Lightbringer

Chapter 1
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He had to remain calm. This was surely just a bug, or perhaps a product of his apparently wild imagination. Did he somehow pass out while playing the game? Perhaps this was a dream? Or was this all somehow a surprise update to the game instead of the servers shutting down? Maybe this was some last-minute event the devs decided to pull before truly shutting down the game?

The last thing he remembered was standing alone on a balcony in one of the towers of the Royal Palace of Asgard, watching the beautifully-rendered starry night sky as the clock struck midnight. Then everything went black for a few seconds and he found himself alone in the middle of some unknown forest, underneath a very different night sky.

He felt a strong sense of unease settle in his gut almost immediately after.

It wasn't so much that he was alone, since there were barely if any players left playing the game as the servers were scheduled to shut down. Plus, he was a solo player after all, at least for most of his time in YGGDRASIL, so being alone was the norm.

And even though he was in the middle of these strange woods and it was the dead of night, the golden-white glow from his body was bright enough to clearly illuminate the area at least twenty feet around him, the illumination fading further away until it dropped off almost completely at around sixty feet. This was all due to his passive Divine Aura skill thanks to his Angel, Archangel, and Seraphim racial classes. So the unease wasn't about the darkness either, not that there was any of it in his immediate vicinity.

No, it was the fact that not only were the servers apparently not shut down, but he had been transported without his consent or knowledge into some unknown area and no matter how many times he attempted to access his player console, nothing happened. He couldn't log out. He couldn't check for announcements or messages. Neither could he use any methods known to him to get in touch with a GM or any other player for that matter.

In all the years he had been playing YGGDRASIL, why did it have to glitch out now at the end of it all?

Perhaps most troubling, though equally as fascinating, was how drastically the game had changed in the short time since he had been mysteriously transported to these unknown woods. Dive games allowed people to really immerse themselves within the game world by simulating sight, sound, and even touch to some degree, but there was still a very clear separation between what was real and what was digital.

Now though, there seemed to be no difference at all. In fact, the game he was in now was as real as it could possibly get in his opinion.

He could feel the weight of his armor, how it fit securely and comfortably to his body. There was the moisture of his breath as he breathed from within his enclosed helm. The crystal clarity of the foliage that surrounded him. He could hear and even feel the cold breeze that blew across the forest through the minor gaps in his armor and robes.

There was some body weight effect applied by the Dive gear before and the basic haptic feedback, but never to this level. It truly felt like he was physically present in the game. He took a hard step, feeling the firm ground as his metal boot landed with a solid thud, flattening the grass and kicking up a little dirt.

He stared down at his hands, stretching his arms a little in front of himself to get a closer look, and then clenched his fists. The movement, the feeling of the armor against his skin, the tightness of his hands as they balled into fists, it all felt so vividly real. He could even smell the dirt and foliage around him, something unthinkable in a video game. The graphics were astonishingly photo-realistic, to the point that there were no longer any tell-tale visual clues that he was in a digitally-created game world.

No matter the advances in Dive gaming technology, nothing had ever come close to the sensory stimulation he was experiencing at that very moment.

How? How did they do this? How could they have achieved such mind-blowing realism in a game?

"Amazing..." he whispered. Even as he said that, he felt it was not even close to properly describing the magnitude of this technological leap.

At least he recognized the armor he wore, which meant that he had the gear he was wearing before the servers were supposed to shut down. Sure enough, his gauntleted hands felt for the two short swords at his hips and the handle of the great sword strapped across his back. Though not being able to access his player console was a big problem because that probably meant he couldn't access his inventory.

Or could he? If the [Message] skill worked in this new YGGDRASIL 2.0 or whatever it was, then that meant some skills and magic still worked. Then surely his inventory was still intact somehow too? But he had no idea how to access it now that the console was no longer working.

He thought for a moment, raising a hand to his chin, his armored hand touching the bottom of his helm as he did so.

He let out a small gasp as the mere thought of his inventory led to an imprint of it to suddenly appear in his mind, and he could see clearly all the thousands of items he had stashed there over his many years of playing the game. Almost as if he could reach out and grab one of them...

... and he did just that, reaching out and realizing that his hand seemed to go into some pocket dimension where his inventory now resided. His hand clasped the item he had seen in his mind's eye and he pulled it out with little effort. To anyone watching it looked as if he had pulled it out of thin air.

It was a very strange experience for him to say the least.

He looked down at the Pitcher of Endless Water that he now held in his hands, the clear crystal vessel filled to the brim with pure water. With great interest, he tipped it over and observed as, true to its name, the pitcher poured out a seemingly endless supply of pure water.

After a full minute of this, the ground beneath him now thoroughly soaked, he stopped and turned the pitcher upright. It was still completely full, as if nothing had happened. Checking the now muddy ground at his feet, he placed the item back in his now seemingly inter-dimensional inventory and let out a small sigh of relief. It appeared that items still worked correctly as well.

Now what?

