“Don’t go anywhere. I’ve got something very important to show all of you.” I spoke into the floating camera that I could see after the final raid member died. Turning, I led it back to the throne, where I sat down with a tired sigh. “Gotta get rid of this poison first.” I said, pressing a few buttons. While I waited for it to clear out, I downed a few mana potions and summoned Inkler back to my side.

“Hey bud, you were fantastic.” I said, scratching his jaw how he liked. I pulled a cassowack leg out of my inventory for him. While he was enjoying his treat, I pressed a few more buttons on the throne and stood up. “Now, let’s head down to the workroom where I have everything prepared.” As I spoke to the camera, the throne split down the middle and separated, revealing a hidden staircase beneath it. I started down, and heard Inkler padding along behind me. “Behold, the entire purpose of this dungeon.” I spread my arms as I reached the bottom of the stairs, revealing the room at the bottom.

The ceiling was twice the height as normal, and contained a truly massive array of phase crystals that my friends had been tasked with collecting. The crystals on the floor mirrored the ceiling, forming a gigantic circle with two intersecting inner areas. Arcane runes covered the circles, far beyond my comprehension. The crystals all glowed with a blue inner light, making the entire setup somewhat eerie.

“My friends, come, and witness the fruits of your labors.” I called out, and I was joined by the three bosses from earlier in the dungeon. I had warned them earlier, so they were all ready for my call.

“Whoa, that’s one hell of a magic array.” Rocky immediately said.

“Hey Johnny, I have a request for you.” I said.

“Sure Angus, what’s up?”

“I want you to take over the contract with Inkler here. He deserves a relaxing life, and I think he would love hanging out and playing with the kids.”

“Hold the phone there, what’s this all about? You make it sound like this is the end.” He said, immediately concerned. The others also stopped their examinations and looked at me.

“You guys know this is quite possibly one of the biggest magical workings this world has ever seen, right? Magical workings this large often need a sacrifice to power them. The bigger the sacrifice, the better the result.” I said.

“Yeah, I thought that’s why we were collecting all that death energy from the raid group.” Illyora growled at me. “You telling me that over a hundred deaths isn’t enough to power your plan? Just what are you trying to do?”

“It isn’t the amount of deaths that matters.” I said, trying to calm them down. “But the biggest part must be a significant sacrifice. Can you think of a bigger sacrifice than a willing divine tier monster at maximum level?” They shifted nervously for a second, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Alright man. I’ll watch over him for you.” Johnny finally agreed.

“Inkler, I’m not going to be around much longer.” I told him, gently rubbing behind his ear. “You were the best partner a guy like me could hope for, even if you liked to pull more pranks than most.” I barely got that bit out, trying not to cry. He dropped his cassowack leg and shoved his head into my chest, nearly knocking me over. “Thanks bud.” I said, laughing through the tears. “So. Do you think you can help Johnny out?” He chuffed in my face and I pulled up the contract.

Are you sure you wish to dissolve your familiar contract with Inkler?

Y/N

Hitting yes was one of the hardest things I had ever done. Of course, Inkler could never do things as planned. Instead of heading over to Johnny, he yawned and strolled over to Illyora and sat down to stare at her.

“Um, Inkler? Weren’t you supposed to contract with Johnny?” She asked, looking around in panic.

I couldn’t help it and started laughing. “Looks like the mighty Chimera Lord is going to have a mirage stalker in her pack. You might as well accept; he can be incredibly stubborn once his mind is made up.”

“But I don’t have any cat parts!” She said, looking right at me. “Wolf and bear and reptile, none of those are cat friendly!” As she complained, Inkler slammed his head into her stomach and started purring. “Alright, alright!” She said, and they were both enveloped in light for a second.

“Take good care of her Inkler, she gets into almost as much trouble as I do.” I said, getting a chuff from my former partner. Standing up, I walked to the ritual area. “I guess it’s about time to get this show on the road.” Pulling it out of my inventory, I placed the twig of Yggdrasil I had stolen from Pelor’s church into the intersecting area of the circle. “In the middle, the branches that connect us all.” I walked to one of the singular areas, and pulled a ring from my inventory. “Representing those of the light, this ring. The Forerunner of the Impending Dawn’s insignia ring. Apologies to the light elves, but not only must sacrifices be made, but they must be in balance.” I placed it in the circle, and walked around to the other side, stepping in to the circle. “And as counterbalance, for the races of the dark, myself. Angus MacG. Divine tier Oblivion Draconian.” I paused for a second before continuing. “I suppose I should be giving some sort of farewell speech, to get everyone’s blood pumping. I just don’t hink I have it in me, so let’s just do this.” I pulled out my weapon, pointed the scythe right at my heart, and prepared to end my character for good.

