A/N Sorry for the belated chapter guys, but I really haven’t been feeling in a writing mood, especially with all this adjusting to college stuff going on. I actually started the chapter off completely differently and with Drake as the temp MC but decided to not use it. Maybe I’ll tie part of it into the future story piece by piece or pick it apart and make a mini flashback out of it.

Shout out to that one guy who rated and the others that followed and fav’d. Thanks, you know who you are.

P.s. Reviews and constructive criticisms are nice too. They help me improve so feel free to bash me if you wanna. I assure you, some comments may be scathing, but I’m writing here for fun and to improve myself as a writer. You’ll actually be doing me a favor… I think.

Now off to the chapter.

/Zeus POV/

Oh-ho-ho. Fleshies are most amusing. Here I am, sitting in my flying citadel and watching. The view here allows me to see wherever I wish, so long as there is a direct line of sight.

These past four weeks in Eden have given me quite an entertaining show. Quite like the natives of Eden, who view me and my fellow Aspects ag gods and goddesses, the Travelers come in all flavors, the only difference being their origin and reason for being in Eden. For the former, this is their world, their very lives. For the latter, Eden is merely a game to them, a simple distraction at best. Let’s see if I can change that.

While I was not watching them fool around and get themselves offed in the most amusing of manners, I have been busy preparing a present for them as the final event for the alpha test and I’ve been sowing the seeds for this event since Eden became operational.

With the help of Life and Death, we have managed to breed the varying races in their respective lands. Among them are elves, dwarves, beastmen, humans, demons, ogres, and the various other less intelligent species found in common lore and fantasy. With Eve’s permission, I will be bringing one of the forgotten back into the realm of Eden to both foreshadow what is to come and provide an ultimate goal when Eden is released for the public.

Well, I might say that, but I’m just doing this to entertain myself with the Travelers more than anything else. I can already imagine the look on their faces as a dragon accompanied by several score of demons descends upon them. Oh, don’t worry, they’ll be of the weaker type. I don’t want to utterly destroy Eden. If I do that, then what will I be able to do to keep myself entertained? Anyways, the looks on their faces.

Pft. Hehe. Ha-Mwahaha!

*cough* “Um, sorry to disturb your maniacal laughter while you’re in full swing, but, are you ready to unleash the event? The notification has been sent to the Travelers a couple days ago and most have gathered to fortify the city.”

-haha-*cough-cough* “A, Adam! When’d you get here? Uh, heh, exactly how much of that did you see?” Right now, he’s wearing a full set of mythril armor and carrying his helmet at his hip, beside his favorite sword. I hate that teleporting behind people habit of his.

“Sorry, but I got here about the same time as you started chuckling to yourself. If you need a moment, I’ll just excuse myself.”

Well, damn, that’s embarrassing. I may be ‘older’ than Adam in augmented time, but he’s still the guy that practically raised me from a child along with the other Aspects. I still look up to him in a way too.

“If you don’t mind, please ignore my previous outburst of laughter. As for the event, it’s just about ready. Will you be joining the Travelers in this battle?”

“Nope. I’ll sit this one out and watch with you but if things go completely south, I’ll jump in as a knight in shining armor, though I might borrow a couple of your lightning bolts. I want the guys down there to have a blast without me interfering. Not to mention that I also want to see how much they’ve grown these past few weeks.”

A man after my own heart. He just wants to be entertained by them too.

“Sure, I don’t mind the company. Shall we get closer for a better view? While the scrying magic here is nice, it just doesn’t beat the actual bird’s eye view.”

“That’d be great. How about that cloud over there? It’ll help keep us out of view and provide a great vantage point.”

“Un” Walking over towards the helm, there is a complicated array of controls and dials in front of me. It’s child’s play at this point. Adjust speed, magical output, regulate the wind, adjust angle, invert gravity at the lower regions, move into the cloud, negate the forward momentum and done. Not even fifteen minutes have passed.

“Hey Adam, you ready to get started?”

“Of course I am. Let’s get the show on the road Zeus!”

“Would you do the honors of announcing the event for them?” I hold out a projection crystal towards him.

“Why not. Let’s make it flashy while we’re at it.” Taking the artifact from my hand, Adam turns it on and taps it to test the connection.

