- Somewhere in the Demonic Realm -

  Traveling through the rippling waves of cosmic forces was never an easy task. For one as weak as Peridot, the trip was taxing in the extreme. If not for the items gifted to her, she never could have survived the journey without a properly attuned gateway.

  She arrived with a splash, landing in a prepared pool of enriched blood. The dense Demonic Power flowing through the liquid seeped into her flesh, recovering the severe damage in seconds. Her arrival didn’t go unnoticed. A pressurized hatch slid open with a hiss, and a familiar demoness entered.

  Why did it have to be her?

  The new arrival—Beryl—leisurely strode into the sealed chamber. Her every step was a marriage of strength and grace. Gently curved horns adorned the crown of her head. She retained the rest of her humanoid guise—proof of successfully passing her first evolution into a lesser kin.

  As an unevolved scamp, Peridot knew her place. She bowed deeply and maintained the posture until exiting the pool. She dropped to a knee, supplicating before the more powerful demon. Aware of Beryl’s temperament, Peridot didn’t speak, waiting patiently for the customary pleasantries that never arrived.

  Beryl’s voice was just as enchanting as the rest of her, “Dotty, did you already finish your assessment of the Travelers in the twelfth region?”

  Peridot hated how much Beryl’s evolution had gone to her head. She wasn't stupid enough to let that insubordinate thought color her obsequious response, “Not exactly, sparkling one. I gathered a significant portion of the requested information but was forced to flee by a Bearer of Cassidy.”

  Beryl tapped pouty lips with a manicured nail, “A bearer? After so long? How is that possible? No, you must be mistaken. Or, you’re using such an outlandish lie as an excuse.”

  Peridot sighed, relieved that her news was entertaining enough not to be killed on the spot, “He was-is a Traveler, sparkling one.”

  “He?!” A spiked heel dug into the back of Peridot’s head, crushing her face into the floor. Blood leaked around and into her ears. Pleasure laced with pain assaulted her senses as Beryl loomed over her, “How is he still alive? The grand shimmering one lent you many tools to ensure your success!”

  Trembling, Peridot answered as quickly as she could, “H-he easily resisted my abilities, sparkling one. As commanded, I used the tracking curse on him.”

  “Give it to me!” Beryl hissed.

  The deathly tolling of the Mors Campana—bells that rung when the river of the dead overflowed—sounded loud in Peridot’s ears. It would be the simplest of matters for Beryl to kill her and claim the prestige of owning a tracking curse on a Bearer of Cassidy. Peridot had already failed in her task. None would be surprised if she were eliminated for her failure.

  Instead of subjecting herself to the torments of a natural rebirth, she took a gamble, already looking forward to the punishment she would receive. With trembling fingers, she withdrew the grand shimmering one’s tracking jewel, moving as if to hand it to Beryl. Before the demoness could snatch it, Peridot squeezed it in her hand.

  Beryl screeched as the essence of its contained spell flowed into Peridot’s flesh and blood, binding itself to her. Then, it crumbled to dust. After that, there was only pain and pleasure.

  Raine KongRu

  Raine plunged from the sky at terminal velocity. Intense winds crashed against him, altering his course. His torso flexed powerfully, taking advantage of attributes to press against the world and slightly adjust his trajectory. The target was just below, unaware of his extreme method of approach.

  [Bandit Lord (Elite): Level 13 (HP 4,200/4,200)]

  The bandit lord remained oblivious until Raine’s Lunge canceled his downward momentum, sending him hurtling directly toward the boss. A pulse of bloodlust caused Last Chance’s Gambit to materialize in Raine’s hand for the first time in a long while. The dagger felt like it was made for his grip, its weight perfect for his current Potency. He glanced at his Attack Power, smirking as it rose from 171 to 241.

  Raine’s prey made it as far as grasping the hilt of his sword before the dagger plunged into his neck, sinking to the hilt. Fifty percent of Raine’s EP drained away to activate Final Gambit. Centralized at the weapon’s tip, a flash of light so bright it could be seen through the boss’s neck was born. Raine withdrew the dagger, but the ball of light remained. It expanded, enveloping the bandit lord’s head and torso, which promptly vanished as though they never existed. [Critical hit! -14,041]

  Raine didn’t bat an eye at the overkill. Between his excellent level fifteen gear, overpowered weapon, and cursed ring, one-shotting a lower-level elite was to be expected.

