Fufufufu... since the doc told me to stay the hell home i had time to write another chapter! Shishishi!

Thanks to Dan for proof-reading it for me! Having someone else look over my work really takes a weight off me!

On that note... my art is kind of bad... sooooo.....

I would appreciate if someone who got inspired by my story and drew out my characters/ a scene of the story! I'm excited how you guys imagine my world! Please post your ideas and art in here

Now enjoy! :D

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A few miles off the shore of the pacific, 8 hours ago

“Got the recording going?”

““Yes, sir.””, two of the divers answered.

“Let’s get the party started then. Everyone in position!”

On that remark of their leader all 9 other divers got into position to dive, 4 on each length side of their small ship. The leader then went over to the smaller group and sat on the edge with them.

“Final check.”, he simply said, causing everyone to go over their equipment one more time.

They each confirmed everything was in order. Then the leader faced one of the divers on the other group.

“Lieutenant, you’re in command of your group now. Don’t forget the plan. Proceed with caution. Don’t forget – your life comes first regardless of what you find.”

“Understood.”, he confirmed with a salute.

“”Dive!””, both of them then ordered and with a *splash* all 10 divers then rolled backwards over the edge of the boat and broke the surface of the water.

They dove down about 50 meters and checked over their equipment again, slightly adjusting anything that might have gotten out of place while they broke water and confirmed everything was fine with hand sign.

The lieutenant then led his group west, while his superior head north. They had planned the search area beforehand. This operation would take a few days but they had to make sure nothing else was out there.

For the next few hours the divers were combing through the water, returning to the boat every hour to warm up and then changing the direction they headed in slightly.

This would be their last dive for the day. The lieutenant knew that if he and his group pushed on, exhaustion would kick in and they would risk making a fatal mistake in their dive… be it in overlooking something in the water, or simply not checking vital parts of the equipment.

This time they headed straight southwest.

They had noticed a slight anomaly in the current there last time, just before taking a break so he had decided to return here and check it out. He had informed his superior of their find and had gotten clearance to investigate the phenomenon more in depth. After all if even they as ordinary soldiers noticed that there was something wrong with the current something was wrong. And they needed to know it wasn’t something dangerous.

He looked at his wrist where a watch-like GPS system was blinking every second. He confirmed their location. They had reached the place.

So they spread out in a small circle, making sure they always stayed within reach of two group members and worked their way around the area.

For minutes they found nothing, but then a beeping in their earpiece informed them that one of them had found something, calling the others over.

They all headed towards the diver that had caused the mini alarm.

The diver waited till everyone was there and then pointed towards what he had found. At first they couldn’t make out anything out of the ordinary. But seeing as his colleagues didn’t make it out he moved a bit closer to the anomaly and switched up his flashlight, pointing it to the most obvious spot he could find.

It was hard to describe it. It was like the space of the area he was pointing to was blurred and warped and shifted. The area had an effect similar to the blurriness you saw the are in when it was extremely hot, just the effect was way more obvious. Towards the centre of the affected area it felt like the space itself was bending outside, creating what looked like a tunnel of water.

They had never seen anything like it.

But despite a nagging feeling of dread in his gut, the lieutenant motioned for his team to investigate the tunnel before them. It wasn’t very long, in fact it seemed to just be a few meters so he didn’t hesitate to motion for his team to pass through it. If they swam into it vertically they would barely fit through after each other, seeing as how small in diameter it was.

So they all entered the tunnel, with the diver carrying the camera going last.

That was when they lost the video feed.

“Guooooooonnnn!”, only a deep voice resounded through the audio afterwards. It was similar to the sound a whale would make, yet very different.

Brian Eden, still sitting across from Captain Morgan in his office watched the video with a complicated expression. At the end his face lost all colour as he watched the video cut off and heard the mysterious sound before the communication ended.

He knew that sound. He knew it quite well.

After all he and his colleagues had spent countless hours tuning all the different monster voices while creating their game.

After staring at the black screen blankly for a few moments he finally opened his mouth.

“Captain…”, he simply said quietly “if that was real and if it was a monster from NeoPangea, I indeed know what it was. And if they encountered it I’m afraid your men might already be dead.

Presently, back in game

“Why have you come, child of Lilith?”

“Lord, I-I apologize for coming so suddenly…”, Zayvin started.

“Don’t mind it.”, he spoke quite shortly, reflecting the tiredness that showed in his face from recent events.

“I-I will keep this short then.”

Zayvin explained their situation truthfully, how they were actually from a different world and most of them had a family waiting for them at home. She also added how she had been looking for a friend who had wanted to join her today and asked if he knew anything about it.

“I see… so that is how it was. But why do you believe I would know anything about it?”

“I-I’m sorry if I sound imprudent, milord, b-but you seemed like you were h-hesitating to tell us something… earlier… so I was wondering… if that might have anything to do with it… maybe.”, Zayvins voice grew quieter and quieter towards the end, worrying she had offended the lord with her honest reply, but he simply sighed deeply and nodded.

“Very well, since you have picked up on it either way, I shall entrust you with this information, even though I cannot be certain it will be of any help to you. However”, his gaze grew sharp at those words, “I have a task for you to complete in exchange. Will you lend me a hand?”

