Awaken Online: Dominion

by Travis Bagwell

  Hundreds of soldiers lined the walls beside Jason, making last-minute preparations as the timer on Thorn’s ultimatum continued to tick down in his peripheral vision – each second shaved off with an ominous sense of finality. Only a few minutes remained.

  The undead would spare an occasional glance at Jason or bow as they passed to acknowledge his presence. He also noticed more than one group of soldiers talking in hushed tones and glancing in his direction. Word of the defeat of the two Order agents had spread, breathing renewed life into the undead and bolstering their spirits.

  They only had one man to contend with now: Thorn.

  Although, Jason knew that this wasn’t exactly true. Which was why they were all standing on this wall above the southern gate, glancing nervously at the tree line in the distance. He couldn’t quite understand the muddied memories he had glimpsed in the agent’s mind, but the takeaway had been clear. Something was coming.

  Shaking his head, Jason pulled up his notifications.

  x1 Spell Rank Up: Undead Devotion

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 2

  Effect 1: Access to surface thoughts for 60 seconds. Additional levels allow the user to better penetrate the target’s mental defenses.

  He hadn’t had an opportunity to use the spell’s newfound application since he had transformed into a Shade. It had been a gamble to attempt this with the Order agent, but the result had been worth it. The agent had fought him, his will fighting Jason’s own in a sort of spiritual tug of war. However, Jason had prevailed – likely due to his opponent’s recent death and conversion to the dark.

  The memories that had eventually come to him were cloudy and indistinct. He had the impression that Thorn had limited what he told his own men. Or, perhaps this was due to Jason’s inexperience in using the ability. Either way, Jason had seen enough to give his people time to prepare.

  “Hey,” Riley said, stepping up beside him.

  “Hi,” he said softly, glancing at the archer.

  Riley looked concerned as she watched him, but he also saw resolve and anger in her eyes. He couldn’t really blame her for having doubts. He was aware of how his recent actions looked, but he couldn’t do anything about that right now. He had learned his lesson with Gloria. If they were going to defeat their enemies – both here and in the real-world – they were going to need to get their hands dirty.

  “The troops are in position as you ordered, and the preparations are almost complete,” she reported. “Eliza and Cecil have nearly finished distributing the new equipment and potions,” she added, motioning to the interior-side of the gate. Jason could indeed see a line of undead accepting last-minute equipment and pots from the timid mage. Cecil stood beside her, helping distribute the gear and smacking away the occasional hand that was a bit too greedy.

  The pair’s orders had been clear. They were to support the troops from the rear and tend to the wounded. Eliza’s magic and skills made her extraordinarily useful, but she truly excelled in a support role. They also happened to be part of Jason’s fallback plan if they needed to retreat to the keep – although he still hoped that it wouldn’t come to that.

  “And Jerry?” he asked.

  “He has nearly recovered, although Grunt still won’t let anyone close to him,” Riley replied, shaking her head. “He might be able to participate in the battle.”

  “Good. We’re probably going to need all of the help we can get,” Jason murmured. “Speaking of which, Frank and I talked a day or so ago,” he offered, a glance at his system UI confirming that his friend was online right now. Frank had been quiet lately, and his messages had been terse. Something felt off there, but Jason didn’t exactly have the bandwidth to focus on that problem just yet. He had faith that Frank could handle the situation on his own.

  “He won’t be returning for this fight,” Jason continued. “He’s still tracking Alexion.”

  “Damn, we could probably use his help,” Riley murmured in reply. Her brow furrowed in thought. “Speaking of missing teammates, I also haven’t seen Morgan for a while. Her trainees reported for duty, but she has been mysteriously absent. I didn’t have a chance to stop by her school to check on her.”

  “I’m sure she’ll turn up,” Jason answered, waving a dismissive hand. “She’s probably buried in a book or making last-minute preparations. Morgan’s never been great about taking instruction.”

