Chapter 345: Impending

A ring disintegrated from Calikgos’ finger when he reappeared in the graveyard of the Monastery of the Stars, up the mountain away from Rene and staring down at the swarming Mosmir.

He grimaced, opening his chat to see several new angry messages from Mike, insulting his incompetence.

“Get back in there and kill them, now. Order the last wave of airships in. How can so many people be so useless?”

He mentally sent his response. “You failed to heed my warnings about attacking him on his own turf. Harbinger of Light is a class that specializes in crafting, working with NPCs, and playing defensively. You attacked him in his home, surrounded by his NPCs, crafting stations, and materials, with defense bonuses. How about you handle your side of things, and let me handle mine?”

“How are you going to handle it, huh?!”

“It’s already done. I’m calling off the rest of the airships to save face. We only need retreat now,” Calikgos said, opening a second interface to give the orders to Chaewon’s Airship, and telling her to spread the message to the rest of the third wave.

“Nothing’s done, the kid is still standing!” Mike’s response was leaking with rage.

“It is done. He planted Bihi, and I killed Clara and the other Eirene priests. He will not be able to stand up to the Avatar of Affliction, let alone the rest of the invading monsters. He wants our third wave to attack. With no high-ranking guild members alive within our ranks, his Leadership skill has superiority over all of ours, and he is fighting against the abyss,” Calikgos paused.

He pulled up his livestream viewer to watch Aegis, and sure enough, Aegis stood alone, patiently waiting in front of his fountain, eying the airspace around Rene. 

“The moment the third wave arrives, he’ll use his commanding presence to convince all of our NPC pilots and mercenaries to assist Rene in fighting against the abyss, and it is like NPCs to prioritize that threat over killing one another. If we keep attacking further, we’ll only strengthen his position. We are leaving, and he will fail to defend Bihi under these conditions, even if Divine Aid provides him with the greatest possible boon,” Calikgos finished this message and went back to sending a few more to the final wave of Airships hovering above Kordas, waiting for orders.

“If you’re wrong about this…”

“Then what? We’re short on our top players right now because of your foolish attempts to brute-force your own game. How about you stick to ‘cybersecurity’ and let me handle what you hired me for?” 

Calikgos shut off the communications, hopping up to the tower of the Monastery of the Stars, glaring down at the battle below. He watched a pair of voidreaver beams slice through an airship’s mast, causing it to crash down from the skies outside the walls of Rene.

Behind him, he heard the violent scurrying of approaching abyss monsters. He lingered at the edge of Aegis’ aura of light skill, and behind him was nothing but black mist. 

The last thing he did was suck his teeth before jumping away into the darkness.

***

Aegis had his own livestream viewer open, watching Chaewon’s stream. She was now the 2nd highest streamer below Aegis as the only major VGN player still alive. 7 of the top 8 spots were held by lesser-known VGN streamers, with the other slot being Mikael.

The Airships above Kordas rose out of the mist, catching glimpses of large, monstrous creatures soaring around them in the direction of Rene. Some tendrils, claws, and black abyssal wings lashed out as they gained altitude, deleting ships and all players aboard from existence in single attacks.

When her ship broke through the top of the mist, it was as if it were rising from a dark ocean, sunlight shining brightly above from a distance, with a thick black cloud of smoke still lingering over the burning ruins below.

She gave a speech about pulling back, trying to save face, and Aegis spotted Calikgos somehow boarding one of the ships before they began Airbursting away from Kalmoore, the fleet pitifully small compared to what it had been initially. Aegis estimated that only about 25 Airships remained.

“Damn,” he clenched his fists.

Not good. They’re leaving. We needed their NPCs as reinforcements.

The battle around him was settling down quickly, giving him time to consider his next actions. The Mosmir, dark elves, and Joshaka’s group were mopping the VGN stragglers with ease.

[Aegis-Party]: “Savika, please hand over all authority of Kalmoore to me in place of Quinn and Night Hunters. Sorry, Tullan, I promise it’s temporary.”

