The viewership numbers of all other streamers dwindled as Aegis’ climbed. Shinji exercised control over three third-person cameras around Aegis, using one to focus on him from the front, another on Bihi, Amlie, and Seliolara, and the final to hover far above the action, giving viewers an aerial view of the surrounding landscape.
A mass of swarming creatures washed over the partially destroyed, partially golden walls of Rene unimpeded. The sky was filled with reapers, and a gigantic Broodmother, who was soon joined by another pushing into the dome of Aegis’ aura of light.
Juggernauts stomped through the swarms, crushing abyssal creatures carelessly under their hooves to get closer to the faintly glowing, small young tree of light in the center of Amlie’s farm fields.
The mass of monsters was causing the creatures to disrupt the attacks of one another, for their targets were small and engaged already by the large body of the Avatar of Affliction, and the gigantic swinging golden hammer of the Avatar of Greed.
Still, the damage got through. The glow of Bihi dulled, creatures gnawing and scratching at it from all sides as Amlie and Seliolara cowered behind Aegis, casting every mending and plant-tending skill they possessed with their druid and farmer classes.
Aegis had gone silent, his face making no attempt to conceal the pain he was suffering from every blow he blocked with his shield. His health yo-yo’d, and his mana dwindled, but he’d prepared potions to outlast this and had powerful stamina food to keep him going. He continuously cleansed himself, Amlie, and Seliolara, watching his Cleanse skill levels slowly climb.
Despite the experience bonuses, the higher levels went much more slowly, and he used the math of figuring out how long it’d take for it to hit 150 as a distraction for the pain.
27 minutes.
He’d have to repeatedly cleanse every magic, disease, and poison debuff from the three of them from the level 200 raid boss in order to earn enough experience to remove curses.
In addition to his bonus from the Light of Eirene skill, he was now receiving 120% experience from his pain threshold. The debuff from Affliction worked two-fold; everything was hurting at an amplified rate, but his experience also went up alongside this. The implication being, to Aegis, that if he could find a way to curse himself to the maximum pain threshold of 15, he could level everything even faster than he was doing now. At least, defensive skills, which is what it counted towards.
At the moment, he was just thankful the game considered Cleanse a defensive skill. He couldn’t daydream about what would happen later, or after, as those things wouldn’t exist if he didn’t figure out a way out of the situation.
Given his proximity to Amlie, Seliolara, and Bihi, using Virabhadra was out of the question. He’d kill them if he used it, and trying to push away from them to use it would also result in their death. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
A juggernaut swung his blade-arm down on Bihi, which Aegis blocked with guards. His primary shield and wings were working to keep Greed, Affliction, and smaller creatures on the ground at bay.
His mind went to other calculations as the strikes from the Juggernaut, despite hitting his guard, were felt on his body, giving the sensation of being cut in half repeatedly. Several mental health warnings shot up, but he staved them off, gritting his teeth, doing his best to maintain himself.
The worst way to lose, in his mind, was letting the mental health warnings kick him out. If he was going to lose everything he worked for in this world, he at least wanted to go out kicking and screaming. Screaming, he did, with several loud grunts of agony. He didn’t particularly care how it looked or what it sounded like. It hurt a lot.
Calculations.
Greed’s damage wasn’t going up, but Afflictions was. The timer of his wings was going down, too, which would severely diminish his armor and healing capabilities, but as he calculated it, that wouldn’t matter.
Affliction’s continued spread of his debuffs through the mass of abyssling creatures, on top of him sitting in his enraged state, was causing his strikes to rocket upwards in damage. It was already averaging 39,000 damage hits.
Aegis compared a few hits and considered the time between attacks and the rate at which they were gaining power.
3 minutes. He’d get one shot in 3 minutes. The previous cleanse calculation now felt pointless.
Whatever. Then I’ll Virabhadra them in three minutes. Go out in a blaze of glory. I’m not giving into this pain threshold bullshit.
He resigned himself to his fate, yet fought against it, looking for more things to calculate.
***
“Why isn’t he lowering his pain threshold?” Synopse asked. He and David, Aegis’ father, were in an office simulation now, tensely watching his livestream, fists clenched, leaning out of their chairs.
“You really gotta ask?” David mumbled. Synopse let out a deep sigh of frustration.
“There’s no way. Nothing he can do, but he’s still standing. Tough kid you got there,” Synopse said.
David lowered his head, having difficulty watching the expressions of pain on Aegis’ face. It was an in-game Avatar, but barely looked different than Eli in the real world. “Yeah…”
***
Tommy, Shinji, and Hae-won were in a call, but had all gone silent. Hae-won was quietly, angrily glaring at the broadcast. All three of them were aware of what had happened with Aegis’ pain threshold, but couldn’t say anything lest they risk more abuse of power from Mike, standing in for Nicholas over at Averon.
Other interns had lost focus on their tasks, tuning in to Shinji’s editing skills of the battle.
“This is hard to watch. Maybe focus a bit less on his face,” Tommy broke the silence of the call.
“No. I’m showing the world his fighting spirit. His refusal to give up. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t pretty. It doesn’t matter how the odds are stacked against him. He’s not giving up, and that's what the world needs to see,” Shinji replied.
Hae-won let out a growl of frustration, running her hands over her head and clawing into her scalp. Tears of anger and desperation swelled in her eyes. She, alongside his millions of viewers, was all realizing and coming to terms with what they were bearing witness to. The failing last stand of the Shattered World’s final hope.
Hae-won punched her fist out at a virtual wall of her simulation, seeing messages zoom through Aegis’ livestream chat. It was a stream of ‘Aegis Fight! Aegis Fight! They weren’t giving up.
