Awaken Online: Timeless, page 66
“Ahh, I see you all figured it out! Perfect… because here he is!”
The lights suddenly all cut out, plunging the courtyard into darkness. They only came back gradually, smoke pouring out of the machines behind them, creating a haze that crept across the stage. Shadows moved through that murky gloom, the darkness collecting and condensing onstage, even as a trap door opened in the wood and a platform rose up from its depths. Eliza could only gape in shock. How had they pulled all of this together so quickly? It was mostly smoke and mirrors – literally – but still…
The lights blazed back into existence like the flash of lightning to reveal Jason standing there. His dark body wrapped in gray leather and his face tucked away behind a cowl of shadow.
A sudden, hushed silence descended on the crowd as he pulled back his hood slowly. Meanwhile, screens all around the stage showcased the image on displays dozens of feet wide.
As Jason’s fingers crept back, his skeletal visage emerged. Bleak white bone… although it had changed. Evolved. The bone had been pressed flat and smoothed out to resemble human features. It wasn’t perfect. His cheekbones were too sharp, too angular. His face just slightly too sallow since it was missing its normal volume of flesh and muscle and blood. But it was close. It gave him a noble appearance… almost regal. Like a vampire.
Jason raised his arms and the real show began.
Undead formed, stitched together among the crowd, hovering overhead, pulling themselves from the smoke coiling along the stage. An army of the dead. Yet Jason didn’t stop there. Bones whipped through the night sky, swirling overhead and condensing along the top of Cerillion Entertainment headquarters. Something massive was forming there. A creature of bone and darkness and destruction. A hallmark of the necromancer. A bone dragon.
As it was conjured into being, the beast raised its head and released a deafening roar into the night sky, one that reverberated across the entire city… and once again forced Eliza to press her hands to her ears to protect her sensitive eardrums. They wouldn’t regen here like they did in game – although, it was difficult to remember that with the realistic holograms projected across the courtyard and everyone robed in elemental energy and armor.
Eliza also realized that Bard had disappeared at some point, the spotlight on the other avatars dropping to a dull glow, hiding them in the shadows of the stage. It seemed they were moving on to Stage 2 of their plan…
The roar of noise faded into silence and Jason spoke calmly into that void. He didn’t shout. Didn’t yell. His voice was almost conversational, like he was speaking to each person individually.
“I know that many of you are here not to celebrate this game, but to protest the changes that have been occurring of late,” Jason began. “The rise of the avatars, the formation of elemental cities… and now? The destruction of everything we’ve built together. An invasion of the old avatars, the old races. They now threaten not just us,” he said, placing a palm to his chest, “but everyone – resident and traveler alike.
“We have nowhere to go. Nowhere to flee. No hope. We’re merely creatures cornered and helpless and at the mercy of beings with far more power and experience,” Jason continued.
“However, from that darkness, life can begin anew.”
As he spoke, the undead shuddered and took trembling steps, the smoke growing more dense and coiling out into the crowd now, snaking between their legs. The dragon perched on the building at Jason’s back breathed out another, more muted roar, a hundred drones simulating its breath and sending it gusting across the crowd as they gave an audible gasp.
“I know many of you have been wondering if this is the end of AO. Possibly even a server rollback. And the downtime has certainly lent credibility to those claims,” Jason explained.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd, an angry, irritated buzzing that was reminiscent of the former rioters.
“However, I’m here to tell you one thing…
“You couldn’t be more wrong.”
The sudden silence in that moment was so heavy that Eliza almost forgot to breathe. Say what you want about Jason, his presence and charisma could easily rival Bard. It was different. Darker. More somber. But, in many ways, it was even more powerful…
“These changes signal a seismic shift in the world of Awaken Online. The end of the era of human dominance and a return to an age long past. However, I don’t plan to give up without a fight. In fact, I’ve been fighting this whole time. Both me and the avatar of earth.”
