by Oliver Mayes
Account Name: Damien Arkwright
Class: Occultist
Level: 28
Health: 520/520
Stamina: 520/520
Mana: 1218/1870
Stats:
Strength 37 - Agility 97 - Intelligence 37
Constitution 52 - Endurance 52 - Wisdom 187
Stat points: 0
Experience: 18492/28000
Soul Summon Limit: 9/20 - Soul Reserve: 10/10 (+1/1)
His Summon Limit was now 20. Beautiful. But his Soul Reserve hadn’t increased at all. That was odd. Maybe a base of 10 was the maximum? He’d have to ask Bar—
“Nice work, master! Didn’t know you had it in you!”
Damien couldn’t help but smile. More than once during the fight he hadn’t been sure he’d had it in him either. He had ten imps now, enough for Noigel to assist him with his Forbidden Knowledge, so he canceled the imp he was summoning and started summoning a hell hound instead.
“Thanks, Noigel. You weren’t so bad yourself.” He winked. “Get all the imps to start gathering bodies in this crater, and stick Hammertime and Krackle somewhere everyone can see them. I’m calling Aetherius out and declaring war on Rising Tide.”
Seeing how scared Noigel had been of Rising Tide before, Damien had expected resistance. Instead, the imp snapped smartly to attention and grinned evilly.
“I’ll get it done. Oh, and you should check your notifications, O maleficent one!”
Damien stepped forward out of the crater, smirking as Noigel yelled orders at the rest of the imps. If not for his micro-management of Damien’s forces, the outcome might have been entirely different. It was very difficult to co-ordinate so many minions at once, especially in the heat of combat. Queuing orders with Noigel so he could carry out plans on his behalf removed a great deal of mental strain, allowing Damien to focus on his own survival. He was lucky to have him.
Damien finished summoning the hell hound and brought up the other recent notifications for examination. Most of them were congratulating him on leveling up, but three of them were interesting.
A new trait is available! Choose wisely.
New building upgrades are available!
Summon Succubus Unlocked!
Ah, upgrades. The spice of gamer life. Where to begin?
The building could wait until he got home, that much was obvious. The summoning spell and the new trait could be checked here and now, since Bartholomew had already given Damien his dark blessing.
Summon Succubus: Mana: 500, Souls: 7 – You point at the ground, searing it with runes to open a portal to the demon world. After channeling for 10 seconds, the portal is opened and a succubus arrives on the mortal plane. The succubus will serve you until it dies or is dismissed. Succubi stats improve every five levels.
More than twice the soul cost of anything else he could summon? He was eager to test it out. At least he already had plenty of souls here. And having summoned ten imps and a hell hound, he had exactly enough Summon Limit available for this new minion.
No time like the present.
Damien pointed at the ground, wondering what form the runes would take this time. The grass under his finger withered and died as an eye burned into the earth. Upon completion, the pupil glowed white hot and a portal expanded out directly from its center, obscuring the runes entirely. The game designers had put a little more effort into this animation than they had for the minions that preceded it. This was going to be something special.
He wasn’t wrong. The succubus surged upward through the opening, a twisting blur of red skin and pitch-black, thorny wings. The portal closed beneath her and she demurely touched down in the center of her sigil.
It happened too quickly for Damien to catch everything, but the wings were hard to miss. He now had two sets of flying minions. Off to a good start.
The succubus resembled a human, with a few notable exceptions. The most obvious was the blood-red skin she shared with the imps. Two ridged horns protruded from her forehead, curling round and jutting out in front. She had hooves instead of feet and her shins bent back. What Damien had assumed to be clothing was in fact thick black fur, covering her torso and waist as well as encircling her wrists and feet in a mimicry of bracers and boots. The fingers ended in long black claws.
She set her glowing red eyes on him. They blazed with fire, just like the eye in the sigil that had summoned her here, yet they were also cold and dead despite the unwholesome power they held.
