Surface- Twisting Hills Region

Empire of Night- City of Uldon

Outer City- Main Plaza

"Next!!!" Jacob barked out as he placed the contract into the bin with all the others. The Immortal population in all the border cities had exploded over the last couple nights as the registration for the tournament opened up. All sizes, levels, and races showed up. Jacob had expected crowds, just not this many.

The lines never seemed to end, and they already had over ten thousand people registered for the tournament. Considering that three million people played Fate Online, it was a drop in the bucket. Without a participant cap and no registration fees, people would join in droves.

A warrior type walked up and stopped in front of Jacob and stopped. 'If you have any items, enchantments, potions, abilities, or skills that mask, cancel, block, or give a false Analyze, cancel it now." Jacob informed the warrior who simply nodded. Jacob Analyzed the man. Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Shake n'Bake

Level: 87

Guild: ---

Class: Warrior-Knight

Advanced Class: Swordmaster

Utility Class: Arms Master

Health: 32,780

Stamina: 18,450

Damage: 250-375 (Base)

Armor: 1,200

"Ok Shake, this contract before you and the Empire says that you will not cheat or throw a tournament fight. We will not use any information against you that we attain. We will not sell it to any guilds or third parties. There is no registration fee. You will be in the level eighty to eighty-nine, the fights are completely random. The weekend before the tournament starts you will receive a soulbound one-off portal scroll. Do not lose it, a new one will not be issued if you do. Understand so far?' Jacob asked and the warrior nodded. 'Here are the main rules, only self-buffs, no Artifact or Legendary gear. For your bracket, you cannot have items totaling more than ten thousand gold. Custom gear is allowed. No potions will be allowed. If you do not show for your allotted slot, it will be considered a forfeit and you will be thrown out of the tournament. If anyone tries to bribe you, intimidate you, or get you to cheat in any way, report it. The fights will be monitored and enforced by the Devs. This is a single-elimination tournament if you lose even once you are gone. Participation does not earn you a ticket to watch, those are separate. Understand? Good, sign acknowledging you heard, understand, and agree to the terms." Jacob advised the man who nodded and signed the paper. It floated for a second and duplicated itself.

Jacob handed the copy to the warrior while putting the original in a nearby basket. "Have a nice night and have fun at the tournament." Jacob stated as he yelled 'next'.

Surface- Agrionia Hills Region

Rebel Arang'mor Teritory- Town of Dewhurst

Othgad ducked the swinging sword and slammed Dawn Breaker into the rebels chest. Bones cracked as the man screamed in pain, but Othgad ignored it as he cast one of his spells, Courageous Light.

Battle Alert...

Buff Courageous Light: Damage dealt is increased by 20%, Strength is increased by 60, Stamina Regeneration increased by 25% (Duration 5 Minutes)

Battle Alert...

Othgad dismissed the alert as he charged toward the palisade wall. Arrows, bolts of magic, and crossbow bolts were raining down on his forces as they fought to take the town. They knew they would be executed if they failed to defend the town and their leaders were not any more merciful then Othgad was. This was the tenth village or town they were fighting for since they had begun their campaign, but so far they had seen no sign of the main army or the Chaos Warped forces the rebels had fielded earlier in the campaign.

Suddenly a messenger rode up, "Sir, rebel troops are advancing down the main road. Scouts report nearly three thousand. They are backed by nearly ten thousand of the Chaos Warped approaching from the north and south. General Hastings has recalled all forces." the messenger reported as horns sounded calling for the general retreat. Othgad glared at the defenders as they cheered, if the army got caught exposed like this and spread out, it would never recover. General Hastings order was the right call and Othgad summoned his horse as he followed the nearby units back.

Surface- Crecents Plains Region

Free City Alliance- City of Athesas

"What's going on?" Lord Devonshire asked as he mounted the wall.

The nearby guard pointed to two of the large camps holding the besieging troops. They were breaking camp for some reason, James took out his spyglass and checked the banners. It was the troops from Salinda and Ingson, that was odd. They were long-time allies of Cliphis, they would not abandon the siege without good reason. They also represented nearly a third of the invading forces. "What are your orders, Sir? Shall we attack?" one of the Guard Captains asked.

