Chapter 87
The click of the lock was a sound of absolute panic, sealing the room and her fate. Elaria had watched the woman leave, a silent plea dying on her lips as her potion room door swung shut. In the sudden, oppressive silence that followed, she was acutely aware of being alone with the man they called Billy.
He began to move with a chilling lack of urgency, a predator assured of its cornered prey. The heavy plates of his armor were unstrapped and discarded, hitting the stone floor with a series of metallic clangs that echoed. Billy joined the guild to feed his hunger to ravage a helpless woman's innocent body. This was the dark side of the world. Dane and his team mated poured their blood into creating the game that became real and opened the twisted side of humanity. Criminals and sadists like Billy found a haven inside this world, where they could indulge their darkest desires without consequence. Dane and his team now faced a new challenge: how to rid their creation of these dangerous individuals before it was too late.
The reason the player association was established was to give order and control over those who might use their abilities to harm others. The association implemented strict rules and consequences to ensure the safety of all, but these individuals never showed their true colors in public, and because inside the towers floor power and wealth are often valued over morality and ethics, it became increasingly difficult to identify and eliminate the true threats. As tensions rose within the association, Dane knew that decisive action would be necessary to protect their world from those who sought to exploit it for their own gain.
Billy was already half naked, as he was now only wearing his undergarments. Elaria Syrune will become Billy's seventh victim. The five members of the Brilliance Guild, including Lirael Schafer, went out of the cabin and saw the other six reach them. Lirael Schafer showed the bag filled with mid-grade potion ampules. One of the men in the other group was her cousin; he smiled and asked Lirael Schafer if they killed the rat that entered this place. She told Vhon Schafer, 24 years old, five foot nine, bald, muscular, and with a scar on his right eyebrow, a level 25 player with the skill of beast transformation, that the elf is playing Billy and they can still join him.
Vhon Schafer placed his shoulder on Lirael Schafer and asked to share the loot; she just brushed his hands off and walked away with a wicked smile on her lips. The rest of the other members walked along and joined their sub-captain, while two remained; these two wanted to lie with the young elven too. They asked Vhon if he wished to join them; he declined, stating he never liked to share. He just ran after his cousin to gain his share of the potion ampules.
The two were eager to play and hurriedly entered the cabin at the same time. Anika Roughbrook finally got the courage to privately talk with Dane; she was waiting for the right time so Siglorr would not hear her message concerning his adoptive daughter. Dane finally walked over to a different part of the bunker and awaited good news from his three familiars.
Anika Roughbrook casually walked toward Dane and made sure to not attract attention as she informed him about Elaria Syrune's whereabouts. The moment he heard this, he activated his teleportation spell and just vanished at the bunker and emerged on the burning farmland. What he saw didn't bother him, but the anger in his heart was growing, knowing that Elaria Syrune could be hurt. It dawned on him that the game rules are no longer applicable to this place; the tower residents or NPCs can now physically and emotionally feel pain and can die.
Something got switched on in Dane's mind as he realized the seriousness of the situation. He knew he had to act. This was another matter he needed to encounter, as his fear of losing somebody he knew will now test his hold on reality.
He ran toward the cabin where Elaria Syrune processed her potion. He came in in a hurry and forced open the only door that was closed. What he saw made his heart shatter into pieces. The three men were savagely raping her; her body was being pulled, twisted, and mangled as these 3 men penetrated her like animals. Her body was covered in bodily fluids, and her lovely face was contorted in pain and fear. She could not scream as her mouth was brutally punched, and they were violating her body. They didn't even notice Dane came in as one of the young men that was raping her cast a sound barrier..
Elaria Syrune saw Dane, and the disgust she felt was too great; she just closed her eyes and cried as her body violently moved from the motion Billy was doing. Her arm was broken, her hips were shattered, and her body was full of bruises and blood. Dane felt a surge of anger and helplessness as he witnessed the horrific scene before him; something finally snapped.
The formless armor changed in appearance; the Netherborn manifested. While this was happening, the members of the Brilliance Guild were already outside the war forge. As soon as they stepped on the hidden path going out of the area where the cabin was located, Vhon took out a teleportation scroll and tore it. As it activated and transported them away from the war forge, Dane attacked the three players with primal rage and violence. He saw the guild insignia on one of the headless corpses he was holding; the other player was missing an arm, while Billy was crawling on the floor without a right leg.
