Arc 03: Forward into Darkness

Chapter 016: The Crusade

“No. We won’t use it,” I said, when I finally overcame my shock.

This discovery was shocking in more ways than one. First, we discovered that DFI reached new depths of madness by allowing players to mindrape and brainwash NPCs (and I refuse to even consider the possibility of brainwashing PLAYERS). Second, Tyrant‘s Hold was, in fact, Overtyrant‘s Hold and was an ancient base of operations for some rather extreme cult (or organization) that tried to expunge local evil using one of the most terrifying ways I could think of.

Third - the most terrible Weapon (as Leria nicely dubbed it) was hidden maybe twenty to thirty meters in a straight line from the place I slept in. And we unearthed it. The implications of this were dreadful. What else awaited to be found in the second level of Tyrant‘s Hold? And what if there were more levels?

“Why?” Leria asked me. “Don‘t get me wrong, I know how terrible this thing is, but it’s still less terrible than things going on in Ambryxis. We could use it to—”

"To do what, exactly?” I interrupted her. “To match the atrocities committed there by our own? Listen, I understand your religion accepts fighting evil by evil. But mine doesn‘t. This... this would be just wrong.” We all went silent for a while. “There is also another, more… prosaic reason.”

“What is it?”

“There is only one power in this continent that we can ally ourselves with if we want to ruin the Dragonspine Mountains.” I answered. “Kynevian Empire. The only country strong enough to matter and also considers the depravity of the natives abhorrent. Normally it fights darkness with light, shadow, darkness and pretty much everything else it can muster. But there are lines drawn.” I sent her a sad look. “Using magic to change one’s mind is an absolute nope. We might have gotten an approval if we used it to fix preexisting mental disorders, but conditioning people to be slaves?” I chuckled. “Do you even know what sort of punishment awaits people stupid enough to do it and get caught by the Grand Empire?"

She shook her head. Of course she didn‘t.

“The same that awaits those tampering with genes of sapient species, worshipping Pentagram knowingly, farming thornvine, and using certain horrible types of magic… The worst punishment in the imperial justice system.” I sighed. “They execute you, bind your soul to a lead slab that is then coated in antegnite, an anti-magical material, to prevent people and daemons from tampering with it. After this they drop you into the depths of the sea. Where, still conscious but in a state of complete sensory deprivation you will spend eternity. Screaming, even though you won‘t have a mouth to make anybody hear you." I shook my head. “People that did things punishable by that commit suicide when they believe the Imperium might capture them. It is a punishment terrible enough that only the Imperial God of Justice is allowed to condemn people to it, making the Imperium go to great lengths to personally ask him every time they captured someone suspected. Now, tell me - are you going to risk ending like that?”

Yesterday I would be sure that DFI wouldn‘t be insane enough to allow the Imperium to do that to Players. Today? Not so much.

She didn‘t answer, but simply looked away.

The Imperium sometimes was much more scary than Shearazhyra. It wasn’t its fault. It had to preserve an island of sanity and safety in a world that kept trying to murderfuck everything alive. Even in its most serious, borderline grimdark version it was still much better than all alternatives.

“I will pretend this place doesn‘t exist.” I said, moving towards exit. “I advise you do the same.”

***

I called in a general assembly of our little faction. We had to decide things.

“So... you all already know what we discovered.” I said when everyone took their seats in the mess hall. “Before any of you asks, we will not use it. In fact, we will never speak of it again. For me, it doesn‘t exist. If I hear people talking about it, I’ll get angry. Got it?” Nods. Some of them with relief, some... not so much.

I sat on a chair in front of them.

“Now. We have to decide." I sighed. “Leria‘s pledge to Overtyrant was a declaration of war against most of the inhabitants of the Dragonspine Mountains, Kingdom of Northern Aevaria and even Tyranny of Ashkar. Which makes for about a half of the continent. The only reason we are still alive is that they don‘t know we declared a war against them.”

Lena raised her hand.

