Gabrielle Roth Allaire paced back and forth at the town’s puny harbor, her Morgana’s Moccasins scuffing against the eroded concrete slabs every two steps. Almost twenty hours had passed in-game, and Rowan hadn’t returned from his break. He was sure taking his sweet and sour time, doing whatever bad boys do in that psychiatric ward. Surely he didn’t need to rest for so long when he was needed here!

Grumbling in a bout of frustration, she kicked a loose piece of stone with all her strength. It zipped across the mauve morning waters. In the distance, a tiny ripple ascended the town’s shield, indicating it took at least a few points of damage. Thanks to her new Shield Batteries, it healed right back up.

Two jiffies later, a series of cannonballs exploded against the shield with dazzling flashes of white light, chunking it’s healthbar by just under three percent. The batteries took far longer to heal that up while the entire eastern face of the apple-shaped dome wobbled with undulating waves.

And it looked like another battleship had arrived in the last ten minutes. A small fleet of twenty or so hid within bubbles of light mana. The ships were of a white-ish wood, an enchanted mid-level teak or even a low-level balsa. The Draco monkeys were short on resources across the board for over a year now. Their kingdom had been on a steady decline since the start of alpha thanks to their mismanagement.

Another round bombarded the shield—before it had healed to full. It had only risen to 99.99%.

Which meant… they now barely had enough firepower to overwhelm the batteries in a sustained war of attrition. By Gabrielle’s estimate, the town’s shield would fall within two or three days, maybe less. Probably way, way, way less depending on their upcoming reinforcements. Nothing had shown via land or air—yet.

Those cannonballs crafted from mana and common materials could be stored in a player’s inventory, and by the looks of that one bigger ship with three fancy masts and pretty sails, it was the command ship and also probably carried a spawnstone. They had a virtually infinite supply of ammo.

Gabrielle’s supplies, however, were not. None of her hideouts were near a mine for they’d been occupied by all the light players, and Zaine’s stock held mostly wood and stone. The town had little salvageable resources apart from granite. In total, she had enough for no more than seventy-eight tier one batteries, which weren’t impressive. Although her upgraded batteries, which could connect to a main building's shield, sported no cooldown after depletion, their throughput was abysmal, worser than the regular version by an order of magnitude. It was a cringe-worthy trade off.

Movement in the far distance by the peninsula caught her eye.

Noooo!

Over ten more ships sailed into view with magically enhanced speed. One was another command-ship, and there was a zeppelin wafting overhead as well. They dealt mighty, mighty damage.

Gabrielle’s shoulders deflated. Everything was falling apart, and there wasn’t a thing she could do other than abandon her new base. The few remaining Demons would melt in the cannon-fire, and Rowan’s Undead couldn’t swim or fly apart from the eagle. The Demonic Trebuchets were severely out of range. The Nihils were even more limited in the range department, and they feared death like wimpy doggies. Ambiguous and the other darkies were weaker than the Nihils. Gabrielle couldn’t take them all on by herself; she was a lousy tier six!

And her turret research had ten hours left. As if that would help with no resources at hand. Right now the research was gimping her quite a bit. She checked the skill and contemplated on whether to just cancel it.

Tier 6 world boss bonus: Occult Engineer active skill: Divine Insight

This skill grants you a tree of unlockable crafting designs and magical pre-requisites. Reserve appropriate mana to begin 'research' of any available recipe. Upon completion, you shall be granted appropriate divine insight. (Hint: discovery of a design by any other means unlocks the respective node in the tree)

Skill Level: 3, 50%

Skill Tier: 1

Mana Reservation: Varies (80% current).

Effect: 3% increased research speed.

Tier Effect: Feudal-age magic.

Current Research: Basic Tower (Fires small projectiles of any mana type), 9 hours and 48 minutes and 32 seconds remaining.

Researched (will to expand tree): Shield Battery, Shield Battery Upgrade 1, Basic Dark Farm.

Yup, eight hours down and ten hours left. It’d been 'researching' away in the background ever since the Basic Dark Farm research had completed. The upgraded Shield Batteries that could connect to a main building’s area shield had been the first, and that’d taken less than an hour to complete. Every subsequent endeavor added to a hidden speed penalty.

Gabrielle resigned to letting it do its thing. There wasn’t anything her mana was needed for at the moment, and she had no clue on how to manually design a tower which could find targets and fire on its own—if that were possible at all.

The zeppelin reached firing range and began unleashing continuous blasts of white-hot fire from a ruby gem at its front tip. The shield’s bar drained at a painful-to-watch rate. It would ding zero in a day at most.

It was over. The town was finished. If Rowan wasn’t back soon, there was no option other than organizing a retreat. The Dark Humans would be saved for another seventy at least. It would take a miracle to save the town… like a dragon coming to her rescue.