They scream in pain as Dane heals Elaria Syrune. And carefully covered her naked body and wrapped her in a blanket and carried her in his arms and teleported back into the bunker. As he emerged under the bunker, Siglorr Bouldergrove and his wife saw Elaria Syrune; they all rushed in to check her condition. Dan, in his Netherborn form, was emanating a potent chaos energy; everybody felt his rage and murderous intent. Siglorr could not say anything as their benefactor was like in a trance. Siglorr saw this kind of trance; it was primal and was focused on killing and absolute destruction. Elaria's body began to convulse as Dan's chaotic energy surged throughout the bunker, threatening to consume everybody completely.
As Wrenla Bouldergrove hugged Elaria Syrune in her arms, Dane vanished and reappeared on the farmland. Dane scanned the entire place and used a lotus sample Elaria Syrune gave him earlier to have information on where the potion went. The 3 familiars felt their master's anger. They were already unbound, but their enemies were formidable, and it was taking a lot of time, but the three felt Dane anger, and they felt embarrassed and finally decided to face the enemy from a different perspective and just melted and turned into a metallic substance. The mercenaries were severely wounded, but their numbers were still intact. Only eleven had lost their life.
This was the only moment they were able to act freely on their own, and they decided to play with their targets. Dane assumed his order was very specific as he unbound them; Dane meant to kill the enemies in a fast, effective manner. The 3 familiars action was meant to test their effectiveness in battle, but when Dane came out in full rage and pure anger, the 3 familiars panicked and were now sure they would be reprimanded for being complacent and taking too much time on their mission. The 3 familiars quickly realized they were in serious trouble and scrambled to come up with a plan to salvage the situation before Dane's wrath was unleashed upon them.
Dane was now not himself. His breathing was deep and heavy; his mind was filled with swirling images. Elaria Syrune in that state created a very violent and brutal side of him. As if his mind could not process what he saw and felt, his mind force created another side of him that can gain understanding of what he was feeling, which is the outlet so he can release his pent-up anger and frustration. This new side of Dane was ruthless and unforgiving, ready to do whatever it took to protect Elaria and ensure their mission's success.
Unknown to him, the sampling skill suddenly sprouted thorns; this side reacted instinctively, as if the sampling was reflecting his dark side. The thorns seemed to symbolize the dangerous and unpredictable nature of his newfound ruthlessness, adding a layer of complexity to his already tumultuous internal struggle. Dane found himself grappling with the realization that his inner turmoil was manifesting in ways he never could have anticipated.
His chaos energy came out in the most violent manner; the mercenaries and all the players in the surrounding area felt this dark, heavy, and bone-chilling murderous killing intent. Even Melgil, who was with the surviving Grey Ogres that set up camp on the Anchorage Castle outer walls. Even if Dane was thousands of miles away, Melgil felt his anger and made Melgil kneel down and shiver in panic as she could not stop her tears from coming out. Nukra remained silent and just waited for the white queen to regain her composure.
The gatekeepers felt this malice too; they wanted to deploy toward the war forge, but they could not do anything until they got permission from any one of the tower administrators. Sylveth Melriel, or the Crescent Magus, nearly fainted; her chest was tight with fear as she sensed the pure chaos energy. Her divine skill was the reason she could not handle what was happening. She desperately walked toward her study table and forced open its drawer and took out a box as she gasped for air. The pain shot up and made her head scream in pain. Sylveth Melriel, or the Crescent Magus, grabbed the box and just threw it on her chamber floor. As it broke transmission, insects numbering in the millions came out from the small dimensional storage box.
This transmitting insect's main command was to view and transmit any visual detail relating to what was causing the massive chaos energy spreading in the east now, but Sylveth Melriel already knew who might be the perpetrator, but this was too much for her divine skill to counter; it was too potent, heavy, and filled with wrath.
The timing was a huge inconvenience, as the tower administrator just cleared the random lapses on the patch characters that appeared in the gorge. This event never happened before; that is why many mages in all the magic towers and even the cathedral started to send out their own investigation team to gather information relating to these changes.
