Thank you very much to Dan for proofreading!

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

After this Chapter I have no more Chapters that I prepared in advance, meaning I'll need to actually write again now!

That means from now on the releases will be slower.

I will aim for a weekly release if possible, but I will release at least once every two weeks. I cant write a lot due to school so please bear with me.

Please continue following and enjoying my story even after this!

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Ruins of the previous throne room of the Cyclops

Lava had flooded the whole place. The walls of the place had caved in after the destruction the boss fight had caused and cracks spread all the way to the lava pool of the volcano, allowing magma to flood in.

Not caring about the heat and toxic gas in the room at all a group of 5 figures shrouded in darkness stood on some of the few footholds that the lava hadn’t consumed yet and held a serious conversation.

“They killed him.”, one figure started the conversation with just a short statement.

“Travelerssssss….”

“Shit, that’s it for our plan then.”

“Aaaaaah”, another sighed. “We stopped bothering with them long ago. Stupidity overload I say.”

“Cent change et now, wert we gonne do?”

“Ssshhh…”

“I say we go ahead with the ritual and show those shallow travelers just who theyre messing with.”

“…” The figure that had started the conversation hadn’t said another word and quietly listened to the others. He seemed to be the leader of the group.

“Eint et too erle?”

“Who cares, man! Not like it won’t work just cause we do it earlier than planned!”

“Thisssss one agreesssss… we cannot wait longer than thissssss.”

“…”,the leader stepped forward slightly, getting the attention of the others.

“Let’s do it.”

“Now?”

The leader simply nodded and started walking, stepping into the magma without a care.

The others followed and they formed a circle, extending their arms to the side and gripping the one of their neighbor. Then everyone of them summoned their mana, directing it all towards the open middle. The amount was ridiculously large,

showing to the naked eye as a large glowing white sphere.

As soon as enough mana was condensed in the sphere the leader started muttering a lengthy incantation while the others swayed slightly, continuing to pour mana out of their bodies.

The leader finished his incantations and the sphere moved upward slowly, then suddenly shot down into the earth. As soon as it had started moving the figures had already gathered more mana, a smaller amount this time, and surrounded themselves in a strong barrier.

Not a moment too late as a low growling could be heard and the ground below them started to shake.

The figures smiled.

Their spell had succeeded.

***

A shockwave spread through the game world and the earth all over the continent started shaking. Cracks appeared from the violent tremors and players as well as NPCs helplessly lost their balance.

Zayvin was also one of them. She had let down her guard and when the earthquake began, she performed a very undignified fall from the rooftop and landed on her behind.

Players and NPCs around her were shouting in confusion and fear as the first boulders started falling from the ceiling of their underground city, hitting devils all over the place.

As one of them crashed into the floor right next to her, Zayvin quickly summoned a shield around herself o she wouldn’t get hit. But before she could also surround others with it, her vision suddenly went dark and her body lost all its feeling.

'Huh??? What…'

Then the world around her came back, but everything was in black and white and her senses weren’t working correctly.

Her body wasn’t listening to her at all and her shield was gone as well, seeing as she was unable to control mana in her current state. The world started spinning around her and she felt sick.

“Ugh…”, she groaned but no sound came out of her mouth, in fact the whole word was silent.

Then a loud crash resounded and a blinding light shot through the cave, causing her to close her eyes on reflex. When she opened them again the world around her was crumbling. The whole area around her was caving in and her vision was tinted a bloody red.

What on earth was happening here??

She tried getting up for the 5th time, but her body still refused to listen to her.

Then the world around her went dark as she lost her consciousness.

A few minutes later in reality

Sirens resounded shrilly on the quiet evening as several fire fighter trucks and emergency helpers made their way towards various buildings as fast as possible.

The blue blinking lights on top of their vehicles dyed the dark street in an unnatural light on streets all across the world.

The clouds overhead had started dispersing little by little, revealing small patches of the starry sky. But the growling of the storm could still be heard clearly.

Minutes ago the world had experienced an earthquake on a scale larger than anything ever recorded. Tokyo, Shanghai,

Sydney, Moscow, Berlin, New York, Toronto, Johannesburg,… anywhere you went it was the same view.

Destruction.

The earth had cracked open in various places, creating huge gaps that swallowed whole buildings and caused the death of thousands of unsuspecting people.

Relief units were trying desperately to reach buildings that had collapsed into themselves, but there simply weren’t enough people to cover the whole place.

The world had sunk into chaos.

At the same time in Robin’s hospital room

“Robin…?” A nurse had just come into the room to deliver her daily medication and make her round after the earthquake.

Honestly, the building was quite well built so no huge harm had been done to the hospital. The electricity had gone off for a second, but the hospital had its own emergency power supply so the nurses decided to quickly make their rounds. They were very worried about their families at home but the patients here only had them, so they forced themselves to endure and do what they could right now. She called out again but she couldn’t find the girl. Her bed was empty, only her old plush bunny remained.

“Robin?!”, her voice grew louder as she frantically looked around the room. Quickly she made her way around the bed and discovered the girl lying on the ground unconscious, her head still connected to the headgear of the game.

She had landed quite unfortunately as the earthquake had pushed her out of the bed, causing her arm to be crushed under her body. It was now standing off in an unnatural direction.

Carefully the nurse placed the girl back on the bed and inspected the damage. It was serious.

