Spiteful Healer

Chapter 199: Dark Rune

Eli sat down in his Simbox and laid his head back on the cushioned headrest. He looked down at his Sim-suit and carefully placed the foot socket into the plug to hook it up and activate the lights on his suit. Once it was all ready, he took a deep nervous breath and stared blankly up at the top of the Simbox.

He remained sitting like this, calming his nerves with deep breathing for a full five minutes. Eventually, though, he nodded to himself and reached up to grab the top of the Simbox and pull it shut.

It locked in place with a click and initiated the software as the visuals of the simulation overtook his real vision, prompting him to log into the gameworld with his character. To the side of the login button was a 3d display of his character avatar, wielding the new mithral shield and wearing the high level armor. He spent another few seconds staring at this as well, before finally hitting the login button.

He re-appeared inside the simulation within the Night Hunter crafting chamber. What was just 5 minutes for him was 20 minutes for the game world, and as a result, Hae-won had long since finished her task of doling out instructions.

“You ready?” Pyri asked him from behind, and Aegis turned to see that she’d been waiting for him.

“Yup.” Aegis nodded. Pyri waved her staff and began to channel a portal spell, and after a few seconds, a portal to Rene opened up with a light magical blue glow surrounding the floating gateway. Without another word, both Aegis and Pyri stepped through the portal to find themselves in the town of Rene.

It was quiet - the usual hustle and bustle of daily NPC life was absent. Instead, there were very few NPCs walking around, and they were all level 90 to level 110 Rene guards, ushering any non-guard NPCs they found towards their homes.

“The rest of our guys are waiting inside the town hall for you.” Pyri explained.

“Good, let's go.” Aegis responded while nervously looking up at his live streaming icon. Considering he had just logged back in and re-initiated his stream, he was briefly stunned to see he already was back to 1.5 million viewers.

“So uh, hey guys. Megan here.” An awkward, orange haired female broadcaster waved to Aegis’ audience, staring at the chat blasting by. She wore a sleeveless black dress with a tall slender build, but stood idly while fidgeting with her fingers. After a moment of her trying to read Aegis’ chat and failing, she let out a nervous laugh.

“I’ll be stepping in for Hae-won, as she was feeling a bit sick. But don’t worry, she’ll be back as soon as she’s better!” Megan explained.

She caught a glimpse of messages in the chat complaining that Hae-won was missing, and tried her best to ignore them.

“Is this really a good idea?” Tommy asked Shinji through a voice call while they watched this unfold on Aegis’ livestream broadcast within their office simulations.

“Aegis said he needed her help.” Shinji shrugged. “Here at Fanta-see Network, we help our streamers with whatever they need.” He added with a hint of sarcasm.

“Right…” Tommy groaned back.

Aegis entered the town hall of Rene’s main chamber, and found his companions Darkshot, Lina, and Rakkan standing around the table along with Yuki and Savika. Pyri followed into the room and they stood in the doorway for a moment, everyone glancing between one another anxiously.

“So, you’re heading to where the Night Hunters and Blades of Kalmoore are?” Yuki asked awkwardly.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, here -” She pulled out from her inventory a pair of five cloaks made with spider silk. “These should help you stay hidden and approach unnoticed. The monsters between here and the dungeon will be less likely to attack you.” Yuki explained as she handed a cloak out to each and every party member of Aegis, including Aegis himself.

“Thanks. I’ll keep it off for now until we need it, since the vestments of Eirene give me a huge mana regeneration bonus.” Aegis explained as he watched Pyri, Rakkan, Darkshot and Lina all equip the cloak.

“Does the hood effect work with these cloaks?” Pyri asked, but before Yuki could answer, she tried it out and pulled her hood up. Sure enough, it immediately hid her name and level from view, so that nothing was floating above her head anymore.

“Yup, looks like it.” Darkshot nodded, doing the same. A moment later, Lina and Rakkan did it too.

“Thank you Yuki, they’re really helpful.” Lina smiled at her.