With inches to spare, a scaled hand reached around me and caught my weapon. With two fingers and a thumb, I couldn’t move. “Sorry dear, but I just couldn’t let one of my most promising descendants go and make such a tremendous error.” I turned to see Tiamat herself standing behind me, smiling.

“Tiamat?” I asked, stunned.

“Oh, look at this ritual. Mortals. HECATE!” She shouted at the ceiling. “GET DOWN HERE, UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO DO ALL THE MODIFICATIONS MYSELF!”

“Stop already!” We all turned to see Hecate standing on the other side of the circle looking down. “Oh damn. Silly mortals. Always trying to brute force things, you people have no finesse. No sense of style. Damn.” Looking at the circle, she started muttering as she walked around it.

“This might take a while, why don’t you head over by your friends.” Tiamat said, giving me a gentle push.

“Alright. I think I know the changes we need to make, but I’m going to need some more power for this. Two from each pantheon should suffice.” Hecate spoke while staring at the ceiling, tapping her foot. Suddenly, there were a lot more people in the room.

“Always the fun one.” A sultry voice whispered in my ear. I turned my head to see Lolth had draped herself over my shoulders. “Really is too bad you decided to go with Thanatos. We could have had so much fun.” She stood up and sauntered away, as I looked around to see who else had joined us. The lady with a bandage over her eyes and a sword on her back had to be Justice. She opted for white plate mail instead of robes today. Next to her was Thanatos, keeping mostly shrouded in his gray hood. Gaia and Moradin were there for the light gods, standing between Thanatos and Hecate.

“Alright, this should do it.” Hecate clapped her hands three times, and everything shifted around. The inside of the circle was rearranged into a triquetra. The writing was also changed, though I had no idea what the new parts did. It ended up being up about four times as dense as what we had originally started with.

“Hmmm. No, no, no this won’t do.” Hecate mumbled. She glowed for just a second, before splitting into three. “You two will behave.” She ordered the older man and the other woman, glaring at them.

“Fine, I’ll behave.” The woman in leather sighed. “At least this is a magic spell worthy of us.”

“Indeed.” The old man agreed. “When was the last time the three of us blended all our magics?”

“Enough.” Hecate ordered. “Let’s get things set up. Branch of Yggdrasil, that can stay in the middle. Hmmm, interesting ring. Leave it in the lobe of light. You.” She pointed at me. Squinting her eyes, it felt as if she were reading into my soul. “You are so very lucky we intervened, you would have royally mucked up that spell. You aren’t darkness, and you aren’t light. You are both, and you should go into the gray lobe. Over there next to Justice. That’s two, we need an object of darkness.”

“I’ll volunteer something.” Tiamat said, stepping forward. “One who brought the races closest to becoming my dear dragons deserves nothing less, especially since this is going to cause so much fun.” She giggled a bit at the end, before reaching up and snapping off one of her horns. Even Gaia widened her eyes as the Goddess of Chaos placed it in the third lobe.

“Thank you Tiamat.” Hecate actually gave her a slight bow. “Now, I’ve called you all here for a purpose, and I’ll be explaining the ritual for the mortals. We have three members of each of the three pantheons, for repetition of the numbers will amplify the power exponentially. Moradin, you will be the base of the world, and your power shall help build it. Stand next to Angus in the dark lobe, but remain outside of the circle. I will be next, and we will add on moving clockwise. Lolth here next to me, followed by Merlin. Justice is next, then Tiamat. Gaia then Thanatos and finally Mab closes the circle.” Around the circle, the gods went from light to gray to dark and back to light. Again this was repeated three times, each lobe getting a god or goddess of magic.

“Angus. Now is the time for the lifeblood of the ritual, make sure that you use it to water the tree in the middle. The ring shall provide light to all, and the horn shall add darkness and chaos to balance everything. Ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I said. Stepping forward, nobody stopped me this time as I stabbed myself in the heart, and let my blood flow over the branch in the middle of the circle. I could feel the magic building in the air, the mana was so thick that crackles of electricity were sparking in the air. The runes and lines of the ritual were glowing and fading with my heartbeat, growing in intensity as I felt my character dying.

Warning!

Finishing this ritual will result in permanent deletion of this character. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Y/N

I hit yes and was moved out to a third person view, watching as mana flowed among all the gods and the ritual, building to a violent crescendo. Seconds later, the multicolored ball of mana exploded outward, passing through each of the phase crystals that were pulsing in time with the ritual. I thought the manaquakes from the unsealing of the well were strong, but this put them to shame. The only people in the room unaffected were the gods, though that should be expected. As the wave passed, a system notification popped up.

System notice!

