Sigil Online: Paragons

by Jeff Sproul

  Radiance’s instinct was to reach out and grab a ray of sunlight to heal any mind-based damage that Warcry might’ve taken, but without the mirror, he was utterly useless now in the fight.

  He heard the worm’s beam of energy continue to eat into the stone of the chamber. He saw the worm’s head wave around as the beam carved into the ceiling. It curved and plummeted towards where Warcry was kneeling on the ground.

  “Warcry! Move! Get up!” Radiance called to her.

  Warcry didn’t react to his words. She groaned and kept her hands to her ears.

  “Warcry!” Radi called as he ran towards her. Couldn’t she hear him? Had she taken a debilitating effect that affected her hearing or mind? He had to reach her!

  A pair of blue beams streaked out from the far side of the chamber and smacked into the side of the worm, but its head only continued to lower, trailing that green beam down the cave wall and ever closer to Warcry.

  Glasser threw spear after spear, which lodged deep into the worm’s hide, but still the worm seemed set on its course, as the insect-like monster’s arms slowly lowered, as if directing the beam coming from the worm itself.

  Radi’s arms pumped as he ran towards Warcry. The beam was getting closer and closer. He had to make it! He couldn’t do anything else, but he could do this!

  He reached Warcry and seized her arms, pulling her up to stand. “Get up!” he shouted, the worm’s beam was seconds from reaching them and Warcry was wobbling, her arms only now lowering from her head as her eyes opened.

  “Radi?” she asked, unmoving from where she was. She looked up, seeing the green beam falling upon them.

  There was no time. Radiance shoved her with all his strength and pushed her out of the way of the beam. He then turned to dive in the opposite direction so that the beam couldn’t get both of them. But time had run out. The edge of the beam caught his leg at the last moment and grounded him in place as he leaned forward to dive. Instead of diving, he fell straight to the ground. The beam seared him with intense energy. The red bar above his head dropped rapidly. Ninety percent, sixty-five, forty-two.

  He could feel the pressure of the beam keeping him down. The ray didn’t move. It remained focused on him, whittling his hit points down to nothing. Thirty-four percent, sixteen, two.

  All he could see were the red flashes in his vision from the damage he was taking, and the bright green energy all around him. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. All he could do, was die.

  Chapter 2: Postmortem

  Riley stared at the ‘A Paragon Has Fallen’ message. It was bright red. It was surrounded by only darkness. He couldn’t see the cavern he had been in, just moments prior. The glow mine was gone. All that was left, was the message of his demise. This was the first time he’d ever witnessed a ‘death screen’ for himself. He’d seen images of them online. But now it was real. This was his message. His tombstone. Or at least, Radiance’s tombstone.

  He wasn’t sure what to do. He had no body in the game anymore. It was just the message. But then, after several more seconds, the message faded and the logo for ‘Sigil Online’ appeared. Then, the logo washed away. It was the same ‘intro’ that appeared the first time he’d created his character. The one that ended up gaining the name Radiance.

  Now that the logo had vanished, he appeared in a room. There was a door that said ‘Exit’ and another door that said ‘Create a Character.’

  He looked down and saw a ‘dummy’ avatar’s legs and body. He wasn’t rendered as Radiance anymore in the game, or even Riley. He was just a nothing-character that was used to navigate the early-game’s options, when a character hadn’t been created yet.

  He looked over to the ‘Create a Character’ room. He stared at it for a short while. No, he couldn’t do it yet. He couldn’t do it. Not right now. Not yet. He turned and headed straight for the ‘Exit’ door.

  Upon passing through it, his real eyes opened to the blackness of the headset. The headset had relinquished control of his brain back to him. He reached up and pulled the visor off and set it next to him on the bed.

  He stared at the ceiling.

  He stared at it for thirty minutes. His mind running over everything that had happened and the decisions he’d made. Every facet of the battle. Every move he made, and didn’t make. Then, the last move that cost him his character.