“I helped too!” Savika cheered excitedly.

“Right, good.” Aegis nodded as he saw they all had their cloaks on, names hidden. “Oh, wait one moment, I’ve got to grab something from the item storage. Then we’ll head out.” Aegis explained as he’d suddenly remembered something. He got a few nods back before he ran out of the townhall and made his way through the quiet streets of Rene towards the storage building. Once there, he fumbled around and put all of his unneeded items into storage, and took out from it a few materials for repairing.

After he'd finished he paused again and took a deep breath to collect himself. He straightened his back and looked up at the clear blue skies above, until finally feeling enough time had passed, and rushed back towards the townhall.

When he stepped inside the round table chamber again, his party members were still waiting for him, cloaks up and heads down, but Yuki and Savika both looked suddenly out of breath.

“Good, looks like everything is prepared. I already looked up where the dungeon is, so we should be able to get there quickly. Come on.” Aegis motioned them to follow him out.

“Good luck!” Yuki cheered as the five of them headed out of the building. Without speaking, the party made their way to the stables where Aegis retrieved an eager, squawking Snowflake.

“We’ll be moving quickly, so we can get there fast. Time is not on our side.” Aegis explained, and the group of four nodded back while keeping their cloaked heads down. “Let’s go.” He finished, and from there, began sprinting out of Rene towards the western gate. The four followed behind him as quickly as they could, and began their adventure towards the high level dungeon.

“Snowflake, fly above and give us a birdseye view. The dungeon is an ancient forest temple. I watched a clip of them entering the dungeon through Miranda’s broadcast footage, you should be able to spot a giant headless elf statue that marks the entrance, sticking up out of the canopy. When you see it, lead us there.” Aegis shouted, and got a squawk of acknowledgement back.

Snowflake launched himself up into the sky off of the fields surrounding Rene as they reached the western treeline, where the gnolls had come from during the battle of Rene.

Aegis took the lead, navigating them through the dense forest of giant trees while periodically glancing up to spot Snowflake flying above them in the canopy. Anytime Snowflake thought they needed a change in direction, he let out a loud squawk which prompted Aegis to glance up and see where Snowflake was looking.

Despite running at their fastest speeds, it took 30 minutes of sprinting before Snowflake began screeching, alerting them that he’d spotted the statue Aegis had described. From there, they reached the entrance of the dungeon a few minutes later.

A large clearing in the old forest was surrounded by gnarled, entangling branches and roots that had crept up onto the cracked tiles of the temple. A paved path from the temple’s entrance stretched out towards them with statues flanking it. One statue stood upright, as a headless female elf, while the other statue had been topped over and layed strewn across the courtyard of the temple in pieces, with vines, moss and other vegetation growing up over it.

The temple itself was a large, beige colored structure with many cracks in it and signs of weather and wear. Once in the clearing, Snowflake flew back to the ground and Aegis held his hands out to signal the others to stop behind him. He then fidgeted with his livestream viewer to pull up Miranda’s livestream, and saw that they were still stuck fighting the boss deep within the temple.

“This could be a trap, so you guys wait out here. Watch the entrance, make sure no one comes in after me. I’ll head in and try to find a way to get them out of the encounter.” Aegis explained as he looked over the four of them, getting nods of acknowledgement back. “You too, Snowflake. Fly high and keep your distance, stay hidden.” Aegis finished with, getting one last squawk in response before he took off towards the entrance of the temple.

With Miranda’s screen up in his peripheral vision, he played back the footage of her delve into the temple at doubled playback speed, and used it to navigate the old ancient halls. None of the enemies within the temple had respawned, making it easy for Aegis to traverse.

It wasn’t long before he heard the sounds of battle echoing off the walls from deeper within the structure, and no longer needed the help of Miranda’s past broadcast footage to navigate. He picked up his speed as he headed towards the sounds, avoiding tripping over several gnarled roots that had broken into the hallways through cracks in the walls and were creeping across the old, decrepit tiled floor of the temple.