Gabrielle reached into her pouch and fetched Redwing, holding the teddy high. "Heya, Red! If ya could turn into a fully grown dragon boss right now, I’ll feed ya Rowan’s corpse later."

Redwing waved his cotton arms up and down as if to say, 'Mmmmm, yummy! I’d love to chew on that cute dummy’s corpse!'

"Hehehe. Of course, ya would." She dropped him back into the darkness, then fetched Zaine’s Soul Anchor. "Now would be a good time to come back to life…"

The red teddy’s beady ebony eyes gazed at her as if to say, 'Waaa! Waaa! You lied about Zar’s anchors being held here!'

Oh, he was still going on about that. Even in death. "Hmph. Stupid boy. Shouldn’t have gotten sealed in the first place." She placed it back into her pouch, and her fingers brushed against two other teddies with moving arms, not one.

Oh right! Him. "Come out, meanie Pally!" With a stranglehold on the white teddy, Gabrielle held it in front of her face and grinned widely. "Got anything to say?"

It took a few ticks of the system clock before its arms began flailing up and down, as if to say, 'You’ll never win, LeMort! You see that that fleet out there?! Your demise is nigh!'

"Nope. You’re wrong." Her grip tightened. "I’ll figure somethin’ out, like usual. Just like yesterday."

'You’re delusional, LeMort! You won out of sheer luck, not skill! Today will be your end, and your precious Dark Humans will perish!'

"That won’t ever happen, and ya know it." She flicked its ear.

A thunderous round of artillery impacted the shield. Those fabric arms thrashed faster. 'Do you hear that?! That is the music of your defeat! You are weak filth! No wonder Black abandoned you!'

Gabrielle’s eye twitched. "He didn’t abandon me! He’s just being a dummy again." Abandonment would mean betrayal, and betrayal would mean death. So, so, so much was riding on this plan. The order would go berserk on the boy.

The meanie Pally pointed at her with a stitched arm. 'No man would ever want someone as vile as you, LeMort! I bet he swallows vomit at the sight!'

"Nope! Nope! Nope! You’re wrong!" She whacked it behind the head. "I’m the most attractive World Boss in the game."

If the teddy could’ve sneered, it would have. 'He doesn’t want to fuck you because you disgust him.'

Her face deadened. She threw the blasted stuffed toy into her pouch. "Have another day of solitary confinement… meanie."

Puffing out a cheek, she glanced at the fleet one last time, then turned.

Ambiguous, the twins, and some of the Dark Humans stood frozen at the harbor’s entrance between two damaged shop buildings, staring with big, judging eyes. The dizygotic twins, SoSo Lovely and Edward Farmer, were the worst as usual. The few children looked almost afraid, and the mayor and adults were concerned or were faking concern. Seth also lingered at the side with an unreadable expression. And Ambiguous was ambiguous, stoic as ever.

"I think she’s finally lost it," SoSo said.

"Indeed she has. I was wondering when it would happen," Edward followed on in their usual way of alternating speech. Cute, but annoying—like now.

SoSo shrugged. "It had to happen sometime. But now?"

"Yes. Most inconvenient. I was starting to like this place."

Booms from behind rattled the shield overhead, and Gabrielle tuned down those ridiculous sound effects.

SoSo peeked up at the straining shield before saying, "As did I. Tis a shame that we haven’t any boats."

"Not to worry. The real fight starts soon." Edward licked his lips. "When those ships break through. It will be a quick fight, however."

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." Gabrielle’s hand drifted to her wand holster. "We’re not gonna lose! And that shield isn’t gonna fall!"

"Alright," Ambiguous said, stepping between the two. "I think we get it. Let’s not make her snap for real."

The mayor cleared his throat. "Um. Yes, let’s discuss our course of action. I for one believe a preemptive tactical fallback may be necessary—"

"No early retreats!" Gabrielle pointed her wand at the bumbling man. "Is that hard to understand!"

His square face hardened, neck tendons showing. "Please, let’s not fight among ourselves when an insurmountable force is at our shield. It is in my opinion that we would gain a significant head start if we evacuate now. May I remind you that it is in our common dark gods’ desire that we get along and work together in this world of adversary—"

"SHUT UP MONKEY!" Her wand twirled. "Lacerate," she hissed in the dark language, coldly smiling.

The mayor flinched, and the children dove for cover.

In a flash of pretty indigo light, Ambiguous blinked into the way. The curse splintered against her shield into strands of fibrous dark mana. She looked over her shoulder and said in a voice of menacing authority, "Everyone, leave. I’ll talk to her. Alone. You’re not helping."

Gabrielle mentally slapped herself before her wand did something naughty again. "Good idea," she chirped. "Go help the Worker Dolls demolish and recycle building materials. The lot of ya!"

Seth simply flew away without a care in the world. Good bat-boy.

