Chapter 318: The Big Bad Villain

author note: not edited yet, rushed to get it out in time! will try to edit later. have a good rest of the weekend!

----------

Aegis, Darkshot, Lina and Pyri were all transported back into the waiting area. Aegis had time to spot a timer at the top of his interface, counting down from 10 minutes until the award ceremony started. He hadn’t any time to speak about it though before Rakkan’s body re-appeared at full health inside the waiting area beside them. 

No words were spoken, but all eyes fell on Rakkan as he tilted his head downward and clenched his fists together.

“Are you okay?” Lina was the first to speak.

“I’m fine.” Rakkan replied quickly. He kept his head down, and all of them knew he was lying as silence fell back onto the room.

“Guess this’ll be the last time we’re in this room, huh? Pretty crazy when you thi-” Darkshot’s attempt to spark up conversation was cut short.

“It’s gotta be all lies, right?” Rakkan looked up at Aegis with tears swelling up in his eyes.

“I don’t think so.” Aegis replied as calmly as he could, making sure to think about his words before he spoke as he saw the emotions bleeding out of Rakkan’s face.

“How can you know?” Rakkan asked while stomping towards him.

“When Amlie told me what had happened to you, one of the first things I did was look up Seraxus’ stream for footage of his attack on Pellagrove, but it wasn’t there. The last live footage of your friends before it happened ended abruptly without any declaration from the streamer. Someone who loves attention wouldn’t randomly cut his livestream off, so the only explanation was that the footage was deleted.”

“He coulda just done it ‘cause he felt guilty, though, right?”

“You don’t really believe that’s what happened.” Aegis replied.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me about it then?!” Rakkan shouted at him.

“It wasn’t my place. I didn’t know for sure, anyway. The only one who could’ve really told you what happened was Seraxus.” Aegis remained calm despite Rakkan’s raised voice. 

“Then what the hell happened to my grandpa!? WHAT HAVE I BEEN ANGRY ABOUT ALL OF THIS TIME?!” Rakkan grabbed Aegis by the collar of his leather salamander armor and lifted him up, and Aegis let it happen. Lina flinched and reached out her arm as if ready to intervene, but Aegis held up his hand in her direction to signal her to stop. 

“You haven’t been angry.” Pyri answered for Aegis, causing Rakkan to turn to face her. Once she was sure he was looking her in the eyes, she continued. “You’ve been grieving.” 

Upon hearing her words, Rakkan broke eye contact and had them wander around while he pondered her words. The longer he did, the more tears built up until they slowly began to stream out down his pale green cheeks. 

“Renault, step out of the Simbox for a moment.” Renault’s fathers voice reached him through the Simbox communicator. “We need to talk.” 

Rakkan paused and looked at his feet and slowly lowered Aegis back down to the ground. 

“I need a moment.” Rakkan said to his party before logging out of the gameworld. The moment he’d disappeared, Pyri gave Aegis a look.

“What?” Aegis asked her,

“You really didn’t know?” Pyri raised an eyebrow at him.

“Of course not. If I was sure, I would’ve told him.”

“Wanting revenge for losing a loved one is very different from wanting to punish someone for hurting someone you care about.” Pyri scolded him.

“I know, mom,” Aegis sighed back at her.

“You sure about that?”

“Yes.” Aegis huffed.

“Alright.” She shook her head and broke eye contact. 

“Poor Rakkan…” Lina mumbled.

“Yeah, I feel bad for him…” Darkshot added.

“At least we could get him some answers. Just be as supportive and understanding for him when he comes back.” Pyri replied.

“If he comes back.” Aegis said while looking down at a piece of broken tile from the arena floor and kicking it across the waiting room. 

—

The crowd in the audience continued to cheer and chatter amongst each other. Anticipation for the final event of the tournament, the reward ceremony, was one of the primary topics of discussions. Others were excited at the prospects of potentially owning mithral, now that it’s secrets were known to the world.

