AN: I kept thinking this chapter needed to be more than it was, but in the end I realized that it just needed to finish off the arc and introduce new aspects for the future volumes.

Enjoy!

Chapter 25: Praise It!

Half-burnt houses, the scent of death, and the corpses of animals greeted the duo as they arrived at the village. There were no humanoid corpses to be seen, but a large sign pounded down into the middle of the main entrance road told the tale.

Lawlessness, murder, and player-killing outside of self-defense will not be tolerated. Let all those who would murder the residents of this world, or their own, know that we will stop you.

~ The Burning Heart Crusaders Guild

“So, that’s what happened,” said Scott.

“What does this say, beloved?” asked Saelil curiously.

“You can’t read it?” asked Scott.

“No, the language uses strange symbols.”

Scott glanced at her then back to the sign. “It seems there were people here like those guys back on the road. Some people took offense at their lifestyle and killed them all.”

“I see,” she said simply. Killing bandits was a common thing in this world. The idea of burning out a village of them was not that surprising.

They spent a little time searching through the ruins of the small village, but other than the graveyard in back and the pile of burnt corpses next to it there was nothing worthy of note. Either the crusaders looted the place, or the surviving player killers did it after the crusaders left.

Scott shook his head at the pile of corpses then returned to the road. Nothing of interest happened for the remainder of the day. His vitality was high enough that walking all night was not an issue either. Now that he had clothes, and a little food and water, even his chaffing was no longer an issue. It healed completely within the first few hours.

Come dawn he found something truly bizarre. There was a nearly naked man standing in a grassy field off the side of the road. He wore only two things, a full-face helm and a sock puppet. The puppet also wore a helmet, but the strangest thing about it was the location where the man wore the puppet itself. There were certainly odd types of condoms in existence, but none were as strange as that sock puppet.

“Praise it!” cried the man through his helmet. His arms were up in the air making his body into a ‘Y’ shape.

Saelil coughed slightly and hid behind Scott. Ghost of a long dead sorceress or not, this was weird.

“Ah travelers…” said the nearly naked man. He turned toward them, the sock puppet pointing at them suggestively. It was dressed like a crusading knight, but the face drawn on the front held an expression of surprise.

“Yeah…” said Scott with a grunt.

The man threw his hands up into the air once more, and then his sock puppet pointed toward the sky. “Is it not a glorious morning to be alive!?”

“Well, yes…” said Scott, while trying not to look at the sock puppet.

“You are quite glorious today brother!” cried the man while staring up at the sun.

“The sun… is your brother?” asked Saelil.

“The sun is every man’s brother, my dear ghostly elf maiden!” exclaimed the nearly naked man. He laughed wildly for a moment then became stone sober. “You might consider more sunlight, dear lady. You are awfully pale.

“Well, I’m a ghost…”

“That’s really no excuse…” he replied candidly. The sock puppet shook itself lightly from side to side like it was shaking its head.

“I don’t have an actual body to soak in the rays of the sun,” she replied.

He tilted his helmeted head toward her then placed a finger where his chin would be. “That is a bit of a semi-transparent pickle, I suppose.”

“So, not to bother you and your praising of the sun, but is the town of Roscaliane near here?” asked Scott.

“Ah, yes. You are perhaps one good march from there now, at most,” said the man. His sock puppet bobbed up and down like it was nodding. It then pointed toward the direction that Scott and Saelil were already heading. “Just keep on this road here, brother.”

Scott could not help but notice the puppet’s movements, and blinked. “Yes, thank you…”

“You are quite welcome, unlike me,” said the man with a sigh.

“You are… unwelcome?” asked Saelil.

“Sadly, yes. The good people of Roscaliane won’t let me come into the city during the day.” He turned toward Saelil then placed one hand to his hip and canted them to the side. He gestured with his free hand in a mildly effeminate manner. “I don’t know why, but they find me unusual.”

“I… see,” she said while slowly nodding her head.

