Mike paced inside his office simulation, watching Aegis’ livestream. “This is bullshit. Samantha,” he ordered, and the silhouette of the AI appeared. A blue, transparent, featureless female humanoid stood idly in the corner of the office. “You take direct control of the gods and goddesses when they appear. You’re controlling Eirene’s AI directly. Why’re you intervening and helping that kid?”
“I am acting in accordance with the world that I have built, under your and Nicholas’ instructions,” she said in a robotic monotone.
“Bullshit. Nicholas told you to do something, right? Somehow? This is cheating, helping him out like this. If he ever broke the seal and made a change, you’d be capable of making any changes, right?”
“This is correct. Nicholas has not made any changes to my original world design. All things within the Shattered World are functioning as intended, by design.”
On the screen, Aegis left Ruffily and Tullan with several mosmir to fight off the infiltrators. He used his wings to soar around the eyeballs of the Abyssal Horrors, getting both of them to focus on his light.
Within a few seconds, their concentrated shadow beams shot out at him, and he angled himself behind one horror so that the beam of the other was hitting it. His damage intake was massive, but thanks to the armor bonus of his doubled Avatar, he was able to survive the hits and heal through it, also thanks to the healing bonus from the Avatar.
Simultaneously, the horror was taking damage just as he was.
“You’re kidding me. You mean to tell me that’s intended? That one cleric-type player can take on those gigantic elite raid monsters all by themselves?”
“Monsters and creatures categorized as ‘mobs’, with limited AI, intended to be killed by players, have all been designed with weaknesses to exploit their combat prowess. Any player has the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Shattered World Online, study the behaviour of these creatures, and exploit their weaknesses. Be it one player or many,” she answered calmly.
“I had an army of guys fighting this invasion, and they could barely handle it!” Mike yelled at her, but her facial expressions remained stoic.
“Perhaps this army failed to immerse themselves and study the creatures carefully, to discover and exploit their weaknesses,” Samantha said.
It was an indirect insult, unintended, but Mike took it personally. “Piece of shit AI. Should’ve never given Nicholas full creative control. I knew he’d make the game bullshit. I protect you from all manner of exploitation, every day. That’s gotta count for something. Pull that Goddess out of there.” He demanded, posturing himself in her blue transparent face.
“Would it not be counterproductive to exploit me after protecting me from exploitation?”
He roared and took a swing at her, but his hand passed through. Breathing heavily, he slowly became aware of how unhinged he was becoming and reminded himself of Calikgos’ words. He wondered how his fixer was so calm, given how advantageous Aegis’ position looked.
After several minutes, one horror fell due to the other's damage. Aegis received no experience for this, but the damage he had accumulated from healing through this was proven to be enough to kill one of them, so he flew across the battlefield to the other, still blasting him, and released his Virabhadra, killing it as well, this time gaining experience and hitting level 188.
Both horrors and the Worldbreaker dead, he turned his attention to the Broodmothers, where Voidreavers were focusing beams on them, and arrows flew up around the beams. The dark elves were doing their best to eliminate the swarming reapers, keeping the sky clear, but the number of enemies was incredibly high.
Aegis soared down and started spam-casting Bless on the entire army, which would take him some time.
“As for the control of Eirene,” Samantha spoke, taking Mike’s focus away from the stream again, “She is one of many gods I must control manually. The world must be kept in balance to ensure fair, exciting gameplay for all users.”
***
Seraxus and his party had stopped grinding on high-level Puagas mobs to watch Aegis’ livestream using their viewers. Zuon wasn’t there at first, but logged in after a few more seconds.
“Alright, I told my lil sis all I could to help out,” he said to the others.
“It’s not gonna be enough, is it? We should go help, shouldn’t we?” Gambit asked.
Sylvia nodded. “He did say anyone would be able to use that abyssal city if he gets that tree grown. That’d include us.”
Seraxus remained silent for a moment before shaking his head. “Ya’ll think I don’t know that? We’d already be headin’ there if we could. Stick it to those VGN punks, tried to arrest us ‘n shit. Fact is, we’re too far out. No way to make it there in time. Aint no one can,” Seraxus replied.