Hae-won remained on the raised platform with Serenity, Kenji and the members of their band as they gathered towards the back, talking excitedly amongst each other and praising each others hard work throughout the tournament. Hae-won listened in briefly before turning her attention to the two VGN broadcasters who had huddled off to the side and were talking amongst each other as well, but one that had been co-casting with Hae-won the entire tournament caught her looking and gave her a smile.

“It was a pleasure casting this tournament with you. I’ve certainly learned a lot.” He spoke loudly so that he could be heard over the loud chattering ambience of the stadium. 

“Likewise.” Hae-won smiled slightly back at him, but the moment she did, he turned away back to the other broadcaster and went deep into discussion, his smile disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared. From this, she eyed the gathering of Sages of Destiny players who had returned to the arena and were seated around Synopse, Lilya and Makaroth. 

She continued panning over the stands and saw that an entire half of the arena was still filled with Vindicators, with Feng and the members of his two PvP teams all still present. The rest of the arena was filled with NPCs and low level players from Stormtop that had survived the battle, as all of the other PvPers and guilds that had arrived during the tournament had fallen or only had a couple members still standing.

Her eyes eventually caught Schaudenfreude, but Mikael was leading them out of the audience stands and into the lower hallways of the stadium, for reasons she wasn’t sure. Regardless, all of this information gave her cause for concern, and once she’d taken it all in she rushed over to Serenity and the others.

“Hey, I think you should get back to your Airship.” Hae-won broke in while they were mid-conversation.

“Why, is something wrong?” Serenity looked at her with concern.

“We’ll miss the award ceremony if we leave now.” Kenji joined in.

“No, there’s nothing wrong. At least not yet, but, there’s a good chance there will be, and I only see VGN players. It’s better you get out of here while you still can.” Hae-won replied quietly, so that the VGN casters nearby couldn’t hear her.

“What about you and Aegis?” Serenity asked.

“We’ll be fine. Please trust me on this.” Hae-won replied while briefly glancing back at the VGN casters to make sure she hadn’t garnered their attention, and she hadn’t. This glance, and the look of concern on Hae-won’s face, was enough to convince Serenity.

“Okay.” She nodded before turning to her bandmates. “Let’s head back to the Airship and get ready for departure. We’ll wait for you guys, though.” Serenity said and gave Hae-won a nod. 

Hae-won watched them quickly pack up their instruments and equipment. They calmly left the raised platform while waving to fans and accepting cheers, playing it as cool as possible so as to not draw much attention to the fact that they were leaving early, and luckily the audience was in it’s own world at the moment due to all the big events that they had just watched transpire.

“He’s the number one streamer.” Synopse said to Makaroth, closing out of his interface after confirming that Aegis was still on top. He was only okay with saying this because he saw the symbol above Makaroth’s head that represented advertisements playing.

“Yep.” Makaroth took a deep breath and sighed.

“And that promise you made, that got revealed to the whole world, it was congruent on him becoming number one by his own merit, right?” Synopse confirmed.

“Yeah…” Makaroth sighed again.

“There’s no way you’re really going to do that, right? Delete your character?” Lilya asked in disbelief.

“I’m sure Aegis and Pyri aren’t actually serious about making you do that. You just need to talk to them.” Synopse explained.

“I talked to Pyri already…” Makaroth replied.

“Really?” Synopse looked surprised.

“When?” Lilya looked angry.

“Right after Seraxus’ big reveal. She told me, the only way Aegis is really going to forgive is if I prove I can keep my word, and not go back on our deal.” Makaroth explained.

“Oh screw that, Forget that bratty little kid. He’s spoiled rotten from all of this attention. We’ve been holding back until now to stop him, but now that it’s all out in the open, we can go all out and crush him. I’m not going to let you delete your character because of him.” Lilya spoke commandingly. Makaroth looked at her and saw the anger in his eyes, then turned to Synopse and saw him looking conflicted, just as Makaroth was. 