Those murmurs were turning into a buzz of excitement and confusion now.
Even Eliza was puzzled. Wait, he’d been playing during the downtime?
And what was that about the avatar of earth?
“You heard me right. This server downtime was meant to create an opening – an opportunity. One that allowed us to create a safe place for the travelers to gather and unite against this new enemy… and a means to escape the cities that have fallen under the rule of the former avatars. But you don’t need to take my word for it. In fact, why don’t I just show you—”
As Jason trailed off, he raised his arms to the sky.
The displays all flickered out, vanishing from sight and plunging the courtyard into darkness once more – one filled with the tense whispers of the crowd.
All at once, another screen appeared in the sky, this one far larger than the others and hovering directly above the stage. It stretched a few dozen stories into the air, projected by hundreds of drones that had been repurposed for just this occasion. The light from that display was so bright that it plunged the stage into total darkness, hiding the avatars standing there.
Not that Eliza was paying much attention to that. Her eyes were riveted on the screen with everyone else, even Finn and Alex craning to see from where they stood…
Jason appeared there, standing on a ruined field pockmarked with craters and the bodies of the fallen. Mostly Nephilim, although Eliza saw other races sprinkled amongst them. Whatever had happened, it must have been an incredible battle. It looked like Jason had attacked a whole city… except the buildings were nowhere to be seen, leaving only broken crystal and craters.
“Hey there!” Jason chirped, turning to the camera. “It’s Jason, your favorite necromancer. And today I’m here to show you all how to execute an interdimensional rescue mission in just five easy steps! First, step 1! Gather an army of undead!”
Dark mana slithered around his hands as he spoke, growing rapidly in strength. As Jason completed the spell, those shadows rippled out across the broken field, plunging into the corpses of the fallen. The undead slowly began to rise with the creak of decayed flesh and grinding bone. They soon turned blank, white eyes toward Jason, standing in a motley line.
“Now, you just need to keep casting until you get the horde to the right level. Right around a hundred undead is the sweet spot, I’ve found,” Jason offered over his shoulder as he kept casting.
“Okay, finished! Look at that quality horde right there!”
He turned toward the camera. “Alright, now for step 2! Recruit the earth avatar. Lucky for you guys, I did all the hard work here. So, here she is! Say hello to Cady, the avatar of earth!”
The display spun and was soon centered on Cady’s face, her features concealed behind a brightly painted, demonic mask. Colorful tattoos were etched down one of her arms and the rest of her body was covered in loose robes over tight-fitting leather stays. She just glared at the camera, her arms crossed as she sniffed in distaste.
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered.
“No… no, this is Awaken Online!” Jason retorted, the joke landing flat and earning him a heavy silence and another scowl.
“Woof. Tough audience. Anyway, onward to step 3!” Jason continued, undaunted by Cady’s attitude. “Now, this next step may also take a while. To help save some time, I enlisted the help of Cady and her army of interdimensional clones to borrow a few items out of time and space. But you all might just have to hoof it across the continent on your own. Anyway, you need to collect at least five big gate pieces, like so—”
Rifts of emerald energy suddenly ripped open the air nearby, the undead showing no reaction as they stood there sedately. Suddenly, massive hunks of metallic rock dropped from those portals. Gate pieces. Five of them.
Eliza eyed the crowd nervously as they began to murmur amongst themselves, a rising buzz – a mixture of confusion and shock. Even Finn tensed up beside her and Alex was glaring at the screen now. It was impossible for Jason to have collected those gate pieces without stealing a few from the other avatars.
“Just what is that kid up to?” Finn grunted under his breath.
“Looks like he’s been stealing our shit while we’re offline,” Alex added.
Eliza just looked at him. That was rich. Hadn’t Alex stolen a gate piece from Jason more than once? Who was he to talk?
“Awesome!” Jason chirped onscreen. “Now, we’ve got our undead horde, our time-traveling bus driver—” More angry muttering from offscreen accompanied that statement and Jason side-eyed his partner before winking at the camera. “—and our gate pieces!
