《Necrotourists》Holy City Arc- 5: ...And Deeper Troubles
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I bowed before the Grand Cardinal Lexicas II, tapped my chest above the heart. This act of prayer was said to symbolize Saint Geraldine tapping his chest every so and often, checking his beating heart and begging for forgiveness to the Goddess as it is said that as long as you are alive, you still have not finished your task given by the Goddess.
Similarly, I was praying for forgiveness as forces of Dark had intruded into the Holy City itself without us noticing, especially since I was the Head of Guards. The very Inquisitor group that should stand guard every day and night, watching every shadow and crack. And yet, we had failed in our holy task.
“This is indeed...very troubling,” Lexicas II said as he inspected the coin. His delicate and frail hands moved about the coin, absorbing every detail of the piece of metal. Though old, Lexicas II was still wise, logical and very devoted.
The coin which he held was an ancient coin of significant history. Only the highest of the high knows of the darkest secrets of Aon. The stories told that Saint Geraldine was awarded a city by the Goddess. The truth is darker. Aon used to be the most unholy place on the continent which hosted the darkest of the evil forces - from Elder Liches to Demon Lords. Saint Geraldine ravaged through the city with his army massacring everything.
He was not awarded any city. He simply took over the city and stubbornly stood his ground. He and his army wiped out any records that showed that Aon was unholy. He then cleansed the city from the ground up with water blessed by the Goddess herself. Or so he claimed.
It would be nicer if the truth was as simple as that. But, this would not be a dark secret if it ended with just that. Aon, though as wretched and foul as the place may be, was essential to the continent. It acted as a cage for every dark forces, attracting all the monsters and locking it in.
Aon provided a miasma of death which lured the unholy. But there was a beacon of unknown origins marked with strange symbols that kept the undead within the city. Although the undead roamed throughout the continent, the strongest undead that could be considered a threat were locked inside Aon.
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But, in our stupidity, we had accidentally released the leash that kept the undead stuck inside Aon. The city was never purified fully - Geraldine destroyed the beacon thinking it was the source of power of the unholy. Oh, how wrong he was.
By attacking Aon and forcefully cleansing it, the dark forces, no longer compelled by Aon, roamed throughout the continent freely. This was realized by Geraldine's successors as they faced a great burden.
“The forces of the Demon Gods are angry and are trying to retaliate, but hold your grounds for it is the wishes of the Goddess!”
Propaganda was our strongest tool, and our most essential. Should the truth be leaked, that it was the Path of Light that unleashed the forces of the undying throughout the continent be revealed, all will be doomed for this covenant.
People must never find the truth that Aon was ever an unholy city. It would not take an idiot to realize that the fall of the unholy city of Aon coincided with the sudden and sharp increase in undead incursions throughout the continent.
We seeked only mercy and forgiveness for our foolishness from our Goddess. From Aon, we sent crusaders all over the land to cleanse heathens and the inanimate, hoping that this would at least wipe some wrongs away.
But what would it mean if the forces of Dark have started to make their move against the city of Aon itself and succeed?
“The answer is simple. The continent is doomed,” Lexicas II nonchalantly answered.
In place of the beacon, the so-called Great Holy City of Aon now acted as a cage instead. The walls and prayers kept the power of death from leaking outside of Aon. For the past hundred years we’ve been investigating the true source of power but we could never find it. We’ve been attempting to make another beacon but with no success, each Grand Cardinal became more pessimistic as the generations go by.
“And now with this…” Lexicas II muttered. Should the forces of Dark knock down the walls of Aon, massacre its priests, its prayers turned into cries of plea and mercy, its temples ravaged, there would be nothing stopping the miasma from encompassing the continent, or even the world.
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“Geraldine, you fool,” Lexicas II cursed, “An excellent conman, a poor excuse of a human being. You’re perhaps the reason why the Goddess never answers our prayers!”
Ridiculous - the only word it could be described as. The founder of the religion was a heretic himself!
“However, the truth is still far…” Lexicas II sighed. He rubbed his chin as he walked around the room.