He could just wait here for the GM's and developers to figure out how to fix the player console, or at least wait for some global server announcement regarding the issue. But if this was a new game, or even a dream, he didn't really want to just sit there and wait for something to happen. May as well explore a bit and see what he might find in this strange new world. Perhaps there would be other players who had some answers, or if he was lucky he would stumble upon a GM by chance.

If nothing else, perhaps some of the NPCs in this new world might be able to answer some important questions.

In the old version of YGGDRASIL, he could control how bright his aura shone to some extent, even able to remove it completely in case he needed to be more stealthy. In this case, he figured it would be wise not to draw too much attention to himself in this unknown land, so he wanted to remove the glow for now to avoid any unnecessary fighting. But how to do that?

There used to be a button and a slider menu that could change it pretty easily. Now, without a console, that was no longer possible.

Again, there was a strange sensation in his mind as he simply thought of this task, something in the back of his mind seemed to well up in a similar fashion to how the image of his inventory appeared, but this time it was a feeling related to his powers. All his skills and magic were there, waiting to be tapped. He once again couldn't explain how he knew that he could access his magic and skills this way, but he did. He realized he could even feel the amount of mana and health he had, as well as the costs of each of his spells.

Reacting almost instinctively with this new sensation present in his mind, he took a moment to think and then managed to will the glow to extinguish itself. A second or two later and he was plunged into total darkness.

"Wow..." he breathed, happy that it had worked, though totally at a loss as to how it worked that way.

He was beginning to lean more towards this being a dream than an actual game, since the game mechanics were seemingly lightyears ahead of what he was used to seeing. However, his gut was telling him that this wasn't the simple answer to his situation, that there was more to it than simply being a dream.

Could this be truly be real?

His eyes took a moment to adjust to the sudden darkness as his passive [Dark Vision] skill activated now that there was insufficient light to see clearly. Sure enough, after a few seconds he could see as clearly as if it was high noon on a perfect summer day.

For one last time, he tried to [Message] a GM, or any of the people on his friends list. Not that he was able to access the list, but he knew that by thinking about them the spell would try to reach those he thought about.

Although he was somewhat comforted by the fact that using [Message] allowed him to hear a beeping sound that meant the communication spell was activating properly, that small comfort was swept away by his increasing anxiety over the fact that nobody was responding to it. He didn't expect any of his few in-game friends to respond, knowing that they had stopped playing the game ages ago, but it was disconcerting that none of the Game Masters were responding.

How long was he going to be stuck here? He had work in the morning! And he was really looking forward to heating up some leftover pizza too before heading to bed.

Shaking his head, he tried to think of what to do next.

First things first, he needed to survey his surroundings and find where the nearest settlement was. To do that, it would probably be easiest to fly around instead of trudging through some strange, unknown forest. Regardless if he was max level with mostly divine-class equipment, and even with his more than ample battle experience, he needed to be cautious for now in case there were any PKers nearby. He didn't know what the penalties for death were in this new world, and he didn't have any friends to resurrect him either, so it was best probably not to find out the hard way.

With another thought, massive feathery white wings unfolded from his back, spanning almost 15 feet across, slightly more than double his own height. The wings glowed briefly before the light faded to match his now muted aura. With a mighty flap, he leapt into the air and shot straight up like a rocket, the rushing wind was cold across his skin and loud as it rushed past his ears.

Flying in the old game was a lot of fun already, but with the new realism elements in this version it was absolutely incredible. He relished the feelings of freedom and excitement as he soared across the night sky, losing himself to the activity for a few minutes as he did loops, barrel rolls, and other aerial tricks. All the while, he was whooping and hollering, not that he could really hear himself that well as he moved so quickly the wind drowned out his voice.

This was what it felt like to truly fly, to be like a bird or even a dragon moving through the vast expanse of sky!

After a while, he decided to refocus on the task at hand. He wasn't sure how high he was, but he managed to break through a handful of thin clouds that lazily sauntered through the air, and he stopped to admire the beauty of the world that lay far below him at that moment.

There were snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, plains, forests, rivers, lakes, and all sorts of geography around. All of it was unrecognizable to him. Nothing he saw looked like anything he had seen in the nine worlds of YGGDRASIL, nor in any other media related to the game that he could think of. This was definitely a new world, and he would know having visited all nine worlds that the original YGGDRASIL had to offer. He had spent years of his life scouring most of the faces of each planet, so he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't on one of those worlds.

Did they add another world to the original nine? Definitely within the realm of possibility, especially given the new update theory. Still, to add it at the supposed end of the game without any announcement... It didn't make much sense.

Looking up, he couldn't help but stare in wonder at the innumerable stars that shone so clear and crisp that they had to be real. Again, this was a night sky that did not look at all familiar to him, and he loved to stargaze whenever he could because it was for him the most realistic and eye-catching feature of YGGDRASIL.

He noted that not even the night sky in reality could compare to what he was currently looking at, though part of that was due to the immense light and air pollution of the real world that he lived in. Still, to think that YGGDRASIL developers could come up with something like this was a truly a marvel. Without a moment's hesitation, he told himself that he would gladly pay any amount of money to continue playing this game once they fixed the whole log out issue.