“Brother, you spend quite a bit of time gazing luxuriously at my puppet… Do you fancy puppetry?” The sun bathing man asked Scott after a brief pause.

“I’m not the sort of man who fancies another man’s puppet…” said Scott.

“Now, now, brother. There’s nothing wrong with a man luxuriously fancying another man’s puppet,” replied the puppeteer.

“Why does your puppet wear a helmet?” asked Saelil, wanting to be part of the strange conversation.

“Well, he’s a crusader, you see,” replied the nameless man. “He often goes into the underworld to deal with tight situations and to bring the light of truth and love to the lawless darkness.”

“I-I see…” she said, before slipping further behind Scott. Softly, she whispered into his ear, “Can we please go now…”

Scott nodded to her then said, “We should be going. Thank you for the help…”

“Think nothing of it, dear travelers! I shall return to basking in the golden shower of my brother’s love,” said the man before throwing his hands into the air. “Give it to me brother, let your glorious love rain down upon me like oversized turnips flying free from a broken basket!”

Scott glanced to Saelil. She glanced back at him. Quietly they began to walk away. As they did so, the nearly naked man began to dance around and proclaim the glory of the dawn.

“Who was that mad man?” asked Saelil.

“He seems familiar for some reason…” mumbled Scott.

“Do you know him?” she asked.

“No… I don’t think so, but he really loves the sun,” said Scott.

“Give it to me, brother!” screamed the crazy man while dancing and leaping around. “My heart is ready to receive you!”

Saelil glanced back at him then looked forward once more. “Clearly, he does…”

They left the sun worshipper behind and continued on their way. It was a strange existence for Scott. In recent days, even on other worlds, he would find it hard to move more than a few miles in any direction without entering into life-endangering combat, or a world-design that included bottomless pits or miles high drops to his death. However, since he left the underworld he’d only fought one group of scrubs.

In some ways, this ridiculous death world was quite peaceful. It was also nice that it smelled of wildflowers and fresh green grass instead of rotting corpses.

True to the madman’s word, a town revealed itself after another few hours into their journey. Scott’s eyes widened in excitement. “Finally!”

Saelil laughed at his childish excitement and followed him as he ran toward the town. He slowed down after his moment of excitement passed and asked if she would be willing to go invisible. There was always the possibility that there would be trouble. Even with his strength and vitality, it still took quite some time to arrive at the turn off that led to the town gates.

Outside of the walled city, numerous tents were erected. Music played in the background while people vigorously argued with each other over various items of interest. Most notably of all was the fact that most of the people in the area wore ramshackle bits and pieces of armor.

They passed through the area, while garnering only a little interest. Scott looked no different than any other random traveler. Saelil was invisible. The guards eyed him as he passed through the gates, but made no attempt to stop him.

Scott looked around at the city in wild-eyed fascination for a moment, there were elves, dwarves, even someone who looked to be some sort of lamia wandering around in town. Most of the people here were dressed normally, however. If Scott were to venture a guess, he’d guess that the people outside the gates were adventurers or even people like him.

Something besides the architecture and random fantasy race people caught his interest after a time. He quickly made his way over to it and placed his hand to the obelisk. It acknowledged him and he sighed happily. There was far less of a chance to end up back in the underworld permanently, now.

Saelil giggled at his obvious relief then made a gasping noise. She came into view for a brief moment to point out something in the distance. Scott followed the direction that she pointed with his gaze and saw a large tower with a flat disk shape at the top. “Wonder if that’s the place?”

He wasted no time in heading toward the tower. They moved through the streets with a purpose and soon arrived at the large red structure. “Light the Crimson Beacon…”

The stone tower sat off the edge of a large cliff. A single stonework walkway led up to it. Though there was an open doorway in the front of the tower, there were a large number of ropes hanging from the sides of the towering edifice. It was as though someone tried to climb it from the outside.

Scott was about halfway across the bridge when a half dozen people ran around to the front of the tower from the back of it. “What?” he asked intelligently.