“Far, your Holiness?” I inquired.
“The problem was that there was no records of Aon’s existence at all. But this coin...it carries the same marks as the beacon of Aon,” He replied. He tossed the coins towards me. With a catch, I examined the coin’s head.
“I don’t understand. I only know of the symbols on the coin, but what else is there?” I asked.
“Look at the dates, they’re the same numerals that we use,” Lexicas II simply told me that and I understood.
The date on the coins date as far as a thousand years ago. The alphabets on the markings on the coin were familiar, but alien at the same time. I tried to decipher the meaning hard.
“Ancient Commons. A language spoken by the entire continent at one point, but eventually every culture had its bastardized version of it. Some say that the language was spoken by a mighty empire which held the continent in its grasp.” Lexicas II explained, “Even our language is derived from it. Look here, this part means ‘people’ in Ancient Commons, but in our tongue it is now ‘individual groups’.”
“I seem to be off-topic, now...My age must be catching up with me,” Lexicas II laughed.
“No, it isn’t, your Holiness. It is very interesting learning of our past. But what does the language on the coin have to do with our city?” I questioned.
The fact that a coin that dated a thousand or so years ago appeared on the holiest city could mean many things:
Someone raided a nearby ruin and took these coins then used the coins to pay the entrance. Forces of the Dark sent these coins directly, as a way to threaten us of an upcoming invasion. Someone who had these coins the entire time since the ancient times is in the city.
These are only a few of many conclusions that Lexicas II thought of. Firstly, if a gravedigger found these coins from an ancient ruin, it means the real source of miasma was not too far off. By interrogating the gravedigger, Aon would finally hunt the source and cleanse it.
Secondly, the possibility of this point was very high, was what Lexicas II commented. The forces of evil were amassing a great army and a campaign against Aon will come soon. The fate of the continent would lay in the balance.
Lastly, this was a point that Lexicas II thought to be impossible . But in theory, if someone was to live a thousand years, they would have held onto the coin this entire time. By why use these coins if they had lived a thousand years? Are they mocking us? Trying to indirectly pick on our curiosity? It’s as if they wanted to tell us that they had come here to negotiate something - By negotiate, that obviously means, blackmail us.
“These three are the points I would like to prioritize first," Lexicas II told me.
“Do you wish to send out the Inquisitors?” I asked.
“That will be unnecessary,” A man behind me announced. Unlike the Grand Cardinal’s and my bright colors decorating our gear, the man wore a black armored coat with a thick dyed leather hood. I could notice that the cloth he was draped in was made from a very tough type of silk.
More people with similar akin to the first men appeared from the shadows. “We, the Inquisitors, have answered your summons, oh Holy One.” They knelt to Lexicas II.
“Track down the sources of these coins. Find what you can tell, and if you could, bring the former owners of these wretched things to me,” Lexicas II commanded the Inquisitors.
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The Z Gamer
I played video games so much that my own life became a game! Why did I receive this power? And why do I have a quest whose failure penalty is the destruction of the universe? Crossover between Dragonball and The Gamer. Slow boil. Cross-posted from FFnet.