  [Obtained 0 Superiority (-100% for defeating a monster more than 2 levels below you)]

  [Obtained 0% Attunement (-100% for defeating a monster more than 2 levels below you)]

  Hopefully, that's the last of those messages for a long while. Rhino should be easy to find, then we’ll be off to power-leveling city.

  A shower of loot bubbles dropped, one of which was the entire reason Raine stopped here on the way to Rhino. His hands were a blur as he snatched them from the air before they landed. Fifty nearby bandits charged him, blood in their eyes. Not interested in fighting with little reward, Raine Leaped several meters into the air, then Lunged until he was out of Discipline before activating his skydrifter.

  Strong winds rushed up the side of the mountain, giving Raine the lift to reach the skylanes, where his speed increased severalfold. His remaining flight to Shadow Springs Town was short as it was only two mountains away.

  As this was the heart of Righteous-controlled territory, he once more equipped his Bandit Face Shroud and swapped out the bladed weapons in his cursed ring’s roulette. He anticipated a fight but wasn’t at all interested in unnecessarily lowering the durability of his best weapons with Great Divide. He could repair them with consumable repair kits, but those would reduce the maximum durability by one with each use. Only a master blacksmith could repair an item with zero repercussions, and the closest of those was in the nobles’ quarter of Silverlight City.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Passing over the last mountain peak revealed the plains surrounding his destination. The town was tucked between two hills that protruded from the flatlands like two sore thumbs. Littered across the expansive fields were rank-upon-rank players. They were a hodgepodge bunch. Missing pieces of armor dotted their numbers, and none wore a complete set. But their numbers alone were more than threat enough.

  Raine had been in command of and fought against many armies. Estimating their numbers at a glance was child's play. He quickly concluded there were close to fifty thousand. He whistled sharply, impressed at Rhino's audacity in facing so many alone.

  In ZionLine, fielding massing quantities of soldiers wasn’t abnormal; it was the norm. Food, logistics, coordination, communication, transportation - all the most challenging aspects of army management were alleviated - allowing humanity to do what it had done best since before the first civilizations graced the lands: kill other humans. While not unusual to see so many players in one place, that much manpower not actively generating credits or gold by farming for drops was a colossal waste.

  Raine licked his lips, near delirious with greed.

  Vaneese must have recalled her troops from the front line with DyingNight. Since she was slow to reorganize them, guess I have no choice but to rob them all blind.

  Buried beneath his desire to kill them all was an uncomfortable realization. It was only a matter of time before he fell behind guilds like Righteous and DyingNight. For now, he was powerful enough to fight a few hundred alone and come out on top. It was only a matter of time until he ran into an army of players led by someone as strong as him. Without a guild of his own to counter their superior numbers, he wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.

  I’m still days away from getting my guild off the ground. I can’t afford to waste too much time here. All right, Rhino. Where the hell are you?

  The most reliable reports from Enders Fall indicated Rhino was using the vast open fields to hide while utilizing hit-and-run tactics to pilfer loot. Raine angled his invisible drifter to the east, spotting several smaller regiments of players spread out in an obvious search pattern. Once above their zone, he reduced his elevation, zipping across fields of tall grass. Since they couldn’t see him, he would need to use another method to unite the spread-out troops for optimal plundering.

  The total search area was several square kilometers, but Raine had multiple advantages that Righteous couldn’t match. As a past leader of CronGate, he was intimately familiar with the region. He knew each monster type that populated it, how many there should be in each section, and what items they frequently dropped. Such knowledge was a requirement for optimizing the allocation of guild members for farming—a task often forced upon him.

  Since the shadowy beasts were a trifle to spot from the sky, it didn’t take long to find where they had clearly been thinned out. Raine circled that particular field twice until his quarry appeared. The young man—dressed head to toe in black leather—leaped out of stealth to land on the back of a darkly-hued plains raptor. Wrapping his legs around its upper torso, he repeatedly stabbed its neck with dual daggers.

  The beast thrashed, flopping onto its side to dislodge its attacker. Rhino smoothly jumped from his perch. He didn’t immediately resume the offensive, waiting patiently for the creature to kick itself in a circle to stand. Perfectly timing the moment its feet were under it, Rhino landed on its back to resume his mount and stab tactic. It was a smoothly executed kill, considering the beast’s three-level advantage. The only shock was Rhino using daggers like an assassin and not the spear he was so well known for in the past.

  Did he run into a fortuitous encounter that took him down the path of the spear?

