World-Tree Online

by EA Hooper

  Rethin snarled again and reached for Vincent. The boss’s massive hand covered the old man’s entire field of view, but then Quinn dove forward and punched the hand with Gravity Fist. The gravitational wave stopped the hand, and even managed to snap several bones in Rethin’s palm.

  Because she used the spell in the air, the shockwave tossed Quinn backward. She landed and slid across the plateau as she fired a Mana Mangun at Rethin’s face. Quinn stopped under the rainbow rain and drank an ether.

  Rethin reached out his arm, preparing to swipe across the entire length of the plateau. The World Boss had done this several times in the past to end a fight, but their team had prepared a way to stop it.

  Vincent stepped forward and dug his feet into the ground as the world boss swung its gargantuan arm. He cast Zero Field, and Quinn hit the arm with a Gravity Wave at the same time. The two spells slowed the massive arm, but it still continued at Vincent as he raised Song of War.

  Xan jumped to Vincent’s side with Barrier Longsword and Light-Drain Longsword ready. Together, the two players stopped the arm’s momentum, and Xan drained part of Rethin’s strength with her phantom blade.

  The World Boss pulled his hand away, and the two players hurried back to the fountain. They knew Rethin would be desperate since his swipe failed, so they each downed a mega-ether. The World Boss slowly stood and towered over the plateau again. He raised his hands into the air and interlaced them into a massive hammer.

  “Run!” Vincent screamed at his friends. “He’s going to crush the entire plateau!”

  The players panicked and hurried off in different directions. Quinn Vanished repeatedly until she dipped over the side of the ledge. Jim Gravity Bounced into the air, and then used the Gravity Web upgrade to bounce again. Vincent and Xan sprinted in opposite directions at full speed.

  Vincent reached the ledge as the titanic fists smashed into the center of the plateau. The attack split the plateau, crumbling a large section, but it also hurled debris in every direction. The force knocked Vincent over the side, and he felt his Gravity Shield slow the barrage of rocks as they struck him. He used Zero Field to slow himself before hitting the ground, and his shield absorbed the rest of the impact.

  The old man climbed to his feet and saw Rethin thrash around, throwing dozens of boulders and pieces of the plateau in all directions. Eramar’s increased gravity made the falling rocks even more dangerous, but Vincent instinctively dodged the large chunks of stone. Tons of rocks rained around him, and he stopped one jutting rock with Zero Field before it speared him.

  When the falling rocks stopped, Vincent raised his eyes to see Jim in the air, still trying to attack Rethin. Soon after, a large shockwave hit the boss in the leg, dropping him to his knees.

  Quinn toppled him. I need to help.

  Vincent gulped down an Agility Potion and ethers as he rushed around the plateau. He reached Rethin last and found the giant monster struggling to fend off his aggressive team. Between Xan’s dozens of Light-Drain Butterflies and floating blade, Quinn’s attacks on Rethin’s legs, and Jim’s assault from the air, it seemed they’d finally pushed the boss to his limits.

  We might win this! We might actually win.

  The World Boss released a piercing roar that sent a shockwave through the air. The vibrations stunned Vincent’s teammates and even knocked Jim from the sky. Rethin stuck out his chest, and the taut skin over the weak spot ripped. As the skin tore, a waterfall of blood rained down. The skin opened, revealing the weak spot to be a gigantic eye on the World Boss’s chest.

  Vincent could see chunks of matter missing from the eye where they’d spammed their earlier attacks. So, it was an eye all along. Should’ve realized it. Now that it’s exposed, it might be easier to finish him.

  The eye turned its gaze to Quinn and Xan on the ground. It glowed with magic, and the ground around the two women shook. Magical static filled the air, and small rocks even floated off the ground. In the split-second that the rocks rose, Vincent Scanned the static-filled air.

  Vaporize – Mana Usage: Very High | Magic Rating: 100-800 | The user generates a field of static mana. After two seconds, the static charge reaches a high enough frequency to unleash a devastating wave of mana.

  The two women must’ve realized something was about to happen, and they both moved away at once. Quinn Vanished, and Xan rushed and tried to dive behind boulders.

