Old familiar sound effects and tone rang nostalgic senses of memories in the ears of now twenty-five year old Michael Raden. In the ever so popular online MMORPG he was Ko_Inuyasha. With the file upload and reboot of his computer complete, he was now reassuming that identity. It was nearly a month ago that his entire restaurant was blown sky high.
The restaurant on the first floor, his office on the second. He was playing “The World” there as usual, his seemingly endless battle against Trent and his attempts at rescuing Sekai from her comatose state was seemingly consuming him. At that very moment he was battling the daughter of his most hated enemy in an attempt to keep them from hacking into the computer systems that ran his entire kitchen below. The battle was fierce and painful and though Ko made it past the Long Arm AI, he was too late to stop Trent from using the ALTIMIT OS to blow him sky high.
The was only enough time to leap out the second story window. His body flew across the block and into a fire escape on another building. He bounced off of the metal rails and landed on warm city concrete before passing out. Suffering from a concussion, broken leg, fractured arm, and four broken ribs, the man was hospitalized for the entire month while his wife handled the reconstruction.
He was lucky, in a way. It was unanimously decided that the explosion was caused by a fault in the ALTIMIT OS that caused a gas leak. When his walk in freezer clicked on the entire store blew. Insurance paid for everything in one of the quickest payouts that CC Corp. had ever made.
Now, though still recovering from his injuries, he returns to “The World” and his quest to save his friend.
**
As soon as the Heavyblade set foot in Mac Anu he found himself being called over by a familiar face. Reikan, another Heavyblade and kind of Ko's mentor in this world. He's 6'2” with wavy, ear length, aged black hair and deep crimson eyes. His tattered beige cloak flapped in the wind behind him, held down only by the plates of black and gold rimmed armor, as he approached up the stairs leading to the chaos gate.
”Hey kid, recovered already in just a month? Ah, it ain't too bad right? I was once blown up too.”
As annoying as ever, the old man always acted as if it were his purpose in life to make it look like everything Ko had done had been done over and over again, specifically by him.
”What do you want Reikan? I'm busy.”
”Busier than you think,” he reached in a took Ko by the brown beaded rosary worn around his neck. ”Did you forget your restriction? Ten hours a week minimum or that Rue girl dies. You missed your dead line.”
The was a moment of shock in Ko's eyes as he pulled the beads from the other Heavyblade's hand and reached to pull his sword off his back.
”If you've touched either of them-”
”Relax, relax.” He put his palms out as if displaying that there wasn't any blood on them. ”I managed to work out a deal for you with Jadin. Balance must be maintained and all that. Anyway, to clear your debt you're gonna have to do a job for you patron.”
Ko lowered his arm and relaxed as much as he could around this old man. ”What job?”
”Seems a monster wandered out of its jurisdiction. The deity in charge of it can't be contacted right now so, as it's in Vak territory, Jadin gets to do with it as she wants. And she wants it dead. You're to go to Sinking Corrupted Mirror World, it'll be the only monster there so have fun.”
Fun, right. Reikan went walking into the crowded Mac Anu streets while Ko turned around to face the Chaos Gate. For the player, inputting keywords was done by using a menu screen. After that, you verify by calling the words out. After that, you're warped out to the field you chose. It was possible for others to be there but the word combinations were so outlandishly vast that it was rare for more than one party to be in the same field at the same time. This mostly only occurred with special events and the famous Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground in Delta server.
The field that Ko had been sent to was run down city, swallowed in white desert, bathed in moon and star light. The stone buildings, once towering monoliths, were now five to twenty feet tall pillars. Sand blasted and worn brown, the buildings barely looked like they were meant to still be standing. Oh well, desert and lava fields were indeed Vak territory and their field affinity gave Ko's personal affinity a boost. It could be taken that it was there that he was at his strongest.
The mini-map in his top left corner gave an under detailed overview of the field. Gray squares to show buildings, gold dots for monster portals- if there were any. A single red dot in the heart of the all but buried city signaled where the wayward monster was roosting. A quick look in his inventory showed that Ko was armed to the teeth in firepower but lacking when it came to recovery items. His usual strategy, hit them as hard as he can for as long as he can and don't give them a chance to breathe. He's also one of the few heavy class characters that are capable of performing summonings. The rare head item called Dragon's Head and an arsenal of hard to come by summon scrolls granted him some of the heaviest hitting spells he could possibly obtain. He's a powerhouse, through and through.
”Lets get this over with.” A half grudgingly sigh followed as he began to plow his bare feet tracks through the sand.
