Chapter 5 - The Patch Notes

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Titanus Era, Year 906,388

Excerpt of Ragasha’s 3rd Prophecy placed by Saphriel, Chief Justice of the Yuelen Celestial Collective:

Our prophet Ragasha has had another major prophecy. Due to the accuracy of the last two, it troubles me deeply to think that this is likely to come to pass. What is even more troubling is the extent of the toll this prophecy took on her already frail body. I fear that Ragasha is not long for this life, and although angels may live infinite amounts of time… the damage to her soul after seeing so far out is likely irreparable. Regardless, it is my duty to write down what she said for future generations to take heed of the warning she has given us at the almost certain cost of her life.

These are verbatim the words she spoke as her visions came to her… heed them well:

“In the distant future, after this era and the next era both have ended, a catastrophic event will take place. Three of the essence, who are supposed to be unyielding to death, will be destroyed. They will be used as sacrificial lambs to bring about the opening of Pandora and the rise of the spree. The lost ones will return and try to warn us of the impending tide, though the everlasting war between the greatest of the fae, undead, celestials and demons will continue on in a blind attempt to take what scraps are left of the creator’s possessions.

As Pandora opens, the creator’s gravebound seal will unlock for reincarnation to try and stave off the coming destruction. The spree, in their eagerness to extend their reach beyond Pandora and into the Labyrinth, will set loose the eldrova... to their infinite regret. The breakdown of barriers holding the titans within the deepest levels of Oblivion will begin. Despite attempts of the Infernal Crowns to hold them back, the titans will break free to challenge the gods that locked them away, as well as challenge the eldrova who threaten existence itself.

In an attempt to hold the spree at bay, the reincarnation of the creator will do three things. The first will be to reunite the Labyrinth by opening up rifts between worlds, so that when the waves come… the races may have a chance to band together. The second will be to orchestrate the destruction of the mana-devoid realm of Earth and scatter these Earthborn with their latent talents across the Labyrinth to use them as weapons against the spree. These Earthborn, mere humans at first glance, will grow to match us immortals and bring the short-lived races up to par with our kind in power. The third will be to warn the great races of the impending tides with a message across all of creation.

This great war will dwarf all those before it. Civilizations will fall in untold numbers across thousands of worlds. Gods will die. No realm is safe… the spree are coming. The eldrova… are coming. If the kingdoms of the celestial heavens do not band together and unite despite our differences, we shall perish with the rest of them. Let our people heed my warning, as I do not know the final outcome, and let us hope that our blind disgust for the lesser races does not alter the course of action needed to save ourselves from desolation.”

These tidings are grim, though confusing. What is Pandora? Is it even possible that an essence be destroyed? When talking about the lost ones, is that in reference to the old gods who abandoned this universe millions of years ago? There are many questions, but Ragasha is unable to speak any further. I fear that I will not find the answers that I seek until it is too late.

Alas, I must disregard these disturbing thoughts for now and concentrate on the present. One day I will return to these matters… but for now, I march on The Void. Eleknar’s legions have defiled our sacred temples and burned our heavenly cities in the Lesser Clihadra to ash. It is time for war, and we will not falter.

Glory to the Trinity. Death to demonkind.

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Name: Trey Bon

Level 1

Class: None

Days had passed him by since his last death, yet again. It took him a couple of hours to recover from the trauma. During this time, he pondered what had brought him here and why. Confusion turned into grief, grief turned into rage, rage turned into a crazed hysteria, and hysteria turned into determination. A tortured soul in a strange world, he soon became adamant that he would get the fuck out of this place no matter what it took. He had finally snapped.

The wind howled against his body as clouds of dust and sand tore into his naked frame. Without the protection of clothing… Well, saying it hurt would be an understatement. He did his best to shelter from the barrage by curling up between two of the large boulders surrounding the central totem, but it wasn’t entirely sufficient and his skin was rubbed raw across numerous spots along his body.

Then he began to seeth, thinking of how he was going to get back at that brutish monster who'd killed him numerous times. God he could use some alcohol right about now. Even that cheap shit from the gas station around the block from his house would be nice, he didn’t know how they could get away with calling it beer when it smelled and tasted like horse piss… but he would cut off one of his fingers for a single can of the stuff right now.