  “I’ve never noticed that about her,” Riley answered, sarcasm lacing her voice. This earned her a snort of amusement from Jason.

  With that, the pair lapsed into a tense silence, both of them staring at the tree line in the distance, the gnarled branches of the dead trees spearing into the sky. Between them and the forest rested a barren field, the gray dirt still pockmarked and dented by the previous conflict with Alexion’s army. It felt like an eternity had passed since that battle.

  Riley bit at her lip, belying her anxiety. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask what you saw in the agent’s mind,” she began hesitantly. “What exactly are we going to be fighting? This seems like a lot for one man… even if it’s Thorn that we’re talking about.”

  Jason shook his head slowly. The short answer was that he wasn’t certain. “I got the impression that Thorn was planning to strike from the south. It was unclear what would happen – only that it would be something big. I’ve sent out scouts, but no one has returned yet.”

  He hesitated for a second, trying to piece together the fragmented images he had witnessed in the agent’s mind. It was like a jigsaw puzzle where the edges of the pieces didn’t quite mesh together, and some were missing entirely. “I also had the sense that we interrupted Thorn’s larger plan. The other two agents were critical for some reason.”

  Jason turned to Riley, a lopsided smile on his face. “I know that’s sort of vague, but it’s all we’ve got to go on. At least it was enough to give us a chance to prepare,” he added, gesturing at the undead lining the wall.

  “Assuming this isn’t some sort of a trap,” Riley offered.

  Jason grimaced. There was some truth to that statement. “You’re right. Although, I have a sense that Thorn has been underestimating me since our first encounter. I’m not sure whether he was aware of the Keepers’ ability to access memory – or, at least, he may not have known that I’m capable of using that ability. Or maybe he didn’t expect us to capture his men. There are just too many possibilities to be sure.”

  Riley offered a noncommittal shrug. She didn’t appear convinced. “It still worries me,” she said. “This feels too easy.”

  “Oh, trust me, I expect we are in for a few surprises before this over,” Jason replied with a grim chuckle, his eyes hovering on the line of dead trees several hundred yards away. “At least we already have a “plan B” if we fail to defend the gate.”

  Riley simply nodded, going quiet. Jason spared a glance at her, noting the worry on her face as she gazed at the tree line and the way her hands twined together anxiously. He reached out and placed his hand on hers. “It’ll be okay,” Jason said softly.

  “Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” she asked with a ghost of a smile. “You’ve got more at stake here than I do. Nearly every player will be watching and waiting to see the outcome of this battle, and your city hangs in the balance. And that’s putting aside everything else…”

  “Maybe, but for some reason, I don’t feel too worried,” Jason interjected, not wanting to rehash his issues in the real world right now. “I have the council and our people. I have you.”

  Riley’s lips arched into a genuine smile. “You know, you can be sort sweet – for a homicidal ruler of darkness about to go to war with some unknown enemy.”

  “What can I say? I’m complex. I’ve got layers – sort of like an undead onion.” Jason replied, matching her smile.

  “Ugh. So, what you’re telling me is that you’re a decaying vegetable? Way to talk yourself up. This is probably a good time to mention that I’d like to keep my options open. You know, pl
ay the field a little,” she teased, her smile widening as she gestured to the barren land on the other side of the walls. “The battle-field that is.”

  Jason couldn’t help the inadvertent groan that left his lips at her pun. However, before he had a chance to reply, the timer in his peripheral vision struck zero. A call went up from the line of Kin, signaling that they needed to prepare. Weapons were torn from their sheaths to the discordant sound of scraping metal as their archers nocked their arrows. All eyes turned to the tree line outside the city as the Kin waited anxiously.

  Jason felt Riley clutch at his hand as they stared at the dead forest, searching for any sign of movement. The seconds ticked by, lengthening and stretching almost interminably as the Kin shifted restlessly on the wall – a heavy silence descending upon the awaiting soldiers. Yet no sudden movements came from the tree line, nor did any shouts of warning spring into the air.