"No, if they want to leave we will not disrupt them in any way. Once they are gone it will weaken the invaders enough that they might be weak enough for us to break the siege." James Devonshire responded and the Captain saluted. This was odd to say the least, why or what had happened that they would withdraw and leave their allies?

Surface- Arathia Basin Region

Empire of Night- Town of Middlebrough

Fireballs, lightning, and arrows rained down on the defenders as the Shadow Syndicate attacked the northern wall. Idiots hadn't even deployed anyone to attack the south wall. Jacob slammed his shield into the Rogues face before Moonlight slammed through his guts before Jacob ripped it sideways. A Legionnaire kicked the dying Rogue off the wall and down onto his guildmates. "Who the fuck or these idiots" Jacob yelled out as he deflected a sword thrust before lopping off the head of the Warrior that had attacked him.

"A PvP guild from up north that gets off on raiding small towns and villages, but they got ran out of the northern kingdoms by larger guilds," Tarren yelled back.

Jacob snarled as he launched a barrage of Shadow Bolts at a clump of Shadow Syndicate Immortals that had managed to gain a foothold. Two of them went down screaming as the Shadow Bolts bypassed their armor and slammed into their bodies. Jacob activated Leap and slammed into the middle of them. Two of their number immediately turned to attack him, but between the Shadow Bolts, Leap, and now Hemorrhage, they were desperately low on health. Suddenly the horns of the Legion sounded as the flank attack arrived.

Two Cohorts slammed into the attackers from behind and devastated the Shadow Syndicates reserve forces. The invaders seeing that they were outflanked and overwhelmed finally broke off the attack. "Fucking assholes, no one reported a large amoung of Immortals moving south. Dispatch messengers to the Southern Orc Tribes, let them know they might be receiving some unexpected visitors, let them know the guild name. If they move into their territory, they are authorized to hunt them down with extream prejudice." Jacob told Nadal who nodded before moving off.

"What do we know about these assholes?" Jacob asked Darren who frowned.

"As Tarren said, they are idiots that go around attacking and ransacking small isolated villages and towns. Which makes this attack odd. Middlebrough is not isolated and it's heavily fortified for a town this size, not to mention the garrison. Why attack here with little to no chance at sacking the town?" Darren asked and Jacob shrugged his shoulders.

"Investigate it and put out some feelers within the community, it might be the Children of the Lights' bounty, but I doubt it. Make sure the town is swept for any Rogues in Stealth then get on it please." Jacob replied and the Rogue nodded as he scrambled away already organizing his Rogues to scout out and search the town for any stragglers.

Alert...

Your PK count has increased by 12, your total is....16.

Alert...

Jacob dismissed the Alert, he got no experience from PvP, that's one of the reasons why he didn't like it too much. Not to mention the Immortals that had attacked had an average level of mid-twenties. Even the Civil Legion members had ten to fifteen levels on them, it was a pointless raid for them. "General Duskrune whats the butchers' bill?" Jacob asked the Dwarf who walked up and saluted.

"Twenty dead, forty critically wounded and eighty walking wounded that will be ok within three to five days. As soon as the critically wounded are more stable, we will move them to Ineford. We have already notified them." General Duskrune reported before saluting and leaving.

Jacob frowned, this had been a stupid attack and without the patrols, they wouldn't have received word int time to react. Jacob pulled up the Kingdom Tab and went to Kingdom Perks. Jacob had been banking the experience for a while now and he had enough to purchase some nice upgrades. Time to do so, Jacob purchased Watch Towers, Street Lights, and Civil Legion II to beef up their defenses before panning over to the other Perks. After some deliberation, Jacob sunk the majority of the remaining experience into Advanced Trainers and with just over twenty thousand left Jaco purchased Regional Message and Rental Stables before closing out the Kingdom Tab. Spoiler: Spoiler Civil Defense Perks...

Name: Civil Legion II (Malitia Units)

Description: With this upgrade, the Civic Legions level, armor, and weapons are upgraded. In addition, in case of attack, two Cohorts of Elite Heavy Infantry units will spawn to defend the Keep (City Only).

Name: Street Lights

Description: Deploy Dark Light lanterns throughout your town/city streets to cut down on crime.