  “Damnit,” he whispered.

  He brought his hands to his face and rubbed at his eyes. He leaned up in bed and sat there. His character had been killed. He’d been given the death message and had been forced from the game, driven to what was known as the ‘starting screen,’ just as it had been two years ago when he first started playing.

  In Sigil Online, death was final. Everything he’d earned. Every item, every level, the property in-game, all gone.

  He slid off the bed and slowly changed his clothes. He needed to get out of the apartment. Was he even going to be able to afford his apartment? What the hell was he going to do?

  He changed his clothes again, putting on a pair of dark-blue denim pants and his gray hoodie. He slipped his feet back into his shoes and walked over, grabbing his keys and wallet from where he’d left them.

  His head spun with a thousand thoughts and the disbelief of what had happened. He’d lost everything he’d worked for since he started playing Sigil Online two years ago.

  He left his apartment and locked the door behind him. Maybe he was dreaming? If so, he wanted to wake up. He walked down the hall and took the stairwell down since the elevator wasn’t functional. It hadn’t worked for weeks.

  He reached another door and made his way out into the cool evening air. The sun would be setting soon. He turned and headed up the street. The noise of cars was the loudest sound around him, but even that was being drowned out by his own thoughts. He passed by people from time to time, but didn’t truly see any of them. The rush he’d been in earlier, was gone. He’d raced to his death, it seemed.

  What the hell was that thing that came out of the worm?

  He grit his teeth as his fists clenched in the pockets of his hoodie. He kept walking, the hood over his head. He didn’t focus too well on where he was going, but eventually he reached the end of the street which intersected with another. Cars only went left on the street, making it relatively easy to cross, especially when the traffic light at the far end was red. He waited for the red light and for all the cars to stop. He walked between a blue and white car and crossed to the other side, ending up in front of a cafe with a bright neon-blue sign that read ‘Paragon Cafe.’

  The name hadn’t always been ‘Paragon Cafe,’ but the owner had changed it about a year ago when it was apparent that Sigl Online was going to be one of the biggest games in history.

  Riley walked to the old wooden door with a glass pane and opened it up. He stepped inside and glanced over to the long coffee-bar and then the various booths and tables set up. The place had a decent amount of customers at any given time. He turned to head back to one of the far corner booths when he spotted someone he recognized. He walked over to a small booth that could only sit one person on each side.

  The only occupant was a young man the same age as him. He had long black hair and soft androgynous features. He was thin and a bit paler than Riley. He wore a black hoodie with the hood down, his arms were on the table, his thumbs were through the holes at the ends of his hoodie sleeves, which kept the sleeves from pulling back. He dipped a spoon into a banana-split with whipped topping, cherries, neapolitan ice cream, and peanuts. He brought the spoonful to his lips and closed them around it. His eyes closed for several moments as Riley approached.

  When the young man’s eyes opened, he spotted Riley immediately and his eyebrows lifted.

  “Ri-leh!” he murmured, with the ice cream still in his mouth. He took a few moments to swallow the bite as he looked up. “Hey! What’re you up to? Grabbing some coffee?” he asked.

  “Hey Aaron,” Riley said as he slowly slid down into the seat across f
rom him. He sighed and leaned back in the small booth. “Yeah, I guess I’m gonna need it. Got a long night ahead of me. What’s with the...banana split?” he asked.

  Aaron smiled. “Treating myself!” he said with a bright smile.

  “Special occasion?” Riley asked, his voice never leaving a monotone.

  Aaron nodded. “Yeah, something like that! Was a pretty good day at the shop.” His smile faded as he noticed Riley’s lips hadn’t so much as twitched upwards. “What’s wrong?”

  Riley was slowly running his hands through his hair again. Where to even begin?

  The drone of the various televisions in the cafe was soft. It was easy to tune them out, but you could also follow with what was going on if you were close enough, or reading the captions. One of the televisions was to the right of where they were both seated. Riley’s attention was drawn to it as the news segment broke into a ‘Special Report.’