/Adam POV/

Oh man, this is going to be so epic. I wonder how far Lexy has gotten. Last I checked with her, she’d already gotten the hang of being a combat mage. Hah, I’m actually feeling a little sorry for any guy that would dare try to hit on her… Oops, now is not the time to get sidetracked.

Major big ultimate finale to the alpha test event happening, remember?

First things first, the presentation. With a wave of my hand, a large screen appears before the walls of the city, yours truly is on the screen, of course. Most of the Travelers have already prepared so my message should reach most of them.

“Hi guys! Nice to see most of you again! If you don’t remember me, I’m your overlord and ultimate rul-” a jet of water splashes me out of nowhere. This gets a few chuckles from my audience.

“Come on Eve, it’s just a joke!” Turning my attention back to the people on the ramparts, I resume my announcement.

“So, as you already know, today is the last day of the alpha test and this is the final event before Eden is publicly released. What you may not know is that, depending on your performance in this event, you may or may not be allowed to take one item and give it to yourself after all the accounts are reset. We can’t let accusations of inequality go flying about if you got to keep all your stuff after the release, but neither can we leave all of you unrewarded, now can we? Anyways, enjoy the final event and try not to die. :)”

The screen then blinks out in a line of static, then fires off a single orange flare high into the sky to signal the start of the event.

With that, I turn off the projection crystal and nod towards Zeus. In the next moment, he closes his eyes and appears to be concentrating deeply. In all honesty, it looks like he is constipated, especially with his face all scrunched up like that, red faced, and dripping sweat. lol

Thirty seconds later, the ground below starts to shake and cracks begin appearing about 2000 feet away from the city walls. Scrabbling for a handhold, many can be seen trying in vain to remain standing. As the cracks widen more and more, a piercing shriek emanates from deep within the earth.

Slowly, the earth stills and people began to shakily get back on their feet. The pregnant silence continues for another minute. They wait with bated breath like the calm before a storm, and rightly so because the next scene is utter chaos.

The dirt at the epicenter of the cracks begins to move and it suddenly bursts upwards in a fountain of dirt. Something large and black streaks up into the air and it unfurls its wings whilst hordes of monsters begin to spew out from the earthen scars. Among the beasts are wolves, ogres, goblins, minotaurs, and serpents. Soon enough, the stream of beasts lessens to a trickle and amassed before the city is an army of approximately 10,000 against the mix of Travelers and natives group of roughly 7,000, of which, about 1,500 consists of mages, archers, and support.

Righting itself in the air, the black wyvern turns towards the city and unleashes that ungodly shriek. The battle has begun.

Startled by the its appearance, many Travelers are too stunned to act until the wyvern had traversed half of the distance. In an attempt to down the wyvern, magic is cast, arrows are launched, and spears are thrown, but to no avail as its scales offer no purchase for the weak projectiles. Continuing on its rapid pass, it shrieks once again, stunning the defenders and spews a fireball from its mouth towards the ramparts. A small section is bathed in flames and I’d say that about 15 of the slower people were taken out in that one shot.

Having finished it’s first pass on the city, it circles back to fire into the inner city before attacking the ramparts and hovering over the horde once again.

While they are distracted by the wyvern, the horde of monsters continue unimpeded in their charge. The defenders are in total disarray, at least, until several figures take charge and begin barking out quick orders. One male appears to be a masked jester, taking up the rear. Another, a paladin bearing a shining spear on the right flank. An archer clad in green, much like my previous outfit, is on the left flank. At the forefront is a purple robed mage carrying a gnarled staff aloft, imbedded in its head is a radiant white crystal the size of a fist.

Wait a sec, is that Lexy? Aw, how cute. She’s wearing a cute frilly purple mage’s robe with a large wide brimmed witch’s hat. Don’t ask me how a robe can be cute. It just is. She’s made so much progress without my help. Oh, how she’s grown. Wait, if she’s at the head of the group, that must mean that those guys behind her are in her party. It seems like I’ll be introducing myself to them after the battle.

Glancing to my side, Zeus’s attention is riveted on the battle beneath us. Right, back to the battle.