Eventually, he found his way into a wide chamber with a doorway on the far side, flanked by two elven statues wielding longbows at their sides. The doorway itself was covered in a transparent blue barrier that prevented anyone from passing through, but beyond it he saw Quinn, Chirstoph, and their respective guilds battling a gigantic winged demon wielding a huge sword, with hulking large muscles under his deep red skin.

Baffo stood in front taking the hits from the sword while Sapphire and the others healed him, and everyone else continuously bombarded the creature with attacks. Despite this, and that they’d likely been fighting it for hours now, it wasn’t enraged. Aegis also witnessed the creature constantly releasing shockwaves of black energy that was dispelling and destroying all magic it came into contact with, which explained why they weren’t able to portal out.

Once he’d taken that all in, he rushed forward towards the blue barrier to get a closer look, but as he did, he noticed on one of the statues nearby, a dark black glowing ancient rune that was giving off black mist. The mist was seeping down towards the ground and dissipating.

“The hell…?” Aegis mumbled to himself as he walked over to eye it curiously. Following this, he opened up his friends list interface to contact Rakkan.

“Rakkan, you watching?” Aegis asked.

“Yeah. It’s an ancient rune.” Rakkan replied.

“What’s it say?” Aegis replied.

“Gimme a sec, it doesn’t make sense. It's abyssal, not void. It’s an enchantment rune, for empowerment. Uh… wait, I think I get it…” Rakkan strained his mind to understand the rune. “It’s powering up the boss, so that he gains health regeneration and lifesteal based on the number of enemies he’s fighting. It’s borrowing one of the effects of adult Ferrawolves, basically.” Rakkan explained.

“That explains why the boss isn’t dying, but, there’s no way they wouldn’t have noticed this going in, right? Trexon can read ancient.” Aegis replied.

“By the looks of it, I think someone put it there after they started the boss fight.” Rakkan replied as Aegis continued to inspect the rune.

“Coulda been Cheryl. Either way, this proves it was a trap. We’ve got to get them out. How can I break the effect?” Aegis asked.

“Pretty easy, just destroy the rune.” Rakkan replied.

“Ok, thanks.” Aegis answered, then closed out his interface and pulled his shield arm back before slamming the side into the rune, cracking the stone apart and deforming it in a single strike. Once he had, the black mist exploded out from the rune and dissipated, and it stopped glowing.

“Quinn!” Aegis shouted, running up to the transparent blue barrier in the doorway. The sounds of battle were loud, but Quinn’s elven ears were able to hear him and she quickly dashed across the chamber towards him.

“Aegis? What are you doing here? You need to be defending the island! The invasion!” Quinn shouted anxiously back at him.

“It’s more important to get you guys outta there. Look, there was a rune outside here, someone must have put it up to enchant the boss after you engaged it. It was making the boss heal a lot, but I destroyed it. You should be able to kill it now.” Aegis shouted through.

“Okay, good, thanks.” Quinn replied before turning towards the raid party. “Bring it down, it should be killable now!” she yelled loudly, to make sure all could hear her. Aegis took a few steps back from the blue barrier to watch the fight unfold.

It was clear that all of them were exhausted, having been fighting the same boss now for several hours, but Quinn’s words gave them a second wind and they sprang into action. Miranda, Christoph, Trexon, Herilon, Travis, and all the others went all out in taking down the boss. It wasn’t long before it switched over to an enraged state, and shortly after that, it went down and the blue barrier disappeared.

“Fucking finally.” Herilon groaned with relief as the demon let out its final painful cries and began to disintegrate, dropping several items on the ground, including an orange item orb. Aegis ran into the room to see most of the players sitting down to rest, or grabbing their knees as they let out sighs of relief.

“Who from both of your guilds didn’t enter the boss room with you guys? Just Cheryl?” Aegis asked loudly to the group, so that all could hear him.

“No, not just Cheryl,” Christoph spoke up. “Quiver, one of my rangers, they were chatting outside and made it look like an accident that they didn’t get inside the boss room in time.

