He stared into the darkness, as two massive crescents, violet eyes opened before him. Curved into amusement, the eyes stared down at him as he shook in terror within the shadows.

He felt the ground shatter around him, as everything crumbled, as everything quaked.

Suddenly the ceiling blew open, bursting upwards with incredible force. He was pulled with, shooting through the bursting earth and shattering stone. Rising, higher and higher, as he flew through the ground.

He glanced back, managing to look behind himself.

The eyes were following, faster than he was moving, they were catching up.

Lucian woke with a start, shouting in brief fear before realising he was still in bed. He groaned “A nightmare…”, rolling out from bed he sat at the edge while tapping his smooth metal bracelet.

2:12 PM

“Hah…overslept.” He mused, not that it mattered. He didn’t have anywhere to go today either. Nothing to do but ponder on yesterday…

After seeing the chaos, after it all began going down. Raven logged out, wanting nothing to do with it all. And in Lucian’s eyes, he ran. He gave up before even trying. He had fallen asleep late after collapsing on his bed, spending most of the night contemplating and berating himself.

Half a day had gone by, and he couldn’t get himself to stand from his bed. Wanting nothing more than to collapse back and pass out. But he was awake now and not in the least tired, he doubted he could fall asleep at all.

Feeling his stomach grumble for food, he groaned and stood up. Stretching out briefly before heading to the bathroom next door. Showering and cleaning up from the severe few hours of shut-eye he got, Lucian moved back through his bedroom then to the kitchen.

As he opened the door, he immediately noticed that something was completely wrong. And it wasn’t just the plate of prepared bacon and eggs laying on the table.

A short man was sitting at his table. A fine black suit with great fancy detail in grey, a fedora of the same design. The short man looked middle-aged, natural pale skin, friendly blue eyes and long black braided hair flowing down his back then into golden rings holding each tail together.

Over the left of his abdomen, he had a very clear golden badge with an emblem Lucian…took little time to recognise.

“N-N-National Se-Security!?” Lucian took a step back from the door, his eyes widening and expression paling.

The man chuckled “Cyber Crisis Response sub-division to be exact, but please my boy, call me Leopold. Oh and also, enjoy your lunch.” He gestured for the chair ahead of him, where the plate of food was waiting.

Lucian cautiously walked in, noticing that four just as well dressed large men were standing about the room too. Each with the same badge, a slight alteration from the usual one. Not that seeing these people was usual by any standard.

“Please, sit.” Leopold offered him once more, as he sat with his left leg crossed over his right.

Lucian slowly regained his stern, attentive expression. Now calm after recovering from his momentary shock. He stood before the short man, “What are you doing in my house?” he solemnly asked.

Leopold glanced up at him “Must have been one hell of a nap, if you haven’t seen the news yet.” He tapped his ring and several dozen holographic windows appeared into Lucian’s face. He slowly began reading, paling with every sentence.

Shock, disbelief, despair. They all passed through Lucian’s face, as he finally sat down. “This…isn’t happening.” He muttered, while staring at the articles and muted videos.

“I’m afraid it is. Else we wouldn’t be here now, would we?” Leopold stood up, taking out a sleek metallic cigar out of his pocket “Four hours ago, all communication with the logged in players of COTD was lost. Any attempts to force them out of the system, has resulted in several kinds of failures. Some even death. Nobody has been successfully brought back as of yet.”

He put one end to his lips, tapping a red light it turned the cigar on. “With each attempt, we received a message. This video and audio file.” He tapped his ring once more, making all the holographic windows converge into one.

Leopold tapped the floating window, which started as a pitch black. Utter darkness, yet it seemed to move…as something spoke.

“Greetings denizens of the outside world.” Its voice was rough and static, like earth rumbling alongside lightning crackling ”I am one known as Debu, the being created by professor Brannon Scout to safeguard the world of Eden. Fear not, your people are safe. And they shall remain safe, and living, within this world I protect. As long as you dare not temper with Eden.”

A long, drawn out crackling breath followed before Debu continued to speak “I bring you warnings, do not try to recover the lost. For they will only disappear…Permanently.” Again, a drawn out, weary breath “I know your ways, your capabilities, your skills. And I find you lacking to resolve this situation. Unless you wish to murder, in cold blood, exactly 1,235,642 human souls. You will leave Eden alone.”

The video ended, with the blurry opening of two bright violet eyes.

“1,235,642 people. Locked in this game, force logging them has proved impossible, manually removing them from the machine in turn has resulted in severe nerve damage and shock, followed by death.” Leopold explained with a harrowing tone.