He had been out of the game for so long that nostalgia mixed with new feelings. Somethings seemed better that he remembered, new experiences. Others seemed worst than he remembered, not living up to what he missed. It was strange how only a month away could change his view. He even had his doubts as to whether or not he could fight the way he used to. The game, once feeling as much like reality as his flesh and blood body, now felt so... detached.
Regardless, he came around the corner of one of the buildings and laid his eyes on the mother of all beasts. A half rotted corpse, slithering with black worms and purple maggots feeding off of the necro flesh reaching a building's width in length. Thick, rich, venom leaked from its mouth and every other rotting hole on its face. A miasmic mist and thick stench made from the decaying corpse covered the entire area around it.
”Parasite Dragon?!” The strongest monster in the Delta server, a Parasite Dragon. ”Shit on a stick.” Normally, Parasite Dragons are taken down by teams of three or four. Sometimes an entire clan of newbies will hunt down this thing but rarely will one be taken down by a single player.
His joints crackled and popped, his muscles tensed and relaxed with the intervals of his deep breathing. He looked down on the back of the beast from the roof of a building. His legs bounced up and down slightly as he syked himself up for the event. He took the huge blade off of his back like it were a paper towel roll being played with by a child. His breath became excited, slight grunts and harsh exhales mixed in with it all. When the moment of clarity hit him, he leaped with out hesitation or pause. His baggy clothing flapped in the wind as he fell along the building side. His feet pressed hard against the flat surface of the building, pushing him harder, driving him faster with each pounding step. There was a brief moment of silence before impact, a second that was like a still frame locked in his mind.
On collision he roared out deeply, the massive falchion wielded in both hands drove heavily into the beast's rotted back with force enough to send the monster to its belly. The dragon's gargled roar mixed with the player's battle cry as it was slashed repeatedly in the back. A tail only half covered in purple flesh whipped up from behind, snapping around for the nuisance. Ko made a graceful back flip over the limb, shooting off Vak Rom's like they were candy onto oozing flesh and dusty bones. On his landing, a swarm of worms squished under his feet. Their slippery bodies took his balance away and sent him falling from the beast's body until he grabbed hold of a flab of skin. The fleshy exterior tore away with him falling and like a vine swinging jungle scene the Heavyblade swung around the body and got back on top on the other side.
Though proving nimble, the crimson clad Heavyblade failed to dodge the tail's return trip. With a single flick the man was sent flying into the side of the building he had just leaped from. He didn't give himself the time to even bounce off completely as he shoved his hands into the wall to push himself out of the way of a dark blast of Anid energy coming out of the dragon's mouth.
As he rolled on the ground through the white sand, a yellow scroll unwound. When he shoved himself to his feet, the white mist of tiny rocks swirled horizontally around his form with the yellow sheet of paper sliding through the air vertically.
”You wanna play like that! Fine! Lanceor!
A hart, bathed in golden light that illuminated the darkness, burst from the golden wave of the scroll as though it were leaping out of the brush of the forest. His regal posture showed a proud beast with tiny white gems for eyes. The light surrounding him condensed down into bolts of electricity jumping between his twenty point antlers, before leaping off after the Parasite Dragon. The target beast was large, fat, and half decayed. His dodging ability- null and void. It was easily dissolved in the overwhelming golden light.
When Lanceor left, Ko, figuring his job was done, turned and began to walk away from the battle position to leave this corrupted field. There was a sudden whip crack in the air and before the crimson Heavyblade could even manage to turn around he was grabbed around the waist by a thick rotted purple tail. The dragon's roar was long and loud, breaking free from the glow of Rai wave. It seemed that Lanceor had served more to finally get the Parasite Dragon to fight seriously.
The Heavyblade was violently whipped around in the air before smashed through one of the sand covered buildings. While he was still trapped in the tail's grip, hurled inside the building, the dragon began letting off one Anid blast after another. There was no real aim or direction to them, just that he was causing destruction. Ko took his blade in hand and sliced into the tail holding him. Without the ability to swing fully though his blade stopped halfway in the cut. When the tail dragged him back out of the building, his sword fell to the ground- far out of reach. He was then slammed on the ground, sand billowing up around his body. The tail left his body for time long enough for him to begin crawling after his sword when the beast stomped down on his back.
He screamed out in violent pain, his hand reaching in vain for a sword at least ten feet out of reach. As poisonous saliva dripped around his pinned body, it seemed like the end. Kira told him the he should PM her if he ever needed help. It seemed a little late for that right now. But... Damn it all!