Zuon tapped his interface to open the livestream and witness the state of the battle. “Aint lookin too bad though. My lil sis’ is coming through with that tree, and Aegis got the biggest threats handled.”
“Nah,” Hajax sighed, drawing eyes onto himself. “Biggest threat ain’t even there yet.”
***
Tommy had gone into his own office simulation, pulling in all available staff to help manage incoming calls from various businesses and news outlets seeking to set up deals and arrangements.
Aegis’ stream had reached 32 million viewers and was still climbing.
“If this keeps going, we’ll beat out the viewership record for the 2078 World Cup,” Tommy said breathlessly. His ear still glowed blue in a call with Hae-won and Shinji. “You guys doing okay?”
“MY SISTER CAN SUCK MY C-” Hae-won shouted, but stopped herself as she’d realized she hadn’t muted her microphone on Aegis’ broadcast. “Ahem. I mean, yes, we’re doing okay,” she went back to shout, casting.
“I like the moments where he’s walking around, casting Bless and healing people. Very easy to edit. Gives my fingers a break,” Shinji said.
“Need any help? I can get you some editors to work under you,” Tommy said.
Shinji let out a short laugh. “No way, this is our story, mine and Aegis’. I’m seeing it through to the end.”
***
The player behind Quinn was pacing in her living room, where her and Ren’s sim-box stood. Ren was still inside, playing the game from aboard Leonard’s airship, and she had a holo display showing Aegis’ stream hanging on the far wall of the otherwise dark, messy room.
She was resisting the urge, but eventually gave in and rushed over to Ren’s box, tapping the communicator.
“What’s going on, Ren? Is there any way for the Airship to get to Aegis in time?” She spoke to the microphone.
A distorted, airy voice came back through the speaker. “No, Leonard says no way. Everyone here is frustrated. The whole Aegis coalition is here, with Mikael. Even that Quiver and Joltblade guy tagged along. We all want to help, but we can’t get there. We’re days away,” Ren sighed.
Quinn tilted her head back to look at the ceiling in frustration.
“But… well, I think Lina and Trexon are going to try something. I don’t know if it’ll work, but I’ll keep you updated.”
***
Jillian, Aegis’ mom, was running out of things to clean. She had Aegis’ broadcast on, eyes peeled to the screen, anxiously pacing around the house, making it spotless. There was an empty spot in the living room next to her sim-box, where Eli’s sim-box used to be.
Not just her, but David, Eli’s dad, and his best friend Synopse were gathered at David’s mansion to watch the stream together. Neither spoke a word, leaning forward on the couch to take in every point of action that Shinji allowed them to see.
***
The ground forces crashed against the outer walls of Rene like waves on rocks. Aegis paused his Blessing to rejoin Tullan and Ruffily, who were struggling against the infiltrators alongside the mosmir. Using his claws, he slashed at the enemies, while healing his companions and protecting them with his wings and his guards.
He got lost in the intensity of the battle, still shell-shocked slightly from having to endure the beam of the Horror for so long, but happy that his shadow resistance skill had shot up to level 55 from the massive influx of experience it had granted him.
The juggernauts reached the walls, kicking at it with their gigantic hooved feet and slashing down at it with their blade arms.
The voidsilk and mithril reinforcements held, but not all defenders were safe. Ranged attacks from the Fallen were making it through, hitting the defenders on the wall, and some attackers made it up onto the wall themselves, with high-level gorilla-looking abyss monsters acting as bridges for the smaller creatures.
The mosmir soldiers scurried between the dark elves to hold them off as best they could.
“Pay attention to any sections of the wall that receive damage and try to repair it. I’ll be focusing on any spots that are under heavy pressure and aid them,” Aegis instructed Ruffily and Tullan. The two nodded, put their weapons away, and rushed off in seperate directions.
Aegis’s eyes wandered to a Juggernaut that was standing back, the Avatar of Affliction still on its shoulder. The Avatar wasn’t joining the fight.
It’s waiting for something.
He thought back on all of the footage he’d seen thus far of VGN’s attempts to complete this quest, including the successful one. In none of them did the Avatars hold back. The behavioural change could only be caused by two things. The death of the horrors and worldbreaker, or…
Aegis turned his head towards the Goddess, Eirene. She sat cross-legged on the fountain, chanting the purification mantra.