“Doctor!”, still screaming worriedly, the nurse hurried out of the room.

It seemed like Robin would not attend the party after all.

A few moments later, Hikaru’s home

“Hikau! Hinami! Are you alright??”

A worried female voice resounded through the house. It was their mother. She had just gotten home when the earthquake started and hadn’t been able to go upstairs to check on her children since her balance had been completely thrown off by the tremors. She could only desperately shield herself from various plates, glass and other objects that fell from the shelves closeby. Now that it seemed to be over she desperately called out to them. But she didn’t get any reply.

Carefully she made her way through the house towards the stairs. Luckily their home hadn’t caved in.

Quickly she climbed up the stairs and entered the living room. She knew that’s where they probably had been before the disaster, playing their new game.

And surely enough she found them.

Both lying on the ground unconscious with the headset still covering their head, probably knocked out from falling from the couch they had been lying on.

“Hikaru!!”

She hurried over to their side and checked up on them. They were both breathing normally and their pulse was stable as well. There weren’t many items scattered around the room, only some plants had fallen over and some DVDs had fallen down, some of them hitting the two unconscious children in the process.

But apart from a few bruises nothing seemed to be wrong with them.

Breathing a sigh of relief their mother started on moving them outside. You never knew, the earthquake might start up again… and this time their roof might not hold.

FFX News, a few hours later

“… electricity has finally been restored in most of the major cities.”

One of the reporters, a tired looking elderly man had just finished his report and turned towards his colleague, an equally tired looking younger woman.

“Beth, I noticed you just got another report in, please enlighten us on the situation.”

“Of course, Henry. Sadly it seems that the estimations had been correct. The scale of the earthquake exceeds anything we have seen before. Relief units have come up with an estimate of about 500.000 confirmed deaths so far only within the US and over a million people are still missing. The numbers keep rising as we speak."

"So the question everyone is asking now is… why haven’t specialists been able to warn us about a natural disaster of this scale….”

One day later, an unknown area in NeoPangea

A girl was walking across the grass barefoot. She continued on playfully, sometimes turning, sometimes jumping as she hummed a small tune happily.

Now and then she stopped and crouched down to stare at a flower or small insect in wonder. She was running around a field full of the most beautiful flowers, all in full bloom.

She herself looked quite orinary, a little cute maybe with her white hair and yellow eyes. The only part that really stood out was the white dragon tattoo on her dark skin that coiled around the left side of her body.

Then she suddenly heard some rustling and turned around. There she saw a tall figure standing in the shadow of the trees just outside the field.

“You are back.”, she addressed him quietly, but somehow her voice carried over to him clearly.

„Yes, milady.“, the voice of the hooded figure was deep and rough and he seemed to dislike talking. Nonetheless he addressed her respectfully. He bowed deeply towards the girl but did not dare to leave the shadows of the forest. It was the leader of the mysterious figures that had met up within the old cyclops hideout earlier.

„That means you were successful, I assume?“ It was a rhetorical question. The girl knew full well of what had happened, but she still awaited his report.

„Of course, milady“, he simply replied, “after all you personally have instructed us on the plan.”

A smiled formed on her lips. A dark and cruel grin that was as far from her earlier demeanor as a snail from the sky. The smile of a predator.

Then she started laughing.

It was a nasty laugh, a laugh that even caused the shadow to shiver in fright.

“Good, very good…”, her voice was now deeper and she turned around and around in crazed ecstasy, dancing around in a circle.

She stretched both of her arms out on the sides and continued laughing, a gruesome aura spread from her tender figure as she went, decaying the flower field around her. The corruption in the air caused the flowers around her to wither and burst into black ash within seconds. The circle of dead and withering plants around the girl continued to spread until the whole flower field around her had turned into ash.

She stopped laughing and turned one last time to face the shadow, not minding the dead ash below her feet. Then she crouched down and stared at the ash curiously, letting it rinse through her hands.

“Nemesis”, she addressed him again, “last time those ignorant fools didn’t react to our warning. Do you think they will take us seriously this time?”

“That stands without doubt, milady. This time it isn’t possible for them to ignore us.”

„Hahahaha... you are right. After all they have proof they cant hush up this time…”

With ice cold eyes the girl got up and walked towards the shadow with an expressionless face.

“We are leaving.”, she simply said and walked past him.

“Of course…”

FFX News

“Welcome back to FFX newsand lets get straight to the point."

"The catastrophe that has been affecting the whole world. Specialists have determined the origin of the earthquake to be the pacific ocean and are extending a warning to all cities and towns close to the shore, there is a high chance of tsunami like waves reaching the coasts within the next few days. Please take appropriate precautions."

"Relief forces are still working 24/7 to save even one more life from the ruins of collapsed buildings but the situation looks grim. Confirmed deaths have reached the 2 million mark and over 1,5 million people are still missing. Over 500.000 people have been saved from the debris with serious injuries, causing hospitals to be filled to their capacity…"

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Wooohooo~

Sorry this chapter was what I'd call 'all over the place' xD Also finally our villain made her appearance!

I hope you enjoyed it! :D

With that my reserves are exhausted and I can go back to actually writing new stuff! Yaaay! xD

See you next time, hunsies xD

Edit2: I have noticed the appearance of our villain was described wrongly! Corrected! I underlined it in the story for you!

EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here

Some character sketches and a map have been added.

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