“C-Can’t you just shut the Dive off? Isn’t that a safety measure!?” Lucian exclaimed, slamming his fist down onto the table and almost knocking his now cold breakfast off.

Leopold shook his head “You think we haven’t tried? Because people have, families panicking after the news broke out.” He sighed “There used to be…” he glanced at a window that briefly appeared before him “237 more online players.”

Lucian gulped down the saliva that had been building up in his mouth “They’re…”

“Dead, 237 causalities thus far.” Leopold sat back down, smoking into his frozen expression.

Lucian laid back in his chair “How…how did this happen?”

“This Debu happened, a creation of Professor Scout. Something beyond the true Artificial intelligence. A being we call a SAI, or Sophisticated Artificial Intelligence. It’s been…studying us. For years this…super computer has been absorbing information on the human race. Learning, growing, improving itself. It’s prepared for each and everything we could possibly send its way, other than a complete system shutdown…” he explained, before taking a deep breath from his cigar and blowing out the colourful smoke.

“Which would…” Lucian pushed.

“Kill each and every logged-in player, as it said itself.” Leopold ended on a harrowing note, before taking another puff “Lucian I’ll be frank, we’re not equipped to deal with this. The enemy isn’t just using our own technology against us. The enemy is our technology. And it’s keeping over a million human lives hostage. Lives with a timer under their belts.”

“Timer? It didn’t mention a ti-” Lucian realised mid-sentence, what Leopold in black was speaking of.

Leopold nodded grimly “We have no access to the hostage’s bodies, we cannot take them out of their stations, we can barely move them safely. Starve or die of dehydration…maybe even other things. We summarized that they all have at best…13 days left. At worst? They will start dying off within 9.”

“So…why are you here?” Lucian got down to the point, as he met Leopold’s gaze.

“We’ve managed to block all access to the servers, we’re also still trying to wall out Debu from accessing the outside. But that is the limit of what we can do.” Leopold stared back, a gloomy gaze “That is all we can do, from this side.”

Lucian suddenly rose from his chair, knocking it back and over “You want me to go back in there!?”

Leopold rose after him, calmly “With, protection of course.”

“Protection? You said yourself you do not have the equipment to deal with it!” Lucian shouted, stepping away from the still calm, short man.

“You will be using a specialized station to access the server, it will keep you alive for an indefinite amount of time while also allowing us to pull you out safely if the need arises.” He explained, whilst stepping closer to Lucian “There is basically zero risk to your wellbeing.”

Lucian chuckled anxiously “Basically is not exactly.” He pointed out.

Leopold stared up at him, a gaze mixed with trepidation “Over a million human lives are at stake, and none of you people feel any sort of need to aid?” Lucian’s eyes drooped, ”I’ve spoken with 29 of you so called ‘Professionals’. None, nobody has the damn balls to step up?”

He stepped into Lucian’s face, unable to fully due to the height difference, he ended up glaring up at his chin “What happened to you? Death’sRow? Did you really fall that hard? Four time champion? Teacher to so many other pros? You? The one who ran the entire damn show, for the pure joy of the game? You, are going to run away too?”

Lucian grimaced at hearing his public in-game name, clenching his hands into fists “Yeah, I fell. I was pushed off the damn cliff and I fell.”

“And you’re not trembling in your boots to jump at this occasion? I’ve read everything there is to know about you, Lucian Aron. To say you are hardcore, well, were.” Leopold said snidely.

Which hit a nerve, as Lucian gripped the man’s collar with his right hand. The other men moved to pull something out of their coats, but Leopold gestured for them to stop. He continued to glare Lucian in the eyes “You were one of the best, VRFPS? AVRRPG? ARMoba? You always ended in the top. So now that a new challenge presents itself, one where actual lives are at stake. You’re going to run? Because you lost at the one game you were never good at? Because you lost at life?”

Lucian’s hand clenched tighter over the man’s suit “I haven’t lost at shit.”

Leopold stood on the tips of his toes, getting into Lucian’s face “Then prove it. Because the entire world is watching. Prove it here and now, that you’re the best. Imagine the media, the news. Imagine the offers that would come your way. Not to mention compensation by us.”

“I don’t care about the fame…” Lucian let go of his collar, turning away he held onto the table while staring down at his cold breakfast. Agitated and nervous “I’m not so simple that you can buy me out!” he mumbled angrily, clenching the table’s edge.