Jensora had his eyes locked on Calikgos as he eyed the Schaudenfreude members leaving the stadium. Two excited members of the audience were cheering at each other and talking animatedly, though, and one ended up bumping into Jensora’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” The player apologized. Jensora turned to smile at him.

“No problem.” He waved it off, turned back to look where Calikgos had been standing only to see he was gone. Jensora’s heart sank, he couldn’t put his finger on why, but he had an impending sense of dread building up in the pit of his stomach. He turned to look at the last two Schaudenfreude members stepping out of the audience stands and into the lower hallways of the stadium, out of his view, and started walking in their direction while glancing every which way to try and see where Calikgos had gone, but saw nothing.

He popped open his interface and opened up the game database, querying a search for a flaming cloak that dealt fire damage as he walked, one eye on his interface and the other on his surroundings.

“I know there’s no enchantment that does that…” Jensora mumbled to himself as he reached the top of the stairs leading out of the stadium that Schaudenfreude had taken. He climbed down the staircase, the sound of the audience in the stadium becoming slightly muffled as he entered the stone, torchlit hallways of the stadium. Some portions of the wall had been cracked and destroyed due to the battle, allowing sunlight in, but it was primarily still in tact.

When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he looked to the left where he could still hear the Schaudenfreude members talking and walking—they were headed in the direction of Aegis’ waiting room. He then turned to the right, in the direction of Seraxus’ waiting room. 

He was certain this was where Calikgos likely went, but he wasn’t sure which direction, and found himself hesitating. He remembered what prompted his appearance in the first place, that Aegis was losing to Seraxus initially, and this drove his decision to turn right and start quickly walking in the direction of Seraxus’ waiting room, away from the Schaudenfreude members. 

—

Renault opened up the top half of his Simbox to see not just his father, but mother and sister all standing there and looking at him with looks of concern on their faces.

“Is that what you’ve been fighting with your friends about all this time?” Renault’s father asked.

“You were watching all that?”

“Of course we were, sweetie.” His mother replied and moved in to hug him as he stood up and climbed out of the Simbox.

“Answer the question.” His father repeated.

“So what?” Renault snapped back, causing his father to sigh and shake his head downward.

“Son, I didn’t know you were blaming yourself and that game for losing your grandpa.”

“Of course I was, it was my fault, wasn’t it? If Seraxus didn’t do it, then it musta been just me!” Renault pushed his mother off of him.

“Listen to me. The only one at fault here is me.” His father stepped in and put his hands on Renaults shoulders to try and calm him down.

“How is it your fault?!” Renault cried back at him as tears streamed down his face.

“I thought, maybe if your grandfather spent time with you, he’d changed his mind. When your grandmother died, he stopped taking his medication and he just never started again. Nothing you could’ve said or done was ever going to make a difference. He’s stubborn, just like you.” 

“Maybe I could’ve, though. Maybe if I just spent more time with him, made it more fun…”

“No. There is nothing you could’ve done. And I should have never asked you to try in the first place. This is my fault.” His father replied firmly with tears filling up in his eyes as well. “I tried everything, too. He was happy with the life he lived, and was ready to say goodbye.” 

Renault turned from his father to see that both his mother and sister were becoming teary-eyed as well, and he wasn’t able to hold back anymore.

“But I wasn’t ready. I miss him so much.” Renault replied before his father pulled him in tightly and wrapped his arms around him. Renault dug his head into his fathers shoulder and began crying into his cotton shirt.

“I know, I miss him too. I miss him too.” His father tried to confort him as his mother tried wiping the tears from her face. It took a long few moments before Renault could calm himself down, but he kept his face firmly planted in his fathers shoulder, their family falling into silence.

“Was kinda cool though, how you beat Seraxus in front of the whole world. You kinda kicked his ass.” Renaults sister commented,

“He deserved it, from what I saw.” His mother joined in, getting a light, muffled chuckle out of Renault. 