The mayor, the accompanying two adults, and few children seemed to get the message after a quick exchange of looks with Ambiguous, scuttling away in a heartbeat. Viola, Gabrielle’s favorite of the younglings, hesitated and mumbled, "But Lady LeMort, I—"

"Not now. Just keep sparring, kay?"

"Okay." She twisted and sprinted to catch up.

SoSo and Edward were about to say something, but Ambiguous cut them off with a wave. "Just go. Shoo."

"Oh, fine." She took hold of Edward’s elbow and disappeared with a static buzzing noise.

"So." Ambiguous sighed, a hand on her curvy hip which was curvier than Gabrielle’s. She was taller and tanner too. So unfair.

"So what? This better not be a proposal for an early retreat. Cus I’ll curse ya."

"So what did your white teddy bear say?" Ambiguous laid a heavy look on her.

Oh.

"Just some dumb things."

"Similar to what they said?"

"Yup…" That was definitely all it had said and nothing else. Gabrielle surely couldn’t remember what else it had said if it had said anything at all. It was just a white teddy with an NPC’s soul. It couldn’t possibly know whether or not her grouchy whatever his name was had betrayed her. No way.

Ambiguous’ sleek eyebrow arched. "And what else?"

"Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup." Gabrielle flashed a mouthful of teeth.

"Was it about Rowan?" A knowing look emerged on her pretty features.

Grrrr. How the heck did she know? "Maybe."

"You’re not forgetting about the ten-to-one time compression, are you?"

Gabrielle deadpanned, smacking her Mana Shield. "No."

"Then what is it?"

Hmmm. A lie had to be spun up here. Though Ambiguous was more trustworthy than everyone else, she was neither part of the order nor one of their assets like Rowan. But what would be a good lie? Gabrielle’s lips twisted in thought.

"Well?" Ambiguous laid a soft palm on her shoulder.

What to say? "Ahhh…" Her eyes wandered left, right, up, and down—

The Social icon had a little yellow exclamation mark with the number two next to it. Phew. Just in time.

"Got mail!" Gabrielle sang, opening the interface with the hum of a tune. "One sec." The first mail was from Uncle Vincent. He’d finally responded to the mail she’d sent to him and Darius hours ago. The freaking time compression was torturous sometimes.

Gabrielle opened the letter with a tad of worry.

Vincent Roth: Rowan is in critical condition and won’t be able to login for at least another 24 hours. I miscalculated.

Orgasmic relief flushed throughout her innards till warmth brimmed at the tippy-top of her head. Rowan hadn’t left her and betrayed the order. He was just in critical condition! Everything was okay. He was just in critical condition and not on a plane to Antarctica. It was nothing to worry over. He was safe—for now.

Gabrielle skipped to the next mail while a decent explanation for Ambiguous began to sprout.

Darius Roth: Rowan is with Vincent at the moment (I assume you also received his mail). We are shortly bringing the game down for maintenance to buy time for his recovery—and to gather feedback on player World Bosses other than him.

"Huh?" she blurted. Bringing the game down for maintenance… How could something like that ever work?

"What is it?" Ambiguous asked, a hint of irritation leaking into her voice.

Gabrielle lied smoothly, "Rowan just mailed me. He says he went to take a nap. He’ll be back after getting some food. No worries!"

Ambiguous pinched her nose and massaged her brow for eight long strokes before she made eye contact again. "See. Nothing’s wrong."

"Yup. I overreacted!" Gabrielle spread her arms wide, smiling a genuine smile. "He didn’t leave me."

Ambiguous lightly whacked her forehead. "Of course he didn’t. Do you even know what you look like?"

Hehehe. "Yup. I’m the most attractive Occult Eng—"

A plain-looking dialog expanded in the middle of Gabrielle’s view.

System Announcement: Aeon Chronicles Online will be entering offline maintenance in five minutes. Please conclude your current activity and log out. More information will shortly be posted in the beta forums. Thank you.

"What?!" Ambiguous hacked. "Offline maintenance?"

"Huh. That’s strange." Gabrielle shrugged. "Oh well. Better log off." She hit the logout button.

"Hey. Wai—"

Never mind her. It was time to find out what happened to Rowan and how Darius was going to justify offline maintenance. Gabrielle couldn’t recall a single time an online game or anything online went down for maintenance. It was something which did not happen unless there was a natural disaster or major accident. The players sure weren’t going to be happy about this.

Gabrielle found herself in her lacy underwear once more cushioned by her pod’s warm gel lining. Whoever had designed this contraption wasn’t paid enough.

She hopped out, briefly considered putting on an outfit, and instead donned nothing but a trench coat from the depths of her walk-in closet along with a zapper strapped to her wrist. Rowan was in for a treat—or a lot of pain. She would make sure he never dared to leave her one way or another. Hehehehe.