“One question. If Overtyrant is so strong, can’t he destroy them himself? Why all of this? Why pull us into this?" Sigh. Back to talking about lore.

“It doesn‘t work like that.” I shook my head. “Overtyrant is omniscient and omnipotent. The problem is that his opponents are as well, just... less.” Seeing the look she gave me I shrugged. “It makes sense in the Dark. Everything makes sense in the Dark. Which is the source of problems. All gods are playing the Great Game. Which is an infinite number of chess games played between who the fuck knows how many participants that keep adding or retracting pawns and rules. They play it here, across and along time, in alternative realities, in different universes, in the Dark… If they ever fight against each other for real, they will murder reality in the first millisecond. Which is why there are all these pesky rules. Most of which we as mortals cannot even comprehend. It‘s kinda a cosmic horror story, if you think about it." Lite version though, some of those giants fighting over our heads are genuinely good guys whose victory will surely improve people’s living conditions.

“It happened already.” Leria interjected. She didn‘t know what “cosmic horror story” meant... or she didn‘t care. Which might have been the best approach since it was something you by definition could not do anything about. “We call it the Dawn War. The current gods waged wars against Those That Were Before and won. It‘s hard to even say how long the war was, since time stopped existing. It was still a light version since only some of them fought. Aevaria was conquered by Ymrir the Black, Dark Lord of the Black Pantheon and then reshaped by his gods to look like the Dragonspine Mountains. Most of it changed overtime when various warlords motivated by their gods invaded it and ruined almost all Ymririan states. Only Northern Aevaria remains.” She cleared her throat. “That and Tyranny of Ashkar. Plus the rest of the Dragonspine Mountains, because we used to be a part of what now is a Kingdom of Northern Aevaria before it broke.”

Those That Were Before. Huh. They simply called them the Old Gods in World’s Requiem. I think I liked the new name more.

“The Great Game is a divine Cold War. It will get hot eventually. All gods prepare for that.” I shrugged. “Ragnarök, Armageddon, Apocalypse, End of Times, Götterdämmerung, Dies Irae, you name it. Well, enough sidetracking and needless lore infodumping. Any ideas what we should do?” I wonder if we’ll ever make a SINGLE FUCKING DEBATE without people asking basic questions about lore that makes me change them into infodump champions. I’m seriously going to start giving lessons about lore.

“We should learn something about Ambryxis." Simea was the one to spoke first. “The city, not the daemon. Like, some details. Other than ‘many people live there and they are better off dead’. We need to know who is important there, how strong they are, how much military and magic might they have backing them up... also, becoming people of some importance in the city would be nice.” Hmph.

“Sounds good.” I responded. “Now, any ideas?” Leria cleared her throat rather loudly, drawing attention. “Yes?”

“You know I spent almost my entire life here, visiting the city like every three or four days?” ... Right, I forgot about that.

“I’m sorry Leria, I often forget you aren‘t a Player.” She smiled. Yeah, it was a compliment. Indirect, yes, but still. “Please, tell us everything you know about the city.”

“Gladly.” She nodded. “Well, it‘s a big city when compared to the area. Biggest one in what you refer to as a Doomplace outside the Kingdom of Northern Aevaria. During their brief occupation, it was the center of a dukedom. I’m not sure how many people live there, slums are especially hard to count. Between one and two hundred thousand."

“Really? I was under impression it‘s much smaller." I pictured it as thirty thousand, top.

“It‘s because of the way it’s built.” Simea interrupted. ”It’s packed. When we went there, we stayed in the outer, less dense districts. In the north you can find buildings even five or six stories high, filled to the brim with small apartments." Oh, right, she spent a while there before she joined us.

Now that I thought about it… it was the same in World’s Requiem. World was deadly. Cities often were rebuilt, sometimes almost from scratch. Making higher buildings and packing your population there allowed you to fit more people inside the city walls that served as an anchor of protective magic for the local guardian deity. Which kept your average threats at a distance.