–

“Kagutsuchi’s Veil…” Jensora mumbled to himself as he clicked on the item in the database. He briefly looked over the item card of the artifact cloak, and saw one of the options was that it dealt fire damage to any attackers based on the wearers maximum health. Further reading of the entry, which he did while he continued speed-walking in the direction of Seraxus’ waiting room, revealed why the item was already in the games database despite no one publicly announcing they’d acquired it.

“Stolen from the ruined desert temple of Kagutsuchi, hidden inside a volcano in the depths of Arallia…” Jensora read outloud to himself.

“What’d you say?” Hajax asked. Jensora looked out of his interface to see that he was now standing in front of Seraxus and his entire party, who had just stepped out of the waiting room and into the outer hallway.

“Huh? Uh, nothing, just reading something…” Jensora replied anxiously.

“You’re the number one blacksmith, right? The one that made the sword for Feng?” Seraxus asked him while eying him up and down and stepping forward. Jensora stumbled back a few feet nervously to keep his distance.

“Aye, yes, I did that, but no hard feelin’s, right?” Jensora smiled forcefully.

“Why would I have hard feelings to you? Feng lost.” Seraxus shook his head at him as if this was obvious. “Can you make us mithral weapons too, for some gold?” 

Jensora hesitated, eying each member of Seraxus’ party one by one. Zuon could read the anxiety on his face, and stepped forward beside Seraxus.

“We’ll promise not to PK any players or NPCs on Tarolas anymore, in exchange.” Zuon spoke. Seraxus gave him a look, and Zuon shrugged back.

“Alright… that’s fine… you’ll have to catch me at my forge. I’m…” Jensora quickly remembered what he’d been doing there in the first place. “I’m a bit busy. You didn’t happen to see Calikgos here, did you?”

“Nah. Why’d he come here? We’re not VGN anymore.” Seraxus replied quickly. Jensora took a moment to process these words, and eventually the realization hit him.

“I’ve gotta go,..” Jensora turned around and started sprinting away from Seraxus’ group.

“What’s up with him?” Sylvia asked the others.

“Dunno.” Gambit shrugged.

As fast as his dwarven legs could carry him, Jensora ran through the darkened hallways of the stadiums interior. The loud chatter of the audience remained audible, vibrating the floors and walls around him ever so slightly as he passed by several stairways leading back out of the hallway towards the stand. 

He also intermittently passed by unused waiting rooms, now vacant due to the teams that resided in them having been eliminated from the tournament. There were several cracks in the outer walls, and piles of rubble collecting at the floor around them where tracks from stampeeding abysslings could still be seen in the dust and debris.

Jensora ignored all that, and was rewarded by the sounds of battle coming from around the bend ahead of him. The sounds were muffled and hard to hear clearly due to the audience. The first thing that came into view was bright flashes of light, coming from numerous spells going off.

“What the hell is attacking us?!” One of the Schaudenfreude members could be heard saying.

“I don’t know. Use truesight!” Mikael shouted back at them.

“All our monks and wizards are dead.” Mightymira replied.

“They targetted them first.” Another member shouted.

“They? Who?! Who the hell is there, you punk ass coward!” Mightymira shouted back. Jensora finished his run around the bend to get a view of them. The remaining members of Schaudenfreude had their weapons drawn with buffs and auras activated, firing off spells in all directions in the hallway, but were hitting nothing.

Just as Jensora could take in the scene, he watched as a red ‘66,666’ damage number appeared above the head of one of the Schaudenfreude members, killing them instantly. As their body dissipated, Mikael swung his greatsword in the general vicinity of the dying player, hoping to hit the presumed invisible player that had done it, but he hit nothing but air.

“How the hell are they dealing so much damage from invisibility?!” Mightymira shouted in disbelief, but just as she’d finished her sentence, another member was killed with the same damage amount, ‘66,666’. 