Twice that number appeared behind him. Three of them were immediately recognizable, however.

“This him?” asked a man in full plate armor. Only his face could be seen.

“Yeah! He’s the one,” said the cocky sounding younger blond man from earlier. His two brothers were there as well. “He tried to player kill us on the road.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Scott sarcastically. “Try to kill me on the road, and go find some friends, huh?”

“Player killing is a serious charge,” said the armored man before drawing a gleaming longsword from its sheath. “It can’t be tolerated.”

“Hey, Sir Galahad, or whoever the fuck you think you are,” said Scott without a hint of concern. “You want to stop player killing, don’t send your murderers to rob and kill travelers on the highway.”

“Who do you think you are, talking to the leader of our guild like that!” snarled a large man who wielded an equally large hammer.

“I don’t know who any of you people are, and I don’t really care. I don’t appreciate it when people try to kill me on the road for experience points then get their bullshit friends to try to gang up on me,” said Scott.

“We of the Burning Heart Crusade Guild would never do that! No player guild worth a damn, would do that,” said the leader.

Scott snorted at him. “I saw that sign you left at that village. If those guys—” Scott pointed at the blond man from the day before. “—are with you, then you’re nothing but bullshit.”

“You don’t get it do you?” asked David, a smirk on his lips. The black haired man was perfectly healed now, even his armor seemed in good repair. “There’s like twenty of us.”

Scott quirked his eyebrow. “And? The three of you tried to player kill me before and that didn’t work out too well for you. Think a small army of scrubs is going to stop me from finishing my mission?”

“Do you mean the mission to find the burning heart?” the guild leader said. “Now I know you must be a liar, or a player killer. Even the strongest guilds haven’t been able to penetrate the underworld labyrinth to claim it!”

“Guilds? Man, you people really don’t get how this all works do you? I bet you poor bastards really think you’re just in some kind of role playing game, don’t you?” asked Scott. He shook his head.

Before any of the others could continue, “Look, you people have had it pretty damned easy from what I can see. While people like me have been dealing with zombie apocalypses and fucking Mario Brothers platform hopping levels, you’ve been here playing your little games.”

“What are you talking about?” asked the man in the armor. “If you think acting weird will save you…”

“I think the weird thing is people claiming to be a group dedicated to stopping player killers, but who put three of them on the road to kill people,” said Scott. “Besides, I really don’t give a damn what a bunch of murdering nut jobs think of me. It’s not like anyone of you have an idea of what’s really out there.”

“I’ve heard enough,” said the armored man. “Bring him in so we can question him.”

“You can sit here and play your bullshit pretend MMORPG all you want. I need to finish what I came here for so I can get on with my life,” said Scott. He drew out his sword, and shook his head.

“Do it,” said the guild leader with a sigh.

Scott smirked then shook his head as the amassed group charged toward him. He had no interest in fighting anyone in a pitched battle on a bridge. He ran toward the six people on the tower side. It was obvious from their expressions that they thought they had him cornered. What they did not realize was that their prey was on a whole different level than them, literally.

With speed faster than even an Olympic sprinter could muster, Scott raced toward them. At the last moment he twisted to the side to avoid a spear thrust from the lead person and shoved him to the side with his shield. The spearman went flying and his companions were not much better off. Scott blew through their lines as though they were nothing. They had decent gear compared to the average scrub outside the gates, but their baseline statistics were low. Scott basically had one foot inside the realm of the superhuman.

By the time they managed to turn and give chase, he was already at the broken entrance to the tower. He raced up the stone stairway beyond, nearly a score of people in hot pursuit. The tower was in a bad state of repair. Broken stone, missing steps, and all manner of garbage blocked the way. He easily navigated the broken and battered steps while making jumps that were well beyond anything the others could manage.