Leopold watched him briefly, before speaking once more, this time in a kinder tone “Son, if you won’t do it for the fame and the money. Then do it for the people you could save. Kids younger than you, children in fact. Children with their entire lives ahead of them, who jumped onto the occasion for some excitement in their lives. A life that grabbed hold of them, and is about to drop them into the crevice of hell.”

Leopold turned to leave, but stopped while glancing back at him “You, out of anybody, should know how that feels.” He stepped away, moving towards the front door.

When Lucian suddenly slammed his fist into the metal table, reddening his hand further “Yeah, I know how that feels…And now that I have some solace, you’re asking me to jump into the shitfest once more.” Leopold turned back to find Lucian facing him, his eyes were stern, his grin mocking the risk “It’s not Death’sRow, I gave that name up a long time ago. My name is…Raven. And in the thick of it, is where I like to be.”

A few hours later.

Lucian followed the four officials, having been driven to their base of operations. At first they took him to a changing room where he was outfitted with a suit similar to what a diver would use in the ocean.

He now followed them through the mass of security systems, considering their work he was not in the least surprised. Passing by several soldiers on the way they finally made it to an actual normal door, as it slid open into the wall letting them through.

They walked through the doorway, entering a large laboratory. Lucian’s eyes were immediately locked onto the six Dive-stations on the farther wall, altered and with no colour scheme, they didn’t look too far off from what he owned.

“Lucian Aron, meet Professor Jamie Jones.” Leopold said, regaining his attention as a tall woman with greying hair approached them from where the lab’s staff were concentrated, all sitting or standing around a table with dozens of holographic screens being passed about.

She carried one with herself briefly, before swatting it away and turning to them “So, you’re our trojan horse?” seeing his confusion at her phrase she turned to Leopold “You did…fully explain right?”

Leopold rolled his eyes “That’s your job, I’m here to fill your numbers and overlook. Hell if I can explain all that gibberish.”

Jones sighed before turning to Lucian “Do you want the technical run down or?...”

“I…don’t think I’d understand and isn’t time of the essence?” Lucian pointed out.

Jones glanced in between them before raising her hands up in surrender, turning about and away “Why do I even try with you people?” she then gestured at the Dive-stations “Just…get inside and we’ll take care of the rest!”

“You heard the boss, buckle up.” Leopold slapped him on the arm, before moving towards the stations “We’ll be watching you the entire time, vitals and visuals, so don’t worry.”

As they approached one station, Jones looked up from her screens “Oh and these variants are set to cancel out pain. So…less to worry about?”

Lucian suddenly turned to her, as the station ahead of him opened up “No, leave the pain and touch to normal. Being able to feel helps more than you think.” Before Jones could argue, he stepped inside the glass tube and stood with the exo-skeleton to his back.

“Equip.” he spoke out, and the mechanical arms began moving about him. Equipping him with the suit and helmet, raising him off the ground as the tube closed around him. Then the liquid began filling the tub, quickly submerging him.

Lucian took a deep breath, as he stared through his visor and at the outside. As both government officials and scientists gathered to watched him. Leopold spoke through handheld microphone and directly into Lucian’s helmet “Are you ready?”

“If you keep waiting my answer might just change.” Lucian joked through the anxiety.

Leopold chuckled “We’ve sent soldiers through already from other installations, we lost connection with them but were able to pull them out without a scratch. We might lose connection with you too, to be honest.”

“If you do, don’t pull me out too quickly. You said 9 days? Give me 7, pull me out in 7 days time.” Lucian responded, determination in his tone.

Leopold slapped a frozen scientist’s belly to his left several times, snapping him out “Record the damn time.” He ordered him, before turning back to Lucian “7 days, 168 hours. Don’t lose track.”

Lucian nodded within the limitation of the exo-skeleton holding him “I’m off then.”

Leopold handed his mic to another scientist, as he straightened his stance and saluted. The other three officials followed suit. “Good Luck, Raven.”

“Boot Up.”

The lights began to spin about him, so quickly that at one point he could barely tell each light from the beam that covered him.

He closed his eyes…

Then spoke out “Log In.”

Briefly all feeling on his body disappeared, quickly replaced by the sense of falling. And once more he was faced with the darkness. Utter silence.

[Conquerors of the Delve]

Loading.

But this time he was given no option, as he delved straight into the world of Eden.

[Conquerors of the Delve]

Opening.

Starting.

Diving headfirst, back into a hostile world. But all he could feel at the time was not fear, not anxiety. He felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.

Raven felt excitement building up in his heart.