Against his pride and his relentless need to do everything on his own he pulled up the flashmail menu and sent out a distress call to Sekai's account.
**Area Corruption – Flashmail Service Unavailable**
The character behind Ko_Inuyasha gave a nervous sort of “I can't believe it” smile before screaming at his screen.
”You piece of junk! I don't believe this! You know how much trouble I went through to send that damn message? Fuck you, you piece of shit!” The character Ko wriggled and screamed bloody profanities under the foot of a seemingly confused mindless beast.
”Screw this bullshit!” With feverish claws he drug into the beast's leg until he grabbed hold of something solid. The monster tried to pull it's leg up to free it's self but the Heavyblade stuck to him like a wild flower seed. With a sinister grin he began to release his crimson Vakz wave. ”Vulcan!” Flames spiraled out of his wave, encompassing the entire leg and half of the Parasite Dragon's body. ”I'll see you burn into nothing!”
A winding dragon erupted from the flames. His gold and ruby scales shined so brightly that it broke the night sky. A bright blue sky shined down as Ko's summon burned the land with searing heat and roaring flames. As if the two dragon's were contesting against each other their roars echoed out as one before the summon departed of that world. With half it's body completely burned to ashes, the Parasite Dragon fell to be half buried under sand resuming it's silver color under recovering moon light.
Ko was walking away again, finally being done with this bullshit job. He grabbed his sword out of the sand, swiped it once in the air to get some of the silver speckles off, and slammed it onto whatever invisible force it was that held it there. He raised his hand into the air, ready to leave the field, when there was the sound of something squirming behind him. His hands fell to his side, his clothing rustling as he lost his posture and took a whining expression on his face. He slowly turned around to see a mass of black worms riving over top of each other as they began to slowly reform the dragon's rotted body.
”Oh, come on!”
He rolled to the side as the leg made out of black slugs came crashing down. On his feet he slashed through the ankle and then slid his blade up the calf. Black slugs and chunky blood splashed over the silver sand with the crimson Heavyblade's every slice. He moved down the soft underbelly of the creature, destroying everything he could. At the back end, the tail cracked through the air only to be cut off short with Ko finishing the work he started earlier on that limb. There was no stopping the blast of Anid wave that crashed into his back through.
He screamed bloody murder as the focused blast drove him through an exploding sand dune. The head of the creature stuck out of the back of the, now completely encompassed by the black slugs, body. The living pile of organisms, feeding off of the necronic flesh, twisted in on its self and turned the body around while the head stayed in place. Ko lifted his white haired head out of the sand enough to take in the sight before letting it fall back down. He took a bottle of a healing potion out of his hitoe and splashed it on his face to recover some of the damage. All of what he had done to this creature and it still had the strength to take out almost all of his health in one shot. It was no wonder people attacked this thing mobs.
With deep grunts coming from his gut he peeled himself out of his whole. His crimson hitoe was burning away with deep purple miasma smoking around his body. He reached over his chest with his left hand and tore the smoking pile of rags from his body. He grabbed one of his scrolls out of his inventory. The parchment vanished with a gust of wind escaping from the Heavyblade's feet; the Ap Do status effect now on his avatar.
Another blast of Anid wave came out of the beast's mouth only to have Ko completely out maneuver it. Sand blasted into the air with Ko's zig-zagging line. His pass under the creature left it splitting wide open. Tentacles made from the black oozes merging together chased after the Heavyblade. His sword cut through all it could as he dashed around. One manages to grab his foot and throw him into the air. A blast from the dragon's mouth quickly shoots into the air after him. A pair of bright white wings exploded from his back in time enough to give him the maneuverability he needed to dodge the wild black and red beam. He screamed out rage driven cries as he plummeted down from the sky. Tentacles reached up, clipping the sides of the Heavyblade. The sword, gripped tight in his hand, exploded out with branches electricity.
”Rai Drive!”
Upon connection black chunks of the creature flew into the air with streaks of lightning blasting out after them. One giant blast came to fruition that completely cut the beast in half and this time, finally, Ko turned his back on the beast with it truly dying.
He reached his hand into the air, ready to leave the field behind, when he suddenly dropped to his knees. His heavy breathe panted at the night sky. The cool wisp of the air kissed his sweating body as steam ran across him. A layer of teleportation rings ran down a silhouette before Ko that transformed into Reikan. The older and stronger Heavyblade looked around the field with a sort of prideful grin on his face.
”You. What's going on?”
Black eyes looked down on the battle damaged Ko with an inquisitive eyebrow raised.
