“H-hello!” A young female voice squeaked loudly over the plants of Taeyal’s garden. Beetzart hadn’t noticed her approach, instead was intensely focused on tending to the plants, but her voice grabbed his attention and he shot up to his feet.

“Hello, young miss, how may I help you?” He spoke politely to the young human female player in front of him. The manner of his speech threw her off for a moment.

“O-oh, yes, hi. My name is Amlie… I’m looking for Renault, I was told he would be around here in the game. Is that you Renault?” She asked Beetzart, confused.

“Huh, me? No, of course not. I’m his Grandfather. There he is now!” Beetzart motioned down the street at the approaching gnome. Amlie smiled and waved down Renault immediately, rushing over to him.

“Renault! Hi! It’s me Sherry, Zuon’s little sister, you know?” She grinned childishly as she approached him. “Holy moly, you are such a high level!”

“Your brother’s higher… What are you doing here? Zuon finally let you use the Simbox?” Renault smiled back.

“Nope, I got my own for my birthday. How do you like my character? I’m thinking of being a wizard, so Zuon said I should ask you for some tips!” She replied excitedly.

“Eh… well…” Renault paused, looking around nervously, but before he could give an answer, he got a party invite from his friends list from Seraxus, and several messages.

“Yo Renault, we need you asap, shit is getting crazy!” Seraxus wrote to him.

“Renault, get to the Puagas capital, stat, shit is going down!” Hajax messaged as well.

“Ah, looks like they need me right now, something’s happening…” Renault said as he accepted the party invite. He could see a plethora of debuffs from various classes on his now four party members of Hajax, Zuon, Seraxus and Gambit, but it was clear Hajax was doing his best as his intermediate cleric class to remove the debuffs. Seeing the sheer amount of debuffs shocked him, there were so many that his Sage skill could recognize, that it almost took over his entire peripheral vision until he minimized the status window of each of them.

“What the hell…” Renault mumbled in disbelief as he began channeling his portal spell.

“Ooh a portal, where are you going? Should I come too?” Amlie replied excitedly.

“I’m porting to Avilon, the capital city of Puagas. Normally I’d say yeah, but I think it’s gonna be dangerous this time.” Renault replied.

“Oh, ok. Right, I’m still just at a low level.” She smiled awkwardly as she watched the portal open. Once the spell runes finished forming, it was possible to look through the doorway present in Pellagrove and see into the town square of Avilon, the capital city of Puagas. It was a gigantic metropolis filled with huge towering gray brick buildings and green flags depicting a winged horse visible nearly everywhere. It was noticeably void of NPCs or players, however.

“Cool…” Amlie said in awe as Renault stepped through.

“Catch you later!” Renault said before closing the portal. “Where are you guys exactly?” Renault asked through his party interface.

“The Skyport, just outside the city limits.” Hajax replied. Renault was about to ask exactly which direction that would be, but before he could, he heard and then saw a large booming explosion of red flames rise upwards into the sky in the distance, and knew exactly where he needed to be. He rushed through the barren city streets of the Capital, passing by the occasional NPC gawking out of their window to see the source of the commotion, all clearly terrified about what was happening just outside the city.

When Renault reached the outer city gates he saw that several hundred NPC guards were on duty, fully armed and on alert, manning the 10 ft walls with crossbows, longbows, ballistae all at the ready, aimed in the direction of the commotion. Renault was at least relieved that at the moment, the city and its soldiers were still friendly and not involved in whatever was happening. Passing through the threshold of the city limits and entering the fields outside the city walls, in the distance he could see the Skyport Tower, built on the very edge of Puagas island itself, as beyond it, a ledge leading off Puagas island into the abyss could be seen.

It was not Renault’s first time seeing the edge of the island and the daunting black void that lay beneath, shrouded in black mist that occasionally crept up the skyline of the horizon. What shocked him more was the 3 Airships that were docked at the Skyport Tower, all firing down heavy artillery at the open fields that stood between the Skyport Tower, and the City limits of Avilon, a field no wider than a kilometer.

As the cannons and balista and other magical weapons fired down on the field, explosions of dirt and flame erupted into debris and dust all around them, making it difficult to see, but as Renault closed in, he saw flashes of white light and heard clashing blades all about the fields. Soon spotting 10, 20, upwards of 50 people battling it out, all focusing their attacks on his party members.