“Bloodletters can’t cast invisibility.” Jensora whispered to himself in disbelief as he opened up his database again, taking a few steps back as to not draw attention unto himself. “Alchemists haven’t discovered the recipe for invisibility potions. Enchanters can’t enchant it onto equipment before reaching master enchanting, which no one has done yet…” Jensora continued to mumble while frantically flicking through his database. 

In this time, three more members of Schaudenfreude were taken out, lowering the number of players still standing to five. 

In the time it took Jensora to find a database entry that could explain what was going on, another three were taken down, leaving just Mikael and Mightymira standing. 

“Changxi’s artifact… grants the wielder the ability to go permanently invisible for five minutes, cooldown 24 hours…” Jensora read the entry outloud to himself before closing his interface and looking up to see Mightymira and Mikael shouting and swinging at air.

“Aint no way someone can do that much damage without a cooldown.” Mikael shouted angrily at no one in particular.

“Damn it, it’s gotta b-” Mightymira was cut off by an attack that killed her, with 66,666 damage exactly, leaving Mikael to stand by himself and Jensora just out of view.

“It’s probably a different artifact.” Jensora concluded to himself. 

“Who ever you are, we’re gonna find you, and we’re gonna kill you.” Mikael declared while lowering his greatsword, giving up on fighting back. A second later, the damage hit him as well, killing him as the final standing member of Schaudenfreude. 

Once gone, the hallway fell silent and went dark once more due to the absence of spells and active enchantments. Several items had fallen to the ground, dropped by the Schaudenfreude members, but no one moved to pick them up. 

After a few more seconds, Jensora felt brave enough to step out from around the bend and look more clearly at the scene before him. It took him a few moments to realize that they were standing right beside the door leading into Aegis’ waiting room. When Jensora looked clearly at the door handle, he saw it turning to open despite no one being visibly standing in front of it.

“I know that’s you, Calikgos.” Jensora called out. The moment he had, the handle stopped turning and went back to its normal standing position. “My only question is, how the hell’d yeh get so many god-level artifacts? Without anyone noticin’?” Jensora asked the empty space. He got no response.

“Alright. No answer. What’re yeh doin’ here, then? Why’d yeh kill them folks, they fought with us, didn’t they?” Jensora asked. Still no reply.

“Why’d yeh come down here, and not towards Seraxus’ waitin’ area? What’re you plannin’ on doin’ to Aegis?” He asked, and he finally got a response. It wasn’t the one he was hoping for, though — the sound of feet kicking off of the hallway floor in his direction, and the immediate recieval of ‘66,666’ damage.

Jensora’s eyes went wide in disbelief as his pain threshold gave him the sensation of some unseen blade cutting through his neck to decapitate him. It was unquestionably the most horrific sensasion he’d ever felt in his life, but the pain subsided and he’d survived due to his high consitution and level, thanks to all the hours he’d spent in front of the forge.

“Alright, if yer playin’ it like that, I ain’t gonna let you do whatever it is yer tryin’ to do.” Jensora shouted defiantly, then slammed his fist into the nearby wall of the allway. Out from the point of impact, the stone walls were replaced by a ripple of growing iron plating.

His advanced class gave him access to a skill that allowed him to expend materials from his inventory to encoat the surface of anything he touched, at a huge efficiency loss, but he was desperate and knew he had little time to do anything at all.

The moment the ripple of spreading iron reached Aegis’ waiting room door, Jensora swapped it to use his crudely refined mithral, coating the door and sealing it shut permanently with a thin layer of the purple-hued metal. The coating had only just finished when Jensora felt the same sensation of being decapitated again, killing him. 

Jensora’s coinpouch fell to the ground where his body had been, landing amongst the other lost items from the Schaudenfreude members, and the hallway went silent once more.

“Ok.” Calikgos, invisible and alone, spoke to himself. The invisibility enchantment from the Changxi artifact faded, revealing him standing in front of the mithral coated door, where the handle no longer turned due to Jensora’s skill. “I’ve had enough. No more games.” He turned and stormed away from the scene.