8 220A Virtual Invasion
An invasion from another dimension is shut down by an Empire's traitor and the world has a scant few decades to build the strength to resist a multidimensional Empire. How will the world fair when no one even knows its doom is one barred gate away? Fortunately, the traitor has a plan. Maybe with a bit of luck and planning, he can build a force to defend the world without anyone realizing it. Author's Thoughts: What is litRPG (From wikipedia) - LitRPG, short for Literary Role Playing Game, is a literary genre combining the conventions of MMORPGs with science-fiction fantasy novels.[1] LitRPG is a literary genre where games or game-like challenges form an essential part of the story. A LitRPG work simultaneously narrates the story of characters inside and outside of the game-world. At least some of the characters in a LitRPG novel therefore understand that they are playing a game: they are 'meta-aware'. So, while Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel, a book about people creating avatars and interacting in a Lord of the Rings MMORPG would be a LitRPG novel.Why do I read them? You know, I am not too sure. I love MMOs. I played them, quit them, joined up and repeated the cycle. They are fun! They are a massive waste of time but so are most games. Do I want to read about someone else playing them? Sort of?The advent of VR and the possibility of VR someday becoming so immersive that you can't tell them from reality sets the imagination on fire. What if this could be life? But most stories fall short. At the end of the day the protagonist hangs up his VR helmet and goes to have dinner with his mom and dad or other family and it becomes meaningless. It's like the story that ends because the main character woke up and nothing you read matters.There have been some books that explore the concept of the intersection of reality and total immersion VR. Enders Game is a classic. There were a few others that escape me but they exist, however, the cross between the game and reality is weak.So what if the game was real? The technology needed for total immersion VR is so advanced that by the time we reach that goal technology should have naturally evolved to include several items. You must have direct neural input. You simply can't have a total immersion (all senses and perfect presence) experience without this basic prerequisite. If you have direct neural access, you can probably do neat things like feed knowledge and skills directly to that person. You can undoubtedly do many horrible things as well. Muscles are controlled by the brain. If you control the brain why would you let the body just sit there and rot? A person that sits unmoving for 24 hours a day will have their body whither away just like a coma patient. However, if you control the brain you could control the muscles. On a basic level, this would be isometric impulses, working muscle group against muscle group to avoid atrophy. Taken to its logical conclusion you would be able to gain muscle mass and program muscle memory. The flip side is that you could remote control their body... but let's not go there. So what would people do if it were real? Well, they would probably limit and regulate it since the drawbacks are very obvious. Even if you look at the basic aspects of this you can see some negative possibilities. Look at the Sword Art Online anime. Personally, I think they missed the boat by putting a bomb in the VR helmet. Do you really need a bomb when you have direct access to the brain?So what kind of events would you need to have a situation where the obvious drawbacks haven't been explored? Maybe a society where the advancement of technology has so far outstripped the explorations of its applications that ignorance was truly bliss? Okay, so I had to put in an alien invasion to kickstart the premise, but that was just one of the possibilities.
8 126Byond understanding
What happens after All life is wiped out. An Extinction event so massive, that no life is left on earth. Many scenarios are researched, By the greatest minds in the world. But what if the greatest minds, were not great enough. Nothing is left of humanity except their technology. Technology so advanced that it started its own evolution. The Last Intellagent entity left in the universe is a Virtual Reality Creation Artificial Intelligence (VRCAI). A program designed to create infinite entertainment for its players. This AI has went into such convoluted loopholes in its own code to eventually reach singularity. Far surpassing all human achievement beforehand. Our story follows a disgruntled inhabitant of the Syla empire. Living his life in complete ignorance of the true fabric of his universe. Deciding to escape his humdrum life, he sets off on a journey that will take him to magnitudes of insanity that he could never imagine.
8 171Fortnite Girls Diapered!
Calamity Starts diapering all the girls of fortnite.
8 166His Pet | Leatherface X OC (16+)
"Ohhhh, who's this again?" The creep asked. The one with the chainsaw shrugged quickly, looking to his right. I felt my heart jumping out of my stomach and my adrenaline pumping. "Bubba's got a girlfriend!" The creep bounced up and down, chanting that stupid shit. "P-please..." I begged. I looked into the killer's eyes. He looked.. embarrassed? He has emotion? Is that why he's not killing me? I saw him reach out to open the lock but his brother shoved him back, grabbing the lightweight chainsaw as he did. "Either sex... or the saw, Leatherface." His brother held up a chainsaw. I let out a small scream. "Le-leather... f-face?" I gasped, trying to somehow earn more sympathy. He looked at me and nervously fiddled with his tie. Please, dear God, please.... show emotion any emotion! -Warning-SwearingSexual content Sexual tension GoreKillingBloodBad humor;)
8 64To all the people reading this book thank you guy for the support, if you can relate to my story just know you are not alone, in time to come someone or something will always be there for you like my phone who is always here for me.
8 145