“It’s over, guys. Cheering doesn’t matter anymore; mathematically, it's beyond impossible. He alone can’t hold out for logout timers, and all help is days away.”
On the screen, enough damage had gotten past Aegis to Amlie, killing her and logging her out of the gameworld, leaving only Seliolara. Aegis couldn’t spare mana to heal her much, as Affliction's damage ramped up, but he was doing his best. A second juggernaut, as Shinji showed, had arrived and joined in slashing down at Bihi, straining Aegis’ resources further.
Hae-won tilted her head upwards, unable to watch, as she knew within seconds, either Aegis, Bihi, or Seliolara would be killed.
Instead, though, sounds of explosions erupted around Aegis, drawing Hae-won’s eyes back to the screen. She saw nothing but black smoke.
Her eyes went wide with disbelief. “No way,” she waved her hands frantically, pulling up other livestream broadcasts on holoscreens next to Aegis’ in her simulation.
She’d been so focused on Aegis’ broadcast, and the chat had become so unreadable, that she had been left out of a lot of ongoings. Mikael’s stream appeared, with several Airships filled with Aegis Coalition members, all weapons readied, all buffs applied. Darkshot, Rakkan, Quiver, Mikael, MightyMira, Trexon, Herilon, Sapphire, Ren, Miranda, and even Lina’s parents were all waiting as though they were about to enter a battle, auras already activated. Leonard was anxiously steadying his Sky Darling 2, while Trexon stood at the front.
Lina was missing.
Hae-won turned her attention back to Aegis’ livestream.
***
Aegis’ mind was lost in pointless calculations. He was tracking his own mana regeneration between his cleanse and heal casts on himself and Seliolara. He barely registered that Amlie’s body had faded from behind him. The pain was all over his body.
The black smoke exploding all around him felt on par for the course; it blinded him, and he had no clue where it’d come from. His first thought was one of the abyssal fallen. But when a gentle hand lay on his right shoulder, it felt familiar.
He couldn’t look back to see who the hand belonged to. But he already knew, from her touch, who it was.
“We’re all here now, Aegis,” Lina whispered. He couldn’t help it; he turned around in the black smoke to see her face in front of him.
Am I hallucinating? Is this another debuff from Affliction? The only way Lina could be here was if she…
“I shadow danced.” She said, answering the question on his face.
“Across the entire world?” Aegis’ eyes went wide. The smoke bombs had provided a short reprieve from the attacks, but it wouldn’t last.
Lina nodded. “Abyss is all dark, so it’s easy. Only ran into a wall or tree 13 times. Had good stamina food.” She smiled. Her body began to glow blue, she was covered in runes that were drawn and etched onto her armor and skin, like an odd arcane body paint.
Aegis recognized what it was immediately. Trexon’s advanced Sage class allowed him to imprint portal runes onto a player, so that he could open a portal for them to return to his location wherever they’d gone.
There was no way that the AI, or developers ever intended the skill to be used like this.
A gigantic blue doorway erupted out of Lina’s back, and before it had even finished forming, the sound of buzzing electricity roared out of it. Three buzz-saw like shurikens hummed and shot out sparks of lightning as they spiraled around Aegis and Lina, pushing back the Avatars and clearing out all low-level abyssal monsters.
Aegis recognized the weapons. Joltblade jumped through the portal first, alongside Rakkan and his three echoes. Darkshot, Quiver, and several other Rangers fired arrows through the portal, from the deck of Leonard’s airship on which they stood.
“RAIN OF ARROWS!” Darkshot shouted along with the others. The sky swarmed with their projectiles, clearing out reapers. Wizard class players followed, blasting all manner of magic into the sky as the portal widened, Trexon at the front, focusing his magic to expand it so that the Airship itself fit through. It edged over Aegis, Lina, Rakkan, Seliolara, and Joltblades' heads.
From atop it, Herilon lunged at one Juggernaut with his body glowing blue. Ren transformed into a gigantic Gorilla and tackled the other one nearby.
“AVATAR OF ZEUS!” Mikael exploded with blue and yellow light, soaring up off the ship, slamming himself into the torso of the enraged avatar of Affliction. A large grey cloud of thunder formed in the aura of light, and yellow lightning rippled inside it, striking down at the abysslings all across Rene.
His wings were made of shifting bolts of electricity, and his eyes sparkled with static. His sword, a metallic lightning bolt, slashed into Affliction and caused the clouds above to focus a strike downward on the raid boss.
Sapphire jumped down from the ship and landed beside Aegis, casting heal and cleanse on him, removing his curses while shaking her head disapprovingly. “You really forgot to level your cleanse?” She made a tsk tsk sound.
Aegis’s eyes filled with tears, the pain over his body subsiding thanks to her magic.
“Hey, hey, don’t get sentimental, we’re just getting started, okay? Don’t ruin my big reveal. Also, keep your profanity filter on,” she winked. Aegis looked to Lina, who shrugged.
“Avatar of Aphrodite!” Sapphire cast. Her body erupted in light, causing feathered white wings to grow from her back and her armor to shimmer away, leaving her nude. Aegis’ profanity filter hid all of her features, though, giving her the appearance of a rabbit-eared Barbie doll with wings.
Rakkan’s echoes rushed outward, as dozens of auras flooded Aegis, recovering his mana and stamina, and health rapidly, and buffing him in all manner of ways. Once Leonard’s airship had finished passing through, a second Airship made its way out of the portal, then a third. All of them were filled with high-level players who disembarked from the ships, clearing out the interior of Rene and pushing the abyss back to the walls.
“We can win now,” Lina said reassuringly. “The Aegis coalition has arrived.”