[Tullan-Party]: “No worries, figured ye’d need as much.”

[Queen Savika-Party]: “Okay!” 

He wasn’t prepared for what happened next. Aegis’ interface exploded with pop-up notifications, burying his peripheral vision in warnings and alerts. The most prominent sat at the center, blinking.

You have been elected as liaison between the ruler of the Kingdom of Kalmoore and the players of Kalmoore by [Queen Savika(Elite) - Level 30]. You have been granted access to the Kingdom Management interface(?).

The warnings were endless, and they kept coming. There were alerts that Kalmoore lacked proper class trainers, skill trainers, a training hall, and that every single church still had worshipers but no high priest or temple to pray at.

All of Kalmoore’s infrastructure had been decimated. The only buildings still standing were the Rene Forge and its walls. Even if they survived this battle, they would have to rebuild everything from scratch.

Then, a more ominous warning popped up.

The Capital City, Kordas, has been destroyed and claimed by the faction(s): [The Abyss]

The highest-ranked remaining settlement has been assigned as your new capital. [Rene]

He had to focus and ignore the red alerts. A few waves of his hand cleared up his view, and he navigated his way through the Kingdom Management interface to reassign a few things. He set Rene as a starting location for new players, moved graveyard rules around to have players respawn within the walls, and reassigned Chax as treasurer for the entire kingdom.

[Aegis-Party]: “Chax, take all gold out of the treasury of both Rene and Kalmoore. Get every single coin of gold from every NPC, but keep track of who you take it from. Take the gold from us as well. Once you have all of our wealth, I want you to log out and stay logged out. No matter what happens, so long as the Avatar of Greed is alive, you cannot come back online, got it? I’m sorry, but I need you to sit this out, or we’re dead in the water.”

[Chax-Party]: “You can count on me,” Chax replied.

[Aegis-Party]: “Savika, send up the Mosmir drones, have them help reinforce the walls. We’re running out of time. Tullan, once all of the NPCs are in the hive, seal it off with Mithril. Once the forces of the abyss get here, we’re not going to have time to worry about them.”

Aegis closed his interface and turned his attention to Amlie’s fields. A tiny white sapling sprouted up out of the ground, with the dark elf druids huddled around, casting growth skills on it. 

The moment the first leaf on the tree sprouted, a quest appeared in front of everyone’s face in the area.

The Unshattering

Quest[1/5]: Protect the seedling of Bihi until it is fully grown and able to fend off the forces of the abyss with her light.

Objective: Bihi Fully Grown

Quest Giver: Bihi the Wildling, Rene, Kalmoore

Reward: 10,000,000 experience, Blessing of Bihi

Difficulty: Extreme(V)

Restrictions: Bihi must survive.

It was the first time Aegis had seen a quest that had a name to it before. In addition, he specifically received a notification that his class quest had been updated and was in progress, so he double-checked it.

Quest[1/10]: Find a suitable location on the land below the Shattered Islands, within the abyss, to plant the seedling of Bihi. Use any means necessary to help her grow into a mature tree, and keep her safe from the inevitable onslaught of abyssling creatures that will attempt to destroy her.
Objective: 0/1 Bihi Fully Grown
Quest Giver: Great Prophet Clara
Reward: Master Class: (Unknown)
Difficulty: Extreme(V)
Restriction: Bihi must survive. You must be a Harbinger of Light to complete this quest.

[Amlie-Party]: “No pressure, huh?” She sent after accepting the quest along with the others.

Aegis made for what was left of the alchemy hall, the ceiling having caved in on itself. His strength stat and wings allowed him to toss the debris aside and get at the facilities below, pulling out his kit and grabbing any unbroken vials he could find.

The storage hall, too, was intact a few blocks over, and once he’d set up the alchemy station, he ran between the two, frantically crafting as many elixirs as he could. He focused on disease, curse, and other debuff removal elixirs, but made sure to brew mana potions beside. 

