Chapter 343: Sacrifice

Tommy was pacing inside the central studio of the Fanta-See network, numerous screens on the wall in front of him, and several workers at keyboards, staring up at Aegis’ broadcast alongside him instead of working.

The implant in his ear was lit up due to his connected call with Shinji and Hae-won, but Hae-won had him muted, busy talking rapid-fire to keep up with the action.

“This feels different. This doesn’t feel like the usual, family-friendly Aegis,” Tommy said into the call.

“Since when has Aegis ever been family-friendly?” Shinji replied.

“True, but there’s normally been a playfulness to him. This time, he feels genuinely enraged,” Tommy said.

“Wouldn’t you be?”

Tommy took a deep, anxious breath and crossed his arms, eyes peeled on the broadcast. It was sitting comfortably in the number one spot with 23 million views; the closest below was Feng’s at 11 million. 

***

Ubiystas’ fingers shone through the sleeves of his robes. A barrage of spells came at Aegis from all sides, and his eyes darted around to identify them. He’d experience practicing against Pyri, but this guy fought differently. He mixed in a lot of spells at once.

Aegis could ignore the fire spells outright. His fire resistance had hit the maximum level of 75 due to his countless hours spent mining mithril in the Red River. He prioritized blocking the other damage spells and dodging the crowd control spells that Ubiystas slipped into the mix.

They were subtle, but when Aegis spotted them, he understood how Ubiystas ‘one-shot kill’ barrage attack worked on Skar and the others. A paralysis spell snuck in the mix with his damage spells, designed to hit before the others subtly so that once the attack started, all the person could do was stand there.

Aegis had to avoid that paralysis at all costs and disengaged to get space and give him more time to react to it.

He used his wings to swat, his shield to block, and guards to limit Ubiystas’ movement as he attempted to pursue.

After 15 seconds of attacks, Ubiystas stopped and grinned slyly. “Cold resistance is the lowest, eh?”

He’d probed and analyzed all of my resistances with those spells and accurately concluded which one was my lowest. All while keeping me on the back foot. This guy is extremely dangerous.

It felt as oppressive as facing Seraxus. Ubiystas switched to only using ice spells, mixing in damage attacks with attacks designed to freeze Aegis in place. Within seconds, the streets of Rene on which they fought were glistening with reflective ice across all surfaces, sharp icicles protruding from the walls and dirt as Aegis dodged the ones fired at him.

In addition, Ubiystas cast his water simalcrum and was having it pursue Aegis, attempting to suffocate him in its watery form. Aegis tried retaliating with some smite casts to put Ubiystas on the defensive, but he deflected and dodged the holy bolts with ease, not breaking a sweat.

“Apple fell REAL far from the tree this time. Does your mommy know how shit you are at this game?!” Ubiystas taunted.

“You’re a PvP-oriented class, facing a PvE-focused one. Easy on the condescension, creep.” Aegis snapped back.

“Maybe try picking a useful class next time, moron!” he let out a high-pitched laugh.

Aegis blocked and deflected a few more icicle attacks, but one got by around his feet, freezing him to the ground. Ubiystas converged with a dump of his mana in an instant. The simulacrum lunged forward, engulfing Aegis in water to suffocate him, while the sleeves of the young wizard avatar slid back to reveal a thick blue glow on his hands.

A rising wall of jagged ice exploded out of the ground at Ubiystas’ feet, growing forward in a line toward Aegis, cutting through the cobblestone streets and buildings as it destroyed everything in its path.

His feet frozen, his head in water, he thrust his shield forward to meet the freezing wall and silently cast Spell Reflect on it. The glacier turned around, crashing into itself and cancelling out, causing an explosion of ice in all directions.

Ubiystas was waiting for this much ice to be scattered about, showering shards all around them. He waved his hands to use a telekinetic spell and take control of all of it, and sent it down at Aegis from all directions. There were thousands of shards, impossible to block with his wings and shields, and the damage poured in.

Aegis attempted a heal cast on himself, but the moment his hands glowed with divine energy, Ubiysta sent a grey spell at him, cancelling the cast.

You have been counterspelled. Unable to cast spells for 5 seconds.

Aegis’ health plummeted rapidly.

This easy. Ubiystas was taking me out so easily that I couldn’t even fight back. I can’t die, or it's over.