Due to a massive ritual performed by the Progenitor Tyrant and overseen by the gods of this world, massive changes are coming. Any characters not logged out within five minutes will be forcefully logged out while system updates are applied. For more information on this update, watch the live broadcast of the upcoming interview with David Argentus, owner of Arctic Storm. This will be available from your home area.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

David Argentus POV

I relaxed in my chair, smiling at the cameras as they counted down to the live show. The cameraman pointed to us as the red light came on, and the interview was underway.

“Welcome fans, I’m Elaine Torix for Inside Gamer Today here with an exclusive live interview with the owner of Arctic Storm, David Argentus. David, thank you so much for joining us today.”

“My pleasure Elaine.”

“I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’m going to get right down to it, as I’m sure our fans are just as impatient to learn just what in the world happened after that dungeon raid. What can you tell us?”

“Well, first our developers have created a small animation of what exactly happened, only if you were able to view the world from space. Let’s watch.” As I turned in my chair slightly, the screen between us lit up and the movie started.

Slowly growing larger until it took up the majority of the central portion of the screen, was the world of Oblivion Online. “Now, at the exact central point there is where the dungeon was located.” I informed everyone. Seconds later, there was a spike of multicolored energy that blasted outward in a massive circle, moving so that it covered the entire globe. Once that had finished, the world shook. Three primary shades appeared of the world, all moving slightly apart. One dark, one grey, and one light. They slowly settled back together, but you could see they didn’t line up exactly.

“Wow. That was some ritual.” Elaine said, turning back to face me. “So, what can you tell us about it?”

“Well, this is the start of the next major expansion of Oblivion Online. And just so that everyone knows, anyone with a current subscription will receive the expansion at no extra cost. So let me welcome all of our current players to Oblivion Online: Sundered Worlds.”

“Sundered Worlds? Did a player actually split the world?” Elain asked, leaning forward in her chair.

“Hahaha, no nothing like that.” I said with a chuckle. “What they did was create three different worlds, all in a slightly different phase.”

“Hold the phone.” Elaine nearly started bouncing in her seat. “Are you telling me that you just tripled the size of Oblivion Online?”

“In a nutshell? Yes. Players will note that certain locations do line up between all three worlds, but nothing will be exactly the same. In one world might be the human capital, while another phase might have some ancient ruins. The explorer’s guild is going to be incredibly busy.”

“I want to get back to that in a second, but I have to ask because if I’m dying to know, I know a lot of our viewers are as well. What was the reasoning behind splitting the worlds? Surely a player wasn’t just interested in a bigger place to explore.”

“No, he had much more familiar reasons. See, he was rather upset when two NPCs who had given him a great bit of help over the course of his game were killed. As you and everyone knows, NPC deaths are permanent.”

“So how does this fix NPC death?”

“Well, each NPC will have a home phase. If they are killed in their home phase, they will have the option to resurrect in ten minutes, unless there is a special event going on.”

“I see.” She said, though I could tell gears were turning in her head. “You said in their home phase, does that mean there is travel between phases?”

I smiled, loving being interviewed by someone with such a sharp mind. “Exactly. There will be regular gateways that are guarded. Most will go from the dark or light phase to the gray phase, though direct travel is possible. The best part is thanks to Tiamat though. Since she used a portion of herself, there will also be random portals that show up unexpectedly between any of the phases, and possibly other areas as well.”

“So what happens if an NPC dies on a different phase?”

“If they had left of their own free will, or were ordered by their master, then the old rules apply. If someone were to kidnap an NPC and travel through a portal and kill them, then they will still have the option to resurrect.”

“Ok, I think everyone can be on board with saving the NPCs. What else can you tell us about things?”

“Well, there is going to be a lot more room that’s for sure. Monster players won’t have to face light players that have already reached max level and compete with them for resources. Or compete with light siders of the same level but with greater backing.”

“Oh, so light players and dark players are each going to start on their own phase? What about the gray phase?”

“Well, the gray phase is going to be sort of a wild phase. There will be a few outposts, but the vast majority of that world will be areas absolutely filled with monsters and resources. Actually, I think the plan is for each phase to have one major outpost and at other permanent portals they can maintain a fort but that’s it. And these are by no means guaranteed, there are monsters on that world fully capable of reducing a fort to a crater in a matter of time.”

“Oh that sounds like a challenge. Any chance that the guilds can claim areas?”

“No. They are of course welcome to try, but the two major outposts are in special locations. For the others, they will constantly be challenged by monsters at random intervals. Sometimes they will easily repel the wave, sometimes it will be difficult, and sometimes it will be nigh impossible.”

“Ooooh, I’m getting so excited! Can you tell us if there is any way for players to spawn on the gray phase?”

“That’s another one of our major expansion points. For those that wish to forgo the dark and the light side, we offer the gray side. This is a special type of challenge. Players will set out into the world, and look for a place to establish their own dungeon. Lure in and kill or contract monsters to grow stronger. Build up your own traps to punish players that try and conquer you. It’s an entirely new style of gameplay, and I’m extremely excited to try it.”