  A wave of mana shot from the eye and scorched the ground where the two women had been standing. Rethin even turned the beam mid-blast, leaving a large, banana-shaped crater in the ground. The outer layers of the beam seemed to have grazed Xan, and she collapsed toward a pile of rocks. Parts of her armor had melted from the attack, and it looked to Vincent like she’d lost an arm.

  Vincent aimed his fingers at the eye and fired three more Void Guns. Blood poured from the eye where he shot it, but Rethin roared and charged another Vaporize. Vincent could feel the static on his skin as rocks lifted in the surrounding air. He dove behind nearby boulders as the attack fired, melting a section of the broken plateau. Lava rolled down the slope toward Vincent’s half-melted cover. He raced away while chugging a second mega-ether.

  I thought we were so close. After all these years, I thought I knew everything Rethin could do. Who would’ve guessed he had such a devastating spell?

  His heart pounded as he heard the World Boss’s footsteps. However, the boss came to a stop before he found Vincent, and the old man heard another Vaporize striking the other side of the plateau.

  My friends are still fighting. I can’t give up. Maybe if I get close and hit the eye with Black Cinder?

  He drank another ether, and then stepped away from the slope and the fallen boulders. His eyes fell on Rethin, but the boss faced the other way as it fired another Vaporize. Vincent sprinted toward the enemy, knowing Rethin could sense movement on the ground with his feet.

  Got to hit him fast. I’ll only get one chance with this.

  Vincent leapt onto a boulder as he neared Rethin. He jumped to a taller rock and then to a higher ledge, but Rethin turned to face him. The gargantuan eye narrowed on him, and static filled the air as Vincent dove at the World Boss. He cast Zero Field on his own body to launch himself far higher than he could ever jump.

  Vincent raised his hand and cast Black Cinder with all his remaining mana. He thought he saw the twinkle of Vaporize activating, but then the eye twitched as void embers ripped thousands of holes through it. The massive beam missed Vincent and incinerated a pile of boulders at the base of the plateau.

  The old man collided with the World Boss’s stomach and rebounded. With no mana left in his body, his Gravity Shield couldn’t stop his descent. He hit the ground and felt his shoulder dislocate from the impact.

  A waterfall of blood fell from the eye and onto Vincent and the ground. He curled himself into a ball as the World Boss stepped backward with pained bellows. A few stray void embers burned into the ground around Vincent, but luckily none fell on him.

  Rethin stumbled backward, paused, and then bellowed one more time. His pupil shrank with pain, and then the eye hardened and turned into dust. The rest of the giant monster crumbled from the head down, but it took almost thirty seconds to dissolve entirely.

  Vincent stood and gasped as Rethin died. “We actually won?”

  “No freaking way!” Quinn shouted, hurrying from the rocks. It looked like she’d lost most of her hardened-verasteel plates in the attack, and her body appeared beat up from the flying rubble.

  Jim leapt from the broken plateau and stumbled at the bottom. “Forgot I was out of mana.” He stood, dusted himself off, and drank an elixir.

  “Where’s Xan?” Vincent asked as he snapped his dislocated shoulder back into place. “Did she survive?”

  “Over here!” Xan shouted, limping from a gap between two boulders. She’d healed most her wounds, but she’d wrapped her severed arm in difabric bandages with healing enchantments. “Just took a concentrated numbing pill, so the pain isn�
�t too bad. Feeling pretty good, actually. Oh, hey! The big dude is dead.”

  “And we didn’t lose a single party member,” Vincent noted. “This is it. We really are ready to face Lucas and his Justiciars. Jim, send messages to our allies at Firepeak and the camp on Rytil. Tell them we’re leaving right away—we can meet them on Rytil in a few weeks.”

  Jim grinned. “Already on it.”

  Vincent walked to the crumbled remains of Rethin. In a giant pile of ash, he saw the twinkle of item crystals.

  Beholden Eye – An undead eye full of dark magic. You can spend a high amount of mana to sacrifice this eye and cast Vaporize.

  Blood of the Ancient (x6) – A disgusting potion that increases all your stats by twenty levels for thirty minutes. Cannot be stacked with other level-enhancing effects.