“GRAND SHELL!” Renault shouted out in a panic the moment he had a clear visual on his party, carefully placing a large translucent dome of magical energy so that it caught all of his party members inside. The moment it formed, the barrage of attacks began smashing against it and breaking apart, no longer hitting his allies.

“Nice, everyone group up.” Hajax commanded the others. “Keep that up for like 30 seconds so I can clean up all these debuffs.”

“Good timing Renault.” Seraxus smiled at him, then looked at his audience, and the now visible army of players and NPCs standing before them.

“What the hell is going on, who are all these guys?” Renault asked as his mana began to drain quickly from maintaining the shell shield.

“I’ll tell you who we are.” A player outside the shell spoke, stepping forward from the others. He had the symbol of Zues on his white cloth garments that hung over his iron armor. “We are the forces of light. We have received a quest from across the land, to rid Puagas of this dark creature that has been plaguing it as of late.” The level 34 player spoke, clearly playing a Paladin.

“You get that shit? Divine players on other islands have started getting quests to kill Seraxus.” Gambit said with glee.

“Not only that, looks like a buncha local players and some of the big Puagas guilds joined in. Look at all these guys lining up to get a piece of you, eh?” Hajax said as he continued to repeatedly cast dispelling magic on him and his allies.

“And yet, none of them stand a chance, hah!” Seraxus shouted out at the army of players now before him. It wasn’t just players though, as Renault spotted quite a few priest and cleric NPCs’ that seemed to have come along on the airships with the other players. He couldn’t help but let his jaw drop, seeing that players from other islands were getting quests already to fly to Puagas just because of the sword.

“We makin’ our own lore now, boys.” Seraxus shouted to his audience. “Leave this place.” He changed to a more theatrical voice. “This land belongs to the god of Hatred now.” He followed it with an evil cackle. Renault looked to see he now had a viewership in the hundreds of thousands, easily in the top 10 streams of The Shattered World online. Despite him being evil, he was getting massive viewerships, Renault couldn’t understand it, and at that moment, for just an instant, he felt the urge to let the shell spell end - that he was protecting the wrong people.

“How can you stand by and let this happen, you are a Cleric of the light as well, aren’t you?” The leading paladin asked Hajax as they could do nothing but bang on the Sage shell. Several of the magic users outside the shell attempted to dispel it, but due to Renault being such a high level sage, he was able to resist their dispels.

“Cleric of the light? Nah, check it.” Hajax waved his hands and shot a ball of black magic at Zuon, which healed him. “Even my healing spells are dark now. I’m a Cleric of Hatred.” He smirked proudly.

“You’re going to regret that. We know the secret of that sword. Once we vanquish you, you and your god of Hatred will lose all of its power.”

“Yeah, but, you gotta vanquish me first.” Seraxus winked.

“I’m just about finished here, you ready Renault?” Hajax said as he removed the final debuffs and casted several buffing spells on the party. Renault hesitated once more, seeing now that his party was all in the 50’s, he’d fallen behind from just sitting around Pellagrove leveling his sage skills.

“Y-yeah.” Renault took a deep breath, then canceled the shielding spell, and all hell broke loose with Seraxus leading the charge, swinging his black sword in hand wildly while his Battlemaster weapons levitated around him, attacking multiple foes at once. His skills with the weapons had improved massively since Renault had last fought him in the dungeon. He was now wielding and swinging all 5 of the floating weapons simultaneously while using the weapons in his hands. With careful positioning, it was almost impossible to imagine any attack could get past his parries as he knocked spells, blades, and arrows away using multiple weapons - and anything he hit with his black sword went down in a single hit, even when blocked by a heavily armored tank player using a shield.

Renault wasn’t allowed to just watch, though, as the hostility of the other players and NPCs was quickly directed to him as well, and he was forced to protect himself. It wasn’t a long battle, rather a massacre. The power of the Artifact weapon coupled with the supporting spells of Hajax and Zuon and Renault, and the flanking mobility of Gambit, made it so that despite their numbers, they didn't stand a chance.

Renault watched as the last few players were taken out and the remaining divine NPCs that had arrived with the airship began fleeing towards the city walls of Avilon.

“I warned ‘em, didn’t I? Now I’m even stronger than before.” Seraxus flexed to his audience and his party. “Still, it sucks, most of those guys I’d already killed with the sword before. Only like 20 of ‘em were new kills.” Seraxus sighed.

