.HACKLife of Death, Death of Life

Disclaimer: Though I wish I owned the characters etc. of the .hack
conglomeration, I must say that I do not. The plot is my own, though I
received inspiration from a .hack role-play that I was in.


Chapter 3: The Birth of Death

Keika shoved the wavemaster away with a force greater than the actual strength of the player. Tsukasa thudded into the wall and sat there a moment, dazed, before crying the first thing that came to mind. "Rai Don!"

A bolt of lightening shot from her staff, striking the spiral just before Keika placed it upon the altar. The shock sent the blood stone flying through the air, cracking against the far wall, leaving a small crater in the gray stone. A horrible scream of rage echoed through the wavemaster's head and filled her with agony. Moaning, she dropped her staff, clutching at her head. In this distraction, Keika was able to retrieve the stone. She examined it then cursed.

"You damn fool!" hissed the twin blade, glaring at the wavemaster. "There is a crack in it! You will pay, believe me. You will pay!"

Then, even as Tsukasa screamed for her to stop, Keika placed the key into its place. A shockwave rippled through the hut and through the surrounding field, knocking Keika backwards and pressing Tsukasa against the wall. The twin blade fell backwards over the treasure chest even as it vanished and struck her head upon the stone. She vanished with the three golden hoops as the player, in a panic, turned off her computer for it wouldn't allow her to gate out.

A deafening silence filled the area. The stone began to glow, keeping the same color. A crimson liquid began to seep out from between the altar and the key, slipping along its surface and collecting at the edges before falling to the floor with a sickening splash, breaking the silence. Tsukasa struggled to her feet, staring at the growing pool of blood upon the floor. She slowly began to back towards the door. However, as she reached the entrance, the stone flashed black and the voice called out, commanding her to be still. Tsukasa tried to break free and run, but the force held her there, preventing the wavemaster from even closing her eyes. Therefore, she was forced to watch as the stone began to flash through all the colors of the rainbow and more. Blood no longer seeped, but poured from the altar, cascading along the sides and forming a small lake upon the floor. Steadily the liquid flowed ever closer to Tsukasa and the door.

Suddenly, the stone flashed black again, glowing with unholy light. The pool of blood swiftly contracted to form a perfect circle upon the center of the floor. There, it began to spiral in a whirlwind of crimson. Then, the liquid splayed outward, spattering all the walls, the floor, the ceiling and Tsukasa with red droplets. Where the zephyr had been, a figure of terrible darkness now stood, leering at the wavemaster with the sort of toothy grin only a skull can provide. Each one of the teeth was sharp and stained crimson. The eye cavities of the elongated skull were filled with a dark fire while blood trickled from them and the mouth, falling upon and staining the ragged, frayed and hole filled black robe, which served as clothing for the hideous monstrosity. The body of this creature was a skeleton that looked like a twisted cross between a dragon and a human, rotted flesh still clinging in places. It stood upright and had arms like to a human, but the fingers were long claws. It also had a long tail that split into five, each with jagged spikes at the end. Two large wings with scraps of black leathery skin jutted out from the back of the creature and two long legs, jointed like the hind legs of a cat, but with enormous red talons whose curved lengths ended in deathly sharp points. In the left clawed hand, there was a large scythe, its jagged blade exceeding long and sharp. The creature towered over the wavemaster and had to stoop down to avoid slamming its head and wings into the ceiling.

The fanged jaw opened in a horrible cackle sounding like nails on a chalkboard. Tsukasa winced at the sound and tried once more to run, but her body remained unmoving. In the real world, the girl could not move at all either.

"Ah. The child of the twilight who almost destroyed the key to my release," it hissed, its voice deep and menacing. The creature took a step forward; it's claws clicking upon the stone. "You will be my first victim, but not the first to die for I don't think I'll destroy you quite yet. There is something different about you... Something that might prove useful to me, yet."

The thing lifted its right hand and an orb of deepest black formed there. As it concentrated its power there, Tsukasa was able to break free of its enchantment. She turned and ran out of the shack, heading strait across the graves to the gate, the one place where one could gate in or out. The creature threw the orb and it slammed into the ground just behind the wavemaster as she darted out the doorway. Where it landed, a small explosion of purple and black shards. Tsukasa did not see this for she sprinted with all speed, not daring to look back for fear that the creature might be right behind her. Said creature, not expecting the girl to escape its control, did not immediately follow. Summoning another, larger orb of darkness, it blasted the wall into tiny pieces and lunged out, spreading its wings and diving after the wavemaster who was twenty feet from the gate. It summoned a whole host of black orbs and sent them flying towards her. Most struck near Tsukasa, with only a few going wide, and a few fell in front of her, forcing the wavemaster to swerve aside and duck to avoid getting struck by any of the shards. As it was, many of the jagged pieces struck her clothing, leaving many tears and holes. However, none of the pieces actually struck her body and she counted herself lucky in the extreme.