The longer Damien looked at her, the less human she became. But while she looked fearsome, he was more concerned with what she had to offer strategically.
“Inspect.”
Succubus
Stats:
Strength 15 - Agility 30 - Intelligence 50
Constitution 25 - Endurance 25 - Wisdom 50
Abilities: Chaotic Bolt, Bloodlust, Circle of Hell
She was a magic user! Excellent. Up to now, all his minions had been agility-based. An intelligence-based summon would provide a whole new dimension to his forces. Exactly what form that might take would have to wait, because Noigel had just landed on his shoulder.
“All done and ready for your inspection.”
Damien closed the Stats page and turned around. Noigel had done exactly what he’d been told and it looked nothing like what Damien had wanted. It actually looked a little bit better, albeit far less tasteful.
“Noigel. I don’t remember asking you to spell out my name using the corpses.”
“That’s because you didn’t, master.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because you didn’t tell me not to, master.”
Damien looked it over. Noigel had used his gamer name, Daemien, as the core of the display. Krackle and Hammertime had indeed been given pride of place, joining forces in death as they had proven incapable of doing in life to form the first letter. Many of the other players had been contorted into silly poses to fulfill Noigel’s artistic vision. The unfortunate players who’d been selected to form the ‘e’s looked particularly stupid. Hammertime’s weapon had been placed heavy side down with the handle pointing at the sky to form the full stop of an exclamation mark. Those who hadn’t made the cut for the literacy club were laid out around the outside in a circle. It should have been macabre, but actually it ended up being quite funny… in a ‘Noigel’ sort of way.
Damien glanced around before beginning his speech. As important as this was, he wanted to get it over and done with quickly. There was no telling when more people might show up.
He gave Noigel a nod and the imp flew into position, hovering above and looking down. Not everything Damien had taught himself yesterday was combat orientated. With a little bit of guidance from Noigel, he’d learned how to record videos from the perspective of summons under his control. Most players would use a Mana Wisp specifically for the task, as Aetherius had when they’d first met. Damien had plenty of his own summons already.
As Noigel came to a stop, Damien removed his cowl and looked directly up at his imp. A mini-window showing Noigel’s perspective showed up in his HUD and a second red recording light appeared next to his own that was constantly on. The minion cam would only work at a short distance to prevent using it to scout ahead, but since that applied to other players as well it was no bad thing. He’d had a long time to think about what he wanted to say, running over it in his head every night while he struggled to sleep. Damien threw his hands out to either side and a smile crept unbidden to his lips.
“Good morning, and welcome to the first episode of ‘Damien’s Not Dead, But a Whole Lot of Other People Are’. Unfortunately, just like when he chickened out of fighting Toutatis, Aetherius couldn’t make it today. Maybe next time.”
Noigel dropped down until Damien filled the screen from the waist up. Damien took a deep breath. He had a lot of anger to vent at a large audience. The preparations had taken half a week. He was going to make the most of it.
“Since Aetherius was a no-show,
I’ve secured one of his raid leaders to give us an interview. Just minutes ago, Krackle was conducting a daring raid into Godhammer’s Twisted Forest with twenty Rising Tide players at his command. How do you think they fared? Let’s ask the man himself!”
Damien crouched down over Krackle’s body and put on his most deeply serious face.
“Hello, Krackle, thanks for joining us on the show. How are you holding up? That’s fantastic. Listen. Remember when you fire-bombed four of your own party members to try and save your own skin? Learned that from Aetherius, did you? Betraying players who were relying on you for help? How did that go? Oh. I see. Thanks for your time!”
He stood up and looked directly at Noigel again. He put a finger to his ear.
“And this just in, we have a surprise guest! I’m proud to introduce the one and only Hammertime! Leader of Godhammer and self-appointed guardian of the Twisted Forest! I’m sure we could all use some words of wisdom from a man of his stature.”