He had no idea whether or not the giant brutish gargoyle was still down there but he had a rather good chance of running into it if he did go. Sighing to himself and coughing as he accidentally sucked in soot that was flung up into the air by the wind, he quickly spit and scowled. Rubbing his hand over his face to clear it of dirt, his hand came into contact with his long ugly scar and on reflex he flinched. That machete had done its work well, years ago, and if he hadn’t had quick reflexes his enemy would have split his skull open right then and there.

God he hated the way he looked.

Trey didn’t know how he caught it over the howling wind, but he heard a shrill terror-filled scream that drew his eyes upwards. Landing immediately in front of where Trey was curled up, the gargoyle he had come to loathe and fear so much slammed into the elevated island with its back turned to him. Perching on top of two large boulders with either foot, the gargantuan creature took no notice of him as Trey's body went completely tense. Trey then stealthily lowered himself, coming around to the other side of the large totem with hatred for the gargoyle etched upon his features.

And he was right on time. The gargoyle, for whatever reason, chose to look behind it just as Trey's lithe body disappeared behind the pillar. The giant creature stared a moment longer, grunted, and then turned back around.

Another terror-filled scream came from the direction of the gargoyle. Trey was able to peak and see around the totem - through the blur of dirt and wind - that the great creature held something in its hands. It took him a minute to distinguish what exactly it was, but when the dirt and dust cleared momentarily he was able to see that it was an odd variety of humanoid. A poorly clad red-skinned man with small horns was struggling, screaming and crying in the gargoyle’s left hand. It was trying to free itself from the gargoyle’s grasp, while in the gargoyle’s other hand the beast chewed on what was once another red-skinned humanoid.

Another type of demon.

Great teeth drew up muscle and organs along the spine, as the winged beast sucked in these body parts with its tongue, promptly burping as it started crushing the crying creature in its left hand to shut it up.

Bones cracked and a gasp escaped the terrified red-skinned demon as his eyes shot open with one final attempt to break free. Flexing his muscles against the hand that grasped him, he frantically slapped his tail against the arm of the gargoyle in a rage just before the monster’s fingers tightened a final time. The smaller demon’s rib cage was obliterated exactly the way Trey’s had been numerous times now. The humanoid demon, simply put, popped like a water balloon in a spray of colored fluid. Blood seeped through the long black fingers of the gargoyle as it finished the morsal in its right hand. Trey could only watch in shock... The dead eyes of the smaller demonoid leaked blood: staring out at him, face frozen in pain just before the body was flung up into the air and snatched by the gaping mouth. Pieces of flesh fell from the body to hit the stones beneath, making sickening splat sounds as they did.

Trey's breathing was calm, but he couldn’t stop his body's natural fight-or-flight response that'd kicked into high alert. His heart beat had picked up, his eyes dilated, and his body was set to sprint. He was a killer himself, usually cold and calculating, but this was truly the stuff of nightmares. This… this was not something humans should have to bear witness to. Sitting his back against the totem on the opposite side of the gargoyle, he heard the giant creature take flight a couple minutes later...

How fucked was this.

***

It was a very real struggle, forcing himself to pick up the fallen pieces of flesh that the gargoyle had let drop out of its mouth during its gruesome dinner display. Choking down the bits of still-warm body parts, Trey gagged and vomited what little he had in his stomach before picking it back up and forcing it down again.

He'd spent the past two hours observing that bastard demon dilly-daddle around in the more illuminated areas of the cave below like it owned the place.

And... it probably did own the place. But nevertheless, its carefree attitude pissed Trey the fuck off. He had a pretty good idea of what general area the demon was sleeping in, and was relatively ceratin it was the only creature in this... lair. Those were two very important elements to keep in mind before he eventually chose to make a move.

The wind had subsided, bringing with it the relief of not having to breath in dust and soot... but he felt weak. He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for over a day now and he struggled to keep down what was immediately available to him.

Sputtering, and trying not to let the smell of viscera get to him, he grimaced and looked around at the scenery again. The cliff faces in the distance beckoned across the chasm, almost calling out his name, as he screamed internally that he wished he was there. He wished he was anywhere but here, trapped on a pedestal in a pit... with a creature from hell that regularly made a snack of him.

