Day 1: The Lonely Fortress City

In the land of Serenus, west from its centre, lies a region known as Eostia, by its inhabitants. For hundreds of years, it has been locked into war between an alliance of kingdoms in the south, known as the Seven Shields and the belligerent kingdom in the north, Garan.

The kingdoms are ruled by seven princess-knights, with the high elf, Celestine Lucross, the reincarnation of Larentia. Serving as the figurehead and high queen of this sacred alliance, ruling the humans who made up the bulk of the population and other races with her fair and gentle hand. Their opposition, Garan, is led by Queen Olga Discordia, a dark sorceress who rules over the Garan badlands and its demonic legions, commanding from a dark fortress that faces their hated foes in the south.

Their reasons for this war have been mired by time and confusion, seemingly lost in the fighting. But whatever the reason, it did no good for the peoples of this land. As a consequence, great a many mercenary armies cropped up from the hundreds of years of conflict, greatest of these were the Black Dogs, led by their leader, Vult, often compared as the king of all mercenaries, who has made a great name for himself through his victories and battles.

Still…, it would be years until that fateful day that they would siege the black fortress. That fateful day that he would unmask his true desires. That fateful day when he declared an empire of pleasure and debauchery. Subjecting all women alike into one of servitude as pleasure slaves for the cruel men that once protected their homes, and worse. But, before that time, an event would change the fate of the continent of Serenus forever.

It all starts in a world, far away from the war.

"…so finally we installed the flag for the tower."

"Heh, I like how you kept forgetting."

"Uh… Joe? Look up."

"… what mod is that?"

"Ron…?"

She saw horror and darkness growing around her form. She widened her eyes at the state of her people. She found herself surrounded by fire and death, as walls crumbled into rubble and men and boys were butchered like animals. She stood horrified as women and girls were raped and beaten ceaselessly without care nor compassion, only reckless desire from their victimizers.

She felt her heart beat rapidly at the moment and closed her emerald eyes from the visions. Still, she could hear the moans and screams around her, drowning her thoughts with pain and pleasure. A disturbing development… until something odd occurred.

It was the sound of breaking glass, but it wasn't the sound of glass. Whatever it was… it shattered and the fires burned away and erased the sight of the shadows and ruins, leaving her to see… a river?

The scenery had changed she realized, no more where the sight of ruin and corruption surrounded her. But the calmness of nature filled her vision. But something wasn't quite right from how things looked. She realized that everything was boxed-shaped!

"Baaa!"

She couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at the absurdity and the complete shift in tone. She suddenly moved from her position without her control, mesmerized as she saw the landscape fly by from grassland, to jungle, and finally savannah. A plateau was present in front of her, ending the river from her feet.

She looked down to see… a boat? She saw a boat with a person rowing in blue clothing. But it came by so fast, soon she saw other boats speeding by as day turned to night quickly. It seems time was passing by around her.

Day shifted again and she saw smoke coming out from the plateau, another scene appeared of them rowing back into the river and into the distant jungle. She moved higher to see a better view of the camp, transforming into a small keep, erected in the middle.

More time passed by the second and there were more buildings and more people crowding the growing town. The small keep renovating into a large tower that overlooked beyond the houses and beyond the walls. She thought she saw some fires burning, but still, the settlement was growing bit by bit, day by day. Until time finally slowed down, to see it finished, all beautiful and blocky in its glory from above.

Then she suddenly dropped into them and saw white.

A legion sentry looked out from her tower, utterly bored out of her mind. She instead turned her head below to see the cute boy that had been hanging below the tree, reading a book. Lying peacefully without a care in the world. The dark-skinned beauty smiled wistfully at the sight, she turned her gaze at the wasteland behind her again, still boring and with nothing happening. In her mind, she mentally decided that her shift was basically over anyways, give or take ten minutes.

She gingerly climbed down the ladder eager to see the young man. Utterly missing the pillar of light shooting out from beyond the morning horizon.

A cold desert it was. Dark and foreboding, yet nothing much has ever happened, except the occasional traveller or a rare skirmish here and there. Though a dark elf baron ruled it, only a small village in one corner of the territory was present, so it was mostly empty and went unclaimed by anyone, at least physically.