”That's so weird, I though you had already gone through this. Have you been slacking off on me?” Ko reached out in an attempt to grab his mocking superior by the collar but fell back down into the sand. He rolled over and pushed out his chest as though something were trying to break out of it. His mouth opened like it was trying to scream but nothing came out.
”Well, I guess no one really explained the powers you were getting with that contract you signed. What you're experiencing right now is you 'Inner Flame.' It's a living flame now carried in your chest. Not just your character's chest but your's as well.”
Mixed with pain there was an expression of confusion on his face as Ko tried to work a clarity in his mind long enough to figure all of this out.
”Don't bother thinking about it, no one really understands how “The World” and the real world are linked so intricately. Point is, this thing inside you will grow stronger as you grow stronger. It will threaten to devour you at every moment and only realize this goal if you weaken. In exchange it links your 'consciousness,' the consciousness of the player, with your 'body,' the body of the character.”
He was about to turn away when he remembered something else. He turned back with his index finger held up.
”One more thing.”
A red rune appeared across the sand and suddenly Ko was bathed in a heat he had never felt before. Heat pouring through his body, filling his being. It was like every cell in his existence was reaching out and drinking it in. All of his pain seemed to melt away in this warmth that he was devouring and being devoured by.
”Hotter than a desert or a lava flow, this is a 'territory.' An embodiment of the power in your chest. What you're actually basking in is temperatures well over a thousand degrees Celsius. It'll choke and strangle the air from all but the most hardened people. Also,” he walked over to the edge of the rune and knocked on the air as though it were a physical wall. It even vibrated with a red glow on contact with his knuckles. ”AI wont be able to leave this area but players can with sprite ocarinas, exiting the field, or turning off their game. It'll probably imprison those people that are trapped in this world also. It wont drop unless you allow it or if you're dead. With your territory open, you are most connected to 'The World.' If your character dies in this space, you'll die too; remember that. There's some other stuff but, I'm sure you'll figure them out as you go along.”
His territory receded with the rune shrinking back down under his feet. He gave a half hearted wave of his hand to say, “later,” to his “apprentice” before leaving the field. Ko stood up from his knees and left the field after him. Though, when he got to Mac Anu, Reikan was no where to be seen. He scuffed the ground with his bare feet before turning to the Recorder NPC. Conversation with the NPC saved his game status, restored his avatar's appearance, and recovered his depleted Hp and Sp.
He began looking around the city when he noticed someone staring at him. An awestruck little girl with chin length white hair and bright big golden-brown eyes. Dressed in stone embedded armor over golden trimmed green clothing, she began to take on a big smile. The green wave markings on her cheeks were pushed out as she ran after him. Her arms spread wide as she leaped into his body, her arms wrapped around his neck as she almost giggled and cried and cheered at the same time.
He put her down on the ground with a wary sort of look on his face. She seemed to have forgotten her inhibitions but Ko was still a little uncomfortable being so close to her. After all, he was still blaming himself for her... unique situation.
”Welcome back.”
She said to him with the biggest, most genuine smile he had seen in a very long time.
”Good to be back.”
***
Deep inside the stronghold of a certain High Priestess, Reikan came walking on an exchange. Jadin, a Fist Fighter woman with fiery red hair, orange belly dancer type attire, and golden bracelets and anklets, was receiving a broadsword marked down with arcane looking runes to another woman. This one was a Whip Master with thin black clothing barely staying on her pale skin and black hair running down to the small of her back.
”Isn't this your old reikan? Where's the new one that has Kirayne so intrigued?”
Jadin snapped a look at the woman and barked an order.
”Our business is done!”
It seemed the Vak Priestess refused to be played with in front of her subordinates. It's not like Reikan didn't know the relationships between the six women though. The Ani one seemed like she didn't care either way though. She shrugged and took her leave of the place.
”A steep price to receive, just to spare the life of one girl. She's special to all of you, isn't she? You probably wouldn't have taken her life anyways.” She turned her burning look at Reikan, almost sneering with his wrinkled nose.”Even so, he took down a monster from that woman without even knowing about his powers. It was impressive.”
”The price was equal to the accord. If he had lost he would've died. Kirayne would've lived and I wouldn't have gotten Alondight. If he ran, Kirayne would've been killed and I wouldn't get Alondight. But he won, so I won. He lives and Ciar pays to keep her favorite alive. Fair trade.”
”Whatever you say, princess. If there's no other duty you have for me, I'll be retiring for the evening.”
The armored Heavyblade gave a half hearted bow, his arrogance and defiance was apparent. It was also apparent that he intended to pass this down to his disciple.