  A hollow feeling began to settle in the pit of Jason’s stomach.

  Had he been wrong? Had this been a trap? Had he overcommitted to this gate at the cost of the other sections of wall? Should he order the retreat now and make a stand at the keep? Or was Riley right and all of this was just some sort of ruse, intended to lure them to this gate? He had left scouts along the other walls, but no one had reported in yet. Could they be dead?

  The doubts and fears cascaded and collided in his head, threatening to overwhelm him. As the seconds ticked by, he raised his hand, preparing to signal for his troops to fall back.

  Just as he opened his mouth to issue the command, Jason’s Perception picked out a faint blur near the line of dead trees. Before he could focus on it, the tantalizing blue glow disappeared. He almost thought he had imagined it until he saw the same blur again, this time passing through the trees and streaking across the open field between the tree line and the wall. The figure was moving so fast that it was almost impossible to make out. What gave it away was the ominous aura of dark mana that seemed to radiate from the figure in waves, leaving a trail of obsidian energy in its wake as it dashed through the open expanse.

  “What the hell is that?” Riley murmured. She automatically released Jason’s hand and nocked an arrow, sighting along the shaft.

  “What do you see?” Jason asked.

  “I-I think it’s a man?” Riley said softly, her voice questioning and uncertain.

  There was only one person that could move that fast. That must be Thorn, but that did nothing to explain the strange aura of mana that was surrounding him. The Order shouldn’t be able to use magic… Although, at this point, Jason wasn’t certain that it really mattered. They just needed to kill him.

  “Archers fire at will!” Jason shouted, pointing at the fast-moving figure.

  The Kin responded, releasing in unison and a hail of missiles suddenly streaking into the sky. The arrows buzzed through the air and streaked toward Thorn. They soon slammed into the ground all around him. The missiles barely slowed the man’s movements – he wound through the cloud of dark projectiles in a serpentine blaze of dark energy.

  He came to a halt only a hundred yards from the wall, completely unharmed. Standing still, Jason could finally confirm that it was Thorn – his body robed in gray bandages and his eye covered. His grizzled visage took in the wall and its defenders, and he seemed surprised to see that the Kin were prepared for his arrival. Jason’s gaze was drawn to the source of the pulsating dark aura that surrounded Thorn, the energy emanating from a massive crystal held in his left hand. The gem seemed to radiate an almost palpable wave of energy and Jason could only guess at how much dark mana was stored inside.

  Thorn’s mouth split in a grin as he stared up at the wall, but he made no attempt to communicate with the defenders – no final monologue or ultimatum issuing from his lips. This seemed odd. Most of their enemies seemed fond of last-minute rants. Yet Jason didn’t spare much attention for Thorn’s lack of flare, focusing instead on the gem in his hand. The crystal was the real puzzle here. It looked familiar, but it took Jason a second to recognize it. It was similar to the one that Frank had found in the nest of native undead…

  Suddenly, Thorn’s plan began to click together in Jason’s head.

  “Stop him!” he shouted at Riley.

  It was already too late.

  Even as Riley released her arrow, Thorn clenched his fist, crushing the crystal into a fine powder. As the gem was destroyed, a massive wave of dark mana was released, fountaining fifty feet into the air before slamming back into the ground and pulsing out in a malignant nova of unholy energy. If anything had been living in the barren field, it would have been destroyed by that wave of darkness. The energy kicked up a thick gray dust in a rolling surge of debris. Mana and dust soon crashed against the stone wall and shot up towards the defenders, crossing in front of Jason and briefly obscuring his vision.

  As the energy began to dissipate, he could see that Thorn had vanished from the field. The defenders didn’t have long to contemplate his disappearance. A rumble now came from the tree line, where the wave of dark energy was still stretching toward the barren forest, slowly breaking apart and beginning to dissipate. Within only seconds, dozens of shapes suddenly appeared among the trees, outlined in blue as Jason’s Perception skill triggered continuously. Even as the first of the creatures broke the tree line, more continued to funnel into the open field in a never-ending torrent.