Until it wasn't.

It was only a blink that the world changing event occured. Standing as an island in the sea of desolation and degeneration. Long after, many would call them demons, others would call them gods. All agreed that they were an outlandish lot. But most would know who they were in those distant times, and would know what place they called their city.

Verod.

"… huh neat I can check my inventory." the uniformed man in a mask stated. He looked to the others to see them also dumbfounded at finding themselves on the wrong side of the screen. The man's name was Brick, at least his player name was called that.

"What the fuck happened…" Brick looked at the… girl? A friend of his, named Zeron, having locks of white hair and wearing a delinquent boss outfit that was three sizes too big. The five men who were on top of the keep looked at each other, not really knowing how to respond to this situation. Chris, a man made out of the void itself, turned his eyes to the edge of the keep, his glowing orbs widening at the state of the street below. The others joined him, also looking down at the other players.

Koncat fell off scaffolding

"We should… head down." Brick said, turning to run down the stairs, the others soon joining him in the mad rush downstairs. A door opened to see another panicking faction member, the five people looked at one another and proceeded to go outside.

A hundred people spread out throughout the town were restless. Confusion and uncertainty gripped their hearts. Of course, the jackasses were attempting to imitate the floridamen, but then again there was a certain person who was from florida who joined the server… he was practically an end-game boss on his own. They heard the explosion, and a bunch of items flew from the building across them.

playrush blew up

Somebody just died.

"I'M ALIVE!"

The… 'gamer' fell from the second floor and hit the ground, flashing red.

"What the hell is this sword art bullshit?" Zeron muttered, closing her? eyes shut. Now the players were becoming more rowdy at the situation as the realization finally hit them hard. There were a number who approved of this change, probably people who had no life. Then, there were another number who were devastated of the possibility of not seeing their families and friends and real life anymore.

Some were yelling or shouting at people, not ready to cope with the situation. There were others who dispersed from the powder keg, that was the public crowd, either to adventure off to nowhere or staying in their game homes. Others stood gobsmacked and were seeing the writing on the wall if they didn't do something about this.

"You have fireworks?"

ydDol fell off a ladder

"Wait…! The inventory is a… bit different? But, here." Chris handed four fireworks to Brick, while Zeron equipped a katana, unsure of what to feel, while near them, the bear-man in a soviet soldier outfit watched the interaction, feeling on edge.

As the crowd was about to go into full pandemonium, they heard a whistle then a pop. Many turned towards the five people in front of them. The masked man stepped forward, a great number in the crowd recognizing him as a faction leader and sole leader of the only city-state of the server. "Well now…, now that I have your attention. I think we should not kill each other for now. I mean… you know how that goes don't you?"

A murmur of agreement resounded from the entranced crowd before them. "So-"

s1dh was shot by skeleton

"*ahem*… So. I think the best course of action of being logged horizon right now is to not be too reckless and dying all the time." the crowd was silent, though still wary of their change of reality. "So…, does anyone know what happened?" a number of responses to that question were voiced. Many saying that they didn't know, the last thing they saw was the screen brightening into white, or the thing that they saw, a ceiling of light descending upon them from the sky.

Though the grim reminder of being in a potentially hostile environment never quite disappeared in their minds, it mostly mellowed out as the talks continued. "Welp, I think we need to organize now, set up a real government." some booed him, while Brick rolled his eyes.

"Call the other factions- Oh! call anyone with job degrees and shit." the leader looked to the side. "We'll need 'em for the emergency government we're about to set up, so we don't rip each other apart. I think we'll be staying here for a long time." A few moans sounded out from the assembly. He glared at them "There might be a possibility that we might go home. So we need to really trust each other and work together." the masked man looked behind him, gesturing to the butler.

"Cuz if you don't, the server admin himself will put you on time-out." the butler raised an eyebrow. "Anyways, judging from the window I've looked." He turned his head eastward. "We're not on our original map, meaning we're in the dark, probably surrounded by unseen enemies."

"… and unseen allies." He quickly added.

"So, I'm guessing we need to explore the place." Some players scurried off from the crowd, going into the descending tower from the plateau.

playrush fell from a high place

"*sigh…* can someone give that fucker some armour?"

