Chapter 3: Re: Meeting
Haseo logged into The World, and came up in Mac Anu. "Let's see, the area words were Λ Courageous Mounted Ceremony; better go and see what he wants." He said to himself and turned around to target the Chaos Gate.
As told by CC Corp's email, when Haseo scrolled into his Town Selection, there was a new Root Town accessible; Lambda Root Town: the Kindred City, Imus Regnum. Putting his cursor over the Root Town's name, Haseo selected the Root Town and was warped into the new area.
When Haseo appeared in the new Server, he took a look at what the Root Town was like, and was actually quite impressed. "Wow," he said to himself as he looked around.
The immediate area around the Chaos Gate was a small field that had a single stone road leading through beautifully green grass up to a pair of tall, shining silver gates imbued with priceless jewels in an eye catching pattern at the top. Past the gates was a marvelous courtyard that spread out before and even more magnificent golden castle that stretched up in three towers that were topped with flat platforms of stone.
Looking at this amazing area, Haseo couldn't help but be impressed. "Hey, Haseo!" Haseo heard someone call him, and he didn't even have to look to recognize the overly joyous greeting.
Haseo looked back in front of him and saw Gaspard and Silabus run up to him. "Hey, Haseo," Silabus greeted his Guild Master. "So how about this new Server, huh; pretty elaborate don't you think?"
"I'll say," Haseo agreed. "Even Breg Epona doesn't compare to this place."
"Hey, hey, Haseo," Gaspard cut in. "Silabus and I were checking out the Quest Shop a minute ago and there are some pretty cool quests. You want to do one together?"
"Yeah, Gaspard, that's a great idea!" Silabus agreed. "What do you say Haseo? It'll be just like old times."
"Yeah sure, but It'll have to wait until later." Haseo answered. "I have someone else I need to meet up with right now."
"Oh, really?" Silabus asked. "Well then I'll Email you the details later, so be sure to let us know when you have some spare time." He told Haseo, and then he and Gaspard went to the Chaos Gate and warped out of Imus Regnum.
"Well, I don't have a lot of time, so I better get going to meet Renatus." Haseo told himself and turned to the Chaos Gate, going into his bookmarks and selecting the only one there; Λ Courageous Mounted Ceremony, and warped.
When Haseo appeared in the area, he looked around and saw a very run of the mill, small grassy field. The area level was 151, and Haseo was level 150, he only really needed to fight the monsters guarding the altars so he could get into the Beast Statue temple; and the faster the better.
Thinking that, Haseo took out his steam bike, which he had recently gotten equipped with a smokescreen function. As long as he was on the bike, monsters wouldn't see him unless he ran into them and started a battle. Looking at the map, there was one altar in the west and two in the east, with the Beast Statue being in the south.
Haseo turned his bike to face west and rode toward the first altar. Skipping any monsters along the way, Haseo drove up to the first altar and started the battle by ramming the goblins and defeated them with little problem despite being a level under the area. Haseo kicked open the treasure chest on the altar and obtained a Symbol Fragment.
It took him almost no time at all to ride his steam bike to the east side and obtain the last two Symbol Fragments in the same manor. Once done, Haseo got a message informing him the Fragments became the Judge's Symbol, unlocking the path to the Beast Statue. With this, Haseo rode his bike over to the temple in the south and entered.
When he entered, he found Renatus leaning against the side of the wall. "Alright Renatus, what's this you want to tell me that's so important you felt the need to call me out here to do it?" Haseo asked, sounding irritated.
Haseo still wasn't sure what to think about Renatus; as far he was concerned, he was just an ordinary character. However, this 'ordinary character' discovered a secret area within a Lost Ground, uncovered classified information about the Avatars, and tried to fight against Corbenik, somehow emerging unharmed.
Renatus looked over at Haseo and disregarded his sour attitude when he answered. "I have a confession to make about when we met at the Hulle Granz Cathedral." He said.
Haseo was a bit surprised, but his irritation didn't allow it to show. "What kind of confession?" He asked.
"When you received my flash mail to come to the Lost Ground… you didn't get that message as randomly as I made you think." Renatus told Haseo.