The wavemaster skidded to a halt just short of slamming into the rusty gate. Swiftly she entered the command to gate out. As the golden hoops appeared and dropped down, teleporting her from the field, however, she heard a scream of rage. "You shall not escape me long, pitiful wavemaster! Death comes to all and so I shall capture you at last. By the time I finish with you, you will wish yourself dead a thousand times over, even as you watch my destruction, my unholy disease spread through the entire world!"

The words bored their way into Tsukasa's head even as she materialized in Mac Anu. When she appeared, she fell to her knees, trembling and breathing hard. Keika was nowhere to be seen having logged off. A few other players milling about gave Tsukasa odd looks, wondering at the torn clothing and the fear so evident in her features. One, a blademaster wearing silver armor and white clothing and also possessing great white wings, frowned, wondering what realm accessible upon this server would give one such a fright. He ran a gloved hand through his silvery white hair, closing his purple eyes and thinking through the odd levels within this sever. There were a few he could think of with rather frightening monsters and one realm that had extremely scary scenery, but that one had been sealed off from access by players due to a detected anomaly lurking within. The striking monsters in the other realms were relatively low level and easily handled by capable players of decent level and this wavemaster did not seem like a newbie. In fact, the blademaster was certain he had seen her or someone who looked like her before. She should have been able to handle the monsters. Why, then, was the wavemaster so terrified?

The blademaster decided the only way to find out was to question the girl. Therefore, he strode over to her and offered a hand as she slowly began to get to her feet. Tsukasa accepted the help gratefully. When she was upon her feet again, however, she gave the other player a wary look, fear still the primary expression within her eyes and upon her face.

"Hello," began the blademaster. "Not to be nosy, but I would like to know what has you so frightened."

"W-who are you?" breathed Tsukasa, her voice still trembling.

"I am called Balmung of the Azure sky, now an administrator," he said pleasantly. "And you are?"

"Tsukasa," murmured the wavemaster, relaxing slightly, but still uneasy. She desperately wished that Subaru or Mimiru were there to help her instead of this Balmung, who she knew only by reputation. Reputations, however, did not always match the one whom they spoke of and this particular man was an administrator, besides, and Tsukasa hadn't exactly had the best experiences with administrators.

That name was familiar to Balmung, but he couldn't quite place it. Then he remembered. Three years previous, a player by that name had supposedly become trapped in the World, according to what he had heard. The wavemaster had also been pursued by the Crimson Knights before they were dissolved, but little else was known to the blademaster concerning this particular player other than she had been involved with Aura and the Twilight incident in some way. He wondered if this wavemaster was the same one. Whether she was or not, however, Balmung little cared at the present.

"Now that introductions are out of the way," spoke Balmung after a moment. "Please tell me what field you were in and what has scared you. Nothing on this server should be so terrible."

Tsukasa hesitated, not willing to divulge what she had just seen. "I really don't want to talk about it," she managed to say. "But, you need to know that something has been born in the World that seeks to destroy it. Death had been born and now lives."

Then, she turned and warped to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, leaving Balmung standing there, worried and quite puzzled. After a moment, he prepared to send a message to his assistant, Reki. The wavemaster, however, chose that moment to warp to Mac Anu and come running over to Balmung. A worried look upon his face told Balmung that something was very wrong...


Author stuff:

Keasby Nights : Thankyou ever so much! I'm glad you like the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter too... And I think I'll go ahead and put up the fourth one in a minute... I finished it a few days ago and only just transfered it to the computor with internet access.

{ possibly ficticious conversation with Tsukasa:
me: See? I told you not to get too happy...
Tsukasa: Again I ask, Why me?
Me: shrugs Again I say, Because you are awesome like that.
Tsukasa: sigh I'm off... I'm taking a vacation!
Me: Where to?
Tsukasa: Anywhere... Just so long as there are no video games there... }

So... Please R & R!