  Raine was far less familiar with Rhino than Fizgore. By the time he started playing, Rhino had already dealt incalculable damage to Righteous, which he initially thought prompted their takeover by CronGate. It turned out CronGate had always been in control and only revealed themselves when their reputation grew so bad they needed a clean slate.

  As Rhino collected the few coppers that dropped from his kill, Raine stored his drifter and fell, smoothly landing beside him. Rhino was on him instantly, daggers darting toward his neck. Raine casually intercepted the boy’s wrists, grasping each in an impossibly firm grip. Rhino’s foot lifted to kick, but Raine’s boot landed in his gut.

  Air blasted from Rhino’s lungs as both his feet left the ground. Raine held tight, turning the kid into a curtain billowing in the breeze. When gravity called, Raine allowed him to fall face-first, then promptly sat on him and pinned his arms, “Don’t you know it's polite to offer tea before trying to stab someone?”

  Rhino coughed, then chuckled darkly, “I really caught a big fish this time. Wish I could see the look on your master’s face when you tell them you had me pinned and still managed to die.”

  “Sorry to disappoint; I don’t have a master. Even if I was part of CronGate, I wouldn’t fall for such a cheap provocation. Why bother, though? Wait, don’t tell me you didn’t know there’s a suicide option in the menu?”

  “Seriously?!” Rhino blurted, falling silent as he started searching for it.

  “Yup. It’s under miscellaneous options, avatar interactions, debug,” Raine helpfully supplied, still having to restrain the struggling Rhino.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. Thanks!” Rhino thrashed so hard his shoulder popped. He didn’t so much as flinch and continued to wrench his limbs as though nothing had happened.

  “Sure. You ready to have a conversation now?”

  “Aren’t we already doing that?” Rhino wheezed.

  Raine sighed and sent Rhino a friend request. When the boy saw the attached name, his thrashing halted, “Wait, the Alaric? Why the hell are you working for them? Haven’t you been killing CronGate’s people for a while now? Hold the board; you know who’s behind Righteous! You must have been working for them all along. Talk about the mother of all conspiracies!”

  This… isn’t going how I expected.

  Raine stood, giving Rhino some distance to hop to his feet. The boy’s knees were bent, ready to dash away. Raine stood casually, arms crossed and head tilted, “How the hell did you come to that conclusion? Never mind, I don’t want to know. Just accept the friend request. I have an item that can kill every member of Righteous outside town. All we have to do is block the entrance and collect the loot after the slaughter.”

  Rhino hesitated, eyeing Raine critically. He casually yanked on his dangling arm, snapping it back into place with a pop, “I call donkey crap. No way such a good thing exists. And why would someone working for CronGate want to kill a bunch of his own people?”

  Raine sighed, massaging his temples, “I am not, I repeat, NOT working for them. I don’t need your help for this either; just thought you might want to join in on giving them a black eye.”

  “No way. You’re shifty as they come. You’re definitely hiding something,” Rhino turned to leave.

  Raine clicked his tongue, only having one last card to play before he would have no choice but to give up on recruiting him for now, “What happened to you? Last time we met, you weren’t nearly so disagreeable. I would have killed you then if I knew you would return the favor like this.”

  “Last time?” Rhino paused, glancing back.

  “Outside Vile Peak Town…” Raine supplied.

  Rhino’s eyes widened, and he pointed at Raine, “That was you?! No. This has to be another trick.”

  Seriously? Who’s this paranoid? If this brat didn't have the capacity to become the number one spearman in the Tri-glades…

  Raine didn’t let his frayed patience work its way into his tone, “Accept the request, and I’ll send you the unedited VRVod I took of the fight.”

  Rhino narrowed his eyes, whispering under his breath about how stupid he was being, then finally accepted. Blowing a raspberry, Raine sent him both the VRVod and the description of the item Rhino had used in the past to so thoroughly devastate Righteous’ bottom line. The very item he had retrieved only minutes ago from the bandits.

  “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s piss-drunk uncle. Does that really do what it says?” After realizing the implications, a vicious smirk pulled at Rhino’s cheeks.

  Raine’s grin was just as evil, “Yup. And I’ve got over two hundred pieces of gear they already donated to get the ball rolling. By the time we get them all in one place, they won’t have a chance to recover before they’re wiped out.”

  “Oh! I get it. You know they hate me, so you’re using me as bait. Then, you’ll betray me at the last second and take everything for yourself! I knew you were shifty!”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Raine threw his hands in the air. Already, his eyes were darting across his interface, drafting the contract that might finally put the idiot at ease.