword shield. The shark’s teeth clanked against the steel of the blade. Serena gritted her teeth. Her face reddened as she battled with the sand shark.

  “Serena—hold on!” Kari lifted both her hands, summoning a bright white orb. She volleyed the energy ball towards Serena. The silver healing magic flew through the air and bounced right on top of Serena’s head, showering the spell and its defensive enhancements all over Serena’s person.

  The shark flipped in the air, dove quickly back into the sand, only to erupt again, knocking Serena back. She quickly jumped back to her feet, sword at hand. “I can’t keep waiting forever. Shade—where the hell are you?”

  Emerging out of stealth, Shade dug his two daggers into the back of the sand shark. It cried out in pain and agony. Shade’s backstab attack triggered a stack of critical hits.

  The shark was now off balance, composure lost. Serena wasted no time. She charged straight up to the monster, leaping i
n the air with her sword high above her head. She arced the blade downward, falling to the ground with the killing blow. The sword sliced through the silver sand shark, two halves flopping over onto the sand, leaving a puddle of entrails and blood.

  +133 EXP!

  Jackson grunted and groaned. He was wrestling with the shark. He gripped both ends of its jaws and was twisting them apart. His muscles bulged and sweat rolled down his face as he tore the monster in two.

  +133 EXP!

  He dropped the dead shark to the ground. He let out a long sigh. He rubbed his hands and turned to us. “That shark seriously required all three of you to kill it?”

  We all stared at Jackson dumbfounded and shrugged. We turned towards our destination.

  The sand at our feet thinned, revealing old stone walkways of the ancient city. The endless mounds of ash made way for fallen stone columns and the remnants of old homes. Welcome to the lost city of Ariellum. Population: zero.

  26

  “What a ghost town,” said Serena.

  Shade and I ignored the ruins in front of us and went over to the fallen sand sharks, looting them for materials. We were on the clock, but these sand sharks were rare creatures.

  Shade dug his knife into the creature’s gums, loosening out a sharp angled tooth, until he held it between his grip. “Sand shark tooth—useful for shamanic and alchemic recipes. This will net us a pretty penny back at Land’s Shield. Carve out as many as you can.”

  I pulled out my trusty basic sword and got to work, playing demented dentist on the dead sand sharks. Looting the creatures was methodical and satisfying work. First we gathered their teeth, then we carved off their carcasses into slabs of meat, then we collected their bones. It was a whole boatload of materials I was excited to play around with and craft later. I was also super pumped, because even though it was a ton of material, I didn’t feel the weight of it at all, as it remained handily away in my inventory. I was looking forward to the shark burger I’d make and devour later.