The transmitting insect has a certain magical frequency that allows it to transmit video feed to any mirror receiver on the entire first floor. Many correspondent reporters who were players working in different news companies had the main job of getting the latest updates on the situation at the tower and reporting back to their respective organizations. So those who are living outside the tower can gain information on what is happening inside.
The mysterious appearance of millions of transmital insects was noticed, and the reporter locally and those who are connected to the outside world mobilized, as they were already weary of what just happened at the gorge.
Many reporters were going wild over the sudden influx of random occurrences inside the mundane life that many got used to; new players that were near the war forge saw the massive chaos energy, and these players scrambled to know what was happening. At the same time Siglorr Bouldergrove orders his brother and son to seal the bunker and increase the protective barrier; he orders all the staff and his entire clan to channel all the power into the barrier spell.
"Those fools just messed with the wrong person; Dane just succumbed to anger."
"Wrenla, my wife put Elaria to sleep; protect her mind from also falling."
"And everybody prays to the gods that Master Dane won't lose himself."
Soon a powerful thundering sound echoed; the force was so strong they felt it underground.
The community surrounding the Gate was now facing a storm that was coming from the war forge. The residents, traveling merchants, and players alike panicked as the night sky turned into a gloomy and violent shade of black and bloody red as the storm approached. As the atmosphere was now filled with tension and fear as everyone braced themselves, the lesser beam that came from the gate was mild in comparison to what was happening. The mages could not understand what was happening.
The makeshift houses and merchant shops and temporary shelters were being ripped apart by the force of the chaos storm. A few mages with high sensitivity to energy fainted and temporarily lost their minds and shouted, "THE CHAOS BRINGER IS HERE; DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ARE UPON US!" The chaos storm continued to rage, leaving a path of destruction in its wake as the mages struggled to comprehend the power behind it.
The war forge castle collapsed, and the fate of the mercenary was now sealed as they were caught in the midst of the chaos storm, unable to escape its wrath. Those who were able to quickly run away and survive the calamity could only watch in horror as the once bustling city was reduced to rubble before their eyes.
An apocalyptic symphony of lightning and firestorms bombarded the Gate settlement, tearing through wood and stone with an unholy maelstrom of power. Roofs were ripped from their foundations, walls shattered into splinters, and the very ground shuddered under the relentless assault. Yet, amidst the utter devastation, an eerie and unsettling truth began to dawn on the survivors. The massive and deadly chaos storm hadn't killed anybody. Not a single soul was lost. It was as if its sole purpose was to methodically and mercilessly flatten the settlement, to erase its existence from the map while leaving its inhabitants alive to witness the obliteration.
The players, including the once-proud Brilliance Guild, ran away with their tails tucked between their legs. Their scared faces, illuminated by the flashes of arcane energy, were masks of pure terror and bewilderment as they tried to make sense of the targeted destruction. They scrambled for their lives, not from a simple disaster, but from something that felt personal and punitive. Hushed, frantic whispers passed between them. Was this a freak act of nature, a one-in-a-million confluence of magical energies? Or, as their trembling hearts suggested, was something far more sinister at play, a directed wrath of unimaginable scale?
Their darkest assumptions proved correct in a single, fateful moment. As Lirael Schafer fled with her guildmates, a canvas bag, heavy with stolen goods, slipped from her grasp. It hit the scorched earth with a telltale clink of glass—the sound of a lotus potion ampule shattering. Miles away, the being known as Netherborn, a sentinel of immense power, flinched as if struck. His head snapped around, his gaze locking onto the precise location where he sensed the potion's unique energy signature flare and then vanish. In that same instant, Dane saw it all. He saw the panicked face of the woman who dropped the bag, recognized the guild insignia on her armor, and a cold, final judgment solidified in his eyes. He had found them, and he would now remove them from existence for good.
The war forge, the heart of the Brilliance Guild's operations, became the focal point of the storm's fury. Onlookers from the distant hills could only stare in horror as raw power erupted from the site, making them question if a volcano had just violently erupted or if a slumbering dragon had finally awoken under the land. But this was no natural disaster, nor a mindless beast. This was the calculated rage of Dane. He intended not only to kill every single guild member who was part of the group that had hurt Elaria Syrune but also to destroy everything that was related to them—their fortress, their wealth, and their very legacy, until nothing but ash and a bitter memory remained.