  “They’re undead,” Riley murmured from beside Jason, sighting along another arrow.

  Jason could see that she was right. A massive horde of skeletal creatures was streaming from the trees, their ivory limbs clawing at the air hungrily as they tried to devour the last traces of dark mana that filled the field, buying the defenders a few precious seconds to consider their new opponents. These weren’t Jason’s orderly creations. These were wild, chaotic creatures – spawned and hardened in the wild wastelands that surrounded the city.

  Even more terrifying was the form the native undead had assumed. They almost looked human, racing along on bipedal legs. The undead must have continued to mutate, merging the missing corpses of the local townsfolk into their nests. Now they faced the result of that unholy union of beast and man. Soulless black eyes glared at them, devoid of any intelligence and filled with a bottomless gnawing hunger. Jason could see evidence of their animalistic heritage. Their ivory limbs were bound together in thick layers and their fingers terminated in razor-sharp claws. Each of the native undead stood nearly seven feet tall, and their feet pounded the gray dirt in a thunderous rhythm.

  The monsters seemed to be in some sort of frenzy, scrambling over each other as they attempted to claw ravenously at the concentrated tendrils of dark mana in the field, absorbing the mana into their skeletal bodies. Jason soon lost count as he tried to assess their numbers. There had to be hundreds of the creatures – if not thousands. A quick inspection revealed the following:

  Enraged Ghouls – Levels 200-300

  Health – Unknown

  Mana – Unknown

  Equipment – Unknown

  Resistances – Unknown

  Jason’s thoughts raced as he began to piece together Thorn’s plan. The Order must have been responsible for the way the native undead had begun to mutate out of control. That was the only explanation that made sense, especially after Frank had found a similar dark mana crystal buried in the Wraithling nest. After allowing the creatures to ravage the surrounding towns and other native undead – swelling their numbers – Thorn must have then lured them here, using their hunger for dark mana as bait.

  Yet the size of the horde was staggering. It would have taken Thorn days to gather the ghouls that now approached them – which also explained why he had been missing when they had confronted his accomplices. All of this clicked together in an instant, leaving Jason feeling incredibly stupid. How had he not anticipated this?

  “Damn it,” Jason hissed. The only minor blessing was that without his accomplices, Thorn would only be able to attack one side of the city. That must ha
ve been what he had glimpsed in the agent’s mind – that sense that the other two men were meant to serve some purpose. Although, this did little to make Jason feel better given the torrent of undead that continued to stream into the open field.

  The Kin stationed on the wall shuffled anxiously as they watched the oncoming horde that was still barreling through the trees. There seemed to be no end to the skeletal creatures. The native undead in the field soon finished chasing the last traces of dark mana, the occasional scuffle breaking out among their ranks as they fought amongst themselves for the last scraps of energy.

  A few stray creatures sniffed at the air, as though hunting for more of the dark mana. Then, as one, the horde of ghouls seemed to notice the defenders on the wall. The ambient mana that resided in the Kin’s undead bodies and the dense collection of energy that helped power and support the city seemed to call out to the native undead, drawing them like moths to a bonfire.

  A sudden stillness descended upon the field, as the defenders and native undead observed each other. Then a roar of desperate rage and hunger erupted from the horde of ghouls, and the first line began barreling toward the walls, followed closely by the remainder of the native undead. Their clawed hands raked and gnashed at the air as their ear-piercing howls set the defenders’ teeth on edge.

  A blue notification suddenly dropped into Jason’s vision.

  Universal System Notice

  The native undead surrounding the Twilight Throne have mutated out of control, stirred into a frenzy by their ever-present thirst for dark mana. The undead now stand at the walls of the dark city, threatening its inhabitants. It is time to atone for your sins and pray to your gods.