He felt rushed; the quality wasn’t coming out high on any of them, but he was taking Finley’s warnings seriously. His cleanse skill, as it was, could only remove poison, and it’d take him time to level it up when the Avatar got here. With so many Mosmir and dark elves, he had a feeling things were going to get out of hand, incredibly fast.

Once he’d crafted a decent amount of each type of elixir, he used his advanced skills to convert them into gas-administered potions, allowing him to throw them around the battlefield and cure his forces en masse. Still, he’d never done something like this before and was unsure of how effective it’d be.

A bunch of nanobots to keep everyone healthy would be great right about now.

He laughed at the absurdity of the thought as it crossed his mind—a nervous laugh, as more notifications streamed across his screen.

The settlement of Braskil has been destroyed and claimed by the faction(s): [The Abyss]

WARNING: The Kingdom of Kalmoore has [9] settlements remaining. 

WARNING: The population of Kalmoore has dropped under 10,000. If this population drops below 300, Kalmoore will no longer be recognized as a Kingdom. 

Rene had gone silent. VGN’s forces had been defeated, and only the distant sound of Ruffily, Tullan, and the Mosmir drones working could be heard. Kaef’aktos and Krael were working with the mosmir, taking up posts on the walls and positioning themselves evenly. 

Crackling flames and collapsing structures occasionally overtook his ears, but overall, the loud, empty, distant whistling of wind from the surrounding abyss was what he heard. It was unsettling.

His Aura of light was holding back the black mist, but it was all around its edges, in every direction, and above. It was as if Rene was inside a bubble at the bottom of a black ocean, and they were waiting for what would come out of that ocean to attack them.

[Chax-Party]: “I’ve got it all, guys. Good luck,” Chax left the raid party and logged out of the gameworld.

Aegis’ wings faded as his Avatar of Eirene skill ended, and the size of the light dome shrank, no longer encapsulating the abandoned Monastery of the Stars outside of the walls. The silence of the surrounding abyss got louder. His viewership skyrocketed, breaking all previous records. The number’d gotten so ridiculously large that he had no choice but to hide it.

WARNING: The Kingdom of Kalmoore has [4] settlements remaining. 

WARNING: The population of Kalmoore has dropped under 5,000. If this population drops below 300, Kalmoore will no longer be recognized as a Kingdom. 

He had one last trick up his sleeve, and he was running out of time to use it. Aegis waved away the warnings and made for the fountain at the center of Rene, with the statue of Eirene standing tall, spouting water. It’d taken a bit of damage, but held its shape.

“Tullan, I need you over here,” Aegis shouted, and the dwarf waddled over as fast as he could. “Coat this in Mithril, use as much as you can. Fill in the gaps where it broke.”

Tullan nodded, pulling raw ore out of his inventory, which Aegis eyed. “Outta the bars. We ain’t gonna have enough for all the walls anyway,” he shrugged. Using a few blacksmithing skills, a layer of mithril, low quality, crept over the statue and filled in the chipped bits.

Once it was done, Aegis pulled from his inventory the greater enchanting orb he’d received all those months back, in the golem cave just up the mountain. He eyed it as it appeared in his hand, noting the advanced enchanter requirement, which he’d now finally met.

“Hope this will save our asses,” He shrugged. Tullan watched as he pressed the orb into the mithril-coated statue of Eirene.

After a few moments, the statue rumbled to life, standing up from the fountain, staring blankly. [Mithril Statue of Eirene - Level 1]

Tullan sighed. “Thas not gon’ help us much.” 

Aegis took a deep breath as a few more notifications popped up.

WARNING: The Kingdom of Kalmoore has [1] settlement remaining. 

WARNING: The population of Kalmoore has dropped under 2,000. If this population drops below 300, Kalmoore will no longer be recognized as a Kingdom. 

The ground rumbled. The abyss was closing in on them, and they in Rene were now the only living NPCs and players left on Kalmoore.

Aegis exchanged glances with Tullan and tilted his head to the side, unsure of what was going to happen next. “Here goes nothing. Divine Aid,” he cast.