“It’s ruled by the Lord, but he is more of a figurehead. Titular supreme leader chosen by Ambryxis himself which gives him some level of authority. But the true power in the city and the whole region surrounding it lies in the Masked Council.”

“That’s something new.” I said, surprised. “I heard nobody mentioning them.”

“Really? Hm. Well, the Lord is a part of it as a titular first amongst equal. Besides him, there are fourteen members. Ambryxis tasked each of them with overseeing one thing in the city that is important to its well being. This includes military, adventurers, magicians, city guard, public money and taxes, industry, agriculture and food supply, slave trade, drug trade, gambling and public entertainments, public baths and brothels, religious matters, and finally witch-hunts. Which means searching for Pentagram worshippers and ensuring that they meet a painful end.”

“Only in Doomplaces can a country have ministers dedicated to slave trading and drug production.” I commented. “But that‘s just thirteen members.”

“Fourteenth is unknown.” She shrugged. “In fact, most of them have their personal details well hidden, appearing in public very rarely and always in masks, but you at least know what they are responsible for. The fourteenth is a mystery though.”

So every person you encounter in the city can be a Masked Councillor in disguise. Wonderful.

“Well, I’m afraid that the Masked Council is still far above our ability to strike.” I shook my head. “We should focus in growing strong as fast as possible, and striking against less difficult targets.” I looked at Leria. “Because I don‘t think a certain someone will be fine with us delaying our righteous crusade until we will be capable of taking the city down.”

“We will never be ready to take the city down on our own.” Leria calmly responded. “Delaying action under such an excuse means trying to avoid it. You either do something or you don‘t. No third option.”

I hated to admit it, but she was right. It’s like starting your training in real life. If you keep deciding to do it tomorrow, you will never do it and stay fat until death.

I guess I should get used to the NPC winning in word battles. It seemed like a common theme here.

Now that I think about it... in real life?

“I think I might have an idea to get ourselves a target to kill. One on our level.” Leria looked at me with restored interests. “I know of a Player in the city. He is a pervert like most of them but seems harmless. He also seems to have at least some morality, however degenerate he was. I think I’ll have a talk with him about certain people with... interests he considers unhealthy.”

“Is it wise to give away information about our crusade to some random Player?” Lena asked.

“Normally it would be stupid. But if we pretend that I somehow wound up getting a quest that requires us to slay a person… he knows I have moral doubts about this place, so targeting an evil NPC will seem natural. It’s not like I will use him more than once, but if Leria impatiently wants to mark the beginning of our righteous crusade…”

I was only pretending to be ironic about that. Ok, her being Chosen by Overtyrant did complicate things. But there was nothing we could do with it now. Aside from killing her and that was a major nope for me. First - I liked her. Second - it would mean breaking our group. Third - Overtyrant would have added me to his Kill-on-Sight list and pissing off a major deity was a horrible idea. Even if they were only very powerful AIs. He would still make my life miserable.

Killing some bastard together seemed like a much better option. More enjoyable, surely. Besides, making a good deed was always a good idea.

She nodded. The rest seemed to accept me as well. I conjured my status.

STATUS

General Informations

Level

9

Aura Conductivity

5/100

Race

Amalthian

Class

Enigmatic

Achievements

Morality

Titles

Traits

Affiliations

Sexuality

Active Effects

Quests

Equipment

Property

Religion

Character

Health

Modifications

Followers

Recipes

Skills

Spells

Rituals

Techniques

Statistics

Strength

4

Intellect

9

Endurance

4

Willpower

9

Resilience

4

Faith

4

Dexterity

3

Charisma

5

Agility

3

Mental Resistance

9

Recuperation

5

Sanity

100/100

ENTER NEXUS

SELF-TERMINATE

Enter Nexus.

