The road to hell is not paved with good intentions.

It's paved with those who had them.

Chapter 2

15 minutes till server shut down.

Hugues De Payens, who was once the knight most holy, lord of light, dark bane and several other lofty titles. Clenched his fists so hard that the marble balcony he was leaning against began to crack under the pressure.

The last of the fireworks display in Asgard was winding down and most people had already left the system. The beauty of the display was lost on him as he looked inwards, ignoring the magnificent display of light and colours that were lighting up the night sky.

Silently five fingers knelt behind him waiting for orders, as he fumed at the injustice of it all.

Never able to track down the one who was responsible for all of his woes. The loss of his title, his guild, all of his equipment, his reputation as one of the systems most powerful players.

After his defeat the Templars had, had enough of war they'd said. And wanted to move onto other things. When he had been unwilling to let it go. And continued to try and recruit soldiers to start the crusade again. They'd voted to kick him out, of the guild he'd created. His hatred stilled burned as hot and bright today has the day he'd lost everything. But his hatred burned hottest for Tyr his most hated enemy.

After he'd been kicked out of his guild he'd spent months slinking from world to world like a whipped cur trying to rebuild what he'd lost. But every time he came close to building himself back up, some dammed group or other would suddenly show up and PK him till he had nothing left worth taking. He was sure Tyr had been supplying his location to other players to keep him weak and out of his way.

One day he had got to the point, where it was either come up with a new way of doing things or quit the game. So he rebuilt himself as a completely new player, it went against everything he stood for, but he'd used the last of his in game money to buy a rare mask artefact that could hide his character name and alignment. And has he had become more powerful he had been careful to upgrade the mask. At his current class 100 level, he had managed to make it a Divine level piece of equipment, it now possed several other powerful abilities on top of it's ability to keep him hidden, if he had, to be honest, it was his favourite piece of equipment. Only a high level seer had any hope of finding him and only then if they were using 10 tier divinations spells would they have a chance of finding him. Most people thought he had quit the game years ago. His plan had always been to hunt down Tyr down one day...

Unnoticed the balcony finally gave up the ghost and crumbled under his grip.

All these years of hard work and money wasted. He'd clawed his way back up to the pinnacle of a class of a 100 player. Though after the betrayal of his guild he had decided he could only trust himself so he had custome built his own squad of five other NPC's. Having so many NPC's accompanying him, without a guild base for support had cost a fortune in real world money to build and equip them. but it had been worth it to have a group he could absolutely trust at his back. Each of them was a masterpiece of build and design (all human based of course.) They were his children, and he couldn't be prouder of them if they were his real children. Each of them had performed far beyond what he could have hoped for. When he'd had to start rebuilding himself. He looked over them,

Bane - Lord of light. Right hand of god righteous vengeance.

Gilgamesh - Dark knight protector of the faithful

Pala – Holy mother gentle healer

Yntar Sheldblazon – Bard she whose voice brings comfort to the righteous and fear to those who dwell in darkness

Eilistraee – The dark maiden. Huntress of all who would do evil under the light of the moon.

One advantage to being knocked back down to level one and losing all of his classes and abilities had been that, of a totally fresh start. he'd rebuilt himself and his team back up to be the ultimate adversary to The League Of Shadows. He had chosen the Inquisitor class. To balance out against Tyr's Thief\Assassin build. It had taken a long time for him to come to terms with how he had lost, that final fight. And even longer to come to the realization that Tyr had probably out been playing him since before he'd even launched the Crusade. The act which was supposed to cement his name in the annals of legend as the best player ever. It was hard to admit that he had been outsmarted. IRL he'd started out with less than nothing as a ward of the state from the age of 10 after his parents had been killed in a plane crash. He had quickly realised he had to be better, faster, stronger, smarter than everyone else if he wanted to avoid spending his life in a gutter. He had clawed his way up to a high powered defence lawyer, Women loved him and men wanted to be him. In and out of the game world. He was a winner born. And then some unknown pipsqueak had shown up and taken it all away from him.

He had spent years searching for any trace of him or his base in the game, but he was a ghost and he never left a trail that he could find. Or worse the number of false leads that he had run down, well anyone else would have quit looking long ago. He had made it a point, to study all of his attacks and methods that he could find, and had over time come to grudgingly admit that it wasn't just luck that had lead to his defeat. Tyr led his guild in a careful, methodical way, he studied his targets came up with a perfectly made plan to suit the situation to get what he wanted from his target. Never too proud to back off and get his people to safety in the rare times that things had blown up in his face. He sometimes caught himself wondering who he was IRL.

As a last ditch attempt, he had emailed him to meet at the place of there last battle at dawn on the last day to have it out one last time, before the servers shut down. But he had never replied. And in a few minutes, it was all coming to an end.

The fireworks had finally ended, the city was completely dark and quiet for the first time that he could ever remember. And without the city lights, he could clearly see the night sky for the first time. The swath of stars was truly breathtaking.

While in one part of his mind he had to acknowledge the beauty about him. Most of his mind was still on the burning point that he had finally and would never be able to balance the scales...

Waving his hand, he brought up the in game clock, 1 minute till shut down.

Taking a deep breath and trying to relax a bit he turned from the balcony and took a last look at the kneeling five fingers of his hand. He had dressed all of them in there best armour and equipment for the shutdown. The combined glow from all of there equipment was quite something.

Hugues gave the command.

"Rise my compatriots."

feeling the need for some final words. A soft rustle of cloth and armour as all of them rose, awaiting there next order.

"Thank you, each of my compatriots, each of you has stood by me through thick and thin. We have travelled the nine worlds and seen some amazing sights. I hope to meet again in the next life. It has been an honour to lead you all."

Hugues brought his fist to his chest in a salute, each of the NPC'S did the same and bowed back to him. 23.59.59...00.00...00.00.01

Name: Hugues De Payens

Position: leader of the hand.

Location: Tower in Asgard palace ninth realm

Alignment +300 lawful good

Race: Human

Guild Weapon: none

Racial levels:

LvL 15 Inquisitor

LvL 15 Weapons Master

LvL 15 Inquisitor Grandmaster

LvL 10 interrogator - Psychic

Class Levels:

LvL 15 Night stalker

LvL 15 Seer

LvL 10 Ranger

LvL 05 Watcher

LvL 05 Illusionist

Inquisitor Bio - Inquisitor class only available to the human race. Inquisitors are made to hunt things that hide in the dark bringing a wide range of skills and abilities to the hunt. Able to hunt even the most skilled of thieves and assassins. Able to neutralise or use similar ability's to match their prey. these men and women are hunters of the highest calibre. One of human kinds greatest protectors these stoic warriors rarely seek fame or glory knowing that to step into the light is to make themselves a target to those they hunt.

Lore says that an Inquisitor can track a single snowflake through a snowstorm.

Class 100 Player