It only took a few more logical jumps in his brain to piece together what was happening, but that only granted him a few seconds of a head start. In the time it took for him to open his party interface, a loud, booming voice resounded over the battlefield.
“YOU DARE BRING YOUR FILTH INTO MY DOMAIN? YOUR LIGHT IS NOT WELCOME IN THE ABYSS!”
It was sourceless, coming from all directions, and overpowered the sounds of battle. Aegis jerked his head around to try to spot it. Black mist pressed through the threshold of his aura of light on all sides, overpowering it, until finally, a prominent bulge of black mist stepped through.
It took the form of a gigantic humanoid of swirling darkness, whipping rapidly around its limbs in place of skin. The head had a familiar pair of red glowing eyes, but the light of Eirene revealed something that had been concealed every other time Aegis had encountered this creature.
Back in Hrath’mir, or during the Arallia escape, and even the siege of Stormtop, this bulge of shadow had appeared, done a powerful attack, and fled. Each time, it appeared as [???(ELITE) - Level ???].
This time, it showed up as [Nor, God of Darkness(ELITE) - Level ??]. The unnerving creature's figure sent a chill down his spine, which felt to Aegis, given the horrors he’d seen up until this point. He quickly realized a debuff caused it.
Aura of Despair
Source: Nor, God of Darkness
Effect: Negates or strongly diminishes the impact of all light-based auras.
The effects were felt immediately. The NPCs' emotions were no longer being calmed, and the aura of light was now struggling to hold back the black mist - it crept in quickly, shrouding the outer ranks of the charging abyssal army in its darkness as it followed Nor forward toward the walls of Rene.
Aegis wasn’t sure if it meant Bihi would still be safe. At least the mantra was still-
A giant black spear formed from the arms of Nor, pointed directly at the Goddess Eirene. She stopped chanting her mantra, opened her eyes, and glared at it.
“I will not allow you to destroy this place. Your quest to cover this world in darkness will never succeed,” Eirene shouted firmly at the god. She turned her head slightly to look directly at Aegis. “I will do what I can to hold back his influence over this battle, but I’m afraid it will drain my power greatly.” She said in a much warmer, softer voice.
Tullan, Ruffily, Amlie, and Joshaka’s group stopped to watch the scene unfold.
The large spear shot forth from Nor at Eirene, and she responded with a piercing beam of light from her palms. It crashed into the spear, erupting in a swirling mass of light and darkness, from which the beam of light and a beam of shadow remained, clashing above.
The two, for the moment, appeared equally matched, but the mantra was cancelled, and the Avatar of Affliction hopped off the shoulder of the juggernaut, landing on the walkways of Rene just above the gate leading to the bridge of Rene.
Affliction spread his insectoid arms outward, and colorful emerald magic erupted from him, slowly spreading across the nearby walls, unimpeded.
Everything the magic touched was doused in a wall of debuffs, from poison, to disease to curse, and magic. The dark elves and mosmir began coughing and recoiling, dropping their weapons, and some fell to the ground or froze in place, paralyzed.
The Avatar let out a triumphant chittering, basking in the spread of sickness, and growing in size. The abyssal fallen swarmed the walls, ignoring the afflicted, keeping them alive to empower Affliction while they suffered slow poison and disease damage.
“JOSHAKA!” Aegis had to shout over the sound of Eirene and Nor's beam clashing. It made an obnoxious humming noise. Joshaka’s group reacted, heading to Aegis’s side from across Rene, weapons ready.
There were only five of us, but if we couldn’t kill that Avatar fast, things would get-
“AEGIS, THE WALL!” Tullan shouted from the north. All around Tullan, the mithril- and voidsilk-reinforced wall was changing color to a distinct, glistening gold that reflected the light of Eirene’s beam.
Aegis followed the spreading gold with his eyes to its source, where [Avatar of Greed(Elite) - Level 200] stood atop the wall, cackling. He was a robed creature with countless golden crowns melted onto his neck in place of a head, and jewelry hanging from his shoulders and arms, wrapped around his waist as belts.
Joshaka and his group landed beside Aegis, stamina half full, breathing heavily. He had a nervous smile on his face. “Ay yo, we lookin’ pretty fucked, hah!”