“So he’s one of them, too.” Aegis pondered out loud.

“One of what?” Christoph asked him with raised eyebrows.

“One of the guys bringing down the island. Cheryl and Quiver are both working with Vagosh. They joined your guilds to keep track of us, and carry out their plan. They’ve known everything we were doing this entire time.” Aegis sighed as he tilted his head back.

“Quiver’s the one that found this dungeon, wasn’t he?” Trexon confirmed.

“Yeah… Shit.” Christoph replied as the realization hit him.

“He’s also the one who notified me of the gnoll attack, during the raid back in Rene. All of that, up until now, has all been part of their plan.” Aegis sighed in frustration. “Okay, you guys, can you handle sorting out the items later? We’ve got to get back to Kordas, the invasion of Kalmoore is starting any second now.

“Seriously?” Christoph asked in disbelief as several others let out gasps of worry and concern.

“Yeah. That’s why they wanted to lure both of your guilds here and trap you inside.” Aegis explained.

“He’s right. Yorgi already let me know what's going on.” Quinn gave Aegis a knowing nod, before turning to the others. “Trexon, grab those items for now, then open us up a portal back to Kordas…” Her voice trailed off into silence as she and everyone else began to hear the sounds of clapping, approaching from outside the boss room.

“Well done, Aegis. Well done.” A familiar voice spoke over the clapping. Both guilds all turned to face the approaching player as he congratulated him. [Finley - Level 160] stood above his head, and beside him followed a black-cloaked humanoid figure with black mist emanating from their body.

“Finley? What are you doing here?” Aegis asked him raised eyebrows, going on high alert as the others did the same. Sapphire, Herilon and Baffo all immediately moved to stand beside Aegis as if to protect him.

“This is the first island we’ve attacked that actually figured out what we were doing, and how we were doing. It made this, how should I say… interesting? Maybe a little bit fun. But…” He paused several meters away from the doorway leading into the boss chamber. “I tried to warn you. This isn’t how you win a defensive battle, remember?” He smirked. “In a world filled with magic like this, the attackers are always 10 steps ahead of you. I’ve accounted for all of your possible moves and enacted counter measures. I’ve analyzed all of your defenses, and found their weaknesses. Even this…” He motioned towards the rune that Aegis had shattered on the statue outside.

“This, I’ve accounted for as a possibility. Bold of you to come here and try to save them, when you knew the invasion was coming. It was a gamble, and unfortunately, it will not go in your favor.” Finley spoke proudly as he crossed his arms.

“What’s this asshole talking about?” Sapphire sighed in annoyance.

“You know this guy?” Quinn asked.

“Yeah… he showed up during the gnoll raid, like the others. Seems like he’s one of Vagosh’ companions.” Aegis explained.

“One of Vagosh’ companions? Oh? So you haven’t figured that part out yet? Tsk tsk tsk.” Finley wagged his index finger at them. “You really think I wouldn't pay for a character re-customization to rename myself, after it got announced to the entire world who I was?”

“You mean…” Baffo mumbled with wide eyes.

“You’re Vagosh.” Aegis said.

“Bingo!” Finley cheered excitedly, giving him a thumbs up.

“Hah. Big mistake, moron.” Herilon grinned as he drew out his sword, preparing to charge forward. Herilon wasn’t the only one who had this in mind, and several other players began brandishing their weapons.

“So this is the guy who’s been trying to sink our island this whole time?” Ren asked to confirm.

“Let’s kick his ass.” Travis replied.

“Hell yeah.” Miranda cracked her knuckles.

“Guys, wait, he wouldn’t come here by himself if he didn’t have a plan. My party was waiting for us outside, watching the entrance. What happened to them?” Aegis asked him as he held his hands up to stop anyone from charging through the doorway at Finley.

“Unfortunately, they’ll be sitting the rest of this invasion out, watching from their couches.”

“You killed them?” Aegis glared angrily. “How?”