“Now, I bet you’re wondering what’s next! That’s simple. First you get your time-traveling bus driver to make you a portal like so…” he trailed off, waiting.
“Like so!” he nudged Cady after nothing happened.
She heaved out another sigh as she reappeared onscreen, grudgingly opening a glowing emerald portal. “Perfect! Thank you, bus driver lady!”
And now she was glaring at Jason over his shoulder, her fingers clenching as though she was imagining throttling him. Eliza could relate to that feeling…
Jason waved at his minions. “Step four is super easy,” he explained as the zombies lifted up the gate pieces one-by-one and lined up before the gate. “We just start traveling!”
The whole group soon passed through the portal and the field vanished—
It was soon replaced by an eerie scene. Night had fallen in-game and Jason and his entourage were suddenly surrounded by towering stone walls and medieval buildings built of solid wood and stone, their roofs thatched with thick hay. However, fires were raging in the distance, the flames creating flickering shadows and thick smoke billowing up into the night air, obscuring the moon from sight. Then there were the screams…
“Wait… is that… that’s Lux,” Alex muttered. The crowd was now murmuring more loudly now, a few cries of alarm rising into the air as people recognized the city.
Eliza eyes widened as she realized Alex was right. She’d seen Jason’s videos enough times to recognize this place. This was his original starting city. Which would make this the night that he’d conquered the town – his feral undead cutting down the travelers in droves.
As though her thoughts had summoned them, feral undead rounded a street ahead of Jason. They were chasing a group of travelers – the tags overhead giving them away. They desperately tried to flee, running and stumbling across the broken cobblestones. One zombie leaped on the player in the rear as his stamina bottomed out, quickly ripping him apart in a shower of blood and entrails as his screams echoed down the alley.
“Ahh, this is almost nostalgic,” Jason murmured onscreen, admiring the scene and breathing in theatrically. “The smell of fresh ash and blood. That note of carnage in the air.
“Anyway, let’s just take care of those stragglers so we can work in peace…”
A wave of his hand and several of his zombies stepped forward, all efreet. Fireballs collected along their palms in unison and then rocketed forward, blowing apart the fleeing travelers and the feral undead in one blast and leaving only smoking corpses behind.
Meanwhile, Cady was just rubbing at her face with her hands as she stood behind Jason. She looked like she was in pain.
“Perfect! Now we can move on to our final step!” Jason declared, wheeling back to the camera. “Although, this one is easier to show than to explain…”
His zombies were already moving. Several of the earth mages among them began casting, dissolving the road underfoot and burrowing a deep, deep hole in the earth. Once they were finished, Jason had his zombies deposit one of the gate pieces inside. And by that… he just ordered them to drop it in the hole unceremoniously. As a finishing touch, Jason swiftly formed another zombie, breaking apart the shattered remains of the travelers nearby. He reinforced the zombie’s arms, creating trowel-like appendages where its hands once were—
Then he promptly kicked the zombie in the hole and the earth mages filled it back in.
“Alright, finished!” Jason declared, grinning at the camera.
“They won’t understand any of that,” Cady muttered from offscreen. “All you did was show them footage of you digging a hole and dropping a gate piece and a zombie inside.”
Jason’s smile shifted to a frown. “What? Okay, yeah… I guess I could see how that might be a little confusing. Alright, I’ll explain really slow.” Jason pointed at one of the gate pieces. “This is a teleporter. You just have to charge it with mana. By placing it in this deep hole… well, it will survive the conversion of Lux into the Twilight Throne.”
“And the zombie?” Cady reminded him.
“Oh, yeah. He’s there to dig his way out later. He’ll be directing future traffic to this spot. I might have infused a few extra mana gems into his body. Trust me, you can’t miss him.”