“W-what kind of task, if I may ask?”

“In fact it is related to the information I was going to tell you. Do not worry, it is not an impossible task, I give you my word.”

Zayvin bit down on her lips and thought back to earlier…

After she had separated from Suitcase Zayvin had headed back towards the plaza after all and asked him to shout out for ‘Paris’. She had been too shy to shout out to everyone so he had readily agreed after she explained the situation. A few players had reacted but none of them were the nurse she was looking for. Maybe she had logged off before the earthquake since she couldn’t find her? That would be for the best. Yea, that had to be it.

The whole city had been cleared up, including the area where new players arrived. So if she had been online she must have been here somewhere… Seeing as all players in the city were gathered here right now and she wasn’t among them that meant she wasn’t online.

Thus biting back her unease in her heart Zayvin headed towards the castle.

“A-alright. I agree.”, Zayvin trusted the Lord. He always wanted the best for his people and he did consider the players to be a part of his citizens. So she believed him when he said the task wouldn’t be impossible and was willing to take it on if she got any information on the situation, she was especially worried about what happened to the nurse, seeing as she hadn’t heard anything. Plus, seeing as he was determined to get her to agree it seemed to be something he considered very important.

“Thank you.”, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he started his explanation.

“We usually get notified by Lilith before she sends new children up to us. Before the earthquake we had been informed that 153 new children of Lilith… or shall I call them devils from another world? It matters not. 153 new ones were scheduled to arrive around the time of the earthquake. From what you have told me it is safe to assume your friend was one of them. However, as I have told you earlier, the earthquake caused the connection to hell or your world to be severed completely.”

“I had attempted to stabilize it myself, but I couldn’t both reinforce the cavern system as well as the connection, so I chose to concentrate on using my power to keep the cavern from caving in over the city instead. I apologize for my powerlessness.”

“N-no…”, Zayvin said weakly. After all she couldn’t blame him for his decision if she looked at the situation objectively. “C-considering the situation… it was the right thing to do.”

“Thank you.”, he nodded at her in appreciation and then went on with his explanation. “However, even though I couldn’t reinforce the link, I did manage to watch over it in my mind and sensed the movements of our new arrivals in the corridor. Usually the devils on the way up from hell would perish as a result of the destruction of the link. However, I did not feel their life force disappear. Rather than that I noticed a strong energy surrounding them and teleporting them somewhere just before the link was cut. Where they were taken, I cannot say. I can also not be sure if they survived after that.”

He looked at Zayvin with a sad expression on his face, obviously regretting that he could not tell her more.

“I-I see. T-that was plenty, thank you very much, milord!”

He held up a hand to stop her from talking.

“I’m not finished quite yet. Let me come to the main point.”

Zayvin nodded, her heart was already heavy. ‘Paris… what happened to you…’

“Zayvin.”, he addressed her, snapping her out of her thoughts, “when our city first got raided by the other races you were present, correct?”

Her eyes widened at that when she remembered that incident. Images flashed past in her mind despite her efforts to push them back

Zayvin and her party quickly flew over to the unusually brightly lit city and could soon make out the sounds of battle. Swords were clashing and they noticed arrows flying through the air. All of this was mixed with the sounds of burning fire and pained screams of the wounded.

‘What the…’, she thought to herself. What was going on here??

The scene changed towards a tall figure standing in front of some devil children. He raised his sword, mercilessly cutting down the crying kids pleading for their lives.

Zayvin quickly shook her head to clear her head of the memories and bit down on her lips. That attack had been like a wake-up call for her as well as a curse. They had died a lot in that raid. Afterwards her companions had deleted their characters and restarted as another race, leaving her alone. So she had started training desperately. Telling herself that she would not let that incident repeat itself, that she would become strong enough to protect her comrades.

“Y-yes…”, she finally muttered. “I was.”

“How do you think they found our city?”

“Huh?”, she stared at him dumbly. She had never thought about it.

“We are nhabitants of the darkness. We live underground, the cavern system surrounding our city is as complex and confusing as it gets, so how did they find us?”

Zayvin started thinking intently at that, but there were only 3 answered she found, none of them seemed very probable. Either they had simply been lucky, they had searched until finding it or somebody had led them there.

The Lord nodded.

“Good. But not quite correct. It was because of the link.”

At that Zayvin tilted her head questioningly, not understanding what he wanted to say.

“The link is a space constructed purely of magic. It emits a very large amount of energy. Any magician with high enough skill proficiency who knows what to look for can easily find it. It’s something that is impossible to conceal.”

“Ah!” It was true. She had sensed a large amount of Mana in the area around the spawn point, but hadn’t really thought of examining it. To think it was because of the spawn point…

“That is why I could easily tell that the other races on the continent also possessed such a link. And all of the links that existed before the earthquake have been severed.”

He waited for a few moments for his words to sink in.

“T-that means… all links before… are there any links… after?”

He nodded.

“I sensed an aura similar to the previous links forming. However, it feels very different. I have never seen or heard of such anything like it… the energy is still very unstable, but after observing it for a longer time… it seems to be some kind of link.”

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

I've also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters

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