“The same way I’m going to kill all of you. It’s fun to tear guilds apart and make them dysfunctional, like we did with the last two islands. Unfortunately, you guys were too level headed, and had the ability to talk out your issues. It didn’t work on this island. So, for the first time, you’ve forced my hand in revealing my trump card. The real power behind abyssal invasions,” Finley motioned to the humanoid figure beside him. “Is that each invasion is led by an Avatar of Darkness. And, as the Harbinger of Darkness, they sometimes listen to me.” He smiled.

“Avatar of Jealousy.” Aegis declared to everyone as he fastened his shield onto his arm and prepared for a fight. Baffo did the same while the figure slowly lowered her pitch black hood, revealing her face. Sure enough, above the head of the NPC stood [Avatar of Jealousy(ELITE) - Level 200].

“So, to end an invasion, we’ve got to defeat the Avatar?” Quinn asked.

“That simplifies things.” Christoph stepped forward, to stand beside Aegis.

“Yeah, doesn’t it?” Finley nodded. “Bad news, though.” Finley smiled as the Avatar of Jealousy dropped the cloak off of her body completely. She stood completely naked with light pink skin and black mist emanating from her body. She had a pair of thin, long bat wings extending out of her back, with a slender build and a long tail wagging behind her. Her feet were hooves, similar to a satyr. “The versions of these Avatars that you fought in Hrath’mir were weakened versions. Meaning, you missed out on some of their skills. Namely, this one.” Finley gave a nod in her direction, and suddenly from atop her head, several black tendrils shot up like thick slimy strands of hair with mouths on the end of them.

A second later, they let out a loud screeching hiss, and caused every single player that was staring at her to become petrified.

Aegis, Quinn, Baffo, Herilon, Sapphire, Christoph, Travis, Ren, Miranda, and almost all others, immediately turned to stone. There were quite a few players from both guilds still un-petrified, who were not looking at the boss, but Jealousy rectified this by stepping forward into the room and making sure they’d all look at her.

“Let me know when you are done.” Finley said as he looked down at his feet to avoid the effects.

“They’re all stone.” Jealousy replied seductively as she ran her fingers over Trexon’s petrified form. She then retracted the tentacles on her head and let out a long hiss.

“Perfect.” Finley looked up again. “Much better. Nice and quiet.” Finley smiled at all the petrified players. He then pulled out his greatsword from his back and walked into the room, approaching Baffo first and swinging his sword down on him. The statue shattered, and Baffo fell to the ground dead, being forced to log out for 24 hours. “I know that, while petrified, you’re still able to see and hear everything going on around you. Even your audience of, wow, 2 million…” Finley said with fake amazement. “You might think that you came close to fighting off this abyssal invasion, but I just want you to know that you never had a chance to begin with.” Finley turned his sword onto Sapphire and shattered her statue, killing her. “You have made it harder for us to sink future islands, though. I’ll give you that. Now everyone knows how it works.” He sighed.

“But, as we speak, the rest of my party is marching towards the Royal Palace of Kordas, and in a few minutes we’ll know where the last island stone is. The invasion is beginning now, and once the first four stones are destroyed, I’ll send the juggernauts to Rene to kill Savika. No tricks like last time will work, I’ll make sure all the Royalty is dead.” Finley declared proudly, then stopped in front of Quinn’s statue.

“Now.” He suddenly clapped his hands together. “I’d like you guys to stop stalling and wasting my time. Don’t hold back. Show me your last stand, monks and druids.” Finley waved his hands out to the sea of statues.

Sure enough, several blasts of white and green energy began erupting from players spread around the chamber. As they did, the petrified stone fell off of their bodies. Travis, Miranda, Kayriel, Ren, and two other druid players broke out of the petrification effects by utilizing class spells that allowed them to clear such debuffs. Aegis could do nothing but watch the scene unfold from his stony form.

“If turning everyone to stone is all you got, you’re ‘bout to lose this battle, punk.” Travis cracked his knuckles as his body began to glow with yellow energy.

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