  “Oh crap,” Riley whispered. “They...they didn’t. Please tell me they didn’t.”

  Aaron blinked at him and then followed his gaze over to the television. “What? What’s up?” he asked.

  Riley shook his head as a male reporter appeared on the screen of the television, wearing a slick black suit. To the side of him, an image appeared with the words ‘Paragon Defeat!’ The image, was of him.

  Or more accurately, the image was of Radiance.

  The news anchor spoke up after the special report cut into whatever news had been going on before. “Hello everyone,” the man spoke. “This is Jeremy Riggs, with another special report.”

  The image depicting Radiance began to move, as a video played out. It was of Radiance and his companions fighting a giant green-glowing worm.

  “Today sees the fall of a long-standing paragon in Sigil Online,” he spoke. “A group of paragons decided to jump into the glow mines soon-after the latest patch released. A harrowing battle ensued and as you can see here in the video…” he trailed off, letting the video go fullscreen, showing a large green beam catching Radiance’s foot and pulling him down to the ground and decimating his health until his body dissipated into digital dust.

  “The paragon known as Radiance, is no more,” the news anchor continued. “We have footage of some of the battle along with a strange monster that is responsible for Radiance’s death. Stay tuned for more, after these words from our amazing sponsors.”

  The news report cut out and switched to an advertisement for a company selling SCs (Sigil Credits) for real-world currency.

  Riley sighed and leaned back into his chair. “Already profiting off my corpse,” Riley muttered. “Bastards. I bet it was Shadow...or Glasser.”

  Aaron looked at Riley with raised eyebrows. “No way,” he whispered.

  Riley looked over to Aaron, who’s eyes were wide and his jaw lowered.

  “You were Radiance?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me you were Radiance?”

  Riley rolled his eyes. “I don’t feel like much of a paragon if I go around telling everyone my identity, you know.”

  “But! I’m like...we’re like...best friends! I’ve known you for years! We had every class in school together! We talk almost every day! You never told me!”

  Riley reached up and scratched at the side of his head. “Well, I kept this one thing a secret. Sorry,” he said.

  “I didn’t even know you were in the same region of Sigil Online as me,” said Aaron. “We could’ve hung out in game and stuff!”

  “We hang out in real life,” said Riley. His eyes mostly avoiding his best friend’s. “I feel like a different person when I’m playing Sigil. I didn’t want that to get in the way of...you know, being friends.”

  Aaron stared at Riley for a few seconds, his gaze lowering to the ice cream. He slowly scooped up another bite and brought it to his lips. After he’d swallowed it, he looked back to Riley. “I guess a shopkeeper like myself, wouldn’t be much fun to have around when you’re one of the top healers in the entire game,” he said.

  Riley averted his gaze again, looking across the cafe. “I didn’t tell anyone that I know in real life, who I was in-game,” he admitted. “I thought it’d be better that way. And besides, you’re always telling me how well you’re doing as a crafter and shopkeeper. So you know, I didn’t think I needed to try and help you make money or anything. I mean, you’re doing just fine without me. Your apartment complex isn’t far from here either. I play Sigil as a career, you know?”

  Aaron’s gaze was mostly focused on his ice cream. Picking out pieces of banana and cherries. “I get that,” he said.

  “I didn’t want our friendship to suffer, because I want to push my career in Sigil,” Riley said. “So, I felt it best that the two were separate.”

  “I get it,” said Aaron. He smiled just a little. “I just think it might’ve been fun, you know? Perhaps things would’ve turned out a little different.”

  Riley breathed, then exhaled slowly. “Maybe so,” he said. “But here we are. One little screw-up and I’m back to square...nothing. I’ve got to remake my character and start looking for a power.”

  “Good luck with that,” Aaron laughed.

  Riley looked at him strangely. “Why are you saying it like that?” he asked.