“Well, then, get those guys too, they’re good aligned right?” Hajax motioned to the last few fleeing Cleric NPCs running towards the Avilon city gates.

“Oh yeah, good point.” Seraxus held his sword out and began sprinting towards them.

“W-wait, Seraxus! They’re already giving up, it’s enough right? NPC’s don’t respawn and you said the sword won't even let them get rezzed.” Renault protested as he anxiously ran forward alongside him.

“Yeah, but they’re just NPCs. Relax.” Seraxus replied condescendingly as he got close enough to hit one of them. As he swung the black blade down on a fleeing male cleric NPC of level 15, a white translucent dome appeared around him, blocking the swing of the blade. Several things happened simultaneously - firstly, the damage of the blade hitting the shell spell that Renault had cast was redirected to Renault’s mana, and the damage was so high that it immediately drained Renault to 0 mana, causing him to stagger out of his run that he’d been doing to keep up with Seraxus. Seraxus on the other hand stopped his pursuit to glare angrily at Renault, while the NPC managed to get the last few feet he needed to enter the city limits of Avilon, putting him under the protection of the city guards alongside the other surviving divine NPCs.

“Yo what the hell, Renault?” Seraxus shouted at him.

“Not cool man, first you ditch us to level up your own skills, then when you finally come to help us out, you just gonna up and stop Seraxus from scaling up his sword?” Hajax joined in.

“C’mon, that's enough isn’t it? You’re already one shotting everyone. I bet you’d even one shot that top streamer guy, Makaroth. You don’t needa keep PKing people. There’s barely anyone playing on this island anymore ‘cause of you.” Renault replied as calmly as he could.

“Of course I could one shot him, too bad he ain't man enough to come here and fight me himself.” Seraxus spoke proudly to his audience, pausing for a moment. “But for some reason, he’s still on top, and I’m only in the top 10. It’s ‘cause the people wanna see real evil, right?” Seraxus concluded, barely directing his attention to Renault and instead focusing on the position of his livestream feed.

“Now that I think about it, the only reason we didn’t attack the NPCs so far is ‘cause of Renault, right? And you’re barely even hanging with us anymore.” Hajax commented, drawing attention back to Renault.

“Yeah, we barely got any scaling done lately ‘cause of that.” Gambit agreed, while Zuon stood back looking apprehensive at the situation.

“It’s because no one wants to play here, ‘cause you’re ruining the fun for everyone.” Renault shouted back, losing his cool now.

“Oh I disagree, I think I’m making it way more fun for everyone.” Seraxus smirked as he began walking forward again, this time towards the city gates with determination. As he approached, the guards of the city began to notch arrows and look towards him anxiously

“SEAL OFF THE CITY!” The city guard captain shouted suddenly, and in an instant, a portcullis dropped over the city’s entrance, followed by the large 8ft tall wooden doors being slammed shut behind it.

“What the hell, we didn’t even break any laws and they’re sealing us out?” Gambit shouted in disbelief.

“It’s because they’re not idiots, they’re not just NPCs, they can hear us talking and they see how dangerous you are.” Renault shouted back as Seraxus stopped several feet in front of the City gates, looking up atop the walls where several hundred armed guards were now standing, aiming their ranged weapons.

“You have broken no laws, you are welcome to enter this city, but only if you agree to leave that blasphemous blade outside. I have now seen first hand the evil that it carries and I will not have it within the city limits.” The captain of the guard shouted from atop the wall as he slowly paced between his soldiers.

“See what I mean? Just, stop with this, so we can go back to leveling up, y’know? Exploring dungeons, quests, ect.” Renault pleaded with Seraxus.

“Listen to this carebear. All that PvE and Lore has you missing out on the real action.” Seraxus waved him off dismissively. “If they’re not gonna leave the door open, I guess I gotta knock, huh guys? Let’s have a vote in the chat. Do we go back to ‘exploring’ and ‘adventuring?’” Seraxus asked his audience in a mocking tone. “Or do we redecorate Puagas in the name of the God of Hatred.” He growled in a jokingly deep voice.

This time, Renault was not so naive to expect anything other than the outcome that the poll got.

“There you have it Renault, looks like it’s time to redecorate.” Seraxus smirked. As he drew his blade this time, it flashed black energy and his other weapons appeared floating behind him.

“Open Fire!” The guard captain shouted, and a barrage of arrows fired down at Seraxus.