“Wait, we can be our own dungeon master?”

“Yes you can Elaine.”

“You heard it folks, come design your own dungeon.”

“Once your dungeon gets large enough, you can also earn an exception to the one-character rule.” I added. “Grow it deep enough, and you can set a sort of auto control. But that’s all I can say about the dungeons, the rest the players will have to figure out.”

“Something I’m sure several are going to be chomping at the bit to do.” Elaine chuckled. “Ok, so we have covered the NPCs and the new player option, but I somehow feel that the light side is getting left behind. Is there anything you have to balance that? Something to stem the hiatus that I see coming?”

“Indeed. We realized with the dungeon run that the evolved monsters can be incredibly powerful. I mean, we had two that were able to hold their own against a thirty-person raid. That needed to be addressed, and so we are offering evolutions to the light races as well. However, we aren’t going to be doing it in the same manner.”

“Oh?” She asked, eyes pleading with me to continue.

“Indeed. We don’t want to saturate the worlds with divine artifacts, that’s just asking for someone to collect and abuse that. What we decided on was this. When you create your character, you will determine just how difficult you want things to be. The hardest will be divine difficulty. You will first have to reach at least champion rank, but it would better to be heroic before your first evolution. Your second evolution to become a demigod rank will require you to finish a highly difficult questline with a chosen god or goddess. This must be done solo. The same will be required to reach divine rank on your third evolution.”

“And this is the same for monsters and light siders?”

“Yes, this will be the same for both.” I agreed.

“Any chance that we can do this for characters that are already established?”

“Of course. If you wish to, all your gear can be sealed in a vault at any of the capital banks. Your character will be reset to level 1, and you can move through the game once again. You will have eight months to reach divine rank or your third evolution, whichever path you decide to take. If you fail, you will be given the option to keep your character as is and sell all your old gear, or to revert back. Be warned, you only get one attempt.”

“Do you have an idea how difficult this will be?”

“I do incidentally. We don’t want to be drowning in a sea of divine creatures, so I think the results are going to be maybe 1 in 100 or worse for actually completing the divine quests. Now, that is harsh but it is going to come with an exciting set of rewards. See, at that point your character will be able to steamroll just about any dungeon currently out there. We don’t want players to reach a stagnation point, and just throw away all the hard work they went to. So we have a deal for those who reach the divine ranks, and we actually have the first of these coming up soon. Remember the giant in the dungeon?”

“The one that very nearly took out the raid by throwing them off the mountain?”

“Exactly. While he wasn’t technically a divine rank, we have decided to upgrade his character based on his performance and the things he has managed to accomplish. He will be the first of the Roving Raids.”

“Roving Raids? Why does that sound like it should be capitalized?”

“Because it is.” I chuckled. “Basically, when you max out a divine creature you have the option to have it enshrined as a Roving Raid boss. Once per month, the boss will appear out of a special portal. At that point, there will be six hours to kill the boss. First come, first served. The boss will appear in the same location at random times for three consecutive days before disappearing.”

“Ooooh, that’s an exciting prospect. Will the players be able to be the boss during battles?”

“Yes. That’s the challenge. Pit your divine character and all their skills against a raid or more. See who comes out on top. If you aren’t able to do it for three days, we will work with you to train a limited AI to run your character according to your playstyle. And before you ask, no this will not prevent you from starting new characters. If you do manage to make a divine ranked creature, you will have several bonuses including getting a new character slot.”

“So we are doing away with the one-character limit?” Elaine asked, scooting forward in her seat.

“In very limited instances. Like I said, your spare slot will be your maxed divine character. Should you create a second character, the divine one will be locked unless you are doing the monthly battle. I know how gamers think, and if we didn’t do this then there would be people trying to give their new character equipment gained from their divine character. However, any new characters will come with a trait called Divine Echo. While it won’t produce any combat boosts, all NPCs will know that you have at one point been divine and will have certain interactions boosted.”

“Will this effect stack if you manage multiple divine evolutions?”

“Yes, though that would be incredibly difficult to do. Should someone actually manage it, then we will probably give them some sort of bonus, but it will have to be on a case by case basis.”

“Wow. Lot to unpack, and a lot to look forward to. New evolutions, new areas, new races, is there anything we are missing?”

“Oh I’m sure there is Elaine, but that’s the limit I have been given on details that I can reveal. There’s plenty more to be found, if you search diligently enough.”

“Well, David, thank you so much for your time and for giving us such an exciting preview into the new expansion.”

“Thanks for having me Elaine, and thanks to all our players out there who have supported the game for so long. We hope that you enjoy all the new content, and rest assured that we are always working to keep the game moving in a positive direction.”