"Wait, you mean you did send it to me specifically?" Haseo asked, and then another question came to mind that almost pissed him off. "Okay spill it, just how much do you know about Avatars!"
"Don't jump to conclusions. I sent the message to you specifically yes, but I still didn't know anything about the 8 phases of Morgana till yesterday." Renatus told Haseo. "I joined The World when R: 2 first came out. But three months ago, I took a breather from playing the game."
Renatus was confusing Haseo now. "You stopped playing for three months? What does that have to do with anything?" He asked.
"A lot actually," Renatus answered. "Because when I started playing again last week, I did research by reading all the posts on the forums for The World to see what I missed while I was gone. Apparently, I missed a lot."
Now Haseo saw where this was going. Three months ago was when Renatus stopped playing The World. It was also while Haseo was still the 'Terror of Death' searching for Tri-Edge. It wasn't long after that time Ovan reappeared and pointed him to Hulle Granz Cathedral, and he was Data Drained by Azure Kite, who at the time he believed to be Tri-Edge. That was the time everything happened in The World involving AIDA and the Avatars.
Even if regular players didn't know exactly what was going on, that didn't stop them from posting their concerns, questions, and wildest theories on what it all was on forums and the rumor board. Renatus must have more or less gotten the gist of how strange the occurrences that happened during his absence were, and become intrigued by it.
"But the thing it, among all of the things I learned though my research, a lot of the events I found strange revolved around a certain character; his name: Haseo." Renatus continued. "Back when I was still playing, I heard a lot about the famous PKK, the Terror of Death; in fact I had hoped to encounter him one day. But when I came back I found out that apparently, that Haseo had his character restarted, becoming involved with many characters and guilds that were also well known, including Kestrel and the now disbanded Moon Tree. You also went through and beat all three tournaments at the Arena-"
"I get it, where's the point in all of this?" Haseo interrupted, as Renatus was likely to go on for a while even though Haseo knew all of this. After all, it was he who lived the events.
"The point is, since you were such an important character in all the events that happened during my absence, I chose you to send the message to, thinking it would be good to have a strong second when I went through the warp point."
"So basically, you needed a second and didn't want it to be just anyone? So you chose me."
"That's another thing; you don't actually need to people to get through the warp point that led to Corbenik."
"Uh!" Haseo stuttered.
"I thought it was just a hidden quest, but considering how well hidden it was, I didn't think it would like any other quest. So I decided to recruit you for back-up. If it weren't for that I would have gone through on my own, and frankly I can't say what would have happened to me if I had."
That was for sure. Corbenik planned to send Renatus into a coma because he was a regular player. If Haseo hadn't stopped his initial attack with Skeith, Renatus might not even be here. "So, why did you want to tell me all this?" Haseo asked.
"I just wanted you to know; you've been honest with me so far, so I wanted to be honest with you." Renatus answered. "Well it's almost noon, I'll head over to Raven now." he said and left the Beast Temple.
"Well, no use staying here anymore; I'll head back to town." Haseo told himself.
Haseo opened the treasure in front of the Beast Statue and obtained a new pair of Dual Swords, Spin Strike. He equipped them and then left the Beast Temple, using the warp point outside to warp back to Imus Regnum.
Once back in town, Haseo decided to look around the new Root Town and check out the shops. After a while, a message appeared at the bottom of his screen telling him he had received new mail, and he logged out to see what it was about.
Going straight to the mail station, Ryou found he had mail from Silabus, Gaspard, and Yata. Yata's was marked important, so Ryou opened it first. The message read:
Sender: Yata
Subject: Renatus
Come to Raven's Home. There are some details we must work out.
"Yata's calling me. Guess I'll go to Raven's Home." Ryou said to himself, but before logging back into The World.
Sender: Gaspard
Subject: New Root Town.
So Haseo, that new Root Town was really cool huh? I heard CC Corp is supposed to be planning some kind of special event there later. I wonder what that will be like?
Ryou decided to reply to Gaspard and asked if he had heard any specifics about what kind of event it was supposed to be, and then agreed that the Root Town was something else. After that, he opened Silabus' mail, reading:
Sender: Silabus
Subject: Lambda Quest
So Gaspard and I were looking at the Quest Shop in the new Root Town and found one that looked pretty good. If you ever have some time, invite me and Gaspard and we can all go together. The Quest is called Goblin Mania. Thanks a lot.