He was starting to think that perhaps the player console not being accessible was actually a feature of this new version of the game. Since there was a way around it to access one's inventory and skills, that seemed entirely plausible. But how was one supposed to log out?

Not that he wanted to at the moment, so enthralled he was with this new world that he no longer wanted to leave so hastily. He wanted to explore more of this world and learn more about how it worked.

With that thought, he remembered the main reason he was flying, and he turned his attention once more to the world beneath him. He didn't really notice on first glance before, so caught up was he in the breathtaking view that it hadn't really registered until now that there were lights in different directions. Some near, some far, and one of the nearest ones was a small collection of lights and some pillars of smoke that seemed to indicate a settlement of some kind. Judging from the number of lights and the spread, he figured it to be a small village.

"Perfect," he whispered to himself. Hopefully he would be able to get some answers.

He flew towards it with great speed, gradually descending as he did so. With a mighty flap that emitted a powerful gust of wind, he came to a stop and landed deftly on his feet in the middle of the village amidst a small cloud of dust.

"Eeeek!" cried someone at the same time that he had landed, followed by a thud and the clattering of wood.

His wings folded and disappeared behind him as he looked around for the person who had yelped.

His eyes settled on the form of a young girl who looked to be in her late teens, with thick, curly red hair that settled on her shoulders and large emerald eyes that stared back at him with a mixture of disbelief and fear. She was seated on the ground, one hand clasping at her chest and the other covering her mouth. Beside her were several pieces of what appeared to be firewood.

Well this was new. She was clearly an NPC of some sort, given her lack of equipment and the fact that she didn't attempt to defend herself or attack him, but never had he seen an NPC look and act so lifelike before. In a way, it made sense that she would be more real, given the realness of everything else, but this was once again so cutting edge it seemed surreal.

He squinted his eyes to look at her more closely, noting her quick, shallow, and panicked breaths and the rosiness of her flushed cheeks. Her eyes were beginning to wet. Her mood was shifting more from surprise to terrified, and were it not for his own stunned silence at her very real emotions and actions, he would have already said something to allay any fears. Still, better late than never right?

"Hello, young miss," he spoke, his voice calm and soothing, but with a strength that carried an air of authority, "I mean you no harm. Please don't be frightened." He could hear himself, and the voice that came out of his mouth was definitely his in-game voice because it sounded heavier and more commanding than he normally did in real life.

The young woman didn't respond as she continued to stare silently at him, her body shaking a little as the fear apparently gripped her fully.

He could understand her reaction. A strange being with wings just happened to fly into your village in the middle of the night. It wouldn't be outrageous to think that he was some kind of demon or monster come to do nefarious things. Still, he was once again amazed at the hyper-realism of this whole situation. With a small sigh, he took a few steps towards her and she instinctively scrambled backwards away from him.

"P-please..." she said, her voice tight and wavering, "d-dont eat m-me!" she managed to say from behind her trembling hand.

"What?" he blinked. Honestly, did he really look that terrifying? Sure he had his armor on and all, but he hadn't even brandished any weapons, nor did he make any animal noises to make it seem like he was some kind of flesh-eating monster.

"I d-don't want t-to die," she said, tears now flowing freely down her face. Her eyes shut as she hugged herself and assumed a fetal position on the ground.

If he could have sweat-dropped at that moment, he would have.

"Look, I'm-"

"Cheshire? Cheshire! What happened? Are ya alright?" boomed a male voice, quickly followed by the sound of footsteps. A heavyset, bull-necked man with a perfectly bald head and a fiery red beard and mustache appeared, his large calloused hands gripping what looked to be a woodcutter's ax. He wore what seemed to be a simple cotton shirt and trousers, both worn and a bit ragged but still wearable.

There was brief moment of silence as the burly man took stock of the situation, his eyes glancing from the girl's prone form to the strange man clad in fine armor and robes that stood close by. With eyes narrowing, though with some reservation at having to face such a well-armed foe, the man spoke carefully.

"Who are ya, stranger? And what are ya doing to my daughter? Speak plain and true or yer head might be rollin' on the ground!" the big man spat as he finished his sentence.

Lucifer had to hand it to the man, he was putting on a very brave front. For a moment, he considered answering with his real name, but then decided against it. If these were NPC's and he was still in a game or a dream, what good would that do? Might as well continue the role play for now. Besides, this might be a lot of fun with the new realism effects.

Sighing loudly, he reached up and removed his helmet, tucking it under his right elbow. His golden eyes glowed in the dimly lit street, his white hair spiky up front with two bangs falling to either side of his face and the rest of his hair flowing a little past his ears. His features were sharp, regal, and delicate all at the same time. His skin was as smooth and youthful as his face was symmetrical and proportional, which was to say it was very much so. To say he was handsome would have been an understatement, and he clearly did not look like some fiendish monster.

"I assure you, good sir, that I mean you no harm. I'm only here because I am in desperate need of some answers," he paused for effect and then bowed with a flourish, "As for who I am... well, my name is Lucifer Morningstar. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

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