  Jump Crystal (x3) – This crystal flows with incredible gravitational energy. Use it at a Jump Gate to fly to a nearby world. Farther worlds may require multiple Jump Crystals.

  Crystal Heart – A crystalline and still-beating heart taken from a majestic or divine being. You can feel tremendous magical energy with each pulse.

  Unique Token (Soulbound) – A mysterious token only rewarded to players that kill a World Boss that’s never been defeated before. | NOTE: Your party members will automatically receive a similar token when you pick up this item.

  “Check these out,” Vincent told his teammates. He held up the item crystals for them to see.

  “Nice,” Quinn said. “The potions will be super useful, and the Beholden Eye could either be used to knocked down the wall at Midrun or kill a bunch of Justiciars at once—both good choices.”

  “This is interesting,” Xan said, holding her copy of the Unique Token. She turned the silver coin in her fingers, eyeing the pictures of Rethin on both sides. One face showed his head, and the other displayed his gargantuan eye. “It’s like a trophy for being the first ones to kill Rethin. Just think, there’s hundreds of millions of players in this game, and we’re the only ones ever to defeat him. Really puts into perspective how special our journey has been.”

  “Let’s head to the stem and grab all our stuff,” Quinn said. “See our homes here for the last time.”

  Vincent nodded, and the four friends journeyed back home. As they walked, Vincent took in the sights and sounds of Eramar. The dark, swirling sky. The skin flyers in the distance. The smell of miasma and rot they sometimes passed. The twisted, scarred terrain.

  This was my home. For thirty-seven years, this was my home. I should hate this place and all the horrors it threw at us, but the truth is, I’ll miss it. We had almost as many good times as bad ones. Great adventures. Triumphant victories. I’ll never forget this place, no matter how many other worlds I visit.

  As their houses appeared on the horizon, Vincent’s sharp eyes caught movement. He saw the outlines of humans circling around and searching the buildings. He held his hand out to stop his teammates. “There are people at our houses.”

  “Visitors?” Xan asked.

  “Justiciars,” Vincent replied. “Our allies would’ve told us if they were sending anyone here. The Justiciars have been searching all the low-tier worlds for anyone that tried to escape Lucas’s control. It was only a matter of time before they searched the nearby mid-tier worlds as well.”

  “How many?” Quinn asked.

  “At least fifteen,” he replied. “There might be more in the houses, though.” He took a few seconds to Scan several men and their armor. “Most have stats in the seventies and eighties. Verasteel armor, but only a couple have hardened, enhanced, or enchanted.”

  “Weaklings,” Quinn said. “I say we use them as practice. We haven’t faced human players besides each other in decades.”

  “Then Lucas will find out we’re here,” Jim replied. “We know he’s had people searching for us for all these years. Maybe we should wait till they leave. Or try to sneak past them.”

  “We can’t give them time to find the daiglass shard,” Vincent said. “Let’s just take them down. It doesn’t matter if Lucas knows we’re here if we’re leaving. He won’t expect us to come after him directly.”

  “He might surmise we’re here to level-grind,” Quinn noted. “I’m sure the paranoid mod has been waiting for us to reappear and try something.”

  “Let’s just wreck them,” Xan said. “Don’t give them time to Scan our stats or learn anything about our abilities now. You all have Darkstalker Cloaks, right?”

  All four players equipped Darkstalker Cloaks over their armor to mask themselves in darkness.

  “Hang on,” Jim said. “On the off chance they do Scan us, we might as well freak them out.”

  Void-Foot Jim has suggested a party name change: The Void Knights.

  “You changed your name?” Vincent asked, glancing at Jim’s new title.

  Jim smirked. “Yeah, just now. I thought it sounded cool.”

  “Ooh, I like that idea,” Quinn replied, thinking. “Got one.”

  Abyss-Breaker Quinn has voted for a name change: The Void Knights.

  “Okay, but I’m changing mine back next year,” Xan replied.

  Alexandria the Ashen has voted for a name change: The Void Knights.

  Vincent thought for a few seconds. “Okay, how about this?”

  Name Change: Vincent the Eldritch

  Vincent the Eldritch has voted for a name change: The Void Knights.