“GRAND SHELL!” Renault shouted after chugging down several expensive mana elixirs, wielding another large potion bottle of blue liquid in his right hand, ready to consume more. A translucent dome appeared, this time wrapped around only Hajax, Zuon and Gambit. Seraxus was caught off guard, glancing backward to see his party members contained within it, but he had no time to focus on it too much as the barrage of projectiles rained down on him, forcing him to fully utilize his 7 available weapons to get hit as little as possible - some shots piercing and doing very minor damage to his health.

“Yo what the hell, seriously Renault?” Hajax yelled angrily.

“I’m ending this, this sword’s making him stupid.” Renault shouted back.

“Seraxus, I can’t heal you through this shell, it blocks stuff from the inside and the out. You gotta hit it so it breaks.” Hajax shouted worriedly.

“Yeah I gotchu.” Seraxus nodded, turning from the wall of soldiers attacking him to turn his attention to the shell.

“Force warp!” Renault shouted just as Seraxus was about to get in swinging range of the shell. A gray bolt shot from his hands and collided with Seraxus, who tried to parry it with his sword, but it was a spell that took effect even when parried. The bolt exploded into a puff of gray mist that wrapped itself around Seraxus and caused him to vanish and reappear 10ft back towards the wall back into the barrage of projectiles, and away from the shell.

“So it’s like that?” Seraxus stopped in his tracks to glare at Renault. Renault simply glared back, utilizing a spell while concentrating on a channeled spell was difficult, something only a few classes could do. “You know you can’t beat me, man, you’re just a sage, you just got all those lore and support skills. The one being stupid here is you, gettin all bent up for some NPCs in a game.” Seraxus mocked as he moved around more of the barrage of attacks directed at him from the NPCs.

“Yeah, but I gotta try. Just cause you only think of them as NPCs, doesn’t mean everyone else does.” Renault replied back, gritting his teeth.

Present Day…

“I’m still mad at my brother…” Amlie said to Aegis as she, Aegis, Lina and Darkshot sat around Lina’s campfire while Aegis used the campfire to level up his cooking skills, the three were silently listening to Amlie’s story. “Zuon was complaining how boring the PvP was, he agreed with Renault. If he just took his side, they probably could have knocked that sword out of Seraxus’ hands and gone back to playing normally.”

“But that’s not what happened, huh?” Darkshot commented.

“N-no. Renault was good but Sage's aren’t made for fighting 1v1 and the NPCs didn’t do enough damage. He eventually ran out of mana and, well, Seraxus just added him to the sword. In the time Renault was logged out of the game, they destroyed the 3 nearest cities, leaving behind only Evil aligned NPCs. First Avilon, then the Mount Jitari base camp… then Pellagrove.” Amlie hesitated as they all stayed quiet.

“I got attacked too… I tried to help protect Taeyal, but... Zuon even told Seraxus to stop but he is obsessed with how many viewers he was getting from acting evil.” Amlie continued.

“What happened to Rakkan-Renault’s grandfather?” Lina asked worriedly.

“By the time they logged back in, Pellagrove was just ashes. I don’t know the details exactly, Renault didn’t say much but, his Grandpa passed away a few days after that. He tried to attack Seraxus for a long time in the game but never got close to winning, then he got into a fight with Seraxus at school and the parents stepped in and said they had to stay away from each other in and out of the game. Zuon suggested I switch islands too, so I told Renault he could come with me here since this is where Makaroth’s son was supposedly playing, and… well… that’s all I know.” Amlie finished.

Hearing the Makaroth’s son comment, both Lina and Darkshot looked to Aegis to see his reaction, but he had none, he continued an expressionless gaze at the meat and herbs he was in the process of cooking.

“So that’s why he got so mad, after he finally found people to play with again and had a bit of fun… only to find out you were a streamer.” Amlie explained.

“He’s planning on going to Battlemaster intermediate, right?” Aegis asked.

“Y-yeah.” Amlie nodded.

“He’s not done with Seraxus, is he?” Aegis asked her, looking her in the eyes. She broke eye contact immediately.

“I don’t think… no.” Amlie replied slowly. Aegis finished the recipe and added the food to his inventory, then stood up straight and stretched, while Darkshot and Lina stood up as well, Lina putting out the fire.

“What’re you thinking?” Darkshot asked.

“I’m thinking…” Aegis paused while looking at the sun setting over the village of Orm. “Where the hell’s my mom?” He sighed.