Damien crouched down and put his serious face back on. He hadn’t planned on having a go at people who weren’t part of Rising Tide, but Hammertime had pissed him off.
“Hello, Hammertime, and thanks for joining us at such short notice. How are you doing? Outstanding. Listen, you might not be part of Rising Tide, but I’m not sorry you died. I think I speak for all of Saga Online when I say that building your guild outpost right next to a popular dungeon, then denying everyone who isn’t part of your guild access, is a dick move. It was me who sent those messages, by the way. Thanks for coming when I called, man. Couldn’t have done it without you.”
Damien rose and stared straight at Noigel, his eyes flickering briefly onto the minimized camera screen to make sure he was in the shot. This was the important part.
“I’ve got a message for Aetherius as well. I count… let’s see… thirty-two members of Rising Tide dead by my hand, so far. That’s right. Those disasters your guild has been having over the last few days? All me. All because you couldn’t kill a single level 1 player. That’s a shame. But I know you don’t care. Your guild is just a shield for you to hide behind. So, here’s something you will care about. I’m coming for you. I’m going t—”
Damien froze. He’d been so absorbed with his broadcast he hadn’t noticed until now; until it was too late.
Behind Noigel, not even a stone’s throw away, watching him as he made his big speech, was a player encased in golden plate mail from head to toe. The armor was clearly of the highest weight category, boasting huge shoulder pads that practically doubled their frame. The strength requirement had to be enormous. He was leaning up against a tree with his arms folded.
As Damien halted, the player made a circle in the air with his finger, beckoning him to continue. Damien scanned their basic details. It was a paladin. He was level 35. And above his class in thick red writing appeared the name of his guild: Rising Tide. Damien kept his eyes trained on him as he ordered the imps to disperse into the trees, the hell hound to guard Noigel’s back and the succubus to his side. In the face of the sporadic activity, the player made absolutely no move to defend himself whatsoever. He smacked the top of his helmet with one hand, making the same motion as before with the other. ‘Keep going’.
Damien wasn’t sure what he was up to, but it was no longer safe to keep broadcasting. He looked at Noigel, who’d managed to keep his eyes on Damien but was looking extremely uncomfortable.
“If you want to see Aetherius put in his place, give me your vote in the competition and I’ll do everything I can to make it happen, or die trying. Like and subscribe!”
He ended the feed and Noigel leapt onto his shoulder, hissing angrily. The paladin pushed off the tree and raised his hands. Damien was sure they’d burst into golden light at any moment, enveloping either him or his minions. Instead, he found himself on the receiving end of a slow clap.
A voice echoed from the helmet, making it sound tinny and light.
“So, you’re Damien? You’re shorter than I expected.”
Damien held his ground. All he needed to do now was loot the bodies and get out of there. He’d be damned before a single player stopped him from taking his hard-earned loot.
“Don’t come any closer or you’ll be joining your friends.”
It wasn’t much of a bluff, what with most of his minions cowering in the trees. The paladin laughed and made some broad strokes in the air, operating their menu. After a few moments, the helm faded away and Damien saw their face.
It was a girl.
She had short blond hair, not even long enough to cover her ears, and a delicate face that seemed preposterously out of place above her heavy armor. Her blue eyes bored into him above a wry smile. He’d seen her from time to time when he watched Aetherius’s broadcasts. She was the primary tank for Rising Tide and her name was Lillian. But that wasn’t what people called her.
She had several nicknames she’d earned during the early days of Saga Online, when guild wars and player killing were rampant. Many of them were extremely rude, but as she led Rising Tide in wiping out their enemies the ruder names died on their lips and only one remained: The Immortal. There was one other pertinent detail.
She was Aetherius’s girlfriend.
Together, they’d carved out territories across Arcadia and made Rising Tide one of the most prominent guilds. Some guilds were definitely more powerful, but few were more famous. ‘The Immortal’ was a huge part of that. Now she was here, and Damien was standing on a mountain of her guild’s corpses.