Huh. It looks like average internet communicators. Wait, there is an option… for real?! I can create a forum and invite people to it?! And when we talk about inviting…

…Oh. I can even invite every person connected to RPG elements in my vicinity to my friendlist. Including NPCs like Leria or Vaera. Looks awesome. I invite everyone from the group and create a community. I give it a temporary name of Tyrannical Crusaders. There are no subjects or sub-forums there, but we could still use a public chat beneath to talk to each other on a distance. There are even options to make photos and films!

Then I find Vasyr, the only person I didn’t invite to the group, and open private chat.

Avhar Khan [P]: Hello there.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: I was wondering when you will write What is it?

He answered almost immediately. I guess he wasn’t busy fighting (or doing something else) as I was afraid.

Avhar Khan [P]: I got a rather troublesome quest. I need to kill a person.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Ah. Not me, I presume?

Avhar Khan [P]: Of course not, I’m not stupid enough to warn my future victims xD Well, if I have to murder someone, I can at least go for the worst degenerate around and make it enjoyable xD. You know someone whose death would make this world a bit less squicky?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Actually… I think I know a person you are looking for There is a dilapidated forge one street north from the plaza where we met last time (you remember where it is, right? ) Its owner is a dickhead that inherited it few months ago. Name is Vhyl Ekard. He’s incompetent in forging and the whole place is going under. That he is a massive pervert and spent most of his money buying a slave doesn’t help -_-’

… I’m not sure if I like the way it’s going. If he calls someone a massive pervert…

Avhar Khan [P]: What level of pervert are we talking about?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: The ‘I have an eight-year-old slave and I will not hesitate to use her” level of pervert -_-

… as I thought. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

Avhar Khan [P]: You are 100% sure he goes ‘that’ way?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Unfortunately, yes -_- I was searching for a place to buy sword. Ran into his shop. He was in the room behind when I entered and when he came to handle us, his clothing was in disarray and she was with him. In the same state. Seemed like I ‘interrupted’ him.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: I almost ended up beating him -_- almost. He had some magical thingy in his shop to protect against people breaking in. Worked like potent Death Magic so I evacuated before it killed me.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Neighbours shouldn’t interrupt you even if they hear noises. Everybody on the street considers him a sick fuck. He isn’t breaking a law so no one would do a thing even if he banged her in the middle of the street, but they will still be happy to have him gone.

Avhar Khan [P]: … how do you know?

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Well… "> I thought about paying him a visit tbh. But if you have a quest, then I can graciously let you do it instead of me. Call me if you do it. With graphic attachment if you can.

I moved the opened window towards Leria so that she could read it. I could guess when she read the most squicky part of the talk - the look on her face got terrifying.

After she finished, I returned to the chat.

Avhar Khan [P]: It will be my pleasure.

Vasyr Mirenir [P]: Good hunting

“What is it?” Simea spoke impatiently.

“We’re going hunting.” I answered.

***

Killing a person is easy only in action films. Murder was a crime even in Ambryxis. If they find him dead, there will be an investigation. It won’t be ferocious, as it’s a literal nobody that no-one is going to miss. Plus, the whole street was full of potential suspects. I mean, what’s the chance of someone random and unconnected to him murdering him?

We still had to make preparations. I wasn‘t even going to complain about the time we lost not being able to hunt stuff. This would be enjoyable.

We found a nearest inn and bought a room there. One with four small beds. Only me, Simea, Lena and Leria went to hunt. Vaera had no skills useful for assassination and I was adamantly against taking him. If something went wrong, we would still have someone that could enter the city.

Simea stalked our target. She returned an hour later, looking like she was unsure whether she should be angry or cry.

“I will kill that son of a bitch!” She almost shouted when she entered a room that we used as center of operation. “Slit his throat, chop off his limbs, rip his eyes… "

"… I presume that the information was correct?" I answered. It made her stop shouting and take a deep breath. Yeah, let’s not make neighbours hear her screams and connect us with the murder.