Aegis didn’t want to, but he had no choice. He used his party interface to send a message.

[Aegis-Party]: “Jael, I need help.” 

An explosion of smoke erupted around Ubiystas, while a grey bolt fired towards Aegis. Jael dispelled the simulacrum and frost around Aegis's feet, followed by a gigantic healing spell that warmed his body up, cast by Great Prophet Clara.

Within the smoke around Ubiystas’ the 57 Rene guards, trained by Lina, shadowstepped into it and slashed out at him from all sides.

“Haaaah!” Ubiystas shouted in annoyance, blasting out fire from himself to push the smoke away and knock the guards back. “Using NPCs? What kind of cowardly shit is this!?”

“My class isn’t useless. It’s designed to lead the people of the Shattered World into the light. Welcome to Rene.” Aegis gritted his teeth, eying a few guards that Ubiystas focused his attacks on.

Aegis retaliated not by attacking, but by healing the guards that Ubiystas hit, negating his damage, and using shield projections to prevent any one-shots. Now that Aegis understood the nature of Ubiystas’ spell barrages, it was easy to counteract them from a distance, with Clara assisting in the healing and Jael assisting with dispelling any paralysis.

Ubiystas’ health began to dip from all of the shadowstepping cuts he was receiving. He was forced to give up on offense, going entirely defensive and biding his time.

Aegis knew what he was holding out for: the Airburst cooldowns. Aegis cast Bless on the Rene guards to up their damage, ordering Celestian to protect Clara and Jael.

Ubiystas attempted to slip out a water spear towards Clara, hoping Aegis wouldn’t notice, but he did. Aegis darted towards the spear, and as it neared Clara, he spoke loudly. “Virabha…” he held the last syllable. It was a feint, but enough to change the look on Ubiystas’ face to anger.

He made no more attempts to water-spear towards the healers, and all of the guards remained healthy, dropping Ubiystas’ health below half. 

During that time, Aegis received messages from the others, one by one they sent ‘Rdy’ in party chat, the last coming from Ruffily 20 seconds before the Airbursts would be off cooldown.

Ubiystas started laughing when the cooldown timer hit 0. He, like Aegis, was mentally keeping track of it.

“You’re fucked now. Say goodbye to your shitty little town in the middle of nowhere.” 

A loud, thunderous whooshing sound overtook the skies around them. The first wave of Airships arrived from Kordas, bearing the banners of the Vindicators, Sages of Destiny, and some others.

Calikgos, Feng, Lilya, and Daehyoon were on board the first wave this time, smiling down at Aegis from above.

“Game over, kid!” Feng shouted down, a hint of sympathy in his voice. The rain of spells came down almost immediately, flattening the residential side of Rene within seconds.

Aegis could do nothing but watch all of his and Ruffily’s hard work get turned into dust. Hundreds of Arallian and Kalmoorian homes destroyed, in the blink of an eye. They weren’t even targeting Aegis; it was as if they wanted him to watch it happen first.

Feng drew his katana, glowing blue, and dashed from the deck of his ship, cutting through the air towards Aegis.

Aegis dashed away across Rene, hopping over Amlie’s fence into her farm fields. Lilya joined in, soaring down with icy wings. Hundreds of players charged at his Rene guards, using pinning shots and other forms of crowd control to take them out.

Some went for Celestian, Jael, and Clara, but their formation tightened, and they held out. Ubiystas focused on Aegis along with Feng and Lilya, all cackling. Daehyoon led the charge against the guards.

It was chaos, and Aegis’s small force, despite being well geared, trained, and enchanted, was falling quickly.

Notifications scrolled across his screen, informing him of the destroyed buildings in his territory and the Rene guards that were dying. The number 57 dropped down to 40 in seconds.

Aegis went fully defensive, blocking a katana strike from Feng, a barrage of spells from Ubiystas, and a giant icicle attack from Lilya. In all of that chaos, Aegis lost track of Calikgos; he’d gone invisible.

“Why are you even still trying? Hah?” Ubiystas taunted.

Another notification flew over Aegis’ screen. The Great Prophet of Eirene had been killed. Aegis looked over to see a red 66,666 floating over her disintegrating body.