“They weren’t my friends, and I won’t be joining them either. Please don’t attack me. I won’t kill you unless it’s necessary.”
Damien clamped his jaw shut. Lillian had come to a stop on the edge of the circle of bodies, one hand on her hip as the other scratched her chin thoughtfully. She wasn’t even looking at him. She was observing the bodies of the fallen. She lingered on Hammertime for a few moments before twisting her head to the end of the line, where the hammer was slowly digging into the dirt from sheer weight. Her eyes gleamed.
“So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’ll be taking this hammer. You look a bit weedy for it anyway. Then you’re going to scram before the rest of Rising Tide comes online. There’s been a call to arms, they’re gathering as we speak. You talk big, but I don’t think you’re ready to fight Aetherius just yet. Any objections?”
Damien stared at her, dumbstruck. The longer she spoke, the more confused he became. When he didn’t answer, she strode toward the hammer and grabbed it in one hand before straining upward. Her feet sank into the earth, but the hammer didn’t budge. Until then she had seemed demure and controlled. Now her brow furrowed, and her lips drew themselves into a tight thin line. She was taking it personally.
Damien had seen a character three levels higher than her using two hands to swing it around; he knew there was no shame in not being able to use it one-handed. He was about to suggest she use both hands when her body exploded into white light, consuming her entirely in a holy aura. She pulled again, and the hammer lifted into the air. Divine Might.
Damien didn’t know the details of the skill, he only knew it was insane. Lillian took a couple of experimental swings with her new weapon, manipulating it as though it were no heavier than one of his daggers. Then it disappeared into her inventory.
“Right, it’s time for you to go, but first here’s some free advice. You’d be better off not posting that video you made. Andrew… Aetherius is vindictive. If he thinks you’re a threat to his popularity he’ll stop what he’s doing and hunt you down. It’s your call.”
She went back to her tree and leaned against it again, folding her arms and regarding him evenly. Damien wasn’t sure why she wasn’t murdering him, but he wasn’t going to let his guard down.
While the imps went about looting the bodies, the succubus, hell hound and Noigel stayed by his side, watching Lillian warily. Damien knew it was a bad idea to ask, yet he had to anyway. He wet his lips and addressed her with more confid
ence than he felt.
“Have I missed something? I just killed an entire Rising Tide raiding party and you’re letting me go? Don’t you want to avenge your guild?”
She smirked at him and shifted her weight on the tree, pushing it back slightly and causing it to creak. Her Divine Might was still active.
“How do you think I got here so quickly? I came to ambush the raid party, just like you, and I wouldn’t have needed Godhammer to help me either. Still, I can’t complain. The hammer is a nice trophy.”
She’d come to attack her own guild? Wait, what? Lillian was turning on her own team?
She registered his surprise and her face lost its gaiety, hardening until she looked every bit like the face he recognized from the videos of Rising Tide stamping its authority on the game.
“Rising Tide is rotten. And Aetherius is the core. After everything I did…” Her lip wavered, just for a moment, before she regained her composure. “I have my own axe to grind.”
Noigel tapped Damien on the shoulder. The loot bags had all been gathered up and his minions were waiting for their orders. It was time to go. Damien summoned a portal back to base and ordered his minions to throw the bags through. There were too many for them to carry in a single trip. Then he sent them in, one by one, hanging on the edge of the portal in case he needed to jump through himself. He tensed, waiting for the surprise attack from Lillian as his forces dwindled. It never came. She had been sincere. As the succubus stepped through, Damien gave the gaming titan a final wave.
“Thanks for not killing me, I guess. See you around?”
Lillian smirked and shook her head.
“I doubt it. Good luck with what you’re doing. Try not to die.”
Lost for words, Damien gave her a nod and stepped through, the portal closing behind him. The light of the forest was quickly replaced by the dimness of his home.