Hours later it had grown darker. The two red orbs that lit this world were partially obscured by dust clouds and had partially faded away. Tapping his finger as he tried to think of a plan of action, it occurred to him that he still hadn’t examined everything about his status page. If he recalled correctly, he had a ‘Patch Notes’ tab in his status page to look at. Apparently, it had information regarding this hell hole of a world he had been flung into.

He angrily pulled up the status page and quickly found the ‘patch notes’ area that the All Spirit had described. Touching the hologram with his finger, he selected it. There was a quick change in his HUD, and a hologram screen brought up the following:

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Patch Notes:

Current patch is underway, formal announcements to be made upon completion. In the meantime, feel free to explore the lists of Languages, Class Types, Magic Types, and Item Tiers we have made available.

Languages: All 18 available NPC languages in the game are shown below. Depending on what languages you know, you may be unable to converse with NPCs in a given area due to communication barriers.

*Click Spoiler for Language Types*

Ancient Demon Ancient Angelic Ancient Necroth Ancient Fae Draconian Dwarvish Elvish Human Spree Predecessor Beast Tongue Merfolkian Greenskin Darska Chabath Gianth Spirith Muscaloid

Magic types: 25 known types are listed below, while some are hidden and must be discovered. Please note that only 2 may be selected for a single individual after learning how to acquire them, and that each selection is permanent and cannot be undone; excluding special circumstances.

*Click Spoiler for Magic Types*

Fire Ice Water Lightning Earth Air Pure Energy Metal Arcane Psychic Blood Dark Necromancy Chaos Curse Celestial Holy Fairy Nature Time Illusion Alteration Archaic Enchanting Sound

There will sometimes be opportunities to change or upgrade classes throughout your time in both the Nirvana Worlds Beta and later in the Labyrinth Worlds. The All Spirit is the only being able to grant a class, with a couple unique class modifications being reserved for other deities. Choose wisely, as they distinguish what types of abilities you are able to learn and use to a maximum potential. Some magics or abilities can be learned regardless of which class you use, others are class-unique and cannot be learned by anyone outside of that class.

You will be able to accept or decline a presented class once the All Spirit deems you worthy of the option. Declined classes will remain in the background of your status page and are available for later in case you change your mind and wish to select said class after exploring your options until you select one, but are not displayed again unless you dismiss your current class. Please note that although classes will give you opportunities to INNATELY learn spells, skills, sacred arts, or miracles, know that the vast majority of abilities must be learned through study or being taught by other means.

Of Note: These classes each have a maximum cap on how many spells, sacred arts, miracles, and other types of abilities they can have. This is part of what makes each class unique. A single example of this has been listed below:

EXAMPLE MAXIMUM PRESENTED: (*Click Spoiler for Example*)

- Classless (participant does not have a class)

o 4 spells

o 4 sacred arts

o 2 miracles

o No unique skill trees or perks

Item Tiers: From worst to best. Garbage tier items can be found quite easily and often, while Almighty tier items are incredibly rare and can often destroy entire armies with a single command.

*Click Spoiler for Item Tiers*

(1) Garbage (2) Poor (3) Crude (4) Basic (5) Common (6) Uncommon (7) Rare (8) Very rare (9) Grand (10) Epic (11) Legendary (12) Mythic (13) Relic (14) Artifact (15) Transcendent (16) Titan (17) World (18) God (19) Infinity (20) Almighty

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It took awhile for him to get through the lists and he scratched his chin in thought after doing so.

Wiping blood off his face, left from the gruesome meal he had just ingested, he spit and then cringed as he thought of how awful it had tasted. The taste still lingered in his mouth the more he thought about it and it was a struggle for him to push it from his mind. Then he silently swore to himself when he felt a small tremor reverberate through the ground, quickly growing agitated about the gargoyle's obvious presence nearby. He stopped what he was doing and listened, but eventually shrugged it off. He sighed loudly and closed his eyelids as he let his head drop back to stretch out his neck. All this stress had really tensed his muscles, so stretching felt rather good.

Then he opened his eyes and felt a tug on his soul, as Eleknar's influence set in. His mind was refocused, aimed towards entering the pit... and finding a way to fill his hunger for revenge.

It was time to make his move.