“Yes.” She was still furious. “He keeps her in a small room beside his own. It stinks of sex. Frequently.” Night elves had a racial power of their own. They could smell sex. Normally she could only smell where it happened and if that was frequent. If she came right after it happened she could more or less guess the number and gender of participants. Normally it was a liability though since she reacted to it with arousal… but I guess she was too angry for that. ”And before you ask. He does it often enough to leave a more permanent stain. One man. Young and virile. One woman. Underage, with her body not fully formed. Tell me we will do it.” Leria looked like she could barely stop herself from going there right now and chopping the pedophile’s head off.

I wasn‘t naïve enough to trust Vasyr’s info without checking it out first. It seemed, however, that he was 100% genuine.

“Yes, Simea, we are going to do it. Now, could you tell me what the interior looks like?”

***

The easiest way to defend your own property from average burglars is buying a special enchanted mana crystal. You install it in a ceiling of the room where the entrance is. On it a Death Magic equivalent of Lifetap is anchored. If you invest, you can have it enchanted in a way that doesn‘t require you to be a magician to fire it. Just a vocal command. It will detect the target from your thoughts and attack him. You can also set it into auto-attack mode - useful for securing your home at night. It’ll murder everyone in the range of the hex unless someone speaks a password in time.

It’s good against common burglars or trespassers. Not against magical burglars that made preparations. Simea simply hid in his shop with her Suppress Presence before he closed it and returned to the house above it. When he did, she heard the password and recited it before the automatic defense triggered.

Then she waited until the sun had set and he had gone to sleep. When the time was right, she opened the front door.

“Good.” I whispered to her when we entered the room together with Leria. All three of us wore cultist robes that conveniently hid our faces. Armor wasn‘t required. “Lead the way."

We left Lena to watch the street in front of the store. She could warn me by Nexus chat if she saw that someone noticed what was happening. We also had an escape route prepared beforehand - even though running through the roofs would be a pain, it was better than facing a squad of the city guard. They were surprisingly tough for a profession often ridiculed in games.

Vhyl must have been a rather shallow sleeper. He almost woke up before we were prepared.

Well, it wouldn‘t save him, even if he did. He wasn‘t an aura user. And only a strong aura user would have a chance in a struggle against two other aura users that attack you in your bed. He was bulky, but... Aura Conductivity level nine had no chance against Simea and Leria.

Simea covered his mouth with a rag before he understood what was happening and could scream. Leria jumped at him a split second later.

Three seconds later he was lying on his stomach, his arms bound behind his arms. He tried to struggle with his legs, but Leria used the handle of her sword against his knees.

This must have hurt. His scream was almost audible despite the gag.

“Hello there, friend.” I sat right by his head. He could see me. His eyes rolled desperately. “You are in quite a horrible situation, you know? You were a bad boy.” I patted his head mockingly. “Don‘t worry. We’ll fix everything now.” I looked at Simea. “Tell me, can you heat the forge or the stove without making too much noise? I have a sudden… desire to cook something. I’m a horrible cook though.” I patted the smith’s head again and smiled. “All I do is burn things.”

***

He died. Eventually.

“I’m warming to the ways of Overtyrant.” Simea commented when we finished. “Sure, simply murdering him would be good as well, but... God, that was enjoyable.” She looked at the maltreated and partially burned body lying beside the stove and gave him one last kick. “Even if that was just a line of the code, it was the most disgusting line of the code I ever saw.”

“Watch your words, I’m a line of a code as well.” Leria commented ironically while I snapped a photo for Vasyr..“Well, we made the world a better place. What now?”

“We are retreating.” Then I remembered. “Wait, what about the slave?”

I’m a rather horrible murderer. I got so occupied by it that I forgot about everything else.

Simea nodded and marched towards the door on the other side of the bedroom.

She returned after a minute, no longer alone.

It was a girl. Emaciated and bruised, wearing rags and with a slave collar on her neck. She seemed almost broken. In her eyes there was nothing besides a mute beg to not hurt her. According to the Appraisal her name was Vila. No surname.

“We aren‘t going to leave her, right?" Leria asked. I only sighed. I expected this from the start. Besides, I’d be a horrible person if I left her here, right?