Name: Watch Towers

Description: These towers monitor your roads and borders for bandits and invaders.

Immortal Services...

Name: Advanced Trainers

Description: These trainers are harder to come by and coveted by all kingdoms. With this Perk, you might sway some to come to your Kingdom. The trainers will be located in every city, towns with at least 500 inhabitants, and some remote locations if they come.

Requirment: Vampire Race to use trainers

Transportation Perks...

Name: Rental Stables

Description: Rent out temporary mount(s) (Non-Combat) to Immortals and Locals to get from point A to B.

Requirement: Neutral status to use these locations.

Communication Services...

Name: Regional Message

Description: With this, your Governors/Stewards, can release critical information to Locals and Immortals about Events or Emergencies.

Kingdom Alert...

Purchases will go into effect in...20 Hours.

Kingdom Alert...

Jacob dismissed the notifications and went to get to work on repairs.

Real World

North American Alliance- Greater New York Conglomerate

BlackRock HQ

Marc was admitted into the CEOs office quickly. "Well, how is everything going?" Anthony asked him as he looked up from his paperwork.

"Everything has worked out perfectly sir. The last long-term immersion test phase will be completed within twenty-four hours. Kevin has agreed to take up residence in the Spire and the feedback from his PvP tournament idea has been overwhelmingly positive. Our projections think it will also help stagger how many people join the Vampire Faction because people will want their shot at the tournament first. Which is probably one of the reasons why Kevin wanted to host it so close after launch." Marc replied.

"Good, security has been arranged for all his core people?" Anthony asked.

"Yes sir, we have our people on standby and we have offered to assist them all in finding living accommodations and they have all taken us up on the offer," Marc replied and the CEO smiled. Doctor Greystone entered the office and nodded to Marc who smiled back. They had worked closely together on the Long-Term immersion project. What Marc did not know was the Doctor Greystone was also the lead scientist on Project Lazerous, but the Anthony did not want Marc in on that project, yet.

"Gentlemen, I want to thank both of you for your efforts on Project Morpheus. Without your contributions, I don't think the project would have even gotten off the ground. Now, the project is almost complete and your teams have earned their bonuses. Doctor Greystone, once all the test subjects are up and out, feel free to give your team forty-eight hours paid time off. Marc, I am sorry but until Patch twelve goes live, I need them where they are. They will get their time off soon after that, I promise." Anthony Mitchels stated to the two men and both nodded before leaving.

Unknown

Ava opened her eyes as she logged back in. She was alone, the door was closed and she was sure the guards were outside. She hadn't managed to convince her sister to listen to her yet, but she was hoping that eventually, she would come around before it was too late.

"Welcome back little girl. I am so glad you decided to return to us." Alexi mused from the doorway as he entered the room.

"What do you want fuckface?" Ava asked as she glared at him.

"Oh my dear, your attempts to insult me and anger me are useless. You have one more part to play before you get your freedom. Now the plans I have set into motion will take a little time and I have asked for assistance from one of my brothers, but to please the Lady of Chaos, he was more than willing to help.' Alexi stated as he walked closer looming over her cowering form. 'You see, I am going to make sure my new brother knows who is responsible for giving me the idea on how to get him to join me. In his rage, he is going to kill you. That will be my gift to him for joining our Alignment and this knife will make sure it will take some time before you become a threat to anyone again." Alexi mused as he showed her a very nasty looking knife.

It looked like steel but the blade itself was worked with designs in the blade making it look like skulls and bodies were worked into the metal of the blade. The hilt looked like a bone and a small skull capped the hilt. Ava brought up the stats of the blade. Ava recoiled from the blade, it was messed up in more than one way. "Oh yes my dear, he will use this over and over on you until your Avatar is destroyed and he takes your strength from you. I think he will come to love this blade, I certainly enjoy mine.' Alexi stated as he patted the giant two-handed sword hanging off his back. 'Of course, Sever is only a stepping stone for him. A very special weapon similar to my Reaper is being crafted for him as we speak. You see once he has passed all our tests and he is completely hers, he will become the newest Chaos Lord on the mortal plane and its all thanks to you Ava." Alexi stated as he left the room.