  Your party has been renamed: The Void Knights.

  Vincent pulled the cloak’s hood over his head and equipped Song of War. “Alright, team. Let’s go get them.”

  As they rushed toward their houses, the Justiciar farthest from the buildings turned and squinted as the shadows approached. He started to shout, but Vincent used Singing Blade to decapitate him from a distance. Several other Justiciars noticed, screaming for help as they equipped their weapons.

  Vincent rushed toward a group of nine Justiciars and cast Black Cinder. The void embers shredded through the men’s armor and burned holes through their bodies. Six dropped dead almost instantly, and three others retreated with dozens of holes in their bodies. They shouted in pain and drank elixirs, but Vincent picked them off one by one with Singing Blade.

  Quinn created two Breaker Doppelgangers and charged several other men. She and her copies moved much quicker than the Justiciars and snapped their bodies with lightning-fast Breaker strikes.

  Jim used Gravity Bounce to launch himself above the buildings. He held himself in the air with Gravity Web, and then cast Void Crow. The dark bird flew through several men as they rushed out of the buildings to find out what was happening.

  “Retreat!” a man that appeared to be the lead Justiciar shouted. Even in heavier armor, he looked terrified at the shadowy figures killing all of his men.

  Xan circled around the group, charged behind the lead Justiciar, and hit him in the back with her Light-Drain Longsword. The Justiciar gasped and struggled to escape, but Xan stuck again, draining so much of his life energy that he dropped dead.

  Quinn watched two Justiciars run out of her house, and she used Gravity Wave to smash them against the marstone wall like insects.

  Jim picked off the last couple of Justiciars as they tried to retreat for the stem, and then he dropped back down to the ground. “Is that all of them? It shouldn’t have been that easy, right?”

  Quinn looked at her hands. “Are we really that strong? They couldn’t even fight back.”

  “Taking on the Justiciars might be easier than we thought,” Jim said with a chuckle.

  Vincent heard a panicked breath nearby and turned to see one last Justiciar at the entrance of the Ranger’s house. He Scanned the man, discovering he was also a Ranger, and immediately shot him through the head with a well-aimed Void Gun.

  Jim, Quinn, and Xan turned to Vincent, then glanced at the man he’d killed.

  Vincent sighed. “He was a Ranger. I’m sure he Scanned us, so in two weeks, Lucas will know we were here. He might’ve even heard Jim mentio
n taking on the Justiciars.”

  “My bad,” Jim said.

  Vincent smirked at his oldest friend. “You know what? That just means we might actually have a challenge waiting for us after all.” He walked toward the stem and grabbed the daiglass shard. “Let’s go, team. We have a moderator to overthrow.”

  Chapter 29

  Player: Lucas the Chosen Lord

  Location: Valahym (World) | The Lord’s Castle (Area)

  Class: Sheriff (Moderator)

  Vitality*: Lv 123

  Spirit*: Lv 130

  Resolve*: Lv 128

  Perception*: Lv 129

  Agility*: Lv 125

  Strength*: Lv 123

  Lucas stood at the edge of the balcony on the extended section of the castle. The massive building that had once been the council’s tower looked unrecognizable from what it had been three decades ago. Every few years, Lucas would get bored of the castle and have his workers build new sections or refurbish the inside of everything but his personal dungeon—only he, Erik, and Sam could enter that hallowed ground below the castle’s floors. Erik had even learned advanced rune-making, so he could modify and repair the runes that protected Lucas’s beloved collection.

  The lord watched the parade on the streets below. Colorful flags and holographic runes showed symbols and visuals of the cities and worlds under Lucas’s rule. People of various nations made floats, hovering with runes, that displayed different aspects of their culture both outside and inside the game.

  He paid more attention to the floats of newer, more complex cultures that had developed in the game’s worlds. The millions of players trapped in the game had already lived an entire lifetime since the update, and with that lifetime came new kinds of art, music, philosophies, sports, and activities.

  Lucas’s rule had softened in more recent years, bringing a lot of the cultural developments out of hiding. However, he’d never lifted his restrictions on travel. Only his Justiciars and people permitted by his officials could move between worlds. Except for those few that still defy me, Lucas noted.