-Silabus
That was it for Ryou's mail, so he went back and logged back into The World. Once he was in, he used the Chaos Gate and warped to Mac Anu and headed to the Mercenary District, entering the Raven Home. When he entered he found all the Epitaph Users plus Renatus waiting there.
"So Yata, what's this about, 'details' to work out?" Haseo asked, and all eyes turned to him.
Yata pushed up his glasses and answered. "Yes, after I explained to Renatus about the Avatars and everything else he needed to know, I asked him for his point of view about what happened to the two of you while in Corbenik's area. Specifically about when he was attacked and Corbenik vanished."
"When Corbenik's attack and mine collided, the stalemate that resulted was different from the kind that results from the clashing of sword." Renatus explained. "At that point, it seemed like Corbenik had frozen in place, like he just became an object in a graphics field. And when he disappeared, it looked like a program was being uploaded, and that's what caused his disappearance."
"Uploaded; you mean into Corbenik?" Haseo questioned.
"More or less; I'm still not entirely sure." Renatus answered.
"However," Yata cut in. "From this information, I believe we can surmise that one of the two following scenarios must have taken place if, as you say, Renatus should not have been able to leave without Corbenik's consent. The first scenario, Corbenik was forcibly moved out of his physical Avatar Space to a different area, allowing someone on the outside to warp you both out while Corbenik was not in control."
"Forcibly removed?" Kuhn asked. "Is that even possible?"
"It is." Yata replied. "That is, if Corbenik were summoned by an Epitaph User."
At this, the others in the room were all left speechless. Looking at their stunned faces, Renatus had to ask a question. "What is it, is there some reason Corbenik shouldn't have an Epitaph User? He asked.
"No, he had one, but that user's status in the real world is still unknown. He has not logged onto The World since the end of the Second Network Crisis; since Cubia," Yata answered.
Atoli spoke up next. "So wait, if Ovan couldn't have done it, then what's the second possibility?"
Following Atoli's question, a silence surrounded the Guild as Yata prepared his answer. "That is… If Ovan was not the cause of Corbenik's actions and your removal from the Avatar Space; then the only other scenario is that Corbenik chose Renatus to become his new Epitaph User." He said, and then a silence even more eerie enveloped everyone.
"His new Epitaph User? The Avatars can change who their user is?" Haseo questioned.
"Yes, and in fact this would not be the first case of it either." Yata added. "As it turns out, your friend Shino was the original candidate for Innis' user." He said, and then Haseo looked over at Atoli, who flinched at hearing this. "When Shino was placed into a coma, Innis chose Atoli as its new user."
"And because Ovan hasn't logged into The World since then, Corbenik had been looking for a replacement." Haseo finished the thought.
"Wait, now that I'm thinking about it, Corbenik did say something about how I 'reminded him' of someone." Renatus noted. "Do you think he could have meant his previous user?"
"At this point, it's quite possible." Yata answered.
"So how do we test to see if it's true?"
"We summon an Avatar." Yata said. "Before, you could only see the Avatars because their physical bodies were presented in front of you. But here, if one of us summons an Avatar, only an Epitaph User will see it. If you are now Corbenik's user, we will know in just a moment."
After Yata said this, his body began to glow with red-orange patterns. After that, an Avatar Space grew out around him, and the Epitaph Users looked up at Fidchell's form and then at Renatus, waiting for confirmation.
After a second of examining his surroundings, Renatus looked up a confirmed it. "I can see it." He said, and Yata released his Avatar state. "So which one was that?"
"Fidchell, the Prophet." Yata answered.
"So it's true, Renatus is an Epitaph User?" Endrance asked for confirmation.
"If Fidchell looks like a body balancing on a top-for-legs with four disks with eyes on them and a red and gold orb for a head, then yeah, I'm an Epitaph User." Renatus replied.
With Renatus giving a description of an Avatar he had never seen until now, there was no longer room for doubt. Renatus was the Epitaph User of Corbenik.