He turned back to the castle but finished his speech with, "Oh and we should stock up for anything. Food, armour, weapons, anything really. Call your faction leaders, or representatives…, we're gonna have an important meeting." and closed the door behind him.

A young man in a biker outfit, equipped some of his diamond armour, looking impressed at its realistic style, shining like gems… "Yeah… I'm sure that won't attract some attention." he smiled crookedly. He looked at the skies again, swirling red and demented, before closing his chests for the things he needed.

He opened the door of his room and walked out, admiring the new look around the place, no longer blocky. Finding a flight of stairs, he climbed each step to reach a specific level. Opening the double doors led him to a stone bridge that connected the hotel towards the biggest structure in the city, the keep. As he went towards his destination, he saw some of the mafiosos walking the halls with him, recognizing the boss as Kraz, the server admin's cousin. He didn't know them very well and decided to follow them when he saw them headed for the meeting room.

The room in question was below the indoor balcony, making the visitors have the privilege of overlooking history in action. The room was like how he imagined it if it was translated to real life. Bookshelves and windows lined the walls, with all the in-game armours on stands and all the weapons on item frames.

"So, what else do we know?" he instantly recognized him as Brick, or Captain Brick. The masked uniformed man that founded Verod, leader of The Brotherhood.

"I've heard some of the guys say they saw some ruins." Kraz said.

"What kind though?" Brick replied.

"Some houses, when they broke it down, it turned to blocks in their inventory." Kraz answered.

"Huh, anything else then?" Brick looked around the table.

Including Kraz he was surrounded by at least ten faction leaders, with some of their aides. "None from me, and I think Verod was the only thing that was transported." A robotic man said, recognizing him as Sock001 or Sock as many commonly called him. "Why's that?"

"I can't teleport to my place." Sock was the faction leader of TradeCo. One of the allies of The Brotherhood, focusing on modded tech and industries. "Looks like we'll have to expand the city." Brick said, seeming pleased at the prospect. Some rolled their eyes at the builder. "No one can chat right?" Brick looked at them expectantly.

"Nope."

"Nada."

"Nope."

"Damn… is there…, did we install a radio mod?"

"Hmmm…"

"Oh wait, we have a walkie-talkie."

"It takes some steel, a circuit and osmium."

"We'll have to start productions for the scouts. Call as many of them back as you can for the equipment, because we don't have a minimap on our hud this time."

The faction leaders decided to send their aides to call the others or some taking initiative to craft the walkie-talkies. The motorist decided that it was time to go outside, not really interested in listening to them talk. After three flights of stairs, he finally reached the main entrance to the keep, an open gate that led inside the hall. "Hey Mark!" the biker, Mark, looked ahead to see another player, wearing a mad scientist get-up and a pickup truck behind him; there were others too. Mark smiled and ran towards them.

"Wait up!"

In her silken bed, the light of morning finally awakened the goddess reborn and it showed. With skin as soft and pure as one, and milky white, she lifted her arms to stretch, the covers revealing her breasts in the light, like perfectly ripened fruits. Then she opened her emerald eyes, enchanting the room with her innocent yet wizened gaze, almost motherly in tone.

Walking barefooted in her chambers she swept away the curtains towards the balcony, overlooking the city of Thorn below. She swept aside her blonde silk-like hair, as the dawn behind her arose, alighting the darkened north in front of her, a feeling of wonder and awe overflowed her heart, though she didn't know why. Perhaps, what she saw last night was the reason. Hope swelled in her bosom, somehow comforting her that things may become better.

Yet… something felt lost… as this sense of high feelings filled her heart.

She frowned a little, before going back into her chambers, swans flying overhead from the west.

AN:

23/09/21: I wanted to make this kind of story for a long time. Or at least I wanted to make a kuroinu story that wasn't complete garbage. Constructive criticism appreciated and I'll edit this chapter to hit the 2000 word mark when I have the right ideas. Just made this on a whim or two. So yeah, thanks for reading this… pilot? Yeah a pilot, update when I finally take care of some business.

24/09/21: Made first chapter hit 2000 word mark, also some other improvements.

26/09/21: Overhaul along with the release of Day 1: Lights in The Darkness