  At that moment, a waiter stopped at the table. A small embroidered name tag on his vest read ‘Paul.’ “Sorry for the wait, a bit understaffed today. What can I get you?” he asked Riley.

  Riley looked up to him. “It’s ok. We know the deal. Can I just get a cup of coffee?”

  “Sure thing. Is that it?” Paul asked.

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “Coming right up,” Paul said, before turning and heading off to go back behind the counter.

  “Well, if Sigil doesn’t work out, I’m sure they’d hire you here if you wanted to be a barista,” Aaron said, his lips curled.

  “It’s Sigil, or nothing,” said Riley. “Now, what’d you mean about ‘good luck?’

  Aaron brought another spoonful of ice cream to his lips then pulled the spoon out. He took his time and then swallowed. “Cause of the patch,” he answered.

  “What about the patch?”

  “The patch added a whole mess of new power variants, but it also made them harder to obtain.”

  “What?” Riley groaned. “I heard that new powers were already hard to find, cause no one has the same.”

  Aaron shrugged. “All I know, is that it’s even harder to get a power now, according to the patch notes. But it didn’t specify why. So who knows? The developers like to be cryptic like that sometimes.”

  “Yeah,” Riley murmured. “Just like they were cryptic with the glow mine.” Riley glanced over to the television, which had just broken back to the special report. It showed the video of Radiance being killed in-game. It also showed pictures of the white insect monster.

  “That thing right there,” Riley spoke up, pointing over at the television. “That’s the creature that killed me. I’ve never seen any crazy boss mechanic like that.”

  “What happened?” Aaron asked.

  “We were fighting that giant glowing worm, and then it spit up that bug thing,” he said. “It was really creepy. The bug seemed to control it and direct that beam attack it used to...well, kill me.”

  “Other monsters have spawned adds like that before,” said Aaron, referring to the usually smaller creatures that larger ones could create. These ‘smaller’ monsters were called ‘adds,’ which was short for ‘additional.’

  “I bet you had to kill the bug,” Aaron commented. “You said the bug was controlling the worm? So the bug itself was probably super weak.”

  Riley ran a hand up and ruffled his own hair. “Damnit, you’re probably right. We were just so completely in disarray. Those guys were some top-level players, but I swear, Glasser and Shadow were kind of assholes and Blue wasn’t much better at times. I hope Warcry made it out alright. They’re not saying she died, so that’s probably good. None of the videos are even showing me pushing her out
of the way. Oh well, guess it doesn’t matter since Radiance is dead. Gone forever.”

  “That really sucks,” said Aaron, as he continued to enjoy his ice cream. “I’m sure you’ll spend all night...or week, finding a new power.”

  “Yeah, but finding a new power is only the first step,” Riley groaned. “It can take months reaching Paragon status again. There’s no way of knowing what your special achievement is, that’ll trigger getting your tier-two powers.”

  “You could try the simple civilian life in-game,” Aaron pointed out. “You might like crafting and resource gathering.”

  Riley looked over to his best friend again. As he did, Paul came around and set a cup in front of Riley.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “Sure thing, let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

  Riley lifted the cup and blew across the liquid’s surface. “I’ve got to find powers,” he said. “That’s what I enjoy. I’m not like you. I don’t think I could play Sigil the way you do.”

  Aaron shrugged. “You never know until you try,” he teased.

  “I guess you’re right,” said Riley. “But, I’d rather fight my way back to the top. If I’m lucky, I’ll get tier-one powers before the next tournament, so I can compete again.”

  Aaron thought for a moment. “Didn’t you read the patch notes at all?”

  Riley blew across the mug in his hand, whisking away the steam rising from it. He then took a testing sip. He pulled back from it slowly and looked to Aaron. “What do you mean? Did they push the next tournament back?”

  Aaron shook his head. “They’re not holding tournaments for a while, they’re working on the next expansion instead. Apparently they want the new content to be more engaging for players, as opposed to the tournaments of the past.”

  “More engaging?” Riley asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”