Jason stared at the camera, his expression sobering. “In short, this is your chance to get the fuck out of here once the servers come back online. Everyone in the Twilight Throne should memorize this spot, because the escape window will only be open for a few minutes and if you miss your ride, well…”
More zombies chased a traveler along the street at his back, the woman screaming as they jumped on her and tore into her flesh. “Ahh, yeah, that’ll probably happen to you too!
“I suppose some of you might also be wondering where these portals will take you, which is sort of fair. Why would you trust someone that looks so untrustworthy, right?” Jason acknowledged, waving at himself. “Well, that’s a surprise! So, you’re just going to have to wait and see for yourselves.”
Jason’s expression sobered as his lips split into a broad, almost-feral smile, dark mana spiraling around him. “Besides, what other option do you really have?”
“Anyway, that’s it!” Jason declared, clapping his hands to break the sudden tension. “Five easy steps to execute an interdimensional rescue plan. Thanks for watching and please remember to like and subscribe if this was helpful—”
“We’re not done!” Cady barked. “We still have four more gate pieces to go!”
Jason hesitated, smacking a bony hand to his forehead. “Ahh, yeah, I guess we do…”
He glanced back at the camera, his dark eyes pulsing with mana. “Then, I guess we should keep going. What do you all think? The Sea’s Edge next? Let’s get to it, bus driver lady!”
Cady was already grumbling as she opened yet another portal…
Eliza could only gape with the others, the crowd having gone dead quiet as the pair and their zombie horde soon emerged in the Sea’s Edge – during the middle of the lizardmen attack on the city. This was… this was insane, right? Was Jason really traveling through time? Was he actually installing escape portals into each of the major elemental cities? Just what was this? The other avatars must have been thinking the same thing since they were just staring at the screen in shock and horror, even Finn looking bewildered by what he was watching.
Then a single roar of approval echoed out from the throng. It was soon picked up by the others. They added their voices to the air. Not in anger. Not in rage. But in excitement. They were shouting in triumph at the man who had just turned around an abject defeat at the hands of the old avatars into something more. That was hope in their voices.
“That kid is something else,” Finn muttered.
“He really is,” Eliza murmured at his side.
The older man glanced away then, seeing Julia along the side of the stage, the group obscured in shadow and the thick smoke that covered the stage. His hand landed on Eliza’s shoulder and she flinched, a sudden pit forming in her stomach.
She’d almost forgotten why she was so worried…
“It’s time,” Finn offered gently, even Alex sparing Eliza a sympathetic look.
She took a deep breath and then nodded before moving toward the edge of the stage. As she approached Julia, the woman tapped at her Core and Eliza’s costume disappeared. Another few gestures and Julia’s appearance contorted as she disguised herself as the avatar of water. Soon, Eliza was looking at her spitting image – albeit a slightly taller and more well-endowed version.
“Your clothes are in a bag in that hall. I left an ID badge too,” Julia said softly as she passed, handing Eliza a blanket to hide herself and ward off the night’s chill.
“Got it,” Eliza chirped, trying to stay calm.
“Good luck,” Julia offered and then she walked back on stage.
Which left Eliza alone, navigating back through the support staff and pulling the blanket tight around her to hide her face – not that anyone was paying any attention right now. Even the staff were staring at the video still playing overhead with wide eyes. Jason was showcasing how his announcer zombies worked. He’d apparently infused them with a bunch of mana crystals, turning them into an undead disco ball…
Eliza turned away, swallowed hard, eyeing the doors to Cerillion. She only saw another dungeon. One far more foreboding than any she’d explored in-game. One she would have to venture into and conquer… alone.
Yet as she wavered, the memory of the crowd returned to her with a vengeance – the warm reception she’d received from the other travelers. The signs. The banners. The cheers and shouts as they chanted her name. That was right. She was the Ice Witch, after all.
It was about time she finally acted like it…
Chapter 58 - White Knight
Finn’s Home
Earlier That Afternoon