Soon, he left his pursuers behind temporarily after reaching a point in the upward climb that required him to navigate a rickety bridge made out of boards. He leapt across the gap mid run, it was far but nothing like an Imperial Garden level of jumping. He kicked away the shoddy supports holding the boards down, and then lifted his end of the bridge up. His pursuers caught up just in time to watch him toss it down to the ground. The gap was just a little too far for any of his pursuers to feel comfortable jumping across.

“Get the boards back up here!” cried one of the lead pursuers.

“We have him now,” said the guild leader with a sigh. “There’s no way through the barrier at the top of the stairs.”

“Why would he even come up here, anyway?” asked someone else. “There’s nothing up there but the place where you put the heart.”

Another spoke up, “Hell, you can’t even get past the barrier without it except for once a month when the flames die down a little.”

At the top of the tower, Scott stood on the other side of an eternally burning barrier of flame. Saelil’s eyes were wide in surprise at how easily he crossed the uncrossable barrier. Nothing mortal would have survived it, even with her heart! Yet, not only did he just walk through it, he did so without a scratch on him as a result.

“So, I guess I just put this in the little stand thingy here?” asked Scott.

“Yes, I believe my heart would work. This is a salvation tower by the looks of it. If the beacon is lit, then the town will be safer and immune from monster attacks,” she said.

Scott drew the heart from his inventory storage and placed it onto the little stand thingy, as he called it. The heart began to glow with an ever more powerful light. Soon, sparks began to arc outward.

“We should stand off to the side a little, beloved. There might be a lot of magical force unleashed,” cautioned Saelil.

Scott nodded to her and they withdrew. Now there was nothing to do but wait until the beacon was properly lit.

By the time that the bridge was brought back up the stairway, several minutes had passed. The guild leader and his group crossed it and arrived at the top of the tower just in time to see a bright red light flare upward from the center of the platform. Scott and Saelil stood off to one side.

“Did… he just light the beacon?” asked the large man with the hammer.

“Impossible…” said the guild leader.

“Dammit! We couldn’t get him in time,” snapped the blond player killer.

“Wait, you knew he was coming to do this?” asked the guild leader, suspicion leaking into his voice.

The younger man shrugged, and said nothing. However, his brother David did speak up. “What’s that?”

The door of light appeared and Scott stepped toward it. Before he walked through, however, he looked back at the massed gathering of players. “I would have loved to have the chance to talk to people from Earth, but you fucked that all to hell.”

“What do you mean!” called out the guild leader. “What’s happening?”

“You people are in for a rude awakening if you make it out of here. You haven’t realized that you have to do most of this stuff alone,” said Scott while shaking his head, “even if you have a group.”

“Don’t get too comfortable with being resurrected when you die. If this door opens for you, go inside. Don’t hesitate, or you’re done for good,” he shook his head again then sighed.

Scott walked through the door of light, Saelil going with him. It closed behind him, but the beacon continued to shine brightly.

Not long after Scott left, players all over the Abandoned Realms received one of two message screens. People such as the guild leader received the following message.

Congratulations!

One of you silly Earthlings managed to find the burning heart and light the Crimson Beacon. You cannot take your items with you from this world due to its premium status. However, you will be compensated in EXP for the value of your items.

People such as David and the other player-killers received a slightly different message.

Congratulations!

One of you silly Earthlings managed to find the burning heart and light the Crimson Beacon. Your equipment can not be taken from this location due to its premium status.

Due to your continual sabotage and selfish behavior, several of your people were killed. You will not be compensated for your lost equipment when you return to your home point.

We like your style, however. Killing off the hope of your people is useful and entertaining to us. As such, you will be granted a special lifestyle, [Murderer].

Your missions will now revolve around finding and killing other champions, or specific non-player characters. Failure to kill your target, regardless of their nature, within the time limit will result in a mission failure.

This is a permanent lifestyle upgrade. You may not change it, and it will remain your primary lifestyle. Secondary lifestyles are available to be unlocked, however. You will gain no innate special abilities or powers with this lifestyle.

Doors of light opened all across the land. Champions, once trapped, were able to continue with the game of death. Some, however, were now playing a game far different than the others.