He steadied himself. He knew it’d happen the moment he asked for Jaels' help, but it was hard not to lose himself. He had to focus; another set of attacks came from Feng and the others. Aegis used guards, his wings, and nimble movements through Amlie’s fields to dodge everything.

Another two sets of 66,666 came up. One above Celestian, the other above Jael. Both NPCs were killed, with looks of confused terror on their faces for the last moments of their existence.

Calikgos didn’t stop there. Aegis knew it was him, but couldn’t see him. He darted around the battlefield, remaining invisible, using his scythe to kill the guards of Rene one at a time. 

The number of guards remaining went down to 20. Vindicators who’d been focused on killing them turned their attention to Aegis.

Spells rained down on his town hall, his keep, and other crafting stations. The sawmill that he’d built with Ruffily on his first days here exploded in flames. He got a notification that it had been destroyed.

Aegis’s health dropped low, barely being sustained by his constant heals on himself. He needed to be in full health. This wouldn’t have worked otherwise. This was all going to happen, no matter what he’d done; at least with this plan, they still had a chance.

Another 15 seconds, and all of Rene’s guards were dead. Calikgos turned on Aegis but remained invisible. Aegis held out against the others, swarmed from all sides.

Finally, an attempt to end his life and defeat Kalmoore in its entirety came. A red 66,666 damage number appeared above Aegis’ head, from an unknown direction.

It meant Calikgos was right beside him, in Amlie’s fields.

“NOW!” Aegis shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Things will likely devolve into a sticky, tangled mess in a matter of seconds.”

“OVERGROWTH!” Amlie cast, her voice screaming at the top of her lungs. The field of plants surrounding Aegis erupted in wild vines and gooey yellow petals, wrapping themselves around everyone and everything nearby. Lilya, Feng, Ubiystas, Daehyoon, and dozens of Vindicators were caught in the mass of gigantic plants that exploded into a thick bulge of vegetation in an instant, ensnaring and grappling all of them. Included in the mass was the now visible, tangled Calikgos.

“Have it ready for when things get heavy.”

“WEIGHT OF GOLD!” Chax shouted from a distance. A gigantic pouch of coins formed above him, swinging down through the air towards the bulge of tangled plants and players. It was enormous, like that of a castle. Aegis had sent Chax 1 million USD to convert into in-game currency in preparation for this attack, which amounted to a gold amount in the billions.

The attack did damage based on the amount of money held by the merchant player who cast it, but it was telegraphed, and Chax was left vulnerable as it swung down on them.

Unbound players and Ubiystas reacted by sending spells and arrows at Chax.

“Reinforce and guard our most valuable assets with mithril.” 

“Wall of Mithril!” Tullan cast. A shimmering, purple-hued wall grew from his fingertips, surrounding Chax and protecting him from the assault.

The pouch crashed down on the VGN leaders, splitting its damage amongst all those hit, while Amlie manipulated the plants with her advanced farmer class skills to pull Aegis out of the cluster.

Feng, Lilya, Calikgos, Daeyhoon, and many Vindicators were killed instantly. Ubiystas, the advanced Chronomancer, used his primary cooldown at the last second to rewind himself 30 seconds, but Aegis had kept track of where he’d been 30 seconds ago, broke free of Amlie’s plants, and stood there waiting for him.

The moment he appeared, Aegis dug his hands into his shoulder, glaring.

“Ahah, you’re still going to lose, you cheap piece of shit. Send in the next waves, with Chaewon and the other PvPers!” Ubiystas called out to no one in particular, motioning his hands at the Airships in the sky, the ruined Rene, and the hundreds of players still alive, converging on him, Tullan, Chax, and Amlie.

More loud, thunderous whooshing came. This time, no Airships arrived. No players arrived. Splinters, tattered banners, and fragments rained down over them en masse, like a hailstorm of wood and cloth. Amongst it, disintegrating players fell, [DEAD] above their heads.

Ubiystas’ mouth was agape at the scene, dumbfounded by what’d happened. The ground beneath Rene bubbled upward, forming mounds of dirt that shook the ground and caused nearby players to stumble and lose their balance.

“As I said,” Aegis snarled at him, shaking the kid avatar to make Ubiystas’ eyes focus on his own. “Welcome to Rene. You’re in my territory now, and none of you are getting past my shield.” 

He snapped his fingers, casting Virabhadra to kill the wizard, losing another 1000 favor with Eirene.