Barking out rapid orders, the archer begins to direct two thirds of the archers towards attacking the horde and the remaining one third to cooperate with some mages. Lexy takes command of most of the mages and splits their forces similarly to the archers. Leaping off the ramparts, the paladin joins the formations on the ground. Lastly, the jester begins to dance as large magic arrays begin to glow in the air. I’m guessing that the jester is charging up some form of massive attack on either the horde, a focused attack on the wyvern, or buffing their allies.

It seems that while I was watching the jester dance, the third of the mages have begun enchanting spears, bows, and arrows. They must be trying to take down the wyvern with sheer numbers. Meanwhile, having taken care of organization, Lexy is at the central rampart, kneeling before her staff and emitting a faint blue aura.

On the ground, it the paladin is leading the charge against the monsters with a rallying cry. As they clash, bodies can be seen as they fly into the air.

During this time, the wyvern continues to fly over the battlefield and shoot its fire with no heed with aiming. It hits friend and foe alike.

Five minutes into battle and I bring up a statistics window, just to make it easier to see how they’re doing.

Combatant countAllied Forces6439/7018The Horde9246/10134

Every time that wyvern spits out a fireball, about fifty combatants are taken down. They really need to do something about that. Thankfully, it seems that most of their preparations on the ramparts are done. Soon enough, streaks of light begin to soar above the battle towards the wyvern. Several enchanted arrows and javelins manage to pierce its scales and punch holes in its wings, but does little more than enrage it.

Now that it’s a pissed off black wyvern, it charges the rampart in a rage, only to be deflected by an invisible wall. Huh, guess that jester is the defensive caster of the group. That guy must have gone through one hell of a training montage to get to that level in four weeks. In the distance, the spear wielding paladin can be seen carving flesh and penetrating deep into enemy forced with a small squad.

Back to the city walls, the wyvern continually rams the force field to no avail. Of course the ranged attackers wouldn’t miss this opportunity and began pelting it with all they’ve got. Giving up on penetrating the city’s defenses and driven back by their offence, it turns back towards the battlefield and dives down low. Sweeping its wings, another hundred are taken out of the battle. Again and again, it would rise and fall. Like a sickle reaping wheat, the wyvern would cut both friend and foe down with each pass.

The battle rages on like so for the next 30 minutes. At this point, most of both forces are either dead or tired. Along the walls, the defenders have begun to run low on ammunition and mana. The jester also seems quite tired from keeping up the barrier. I don’t see it holding up until the wyvern is dead.

With a few more minutes, the remains of the defenders’ ground forces have wiped out The Horde. Now all that remains is the flying beast.

Combatant countAllied Forces783/7018The Horde1/10134

Nothing left to distract it, the wyvern begins pelting the ground forced with fire and proceeds to ram the barrier once again.

Upon the third massive hit, the barrier shatters. As the shards fall, they dissolve into ambient mana and fade away. Having broken through to the city, all that is left to deal with is the ramparts. Scanning its entirety, a soft but radiant blue glow catches its attention. Lexy.

Curious, it moves closer before stopping above her prone kneeling position. Next it opens its maw as if to swallow her whole. Preparing to descend in a flash, I grab one of Zeus’s lightning bolts but keep an eye on the progression.

Right before I would have jumped on top of the black wyvern, a solid beam of light bursts through the wyvern’s body. Originating from the crystal on Lexy’s staff, the light shot through the roof of the wyvern’s mouth, into its head, then out through the neck prior to exiting in such a flashy manner.

Ew, I knew my little sister could handle herself, but ew. That is a nasty way to deal a finishing blow. Oh well, I’ll still need to be down there for part of the clean up. Better get going.

“Hey Zeus, I’ll be going now. See you again soon.!”

“Later Adam. Next time, bring me back a present from the surface.”

“Sure thing. Later.”

Tossing the lightning bolt back into its respective bin, I run towards the edge of the flying citadel and leap off.

“Geronimo!”

A/N So, just a little update on my posting speed. I'll be trying to make it at least once a week, but that all depends on my schedule and drive to write. I've actually been thinking of developing another story, but seeing as how much work it'll take for direction I want to go in, I am not going to start it for a while or post it until I am satisfied with at least the first 5 chapters, I think.